A quick allergy shot after work, and down over the hill to get a few things I needed to have enough supplies to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies and a double batch of no bakes.  I'll be taking these to my church for the block party this Saturday.  All turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.  It's probably a good thing most all got bagged up to be handed over.

Today I rode to Altoona with my Aunt Donna and Uncle Leo to attend services for my Uncle Paul.  I guess we're lucky we made it down there given the crazy woman on Scalp who ran out into traffic.  I can't believe we managed to avoid her.  A small blessing for sure.

No one enjoys funerals, I get this, but for me it's a mix of thoughts that leads down different paths.  I'm sure everyone with intellect feels this way too as they start to ponder the typical questions (especially when your mom, aunts, and uncles are all getting up in age), such as "who is next".  I also look at my cousins and I truly feel for them all while thinking how blessed they are to have had both parents for so very long, and how impossible it is to be prepared for how it feels to loose a parent.  At the same time, I acknowledge too the fortune of a quick passing.  It is, all I ask for when my time comes. I am a bit sad of the reminder that while I may recognize most of my cousins, I don't really know them, I haven't seen some of them in quite a few years.  It's driven home when you see their kids and their youngest is taller than you are!

Then there is Altoona in general:  heading to churches I frequented with my mother when I was young, going to the cemetery where my father is buried, having a lunch at the Bavarian Hall (where my father took me most every Saturday night after church for a soda and french fries).  I made it through most of the day with only one person calling me Jackie too!

Rest in peace Uncle Paul.

I'm going to have to travel for work in the near term.  Can't say I'm excited about it, but I'll try to make the best of it.  I guess the destination is better than where I have had to go in the past, but if the earth starts quaking while I'm there I will NOT be pleased.

So, last night I rocked out the worst headache I've had in a very long time.  The worst is that it came on pretty fast and heavy and seems to have been all sinus/allergy, not a migraine.  I did get a few things dusted off and put back into the dining room last night, but a little dust never freaked my head out this much before.  I had a majorly itchy nose bout, followed by my head plugging up so fast it felt like someone poured concrete in there.  My neck damn felt stiff and tense, I couldn't get air through my nose, and my face felt like it wanted to pop off.  A couple of Excedrin sinus later and it cleared up a bit in the middle of the night, so at least I got some sleep.  More perplexing is that now that I'm out in the living room again this morning I am immediately feeling sneezy and sniffy again.

I'm down to my last couple excedrin sinus... which means I need to research if it has made its way back onto the market yet, if not and I have resurgences of this I could be in deep.  I have plenty of the tension variety and restocked up when I saw the migraine pills on the shelves again, but each one doesn't do much for the other types of headaches.

I'm told I do good work, but at the same time told about the flaws in my personality with a rather ... abrasive choice of words to match.  I just don't know how I'm suppose to be someone I'm not, nor do I feel that different from others.  All this does is make me hate myself a bit and leaves me wondering who said what and how they really feel.  Don't be pleasant to my face if you can't stand me.

This morning Saf took a solid lead... another bunny bites the dust at 7:30am
Saf:  2 1/2
Dani:  1/2
Vix:  0

Yesterday and today a coat was put on the dining room floor.  Now, we wait for it to dry.  He said to not move anything in there until Wednesday, so I have a few more days of climbing over things.  He also decided to put the trim in for me, which is fortunate, since I was ready to cancel the trim to avoid having it sitting around unattached for a couple of years.  At least we're in the final stages.  Now I really wish I could find a rug for under the table I like (and am willing to spend the money on).  Fortunately, the temps dropped quickly and significantly yesterday, so I wasn't dying without the AC on, but I still didn't sleep well last night.

I think that didn't help my mood today, but heaven knows I was going to be foul today no matter what.  Maybe a wee bit o'Shakespeare, a spot of fermented grapes, and some wingies will help that.  Oh, got two cards from my mother, one a very sweet one that made me cry today, and one yesterday that was signed Big Midge.  She's insane.  This is what I will become.

I hate the feeling when you are struggling to be happy for someone else.  I mean, you're happy for them, but you're too sad for yourself (read:  jealous) to genuinely be happy.  You'd swear I'm PMSing yesterday and today with the thoughts floating through my mind.  Everything seems to come back to how much easier things would be with help, that assumed other person to assist in every day things, the other half.

Let's look at the dining room floor:  I managed to get everything out of there but the table and my secretary by myself.  The guy doing the work helped me lift the top half off of the secretary and carry it into the kitchen, then we slid the bottom half (together it was too tall to go through the doorway).  After it is sealed it needs to sit for a couple of days and then I can move things back in.  Needless to say the last thing you want to do is slide anything across that floor, right?  Yeah.  Great.  I had similar realizations of additional challenges last night too, so this just compounded my frustration, now there are the posts on FB that spawned the "I want to be happy for you but I can't be" thoughts.

This can't be the way things will be for the next 40 years.  Someone around here has to know someone who is awesome (and single, and more than just someone to lift heavy stuff).

I did my grocery run yesterday and a few things around the house before I headed to Eggs' to help him finish up the cleaning so his place can go on the market.  Let me tell you how achy my lower legs are from going up and down his stairs and ladder.  This is another bittersweet time for me, as his house goes on the market today, and I prepare to see another friend move away from the area.  On the other hand things look good for him and, I have to admit, it gives me hope for my own departure (someday).

