I've been tagged....

Here are the rules which must be posted on your blog if you are tagged.
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

Since I don't know 7 other people with blogs, I'll have to end it here, but here are my 7 facts:

1. I am a self-professed "bell geek", and have arranged two handbell pieces, one of which was played at my wedding.

2. My favorite restaurant is Mongolian Barbecue, my least favorite is Denny's.

3. Like Jayne, I'm constantly checking my e-mail, and if I don't have something new I'm disappointed. I also like to get snail mail even if it's junk mail.

4. I take it as a compliment when someone tells me that I'm weird.

5. My dream job would be to own my own photo studio.

6. I have a good memory for numbers and remember my last four license plate numbers.

7. My favorite Christmas songs are "O Come, O Come Emmanuel", "O Holy Night", and "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas".

Sweets for the Sweet

Well, today was an absolutely beautiful day. It was the kind of day that makes you want to go out and take tons of pictures. Unfortunately, it was the day I was stuck inside at a craft show. Not that that would have been a bad thing, but in six hours, we only had about three customers that actually bought anything, which was discouraging, but not as much as if everyone around us had been selling a lot of stuff while we sat there. We were at the Midland Armory craft show, and there just was NO traffic. Not even a little bit. None. My theory is that it was so nasty and rainy the last few days that everyone was doing yard work and cleaning up storm damage while they had a nice day. No one was thinking about doing any Christmas/craft-type shopping. Bummer.

So, today is Sweetest Day. Happy Hallmark holiday, everyone. I've always wondered why we really need Sweetest Day. Isn't Valentine's Day enough? What is the purpose of having Valentine's Day, part II? Or is it just that we need something to get people buying cards again after the long drought from Easter till now? I mean, really, you don't go around buying Memorial Day cards. Fourth of July cards? Nah. Labor Day? Nope. And forget about Veteran's Day and Columbus Day. They're not hardly holidays (unless you work for the USPS or a bank or something like that). So I'm thinking that Sweetest Day is meant to slide you into the card-buying mood again. Think about it. While you're in the store, picking out the perfect card for your honey, you see the Halloween cards. You think about the kids that you know who would just love to get a card from you for Halloween. Oh, yeah, and that reminds you that you should probably send a Thanksgiving card to your kids' teacher and your grandmother in Nebraska. She'd probably get a kick out of that. And then there are the Christmas cards. Multitudes of them. You've got to send those out with the obligatory annual update that everyone writes and very few people read. It's a must. Then after Christmas, just when you thought it was safe, boom - here comes V-Day again. Oh yeah, Hallmark knows what they're doing. You think you're off the hook, but they're just giving you rope to hang yourself with.

The other reason Sweetest Day was invented was to give all the single and lonely people out there a second chance to reflect on life and try to figure out just what's wrong with them. I mean, come on, when you're single and these lovey-dovey days come around, you might as well just lock yourself in a closet somewhere. You can't go anywhere without seeing the happy couples all around you. Every flower shop, candy store, and jeweler has to remind you that people will be getting flowers, candy, and jewelry in the near future - you're just not one of them. And the card aisles at the stores are full of thousands of people, looking for the perfect card that you're not going to get. When you're single on Sweetest Day, it can be depressing. Trust me - I went through it for 10+ years. I know whereof I speak.

So Happy Sweetest Day to all those out there. And get out there and enjoy the fall weather and the beautiful colors while you can - they won't be here for long!

TGI (almost) M?!?

Yes, you read it right - Thank God it's (almost) Monday. This weekend was crazy busy for me, but in
the end, everything worked out very well. It all started a few weeks ago when I was talking to Mom and we decided we really should do something for Dad's 70th birthday. You know, like a party or something. After deciding that, we decided that we should do it while my cousin Christine was in town from California. That meant we had to do it yesterday (October 13th). We decided we should have it at our church, since none of us have a house big enough. We put our names on the calendar, which was empty at the time, and went on ahead with the preparations. Later that week, we found out that the church, rather than being empty that day, was booked for the women's rally, and I had to play two handbell solos that day. So, we changed the time of the party (which ended up working out very well), and I began to prepare the solos. After much sneaking around, which included telling Dad that Mom and I had to serve dinner to the ladies before they left to return home, we got everything arranged. So my weekend schedule so far looks like this: Saturday 1:00 - 1:45: play solos; 4:00 - 5:00: get party ready; 5:00 - 8:00: party; 8:00 - ?: clean up church. Sunday 8:00 service: play solo (yeah, that's right, I got coerced into playing a solo for church this morning, since I was already doing them for the rally, I might as well play in church as well, right? I goofed it up, by the way); 10:45 service: choir sings; 1:00 - ??: clean at Shelly's house (more on that later).


