and four more to go

i don't go back to work until next monday. i am loving and hating it at the same time. it's great to have a break from work but too much time at home can be a bad thing if you don't do any work at home. so far i haven't, but today i am at least going to make some soup and do some tidying up, definitely have to go for a walk too. i really should have gotten up earlier since tomorrow i am babysitting my niece and won't get much of my own things done since there is lots of hanging out to be done. she got tons of books for christmas so we will have to read those and play some games and maybe cook something fun for lunch and dinner. we need a dance party too, kid has some great moves.

up and running

our computer was down for about a week. someone did something really awesome and managed to get a really bad virus. i don't know if it was a new one or the old one still tearing through but hopefully it is all gone now. i had a hissy fit over the weekend trying to re-establish our internet connection but didn't call the tech because i was sure it wasn't his fault. i uninstalled and reinstalled one of the components today and here we are, and not a moment too soon for the last of the last holiday shopping, at least i hope so!

we reserve the right...

to drink it up tonight! ladies and gentlemen of america, it is your patriotic duty to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the 21st amendment. here are some suggestions from the fine folks at dewar's. i don't know how this has escaped me in years past, but it never will again. hopefully somewhere there is a fabulous friday night flapper party, but there is definitely 75 cent dewar's downtown.

ditto

i am a total goodreads poseur. first ms. esme and now ms. jessica. while obsessively checking my email to see if any of my hold requests had come in (nope!), i got a g.r. update about this year i will.... why have i never read this book? every year is the year i will, but i don't. maybe now i actually will. i'm going for eight of the nine little buttons on the cover. well maybe only seven, i don't have to fall in love just yet. i'd like to pay my student loans down first.

thank goodness my nearest branch had a copy and it wasn't checked out. i jotted down the call number and booked it down there at lunch. i was going to be in and out and on my way, but as always i had to check out the "friends" shelf near the circ desk. could i be any luckier? i got i know why the caged bird sings, woman hollering creek, beverly cleary (twayne's series) and looking for mr. goodbar. the one day i didn't bring a bag i have quite a haul. i was walking back to work with books in both hands like i was leslie sansone taking it to the streets.

i started working on the walking mix today, not as easy to remember the pavement pounding playlist when you're sitting down.

hot tamales

i walked home at lunchtime to change into jeans and grab an apron so i could go straight from work to my favorite tia's to make tamales. every year she makes about a million of them and invites everyone over for a little party to eat the million tamales she made and to also make about a hundred as a family. i won't eat a single one but who am i to pass up an opportunity to gossip with the viejas?

today we made six dozen, which sounds like a lot but really isn't. you figure every person at the party will eat about half dozen, though they will only admit to having three. so we need at least fifteen dozen, twenty to be safe.

since i'm feeling a bit like a tamale myself, the lunchtime power walk is definitely becoming a staple. today i almost missed commuting since i used to walked so much from train to train to bus to work and up and down all the station steps. i also had more free time to do nothing but read and listen to music. then again i left the house around 6 a.m. and got home a little after 7 p.m. maybe the grass isn't greener but my ass was definitely leaner.