It looks like the hype about Sandy in our area was rather overblown.  It's too bad we couldn't say the same for NYC.  The pictures are just horrific!  I can't imagine how long it will take to get back to some level of normal there.
 
Here we did have some gusts, nothing like I would have expected, and steady rain, but again not as hard as I expected.  They were calling for 1-3" of snow and we just had a little bit of slushy stuff that already is gone or slid off of the vehicles.  I never could get connected to work last night, that and the less than horrid weather has me in the office as any other Tuesday, and I even drove the Tib.  I guess with all of the rain if we did get a solid gust it could pull a tree loose, but for now all clear.

Forgot to mention that the Durango started yesterday without an issue... that's a week and 5 days w/o being run.  Is that good enough to prove that it almost HAD to be the starter draining my battery?  On the other hand, at least I know she should start if we do get laying snow in the next few days.

Another notch in the old scale has been reached.  I admit it, I had the weather channel on for more than 5 minutes.  *shakes head*  They're making this category 1 storm sound like the coming zombie apocalypse!  After so much on the news (and even at work), I admit I did make a run out as a result of the coming storm... I needed dog food, and a few bottles of water.  I felt like an idiot buying the water, but clearly, I'm not the only one as I took the last three from family dollar's shelf.  Truly the deciding factor in my mind on the water was also the dogs.  I will not be the mother who has an empty bowl for her kids, regardless of my lack of planning for myself!

I should go out back and try to clean what gutter I can get to since we're suppose to get so much rain.  But it's cold and rainy out there already... so this is going to take a lot of motivation.  I should have gotten my butt in gear yesterday, while it was overcast but still pretty decent.  Instead I took a nap and barely got my walk in before heading out to meet the Schmous and Mr and Mrs Fresh for dinner. 

This morning, while brewing the pot of coffee in the office kitchen, the news was talking about "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and how it encourages bullying and should be removed from TV.  Are you kidding me?  What is wrong with people?  Something that came out in 1966 is the creation of bullying today?  Freak no.  You're upset with the fact that they call each other names... sometimes the shoe fits, because guess what I think of your opinion on this if you agree, blockhead!
 
Bullying isn't something new, there is nothing you will do to stop it completely, but I assure you not spanking your kid, sending them to their room with their PS3 and other goodies, and giving them time out won't help either.  The attitude of no losers, everyone gets a trophy needs to stop.  If I ever have a kid they'll be held to a higher standard than the bullshit most people seem to be subscribing to.  I plan on doing my damndest to teach them right from wrong, impossing boundaries, and you best believe when I think they violate it I will be dealing with the situation.  Grow up adults.  If your kid is being an asshole, handle the situation and make it crystal clear that it is unacceptable.  The only shame here is that when one adult refuses to parent the community can't step in and repremand for them.

78.  That's what the bank sign read today when I left work.  Why oh why can't this last?

It was so nice yesterday I almost don't believe it.  Walked after dark in mid-60's temps!  That makes for one heck of a nice (and easy) walk.  This morning there was rain on the ground, unfortunately, but it looks like we'll be in the high 60's all week, so (for once) you won't hear me complaining about the weather.  That combined with getting an allergy shot yesterday, which will hopefully tame down my sneezing and itchy nose, should put me in a decent mood, even if I do have to get up and come to work each day.
 
Danika is still moving around well and has a smile on her face.  Our household is a-okay this week.

Despite it feeling like a longer weekend, it still went too fast.  Saturday (and today for that matter) I did walk, as promised, to make up for missing Friday.  I did my normal running around and then got myself all 80's-ed out and headed to Altoona for the Nolan's annual Halloween party, which always proves to be a nice time out with good people.  Got home QUITE late last night, or early this morning - depending on if your cup is half full or empty, but I was still up barely in time to head out the door and get to church.

From there I ran to Home Depot to get some parts to fix the light out front that got broken in a small mishap last week, all is well there now.  Hit the mall to snag my free BBW travel size and headed home to do some cooking.  I have several packs of chicken I trimmed up that were sell by the 22nd, so today I enjoyed french's onion chicken (again) with an acorn squash and then in the evening a batch of chicken noodle soup.  Apparently the acorn squash was quite tempting... as my leftovers proved to be too much for Danika to refrain from.  She gave two paws up (on the counter) to it.  I'm not going to complain too much, at least she wants to eat (which is a nice change), and she's feeling well enough to jump up to get at things, that's a major plus.  Maybe we need to cut back to one tablet a day?

