I was bound and determined to get out of the house today. My cold is past the endless tissue stage into the Elmer glue stage. So when the first snowflakes started to fly, I really got myself going and gathered up about 7 packages plus all my Christmas cards to mail. The post office wasn’t too bad. I usually am really orderly and they love that about me-lol. But, because my package to Ireland was larger or something, I had to fill in another larger custom’s form. I hate saying what’s in the package as it’s suppost to be a surprise. Then some of my Christmas cards were bulky and needed more postage. I bought a few sheets of 23¢ cent stamps and stood and ‘weighed’ each card (I can determine postage pretty well now) out in the lobby. I still have about 8 packages to mail over the next few weeks. Some can be stamped by me.
I even managed to get a decent food order though I forgot dish soap and dry cat food. Darn! I was trying to fill my brown paper bag with frozen things and the deal was to get an extra 10% off those items. I saved an extra $4.00!
Not much decorating here. I think this weekend looks promising for the inside decor, mainly the tree. We bought an artificial one last year that opens like an upside down umbrella. I did put up my Snowman triple wreath that I made a few years ago. He has cone shaped clear lights on him.
Tomorrow I have to clean for the Comcast guy-basically around the computer. I don’t know where he will run the cable for broadband.
Does anyone know if you can get sick from someone who has a cold sore other than getting one yourself? My mom had a nasty cold sore (I don’t remember her having any before this one) at Thanksgiving and then I got the bad cold, so I was wondering if she gave me a virus.

Mister snowman (from a few years ago). He actually looks better with his lights turned on!

I look so attractive with my puffy eyes. Even Brian said, ‘Are you sure you don’t need some medicine, you don’t look so good.’ Looks like I’ve been crying over 5 sad movies in a row. I am sick of being sick with this dumb cold. I haven’t had a cold like this in ages. I have a Christmas schedule that I try to adhere to every blasted year. The cards are written out. The decorations outside are still in their boxes. I can only do so much.
I made dinner and the chicken was like shoe leather. I used my George Foreman grill knock-off (it’s like 10 yrs old anyway) to make the chicken have those grill marks. It looked good. Then I dumped it in the sauce and the toughness took over. It was a Betty Crocker box mix I was trying to ‘doctor’ up (doctor, ha ha!) It was similar to the chicken dish I love at the Olive Garden. I did print out that recipe which is lost in here somewhere.
I actually finished a cross stitched item as a gift. It’s not finished all the way. I need motivation to finish it and three other things, like a body power surge. I got other gift things together to analyze what I can send this week and what I can send next week.
I sure hope I can get out tomorrow as I’ve been house bound for 4 days. We are expecting a few inches of snow in the late afternoon or early evening.
Darn, need a tissue. I’m investing in Puffs.

Do you have rules in the way you stitch? (i.e., Do you start in the middle? Do you determine which blocks to stitch first? Do you always start from the top or the bottom? Do you have special paths to prevent wasting thread?)
After a few decades of stitching this is what works best for me. I start up at the left hand corner and work down. I tried in the middle, but working up is frustrating. My friend Nancy said she starts in the right corner and works over to the left. Not necessarily a leftie trait, my dear.

Yep, almost 12 hours in bed for lil’ old me. I haven’t been sleeping well because of my post nasal drip. My cold has finally settled in my sinuses, lucky me. I could barely keep my eyes open by 9:30 last night. By 10:15 I hit the hay. I normally am up until I get tired until about 1 am or so, so my guys knew I wasn’t up to par. I didn’t get to sleep for a while though. I was up at 5:45 am eating something and letting the cat up. I then went back to bed until 10. Exciting, isn’t it? Brian has a cold too and I am praying Sean won’t get it as final week is coming up.
All my Christmas cards are filled in and stamped. I have to make sure I have enough postage on some of the heavier ones.
Phase Two for Christmas is decorating outside. With my cold, I thought I’d skip that until next week or so unless someone else wants to decorate. We are suppose to get some snow, so that may have to be postponed anyway.
You should have seen me trying to cross stitch last night. I was missing the holes and it took 10 minutes to do 10 stitches. Needless to say, I gave that up.
I feel better today, but I’m not pushing myself to do anything except to maybe clean off the dining room table. That seems tame enough.
I just read on the website ‘Dead or Alive’ (we were wondering if someone they were showing on tv was still with us and he still is-Sherwood Schwartz the creator of the Brady Bunch is 89) and I saw that comedic actress Wendie Jo Sperber had passed away at age 47. She was the cute chubby actress on ‘Bosom Buddies’, Tom Hanks first (and only?) tv show. She had been an 8 year survivor of breast cancer and helped to promote the breast cancer postage stamps. Sorry to read this.

