Day 62

Happy Halloween!!

Well, it rained tonight. The little kids came through, then it poured for about 45 minutes and then some more kids came through. During the rain I went next door and hung out with my neighbor for a little bit. They do a neat walk through in their back yard. It was nice to chat with them.

I bought way to much candy. I had enough for about 25% more kids than last year. Instead we only got 50% as many kids as last year, about 100. I'll ask Robin tomorrow what her final count was. I left a bucket with candy outside when I came in. Hopefully it will all be gone tomorrow. I have so much candy. I have enough candy to do Halloween all over again without going candy shopping.

I had planned to watch Hocus Pocus and Casper tonight, but instead I sat out on the porch greeting kids. While it was still pretty slow Robin's daughter and I chatted for a long time about her recent trip to NYC. I'm going next weekend. This was her first trip to the city. She also said it was her first adult vacation and that she had never been on an airplane. She's planning to go to California next summer so that will be her first flight.

After she went to go sit with Robin in the back Robin's son and I talked for a long time about World of Warcraft.

I called it a night a little after 9 since we had only had 3 kids in the last 30 minutes. Then I came inside and watched a movie on the couch. Now I'm going to bed.

Day 61

We carved some pumpkins at work today. It was fun.

Tomorrow is Halloween. I need to finish decorating the house. It seems a little depressing to decorate plan and then everything is over in one night. I'm glad Hanukkah lasts 8 nights.

Day 60

I can not believe it has been 60 days. I am going to be in Israel in 32 days.

I had lunch with Rebecca today. It was good to see her and good to do something social.

I wanted to get a bunch of tiny pumpkins for us to carve at work tomorrow but I could only find small pumpkins, so I got those anyway. I'm going to bring them to work and we'll see how it goes.

I also roasted pumpkin seeds today. I hope they came out ok because I am going to bring them to work. I don't really know what they are supposed to taste like. Morgan is usually in charge of it.

I realized how much of the things we do I really count on her for input on (excuse the bad grammar).

I'm excited for Halloween but not as excited as I would be if I had someone to celebrate with. It's not that much fun to celebrate holidays by yourself.

Day 59

Today 2 people from work came over and we carved my pumpkins. We carved 10 and we thought it was all of them, but then I found one more was behind something so I have one more to carve.

It was fun and I was really glad to have the help. Those 2 little pumpkins on the left are the ones I got from Julian and Eloise's party.

We took some pictures of us carving the pictures, but the flash wasn't on so they are blurry. It doesn't help that I was taking them left handed and I couldn't see the screen.

I put up some lights at the house, but they don't look very good. Morgan was always the brains of our Halloween.

Day 58

I had the easiest time getting up today as I've had in a really long time. It was still hard to get up but it wasn't as terrible.

I cleaned the kitchen a little today and pulled our Halloween decorations out from the basement. I put the skulls and pumpkins in the window. Tomorrow I will do lights and bats and carve pumpkins.

Day 57

I had a really hard time getting up this morning. I was having a really realistic dream that wasn't actually realistic at all. I was on a ship trying to escape someone/something.

Work was very boring today. We had an hour long meeting about absolutely nothing that was a giant waste of time.

After work I met with my new pet sitter. We spent over an hour going over everything about the house and the pets. He seems good and has good references. He lives very close to here which means that if it snows a lot he'll still be able to come and check in on the babies. He is going to do morning visits while I'm in Israel and I've asked someone from work to do evening visits. I'm also going to set up a radio on a timer so they don't feel so alone. I am considering buying Dippy an motion activated toy that is basically a string that goes around and encourages her to play. I'm not sure if that would be going overboard. Is there such a thing as doing too much for Dippy? I don't think so.

I need to start using my humidifier again soon. It is getting very dry here. I am waking up with a dry throat every day. Dippy is starting to get dry skin.

I thought I had misplaced my daylight lamp, but I found it! I suppose it's a sign that I need to clean my room that I saw a plug that looked like the one that went with it plugged in to my power strip. I unplugged it and pulled on the cord, only to see the light part come out from underneath my bed! It was more than an arms length under there. I'm glad I found it. The lamp wasn't cheap and I do really like to have a bright room when I get home from work. It's starting to get dark so early. When we change the clocks it'll be even worse.

