lilrongal | Entries tagged with to do

I’m tired. I need a full day where I don’t have to do anything but read and sleep. I really should not allow myself to indulge in such a day until all my chores are done, but meh. I also should not be blogging at 1am but there you go.

Christmas is 46 freaking days away. Time is FLYING. I have all of these “to do” items that i put in my iProcrastinate in early/middle October. When it’s the middle of October, November due dates seem far away. Well, now all that stuff is coming due now and I’m kinda like WHOA. WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN? In fact, two of my items are past due. FAIL.

I started Christmas shopping in earnest Monday. I was out with my friend Angelo, and we hit Bloomingdales, Filene’s Basement, and many other assorted stores along Michigan Avenue. I was able to knock out a good chunk of my shopping for Adam. Go me! I also let Angelo treat me to a white chocolate raspberry mocha from Starbucks. I very rarely indulge in Starbucks, and I get this particular coffee drink once or twice a year. It was yummy.

Adam and I went out to the ‘burbs yesterday. I found the most awesome store at the Westfield Fox Valley mall. It’s called Funk-E-Breeze and it’s the store that Hot Topic and Spencer Gifts WISH they could be. I wanted just about everything in there, but I settled on buying lots of incense. Because mmm, incense.

We hit Anderson’s Bookshop, the best bookstore in the whole wide world. Seriously, you should be jealous of that bookstore because it is *just that awesome*. This bookstore gets folks like Tyra Banks, Weird Al, and Jodi Piccoult. And they *hand sell* books. They listen to what you like and suggest books that are similar. Awesome. Anyway, Adam’s an author, and he went to Anderson’s to sign stock. How cool is that? But you know what’s even cooler?

You can win copies of Adam’s books!

EXTRAORDINARY is an epic tale of love, magic,
mystery, musical theatre, and unicorn poop.
UNICORN POOP people!
You know you want to read it.
Honestly, it’s my favorite one by him thus far.
Check out the entry post here.

Adam also writes under the pen name S.J. Adams.
(I think Adam thinks S.J. is real. Seriously. I get concerned.)
SPARKS is a John Hughes-esque novel about a
Full House-obsessed girl
who attempts to get over a crush
by embarking on a “holy quest” with
a couple of misfits who have invented a religion.
Check out the entry post for this book here!

Yay! And that’s all for now. Til next time!

Linking up with:

Whoo!

(Originally posted at http://anywhere-is.net. Comment here or there.)

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I’m afraid I’ve not been taking very good care of myself, or much else, lately. It’s been weeks since I’ve been to yoga, and I haven’t been eating healthfully. Or at good times. I mean, sausage and eggs at midnight? Probably not my best choice. And you’d think I’d learn that eating a bag of Snyder of Berlin Honey BBQ chips for dinner is only going to make me feel sick, but nope. Apparently not, seeing as I did it again tonight.

I’ve been feeling tired, lazy, and sluggish and I know it’s because I’ve been eating junk food almost exclusively for the past week or so. I am the laziest cook ever, and with Adam doing ghost tours almost every night these days, I just don’t have the imagination or motivation to cook myself a decent meal. (He usually does the cooking.)

I mean, this is ridiculous. My huge deadlines have been handled, so I don’t have much else do to. I know better. I need to DO damn better. So, starting TOMORROW, this is what I need to do.

_ Clean the bedroom. My clothes are every-freaking-where. I’m back to knocking stuff down on the dresser, which means I need to rearrange bottles again. I’ve got to organize my clothing, put the summer stuff away and bring out the fall/winter stuff. And I need to make it neat. I did laundry at my mom’s a MONTH AGO and the clothes are still in the laundry baskets. Not good.

_ Clean the bathroom. That means rotating product, getting rid of the stuff that’s used up, and putting the newer stuff out. Cleaning the bottles that are in there but have gotten icky. All the usual bathroom cleaning duties. Although, to be fair, I just recently scrubbed the sink and Adam cleaned the toilet, so that’s not looking all THAT daunting. Still. Must clean bathroom.

_ Clean the living room. ‘Nuff said.

