LolaGeek

To pick up where I left off… We decided to have a very casual, informal, early dinner party on New Year’s Eve (after which people were welcome to go out somewhere more exciting, go home, etc. before midnight). The number of people who were going to attend kept increasing, so on Saturday morning, GG accompanied me on a frantic shopping trip to get everything needed for the party. Frantic because it was supposed to start snowing sometime that day. We were out for a couple hours, and literally the moment we got home, it started snowing!

And then the snow continued… and continued… We had at least 4″ by the time it stopped around 5 PM. We’d been planning to see Les Miserables that afternoon, but that plan was obviously out, so I just resigned myself to the fact that was not happening. Then a couple kids came around to try to shovel our driveway, and I didn’t want to pay people for that, so I was like, “Well, I guess it’s time to shovel.” It actually was good shoveling snow – by the time GG had cleaned off his car, I had shoveled the whole driveway and sidewalk myself. And since everything was clear… we could go see Les Mis! It was awesome. I saw it live years ago and for most of my childhood I had the soundtrack memorized, but it had been a while. My one real complaint was that, while it may work on stage, just focusing on a single person’s face singing a solo piece doesn’t really lend itself to film so well. I wish they had done something more interesting, considering they had the medium of film to work with. For example, in “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables,” I always imagined it with the ghosts of the guys sitting around – couldn’t they have added in some ghost dudes? GG also enjoyed it (he was actually seeing it voluntarily, after being impressed by the cinematography when he saw a preview while at a different movie), but you should have seen the face he made when, after “One Day More,” I whispered, “And that’s the end of Act 1.”

On Sunday we went to the UPenn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to see the Maya 2012 exhibit. I’d been wanting to go since it opened, and of course now that it was about to end we finally went. It was actually a really good exhibit. Lots of multi-media, different ways to get your interest. And pretty informative, too, even for a Maya geek like me. I also like the way it was laid out, explaining how the Mayan writing and calendar systems worked, then showing examples, explaining about specific sites (Copan), and then finishing up with modern Mayans. After the museum, we went to Percy Street Barbecue for lunch. GG had been talking this place (and their mac & cheese) up for weeks, but honestly… I was not impressed. Their claim to fame seems to be that they have the largest selection of canned beer in the country, and the food was not all that amazing. When we got home, I prepped all the food for NYE dinner that I could do in advance.

Monday was our NYE party, so I spent the day cleaning and cooking. I actually thought I’d started cooking kind of early, but I was actually still cooking when our guests got there at 6 PM. Oh yeah, at some point in the previous two days, the number of people we were expecting got up to about 12, which was way too many for me, and then down to six as everyone started coming down with some cold/flu thing. Everyone kept saying how bad they felt about canceling, but I was secretly happy. We ended up with two other couples (and our favorite baby), and that was pretty perfect. The food all turned out pretty good – it was mostly stuff I’d found on Pinterest. There were a couple things I wouldn’t do again. The big hit of the night was the Hot Chocolate Bar – everyone got a mug of chocolate, which they could dress up with toppings like marshmallows, sprinkles, caramel, candy canes, and cookie sticks. I would definitely do that again for a winter party. Anyway, everyone had cleared out by 11 PM and I passed out on the sofa. GG woke me at 11:59:55 and I counted down the last five seconds to midnight, drank my glass of sparkling cider, and fell back asleep.

Tuesday was my last day of vacation, and the first day that I could really relax. Obviously I’d given up on my home project by this point. So I spent the day on the couch with my favorite Christmas gift. I also finally ordered my Kindle! And I watched about 9000 episodes of “Buying Alaska,” which really makes those losers on “House Hunters” look like wimps.

My short workweek was a good introduction back to working, and luckily not everyone was back from vacation yet, so it was fairly quiet. A lot of those who were back were out sick. And eventually the cold caught up to me – I was sneezing and sniffling on Thursday, miserable on Friday and most of Saturday, but recovering by Sunday. I’m pretty much back to normal today. I would like to thank the power of Vitamin C!

