the annie blog

have the most patient husband in the whole world!!! I went to bed before Mark did, and I just couldn’t sleep – I was starting to think that I didn’t want my dining room blue afterall. I got out of bed and stood in the dining room, then returned to my room. I got up again, then went back to bed. I finally knew I had to tell him. I was a little stressed about it. I mean, he’s been working so hard. So, I told him. His look was priceless. It was a mixture of confusion, disbelief, and humor. He took a deep breath, and said he’d do it. Wow! I’m lucky!

So, we got up today, I was all excited to have my room painted again. We went to out to breakfast and then went to another furniture store before picking up our buffet from yesterday. That store had nothing. We went to the store from yesterday and loaded up the buffet. While that was happening, I noticed a dining room I hadn’t seen yesterday. We checked it out, measured it, and talked it over. We’ll take it! So, I paid for it and told them we’d return shortly. However – on the way home to unload, Mark started talking about how very different the woods were. Plus, where was I going to find matching chairs? And why didn’t I want that one table that matched the buffet pretty well? I got really quiet – and stressed. Ok – maybe I hadn’t quite thought of all that. I was just pumped to finally see a table that we liked.

Let me stop here and give you a history of my decorating experience. It’s always very easy for me, and I ALWAYS “see” it before I do it. I’ve done our whole house, and my Mom’s. I guess I have a knack for color and coordinating. A few years ago when I was doing Mark’s bathroom – I had this same kind of experience. I kept changing my mind and felt completely unsure. But hey, this is only the second time, so I look at it like a kind of decorator’s block.

We quickly unloaded the buffet and I was totally stressed. I was going to have to go to the counter and explain to them that I had changed my mind and even though I had paid, I was going to have to buy another table. So, we go in the back door and guess what? I see this OTHER table and chairs that I think I like even more. Mark is rolling his eyes at this time. On our way to the counter, the “All Sales Final” was glaring at me. I went up there and decided to do the “I’m just a stupid little new home owner and I have no idea how to decorate” attitude. It worked! I even threw in a sentence about how I was almost in tears over the whole thing. ha-ha We paid the difference and went on our merry way.

Then we had to go buy paint – again. I picked out what I wanted, and Mark kept asking me if I was “sure” because he didn’t want to paint the room a third time. I was sure. So we bought it and I came home and re-fabriced the cushions of the chairs and cleaned them up while Mark started taping the dining room.

He has to meet with someone for work tonight, so I’m going to do laundry and clean the furniture and touch up any marks on the pieces. Plus, I also have to sew some cushions for the play for Mark. I’ll get that stuff done and then when he comes home tonight – he wants to start painting – again. He really is patient. How many guys would re-paint the entire room the very next day? Not many… Mark just keeps smiling and says, “I’m here to make you happy…”

Yippie!

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Ok, first things first. We did tons of stuff today even though we slept in. We went furniture shopping. Lo and behold we found a buffet at the second place we went. We bought it. But, we weren’t in the Jeep, so we will pick it up tomorrow.

Then I had to go get my very first mammogram. It wasn’t bad. I guess I’m at the age where I need a baseline mammogram. So, I got it. No biggie. I was a little stressed at first, but then I realized it wasn’t a big deal. I made the technician lady crack up the whole time. Especially with my piercing. She was a bit surprised at first – guess I don’t look like the typical nipple pierced college professor. lol

Then we went and checked out a few more places for furniture – no luck the second time out. Then we had lunch. For being such a late lunch for us, I really wasn’t overly hungry. When we got home we chilled for awhile. I did some stuff around the house till dinner. We went and got pizza – mmmm.

Then it was time to work on the dining room. I worked on finishing the valance, and Mark worked on hanging the blinds. That was a bitch! He worked for a few hours. Many curse words were strewn. But finally – success. Then we hung the valance. I took pictures, but they look a little odd to me. Ignore the treadmill (we do)

Then this is a close up of the windows: I still need some stuff on the side of the windows, but I have no idea what I’m going to do:

Better late than never for the Friday Forum:

1] Which time of day do you prefer: 9 a.m. or 9 p.m.? Why?
I think 9pm. If I had my way I’d always be sleeping at 9am

2] Tell us about your ninth-grade year. What was your school like? Did you participate in any school activities? What were your career goals? Who were your good friends?
Uhm – not real good. In 8th grade I was at a very small Catholic school – like 30 something in my class. Then I went to a majorly large high school – my class was like 600 and something. I knew no one. I have always been horrible at making friends. I had never had a locker, so I had no idea how to work one. I had never had a school cafeteria, so for the first couple weeks, I didn’t eat lunch because I didn’t know how to “work” the cafeteria, plus I would’ve had to have sit alone. I was so alone and quiet for such a long time – it really was horrible for me. I barely participated in anything. I hung around the theatre, but it took me a couple of years to get involved in the theatre program. That’s it – no other groups or organizations. Career goals – I thought I’d be a famous actress. My good friend was Lisa and the guy I dated – Chris. Actually, high school was not a fun time for me – this question stressed me out.

