Good timing and disbelief

Tuesday I stopped at the library in University Heights to return a book and grab a book they had for me from the hold shelf. As I pulled into my parking spot (on the street just outside) I realized it was a metered spot. I debated for a minute just running in and hoping I would be ok. Then I realized I really didn't want a $40 parking ticket for an expired meter since I'm unemployed and attempting to not spend frivolously! So I scrounged around in my wallet couldn't find any change. I remembered Mark and I had spent all our change over the previous weekend parking in Little Italy. So I again thought about just running in...but then I just thought it really wasn't a good idea. I remembered I had a nickel somewhere in the bottom of my purse because that's where I threw it when Andrew gave it back to me at lunch the other day. I found it and threw it in the machine. Knowing I only had 3 minutes from the nickel, I ran in - dropped my book off on the counter, went over to the hold shelf, grabbed my book and got checked out fairly quickly. I think I actually spent more time in my car looking for change than I spent in the library. But upon walking back out the door I was glad I had! The meter maid was there writing a parking ticket for the car next to mine! That was someone who had pulled up after me, and she was still in the library filling out an application for a library card! Oops. I'm so glad I found that nickel at the bottom of my purse! I still had 2 minutes on the meter when I got back to my car so I was quick...but the 5cents was totally worth not getting a $40 (or something ticket!).

Yesterday on my way home from being over at Gma's house and helping them pull out their Xmas stuff I stopped to fill up my car. I had a $2o in my wallet so I decided to pay with cash (especially since the gas station I was at charges more for credit). So I ran in, gave the lady my $ and came back outside. When the pump stopped I looked up and realized I was getting CHANGE from my $20 and my tank was full! When is the last time that happened??? Disbelief! I only got like $2.25 as change...but still!

Today is my last day of 29. Crazy!!! We're heading over to Christmas on the Prado (or December Nights or whatever its called now) with Mel and JR. As long as no one tries to throw my caramel apples out before they are gone...it'll be a great end to 29! :)

Last Monday of 29

First Peppermint Mocha of the season! Yum! May be my first and last since I have been ordered by the doctor to drink less coffee (boo!). But I am being good and obeying.

Tonight....Christmas decorating!

Last Sunday of 29

So today was my last Sunday of 29. Crazy! I can’t believe my birthday is in less than a week! Today I slept in a little while and did some chores around the house. Then I went to lunch with my mom and Grandma Cindy for her bday. When I came home I watched the Chargers lose ☹ Then I did more chores around the house and FINALLY listed all the leftover wedding stuff on Craigslist to finally get it out of our house! I don’t want to just throw it away…so hopefully some other bride to be out there wants it. I can’t believe it took me over a year and a half to finally do this…who am I kidding!? I’m a ridiculous procrastinator-but now its done. So hopefully people want to buy the stuff and it goes to a good wedding and I make a little bit of money to go towards my new cell phone ☺

Tomorrow we start decorating for Christmas! This may be the first year ever I’m excited to decorate BEFORE my birthday. Hmmm…

18 days till 30...

Wow...it's getting closer. Still debating what to do for my birthday night. But am certain am going to be celebrating Van's 1/4 century with her :)

Random thoughts for today:
-by accident we discovered a new toy for Kiley. As per usual, anything we buy for her as a toy or bed or the like she wants nothing to do with. However, a balled up piece of tinfoil became her new favorite toy a couple days ago and today I made her a "fresh" one and she had a blast with it all day! Ahh....the cheap things in life:)
-I went to the grocery store tonight for some necessities...and low and behold- Eggnog is out! hooray! I guess that means its holidays time. I really want some, but can't drink a whole carton myself...anyone want to share?
-Also on my trip to the grocery store today I realized they now have the holiday pine cones out front of BOTH entrances of the store. And since they all smell like cinnamon I have to hold my breath when entering and exiting the store!

25 days till 30...

Today I spent the day doing a lot of chores and things on my never ending "to-do" list around the house. After walking this morning (and finally getting back onto my longer routine after feeling sickly) I did all the laundry in the house and put the new sheets on the bed. Yay! I cleaned up the kitchen and did the dishes. Grant stopped by and we hung out a bit (which involves him playing various games on the PS3-normally Call of Duty 4). I read some of my book, chatted with the freighbors, vacuumed and checked my credit reports. My reports all look good...so hopefully when the economy settles down and I have a job again, Mark and I can be first in line to get a house with our good credit scores :)

ps-if you can't tell I'm trying to write more in my blog, and using the countdown to my birthday seems to make it easier to do each night.

26 days till 30...

Today I finished the book I started last night called 1st to Die by James Patterson. My Grandma Jenni gave me the first 6 books in the Women's Murder Club series a couple months back, and I finally got around to reading the first one. I actually didn't realize the books were part of a set, though the fact they were numbered books maybe should have tipped me off that they belonged to a set. But I really enjoyed the first book, I liked the characters and the murder mystery in it. I can't wait to start the second book tonight! Mark and I also finished up some projects around the house over the weekend/tonight. We hung some wedding pictures and some decorations around the house. I also finally completed a project I had been working on for a board to hang my jewelery on. Almost 3 years in this apartment and its starting to feel homey :)

Still looking for a job...anyone have any good leads?

Netflix Instant Watch Saves the Day!

So tonight we finally watched Gone Baby Gone. We have had it from Netflix for almost 2 months (which I'm a little embarrassed to admit!). It was a really good movie. I think Casey Affleck did a great job, along with the rest of the cast. The reason we hadn't watched it was because we were never in the mood for a downer movie. But after having it so long, and having really enjoyed the preview we saw for it, I wanted to watch it and not send it back unwatched. So we started the movie when we were eating our home made pizza...and just about an hour in (to the 1 hr 53 min movie) the disc froze. We assumed it was just switching layers because it was a Blu-Ray disc...and then is skipped to another scene! :( So we rewound it and tried it again with the display on to see how much time we were missing. It skipped almost 12 minutes! We took out the disc, cleaned it, tried it again...still skipping! Luckily Mark had enabled "watch instantly" on our Netflix account, and I had seen earlier this week that it was on the watch instantly queue. So we used my laptop to pull the movie up and luckily it allowed us to skip ahead to where we had left off. We were able to watch the missing minutes on watch instantly, and then go back to watching the dvd on the tv. Hooray! Of course...those were the most intense 12 minutes of the movie so far...so without them we would have been totally lost! Hooray for Netflix watch instantly now available on Macs! And kudos to the Gone Baby Gone cast and writers/director for a great movie. If you like a mystery, or The Wire (though not as good as The Wire), rent (or watch instantly) Gone Baby Gone.