Oh, and guess what arrived on Saturday afternoon, several days earlier than anticipated? My Kindle! It’s the new Paperwhite version. It’s so tiny, but really it’s the perfect size. I also ordered a case for it, which is due to arrive this week. I figured out how to get ebooks from my library, and have already almost finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

2013 Goals:

• Read 25 books (I think that’s doable)
• Send 2 cards/letters per month to people just to let them know I’m thinking of them
• Be a better blogger (more on this soon – watch for a reader survey!)

As I mentioned last week, I have joined the rest of modern society and gotten myself a smartphone. After a lot of research, I chose the MyTouch 4G Slide, because it’s super powerful (I don’t want to have to upgrade again for a while), and has a physical keyboard. Also, it’s got a pretty amazing 8 MP camera (my actual camera camera is only 6 MP!). The first thing I noticed when I started using it was that it eats batteries. I knew that going to a more powerful phone would mean having to recharge every day, compared to my old feature phone which I could use pretty heavily and still recharge just every couple of days. I know you can turn off various services and functions, or you could just not use your phone, but what is the point of having this powerful device that you’re afraid to use because you might run out of power while you’re out somewhere?

So I started researching about the battery, and found that hardcore users often upgraded to one of two brands of high-capacity batteries. HTC is good at making phones, but doesn’t specialize in batteries, so it’s a good idea to upgrade – plus, I bought my phone used from eBay, so who knows exactly what the situation was with the stock battery anyway? It certainly wasn’t brand new. So after researching, I went with the Anker brand batteries, which are a good brand and a little bit higher capacity than the stock HTC battery. They sell a set on Amazon for like $30 that includes two batteries and a universal battery charger (so you could have one in the phone and be charging the other). I am so happy with them! I have been keeping all the notifications and background synching on, using it what I’d consider a “normal” amount to make calls, send e-mails, check Facebook and Twitter, play Draw Something, take and post photos, etc., and the battery can last over 24 hours.

With the battery problem solved, the other thing I needed to do was get a case. This is highly recommended to protect the phone in case you drop it, of course, and also to protect it from dust. Apparently, dust can get under the screen and this can be a big issue (I had no idea!). There are a few options and styles, but the one I kept seeing mentioned as the best is the Trident Aegis. I ordered one, and meanwhile I kept looking, just in case. The other case I saw a lot of people mention was the Fishbone, which was less than half the price of the Trident, so I ordered one of those as well and figured I’d choose in person and send back the other one. The Trident arrived first. It is very bulky looking, and there is a large logo on the back. It’s supposed to be better because it covers more of the holes on the phone (speaker, various jacks and ports, microphones, etc.), but that makes it look very hardcore. When the Fishbone case came, I put it on immediately and have been very pleased. It has the same two-layer padding that the Trident does (there is softer rubber against the phone, and then a hard outer shell over it), so it seems pretty protective. It doesn’t cover over the front of the phone so much, covering the speaker and all, but I prefer this look. Also, there is no logo on it – the logo, I guess, is just the “fishbone” design on the back. It goes on and off pretty easily, but it’s not like it’s going to fall off. All the holes and cutouts are in the right place, and the slide mechanism still works smoothly. So I am going to keep the Fishbone and send the Trident back.

My other accessory is a stylus, which I pretty much got just to play Draw Something. I’m not even going to mention the brand, because it was like $5 and it sucks. My main problem in Draw Something is trying to do detailed things on my little phone screen with my big fat finger. The stylus is basically like a fat finger in pen form. I should have sprung for one with a finer point. Oh well, I guess it helps slightly…

The phone itself, I love. I’m not going to bother with a real review because I don’t know all the technical stuff well enough and I still feel a little dumb trying to figure out how to do things, but for the most part I’ve got it set up the way I want and have the apps I need, etc. I feel like I’ve caught up with everyone else with smartphones (and even surpassed everyone with iPhones, since there’s so many things they can’t do, like play Flash).

