Slow Day

Yesterday was a slow day. I started out by walking in the extreme humidity and mugginess. I'm still at the 2 mile mark for one more day.

I cleaned out the linen closet in Bill's bathroom. When his ex left (he's been divorced 10 years), she left several comforters and lots of polyester sheets - ick. So finally after 5 years got around to cleaning all of that out. I took all of the comforters that were left (I had already donated about 5) and the sheets to one of the clothing boxes at HEB that go to needy families. Then I refolded all the towels, blankets, etc. We have an empty shelve and everything is very neat and easy to get to. As you can see, I had a big helper here. Kalliope, my 6 pound cat, decided that she was going to help.

Completed: 22. Straighten linen closet in Bill’s bathroom

I made Bill chocolate chip cookies, his favorite and fortunately I don't like them much. I made me cheese scones. See Kimmie's blog for the recipe.

I went to the post office, library, and dropped the linens at HEB. At the library, I read magazines and picked up Living Dead in Dallas that finally arrived. When I got home I loaded Living Dead in Dallas on my iPod. I have all the other Sookie books now and have listened to Dead to the World already. So I'm psyched to continue the Sookie series!! But first I have to finish Mr and Miss Anonymous and Look Again. I'm loving both of these books!

After making dinner, I watched the Biggest Loser finale, and the semi's of Dancing With the Stars. Glad it was Ty that went home, the best are left. I think I'm pulling for Gilles. There were some amazing stories on Biggest Loser!

And I applied for lots of jobs!

Up for today? Who knows! I'm hoping someone will call for an interview!

Accomplishments of the day

After the drama of the kittens this morning, I didn't accomplish much today. I did get one thing off my to do list.

39. Update resume

I did update my resume, updated it on all job boards, blasted it out to all recruiters I've dealt with in the past. I applied for 5 jobs. Of course all of that took about half the day.

Then I mopped the kitchen, dining room and laundry room floors. Dusted the master bedroom floor. Played with the cats. Went to the grocery store.

Washed the sheets and put them back on the bed.

Fed the deer, filled up the log feeders with homemade suet, fed the birds.

I also finished loading the 7 books on CD from library on iTunes. Then copied them to the external hard drive.

And I walked 2 miles today.

Hopefully I'll be more productive tomorrow.

More on the Unemployment To Do List

Here are additions to the unemployment to do list:

Wash outside of car
Clean inside car
work on Bill’s mom’s cookbook
mail cookbook to family
work on surprise project
Update resume
Print out pictures from ML’s mom’s birthday party
Organize the DVDs
Get rid of Bill’s VHS tapes
Catch kittens and take to Petsmart
Re-cover cat towers

I might have to reorder what I decided to do. This morning we had great excitement when the stray kittens climbed in Bill's engine. We had to get them out so he would leave for work. I thought I had one kitten captured and then he bite the you know what out of me and got away. Their claws are sharp! I'm bruised like you wouldn't believe. So I need to get room in the garage so we can get the cars in there. At least till I catch the kittens and take them to a rescue. Right now I can't get close to them.

Unemployment To Do List

Let's see how much I get done before I find a job!

Unemployment To Do List

Finish tiling bathroom floor
Tile closet floors
Clean out Ellen’s closet
Clean out Bill’s closet
Take clothes to good will
Clean out and arrange garage
Get stuff out of storage
Tile bedroom #2 floor
Tile bedroom #3 floor
Paint kitchen
Paint dining room
Paint laundry room
Paint bedroom #2
Paint bedroom #3
Put down quarter round in master
Put down quarter round in living room
Put down quarter round in bedroom #2
Put down quarter round in bedroom #3
Put down quarter round in hall
Clean out pantry
Clean out and arrange shelves in my bathroom
Straighten linen closet in Bill’s bathroom
Tile front porch
Repaint back door and columns
Add extra space to park
Start paths in yard
Start vegetable garden
Plant bottle brush in ground
Clean out kitchen cabinets
Unpack my kitchen stuff that is still in boxes
Start diet
Walk 3 miles a day
Bike more

Laid off - Again

I was working on a contract at one of the top cancer hospitals in the country. Because of the economy their investments are not doing well, patients are paying as fast, so they were in a cash flow problem. They ended up stopping all IT projects. I had the greatest team ever. Everyone is devastated. The full time people don't know what till happen to them either.

I had just been let go from another job 3 months again that they asked me to move to Nashville. I did not like my boss, and had no desire to move to Nashville. At least I had a 3 month reprieve with a great bunch of people.

So now it's back to looking. I will apply anywhere just to have insurance. COBRA is so expensive. And at my age, I can not afford to go without.

Hopefully something will happen soon. In the meantime, I might get some home repairs done.

Avoiding the Floods

This is a field by our house that usually has cows and not a pond on it.

Coming home from work last night was trying at best. Fortunately I take the bus most of the way. However there was high water down the street from the park and ride. My Lexus did not come with water wings. I made it through and drove slowly home. Bill had made it home before the floods started. From the bus, I could see the feeder roads were flooding.

Getting off the bus, I always thank the driver, but I told her I was glad it was her and not me. She is very nice, and I end up on her bus a lot. She had even waited for me when my other bus got there as she was getting ready to pull out of the transit center. I can't say enough about how 99% of the drivers go above and beyond their jobs! And they are all so pleasant!

All night long we heard torrential downpours. When I got up at 4:30, I checked the internet and saw that we were in the middle of RED on the radar. So I crawled back in bed and told Bill we weren't going to work until at least daylight. We got up about 5:30 and started watching the news and decided to stay home. It takes him an hour to get to work on a good day and me an hour and a half. His boss usually gets in before 7 and lives near the office. He got there today at 11. We are glad we decided to stay home.

We didn't do a thing all day! We were bums. I did make a great dinner of rice pilaf, green beans and cajun bbq shrimp. The cats loved watching Bride Wars with me!

Hope you had a better day weatherwise!

Happy Easter

We don't do much that is traditional. For snacks, I made brownie bites with Easter spinkles.

We started using Morningstar Farms Crumbles rather than ground beef a while back. One of my favorite dishes, actually my absolute favorite dish growing up was enchiladas. I was born in Roswell, NM, in the hospital where they took the aliens. In elementary school we lived in Bossier City, La, Wheaton, Md, Kelsterbach, Germany. Then in junior high and start of high school we lived in Potomac, Md. So it was always a challenge for my mom to make me enchiladas in places like Germany, but she found ways (canned tortillas and enchilada sauce mailed to us). At that time we used Ashley enchilada sauce, but now I used Hatch! You just simmer ground beef or morningstar farms crumbles in the sauce. Then soften corn tortillas in oil. Layer tortilla, grated cheddar, onion, sauce, repeat. They look like pancakes. One top put sauce, cheese and onions. Makes for a yummy meal.