Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in miniera's InsaneJournal:

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Saturday, October 29th, 2011
7:47 pm	Paris and London? It's starting to look like I'll be able to head over to Paris and London this spring. I won't know for sure probably until January but right now it's looking really good. If I had someone to travel with I could guarantee the trip a lot sooner but so far it looks like I'm going alone. This will be my first time to both France and England. I think I'll fly into Paris, spend a week there seeing Paris and some of the surrounding areas then take the Eurostar (high speed train between Paris and London) to London where I'll spend a week seeing London and the surrounding areas and fly home from London. I figure it will be easier on me to spend the first week in Paris and deal with any issues I might have with speaking no French and then end the trip in London where I speak the language. I've been building lists of places/things I'd like to see. Right now I have enough to spend a month in each city! Guess I'll have to cut the lists down. LOL In other news, I've begun Rally classes with the German Shepard and Rottweiler (Diablo and Bubba). If you're not familiar with Rally it's a type of obedience where you and the dog go through a course with many stops. At each stop is a sign that tells you what to do. Sit, down, turn right, sit Each sign is different but overall it's more interesting than just regular obedience. I'm not sure that either dog will really take to it. Last week Diable refused to sit even once and Bubba was a pulling fool. The hardest part for me is class starts at 7 in a town that's about 20 minutes away. I don't get home until about 8:30 so by the time I'm done feeding the dogs and such I don't get to bed until around 9:30. So I end up pretty tired on Wednesdays. I might be headed up to Canada for a long weekend this spring. A friend has her passport and wants to go to Germany but is hesitant to go. I recently found out that one of her concerns is that she won't be allowed back in the country if she travels across the border. So, I thought we should take a quick trip to Canada so she can have a positive experience and remove some of the 'unknown'. Okay, I'm getting tired now so off to bed I go. My migraine pill is kicking in and one of the nice side effects is it puts me to sleep. Night all! (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 10th, 2011
3:12 pm	Summer fun! Gosh, where to begin. Last time I posted I'd ordered Office 2010. It arrived, was installed and is working fine. Mind, I only use it for email and to read/created documents so I'm sure my experience isn't exactly typical. Today I ordered a Kindle from Amazon. I've been playing with the idea of getting an ereader and finally decided to go for it. I went with the Kindle 3, with 3G and without the ads. The DX sounded nice with it's larger screen but I found enough reviews about it to think it isn't the one for me. I hope I'll like it, I like the idea of carrying it with me with books that I can read at any time. It sounds like it should be easier on my eyes than my laptop so that was a definite point in it's favor. If all goes well in shipping-land it will be here on Wednesday. We have a new dog!!!! Dog, not puppy although she's still a puppy to me. Her name is Bubba (blame hubby) and she's a 10 month old female rottweiler. We got her last month and absolutely love her! The breeder had kept her to show but was willing to part with her. This dog has MIND OF HER OWN and wants to do what SHE WANTS. She's quite the challenge but it's worth it. We're in class with her now (and let me tell you that Diablo is NOT HAPPY that she doesn't get to go to class) and she'd doing okay. She's in her heat cycle now so I'm not sure how well class will work this week. We may have to leave early if we're too much of a distraction. I've hired all my vacant positions but one, and that one should be posted soon. Even better my nemisis on the management team is leaving!!! I don't know if she took the demotion voluntarily or if they forced her into it and I don't care. All I know is she is leaving!!! It's sunny and warm here now, I intend to enjoy all six weeks of our summer as much as I can. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011
10:52 am	Vacation! My vacation began last Thursday at 4pm. I don't have to go back until next Monday. So not a long vacation but I nice break anyway. Hubby is also off which is extra nice. The weather hasn't been too awful and it's supposed to be nice starting tomorrow. Since we're waiting for the plumber now I don't mind the cold and mist. I'm really looking forward to 70 degree weather. I spent Friday and the weekend resting and doing some cleaning. Yesterday was errand day and today is more cleaning and the plumber. Plus tonight is dog training class. We're doing much better already, repeating the class has been a godsend. I'm not sure we'll be ready for the rally class but we have plenty of time to make that decision. I ordered Office 2010, I want to get it installed on both my machines while I'm off. With any luck it will arrive Thursday. I've been using 2003 forever and I figure I might as well upgrade. We are FINALLY going to upgrade to 2007 at work. That project has been off and on for about 4 years. I'm the project sponsor now and just got approval for the big brass to restart the project. I actually told them that we would NOT stop until the upgrade was complete no matter what. They