Who's Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?

I have wanted a 4-poster canopy bed for a long time and last year when I moved to Texas, I got my wish. I bought a bed that I really loved. But the other day, I looked at the bed with new eyes, for some odd reason. I decided that my bed looked kind of 'naked' and I needed to add something.

So, being the impatient person that I am....I went straight to the fabric store and got to work! I decided that I wanted to have kind of a simple, romantic look (even though I'm the only one enjoying it at this point!). I found some fairly inexpensive cream-colored material and played around with different options.

Here are some pictures of my attempts to create 'the effect'....not sure if I have it like I want it yet...I may need to loosen up the fabric some....

Holy Crap - Common Sense prevails!!

For once, I read a news story about politcs and budgeting.....and I was encouraged, enlightened and proud! I don't know if that has ever happened before!! It looks like Minnesota and Wisconsin are going to put aside their football differences (Go Vikes) and other rivalries (Go Gophers) in order to work together to save money for both states. Gotta love Economies of Scale!! (But my guess is that no matter how much you collaberate for the common good.........both states are STILL going to argue over whether it's "Duck Duck Gray Duck" or "Duck Duck Goose")

Minnesota, Wisconsin Looking To Help Each Other Save
By Bill Salisbury bsalisbury@pioneerpress.com
Posted: 01/13/2009 12:01:00 AM CST

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle today signed an agreement to share services in order to cut costs and help both states cope with big budget deficits.

The pact directs agency heads in both states to identify possible areas of cooperation that would cut costs and provide services more efficiently. Minnesota faces a $4.8 billion budget shortfall over the next two years while Wisconsin has a $5.4 billion projected deficit.

During a press conference at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul, Pawlenty, a Republican who initiated the idea, called the agreement a "unique partnership" that has not been tried by other states.

Pawlenty didn't know how much the two states would save but said it would be "millions of dollars and maybe more."

Doyle, a Democrat, said it was an "enormously important opportunity" for both states. Wisconsin and Minnesota are similar in many ways, he said, and both states need to find ways to cut government spending during the current recession.
How would it work? Here's one example: The two states combined buy more than 600 tons of road salt every winter. Pawlenty said they could save nearly $1 million by bulk purchasing.

Doyle said they could also save money by jointly buying software for licensing, bulldozers and other heavy equipment and food for prisons.

They could share fixed assets. For example, Doyle said, Wisconsin could rent Minnesota's helicopter to do its deer counts. They could also share prison and warehouse space and patrol boats.

The two states might also be able to work cooperatively on nursery and hatchery operations, lotteries, call centers, professional licenses and Duluth-Superior harbor inspections.

Doyle said he directed Wisconsin state agency heads to identify areas of possible interstate cooperation and report to him by Feb. 27.

Pawlenty said he wants to implement shared services "as quickly as possible."
He said he hopes the two states' public colleges and universities could cooperate to eliminate unnecessary duplication in research and programs.

Mayce's Moment of Genius

I had lunch with Mayce yesterday and we were talking about our lives (we haven't seen each other much lately, so we were catching up). She was talking about a very frustrating situation that she is dealing with right now and we were comiserating about how we overanalyze EVERYTHING in our lives and make problems worse for ourselves or make them more than they really are (as Mayce calls it - we 'intellectualize' things).......when out of the blue.........she spewed forth a sentence that had me almost falling out of my chair laughing:

"I JUST WISH I WAS A DUMBASS! Then life would just be so much easier!"

I nearly died - we laughed pretty hard at that one. But isn't it true - people who are just oblivious to the rest of the world outside of their little bubble usually have more fun, less worrying, NO overanalyzing, and they usually get others to do their dirty work because they are just too stupid to figure it out on their own and others around them know that and save them from imminent peril!

I think we all know a few people like that. They just never figured out that whole "common sense" thing and just stumble through life......but seem to do OK, because everyone paves the way for them so they don't die of stupidity.

Don't you just want to be 'that guy' or 'that girl' for a day, week or month.....just to see what it's like to be a complete dumbass?? Mayce and I do!!

A Night At The Symphony

Over the weekend, I had the privilege to go on a date to the Fort Worth Symphony! It was a great show and a very fun date. What made the date even more fun was that in the morning of our date, we went to downtown Fort Worth to take a tour of Bass Performance Hall, where the symphony takes place. They do tours on Saturday mornings at 10:30am, so we took advantage of that.