This week went by pretty fast... yay for another weekend!  I did take the morning off on Thursday to return my sister to the airport :( but I still had plenty of time in early to then bail a little early today to lengthen my weekend again.  Of course, I had to take a half an hour of vacation, but that's a whole other story for those who choose to inquire in person.  Either way, getting out and seeming to lengthen my weekend could be a good pattern - therapeutic.

A few other big names are heading out the door.  I also have to give credit to one of those names for my current sustainment there, so I do wonder how this might impact me across the next so many months.

I came home today and spent an hour with the girls before heading back out to the movie theater to catch Paranormal Activity 4.  I do enjoy these movies, but I really hate the general movie going audience for these movies.  If you're that terrified stay home, I don't need you shrieking at every little shadow (damn you weak little women).  The movie had the usual share of jump scenes and, for a fourth ... well it is what it is.  From there I swung through TJ Maxx and Ross as my mind is in full out shop for Christmas mode now that I feel comfortable doing so.  From there to have a bite of sushi and handle that craving with the Beff.  I'm back home, not walking tonight, as it is raining and lightning at this point.  I'll get one in tomorrow, rest assured!

What part of this title makes you care about what these people think:
"Walmart Moms say Obama won, but not by much"
http://news.yahoo.com/walmart-moms-obama-won-not-much-042256521--abc-news-politics.html
 
Really?  Get back in your minivan dear white trash, go home, put on some decent clothes, and stuff it.  Why are we so desperate for someone to tell us "who won" a debate that we'd go to these lengths to create cliche groups that some of the moron voters will identify with?

I had another great weekend.  Left around lunch time on Friday since my time was in.  This allowed it to feel like a 3 day weekend, which tends to be when I get the most done, so yay!  Of course, as proof that cleaning is evil and should be avoided I had two minor catastrophes in the process (one on Friday and the other on Sunday).
1).  The handle on my vacuum busted off.  Yep, snapped right off up by the switches.  I can still use it, but it's not very comfortable.  11 years (it was a wedding gift) and that thing still keeps up with fur from three dogs.  Needless to say I made a couple of calls and found a place that can order the part, so within 2 weeks it should be comfortably operable again.
2).  I knocked something over while dusting, which landed on a bottle of wine, busting off the top and allowing half a bottle of banana to pour out onto my dining room carpet.  FOR SHAME!  I know I should have pulled out the rug scrubber, but I didn't.  Maybe it will eat away at me until I do so tonight.  It's not in the best of spots to get the scrubber into without moving a bunch of heavier furniture either, go figure.
 
I also got the pepper plants out, some soil turned, and my first set of garlic (ever) planted out back.  I'm so excited to see how that goes next year.  I know it has only been one day, but so far Saffy hasn't dug everything back up.  I'm counting it as a win.  Visited with my sister and mum on Saturday, which meant I opted to skip out on my walk.  Yesterday's walk was abbreviated so I could get cleaned up in time to attend my first auction with a friend.  It was a bit long, but he scored a few things that he wanted and I felt good as I spotted some of the silver he got at a stellar price in the box!
 
Best part of the weekend?  Um, The Walking Dead started back up again last night!  *spoiler alert*  Carl is now allowed to run with them, so I guess I can't get irritated about him as much this season, but I still can hate on Lori.  Seriously, gross nasty prego belly with the belly button all sticking out.  Surely you can steal some loose clothes from somewhere.  I do hope it eats her alive on the way out, but I'm sure I can't get that lucky.
 
I've had a very itchy set of sinuses for the past few days.  I guess it's only the start of the misery that is winter and low humidity levels.  As it was down to 25% late last week in my cube I got on top of getting my two humidifiers out (for home use, since despite a doctors excuse I was forbidden to hae one at work to try and keep myself out of distress) and cleaned up.  Fortunately, we've had another (slight) spike upward in humidity so it's in the 40 range here at work today.  I guess for that reason alone I won't complain about waking to a wee bit of rain this morning.

