Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Happy Birthday Justin!

Although you are like 14 or something hours ahead and your birthday is drawing to a close there, it's just starting over here, SO Happy Birthday bro!

For the fun of it I googled February 28, 1982 to see what would come up.... here's what I found:

Sunday, February 28, 1982

This was 59th day of the year and 306 days remained in the year.

* Hebrew calendar — 5 Adar 5742
* Chinese calendar — the 5th day of the 2nd month of 4680 (Ren Xu)
* Islamic calendar — Yaumul Ahad 4 Jumaada al-Awal 1402 A.H. (note)

February 28 in History
1784

John Wesley issues “Deed of Declaration” formally establishing the Methodist Church.
1849

The steamship California landed in San Francisco, bringing the first East Coasters to the Gold Rush.
1916

Henry James, American novelist and critic, died.
1948

The last British troops left India.
1983

The final episode of M*A*S*H aired. It was the most watched television program in history.
1993

Four federal agents were killed in Waco, Texas, after they tried to serve an arrest warrant for weapons charges on Branch Davidian sect leader David Koresh, starting a 51-day standoff.

"Chessmetrics" - Top 10 active players as of 2/28/82
Ayako Okamoto wins LPGA Arizona Copper Golf Classic
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE February 26–28, 1982
Top movie was "On Golden Pond" (weekend gross $5,602,328) and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (weekend gross $1,410,000) was number 5
BBC "on this day"
NY Times "On this day"

And for good measure - on this day in Canadian history

Friday, February 17, 2006

Today's goodness makes up for the rest of the week

Whew! It is Friday and I cannot be more happy that it is the end of the week. It's been longer and more painful than I thought. The pain part comes from working on a 1000+ mailing project I am doing for the marketing of a program. OUCH! I've had to fold, label, stuff and seal until I can no longer see straight! Thankfully I did figure out, and fix, the instant letter folder after folding about 300 pieces by hand. That was a great relief!

Ok, so on to the "good things" of the week:

1. Sunrises every morning this week. I may leave the house at 6:30am, but I get to see some amazing sunrises and moonsets. I love seeing the light peek above the horizon as I get closer to downtown, with the fog around the buildings and the color of the sky goes from dark purple to pink to a firey orange. I know spring is coming b/c the sun greets me a little earlier every morning.

2. [this is a total girl thing] I put on a fresh washed AND DRIED pair of jeans and low-and-behold, they are BIG. Girls, this NEVER happens! You know how you watch the time on the dryer to make sure your favorite jeans don't get overdried and shrunk? Ok, well, I do. So, it was a delightful moment to pull up my jeans and BAM! They are almost too big! It was a wonderful moment. Paul kinda understood my elation as I jumped up and down and pulled at the waist to show how much room there was!

3. This time next week we'll be on the road to Asheville! We are going to Homecoming and cannot wait! Meeting up with the gals (and of course some of Paul's fraternity brothers) and talking about old times! Next Friday is the "Open House" for the 'New Hall' building where the history department will be located. I am *SO* there!

4. We needed new stamps and thus I made my way to the nice little Post Office in Cameron Village (which by the way, do not even consider going there after 9am until close, it is INSANE! BUT if you get there right at 8am when they open, it is all good - and walking is the best way b/c there are like 3 parking spaces, 2 of which are handicapped.) The stamps are a "good thing" b/c they had the MOST AWESOME, CUTE, ADOREABLE stamps I have EVER seen! (or that could be the 20 oz coffee talking, I dunno). "Children's Picture Book Animals" How cool is that? here's what they look like:


They are:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar ("The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle, 1969 and 1987)
Maisy ("Maisy's ABC" by Lucy Cousins, 1994 in the U.K. and 1995 in the U.S.)
Wild Thing ("Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak,1963)
Curious George ("Curious George Flies A Kite" by Margret and H.A. Rey, 1958)
Wilbur ("Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White, 1952)
Frederick ("Frederick" by Leo Lionni, 1967)
Olivia ("Olivia" by Ian Falconer, 2000)
Fox in Socks ("Fox in Socks" by Dr. Seuss, 1965)

5. Mom & Dad are working on coming up in March! This makes me SO SO SO SO happy! I can't wait to show them all the new things we have done: lights, paint, outside stuff, etc! Watching for good deals on Airtran and Delta! YEEE-HAWW!

6. Gas prices, they are DOWN! YES! I hate to speak too soon, but there is a good chance we'll be getting down below $2 a gallon. THat would be awesome since my car drinks premium fuel. It was $2.11 at our local stations last night and about $2.17 in Raleigh. Yes, I am excited about gas prices!

That's about it. I am glad that it is Friday and we've got NO plans this weekend. We are free to do whatever project strikes us. YAY FOR FRIDAY!

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Welcome home Baby Ryan


Ryan Wesley Connor was born on 2/1 at 9:44 a.m. to Alan & Ramona Connor, he weighed 6 lbs. 15 oz. Ryan was released from the Rex Special Care Nursery on February 8, 2006, after a week's stay in the hospital following a very scary birth, he is now home!

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Update on the "day I should have stayed in bed"

Well, thankfully the day has not gotten worse. It is going on 3pm and my workday is drawing to a close. Paul is still in California for another day, so I've got one more night without him (although his flight won't be in until like 11pm on Friday night...)

Things I have done since getting back to my office (that have been good):

1. Wrote mean letters to 3 agencies trying to get them to pay up (it felt good to be firm and kinda mean & threatening)!

2. Took a nice walk

3. While on my walk, I went to the recently remolded and opened library branch to get a new card (I got my original Wake County library card in December 1989.... I used it up through high school, but somehow misplaced it after going off to college... and it is sad that I haven't checked out a library book SINCE college... going on 4 years now!)

4. Picked up a sandwich from Quizno’s… although the line took like 15 minutes, the sandwich was good (which I had a diet Pepsi with… I shouldn’t be drinking soda at all, but I needed a boost!)

5. It’s almost time to go home! I just started reading the "Chronicles of Narnia" series and it's pretty good. I'm about 50 pages into "the magician's nephew" - I read a few of C.S. Lewis' books back in my younger days, but it has been a while! So that is something I am really looking forward to doing when I get home... if only it was warm enough to read outside, I would be in heaven!