It was just beautiful inside! The theater holds about 2,000 people and has an "old" feel - very classy and formal, but yet modern at the same time.



All of the seats in the theater are made from short-hair goat and our tour guide said that all of the goats that were going to be used to make the seats were all fed the exact same diet so that all of their hair would be the same texture and color when they went to dye it for the seats!

Here is a shot of the ceiling:

One other fun fact that I learned is that most of the engineering machinery is housed in a building across the street - with the purpose of eliminating any possible vibration in the actual performance hall. Their whole HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning) system is kept across the street and piped in underneath the street!

It was a fabulous tour and made us appreciate the actualy show even more. Here are a few pics of Fort Worth at night - from the balcony at the symphony!

iPOD Conspiracy

Maggie and have been getting up really early in the morning and walking 3 miles before I go to work. In order to convince me (a night girl all the way) to get up early and exercise before the sun comes up, I have required some good tunes on my iPOD.

I put about 230 songs on my iPOD and I basically just choose "Shuffle Songs" and let it give me a different combination of tunes each day. That sounds like a good plan to get a variety of music, right? Well, I am convinced that there is an iPOD conspiracy where it only wants me to listen to about 40 of the songs - not the other 190 of them.

Is the "Shuffle Songs" thing really random or is there a little music gnome inside of there just trying to annoy me before I've had caffeine each morning?! Why won't it randomly shuffle ALL of the songs evenly?!

Speaking of friends.../Jet Airliner

I'm super excited today because some college friends of mine are going to be flying to Dallas to visit in March - so far it's Renee, Jamie and Rachel. Woo hoo! I haven't seen them in a long time - I think since Allison's wedding when I was in Minnesota the last time (Nov. 2007)! It just made my day to know that in less than 2 months I'll see them and we will have a weekend to hang out and play. These girls are college friends and I think I've lived with all of them at one time or another! Jamie and I traveled all over Europe together and even visited Rachel & Renee in England since they were studying abroad there while Jamie and I were in Spain. They have been great friends and I cannot wait for them to arrive!

I even baked a cake to celebrate their upcoming visit (below).....ok, no, I didn't. I stole this picture from somewhere in cyberspace. But it's the thought that counts, right??

Make New Friends, But Keep The Old. One Is Silver And The Other Is Gold.

Does anyone recognize my blog title as a Girl Scout song they sang as a child?? I do!! It just popped in my head as I was thinking of what to call this post about meeting new friends! HA!

OK, anyway...this blog post is going to be very candid and pensive - beware, the 'Overanalyzer' is in full force today.....

Lately I have been thinking, brainstorming, and trying to figure out why it is so hard to meet friends down here. I have been here since mid-March of last year, so about 10 months. The last year has been a complete whirlwind of 'firsts': home buying, home improvement, going back to Accounting, learning the area, traveling, doing touristy stuff, holding a baby goat, etc - ya know, the usual stuff. :)

However, in the midst of all of that excitement, I find that I haven't met more than a few close friends yet. Everyone at work is nice, friendly, and fun to be around.....however, once the end of the work day comes, they all disappear to their spouses and kids. The company I work for has a great workplace culture, but unfortunately for me, it is a culture of 'family' people. I don't mean to say that in a negative way, because after all, that's what I want the most - a family of my own! But for a single person without children moving to a new area and not knowing a soul, it has ended up being a barren place to meet friends beyond the confines of the work day and building walls. Mayce has been my friend from work that I spend a lot of free time with (reference - the baby goat holding extravaganza!!) and that has been a wonderful blessing and we have lots of fun together. But other than that, I have had to do my friend-searching elsewhere. I guess I took for granted the fact that I met some lifelong good friends at my first job out of college at BI when I moved back to Minneapolis from Wisconsin (Lindsay, Shooter, Abby, etc.), as well as my job in Toledo at the SeaGate Centre (Colleen, Danielle, Janis, Jeff, Kate, Colby, Steve, etc.) when I was starting over in Ohio. Those were pivotal times of change and God put those amazing friends right in front of me. I was spoiled and I didn't even know it! It is proving to be much more difficult here in Texas and I'm not sure why.

Where would a 31-year-old divorced, professional woman with no kids find new friends? My first stop was a small group at church, since I wanted to get involved in one anyway (for the content) and also because that's how I met most of my super fabulous friends in Ohio (under much worse and more stressful circumstances, no less). So it took me months and months to even find a church I liked and now I have found a co-ed small group in Arlington that I really like. I am developing friendships with those people and I am looking forward to more fun with them in the future.

