This is where I bitch.

We've been busy.

First off, the story of my car. The Saturn I've had for like 10 years has been needing repairs every few months. The latest would have been around $1200, including new breaks (things one can't just ignore). So we started looking at a replacement car, on the off chance that a car payment would be less than repair bills have been. Last week Paul found a used car on CarSoup.com, we decided to test drive it Wednesday after work. We go there at 5:30 and by 8:30 I had a new car. I had no idea it could move that fast. We both expected the banks to take longer than that. It turns out we were at the largest dealership in the area, so they have banks waiting on hold, or something. I have a 2008 Chevy HHR with only 40,000 miles on it. Lots of features. We took it up to my parents house this weekend and it was nice to drive.

Which leads me to the vacation. It was generally nice, I'm feeling a bit rested. But it was full of odd comings and goings. After buying the car Paul said he felt like just driving up that night, instead of the next day like planned. So at 1am we left home and drove some 4.5 hours north. I slept and he drove my new car. We napped most of Thursday and then in the afternoon he left (with my car again) to go another 1.5 hours to his conference. Me and the puppies stayed at my parent's place.

Friday I saw some neighbor friends, and my grandma and aunt. Then I drove back south to the Wisconsin Central Airport to pick up my mom and dad, who were flying back from Saudi Arabia after visiting my sister for 2 weeks. They had some jet lag (23 hour flight) and again we rested.

Saturday mom and I went skiing (OMG, like 5 miles of skiing, my legs hurt so much) and then I borrowed mom's car to go and meet Paul at his conference for his awards banquet. He landed some plaques and medals and then we drove back to my parent's house. We got there at about 11pm and had sauna (latest sauna I've ever had).

So Sunday we had lunch with the family and then drove back to Madison. I got to make it to volleyball, which was nice. And then I got everything unpacked.

Today I'm still off of work, so plan to get some chores done before I have to go back to work tomorrow. I'm not quiet ready for that yet, I'd like more time off.

Christmas was nice. We went to the Twin Cities to visit Paul's family. His mom was awesome and made the same dinner my mom makes on Christmas eve, Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes. Not quiet as good as my mom's, but delicious and very, very nice of her.

We spent most of the time visiting with his family. The dogs stayed with his sister the first night, letting Paul and I have a night off. They did well. Remy dose not do well in hotel's though, barking at every sound in the hall. He kept me up most of the night.

Yesterday at work was busy, but today was nice and calm. I'm hoping that keeps up for the week.

The house is almost clean, just the bathroom to go. Becky and Drew might stay with us after the New Year's party, so I want the house to not be gross.

I think I found this story off of a podcast site. I didn't want to listen to it, but read it instead. Dudley's Memories and it's sequel Snape's Memories is awesome. Totally worth the read.

Christmas with my family went well. I drove up Friday night with my cousin, who dropped me off at my parent's house. We had good food and saw family and friends. Highlights:

- I've been working on a brochure for the Heritage Center in my home town, the board liked my work and I have a few edits to make.
- I got out skiing with my mom, dad and uncle a few times. Saturday was OK, not quiet enough snow though. And on Sunday the snow had melted a bit, making one's skis slip all over the place, it was not fun. We also saw a huge coyote while out in the woods.
- Dad liked the kevlar chaps me and my sister got him. He needs them to protect his legs when cutting Christmas trees with a chainsaw.
- Got to skype with Laura, Jack and Rob. They are flying to Shuri Lanka this week. Jack showed us his summer-saulting skills. He also did a great job trimming the tree, putting all of the same color decorations together, matching the colors like he's been learning.
- I got X-Men 1st Class and some work shirts, which was nice.
- And I got to take a sauna, it's been too long.

This week I think will be busy through Wednesday, then dead. And I've been trying to get things done all morning, but all of my clients are slow getting me answers and/or data and thus I'm spending a lot of time waiting.

The last few days have been filled with email server and spam filter headaches. They seem to be mostly figured out, but I am not a fan of those things right now.

Been busy at work again though, which is good. Mostly last minute, "OMG we have to get the site live NOW!" and "Oh, we didn't tell you about that aspect, yeah sorry, get on that now?" and "I know it's 4:55 there, but I'm on the West Coast, so if you can get that done today?" I don't really mind. I like feeling needed and helpful. And the occasional long day means a long lunch or leaving a bit early on a different day.

I got my Christmas gift off to Jack already. Laura won't give it to him until they are on the plane. They are spending Christmas in Sri Lanka (I think). I made him a comic style eBook. It's formatted to display well on their iPad. It's about how Uncle Jason misses Jack, so he flies to see him. Then the two of them take some magical flying toys to visit the rest of their families. Hoping he likes having a book with him in it.

My family Christmas will be a week from this weekend. My cousin Nate is going up that weekend, so that makes 2 grandkids in Brantwood at the same time, which is the largest gathering of family we'll have. Paul can't get out of work, which sucks. But it will be nice to see grandma and everyone again.

