Looked at the blog and realized I haven’t posted anything since November. Life has been most busy for me, but not busy enough to write exciting tales about it.

So first, I’ll start with most recent news. I got a new dining table Thursday. Well, it’s more of a pub style table with two padded stools that tuck under it. It’s counter high and small, which is something I had been looking for in a dining table. I love it so far. I had been looking at another pub style one at the same store. The one I chose is rustic, but all straight lines, while the other was quite modern. But I didn’t like the stools. They weren’t padded and when I sat on them I slid around too much. Padded seats FTW.

January 1 of this new year found my dad starting his retirement. He has worked since the age of 11 or so. For the last 36 years, he worked at American Crystal, which makes sugar. So far, he and my mom have not killed each other. My dad’s stress level has gone down dramatically. He’s even smoking less. Still would like to see him quit, but a pack over two days is better than the pack and a half a day he was smoking. The main thing going on for them right now is that they still have custody of two of my youngest sister’s children. The third one is back with her. They hope to be free of custody before summer.

As I posted early last winter, I took in a cat that I named Blizz. Blizz no longer lives here. I had to get rid of him last summer after he attacked my other cats, my nieces and nephews and then me. All unprovoked. He was a beautiful cat and was nice up until the summer, but I don’t know what happened to trigger his sudden aggressiveness. I know MewMew has attacked before, but she had done so when Crookshanks would frighten her in some way, and she has calmed down, or at least just goes as far away from visitors as possible and ignores them.

But, I got another cat just before Thanksgiving. My niece’s best friend found a starving and hurt kitten. She couldn’t keep him, but they didn’t want to toss her out. They called me first, and I said no. They tried my mom, who said no as well. Then they were going to try my aunt. I said yes when I heard that. My aunt already has a houseful of animals. She has four beagles and one cat. I don’t think the kitten could have handled that. So to describe him, he’s all black with few white hairs on his neck. My niece and her friend named him Salem, after Sabrina the Teenages Witch’s cat. He no longer is starving. He’s got a good belly on him now, and his injuries are healed. I think he got in a fight with a larger animal. I do need to get him fixed when I get the funds. I think with my income tax return. But Crookshanks likes him a lot. At least that’s what I assume since he insists on licking and cuddling him. MewMew just tries to ignore him. She’s such an antisocial little thing, isn’t she.

I should talk about Christmas. We had a major snowstorm/blizzard Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Dumper nearly two feet of snow on us. It didn’t totally ruin Christmas, but we couldn’t get over to my grandma’s to get her and my younger sister and family (except for her two older children, who walked to my place, but they spent the night afterwards) were completely snowbound since they live on a dead end street that saw no traffic to make tracks. My youngest sister made it, as did my uncle, who had come to town a day early. They managed to walk to a more driven though street to meet my dad. Driving around town was a miserable experience. My parents van got stuck numerous times. My dad and I bagged up gifts for my grandma and my mom made up a plate of food for her. Dad and I parked in front of the hardware store on the highway (thank goodness the highway dept. had been out) and then we walked the remaining two blocks, through drifts of snow, to bring her the stuff. She was surprised to see us. But we believed she needed a Christmas meal on Christmas day. My poor dad had to take a nitro for his heart when we got home. He just exerted himself too much. I managed to get my sister and uncle to her house. Well, I actually got a block away and they ended up walking the rest. I stayed as best I could in tracks made by other vehicles so I wouldn’t get stuck. Still managed to get stuck when I got near home, but just backed up and sped my way through.

Works been going well. Next month will be interesting though. My boss goes on vacation, but two of my coworkers are also planning vacations around the same time. If that happens, I will be the one in charge. Normally, when the boss goes vacation, we split duties. I still have the biggest load, but they do the daytime stuff. Taking money to the bank, getting change, dealing with the sales people. It’s not completely certain that both coworkers are going at the same time. I don’t mind A going. But if D goes, that would suck. She’s my partner in keeping the store running smoothly during that time.

I didn’t participate in NaNoWriMo last November. Didn’t have time. I was okay with that. Still am. I really want to work on some stuff I’ve already written.

Working on D’s laptop. It’s having a bit of a malware problem that I found. It’s called Windows Vista.

This entry is getting quite long, so I’m going to end here. Hopefully, I will update more often than last year. Bye for now.

