So, I was...

...driving home after crashing dinner at my parents house this evening when my heart jumped out of my chest. Why is it, that seeing a deer's behind dashing along the side of the road at night when you're traveling 70 mph can get your heart racing so fast?

Anyway, the evening went quite well. I learned over dinner that a puzzle I gave Grandpa for Christmas only had 474 pieces instead of 504. I guess it serves me right for purchasing it at the dollar store, but the dog was just so darn cute. Grandpa was also disappointed, so I had to right the situation.

I hijacked Mom and drove to Deals in Pekin in search of the same dog puzzle. Our Deals is sure to have the same products as the Deals in St. Charles, MO, right? Yes in deedy! I bought the only two in the whole store. Hopefully Grandpa can get one whole puzzle out of three boxes of pieces.

Can you help think of...

...the Top 10 reasons Jane's Co-workers should not leave her alone in the office?

'Tis the season...

...for spending time with family, and that I did. I had a wonderful "Christmas Break" and have sufficiently bummed around today so that I may be ready to go to work tomorrow. For some reason I got a newspaper today, so I took the chance to look at the ads. I might actually try to hit Target before I head into the office tomorrow. We shall see how awake I am in the morning.

Have a wonderful day! Jane

How you should NOT light a candle.

This is a "snapshot" of what my microwave looked like when I tried to melt the wax in a glass candle jar, so I could clean the jar and recycle it. Once upon a time the wick had gotten consumed by the wax and was no longer burnable.

Little did I know the teeny-tiny wick holder at the bottom had some metal in it. Within 6 seconds of pressing start, sparks were flying in the microwave and the flame looked like a blow torch. The glass even got scorched along the bottom where the metal was.

I strongly suggest NOT using your microwave to light a candle, although it is possible. Not that I was trying, but Myth CONFIRMED.

Gotta send another HOLLA!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM!!!
I hope you have a splendiferous day!

On to other news... I had a couple pop-ins yesterday! Thank you to the Iadipaolo's and Matt. It was wonderful. Below you can see Sophia using a flashlight through the cat door to find "chicken cat". Sure enough, he was sitting on step number two.

Saving the Snow

Does anyone have some extra freezer space I can use? The snow in my yard is melting at a rapid pace and I'd like it to stick around until Christmas. I was thinking... if I could fill up a bunch of freezers with snow and then get it out Tuesday morning, I'd be set. Sure, it may freeze into large blocks, but I could use a hammer and my Magic Bullet to turn it back into snow flakes. Then the ShopVac will come in handy. Put the snow in there and hit reverse to blow it back out into the yard. I better make sure I have a long enough extension cord to reach the whole yard.

Wednesday was better than Tuesday

Why is that, you ask? Well, my stomach didn't feel like it was on fire today. Plus, I had more to do at work, so the day went by much faster. And I smoked Jenny in the "name that tune" game.

Did you know that cats don't make good windows, and their hair static clings to a computer screen? Also, it's possible for a screen door to take off your shoe... I almost fell into my house when I got home from work today. It pretty much cracked me up.

Well, I'm going to go fix some cereal for dinner.
Later, Jane

A very sad bundt cake.

I gotta send a Holla out to my Momma.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOMMA!

I hope you have a wonderful birthday and your birthday dessert looks more delicious then the one we attempted to make this past weekend. A note to all: pay attention to "best if used by" dates on packages, especially when they say July 2005.

New Snow Creation

It was quite chilly outside today, so I only spent enough time to shovel a majority of the driveway and the sidewalks. Jack basically turned into a gigantic ice cube, so there wasn't much hope in putting him back together.

Instead, I opted to make a snow angel in my footprint free backyard. It was like a beautiful sea of snow.

Bad News and Good News

Unfortunately, Jack's head fell off overnight, but the good news!... it's snowing today, so I should be able to put "humpty-dumpty" back together again.

Let's hear it for the snow!
Holla!

Waiting for supper to finish baking.

