I had kind of a busy day.

I was really good and went to sleep after watching the series premiere of "Sanctuary" on SciFi and then the rebroadcast of episode two, season five, of "House" on USA last night. (I missed it when it was on Tuesday) I was able to get about 8 1/2 hours of sleep and be up by 9:30AM today. The premiere of "Sanctuary" was pretty good. I liked the story and the characters. Unfortunately, though I think she's a great actress, Amanda Tapping's British accent seemed a bit inconsistent to me.

Anyway, after breakfast Susan and I took Casey for a walk in the gravel pit behind the house. It was absolutely beautiful out! We took the trash and recycling to the dump and I was able to find two Garth Nix books, in great condition, in the re-use shed. (This is in addition to the four books I purchased at the used book sale this week at the library across from my workplace.) There is another used book sale tomorrow on my way into town and I may just have to stop there as well. I'm incorrigible! :)

I took a load of stuff to storage (summer/professional clothes, books, games) and pulled out my sheet music/voice lesson stuff (so I can sing "The Rose" at Jessie & Matt's wedding in January), some winter clothes, and my Halloween stuff. I haven't figured out what I'm going to be yet but it needs to be something I can work outdoors in because we'll be filming the local "Rag Shag" Parade. I can't wait! Halloween is my favorite holiday.

After I paid the rent on my storage unit, I headed over to a nearby town to get my hair cut. I brought in a picture of Anne Hathaway as she looks in her new movie "Rachel Getting Married". I saw the picture and thought I'd look good with the same hair cut. The stylist said that it would work for me and we will slowly work my hair into it. Right now it's too short. The nice thing is that my haircut was half price today because Sandra didn't really have to do much to it but snip the back a little.

Next stop, the mall. I made another attempt to purchase winter boots. Sears was having a big sale but I wasn't sure that the boots I wanted were really made for snowy outdoors. I think they are just supposed to look "wintery". On the upside, I finally used some of my JC Penny gift card by getting a new pair of, "stylie" (to go with my "sporty" car) sunglasses. No, really, I finally accepted that I needed a new pair. My old ones were plastic, all scratched up, and had been a giveaway at an expo quite a few years ago. I feel a bit like I'm re-working my whole image (with the car, haircut, and sunglasses), or maybe finally finding out who I am and what I like. Plus, I really like myself most of the time now and I think that makes it easier. I've come a long way baby.

I think I mentioned before that I've been watching a lot of "Doogie Howser, MD" lately and I believe the end of that last paragraph is very Doogie diary-like. Too bad I don't really want to end this blog post there. See, I also got to, almost, use up my Macy's gift card as well. Aunt Nancy was very thoughtful and sent me one for my birthday this year. Tonight, I treated myself to a Godiva 16 piece, dark chocolate, assortment. Yummy! I also picked up a cribbage set, for $3, at Target. Some friends of mine got me hooked and now I get to play whenever I want (and have someone to play with).

Anyway, I really didn't mean for this post to go on so long. I came home, told Susan about my day, watched some Doogie, and now I'm going to brush my teeth and go to bed. I'd also like to say that I'm still enjoying driving my new car. I listened to my Garth Brooks double live album today. It's fun to listen to all my music again now that it's out of storage. Tomorrow I need to do laundry and go grocery shopping. I'll also hang out with some friends. Monday it's back to work and dental cleaning and Tuesday I get my car inspected. Not much else going on. Love you guys! :)

Lots of catching up to do with you.

So, a lot has been going on and I haven't had a good chance to blog until now. The biggest news is that I am now driving a car that does NOT have 314,000+ miles on it. I said goodbye to my 1994 Saturn on Wednesday morning. I sold it to a friend of a friend and made her part of a 2 Saturn family. I like this shot of my former car because it reminds me of KITT from the original "Knight Rider".I really like driving my new car, a 2005 Dodge Neon. I took Wednesday off to do all the car stuff and was able to get it taken care of that afternoon. I think my new car is kinda sporty (I don't think of myself as a "sporty" person, but I'm enjoying it) and it's smaller than the Saturn. I am grateful to be able to lock its doors, have the overhead light come on when I get in, and listen to whatever music I want on the CD player. I feel like I have a grown up car now! :) The only drawback is that it's an automatic so the gas mileage isn't as good as my old car. Otherwise, I think I love it! :)
The other thing about having my new car is that our yard no longer looks like a used car dealership. See if you don't agree when you look at the picture below. I took it Wednesday morning before I sold my car. I couldn't help but laugh out loud when Laurel (the woman who bought my car), her partner Susan, & I returned from her test drive and the mailman's car was parked in the spot we'd vacated. We had 6 cars in front of the house! We were all laughing at that.
The next two pictures are of the dogs. I've been intending to do a tribute to Allegra and Susan suggested that I put up a cute picture of Casey as well. Casey is a sweetheart and she's slowly adjusting to being an only doggie. I sang to her tonight as I pet her and she seemed to really enjoy it.

