Ok, I didn't keep up the pace, but more IS off the list. I wrapped about half of the Christmas gifts that are sitting upstairs and moved some things around in that room to clean it up a little. I also got those bed sheets into the wash.

From there I had to shower and get ready to head to my uncle's for dinner, where the customary Tomlinson obscenely large Sunday meal slowed me down tremendously. It was good, that's part of the problem - I'm still full, and I've been home for an hour.

Hopefully with another 1/2 an hour of reckless abandon (translated: plopped on the couch watching TV with the computer in hand and a dog laying at my side) will give me the needed motivation to finish the tidying I want to accomplish in the dining room, kitchen, and bedroom before bed - then I can vacuum tomorrow after work, before "the visit". I wish I could just sit down and read all evening.

It's only a little after 11. Most weekends I wouldn't even recommend being out of bed yet, but here I am, up early for the second (weekend) day in a row. I've already cleared out the garage, so I am officially ready to put the car away. No matter how much I don't want it to happen, I'm sure winter and crappy weather is near. This meant I had to once again move the friggin sand bags. This time they are no more. All 20-some of them went to the back yard filling in spots where mud becomes a factor with the beasts. I also washed my bed sheets and took the wet/dry vac to the basement, which is necessary from time to time to get rid of the fur that hides from a broom. How's that for before noon? GO ME! I'm going to be so sore tomorrow.

While I'd love to get a shower and take a nap in those clean sheets, I gotta keep going. I'll report back later so you can all bust me if I didn't keep going.

My post last night was one of the few things I accomplished in the hour or so I was awake last night. I still woke up with that headache, but a huge dunkin donuts coffee and some tylenol severe sinus knocked it out - thank God. I couldn't afford to not make progress while waiting for those things to take effect however, so I was up at 8:30 to do some cleaning before heading to toona-town for another purse party. I need to get a little more accomplished tonight and lots more tomorrow, but at least something got scratched off today.

I've had the book "The Secret" on my wish list for a while, since it was recommended by my lia sophia manager. I snagged it off of ebay recently, which brings my current reads list to 5, but I digress. As much as it is difficult for a woman with "stay negative" tattooed on her, I am making every effort to follow some of the concepts in this book. I have to believe that I willed some of the good Miche fortune that has come my way in the past couple of days. I also was very pleased to find a check in my mail refunding some money from the bank that held the loan on the Tiburon. Apparently I overpaid. Either way, thanks for the extra cash, even if it is my own money in return - I had considered it gone and spent.

Another Friday afternoon brings the starts of another headache. What gives? Yesterday my mind fired and made me realize the sore spot below my left collarbone was probably a knot so I headed for a massage. Let me tell you, this is not a comfortable spot to need kneaded out. Today I feel like someone punched me repeatedly there. I was going to head out this evening with friends, but ended up crashed out after work. Needless to say, not enough progress on cleaning and organizing is occurring.

I was very proud of myself this morning. I walked in to get my flu shot without crushing apprehension. I even sat down for the shot in front of a table with boxes upon boxes of needles and didn't freak or turn pale white. I am quite impressed with the progress I've made thanks to weekly allergy shots.

The final update I have for this week is that I settled on a new cell phone and placed the order. I was going to get a Vivaz, but at the last minute changed my mind at the advisement of a friend and instead ordered an Xperia x10. That's right world, I'm going to something with a touch interface and will have... a data plan. Fear me.

This is officially the best Monday ever. Ok, I'm sure there have been better, maybe a war ended on a Monday or something else pretty cool, but this Monday is still pretty sweet. First, headed to Ross and TJ Maxx after work. Picked up a couple things that have been on my mind in preparation for the future, but that's not the cool part... the cool part is they removed many of those completely unnecessary and annoying as all hell stop signs that were every 20 feet on the way through there!