Day 56

I am exhausted. I woke up and chatted a bit with Morgan on Skype, ate some left over pizza and went to iParty to get some balloons and a punch bowl. It took a long time to get the balloons blown up because there seemed to be a ton of people getting balloons.

I drove to Providence for Julian and Eloise's 2nd first birthday party. I helped set up and cook the appetizers. There were quite a few people there. Lots of adults and lots of kids. Julian and Eloise were adorable as always.

Now I'm tired and going to bed before the week starts again.

Day 55 (and 53 and 54)

Dear Blog,

I am sorry I completely forgot about you for 2 days. I am not sure if forgetting was a good sign because I am leading a more normal life or a bad thing because I can't remember to do something I've been doing every day for almost 2 months. I will try not to forget you again.

Yesterday at work we all went out for lunch at Bertucci's. It ended up being a longer lunch than I had planned. Almost everyone left early on Friday and I'm not sure why. I stayed until 5:45because I didn't have anything better to do at home.

Today I cleaned the family room and ran Roomba. He hadn't run in a long time and I had to clean his brushes twice. That is about normal for our room. Dippy has a lot of hair.

I also went out and got pumpkins today. It was raining but not too hard. There were people filtering in and out the whole time I was there. I got 6 pumpkins. Now I just have to figure out when I am going to carve them.

Day 52

The heat was working at work today. It was nice but it does mean that that I don't get to wear my sweatshirt all day every day anymore.

Yesterday the pan I ordered at the Big E came. It comes with a lid that fits the pan we already have. I'm excited but now I have to season it. I also need to clean the kitchen.

Nothing really exciting happened today. I got super aggravated at work because I'm still in the process of implementing a change that cost over $10,000 and on a whim HG decided not to bother with it. I hate wasting months of time. I also hate that we wasted all that money in a year when no one is getting raises.

I've been thinking more and more about wanting to live in a different area. But I do not want to actually move. I hate moving. I'd love to live someplace a little warmer and brighter.

I am going to schedule a meet and greet with a pet sitter. I need one for Thanksgiving/Israel.

Day 51

Today I was in bed. I had taken a shower but I was having some trouble getting out of the house. Adrian called me to let me know she saw in her email that the director was taking a sick day today. She turned around to get her vacuum and flowbee for my haircut. I brought my brush and a towel. This afternoon we cut my hair. Here is the result:

Visit flickr to see the whole story.

Morgan was up late studying so I got to talk to her on skype after I got home from work. It was very nice.

Day 50

Happy First Birthday Julian and Eloise! I can't wait to see what next year brings! (I know that Matt and Rachel diligently read my blog aloud to you each day and I am confident you will get my birthday wishes.)

I'm going to back up a day. Yesterday (which was Sunday) I had a bit of a breakdown. I was starting laundry so I walked downstairs with my laundry basket which was very full and heavy. I missed the last step and fell and scraped my foot. I was sort of trapped in an uncomfortable position at the bottom of the stairs pinned under my laundry basket leaning against the stack of pet cages at the bottom of the stairs. I couldn't reach anything to help me get up so I tried to push the laundry basket off of me. In the process I knocked over the pile of pet cages just enough that the 2nd to top thing (an aquarium) cracked on a pipe running along the wall of the basement and everything else had fallen over but were still stacked leaning against a box that was on the floor and I spilled my clothes in the laundry basket all over the floor. I had a really hard time righting the pet cages because if I moved any one thing all the others would fall further and I couldn't catch them all and my foot hurt. It took me a few minutes but I was able to move everything so it wasn't leaning on the pipe. The whole incident was kind of scary. What if I had actually hurt myself? My cell phone and house phone were on my bed on the 2nd floor. I may or may not have completely freaked out while talking to Morgan on skype. Here are 2 pictures of my foot. It's really not that bad, but it does hurt in my shoe because it's a little swollen.

