I’m of two minds about this whole daylight saving time thing. On the plus side is the extra hour of light at night during which we can do stuff. Said stuff includes painting, playing with the puppy outside, and generally fun activities. On the negative side it means that the sun is barely up by the time I get to work, I lost an hour of sleep last night, and it screws up my internal clock for at least a couple of weeks. *sigh*

There are two things you can count on in life. Last night I started to tackle the taxes part of that duo. I say started because Tigs and I moved last year. For those of you who have not moved to another state in your adult life, let me share the excruciating joy that it brings at this time of year. You see, even if you have an insanely simple set of federal taxes, the states in their infinite wisdom have to have a special form for those who leave or come to either of their fine dominions. This form of course requires at least 2 other forms, possibly more, to complete. These forms are not included in the booklet they send you (if they sent it to you) and so require multiple trips to the computer to print out.

Helpful hint, make sure you print the correct year's forms!

In over 3 hours of work, I finished most of my taxes (I think) and started Tigs’. So far things look good, especially seeing as we were both unemployed for at least a month, maybe more, so our rebates should help us to pay off our debt. Always a plus!

Last night we also finished off DS9. The final scene in Vic’s with most of the main cast still makes me tear up. I remember sobbing when it first aired. Tigs pointed out something about it too. I don’t remember exactly how it was phrased but it was something like “Well, I guess you liked it at least $700 worth” and it’s true. I really do like it that much. I probably like it more then that, although what kind of Quark fan would I be if I spent more for it than I had to?

I haven't touched the keyboard in weeks. Tonight I'm getting back on the bench! Well, actually it's a chair, but you get the idea. Also, I think I'm going to replace this icon with one of Odo playing the piano at Vic's. I'll probably have to do the screen capture myself, but that's ok, it'll make it more personal that way!

The other night (Tuesday night) I was playing “Rain, rain, go away” which is a simple little tune, and I can play it without screwing up too often. However the duet part that the teacher would play along with the student was shown. I figured out how to play that too, but then when I tried to play them together… well, it didn’t work out so well. I can’t seem to get my hands to do different things at the same time. I can’t even get started without screwing up. The main song starts out; half note, half note, quarter, quarter, half. The duet part is all quarter notes. All in 4/4 time. It shouldn’t be that hard, but it is. *sigh* Maybe if I try just getting my hands to get the timing down, without worrying about playing a song. Worth a try anyway.

Puppy class went well. Lucy wasn’t too embarrassing, except for the time she got away from me and decided to run a lap around the instructor before I could snag her again. That incident was quickly forgotten when Lucy and Hiker were playing with each other and got their collars stuck together. That incident was also quickly forgotten when during an exercise where we exchanged dogs one of the women there got bashed in the face by the dog she was holding (not Lucy) and got a little bloody nose! It was purely an accident, the dog just jumped up when she bent down, but I felt how embarrassed the dogs owner was. She just put her face in her hands and looked horrified. The woman who got the bloody nose was totally fine about it, and gave the impression that her puppy had done that (or something similar) to her before.

Next week is the last class. We are working on “paw” and “touch” as the tricks to show off. She has “touch” down pat, but “paw” still requires a bit of hopping. Last night for instance when I asked her for her paw she looked confused at me, lifted both front paws up, waved them, and then stuck one of them into my hand, all while looking at me with an expression of “How do I do this?!?” on her face.

On schedule for tonight is calling the car insurance company and the credit card company and seeing if they would be so kind as to lower the rates for us. Aside from that, no big plans.

According to weather.com Saturday is supposed to hit almost 70 degrees. This is very reminiscent of last year about this time when Tigs and I traveled down from New England looking for a place to live, and the weather was unseasonably warm. The same thing happened in March when we again came down. I wonder if it will again be an warmer then usual winter. Over the next 10 days it isn’t even supposed to get below freezing, and most nights it wont even get down into the 30’s!! The average temperature this time of year is a high in the low 40’s and a low in the low 20’s.

There is one thing that global warming is doing for us. It’s keeping our heating bills down!

Oh, I know what I’ve been meaning to write about, a gift I got from Eric. I had to wait a while for this one, as the post office… well, lets just say the post office has been a real pain in the ass this holiday season. Their hours are exactly wrong to be able to go there any day of the week other then Saturday. Anyway, the Saturday after Christmas I went and picked up this long skinny package. I got it home, opened it up, and… well… ( see for yourself! )

( And because I’ve been talking about it )

And can I just say how depressing it is seeing people post their first 10 books of '07 in 50bookchallenge already. *Sigh* I've only finished one, and it was one I started last year!