I have also joined several "Meetup" groups (http://www.meetup.com/) and gotten involved in some great activities that way (the museum day in Fort Worth, Dallas Stars games, walking tour of downtown Dallas, etc.).

But yet.....I feel tremendous loneliness sometimes. As I talk to people on the phone (people who read this blog), it became apparent to me recently that I keep almost all of my loneliness out of this blog. Some of that is conscious and some of it is apparently unconscious.

If I'm really struggling with feeling lonely, I try to take a break from blogging for a number of reasons:

1. I don't want to spread my negativity on that particular day - why be a downer?

2. This is a public forum and is out on the internet, so I keep some things off of here and save it for private conversations with people on the phone or email.

3. I have been whining, lamenting and dying to be here, so it seems ridiculous to complain now that I achieved my dream.

4. I don't want to get in the habit of having pity parties now that I'm experiencing a great new time in my life, so I do not allow myself to expand the pity party to my blog.

But some days, I just have a bad day and there's no one to give me a hug and tell me that it's not the end of the world and that it's going to be fine. That was one aspect of being married that I miss terribly - having someone at home that can hug you, comfort you, encourage you, console you, celebrate with you, etc. - no matter what 'the world' may dish at you all day. I'm a high-strung person, so I need reassurance sometimes and many times in the last year that need has gone unmet...and most of those times are because I didn't reach out and make my needs known (however, that whole hug part has to be virtual because of the geographical distance!).

I miss my Wednesday night home group from Toledo SOOO very much - especially on a bad day. They can always make me laugh, cheer me up, listen, offer advice, call me out on things when my thoughts are going in the wrong direction, etc. I guess I am just incredibly IMPATIENT (wow - imagine that, me....impatient??? NO - never lol) and I want to have a network of good friends already set up here and trust built, but that takes time.

This past year has been incredibly rewarding, but at the same time, terrifying. I was scared to death to come down here and start a life by myself, but I knew I just had to do it. I think I was going to explode if I didn't! I don't regret it - I absolutely love Texas and I feel like I belong here, but I am just lacking companionship. Can someone out there reassure me that it's in the works and that I just need to be patient and it will happen???

And for all of you that are reading from far-away places - I miss you so much and I think about you often. I wish you were all my next door neighbors and I could see you every day. :) I'm so very fortunate and blessed to have the friends that God has put in my path. I know it wasn't an accident that I met all of you.

(**Note to self: Blog like this more often - man, does it feel good to get those thoughts and feelings out.)

In a Pickle

My friend Colleen sent me this link and I think it's FABULOUS! A whole website dedicated to PICKLES! I have been a pickle fanatic since I was a little kid.....basically I cannot remember a time when I wasn't in love with dill pickles. I used to cut them up in little pieces and eat them as a snack. They are also my favorite food at amusement parks & fairs - PICKLE ON A STICK for me!!

I'm not sure how or why I started to love them so much, but they are my favorite food....but only the DILL kind. I think bread & butter pickles and sweet pickles are nasty - yuck. I think that if I had to pick my 'last meal', it would definitely include a jar of wonderful dill pickles. :)

Check it out!

http://www.ilovepickles.org./

PS - It might sound neurotic, but when I went on Google image search to find pictures of pickles to illustrate this blog post.....I actually felt my mouth salivating just looking at pictures of the pickles!! HA!

Coyote Ugly - UPDATE

The other day (two Sundays ago), I was minding my own business and watching the Vikings lose to Philadelphia in the playoffs (but I didn't know they were going to lose at the time, so I wasn't in a bad mood yet). My doorbell rings and my next door neighbor is standing there. I invite him in and he proceeds to tell me about a storage shed that he wants to build in his backyard that will protrude above our fence line, so he wants my approval that he can build it to take to the Board of our homeowners association to get final approval. OK, whatever, build your shed, whatever. Just let me get back to my game! Well, he was a chatty cathy and pretty much talked for an entire quarter of the game - ugh. I thought it would be rude to run over to my remote control and 'pause live TV', so I just endured the small talk (which I hate).

However, all of this isn't the point of this blog post......the reason I'm blogging about this visit is about the coyotes that are in the field next to my neighborhood. I was mentioning said coyotes to him and he perked right up and said "Oh, I love those coyotes - can you hear them at night?? We feed them!" I nearly fell over... you WHAT?! Are you kidding me?! Have you lost your mind?! What is wrong with people?!

