Insert Clever Blog Name Here

Finally finished with a fic that has been kicking my ass since February. Whew. The beta has it now.

Got the shutters on our house painted a beautiful shade of green today. There will be pics somewhere.

Heading to bed now as hubby promised to take me out to breakfast in the morning and I have been up until after three am three nights this week.

So very happy. :)

...I know. Sorry. Nothing much has been happening lately...been plotting on my sshg_exchange fic...I'm working on something which luckily can be based on one of my recipient's prompts...but it's an exercise for me writing something I've wanted to try for ages.

I hope Severus and Hermione like the place I'm taking them. ;)

In other news, in the last couple of weeks, hubby and I have had folks over for dinner twice--the first time a couple weeks ago, my son's MIL, we served lasagna and had a lovely time. She was impressed with how much house we got for the money-compared to South Florida where she lives, our house is very inexpensive.

Last night, my bestest friend here in Tennessee came over for dinner. When we were planning our monthly dinner together, I suggested she come here since she hasn't seen the house yet and she agreed. I threw a pot roast into the crock pot and bought some new linen for the table--a good time was had by all!

Hubby and I have become obsessed with wild birds. Feeding them, to be precise. We started with one feeder (shaped like a house) which was being dominated by a mockingbird--so we bought another--a tube feeder--and now we have wild birds in our tree day and night. It's fantastic!

We are planning to go visit my father the first weekend in April to help him celebrate his 70th birthday. We've booked the car and the hotel. I'm making a cake or two...and it will hopefully be fun. Hubby and I really enjoy road trips together and so are looking forward to that--and seeing the fam will be nice, too. My daughter and her family will be there, so that will be great...plus my sister and her husband. I hope my brother comes up too...

Work is work. Getting worse all the time, but at least I have a job...so I try not to complain too much.

Guess that's it for now. Gonna watch the Academy Awards tonight, even though I haven't seen any of the nominated films...well, except for Up and Coraline.

How are you all, f-list?

Day two of "Home with the Blargh". Hubby came down with something, then ever so graciously gave it to me. He was out two days, so it's only fair that I be out two days, too. (Honestly, I still have a swimmy head and sinus ache. Not to mention that the sore throat from yesterday has somehow morphed into diarrhea. Blargh.)

Anyway, I have been sadly neglectful of my LJ since I signed up for Twitter. It seems that 140 characters is more than enough for me to update folks. Heh. So sorry to my LJ friends. You can friend me on Twitter, I am "rayvyn2k" there, too. (Just let me know who you are if you use a different username as I ruthlessly block anyone I don't know.)

The house. *smiles* The inspection only found a couple of very minor things which we figure we can fix or have fixed ourselves. So, we told the seller we would accept it "as is". And then we got the call from the loan guy at the bank...we were officially approved for the loan! Yay--and EEP! So, the closing date is set for October 20...and my husband will have made another one of my dreams come true. Home ownership. Anyone who tries to tell me there is no such thing as true love will get one of my size 11s up their arse. (Last night, I whined that I was hot. My husband waggled his eyebrows and said back, "You ARE hot!" Now, since my body is what some may call "Rubenesque" (VERY Rubenesque, heh), and he was serious...sigh. You see? He makes me fall in love with him again like that EVERY DAY.)

Anyway, so we have begun packing in earnest. I can't believe we've accumulated so much stuff. Not to mention the stuff we have never unpacked since our move from Florida five years ago. It will be like Christmas opening the boxes.

I am on the countdown now until I have a dishwasher and a washer and dryer. "Only 13 more days until I can throw the dishes in the dishwasher" or "...do a load of wash without humping it to the laundromat". Hee. I'm sure that a year from now, I'll be moaning about doing the wash and cleaning the kitchen. (NOT. Thirty-one years of manual washing up and laundry will not leave my memory so soon. I vow to be grateful for these machines every day. Amen.)

It is getting cooler here. Autumn is definitely in the air. (Not to be boring, but I can't wait until we are living in the house and can have all the windows open. This place is so lacking in windows and natural light, I almost went mad last winter.)

