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December 30, 2008

Blogging from My Phone

Just testing to see if I can blog from my phone. Hey, it works! Except I can't upload pictures. :-(

So we managed to get thru the hectic holiday season in tact...but just barely. Between the NSG Christmas party, the Intersect company party, Christmas shopping, the Bucks' Christmas Eve family gathering, Christmas in Kalamazoo with the Surakomols, Christmas day with The Nance and cooking Christmas dinner Saturday for the Shorkeys and Greg & Andrea, it was great, but I need a vacation!! Not to mention we're in crunch mode at work to make our deadline.

Saw flights to Hawaii in January for $550. Don's also talking about the possibility of going to the Bahamas or maybe a Caribbean cruise! I'd love to go...hope we can swing it. Don's got credit card points to pay for it, but figuring out when to go will be the trick. My contract might end Jan. 15 so I may have lots of free time. Sucks though that when we come back, I'll be looking for a job. But whatever.

Posted by Amy at 12:17 AM | Comments (0)

December 18, 2008

Japanese Martial Arts Center Promo

My sensei made a promotional video and the guy who filmed it put it on Youtube...it's pretty cool! Don and a couple of my friends got to be in it with Suino Sensei. I really like how it's edited and the music that was chosen to go with it. If I wasn't already a member, I'd wanna sign up right now! Watch it here and enjoy. :D

Posted by Amy at 10:19 PM | Comments (0)

December 17, 2008

I Hate Waiting

Oh for cryin' out loud. Today, I went to my doctor's office for a scheduled appointment. I left the office at 10:30 to make sure I got there in time since the roads are still very snowy. I get there at 11:00 for my appointment at 11:10. Made good time.

So I'm sitting, waiting for the nurse to call me in. 11:10 comes, she calls someone else. Ok, fine. 15 minutes goes by, they call another person. Ugh. Another 15 minutes (enter the theme from Jeopardy) and they call yet another person. Another 10 minutes (here comes the key change in the Jeopardy theme) and by now, I'm getting really antsy. I check with the receptionist to make sure they didn't lose my file or forget about me; she says the doctor was really backed up and I'm supposed to be next. Another 5 minutes and finally, I get called in. I go into the room and the doctor comes in and says, "Are you gonna kill me? What I wrote down in your chart last time was a mistake and I don't need to see you till April." WHAT?? Oh MAN!! Now, she's a great doctor, really friendly and I really like her. I don't blame her because she probably got called to the hospital before her appointments. It's just annoying that I had to waste 2 hours out of my day to do this (I got back to the office about 12:30).

It's one thing when you get someplace early and have to wait for your appointment time or you only have to wait about 10-15 minutes, but I hate waiting when you really shouldn't be waiting much if at all. Like when you make a reservation at a restaurant for a specific time, but when you get there, you still have to wait 20 minutes for them to seat you. Then you have to wait another 20 minutes or more just to get your food. Or you sit down at the reserved time, but you have to wait 20 minutes to get your drink order in and another 45 minutes for your food to arrive. When you're hungry and your blood sugar gets low like mine and you NEED to eat, it's extremely irritating.

I think the worst was when my last ex-boyfriend would tell me he was coming over, but he'd make me wait 2 extra hours because he was dawdling for no reason. He did that ALL the time and it drove me freaking bananas! It was very rude and inconsiderate.

It's why I've tried very hard for the last several years not to be late for anything. Things like meetings or classes, or telling people I'm going to be someplace at a certain time, I like to be there at the scheduled time. I hate waiting and I hate keeping people waiting.

Posted by Amy at 01:09 PM | Comments (0)

December 12, 2008

Furry Little Scoundrel Bamboozles Me

So even though I'm getting a little more sleep (though Maximus is still waking me up by nuzzling my face then chomping my nose), Maximus has figured out ways to bamboozle me. He's getting smarter and stronger literally every day. I'll give you an example.

We use a child gate to separate Maximus and Gabriel because Gabe hates him and I'd rather not deal with them fighting. Besides, he's so mischievous, you really have to keep an eye on him and the child gate keeps him from roaming the entire house and destroying things without our knowledge. Now, he LOVES Princess. She tolerates him, though she gets annoyed because he constantly pesters her. So she usually will just run away by bounding over the gate.

Well, up until yesterday, Maximus was too small to make it over the gate. But you could see him trying to figure out ways to get over it because he can't resist wanting to follow her. He's been trying to climb it the last couple days and the other night, he almost made it. Then last night, he managed to somehow jump to the top of the gate and get over it. Don and I were eating dinner and didn't realize until I suddenly realized it was too quiet. When we looked around, we couldn't find him. We speculated that maybe he snuck over and when I looked down in the basement, there he was, pestering Princess again. So now, I've added a sort of cardboard extension to the top of the gate so that he can't get over it. Unfortunately, Princess can't freely jump over it either.

Christmas Maximus.JPG Another example...when I put the Christmas tree up, Maximus started climbing the tree. Back then, he couldn't jump very high, but he could just make it to the bottom branches of the tree and from there, he could climb each level of branches. So I put a cardboard shelf on the bottom level. Well, that didn't work when he figured out how to get on top of it. So then I made a wall out of cut cardboard boxes around the tree. Not high enough. So then I made another wall out of cut cardboard boxes, but this time with the flaps still attached so it was higher. Last night, he managed to jump and grab the top of the flaps with his front paws, but fell because the flaps bent back so he had no support.

And now, he's taken to trying to climb the little tree by the piano. The other cats already destroyed the bottom half of it, and I just decided to give up trying to keep him out of it because he's so absolutely fearless and persistent that no matter what I do, he's not going to quit.

I have a feeling that very soon--likely before Christmas--he's going to figure out how to get over the cardboard wall and into the Christmas tree. When that time comes, I'm going to have to take it down. Pretty soon, he's going to figure out how to get up onto the counters and cause ALL kinds of trouble!! NOTHING will be safe! Darn that little IMP!!

Posted by Amy at 10:18 AM | Comments (1)

December 05, 2008

Sleepless in Ann Arbor

So the last couple nights, I have been awoken by constant assaults by a furry little monster called Maximus. Wednesday night, he decided to use my head as a catnip toy, for he found it quite amusing to pounce on my face and chomp my ears and nose while I screamed helplessly in terror. Last night, he opted to not use my head as a chew toy, though the torment still continued. All night long, he kept kneading my neck like a lump of bread dough, paws, claws and all. I thought maybe he was restless just because he needed to eat, but I was wrong in that assessment since putting him in front of his food bowl only worked once during the two nights of kitten-style torture. Now I love the little bugger like crazy, but OY! I need sleep! (I can't imagine how hard it must be with a new baby. But I can imagine how awfully grumpy I'd be from lack of sleep!)

I think because Don and I were out for so long the last couple of days, not coming home till 9:30 or so, Maximus got overly anxious and lonely which he FULLY made up for with his nightly torture.

So I'm completely exhausted today. I think when I go home, I'll let him out to play while I nap on the couch. And maybe leave the toilet lid up and listen for a little splash...KIDDING!!! I would NEVER do that! *wink*

Posted by Amy at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)

December 04, 2008

Thanksgiving Pictures

Just a few pictures I took from this past Thanksgiving.

PJ Karate.JPG PJ doing his own form of karate.

Sisters.JPG The girls, Sara & Tessie.

Laugh.JPG I LOVE to see Dad like this--so jolly and happy. :-D

Posted by Amy at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)