Today I was really cranky in the morning. Not only was it 52 degrees in the office in the morning but at 9 am (when I was still tired and cold) in a 2 minute period, 3 different people asked me if I was getting a piece of information. I was, at the time, on the phone with someone trying to get that information. I was really annoyed. Then Morgan called and I couldn't talk to her and that made me feel even worse!

I did get a postcard from Morgan in the mail today. It was dated October 1. I was glad to get it. It's nice to get real mail.

I also saw our neighbor Robin today. She was putting up her Halloween decorations. I hadn't seen her since before Morgan left. She invited me over for a beer sometime. It was nice to see her. It reminded me that I need to start pulling my Halloween decorations out from the basement. Shoot - that reminds me. I still have laundry in the dryer.

It's a good TV night. House was pushed late because of a baseball game so I'll have to watch that tomorrow.

Dippy was sitting on Morgan's pillow (she sits there a lot) and she was sitting by my cell phone (it also sits on Morgan's pillow a lot). Dippy started licking her tail and then her tail was on my phone and she started licking my phone. It was super cute. Then I offered her my finger and she licked that.

Day 49

I got to talk to Morgan a lot today. It was nice.

I went to the grocery store and bought myself a lot of things that are delicious but are not necessarily good for me.

I am lounging around the bed and watching a movie.

I was was planning to pick up some pumpkins today for Halloween but it rained all day. It was too cold and wet to be tromping around picking up pumpkins. I will try to go out and get some this week. I am planning to do the carving next Friday or Saturday.

I did not get very much cleaning done today, but I did get the laundry done.

Day 48

I woke up and talked to Morgan.

Today I went to Providence for Julian and Eloise's birthday party. It was fun. I saw Rachel's sister for the first time since their wedding. Rachel and Liz got them a tunnel and we took turns crawling through it once the kids went to bed.

I am going to go back next weekend for the kid birthday party.

Rachel and Liz invited me to their house for a housewarming party in November.

Day 47

Friday!

Work was fine today. Slow and cold but fine.

I watched the new Bones. I really don't understand the part about the egg in the meatloaf. Do people put a hard boiled egg in the meatloaf? Why would you think it was an eyeball?

I'm off to Providence tomorrow. That should be nice.

I decided to buy a domain name today. I own onedressandapony.com! There's nothing there, but I decided to get it for now so no one else can steal my awesome name.

I hope it warms up soon.

Day 46

We had a 3 hour meeting about the PJ website today. It was fine but not great.

After work a few of us went to Chili's to celebrate Kim's getting married. It was actually pretty fun. I wasn't sure it would be good to hang out with work people outside of work. I had the fajitas.

I'm glad tomorrow is Friday.

Day 45

I don't really feel like I have much to say about today.

I put the trash out tonight.

Tomorrow I am going out for drinks at Chili's with some people from work. Maybe we'll get some food too. I like Chili's but I don't like to go there alone so this will be nice.

There are a lot of things I like to do that I don't like to do alone. I've had the urge to go down to Foxwoods lately, but I definitely don't want to go alone.

Day 44

This is the rainbow I saw driving home today.















Work was OK today. Adrian at work got a haircut last night. It got us talking about haircuts and I said I almost got a haircut last night too. I didn't really want to pay for a haircut. I can't remember the last time I paid for a haircut, but I think it was many years ago. Maybe 8? Unless I've forgotten about a time, I suppose that's possible. Then Adrian said she'd cut my hair, so that's the plan for lunch on Friday. We might also play Apples to Apples Jewish Edition.

I came home and relaxed and watched TV like normal.
The big news of the day: Morgan bought plane tickets to Flordia. We are going to Disney World in March! I'm very excited.

Day 43

Work was fine today, not great but not terrible. It was really cold in the office today. About 60 degrees for most of the day.

After work I went to the mall. I bought 2 shirts and 2 sweaters.

I also bought $50 worth of Halloween candy. While I was at Target I was looking for a new cassette adapter for my car/iPhone. The one I have keeps thinking it's at the end of the side of the tape and trying to change sides. It's annoying. It wouldn't be so bad if I was just listening to music, but I'm listening to the Pimsluer Hebrew lessons. When it cuts out for about 5 seconds every 15 seconds it's really hard to hear what I'm supposed to say. While I was there I saw a Kodak Essentials Kit. It was on sale for $6.24 down from $24.99. It came with a camera case and an extra battery that fits my camera and a cloth and a SD card holder. I bought it because it had a battery for my camera.

