Major fooey. I didn't mention the pleasant chunk of unexpected cash that came my way Friday as I saw it to be a small drop in the proverbial bucket, should things not go my way in the next month. Turns out yesterday someone opened the drainage valve on that bucket when I got confirmation that an expected task is in fact, not coming in. I still have some leads, but I'm feeling a bit glum today about the whole situation.

So, while I'm trying to keep my chin up - I sure wouldn't mind referrals to fill the empty apartment or to book lia sophia or Miche parties to help cover my rear. Anyone have any other ideas? Remember - pburgh is too far to drive in the winter, especially with the girls here.

Stepped out of my comfort zone this weekend. It was huge for me to accept this invite since I'm a bit of a social retard, but this weekend I packed up to head to the burgh to camp out and a bonfire. Ok, that sounds pretty normal, but you've got to realize, I was invited through facebook by a high school friend that I haven't seen since back then. More bizarre is that the bonfire was hosted by someone I haven't seen since he moved away back in junior high. I mean, we rode the school van to elementary school together! It's so amusing how some mannerisms and voice patterns don't change even after all this time and through the aging process.

All said it was a calm and relaxing weekend. Not only was there smores and ginormous marshmallows to be had but there was a totally clear sky and perfect weather to sit by the campfire. It was a good time and I'm truly glad I went.

As for today, I headed back, cleaned up, and loaded two of the three to head to see mom for a few. Little did I know she'd have a whole herd there. Did get some good grub out of the trip, but I am exhausted from the weekend. At least the tylenol and excedrin I downed earlier today tamed the headache that was brewing from all of the sun. Do I really gotta go back to work already tomorrow?

The weather is so perfect for sleeping! I did break last night and shut the downstairs windows however, as it is becoming quite chilly and I am not ready to break out the winter comforter.

So here I am this afternoon cranking through one load of laundry with my hair freshly colored. I'm ready for a relaxing evening... while they may not go together I am so looking forward to diving into my bottle of lemoncello and scarfing some smores. Mmm.

Had lunch with the Lishbone today in a partial effort to give her the hookup with her first Miche bag! Good time and chattage. This was my first visit to the Tonic Grille and it wasn't bad. The prices were sweet, burger was good, and steak fries ruled.

This evening I contemplated slacking, but eventually headed over to the apartment to keep rocking. I washed all of the windows (mom will be so proud), and got the curtains back up (which I washed last night). This leaves me to needing to wash down the kitchen counters and floor. 9pm, and I'm pooped.

How many nights (after midnight) can Richland Fire have alarms go off in a week or two? Eesh. People... stop lighting things on fire, wrecking your vehicles, and doing stupid stuff so I can enjoy the nice cool nights with my windows open sans noise.

When I am queen...

• You'll be allowed to pull people over that piss you off and subjugate them for their sins. For me, this means I can stop every idiot who chucks a cigarette butt out their car window and make them eat it. Why do people not see that as "litter"?
  
• You'll get one murder with no repercussions in your lifetime. You can decide who really needs some killin and make it so, however, once you've used your free pass that's it! Think about it - it would make people act differently. Ok, killing someone prb would never go over, so how's this - free ass kickings for those who do something to deserve it. Again, I will maintain full discretion as to what qualifies as needing a good ass whippin.
  
• Breeding would be limited by my testing system. Everyone takes a test and qualifies for a certain number of children they're allowed to have. If you are with someone who qualified for 1 and you qualified for 2, sorry - you can only have the 1 w/ that person. If they already had their 1 with someone else, again, sorry.
  
• This one prb requires god-like status as opposed to queen, but I think that if you know someone who makes your stomach jump into your throat and makes you swoon with desire it is only fair if that is a guarantee they feel the same way about you.
  
• Workplaces will have nap areas that you are allowed to use (on the clock) for up to an hour every afternoon.
  
