So...

Sorry about the serious lack of blogging. Well, that is, if anyone is still out there. In my defense, I have plenty of perfectly good excuses - most of which i probably won't get into here. Let me start by saying, it's officially Tax Season. Oh, and in case you're not aware (don't know if I've mentioned it), I'm a tax accountant. So you can imagine the fat one my life is sucking right now.

Also, there have been some health issues in the family this year. Some scary but not serious, some just annoying and some both scary and serious. None that I care to talk about.

On the home front - we got chickens!! We originally purchased 2 silver laced wyandottes, 2 rhode island reds, and 2 barred plymoth rocks. One of the wyandottes died the 2nd day we had them, so we'll have to replace her. We can't have just 1 wyandotte walking around feeling like she's the only one in the world! Imagine how awkward that will be when they hit their teens!! The other 5 seem to be doing quite well. They liked me a lot at first but now they're getting old enough to know they should be scared of me. So I make it a point to hold each one of them at least once a day. We're attempting to become friends. We're bonding. They mostly sit in my hand and stare at me, no doubt trying to figure out what the hell I am. Oh, and they also trying to escape, but not too actively. They live in a big ass rubbermaid container in the spare bedroom right now, so they're close enough that I'll go in there everyday.

Nothing else exciting happening. We've have 2 big snow storms this month. The first one hadn't even melted when the 2nd one dumped about 7 inches of "new snow" on our house Monday night. Needless to say, my Mustang is hopelessly stranded in the snow, so I've been riding to work with Husband. That's making it difficult to be here enough to get my require minimum of 50 billable hours, so I'll probably end up making some of that up this weekend (which should go on next week, not this week). It's confusing, but its the joy of living in a "billable time" world.

Speaking of which - this most certainly isn't billable, so I better get back to work!

Another year *almost* down.

I can't believe today is December 28th. In just 3 more days the year will be over. Crazy. I always get a little weird in the head this time of year, just nostalgic and strange. The passage of time freaks me out a little bit and never is it more evident than at the end of a year (or decade, as it were).

We had a nice christmas. Two of them, actually. One with my family, one with his. My christmas decorations are almost completely taken down, only the tree to go and it doesn't have any ornaments on it presently. I got all the knicknacks and stockings and candles and front porch trees and stuffed things that sing and wreaths and christmas tree shaped plates and dish towels with snowmen on them and mistletoe and window clings and crocheted snowflakes and snowglobes and ornaments taken down yesterday. Then I ran out of steam. So the tree is still there, with icles and lights and a star on top and one lonely little red ball that i missed when taking the rest of the ornaments off. And it is still beautiful, even though it's essentially naked. We should all look so good naked. Tonight, I might haul all the containers and boxes and bags down stairs and then disassemble the beautiful tree and put the furniture back where it belongs and head into the New Year with a clean house.

I found out the week before christmas that I did not pass the 3rd part of the exam. I was more than a little bummed about it. But I'm still studying for the next part, to be taken January 11 and then I'll be studying for yet another part that I'm taking January 28th. But then, oh sweet January 29th - there will be NO studying. Actually, there will be no studying until February 15th at the earliest. That's when I'll find out my scores and it's possible that studying will be over forever. But either way, no point in studying until I find out if i passed, right? So January 29th will be a wonderful day - tax season or not.

oops...

I've been away a month and in that time I failed to mention that I PASSED my SECOND part of the CPA exam!!!!!! I'm anxiously awaiting the results for my 3rd part...any day now! And I'm studying to take the 4th part (which is a re-take) on January 11th. That's my birthday too, so I'm hoping that'll bring me some luck - who knows!

Other than that, nothing too exciting happening. We hosted Thanksgiving this year and had my parents, His parents, and my sister, her husband and their daughter over. We also invited Husband's grandfather, but 92 year olds are sometimes hard to get along with and he couldn't be bothered to come over. At least he knew he was welcome, that's all we can do.

