it's the little things...

My favorite reader who I've never met in real life (fairly) recently had this nifty post . I thought it was an interesting idea. Let's face it. I saw the bandwagon and I jumped right on. The lovely Mrs. Campen kindly provided these questions for me to answer. 1). You just bought a house! If you were given a million dollars to decorate and renovate it, what would you do and why? (Remember, sky is the limit!) Sheesh, a million dollars. I'm not going to be so anal that I'm going to make sure all these things would end up costing less than a million dollars. Let's just assume they would. One thing I would do would be to move the house. (See, I'm sure that's pretty pricey.) It's not that I hate my neighborhood, it's that there's another area fairly nearby in which this house really belongs. Most of the houses there are of the same period. I would also have someone come and blow insulation into the walls and what's left of an attic. And get new win

If you have any helpful info/suggestions regarding buying a new laptop, please leave me a comment or send me an e-mail. New computer time! Woohoo!

10 Favorite Bands of All Time Interesting 10 on Tuesday topic this time. Interesting because I think people may judge me. Wait, maybe it's just me who judges people based on musical preference. It's all a matter of opinion, obviously, but I think some of the best musicians are so because they're fun. They don't necessarily have to be the best actual musicians. Here they are, in no particular order: The Beatles r.e.m. Dixie Chicks U2 inxs Counting Crows depeche mode Guns 'N' Roses Steve Miller Band Journey Honorable mentions include but are not limited to: ABBA, Bon Jovi, Blue October, Coldplay, Poison, Queen, and the beloved Village People. Any others? As an aside, if you place a to-go order with a waiter and he asks you if you're going to wait around or just disappear and you say "please, God, let me disappear," there's an outside chance that he may possibly send you directly to the bar to have a drink while you wait on your food. Maybe.

One year ago yesterday, I entered the blog world. Oh, how time flies...

I woke up this morning after the first really good night's sleep in awhile and made cinnamon rolls. Not the homemade kind, the unroll-the-can-till-it-pops, makes-5-instead-of-5-dozen kind. I threw them in the oven to bake while I made my blog rounds. When I was summoned by the timer, I went in to ice them. I was suddenly transported to a time ten years ago when I had made cinnamon rolls from scratch. It was the first time I had made them completely on my own, the first time I had made them after Mom died. When they turned out fine, I realized that my brother and I would be ok. There were a few other recipes that I thought that about at the time. When I was growing up, Mom always cooked and baked. She didn't make packaged meals of any kind when I was very small. I doubt her mother even knew boxes of things like macaroni and cheese existed. And how do you help hamburger? Probably by deep frying it and covering it with gravy. Cooking was very important in our family. You'd thi

Because my company actually encourages us to use our vacation days, I took the day off today. I've been in town all week (oh, the luxury of having one local site to visit) which usually means I'm crazy productive on the house. But this week I wasn't. I watched a couple of movies. I cooked (gasp!). I hung out with Geek's baby (with whom I'm in love). I lounged on the couch. It was a good week. I realized today that I haven't posted anything regarding progress on the house in awhile. The yard is a nightmare. It's big...which is both a blessing and a curse. It's a b!+ch to mow. And the wonderful plants? They come with weeds. I'm going with a very casual garden look right now. I just don't have time to tend it. I figure I have a year free pass what with not even knowing what would spring up following winter. Now I know and I can try to figure out what I like and don't like for next year. It smells good, though. It at least has that going for it.

10 Favorite Movies to Quote Ooooh , this one is hard, too. TV shows? Piece of cake. Songs? Easy enough. 1. Ferris Bueller's Day Off --" Bueller ... Bueller ." 2. The Princess Bride --"Hello. My name is Indigo Montoya. You kill my father. Prepare to die." and "As you wish." 3. Gone With the Wind --"Tomorrow is another day," "As God as my witness," "Frankly, my dear..." 4. Forrest Gump --"I was running," "Please, God, make me a bird so I can fly far. Far, far away." 5. Dirty Dancing --"Nobody puts Baby in a corner." 6. Airplane! --"Shirley..." 7. Lord of the Rings --"My precious." 8. Star Wars --" Luuke ..." 9. The most recent movie I've seen, whatever that happens to be, since it's most fresh in my mind. 10. That's it...I got nothin ' for #10. I guess I'm just so original that I come up with all new material. Or something. Or, if you know of a

Ahhh, Friday. I thought I'd follow up on Tuesday and Wednesday's posts (or like the label says at the Shreveport office--"Wensday"). When I got back home last night (three hours later than scheduled due to weather), I had a package awaiting me. In it was my little award (a cute paperweight-type thing), a magazine where I can pick my prize, and my schpeel. Wanna hear it? "cjh has taken over a very difficult site [ Shreveport ] with over 100 patients where the monitoring was very behind, and she goes to the site every 2 weeks and stays 4 days to get things caught up...she has never once complained [ um, or something ] about the arrangement and in her limited availability she has done SIVs and SSVs [ other trips that I'm not required to do ] for new sites coming into the study. cjh is also a pleasure to work with." You know, or "general fabulousness." Whatever, I'm glad at least I got to read it. Also, yesterday was much better. It started wit

