TGIF. Seriously.

T.G.I.F has multiple meanings today. Thank Goodness it's Friday, of course, but also Thank Goodness it's February!!

First, the good news. My Mom is doing significantly better! There was a small scare yesterday afternoon when the doctors did a CT scan and found that whatever was blocking up her intestines hadn't moved despite significant efforts via medicine and tubes, etc. so they had an opening with a surgeon and whisked her in to find out what was up. I was halfway to the airport to be with her when I was told to hold off because my Mom's husband was on his way (only took him three days and a surgery. Sigh. Another story for another time.) so I went home and prayed. After about an hour and a half we were told that everything was fine. She had some scar tissue from a surgery two years ago and it had formed almost a string and wrapped itself around part of her intestines and was basically "kinking the hose." All this is a relief because there's nothing permanently wrong with her and now that the string thing has been removed all will be well in Mommy-land. Thanks so much for your kind thoughts and comments. You'll never know how much they mean. My Mom even says thank you in an especially funny "morphined" out voice. I wish I could record it and play for you. Nothing funnier than Moms on Drugs.

Next up, the bad. The week just doesn't seem to be getting better!! I'm exhausted, not feeling exceptionally well and work has been IN.SANE. Not the usual insane that my office is. It feels like happy hour in the mental institution. No one can decide what's going on, who's in charge, what we're doing or what anyone's job really is. It's been this way for a while now but today it seemed to come to a head. There was yelling, stressing, almost quitting (not by me, never you fear), and almost firings today. INSANE I tell you. The silver lining is that I was told I am highly valued and my job is not in any way in question. I'm relieved to know that but feel the stress around me significantly. Me no likey stressful work environments.


I made Corn Chowder tonight and while it was good, I was disappointed in the recipe. It was soupy rather than . . . chowdery. I want CREAMY CHOWDER dangit! If any of you have recipes, please share!

Lastly, I've been without my wedding ring for over a month now. It is being re-engraved (it's got these cool engravings on the sides that are done by hand) and getting stones reset, etc. It was supposed to take three weeks and it's been five. I LOVE the jeweler who made it and is fixing it and I know it takes him a long time to work his magic, but I miss my ring! It was supposed to go out in the mail today, but he missed the FedEx pick-up and it won't go out until tomorrow. BLAST! There will be much rejoicing on Monday when my baby is back on my finger where she belongs.

Luckily a new month starts tomorrow AND it's Friday. Even if the week continues it's downward spiral and it's a bad day tomorrow, I have at least two days to recover from it. Knock on wood. Watch my car explode or something just to top 'er off. Ugh.

NOW, to end on a happy note! Groundhog Day is on Saturday! My best friend Brillig and I have a special bond with regards to Groundhog Day. It's a really hilarious story that I'll tell for Soap Opera Sunday one of these days, but I wanted to publicly wish Brillig and the rest of you a Happy Groundhog Day! Here's to hoping this blasted winter is over already!!

Over the River and Through the Woods (or Desert)

So tonight we're off to Utah for the Holidays. I'm dreading the drive, but I'm SO excited to be home I can hardly stand it. 10 hours of miserable is easily made up with 11 days of glorious vacation.

I get to see lots and lots of people I've been missing terribly. We get to spend Christmas with part of my family and Matt's. We get to see SNOW! And, most importantly, the annual Katestravaganza birthday party is on again this year! WOOT!

So, a little bus-nass. Those of you who read Brillig know that Soap Opera Sunday is also on vacation for Christmas and those of you who don't, surprise! Soap Opera Sunday is on vacation for Christmas! We didn't plan this in advance, I swear. I know I totally left you guys hanging, but I PROMISE I'll continue with the story after I get home. And, just because I know you'll love it, I'll write enough of the story for two installments in one week. Deal?

I will have internet but I can't promise I'll have the desire to use it. (Wait, who am I kidding. I'm totally addicted.) Let me rephrase . . . I can't promise I'll have the motivation to write anything, but I will see what I can do and try to keep up with all of you.

Happy Festivus for the Rest of Us! Or, just Merry Christmas! Love to you and your families and I hope you all keep safe!

Too tired to think of a title. Got any ideas?

I only have a few minutes but I wanted to update you all on the boring goings on in my life. Because I know you care sooooooo deeply. Or something.

So, in no particular order, I give you:

- I would LOVE to post pictures of the new house for all of you, but somehow in the move, I have misplaced the camera cord. Well, by I, what I actually mean is Matt misplaced it. And by misplaced I mean packed in a box and forgot which one. So um . . . yeah. Sorry about that, but not really because all the pictures are of a HUGE MESS. Our bed is in the family room due to technical difficulties with the frame (which should be fixed tonight. Who knew a 200 lb man doing a superman-esque leap onto the bed after running down the hall at full speed might actually do damage to a bed frame? Oh wait. I did. And I warned him.) and there are boxes and wrappings and blue tape (from finding little things that need to be fixed by the builder) EVERYWHERE. So it's really in no condition to show you.

- We are almost completely moved out of the old house. Now all we have to do is a bit of cleaning. I'm proud to say the house was not that messy. We got the wood floors pretty dirty moving everything around but all in all, I pat myself on the back for being able to keep the house relatively clean over the past six months. It's been helpful in many, many ways. And has sucked and been stressful in many, many ways.

