The weekend is here...

...thankfully! Today is nothing but a cleaning day until tonight when everyone starts showing up.

I left for the conference Thursday afternoon around 1pm. The drive down was pretty good, until I hit NY, then I was in stop and go traffic for the rest of the ride. There was a car on fire on the Cross Bronx Expressway. The weather was great, around 50 degrees and sunny. In CT somewhere, I saw this beautiful site. There was a big wall of rock, as is fairly common on highways. Cascading down from the top were these rivers of ice that caught the sun. It was one of those times where I wish I could've pulled over and taken a picture. It was a simplistic site, but beautiful and interesting in the way only nature knows how to be. So that was nice. :)

Once I got to the hotel, I checked in, decompressed a bit, and then went to the restaurant for dinner. The meals were expensive - $30 for a wheat pasta and roasted veggies dish, and just ok. I read some homework while eating dinner and the day crashed down on me. I went back to my room, checked mail quickly, and became a bed potato. :) The bed was very comfortable and very big. So I watched Mythbusters for a while until I fell asleep.

Usually I don't have trouble sleeping in strange places too often, but it's common on the first night to wake up from sounds I'm not used to hearing. That and not having a dog pressed up against me kinda freaks me out. :) I got enough sleep, but it was an interrupted sleep - which really doesn't make me wake up feeling refreshed. Ah well. :)

I got up, got breakfast and headed to the registration tables as I volunteered to help check people in. Then it was a day of going to different sessions and listening to what's new with the PeopleSoft/Oracle. There were a few informative sessions, and an equal number that were a waste of time, which is fairly normal.

I finally got home just a little past 7:00pm after a long, traffic-filled trip. I actually didn't hit as much traffic as I thought I would. The majority of it was in NY, where they have no room for a car to breakdown, not enough lanes for the traffic they have, and no room to build more. There were a couple of people that were being complete assholes, switching lanes constantly without a signal and cutting people off rather harshly. I guess you wouldn't be surprised to hear that they were all from MA. :) No wonder why they call us Massholes.

I had a bunch of web stuff to do for my friend Donna's site so I ended the day cuddling with the pups with the laptop and watching the Corpse Bride. Tim Burton is a genius. And it didn't hurt at all that Johnny Depp was the voice of the main character. :)

After sleeping a solid 9 hours, I'm off to clean and then get the food ready. I think it's going to be another long day. Fun, but still long. :)

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Black Tuesday...

I'd actually never heard that term before today. My cousin knows all of those weird name things. :) The good part is, I won't have to sit through any of those *stupid* V-Day commercials anymore. Sheesh. It would be much more fun if the networks decided to charge SuperBowl money for ads before V-Day. Then at least they'd be much more creative and hopefully much less corny. One can wish. :)

Is it wrong to want to head to bed at 7:45pm if you're bone tired? I'm thinking not. But I will force myself to stay awake a little longer so I'm not up at 3:30am staring at the ceiling fan going round 'n round. I've been going solid since I got home, trying to continue getting this place ready for Saturday night. Needless to say, there's still a lot to do!

My brother is supposed to stay here Thursday night while I'm away to take care of the dogs for me. His car broke down though, and he found out Monday that it's a serious problem that just isn't worth fixing. So, he's now carless and lives about 1/2 hour away. I wasn't sure how he was going to get up here, or who else I could have stay with the kids. But, we got it all settled today - I'm renting a car for him so he can still watch them. It's really the only way since they'd certainly go insane if I boarded them and it would cost me a billion dollars. :)

And in the spirit of Black Tuesday, I learned the signs for "single", "engaged", and "married" in my American Sign Language class today. Then we had to stand up and sign to the rest of the class what we were..... I'm sure you can probably guess my reaction to that one. All in all though, the class is fun! I forgot my book at home today and I was actually able to sign, albeit a little choppily (is that a word?), what had happened when the teach asked. I have forgotten so much but I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things. :) It'll be good to be able to keep in practice since the class is at work and the teacher is a MITRE employee as well. :) I do enjoy signing!

But, I survived the day and I was even able to not be too insanely jealous as I saw the roses arrive hundreds of times today. That's the bad part to having a window office in the front of the building!

Ugh! Only 15 mins. have gone by! Well, nothing left to do but go pass out in the recliner. ;)

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Are they kidding?