Not too much new is going on since last time…

• We got some new furniture that is amazing for relaxing and watching TV. The sofa is huge!
• We had Easter brunch with my family at a new place, and it was fabulous. The food was great, and it was less expensive and more casual than the place we usually go. It was not busy at all, and we did not feel rushed (in fact, the waiter was MIA for a while when we started thinking about leaving, so we couldn’t even get the check). I would definitely go back.
• I went on another business trip, but this one was stupid short – we left at 6 AM Monday, and I was home by 11 PM Tuesday. While there, I was in a workshop for two days, had a team dinner, and met my work twin’s new boyfriend (I approve).
• I got a smartphone! I felt like a huge moron at first because I could just not figure out how to do anything, but I quickly got the hang of it. My next concern was battery life, because this thing dips frighteningly low compared to my old phone, but I’m getting the hang of managing that too. Want to play me on Draw Something?
• GG and I went to see a show some of his comedian friends put on. There were about 12 people in the audience, and all the comedians knew him, so they were all picking on him (and me). The main topic, of course, is how a guy like him could get a girl like me. Thanks, that makes me feel really great about myself, too. (Sarcasm.)
• We watched a couple movies. First we saw Fireproof, which surprisingly GG wanted to see because he heard Kirk Cameron had an internet porn addiction, but they didn’t really show much about that. I had a lot of problems with this movie (too many sterotypes, of all kinds, not to mention the horrible acting), but the next door neighbor was great. Then we watched Timecop – I have a lot of problems with this movie, too. They got in a special car to time travel, but then popped out in the past without the car. Why did they turn up in a different location every time; wouldn’t they just appear in the same location they’d left from in the future? Or if they could control the location, why would they choose to arrive over a lake or in the middle of a highway? After the past and future versions of the bad guy touched each other and imploded, why didn’t the bomb disappear? Wouldn’t anything his future self had done at that point cease to exist? I could go on…

This past week was kind of messed up. Last Friday was the last day of our really busy week, and we skipped lunch and then left a little early to get a late lunch with our visiting coworker before she had to catch her plane home. I said then that I was not leaving my house again until Sunday, and I did not. On Sunday, Jen came over and we went out for lunch and manicures. We went to this place at the mall that another friend had recommended once, and I think they were very good – not that I am a manicure connoisseur or anything, but they were thorough, the polish lasted for almost a week without chipping, and they didn’t chit chat in front of us in another language.

On Sunday night, GG took me out for a Valentine’s Day dinner. I’d asked him a couple weeks earlier to plan something for us on Valentine’s Day – didn’t have to be on the actual day, didn’t have to be anything fancy, I just wanted him to take responsibility and plan something. So he made reservations and wouldn’t tell me where, only that it was in Philadelphia, it was somewhere we hadn’t been before, and he knew I’d like it. I didn’t know where we were going until we walked into the building, because he covered all the signs! We went to Talula’s Garden, recently voted “best cheese plate in Philly,” which of course will score it major points with me. So obviously we ordered a cheese plate, and we went with the “American Cheese Champions,” which is a selection of six award-winning cheeses. They were good, but I found the portions a little small (and let’s not even get into the portions of the compote and stuff that were dabbed on the board). Honestly, I much preferred the cheese plate at Garces Trading Company. For our meals, I had the hangar steak, served with mushrooms, mashed potatoes, and kale, and a side order of beets with orange zest and ricotta cheese. GG had roasted leg of lamb and a side of “roasted mushrooms galore.” We both enjoyed our meals, but again, not my all-time favorite. Finally, for dessert, I had the “Petite Cookie Collection,” which was a plate of four different mini cookies. And GG had the raspberry and citrus mousse, which was amazing and very refreshing. The atmosphere of the restaurant was really neat – you enter via this little courtyard, which is filled with Christmas lights and I’m sure in warmer weather is a really nice place to enjoy your meal. Inside, the building is an old hotel or bank or something, with crazy high ceilings. They have kind of cutesy decor with birdhouses and farm stuff. We were seated in a banquette in the bar area, where there were four tables along the window. On either end of the bench, there was a huge metal vent that was part of the original ventilation system of the building. The decorative grates are beautiful, but according to the manager (who apologized to the women on either side of me, but not me, I guess I didn’t look cold enough), they do get “drafty.” I was freezing. Overall, it really was a lovely dinner, and I love when GG surprises me with things he knows I’ll like. But would I go back? I’d rather go back to GTC first.