Missin' You, Snard!

OK, back in 2008 I learned a new work - SNARD. It is in the Urban Dictionary, so I'm not making this up. Snard is the snow/ice/dirt conglomerate that hangs from cars in hard clumps in the winter. I just have this overwhelming compulsion to kick those off - the bigger the chunk, the better! I know I'm not alone in this simple pleasure!

Iris' Jeep used to taunt me when I worked at the SeaGate Centre in Toledo - it usually had some fabulous snard on it, but since we have security cameras down there, I felt a little weird about walking up to cars and 'kicking' them! But I know that Iris would understand that I NEEDED to kick the snard off her car. :)

This is one of the things I REALLY miss about living in the north during the winter months......one of the FEW things. But if I'm being honest, I would have to admit that I miss the snow a little bit - just a really good hard snowfall......but then again, a 'really good hard snowfall' up in Toledo 2 years ago caused me to have to cancel a vacation to see my Mom and I also had to SHOVEL MY YARD so that Maggie would have a cleared out area in the grass to go potty. SICK!!!

To-Do List

HAPPY NEW YEAR

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.
2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
3. Buy a DVR and tape your late night shows and get more sleep.
4. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, 'My purpose is to __________ today.'
5. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
6. Play more games and read more books than you did in 2008.
7. Make time to practice meditation and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.
8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.
9. Dream more while you are awake.
10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured IN plants.
11. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds, & walnuts.
12. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
13. Clear clutter from your house, your car, your desk, and let new and flowing energy into your life.
14. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, OR issues of the past, negative thoughts, or things you cannot control. Instead, invest your energy in the positive present moment.
15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class, but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.
17. Smile and laugh more. It will keep the NEGATIVE BLUES away.
18. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
20. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
21. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
22. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
23. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
24. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?'
26. Forgive everyone for everything.
27. What other people think of you is none of your business.
29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
30. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
31. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful, or joyful.
32. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
33. The best is yet to come.
34. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, and show up.
35. Do the right thing!
36. Call your family often. (Or e-mail them to death!)
37. Each night before you go to bed, complete the following statements: I am thankful for __________. Today I accomplished _________.
38. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.
39. Enjoy the ride. Remember this is not Disney World and you certainly don't want a fast pass. You only have one ride through life, so make the most of it and enjoy the ride.
40. Share this with those you care about. I just did. May your troubles be less, May your blessings be more, May nothing but happiness come through your door! Happppy 2009!

Vet Update

I took Maggie to the vet to have him look at a little bump on her back. He called her "Little Red", which I thought was really cute. She seemed to like him and wasn't nervous at all (but she was VERY curious about the meowing she heard through the exam room door!). He looked at and felt the little bump and didn't seem too concerned about it. He said that we're just going to keep an eye on it and that I should check it about every week to see if it gets any bigger. If it does, then I need to take her back in to see him. Otherwise, we are going to re-evaluate it in May when she's due for her annual shots....So basically I don't have any definitive answers, but I'm just going to stay calm and monitor it.....

PS - They weighed her at the vet and she weighs 12.1 pounds. All of the documentation on mini dachshunds indicates that the mini's are between 10-12 pounds. So Maggie is a freak? No, she is just extra long for a mini. Most mini's are a little less stretched out and lengthy. hahaha The vet says she looks great.

I'm proud of "Little Red" for being such a good girl at the vet!

Crouching Dog, Hidden Wiener

OK, the cutest thing just happened - I knew Maggie was hiding in my bed under the covers to take a nap, so I just went in there and said "Where's Maggie??" and I just saw the lump under the covers which was her body, but then at the end of it, I saw her tail start wagging under the blanket when she heard her name. Agh - I LOVE it!

It Was The Best Of Times, It Was The Worst Of Times

Can you believe this article about a lottery ticket?? How's that for leaving an inheritance?!

Conn. man's last lotto ticket wins $10M for widow

DANBURY, Conn. – On the day that Donald Peters died, he unknowingly provided financial security for his wife of 59 years and their family.

Peters bought two Connecticut Lottery tickets at a local 7-Eleven store on Nov. 1 as part of a 20-year tradition he shared with his wife Charlotte. Later that day, the 79-year-old retired hat factory worker suffered a fatal heart attack while working in his yard in Danbury.

