Routine

They say routines are really good, especially for children and pets, so our dogs are on a pretty set routine. Up at roughly the same time, the ones who need medication get it at the same time each day, they eat at roughly the same time, go outside to potty, go to bed, etc. They even have certain areas of the house where they are not allowed. Well, while I was on vacation, I varied their routine some and now I am regretting that. They are being whiny and just generally not behaving. I have vacation coming again in the next few weeks, I definitely won't be changing their routine again!

Christmas Gift for My Nephew

Cost of Leapster Explorer: $75.76
Cost of the Power Transistor that went out on my car on the way home from buying the Leapster: $285.65
Shipping to get the Leapster to my nephew: ??
Getting the Christmas gift my nephew really wanted: Priceless

Leapster Explorer

I texted my brother and asked him to give me some ideas for Christmas gifts for the boys. I am tired of just buying them clothes, although as fast as they grow they can always use clothes. Since little Maddox is only 6 months old, it will be clothes and soft toys he can play with on the floor. For Seth, my brother suggested the Leapster Explorer or any kind of balls. I always send him balls, so a Leapster Explorer it is. One nephew done!

Pacman Killed Inky

Remember the arcade game Pacman and the character named Inky? Well, the dogs had a stuffed Inky that they had been playing with. This morning they got too quiet, so I turned around to find Inky had met a violent death.

And here is the pint sized "Pacman" who took him out.

When I asked Nash what he had done, I got the innocent "who me" look.

Back-up Date

Next Friday is the TransSiberian Orchestra concert. Since hubby's Meniere's disease usually strikes without warning, I wanted to look for a back up date to the concert just in case he doesn't feel well enough to go. I have two possibilities lined up, so now I just have to see if either of them confirm and wait to see how hubby feels that day.

Happy Thanksgiving

Today is a day to reflect on all of the things that you are thankful for i your life. There are many things on my list, but the main one is having the love, support, and friendship of my hubby of 22 years and having made good friends all around the world. I hope all of you have a fun filled and safe Thanksgiving.

In Home Energy Monitor

Our electric company asked us if we would participate in a test of their new In Home Energy Monitor. The monitor is a piece of equipment that works in conjunction with our smart meter and shows us how much electricity we are using in real time (well, actually a 3 second delay). It has lots of features, but the one we like the most is the one that tells you how much your electricity is costing you per hour at your current consumption level. It has a back light on the display that changes colors based on your usage. It displays green if you are in the low usage group, amber for the moderate usage group, and red for the high usage group. The idea behind the monitor is if you can see how much you are using, you will adjust your usage. So far we have only had it connected a few days, but it works. If I walk by the room and see the display on red, it makes me think about what all we have running. Sadly, we have not been able to get it to display green yet, but we are trying.

Paper Jamz

Have you seen those paper guitars that come with pre-recorded songs you can learn to play along with? They are called Paper Jamz and they are pretty cool. They come in several different designs and each design has different song selections. I actually bought one about a week ago just to see what it was like. Hubby and I have both been having fun with it. You can play along with Sweet Home Alabama or My Maria, or you can just free play. It shows you how to make chords and the whole works. It is pretty cool for $25. We won't be turning pro any time soon, but we are having fun.

Chrismas Cards

Normally by this time each year I have all of my Christmas cards addressed and ready to be mailed the day after Thanksgiving. This year, I am so far behind that I haven't even put together my address list yet. I have got to get that together and to go purchase some cards. I was going to purchase some nice Irish Blessing Christmas cards last week, but instead I managed to drop the box of cards and smash a display of very delicate ornaments that had been imported from Ireland. So, instead of purchasing the cards, I purchased my broken ornament with my other goodies and left before I did any more damage. Anyway, today I need to get my stamps and cards and get myself moving. The decorations? I still have to pull them down from the garage and sort through them too.

Vacation

I am on vacation for the next several days and I am really happy to be off of work. I don't have anything exciting planned - just happy to be away from the office. Nash needs to go for his annual check up and all of the people at want me to stop by so they can see him since we will be in town. I may have to take hubby to the doctor. He has been suffering with allergies that just won't shake loose, so we don't want it to turn in to some kind of infection. I will probably tidy the house some and then of course study. I have a final coming up in 2 weeks. It's all essay, so I need to make sure I am really familiar with all of the concepts we discussed this semester. Then I have a research paper due in January. I was hoping I would get away from research papers in grad school, but I guess not.

