Happy Hump Day!!

It's the first hump day of 2004, already! yay!! I hope that your week is flying by with as few bumps as mine has been so far. I'm sort of in a groove as far as work goes today and the sun is shining, too sweet huh?

The weather over the holidays was really bizarre. It was super mild and sunny and gorgeous. I was actually worried for a bit that the grass was going to start growing again and that we'd have to mow the lawn in January. This week has felt more "seasonal." We have had intermittent snow fall (with very little accumulation, thank you very much!) and it feels like winter outside. Sweater weather, snot freezing in your nose cold, that kind of thing. It's actually nice. The air is crisp and clean outside and your lungs tingle in a good way when you breathe it in.

I'm a big fan of cheesey Christmas covers so before the holidays, I was listening (almost non-stop) to that kind of stuff at work. This week, I've been listening to a lot of Marvin Gaye and Angie Stone. It's just sort of worked out that way and I've been thinking about how good they would have sounded together in a duet.

So, other than that, not much's happening this week. This is a very good thing. I had enough drama in 2003 to last me for a good long while!

As hard as it is to admit, I am totally back into my routine again and I don't hate it. Sunday night, I had to give myself a pep talk about getting back to work but this week hasn't been too bad so far. I know that I eat better and have an easier time sticking to my exercise routine when I'm working. You would think that being at home for entire days would give me time to make even healthier meals and have more time to exercise. Of course, you would be wrong. I just had more time to lay around the house in my jammies.

So, did you see the Mirror today? When I got up this morning and checked the headlines on Yahoo, they mentioned that a member of the royal family had been named in the inquest that is going on concerning the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Of course, Reuters stated that for legal reasons, they had been advised against publishing the named person but that it had been in the Mirror. Well, I scooted over to the mirror and there it was, in black and white. I suspected as much. I mean, folks liked to point a finger at Lizzie but I think that those of use who had followed the situation knew who it would be that was in the letter (kinda nice to see that it's actually surfaced). My but how the papers must have flew off the stands in the UK this morning! It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out in the press in the coming days.

I know that there are more serious issues to be concerned with right now but I'm trying really hard to not worry too much about what's going on south of the border. I felt sick when I read the article about how anyone requiring a visa to enter the states will also have be finger-printed upon entry. Nice huh?

When we first heard about it this morning, it sounded as if they would be doing it to us too but apparently we're exempt. Good thing too, because, honestly, I'd just stay home rather than be finger-printed by the US Government if I want to have lunch in Alexandria Bay. I mean, I don't have anything to hide, not at all. I just don't think that I need them calling me up because my prints "match" some that were left somewhere in bum-fuck, Idaho at a crime scene. I mean, I thought it seemed like the US was turning into a police state...This just about nails it.

Oh well, the upside of all of this is that our dollar is getting stronger every day. I heard that it should be up to 82 cents US by this time next year. Bring it on baby, I love shopping in New Jersey (they don't have retail sales tax there!!) and would love to take another trip to the land of malls...Well, just so long as I don't have be finger-printed anyway!

Wow, no posts all weekend...It's not that I'm lazy or anything, I was actually kind of busy. I suppose that is why I didn't post.

I'm back at work today. The three week break was very nice and, I must admit, it was difficult to psyche myself up to go back to work this morning. There was a winter storm warning in effect for yesterday and last night and we were sure that we would wake up to a driveway full of snow. It didn't happen though. We're getting a bit of the white stuff right now but it's just blowing around. It doesn't look like it will amount to too much.

So far the day is flying by. I've spent the morning sifting through a tonne of emails and trying to figure out what I'm going to do this week. Hopefully the week will go quickly too. I'm not wishing my life away or anything but I find that the first week back after the break is always the toughest. Once it's out of the way, the rest of it is a piece of cake!

Here is today's Friday Five:

What one thing are you most looking forward to . . .

1. ...today?

Sleep, tonight...mmmm..sleep!

2. ...over the next week?

Surviving the transition of going back to work after 3 weeks vacation.

3. ...this year?

Sorting out our finances so that we can lower our debt and actually have some money in the bank this time next year.

4. ...over the next five years?

Meeting the health and fitness goals that I have set for myself.

5. ...for the rest of your life?

Being happy.

I actually got something done today. I've been pretty lazy the past few days but the house just couldn't wait any longer. I did housework today, laundry, cleaning, chucking stuff out, the whole deal. It looks pretty good too. I'm kind of glad to see the Christmas stuff packed away. I threw a bunch of old holiday stuff out too, stuff I haven't used in ages that's just looking yucky. I managed to fill a whole garbage bag with crap. Yay!!

Finally getting rid of our clutter is one of my resolutions this year. I started to try to minimize our "stuff" in 2002. 2003 was a really successful year in terms of getting rid of junk. Mark did a huge clean out on our shed, I finally got our books unpacked and sorted out and I can't even count how many trips to goodwill we made. The stuff we got rid of, for the most part, is totally fine we just don't need it. We're just two people, in a tiny house and quite frankly, if something has been packed away in boxes for four years and we've not had to go looking for it, we probably don't need to hang on to it.

In the spring, I'm pretty sure that Mark's dad is going to move in with us and the only thing I have left to do in the room he'd be moving into is clean out the closet. I may even tackle that this weekend. It shouldn't be too bad actually. On Monday, I'll probably do another run to goodwill, I have a set of end tables, two small bookcases and some books to go over there. By the time I've done the closet, I'll probably have more. My goal is to have all three bedroom closets sorted out by the end of this month. In February, I plan to start sorting out the boxes that we have left in our office / computer room. Our house doesn't have a basement so we use the computer room for storage. I've been able to organize it a lot better than it was last year (stuff is actually on a shelving unit rather than just being piled floor to ceiling) but I'd like to get a bunch of those clear plastic bins so we could actually see what's what...and, who knows...Maybe even label stuff. I know that probably sounds really anal but I really want to get organized and, by the end of 2004, I will be!!

Anyway, World Idol is starting so I must dash. I haven't geeked out yet and read who the winner is on the chat boards. I'm pretty sure that it won't be our Ryan but as long as it's not that skank, Kelly Clarkson, I'll be happy!! 'night all!!