On Friday, his widow cashed in one of the tickets: a $10 million winner which, in her grief over her husband's death, she had put aside and almost discarded before recently checking the numbers.

"I'm numb," Charlotte Peters, 78, said at Connecticut Lottery headquarters in Rocky Hill.
Donald Peters usually bought the tickets for 10 weeks at a stretch, so the winning ticket he bought Nov. 1 for the Dec. 2 drawing was among several that Charlotte Peters put aside as she, their three children and two grandchildren coped with his sudden death.

"I was in the grocery store and I had it checked and they told me I was a winner," she said. "I had no idea how much it was."

She said she thought she had won $6 million but was surprised to learn from lottery officials she'd won $10 million.

Charlotte Peters has 60 days to decide whether to take a $6 million pre-tax lump sum payment or stretch the winnings into 21 yearly payments of almost $477,300 each.

She does not yet know what she will do with the money.

"I've always wanted a Corvette, but I don't think I'll buy one. I'll stick to a small car. I might go to Mohegan Sun," she said, referring to the casino in Connecticut. "I'm going to go home and sit and think."

The Peters children think their father would have appreciated the irony.

"He'd be very mad, he just passed away and she won a lot of money," said Brian Peters, one of the couple's three children. "He'd say, 'Figures!'"

Scoring a GOAL

OK, so the Vikings didn't score enough 'goals' in the playoffs, but those aren't the type of goals that I'm talking about anyway....I'm talking about new goals for the New Year - 2009! For the last five years, I have sat down on New Year's Day and made a list of goals for the coming year. I try to make them specific, measurable, and realistic so I'm more likely to work toward achieving them.

(Sidenote: One of the goals that appeared year after year at the top of my list was "Move to Texas" and each year it went unfulfilled. This year I was able to cross that one off with a big fat Sharpie!!)

I would highly recommend taking the time to set goals for yourself and putting them on paper. I print copies of my goals and keep them in my planner, at my desk at home, on the wall in my bathroom, etc. The more I look at them, the more likely I am to work harder to achieve them!

Here is an article about the Top 10 Goals people set for 2009 (the only thing I don't like about this article/list of goals is that they are very vague - goals need to be more measurable. For instance..instead of "Lose Weight" it should be "Fit into size X jeans" or something like that):

The Top Ten New Years Resolutions For 2009 - Trying to Improve

By Richard McDuff

Every year it seems to be the same 10 top resolutions. Why? Because they are just so hard to keep! The only two resolutions listed below that I was able to keep were the quit smoking and get more exercise. I hope that you have better luck than I did. My list includes many of the items listed below, but this article is not about Richard's New Years Resolutions, but the top 10 Resolutions.

Here is the list:

1. Get Out of Debt
This is going to be a hard one to keep, with the economy going the way it is going. People are using their credit cards for basic purchases, like gas, food, etc. With the fear of losing their jobs or even their homes. This will be the number one fear of many Americans.

2. Stop smoking
This one should be fairly easy to keep. With governments taxing customers, and the legislation that makes smokers feel so uncomfortable, it should be the one anybody can keep.

3. Get Fit
This is an excellent habit to get into. Once you start it, you will want to continue until you can not.

4. Lose Weight
It is amazing how many overweight people there are in America. I was a physically fit person until I moved to the North East. Than I ballooned up to 286 lbs and had high blood pressure. It has been a long battle, but the weight is coming down.

5. Enjoy Life More
The key here is to find something you love, and do it until you are an expert. You can than teach other people what to do and hopefully start a business doing what you love. With a good grounding in marketing you can always find customers.

6. Quit Drinking
If drinking is a problem for you than you should seek medical advice and attention. Alcholol is an addictive drug, and you will need some serious attention.

7. Get Organized
With the help of a PDA (many cell phones now have these), getting organized is so much simpler. In the old days we had to use index cards and brick tablets. These PDAs help with the mundane stuff, in order that you can get on with the serious things in live.

8.. Learn Something New
If you love to learn this is so exciting. Why should the young be the only ones to learn? In the past year or so, I have taken up art. I love it, it is so relaxing.

9. Spend more time with the Family
This is where you have to think of quality time, and how you should spend it with your family. What can you and your family do together. Hold a little family council, and see what they like to do together.

10. Help Others
This can be an rewarding endeavor. It does necessarily mean doing things for the low income and the needy. It also can mean helping young kids learn a sport, or recreational activity, etc.