As of this moment, I get the keys to my/our new apartment/townhouse on Wednesday, June 24th. At this point, I have some stuff packed, but I do feel like I have quite a ways to go. I haven't touched the kitchen. The "other room" is a mess, but I think it's further along than it looks at the moment. I am alternating between feeling completely overwhelmed and semi-motivated.

Anyway, I am currently making a list of items that I will need to have for the first day of moving. The day I get my keys, my parents, brother, and Mike will be starting to move all the big furniture! ....while I'm at work. So, I want to make sure they have everything they need. If you can think of anything that needs to be added to this list, let me know!!!

Move-in Day Items
Paper Towels/Rags
Bags for Trash
Cleaner
Toilet Paper
Hand Towels
Hand Soap
Tissue Box
Water Bottles (put in fridge!)
Lamp (? - check lighting)


Anything else anyone can think of?

I was awake at 6:40 this morning. that is just insane. I'm outta here for the weekend (going to NJ shore). See ya'll on the flip side. :-)

Due to the whole staying-up-til-3-am thing the night before, Christmas Day got a late start. I woke up around 10 and Liz, Albert, and I got dressed and went down to open our stockings. We have to wait at the top of the stairs before we can go down to see the stockings which are hung over the mantel in the front room which is at the bottom of the stairs. I'm hoping this is the last year we did that. o.O Liz wanted coffee before we did anything and I wanted my hair done (Liz did a french braid for me). Albert still wants us to go down in our PJs. OH well. Anyway, our stockings had mostly candy in them but I also got a funky Christmas bracelet and a reusable lint roller (that you just rinse off to clean it).

We had breakfast around noon (oops!) which consisted of Egg Puff (egg, cheese, and bread casserole), Praline Topped French Toast casserole, BACON, and fruit salad. Yum, yum, yum. Everyone was up, dressed, and coffee'ed for breakfast. :-)

It took us a while to open all the presents (and mom kept disappearing to wrap more. :-P), but here's what I finally ended up with:
( the haul )

Adam arrived after we exchanged the bulk of the presents and Karin left shortly after. For dinner we had a standing rib roast that was extremely delicious. We had roasted potatoes (that were the boiled potatoes the day before), delicious creamed spinach, and more of the loaf of bread I made on Christmas Eve morning. Everything was very good!

After dinner, we watched Beyond the Pale (Jim Gaffigan's first DVD stand-up show). HILARIOUS. I bought it as a share gift for the family. :-) When that was over, dessert was ready - Risgrynsgröt (swedish rice pudding) and cookies. YUMMY! After dessert, we finally finished opening the rest of the presents (presents for Adam and a couple others). It was about 11:30pm when we were finished and Mike headed home so he could rest up before he had to work on Friday. Adam left shortly after than and then I accidentally kept Mom and Liz up until 1:30am looking at cake wrecks. :-D

Wednesday (Christmas Eve), I had work in the morning and around noon Sathish told us we could go home for the day. Best tradition ever. :-)

I went home and the loaf of bread I had started before I left for work in the morning was just finished. Garlic Herb Bread! Yum. I took it out to let it cool off, and then I finished wrapping presents, finished baking cookies, and packed up my clothes. Getting everything in the car was a royal pain in the you-know-where because it was POURING RAIN and the parking lot was a SHEET OF ICE STILL! I really don't understand it when there is rain and ice is not melting. :-( It made the drive over to my parents a little iffy on the back-back roads, but otherwise was okay.

I got to my parent's house around 3 and helped mom get things ready for the Smörgåsbord. Aunt Karin came not very long after me and we chatted while getting things ready for the evening. This year, the Smörgåsbord consisted of: rye bread, wasa bread, the bread I made, Swedish Meatballs, boiled potatoes, a small ham, pickled herring and sour cream, Gouda (cheese), Havarti (cheese), Fontina (cheese), and Bruna Bönor (Swedish baked brown beans). Karin also brought some excellent cheese spreads with crackers that we nibbled on as the food was getting ready to be served.

Lindsay (my good friend from High School) and Liz's boyfriend (Adam) joined us for dinner and we ate around 5:30. Mike had to work until 5:30, but ended up actually working until 6:30 and didn't get to my parent's house until after 8pm. He was just in time for cookies! (And we saved him some food from dinner, too.)

Much fun was had until I had to leave to be at the church at 10pm and Mom and Albert had to be there at 10:15. The church was bizarrely empty for a Christmas Eve service (Where were all the C/E-ers??!?! Don't know!) The weather had cleared up by that point and all the ice was melted and it was 40-something degrees out. Not sure what the low turn-out was about.