Because the previous week was so crazy with working, I decided to work from home three days last week, adding Monday in addition to my regular Wednesday and Friday. That really messed up my schedule and sense of time, but it was nice to only go to the office two days. I ended up going out to lunch with a friend on Tuesday, which turned out to be fine because then I didn’t go out for lunch on Thursday, when we usually get together.

This long weekend has been nice so far. GG’s been pretty busy with comedy stuff, so we haven’t been out to dinner together like we usually do. But we’ve been spending the days together. Yesterday we went out together to shop for a couple things. I was looking for a new MP3 player, because after six years (almost to the day!) and two batteries, my beloved Creative Zen is finally starting to go. It doesn’t start up, or the battery dies almost instantly, or it freezes and I have to pop the battery out. Also I’m finally running out of storage space. So I was looking for something similar, but with a little more space. Turns out, if you don’t want an iPod, or a little tiny thing like for exercising, you don’t really have a lot of choices when it comes to standalone MP3 players. The guy at Best Buy was saying he just uses his smartphone and a music player app, which didn’t seem like a horrible idea, but actually I just won an eBay auction for a used Creative Vision:M, so hopefully that works for me whenever it arrives. But in the meantime, we happened to go by the cell phone store and I just asked what the price difference would be if I upgraded my plan and got a smartphone. It turns out that I could get a smartphone sort of at a discount if I change plans and extend my contract for two years, but you end up paying full price because the balance of the cost of the phone is paid off in installments as part of your bill for who knows how long. So I’m holding off on that for now, though it was fun thinking about joining the rest of society with a smartphone, even briefly. I can do everything I need with my WAP-enabled phone for now :o)

Depending on the weather tomorrow, GG and I plan to go somewhere for the day to take advantage of the day off. And then I have a business trip coming up this week, which will end up eating several days, when you account for travel time and such. We tried to get out of it, but they really want me and my coworker K there for a couple meetings, so off we go.

Last weekend, GG and I went to Best Buy to check out potential new computers for him. He’d seen something at Staples that he liked, and it turned out that Best Buy has the same one for about $50 less, so he’s keeping an eye on that. While there, I just glanced at some laptops (I was really starting to hate my Gateway laptop, it’s got a lot of issues). I saw a HP laptop that looked nice and was actually really reasonably priced, but they were sold out at the store. Minus 1 for Best Buy. I made a note of the model number and thought I might order it online.

I went online and found the laptop, which had amazing reviews everywhere. Plus, they were running a special deal where if you buy a HP computer, you can get an HP TouchPad at a big discount. I had no plans to get a tablet computer, in fact I think they’re kind of silly, but for the price it was too good of a deal to pass up. Plus 1 for Best Buy. I put both items in my cart online and went to pay for them… but kept getting different error messages about one item or the other not being available to ship, or being sold out. Minus 1 for Best Buy. I tweeted my frustration, and a Best Buy representative tried to help me out, eventually directing me to e-mail the details to one of their Geek Squad community people. Plus 1 for Best Buy.

Over a day later, I hadn’t received a response to my question, or even an acknowledgement. Minus 1 for Best Buy. I again tweeted about it, and magically I received an e-mail response! This guy told me that the items were sold out online, but may still be available at a local store. Even though the web site hadn’t been able to locate one for me at any store nearby, I gave him my zip code, and he found two stores that he said may have the laptop in stock. Plus 1 for Best Buy.

I called the more convenient of the two locations after work, and it turned out that although their computer said they had one laptop in stock, they actually didn’t have any. Minus 1 for Best Buy. But the girl I spoke to there called the other store for me, and they did have one, which she had them put on hold for me! Plus 1 for Best Buy.