3] What will you most likely be doing on the 9th of next month [August]?
I will be sad, because it’s my last day of freedom before In-service starts.

4] Name nine things that you hope to accomplish or would like to do before the end of your life.
This was such a good question – I stayed up last night thinking about it.
1 – get published
2 – see an ocean
3 – become a runner
4 – become a vegetarian and STAY one
5 – become a better and more confident cook
6 – fly in first-class
7 – win a big sum of money – not too much – like half a million maximum
8 – go to NYC
9 – learn more about wines

5] If you could go back to age nine and live your life over again, knowing everything that you know now, would you want to? Why/why not?
Probably not. I like where I am now. I’m afraid thing would be different because I wouldn’t make the same silly mistakes.

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We started working on our dining room. I can’t believe it – we were gonna wait till the weekend, but Mark wanted to start painting. Yeah! The painting is done. While Mark painted I worked on the window treatment – got it cut, and sewed. I will attach it to the valance the weekend, then we can hang it up. We will hang the wood blinds this weekend too. We may go shopping for a light – we hate the one that’s in there. It’s horrible looking. We are going furniture shopping tomorrow – wouldn’t that be cool to get everything?? I have fabric leftover to make seat cushions, placemats – or something, I’ll have to see when it’s more together. I’ll take pictures, but not now, it’s just an empty painted wall – let us get the window stuff on first.

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I got out of bed around 3:30 this morning with a killer headache. I took some ibuprofen and went out to the couch. I didn’t want to bother Mark, but anytime he moved or anything it made my head worse. So I just plopped on the couch and put a pillow over my head. I felt better around 4:00 so I headed back to bed. I woke up headache free! I think it was weather related. Now, I’m starting to feel it again a little bit. I tell ya’, I am plagued with headaches weekly. I always have been. They’re usually the same and have been since I can remember. I have migraine medicine, but I like to use that only when necessary. I prefer to take care of it myself. I have a huge routine I go through – things that help ease my head. I am headache master!

Today I ran some errands. I had to go to Wal*mart to get the paint for our dining room. The lady at the paint mixing counter was a bee-yotch. She didn’t say a word to me, and slammed everything around. When she was done she pushed the can towards me. I said, “Thank you, I hope you start having a better day.” She kinda got startled and quickly said, “Oh, Thank you. You have a good day too.” The thing is she musta been in her late 50’s. I felt kinda disrespectful saying that to her – but not really. lol

Then I had to go get the fabric that I’m using to make the window treatment in our dining room. The girl that was cutting the fabric wasn’t very bright. I needed 4 and a half yard of fabric that cost $3.77 a yard. So, she has this scanner thingy and scans in the UPC of the fabric, then is trying to figure out what to multiply it by. I, very nicely, tell her to try 4.5 since it’s four and a half yards. She said, “No, I need the *amount* of fabric you have here.” We went back and forth about that. All she needed to do was multiply $3.77 by 4.5. I was very nice with her, she was about my age. I figured she wasn’t a math whiz (obviously) and I didn’t want her to feel stupid (I think that’s the teacher in me) But finally this older lady comes up to buy fabric and jumps in the conversation. She says she used to work in this very department. So she told the girl to punch in $3.77 by 4.5. Duh! So the girl does – and then says, “Gee thanks, we couldn’t figure it out – glad stopped by.” I could figure it out! She’s the one that couldn’t. So, I looked like an idiot. Oh well…..

The fabric I got is a little lighter than what I kind of saw in that room, but I can make it work. I got some fringy stuff to add to it too. We start painting this weekend. I’ll take pictures. We got furniture shopping tomorrow. Yippie!

Well, I have no idea what dinner will consist of, I have no plans. The weather is awfully stormy, and I’m out of ideas. Guess I’ll see if Mark has any bright ideas when he gets home.

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After dinner tonight we went out and did yard work. Hot!!! But then we went to So*nic to get slushes! I got lime – mmmmm!

We have a central vac system in our house – which I love. But we think it overheated tonight while using it. I hope so. I don’t wanna replace it. But – it is the original and the house is 28 years old, so I guess it wouldn’t surprise me. I’m just spoiled that’s all. I looked up prices and they aren’t too bad, but I bet installation is a killer. I wonder if it would be cheaper to use someone we know – like a friend. I mean, all that would need to happen is to take the old off, and put in the new one. It’s housed in the garage. I don’t know. Let’s just hope it overheated. At first we thought we popped a breaker.