are forewarned and happy we're going to get this done. We have until the end of November to complete the implementation. They we need to immediately start the move to Office 2010. I don't know how we got so far behind but we need to get current. I told the Management team that we want to get a regular upgrade process established so that we upgrade within 6 months of a new version being released. We need the six months to test, let the major bugs get worked out, upgrade our apps that rely on the Office suite and so on. They seemed agreeable but that could change in a hot second. Mustn't forget to call my insurance to make sure they're going to pay for me to do Weight Watchers. I've put some of the weight I lost back on so I want to go through the program again. This time my insurance at work will pay for it so I just have to hop through their hoops (which I think I'm done with) and then start going to class. I've completed the filtering of applicants for my position at work - the one I didn't find anyone for the first time through - and I figure I have two who absolutely will work (one is a former employee and another one I know of and he comes highly recommended) and a few others that might work out also. I interview at the end of the month so we'll see how it all shakes out. Wish me luck! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
12:28 pm	Ecuador? Here's the deal. I'm in need of input as I have no idea what to do. Two years ago I went to Germany for a week (waves to mabiana, last year I took my dream trip to Scotland. This year we had extensive vet bills for JD before we lost her so I figured no trip this year and started planning for Paris and maybe London for next year. My brother just bought his ticket to spend the summer in Ecuador and rented a two bedroom apartment. He has invited me down to stay with him. We found out today that DH's truck needs a little over $4,000 work done. Shortly after DH told me to go to Paris this year. I replied we couldn't afford it with the previous bills and now the new bill. I just started building our savings up again. Then DH said I should go to Ecuador so I could travel somewhere this year and not spend as much money. The thing is, I'm not sure I want to go to Ecuador. I don't know enough about it other than the Galapagos islands are near and I think Easter Island is reachable from there. Both of those trips would cost money and I just don't have enough. What do you think? Do you know anything about Ecuador? I've not begun doing any research yet but I do know it's at a high elevation, brother said 10,000 feet. The weather will be dry and in the mid-60's so not hot. Part of me says go, take the opportunity to see a part of the world you probably won't go to on your own and the other part says I should stay home and save for next year's trip. I honestly have no idea what to do. Any advice or thoughts would be welcome. (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 23rd, 2011
10:27 am	Antses! I'm not sure what is worse than having ants in the house. Just seeing them makes me feel dirty. Last night I saw two on the kitchen counter and so operation KILLL THE ANTS commenced. We had a horrible invasion about 5 years ago and learned the secret to killing ants. Use Terro. Best. Poison. Ever. Just put it out and watch those little buggers swarm all over it. It's kind of gross at first because you see a solid black line of ants headed up to the poison and then back down again. But, within a day or so they'll all go off and die. After the last major infestation we've only had one or two. This year we've had two (this is the second) and I think it's because ants have moved back under the house. I have plenty of poision so I expect the few nests that have formed will be gone soon. In other news. I'm starting to plan a trip to Paris!! I won't be able to travel abroad this year (see dog medical bills) so I'm getting my 'fix' by starting to plan a trip for 2012. If I start saving now I should easily have enough money, definetly will have enough vacation time saved up and off I shall go! Plus, starting so early gives me plenty of time to change my mind over and over again. What I would really like to do is spend some time in London, take some day trips (stonehedge?), take the high speed train to Paris, spend some time in Paris and take some trips from there. Or go in the reverse order. I think having a week in each city would be perfect but I'm not sure I want to be gone that long by myself as I still remember getting tired of being alone in Scotland last year. Who knows what I'll actually do but I've been doing research for the Paris leg and am already starting to feel like I really want to visit Paris. I need to get motivated and pick up some groceries. I really do. It's just cold and foggy out and I don't wanna take a shower! Wonder if I have enough in the freezer to put it off another week? (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 15th, 2011
6:52 pm	Thanks Thanks everyone who commented on the post about JD. I'm not able to respond individually yet but I wanted you to know that I really appreciated all of the kind words. (Comment on this)
Friday, January 14th, 2011