Today was quite the interesting day. It started off with me not being able to get out of my garage. Then I played www.freerice.com at work. Why? well, I wasn't very busy. I made it up to 10,020 grains of rice. I called Waste Management and signed up for curbside recycling... that was quite exciting. I'll be able to get rid of the pile of cans and plastic in the corner of my kitchen. Now I'm at home with my car parked comfortably in the garage and I'm waiting for my cardboard pizza to finish cooking. mmmm...pizza. Soon enough I will be watching the finale of America's Next Top Model.

A quick update on Jack... he lost his nose and several buttons. He has a slight lean. It kind of looks like he's prepping for a limbo contest. I might have to put him out of his misery tomorrow.
Have a good one!

Tonight, I can declutter no more.

I had the best of intentions to get my computer room organized this evening, but I've run out of energy. I think the rum cake really took something out of me today. Plus, this project could literally take me a whole weekend to go through everything and decide what to keep, toss, or possibly sell. At least I don't have any leftover mystery boxes from the move. Although, I am unable to find my guitar lessons guide. I really hope to find that soon. I'd really like to try out the left handed guitar I traded my righty for.

He Shall be Named Jack

I like the name Jack, it fits pretty well. It'll be interesting to see what happens to Jack during the next day or two. Will the precipitation form a nice hard coating on Jack, almost as if he were shellacked? Will the rain and ice extend his life or bring him to an early demise?

I can't wait to see, this should be interesting! It would be so cool if he turned into a sculpture like this.

Help name the snowperson.

I had a half day of work today and then went to see Beowulf in 3D with Mom. It was really cool, but the storyline wasn't really up my alley today. I could have used a good laugh, so I think Bee Movie would have been more appropriate. Anyway, trying to waken myself, I decided to shovel my drive and sidewalk after Mom went home.

As you can see, I eventually got a little sidetracked. I wonder what people shopping at Trefzgers thought of me. Oh well, I guess I'll never know. Now, I need your help. Help me come up with some good names for my snowperson before it melts and freezes on my driveway... or gets destroyed by some hooligans overnight.
Can you think of any good names?

Oops, I just realized I forgot a mouth... maybe I'll have a chance to add one tomorrow.

Watching the snow.

Apparently Velma is just as excited as some of us are about getting snow. I hope there will be enough to play in this weekend!

Who doesn't like a field trip?

Myself and several coworkers got to go on a field trip today! We started organizing the "junk" closet at work and took two carloads of file boxes to Charlie's house. His family has an absolutely beautiful home and they live in a nice area of Edwards, just west of Peoria. After that, he treated the six of us to lunch at Ludy's for some down home cookin'! The fun didn't stop there, we headed over to Adam's house to say hi to him and Louie, a mid-size poodle.

Right now I'd like to take the time to thank the utility workers who helped this happen. Thank you for cutting the phone and internet lines. It allowed us to free up some space in the office and get outside for some fresh air.

Outsmarting Myself

Last time I did my bills, I got on a kick of trying to pay my accounts online if possible and getting rid of the paper statements. So far I've come across two confusing items since that day. I'm normally quite good at documenting my spending, but I outsmarted myself on these.

I lost check number 1306. Not sure if maybe I wrote it out, then tore it up when I paid online? And then tonight I noticed this login, password, and code I wrote down to one of the accounts I started. I thought I knew which one it was for, but apparently I was wrong. I suppose I'll hold on to it. The mysterious account is sure to resurface sometime in the near future.

For some of you... yes, younger people do forget things too.

If you could be a cookie, what kind would you be?

I would probably be a very colorful spritz cookie, almond flavored of course. Today was holiday cookie baking day with a few of my coworkers. I could post photos of the work in progress, but I might get in trouble... I didn't have them sign and photo release forms.

Why not post a picture of the cookies? Well, after giving cookies to Grandpa, Mom, Dad, Tom, Laura, Sandra, and Vince, I don't have a wide variety left. They took their favorites, which were not my favorites. Now I just have my favorites, a few spritz and peanut butter kisses....mmmm.

What did you do Friday Night?

I hijacked Mom and we went the Peoria Civic Center to watch the 2007 CMT Change Tour. We saw Jake Owen, Little Big Town, and my favorite, Sugarland. Talk about concerts! They topped them all!