It's like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel... and realizing it's just a train. You know better than to turn around and run, but be damned... go figure, eh?

The subtext that led up to this emotion is heading out to enjoy some sushi with some of the gang, and yes tonight, rolling 12 deep we were a gang. Other than that, not much else to say, my mind is a bit muddled.

Did you know that a cow's gestation period is about the same as a human's? It's no secret!

The molding is back on the Durango, safe and sound. The paperwork is signed to ensure the funding for roof repairs/building. I've hunted like crazy for open adjunct faculty positions with little prospects, but at least my monster account is active and looking for me now.

Yesterday I found two good sized chunks of money owed me from the distant past and started the process to get said funds into my checking accounts. I marvel at how places can claim to not know how to reach you when they owe you money, despite you still being a customer or a fairly recent customer. Meh. Not too bad accomplishment wise for it only being Tuesday, huh?

I've also heard some things that had my jaw hit the table so far this week. I may be needing a drink before the week is up.

In my attempts to not go out to eat as often this weekend I've instead found myself not wanting to make anything and hungry. At the moment I'm baking a batch of brownies and cooking the last of the frozen homemade spaghetti sauce, so I guess I need to buy tomatoes and ground beef next time I hit the grocery store.

Saturday night I made a stop at home depot looking for another bush to replace the one in the backyard that hasn't survived (I've got a gap that makes it apparent one is missing) and to get some more bulbs. Neither did they have there, so I ended up leaving with black eyed susans, some russian sage, and a couple other small flowering perennials. This morning I got up quite early to beat the heat and still was dripping wet by the time I finished outside. I also got the yearly raking behind the fence and clearing of what I thought was poison ivy but I now think is virginia creeper done.

They had some beautiful calla lilies there, but I wasn't about to pay $9 for a small batch of them. I'll wait til spring to get some bulbs (lesson learned, they get planted in the spring as opposed to tulip bulbs).

I'm in a bit of a funk but trying to fight it. I've had quite a few shows and what not delay or cancel lately. It definitely takes the wind out of your sail. I guess it doesn't help that I'm, for the first time, truly worried about work... I'm not exactly confident I'll be gainfully employed from September through January right now and it has my stomach in knots.

On a bright note, the old basement windows have been replaced with glass block. As of yesterday, every single window in the house is newer. I'm looking at a home equity line of credit to try and get some other things done, such as the roof that decided to start leaking after I spent most of my slush fund on the retaining walls. At least the house would be easier to sell if it comes down to it.

So today I turned... 29. It's about time, I've been 28 for a while now. The day at work was exceedingly long and filled with fighting to stay awake. When I got home I took a quick nap and ran for some chinese food and to look for something at Ollies. From there I was going to go to the gym, but instead decided to come home and walk with the girls. After all, I make sure I spend time with them on their birthdays, it was nice to take a walk with Saffy and Dani. Time to get back on the workout band wagon - so I can record ample time for the work challenge.

It's Monday, I'm blissfully at home... yay! I took today off as part of a weekend odyssey with the fam. Friday night was a lia sophia meeting, so things didn't get rolling until Saturday when I headed down to Toona for the family reunion. This sounds to be the last one they'll be having, so it was important to be there and even better to have Jackie and the kids in.

We did talk about trying to hit Shakespeare in the Park later on Saturday night, but as warm as it was it just drained us, I say us, but mostly me. Instead the gals, that's my sister, niece, my nephew's gal, and I headed to Kohl's. A bit later than planned, I headed up the mountain with the three youngins in tow.

Sunday we decided to make the drive to Falling Water, which was a pleasant surprise - I wasn't expecting it to be as 'much' as it was. Gladly, being in amongst the trees and water it was a bit cooler than most everywhere else. From there we headed to Lauren Caverns, but were a bit too late to do the tour. Instead we just did some quick 'mining for gemstones' and got a laugh. Back on the road to Jingletown and it was time for a feast at the Orchard.

As for today, mom and Jackie are heading up the mountain. This saves me another drive down to return everyone in between two 'appointments' here at the house. Got one estimate on Friday for the roofing issue, another to come today. We'll see how things pan out. It might be wise to just invest in having A frames added above the living room in order to put a real roof up there. Thoughts?

Why do I try? Just answer me that. So I spent some money trying to make the house look nicer and as I previously reported people told me they saw things being done wrong. The DirecTV dish wasn't lined up right anymore because the roof it's on (over the apartment entry) is rotting and needs torn down and completely replaced.

