"cause Total Recall just screams birthday..."

What a day, for a birthday, seriously.

No actually it was great.

I debated taking off work but now I'm glad I went in.

Had multiple compliments about my work from patrons and kicked ass in the stats category so I'm good for the day.

Worked 9-6, but imagine my surprise when at about 12:50 who shows up but the Library Goddess?

Bringing me a gift certificate to my favorite coffee joint.

I was stoked.

Was good to get to talk with her, especially about class stuff for this week.

See, she's all about us being the post office. We have class no matter the weather. There could be balls of fire raining down on us, Armegeddon in the wings and we'd still have class so she's like in physical pain that on Thursday the special library that we're supposed to go visit is closing early due to future storm warnings.

Apparently we're in for the storm of the century though I don't know if I believe the hype.

Now watch I'll get snowed in again.

100 percent chance of snow. I don't think I've every seen 100 percent chance of any weather before this.

Technically we've been in a winter storm warning since this afternoon but it's not supposed to start snowing until tomorrow night.

But basically, everything in my life will revolve around the storm and its extent - work, class, the boyfriend, so really all I can do is wait.

Anyway, so the Library Goddess stopped by gave me a coffee card, got a card in the mail from the Cool Aunt with more coffee bucks, letter from the parentals with some cash - Second Sister sang twice once by herself and once with the kids.

Quote of the day:
"Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy Birth-you still there?"
"Yeah."
"-day dear..."

After work the boyfriend stopped by. We watched Total Recall - second sister made fun of me "cause Total Recall just screams birthday" but hey it sounded good at the time.


Collin Farrell, Jessica Biel, Kate Beckinsale and a bunch of robots. Scale of Awesome says about 6/10. I mean, it wasn't awesome but it wasn't awful. Bit weird at moments, but I enjoyed their hand phones.

Alright, music, family history part four and then I'm out.

Other Side - Sloan


yes, you heard it on Castle cause it's awesome.

Family History: Part Four

Francis James was born on April 25, 1911, to parents, Claude and Lillian. He was the oldest of five children. Grandpa went to high school in Geneva and then in O’Neill for his last two years where he graduated in 1929. During that time he lived in the boarding house run by Amolia’s parents. He and grandma courted for four years and were married.

Grandpa was a hard worker, always out early in the mornings to “beat the heat.” He was a big fan of playing baseball and cards. While grandma was more of a homebody, grandpa continued to play cards with the same group of friends until he moved to the nursing home. Then he would play with his friends there and with me and some of the kids from my school on our usual Heritage visits. We’d go over there and play games with the residents. I had a lot of fun playing pitch with grandpa.

He also used to go hunting. Grandpa was big on outdoor anything. He rode horses and even had his own boat for when they went fishing. He used to love to take us all out on the boat. My cousins would water-ski and I would help grandpa drive the boat. Grandma however, seemed to hate the water. It is said that grandpa went for all the camping, boating and fishing but grandma went for the conversation.

Grandpa had his own pond that he filled with fish. Every afternoon he’d ride his mower out to the pond with fish food. I went with him a lot and sat on his lap. Grandpa said the fish knew the sound of the mower because it meant food and he was right. The fish came right up to the edge every time we showed up. We stood on the side and threw pellets out into the water. My dad now takes care of the pond. He built a dock and tries every summer to get rid of the foliage surrounding and filling it.

Grandpa was a great man with no enemies. He and grandma were well respected throughout the area. He died my sophomore year of high school and it’s still weird to me to go to their house and see it all changed. My brother lives there now and only the outside remains the same.


It is uplifting for me to write about the lives of my grandparents. They were remarkable people. They survived the depression, the dust bowl, the death of two infant children, and celebrated 71 years together. A parcel of land was given to me and my siblings from them which has and is paying for all of our college educations. Most of all, their home was a center of activity and love for my aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, siblings and me. A lot of memories were made there.

They lived more than ninety-years and yet again somehow it’s been reduced to only a few pages. It’s hard to summarize someone’s life, especially when it’s someone so close to you. They were a major part of my life and writing this brings it all back. I’ll never forget the card-playing, being grandpa’s little helper, sitting and talking with grandma, the chicken-noodle soup, the yellow tea pot, sitting on grandpa’s lap and watching television, and just generally being in their presence. They always made me feel at home, even when I wasn’t.


And that's all I got for that one which means tomorrow it's time for some fiction.

I'm thinking AJ.

Yep.

Going with AJ.

Legitimate pre-midnight post. Holy crap tag in use.

You've Dated Worse.

Ah, a real day off.

I could get used to this.

Slept in 'til 11:30 just in time to get a text from the boyfriend asking if I was awake.

Victory.

Ran some errands, more Christmas shopping and got some Diet Dr. Pepper. Which is also on my Santa List. An endless supply that is. Along with a litter box that cleans itself.

After that I headed out to the college town to meet up with the boyfriend for lunch but first I stopped by Second Sister's place. Got to jam out with the kiddos for a while, the baby is getting big. Already pulling herself up so she was crawling all over me.

Cute stuff.

So jammed there for like an hour or so and met up with the boyfriend at this awesome Mexican joint. Margaritas of course. Half of which, well, more like 3/4th of which is in my fridge. After dinner/supper-ish we went back to watch the Huskers get hosed.