I also had a visit with my new doctor, I think I finally found one here that I like. Since we moved up here, I had been going to a guy in the town where we live, but there was just something about him that I didn't love, so I switched to one close to where I work instead, which is much more convenient. I've never been to a female ob/gyn before, but i really like this woman. Oddly enough, the GP that I found up here is also female and believe me, sexist little ol' me does not prefer female doctors, but I like them both, so I'm going to stick with them (until they give me a reason not to, anyway).

On a sad note, we lost one of our guineas on the 9th. It has been very cold here (in the teens at night) and there was one (his name was Roy) that the others have picked on their entire lives and as a result, he was much smaller than the rest and just generally puny. I used to give him his own food when they came out in the yard and stuff, but they're outside animals and there is only so much you can do short of bringing him in the house to raise. So we think the bullying and the cold just took their toll on him. Poor thing. However, we have winterized their house (and did before he passed away), and the rest of them are all fat and happy. Their feathers are smooth and they look thick and we finally found a waterer that doesn't freeze which is pretty sweet.

Well, better get to work!

Holy shit, Batman!

Pretty sure this is my first blogpost from home. Getting on the internet at home isn't convenient anymore. First of all - I should be studying (as is the case right now) and then you have find a computer, turn it on (wait), then find a comfortable place to sit with it where it can be plugged in (unless it's just a quick surfing trip), then you can finally open your window and do your internet business. Of course, now that I write that out, I'm not really sure what the problem is. Maybe it's just because there is always something else to do at home now (like studying!) and by the time we finish doing stuff and settle in at night, we're too lazy to go thru those steps. Oh well.

ANYWAY, I'm completely off track here. The reason I'm neglecting the studying that I'm way behind on is to drop in and let you know that I FINALLY passed my first part of the CPA exam!!!!!! Ok, yeah, I'm pretty sure 100% of the 3 people who read this blog already know that, but if there is one person left in the world that i haven't told and there is the vaguest possibility that he/she will stop by here - then I have to share!! I want EVERYONE to know!!!! (I'm gonna feel pretty dumb 18 months from now when I haven't passed the other 3 parts and I'm about to lose this part, huh?) Oh well, cross that bridge when I get to it.

Other than that, not much going on around here. Husband has been out of town on business all week but will hopefully return tomorrow (yay!!). Turns out our house is creepy as fuck after dark when you're alone ::shiver:: and I don't like it. I'm not sure what I think is going to happen, especially considering there is an 84 year old woman who lives in front of us who has lived there alone for 7 years and nothing has ever happened to her, but she's a lot closer to the road (at least that's what my paranoia keeps whispering in my ear). So basically what I'm saying is that the main things that drew me to this house in the first place (no neighbors, seclusion, privacy, for real darkness at night) are the very things that are unnerving me completely this week. Hmm...lesson learned. Regardless, I'm pretty sure I have an ulcer now from sitting out in the living room freaking out all evening for 3 nights in a row.

Right now, I'm in bed (getting ready to study some more!) with all the doors in the house locked, the bedroom door is locked and I have 3 dogs, a shotgun and a 357 in here with me and I'm scared. Nothing on earth is more dangerous than a scared woman with a loaded gun (with no safety). I warned Husband not to come home unannounced unless he wanted to get his ass shot off.

Ok, I gotta get back to ignoring the 30 million sounds I hear every minute and get some more studying done.

Finally Friday (or...How a 4 Day Week Can Stretch into Eternity)

So today is Friday. That's cool. I've been at work for an hour and haven't accomplished a single thing...not cool. But, I figured since I haven't done anything yet, might as well publish a blog post and then get started...no sense rushing things.