Susan and I both miss Allegra a lot and think of her often. She was a great dog and lived a long and happy life. She loved to play and eat popcorn. Rest in peace, Allegra.Casey

Car & TV stuff

I heard from the woman from whom I am purchasing my new (to me) car. My check should clear by Tuesday and then she will overnight the title to me. My current car will not be legal to drive after Tuesday (inspection & insurance) but Susan said that I can drive her old one for a few days. Meanwhile, the new car is sitting in our driveway so our front yard looks a bit like a used car lot.

In other news, I have discovered Fancast.com. It's a great way to watch TV, free, online and without too many commercials. I've been plowing through "Doogie Howser, MD" and it's nice to realize that, even after almost 20 years (yikes!), it still makes me laugh.

That's about it. Work is going well and I finally sent most of you my updated contact info. along with my work blog address, since I update that blog more frequently than this one. I'm still getting used to how I feel about Allegra's loss (lots of things still remind me of her) but I think Casey is enjoying the extra attention she's getting from me.

Just wanted to say hi from the great outdoors!

Talk Like A Pirate Day & Oooooh, I'm So Mad! :)

I'm sad

This was a hard weekend. Allegra had to be put to sleep on Saturday. She was a wonderful dog and had lived a long, happy, life. We all miss her a lot and we are giving Casey extra attention. I didn't feel up to going to Jonathan & Page's party on Saturday but I did call them today and left a message. I hope to see them soon. I owe mom and Becky a call and will probably phone them tomorrow night. This weekend is for grieving and remembering the good times with Allegra. She loved to run and play and I had fun playing fetch and chase with her. She was a very silly dog sometimes and she made me smile a lot. May she rest in peace.

I'm listening to an owl.

I had a fabulous night tonight! After a good day at work, I went to the fair in town.

Yesterday we did a live broadcast of the parade, complete with two local announcers. They were hilarious and the parade was great. It was big, had lots of fun people, and the candy being tossed was plentiful. We had one scare when our Tricaster (the computer controlling and recording the broadcast) froze up on us for no reason. Scott was Directing at that point and, while he dealt with the problem, I grabbed the personal camera of one of our volunteers and shot the footage we were missing. I was pretty tired and hungry once we were all done cleaning up but the perk was that I received two free tickets to the fair.

Today I called up one of my friends who lives in town and invited her to come with me. She and I, and her daughter, walked down her street and caught the free shuttle to the fair which was about a mile away. We saw the sights and Laura introduced me to Funnel Cakes. YUMMY! We took our Funnel Cake to the Demolition Derby. I had never been to one but had been hearing about it from people all week. It was interesting. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to laugh or cry as I started watching. It felt weird. On the one hand, I just didn't get the attraction, on the other hand I wanted more sound effects and harder impacts than we were getting. Weird. Anyway, Laura's husband met up with us around 9PM. We walked off our food and went back for seconds (and thirds!). Thank goodness we walked home from the fair. I have over 14,000 steps on my pedometer today and I think that's actually low because my jacket was tied around my waist (that tends to impede it).

I got home about 20 minutes ago and am going to bed shortly. As I began to type this post I heard an owl hooting outside. I love living here! One sad note, Allegra (one of the dogs) just came out to the kitchen to greet me and she's not feeling well. She's going to the vet today because her legs are collapsing under her intermittently. Susan and I are both worried about her but she seems in good spirits. It's just very hard to watch her go through this. Please send your good thoughts her way and our way too. Thanks!