Day 42

Sunday. I have the Sunday night blues. Not as badly as I sometimes do, but I still have them. It's getting cold here. There was a few minutes today while I thought there was a nice chill in the air, but after about 1 minute I am done with a chill in the air. I hate winter. It really makes me think that Massachusetts is not for me.

I got to talk to Morgan today again. I love that I can video chat with her on the weekends. There is something nice about being able to see the face of the person you are talking to, even if sometimes it freezes.

I ordered Chinese food for dinner tonight. I had planned to get chicken enchiladas from El Guanaco but they weren't open. Instead I ordered Chinese food, walked to the grocery store, did some shopping and walked back to pick up my food. It was very busy when I went to pick up the food. At the grocery store I got some shelf stable lunch foods and some breakfast things to keep at work. Instant oatmeal, cereal and I bought some frozen dinners. If all goes well I should have enough food for breakfast lunch and dinner for the whole week. All for $40.

I am thinking of going to a movie during the week this week. I really do like going to the movies. I don't go very much because I think it's more expensive than it's worth, but this week I'm on a movie kick.

Day 41

Well, I wasted most of today. I woke up this morning and talked with Morgan. Then I took a shower and talked with Morgan a little more. Saturday is my favorite day because I can talk to her from home with video without any distraction. We play games and just get to chat. I like it a lot, especially since during the week I can only talk to her while I'm at work and I am usually distracted.

I stayed in my bed until about 4 (not counting the time in the shower and making lunch) and went to Northampton. It was nice to get out of the house. I had a pretty bad headache by then. I went to Bueno y Sano. It's weird, while I was talking to Morgan she told me she had a burrito for dinner. We were talking about how good it was and she said I should go to Bueno y Sano. So I did. But I'm not sure if I went because she said to or if it was because we were talking about burritos or if it was just convenient. I didn't even get a burrito. I got 2 chicken tacos. I've actually been craving Chipotle lately. I close my eyes and I picture going to the Chipotle next to Dierbergs in St. Louis. There aren't any around me. The closest one is 42 miles away. That's too far to go.

Sometimes when I think about going to Target I picture the Target in Flagstaff Arizona. I'm not sure why that is my brains default Target, but it's kind of weird.

I walked around a bit and then took Morgan's calculator to Taco Bell to give to Candice. I had to just drop it off and run because I was going to see a movie. I saw Couples Retreat. There were a ton of people there and it was pretty funny. It did make me miss Morgan and vacation. Not because I want to do "couples team building" but because of the really pretty scenery. On the way home I stopped at 7-11 to buy a slurpee and I got a scratch ticket. I didn't win $100,000 a year for life or the $5,000,000 prize. I would have settled for either, but instead I won nothing. It was OK, scratched it while watching the 10th anniversary episode of Good Eats: Good Eats turns 10. It was... disappointing. It was a live show in front of a live audience that was supposed to be like a variety show. I think I just don't like those kinds of shows. The whole thing felt overdone and fake. I think some people are made for live shows and some are made for scripted, practiced, several takes TV and some people, like me, are not made for TV at all.

Day 40

I was so glad it was Friday when I woke up this morning. I've been having a hard time getting out of bed in the morning because it's been so dark in the mornings.

I woke up this morning with Dippy laying pressed up against my back. It was really cute.

A bunch of us at work went out to lunch at Bertucci's. I had the salad, some rolls and the cheese ravioli. Lunch was good.

I got home and I had a small package in the mail. I finished my last term of fake school with 100% passing rate. As a gift I got a 2 gb USB flash drive with WGU's logo on it. It was pretty great. It also motivated me to work on my persuasive essay about what pet I will get next and persuading a friend or family member to get one too. I'm not actually going to get a pet any time soon, but so far I am writing about getting a rabbit. I was going to go with a dog, but then I changed my mind. We'll see how this goes. There were 2 other topic choices, but they were just as ridiculous. The next class I have to do is writing a research paper. I need to learn how to research a topic and write formally and site properly.