Today I allowed myself a stop at TJ Maxx, Ross, and Bed Bath and Beyond after church, then to the normal Ollies and Big Lots stop.  I successfully didn't really buy much for myself, but started my Christmas shopping!  Shockingly one of the harder people to buy for is one that I managed to pick something up for, my sister's husband, so that's a huge score in my book.  The other is someone I could probably find 100 things for if I allowed myself to keep shopping.  Oh, and part of a birthday gift was acquired... the rest was locked up today, darn blue laws, so I'll need to swing past the liquor store one night this week.

It's rather warm out there today, so I was sweating it up pretty good when I headed out to pull some weeds (a whole huge garbage bag full).  I sprayed down all along the back fence line with puppy safe weed killer too, let's see how much of it dries up as desired.  A quick peek at the tomato plants and I'm a day or two from picking my 5th cherry tomato!  Of course, if I look closer at the early girl plants they've shot up quickly in the past two weeks growing tremendously, but not a single piece of fruit starting to grow.  If you recall, I planted just before Memorial day, so you'd think the 45 day to fruit would be taking place pretty darn soon.  In the mean time, the roma plant definitely has some starting to form.  I bet they are ready to eat first.

Last night was a bit of an impropmtu decision to head out with the Beff.  She had heard about a ladies' night wine tasting at a local, new, brewery.  Our whistles whetted for wine tastings this past weekend we decided to go and make more of a night of it by having dinner first.  Since B&L is in the west end and we had the excuse of our birthdays we went to the Backdoor Cafe before the tasting.  The tasting was nice, with the exception of the crowd of obnoxiously loud women (go figure).  I really enjoyed several of their brews and ended up purchasing a few bottles.  We also sat and enjoyed a glass after tasting a variety.  I pointed out to the one owner that we want invited back for the men's night.  I needed the bit of a cheer up I guess, so that was good.
 
Follow up to running ozone generator in the bedroom the other night, I'm not catching scent when I walk in there, but clearly, it would be easy for me to miss it, so I sent Beth in who said "I smell nothing in here".  Perfect, that's exactly what I want.  So, I will be closing us off in the bedroom tonight and running it in the main portion of the house for a while.  I need to give a deep scrub on the basement floor again and maybe run it downstairs as well to see if it can zap the dog odor there too.  *fingers crossed*  It's too bad mom isn't much for heading to the Jingle anymore, I'd love to get her take.  Heaven knows it would be a (brutally) honest assessment.
 
Today I'll run home over lunch to meet someone for an estimate on finishing the dining room floor.  Here's hoping I can just have him crank it out because the delays in trying to get a sander has just built frustration in me.

My air purifier came today, so I ran it with the ozone generator for a little while in the closed up bedroom. We'll see if that zaps some lingering dog odor. (Yes, I'm embarrassed by it, but I have three dogs, for God's sake, what does anyone expect?) 

Heck, since we're on the topic of embarrassing, how about this?  When you're desperate enough to give eHarmony another try... if you complete the registration and get this message, what does that say about you?  Yes, I sat and cried for a while.  It's just depressing.  What am I suppose to do?  How am I crazy to think there is something wrong with me?

I didn't have a productive weekend, but we knew that the second the sander wasn't available.  I still managed to have a quality weekend however, in that I spent today with Slips and Beff in celebration of our collective birthday.  We headed north to Smicksburg, first stop the winery, then a few stores, and finally dinner and gift exchange at Ruby Tuesdays.  I bought a bottle of each of the following:  blackberry, blueberry, chocolate covered cherry, and ice wine.  I also came home with an awesome haul of goodies to read, listen to, wear, and aim for!  I can't believe how many buggies we saw on the roads today.  Needless to say I didn't forget to watch Breaking Amish tonight!

I'm feeling a little off this weekend.  It might be the lack of progress being made, I don't know, I just feel anxious.  So what's my mental case issue now?

Well, since I couldn't work in the dining room today I ended up doing some running and shopping.  Yep, famous last words.  Suffice it to say the air purifier and tree trimming aren't really my birthday gift to myself as planned.  After I headed to see the progress at Eggs' place and to play with the newly named Pearl - so named for the byproduct of the sand that gets in who-ha.  Yep, she's grumpy... and I've not even had her for 6 months or 200 "uses".  Displeased.

Yeah, so the orbital sander I need to rent was out today and still wasn't returned shortly before they closed.  I'm to call again tomorrow morning and see if it's back.  Well doesn't that just put a kink in my game plans?  I've got my check from my vacation pay out and it's burning a hole in my pocket.  Fortunately the necessary expenditures (such as renting a sander) would make me feel like I spent some and tame me back down.  Yay for a little more cushion to help me continue making advanced payments on the mortgage.  Finishing in 2014... yes.  YES.  Must.  Or... ya know if I could win a small chunk on a lottery ticket I wouldn't mind paying it off in 2013 either.

I neglected to report that I cut my three scapes (that finally grew) yesterday after seeing the ones at mom's ready to bloom.  Yep, she has a ton,that she didn't even plant, out by the parking area.  So it looks like I'll be harvesting more garlic than the few that decided to grow to this point for me this year.
 
I had a decent 4th.  Went to the mall for the first time ever while living here to watch the local fireworks display on the 3rd.  For the 4th, as previously hinted I headed to moms for a light lunch and nap.  Then I headed back up the hill and partook of some grill time with my tenant and his coworkers out on the front lawn.  Of course, not a single one of his coworkers are single.  I know how rediculous that sounds, but it's true, even if I step out of my norm and meet new ppl there isn't viable options there either.  Jtown you suck sometimes.

Overstock came through, sending me a 10% off coupon, that's $20, I'll take it.  So, my hepa filter/air purifier is ordered.  Happy birthday me?