Photo Phriday

This is a picture of my nephew, Seth, playing with his Home Depot work bench he got for his 2nd birthday. I love this shot. This look definitely says....."Hey, I'm working here."

Thanksgiving

This year hubby and I are going to volunteer at the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning and then we will come home and prepare for dinner at our house. We were going to have a big event at our house with my brothers family, my parents, and hubby's sister, but the plans have changed. My brother and his family were not able to make it in this year, so it will just be the sister-in-law and her husband along with hubby and I. My parents may come down, but it is quite a drive for them so most likely they will stay and celebrate with their friends. The menu is not finalized yet, but will be soon.

What are your plans for Thanksgiving?

TSO Tickets Have Arrived

Our tickets to the TransSiberian Orchestra concert have arrived. I am so exicted. Only 16 days until the concert!!

Nerves

This afternoon I go back to the dentist to have my tooth taken care of - finally. I always get super anxious about going to the dentist and even though I have been in paid, today is no exception. Thankfully, work has been very busy today, so it is distracting me a little, but not busy enough to completely distract me from the upcoming appointment.

Wizard World Comic Con

Hubby has been volunteering all weekend at the Austin Wizard World Comic Con. Today is his last day and he seems to be having lots of fun. He is exhausted, but having fun. He is getting to meet lots of the celebrity guests like Lee Majors, Lou Ferrigno, Kevin Nash, and the guy who played Zander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (can't remember his name).

He has always wanted to go to a Comic Con and now he gets to see one from the inside. He said he thought it would be fun to volunteer at other locations. I am glad he is having fun - this is his kind of thing. All I want is an autograph from Lou Ferrigno, so hopefully he will be able to get me one.

Does it Hurt?

On Thursday, one of my teeth started acting up. I called the dentist and his first opening was on 11/30. I took the appointment, but had my doubts if I could wait that long. By Friday morning my face was so swollen on the right side that I could only see out of my left eye. I was supposed to go to a training class all day on Friday, but that wasn't going to happen now. Instead, I decided to just show up at the dentist office instead of calling. If I was standing there in front of them, they couldn't put me off. One look at my face and the receptionist immediately went to get the dentist. In fact, the whole office came to take a peek at my face. The only thing he could do was give me antibiotics and pain meds, but his schedule magically opened up and he had an appointment on 11/16. I got the meds and stayed at home on the sofa all day yesterday.

Today I was feeling a little better and the swelling had gone down enough that I could see out of both eyes, so I decided to go to the grocery store. I never received so many stares in my life. Every single person I passed stared at me like I was some kind of circus side show. One little old lady actually came up to me and asked if it hurt. I told her yes and she just said she was sorry. But, what I was thinking on the inside is that all of the stares are hurting a lot more than the actual pain in my face. Hubby said I should have told them that I was contagious.

I was just shocked at the number of people staring. What if I did have a disfiguring disease or if I had been born that way - that was so rude. You would think in this day and age people would not behave that way. I was taught that you treat everyone nicely regardless of what they look like and if someone looks different, you don't stare. Needless to say, I wrapped up my shopping as quickly as possible and went home. At least the dogs don't care what I look like.

Laser

My dogs have tons of toys to play with. In fact, they have a toy chest in side the house full of toys (when they aren't spread all over the floor) and about 20 toys scattered all over the back yard. Abbie (the rat terrier) loves to play soccer with an over sized tennis ball that is about 1 foot in diameter, Nash (the Yorkie) loves to tug on anything soft enough to get in his mouth, and Riley (the lab mix), what do you think she wants to play with? Absolutely nothing in the yard. She wants to play with a laser. Yep, one of those little laser pointers. When it gets dark enough for her to see it, we take it outside and she will run around the yard for hours chasing that darn laser. She gets so focused, she has even ran in to fences and people. It is almost like it puts her in a trance and she has to chase it. Unfortunately, she hasn't learned to tell the difference between the laser and a regular flashlight. So, when you pull out a flashlight, she comes and sits in front of you and won't move. What is your animals favorite toy?

Semester is Almost Over

Thank goodness the semester is almost over - only 4 more weeks to go. Unfortunately, with the semester ending soon and all of our work due combined with things heating up at work, is making for some busy days. This morning I woke up about 3-ish thinking about all of the things I had going on. I finally got out of bed shortly after 4 and worked on a paper that is due Friday. Thankfully I have 10 days of vacation planned over the next 2 months.