And while I'm posting pictures...( my painting desk! )

Arg. Why would anyone write anything in 3/4 time? Why?

And why do I have trouble counting to 3?

"1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1.... SHIT! 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, shit... 1, 2, 3..." etc.

It could be that I'm tired, and maybe 10 at night isn't the best time to practice, but still... *sigh*

Also new icon...

That's all. More tomorrow. Time for bed.

I’m giving myself half an hour at work to update. Exciting hua? So whatever I write over the course of the next half hour will be posted when I get home tonight.

I got my check today, the first check from my new job. I wish this was in and of itself a highly exciting event, but knowing what my hourly pay is it’s not too hard to figure out what my pay check would be, so no surprise. The good news is that we can now pay the car insurance. However before paying it, I’ll be calling them to ask them to lower our rate. Hey, can’t hurt right? And it worked with one of my credit cards! The other one they wanted me to call back in January. Weird, but ok.

This whole week I’ve been mostly working on the employee files. What a mess. And what interesting reading. Part of the reason I’m not further along is that I come across such interesting bits of reading. For instance the person who was always late, and got caught parking in front of the building, badging in for the day, going back outside to park the car, and then going back into work! Or the towel that got left in a person after a surgery, the nurse who got blamed for it, and the surgeon who then came and said it wasn’t her fault. Fun stuff!

It’s traditional to talk about Christmas, you know, after the fact. Lists and all that. I don’t really feel like sharing much of that, but I do want to tell you about the most unexpected gift I got this year; an electronic keyboard. And all the accessories! We’re not talking about some cheap keyboard either, this is a nice one! Now for a while now I’ve wanted to learn to play an instrument. I played violin and cello for a very little while back when I lived in Lancaster, but I haven’t touched anything since, and I never learned how to sight read music. I always felt a little bad about that, and jealous of my cousins who all play one instrument really well, and several others passably. I wanted to be able to play at least one instrument, and do it reasonably well. This falls under the heading of making myself a better person though learning new skills.

So anyway, Christmas evening, we (Tigs, Lucy, and I) are up at my aunt’s house, and there is a pile of boxes for us. One of these is a big box, two are long skinny ones, and there are a couple of smaller ones. I don’t think we conveyed just how blown away we were by the gift. A lot of thought went into it, and it was to both of us! Tigs can’t practice either of her instruments due to rules about it at the townhouse. They provided headphones. And a music stand, and a stand for the keyboard! We’ve since set up the stand, but haven’t plugged in the keyboard yet. It’s intimidating. Not just the whole learn a new instrument thing, but also the whole very expensive keyboard with a whole lot of electronics! We’ve borrowed a “teach yourself to play and read music” book, and we are both going to give it a shot!

In other artistic topics, I haven’t done much painting lately. I think I want to clean up the desk that I’ve got a bunch of minis and crap on so that I don’t have to pull everything out and set it all up if I want to slap some paint on something. I’ve also wanted to sculpt again. I think I’m going to pull out the cheap clay I’ve got and see what sorts of simple things I can do with it, and work up to more difficult items. Maybe I’ll do some animals. Chickens? Something simple anyway, and I’ll post it before the New Year!

Can you believe Monday is New Years day? It’s almost 2007. It shouldn’t be so hard to believe either, seeing how crazy and busy this past year has been! Priya and Lucy came into our lives, and Raoul and Nebula left us. We moved to a new region of the nation, had temp jobs, got real jobs… and that isn’t even counting tons of the small stuff!

Anyway, my 30 minutes is up. I lost some time rewriting the middle bits about the keyboard, otherwise this might be a bit longer. 742 words. Well more now.

What’s your New Years resolution? Mine is to learn to play the piano!

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1. What events shaped your life in 2006?
I think moving to Maryland was probably the biggest event in 2006

2. How about you proudest/biggest achievement of the year?
Getting a permanent job ranks high on the list

3. Did you keep any of your new year's resolutions?
I don't recall making any last year

4. What is your fondest memory of 2006?
picking Lucy up from the airport is one of them.

5. What are you looking forward to most in the new year?
Getting us on firm financial footing.