Suzanne Calling

I had a three day weekend. In my previous life in retail, they were as rare as gold to come by. Yes, I did get six holidays a year, but frequently that involved working the Sunday or Monday of the weekend, sometimes all three days. I'd get the extra days off while Ed was working and kids were in school. Such is the world of management. So I greatly anticipated this past weekend. Three glorious days off-friends down from NY, others from New Jersey, possibly activities to do. We did see the friends from NY on Saturday, but the rest of the weekend? Totally and utterly wasted. I did get a call from the NJ friends, however, I knew that inflicting my pissy mood that inspired the previous post on them would *not* be a good idea. We stayed home. Donna was in the same boat. We'd invited her down, she had a friend talk of coming up there, so we took a raincheck. They had dinner together Saturday night, and that was the extent of her companionship for the three day weekend. ...

In life, friendships seem to change and evolve. Some people grow closer as events happen, some drift apart. I've been fortunate to have a core group of friends for around twenty years now. A few of these friends have been around since my gawky, gangly teenage days, some from college and some were assimilated from work. As we've gotten older, life events have changed the relationships. Ed and I were the first to have kids, so we weren't as 'pick up and go'. Other friends have caught up on the child front, my sister as well, and those relationships seemed to grow stronger because we'd already walked a mile in those shoes. Some friends call more, some call less. One right now has a chaotic work and test schedule, so I make the effort to call her, knowing full well that times will change and she'll pick up the phone more often when life allows. In some cases, I get the lightbulb moment that I never get phone calls-I'm the one doing all the calling a...

Friends are at WDW this week, and we went over to property again for dinner last night. During the dinner conversation, we discovered that there was news this week that Ikea is coming to Orlando. Woohoo! Easy access to I4, too. Okay, one down. Do you think maybe Wegmans can be convinced that Florida stores would go over well? :)

I admit it, I am a People magazine addict. It's my guilty pleasure-junk food for the brain. Now that I've perused most of it (it's probably good for an hour's reading time), I ask: Where is the picture of Tom and Katie's baby? I don't think she really exists-and why did they name her after a Lemur in Disney's Dinosaur? Do they still produce celebrity Death Match? It'd be kinda funny to see Denise Richards get clobbered by Heather Locklear! Is Chris Knight marrying the girl who was swooning for him on "The Surreal Life"? Is Star Jones whatsherface off the View or not? I've only seen this show in doctor's office waiting rooms and found the woman to be unbelievably annoying and full of herself. I thought she was kicked out because Rosie was joining, but People says she *may* be out. LOL You all know how little tv I actually choose to watch, so I find it weird that this stuff is so fascinating. That said, I'm glad the guy fr...

So, the sidebar thingies? The quiz results? I added them a WEEK ago and they did not show up. Now, I have blogged three times and they finally appear. Weird.

It's very cool having every Sunday off. We get to actually DO stuff, instead of trying to figure out "well, it's *supposed* to be my weekend off, but we've got a floor move, so whatever we do has to be finished by 5pm" type garbage. Sometimes, this mean we will do positively jack, but at least I was off for it. Yesterday was good. Bagels, then a Costco run. We needed detergent and minced garlic. This house would cease to function without the minced garlic and the 32 oz jar? It probably lasts two months. The 4 oz jars from the supermarket wouldn't make it a week with the way we use it, lol. Then we headed over to the inlaws and Ed installed a video card. It was nice to veg for a while. Finally, friends drove down to WDW from NY and we went over and met with them. We had a nice evening together, and made plans to go back over before they leave on Sunday. Poor Ed was not thinking and had a couple of bowls of chili at dinner. I'm sure he's havi...

We bought a table last year that I went gaga over. Ed will be the first to tell you, I do not go nuts over furniture. I've got my likes, my dislikes (half the time, they're the polar opposite of my other half) and the "eew, you want THAT in your house". Last winter, we'd gone to several furniture stores. The saleslady at Haverty's, Jean, led us through the entire store. She listened to what we wanted and showed us this great Arts and Crafts inspired dining room suite (sweet, not suit-grrr Hagerstown flashback there). Then she took us clear across the store to another set they'd just received. She was never pushy and was great at finding what we said we wanted. I went gaga. I started GUSHING about a piece of furniture. It's counter height and has a parquet style inlay, Arts and Crafts feel to it. I had to have it. We subsequently joined Direct Buy and I said I was still buying that table. I wanted one that would seat 8, because the possibili...