That by itself warranted a huge smile and rejoicing, but then - I went to Valley Dairy. They have new menus which have brought back the stuffed french toast. Oh heaven and bliss. I also brought home a half gallon of pumpkin ice cream for the fridge *grin*. Despite the rain today, it was a good day. Maybe I should go put together the furniture bought for the kitchen so I feel like I did something productive there today. Otherwise, I'm at a halt as I consider what to do with my uncle's advice.

Didn't do the things that need done around here, headed to mom's today. Of course, given the headache I'm fighting I probably wouldn't have done those things had I stayed home either. I guess one evening this week I can get the garage ready for the car.

Then there's the kitchen. Talking with my uncle today, he really thinks I should take out the cabinets, so I can remove the crappy paneling. It runs behind it as you may not realize. I was going to try and stop my repairs by the cabinets, but I see his wisdom... I just don't trust myself to be able to disassemble and reassemble the cabinets (don't forget there is a sink and plumbing there) without destroying them and without taking the next 5 years. I'd like to replace the countertops, which this would probably make a little more urgent... but...

Mom also made me feel guilty that the gutters behind the apartment didn't get cleaned back out yet. I just can't do that height. If you could only have seen me out front trembling at the top of the ladder you would know why the gutters at double the height are fat chance. I really hate the people who worked on this house and tossed the gutter covers that WERE up there. Bastages.

Head hurts. I really hate what the drop in hormones does to my head. There has to be a way to avoid this on a regular basis. Of course, after drinking a rather large caffeine laden starbucks pumpkin something now my stomach is swimming too. Meh.

I want ice cream. I want greasy food. I want to go to bed now. I did a little bit of running after work to try and find some items that are on my mind with minimal success. I did get the car washed and a quart of chocolate peanut butter frozen custard however! No, it isn't gone already - I haven't even opened it, I'm still trying to figure out what I want for dinner.

I'm so hungry this week. Couple that with tired this evening and you can forget the kitchen going anywhere. I have catalogs to update with discontinued products and a car to load tonight. Maybe if I accomplish that and carry some drywall up so it's staring at me that would help. I really need to make time this weekend to prepare the garage for the car. I had to scrape the windshield earlier this week. I know the time is nearly at hand.

As much as I have zero motivation (or skill) to crank out the things that need done in the kitchen, I've already started my list of other things to do to have this house in a situation that I'd call sellable. There isn't a lot of big stuff, just pain in the butt stuff.

I realized today that ratio of overall space to body size that my past pet rats and betta fish got in their containers was greater than that which we get in a cubicle all day. And to think I've felt bad for the critters all this time. Hrm.

I've decided to play hookie from the kitchen tonight. I'm making some pumpkin bread instead. nom nom nom

Feeling a bit schtupid ... I have been squeezing in getting some reading in of Breaking Dawn. I've commented to several people that needed to get reading since the movie comes out in November. Uh, duh - November of next year. Hrm. Well that's a let down. I guess I'm not so pressed to read. Hell, I'll forget the whole thing by the time the movie comes out.

After a couple of days where my desires were focused on the kitchen I finally put some elbow grease into it. I spent a good chunk of time today scraping the lose plaster and paint and filling in holes on the main wall that needs redone in the kitchen and knocking the fake bricks off of the other wall. I thought the fake brick destruction was going well as I started on the far right, which was easy, but I was quickly made a fool of when I moved above the entry way. The brick was put directly on drywall there, instead of plaster, which made it quite a bit more of a challenge to chip away. It's not all down, I admit, as my arms just couldn't stay up in that position much longer.

While the room doesn't LOOK much different, much progress was made in my book. Now if I only had a solid angle on how I'm handling the transition into the cabinets on each end, I'd be set. As a result, my hands are about raped right now, pretty carved up and sore.

I ran to Ollie's as I realized the need for a few things during my efforts. Among a couple other purchases I snagged a Westinghouse ceiling fan that will fit nicely when the kitchen is complete. I am torn however if I should replace the light closer to the sink or near where the little table will be. If I go with the sink one as the fan, I could change the other to a funkier hanging light. I dunno, I'll have to see what my options are.

I think the folks over at xkcd must use the same internet supplier I do... what an incredibly timely comic.

