Just have to finish getting thru today and I can collapse for a couple of days.

I have an appointment tomorrow to get my hair whacked off. It has gotten way too long and has been driving me nuts. Hubby won't let me do it myself anymore (honestly, I do do a good job of it, it is just the last time the scissors weren't the best in the world and it was only a little bit ragged in back. Hubby was able to clean it up nicely!) and when I start threatening to grab the scissors, he comes up with the money out of the budget to get it done at a regular salon.

I'm going to go for really short with bangs. I usually do, but this time I am determined not to chicken out and have them cut it longer then I planned on, I am going shorter then usual. So we will see how it goes.

Hubby felt like finger food for dinner last night, so I thawed out some boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I'd already planned on them, just not how I was going to fix them, probably baked with something on the side), made chicken fingers, then tossed them with some flour and seasoning and then onto baking sheets. I sprayed the sheets with cooking spray and then the chicken fingers (note to self, need more cooking spray). Baked them until golden brown and delish and then served them with a couple different kinds of salad dressings as dipping sauces. One was a honey mustard and the other was a blend of creamy ranch and creamy Caesar as we didn't have enough ranch. Was very yummy and hit the spot nicely. I was originally considering deep frying, but really didn't want to go to all that effort, I was too tired and wanted easy. So this worked out nicely. Now I have something else to make for race day munchies LOL! Have to see if this is something I can do well a head of time and then freeze, pop in the oven to thaw and crisp up and have easy snacks.

Scored a really nice deal for my Palm Pilot. Somehow I managed to lose the stylus (it has a habit of popping out at the most inconvenient times) and while looking for replacements, came across a package that had 2 styluses, a case (it said soft case), a USB power/data cable and some plastic protection sheets, all for about $10. So we ordered it and it came the other day.

REALLY nice, the "soft" case is not really soft, more like a faux leather covered hard case the palm clips into and now I can charge it up at work. At home I have a cradle I use, but that is not really portable (well it is, but a royal pain). The styluses are a bit tight to get in and out, so while that can be a pain, I should be able to avoid losing them in the future LOL.

Speaking of my Palm, I am currently on the 5th book of the Belisarius series by Erick Flint and David Drake. We have the 1st two in paperback, got the 3rd & 4th for free thru Baen Books and picked up the last two as a single package for $6 from Baen. As much as I prefer reading the real thing, if I can't get my hands on a paper copy, I am SOOOOOO glad Baen has the electronic option and I can read it on my Palm.

We'd hoped to maybe get some fishing in this weekend, but the weather is looking like it won't cooperate:

Saturday: Scattered snow showers, mainly before 10am. Snow level rising to 3100 feet. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 44. West wind between 9 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

Sunday looks better, but still chilly, so no fishing (luckily I still have fish left int he deep freeze from last year so I can at least have some nice trout for dinner one night).

Or almost. It was SOOOOOOO nice this weekend I did get out to put some seeds in the ground. I'd picked up some seeds for half price when we were at Bi-Mart in Clarkston on Saturday. Broccoli, Italian salad mix and carrots. I had some more broccoli seeds and spinach seeds at home from previous years.

So yesterday I got out. I decided on a couple short rows for each since I am a bit early, but if they don't grow, I have the space ready for later and was planning on seeding some more anyways so I have LOTS of early greens when it is the right time.


Hoed and raked the space I wanted to use and then tossed on some nice compost from my compost pile and worked that in.



Did 2 rows of each, except for the carrots, they got one row as I'd run out of space and I didn't want to over do it to make more space. I'll do that a little later when the weather gets nicer again.



Spinach:



Speaking of my compost pile, this is the average sized earthworm I've got in there. Every fork full of compost I took out was filled with the critters. Must be doing something right to have so many fat, sassy worms!



So Saturday we went down to Lewiston/Clarkston for some shopping. Picked up a couple Tasco telescopes at Sid's Pawnshop for cheap. We'll clean them up, find a replacement eye piece for one (it had gotten stolen off the telescope by some twit while it was in the store, hence we got the pair cheap) and then have some fun stargazing (hmmmmmm, just had a thought, wonder if I can rig my little point and shoot so I can snap some pics thru the telescopes).

Picked up a few things we needed at Coscto, gassed up at Safeway in Lewiston and then headed back up the hill. We skipped the cheese shop as we needed to really watch the budget after splurging on the telescopes.

Sunday was a kick back and relax day and go see Alice in Wonderland in 3D LOL We'd gotten tickets online on Saturday, we'd considered going on Saturday, but decided that would result in a time crunch and we didn't want to be rushed in Lewiston. So Sunday matinee it was.