So, here I am - a pretty full weekend, but do-able, right? I just started going to Jackson to help with our big software conversion project this past week. I was there Tuesday and Wednesday this week, and when I returned on Thursday, I got some rather unwelcome news concerning the rejected cash report, which our area cleans up. Turns out they want us to clean it up as of yesterday, when under normal circumstances we would keep it current to within three months. Oh, and by the way, see how much you can get done by Friday. Compounding this problem is the fact that we are in the middle of our United Way drive right now, and we had a bake sale that we had to help man on Thursday and a couple of hours on Friday. Add to that a meeting Friday morning, and we had a recipe for near-certain disaster. So, long story short, I ended up staying at work until 6:45 Friday night. Then, Brian and I had to go to Midland for ice cream. Actually, we had to go to pick up a birthday cake for Shelly, whose birthday (and the reason we were cleaning today) is today. She had been saying since this spring that she wanted a cake from Coldstone Creamery, so off we went to pick it up, with Heather in tow. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful - we watched some TV, I read for a while, we went to bed - the usual stuff. At about 4:00 I woke up and heard my phone alerting me that I had a voicemail. When I listened to it, I found that Aunt Rose had fallen down in her living room and couldn't get back up. So at 4 in the morning I'm driving to her house, blurry-eyed and tired as all get-out to get her off the floor. When I got back home I was wide awake, so I stayed up and read for about an hour and a half. I had planned to go over to church early and practice my solos, since I wouldn't have a chance to warm up Saturday afternoon, but that all went out the window rather quickly. I slept in instead. The other thing I added was taking homecoming pictures for two of my softball players, Allison (Elizabeth's daughter), and Emily (Georgie). It was their first homecoming, which was super exciting for them. They both had gorgeous dresses, and I made their jewelry for them, which means it must have been pretty (ha!). Even though it meant I was a bit pressed for time, I wouldn't have traded this opportunity for the world - we had a bunch of fun with the pictures, and I think they turned out great! As for Dad's party, we had a really nice time, and totally surprised him. The picture below is of my friends Rodney and Erlinda's baby, Evelyn, and our friends Becky and Rayden's baby, Gatlen. The joke was that they now have a boyfriend/girlfriend. I don't know, though - she's an older woman - a whole month older! People might say she's robbing the cradle. :)

After church today, I took the cake over to Shelly's house, and along with Michelle and her husband Jeff and Becky, we cleaned out the half of her basement that could just be thrown away without having to sort anything. It actually took less time than we thought it might. After we had cake, Brian came over and jacked up Shelly's steps, which had settled into the ground on one side and needed a boost, and the three of us came back to our house for a dinner of leftovers. Even though it was a nice weekend, I'm glad it's over! I need rest and relaxation. It doesn't look like I'll get too much of it, though - for the next few weeks I'll be in Jackson three days a week, which means even more work for me when I'm here in Saginaw. Ah well, I'm having fun on the project, and it's great to get to play with the system before anyone else.

Colors of the wind (or the trees)

Today started out kind of crappy - I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep, then when I managed to fall asleep, I slept through my alarm and got to work about two hours later than I was planning on. So when Brian asked me what I wanted to do today, all I really wanted to say was "Nothing." I'm really glad I controlled that urge, though, since we had a great day out. He suggested going for a drive, and we decided to go up North to see if we could find any colors yet. We thought maybe we'd ask Aunt Rose if she wanted to join us, but as it turned out, she was on a color tour of her own with her old people (senior citizen tour group). More on that later... Anyway, we headed out (in my car this time) toward Grayling. No particular reason why - just that it's North and we could get to it within the time we had, since we left Saginaw at 2:00. Around West Branch we started to see some really great colors - rich, vibrant reds, bright yellows, and technicolor oranges. We stopped at the rest area there - it's on a hillside and actually quite scenic for a rest area, and it also had some very pretty trees - so I could take some pictures. I was amazed to see that I only took 37 pictures today - I thought it would be more. The top three pictures here are from that rest area. I loved the coloring on the middle tree. It was so unusual that my eye kept going right to it.

After leaving the rest area, we continued North until we got to 55, then cut over to 127 by way of Houghton Lake. Unfortunately, it was kind of overcast up there, so the pictures I took of the lake weren't as nice as they could have been. When we got to 127, we headed back home. The bottom picture was taken from the car on the way to Clare from Houghton Lake.

On the surface, Aunt Rose's color tour would seem to have been more exciting than our improptu one. For starters, they were taking a train from Kawkalin to Gaylord, so there should have been lots of opportunity to see colors. Then they were supposed to visit a museum that had more colors and things to see. Unfortunately, she didn't get to see much color until they were practically in Gaylord, and there was a lot of walking to do, so between the two, she was already pretty unhappy. Mom and I were supposed to pick her up at 8:45 - that is, until Dad called and said she'd be two hours later than scheduled since the train broke down. She was not a happy camper when Brian and I picked her up at 10:45.

One last thing before I go to bed. Please take a miunute to click here and donate a mammogram to someone who can't afford one. It literally takes about 2 seconds, and could save a life. http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

Lack of profound thoughts...

I had a really profound thought the other night as Brian and I were driving to the casino. I remember that I told him I should write about it in my blog, but... I forgot it. So nothing profound from me tonight. Oh well.

I love my iPod! I cannot say it enough. I loaded more music last night, so I have a better variety once again. Let me just say it again - just one more time. I love my iPod!

That makes me think... we talk about things we hate all the time. In fact, we use the word so loosely that it has become severely devalued. I think the word hate should be used exclusively for extremely vile things/acts/people. People (and I'm as guilty as the rest of them) say things like "I hate peanuts," or "I hate rap music," or "I hate licking envelopes." Dictionary.com gives this definition of 'hate": to dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward; detest. So, when you see peanuts do you feel extreme aversion to them? Probably not, unless you're one of the unlucky people who are allergic to them. When I say "I hate driving a car with a stick shift," I don't really hate it - I just really, really dislike it. It's still better than having nothing to drive and it's more because I don't know what I'm doing and I'm scared. But when I say "I hate bigotry and prejudice," I really mean it. The problem lies when the word is so overused in your vocabulary that hating bigotry and hating peanuts become equal in the eyes of your listeners. So here's a challenge for the whole one person who reads this. Try choosing your words carefully. Don't use the knee-jerk reaction first word that comes to your mind when you're talking about things you dislike. Especially think about what you're saying if you're talking about a person. There are lots of people I don't particularly like, but I don't think there's a person that I would say I hate. Except maybe evil dictators like Hitler or Saddam. That kind of person I can get behind hating.