I was doing a little light cleaning today, which eventually turned into me reorganizing some things. During the process I found myself putting some things away in storage and while doing that, I found the small jewelry box that we keep Jo’s wedding band in. Why is the ring there you ask? Easy, he’s outgrown it. It’s been about 5 years since it fit his pinky finger, much less his ring finger! I’m not going to get rid of it, ever, so instead I keep it stored away. I guess a part of me was hoping he’d eventually be able to weasel it back onto his ring finger. It can’t be stretched any further because the band is already fairly thin. I’m planning on getting a new band for him in the near future though, so it’s all good.

While I had it out, I decided to take a picture of it. At the time that we purchased it, it was a pretty unique style. I’m sure they sell them like this everywhere now. I mean, it’s well over 8 years since we bought it!

I have much work to be done though, so I’m going to cut this short.

I don’t know why I’ve been so easy to irritate lately. It’s really not like me at all. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely have my moments but it’s very rare that anything gets to me this much. I’ve gotten to where I can’t tolerate tension, whether it be between me and Jo or just with other people in general. Earlier tonight Jo wanted to play Yahtzee. “Great” I thought to myself. It had actually been over a week since we played this together. Well after a few tries, I wasn’t having any luck. In fact, out of the 4 games we played I didn’t win once! I know it’s a game and losing really wasn’t what irritated me, it was the fact that I was losing so much. It’s just a game of chance/luck but seriously, my butt was so raw every time I had to scratch something off of my scorecard. Ha, ha. Pathetic, I know. Ah well. I’m over it. I vowed to never play the game again, but I think everyone knows that was a lie!

Well the cupcakes I said I was going to make never got made. I decided to make fudge brownies, which didn’t help that whole chocolate addiction thing I’ve been going through. I decided I’d be a good girl and only eat 2 though. Surprisingly I stuck with that. I think I’ll make a lemon meringue pie for dessert tomorrow. I had a piece of that tonight, what was left from earlier, and my taste buds still haven’t calmed down from that. It was delicious.

I guess that’s a wrap. My back is giving me some trouble tonight, as are both of my knees. Twenty-nine may be young but it’s got me feeling mighty old tonight.

I’d been planning on whipping up a big dinner for everyone but instead, my mother in law decided to do dinner tonight. That being said, I can still whip up something sweet and delicious for dessert. And I think I know exactly what I’ll make; cupcakes. I think I’ll do vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, in pink or maybe light green. I think that’ll hit the spot, for everyone.

It’s funny you know, Jo and I never had dessert after dinner very often until we moved here. And now that I think about it, we never really did dessert very often when I was younger. I guess that’s sort of a good thing, so we wouldn’t make such a habit out of eating too many sweets. Well, there goes that because I’m definitely making up for “lost time” with dessert. Ha, ha.

Anyway. There’s much to be done and little time to do it. First things first though; I need to upgrade Wordpress (2.5.1 for a security fix) again, on all of my blogs. Not fun but would be even less fun if they were compromised.

I finally took the time today, to upgrade to the latest version of Wordpress - 2.5. Thank goodness. I’ve been telling myself “I’ll do it tomorrow” for a couple of weeks. It’s amazing how tomorrow never seemed to come until today. It isn’t like I’ve been exceptionally busy or anything, just a bit lazy when it comes to the internet. Plus I’ve sort of been in NHL Playoff mode since the first round began. Speaking of which; I’m sad that the Flames have been eliminated. I was so frustrated throughout the entire game last night, but I won’t get into it. They’ll be back again, hopefully with a season that will top all others!

I’m currently working out my to-do list for tomorrow. There isn’t very much for me to do, but I was thinking about cooking dinner for everyone tomorrow night. I may see about cooking some pork in the slow roaster, and have a side of scalloped potatoes. Actually, Jo won’t eat the potatoes so maybe I’ll just go with homemade macaroni and cheese - southern style, of course. For not having children, I sure feel like I do at times!

I don’t know why I filed this under photography. It’s not really photography quality, but more of a snapshot really. I was just sitting out on the deck with my mother in law a couple of days ago. The temperature was mild, there was a light breeze and partly cloudy skies. It was quite nice out, nicer than it’s been in months in fact. I had my camera outside with me, thinking I may get a chance to catch a few shots of some of the wildlife around. That didn’t happen, so I took a picture of my shoes instead. Ha!

This is probably my favorite pair of shoes, and most comfortable too. Jo doesn’t like them too much, but he’s a man and most of the men I know aren’t into shoes at all. It’s no surprise he doesn’t like them.