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

Both the hubby and I were blown away. I had a little problem at the start with the 3D, I don't do it real well, my eyes kept trying to flatten the screen and I did have a slight headache afterwards, but Tim Burton came thru once again with a WONDERFUL movie that stayed true to the flavor of the original source material. The special effects enhanced the plot, as opposed to other recent movies where the special effects was all and what plot. Johnny Depp was great as usual, Helena Bonham Carter was simply delicious as the Red Queen and I want to see Mia Wasikowska in more roles, she made a great Alice. The rest of the cast were great also. It is going in our permanent DVD when it comes out.

Hubby got a hankering for salad after I planted the seeds, so we hit Winco on the way home and picked up salad fixin's, a couple loaves of french bread and some Parmesan cheese and another buffet ham. I also grabbed me a nice ripe avocado. I made some cheesy garlic bread and we some nice salads with ham, cheese and in my case, avocado. We've plenty of garlic bread left over, so I will make some lasagna hamburger helper stuff and with the bread and a side salad, have a yummy and quick dinner tonight.

Watched the race. I should have said I'd rather see a controversial finish instead of an exciting finish. Exciting finishes like that I can do with out. When Brad Keselowski's car went tumbling like that my heart stopped. As much as I like Carl Edwards, he was being a complete and utter ass and I do hope NASCAR parks him for a while. That was COMPLETELY uncalled for!

Can't think of much to say, so will leave you with a couple of fun vids:

May have to explain this to people younger then 40 hehehehehe


This main question I see in regards to this video, is how many takes they had to do to get it right:



Judging from the conditions of their jumpsuits, quite a few!

*whimper*

Had a blood draw this morning for my levels, normally it usually isn't bad, even tho we have to get the blood from the back of my hand, but this morning it hurt like a son of a bitch!

I'd had plenty of water the last couple of days, so the only thing I can think of is we managed to hit a nerve on the way in with the needle or I should have run my hands under hot water right before since my hands are so cold everything was constricted. But the blood came out fine at least. No bruise as yet, but there is a bump there, so I may see a bruise yet. I do hope the swelling goes down.

Was a fasting blood draw, so no coffee for me until after (yes I could have had coffee before, but I won't drink it unless it is adulterated to within an inch of its life with mocha), so I am on my one and only coffee for the day. Normally I have two.

I am going to have an interesting time getting thru the day with a serious lack of caffeine.

Since I had to fast for the blood draw dinner last night was fried rice with what was left of the roast beef from Sunday since that I could whip up fast. Turned out very yummy and I wish I had more leftovers to have made a bigger batch.

Oh well, maybe next time.

Did cold ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch today. Have to see about getting another buffet ham. Slicing our own sandwich ham is definitely the way to go. Hopefully we can find the ham we currently have on sale again, very tasty and wasn't that chopped and pressed ham texture most of them are, this one was definitely real ham.

Hoping the weather is decent again this next weekend, I think I will sprinkle some spinach seeds into the garden and see if I can get a nice early crop. Have to see if I still have some salad green seeds left and sprinkle those in also. I do plan on getting some tomato seedlings going, just need to figure out where I am going to put them since I really don't have the space. Figure something out.

So we got word yesterday on the furlough plan. Not as bad as I thought, but none to happy about it. I have to have 5 hours of unpaid leave to do before July 1. They did do a sliding scale, I am in the lowest tier. The highest tier have to take days of unpaid leave.

It is only 5 hours, but that is still money that I won't have to pay bills with. Fingers crossed we won't have to do this again next fiscal year.

Had to wash my hair in the kitchen sink this morning since the shower/tub is currently out of commission as the cold water tap fell apart when hubby went to rinse out the tub yesterday. We tried to put it back together, but it was beyond our skill levels, so we have our favorite handyfriend coming over this evening to put it back together for us.

Luckily we didn't have too much flooding as most of the water went into the tub, tho we did have a bit in the office closet where the shut off access panel is. Thankfully we didn't have anything stored on the floor that we needed to worry about getting wet.

Fairly quiet and laid back weekend, slept a LOT! Managed to get a bit of puttering done. Had a free video rental from Movie Gallery, so we picked up GI Joe since we wanted something pretty mindless. Hubby has a vague notion of feeling ripped off even tho we didn't pay for the movie, I rather enjoyed it tho the lead was pretty unforgettable. The supporting cast was pretty good, they just need to stop casting pretty boys with the personality of goo as the romantic/action lead.

Hubby has a new term for mindless action movies like this, homeopathic movies. They waved a pencil that was once used to write a real script over the movie so it has the memory of a plot in it hehehehehehehehe.

The race was great, tho we ended up starting it late. We started it then decided to go to bed at the halfway point, but couldn't get to sleep, so turned it back on. Finally went to bed and got to sleep about 1am. I am going to need LOTS of coffee today.

Seriously bummed that Jeff ended up in 3rd after leading most of the race, I was really hoping he'd finally get a win. There is always next week.