I’ve been a bit quiet lately on this site, mostly thinking of ways to utilize my site better. I’ve come to some decisions.

1. Cutting off blogs. I’m going to delete my diet and WoW blogs and incorporate them into this blog via pages sections (like my cats pages). I’m keeping my writing blog with the hope of actually getting some of my original stories up in the near future.

2. I’m adding more pages to this blog. I have recipes I want to share, so that will be coming. I also just bought Artisteer and have been having way to much fun making WP layouts (the theme I’m using now was made by me using Artisteer), so I plan to offer the other ones I’ve been making for download. Not the fanciest of layouts, but I love the way they have come out.

3. The lj icons site stays put, since that’s more archival than anything, but I might update the layout.

4. I will only post stuff from this site to my livejournal if it’s not site related, which makes some sense.

I’m planning to do this sometime soon. I have a crap ton of stuff on my plate already, and NaNoWriMo starts on Sunday, adding to said pile. I do want to write up a big ol’ post about what I’ve been up to lately.

Make A Delicious Difference Week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6rpkyWck3A

I was just at ExtraLife, and Scott Johnson had created a little list of his favorite sci-fi movies after seeing District 9 (which I want to see so very much along with Moon). It got me to thinking of my favorite sci-fi movies.

Now, I love sci-fi. I fell into being a fan of the genre back in 83-85 with the miniseries V and watching the anime Robotech. I’d seen the original Star Trek series, but wasn’t what you would call a fan. That didn’t happen until Star Trek the Next Generation.

1. Blade Runner – This one is probably on nearly every sci-fi fan list. I first saw it when I was going through a Harrison Ford movie binge. The only copy the rental counter at the grocery store had was the original theatrical cut. I didn’t think much of it. Then my sister and brother in law bought me the director’s cut for Christmas a few years later. So much better. Instantly had me. I now own the final cut and all the other versions from the nice set that came out a few years ago.

2. Galaxy Quest – Yes, I know it’s a comedy. Yes, I know it’s send up of all things sci-fi geek. But darn it is funny with just a great cast that works.

3. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension – Cheesy, campy and makes absolutely no sense. Discovered it when I was home sick from school on HBO. I’ve watched it when not under the influence of cold meds too. Either way works.

4. Star Wars Trilogy – Can’t have a proper list without Star Wars. A New Hope was great. The Empire Strikes Back was better. The Return of the Jedi was good. The nice thing about Star Wars is that it’s a great way to introduce new people to sci-fi.

5. Star Trek – And I mean the reboot version from this year. I love the Star Trek family of movies and tv shows, but this movie just kicked it up several notches.

6. Stargate – I don’t think the movie gets as much love as the series. But it’s good. Honest. And I love me some Kurt Russel being all macho.

7. Contact – This one is bit more thinking man’s sci-fi in my opinion. It really makes a person question a lot of things, that’s for sure.

I’m sure I’ll come back to this list as my mind rolls over the subject longer.

Been nearly a month.

I’ve been doing, well, not much. Things have been pretty boring around here. It’s been flooding in the Red River Valley, but I’m 16 miles east of the river and my town didn’t have any trouble with water.

Got my new computer monitor. It’s a Gateway HD2201. It was a good price and I really liked it over the others in the same price range. Also got myself a new cell phone, the LG Scoop. One of the common complaints about it is it’s lousy camera. My opinion. Phones are for talking and texting. When I want to take a picture, I use my camera that I always carry in my purse. Some people are never happy.

I’m trying to decide if I should snack on an orange or the fresh pineapple I got. Hm.

TTYL!

It’s a week from my birthday. Decided to go through some things and found a birthday card from last year. It was the last one my late aunt Karen sent me.

When do the tears stop?

more animals

Well, I forgot to update you all on my lost billfold. It was found the following Monday. Everything was still in there, but I forged ahead with changing everything anyway. Better safe than sorry. Got all my replacement cards. Yay!

Did my taxes. I’m getting a nice chunk for federal so I plan to get a larger monitor for my desktop. I’m thinking larger than 19 inches. My computer is where I pretty much watch movies and tv shows now days, so why not. It will be worth it.

Been battling a cold for the past week. I’ve been miserable. Hopefully I can get rid of it this weekend, since I don’t have to work.

TTYL!