How incredibly cool is this? http://www.alice.org/ - a drag and drop interface to teach programming - free, from CMU.

On another note I did my running today and officially changed it back. SSA, DMV, bank, and many calls made so far... but so many more to go.

I end a chapter in a way tomorrow. It is the ultimate anti-versary, and I am going back to just being me. What a pain in the ass. Time may steal the anger, but not all the hurt. Ctrl+Z!!

I am collecting lia sophia orders throughout the month of October (orders go in Nov 2). Get your holiday shopping kick started while helping to kick breast cancer!

I will donate 15% of total sales to the PA Breast Cancer Coalition. If sales cross the $1000 mark, I'll make that 20%!
www.pabreastcancer.org

If you're not interested - PLEASE PASS IT ON TO YOUR FRIENDS! My goal is to write a check for $250. That's a $1250 show. Can we make it happen?

Under the November special you can buy 2 at regular price and get a third item at half off. Then select up to 3 more necklaces at half off!

EVERYONE will receive $5 off their order as a thank you for supporting this cause.

Contact me at judy_coposky@yahoo.com to place your order - or order through my website at: (cut and paste)

http://www.liasophia.com/johnstownjudy/catalog-intro

Enter my name (Judy Coposky) in the hostess look up form and select the show ending November 2nd.

Another thing I love about the fall is the wondrous delights at the grocery store. I didn't pick up apple cider, but it - along with some buttershots - is on my mind. I did pick up a pumpkin roll and two apple dumplings. Oh sweet and evil delight. If there is no chocolate involved and I am still down ... you know it's damn good. As a small celebration for closing out another kick butt party I'm going to slice some pumpkin roll right now. Yum!

The weather has been so incredibly nice this weekend! I know there isn't much pleasant to expect left, so I took advantage. Friday I had to tend to a craving for wings. At the last minute I was spared the pity of being out alone on a Friday night with thanks to Lori and C... Jack. Haven't seen them in a little while so it made the evening extra nice.

Had a purse party Saturday - and after I headed out front to pull some plants and get some bulbs in the ground. Did a pretty good job wearing myself out and ended up crashing early Saturday night. For whatever reason the power zapped out Friday night AND Saturday night at some point. Not sure what the deal is. Luckily both times I woke and noted the flashing clock so I could reset it and the alarm.

I didn't get much done around the house today as I probably should have, instead I enjoyed some time with the girls and readied myself for the Hootenanny at a leisurely pace. You can always pick out the person who doesn't get to go to a lot of shows... that would be the gal without earplugs. Yup, that's me. I'm ringing like crazy right now. Shame on me.

The Murderdolls were tolerable, not going to run out and buy their album by any stretch.

Cooper - it has been what, 22 years since I was first exposed to his music? At last I saw him live. He remains quite the showman. I know I haven't a show from 30 years ago to compare it to, but I think he was motoring around better than I expect to when I'm 62. I admit, I peeked online ahead of time to see what the set list may be, and I was excited to get to hear Cold Ethel live. The only way it could have been more satisfying is if Stephen was added to the list.

Zombie - a good show as expected, he is also a master of showmanship, but I wonder a little if he's jumping an odd shark. What's up with the robotic type elements? It seems odd and wrong to not have the chicks dancing to tell you the truth. I could have gone a lifetime without seeing the carpenter crack he was sporting at the end of the show. I'm just sayin. There was so much fire in the show I was sweating up a storm during his set. I hope there is still ice under those boards.

Here they are... gladly, the sun is back today. I couldn't bear another day of the misty cold rain so soon after a tropical getaway.

My vacation photos are slowly uploading... where to start? I headed out Friday morning to take the girls to camp and to get to the burgh where I met up with Slips and headed to the airport. There isn't much to say about transport other than it sure makes for a long day and is surprisingly tiring, but I guess I'm not telling the world anything they don't already know. We got into FLL late that evening and wiped out at the hotel.

