Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Weekend is over


It's Wednesday morning, 1:50 am and I should be heading up to bed, I am even a little tired. But I don't want to let go of my weekend yet. My back is still bothering me quite a bit and it feels ok if I just sit and play with my puzzle books. It was SO nice to have Jason for two whole days! We went to the Seattle Coin Shop and bought some silver today. It has doubled in price since last September! I bought Jason a 10 ounce silver bar for our anniversary last year and today he bought 15 ounces, so he is starting to build his “retirement fund” as he calls it. He said it is the funnest way to save ever! And although i wish that he could save in an old fashioned way sometimes, I will take what i can get!! He is spending money, but someday I suppose we can cash it in if we need to or if the price keeps on the rise than we can trade it in for larger bars?... I dunno, he is happy with his new toys and i guess that is what matters. I like him to be happy and to have him clinking his silver for a few days is ok with me! He keeps on talking about wanting gold, but gold is getting soooooo expensive. I was watching my jewelry shows today and they announced that gold has gone over 700.00 an ounce! It was at 680.00 last week. Crazy stuff in the precious metals these days. I should have pushed Jason to buy me a big old white gold ring last year when the prices were a little better! Maybe that should be my angle now, buy before it gets any higher!! Yeah, I like that idea!!! Anyways, after we bought the silver at Jason favorite store, we headed to the University Village and went to Barnes and Noble. We spent quite a bit of time there just browsing. I got two new puzzle books, one sudoku and one acrostic puzzle book. Both are very addictive and help keep my mind fresh and thinking. I also picked up the new Anita Shrive book that finally came out on paperback, A Wedding in December. I also found a book on flower arranging and general info about florals that i wanted, but didn't buy there, i went onto amazon and found it used for I think 2.39, a bargain! After the bookstore we needed to go home because walking was very painful for me and i needed to get some heat and rest to my back. AND it was nearing baseball time so we needed to head for the barn anyways. It was just before six o'clock and the parking on the northbound lane was almost allowed, but not quite, so we decided to go to the store and pick up some things that we needed for the house. We went to Rite Aid and i tend to find way too many items to buy there..... I was browsing and finding things that i could use, but defiantly don't need, so I insisted that we leave promptly. We arrived home at half past six and Jody was playing the 360, of course Jason joined him and i grabbed my new puzzle book and headed for the other game room to watch the ball game.


Good baseball game! The Mariners beat the Devil Rays 8-1 with a great pitching performance by Felix Hernandez and Rafael Sorriano. I have to admit that i did fall asleep during the sixth inning right after Carl Everett hit a home run. I have been so sleepy the last few weeks. I just can't stay awake. This week is going to be hard hard hard. Not only are we serving on Thursday this week and starting all summer long, we are serving lunch on Sunday and we have a small private party on Monday. So there are 5 SERVICE days plus a prep-day. I need to talk to Carrie and tell her that I just can't do it. Last week just about did me in and that was a short week. And I had a helper everyday that i worked! I think i do need to retire. Jason is right. I at least need to take some time off. And NOT work while on vacation like i did during the break. Whatever, it will all work itself out in time, i just have to make it through, and i always do. Just one day or week at a time. It will be easier now that J has a true weekend every week now. I won't feel so bad for him working his tail off all of the time. He already seems so much more relaxed and happier. I think that also has something to do with the premium gaming/entertainment center that we have. It was so funny, i was watching the game on the TV in the play station room and the Mariners scored, so Jason came in to watch the replay and he laughed at the TV. It is a 27” and it does seem small compared to what we have now, but a month ago we were watching a TV that was only a few inches larger than that 27” and it seemed large. Now we just laugh, we love the new plasma so much. It already fits in to our house so well. And the x-box games are so impressive on it. The cable upgrade that we got is amazing as well. I didn't think it could make that much of a difference for the regular channels, but it is so much better. It almost looks HD, not quite as nice, but so much better than what the old cable box gave us. We have a good entertainment center going on. We are very very lucky.


I've gotten back on my baking thing again. I made another angel food cake and bought more strawberries to go with it this weekend. I also made banana bread last week that was so tasty. I brought some into work for Ashley and Joe and the same day Sara had baked muffins and given them to Steve to bring in for us, so i had a little contest, mine was SO much better! Not to brag, but it was just better flavor and hers had walnuts and chocolate chips. In my personal opinion, banana bread or banana muffins shouldn't have either chocolate chips or nuts of any kind. So that's why mine were better. But it also had a better texture and over all flavor, so never mind, i will be cocky and say that mine beat hers fair and square! I have been wanting to make cookies ever since we got the kitchen aid back from The Jones a few months ago, but I just haven't done it yet. I would also like to try to make a cake from scratch, which I can't imagine is too difficult, I just have not ever done it before. I made waffles this morning to use some of the massive amount of strawberries that we have. Those were good, I added cinnamon to the batter. I have had a craving for cinnamon lately. They were good, i put so many strawberries on there it was like the waffle was buried, as it should be! I also want to try my hand again at baking bread, yeasted bread. I have had bad luck with recipes containing yeast in the past. So i would like to conquer that one and make some yummy warm fresh bread. There is nothing better than warm bread from the oven with some butter..... yummy!