It's bittersweet to be moving out of that house. After spending one night in the new house it seems small, cramped and old, but I still love it. Our blood, sweat and tears went into turning it from a pink carpeted, outdated disaster to something we were proud of. Tomorrow as we do the final cleaning and shut the door for the last time, I will be sad because a very, very happy chapter of Matt's and my life together is ending. We were in love when we got married for sure, but I truly fell madly in love with my husband in that home. I will miss it and be sad. But only on the drive to the new house. Then I will see the new house and I will be happy again because I really LOVE our new house.

- The Great Internet Debacle of 2007 is raging a war at our new house. We had one of the satellite companies come and install our new TV system and they forgot to mention that they were tapping into the cable box in the study . . . which means that the TV in the study works but the cable Internet doesn't. That's a big problem because as nice as a TV is in the study, Internet would be nicer considering it's where the desktop computer lives. The satellite company promised us a phone call in 24-48 hours to arrange a time to fix it and it's now been 48 and no call from them. For now we're thinking wireless on the desktop, but that uses valuable USB cords and heaven knows we need those for multiple iPods, the laser mouse, wireless keyboard . . . you know other junk. So wireless it is for now.

BUT then we tried to use the wireless router. Somehow, on the drive from the old house to the new house, the router broke. It wasn't dropped, damaged . . . who knows what happened. Maybe it's against new construction. However, JUST the wireless part broke, the router part still worked. So we had Internet when we were connected to it through a cable but didn't have wireless. *scratching head here.* So after an hour of trying to figure it out on our own, we decided to do the really dumb thing and call tech support. IN INDIA. (Please note I have nothing against India in general, I just find it very, very difficult to understand and be understood by anyone in another country trying to do TECH SUPPORT.) It was a giant disaster.

"Please plug your modem into the router and then your router into your laptop."

"Done. I have Internet"

"No, take the laptop cord out of the modem and put it in the router and that should get you connected to the Internet"

"Um, that's what is already done. And I have Internet on the laptop."

"I repeat myself kindly please. I need your laptop plugged into the router."

oh.my.gosh. It went on like this for like two hours and three disconnected calls. We finally talked to someone who seemed to understand what was going on and it appears our router stopped assigning an IP address. So um . . . now that means new router or wait for the company to send us a replacement one.

And the money keeps rolling out.

It's expensive to move. And I'm tired of sleeping in the family room and eating fast food. And lifting and unpacking boxes. And not exercising and feeling fat. I want so badly to wave a magic wand and make it all done.

*squinting eyes and waving hands*

Not done?

Crap.

The week during which I poke out my eyeballs with a sharp stick

So um, after traveling like crazy and having late, late, late flights (even later than I thought last time I posted about it.) I came back to a house that HAS to sell in the next six weeks, a new house that will be done in six weeks, a huge party to throw for work and a bunch of other crrrrrap.

So I'm once again apologizing to all of you and telling you that I won't be posting frequently for a while. I suck.

Installment #3 of Soap Opera Sunday is, however, pre-written, so I promise not to let you down there.

Thanks for your patience. Have a lovely day.

Rockin' and Rollin'

Well, considering my brain is fried and I can't think of anything to post about, thank goodness that Brillig pointed out to me today that the super special Amy aka Butrfly thinks that I rock!! I'm so honored, seriously. In my humble opinion, if anyone knows who rocks, it's probably she. Thanks darlin'! I'm totally honored!!

As for who I think is rockin' well . . .

Naturally, my girls, Jewels and Hannah . . . they rock for many reasons, but in this case because we make sweet music together . . .

Also, darling Molly who I still sort of believe is my long lost twin, and then my new favorite friend, Blond-D who I think be mine and Molly's OTHER long lost sister.

Now, I have to go pick my brain and find something real to post about tomorrow. I know Brillig mentioned our inside joke about Groundhog Day, but I think I need to save that for a really rainy day, a day when you guys are deserving something truly special or when I have some significant apologizing via self-inflicted embarrassment to do, so unfortunately you'll have to wait! Sorry about that!

Loving you all and sorry for the dumbness of me.

Cut Off

I can BLOG AGAIN!

I went out of town last Friday, first to visit Kyle, Adie and the new munchkin and then to a huge convention in San Jose for work. Over the weekend, I was busy playing with Hayden and didn't want to stop! In San Jose, the Marriott decided to hate me and not give me internet access in my room. I felt completely cut off from the world. No email, no blogging, no google reader . . . nada.

Sweet heavens I hope that never happens again. I felt as though I'd lost a limb!

I am back and I am exhausted. Fifteen hour days on my feet don't go over so well with ye olde body. I ended up wearing my favorite flip-flops on the last day due to severe foot-swellage which was so bad my feet decided to no longer fit into my shoes. I am considering permanently attaching those flip-flops to my feet. The sole is made of yoga mat. Need I say more?

I don't have too much to say because I spent the last three days pitching eCommerce platforms to online retailers. It's very exciting if you're interested. Or not. I'm still recovering and trying to rediscover my wit and humor. As a reward for being patient with me in my absence, this weekend I am going to publish the details from the BEST.KATEASTROPHE.EVER. Seriously.

So prepare yourselves. It's sooooo good. And thank you for not abandoning me. I've missed you so.