I called the other store, and it turned out that the one laptop that they had in stock was one of their “pre set-up” models. Geek Squad had already set up everything on the computer, installed antivirus software, uninstalled all the junk it comes with, etc., but it’s otherwise completely brand new and in its original packaging. I didn’t know they did this, but apparently they keep about 30% of their stock in this state, for people who just want to grab a ready-to-go computer. I don’t mind setting stuff up myself, of course, but if that’s all they had then that’s all they had. But, this service added $99 to the cost of the computer. Minus 1 for Best Buy. I decided it was still a good enough deal to purchase it – even with the extra fee, it was under the amount I’d been planning to spend. The laptop was really all I wanted or needed, but then I asked… Did they have the tablet in stock? The girl I was talking to went to check. It wasn’t appearing on their computer, because… a shipment had just come in! So she put one of those aside for me as well! This girl was so nice and helpful, explaining everything to me and doing a lot of checking. Plus 1 for Best Buy.

GG and I headed out… in rush hour… in the dark. Oh, and he didn’t know we’d be going anywhere and had had a glass of scotch when he got home from work, so he wasn’t comfortable driving, so I had to drive. Even though it’s not their fault, minus 1 for Best Buy. I did eventually get us there, found the girl I’d been speaking to, avoided her sales pitch for additional products and services, and paid for my items. The whole transaction went completely smoothly. Plus 1 for Best Buy.

So overall, Best Buy ended up with zero points.

Anyway, the tablet was quick to set up, but I don’t see it replacing a regular computer for most things. Web sites don’t really work quite right, and the apps (such as the Twitter app and Facebook app) leave a lot to be desired. It’s a little heavy to just hold for long periods of time, and it’s not made for major typing. But it does have an e-reader function, and I think it will be handy to just have sitting around the house in case we want to look something up, refer to a recipe online while we’re in the kitchen, or take out on the road. I’m happy with it. The laptop, I love. Everything was ready to go so quickly, it’s much faster and more user friendly than my other computer… I think it may be more powerful than my desktop. And it’s prettier. There may come a day when I could use a laptop as my main computer, but for the time being… there are six computers in this house between the two of us. Plus the tablet. Plus our phones.

GG and I celebrated our anniversary yesterday, a couple days early. Our actual anniversary is tomorrow, but we wanted to go to Tastebuds, and they’re closed on Mondays, so Saturday it was! We got up to New Hope a couple hours early, since the weather was kind of nice, and we wanted to walk around a bit. A lot of other people had the same idea, it was pretty crowded. Plus, it was raining a little, hard enough for me to pull out my umbrella at one point. We got to visit Butter, the resident cat at Farley’s, who is a little more laid back every time we see him. This time he was in his usual sleeping spot, under the rack of greeting cards. I bent down to pet him and he immediately rolled over for tummy scratches.

We headed to the restaurant but still had a bit of time to kill, so we continued walking up the street, which I guess we’d never done before, and stumbled across one of New Hope’s “pocket parks.” Apparently there are a few of them in town, but we have never come across one before. This one stretched across the block between Bridge Street and Ferry Street, parallel to the train tracks. We entered from the Ferry Street side, and there were some sponsored pavers dedicated to different people (some of them were amusing, but this group was my favorite), then a little water feature, where we took some pictures, a little seating area with benches, and a gazebo. It was cute, but there were so many rules posted! You basically can walk on the pavers or sit on the benches, but don’t try to touch anything else!