_ Unbox my numerous boxed dolls and figure out where to display them. I will need to rotate a couple of my American Girl dolls, dress them in fall/winter clothing and put their summer clothing away as well. And of course, my Disney Designer Princess dolls MUST be unboxed. Now they’re displayed in their clear cases. (Tiana arrived on Friday!)

_ Thorough litter box wash out. This means dumping the litter that’s in them, washing them out, and putting in all new, clean litter. I’ll need to take a trip to Target to procure more litter for that, though.

_ Hit yoga class again. I REALLY need to go back. I was starting to see results from taking so many classes, but two weeks of slacking and dining on junk food will undo that so fast heads will roll. I mean, what’s the use of having unlimited classes if I don’t take them????

_ Failing yoga class, I have yoga DVDs, and an exercise bike. There’s no reason for me not to get in a workout at least ~~three times~~ once a week.

_ MY HAIR. Lord baby Jesus in heaven, I need to do something with this hair. IT IS STANDING STRAIGHT UP ON MY HEAD. Stop laughing, it’s not funny. OK, it kinda is.

I also need to start cooking again. It’s just that I’ve forgotten almost all my skills (although I still rock a dang good scrambled egg, even Adam said so), and even the simplest recipes make me go “Oh God, really? That much work? But I don’t wanna pre-heat the oven….”

Yea. This can’t go on. It just can’t. The place is starting to fall apart, poor Adam’s exhausted and looks kinda hurt and puzzled when I don’t have a hot meal waiting for him, and there are loads of neat recipes I’ve been saving into Evernote to try, so I need to get on that, mmmkay?

Also, if I make recipes, I can post them on here!

One thing that’s been great is this cute free app I downloaded for my Mac called iProcrastinate. You put in the stuff you need to do, a due date, priorities, etc. When something comes up, this annoying little red circle with a number (which corresponds to how many things are due that day) just sits there and STARES at you until you handle your business. I just put the to do list from up there ^^ into iProcrastinate.

So yeah. I’ll get a good night’s sleep. Possibly eat sausage and eggs in the morning like normal people. And then GET STUFF DONE. I’m on it. Word.

I think I’ll start feeling much better in no time.

P.S. I just thought I’d mention that I HATE the sound of the cats licking themselves. So why do they always wait until I’m around to groom? YICK.

(Originally posted at http://anywhere-is.net. Comment here or there.)

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I really enjoyed the weather we had the end of last week. Warm, sunny, and so springlike. I went downtown again, met a friend for lunch, and even had a massage. I went to Cortiva and got a student massage. $35 for an hour of bodywork. Awesome.

Of course, it snowed Saturday, the first day of Spring. There’s Chicago for you. 60 on Tuesday, though. And sunny! 60 seems much less cold when it’s sunny out.

The no-pop thing has been going well! I almost slipped up a few times (falling for the “harmless” stuff like orange or fruit punch pop) but it really is pretty easy to drink juice instead. And I am making a point to drink 100%, no sugar added juices. Not juice drink or anything like that. I still need to drink more water, but this is a good starting point, I think.

I need to make a to-do list. Otherwise, I just won’t do the stuff I need to do to prepare for Aidan’s Spring Break.

1. Clean Aidan’s room I hate this chore. I don’t do a thing in there, but Adam does and I have no idea what, but it’s always a mess by the time Aidan’s next visit rolls around. So I have to go make it presentable again.

2. Get groceries. The word out on the street is that Aidan’s going through a growth spurt. This means that he will be doing a lot of eating and sleeping if he’s still dealing with that the next few weeks. Not only do we have to pick up some food he likes (chicken nuggets, fruit snacks, mac & cheese, pot pies, etc.), but we have to get a LOT of it! I’m also going to be encouraging him to try new things. Like BEEF. I understand that kids can be kind of meh about beef–Lord knows I was–but it’s so good, and he likes the beef flavored Ramen noodles.

3. Plan Easter. I want to have a cute little Easter celebration for Aidan. I plan to make a basket for him, and I have some of that YUMMY ham frozen from Christmas which I will thaw for dinner. I’ve had some interesting Easters over the years. The main thing was that the weather was always nice and warm and sunny by then. I remember the big old Easter egg hunt we had when I was about 11 or so. When I was in college, I was baptized and confirmed in the Catholic church at an Easter vigil. I remember being at an overnight retreat not so long ago, and participating in a sunrise service–the first time I ever prayed out loud in a group.

