Darn, gonna be another long post! New Year’s resolution- post more often!!!
So let’s see. We had a nice trip to Arkansas over Christmas. We left Wednesday the 22nd and had clear, sunny, cold weather all the way there, light traffic & one tiny spot of construction south of Mt. Vernon IL where it went down to one lane for all of 1/8 of a mile & I had to slow down to 55 – yes!! Randy let me drive!! We rented a car so we weren’t so cramped. Got a 2011 HHR with only 7077 miles on it – Woooooo! We weren’t crazy about the leather seats, but the seat warmers were nice! Anyway…the weather wasn’t much warmer than it was here, until the day before we left. Then it was upper 50s and raining. Pppft.
Christmas was nice. Randy got us a Wii and had it shipped there, so it was a surprise to Pnut. We got a Pet Vet game, a Monster Truck race & mini golf. And Wii Fit, too. It’s been pretty fun so far. She also got an MP3 player that hopefully she won’t lose like the last one, the Eclipse DVD and the first 4 books of the Vampire Diaries. Mom L. got her a makeup mirror that she went nuts over. So did niece Indira – trust teenage girls to love mirrors!! I got Randy his ARRL Handbook and a Red Green book. Pnut got him a Tim Horton’s mug & bag of coffee. I got an iTunes card and some cool vases (imagine men / women bathroom signs but without heads!). I’m forgetting what else we got.
We didn’t do a lot of exciting things. I did make my trip to the bathhouse, so I was happy. It was a slow day so I got a tub that hadn’t been used that day – which meant it had been sitting there & cooled off. It was barely 100 degrees. Booo. But as usual, the ladies were really nice so I gave them both a hefty tip. Hey, it was the holidays! I also bought myself a mini-tub with a bar of Dead Sea Scrub in it. It’s so cute!!
We went to Garvan Woodland Gardens one night to see the Christmas lights. Very cool. They had chandeliers & all sorts of cool stuff along the paths. Another night we went to Iron Mountain Marina where we could go down onto the docks and people had their fancy houseboats all decked out in lights & stuff. It was cold, but fun.
Even the bathrooms were decorated!!
One of the houseboats.
So the day before we left, Randy was working on his to-do list for Mom so Angel & I went to the Mall. Woooo. Hot Springs Mall is about 1/3 the size of Lakeside. But it was carpeted, so we were mildly impressed. We also stopped at Lowe’s and got these things – how awesome ! ! ! ! I know they’re garden items, but they’re great!! Mr. Clean will enjoy them in front of his tank.
So it was nice to get home. It sucked having to wait until 1/3 to get my BIG Christmas present. The Friday before we left, the washer finally crapped out. It had been worn out for probably 2 years anyway & it was ready to go to the great landfill in the sky. So I got a brand new high efficiency washer & dryer! LOVE THEM ! ! ! So much quicker then the old set. And uses a lot less water, which is good for the septic tank. Randy was fascinated because they are our first high-tech appliances. I have found that I am folding clothes right as they come out of the dryer now!! And the tops are curved, so nothing is getting piled on top of the dryer. Amazing!!
I had taken that Monday off work so it was a good day to get them delivered. They didn’t come til afternoon, so I was able to moving the table & all my plants so the delivery guys could get in. Then I went to check out Garden Ridge, since I’d never been there. All their Christmas stuff was 75% off – so I got the last 5 boxes of LED icicle lights & our first inflatables – and they’re HUGE!! I also got some funky ornaments & a 2 foot tall Santa to go with our snowman. Got a lot of stuff for only $55 !!! I love clearance sales!
Tuesday the 4th I had to go back to work. Sigh. I’d moved to Arlene’s office before we left for Arkansas and I swear that office was possessed. My mouse and/or keyboard would either freeze or do bizarre things at random. So the 2 days before I left I didn’t get much work done because of fighting with that. Oh – they remodeled the dispatch office, which is why things were crazy. We got new carpet (an ugly reddish-brown) and the walls got finished off & painted a dark flat grayish green (aka prison-cell green) with tan trim. The entire overhead is flat charcoal gray. Why they didn’t match the color scheme to the front part of the building is beyond me. I think I just hate flat paint, that’s the problem. Anyway – moving back to my old desk exorcised the computer demon. Been working fine ever since. It’s pretty funny that all of dispatch is on one side of the room and I’m on the other side all by myself. My desk is a little island!
Right before we left, I also got my new Adopt-A-Platoon pen pals. I decided to do this instead of sending stuff to an entire group; I just have to send letters / cards once a week to 4 guys. They’re all married so their wives must not be exciting people. One guy has a birthday soon, so I got a bunch of munchies to send to him. I think he’ll be surprised since I’ve only sent one letter as of this moment.
Somewhat good news! I was talking about Randy’s work issues….he was in the cafeteria one day and glanced at a newspaper that someone else was reading & saw IT job listings for Oakland County!!! He fit the requirements perfectly!! So he applied. Hopefully he hears something soon. I think he’d be a lot happier there. And it’s across the parking lot from the EOC!! He was concerned about his resume looking like he was demoted at RGIS since he’s not a team leader anymore. I told him it was because of company restructuring! Lots of places are doing that! Keeping fingers crossed!!
Last Saturday we made our annual trek to Ford Field to see Monster Jam. It was supposed to be this weekend but they rescheduled so Kid Rock could kick off his new tour on his birthday - at "Fourty Field" ~gag~. The good thing about that was every other year, Monster Jam managed to be on opening day of the Auto Show so it is crazy downtown & parking is insane. Being a week earlier was nice. We missed the anthem & beginning stuff because we went to Hockeytown Cafe for dinner. It was over an hour wait, but the food was really good. We need to go back there either during the week or much earlier on Saturday. Blue Thunder & Avenger weren't there, but Maximum Destruction was. It was the first time we'd seen Max D ever. Of course he won the freestyle. Apparently there are 2 shows next year !!! I know we'll go to at least one of them!
OK, I apparently am being struck with random ADD again since I can’t think of anything else to write about. Of course I have the XM playing in the background, so that’s distracting. That and my spacebar is sticking!! Grr!