Yesterday Paul and I drove halfway to my parent's house and met mom and grandma for lunch. They also gave us our Christmas tree. It was nice seeing them and we figured out when we'd be celebrating Christmas. Paul has to work that weekend though, so he won't make Christmas with my family.

We got back home and decorated the tree while watching White Christmas, Paul's favorite holiday movie. We were up pretty late (due to some trips needed to get new lights, last year's had died). But the tree is decorated. Next we will see if we can figure out how to put lights up outside the house, even though there are no outlets on the outside of my house. (Another reason my house kinda sucks.)

Birthday is going well, so far. My company gives a gift certificate to a local, nice restaurant. I've not been there, but we will check it out. That was a nice surprise. I've been getting Facebook wall posts all day. My sister gave me some Amazon money, so I'll order a few books and movies this weekend, I want to keep some so when I do have an eReader or tablet I can get eBooks also. I'm gonna hold off on getting a tablet for a bit, I want to see more about the Kobo Vox and whatever Nook is next and see how they compare to the Fire.

Tonight Paul's mom and sister are coming into town and visiting for the weekend. We have reservations to Fresco, a building top heavily windowed restaurant on top of the Overture center. Great view, good food and desserts.

Not sure what we will do this weekend. Sounds like Paul's mom needs a weekend to relax, so that might be the plan. Have to stay away from downtown though, this weekend is Freak Fest (the Halloween party where hundreds of thousands of people come into our city for--it's crazy).

(I'm not really "bouncy" but that mood icon is from Simon's birthday.)

I pocket dialed 911 last night, and that lead to a call from a dispatcher and then an officer stopping by to check things out. Both were nice and understanding, I'm thinking it happens often enough. And my phone actually called 112, but I'm thinking maybe all 3 digital calls that aren't to another service just get routed to the police? I need a new phone I think. I might start using my iPhone again, we will see.

Yesterday was a lot, and I mean a lot, of excel training. We use it quiet often, since we deal mostly with databases in collection, so that is a useful skill. But it is long and kinda boring. Might have more of it today, depends on how meetings go.

I was told I need to post more to facebook, for my friends who don't use twitter or LJ. So I'm having twitter post over there as well. Though I'm going to have to mentally censor some, since there are very different groups in those places. I'll have to @ reply to myself once in a while, I think. (And now I know why some people do that.)

This week is gonna be busy. I'm going up to mom and dad's on Friday, so I have packing to do, plus I want to make some chutney to bring up so I can give it to my aunt and uncle for their birthdays. And I need to wrap mom's gifts.

And in two weekends (Halloween weekend), Paul's mom and sister are coming to visit. So we need to start cleaning the house to get ready for them.

October always gets busy like this.

Remey has begun to play with toys now, as opposed to just sitting next to one of us on the couch. Which I'm taking as a good sign. Maybe he'll start to play with JP soon (which was kinda the point). He seems to be doing well.

It's been a great weekend so far. Mom, Jack and Laura arrived Friday night and have been here all weekend. They will go back to mom's house after lunch tomorrow. We went to the farmer's market and the Madison Children's Museum Saturday on Saturday morning. The museum was cool, but had way too many kids and all of the activities were to tightly packed. To much stimulation. Fun though. We hit up a park with a play ground after the mid day nap, and then went to Ella's Deli for supper. That restaurant is neat, but has a lot of trains and planes and cartoon characters flying around the ceiling. The outside carousel was a hit though.

Today we went to the Madison zoo (which is free) and had fun with my cousin Nate and his GF Courtney. Lots of animals and things to play in. Another park was found after today's nap. Then I grilled veggie, chicken and bison kabobs on the grill for supper.

Tomorrow we will either go to the botanical gardens or the geology museum, then lunch with Nate and Courtney again, then they take off.

It's tons of fun, but chasing a 2 year old is exhausting. I almost fell asleep at 8 when he went to bed tonight.

Tuesday is the softball team grill out at our house, and the we rest for a month (not really, but it's not a bad idea).

I think I'm getting a hang of this job more and more each day. Though I keep finding basic tasks and bits of knowledge I should know but just haven't had time to learn yet. Training it totally out of the window, it's learn as we go. I haven't pissed off any clients yet, so there is that.

Mom, Laura and Jack arrive tonight and will be here though Monday. I'm looking forward to it, it's been too long since I got to see them last. Laura is only in the States for another few weeks.

Tuesday will be our post softball team grill out at our place. Should be fun, Paul is already entered freaked out host mode.

I had thought I'd play in the Felecia Melton-Smythe softball tournament, but I'm having a hard time finding a team that needs people. And now I've been offered tickets to Milwaukee Beer Fest. Choices, choices.

The weekend up north visiting with the family was nice. I spent most of it chatting with Laura and playing with Jack. He's pretty smart, talks a lot, but is in the semi-whiney stage. He's two, so it's normal. He's not as bad as a lot of kids, so we can deal with it. We played on the swing set, with blocks, with dinosaurs and drew animals on the basketball court.

Today will probably be lazy around the house. Paul is off, so I came back home on Sunday night to have a day off with him. Might get some training in for work today too, since I'm a temp still and don't get paid for the 4th.