Earlier I came in as the rain was starting and watched it pouring out of the corner of the gutters out front, not coming down where it's suppose to. Now here I sit listening to the rain dripping in my living room. Yes, the very same living room I just finished redoing a couple of years ago. All that work - for shit. I'm sure I'll have a nice water mark, and who knows what else. So what - now I get to spend another grand putting more tar and shit on my roof, knowing it will leak again in another 2 or 3 years?

I just can't stand to have to deal with this stuff all by myself much longer. I can't do it. What am I still being punished for? What the hell did I do to deserve a life of solitary confinement?

Well, I finished the Short Second Life of Bree Tanner today. Glad I had started it and wrapped it up around the time I watched Eclipse. Definitely fills in some gaps from the Eclipse book. I'd be very interested in seeing a movie that has three or four books written around the story presented in the movie... backstories and sidestories that you miss within the movie but all circle around the timeline and view we're given there. Get on that writers.

Today the kiddo and I were up for church. Fun times. Napped while we waited for the DirecTV guy to show up. I'm still boggled by them having Sunday appointments, but thrilled by it, it truly is awesome that they're not locking people with 9-5 type jobs into "their" schedules. Regardless, the tv is all fixed now *yay* including the channels that have been missing for weeks now. Of course, some of my concerns about the roof were pretty much confirmed. I'm going to need to (at some point in the near future) figure out how to replace the roof over the entry to the apartment.

Anywho, after the repair we were on the road w/ Beff to Altoona, picking up my sister, and heading to the ballpark to make use of a set of tickets I won at the end of season banquet from the Chiefs. Got to stop in and say hello to the gals from Team Lamb who were there for the group picnic and had good seats to enjoy what was a pretty warm game until the sun went far enough behind the bleachers. Some fireworks and dropping off and Beff and I were headed back up the mountain. Back to work tomorrow I guess. Whee.

Only Saturday night - woohoo! I really should commit to always taking a nap when I come home from work on Friday night, it then helps it feel like a three day weekend somehow. Thursday I headed down the mountain after work to fetch the girl-child so we could hang for the weekend. Combo this with the nap and the dead directv and I'm sure it hasn't been the most fun time she's had.

Since she had previously on Friday sustained herself on poptarts and cereal, we headed out after my nap to get some late night dinner. Today I made myself proud by getting up a bit earlier than normal and getting a little bit of cleaning done while she slept on like a champ. The dishes are washed and need unloaded, the kitchen counters are cleaned, the bathroom sink, toilet, and mirror are clean, I even tossed old stuff from the fridge, and washed the bedding! The reward was some hang time, mostly at the theatre with Beff and girl-child. First we headed to see Toy Story 3 and then caught Twilight/Eclipse.

Toy Story was decent for a third, I do so love Hamm and Rex. I do appreciate how much has stayed consistent across the three films. I do hope they decided to allow this end at a trilogy, it would be redundant to go any further. Eclipse had a few shifts from the book. I liked how some of the scenery from the Bree Tanner book was incorporated. Insert some grubbing before, between, and after and there you have it.

It was a piss in Judy's wheaties kind of evening. First there was the indecisive family in front of me at Ross, which I just swung into on the way home. They were so indecisive, 10 minutes later I could take no more and tossed my two clearance items on the closest rack and left. Now, I don't do that... if I pick something up and later change my mind, I return it to "where I found it" like a good girl. So you know I was at the end of my rope.

That should have set the tone, and I should have known better. Instead, I decided to call DirecTV since several of my channels have been hit or miss lately. I had a very pleasant customer service rep, but she had no clue either. I have no idea what a 'multiswitch' is, but I can promise you it's not on the back of my receiver, no matter how many times you tell me 'on the back of your receiver'. So I look it up and I am betting if I have one it's prb downstairs somewhere (I didn't wire it for goodness sake). Regardless I am not paying $45-50 to have them come fix it for me when things worked and then suddenly didn't and I didn't change a thing.

Here's where the stupidity on my part comes in... so I climbed on out on the roof (yeah, me - brave!) and tried tinkering with it. Of course, the AZ/EL specified is NOT what the guy had it set to - at least not exactly. And... of course, after I started mucking with things, the few channels I had (notice I said had) evolved into a happy little directv symbol (aka - no signal).

On a bright note, without distraction from the TV I got my new catalogs that arrived tonight all stamped and ready to rock. Now, if only it would cool off so I could straighten things out upstairs (again). The sister and niece (eventually) got in to SCE today... so hopefully I'll get to steal the kiddo to hang out sometime soon.

