Eliza's Corner

I spent most of the morning working on school work and the rest of the afternoon playing with Fred and the girls.  Dinner was easy this evening. Since it was an awesome 65 degrees today we had tacos for dinner. I really like tacos that are made at home since the ones we get when we eat out are always way to greasy these days. I’m not looking forward to the next three days because we have another cold front blowing in this evening and it’s bringing snow, ice, and rain with it. I’m ready for winter to go away and spring to show up as soon as possible.

One day down, three to go! Today wasn’t really that bad just long when the past two weeks have been spent with a very energetic 7 month old basset, three cats who love the extra attention, and my husband watching movies, playing outside in the snow, sleeping in, and just flat out relaxing.

We had leftover 15 bean soup for dinner tonight and Chris and I realized this is the first time we’ve ever managed to finish the ham we picked up for Christmas. Usually over half of it ends up in the back of the freezer until I do a major clean and find it covered with twice as much freezer burn as there is ham or turkey. This year I put the bone and some larger chunks of ham to be used later in the freezer, part of it was used for the soup, and we had about two meals that were leftovers but I used stuff I had in the pantry and so we had two completely different meals then what we had for Christmas dinner.

My first full week back to work after being on vacation since December 22nd. I spent most of today watching movies and getting everything ready for tomorrow. Dishes are washed, laundry is about to go in the washer, and I know where my scrubs are for in the morning. Rather then worry about working cooking into the week we are finishing up the leftovers from the fridge so I don’t have to throw them away at the end of the week or resort to take-out. 

Shel tagged me the other day with this meme so I thought I’d give it a try.

1. What’s the scariest movie you’ve ever seen?

Over time I’ve found that I like movies that mess with your senses rather then blood and gore type that ends up all over the screen for 90 minutes with little or no plot to speak of in the end. I went through the phase of watching the Nightmare on Elm Street series back when I was in high school. All of this believe it or not is leading to the one movie that I know really creeped me out when I was younger, really young, was The Watcher in the Woods. How’s that for irony! I was a little freaked out by The Grudge a year or so ago but the first movie that comes to mind that really scared me was a Disney production when I was eight!

2. What was your favorite Halloween Costume from childhood?

Gypsy! My childhood version was one of those with the plastic skirt that by the end of the evening had you sweating and wishing the night was over. I had the opportunity to dress up for Halloween last year for work and I found a pirate costume that transformed into the perfect Gypsy!

3. If you had an unlimited budget, what would your Fantasy Costume be for this Halloween?

Fantasy Costume..
should freak my co-workers out
be fun to wear
be reusable in the future
should be…I’m still working on WHAT it should/would be at this point.

4. When was the last time you went Trick Or Treating?

When I was in seventh grade. My best friend Brandy and I took my little brother trick-or-treating after we all got home from my brother’s school carnival. Three blocks from the house we all three walked up to this one house that had a white coffin on the porch for decoration or at least we thought it was just for decoration. My little brother rang the doorbell and waited while Brandy and I stood behind him talking about “cute boys” at school when the coffin opened and this big mummy jumped out and yelled and growled, trust me it was more then just BOO, at us. All three of us took off running at breakneck speed down the street. My memory is kind of vague at this point if we continued trick or treating further down the street or went home.

5. What’s your favorite Halloween Candy?

Candy Corn!

6. Tell us about a scary nightmare you had.

I don’t have nightmares very often but the one’s that scare the living daylights out of me are any of the ones that involve being trapped in a location that I can’t get out of with snakes trying to attack me. I have one from childhood where I’m stuck in a blue pickup truck, I grew up in Texas so those of you familiar with old pickup trucks should know kind of the model I’m talking about, with the doors locked and a white snake with red eyes is slithering up from behind the seat to get me. Yeah I know the obvious out would be to open the doors but the locks won’t open and it has friends outside.

7. What is your Supernatural Fear?

I don’t really have a specific fear of the supernatural because I’m actually very interested in ghost stories and locations. The stories C and I come across about the house telling you to get out are a little creepy and the problems most of those stories deal with I can tell you I’d be packed and moved as quickly as possible.

8. What is your Creepy-Crawlie Fear?

See nightmare question above.

9. Tell us about a time when you saw a ghost, or heard something go Bump in the night.

Both C and I have had experiences in the past together and before we met in 1995. Our first apartment we had C found a 1928 Texas license plate outside the apartment a couple of months before we were married. He started having strange things happen like the tv in the front room moving about two inches back and some dishes that were in the cabinet above the stove move down to the end of the cabinets by themselves. Shortly after we married we were sitting on the couch watching tv when the doorknob on the front door proceeded to turn all the way to the left and the door opened about a foot and then the doorknob turned back to it’s original position. The catch being that the couch was right next to the front door so the doorknob was not that far from my head at the time. I wasn’t working at the time and during the day I was making the beds at the back of the apartment and heard someone call my name from the front room. I was shortly joined by Tiger and Abigail in the bedroom because whatever it was freaked them out. Soon after giving the license plate to a friend of C’s we stopped having problems. It really makes us wonder what the story was behind the license plate!

