Ready for mid April

Dale and I went to the VCU game two Sundays ago and watched them lose to ODU in OT. It was hard to watch them lose as I'm really not used to watching them lose. We had a good time though. We upgraded our seats again and sat in the lower bowl by the pep band again. /basketball season
Work has picked up due to the nice weather, people going outside to do yard work and then call to complain about their lawn/shrubs or wonder why we haven't been out since we normally come out in February. Apparently people don't remember the foot of snow on the ground in February and must think that they are the only customer that we have. Plus we're under-staffed and can't keep appointments. And my hours changed again to 10-7. Come on mid-April! /rant

Last week I started getting a sinus infection (due to the nice weather mentioned above). I decided to try a neti pot for the first time. As gross as it is, it worked. My sinus infection/pressure was lessened and it never moved into my chest, so I didn't have a week's worth of coughing like I did last time. So by Thursday of this week, I could taste my food again and breathe without constantly blowing my nose. /nasty

Last weekend since I was sick we didn't do much of anything. I even asked B to accompany me for grocery shopping. He did and we got home in time to watch the Blackhawks/Caps game on NBC. Since there was no NASCAR, I fell asleep watching hockey with the Caps in a 3 point deficit and woke up in OT and a minute later the Caps won the game. /Nap Time PerfectionThis weekend we dropped off B's truck at the new Firestone near my house for a state inspection. The Durango needed 3 new tires and new wiper blades. We bought 4 tires and the blades and almost $700 later we picked up the truck. There went the rest of B's OT money. And I'm pretty sure that we're going to end up owing both the feds and state taxes. *sigh* /money woes.

I'm almost done with the hallway wall. The damn wall that I've been fighting since August 09. This morning it looked like this:

This evening it looks like this:

I am SO very excited about this. At first the contact paper had us stumped. Then we thought we had its number, but it showed us. Then my cousin came over and gave a suggestion that worked quite well and even let us borrow his power sander to make it happen. Tomorrow night that wall will finally match the kitchen and the rest of the hallway. /giddiness
5.5 months until Buffett! Until next time, keep your stick on the ice.

No more hockey and sick kitty

It's update time again. Hockey for Hope 5 was good. I worked the merchandise table with one other lady and in the time period that we were there we made over $600 in merchandise. I don't know the final tally for the money made that day, but it had to be good. We went to Capital Ale House on Main St afterward with the rest of the gang. I love their food. The pretzels are always so good. We left there and headed back to the Coliseum to watch the end of the Richmond Legends game and the last Richmond Renegades game of the season, year...forever. They announced later that the team would not be back next season. So now Richmond has lost baseball and hockey in a matter of a year. All we have left is NASCAR, the Kickers and college teams. Sad :(
Last Saturday was my job's sell-a-thon. Luckily, I have some of the fastest fingers in the branch and I get to enter all the sales instead of trying to make them. The time went by quickly. Afterward, Crystal and I headed to Wal-Mart to do our grocery shopping. Sunday, B and I were busy. We spent the last of my gift card to Moe's for lunch, we headed to Casual Male XL to get B some clearance work shirts and a belt, went to Hayne's to look at carpet and promptly left, went to Home Depot and found some remnant roll out linoleum, pulled up the cat-stained carpet and took it to the dump and rolled out the linoleum. All in all a busy and productive day.
Since laying down the linoleum, Madison is using her box more often. I got up early (5:30am) Saturday to take Madison to our vet. They put out their "first come, first serve" list at 7am and they open at 8am....we got there at 6:45am and were 5th on the list. We were done and gone by 9am. The vet is not quite sure what the exact problem is. It's not worms, but there is definitely a bacteria overgrowth. So now I get to inject some medicine orally for the next week. I had to go and buy a syringe because the vet didn't get me one. Funny enough I used my FSA card to buy it. Last year I bought the dog motion sickness pills (to calm her for the long drive to NC) with the card. My entire family benefits from that card :) Hopefully this will work and I'll have a completely healthy kitty.