Decisions Decisions

Hubby has been saving aside some money to do whatever he wants with it. Usually he spends it on us, but sometimes he buys items for himself. He came to me the other day and offered me a choice on some items to buy. The choices are..... a new deck box (our current one is breaking), get the windows on his car tinted, or buy me a mini laptop. I said no to the deck box. That is an item for the house and we can buy that from the house account or budget for it later. His car spends the majority of the time in the garage, but he has wanted his windows tinted since he got the car almost 2 years ago. I would love a mini laptop, but it seems selfish to ask him to spend his money on me. I have been in a school slump lately and maybe he is thinking this will pull me out of the slump. I don't know if it will or it won't. What do I do? Should I be selfish and go for the laptop or should I tell him to get his windows tinted. This decision shouldn't be this hard.

The Fence

Hubby and I are slowly power washing and putting Thompson's Water Seal on our fence. We have already done all of the portions that are visible from the street and today we put the water seal on one side of the fence in the back yard. We like to put it on with a roller so it takes a little longer, but looks much nicer. Plus, it is kind of peaceful out there just rolling on the stuff. Hubby told me I could watch, but that is no fair to him and no fun for me. He did the majority of the work, but I help too. Now, my legs and butt are so sore since I did most of the low portions He's 6'3" so the low areas are tough for him. Since I'm only 5'2", those are a little easier for me. Next we have to decide when to do the back portion of the fence. We have to speak to the neighbors first because when we power wash it just stuff in their yard. We go and clean it up, but we want them to know first.

Although I didn't get any of my inside chores done, I feel good that we got that portion done.

Austin Celtic Festival 2010

Today we went to the Celtic Festival and had so much fun. We got there a little before the doors opened and were able to catch the Silver Thistle Pipes and Drums group while they were practicing. I love listening to pipes and drums. There is something about that music that triggers a very emotional response in me. It is beautiful to listen to and even more beautiful to watch.



During our first walk around the venue, I tasted haggis and some Irish Whiskey cake. Both were really good. We made our way to the bake sale and purchased some scones and soda bread for later. We also bought a couple of t-shirts and hubby bought a really pretty knife to display. We went to see if the Vikings and Romans were ready to do their demo. They just warming up, so no fighting. The people participating in the Highland Games were also just warming up, so nothing to see there.

As we were coming back to the start of the venue, it was time for The Roux Crew to do their herding demonstration. The dogs herded sheep, geese, and Indian Runner ducks. I was so in to watching the presentation that I didn't take too many pictures. Below are a couple of pictures of the dogs working. My favorite dog was Rain. He is an 11 month old border collie that is a bit of a goof ball and still learning the commands. Rain is the black and white collie. See is the other collie and she was about 3 years old and handled the stock like a pro. I was amazed at how quietly they gave the commands to the dogs and the dogs instantly (well everyone but Rain) followed the command. They had several dogs, but these are the only photos I took.

We made our way around the venue a second time to see if we missed anything and this time around I found a wooden figure of my school mascot, so I had to get that. We also snagged some onion strings with garlic sauce to nibble on (yummy). We decided we really liked the Irish Whiskey Cake, so we went back and grabbed one of those for later. We stopped by the Things Celtic table one more time and then decided to leave. Things Celtic is a local store and the owner is the director of the festival. She is so easy to talk to and all of her items are hand picked or special made just for her and shipped over from Ireland or Scotland.

After the festival, hubby took me to Joe's Bakery to grab some pink bread since we were already in that area of town. Pink bread is like a yellow cake, but not as sweet, and has pink icing. You can only find it in hispanic bakeries. Well, at least those are the only places that make it properly. Hubby also picked up some other goodies while he was there. By this time, we were getting pretty tired, so we headed home.

It was a great day and the festival was so much fun. I even almost had hubby convinced to buy a kilt!

Celtic Festival

Tomorrow is the Celtic Festival at Fiesta Gardens. We didn't get to go last year and are so excited to go this year. I have my tickets and can't wait to tell you all about it.

Happy Friday.

TransSiberian Orchestra

The official winter tour for TransSiberian Orchestra starts tomorrow. They will be in Austin on December 3rd and I already have my tickets. I can't wait!

Scarecrow and Dracula

Here are my little nephews in their costumes. The top picture is 6 month old Maddox and the bottom picture is almost 2 year old Seth. If you look closely, you can see Dracula's mohawk and the scarecrows two bottom teeth.