6:02 pm	It's over We lost JD (our 2 year old Rottweiler) yesterday morning. She went downhill over night and we knew it was time. My vet is the best, they came out right after I called and put her down at home. I think it was almost as hard on the vet as it was on me. Yesterday was hell for me but today is better and i know it will get easier with each day. I've notified our breeder that we are going to take her up on her offer of a new puppy. She is hoping to have puppies end of Feb. which would mean we would have the new puppy at home end of April/early May which is good timing for us. I'm not sure I'll be really ready for the new puppy then but hubby is ready now and we'd like to have the puppy while he can enjoy it and while Diablo is still young enough to have a play partner. Diablo will be just under 1 at that time so the timing works. And I know me, as soon as I see the puppy I'll fall in love. RIP in JD, you were the best dog ever and did not deserve to have to go through any of the horrible stuff that happened to you. Miss you and will love you forever. Current Mood: devastated (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 1st, 2011
7:11 am	Welcome to 2011! I'm looking forward to this year. Last year started off with surgery for DH and ended with JD getting cancer and some other bad stuff starting up. I'm determined that this year will be a good one on the whole even though I know bad things will happen. To that end I've just finally set up all of my accounts to be paperless billing. Except for the gas company, I need to get the next bill so I can sign in and do that one. But, as far as I can tell, if they offer paperless billing, I'm now going to get it. Yay for saving trees and less clutter in my house. Today will be spent doing some cleaning and lots of relaxing. Naps should figure in at some point. I picked up a couple of pizzas last night so I won't have to cook dinner tonight. Yes, I am that lazy although I prefer to think of it as advance planning. It's freaking cold outside, zortified you won't be missing this at all. We had a trace amount of snow on Wed and there are small bits left but not much. The plus with the cold is the ground if frozen solid which makes it easier for JD to limp around outside. I'm resigned to no fun trip this year. The medical bills for JD pretty much killed that plan. Even with the expected tax refund I'll only be adding back into savings as that took a good hit also. I'm a bit disappointed but if I have to choose between going to Europe (or Japan!) or getting/keeping my dog healthy the dog will win every time. Okay, off to finish a couple of on-line things then treadmill, bath and cleaning. Happy 2011 all! Current Mood: optimistic (Comment on this)
Friday, December 31st, 2010
6:43 pm	Happy New Year all!! I need to post this now because there is almost no chance I'll be up at midnight. My wish for all of you and your loved ones is to have health and happiness in the coming year. (Comment on this)
Saturday, December 18th, 2010
2:36 am	Weather funny Hubby came home yesterday and wanted to know if I went to the grocery store. Which I had but only for three items. Turns out he believes it was going to snow last night and all day today. I laughed and he said "you wait and see, I'm right" The dogs just woke me up to go outside. At 2:20 am it's raining and is much warmer outside than it has been. No snow. Poor thing will be very disappointed when he gets up and finds no snow. In other news he started his two weeks off (they close for two weeks at Christmas) and is very happy about that. I, however, have to work the entire time. (Comment on this)
Friday, December 17th, 2010
5:31 am	brrrr, it's cold out Took the dogs out last night around 11pm and the water drops on the metal gate were already frozen solid. Got up today a little after 4 am, started hubby's car as he had ice all over it. They're saying we might have a little bit of snow tomorrow. Yay? Today we should get the lab results bafk on JD. It's hard to believe when I look at her. She's acting so much better than she has been but I know that's most likely because the meds are keeping the pain at bay. This morning she and the puppy have been rolling around on the floor playing. I won't let them outside unsupervised yet as JD just had the biopsy and the incision needs to heal some more. Did I mention that I ordered a new desktop computer? Well I did and it arrived last week in the middle of the situation with JD. Yesterday I finally started messing around with it a little and one of my goals for today is to get it all set up, everything moved over and really enjoy it. I went with a Dell XPS Studio. I ramped the ram up to 12 Gig. I think I have more hard drive space then I'll ever need, 1.5 TB if my memory is right and a core 5 CPU. The little I did with it yesterday was very impressive, nice and fast! Not sure what I'll do with the old machine. It's 8 years old, one hd is having issues and the system battery is dead. It could probably be replaced. I might see if I can find a school that would like it. Hate to just toss it and I sure don't need to save it. Or, I could keep it and get rid of one or more of my older machines. Lord knows hubby wants me to get rid of some of them since I don't use them any more. I need to buy the food for Christmas dinner. I only sent a gift to my niece, everyone else is out of luck this year. I do have cards but they aren't written or mailed yet. I may try to get that done today even though they won't arrive in time for my overseas friends. And even though it's my day off I do have some stuff to do for work today. Which I don't mind doing as it means I can make up some of the time I've missed this past week due to my back and JD. Did I mention my back? I fell down our outside concrete steps last Saturday bruising my bottom and wrenching my back. The back is sore today, I didn't get up and move around enough yesterday and I'm paying for it this morning. Current Mood: better (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 16th, 2010