My solo went so well. I can not WAIT to get the video online to show all of you. It just went really well. No one set anything on fire while having the candles lit, except that Liz did mention to get wax on my camcorder. At least it was just on the top part and I could scrape it off easily.

After church, we got home at about 1:30 and Mike went straight to bed (he slept in the basement on the sectional - super comfy). Mom, Liz, and I put together the breakfast casseroles for the morning, and somehow I didn't get to sleep until 3am!!!! INSANITY. I haven't stayed up that late since probably New Years Eve last year.

I realized I never wrote about all the exciting things that went on this weekend. I will avoid telling you about the non-exciting things.
( cut for images and length - click to press on! )

So, for those of you who aren't "in the know" (read: telepathic), I've started using my photoblog account again.

You can check it out here:
http://www.photoblog.com/tenthz/

Subscribe via LJ here:
http://syndicated.livejournal.com/tenthz_photos/profile

Or subscribe in your favorite RSS reader here:
http://www.photoblog.com/rss/tenthz

Anyway, today I posted a couple pictures of myself and my new glasses. This evening, I was looking at some pictures that were on my other camera. I think I have found the ulitmate proof that my sister and I are related.

:-D Note the slightly insane look in my eyes....

:-D the thumbs up....

Note the eyes.... and the thumbs up... amazing.

Crazy. Really.

Woke up before my alarm. The day I have off of work I have to get up early to get where I'm going. Kinda sad since it's not that early or anything.

I just heard (another) story on the radio where a crime scene was found after a woman's employer called the police because she didn't show up for work. Let me tell you, if I am laying dead in my apartment, it won't be my employer who notices I'm missing first.

I'm off today to go to my cousin Kristy's wedding. It's going to be ON THE BEACH at the Jersey Shore. (not Jersey Shore. It should be a lot of fun and the last big family gathering and wedding for a while. Oh yeah, open bar. I'm thinking of spending the night asking the bartenders if they can make things and see if I can stump them. They always get stumped at a Pink Squirrel. My grandmother used to get a mix for them, but from scratch they are pretty complicated. Sad. I haven't been able to find the mix around here either.

I'm stopping at the library on the way to my parent's. I'm still not sure if movies in the car on my laptop are a good idea. It'll pretty much kill my battery. And last time it made me ill. Still I got a headphone spliter at a yard sale last week just for this occasion, so maybe I'll pick up something at the library that Albert & Liz can watch. I've got my absolutely HILARIOUS book to read.

And what is with people in UK calling Math "Maths"? Could someone explain it to me? I've heard it a lot recently and I don't get it.

I painted my nails (fingers AND toes) last night before I went to bed. Pretty much that was the last thing that I did. I wake up this morning and one of them is chipped already. Now, I think one of my problems with having polished nails is that I am my own finger's biggest critic. No one else will probably notice. They will just notice that I have the perfect color to go with my skin tone (yeah, I do (pst old picture, but those are my feet and my polish in my room at UC in college)). Or just notice that I am wearing nail polish. Or they will not notice at all and just fixate at the HUGE zit that appeared next to the right corner of my mouth yesterday. Woo.

I've gotta eat some breakfast (my stomach is starting to create the suction of a black hole from being empty) and then put my laptop in my bag (and the charging cable that is not annoying) and hit the library before going to my parents. I'll probably post from the hotel as long as they really do have the free wireless they say they do. And I'll be back late tomorrow anyhow.

I am so glad I'm not driving. This trip is going to be an expensive one. Sigh.

Back from NJ. Awesome day. Mike learned everyone's names and had a good time. Much food was eaten, much gaiety was had. Lots of awesomeness in general.

Also, "Wicked" (the book) has way too many big words that I do not know. And neither did Mom or Mike (which means like whoa they are big words).

And I've been dead tired since we got back at 10:30 so I have no idea how I am still awake. Ugh. No church tomorrow for me. Sleeping 'til I wake and then lots of cross stitching and watching some sort of movies/dvds/something-or-other.

And OMG HUMID HEAT EW EW EW EW EW. Moving to Alaska now, kthxbye.

Wow, it is so foggy out, I can't see the mailboxes. Dude.

I'm up early. Today is my Grandparent's 60th anniversary party in NJ. Mike is coming, too! It is going to be awesome. I even got new sandals. You know 60 is big when there is only ONE 60th ANNIVERSARY CARD IN THE WHOLE OF TARGET. And there was only one grandparent anniversary card and it was crap. Just saying.