Zazzle is now offering men's classic PRO-Keds Royal Hi sneakers:

Bonfire by JeanC_PurpleDucky
Design own shoes online with zazzle.com

We down graded our Dish yesterday to the Top 120 with local channels. It will save us some bucks, which will come in handy as the university is seriously talking furloughs to save money. I'm really going to miss the Sirius music channels since I like listening to the Broadway channel. Hubby was a little upset to discover the Military channel got axed when we downgraded as he'd just set up to get World at War, but I popped into Netflix and discovered they have the 11 disc collectors set, so those are now cued up.

The one thing I am really upset about is losing Speed channel as there were two races scheduled on it later in the year. Okay, just double checked and they are the Sprint Showdown and the All Star races, so not actual Cup races, but I hope we can find another way to watch those two.

At least we kept Discovery and TLC, along with the Food channel and Comedy Central. Not too sad about the various movie channels since we now have Netflix and can get movies when we want them and not wait to see if they show up on the Dish grid. Just wish we didn't have to keep paying for crap religious and shopping channels we don't want.

Rained/snowed yesterday, today it is nice out again. I am so not used to a February that isn't depressing and overly wet (rain or snow). Fingers crossed for an early spring, I want to really get a decent garden going this year. Need to get some seedlings going and finally get my butt in gear and get the greenhouse built. A good early spring would also mean I can finish painting the house and sealing the roof.

Starting to seriously consider a new camera, mine is just getting a bit old. I'm thinking of the Canon Powershot G11, so will have to seriously try and save up for one, but that will be a while. The HP camera with picked up for hubby thru the local police auction takes pretty good pics, tho the display on it is screwed up. I may trade him for mine for a while and see what I can do with it. Need to keep an eye on the auction site to see if anymore police auctions come up (hmmmmm, need to see if the sheriff's department has them at all).

Tho still too short. Could have used a couple more days, esp to sleep.

Mostly puttered. We'd planned on going up to Coeur d'Alene for the Huckleberry Online blogfest on Saturday, but had to cancel at the last minute. Bummer. Oh well, there is always next year.

Dropped a pile of stuff off at the Sally Ann, so that is now out of the living room.

Did a little bit of shopping, hit Ross and picked up a new set of sheets using the gift card my aunt gave us for Christmas. They are bright red and made of jersey fabric. Wonderfully comfy. We'll have to pop back in and get another set.

The we hit Bed, Bath & Beyond to pick up a new probe thermometer. I keep killing the probes and it is next to impossible to get replacements that you don't spend more on the shipping & handling then the cost of the probe. Used up the gift card from my mom. I love gift cards, we'd gotten an angled 4 cup Oxo measuring cup on the card previously.

I love gift cards

Good race yesterday, congrats Jimmy! Seriously bummed tho Jeff and Jr had problems, but there are still more races in the season.

Hit Super China for lunch yesterday, so needless to say we weren't terribly hungry for dinner. So I made some tuna salad using a bit of Dijon mustard, salad dressing, green onions and a bit of the Penzey's Mural of Flavor spice I like. Paired with some trisket type crackers and it made a great light dinner while watching the race. Have to look at stocking up on more tuna fish, pretty handy to have on hand.

Didn't get much else done this weekend besides some laundry and dishes. We did finally lay our hands on a can of the Oxyclean Foamtastic stuff. We've been waging battle on the built up crud on the bathtub and not having much luck. Saw this stuff advertised a couple months ago and finally found a store that sells it locally. Almost works as advertised. Of course we have a serious build up on the tub as I mentioned, so we had to spray the stuff on, let it sit for quite a while and then tackle it with a scrub brush, then repeat a couple of times. I think once we get it clean, the spray will work as advertised (spray, wipe, no scrubbing). One nice thing about it, it stays where you spray it, some of the other products we tried which ran all over the place and made a big mess (and really didn't touch the build up).

Still need to re-do the caulking around the tub and put the new trim on. Also need to get some linoleum glue and lay down some linoleum we got from the neighbors. The current floor in the bathroom is horrendous and I am so wanting it gone.

So much home repairs/remolding to do, so little time and money...sigh!

The Rick Sanchez show to be specific. He got a call from CNN yesterday after someone there googled the IRS regulations Joe Stack had run afoul of and found an essay my bother had posted on his website, "Important Note for Recruiters and Contract Agencies", in regards to Section 1706.



So sad that guy felt he had to go to the extreme of killing himself and trying to kill other people while he was at it. The tax code REALLY needs to be overhauled so other people don't feel like they have to do the same thing.

As previously mentioned, we popped out to Spring Valley on Saturday and I got some pics. I was surprised it was that frozen and when I mentioned to a friend who's parents live near there, was also surprised it has been cold enough to freeze enough for folk to be out on it fishing.













I will have to admit, that does look like fun. While I was taking pics from the boat dock, several people hopped off the end and headed out to the middle. I was tempted to give it a try, but my luck I would find the one place the ice was weak and I'd go thru.Wasn't gonna do it!