I'm feeling technology challenged

I'm an electronics ho. There. I said it. I love any kind of electronic gadget, you name it, I love it. I'm especially suckered by any new type of technology. Which makes it kind of strange that I didn't get a laptop before now. HP bought the company that my hubby works for so he got a really good deal on a HP Pavillion for me for Christmas. It came early, but I'm really not complaining. But the darn thing is so complicated to me. Maybe I'm just feeling a little dumb. That or Windows Vista really does suck. Nah, I'm not going to blame Vista, it's just I'm really not a computer geek and I'm trying to translate computer geek into something I can understand. Plus I'm a little grumpy because I'm not going to be able to connect wirelessly to our router until Wednesday or Thursday. Hopefully I'll be able to connect to the web with no problems. Nothing new has happened, just taking a week off of work and trying to get holiday stuff done. I've also got quite a bit of back pain going on, even though I've only gained 14 pounds since I got pregnant. It's kind of incapacitating at times, but I'm getting thought it!! Anyway, I'm off to make holiday goodies so I can make other people fat so I won't feel as fat...hey, it's just part of spreading the holiday joy!

Secret's out!

The last time I posted, I said that something did happen and I'm ready to tell all! I'm knocked up! Plus, it's a girl!! Yay!! I'm due in April and so far everything is going well. I was wicked sick for the first trimester, but now, I'm in what they call the honeymoon period of the pregnancy. I'm just trying to enjoy it while it lasts! Other than that little announcement, nothing much has happened. I just made a custom order for some knitting/spinning tools from a seller on Etsy named Karatstix. If you haven't seen her stuff, check it out! It's all handmade and painted and it's really nice stuff! Of course since I'm obsessed with dragonflies, I had to get my tools all with dragonfly designs. Hmm...maybe I should name the new kid after a type of dragonfly....nah...

Wow, has it really been that long since I've posted?

Wow. I had no idea it's been this long since I've posted. Okay I just wicked lied. I know I haven't posted in a long long long time, but it's not like I lead this cool, fascinating life, ya know? Seriously, since April, nothing much has happened in life...well, there I went and lied again. Something did happen, but I'm not gonna share right now. But I will share that my big bro Mark came to visit for a week (and he actually didn't die of boredom!) and ran a marathon here in DE. He came in third in his age group and got a spiffy plaque! Here's a pic and big bro, I'm way proud of you!!

Congrats to my big bro, Mark!!

Congrats to my brother, Mark, who completed his first Boston marathon today!! You rock, big bro!! Congrats and I wish I was there to celebrate with you!!

I survived my first weekend at work and all I got was this eye twitch...

This past weekend was my first weekend experience at my new job! I thought it would be absolute hell, but it was more like purgatory. I would have been fine if it weren't for just stupid problems that just popped up. I do have one thing to say, everyone on my weekend team was spectacular! They all worked like a team and pitched in to help everyone out so that no one was left crying over how much work they had to do! I really feel lucky that I'm working with this crew. I'm now finally getting comfortable on the blood bench, it's taken a while. I think I might be getting my confidence back a little. Hopefully things will keep on getting better and better!

Wii would like to play...

Well. Whadda ya know. I should always know that you'll always regret saying never. I never thought that I'd buy my son a gaming system. I also didn't know that I would send my husband to wait for one for about three hours. The kid originally said he wanted it for Christmas but I told him that I'd have to sell him to get one and that would defeat the purpose. So I said he'd probably get one for his B-day. I didn't think that demand would last this long because we spent Saturday trying to find it. Thanks to a nice young man at Circuit City (thanks Josh! You're invited to a birthday party!) who didn't tell us that they'd have them on Sunday (wink, wink), we were able to obtain the apparently new holy grail. So now I know why all those parents will sit in line for ages just to get their kid something that they wanted. My only hope is that the kid will appreciate it, maybe not right now, but hopefully in the future when he's waiting for hours in the cold to get something for his kid...or me!


One last thing!! Congrats to my big bro Mark for coming in tenth overall, eighth for males, and finally first in his age range (and it wasn't the 80-100 range)!!!!!! Congrats big bro!! I'm proud of you!!

Directionally challenged? You betcha!

First off, I do want to say that I had inspired my brother to start a blog, which is great because this way I can keep up with him and what he's doing, but you know what? He's updating his blog waaay more than I am! I'm feeling like a slacker! Not only do I feel like a slacker, I'm feeling about as deep as a puddle because the last few entries he had were pretty lengthy and deep. My blog is just a little puff of fluff. I can't get too deep because then I just confuse myself. Not that it matters, I'm in a constant state of confusion!

Now on to this entry's topic. Yes, I am directionally challenged. I get lost at a drop of a dime. You can put me on a oval running track and I'll get lost on it. So to help me with this problem, DH bought me a GPS for my car. Actually, it's a GPS for my car or anywhere since it's portable. It's a Garmin nuvi 660 and I'm still trying to figure it out. I have a deep love and obsession with all things electronic that I do believe comes from my father since he seems to lean toward electronics also. I really like the GPS and I've been messing around with it and doing mindless things with it like putting in the street address for my mom and dad's place and seeing how many miles away it is. Too many to drive, but I'm sharpening my fear of flying so I might just have to use it for that one day. I finally installed my dashboard mount for it and I'll be using it to get to work tomorrow, not that I need to, but just for fun. Let's see if I get lost while using it!

Chocolate, anyone?

Okay. Call me crazy. Everyone loves chocolate...well, almost everyone. I have been on a baking splurge lately and one of the things I've been getting into is baking with chocolate. I was looking over my expenditures for my baking chocolate and they've been out of the roof. I decided that buying in bulk was probably my best bet. So I went on line to a reputable chocolate site and I figured that since it was also winter I'd also pay less for shipping since I wouldn't have to have it shipped in a special "non-melt" shipping box. I bought almost five pounds of 70% Sharffen Berger chocolate (if you haven't tried Sharffen Berger yet, you're really missing out) and some small bars of different percentages of El Rey chocolate. I've never tried them so I didn't want to get a whole bunch and not like it, it's a sin to waste chocolate (or coffee and booze). Then I got something that I didn't think existed outside of my dreams. A ten pound block of 62% Guittard chocolate...ten pounds!!!! It's like waking up one day and finding out you just lost that extra ten pounds you put on during the holidays in your sleep!! Yay!! When I got the package in the mail, I opened it up and the smell of almost twenty pounds of chocolate was like chug-a-lugging a six pack of Red Bull. So if you've ever wanted to know what a ten pound block of chocolate looks like, it's your lucky day!!

Monkey sweater...those two words should never be used together...

Today is my last day off before I start my new job. What did I do? Relax, go to the spa, go shopping? No, I spent most of yesterday and half of today making a sweater for a....monkey. Yes, a monkey. Not a real one, mind you, it would have taken me a lot longer than a day and a half for that, but a webkinz monkey who happens to be my son's class pet. Apparently each weekend one lucky boy or girl gets to take "Tyler" home and take care of him. Well, Tyler came to us this weekend wearing only a pair of camouflage shorts and my son thought that since it was winter, Tyler was cold and he needed a hand knitted sweater. Being a good mom, I agreed. I really never thought that I'd actually knit a monkey a sweater...but of course I also never thought I'd get married, have a kid, end up in Rhode Island and then decide to move to Delaware because, hey, it's that much bigger than RI. So here's the fruit of my needles. Please don't laugh.