10. Would you ever stay in a real Haunted House overnight?

C and I have talked about staying at some of the haunted hotels and bed and breakfasts we’ve seen on tv and read about in the past. I think it would be interesting to see if something actually happened.

11. Are you a traditionalist (just a face) Jack O’Lantern Carver, or do you get really creative with your pumpkins?

mostly a traditionalist in the past but I haven’t carved a pumpkin in a long time since people started busting pumpkins yearly on Halloween.

12. How much do you decorate your home for Halloween?

Depends on the year! We’ve decorated the windows and door with pumpkins and wreaths and spider webs to nothing due to it being a wierd don’t feel like decorating year.

13. What do you want on your Tombstone?

What’s next?

Tagging anyone who happens upon this post and would like to tackle it! Feel free to trackback your answers or leave them in the comments.

Speaking of ghosts if you have the Sci-Fi channel be sure and check out Ghost Hunters. Season three starts this Wednesday, October 11 at 9/8C. TAPS uses scientific measures to investigate haunted houses throughout the country. Last years episode from the St. Augustine lighthouse was really cool! I think C and I still have it on the DVR.

So far nothing in the paper, around the neighborhood, and no word from the animal shelter. So for now we still haven’t had any luck finding Mr. Rabbit’s owners. I’m trying not to become to attached but I think I’ve already passed that fine line because my evenings have evolved into spending time in the living room watching tv with C and the “girls” and spending the end of the evening cleaning Mr. Rabbit’s cage, who I’m happy to report has taken to using the litter box in the corner of his cage which makes it 100 times easier to clean then last week’s attempts, and talking and petting him for a few minutes before I start closing up the house for the night. Mr. Rabbit really cracked up C Monday morning. We had a server crash that morning so I was gone for about 20 minutes which means C had to get up and turn off our alarm clock when the second alarm went off at 8:20 a.m. I normally turn off the alarm because it’s just easier on the both of us in the morning. When the alarm went off C let it go off for about four minutes and he said there was this aweful banging from the second bedroom. Mr. Rabbit, like the cats, is not a morning rabbit because he really did not like the racket from the alarm clock in our bedroom. Once C transferred into his chair and turned the alarm off Mr. Rabbit quieted down. He was asleep again by the time I got back to the house.

I’ve resisted naming him but so far my father-in-law has suggested Sydney and I came up with Harry in honor of the rabbit from one of my favorite Jerry Lewis films “The Geisha Boy”. A lot will depend on if we still have him in the next month or two because I don’t want to name someone else’s pet and confuse the poor animal if the owners do finally coming looking for the goofy fellow. He is currently being treated like a member of the family because he already has several nicknames. Mr. Bun, Goofy Boy, silly boy to name just a few of the greetings he hears daily. I know not naming him but giving him a dozen nicknames still complicates the situation but I can’t take care of an animal and just call him the rabbit can I?

In case you wonder what I’ve been up to the past couple of days I thought a short update was in order.

Rabbit: C called the Animal Shelter and let them know we found him in our area and to call us if someone calls looking for a lost rabbit. I checked the last couple of days newspapers and neither one of us had any luck finding the little guy’s owner. He’s been moved inside and he is now the resident of the second bedroom (office since it has all of our computers in it) since the mosquito population is out of control at night lately. House Rabbit Society has some interesting information about caring for a pet rabbit.

Website: the entrance to elizascorner.com has been updated but not finished. I plan to update the blog to look very similar.

School: I seem to be working my way through the longest terminology list. I’m planning on getting up early tomorrow and trying to work some extra study time in before C goes to work.

101 in 1001: revamp of list is almost ready and I plan to update it to the site this next weekend. The next step is to start working on my list so at the end of 1001 days I’m not stuck with a half a dozen things I could have done if I’d stop procrastinating.

Work: I’m currently working on doing some research into starting a VA business. I hope to be able to offer script installation, internet research, and other services I haven’t decided on at this time. I’m currently in the research and setting up phase and I’ll announce when I’m ready to launch.

In other thoughts C brought up that this year has flown by so much that it’s only 89 days until Christmas!

Before I left for work yesterday I discovered my visitor from the morning had found his way into our backyard. I went ahead and closed the gate because I felt a little better about leaving him in our backyard then leaving him loose where he might be ran over on either of the busy streets beside and behind our home especially if someone owns him. When we got home last night C went out back to take a look at him and decided he has to be tame since he came right up to him. He also let me pick him up and I don’t think a wild one would have let me go that far. He was pretty clean so we figure he must have gotten loose yesterday morning so I’ve checked the surrounding neighborhoods and checked the newspaper lost and found section this morning. C stayed out back yesterday evening and kept Mr. Rabbit Visitor company while I ran to Petsmart to pick up a cage, food, bedding, and a water bottle. We had to put him in one of the cat carriers since our neighbors came home and let their two dogs out in the backyard next door so C didn’t have to try to keep him in our yard or worry about him getting into their yard.