I had another one of those "damn, when did I get old" moments.  Yes, I still frequently listen to CDs in the car (not MP3s, but that's beside the point) but more often than not when I change to the radio I am on 104.7.  Yep, talk radio.  I watched the pres debate last week, the veep debate last night, and I look forward to the pres one next week.  *shakes head at self*

First frost of the year requiring a scraping this morning!  Hunted down one pair of gloves for my walk this evening.  I guess winter is right around the corner.  Boo.

I so had a great weekend.  I managed to avoid the colder, wetter points and got my walks in, both days in the morning so I could get to everything else that was packed into the weekend.  Saturday I was up relatively early so I could get a few things done around the house.  This included walking (of course), vacuuming, laundry, other little tasks, and showering.  I needed to get through all of this so I could get out the door and to Altoona.

I spent a little time with mom (mostly helping her catching up on her word puzzles) before we headed to pick up my sister at the State College airport.  She came in at 6:30, so I also had to make sure mom ate something mid-afternoon to keep the grumpy hungry mood away until we could get to La Scalia's for a bite on the way back.  Back up the mountain and to bed as I had to get up and get moving this morning as well.

Out early for another walk and a shower before Church, then I hit the house briefly to gather Dani and the collars off of Vix and Saf, and meeting up with Beff, to head downtown to another church for a small blessing of the pets ceremony in celebration of St. Francis.  Back up the hill to return D to her slumber and back out to hit Big Lots to take advantage of 20% off everything.  I had hunted for bread mixes at the store last time I went grocery shopping and bummed at the lack of choices, so I was able to stock up for my winter bread making today!  Then we walked over to Quaker Steak and Lube, which just opened a few weeks ago, for a bite to eat.  I had never been prior, and I am pleasantly surprised, at least with the pulled pork sammie.  I guess I'll need to go back to try their famous wings.

From there we headed up the hill to see Frankenweenie!  I am a sucker for puppy movies and this did not disappoint, I mean, c'mon the whole premise tells you the dog dies... yep, bawled, several times.  A good flick, love it, look forward to having it on DVD to cry over whenever I want.

Since I really only had one meal today I snapped a little and baked some red velvet cupcakes tonight (they're cooling as I type).  I can't wait to smother them with cream cheese icing and indulge.  No wonder I am not losing any weight.

I guess my weekend is pretty much over, but it was a mighty good one, so I'll try not to complain about returning to work.  I can say that each day this past week went pretty fast and I was busy, so that's a good sign.  Fingers crossed for me to make leaps and bounds this week as I come further up to speed!

Sometimes things happen that make you laugh... and really make you wonder if the people we care about who pass before us are lurking around.  I just finished reading a book called "Heaven is for Real" about a little boy who had all kinds of stories to tell of what happened to him when he was very ill.  Long story short in that book he made it seem like so much could happen in so little time 'there'.  If that's the case or even if it isn't... you've got forever, so I'd think you could creep on most everyone you know if you chose to do so.  My point in  mentioning this is, okay, so the world lost Peter Steele a couple of years ago.  I know I didn't know him as family or a close friend as to think he would haunt me (bear with me here) but given the sense of humor he had and the time and capacity I'm granting to the afterlife, I am choosing to believe he got a little laugh at my expense the other night.  (...and shoot, why not visit all of your really big fans?!)

So, as I came back on Tuesday night it was getting dark.  I needed to cram branches into the garbage can to make sure another load got hauled away on Wednesday.  Without taking my things in the house first I was out there stuffing the can and guess what... managed to drop my car keys (the same ones I 'lost' a few weeks ago - what IS my problem lately?)  I figured I just dropped them in the gravel and was out there swearing and saying out loud where are my keys etc.  I eventually came in and got a small flashlight which allowed me to quickly find them, as expected, laying in the gravel.

Running behind it was time to get in gear and get walking... so within minutes I was heading back out the front door with Saf and turning on my phone for some tunes (on random as always).  So what's the first song that plays?  An Ode to Locksmiths.  First thing Peter says in the song?  "Where the f*** are my keys?"  Ha ha big guy :)  Thanks for the October visit, even if it is just all in my head.  You are missed!

