Word of the Day: Locofoco Since NaNoWriMo's over, I've been doing a lot of nothing, though I have been cleaning up the house more [since JD's rarely bothered to lift a finger]. Since I don't have a word quota to work towards anymore, my day feels really...not empty, but just free, I guess. I don't feel bad for laying on the couch with Patrick and watching Camp Lazlo and Jeopardy. Also, I've found that our new DVR is awesome. We recorded Tin Man from SciFi [which is ridiculously awful, though I reccomend watching it to everyone]. So there's this new company coming into Victoria stealing everyone from their jobs. It's called Star Tek, and it's a call center for, I believe, cell phone service providers. One of the girls at work, Terri, recently was hired on with them. I told her to tell me how things were there. They've been calling and emailing me for about a month now, but, as always, I'm reluctant to apply. Not because I'm not confident I'd get the job [if some of these other folks I know have been hired on, I could get a job no problem], but because my schedule is so whack with no babysitter. Of course, with what they pay, we might be able to afford daycare so that I could work during the day. I'm more than useless at night. At work, after around nine-thirty or ten in the evening, I basically shut off and I'm really not able to do much apart from the mechanical check in. And speaking of my present employment, it sucks real bad. Yep. I don't remember if I mentioned it or no, but we're now a Howard Johnson. However, we're not connected to their reservatin system, nor are we connected to their rewards program system. It's the same as it's been since we lost the Holday Inn franchise: slow and dumb. We just got keys and key jackets that actually come from Howard Johnson, and the receipts we print out still say Holiday Inn because no one from Howard Johnson has come to change our system. We lost our credit card system for the hotel part when we lost the Holiday Inn name, so we've been having to authorize and charge credit cards manually since August or September, and that system is rapidly dying. And, as always, our rooms are crappy, there's hardly any food in the kitchen, and no one does anything about anything. No wonder why people want to go to Star Tek, or anywhere for that matter. It's pretty depressing to work where I work. However, I have an awesome, if also awesomely annoying, son and a great, though forgetful, husband, so I can't ever get too down. Right at this very moment, Patrick is frying his socks in one of my pans and my colander behind me. He just made me tase them, as well. He says, 'My French fried socks are good for me.' He's really imaginative, but he's also very willful and disobedient, and it doesn't help that my patience is, for some reason, very short. I suppose I'm like my father more than I like to admit, and I try to remember that when I lose patience with Patrick. So, instead of yelling at him or spanking him like I really want to, I take a huge, huge breath and talk to him [and then spank him if he deserves it, like when he pees his pants for no reason, hits a kid with a stick at the park, or when he smears his daddy's hair paste all over the cabinets in the bathroom with my emery board]. It's hard for me, but I really don't want to be like my father. Since JD's car died in July, he's been wanting another car, of course. I thought we'd get a used car, like our Elenor now, something this century with air conditioning [my standards are pretty low as far as vehicles are concerned]. However, he's quite confident that we're going to be able to afford a new, brand new vehicle, and he has an eye on the 2008 Nissan Versa. I'm not opposed to the idea just so long as we have a good down payment, which we should since JD's *gasp* saving for it. He's completely serious about this, and I'm really proud of him for buckling down and saving money for it. Just so long as he lets me drive it every once in a while, I'm fine with it. Now Patrick's making sockloaf. Pictures!!!! I made food for Thanksgiving, a first for me. I was extremely pleased with it, and we had just enough for us and for a day of leftovers the next day. My devilled eggs. Green beans wrapped in bacon. My grandmother used to make these, and, though they didn't take just like her's, I think she would have been proud of me for making them. The entire spread, minus the stuffing cooling on the stove. The rolls are from the Texas Roadhouse, premade and frozen, so all I had to do was warm them up in the oven. They were really good, though, and I told JD to order more for Christmas if there are kids selling them [it was for a fundraiser or something]. In the afternoon, after we ate. They slept like that for at least an hour and a half. So so cute. Speaking of Patrick... One day, him and JD made me a castle out of blocks. And another day, he took all the single blocks and lined them up. He was really proud of that. He was sick a few weeks ago with pink eye, and I could really tell. He was just blah, laying around, barely eating, not playing at all. We were laying on the couch watching something boring enough on TV that I felt like I wanted to fall asleep, when-- He never falls asleep when he's chilling with me. He always fiddles or moves around, but he just konked out for a long time. Earlier that day-- He helped me make his lunch, soup. He always wants to help, even when he's all sick, so I had him stand on the chair and stir the soup while it warmed up. He was so happy to be helping. So, after Thanksgiving, we put up out tiny little tree in a corner. Now, though, there are actually presents, and they're not all for Patrick! Most of them are, though. The tall one on the right side is a four pound jar of peanut butter from my mother. He looooooves peanut butter, so he'll definitely love it. She also got him Chutes and Ladders and Candyland and told me to put them out from Santa. From today: Funny faces. Oh yeah. I got my hair cut a couple of weeks ago. I'm sending a twelve inch ponytail to Locks of Love as soon as I remember to take it to the post office to get it stamped. See? Apparently, I've lost the touch of taking self-portraits because none of them came out with me in the middle or showing my hair well. Ah, well, whatever. I'm going to go knit. I'm knitting a scarf for JD against his will. I'll probably end up commendeering it from him, but it's intended for him.