Well.... I'm here.....

The problem, for now, is that I don't have any of my bookmarks. Well, I shouldn't say "ANY" of my bookmarks. I've got about 10 of my blogger-buddies bookmarked, but I'm missing all my others. I'm currrently using Netscape browser, as our Norton's Antivirus blocked our Internet Explorer browser from opening on our computer. The Norton's has something against Internet explorer, as periodically it will ask if it can blog this page from our computer because IE is suspect. DH and I know to deny the block (it has happpened once before) but evidently DD allowed the block mid-week last week when she was playing online & the question popped up on-screen again. So, until DH figures out how to clear the Norton's block of IE, I'm going to be using Netscape & doing without most of my links & favorite pages to visit.

That doesn't mean I can't hang out with my blogger-buddies, though. Thank Goodness!!!!

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It's been a busy-as-hell weekend again.

Thursday DD had a game at the Carlson Center at 6:30 to 7:30 pm. So immediately after work I went over there to watch & cheer. We lost that game 4 to 0. DD was goalie.

Friday, I did my volunteer time at the school again. Came home & watched a couple of tv shows I had recorded, then when DH got home from work we headed BACK to town to get our family photo's taken. That is what MIL said she wanted for Christmas this year, and after 10 years as a family and no professional photographs, we decided to go ahead & get them done. Some of them turned out very well, and we of course got some copies not just for the MIL, but for ourselves and other family members as well. We didn't get home till 9:30 Friday night.

Of course, wouldn't you know it. Friday was also Dad's birthday and guess what I forgot for a second year in a row?!?!?! I couldn't believe it. And Mom had called & left a message reminding me, as I guess my sister Shelli was the only one of us who'd even wished Dad a Happy Birthday ON his birthday and he was feeling pretty bummed about it. Man..... Talk about feeling like shit. I've got the date written on both of my calendars (the one in my bedroom & the one in my kitchen) and I still manage to forget. Dad kept saying that it was ok, it's not like it's important anyway. But it IS!! It's his birthday, and if he truly felt like it wasn't important, he wouldn't feel so bummed. And I can't blame him.

Well, we had Dad over for dinner last night as usual anyway, so I went ahead & made his favorite: fried chicken. And I made chicken gravy, and mashed potatoes (ok, those were just boxed potatoes, but...) and collard greens. And I made him a carrot cake. The carrot cake was boxed mix, but I doctored it up with raisins and coconut & extra shredded carrot. It tasted good, but it was rather dry. Next time I decide to doctor a mix like that, I need to be sure to add extra liquid to cover for the dryness of the raisins & coconut. But it tasted good and that's what matters most.

Before & after dinner, we went ahead & did up our tree. As I've said before, it's a little table-topper pre-lit tree, so it's not hard to set up. It's actually 4 feet tall, not 3 feet like I'd thought. But it's only 3 parts. The base is a square "planter" that the bottom half sets into, then the top connects to the bottom half, it's all wired & and prelit so that work is already done for us. All we've got to do is get it assembled & fold down the branches (which don't come out, thank goodness!) and arrange the individual little "twigs" as desired. Then decorate. And considering how small the tree is, it took 2 strands of garland (one blue, one white, this year) and all of our ornaments almost overload the tiny tree. We're not putting the star on this year, as we can't figure out how we managed to plug it in LAST year. There's no plug-in for a star or anything at the top of the tree, so no real way to have the star lit up, unless you run an extra cord down the outside of the tree itself, and that just looks tacky. But, the tree is set up, and it looks pretty, though I still miss my multi-colored lights. Maybe I'll see about picking up a pack of multi-colored replacement bulbs and as the old lights go bad, I can replace them with multi-colored lightbulbs. *grin* That'd work for me! I LOVE all my mismatched ornaments on the tree. I'll have to take a pic later this week so I can share with y'all how it looks.

Today, DD has her goalie clinic up at the U. She and DH are headed up there right now. And I've got to work, as usual.

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Oh, DH DID go see the dentist on Wednesday. Turns out the tooth he thought he'd lost a filling in wasn't in fact the tooth that had the problem. (It's got a cavity forming, but not in major need of fixing at the moment, which means DH is probably going to put it off for as long as possible.) Instead, it's one of his canines. The dentist said that this particular tooth needs a root-canal and that the sensativity DH was feeling in that back tooth was actually cold or heat or ANYTHING hitting that canine & radiating down the nerve to the back. DH's root-canal is schedualed for Jan. 7th. The dentist gave DH some wax to "coat" his canine with in the mean-time to protect it from extreme temperatures and keep it from hurting. DH said he liked this dentist, though, which is not something I've ever heard him say about a dentist before. And on top of that, the wife of wone of Dh's best friends is the dental tech who helped the dentist at Dh's appointment. So, I'm hoping that he'll be more comfortable going in and seeing somebody he knows personally and will be more willing to have the work done that needs to be done, even if she is a dental tech & not the dentist herself.

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We also got two new pages in at work this past week. One lady who also goes by the name "Katie" (strong emphasis on the fact that she uses an "E" at the end of her name, and I don't). That's made for some definite confusion, but we just laugh it off. She seems nice, though. The other's a guy. It'll be interesting to see how things go with a guy being part of our previously all-girl work-space. Not that there aren't male employees at the library, but there haven't been any male pages for a while now. There was one guy when I first started there, but he took a job as a sports-writer for the newspaper and it didn't seem like he'd worked as a page for very long before I started there. It seems as though the employment turnover for guys is somewhat higher than it is for women. As sexist as it sounds, maybe we're more suited to the atmosphere & work environment??? I don't know. But I know KO has been a page for some 30 years. LG has been there for at least 10. CF for about 8. EC for several years herself (though I don't know how long precisely). CM has been a page at our workplace for only a little longer than myself. I've been there for 2-1/2 years now, which makes over 5 years total as a page (including my 2-3/4 years at my neighbourhood branch of the library). And we're the permanant pages. Of course none of the casuals (those who work 14 hours or less per week) have been there very long. AW has only been there since the beginning of June. KN just started. RK (the new guy page) just started. It's interesting. Of course, one wonders if it is because they're casuals that they don't stay long, or if it's a temperment thing. CM used to be a casual, but only started as full-time (a permanent, like myself, CF, EC, LG, and KO are) in August when PW moved over to the mail-room. All the other casuals, though, have eventually quit to work elsewhere.

Anyway.... Just meandering thoughts.

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I also finally got my Christmas cards all written out yesterday. They'll be taken to the PO tomorrow. So hopefully they'll arrive in time for Christmas. I'm sorry I'm so belated in getting them out, to my friends & family who are on my list. I was origionally going to go to DD's practice yesterday, but when DH said they'd be in town for most of the afternoon, running errands, I decided to skip practice so that I could get the cards written, the house tidied, the grocery shopping done, and dinner made. *wry smile*

And I told DH that if "they" (the hockey coordinators) suprise us with any more "new" ice-times this month, he's going to have to cancel because we're already over-booked as it is. I've got to work tomorrow night, of course, and DD has hockey tomorrow evening. Tuesday night we're going to go over to Great Grandma's & do our yearly popcorn ball making. That's the only night early on this week that we've got free. Wednesday & Thursday are also schedualed with Hockey. Then Friday is free (as well as being the last day of school), and she's got practice. Sunday is goalie clinic again. We've got all the week of Christmas free from hockey, till Saturday when it appears they've got another game.

I think that about covers it for now. I must get off the pc and get heading to work.

Have a Blessed Day!!!!