I'm watching Numbers and then I'm going to go to bed.

Day 39

The days just keep going by.

We gave the ok for the mailing to announce the program in the Upper West Side to go out today. Everyone was very excited. I'm more stressed about fixing the rest of the process.

After work I went to Temple. There was a "light bite" and a talk. They did not really serve dinner, though it was all I had for dinner. It was a regular salad and a pasta salad. The regular salad was very good except that it had something like parsley, no, not parsley, some herb in it and in one bite I bit into a giant stem of the herb. The pasta salad was spirals and roasted vegetables in a pesto. It was served warm. For dessert there was an apple crisp.

The conversation was about can you doubt G-d's existence and still be a good Jew? It was interesting but not Earth shattering. They are doing these talks about once a month for some of the winter.

Speaking of winter, it's getting cold! A high of 60 degrees tomorrow and rainy. I hate winter.

Day 38

Well, using my sleeptracker watch didn't work that great last night. I think it was because I didn't sleep well. I had a really hard time getting to sleep and I tossed and turned all night, on average there were 28 minutes and 53 seconds between my most awake moments. I don't know if that is above or below average. But I woke up tired.

I had a follow up call with my mentor. He told me his voice was nasally because he was a little premature when he was born. It was sort of weird, I didn't know what to say to that.

I was planning to go to bed early tonight in hopes I would sleep better, but somehow it's 11 pm already.

I didn't get to talk to Morgan very much today. I was busy at work and then in a meeting when she was going to bed. It didn't help that I was in a meeting with someone I really do not like.

Day 37

This has been a really long week so far. It's only Tuesday. I'm exhausted.

Work was regular. Someone told me that their biggest fear for PJ would be me getting hit by a beer truck. Then we proceeded to joke about who else it would be terrible for work if got hit by a beer truck and decided that we should not walk in front of any beer trucks at the same time. Mostly I think it's funny that he picked a beer truck. I usually use the expression getting hit by a bus. There's someone else at work who, when I say I want her to be able to do things in case I get hit by a bus doesn't like to talk about that. So instead we say in case I win the lottery and move to Hawaii. That is a much nicer image, but I could give notice if I win the lottery and quit. You can't really give notice if you get hit by a bus/beer truck.

I had stopped wearing my sleeptracker watch because at the time Morgan was getting up before me. Now, that is obviously not an issue. I've decided to give it another shot. I'll have to let you know how it works. I remember it working very well.

Day 36

I did not feel like going to work today. I went anyway of course. I was pretty cranky for a while.

Then at 11:45 I got a phone call that Harold decided the entire PJ team should have lunch from 12 - 1 with some candidates and a new hire. Turns out the new hire is a guy that no one in the office likes. He comes off creepy and conceded and condescending. Of course, he only acts that way if he thinks you aren't important. He's going to have a tough adjustment once he needs the help of everyone he treated poorly. No one is going to be nice to him.

I came home and folded laundry and watched TV. There was a new How I Met Your Mother, House and Big Bang Theory. House was really interesting. And the side story was good too.

Great TV night. It makes up for it being Monday.

I folded laundry but now I have more laundry to fold. Yesterday I changed the sheets on my bed. I also put the mattress pad back on my bed. I took it off to wash it before Morgan left. But then it was still wet when I put sheets back on the bed. I kept meaning to put it back on but it was in the other room so I kept forgetting. I'm glad I finally did.

I think I might be coming down with a cold.

