Jill

In home improvement updates:
I decided I'd try to paint the wall above the window the same color as the bottom of the other walls - "Pressed Linen," I believe it's called. We'll call it an "accent" wall. Tim scrunched his nose up a bit when he first saw it, but I assured him that if we don't like it, it's only paint and we can repaint it. "We've got more than enough paint" I tell him.

So then, last night I decided to start painting some of the stripes the "Urban Gold" color. I was standing on a chair to paint the top of the wall and on the last stripe on one wall, I went to sit on the chair from my standing position and lean against the back of the chair to get to the lower portion. FYI: when planning on doing this, please ensure that the chair back is actually behind you and not to your left. I ended up falling backwards into the bathroom counter and spilled a bunch of paint on myself, the chair, the floor and a little splatter on the wall. Yes, yes. I rule. I know. I figured that was enough painting for one evening.

In work updates:
I just sent off the second version of an enhanced report I've been working on. I had sent off the first version yesterday to the customer and she had noticed I needed to add in functionality for the custom report options. This is by far the most code I've written in years - not counting the piddly JCLs I used to write at Nahan. And it's in C/SQL combined code which I've never written before. I feel so accomplished right now. I even made sure that the report header was updated. Response from my customer:

It worked this time.
This is gonna save me hours. Thank you so much!!!
Tina

She's one of my favorite customers. She's demanding and has an ever growing list of requests, but if you send her stuff to test, she'll test the crap out of it and send back excellent feedback in a timely manner.

In donation updates:
I've got some very generous friends, family and co-workers. I'm at 95% of my goal! That's just fricken awesome. Now if I can just convince Jody to have Jackson's fifth birthday party late enough in the day that I can still go... (the walk starts at 10am and she was saying that that she thought she'd have his party that day)

Also, her brother is hilarious. He suggested that the theme this year should be "Jackson 5". Can you imagine everyone in afro wigs?! Sylla said he might try to grow his hair out for his own natural afro. :)

Thing that makes me giggle:
On the St Cloud Times website, there is this story bit:

People look for ways to make quick cash
Al Lassen, manager of Granite City Pawn Shop, works on a firearms purchase application between customers Wednesday.

When I first read that, I thought that Al was gonna buy a firearm to make some quick cash!

It's early. Give me a break.

Baby Abraham was born at 5:34am on Saturday, March 8th. He's so cute! He has a little dimple in his left cheek just like his dad. He's got tiny little monkey feet.

It also finally occurred to me why the comic Baby Blues has a baby named Hammie. Before I always wondered why a family would name a kid after food. But I understand now that it is short for Abraham.

So Jody has two kids: Tater and Hammie. hehe.

I am SO ready for spring. The thing I look forward to most is the end of my eternal refilling of the humidifiers. I feel like every time I look at them, I have to refill them. And it's that or nosebleeds and annoying crusty boogers.

My cubicle is faced such that the sun in its current position is able to shine directly into my eyes in the 1 ft of window that peers out over the top of the cubicle. Methinks I'll have to get a tall shelf and add some plants to block it.

And seriously, people. Don't call me in the morning all bitchy because you can't type in a website address correctly. That ain't my fault. Good thing we have it in a PDF where the link is clickable. It's amazing how many fat fingers (including my own) that cures.

Oh yes, and also: taxes suck. I finally see why there are people out there rooting for Ron Paul. These are the people who want immediate gratification and are unable to save money. Kinda like me right now. I received the automatic deposit pay stub for my bonus and stupid taxes took almost half of it! And they treated it like my normal paycheck, so 10% went into my 401k and then the rest of it got put in our family accounts instead of my personal accounts. (That last part is more my fault than anything else, and just annoying that I have to transfer funds between accounts now.) I realize that I have to pay taxes and stuff, but my own naiveness had me assuming I'd just be getting a nice fat check to hold in my hands and drool over. *pout*

After chatting with Miss Jody Mae, it sounds like I may be going here in the next year or so. *grin*

Unfortunately, it may not be in her son's best interest to go... (second to last paragraph)

Spent a beautiful day at Lake Minnewashta (in Minnetonka) with Jody, Jack, Jody's sister Katie and Jody's future brother-in-law Eric. Eric drove us around in the boat, we had snacks, went swimming, waved at the sheriffs as they drove by, sunbathed and talked smack about all the rich folks.

And Tim stayed home and slept.

HA!

Absolutely gorgeous day. Couldn't have thought of a better way to spend it. :)

Last night I dropped off the 23 FunSaver cameras from the reception at Coborns. It'll be interesting to see if I can tell the difference between the photos of the most avid photographers that night: the 2 year old ring bearer Jack or the 9 year old nephew Craig. Neither of whom really got the concept of setting the flash. :)

( Ruminations of being an Aunt )

The wedding day was really golden. ( Read more... )

I just got finished planting some flowers around the mailbox and digging up our tulip bulbs in the back garden. Just as I was digging up my last tulip, it started to sprinkle, so I think I timed it pretty well. I'm off to the gym now, as it's been over two weeks and I feel the flab coming on!


( footnote )