That TV ad showing kids unwrapping gifts, with Christmas stockings and holiday decor, is on TOO SOON. It's only Halloween!

Things that go BUMP in the night

From the dining room: whump bump bump rolllllll

Me: I don't know what you cats are doing in there, but CUT IT OUT!

[two cats come trotting out of the dining room, with innocent faces]

Me: [gets up to investigate]

Gee, how about that. My measuring tape is all the way in the far corner, on the floor. I wonder how that happened, since SURELY those innocent-faced cats weren't on the dining room table, which is off-limits to kitties...

Good thing they're both cute...

Mark is working from home today. Thank God his boss saw reason. We're smack in the middle of Hurricane Sandy's projected route.

LOL... At the Tactile Carnival, w/games for deaf-blind players. One lady aimed a ball at a Velcro target & her guide dog tried to fetch it.

The groom's parents are from Italy and dance superbly. They know tons of set dance steps. I prefer that to the random improv dances we do.

AVG keeps giving warnings about sites it blocked. So I'm virus scanning my whole PC. If there is nasty stuff in the cache, it needs to go.

WOO HOO... the ear wraps I made, and sold earlier this week, have arrived at their destination. I got delivery confirmation from the USPS.

Etsy store and more

Between Craigslist and Etsy, I managed to make my first sale last week. I have made a point of doing at least one thing daily with regards to my handmade jewelry. Either I have made something, listed something, or both. I have also discovered the eBay has changed their fee structure for the better. The first 50 listings in a given month are free. (Their fee for sold items is painful, but hey -- at least I don't have to pay for UNSOLD items.) So that is an avenue I might have to explore more fully. I am determined to replace the lost income from my reduced part-time-job workload.

Doing some reinventing of myself. What else is new?

One of my part-time jobs was diminished last week. I am not amused. I am not going to sit around and mope. I spent last week busting my tail trying to set up an Etsy store where I can sell wire-wrapped jewelry. (The link will be added to the left-hand side of the page when I get a few moments.) I spent time photographing the items that I already had available, uploading images, writing text, etc. I set, and achieved, the goal of doing something significant for the Etsy setup every day of the week. Persistence paid off, when I made my first sale yesterday! Today, I ran to the craft store (as the jewelry boxes I have on hand were too small for this item), and proceeded to stock up on some larger boxes and a bunch of other stuff. Then I got packing material at a nearby Staples, went home and prepped the item for shipping, and went right to the Post Office... only to realize that they were closed because it's Columbus Day. Dagnab it. Well, my item will be sent out tomorrow, then. Fortunately, the other reason for my trip, the gym, is only a short distance from the Post Office. So I went there and used the treadmill... and toward the end of my 30 minutes, started to feel pretty awful. It was then that I realized that in all my errand-running, I'd never actually stopped to eat lunch. No wonder I felt dreadful. So I tweaked the settings of the treadmill a little bit (dropped the incline to zero and reduced speed by 0.5 MPH) and finished my workout. I plan to spend my unexpected free time on making things for Etsy, going back to the gym, and taking an online programming class. I'm NOT going to spend it sulking over the reduction of my workload.

Son of a bee sting. I forgot the post office is closed for Columbus Day. I'll ship my item tomorrow. At least my other errand is nearby.

RIP Phantom :-(

Karla texted me earlier today. "We spent all morning at the vet, saying goodbye to Phantom."

Phantom was their 12-year-old black Lab, who was a big bundle of happy. But in recent months, she was starting to slow down dramatically. Until then, the only real indicator of her age was the white fur on her muzzle.

She leaves behind her human mom and dad, and her two kitty brothers, one of whom utterly idolized her and was inseparable from her. I don't know how he's going to handle this turn of events. He didn't even like it when she went out in the yard for a potty break.

I will miss my doggie niece. :-(

21st century

I love the mobile deposit feature on this bank app. One of my employers doesn't do direct deposit. This is the next best thing.

On ice 5 26 10 14 16 28. Now timeout Albany. 21.1 seconds left.

Goalie is pulled in the final minute timeout, Phantoms with 51.9 seconds left.

SCOOOOORE! On our 43d SOG! 5-3 Albany. The McGinn from Couturier and Manning.

Halfway through the third and no goalie change for the Phantoms. I guess Hovinen is in for the whole game...?

After a period of looking at our 6'7" goalie Hovinen, Albany's average-height goalie Wedgewood seems tiny.

At the end of the second period, the score is Albany 5, Phantoms 2. SOG: Albany 17, Phantoms 31.

Beans. 5-2 Albany. 2:16 left in the second period.

HEEEE shoots and scores! :-) 25 Ford. 4-2 Albany.

Albany's #9 Whitney is so much shorter than our goalie, he could practically skate through his 5-hole, lol.

Freaking Devils get one early in the second. 4-1 Albany. Hovinen has been our goalie so far.

Stuck in standing room of the SRO crowd @ Phantoms game. Which started at 2 pm on a weekday. Why'd Comcast sell the team again? GRRRRR

Due South moment: I subscribed to a site called The Daily Otter. :-)

Captain and Stanley have got a case of The Zoomies. They just went thundering into the dining room, turned around, and came barreling back into the living room. Stanley wound up his run with a sailing leap onto the sofa. Captain kept going and made a flying jump onto the kitty perch in the front window.