Anyway, I'm off to spend the day in NJ, so BYES!!!! :-D

Today, Aunt Karin and I spent most of the day together! We went to a farmers' market south of Mechanicsburg that she likes to go to. They were low on produce, but we ended up getting a couple of things anyway (and I got some really cheap gummies for snacking on at the movies, dunno why they had them there, though). Then we ventured further down the road to another place called Ashcombe's. They are a nursery(plants)/gift shop/farmer's market/deli. We looked around the gift shop for a while and laughed at some of the crazy things they have there. The strangest thing was probably a wreathe that was completely covered in feathers (a la a feather boa). Very strange.

Then we went to Radio Shack so Karin could get batteries for her dying portable phones and I saw Annalisa there! We got to chat while the other employee was helping Karin out which was really nice. Mike and I haven't been over to her place for game night in ages. They ended up having both the batteries that Karin needed, so she paid and we skedaddled (omg, spell check knows that word).

By then we were starving, so we went to Wegman's for lunch. YAYAYAY! We both ended up getting Chinese which was very yummy. Then we spent the next 2 hours shopping around the store. Seriously, I'm glad I don't go there on a regular basis because I would spend half my life in that store. We did get some really good deals and use the coupon booklet coupons for the week (free chips and soda (Code Red for Mike) with $10 purchase). This was only the 2nd time I've been there since they opened last year which makes me very sad. I should really get over there more often but with gas prices, it seems so unreasonable. Their prices on bulk food are amazing, though, so it might be worth a trip when I run out of granola making supplies.

After we managed to pull ourselves away, I dropped Karin off at home and then I hit up Giant (another grocery store) for a couple of items they had on sale this week (their sales ended today) that I wasn't able to pick up at Walmart yesterday or Wegmans today for cheaper. Fortunately, this also consisted completely of cold stuff, so the fact that the next stop was home was perfect.

I got home and put away all my groceries and organized the fridge (not a small task) and put away the stuff I got at Wal*Mart yesterday as well (I had not gotten to putting the toiletries away). Then I set in to making food for eating this week. I have been sorely lacking in the leftovers department, so lunches lately have consisted of things like crackers and cheese and PB&J (not that there's anything wrong with that).

First, I whipped up a batch of granola bars. While that was in the oven, I started some chicken and saffron rice. I figured I'd better make that saffron rice since I bought it just after I moved into the apartment and it's been 11 months. Oops. :-P When the rice and chicken were finished, I mixed them together, spooned out a serving for dinner and put the rest in containers for the week. I watched The Full Monty OnDemand while I ate dinner. Then, I mixed up a batch of Sausage Cheese Balls and got them baking. They really turned out very good, but I did not eat very many tonight. I think they will make a great snack cold or hot. I only baked half off the mix and put the other half in the freezer for next time. Only half fit on the tray anyway. :-P

I think that was about it. I just started the dishwasher which is loaded up with most of the dishes from tonight and also the pots and pans that can't go in the dishwasher are all washed. I have been severely remiss lately in keeping the dishes in check and I think that probably has led to less cooking in general.

The only thing I didn't get to was calzones which is on the schedule for tomorrow. YAY for getting to use my new rolling pin (and I think I'll be pulling out the large wooden cutting board as well to roll on).

Anyway, that was my day. It mostly involved buying food, preparing food, and eating food. Surprise, surprise. :-P

One of my good lj-friends just posted these questions which I thought were great:
(sillyliss, I am adjusting these a bit!)


What are your reasons are for writing -- therapy, social activity, record of events, keeping in touch?
When I started this LJ, it was a bit of a status symbol. Getting an lj required an invite and I managed to con thwack into giving me one of his. LJ was always about documenting my life - starting at the time, with my college life, then moving onto internships and co-ops, and now work --- and ALWAYS social life. It was also helpful with communicating with friends and organizing plans and trips and other stuff like that. While living at UC, we all had LJ and used it to alert each other about apartment stuff and also organize apartment activities and such.


Do your real life friends and family read your journal?
A lot of my LJ friends are real life friends and a family member as well. My family and extended family know about lj and I try to post unlocked entries about general stuff that is "up" with me. All work-related posts are friends locked so I can speak freely (and sometimes vent).

Do you specifically keep your journal from them so you have space apart from them?
LJ was never intended as a space to be separate from anyone in my life - if anything, it was a place to bring together different parts of my life (college friends, high school friends, and family), however, I have used many different friends groups to keep certain personal topics private.

