A funny story from Friday - I was shopping in the produce section and there were some other people nearby. It appeared to be a mother, father, and two kids. I noticed that the father was hiding a fly swatter behind his back and looked like he was up to something. I looked away when he glanced at me because I didn't want to start laughing out loud and give away whatever this game was. Then I saw him look around and then stick the fly swatter among the produce. I have *no* idea what that was all about. Email your best theory to me at redpeeler@austin.rr.com.

I woke up this morning with a very sore lower back. It's like that's the source of the discomfort, but it extends into my legs (making them feel weak) and up my back. I don't know if I slept funny or what. I took an Advil and it helped for a while, but as soon as it wore off the pain was back. Hey, why not? I'm like a study in bizarre maladies and odd occurrences. [oops, i thought occurrences only had one 'r' - thank goodness for spell check!] And speaking of odd occurrences [or occurences], I'm now paranoid about driving down that stretch of road where the deer attacked my car!

One lightly used uterus - free to good home!
Available immediately - one uterus, 25 years old, slightly dysfunctional. Tends to try and claw its way out through your abdomen for a few days once per month. It's tilted, lumpy, and suffers from endometriosis, which means that it will release menstrual blood into your body instead of sending out like it's supposed to. Otherwise in good condition. Please contact me if you're interested.

I just got back from working out - eeeeeeeeewwwwww... I only worked out twice in the two weeks that Doug was gone and this is the first time I've gone since he got back. Bad Angela! I heard somewhere recently that you don't even start burning fat until you've been working out for 20 or 30 minutes. That would have been nice to know when I started going to the gym almost a year ago! Anyway, I have decided to up my time on the elliptical trainer from 20 minutes to 40 minutes. Today I made it to 35 minutes before I stopped. :)

Did you know that to fly from Austin to Savannah, GA is $350 per person, round trip? To fly from Austin to Rome is only $700 per person, round trip (yes, that is a good deal). What's up with that!?! You'd think that it would be a lot cheaper to fly halfway across the US than halfway across the world. Nutty! I discovered this because we were (are?) considering a weekend trip to Savannah for a family wedding. We also plan to go to Europe sometime this year, so I was trying to see how much that airfare would be. $350 per person just doesn't seem worth it for a weekend trip...

Hello. Hello. It feels like it's been much longer than a day since I posted last. It's not that so much has happened, the time has just passed slowly. I'm going through another exhausted phase, so that makes my days very up and down. I go to the doctor tomorrow to investigate the possibility that I have endometriosis. It's not a possibility that I'm *excited* about, but it would be nice to have an explanation for the outrageous menstrual cramps and back pain and fatigue (maybe it's not just my allergies...)!

I had BSF this morning and it was good. I missed last week (overslept - grr!), so I wasn't able to answer any of the questions during the discussion time this week. It was still nice to be there and hear everyone else's answers though. And the lecture was good. Not as hard-hitting as some are, but Linda's lectures are always good and applicable. We had a guest lecturer for the past two weeks while Linda was on vacation and she was okay, but not great. There are good speakers and then there are great speakers - Linda is a great speaker!

Wow, has it been four days! Well, I've been... busy. Doug is home - yeah! I picked him up at the airport on Saturday and he was tired and still didn't have much of a voice, but was otherwise intact and happy to be home! I missed him so much! :) Sunday was spent avoiding the outside world and was quite enjoyable. We turned the ringer off on the phone and didn't check email or anything!

Yesterday was a bit more like the normal routine, but it was nice and relaxing. Doug spent some time working on his expense report for the trip and I spent some time at Barnes & Noble, but other than that we were just enjoying being home together. :) Today he's back at work and almost entirely recovered from being sick, although jetlag is still a problem. Cordelia is pining - the silly kitty keeps wandering around the house giving these pitiful little whines - I guess she doesn't understand that he's not going to be gone for two weeks this time. Daddy's girl!

So there's the update - now I have go clean. It's amazing how quickly the spotless house got dirty with Doug home...