It was definitely a raccoon, got a good look at it yesterday as it spent the whole day up in that tree. Didn't get much done so far this weekend thanks to one heck of a boomer headache that a variety of meds only took the edge off of. You know I hurt when I take two of anything and today I found some success with two excedrin severe tabs. Saffy is still not feeling well (loose) so during my grocery run (that's one thing off of the to do list) I snagged some instant rice for her.

Last night I got up in time to head to my tattoo appointment. Yes, I know, like I needed number 11 and 12, but they're on there now! Let me explain the first one... ok, the hockey theme was long time coming, no surprise there to anyone that I wanted something hockey, but if you haven't known me forever you don't know how much I loved Tom from Tom and Jerry when I was young. I had a stuffed one that talked, well he talked for part of his life, that I drug around to the point that my mother tried to bury him a few times. He was pretty ass kicked. Dad had sewn him back together numerous times, his ears were nibbled off, the back of his head was pushed in, he was well loved. The ass kicked Tom comes from an episode where Tom has a book of ideas on how to catch Jerry. At one point it says "a cornered mouse won't fight back". Needless to say he is behind the wall and gets his butt kicked, then turns the corner and speaks (which is uber-rare) saying "Doooon't you beeelieve it" in an incredibly eerie voice. Love it. That look was the inspiration for Tom's face, minus a few teeth of course.

The second was inspired by Mar, who recently got her maiden name put on her wrist, and it looks AWESOME btw. I instead put my maiden name on my back below my cross. I had to brighten the photo so it was clear to see, but the red is definitely all me. I'll tell you this, after seeing a name like Maucieri in 200+ fonts it starts to look like it's spelled wrong pretty fast. Either way, this is the first step in transitioning back. When I need to renew my passport I can kiss coposky goodbye.

Today, at least while I'm feeling a bit better, I am hoping to get a few little things done like updating the Miche catalogs w/ the minis. I ordered my fall/winter line of lia items yesterday and I can't wait for them to get here!

Let me tell you how wide awake (and how much more it can make your head hurt) you can be when you hear your baby girl chasing something in the back yard that is hissing and making an awful noise. Yes, it's 4am. I was quite lucky that only she got out the door to potty by the time I realized something was up or I would have had a nightmare on my hands. After a bit of searching online, since it was too dark for me to get a clear look it's apparent to me it was a raccoon, an animal that could easily have killed Saf. Little shits. Stay out of my yard and away from my babies!

At first I thought it was on the other side of the fence, that perhaps I was reliving the possum incident with Vixen, but as soon as I got into the yard with my robe half tied I quickly realized this thing was bouncing around inside the fence just dodging and weaving back and forth at Saffy. At least I provided enough distraction that it got around her and to the one tree, which it scampered up.

I guess now is as good of time as any to mention that earlier this evening I had the luxury of hanging with the Law's. It quickly grew later than I realized (sorry guys), but as always the good conversation and laughs made the evening go quickly.

I'm back from Milwaukee. I know I didn't really mention it on here yet, but what idiot broadcasts to the world when they'll be away? Anyhow, I attended my first lia sophia conference. Left Friday evening, spending the night in the burgh after dinner with Slips, and then flew out Saturday. I had a good but tiring time. It was nice to get to know some of the other reps better but the best part was seeing the new fall/winter jewelry! I'm psyched – enough said about that. They gave us three pieces during the course of the couple days, so the trip pretty much paid for itself. Thank goodness for low cost flights!

I was pleasantly surprised with the city. It was pretty clean, brightly lit, easy to move around, and I felt safe. The down falls were exceedingly poor service in most ever restaurant and the long lines and periodic rudeness associated with a whole pile of crazy jewelry ladies running amok. I do return with lots of enthusiasm and ideas, now if I can just find the time to make them manifest!

I got a call about another uncle passing away while I was gone, so this evening was at a viewing in Altoona. Rest in peace uncle Jerry. He wasn't sick prior, but had had some issues for an extended period of time and seemed pretty down in the dumps due to his limited mobility the last I saw him.

I also came back to a huge ass bill from the ear nose and throat doctor that I went to for the whole allergy issue. *sigh* Remind me why we pay for insurance again? Suffice it to say I think my deductible for the year is now met, so I'll be looking for other ways to use my insurance as much as possible between now and December. See how that backfires on you, insurance companies?