Finally it was time for dinner, and once again we had a great experience. The guys there are so nice, and I can’t believe that for the limited number of times we’ve been there (I think we’re only up to four or five now, in five years), they remember us! I had an amazing artichoke flan (served with some roasted tomato sauce, which I wish there was more of because it was really great with the flan), while GG decided to be adventurous and had smoked trout-stuffed eggs with pickled onions, which sounds like something an old man would eat if he wanted to switch things up from his usual liver sandwich, but GG seemed to enjoy them and was even discussing the contrast of flavors with the owners. Then I had the asparagus and wild mushroom ravioli in parmesan broth, which I was looking forward to because asparagus ravioli in parmesan broth was the first meal I’d had here and it was life-changing, but I guess it’s like a junkie chasing a high because nothing will ever compare to the first time. And GG had a pork chop with smoked chili glaze, which I tried and it was yummy, but what I really liked on his plate was the mashed potatoes! When I saw the tres leches cake was on their dessert menu, I of course had to order that, and it was amazing (served with perfectly ripe strawberries, too). GG was still feeling adventurous, and I convinced him to try the coconut milk panacotta with tamarind sauce, which sounded like something he’d really enjoy. He did eat all of it, but I think it wasn’t what he was expecting. The owners asked him if he’d order it again and he was like, “mmmm… probably not.” Haha!

I’d had kind of a low-grade headache all day, and some switch just flipped as we were wrapping up dinner, suddenly I couldn’t even see straight, my headache was so bad. As soon as we were done I just wanted to go home. I tried to sleep in the car, then when we got home I fell asleep for a few hours on the sofa, and then I went to bed. Even when I woke up this morning the headache wasn’t completely gone. Ugh. I’ll blame the barometric pressure.

Unrelated story: I have a Seagate external hard drive that automatically backs up all my files every week. For the last couple weeks, I’ve been getting an error message that the backup wasn’t successful, but I hadn’t looked into it yet. Last night it didn’t even start creating the backup, as the computer apparently didn’t recognize that the drive was plugged in, and the light was just flashing. So today, I went to move the hard drive and accidentally dropped it! I wanted to check and just see that it wasn’t damaged, so I plugged it in… the computer recognized it. I went to run a backup and it worked! Weird! So I guess it’s okay now?

I know everyone is eagerly awaiting my recap of my trip to New York this weekend, and I’m almost finished writing it up, but I’m super busy today so it won’t be posted until tomorrow.

It’s another crazy week at work. We’d had a lull in SOP deactivations for a while and I almost forgot how nutso this could get. There actually aren’t any deactivations this week (there was going to be one, but it’s now delayed), but we have the most obsoletions ever – whole series are being wiped out! – so it’s quite a bit of work to getting all these updates done. Plus lots of key players are on vacation, so we’ve had to schedule things around when people are here, and have back-ups filling in.

Guess what – I just got a web cam. I figured it was time to upgrade, I’d had my previous one since like 2001 (not that I’ve used it in the past couple years), and it didn’t have a microphone or anything. Now I can make video reviews of products, or some of those annoying “shopping haul” videos! (Actually, sometimes those are fun to watch, I just wish people would use a script or at least bullet notes – it’s so annoying to just hear them go, “Sooo… here’s this thing… and it looks like this… [waves item blurrily in front of camera].”)

Also, I finally did a project I’ve wanted to do for a couple years now. I got nine botanical prints, put them in matching white frames, and hung them in a grid above our bed. The prints were from Vintage Printable, the frames were from Michael’s, I had them printed on cardstock at Kinko’s (though honestly they could’ve been done on nice paper with a good home printer), and they’re hung with 3M Picture Hanging Strips, which hopefully hold up well so we aren’t awakened by glass smashing on our faces in the middle of the night. I love the way it turned out! It seems to make the ceiling feel higher, and the room just feels much more finished. I can’t help but smile when I walk in and see it now!

I was stopped at a traffic light on my way to work this morning, when I heard a kind of whistle sound behind me. I turned around, and in the lane next to me there was a gross old car with a gross old man hanging out the window waving at me. I rolled down my window, and he yelled over, “Do you know where Greaterford Prison is?!” “No I don’t, sorry,” I said, trying to look apologetic. I mean, I’d heard of it and knew it was nearby, but I didn’t even know what town it’s in. I rolled my window back up and faced forward and wished for the light to turn green so I could get away from this creepy situation. (I hope he found his way there, turns out we were only about 10 miles away.)