Sad sad Doug update. He didn't just throw up once - he was up all night, throwing up (or other things) every 30 or 40 minutes! Poor baby! When he called me the next morning (yesterday evening for me), he barely had a voice left! The hotel doctor saw him and gave him an IV of medicine and then some pills and he was feeling *okay* as of late last night. But I talked to him this morning (my time) and it was bedtime for him and he said he was feeling nauseated again. He'd forgotten to take his anti-nausea medicine with lunch, but he'd taken it with dinner. So hopefully it kicked in after I talked to him.

I'm so sad! I don't like knowing that he's so sick and I can't get to him to take care of him! Argh! His flight leaves in 9 hours, so there's still time for his body to get some rest and hopefully feel better. Please be praying for him. I'd hate for him to have to spend his two days of post trip "recovery time" sick! Not to mention all that travel time - yucky! :(

As a fun surprise (although i told him about it last night to perk him up a little), I'm washing and waxing his car. I washed and halfway waxed it yesterday and I'll finish waxing it right after lunch today. That's a large vehicle to wax!

Good news: The airline found Doug's luggage.
Bad news: He's puking.

The airline found his luggage in Hong Kong. It must have slipped off the conveyor belt or something, but it never made it onto the plane. They sent it to Taipei and it appeared in his hotel room yesterday evening (his time). WooHoo! No more washing clothes in the sink! And that means that my gift was recovered too - heehee!

On to the sad part. Apparently his dinner last night didn't agree with him. When I talked to him this morning he said he'd thrown up once and was still feeling sick. Oh please please please just be a passing thing and not food poisoning or a stomach virus! He's flying out of Taipei in about 31 hours and has a total travel time of 21 hours (counting layover time). Not something you want to have to endure while sick! Poor baby! :(

Only 2 days...

HELLO! Hello hello! How are you today? Yes yes, that's nice. Glad to hear it. Woooop! Haha! [i am officially losing my mind as a result of too many hours locked up in this house with only the cats and cleaning product fumes. the upside is that my house is looking great!] I've come to the conclusion that dust is made up of little particles of pure evil that wait for you to turn your back so that they can cling to things.

So, the airport *lost* Doug's LUGGAGE! Either that, or someone stole it! If someone stole it, then there is a Taiwanese man somewhere in Taipei with a bag full of clothes that are too big for him. Curse him (or her)! Thankfully, there was nothing of great value in the bag. Most of the important stuff was in Doug's carry-on. But he lost all his clothes and toiletries and the outfit he'd bought as a gift for me! Grrrr! Poor guy - he's having to wash his one pair of underwear in the sink! He also lost all the receipts he needs for his travel expense report for work. Oy!

3 more days!

Oops, so it's been a few days. Time flies when you're having fun! :o)~ Here's a tip: When your husband is on a business trip oversees, it is not wise to watch movies having to do with airplane disasters. Not even just a few minutes of one. Over lunch, I saw part of a movie ("miracle landing") that made me never want to set foot in an airplane again! Of course, I'm not real fond of airplanes and flying to begin with...

I have now made lists of things that I want to get done (mostly to the house) before Doug gets home and I'm a woman on a mission! I have always been the type of person who works best under a tight deadline and now that I only have a few more days, I'm inspired. I actually stayed up until midnight last night cleaning, just because I wanted to. I need to pick one of these afternoons - Thursday or Friday - to continue my networking. I'm going around to vet clinics and pet/grooming shopes to introduce myself and leave business cards and brochures. Gotta get my name out there and get some clients!

4 more days! (or maybe only 3!)

I really don't have much to say this evening, but I'm posting because I don't want to miss a day. Apparently there are actually people who read this thing! I've just finished watching an old (1938) Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Lady Vanishes. "Spies! Playing the game of love - and sudden death!" It was pretty good! I like the way people spoke in these older movies. :)

I went to Blockbuster today to drop off a couple of movies and rent one or two more. I spent a whole hour wandering around and looking at movies and ended up leaving with nothing. It wasn't that there was nothing I wanted to see, it was just that I couldn't make my mind up about one. I picked up a couple of different movies and carried them around and then decided maybe that wasn't the right one after all. I think it's because I tried going immediately after spending a couple of hours at Barnes & Noble. My mind was already drained and too full of information!

7 more days... We've made it halfway!

