Weekend stuff

Well, after last weekend's busy schedule, I hope we have a laid back time this weekend.  Aaron is currently at the Mazda dealership looking at a Mazda3 5-door.  He has it narrowed down to two of them, each with some good features.  He called me to see what I thought.  I just want to be able to afford it, so I told him I would prefer the less expensive one (it's still a million times better than his current car, anyway), but I don't know what the more expensive one has that is so much greater, besides a moon roof, and who cares about that?

I think he wants to take it out for a long drive up North to get some low speed miles on it, and maybe just spend the night somewhere up there, and come back tomorrow.  That was his plan earlier in the week, when he was thinking he was going to pick up the car on Thursday or Friday.  However, work has been really busy for him, so he hadn't had the chance to do that until today.

This last week at work has been kind of confusing.  For the last month, I have had someone checking over my claims before any payments are made, checking over my letters before they are sent out in the mail, etc, etc.  Well, that person was gone this week on vacation.  She normally works on Long Term disability stuff, and I think I'm really the only Short Term disability stuff that she looks over.  There are subtle differences in each, and I haven't really had the time or experience to know what they are.  So when she says to do something a certain way, that's how I do it.

Now someone from Short Term disability is checking over my claims, and she has other ways of doing things.  I think she's been in Short Term the longest out of anyone in our area, and she definitely has her certain way of doing things.  But it almost feels as though I am getting opposing views on how to do things, and the beginning of this week was quite frustrating.  I worked through most of it, and it's not that either way is "right" or "wrong", it's just different.

Now that it is spring, I am feeling the need for a new wardrobe.  All of my work clothes are actually all of my student teaching clothes.  I did student teaching in the fall/winter, so they are mostly long-sleeved.  Then when I started working at Von Maur and needed to dress nicely again, it was fall/winter.  I just want some new shirts and stuff, I guess, and some shoes and pants.  Everything, mostly.  Mostly because what I have is 2 years old and probably doesn't fit me the greatest any more.  Oh well. 

Anyway, that's it for me right now.  I'll try to post some pictures of the new car if it ever shows up.  Adios!

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Happy Easter

Happy Easter to everyone!  I hope you all had a good weekend and got to spend some time with family and/or friends.  We definitely had a busy weekend, but it was nice.  It all kind of started on Thursday, actually.  First, I had to get the brakes and rotors replaced on the front of my car, so Aaron had to follow me to the repair shop.  I was most of the way there when he called me to say his keys got locked in the car, so I needed to come back and let him in the apartment so he could get his spare.  It was pretty cold, and his car acts funny in cold weather.  He'd started the car, and then went to scrape the snow off the windows, and when he shut the door, it locked itself.  So I get back to the apartment, give him my keys, and wait.  And wait.  Then he calls me again because he can't find the spare keys.  I tell him where they are, and wait.  And wait.  And then all of the sudden I see Odin darting out into the hallway from the entryway door.  Crap.  So I get out of the car just in time to see Aaron running down the stairs after him.  Bad kitty. 

So now Aaron has to give me a ride to work and pick me up after work.  Then we go to dinner with Nathan an Natalie and Nathan's parents, as they are in town for Easter.  Then Aaron has to go into work with some others to switch over a server or something, and this is at 10pm.  I ask him about how long this is going to take, and he estimates he will be back around 3am.  3am comes around, I wake up, he's not home.  I send him a text message; he says they are about halfway done.  Great.  I wake up at 5:30/6:00am to get ready for work, and he's still not home.  He says they're almost done, though.  Hmm.  By the time I leave for work, he still isn't home.  Then I try text messaging him and emailing him at his work email, and no answer or reply.  Well, that is because they were kind enough to let everyone who was there for 10 hours that night go home and not work on Friday.  Of course, then Aaron starts to get a cold. 

On Friday, our friend Brandon from Spearfish, who now lives in Iowa, comes over for a visit.  We go out for dinner, then go play RockBand with Bret and Jess 'til about 1am.  Go home, sleep, wake up, go out for breakfast, go to a really weird store called Ax-man, which is basically an odds 'n ends store with everything you can imagine.  For super cheap.  I picked up some magnets for my cabinets at work, a mirror to mount on my desk at work so I can see what's going on behind me, and a wristpad.  Aaron picks up spray, cloth, and a duster for the television.  All of this for under $9.00.  Right on.