4:17 am	It's 4am I've been up since 1 when JD woke me up with her crying. I couldn't give her a pain pill as it was way too soon so I tried to comfort her the best I could. She was refusing to come out of her crate so I pulled out my padded exercise mat, put on some warmer clothes and prepared to lay down in front of her crate as that seemed to make her feel better. That was when she decided she wanted out so I took her for a walk. By then it was 2 am. She did her business, came in and wanted food which she got (she'g going to get anything and everything she wants) and then she went back in her crate, laid down and went to sleep with no crying. Of course I was then wide awake and have sat here watching CNN and goofing on the computer ever since. I did get an email from the breeder we got JD from. I'd emailed her on Tuesday to let her know what was going on and to see if any of the other puppies were having problems. She called that night but I couldn't talk to her so I emailed again last night to give her the updated news and let her know I'll call when I can talk without it turning into non-stop tears and sobs. She is clearly upset also, these puppies were all hand-fed by her so each and every one is special to them. She let me know that they've not had a dog with cancer from their litters in nearly 15 years and she's never had an ACL tear in-house. Which is good to hear but also hard, why was our dog the one to have all the problems? Did we do something wrong? I don't think so but still, it hurts. Anyway, bless her heart she's offering us another puppy for free when we're ready. I don't know if we'll take her up on that or not. Yesterday I was saying I'd never get another Rottweiler I was so upset but I don't know that I'll still feel that way in a few weeks or months. Okay, time to get up and get ready for another day of work. Thankfully it's my work from home day so I can get a very close eye on JD. Tomorrow I'm off and DH is off for two weeks after Friday so someone will be home to take care of her meds for at least two weeks. If she's still with us at that point I'll change my schedule so I can come home during the day and give her the pain meds, there is no way she's going to suffer just because I have a job. Current Mood: coming to terms with sadness (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 15th, 2010
5:46 pm	There are no words to express my sadness. The tumor has tentacle all throughout poor JD's little body. It started to crumble and disentigrate when they tried to remove some which is a very bad sign apparently. At this point they're giving her 2 to 4 weeks and telling us to just manage her pain. She is such a wonderful dog and this is killing us to see her go through this. Right now I'm leaning toward putting her down sooner rather than later as they tell me the pain she's in will only get worse. The meds will make her drowsy so she most likely get to enjoy what life she has left. The entire staff at the vet's including the vet were crying this afternoon when they told me. They love JD like we do. I absolutely hate this. JD is the nicest, friendliest, most loving dog I've ever seen in my life. She's just barely two and already her life is over. This is just not fair on so many levels. Again, I'm disabling comments as I just can't deal with sympathy at this point. I'm barely holding it together as it is. Current Mood: devastated
Saturday, December 11th, 2010
10:42 am	If it's not one thing it's another My poor JD (the rottweiler). First she tore her ACL and had to have surgery. She's just now starting to get back to normal usage and she's been crying the past few nights. I thought she'd just overdone it a bit with her leg. I just got up to see why she was crying and to pet her a little and found a rather large lump on her side! I have no idea when it showed up, you'd think I'd have noticed it but to be honest we've been so focused on her leg that we haven't paid as much attention to the rest of her. However, DH is sleeping so when he wakes up I'll check with him. I called the vet, no doc in today, and made an appt for early Monday. I'll keep an eye on her the rest of the weekend and if she gets worse I'll take her to the emergency vet. I have pain pills so I'll give her those to keep her comfortable. Poor baby. My new computer is supposedly going to be delivered today. If I can trust the FedEx site which is estimating delivery for today. I don't get much via FedEx so I don't know if I should expect it today or not. The tracking page doesn't say it's out for delivery like UPS does but maybe FedEx doesn't do that? It's raining and I don't feel like going anywhere so sitting around here isn't so bad. It would be nice to get it today. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