Here’s a picture of Aidan from Easter 2004!

I won two book contests recently, which means more books for me! I just finished reading TWENTY BOY SUMMER and SKINNED. Getting ready to start on GIRL STAYS IN THE PICTURE. I really should check when those books are due back. I’m tearing through them, but you know how time sometimes gets away from you.

I must sleep. Adam and I are going to watch Alice In Wonderland with Claudia Gray tomorrow/today and I should at least TRY to be awake during it. *grumbles about being a night owl again*

Night!

(Originally posted at Anywhere Is...)

Current Music: Genesis - I Can't Dance | Powered by Last.fm

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Don’t even ask about the title. I’m going on about 5.5 hours of sleep here, and I’m barely sleepy now. Insomnia anyone?

I didn’t get to bed/sleep until about 730 or 8am. Then I slept until about noonish, and I took a 20 minute nap at about 9pm, which I think was a mistake. Not good. I’m going to go to bed anyway and try to read myself to sleep, but if I am not asleep by 230 or 3, I will give up and head back out into the living room.

I have a list of things I need to do this week.

1. Take down Christmas stuff. *sniffle* It’s getting to the point where I am getting tired of it, so it’s time to go to ordinary time for real. Blah. I’ll probably do that tomorrow/today.
2. Hunt down the mildewy smell and GET RID OF IT. Seriously, I cleaned out the fridge, Adam took out the trash twice, and I located the source of the bad potatoes. All of that is gone. I cleaned out the litter boxes. Nothing should be smelling bad. But something is still driving me crazy in here. Same scent as last night, and I think it’s the standing water that collects in the drain where the hot water heater is. Should the landlord have fixed this when we reported it a year ago? Why yes. Is it against city code for standing water to collect in a residence? Oh yes. Do you think the landlord gives a flying ice cream? If so, you’d be wrong. So, every week or so (more often now for some reason), Adam has to open the closet and pour water down this drain to get out the old stinky water that blows through the vents when the heater is on. He just did it Sunday, but he’s going to have to do it again sooner than later because the scent of standing water is nasty. This is only one of the things that have been reported and never fixed, and only one of the things that’s against code. TMG Management can suck it.
3. Clean the living room. Once I put away the Christmas stuff, I have to make it look like normal again.
4. Take a bath. I haven’t had a nice, long hot bath in weeks. It’s been showers and showers and showers. And the last bath before that sucked because the drain wasn’t properly secured so most of the water ran out, and by the time I realized it, there was no more hot water. It was a quick lukewarm bath and you know how much those suck. So I’m ready for a nice, hot steaming bath. And some tea. So that will be my reward for taking down the Christmas stuff.
5. Revamp my FarmVille farm. That’ll probably happen this weekend.

I think it’s time to scrap the story I have been working on. I am stuck and have been stuck on the same part for two years now. If you’re stuck after two years, it’s time to shelve and move on. The fact that I dread trying to write this book is a sign that it’s not the one I should be working on. I may use what I have for parts, or rework it, but for now, it’s done. There is no point in working on a book for free when I’m getting no joy out of it and when nothing of it is coming. The characters are still there, they just need to be used differently. HOW, I don’t know. But whatever.

This has been kind of a whiny post, so here is something yummy. My kitty, Helena, has gotten really cuddly lately. It started shortly after we switched the cats’ food from Meow Mix to Iams. Both cats are super soft now, and Little Lena’s been so much more affectionate. She hops up and sleeps on my feet just about every chance she gets. When she’s in our room at night, she doesn’t really jump on our feet anymore. She lies there and sleeps. Adam and I have taken to picking her up and putting her on my lap, because she rarely gets up on her own. Not sure if she’s waiting for an invite or what. She’s not exactly a lap cat yet, not unless I have a blanket on my lap, but once she’s on my lap, she’ll move down and lay her head on my ankle. Such a long cry from the little wild thing she was when we first brought her home!

Here’s a picture of me from New Year’s Eve:

My mom got me the dress for Christmas. I need to get in shape and I don’t really care.