Out for dinner, then over to Nathan and Natalie's on Saturday night for a party.  Nathan's work friends were there, we played RockBand and Super Smash Bros. on the Wii, and drink.  I don't drink because I have a headache and took ibuprofen before going over.  It snows most of the night while we are there, about 2-3".  We finally leave at 4am.  I get on 394E, and the plows haven't hit it yet, so I am basically driving 25-30mph the whole time, and just following tire tracks of the vehicles that were there before me.  I end up taking the wrong exit because I was just following tracks, and end up on the wrong highway, one that I'm not familiar with.  Aaron was mostly asleep in the front seat, but he is my navigator, so I was asking him what exit to take to get back to highway 100 so we can go back home.  He says get off on 42nd street.  Okay.  Drive, drive, drive.  No signs for 42nd.  I wake him up to ask him if we've gone too far.  "Nope, you're fine," he says, and goes back to sleep.  "Oookay."  Drive, drive, drive.  Pretty soon we're in Champlin, which is about 11 miles North of where I wanted to be.  Apparently 42nd street is also County Road 9 AND Rockford road.  I saw signs for both of those streets, just not for 42nd.  Piss.  Now I'm mad because I wanted to go home about 3 hours ago, but we didn't, then I'm driving in shitty weather with Aaron passed out in the front seat, and Brandon doesn't know where we are, so he can't help.  Finally make it home about 4:45am.  Grr.

Sleep, wake up at 10:30am, no time to make desert like we said we would for Easter dinner.  We had been invited over to Nathan and Natalie's again for Easter dinner.  Nathan's mom was cooking up a roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green bean casserole.  Natalie made creamy orange Jell-O with tangerines on top.  Yum.  Everything was delicious.  Brandon had to go home because he has work on Monday (like the rest of us), and Aaron and I left shortly after.  He was feeling yucky from his cold, and I just wanted to go back home and relax.

I wanted to get quarters to do laundry, but no banks are open, and even the grocery stores are closed.  So we end up just going home.  Aaron naps, I play video games.  Then we played cards and made scones.  What a weekend.

Next weekend we are doing NOTHING.  The end.

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St. Patty's Day

We are having Mexican food on St. Patty's Day, and that's just fine with me.  Homemade pico de gallo and tacos.  Mmm, mmm, good.

I think I am getting a cold.  I have horrible pressure in my face and my sinuses, I can't concentrate, and I can't breathe out of my nostrils.  Awesome.

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window shopping

This weekend we spent most of Saturday test driving new cars for Aaron. His '87 Ford Tempo is now a classic, since it is over 20 years old, but that is about the only redeeming quality it has left. He just replaced the serpentine belt at the beginning of this week, and the mechanic told him his drive shaft was going to need replacing soon. Well, instead of putting more money into a car that's just going to suck up money, it's better to just get a new car. Aaron had talked to his folks about this, and that seemed to be the sentiment. So on Thursday, Aaron test drove a Toyota Yaris. Saturday, I came with, and we looked at a Nissan Versa, but decided it was too much money, and test drove a Kia Rio 5 and a Honda Fit. Aaron really seems to like the Honda Fit Sport, so I think that is what we are going to start saving up some money for, towards a down payment. Maybe in two or three years we can start looking for a new car for me. Since mine is already paid off and in good running condition, why not get a new car while the old one still has some trade-in value?

Saturday night was also the 4th birthday for a beagle named Turbo, and we went to his birthday party. Weird, right? It was more fun than I thought it would be, but only because I knew some of the people who were there and could talk to them. Everyone was encouraged to bring their dog if they had one, but seeing as we only have a dog-like cat, I didn't think that counted, and left Odin at home.


Here is another one of his dog-like tendencies - he likes to play fetch;


Odin got to go outside on his harness for the first time on Thursday. It lasted about five minutes before he got concerned and went back inside the apartment. So I guess we'll just take small steps when it comes to outside. I just thought he would like to come with me to the rental office to pick up the sausage and jerky that Dad made and sent to us. Very tasty stuff.