As promised here is a quick update on my trip.  I normally get a little sad dropping the girls off, but I have to admit, this time I had a smile.  What I'm assuming is the granddaughter/daughter (maybe 7 or 8) of the mother/son I see working there the most often was there and upon seeing them coming into the back area she starts shrieking "my favorite huskies!"  Yes, I'm confident they get lots of attention and lovin at camp :)

For a 5 hour drive it wasn't too bad.  We grubbed along the way to break up the trip and got to Elizabeth, NJ early enough to do a little shopping.  I'm going to try and erase my first visit ever to Ikea from my brain.  I simply do not understand what the fascination is people.  It wasn't quite walmart torture, but I'll pass.

I also want to note I was a very good girl, walking in the morning before we left, walking at the hotel in the morning before we went to the ship, and hitting the gym onboard all three of our days at sea!  I've taken work out gear before but in 15 cruises this was the first time I actually hit ShipShape.

Anyhow, one night's rest and to the ship and our nice 'hump' balcony cabin.  Our first day at sea was pretty busy, but we managed to hit the ice show, which featured a gal we've seen before w/ hula hoops that was fantastic.  I also had the most horrific view of my life.  If you're a dancer, gymnast, ice skater, or anything else that requires you to wear the equivalent of a bathing suit on the bottom while hiking your leg up very high I just want to say that you should VISIT BRAZIL, so I don't end up with a full view of the jungle from the second row.  *shiver*  There was the standard parades, comedians, shows, whirlpool time, and lots of food.

Our first day in Bermuda we took the ferry straight away to Hamilton where we did a little shopping (window for me).  Day two we were out early for our snorkeling trip, which was lovely as always, but it was a bit rainy with some storms popping up, so we didn't get to do the stop by the ship wreck.  After that we headed back to Hamilton and walked to Fort Hamilton.  Both days felt a little 'short' since we had the early dinner, but it was a nice relaxing pace.  On day three we stuck around near King's Wharf, walking out of the area and towards where the worlds smallest drawbridge is (didn't go the whole way).  We did however stop at the sea glass beach (yay for other people's garbage all smoothed out by the ocean and sand) and then to the Naval cemetery and back into King's Wharf for Beff to visit the glass blowing factory.

As always, we met some great folks including this guy and his lovely wife, and two sweetheart gals at dinner.  We also saw some interesting creatures onboard, like the white-trash Carnival-wannabes in the love and marriage game show.  There was also my very favorite cruise director, Richard Spacey!  Now, he's not much for socializing one on one... but on stage he can't be beat.

I learned something too.  For whatever reason I've never noticed it before on the maps they show on the one tv station onboard... did you know that in the middle of the North Atlantic is the Sargasso Sea? Ok, maybe you did, but I didn't.  So there you have it.

Creepiest event?  Day walking back from Fort Hamilton!  We saw two nicely dressed gentlemen (but that's pretty normal in Bermuda) walking with what looked like a large clear garbage bag with some trash in it from a distance.  When they crossed and I got a better look at what they had I about jumped to see the brown bags within that had bright red stripes of tape across them reading EVIDENCE.  They were heading up the hill towards some of the government buildings.

I did treat myself a little too, picking up a blue diamond ring onboard.  It's not very big, but it's a marquise and I like it so that's that.

Now for a few photos !

Yup, you guessed it... I ran away for another week, but I'm back.  A few months ago I spotted a really good price on a 7 night out of Bayonne to Bermuda.  Less than $100 a day for a balcony room.  Sent it to Beff, as I often do when I see great prices, who usually just says "yea, that's a great price!".  This time she said "do you want to go?  we should go."  Needless to say I was on the phone within 10 minutes.  So, even though I had a big trip earlier this year and I shouldn't have scheduled another I did.  It seemed to be serendipity there for a while as those vacation hours were what pushed me through to October for work (which would have at least prolonged healthcare if the worst had happened).  I think, just enough stretch to help me stay covered.
 
So, anyhow, I'm back safe and sound, well destressed, and a bit nervous to come back and ramp up on the new stuff.  We had a little rain, but nothing torrential, but I'll post a larger update/details later.  I'm just happy to have gotten to cuddle up with my (very tired) puppy last night.