Addicted
Ok. It's disturbing, but I'm completely addicted to sudoku. Can't stop playing.
Eric's sister's family left today, and we are just hanging around a little mopey. It was very fun to have them around despite the fact that I got a monkey bar injury. You can truly feel old when you get a monkey bar injury. Reminds me actually of my friend snoobie's adventure with playground lava that ended with us driving to the emergency room. His mom and I laughed all the way home.

Finis!
After a truly embarrassing amount of time I finished painting the guest bathroom last night. It only took 9 ridiculous months. Still it looks infinitely better and I now no longer feel guilty every time I use it.
We had a lovely holiday. A too short stay in Dallas and time to hug my niece and nephew here in Austin. Dallas was marked by helping my sister move into her new house. I now know exactly how many people it takes to lift a hot tub. 8. Anyway that was fun even if I had a pretty bad sinus infection. Lisa, Robert, Katie, and Jon are here for the week, and we are really enjoying being aunt and uncle.
In other finishing news, we also finally had the glass door fixed. I actually kinda miss the artistic creepiness of the broken one. So does my checkbook. $325! Yikes. Our shed still remains at an impass, however. Don offered to take our shed and buy us a new one, so we'll see if that happens. It is awfully sweet of him.
Having been recently blown away by the book The Historian, I checked Bram Stoker's Dracula out from the library. I really enjoyed it. I can't explain my recent vampire kick. Perhaps I'm anemic. My next book is Wicked. A frightful trend.
I only have a few days left at home--I must get in all the kitten snuggling I can.

Oh, and for those who relish in Toby's misfortunes I have sad news. Apparently while we were gone Toby went nuts, as did his shock collar. When we returned we found that it had burn his throat. Poor puppy. He is really a little pathetic at the moment. I have even found myself snuggling with him.

How Sweet It Is
First off I got to sleep all the way to the ripe old hour of almost 8am on my first day of vacation. As I usually get up at 5, this was an achievement. Whoot!
Secondly and much more importantly, I got an A in my Theology class and some very nice comments on my final paper. I am very stoked since I had to bust butt for it. It makes me feel like I actually belong in the program. It is especially nice since my paper was really quite heretical. I have the professor again next term, so hopefully this spells good things for me.
Today's mission is to get Eric's Christmas present. It's hard to buy for a boy you love because nothing seems quite good enough. Plus I have decided that the mall is quite possibly evil.
I got lovely prezzies from my little students yesterday. If you want chocolate, please come over. I'm overflowing. Since everything tastes like snot to me I can't even touch the stuff. I"m thinking this whole snot thing will really be a weight loss aide. Mucus the pounds away. Perhaps I should do an infomertial?

Freakin' Snot
I feel like I"m drowning in my own snot. Perhaps it wouldn't be a bad way to go, but I'm not ready yet.
Hard weekend. Was feeling pretty crummy. Also got some disturbing family health news. Ho Ho Ho. And all that.
Eric just called to say that his car broke down and it cost us another $250. That brings this month's car spending to just under $900. All on credit cards. We haven't used cards in years, and it kills me to be putting money on them when I so despartely want to pay them off. Again, ho frickin' ho, ho.
Still tomorrow is the last day of school and then I can begin my bon bon eating.
We go to Dallas on Friday and return home Sunday. Whirlwind holidays.

Damn snot.

Heretic
I finished my paper! And with a week to spare to do all of the fine tuning details that I am sure I will need to do. Still, I feel as if the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders. I am no longer a snarling beastie of frustration. Only a moderate beastie of end of term stress. See, improvement!
Still I am worried I will be considered a heretic. I suppose I come from a long line of heretics. At least I think for myself.
Tonight we belatedly celebrate my b-day with Eric's rents. I am very thankful that Don is up and around. He just went for a check up, and the docs predict a full recovery. Amazing.
One and 1/2 weeks of school remaining. I'm pulling up my big girl panties, strapping on my boots and charging at anything in front of me. It's war.

Those People
After yesterday's post I feel a little foolish posting with today's events. I have officially become one of those people. A storm victim.
I got a call last night saying we would start school at 10 a.m. This morning I checked the news ticker. We were still starting at 10 a.m. Then I checked the school website, still 10 a.m. So I decided to head up early if I had to go so I could get a little work done before hand. On my way there my car skidded off the road and into a ditch, crushing the front end. I managed to extricate myself from the ditch, only to skid off the road a few feet down the road.At this point the car behind me hit a huge mailbox and skidded into a ditch even worse than I was. After a few moer times of skidding, I got home. I actually called my principal from the ditch and told him I would not be coming in and that I had just had an accidnet. He had to nerve to tell me, "You really should have called me before leaving the house." I'm sorry but I wasn't aware that that was my job. I thought, silly me, I would be contacted in the event of school closing. Apparently they were waiting for the priest to finish mass, but they were planning on cancelling school. I told him that that goes under the category of things that would have been useful to know before wrecking my brand new car. I wished him good day and hung up. Another in a series of a series of reasons I need a new job.
Eric's work told him not to come in both the night before as well as the morning efore. He is safe and sound.
I've been working on my paper on and off again all day which is good. I won't be going anywhere for awhile. Inertia is a damn scary thing.

Freeze Your Brain
The people of Central Texas have collectively lost their minds. It is below freezing and the word on the street is that the apocalypse will come and swallow us all.
There is an infintessimal chance that there may be some freezing rain, so they've all decided to close facilities, cancel schools and the stores are running out of all basic supplies. The quarter inch of possible sleet certainlly calls for 24 rolls of toilet paper, bottled water, and jars of peanut butter, right?
That being said, we don't start school tomorrow unitl 10 a.m. Rock on!

My ed class is finally over. State of Texas, I have bowed to your every request. End my exile in the boonies. Grant this certificate. It is, of course, too early to celebrate since I still have my research paper to write. This weather calls for coco and a good book, not sitting by the computer reading Vatican documents.
In mean news on the day of the soon to be epic freeze I got Toby shaved. Snicker, snicker.

Update: Eric's father is doing really well. He got to the hospital in time for them to save him. He is now home and resting comfortably. He should make a full recovery. It helped us to realize we need to spend more time with family.

Heart Ache
Eric's father had a heart attack this afternoon. Very scary. He is in the ICU at North Austin Medical Center. Luckily he actually had the heart attack while en route to the hospital. They managed to stop it witout much major damage. He had angeoplasti (?) and avoided open heart surgery. Still we are all pretty shaken up around here. Prayers are appreciated.
It made me very gratful for my family.