Isn't it weird how tone is such an important part of communication? I'm very bad at hiding how I'm feeling. The words may come out ok but the tone gives me away every time. Usually I find this is a hindrance. Today, for example, I was talking to someone about what should be a very exciting life event. My words were fine but my tone was a leftover of work frustration. (Sorry about that...I really am happy for you.) On the other hand, my tone totally helped at work today. You try to remain professional at all times regardless of the level of professionalism of those around you. Yeah, whatever. Not today. Today was one of those days where you just want to yell at co-workers, preferably including curse words. You'd like for them to just shut up or at least stop complaining. (For the record, the irony of this post is not lost on me. I know I complain just not all. the. time.) At some point I just couldn't take it anymore. The jovial attitude was out the w

I started my current job one year ago today. At times it feels like I've been doing it much longer. Perhaps that's because this project is dragging on and on. Other times it feels like it's flown by. That may be because I've been so freakin' busy with work and personal things this last year. Overall, I'm really pleased with this job. Like I've mentioned before, the company honestly seems to care about its employees' happiness. We're compensated fairly. We get good travel allowances. (No more expectations of an $80 hotel room, thank you very much.) We get an annual bonus that is more than $26 after taxes (again, unlike the last job). I get to work from home when I'm not traveling. That one has probably been the biggest lifestyle change. Oh, how I love working in pajamas. My project supervisors recognize the joy (she says sarcastically) that is Shreveport. They provide support in many ways--not the least of which was an Ann Taylor giftcard that I t

10 Awesome Things About Me The 10 on Tuesday guru said it was time to brag. I'm not very good at bragging. I think most people find it hard. We tend to take our accomplishments and positive qualities for granted. So, ok, awesome things... 1. I can pick the "right" colors to paint a house. I say things like "this one has too much brown" when, to lots of people, the colors look exactly the same. 2. When it comes to even mildly important things, it never dawns upon me to lie. It's not that I'm a good or bad liar...it just never presents itself as an option. 3. I'm not needy. I love my friends and family and enjoy spending time with them. I would also love to have someone to love but for the most part I'm ok on my own. I enjoy spending time with myself. 4. If I give you a gift, it will be wrapped prettier than the other gifts. And the card will probably be homemade, too. 5. I work hard. My employers don't need to worry about me goofing off or s

Word on the street is that yesterday someone had a baby. But I don't want to spoil all the details for the rock star of a mama.

Do you ever have one of those days? A day where you realize your previous feelings of competence have now revealed an ugly side and have come to slap you in the face? A day where you realize you forgot to do something that was probably fairly important and is now inconveniencing others? A day where you realize you possibly overlooked something after months of looking at? A day where your previously cheerful co-worker defensively says "you never told me that" and you just explain it yet again instead of saying "I know I told you and, in fact, here it is written in a letter to prove it." You know, for example. It's one of those days... A day where you just want people to get off your back. A person can only do the best they can. Sometimes in this job it just doesn't feel like that's enough. So I'm trying to--in the ingenius words of Dory--just keep swimming, just keep swimming. It's funny how often that pops into my mind when I'm on the road.

10 Occupations I Wanted to be When I Was Young 1. Teacher 2. Lobbyist 3. Engineer 4. Environmentalist 5. Bookstore owner 6. Psychologist Pretty progressive for a girl who grew up in a town of maybe 400... Those were all before I legally became an adult. That's it. No more. I guess I wanted to be a teacher for a really long time and didn't consider any other options until I was maybe 16. Since then (and we'll assume I'm still considered "young"): 7. Wedding planner 8. Interior decorator 9. Various paths in my present career 10. Maker o' greeting cards

Bubba's Sis tagged me. Here goes... What were you doing 10 years ago? June '97. I was living in College Station for the first time during the summer. I took a few classes and worked at TJ Maxx. I was about to start my Junior year. I was living with my regular roommate's boyfriend while his regular roommate was in Waco. I had just had a romantic, TV-type, stairwell moment with one of my friends as the semester was ending and had no idea what to expect once the fall came. I should have had really low expectations. What were you doing 1 year ago? June '06. I was finishing up my time (my sentence?) at my last job, about to take a week off before starting this one. Was living with my brother. Five snacks I enjoy: 1. Alouette and crackers 2. Cheese 3. Jerky 4. Ballpark peanuts 5. Leftovers Five songs that I know all the lyrics: I know way too many song lyrics. Seriously, if useful information were conveyed through music, I'd be the smartest person around. Here

Friday yet again. It's interesting how that used to excite me. Hooray for the weekend and leisure time and all that. Lately, the weekends have been crammed. The weeks have been busy and most often spent elsewhere. Today even Friday overwhelms me. For work, I need some office time. It seems like I occasionally get some but it's never when I need it the most (or I use it to buy a convertible instead). I have this one site that could literally take up my entire 40-hour work week every week for probably two months. And I still wouldn't be finished. There's so much to catch up on there. And so much to fix. But then I'd need someone to tend to all my other sites and complete my timesheet and submit my expenses and file and get some training out of the way and attend meetings for me (among other things). I will have a few scattered days next week. Just need to push through... For my personal life, I don't even know where to begin. My To Do list remains very long. I sta