all that talk about going to the harry potter movie and i never even blogged about it. it was very good. they edited alot of information...but what choice had they? they cut the quidditch and extended the dragon scene which i didn't understand. they cut the veela and the house elves and ludo bagman and the prize gold (how will fred and george fund their joke shop with no prize gold?). no one else here has seen it, but i've been chatting with a few of the customers about it. and we're in agreement that it was a really great adaptation from a huge ass book. we're also in agreement that the 7th movie will have to go one for 12 hours as there will be so many loose ends to wrap up. but i'm sure no one will mind. we brought chocolates from ben and bill's and a bunch of tissues and sat in the very last row. and he didn't complain once.
we're tentatively making plans for my birthday, except we have no idea what to do. we can't sit home watching six feet under like we do every other night. we just can't. no matter how much we like it. so i'm up for suggestions. i'd like to go see pride and prejudice if it's playing anywhere nearby. otherwise probably we'll just go out to dinner. but really i have a whole day, as it's on a saturday. that's a lot of merrymaking.

i'd been meaning to write about the check engine light in the maxima. i've certainly been thinking about it enough to merit a thorough blog but it's been unnerving. the light it seems goes on to alert the driver of a breach of the emissions system. it lit up because i didn't close the gas cap tight enough, ten minutes before the light went on. hmmmm. matt believed all we had to do was disconnect the battery...but that didn't work. and then we were going to take it to the dealer...eventually...and have them reset it (and also pray that that was really the problem and not something expensive and important). but then yesterday the light just went out. so either the car realised that the emissions situation is again under control (can cars realise things...dave?) or the car is marching slowly to a quiet death. we'll see.
it's been weird driving my mom's car for a lot of reasons. one is that it's just so hers. i feel like a teenager borrowing the car. perpetually. the other is more practical because it's huge and automatic and i'm having trouble getting used to it. i think i am a manual lover. you really have more control with manual and i've gotten used to it.

yesterday i went jewelry shopping. you see, i had this coupon (which expires tomorrow). and well, i was supposed to buy this thing for my sister...but i already bought her christmas present and i thought i'd look around for the one or two folks i still have to shop for. at the jewelry store. so uhh, while i was looking around i sort of bought myself a ring. with like these diamonds on it. oh, and also i got my hair cut.
so about this ring. i hatched a plan. since holly was one of the folks i was still shopping for and she just had a fit about buying herself a clearance coach bag i decided before i had a fit of my own that we'd make a deal. the recorded history will show that i bought her a coach bag for christmas and she bought me a diamond ring. we'll be married in the spring. (cough)
so now all i need to buy is an electric hamster. for reid. or a new hermit crab. but not a real hamster. unless i want to go there everyweek and clean it. which i don't.
matt was wavering on the no gift policy, because kevin told him i would kill him if he really didn't get me something. but really, i won't. i liked the going out to dinner plan. i have big plans for ordering dessert and everything.* we can enjoy something guilt-free and be totally relaxed while everyone else is flipping out in the parking lot of reny's.
i've been getting slowly more excited about christmas. mostly because i'm giving my tree away and i have no plans to decorate at all. i will bake instead. i think i'll make gingerbread cookies. i found a recipe for soft ones, like gingersnaps but with molasses.
i finally cooked and mashed the pumpkins, but i didn't bake a pie because cooking and mashing pumpkin in a blender is a lot of damn work. i will never ever do it again. ever. the cans are cheaper, cleaner and it takes so much less time i can't think of an appropriate fraction to really capture the drama. i heart cans. but, i did the martha thing and i have 7 cups of mashed frozen pumpkin in my freezer. hopefully it won't die there.

*sara orders two desserts, one for there and one to take home. she's my hero.

tonight is harry potter night, and i am so excited. if they're sold out i might do something desperate. it's a sign of how evil this cold was that i haven't even been excited about harry potter until now. evil evil cold. we've been twiddling our thumbs all day. everyone is in bangor beating eachother over the last whatever it is this season. as long as they're all too tired to go see harry potter at 6 i'm all set. i might be inconsolable if they're sold out.

i've been balancing my checkbook lately and i must say that it's a depressing exercise. silly reality. you'd think as a bank teller i'd be all over the balancing thing, but no. really i just sort of hope i have enough money. but no more. i'm preparing for a new year of budgeting, and keeping records, and the getting together of the shit.
matt's been reminding me daily that the birthday is coming. or maybe he's reminding himself. it's hard to say. he was watching me intently while we were shopping, especially in the jewelry store, which could work for me. we finished all our shopping, got wrapping paper, ribbon, boxes. i should've got tape but probably i've got enough. we don't have all that much to wrap. i picked a light blue with silver and white fake japanese like flowers. very cute. not very christmassy but very winter. i'm sort of getting into the holiday spirit, albeit a little early. at the moment i'm eating my 8 dollar boy scout popcorn, which is really really good, and it's starting to snow. happy thanksgiving!