Sad day.

But good for an underdog team I guess. I used to love Oregon.

Football, not volleyball.

Back with Joey Harrington was the star.

Long story.

Anyway, watched the Huskers lose then went to see Playing For Keeps. Gerard Butler, Jessica Biel - which I knew but then there was Dennis Quaid, Uma Thurman, Judy Greer, James Tupper and CATHERINE ZETA-JONES!!

Who I did not know was in it.


Big stars, crappy movie.

Sadly, I thought it would be good but not so much. Scale of Awesome says 4/10.

Only line I remember is talking about an online dating profile suggesting "you've dated worse" as it's subtitle.

Alright, class tomorrow. Gotta be there at 10 which means leaving at 9 and as it is already 1 gotta sleep now if I intend on being coherent.

Stopping for coffee on the way, woohoo!

Song of the day:

Synthesizers - Butch Walker and the Black Widows


very Come On Eileen.

And yes, that is Matthew McConaughey.

Dazed and Confused, look it up.

More tomorrow.

all your base are belong to us

I love old video games.

And computer games.

I'm back to being hooked on Lords of the Realm 2.

aka a computer game that practically no one remembers.

circa 1996.

It's pathetic really.

Not the game, my bringing it back and how often I play it.

But it's a break from the norm.

Which is sometimes what's needed after a day in public service.

Not that today was bad.

The day itself went by fairly quickly.

It's just me that's off.

Soon as I got home I totally crashed and burned.

Been super tired lately, no idea why.

Need to start going to bed earlier perhaps. But I get distracted and don't end up looking up at the clock or don't end up getting back until like midnight. And then of course I can't fall asleep right away even if I want to.

But whatever, I'll work on it eventually.

For the moment it's 1:30AM but I don't have to go in to work tomorrow until 4, yeehaw.

And after that I'm headed over to Oldest Sister's to eat dinner and carve pumpkins.

However, at some point today I need to be up so I can go buy the pumpkins.

So I can't sleep 'til 3:30 like normal.

Bummer.

So that was pretty much my day. Work and LOTR2. And now the Husker game on in the background.


Oh, and at some point during the day my parents went to lunch and ran into the boyfriend's parents.

Which was apparently such a crazy thing it garnered both a text from my mother and a call from my father.

Since he never calls I thought there was a family emergency so I called him right back.

Not-so emergency, more-so amusing anecdote. Okay, we're good.

Oh, and apparently BossLady is a clown.

Part-time.

I told her there should be a joke in their somewhere.

Like, geez, my supervisor is such a clown.

Which she said, not me.

I should have got it in writing.

I take it back.


So THAT was my day.

On to tomorrow.

Well, first some Queen.

Then some sleep.

and THEN on to tomorrow.

Don't Stop Me Now - Queen

Freddie Mercury, Power Vocalist.

OUT

people gonna be okay, storms never come to stay

Interesting day.

Woke up at noon to eat with the parentals.

Went up to the church at 1 to work on camp stuff, ended up working until 9.

Only took one break and that was for ice-cream around 4ish.

Crazy crazy planning process. But we assigned counselors to campers and campers to cabins, fixed the songbooks and added the new stuff, printed and stuffed all the return letters, came up with an impromptu plan B schedule if we can't go tubing which is a big possibility. Plus tallied and ordered some t-shirts.

Then ate pizza.

So it was a long process but didn't make for a long day. We have a lot of fun.

And it's good that we got it all done so we can go golfing tomorrow. Early church then heading out to the course for 18. Should be fun. I'll come back after and hit up the reunion if it's still going. Sad the sister-in-law can't make it, but timing-wise is probably bad. We'll go again. G-Wigger just got a new golf bag it's like Packers green and yellow with logo all over it. Niiiice. Should get one of those. Not a Packers one, but still.

Though I'd only use it once a year.

And would need a place to store it.

And my trunk is already full of camp stuff.

But see, it's less for me to pack!

That's why it stays!

Okay, that's mostly why it stays. I just really don't have the motivation to carry it up all those stairs. It's a lot of crap. I'll take it out this year after camp.

Gonna take some more Benadryl and call it a night. Swelling is mostly gone but it's still a little sore. Which wouldn't make tomorrow much fun.

Speaking of soreness, so we hadn't seen Dad in a while so Mom called and he's like cutting down trees - in the dark - to make sure the pivot doesn't hit them and he says that he scuffed his arm a little.

He gets home and it's like disgusting. I could only look for half a second before I turned away and wanted to vomit.

I'm not so good with blood and gore. Which isn't generally something you want to hear from someone who's certified which reminds me that I need to get that renewed. Anyway, so it was gross and he probably should get it checked out but he's Dad so he won't.

Apparently he fell down a bank with a chainsaw.

But it was off so it's okay.

Not like he fell off a tree with it still running.

Still, cutting down trees in the dark with a chainsaw doesn't seem like much of a logical choice.

But whatever works.

And that was my day.

I'm sure I'll have plenty to say about tomorrow so I'm gonna crash.

"How Bad We Need Each Other" Marc Scibilia

i have those shoes.