Happy Friday the 13th all! Did you know there's actually a name for the fear of Friday the 13th? It's Paraskevidekatriaphobia. Nutty. Anyway, it's very cold here! I was given the misguided information (by weatherbug, thankyouverymuch) that it would not freeze last night, so I didn't cover or bring in any plants. Then I get up this morning and there's ice on the patio and I find out it's freezing right now and we're under a winter weather advisory. We had sleet last night! I'm sorry little plants! I didn't know! Please don't die!

So, oddly, going to my small group last night made me really sad about Doug not being here. I don't know if it's because I knew he wouldn't be here when I got home or what. And to make matters worse, I forgot to take my cell phone with me when I left so I missed a planned phone call from him. Curses! When I came home I had this brief moment where I saw his car in the driveway and though, "Oh good, he's home!" Ugh! Sad! This whole situation stinks (for me)!

8 days to go...

So, it's much easier to keep a house clean when there's only one person in it. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather have both people and spend more time cleaning! But this easy cleaning does mean that I have more time to do extra cleaning while Doug's gone. You know, the stuff that you never seem to have time for.

I'm also discovering that without Doug around, our little daddy's girl - Cordelia - is much more lovey toward me. Of course, it's a very demanding lovey-ness, but nonetheless... Earlier, she was all curled up in my lap and insisted that I be petting her with *both* hands AND that I be looking at her while doing it! It was very sweet, but made it hard to use the computer. It also wasn't the most comfortable arrangement since I was sitting on an exercise ball! Cute kitty!

Oh, my wonderful, absent husband had some beautiful flowers delivered to the house today! Pretty red, white, and pink tulips! And they had a very sweet note with them. I love my Dougie!

9 more days...

We've been having adventures here today. Doug's mom, Irene, went for a walk this morning and soon after she left it started thundering. It was full on raining before she made it home, so she got soaked. She went into the garage to put her clothes in the dryer and at some point during the going in and out she left the door open for too long and Charlie sneaked out into the garage. I didn't miss him because all the do during the day is sleep anyway, but I happened to go out into the garage after lunch for some birdseed and there he was! He came running toward the door like he desperately wanted in, but within 30 seconds he was trying to weasel his way back out there. His little white feet were dirty and he had stuff stuck in his fur, so who knows what he was getting into. In the garage, there's no telling! Sneaky little guy!

Last night's adventure had to do with pearl drinks. Irene and I went for Vietnamese noodles and she decided to order a Mango Pearl drink on a whim. The mango part was tasty, but the pearls were a little odd. The straw was huge!

11 more days...

Hey, I made it through my first night totally alone! WooHoo! I'm actually feeling somewhat normal now. I talked to Doug this morning and he has made it safely to Shanghai. He hasn't seen the city during the day yet, but he said that from what he saw in the dark it was beautiful. He got the traditional Japanese meal on the flight from Tokyo and said it's not settling as well as the first round of sushi he had. Raw fish served on an airplane - hmm...

Irene is coming to town today to spend a couple of nights. Ironically, I feel like I could survive okay without the company now, but it will be nice to have someone around anyway. I might feel differently about being alone after I've been here with just the cats all day and there's no Doug coming home from work to relieve my solitude!

Okay, tomorrow I'll try to talk about something different!

Only 12 days until Dougie!

Well, I am now husbandless (for the next two weeks, anyway) and I don't like it! "Home" just doesn't feel like home without him here. *sigh* I've been trying to keep myself as busy as possible so that I'm not thinking about the fact that he's not here and I can't just talk to him whenever I want to.

I did talk to him this morning though. It was 11 p.m. his time and he was tired, but doing well considering he'd just been through about 15 hours of flying and 3 hours of train riding! He said he had his first experience with real traditional sushi and he generally liked it. ("Generally, I like it!") He said some of it was pasty, but most of it was good. You go Dougie! Just keep it far away from me! I don't even like cooked fish...

Only 13 more days till I get to hug my hubby again!