I’m trying to figure out what I can cook for dinner tomorrow night. It’s not quite “warm” here yet, so I was thinking that a nice bowl of warm, cheesy potato soup would be nice. The only problem I see with this meal plan is that Jo isn’t fond of potatoes, especially in soup. I guess I could whip him up something else, but that just seems like so much work. That’s usually how it goes around here anymore though and I’m just as guilty as the next person about being picky (or finicky) about what I eat.

I guess I’ll just sit down with Jo, since he is the only one that won’t be eating it, and see what he thinks. All I know is that I’m really craving this soup and I’m not sure that I’m going to be willing to settle for anything else at this point! I’m mean, aren’t I? Seriously though, if you like potatoes, could you pass something up that looked this delicious (taken the last time I made potato soup)? I know I couldn’t!

A few days ago I decided to go over my taxes one last time before submitting them to the IRS. I’m glad that I did and I hate that I did at the same time. I thought having to fork out $800 in self employment tax was a lot but after amending them, I actually owe a wee bit over $1200. Ouch, that hurts. That hurts a lot. I wonder if they’d let me claim my cats as dependents? They depend on me to keep them fed and keep their litter boxes cleaned. That should count for something, shouldn’t it? Silly, I know. It’s not like they have a Social Security number or anything. Ha, ha. My bank account is so upset with me right now, and rightfully so.

We rarely ever get breaks when it comes to our taxes. Since Jo and I married in 1999, we’ve only gotten money back on our taxes 4 times. Isn’t that crazy? After we owed money the first year, we adjusted our tax information with our employers. What good that did, I don’t know because the following year we owed again. And the year after that. We finally got a break the next year because I was unemployed for a little over 6 months, but once I started working again, we wound up owing again. I seriously have no idea how that’s even possible when we were both claiming single with no dependents. They were taking out an insane amount of money from our checks and we still owed money? It’s enough to make a person crazy.

All I know to do is start putting aside a little bit of money each time either of us get paid. Hopefully at the end of the year we’ll break even, but if not, at least we’ll have the money set aside so that if we owe, it won’t hurt so bad. I somehow doubt that, but it’s worth a shot.

I was browsing through some of the folders on the computer, sorting through photos and trying to organize my files a bit.. when I stumbled onto this photo I took a couple of months ago.

The snow on the branches remind me so much of cotton. This is about the only time, in recent months, that I’ve really enjoyed the snow. It’s so nice to look at, especially when it’s falling and considering I haven’t ever seen this kind of snow in my life. I’ve gradually started to realize I actually hate it more than I love it. When it started melting, the ground got so soggy that you couldn’t walk in it. It was just too messy. Everyone said this would happy too though. That I would love it until it started to melt. That’s not entirely true though. I started hating it when I couldn’t drive in the crap!

Hopefully the snow is done for the year. Hopefully.

I can’t believe how hard it is to find work here. I mean, I can but at the same time it just seems so ridiculous. My sister in law’s boyfriend has been looking for work off and on for over a year. Of course there was a few months during the Winter where he couldn’t because most of the work is seasonal, but still, that’s only a couple of months. I’m not sure if he’s putting in as much effort as other people but he is trying, without much luck. The few jobs that have been available are being filled so fast. There’s hardly any time for anyone to even get applications in before they’ve found the person they’re looking for. You can’t blame the companies, no, but it just really stinks for those people who are out there nearly every day, putting in applications and sending in resumes just hoping someone calls them in for an interview. To date, I don’t think he’s had a single interview from the dozen or more applications he filled out. Now I understand what Jo was saying about this place, that it’s almost impossible for anyone to get on their feet, especially for those who’ve lost their footing from plant closures and layoffs.

I can’t imagine how frustrated JD is getting from all of this. I’m sure it’s not helping with the whole motivation to do something thing. I hope he’s able to find something soon, just so he will feel a little better about himself.

Doesn’t this look absolutely delicious? Yeah, I thought so too, which is why I could resist it.

I decided to whip up a batch of chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese icing. It should be more than apparent that I’ve been unable to avoid the cravings for chocolate. Apparently just ignoring the craving doesn’t work for me - does it for anyone, really? Oh my, this can’t be a good thing. Ha, ha.

I am, however, happy to report that I’m going to try and be better with that avoiding chocolate (well, sweets in general) thing. I’m not going to shed this 15 or so pounds if I don’t get control of this sweet tooth. It really has been a royal pain. I know I’ve said it before but seriously, I’ve never craved chocolate and sweets as much as I have in the last few months.