I thought I had more to say, but I guess I don't. So I will be back next weekend!

Quick thing

Aaron's car could possibly die some day or another.  He has it in the shop currently to get the serpentine belt fixed, as it was cracked and ready to go.  And that got us thinking about our finances and how we have been spending money in a silly way, and need to stop. 

I set up a Google Doc spreadsheet (so I can keep track at home or work) to help me keep track of my spending for each week.  Hopefully seeing what I spend will make me more aware and less likely to do so.

Also, we are going to try (yet again) to be healthier, because we both are tired of feeling fat.  There is a free fitness room (where half the machines work, and half don't) within our grounds' rental office that I am going to try to start using again.  I get home a good two hours before Aaron, and it would be a perfect time to go on the elliptical for half an hour and get moving again.

So that is that.   

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another week

Well, a lot happened this week.  On Tuesday, Aaron and I found out that his parents had to put their dog, Buffy to sleep.  He was 18 years old, and getting to be in a lot of pain.  Aaron had to work 13 hours that day, and didn't get home until after 10pm. 

Still doing well at work, getting the hang of things.

Saturday night we made a casserole and took it over to Jamie and Karlie's for dinner because we hadn't seen them in about a month.  It was nice to go over and hang out and catch up on everything. 

Today Odin took his first ride in the car (that didn't involve coming home from the shelter, or going to the vet) because we wanted to see how he handled being in the car in case we took him back home for a visit.  He did surprisingly well.  I sat in the back seat with him and Aaron drove us around on the interstate.  Odin only seemed concerned for the first 20minutes or so, then he calmed down and was pretty at ease the rest of the trip.  This is a good sign.

Today also marks our three year anniversary together.  I wanted to do a bed and breakfast type thing, but by the time I brought it up, there wasn't much available.  So Aaron suggested that we wait until next month when it is a little bit nicer and we can plan something that way.  Karlie and Jamie went to a B&B in Duluth and really liked it, so I need to ask them what it was called and do some looking around.

Otherwise, just another normal week for us.  As normal as it gets, anyway. 

Tschau!

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here we are again

It seems like I only do this on the weekends now, when clearly I have plenty of time during the day after work to do this. Oh well.

Work is going well. I have my own caseload of claims that I will be working on, but I think they are starting me off VERY slow, because I only get two or three claims a day, and I still end up having to get claims from co-workers so I have something to do in my day.

Odin is just fine, also. Still terrorizing us at night and trying to escape in the afternoons when I get home from work. I was able to capture some video of him panting after he ran around the apartment for about half an hour.


We went to Minnehaha Falls yesterday because a co-worker had told me it had frozen over and was pretty cool to see. It was colder than I thought it would be yesterday, and a little windy, so we didn't stay too long.




I guess the falls just kind of trickle during the summer time, so they're able to slowly build up during the winter and look gigantic. It was pretty cool.

Jill is going to be coming over for the night and spending the day in the cities, so that will be nice to see her again. We're going to go to PF Chang's for dinner when we get off work.

I've been trying to get a piece of mail out since Thursday. I put it in the mailbox in the morning before I left for work. Normally, the mail carrier takes it out, and replaces it with new mail. I come home from work, and it's still in there, along with my new mail. Okay, that's not the first time that it's happened. So I just leave it in there for the next day. Friday after work, I get home, open the mail box. New mail, along with the piece that I put in two mail cycles ago. Grr. I leave it in there again, knowing the mail goes out on Saturday, too. As Aaron and I are coming home from our errands that afternoon, we pass the mail truck. Good, he's been here. Open the box. IT'S STILL IN THERE!

So I ended up taking it out of the mail box and putting it in my bag that I take to work. Mail goes out of my workplace daily, so that won't be a problem. It just makes me mad. They either have a new mail carrier, or a temporary one, because the original mail carrier never left mail in there like that. It's very annoying. I'm going to have to start putting "Outgoing Mail" stickies on the box if I have something that goes out, I guess. Or just take it to work. Either way...stupid.

That's about all the excitement for this week, I guess. Until next time!