little bits of happy

Just a quick post with some things that are making me smile lately.... This is my favorite perfume, well, at least for the past year. Its DKNY Be Delicious. The regular bottle comes in the shape of an apple. I was in Ulta last night looking for the body lotion, but found this little rollerball beauty instead. I loved the idea of being able to carry it with me in my purse without having to carry around the bottle itself, even if I had to pay $38 for the convenience. This is my monitor at the office....and no, your eyes are not deceiving you. That is my ipod sitting at the base of the monitor. This lovely from View Sonic lets me charge and play my ipod through its built-in speakers. It took some playing around to figure out that it was playing through the monitor itself, and to find the volume controls, but I think all the glitches are worked out. It is such a great thing to come from an office where I couldn't listen to music at all (even with headphones) to a place where this bad boy was waiting for me on day one. This was another find at Ulta last night, though this one was a much better bargain than the DKNY. For $1.99, I got this lotion, which has a good, but not too strong scent and a little bit of shimmer. I don't know why, but I've been on a peppermint kick lately. Must be the Peppermint Ice Cream I stocked up on earlier in the month.

Last but not least, I indulged myself with a couple small Vera Bradley pieces in one of the new prints. I definitely think there is more of this print in my future. Its so hard to believe that just a few years ago, I thought VB bags were ugly. Yeah, now tell that to my wallet! Have a happy rest of the week!!

half-assed and house stuff

Like the lackluster new banner? I can honestly say I put forth not much effort in making it last night, but I felt like I needed to take the Long Island postcard down since I have not lived there in 23 days (but who is counting). I'll do a better one at some point, more specifically NJ-based, but until then, you're forced to look at an icy tree on Old Country Road. Not quite the motherland as stated. Can anyone with any html savvy help me figure out how to fix it so it is centered properly?

The settling in is going slowly but surely. More slowly than surely, just because I don't get home from work at night until at least 6:30/7:00 and don't always feel like dealing with unpacking, organizing or moving furniture. Though I have to say, last night was pretty productive...we moved furniture, steamed Brian's mother's area rug and moved more furniture. So all we need is seating for more than two people and our living room might actually look welcoming. Hopefully the furniture will happen once I get the check I've been waiting on.

It seems like I've been walking around with an open wallet lately, between trips to Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Target and Linens n Things. One would think that living on our own for almost 11 years would mean that we would have accumulated everything we need for house living. Eh, not so much. The new digs are lacking in overhead light fixtures, so we needed more lamps than we owned to stay illuminated. Took care of that at LNT. We have all hardwood floors at the house, so I have been buying throw rugs, felt pads and caster cups to put under the furniture to protect the floors. If I could put some caster cups under the beagle, I would. We're going to have to get her on a more regular mani/pedi schedule, because we have a tendency to slide in that department. I don't know where all my curtain rods went, but it took going to three different stores to be able to get the spring rods I needed to hang curtains downstairs and in my dressing room (I'll have to explain that later), and I think I am still short two more rods. Plus I got some additional panels to put in the dining room windows, just because those windows are at ground level and I get a little freaked out about having so much window exposed by using just the valances and swags that I have up now. I can spook myself very easily....combining an overactive imagination with watching too many scary movies causes nothing but trouble, I promise you.

I'm lacking in the visitors department. Only Megan has been to my house since the last post, though I stayed true to my word and randomly popped in at Jen and Mike's house a week or so ago. Jen and I hung out and chatted for hours....I didn't leave there until after midnight, and it was so nice to know that I only had a 15 minute drive home. Once I'm a little more organized, I think we will get more company. I think the reason I am making such a big deal about it is because I didn't have that many friends in NY, and there weren't many of my NJ friends and family who would make the trip to visit me out there. So I feel like now that I am home, I should be seeing everyone. I have to remember that its only been 23 days. I should be more concerned with getting my house in order, but I have always been more of a social creature and an organized and tidy one, as almost anyone in my life can attest!

okay, so we are here

...amidst a sea of boxes, plastic storage totes and randomly placed furniture. But we are back in New Jersey, and slowly settling in at the house.

Some random bits:

I am on day 4 of the new job. Have you ever been so happy in a situation that you don't notice its negatives? That's me. I know that I am still in the honeymoon stage, but its already leaps and bounds beyond any job I've had prior. So much so that I don't even bat an eye at the 2 hours a day I spend commuting. I'm working flex hours (right now 930 to 530), so I think it helps that most of the traffic is already past me when I get on the road.

For any of you who have my cell number, I get no signal here at the office. Wait, I should correct that. I get enough of a signal for the phone to ring and me to be able to say hello a couple of times before the call is gone. So if you need to reach me during the day, your best bet is to email me. Or else let me know that you need my office number. There may be a new cell phone in my future, but I don't have an ETA on that, so for now, emailing or calling the office is the way to go. Oh, and if I haven't given you the new home number, email me and remind me. I can't remember who has it and who doesn't at this point.

I effed up my internet connection at home last night. I have not been able to get the router to work since getting our cable modem last week. In order to get online, we had to plug the laptop into the modem. The network at home will be a little different now, because I am not setting up our desktop computer at all. We each have a laptop now, both with wireless access, so we don't need the desktop. Not to mention it is by far the slowest computer of the three. I couldn't find the instructions that came with the router, so I went online to see what I could find. I came across these brand-neutral instructions for setting up the router and went about trying to do it last night. Obviously, it did not work, as now we can't even get online when physically plugged into the modem. I get very cranky when I don't know how to fix a computer problem, moreso when I am the one who exacerbated the problem. I hope to be able to fix it tonight....otherwise, I'll be calling my dad's friend, who has become our own personal Geek Squad.

I still haven't gotten the sleep thing regulated since moving. I was keeping some very strange hours during those last couple of weeks in New York...but when I slept, I was getting solid, uninterrupted sleep. Now, not so much. I fall asleep, and then wake up with about two to three hours, absolutely wide awake. Or else I wake up every couple of hours because I'm tossing and turning. I don't know what it is. We did set up the bed a little differently, but my Sleep Number is the same, so I don't think that is the prob. All I know is that I came to work on Monday needing some toothpicks to hold my eyes open...the four hours of sleep were just not cutting it.

I know I have only been back in-state for one week, but I expected to see more of my friends by now. The only one I have seen is Lisa...and almost Gina, except her migraine got the best of her on Friday night. Granted, I have not gone anywhere to see anyone. And since we ditched two of the main pieces of our living room furniture before we left New York, I'm not in too much of a position to play hostess, unless we all sit around the dining room table, which is not the most comfortable thing. I live down the street from Michelle now, and didn't get to see her before she left for a week-long vacation. I think I'm just going to have to randomly start showing up at people's houses. Probably not. But I think once I get back into my groove, between reinstating the shopping buddy system and getting back to scrapbooking, I will see plenty of everyone!