Zero

As I was taking Maddy to school this morning, we watched my ambient temperature indicator (or "thermometer, if you want to go all vintage-speak) drop from a starting temperature of 52 degrees inside the garage to 0 degrees, in about 5 minutes. People, that's cold.

Or as PaPa says, it's colder than a well-digger's butt out there.

So tell me, what are your favorite eupheisms for bone-chilling cold? Leave 'em in the comments.

Clickin' It Old Skool

When I was young, my Mammaw got a Polaroid camera. Back in the day, those were the best cameras. No more taking a few random shots just to finish a roll, no more waiting a week or more for developing. Now, just load in this square cartridge, push a button, listen for the "clickwhrrrr" and out came the picture. It was dark at first, but just shake it for a few minutes and magically the image appeared.




Now Polaroids are going the way of the cassette tape, being replaced by digital cameras. For those of you wishing for the good ol' days, now you can have them again, complete with the sound effects.


Thanks to Dana, I also am addicted to Poladroid. Simply download the software, drag and drop your existing picture file and "clickwhrrr" out comes your image. You can even "shake" it on your desktop. Here are a couple of shots I've done in the last few minutes.

I guess eventually, everything old is new again.

Delurking Day and Random Updates

Today is National Delurking Day. Did you forget to send me a card? No problem, just leave a comment.

*****

I won a prize at Hola Isabel. I can't wait to get it.

*****

I accomplished a lot on my to-do list this weekend. I did get my nails done, I am able to park my car in the garage, and I reorganized some cabinets and shelves. Next up, the basement.

****

Today is my first stair training. I feel pretty good about it. However, ask me how I feel tomorrow - it may be a different story.

****

Enjoy your Monday!

TGIF

It's Friday, finally. Man, working a full week after a couple of three days weeks takes it out a girl...oh, wait, I only worked four days this week.

Moving on, I have big plans for this weekend, and only part of them involve the house.

Tonight, I am going to see Bride Wars with two friends who are also getting married this year. We are involved with the others' weddings also, so it will be interesting to see at what point in the movie we exchange glances and think "I will SO DO THAT to you if you don't watch out!"

The high point of my day Saturday? I am going to get my nails done again. I stopped getting them done before we moved, because I knew with the packing and the lugging of boxes and the stripping of wallpaper, I was just asking for a nail-related injury. However, I'm tired of my hands looking like a disaster. I also feel good after a mani-pedi. Time to reward myself a little.

On Sunday, though, it's game on. I am participating in an organization challenge thrown down by my good buddy ABunsLife. You'd think that since we just moved, I'd be all organized, you know, assuming I organized things when I unpacked. Well, I did in some areas but the garage and basement became our "why the &*^% did we move that?" dumping ground. My goal is to park the cars in the garage after this weekend. Next goal, the basement.

The basement has to be done because...someone named Maddy has a birthday next Sunday. She will be 10. TEN! Her first decade birthday! She is having some friends over for a sleepover and a Rock Band challenge (assuming I can find Rock Band 1 for Wii before then. I've got some co-workers on the hunt this weekend, here's hoping they are successful).

Enjoy your weekend and pamper yourself a little. You deserve it!

Hope

As part of my lifestyle change to find some peace, I recently joined a bible study group with some friends of mine. We are studying The Numbers of Hope, by Max Lucado. It is a study of the famous John 3:16 bible verse.

One of our group discussion questions was something along the lines of why we felt hope was in short supply these days. My answer was that we are bombarded daily with bad news. Go to your favorite online news home page and count how many uplifting, happy stories you see there. Turn on the TV news this evening and see what story leads off the broadcast. I bet it's not about puppies and rainbows.

As I mentioned yesterday, I tend to see only the negative already, I don't need the mainstream media aiding and abetting my bad habit.

Another group discussion was to talk about your biggest disappointment in life. The obvious answer is the deaths of Jessica and Kelli, but as I thought about it more, I amended my answer to the unfairness of life. Why was my mom taken away at 47 by a disease that ravaged her mind and body and left her a vegetable in her last months? Why were my kids yanked away in such a violent and senseless manner? Why are innocent children abused? Why are young men and women being killed in wars? The list of injustices goes on and on.

So, to have hope in the face of all that - impossible, right? It's easy to throw up your hands and say I quit! I can't take anymore! The world is going to hell in a handbasket and I'm just along for the ride!

No. It's not impossible. If I can go on, you probably can as well.

Keep your hope, your faith, your belief.

Tell yourself, just for today, I will try to believe there is good in the world, no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary.

Just for today, I will remember there is a greater power at work.

Just for today, I will put my worries aside and focus on the positives I have in my life.

Try it, just for today.

New Year's Resolutions

It's that time of year where we make our resolutions and try like hell to stick to them.

So, for what it's worth, here are mine. I prefer to call them "lifestyle changes" - perhaps a new title will help me stay on track:

1. Lose Weight/Eat Healthy. I actually started this one back in December, and all the packing and moving and home improvement and being busy as all get-out helped me to stay active and not eat Cheez-Its and watch bad TV all night. I actually lost a few pounds over the holidays, and I'm sticking to my "don't mindless eat crap at night" mantra.

Also, now that my kitchen is finished, I can go to the grocery store, buy real food and cook dinner, instead of relying on the drive thru and delivery guy. I'm going to also try new recipes and also look for old favorites that have been made healthier. If someone can send me a mac and cheese recipe that doesn't have a frillion calories and fat grams but does still remain tasty, please do.

2. Master the Met in Less Than 13:48. As some of my long-term readers might remember, last year I participated in Master the Met, a stairclimb of 42 floors at the Met Square building. My time last year, after about a month of training, was 13:48. This year I am starting my training two months out, and hope to beat last year's time. I will set my goal after my first full training session.

If you would like to support me in this worthy cause, please visit my page here. The event is sponsored by the American Lung Association. All donations are appreciated, and are tax-deductible.

3. Find Some Peace. I need to find my inner peace, my Chi, my happy place - whatever you want to call it. I feel overwhelmed and pressured by all that's going on around me and I want to find a way to quiet the voices in my head, if you get my drift. Writing helps sometimes, but that's not always possible in some situations. Like traffic. Or a 10-minute line at Wal-Mart.

4. Enjoy The Moment. I am by nature a planner. I live for lists. Sometimes I think I get too caught up in the planning and the execution (or frustrated at the lack of execution) that I forget to take a minute, step back, and admire that which I have accomplished. I tend to focus on the negative. Luckily I live with two people who remind me, daily, not to take myself so seriously.

5. Be Nice. I will try to smile and say hello to the cashier at Wal-Mart even after standing in line for 10 minutes while she looked up a price. It's not her fault the customer argued with her that it was on the clearance rack for $1.99. I will try to be patient with the co-worker who asks me the same question twice a week. I will try to not wish evil thoughts on the Bi-State bus driver who pulled out in front of my car and cut across three lanes of traffic to make a left-hand turn before the light changed.

So, there you have it. My personal goals for 2009.

And We're Back

Here we are, January 2009. We made it.

Boy, last year kinda zoomed by, didn't it? It was a busy busy year for me.

So, here's what I've been up to these last couple of weeks (with visual aids):

Christmas Day finally arrived - yay!

We worked on the house - no more pink striped wallpaper - yay!

We went to my dad's, stayed in a hotel, and jumped on the beds:

We went eagle watching:

We met Elvis:

We are tired now:

So, what have you been up to lately?