Once I made it back from Petsmart and we had the cage together water bottle filled, food dish filled, bedding ready I transferred the rabbit from the carrier to the cage. He seemed to calm down drastically and C thinks he was stressed out when he was out since he didn’t have the close surroundings of a cage to protect him. Wish me luck finding this little guy’s family.

Mr. Rabbit Visitor, don’t want to name the poor little guy or I’d be really attached, in his cage in the backyard.

We left him outside so the cats didn’t harrass him last night but we may move him inside if the weather gets to chilly.

Well I thought today was going to be one of those days. C is used to me grabbing his wallet and putting it in the car when we go to work each morning. This morning for some reason I completely forgot and when I dropped him off at work we discovered he didn’t have his wallet. I ran home to pick up his wallet and take it to him at work since it had his badge in it and without it he can’t leave the building by himself to take a break throughout the day. When I arrived home the second time I was greeted by a surprise visitor at the garage entrance. Somehow I had a cottentail rabbit at the entrance of the garage. I told C I think he, don’t know if it was a he but it sounds good to me, may have been wild. I ran inside and grabbed the camera and ended up with these great pics.

I told C I love this schedule because I would have completely missed this little guy if I had gone back to full time or if he was still working 2-11. It’s amazing what you can miss during the day working inside a building that you never get a chance to leave your desk and wander outside.

Yesterday would have been the blog’s first anniversary and during this past year I’ve only written about 136 posts. I enjoy blogging but my main problem is getting posts from my head at 3pm (or 3 am) to the computer several hours or days later.
I have some ideas of how I want to get in the habit of posting more each month.

• Write down that post in my head when I think of it and transfer it to the blog that evening.
• I’m presently working on a new fall template that I will hopefully be able to use in the next week or two.
• Eliza’s Corner is in October. I’m working on getting some posting ideas together now and some links to post during that time.
• I’m working on updating my 101 list. There were to many things that I know from our current situation aren’t going to happen. Travel out of state or the country isn’t going to happen due to C’s job changing and everything else we have going on right now.
• I’ve enjoyed participating in Favorite Things Saturday and I plan to participate more.
• I lurk to much so I’m going to try to post comments more on those blogs that inspire me.

Can you tell I like making lists? The problem with lists is the same as my posting problem. The lists get made and then promptly forgotten. I am also tackling that problem as we speak. Dishes, Laundry, and I have a lawn that has about a months worth of grass that needs to be mowed so I’m off to tackle those chores so they can be marked off yet another of my lists.

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: I’ll take the shuttle in closer. Zoe, ship is yours. Remember, if anything happens to me, or you don’t hear from me within the hour… you take this ship and you come and you rescue me.

Zoë: What? And risk my ship?

Well this has been a long two weeks. The Wednesday before Labor day I came down with what we thought was probably a virus, the crud going around, and while we were in DeLeon visiting my family I proceeded to get worse and lose my voice. Both my throat and ears were infected with a bacterial infection. I called into work the Tuesday after labor day and went in for a few hours to knock out the faxes that had come in since the first of September. I left early and went home since I still couldn’t talk and I still wasn’t feeling well. I went to the walk-in clinic the next day and the Doctor prescribed an antibiotic and a decongestant with an antihistimine. I finished up those prescription’s Wednesday of this week and I was feeling better but my right ear has still been congested so our Nurse Practitioner looked at my ears and said it looked like I was getting another infection. So today I’m back on antibiotics and I’m still taking a decongestant but I feel a hundred times better then I have the past two weeks. Since I also had a small case of conjunctivitis I’ve been wearing my glasses for the past week. I stopped today at the eye doctor to pick up some more contacts and she said I was clear to start wearing my contacts again as long as I took them out at night until I stop waking up with gunk in them. I’m thrilled to report my eyes didn’t get worse and I got to keep the same prescription from last year. I’m near-sighted and I’ve been wearing what seems like coke bottles for glasses since I was in second grade so being able to wear my contacts is the best thing I’ve heard in a while.

I have about ten minutes until I have to head to work where due to our office being short people, we are always short on Fridays, I’m up front answering the phones, checking in patients, and attempting to take care of the faxes while the rest of my desk sits and waits until next week when I can tackle my responsibilities.

C’s schedule has changed again so I’ve made some progress studying this past week. I’m working a lot slower then I originally thought I would but hopefully that means I’ll learn what I need to because I wasn’t flying through the course.

I was surprised to find out yesterday that I’ve lost a few more pounds and I’m now 150. I’ve been pretty lax in using Sparkpeople the last month or so and I’ve decided to start journalling my progress here more and using Sparkpeople a lot more regularly. I need to start walking again and Sunday is my new start date. I’m going to weigh myself and enter the measurements over at Spark and start keeping track of it here also as a motivator.

I’ve finished my Dr. Pepper and Serenity is almost over so I guess I need to take off for work.