I can’t believe it’s here already. I managed to order three gifts (four if you count something I ordered for myself) from Overstock.com today(they had $1 shipping). I found a site that tells you which online sites have discounts and discount codes. I’ll check more into them. I am not buying alot, so I want to be very selective.
As I type, I am printing off about 10 photo collage newsletters. They are taking forever. I had to buy two new ink cartridges and nicer paper today-$30! I had gone out late to run errands as I am still sluggish, but not terrible. I didn’t go to my mom’s again. I’ll try tomorrow, but that’s also Friday, so I don’t know what I’ll do.
Earlier I was proofreading a paper that Sean is writing with his English group on the recent wars in the former Yugoslavia. Talk about dry material! They read ‘The Bone Woman’, so they had to pick a subject relating to that. I think it needs some more tweaking.
I almost have all my Christmas cards written out. I plan to skip some people who just never send any back. I am also sending to a few online friends who haven’t written lately. I’ve been friends with these couple of people for about 7-8 years. It’s too bad when they stop all communication. One has a rare condition and I was afraid to call her. I did a search and she had made a page about people sending cards to her mom who has lung cancer. It hasn’t been updated since early September. Hopefully my card will answer some questions.

Found this on Mariska Hargitay’s website (saw a link on another blog that said she was expecting!)
SELF-ESTEEM QUIZ RESULTS
Excellent Sense Of Self
You are great at weathering storms and picking yourself up when you are down. You know where to go to get help when you’re not feeling so good about yourself, whether it’s a friend, relative or someone else who you know sees you in the best light. Not only do you feel like you are a worthy person but you also feel strong enough to be there for others and it is through helping others that you also garner some of your sense of self. The fact that you feel you have a lot to be proud of means that you can take even the smallest accomplishments and recognize how they can be just as important as the bigger ones. You are the kind of person who is good at looking at the big picture. You know that what is happening today is not necessarily true for the rest of your life and you are strong enough to get past the bad days—you know that as time moves on, you are only going to get better and better!

I decided to work on the annual newsletter for the Christmas cards. I use to write about what we did during the year, but that isn’t really exciting. Photos tell the story so much better. Of course 2005 was Sean’s year. At least it helped me not think about my drip drip. I am a little better, but something irritated my throat. Brian got us pizza, so I appreciated that.

~Update-I can never leave these projects alone. No way was I sending out a collage of myself wearing a bathing suit so I subbed it with Sean and me in EPCOT. My older brother would tease the heck out of me. Brian said it needed to be more festive so I added Christmas balls, gifts and branches.

My day has been ruined-no eyeglass shopping, etc. I had ‘ants’ crawling down one side of my throat all night. I guess it’s post nasal drip. I did finally fall asleep after using Flonase (as a last resort), but I am miserable again. I am thinking it may be from a variety of things from moving around dusty items (the box spring had all this pulverized rubber or whatever on it from the mattress cover and guess who had to clean that off?) Then to add insult to injury, I was raking leaves at my mom’s house on Sunday. No wonder I am whacked out. I hope that’s it and I can get over it quickly. Wish me luck.

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Conan O’Brien mentioned the guy who dumped his mother’s ashes on the playing field during a football game in Philly this past weekend. That was her final wish. That must have been fun to clean up!
…Christopher Noteboom faces a charge of defiant trespass.
His mother died of emphysema in January and he says she “never cared for any other team except the Eagles.” He tells local TV that now she’ll “always be a part of Lincoln Financial Field and the Eagles.”
Police say they have “zero tolerance” for people who run on the field. The Eagles say they’ve gotten requests to spread ashes in the past but don’t permit it.

It’s been in the 60s around these parts. Talk about messing with your sinuses-ugh! Tonight my throat feels funny. Brian says his throat is clogged. It’s been raining buckets all night.I guess it could have been snow if it was colder. If it’s almost December, so I prefer colder weather.
My neighbor just shot an 8 point deer near our side yard and he did it on his 75th birthday yesterday. I was talking to his wife about our lousy trash service and she filled me in on the deer. He had just killed one on a recent trip too. We were saying with all the deer around how it was amazing how neither of us (or our guys) had seen that many ticks. That’s a good thing.
Sean is working on one of his last papers of the semester on the last war in the former Yugoslavia. It was suppose to be a group project and the other guys aren’t doing their share. I tried to proof read the draft, but couldn’t follow this one section with a jumble of facts. I told Sean he really needs to organize those facts to make the professor happy. And to make matters worse, one of his team members called at 10:30 tonight to say his grandmom was in an accident. Geez.
Tomorrow I’m going to mom’s and maybe look for glasses where they won’t rob me. Sean picked up his pair today and the new rectangular shaped, dark pewter framed glasses look nice on him. The sunglass part is detachable, but they can also flip up. Hope he is careful with them.

Brian was reading that Stan Berenstain who co-wrote all the Berenstain books with his wife Jan just passed away at the age of 82 at his home in Bucks County, Pa. Now I never knew they were from up that way, one of my favorite PA spots. Sean said he didn’t remember the name, but he definitely had a few Berenstain books as I probably did as the couple started writing the books in 1962. If he saw the drawings of the bear family, he would remember. A salute to Stan for his bear books concerning family relationships. I think I even have a cross stitch leaflet featuring the Berenstain bears!