1:18 am	Watch everything come to a standstill tomorrow morning Snow was predicted for last night - or is it still considered tonight at 1 in the morning? Anyway, I just woke up to find a light dusting of snow on the ground. Since I know this area I can confidently predict that everything will come to a standstill tomorrow morning and the news will have a field day with this. Those of you in areas that get real amounts of snow won't understand this but trust me when I say, this will be a mess tomorrow and we'll all blame it on the SNOW OMG AND ICE!!!!!! The majority of my team will work from home as will I most likely since I prefer to not drive when all the idiots are out. On Wed. I take the rottweiler in for her 8 week post-op xray. She's moving really well and becoming more and more active. This is to make sure the leg is healing correctly. Although why they're waiting 8 weeks to make sure the bone is in the right place is beyond me... And, jumping to one final topic. Thanksgiving dinner! We're ready to go. Cranberry sauce has been made, stuffed shells are made and in the freezer, turkey is defrosting in the fridge and all ingredients were purchased. We are bbq'ing the turkey this year. We had a trial run about 2 months ago so all should be good. Famous last words! ::grin:: Night all! Time to see if I can get back to sleep. (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 13th, 2010
6:05 pm	What a day Today has been one of those dreary days. Dark, cold, constant mist (around here they call it rain but it's mist), just one of those day where all I want to do is cuddle up inside. I did however need to get groceries so after procrastinating for hours I finally head off to the store. Came home and made.....beef wellington!!! I have always wanted to have it but never have and really thought it would be harder to make than it was. Delicious. Absolutely delicious. Used a recipe with oysters and mushrooms in the pate and it was to die for. It should have been cooked longer but we can do that next time. A big, lovely pan of roasted veggies with it. What a treat. Dogs were treated also as they got bones (and a taste of beef wellington) and the cats got a treat also. All in all it was a very nice ending to a dreary day. Getting ready to spend the night just relaxing. (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 7th, 2010
11:08 am	Pics from trip to Scotland I have finally gotten the pictures from my trip uploaded. If anyone is interested you can find them here: http://s879.photobucket.com/home/my_travels/allalbums The Berlin pictures are also here but I'm in the middle of organizing them. The Scotland pictures are organized by day and activity/stop. I tried to put titles and descriptions so anyone viewing would have an idea of what they are looking at. Feel free to not look at all of the pictures, there are a lot. I wrote a trip report for one of the travel forums that helped me out a lot with planning the trip. I'm not going to post it here as it's 11 pages but if anyone wants to read it let me know and I can send it along. I'm not sure anyone from here would be interested but if you are... Okay, off to regroup and then continue reorganizing my Berlin pictures. (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 6th, 2010
10:33 am	Sometimes life is good Yesterday was one of those days and so far today is looking to go in that direction also. I didn't sleep well or much Wed. night and again Thursday night. Awake at 1:30 am Fri morning and not looking forward to the long day ahead. Keep in mind that I'm off on Fridays. It's sad when you dread you're day off. Hubby went off to work at 4:30 right on schedule and I headed back to bed prepared to spend the next few hours watching TV and being tired. Amazingly I went back to sleep after only an hour or so AND was able to sleep almost constantly until 10:30!!!! That only happens when I'm sick. Seriously. And I didn't feel sick although I still feel like a cold is on it's way. I got up, showered, dressed, vacuumed, started laundry and still had energy! So I spent the rest of the day organizing and uploading my pictures from the Scotland trip to the web! I was able to get about 1/2 up and am working on the rest today. I was relaxed and really enjoyed my day. And last night I went to bed around 9 and slept straight through until 3:30!!! For someone who has to be up and moving by 4 am on a work day but who normally wakes up somewhere between midnight and 1:30 this was amazing. Which means I probably won't sleep at all tonight but I'm going to enjoy this while I can! And ignore the fog and overcast weather outside. La la la la la la la la...I can't see you. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010
2:28 am	Shoot - I think I'm getting sick I hope I'm wrong but I think I might be coming down with a cold. Last night I was super tired and went to bed early (so of course I woke up way to early this morning), I started sneezing last night and this morning I'm feeling like it's really starting up. I sure hope I'm wrong and it's just my allergies acting up. In other boring news I need to take at least one day off around Christmas and possibly up to three. I'm trying to figure out if I want to take my last two furlough (unpaid forced time off) days then or spread them out until June. I don't have any strong desire to take time off at Christmas but hubby is off then for two weeks so it might be nice to have time off at the same time even though I won't have the full two weeks off. Did I mention that I think I'm getting sick and I woke up way too early????? (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
6:13 pm	Feel free to ignore I'm having one of those days. You know the kind. Where by the end of the day you think everyone in the whole world hates you? Even though you know that's not true in the rational part of your brain that little bit that is still seven years old thinks EVERYONE HATES ME!!! AND I HATE THEM TOO!!! Yeah, one of those days. I'm so ready for this day to be over. Is it tomorrow yet? In other news....I have no other news. Probably because everyone hates me. Current Mood: feeling sorry for myself for no real reason (Comment on this)