I think I need a little snack now. I’ll have to rifle through the fridge and see what I can find….

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I had to have a mole frozen off on the back of my ear today. I was beginning it was going to turn into a second head. It was gigantic, and I only noticed it last night. Luckily, all is well. It didn’t hurt either. But I like to think I have a high tolerance for pain.

Tonight is yard work after the sun starts to set. It’s gonna be all icky though. The humidity is crazy. It wasn’t that bad this morning, but as the day goes on…

Tonight I’m making nachos, nothing big. But fun and easy. I was planning on cooking tomorrow night, but it may be frozen chicken nuggets. I will make a salad, but as for the main course – not in the mood.

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Today I was in interviews for a good part of the day. I get a little frustrated with the whole process of interviewing for a job. Personally, I don’t think I’m a good interviewer. But at least I’ve got a job right now and don’t have to worry about it.

The weather is s starting to getting mighty hot and humid. Slowly but surely, the temps are rising. It’s frustrating. I love to keep the windows open, but I can’t anymore. We totally need the air on.

Tonight I need to work on homework stuff. I would like to watch a movie later, but I’m not sure Mark’s up for that tonight. I was planning on going to the track tonight, but no way. I will either walk on the treadmill, or do some yoga. Looks like the days of being outside are dwindling away.

Mark drilled into his thumb yesterday at work. He was in the shop working on the set and he drilled about a quarter of an inch below his left thumbnail. I stopped because he hit the bone. He probably could’ve used a stitch or two, or at least a tetanus shot. But, he’s a male. So he’s walking around with bandages. It’s starting to get better actually. I think he’ll be ok. It probably stressed me out more than it did him.

I had chicken in a marinade all day. I used soy sauce, honey, ginger, and a little bit of water and oil. It stayed in there all day. Then I just popped it on the grill for a little bit. Yummy! Then we had salad of great northern beans, green beans, tomatoes and Italian dressing. And slices of french bread with melted havarti cheese with dill. It was all so easy and so good. We have some of the salad leftover, so we’ll finish it up tomorrow night. I’m making nachos, so it’ll be an easy dinner again.

I think I’m gonna have to go to bed early tonight. I was up earlier than I usually am during the summer, and it kicked my butt.

On a political note, we are so pumped about Kerry picking Edwards. I was at work early this morning and CNN is my homepage. When I logged on, I read it and immediately called Mark telling him the good news. We were so happy. We are such news geeks, but we love it!

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I am going to take an online class about teaching online classes? Kinda funny, huh? One of the deans called me and said she had an opening for this class. It starts on July 12 and runs for 5 weeks. It’s for college profs who teach online using this program called WebCT, and we will learn how to better teach with the program. We aren’t learning how to use the program, because we should all already know that. We’ll learn how to provide quality instruction without actually being there. I’m looking forward to it because I hear from a lot of people that online classes sometimes mean the quality of instruction isn’t as good. I would like to avoid that pitfall.

So, the class runs 5 weeks, and during that time I will be visiting my mom in KC and going on our anniversary vacation. So, my mom’s PC is rather antiquated. It freezes up and is super slow. So, we will have to take time out of our shopping and I will have to find an Internet cafe or something. I’ll bring the laptop just in case I find a place that’s wired, but what a drag that will be. Then I looked at the website for our hotel on our vacation, and they don’t mention being wired. I’m sure they’ve got something set up, but most places advertise it. So, I need to contact them this week to find out how I can be a good student while on vacation. Fun, huh?

Then there’s a conference she wanted me to attend, but it’s during our vacation time. Sorry, no can do.

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I don’t know if it’s just me, but I get a “The Page Cannot Be Displayed” message when I try to look at my blog and people’s blogs on blogger. I’ve tried emailing them, but every time I do, it kicks it back saying “No such address” WTF? Isn’t it frustrating? Oh well, I’ll survive.

I’ve been rather productive today. I did the grocery shopping for the week and started to work on dinner for tonight. I cleaned the kitchen and the bathrooms. I got to watch some of General Hospital. When I’m done here I need to call my mom and visit.

Tonight I really want to go to the track, but it looks like it’s gonna storm. Then I’m stuck on the treadmill – ugh.

Tomorrow I have to be on campus all day long. We’re doing interviews for our Director of Marketing. I’m on the search committee. It’s gonna be a long day. I don’t like interviewing people. I just don’t want to come across as being “better” than them. Ok, the sun just came out – maybe this rain thing ain’t gonna happen.

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