• You will pay into your own unemployment and only your unemployment. There is no reason why I should pay for others to ride unemployment and be limited to a paltry amount of cash for a short period of time when I've put way more into it. Don't even get me started on welfare.
  

While I don't have majorly good news to report from work, I do have some other good news such as:
Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper playing in Johnstown on October 10. Nice. Tickets acquired with my favorite Ozzy look-alike and his 'rents.

The two-hostess show on Sunday rocked and is all closed out.

Vixen's fat lip is going back down nicely. I guess that's good news that requires some backstory, no? This past weekend her cheek looked a little fattened up, but there's been some grumping going on so I figured it was just another one of those issues. Sunday night she was acting a little off so I lifted the lip and saw an abscess underneath (mmm, puss). By lunch on Monday when I swung home it was pretty darn fat and she was rubbing it. Most notably she didn't grump at anyone even once during my visit home over lunch. Needless to say I made an appointment immediately. By the time I got home after work (we had an appt that evening) she had rubbed the outside of her lip open and was oozing. Antibiotics it is... and thus already looking much better.

Today was hella steamy - but a good day. Most of it revolved around a Miche show, but with the good grub, nice new folks I met, and extra fundage coming in - it was a day well spent. I'm tired as can be, which proves my theory that the head just drags me down fast. I at least folded some clothes that got washed - so I will call that a win for the day.

Yesterday I didn't get as much accomplished as I did Friday night, but I did get some of the bedroom deep cleaned, thus the extra laundry. Clean curtains are up and it is half way dusted. I even cooked a pretty yummy dinner last night. Not too bad for having slept past noon and taking an evening nap for the second Saturday in a row. Three cheers for getting some slacking time built in!

The big Saturday afternoon excitement was taking Danika out for her 5th birthday (three years since she's come to live with me now). We headed to Petco and for some ice cream. I think she knew it was her day - as she attempted to wake me at 9am with a plea for attention. Goofy beasts. As is requisite a three pack of treats were picked to share (which of course made Saffy ill - mmm 5 patches of yack WHEE!) and a sheepy squeaky toy. Much to Saffy's chagrin I also found the most adorable bathing suit - red with white polka dogs and little ruffles at the butt. Now I need somewhere to take her swimming :D

No definitive word today as hoped/expected... next week now. Sigh. I spotted some items in a catalog that I know would be awesome Christmas gifts, but I know I need to put off buying and it's killing me!

I headed out a wee bit early today since I had plenty of time in, as to preserve a couple more hours for the end of the month. With that borrowed time I got cranking at the house, and I'm proud of myself for it too. In the dining room I took down curtains and replaced them with different curtains after washing the windows. Every surface has been dusted, the table is cleared off, the room is vacuumed, and a few more things I wanted to purge are boxed to go. On to the kitchen, where everything against the too do wall has been cleared away! Now to start patching. I even cleared everything out from under the sink and organized. All this while a load of laundry was kicking.

I'm definitely tired... gotta get more done tomorrow and spend some quality time with the kiddos. Happy 5th (3rd with me) birthday to my middle child, Danika! I think she's resting up to party like a rock star - she's wiped on the couch right now. Then again Saf is on the love seat. A tired dog is a well behaved dog... a well rested dog? Well, that's a different story.

Why is it only Wednesday - and why I am I already so tired that I don't even remember the start of the Colbert Report last night? The heat is back, so perhaps that drained me a bit as I waited for the ac to cool the house last night, but I was ready to zonk yesterday morning at work too, so that can't be it. Here's hoping for a bit of energy to push me through the remainder of the week, I still have some extra hours I need to get in.

Earlier this week I hit the dentist. No issues and he reassures me that my pain where my gums are receding is nothing and I'm fine. He also is adamant that I am just brushing too hard. I try to be delicate, but what's the right balance? He gave me a couple extra soft bristle brushes from Nimbus, which I've never seen in stores. I'm pleasantly surprised that it's not super pricey to get them directly from Nimbus Dental either - I'm commenting because they feel so wonderful! However, it does feel TOO soft for the tops of my teeth/molars. I might become a psycho again about my tooth brushing and be using two brushes for two different purposes.

