What Is That I See Outside My Window?

It's RAIN! Woo Hoo! Yes, it does rain in Arizona. Sometimes, it goes so long between rain's that people completely forget how to drive in it or even forget what it looks like. It has rained all day long and I would guess we got quite a few inches. I'm really hoping we have a wet winter. The high country up north can sure use the snow to minimize the wildfire danger in the summer.
Tonight is Survivor night. I may go into work tonight for a few hours of OT. I found an older Gwyneth Paltrow movie on TV that TIVO is recording. It's called A PERFECT MURDER and co-stars Michael Douglas. I haven't seen it in a very long time so I look forward to watching it sometime this weekend. God, I love my TIVO. :o)
I'm off until Sunday and Sunday is Halloween. No candy for the kiddies since I have to work and Rob isn't in to that stuff. My squad is dressing up and we are having a potluck party with the overlapping squad. We are all going as witches. I found some purple and black striped stockings to wear which will match my hat wonderfully and I found witch hair to wear. It's black and gray streaked. The only thing left is maybe some dark purple lipstick or black lipstick. I'm going to wear my black pleated skirt and a purple top and my black chunky tread shoes. Kind of a funky witch. I have to make fruit salad Sunday before I go in and take with me. Hope nobody chickens out and I'm the only one dressed up. That would suck.

Pretty sure I mentioned this already...

I am the Queen of Proscrastination and not only with blogging, it seems. I have been neglecting my reading to play with my SIMS. In case you have been living in a cave for the past, say 5 years, then you won't know what SIMS is. It's a computer game where you create simulated people and either give them assistance in having healthy, happy and productive lives or screw them over royally and watch them get fired, go broke, starve and even die. I haven't played with my SIM family Robinson in a while because my computer has been acting wonky, but over the past week, the addiction has resurfaced! I found cheat codes last year to max out the money (called Simoleans in the SIM world) so the Robinson's (Stephen and Vicky) have the best money can buy, beginning with an 11,000 square foot house (but only 1 bedroom). Then they went and had a son, whom I named David (no, he isn't a basketball player...ha ha) so I had to call in Rob the architect to add on a second bedroom for David once he left infancy and became a child. For the past week, I've been debating whether or not I want Stephen and Vicky to be parents, so I've been deliberately keeping David home from school and letting his grades drop in the hopes that he will get shipped off to military school and never be seen or heard from again. Well, I must be getting sentimental in my old age, because David did get shipped off and it was very bizarre watching him "leave" the game. Remorse set in and I exited the game without saving, thereby putting him back in. Why did I do this? When the Knosby family (my first SIM family) had their first child, I screwed up when naming her and she ended up drowning in a horrific swimming pool tragedy (with my help of course) and I felt zero remorse....if I really wanted to be sadistic, I could leave the game running and see how long it takes the Robinson family to all get fired, kicked out of school and set the house on fire...but I don't trust the computer to remain running non-stop.
I did manage to read a good book recently. It's called Shopaholic & Sister by Sophie Kinsella. This is actually the fourth book in the Shopaholic series. The other titles are Confessions Of A Shopaholic, Shopaholic Takes Manhattan and Shopaholic Ties The Knot. I highly recommend the entire series. It's a definite escape to read about someone else who cannot control their spending and the trouble she gets into and the creative and inventive ways she finds to extricate herself. The newest installment features our Shopaholic, Becky, just back from her honeymoon only to discover she has a half-sister she never knew about and what's worse, the new half-sister hates shopping.
Last night, we watched The Day After Tomorrow starring Dennis Quaid. A little frightening but filled with "the big message" about what global warming is going to do to our planet. Great special effects. We also watched Welcome To Mooseport starring Gene Hackman and Ray Romano. Gene Hackman plays the ex-President of the US and the newest resident of Mooseport, Maine, where he decides to run for Mayor. The movie was filmed around the Port Perry, Ontario area and I just have to visit. It was beautiful! I can see myself retiring there! If being a resident of Canada means I have to learn the game of hockey, I am there!

Working the Powerball

Here it is on a Sunday morning nearly 2 AM. I can't sleep and tomorrow I have to work at 4:30 PM. Would rather not go to work. Would rather call into work and tell them, "I'm not coming in ever again. I have to pick up my Powerball winnings." The $200 million plus jackpot was won by some lucky schlub in Delaware, so I will be going to work . Don't get me wrong. I love my job. I feel like it's rewarding for the most part. The pay and benefits package is the best I've ever had the opportunity to receive from any other job. I would just rather not work. Not work without creating a financial hardship or drastically have to alter my lifestyle in order to stay home. Some people ask me why I want to stay home. I have no children, so why stay home? I would just be bored. Unlike a lot of women I know, I've never wanted a career. I've always felt like my "career" was taking care of Rob (which, if some of you knew him, would agree that in itself is a full-time job --- ha ha ha). Not long after we got married, I was "educated" that if we ever wanted anything of substance or value (i.e. a house), we would both have to work. Why? Why does owning a house mean you both have to sacrifice your time together and both work? Especially when most mortgage payments are CHEAPER than an apartment? I just don't get it. I want to stay home. I want to take care of Rob, take care of our home, be a better wife. I want to spend my time taking better care of our home (I hate cleaning and it's probably due in a large part to the feeling of never having the time nor the energy) and I want to be a better cook (I also hate cooking probably for the same reasons I hate cleaning). But, I can't. Now I have to work to help pay the bills. So, I go to work (against my will) and dream of what it would be like to not HAVE to work. What it would be like to be the next "lucky schlub" to win the Powerball.

Happy October!

I cannot believe it's October already! Mount St. Helens erupted today. Nothing like the massive eruption back in 1980, but then she may yet blow her top again. Something I did not know was that the last time she erupted was back in 1986. Thank God, no deaths with this eruption. It amazes me continuously how close people choose to live near nature's disasters. Washington state is gorgeous but I am too much of a chicken to live there. Florida either with their horrible hurricane season this year. Wouldn't live in California even if you paid me with all of the earthquakes either. I guess that people get used to it and take it in stride and don't let it affect them. I don't know if I would get used to it.
Had a training class at work today to go over the new version of FrontPage for creating webpages. Not sure I needed to be there since they weren't covering things I am responsible for....
I finished Book #11 of the Left Behind series. This one is titled Armageddon. One more book to go in the series. I've really enjoyed the entire series and I think most anyone would, regardless of their religious beliefs and backgrounds. A lot of the major characters died in this installment, but the series promises a happy ending and all of the believers in Christ will be reunited in the last book. The library only has ONE copy of the unabridged audio (what's up with that, anyway?) and I'm number 29 in line! Sheesh! I'm afraid that by the time I get it, it will be warped....or worn out somehow. On the way home from class, I stopped at the library to drop off Armageddon and have started another audiobook titled All-American Girl by Meg Cabot. It's classified as a young-adult book. So far, it's good.
A lady I work with told me about the most amazing thing for cleaning. It's called Magic Eraser and it's made by Mr. Clean. She told me to try it for the really hard ground in dirty areas after I told her how much I hate to clean the bathroom because I can't find anything that seems to work. It looks like a sponge. You wet it and wipe, as if you were "erasing" and voila, it works! I tried it on the floor of the shower stall in the master bath. Usually, Rob has to use bleach and an SOS pad to get the thing clean. This magic eraser did it with no heavy scrubbing and in less than 5 minutes, it looked 1000% better. I don't know what it's made of, and all you have to do is wet the thing and it cleans fabulously.
More later....