Sept 25
Up bright and shiny on Saturday we readied ourselves and headed to the port. There she was, impossible to miss. Words don't express the size of Oasis of the Seas, she's more than an eyeful. There is the standard exploring of the ship, grubbing in the windjammer, muster, and checking out the room of course. These standards included wandering about a bit like a tourist in awe and finding surprise that I picked nicely on the room.

Our deck 11 Central Park balcony turned out to have an extra large balcony! No room on one side as a result, instead a storage area, which did incur some noise, but nothing unbearable or late. I think we heard more coming from up on deck 15 and from the crazy ass bag pipes down in the park... oh and the crazy asses that were having WAY too much fun at an obscene hour one night.

While we wandered about we took the time to ride the carousel. Our booked show for that evening was at the Aqua Theatre and was quite enjoyable combining acrobatics, gymnastics, and diving.

Sept 26 - Nassau
I've been there a couple times before and it was a short day in port so we didn't do much. We had tossed around the idea of heading to local gardens but nixed the idea and instead wandered the shops around the port. Nothing major to report here.

Before dinner we went to the ice skating show, which was different from the one on Explorer, thank goodness, and quite good. Best of it was the sand artist that was featured between acts. Just amazing.

Sept 27 - at sea
Today we hit Hairspray and the comedy show. While there isn't a huge nightly show onboard Oasis there are lots of smaller venues that make the ship seem more personal and cozy. The comedians were okay, but didn't knock my socks off. I did enjoy Hairspray and the roles were nicely filled.

Sept 28 - St. Thomas
We took a trip around the island with a stop at Sapphire beach, which was lovely and quiet. I walked the beach and then laid down on the included beach chair for some sun and snoozing. Got a little sun, but not as bad as I have in the past. Either way, I still had minimal tan lines from the April trip, so I have maintained a tan for most of a year.

There were pelicans and egrets flying around, but I didn't catch a photo of either, unfortunately. When we headed back to town and did some shopping... I found a beauty. I guess I should take a picture of the cognac/red and white diamond ring I couldn't resist, but I suspect a photo wouldn't do it much justice. Before dinner we took a whirl on the rising tide bar. After dinner Slips had a massage and I hit the headliner show. I hate to say it, the guy was entertaining, but it wasn't my thing.

Sept 29 - St. Maarten / St. Martin
This stop had us on a tour to the French side for a brief stop. Gladly it wasn't longer as the shopping there sucked. Back to the Dutch side and we had a good time wandering the main shopping area and along the port/beach. No major buys here, just a cute shirt from del sol and some freebies thanks to the port and shopping guides/coupons.

Sept 30 - at sea
Actually slept in pretty nicely today. We had a late evening show called Come Fly with Me which featured even more acrobatics and some nifty technologies to make the whole thing flow like a huge movie. Quite enjoyable.

Oct 1 - at sea
Today was the day to conquer. This included heading up to the pool deck for the Flowriders and hitting the zip line. I managed the zip line without the guy needing to push me out, so that's good but I still squealed. Heights still bite me in the butt. Now, the flowriders I really enjoyed. I think if we had explored this earlier I would have spent a lot more time up there. I did the boogie boarding one a couple times and even gave the stand up surfing one a (brief) (very very brief) try.

Oct 2 - headed home... yet another long ass day of travel.

Other comments:

• Richard Spacey is by far the best cruise director I've seen thus far. The link here is to his "evolution of dance in 5 minutes" as performed when he was on Freedom. He was a complete freak... lots of in stateroom videos of his wackiness too. Good stuff.
  
• The donut shop on the boardwalk sucked. Seriously seriously disappointed.
  
• Red velvet cupcake from the cupcake shack... ok, red food coloring with vanilla cake doth not a red velvet make. Shame shame. At least the icing was spot on.
  
• Still loving the mojitos and lemon drops onboard.
  

While I truly enjoyed my time away I have to admit, one of the best moments I have to report was the joy I got from my babies when I picked them up. Even Vixen was happy to see me for a brief shining moment before she started demanding to get home and get some breakfast. Saffy immediately jumped up and gave me a big hug. My girls!