I guess I had better be a good adult and try to go to sleep now, at least go up to bed and pretend that I'm going to try to sleep. It would be good for the people around me tomorrow. So thanks for reading and goodnight, or good day if that is the case.


Lots of love, Anne

Friday, May 05, 2006

Review

I had my review on Thursday afternoon. It was a good review, as everyone told me it would be. However, I came away with a sad feeling. I have asked to have them hire someone to help me on a daily/weekly basis. So i will be working 3 days, 4 days TOPS most weeks. Carrie understood that my body is breaking down and I just don't have much of a life the way things are going now, so they needed to change. She has already put together a job description for the job, but apparently we have had very few applicants coming by. I'm hoping that since school is almost out that a high school student that will want some work this summer will wander on by. I think once we find the right person I will begin to feel much better. I think once it sinks in that i will be part time, i will also be a much happier person. Like another weight lifted off my shoulders. We'll see. I will write more later, I have to finish breakfast and get to work. I have a helper today to get me through this latest bout with back pain. Tysan is coming in for about an hour or two to help walk the stemware to the dining room and set out the flatware for me to place at each setting. SO I'd better get a move on!

Much Love,

Anne

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

May 2nd, 2006

Today was a good day. Jason had the day off and next week he will actually have two days off in a row! That is the rumor at least, who knows what will actually happen since every time he is supposed to have a “weekend” something happens such as someone quits, goes on vacation, or they get an awesome review which requires him to work more to keep the quality of his menu to his standards. They have finally got enough staff and they are stable enough for him to be comfortable with leaving for two whole days! That makes for a happy wife in me at home. We spent the first part of our day sleeping in, as usual. I got up a while before Jason and watched episode 19 and 20 of Carnivale on HBO on Demand. (Carnivale is a very good series on HBO if anyone is interested in 24 episodes of good television) Jason got me hooked on that series and watched those two episodes after he got home from work last night and I was asleep upstairs. When he came to bed, he told me about how he watched number 19 and the HAD to watch episode 20 because to was so good! So of course I had to watch it this morning while HE was sleeping. He was right, they were good ones. I'm sad though because there are only 4 more episodes total before the series ends. I thought there was another season, but i went online today and found out different. Anywhoo, HBO releases only a bunch of episodes at a time each month, so now we have to wait until May 21 or 22 for the series finale episodes. I saw a few pictures of them online today and i think it will be RIVITING! HBO has made some damn good made for TV series. We got into ROME, Entourage, Six Feet Under, and of course, Carnivale. It's almost a tease though when they only release half a dozen episodes a month. But I love the on demand feature that cable provides, it has been really cool for us. Once the new season of Lost comes out (it's on ABC and NOT on demand) I think we might invest in the DVR that comcast offers. All in due time though, we will be living in a new place by that time, and who knows what the finaces will be at that time with my health the way it has been the past two years. The DVR just may have to wait.


Speaking of new places to live! I went onto craigslist tonight and started to look at a few North Seattle neighborhoods to see what the prices are. I searched in Maple Leaf since that is close to The Jones and there were only 2 offical listings for Maple Leaf. I also searched for Roosevelt and only found a bunch of apartments. I think that we would like to have some sort of yard for when we get my little dog. I think that it is a must actually since i know i won't be getting up and walking behind my little pooch with plastic baggies every morning. It's just not in me. It's still pretty early to be looking for housing since we won't be out of this house for a few more months, but i suppose it doesn't hurt to get an idea of what we will be paying and looking for areas we are interested in.


I am so excited to get my puppy. I think J is too. He tries to play it off like he isn't, and that he's put off by the fact of getting a weiner dog, but everytime moving comes up that is the thing he brings up, getting a little dog. He kinda says it like “Yeah, we gotta get her the little dog cause we got the plasma...” then he askes if we should just get the mastif first. He is so cute. I just have to remind him that we are getting MY doggie first, then his dog and he says “i know, i know, the weiner dog first, cause we got the plasma...”

We were at Scott's Birthday BBQ tonight and we were talking to Wayne about pets and them farting. It was so funny because he was talking about how the smaller the animal the worse the farts, or as he put it, their “poofs” Apparently Wayne and Stacey's cat “poofs” and it isn't so bad, but Wayne's mother's cat has a little tiny dog that lets the WORST poofs ever. He told us a story of the first time Stacey met the little doggie and she was petting it and having a good time, then all of the sudden she got a goofy look on her face and set the dog down. Of course I had to counter with the story of when we were on our way from Reno to Lake Tahoe and we were in the backseat with Crusie. Brunie and Jim had been feeding the poor dog hot dogs for some reason and she had these farts that would put your gag reflex in full effect! We had to pull the car over once because we thought that Crusie might need to do some business out in the wilderness, but it turned out that she was constipated from the hot dogs and we just had to deal until she relaxed and worked through it. I have never in my life smelled something so bad from something so nice as a dog. And of course her butt was in MY direction because she was so excited to see Jason again she had her head in his lap to get lovin from him..... THOSE were more than “poofs”


That's all I'm gonna write for now, but i took some pictures at the BBQ, so i will download them to the computer and post some soon! Goodnight.

Monday, May 01, 2006

I like flowers

I like this picture too. I have the day off! HA! Posted by Picasa