I posted last week about my grandma going in to get a pacemaker. All the prayers and thoughts were greatly appreciated and helped a lot! The operation went off without a hitch and they kept her for less than 24 hours of observation. Apparently her first day out of the hospital she had so much energy, my Aunt Carol said she was like the Energizer Bunny! A huge improvement from before. She's not allowed to lift anything heavy for a while and she has a couple of other limitations, but nothing that will keep her from doing her normal day-to-day stuff.

So, YAY! :-)

I sung in church this morning. Maybe when I have time I'll transfer the video to my computer and figure out how to upload it. But then what about copyright laws? I don't know. It went well, but I haven't watched the video yet, so who knows? :-P

After church, I came home and got ready for the concert. Mike came over and we made soup and grilled toasted cheese sandwiches. (I made the soup, he made the sandwiches) Yummy! Then we hung around for a bit and left to go to the church for the concert. We had to be there at 1:30, but the concert didn't start 'til 3, so we got quite a bit of rehearsing done and also set up for the reception and such. They have their tree all set up at the UCC church (lucky UCC people getting to decorate for Christmas during Advent!) and it SMELLS WONDERFUL! I wish I knew who to call to find out what kind of tree that was. Maybe I'll call the office tomorrow. hm.

The concert went really well. There were a few little oddities, but most were caused by Kate's (director) strange announcing of songs. No harm done, though. My little solo went well and all in all, a good time was had by all. Lots of people hung around for refreshments, too, which was nice. We got out of there by 5-ish.

Mike came back to my place (since his car was here) and we were trying to decide if we should plop on the couch and watch a movie or what, and then we decided we weren't toooo tired to GO to the movies so we saw Enchanted. I really enjoyed it! It was a fairytale and a every-day-love-story all wrapped into one! And Timothy Spall pretty much reprised his roll as Peter Pettigrew. :-P Also, Susan Surandon kicked butt. And James Marsden has an awesome voice. The only thing that I was a bit disappointed about was that Idina Menzel was in it, but she didn't sing one word! WHAT?!?!? *le sigh* But apparently, she recorded a duet with Marsden - so hopefully that will be on the DVD. Unfortuantely, it's a Disney film, so I'll never be able to AFFORD the DVD (darn you, disney!). Anway, after the movie, Mike and I parted ways. Now I'm going to take a shower and get ready for bed!

G'night, ya'll!

This morning I made waffles. It was semi-scary. The recipe was definitely messed up in some way because when it was supposed to be "batter" it was "dough" I added an extra half a cup of water and it seemed to be better. They turned out OK, but were kinda "tough". Plus it took about 2 hours to mix them up. Peaked Egg Whites should NOT BE NECESSARY! Mike says his mom has a good waffle recipe (and a chocolate waffle recipe!) so I've gotta e-mail her for those. Anyone else have waffle recipes to share? :-) Preferably ones that are relatively quick to throw together. :-P

This afternoon, I SHOPPED. I switched my prescription to RiteAid and got a $20 giftcard for doing so. Then I spent $50 there. :-P But! I probably got $70 worth of stuff, so all and all, not too shabby. I also went to 2 Dollar Trees, the grocery store, the Bakery Outlet, Michael's, Borders, and Wal*Mart. Whoa. I'm not even thinking about how much I spent total. Although, I am set for groceries now for about 2 weeks, so that's good. Also, I just need to place an Amazon order and I'll be 90% completed with my shopping. YAY.

I went to my parents for dinner tonight. We had lasagna which was very yummy! Dad ordered rugs for the kitchen ONLINE! They are gorgeous - they arrived today and he just ordered them on Wednesday! Go Overstock.com. :-) I am definitely impressed with my Dad's growing interwebs skillzorz. :-P

When I got home tonight, I unloaded the car (mostly) and wrapped up some of the presents. I was in charge of getting presents for Kate & Cindy (director & pianist of Singers) to give to them at the concert tomorrow. I was really worried about what to get them, but I think I got something they'll like. I'll post about that later, I think.

Now I am watching this crazy show on TLC about insane Christmas lights. If it's on again, I recommend catching it. Interesting to see some of the antique items and the high tech right next to each other! :-)

Now I am sleepy and gotta rest my voice for tomorrow. Singing at church and then our concert in the afternoon! Weeeee! :-)

So, my sister has an assignment for her class that she is supposed to keep a blog for a while (dunno how long. might be based on posts). Anyway, apparently, comments are helpful to her grade, so I thought I'd spread the URL around the interwebs for her.

http://www.openupyoureyes-lizzy.blogspot.com/

Feel free to comment on the posts there or future posts. :-) I'll be adding it to my blog roll.

er, Lo Cash Cowboys. Whatever.