I figured out that in order to keep up with "The Amazing Race" on tv, I have to record "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and watch the race live. Which I did on Sunday...in between hubby watching Sunday Night Football. I missed the first episode of the Race, so I didn't really "know" the teams, but I can tell already that I hate Lance. What a complete and utter dick. If Keri marries him after this race, she deserves everything she gets.

EM: HE was wonderful as always. A little girl got to meet her idol, a lovely family got a new home and rayvyn2k's cold heart was warmed. :)

If anyone has any spare change laying around, you may wish to consider donating to Donor's Choose via my favorite blog Tomato Nation. Donor's Choose is an organization that helps fund projects for teachers across the country. The teacher posts a project or wish list and then donors fund these projects for them. Wish lists include books, musical instruments, science projects, field trips, AV equiptment, paper, dry erase markers...just about anything you can think of. In these economically troubled times, school budgets are being slashed and so it is often up to the teachers and/or parents to fund some of these things. Donor's Choose is a wonderful charity.

The reason I suggest giving via Tomato Nation, is because Sarah Bunting is made of WIN. If her readers reach the goal she sets, she does some ridiculous stunt as a "reward". The first year, she shaved her head. The second year, she put on a tomato costume and did a dance in Rockefeller Center. Last year, she took the tomato costume to Washington.

This year, if the goal is met (a lofty one--210k) Sars has promised to wear the tomato costume to Atlantic City and place a bet (red, of course!) at a casino there. Hilarity will ensue.

So, if you have a few dollars (or pounds, euros, pesos, rubles, yen, etc) laying around, you couldn't find a better cause.

Went to see Webb Wilder last night in Nashville, and it rocked, as per usual. ( A great time was had by all. )
In other news, the robins have returned to Murfreesboro. ( The Birds. )

Gonna try to get a pic of the wild turkeys that wander around our office green spaces and occasionally invade the parking lot. Oh, and there are deer in the meadow behind the parking lot, too.

This is one of the funniest fics I've read...EVER. Seriously, I was snorfling all the way through it...

The Marriage Benefit (or)
How Granger And Snape Buggered The Ministry, The Board Of Governors, Minerva And The Entire Hogwarts Staff Whilst Finding True Love

Hilarity, with a bit of *sniffle* thrown in for good measure.

In other news, we did our taxes yesterday and are actually getting a decent refund. Huzzah!!

Than I was. Still not 100%. Went out to dinner with a friend on Friday and talked for 3 hours... it was good.

Hubby said that we would start checking out banks for mortgage/construction loans, but I'll believe that when it happens.

That's it for now.

...but I haven't updated in a while, so I figured I'd just wing it.

My son and his family are in Ft. Lauderdale for a week. I envy them. I wish I could just drive on down and visit my own self. With the way the airlines are treating customers these days, I doubt if I'll fly very often any more. Only if I can afford business or first class, I think. Otherwise, it's the open road. Maybe we can drive down to my dad's and the gang can come up...meet us a bit less than halfway. I'll have to see if that can be arranged.

Work is marginally better. I'm on the "communication committee" which puts together both a weekly and a monthly newsletter. It's been fun so far. Also we are doing a rather large project which will be displayed very prominently in the department and we've brought Hubby in to help. I'll take and post pics when I can.

My nephew (the one of the prom pic a couple entries ago) graduated high school on June 2. My sister has promised to email the video to me which I will then edit and put music to in Windows Movie Maker. I am going to edit it to 10 minutes so I can then post it on YouTube. I'll post a link once I've done it.

I need a day off when I'm not sick or covered in ook. I just want to veg out and do nothing. But I have to save the vacation days for later in the year. I'm still taking the Friday before and the Monday after my birthday off...and we were approved to be off around Christmas and I think New Years this year. Christmas for sure. I have to ask my boss what days exactly we were approved for...

Hubby still has the stomach/lower abdominal thing going on. It's his left side, so it's not his appendix, thankfully. I have been badgering him to go to the doctor, but he's a stupid, stubborn man about doctors and so far has passively refused. I won't let up and I may have to resort to cheating...by not giving him any sympathy when he moans. That got him in to have his ear looked at finally...when he had the "worst ear infection" the doctor had ever seen...and two visits later...yeah. Aggravating man.