holy shit! thanksgiving. it's this week. and my pumpkins...are still pumpkins when they should be pies. pies and soup. and yet they persist in being gourds. bastards. i've been lazy about getting ready for thanksgiving. increasingly i just don't want to go. but if we don't go to my house, we have to go to matt's house, although we have an invitation to sara's house, but families trump. probably i'm just grumpy because i'm still sick and matt is still really sick, and also i have no chocolate.
the babysitting went very well, because my sister's children are perfect. shining stars of reproduction. grace beamed at me and giggled while i changed her diaper even though she had a cold and reid went right to sleep after one book and a germy hug and reminding me to tell mama that he loves her. awww. so cute.
we didn't get to see harry potter because we both really wanted to go to sleep. and then i had to drive alot. and sunday we had to cook the chickens and go to sleep. and i'm still tired. i can't get untired. i'm perpetually ready for a nap. and tonight we're going shopping. we're going to do all of our christmas shopping tonight and then lay low until january. i'm looking forward to wrapping more than shopping. i like wrapping. i have to pick a color theme and some new wrapping papers. i can't wait to torture matt at target. "but do you think that's the right hue? does it bring out the colors of the paper or overshadow them?" and then we have to choose baby clothes for my sister. he's such a good sport.

i was out sick yesterday. i decided to take a more pro-active approach to this illness. i bought extra tissues and two kinds of cold medicince, and disinfectact. i've been spraying everything in sight. i'm not normally a germ killer spraying person, but i'm tired of being sick. TIRED of it. i certainly feel better and obviously i'm at work. we're training today, so we're on best behavior.
i've been spraying all around me here aswell. germs beware.
we're off to harry potter tonight, if i haven't made matt too sick to go. i'm very excited about it, deep under the medicated bliss.
we've finally got the title back for the geo, which means we can sell it and it'll all be over. the hitch is that she wants us to make the bill of sale for more than it should be...for the loan. how illegal is that?

last week i took a sick day (was it even last week, i can't remember). i thought i felt bad enough to stay home and veg and mope and clean my whole house. and then there is now. now i am very very sick. i am at work because mary isn't here and i don't want to cause trouble. what i want to do is get a big shop vac hold it to my nostrils until my head is clear. matt thought that was a bad idea until he got sick too and now he says he'll take me to home depot. bless him.
i'd rather go to the grocery and re-stock the juice supplies. i'm thinking like a cart full of orange and maybe cranberry. for diversity. we're supposed to barbecue tonight, but i think we'll probably just drink six cartons of juice and groan till bedtime. when i suggested this matt said "don't make me laugh, i can't laugh cough and sneeze at the same time". i guess i'm the better multi-tasker.

i think this year only the banks and the post offices were closed for v day. matt was supposed to work but when i casually asked him if he had the day off he insisted on taking a vacation day. 'course we did spend the day going from tool shop to tool shop, but he asks so little of me how could i refuse. we did have to drive on 495 in rush hour and i really thought i was going to have to pull over and beat him senseless with one of the tools he bought, having no valium on hand. the traffic, it seems, makes him nervous. he swore it wasn't my driving, especially as he didn't want to drive himself. it was too much stimulus i guess, all the speeding cars.
we had dinner with my pregnant sister and watched shaun of the dead (very funny).
the museum is indeed in salem, and i am a moron. i can't believe i'd never been there. we didn't go see the house, because we're cheap, but also because there was so much to see. we saw the penguin. and alot of figureheads. and some nice indian people teaching a dance class. we only stayed a few hours, because we're old and crotchety and also hungry. then we drove around danvers and he pointed out every house his family ever lived in.
my brother got a promotion, he's now shipping manager at building 19. snazzy. we ate alot and we drove alot, and i am very tired.
driving the maxima, while very luxurious, is very boring. or it was until the check engine light came on. probably it's nothing, it's just a blinking reminder of the mortality of all beings. cars included. sigh.