This weekend, we painted our living room/kitchen. Our house pretty much has an open floor plan so the living room runs into the kitchen and painting them one at a time really wasn't an option. We started some time ago painting the places we could reach because, you see, we have vaulted ceilings that are at least 12' high at the peaks. Naturally though, that wasn't the problem. The problem is when you look at our house, there are dormers on the front, but no attic, instead, the windows are 2 stories up in the wall, one in the kitchen, one in the living room. Then, when they put those in, they cut a place back into the ceiling and painted it wall colored (I know that doesn't make any sense, but I don't know how to describe it any better than that...I'll post a pic of it one day). So the real problem is that one of those is directly over the stairs going down to the basement, which technically, makes it 3 stories off the ground. Fun! Even better? The scaffolding won't fit in the stairs. So what I ended up doing was getting up into the dormer on the 10' scaffolding, then reaching across the stairwell with a "brush-on-a-stick" (patent pending) and painting it like that. The "brush-on-a-stick" is simply a paint brush duct taped to the end of an extension pole. Good stuff.

We started on Friday when I got home, then discovered we'd need an extension ladder (a.k.a. Rickety Fuck)l, so my in-laws brought us a couple and we continued working. We worked until about 11pm that night, then started bright and early Saturday and worked until about 9pm then went out to dinner to celebrate the living room being done. Sunday we did the kitchen and finished the woodwork and got done about 5pm. We worked on putting everything back together Sunday and Monday, but we still have a ways to go there. We are waiting for the paint to cure good before hanging a lot of stuff back up and we need to get my china cabinet moved back in the living room so I can get all my glass put back in it. It was a long process and we both felt like dealth on Saturday and Sunday (and possibly on Monday too), but we're so glad it's finally done and we don't have to stare at that nasty green paint anymore. It looked like Swamp Thing came in and took a shit on our walls.

In the kitchen, there is a chair rail in the "breakfast nook" (area where the table sits) and we painted blue below that. The rest of the room is just cream colored because we wanted it very neutral as we never intend to paint it again, but that gives a little pop of color and we can change it whenever cause it's a small, easy to get to area.

We purchased tile for our half bath and we're going to repaint it the same blue as we used in the kitchen, but it probably isn't going to happen until the weekend after Thanksgiving. We wanted to do it sooner, but I have to study for this next part of the exam and I only have 3 weekends (counting this one) before the test, so I don't have any free time to devote to the bathroom. But that's ok, I'd rather do it when we can be all leisurely about it anyway. After that (or maybe before) Husband is going to start working on finishing the room in the basement so he can move all of his stuff down there. I guess we'll turn the room he's using upstairs into an actual guest room - even though we have no guests. But that way we could have our friends come up and visit and they'd have a place to sleep since we live about 3 hours from them now.

Well, this has turned into a book so I better get back to work. I have so much sinus pressure in my left cheek I'm pretty sure it's about to explode - not pleasant. Not to mention, this time change and darkness and season changing is being pretty rough on me this week, so I'll be glad when this day is over and maybe I can find some cheerful this weekend. Later dudes.

Ever notice...

How the bloggers you really love never seem to post enough and the ones that really grate on your nerves (and yet, you can't stop reading) can't seem to STFU??

Or is that just me? heh

We started some home improvement projects this weekend, decided to put a big one (hardwood floors) off for a little while because of the $$ and added another quick one to the list (re-tiling the floor in the half bath), so that's pretty sweet. Tonight we'll finish painting the guest bathroom and it'll finally be usable again, after a long time of being out of commission while we tried to figure out what color to paint it (finally settled on a mocha-like color called "Wool Coat"). After that, we'll carry on with painting the living room, an on-going project. At some point, we will have painted everything we can reach and we'll be down to renting scaffolding. Fun.

After we re-tile the half bath, it will most likely need a new coat of paint as well, but it's a tiny room and the toilet and sink will be out of it at that point so that'll be super-duper easy.

I'm not sure what's next on the list. Probably finishing the small room in the basement so Husband can move all his stuff down there. That'll clean out one of the spare bedrooms upstairs, I guess we'll turn it into a real live guest room at that point, although I'm not really sure why. No one ever stays the night with us because they all live close enough to just drive home. I need to get all my stuff organized and get my room painted at some point too I'm not sure when that'll happen though because I am still studying so I don't exactly have unlimited amounts of free time just hanging around. Anyway, that particular task seems overwhelming, so for now, I'm just ignoring it.