So much

Hello All! I hope this finds you well. I volunteered with BARK at Strange's Florist's Dog Days in the Garden. What a good time that was! I got to spend some time with and show off some adoptable doggies. I wasn't well a few weekends ago as I caught a stomach virus from Crystal and spent most of the day Sunday either in the bathroom or in the bed. The next day it snowed a few inches, I called in sick cause I was running a fever and B didn't have to work because Ft. Lee closed. So, he took me to Patient First since my doctor was closed due to the snow. I was told it was the stomach virus and to drink fluids for 24 hours and then slowly work my way back to normal foods. I had never had so much flat Sierra Mist and Jell-O in a 48 hour period. I was back to normal foods by Friday. Last Saturday and Sunday, my stepmom and I went to see VCU play in the CAA basketball tournament. My Flickr pics for those two days can be found here. This week at work was the busiest we've been all season as the weather went from several inches of snow to 70-80 degree weather and the Spring weeds have popped. Wednesday and Thursday were the worst days because I had to enter sales which is usually done at night but Crystal was so busy that she didn't have time to do that. Friday wasn't so bad because she had time to enter some of them and my boss helped by doing some other data entry that I usually do in the morning. Plus it was raining/snowing and that usually slows down the amount of phone calls. Friday night was a Renegades hockey game. We left early cause we were tired, they were losing badly and the people behind us were obnoxious. Yesterday, B and I went to see Watchmen on one of the movie gift cards that my dad gave us for Christmas. Just about every preview we got was something we're going to see while they are still in theaters. Public Enemies with Christain Bale and Johnny Depp, Terminator: Salvation with Christain Bale, J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, X-Men Origins: Wolverine with Hugh Jackman and the one that we'll wait and Netflix it is Observe and Report with Seth Rogan. I like Seth (who looks much better with his curly hair), but I can't see shelling out the money to see this one on the big screen. Today we're going to a Sunday afternoon hockey game and home to watch some TV and relax before heading back to work on Monday. Next Saturday (3/21) is the RHFC's Hockey for Hope 5 at the Richmond Coliseum. The game starts at 2pm and admission is a donation of your choice. I'll be running the RHFC merchandise stand, so if you can make it please stop by and say hi (and buy a shirt, puck or patch!). Until next time, keep your stick on the ice.

Playing Catchup

It's been well over a month since my last actual blog. I'm still working nights, but hopefully that'll end soon since March is upon us and generally we go back to a full staff then.
To round up January, I went to a VCU basketball game with my Dad, went to several Renegades games, finished cleaning my bedroom and office, my dad and step mom grieved the passing of their beloved cat (who had cancer), with the help of hubby, Mom and step dad- cleared out the rotting woodpile in the backyard and fixed the fence so Lilly can't escape and moved in a new desk to the office and started going back to church.
To round up February so far, I stopped cleaning the house, washed the dog, found a tick on the dog(!), continued going to church, went to the restaurant attached to the Bass Pro Shop (yummy!), watched the Super Bowl, NASCAR season has started, learned a friend is leaving for Iraq for military duty and another started her basic training last week, went to her going away party and got the news that Jimmy Buffett is going to stop in NoVa for his tour this year.
This past week I battled a sinus infection. I loaded up on the pills: Acetaminophen, Vitamin C, Claratin, MucinexDM and another anti-coughing pill that I don't remember the name of at the moment. I'm pretty much done with it and never felt extremely horrible. This weekend after B got off work we headed down to Norfolk to meet with Rich (Genie-his wife-had a school Alumni event and couldn't be with us), have dinner and go to a Norfolk Admirals hockey game. Dinner was at Johnny Rockets, that was a good time but the portions were a bit small. We headed to the game and Rich ended up getting some money off the tickets with his Military ID and we sat in the lower bowl for the upper bowl price. The game was good and we had a good time. Afterward we went back to Rich's house and I played Rock Band for the first time. That was fun. I might end up having to buy that once our finances settle down a little. Today, we slept in since we didn't get home until after 1am so we missed church. We went to 5 Guys for lunch and went to Food Lion to get things I forgot with my weekly WalMart trip, came back and our wireless internet was not working. I fooled with that and got it working and it went down again. I kept on fooling with it and getting frustrated and working on it some more and before I knew it was close to 5pm! I was supposed to have gone to a friend's baby shower and that started at 4pm, sadzies. And I still don't have a wireless network. I think the router or the laptop's network card has gone bad.
Two more things: Dog Days in the Garden and Hockey for Hope 5. I am volunteering at both of these events. Dog Days in the Garden is at Strange's Florist on W. Broad St in Short Pump and I'm volunteering with BARK that day from 10am-1pm. Hockey for Hope is a Richmond Hockey Fights Cancer event held at the Richmond Coliseum. For $10 you get into the RHFC game, the Richmond Legends game and the Richmond Renegades game that night. There are raffles, auctions and of course hockey. It's for a good cause: all the proceeds go to local and national associations, as well as families of cancer patients in the area. You can buy tickets from the website (above) or contact me. I hope to see you there! Until next time, keep your stick on the ice.