Blah ditty blah blah blah.

I feel like Eeyore.

That’s all for now.

(Originally published at Anywhere Is...)

Current Mood: cranky

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Six more days!!
One more till my birthday! I’ll be &@#&@&#@. Ooops, must have missed something in the translation there….

Today, I got a a gift certificate to Amazon.com from Adam’s dad (and my future father-in-law). THAT makes me so happy. Books! This evening, I got a package from Rosa (meimeigui) and Richard, with strict instructions not to open anything early. So I have a birthday present next to me, and a Christmas present for me, and a Christmas present for Aidan, under the tree.

Janet spoiled me yesterday at work. First, there was this at my desk:

Then, a bunch of us went to La Chatelaine for lunch, and Janet treated me. I had the lunch combo: ham sandwich, tomato basil soup, and Caesar salad. Yummmmo. I really like that place and want to go again SOON. The prices are not unreasonable, either.

Karen gave me a card and told me not to open it until tomorrow. I sat it by my computer so I can remember. If I am up at midnight tonight, I’m going to open the present from Rosa and Richard.

This morning, I came into work and found a poinsettia, two cards, candy, and two books on my desk. What a nice surprise, yes? This time of year is so awesome. One of the cards had a lottery ticket in it. I didn’t win.

E Mae treated the copy editors to lunch at Spagio. It was good. I had leftovers. It’s really rich food, so I can eat like, 1/3 of a serving at a time before my mouth says NO MORE FOR NOW, you!

I have to wrap all of Adam’s gifts tonight, as he’ll be here tomorrow. (!!!♥!!!) I don’t take him for a snooper, but I just want to have it done. Some of the boxes are soooo cute that I’m not bothering to wrap them. But the animal print ones I picked up at Marc’s—DEFINITELY getting wrapped. LoL.

Aidan’s disappointed because there are things under the tree for him and he can’t open them yet.

He’s still cute though:

My Favorite Present, Always!

I took a Spending Style test on Tickle today. Here is the result:

Ronni, you’re a Bargain Hunter

In your life, you’re willing to go the extra mile in order to find a good deal. Whenever possible, you hold out until you can find the least expensive version of something you need. Your patience and persistence generally leads you to significant savings, which you likely take great pride in. While some may mistakenly think you are cheap and puzzle over why you prefer thrift stores to overpriced boutiques, you’re content to let them squander their cash while you chase down a great bargain.

When it comes to your financial state, you tend to feel like you’re about where you think you should be.

Except for that last statement, it’s pretty much right on.

To Do, Revisited:

- renew driver’s license (12/20)
- renew license plate tags (12/20)
~~- clean my room (that includes finally unpacking my clothes from my Atlanta and NYC trips, changing the sheets, and general tidying up)~~
~~- finish Christmas shopping~~
~~- Christmas cards~~
- insulate windows with some of that plastic stuff you use with a hairdryer
~~- hair~~
~~- clean little Lucy’s litter box (thorough cleaning, not just litter exchange)~~
- burn a Christmas CD
- wrap gifts
- get groceries

My computer is SO SLOW. It’s driving me nuts. Takes freakin’ Facebook forever to load, and to switch between programs… the thing acts like it’s straining to do that. I have 1.5 gigs of memory and it’s a 2.something gig processor. Web sites take ages to come up. The thing takes at least ten minutes to fully boot up. It amazes me how much Windows deteriorates after a few years, or months even. I also hate how certain programs steal focus. I’ll start something in the background and then go to something else while I am waiting for it to open. Instead of the other program blinking in the taskbar to let me know its ready, all of a sudden, whatever I’m working on disappears and a new IE window or something is in the way. Drives me bananas. But the new Flickr Uploader is awesome. I can do EVERYTHING I need to do to the photos right in the uploader, so no need to wait for the site to load to finish editing (tags, sets, etc.). Good times.

At about 11am tomorrow, I will be leaving ZB until next Friday. Can’t wait. No more Core TEs to bother with for days and days and days. *glares at vendor*

OK, gonna go finish with the gifts and trying to make Aidan giggle. Later!

(Originally posted at Anywhere Is...)

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Ronni's Journal | Anything But Ordinary

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