It's remarkable how lonely (and how quickly so) you can feel when you cut out the little routines that get you out into the world. I've been a good girl this weekend - I did allow myself one meal out (a chinese buffet) but it reduced my desire to hit the grocery store, so I think the net savings was good. Friday night my lack of desire for any food in the house had me hit the bed early, by 8ish? Which turned into a long overdue sleep marathon.

Sure, I got up periodically to tend to the dogs, maybe have a bowl of cereal or get a drink, or to meander to the bathroom but I spent most of the time until 7pm Saturday in bed. Yep, I could still sleep that night, passed back out a little after midnight (the time in between spent on work) and slept til 1 today. Pretty impressive no?

I'd still rather lay back down than really dig in on the work I need to keep cranking on. I did some reading already today, but allowed myself to be distracted with the camera. I've got flower pictures, dog pictures, house pictures, and pictures of empty lia sophia boxes to post on ebay. 6 days until we learn more about my fate.

As I drove home from water aerobics the storm clouds were stewing over Richland so much so that I was looking for twisting. By the time I got down Eisenhower and to the house the rain drops were huge and the lightning was flashing in different directions. I get to the curve on Metzler and see lightning so bright and close and it is reflecting off of the back windshield of the car across the street from my house. Um. Eep.

I'm not home five minutes when I get some news that makes it feel like lightning does strike twice sometimes. My worries about work are now doubled if not tripled. I think I could be very screwed.

Trying to sleep last night was a bit rough. My arms and upper back were aching to the point I got up midway through the night to take some meds to ease the pain enough to zonk out properly. I feel okay today, but definitely still feel the strain up there.

This evening I went to make the meatballs from meat I bought that was marked as buy by the 31st... ok, granted today should have been the last viable day, but it looked completely foul. Into the trash it went, putting me a couple hours behind in the meatball marathon. I just put them into the fridge to cool overnight. I'll scoop everything and freeze it tomorrow after work.

I did also swing back past home depot where I snagged a lovely light purple rose of sharon (hibiscus) for the back yard. I also picked up two more classical hibiscus plants, two pots of stunning calla lilies - almost a pale yellow with the dark purple at the center, and two creamy yellow lilies. More holes to dig tomorrow after water aerobics I guess. Fingers crossed things will take hold before the cold comes and I'll have all of these beautifying my yard next year.

I went to my first water aerobics session at UPJ today. I was pleasantly surprised how easily I kept going once I moved to the deeper end, ditched the noodle, and didn't have my hands up over my head (out of the water). I know I still got a heck of a workout and will be sore tomorrow though, so that's a good compliment to feeling better about being back in the water.

So I'm headed to the aquatics center and uh... what is this? They're adding another huge ass building in front of it. UPJ just keeps growing and growing. Every time I'm there I long for a time that is dead and buried. Time goes by way too fast.

Maintenance cleaning done this weekend, but not a deep clean like it's been needing. Shame on me, once again, but there are plenty of other distractions. I'll blame it on my compulsion Saturday to road trip which took me to Greensburg for some shopping. I'm proud to report I finally have a healthy start on my Christmas shopping. I know that seems obscene, but back in the day I had my shopping done by September as to avoid the drop in income when I returned to school. With my nerves being what they are I figured it didn't hurt to try and get to that spot this year.

I do have some promising leads and feedback, which settled my nerves somewhat, but until I see those charge numbers, I'm still preparing for the worst. As a result of those leads I'll be putting in some extra time in the next two weeks, so expect some tired and grumpy posts.

I think the summer really did go faster this year than normal. The katydids are already outside making a storm of noise. The fall shouldn't be so near just yet!