1/3

Tomorrow is April 30th. Sunday is May 1st. Measuring by months, we will be 1/3 of the way through the year. Time certainly does fly. And as far as I know, it will just go faster.

Work. People keep asking me "has work calmed down?". The answer is yes and no. There have not been any new changes in the past few weeks (since the implementation of the dress code), so that is good. But there is a lot of drama/gossip concerning SB5 going around. (the Anti-Union legislation that was passed in Ohio under the new governor.) Additionally, without OT, and with my low motivation levels, and recent use of a lot of sick time, I have been treading water instead of swimming laps around my pending - just keeping my head above water. Its not bad and I certainly am not behind or in trouble, its just not as pleasant as it was to be ahead and be helping other people out. We found out we will get OT back soon, but because of new rule changes it will only be available on Saturday's and will not help your individual pending. I doubt I will be doing much, especially in May, since I have so many weekend plans already laid out.

I went to a used book sale at work earlier this week. They had universally marked all of their hardcovers as $1 and all paperbacks as $.50. I feel like I robbed them. I bought a copy of Mockingjay and Catching Fire - hardcovers in brand new mint condition, all shiny and pretty, for $2 total. I have the urge to say that if you have never heard of these books you live under a rock, but that is not true. But, they are massively popular. They are the 2nd and 3rd books in the Hunger Games trilogy. Still don't know what I am talking about? I guess that just means you don't follow the literary world/books much. Mockingjay was considered the "savior" or the 2010 financial year for publishers. It is not as big as Harry Potter or Twilight, but it definitely has a following. They are currently working on the first movie, which will star that young actress from Winter's Bone that was nominated for an Oscar. I am both skeptical the movie. The book is a Young Adult book, but it is very violent and dark. I am not sure how they can both please parents and readers. I am not sure how they can show some of the images that were described and not have it be rated R. We will see what happens. THE POINT is that these books are worth way more than #1. Probably $20 a piece new, $15 used. Now I just need to find a nice copy of the first book and I will have added nicely to my book collection.

There are ideas swirling in my head about new projects with regards to the use of our bedrooms, they are such a disaster. With any luck we will be selling out house withint he next year, and things really need to get straightened out a bit. In an ideal world (OK... not in an ideal world... in an ideal world we would win the Powerball and be back in Duluth without caring if we sold this house and have a nice mansion on the lake... but in a realistic but ideal world...), we would
(1) get bookshelves for all the books that are in the closet in the red room.
(2) clean out the yellow room which is currently storage, organize its contents and move the contents to the red room closet in a manor that allowed for future use of said contents.
(3) re-paint the yellow room to a color or shade that doesn't give me a migraine, and reinstall the closet so that it is officially a bedroom
(4) Re-organize the green room so things are findable and move any overflow from it to the red room.
Did I mention we have way too much space? All the above rooms (red, green, yellow) are essentially "spare bedrooms". They all have massive closets. Perhaps I should post picture to demonstrate... perhaps another day.

It's a miracle. I actually feel like posting!! Aren't you all lucky (or so I like to tell myself, LOL).

So one of my cousins asked me to help out with recommendations of things to do in Germany. I procrastinated on this and then eventually decided to sit down and do it. I wanted to pull out my old Europe stuff to look through and make sure I got everything (names etc) right. I have one assembled scrapbook from my 2001 trip (when I spent 3 weeks w/HS class in Southern Germany), and then a giant box unassembled of random pictures, brochures, journals, etc from my 2005 trip (when I spent 5 months in Austria and travelled around a lot of other parts of Europe). I thought these were all in a nicely lablled box in the one organized closet in my house (in my office/sewing room). My sister LEKT helped me organize it ages ago. So, I opened up the closet and began to look. I ended up pulling every single box out of it, most of which were not labelled, and not find it. I was a bit frustrated. I thought this was the ORGANIZED part!! Turns out that it was in a large box labelled scrapbooks that had been moved to another room. I obviously have too much space in my current house. This story is not really about my trip to Europe, its about my organizational issues. Now my office has returned to complete disaster area because of course being me I did not put a single one of those boxes BACK into said closet. It is not functional, which is unfortunate because I definitely have a project I should be working on. I suppose if I get up the motivation (maybe this weekend?) I will vaguely reasemble the closet and get cracking on that project... we will see.

I had two friends over last night because they are planning a massively complex party. Technically speaking I am planning it as well, but its really their show. It is a murder mystery party. The theme is 1931 English Country Manor. It will be the first time I use my formal China, though I don't have quite enough place settings so it will be mixed with some of my friends. Last night we discussed the 7 course dinner they plan to serve, how the table will be set, how we will rearrange my furniture, how we will dress, who will play what characters, etc etc. It should be fun. And stressful. As I said, I am not really in charge, its just my house. LOL. So maybe a bit less stressful.

Several people I see or talk to in real life have asked about my New Years Resolutions. Suffice it to say they are not going well. They are likely to undergo serious revision in the next month or two. May Day Resolutions anyone? Or perhaps Birthday resolutions?

Speaking of my Birthday (at the end of May), we have arranged to be out of town for two weekends in May if everything goes according to plans. We are going to go to Illinois to see our friends B&R, and then on Memorial Day weekend we hope to take a long weeked in St Louis. Should be good times if it all works out.

Crickets

Do you hear the crickets??
Wait... I have not been in hear for so long they probably died off or something.
And I really don't have anything to post today, but I thought I should post something.

I hope to get back to meal planning next week. It has been ages. I really am going to try. I might shift to shopping at Kroger. I have been disapointed by my Giant Eagle's selections in a number of departments. Today I went to Kroger on the way home instead of Giant Eagle and its not as far our of the way as I thought.

I am currently on a Pride and Prejudice kick. I love that movie (Kiera Knightley version). Now I am watching the 1980s BBC version. I am five minutes in and already feel like its trying to hard.

I watched Gone with the Wind. I like it, but I don't see why its called one of the best movies every.

That really is all my news....

the movies...

HP1 - warm, cheerful, comfortable, wondrous, embracing HP2 - mysterious, curious, naive, confused, youthful HP3 - suspenseful, playful, nervous, off-kilter, stimulating HP4 - adventurous, tumultuous, dramatic, grand, aggressive HP5 - stubborn, frustrating, angsty, strained, rebellious HP6 - hopeful, overconfident, romantic, expectant, dark HP7 - tense, lonely, resigned, determined, gloomy that is all