Yesterday, I got off of work around lunch time, came home, packed up the car, and went to pick up Mike. From Mike's we headed to downtown Harrisburg to visit Aunt Karin in the hospital (she had knee replacement surgery on Thursday morning). Other than taking a non-shortcut, I manuvered downtown pretty well. I hate driving in Harrisburg. I don't know why, but I get all nervous and flustered. I never had that happen when driving in DC or Rochester (either one), so I don't know what's so different about Harrisburg, but anyway.

We got a text from Jones when we were in the car which said he wasn't going to be done with soundcheck until 5:30ish so we decided we would take our time visiting with Karin and get to MD when we got there. We visited with Karin for about an hour before Mom showed up around 2pm. She was extremely lucid compared to the day before and our visit went really well. Mom showed up at 2pm and then Dad and Liz showed up around 2:30, methinks. About that time Mike and I ventured upstairs to the cafeteria for some lunch. Mike had a make-your-own-sandwich and I had a salad and a cup of soup (yum). The cafeteria is on the top floor and we got to eat while looking out over the Susquehanna River which was really very beautiful. We went down to visit a bit longer, but Karin was on her way to Physical Therapy, so we tagged a long and watched for a bit before we said adieu. I was completely amazed by the amount of mobility she had less than 36 hours after surgery. Truly Awesome.

Mike and I only encountered a bit of traffic on the way down and I think we arrived in town around 5pm. We met up with Cindi and Jones (and Jones' Mom) and then went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and ate too much. :-P It was very good, though. They have a very affordable 6oz sirloin steak. I was impressed. Mike devoured his burger, so I think he liked it too. We have one of those restaurants around here some place, so I'm thinking we should go there more often (or, ya know, when I want a steak).

After dinner we swung by the hotel to get more earplugs and to figure out what to wear to the show (for maximum comfort). I should have been thinking - which of these clothes would I rather smelled awful and of smoke? But I wasn't. Oh well.

Of course, the venue and the band were on Jones Standard Time, so instead of the show starting at 9, it was pushed back to 10 and then really didn't start until about 10:15. :-P We spent the first set down on the dance floor, and then moved around more during the second set. I am so not used to standing for that long. My feet are still killing me.

We didn't get out of there until I think 1:30-1:45. It was a smashing show and Ryan really did a bang-up job playing his fiddle and mandolin. It is like some sort of out-of-body experience watching him jam up there with these guys..... LIEK OMG HES FAMOUS.

We parted ways with Cindi in the parking lot - hopefully we will get to visit with her more often now that she is close. Hopefully our schedules will mesh at some point.

This morning we went to McDonalds for breakfast and hit the road by 10:30. Mike was back at his apartment by 11:45, I think. Sounds about right. I went to Karn's to get 5 pounds of chicken and other groceries. I'm definitely going there to get some turkey for the after thanksgiving thanksgiving that Mike and I are going to have. Their meat is fabulous looking, tasting, and all local. YAY.

Now, I'm going to find my gloves again, fabreeze my pants, and head over to the hospital for another visit.

over and out.

I can tell I'm tired because I'm too tired to stay up and watch the election results! Geez.

Today, I:

~ Got up at 7am. No snoozing.
~ Took Heather to her doctor's exams & took her home again (safe and sound) (7:40-12:30)
~ Drove back to PA from MD (lovely traffic before York)
~ Voted (~3:15)
~ Worked for 4 hours (3:45 - 7:45)
~ 8-10: Unloaded the car, unloaded my bags, packed 2 items I sold over the last 24 hours, showered, ate dessert, and caught up on my TV.

Now I'm going to pack my lunch for tomorrow and go to bed.

My cousin (who is to the right playing the bass) on Letterman!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9niPWhNmKw

My COUSIN was on DAVE LETTERMAN last night!

Who knew he was going to be so f-ing famous?

Not me. Especially since the last time I heard whatever band he was in, it sounded like a fork in the garbage disposal. But I do believe he's grown as a musician.

Oh, yeah. And they did an American Express commercial. Which I've seen numerous times. And didn't know that the hot red-head in the blue shirt & sunglasses is MY COUSIN. Insane.


So, yeah, this is what happens when you don't see your relatives for 15 years. They become famous and do american express commercials. yeah.