This is crazy - a deer hit my car last night! I'm still kind of freaked out by it. I was just driving down the street (somewhat major road - speed limit 55) and I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was a deer headed straight for the side of my car! By the time I even registered what I had seen, the poor thing had hit the back right side of the car. I'm trying to convince myself that it just stunned it and it's okay. I was even afraid to look at the car because I was afraid I'd see something that would convince me otherwise. But it wasn't major. Just a dent. I don't even care about the car though - I'm far more upset about the deer! The only reason I wasn't hysterical is because the deer hit me, I didn't hit it. There was nothing I could do about it and I can convince myself that the deer might be okay. Not much chance of that if I'd hit it head-on. Oy! That must have looked shocking and awful to the person driving behind me! :o(~

Okay - cute kitty story: Doug was holding Cordy this morning and he had her on her back like a baby. She was only tolerating it, really. One of her paws was sticking out toward me, so I started pretending to kiss it and made little kissy noises. She put her paw on my face and pushed me away! This only encouraged me, so I came back and started doing it again. This time she reached over with the other paw and smacked me in the face! "Stop it! You're freaking me out!"

Yipes! I just remembered that I have something I need to work on for one of Doug's valentine surprises. We're having Valentine's Day Part I tomorrow. I guess I'll have to work on that later because I'm about to walk out the door to go to an eye appointment. I got new contacts and I think the prescription is wrong. Gotta go...

I'm feeling pretty distracted and sensitive this week. More preoccupation with Doug leaving the country on Saturday. I'm not really anxious about it anymore, but I'm not looking forward to it either. I like the guy - don't really want him to leave for two weeks, ya know? :)

The good news is that it's cold and rainy here today. I know that most people don't like that, but I do! I prefer overcast days because the sun hurts my eyes and I enjoy rain because the sound is relaxing. Besides, in a few months we'll be begging for rain! The birds seem to be enjoying it too. They're all chirpy right now!

Have I mentioned that Doug and I got a massage table? We both enjoy giving each other massages, but without a table it tends to end in a backache for the massager. I think I'll give Doug a massage this evening - he's been pretty busy at work this week. Don't you wish you were Doug! :o)~

Well, nothing so exciting to report today. Doug and I went and met with another CPA this morning. This guy was totally different than the other one. His office is far less professional, but he seems to have better prices. He talks a lot too. Personally, I didn't like him as well as the first guy, but if the cost is better overall, then we'll probably go with him. Oh well. I don't have to talk to him much!

I'm trying to motivate myself to get busy with my normal routine. I'm having this odd idea that I should be lazy this week because Doug is leaving the country on Saturday. I guess my logic is that I'll have plenty of time to be productive while he's gone. Whatever - the laundry still needs to get done and the cats don't brush themselves. Although it would be nice if they did. The drawbacks to not having opposable thumbs...

I have a funny wedgie story. On Saturday, Doug and I were tormenting each other, as usual. He was halfway dressed and was in his closet trying to pick out a shirt. I came up behind him, grabbed the top of his underwear and yanked on them. He saw it coming and clenched to thwart my evil plans. The result of this -- *RRIIPP* I tore a giant hole in the butt of his underwear! It wasn't just the waistband separating from the fabric It's a big hole in the fabric! Who knew I was so strong?!? Or that his underwear was in such bad condition!?!

We were both laughing so hard we were crying and I was on the floor! Thankfully, this event finally helped me convince him that he needs some new underwear. And, I am pleased to announce, he now has two packs of shiny new undies. Okay, so they aren't shiny, but they're new! I'm keeping the hole-y pair as a trophy and reminder of my awesomeness! :o)~

Well, we've had a lovely and relaxing weekend, thank you! We are about to go to a Super Bowl (Superb Owl?) party, but not because we care about the game. We are going for the hang-out factor and because we want to see the commercials. I do like football, but not professional football. I'm a college football fan. Specifically, I'm a UT Longhorns fan ('magine that!). Doug could not care less about football, but somehow he still understands the rules better than I do. I think that must be something in the male genes. I understand the basic rules, but I still don't understand most of the penalties. Isn't the whole point of the game to stop the other players from accomplishing what they're trying to accomplish? I suppose that without rules it would be a brutish and barbaric game (like it's not already) and people would be dying like when American football first became a popular sport. (ooh, that almost makes me sound like I know what I'm talking about...!)