Day 35

I had a really weird dream last night. It was me, 2 people I knew in high school, Matt, Julian, Eloise, Rachel, Dad and Grandma. We were preparing for a battle of some kind.. There were people with magic powers and we had to fight them to protect Julian and Eloise. Julian and Eloise had powers but were too young to know how to use them. Grandma was the most powerful of us. I had no powers and everyone else in our family was somewhere in the middle except for the 2 people I knew from high school. They thought we were just going out for the day, that had no idea this would be a fight. Everyone was getting ready and it was just me and those 2 people in the kitchen. I was making chicken sandwiches on dollar rolls with mustard and a sandwich of chocolate sauce on a dollar roll. I warned the 2 people from high school that they might not want to come. At this point I wasn't sure anyone had any powers. Dad came back in the middle of me saying this and was annoyed that I suggested they not come. He wanted to have more numbers. We were going to try to get to my apartment from wherever we were. I only had one job. Once we got to my bedroom with Julian and Eloise I had to run downstairs and unlock the front door. Then fight whoever was at the door if there was someone there. Otherwise I should run back to my bedroom and wait with Julian and Eloise until the rest of the family beat all the bad guys. I was really worried that I would freeze in the sight of danger. I also thought it was a bad plan to leave Julian and Eloise alone in my bedroom while I was unlocking the door. Anyway, it was weird. I have no idea what it means.

Today was the last day of The Big E. I talked to Morgan a little this morning then I went to The Big E. I wandered around there for about 6 hours. I'm exhausted now. I am sort of sad it's over. There is always next year. I ordered a new 5 quart sauce pan from the same company e bought a 12 inch frying pan from last year. The great thing about the sauce pan is that it comes with a lid that also fits the frying pan. If I was starting my kitchen over I would buy a full set of these pans. They are non-stick, not Teflon. They are broiler safe, oven safe up to 800 degrees and stove top safe. All of the handles have rubber covers that you can use on the stove top to keep it safe to touch, but take off for the oven or broiler.

There were a bunch of other things that were neat, but I would never really need or use in real life. But, in fake life I would definitely want one.

A pressure cooker that has a magic design so it can't explode. I wish I remembered what brand it was.

I Vita-mix blender. I watched a guy make ice cream by mixing coffee mate, 1/2 a packet of vanilla pudding and ice, oh, and cabbage and carrots for health (not taste). Yeah, in the blender in 5 minutes. He turned the blender upside down and the stuff was solid! How cool.

A spiral with fake crystals inside that spin and it looked like the crystals will fall out the bottom, but they don't.

Funny plaques and signs that say things like "Diplomacy: telling someone to go to hell and having them look forward to the trip." and other things like that.

A sauna

A walk in spa shower.

I'm not sure I'm ready for the week.

Day 34

I had a pretty boring day today. I Skyped with Morgan this morning. We played Backgammon and battleship.

Then I had lunch and talked to Morgan some more.

I went to dinner with Rachel tonight at Bertucci's. It was nice to get out of the house. Afterwards I went to Stop and Shop to buy some food. I bought a variety of frozen dinners.

Tonight I bought the big bundle. It is a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. You spend 30 dollars and you get a bunch of things in return. 32 things. Including a free copy of Bejeweled 2 and Diner Dash. Coral 7, a pdf maker, a 3 month subscription to zagat.com, a free $25 gift certificate from Restaurant.com etc.

I'm going to play Diner Dash now.

Day 33

I am so ready for the weekend. I was in a really bad mood most of the day. I am going through a period where I really hate work. I'm sure it will pass and I will find my place of apathy again. I always do.

We went out to lunch with some USPS employees. We were making nice with them.

Rachel is going to call me tomorrow to hang out. It should be nice. If the weather is nice we are going to go to the Big E. I am definitely going to go on Sunday because it is the last day and sometimes there are extra good bargains on the last day.

I was so tired today. I wanted to put my head down on my desk and take a nap!

So, in that vein, it's only 8pm and I'm already in bed. I'm going to watch TV and fall asleep.

Day 32

I was very stressed at work today. My day was kind of annoying so I'm not going tell you much about it. Except to say that we had a little party for Kim because it's her last day in the office before her wedding. I had like 3 bagels throughout the day.

They I went to The Big E again. I had a chicken pita for dinner and a piece of pizza. Then I was walking around and I saw a stand that sold Hawaii Shaved Ice. I was really excited because I thought it might be like the Shave Ice you can get in Hawaii. Of course I wasn't sure because they called it shaved instead of shave but I decided to try. It was just a regular snow cone. How disappointing.

I'm feeling a little stuffy. I hope I'm not getting sick.