it was supposed to snow today, but instead it's warm and a little rainy. that's fine with me. matt and i decided not to worry too much about what my sister may or may not get for the car, atleast until i sell it. while we estimate the value at such and such, it's only worth what someone will actually pay for it. which may very well be what i paid for it. time will tell. meanwhile i'll stop whining about it here.
matt and i are heading to my house for the long weekend. we're going tool shopping. some of us are more excited about that than others. there's talk of going to the peabody essex museum and maybe some of the attractions in salem as matt has never been. although he has been to the willows so he's not been completely deprived.

my father bought himself one of these, in vanilla. he says it's like sitting in your living room. but with a retractable top. as this would be the sixth car to reside in his driveway, he called to be sure that i'm going to take the maxima away. (actually he said he's going to sell it to me, which makes me a little nervous...surely he means sign the title to me without any exchange of funds...that's what give means right?) so this weekend i'll have two cars. which is good because i'll be living out of them. ha.
i told my father my plan to buff the honda and fix the big ass holes in the paint and possibly the scratch in the bumper (where apparently my father hit it with the snowblower...). i didn't tell him my plan to sell it for more than twice what i paid for it. he thinks i'm going to give the money from the sale to my sister. i was planning on giving her the previously agreed upon price.
i could sell it at what i want to sell it for, and then give all the money to christine, who would have done none of the required work except cash the check. i could leave the paint crappy and do nothing more than list it in uncle henry's for free and sell it for what i paid for it. or i could do all the work, sell it for what it's really worth and lie through my teeth. i don't really like any of those options.

if my sister's baby is born this month her birth flower will be chrysanthemum, next month holly or narcissus. since my birthday is next month too, i'm choosing narcissus for us both. being december baby myself, i've learned to hate everything that associates a birthday with christmas. narcissus seems much less christmassy, until someone tells me it's some kind of holy flower.
it's fifty here today, which is incredibly warm for november. mary's boss was here bright and early to tell us he'd like to hear any opposing offers we might get for our skills. i oughtn't to go into more detail until all the craziness settles down but there's somekind of nasty power struggle between the banks on the island and he doesn't want to lose us to another bank. the fact that just last thursday we were discussing what kind of offer we could get from the other bank, is just a little too ironic.

there is a baby bear hiding in a tree in front of the town office.

poor thing.

dispatches from the front lines. trick or treating was very fulfilling for reid and grace. grace's entire hello kitty pale was full, and reid apparently had three huge piles. one of those piles was the "no thankyou" pile. mostly made up of candy he's never seen before. atleast he's polite about it. on tuesday morning as he was getting on the school bus he told my sister "mama, i'll be thinking about you all day...and candy." he couldn't be any cuter.

remember the dumbo costume i mentioned grace was wearing for halloween. go look at leta. dressed in the same costume, but picture a fatter baby, and that's my elephant niece. too adorable.
there was no blog yesterday because i was home sick. the time change is really getting me fucked up, i felt very icky yesterday. however, even feeling icky, i can't sit around my house doing nothing so i cleaned out my closets. one garbage bag of clothes for charity. and to fill in the gap (no pun intended, just wait, you'll see) in my closet i got a package from the gap today. i should have gotten it monday. one might even say a month ago. you know why it was late, it was on the floor of the post office instead of the shelf. the poor man can't be expected to look at all of the packages. what kind of insanity would that be? sigh...
the weather is disturbingly beautiful lately. sunny and warm. i had my laundry out on the fence yesterday and it dried faster than the stuff i put through the dryer. for free! if only i had more fence. what a coup that would be.
because i am a pawn of the retail masses, i've agreed to work the pajama day sale at the bookstore. i should practice saying no. i really should. i also agreed to go to a retirement dinner for the owner of the bookstore. she caught me off guard with that one and then i couldn't think of an excuse fast enough. free dinner with people i mostly like. it'll make for a more interesting evening than comparing the relative drying times of my laundry.
did i mention that the sun now sets at 4:30. i always forget this part about living downeast. it's pitch black by 5:30. bangor hydro is going to have a very good quarter, because i can't stand the darkness. i turn on every light in every room when i get home. seasonal affective disorder be damned. lights everywhere, full speed ahead. if i could get more wattage in the oven i'd leave that open too.
i cleaned the oven yesterday, which of course involves only pushing the button marked clean, but i still felt good about it. i made fudge concurrently, from a kit sold by eagle, the condensed milk people. it was suprisingly good and very easy. it comes with everything you need except the butter. even it's own little can of condensed milk (which is way more gelatinous than i remember) which was very cute.
matt is going to look at a truck today. an '89. for matt, that's like buying brand new. it also represents only like the second vehicle he's actually purchased. everything he drives is something that was given to him in varying states of function. this is really a big step for him.