Well, better get back to work, there is some time off in my future, so I need to try to get things caught up around here.

I have a story, let me tell you it.

Picture this: 3:54AM, I am sleeping soundly, snuggled in my bed, a chihuahua against my lower back, 75lb. Aussie between my feet and 39lb. French Brittany snuggled in a ball against my stomach. Life is good. Suddenly, the Brittany (Vikki) flies off the bed and runs to the door, then runs back and stares at me, then back to the door, to the window, to me, on the bed, off the bed...needless to say, life has taken a turn for the worst at this moment.

Said dog has a urinary tract infection (confirmed by the vet on Monday and being treated), so I think, "The poor baby, she probably feels like she really needs to pee, I'll get up." So I get up, let her out. Briefly I wonder to myself if the "yard intruders" that she tracts every morning might still be inside the yard, but my foggy 4AM brain can't really comprehend the thought until it's too late. I open the door, she bolts, there is clearly more than one animal running through the yard, I start yelling for her to stop (would never happen, not in a million years), then I hear something hit the chainlink fence and I think "Maybe it escaped, jesus I hope she doesn't go OVER the fence in pursuit!!" (cause she totally could is properly motivated), but I still hear her running in the yard. Then, I hear a quick scream and silence. I yell for her and get no response, so I bolt into the house and put on shoes and grab a flashlight and head back out into the unknown.

Some details you should be aware of to really enjoy this story...it's 38 degrees outside, it's pitch black (sure, the porch light was on, but it only lights the porch and about 1 foot out into the yard, Vikki was at least 50 feet away from the house), I'm wearing little slip on shoes and a t-shirt and that's all, I don't have my contacts in or my glasses on - which means I'm legally blind (I can't see the big "E" on the eye chart).

Ok, so here I go, out into the yard to find out WTF, the first thing I do is step in dog shit because, well, why wouldn't I?? I see Vikki, in the corner of the fence, hunkered over, she has clearly caught something.

Also, keep in mind that we have NO IDEA what kind of animal has been coming into the yard because we haven't been able to trap it. Possibilities include: skunk (have smelled him), opposum (have seen one in the front yard), rabbit (they're everywhere), fox (they live in the woods right behind the house), squirrel, raccoon, deer (no idea why they would come inside the fence, but they can), bobcat (apparently some live in our area), coyote (still not sure if they could get in the fence, but probably), stray cat, mice, snakes...and probably something I've forgotten.

At this point in my mind I've ruled out the larger animals and the dog or cat-like choices because I don't hear a fight going on and I know the thing that screamed wasn't Vikki. So I get closer to her, not sure really what I'll do once I get there and with NO CLUE what she has, then she BOLTS past me. We're talking about an extremely fit 4 year old bird dog here, a bird dog who's vet once felt her back legs up for 10 minutes because he was so amazed as the muscles contained therein. Yeah, so maybe "BOLT" is not a strong enough word for what she did. Right as she passes my finger tips, I remember I left the door to the house open. Fuck!

So I run after her screaming, "VIKKI, NO!!!!!!" And she disappears into the house, when I'm still only halfway across the yard. I instantly picture her in our bed, with my sleeping husband, with something that's not dead (which would be infinately worse than just a carcass). That's when I see it. She dropped her kill right at the edge of the porch, perhaps sensing her own demise if she went into the house with it. It was a rabbit. A cute one too and I felt awful for it, although I am comforted to know that it's suffering was minimal because it only made a single sound and a very quick one at that and then it was all over. My precious Vikki - Cold Blooded Killer.

Since we've moved, she's racked up 3 ducks and now a rabbit. What's really funny about it all, she is the most timid, loving dog in the world...unless, of course, you're small enough that she can break your neck.