I have been reading like one possessed. My book count for the last six weeks or so is up to 10, that I can think of off the top of my head. It may be more. The series I'm working on now is "The Dreamers" series by David and Leigh Eddings. They are very good up to the end...when they just sort of...stop. It's like the duex ex machina type of endings...and they tell, they don't show, what happened to cause the miracle at the last. I'm not really satisfied with either of the first two books' endings. I've started number three, and number four is standing by. We'll see how it goes. I may have to find a different author once these are read.
Fantasy suggestions, f-list? Anything you've loved? Please let me know.

I'm so happy the Democratic Party finally has a nominee. I ordered my "Obama 08" bumper sticker today. Hubby and I were riveted to C-SPAN last Saturday, watching the Democratic Rules Committee hearings about the Florida and Michigan primaries. It was live TV at its best. Great stuff.

Wow, that was a long entry for someone who had nothing to say...

But really, I don't have anything to say.

Christmas week was hectic, exhausting and loads of fun.

New Year's Eve was very quiet.

This past week, we spent over 800.00 getting our second car back in working order so we can sell it to my son whose truck gave up its ghost last week. My son is to pay us back for the repair and pay us for the car out of his income tax refund. But getting it repaired was very stressful because every time I turned around the repair shop was on the phone again with one more thing...our fault since the car had been parked for eight months...

But now my son has a reliable car to drive. That is the most important thing and hubby and I both feel good about it.

Except for the credit card bill to come...but once we get paid back, that extra bill will go away too.

My sister and nephew are coming to Nashville in a couple of weeks. He is on a travelling hockey team and they have a game here. I assume my sister was able to get an inexpensive flight as she sent me the itinerary via email. So, I'll get to see her again soon!

The weather here cannot decide what it wants to do. It went down into the teens last week with snow flurries and now it's back up in the low 60s. And they say there's no such thing as global warming. *eye roll*

I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday and I'm hoping he'll release me for at least half-days at work.

Oh, if I didn't mention it before...I'm on the Pogo game site now and my alias there is "rayvyn2" since the stupid thing wouldn't let me add the "k".
Friend me and send me a message if your nick is different, so I know who you are...

Guess that's it for now.

We had to use the afghan last night--much snuggling was done. *happy sigh*

Unfortunately, now I have to wear regular shoes--rather than sandals.

Oh, we are spending Thanksgiving with the in-laws. I am back on pie duty and will be baking apple, pumpkin and chocolate pecan.

I will also be purchasing and preparing a turkey breast with the trimmings for our house because everyone knows the best part about Thanksgiving is the leftovers. ;)

The change in the weather has made my arm hurt like a M-F. It hurts from my shoulder to my fingers. My therapist thinks I'm improving, which is good. I have a doctor's appointment next Tuesday.

Going out to dinner tonight with a bunch of women from my training class at work. We're going to check out the new Romano's Macaroni Grill that just opened a couple of weeks ago. Can't wait.

That's it for now, I suppose. Exciting, isn't it?

I'm taking vacation from 8/15-8/17 from work. Not doing much...staying home and writing fanfic (including Voldemort!Harry/Bellatrix--OMG the bunny came to me and it's hawt, and finally commiting the next chapter of my HG/SS fic to computer and beta).

I'm also going to be making and freezing food (lasagna, casserole, shepherd's pie among other things) for after the surgery so we don't either starve or spend too much on take out food since my hubby cannot cook. Any ideas for meals that can be prepared in advance and frozen would be welcome.

My cats have decided they don't like the canned food I've been feeding them for months...nor any of the substitutes I've tried...so far they have turned their collective noses up at Fancy Feast, Sheba and Meow Mix Market Selects. I am trying the envelopes next...and if they don't eat it then they are getting kibble and that's it.

Hubby may have an abcessed tooth. He won't go see a dentist until he's off next week...so I'm going to be stuck with a moaning man...ugh.

Guess that's about it for now. Gods, I'm boring.