While watching a Tivo'ed Monster Jam show, I saw a lame commercial that I couldn't help but blog about. Vermont Teddy Bear. In the commercial, a woman receives a Valentine teddy bear while at work. The other women come over to read the card and coo over the gift. In the meantime, all of the guys in the office are looking over their cubicles to see what's going on. Then one great actress asks where she can get a guy like that. All the guys hear this and pop back into their cubes to order them over the phone and online. I mean, seriously. Are guys that gullible?

If you're going to spend 80 bucks on a gift, get something thoughtful, something that would be appreciated. What is any grown woman going to do with a teddy bear? That would become a dog toy in my house.

Here are some tips for you guys searching for Valentine's Days gifts - 'cuz you and I both know you haven't planned anything or purchased anything yet. ;) Jewelry is always good, chocolate works too, but not as the only gift. To get something your girl would really appreciate, think. What does she like to do? What has she hinted about? (Every girl hints about things, it's just a matter or whether A) you're paying attention, or B) you remember if you did catch the hint. What's even more special is if you do remember something she mentioned from 6 months ago. Then she thinks you *are* paying attention, that you care enough to want to please her. it's really quite simple if you think about it. :)

Now I'm going to finish watching Monster Jam...Yes I'm a girl!

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Not *quite* a blizzard...

...is what I heard on the news a little while ago. My question is, if I'm still going to get 15-20+ inches of snow, does it really matter what name they use to describe it? ;P

Today has been a hugely productive day, in part due to the blizzard-that-is-not-a-blizzard. :) The computer room had become a dumping ground for things that needed to go in the attic and stuff that I haven't found a place for yet - mainly Xmas gifts. So I spent a few hours going through all of the boxes, putting stuff away, putting stuff on FreeCycle, and throwing everything else away. Actually, I only have one box to put in the attic! Since I'm having a gathering next weekend, it's a very good thing it's almost clean. :) Now I just have to do the rest of the house. ;)

Yesterday, I had actually planned on getting *all* of the cleaning done, but it didn't happen to work out that way. Instead, I spent the entire day on the computer doing homework for my final project. Thankfully, I mastered enough XML & XSLT to successfully complete my assignment...it just took the whole day. :) I did take a break at one point to fix the gate on the deck. The slats had come off and were lying around for the past couple of weeks. :) So that's at least one thing off of my never-ending 'to-do' list!

I suppose I should get back to my cleaning!

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Powerball

Just what is the attraction to winning the lottery? Is it dreaming that you'll never have to work again? Is it the financial security you'd have? Is it the thought of buying all of your loved ones everything they want? *Just* what is the attraction?

Say you did win the lottery, what would you do? Travel the world, buy a couple of houses in various states, buy a few cars.... then what? How long would you be content? A year? 5? 15?

What kind of purpose would your life then have? Would you care if it didn't have a purpose? Would you donate your time to some charity? Would you become a couch potato with a maid and a butler? Would you go to school for the hell of it? Get a job? What would you do with your time? Would your life have any meaning? Would you become one of those elite that could command hundreds and treat everyone like a serf?

What would you do for fun if the world was your oyster? Would fun be fun anymore? What if it wasn't? What would you do then? Get involved with the Hollywood Party scene and become a Paris Hilton type person? Known for nothing but how hard you party and what outfit you wear? Would you become addicted to anything? Would you mind being shallow?

What kind of person would you be? Would you be happy with yourself? Your life? What if you were miserable?

If you had the money and the means to make all of your dreams become reality, what would you dream about? Would your dreams just become bigger and more expensive? What if you ran out of dreams? Can you imagine not having any wishes or anything to look forward to? Yikes!

I don't know the answer to any of these questions. I don't know what I would do if I won millions. I also don't know what kind of person I would become. I'd like to think that I would still be me but just wouldn't worry about money. I'd like to think that I'd build a farm and that my furry kids would live the life of luxury. I'd like to think that I could finally transfer my cleaning responsibilities to someone else. :) But I don't know if I'd become a jerk, or if I'd just stay me.

I didn't buy a ticket for tonight's Powerball, so I guess my dreams will still be around for a while. :) Is that really such a bad thing?

My beautiful girl is lying right next to me looking at me with those incredible brown eyes. A glance over will cause her to wag her tail and give me kisses. Money can't buy that... :)

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