I now have a black gel case for my new phone. It mitigates the pink pretty well – though as I’d suspected, a case on a slide phone is not really perfect. But I’ll deal with it. I have 7 more days to make up my mind, but I guess I’m going to stick with this phone. For all its minor faults, it’s still pretty good, and an improvement over my old phone in many ways. Also, I recently saw that this is T-Mobile’s most popular non-smartphone.

GG and I went out to Kohls early Saturday morning to get him some clothes. I have a couple friends who are absolutely obsessed with the place, but I don’t think I had ever been there. Actually, I usually forget that we have one so close to us, since it’s to the north and we almost never drive north unless we’re going up to New Hope. A lot of people recommended it as a good place to get men’s clothes, though, and it seems like they’re always having a sale, so off we went – early, so it wouldn’t be crowded.

He mostly needed pants and sweaters, but we did also find him a very cool black and gray striped button-down shirt. Then he got four pairs of pants (black, gray, brown, and khaki), and two zip-up sweaters. Besides the shirt, I think everything was on clearance or was buy one, get one 1/2 off. So we did well.

Coming home, we stopped at Chick-fil-A for an early lunch. Here’s a fun trick: their employees are required to respond to “thank you” with “my pleasure,” instead of “you’re welcome.” Try it sometime, by saying “thank you” as many times as you can. GG and I kept saying it, but our cashier was just like, “sure, sure,” until the very last time we said thank you as we were walking away and he said, “sure, my pleasure” and GG and I were both like, AH-HA!

I pretty much napped the afternoon away while GG went to work on his mural. It was lovely.

GG left early on Sunday morning to go paint, too. I hadn’t seen the mural in a while, so I made a surprise visit to see him working. I think he thought there was some emergency when I showed up, but I just wanted to see him and see the painting. It looks awesome! (Well it should, the slowpoke has taken nearly two months working on it by now, and he’s still not finished!)

When I got home, I made up for all my napping the day before by cleaning the kitchen, sweeping and vacuuming all the floors downstairs, and taking out the trash. Then I got all caught up with Fringe – I don’t even know when it comes on anymore, and I keep forgetting to watch it. Then I set myself up in the living room with my laptop, a big blanket, and a cat, to watch TLC’s Sunday Night Freakshow. That little Charlotte from “The Tiniest Girl in the World” might give Kenadie some competition in the “cutest primordial dwarf” category!

Oh, and I saw last week’s Project Runway and I have to say, I totally disagreed with the judges. In my opinion, Amy should have won, for doing something that was beautiful and flattering, while not hiding the burlap of the challenge. Ben and Anthony were my choices for runners-up. And Ping should have gone home. Sorry, I’m sure she’s nice and she does interesting work, but the dress was not remotely good looking and wasn’t even made well. What happened to the “carved” necklace she was going to do? That sounded interesting. And did they ever go to that “industry party?” Don’t tell me it happened in the Models of the Runway show, because I’m not watching that. But usually when they have to design dresses for the models to wear to an event, they then go to that event.

Last night I made stuffed smashed potatoes for dinner (and lunch today… and dinner tonight… and lunch tomorrow… it was a lot of potatoes). I just stayed up long enough to watch Heroes, and then went to bed a little after 10. But we didn’t go to sleep until closer to 11 because we were watching YouTube videos on my phone (!!!).

I got my new phone last night, and I think I’m going to like it (but I have two weeks to make up my mind). Last night, things were a little iffy, but after just being able to (easily!) pay for an eBay item through PayPal on the phone, I think I’m sold. Also, I got the red and pink one, but the item I just bought is actually a black gel skin for it, and then I don’t think it’ll look so… pink.

Something else I just did: applied for a job. That I might actually have a good chance of getting. Eep!

Tomorrow morning we’re going out early to go clothes shopping for GG. I think he wants some more sweaters. On Wednesday he wore khaki pants, tan Sketchers, and a brown sweater over a white button-down and he looked so cute! I couldn’t stand it!