I got a new desk a few weeks ago, and a new computer today.  The desk I knew about, but the computer was a surprise.  It's super fast and has a wireless modem.  Which, as far as I know, I have no use for.  Unless I want to post here when I bring my work computer to a coffee shop.  As has happened, oh let's see,  NEVER!

Y'all, I have been looking for my Swiffer duster for a month now.  I just found it.  Those of you who know me IRL can imagine the amount of joy this brought me.  Those of you who don't, the discovery was announced with a little dance, and then I showed it to Jasper and said, "I FOUND IT!
Jasper looked up at me, but was unmoved.  Silly cat!

Because few of you ever get to see my house decorated, and Typepad has pretty holiday photo albums, and I have a new camera, I present Watergirl's Holiday World. 

Today is my 29th birthday.  If you had asked me 10 years ago where I would be today, it is likely that the only thing I would have gotten right would be that I'd have cats.  That is not to say I am disappointed to find myself here; pleasantly surprised is a good description.

There are some things I want to accomplish, and somethings I need to do.  In reading other's blogs, I came across this entry from Jessica, and I liked the concept.  So I am taking that and running.   I am using the following criteria:  The goals must be specific.  Nothing that is really completely and totally out of my hands (e.g. "fall in love" or such things).  Some will be easy, some will be difficult, some potentially life altering, some not so much.  As I complete a task, I'll let you know, and bold said task.

Here, in no particular order, is the list:

1. Donate my old computer(s).
2. Lose the last 15 lbs.
3. Purchase new couch (OK, so I didn't actually purchase it.  But I paid for the van rental.)
4. Purchase new entertainment unit
5. Purchase new end tables
6. Figure out where to store a kayak
7. Buy kayak
8. Buy car with (maybe? leather seats and moon roof) and more cargo room than I have now
9. Start putting money into my savings account with every paycheck
10. Figure out how to print out my pictures in black and white so that I can hang arty pictures on my walls.
11. Clean out closet in computer room
12. Clean out hall closet
13. Visit Erica in Walnut Creek
14. Visit Caroline, Axel, and Corvin in Germany
15. Convince Phoebs to come and visit me (hey, I've been to see her twice since moving to NC.  She's been to see me 0 times.)
16. Learn to sew
17. Make curtains
18. Replace futon mattress
19. Move up to training level in dressage
20. Join the North Carolina Dressage and Combined Training Association
21. Canter
22. Buy a fabulous coat that I can wear through several winters
23. Install second shelf in laundry closet.
24. Make or buy screen to hide the litterboxes
25. Buy more earrings.  Fun ones.  And wear them.
26. Take the PE exam
27. Get a grill
28. Visit the NC mountains
29. Visit Asheville
30. Improve my German
31. Visit the Matisse/Picasso exhibit at the NC Museum of Art
32. Recover kitchen chairs.
33. Finish redecorating bedroom
34. Finish redecorating upstairs bathroom
35. Read Sense and Sensibility
36. Buy a set of flatware for at work (1 place setting only)
37. Also a mug or bowl
38. Learn to make mojitos
39. Get Brown Danskos
40. Take paddling course
41. Take SCUBA course
42. Get tall riding boots
43. And proper dressage clothes
44. Buy new fun socks
45. Visit the Outer Banks
46. Check out the NC Museum of History
47. Switch to Verizon Wireless
48. Clean out linen closets
49. Send out Christmas cards
50. Visit Merchants Millpond State Park
51. Go whitewater rafting
52. Get TRgirl's old bike fixed so I can ride it
53. Show CDub Washington DC
54. Visit the National Museum of the American Indian
55. And the International Spy Museum
56. Organize my tools
57. Learn to drive a stick
58. Tone up my arms so that they look like I have just gotten finished with 4 months of crutches, wheelchair, and going up and down the stairs on my butt
59. See A Clockwork Orange
60. Find a new doctor
61. Replace the boys' scratching post (box?  pad?)
62. Find a better storage solution for socks (the file box in the closet is no longer working.  Also, one of my cats thinks it is a cat bed.)
63. Read The Lord of the Rings again
64. Read The Silmarillion
65. Get more long sleeved work shirts
66. Find an awesome cocktail dress
67. And Fabulous shoes to match
68. Also, new black boots
69. And a really good pair of jeans
70. Get binder to store Day-timer pages in (rather than the current Amazon box)
71. Gym at least 3x per week for three months!
72. Try a yoga class
73. Follow up on my promise that the youth group kids can call me anytime by giving them contact numbers.  (I've stopped going to that church.  Long story.)
74. Figure out how I can become a QA manager
75. Reorganize my files at work
76. Get a new business suit.
77. Clean out the book collection
78. Find the VanCleef and Arpels hoop earrings that I bought in Cozumel (They were in my purse.  For 2 weeks!)
79. Buy a belt
80. Find where they moved my branch of the library
81. Take Orion in for a teeth cleaning
82. Get a second cat carrier (on loan indefinitely from Cool Boss)
83. Go to dentist
84. See a concert at the Alltell Pavillion
85. Go to the State Fair
86. Go to the zoo (new Australia exhibit!)
87. Balance my checkbook
88. See the NC Symphony at Regency Park (again!)
89. Finish my Christmas shopping
90. Visit the Crater in Petersburg
91. Go somewhere that requires a ride on a ferry
92. Visit Biltmore estate
93. Learn to make pizza from scratch
94. Cook a pot of black beans using dried beans as the starter
95. Visit the JC Raulston Arboretum
96. Assuming that the NHL is not shut down forever, see a Carolina Hurricanes game
97. Buy a spring/summer robe
98. Attend a wine tasting
99. Try a martini
100. Attend a Durham Bulls game
101. See a comic at Charlie Goodnights

So, there's the list.  The 1001 days starts today, and ends on September 6, 2007.  If you have any ideas on how I can do any of these things, let me know.

#78 complete.

I've been thinking about the list, and have decided that before I get the car (#8), I want to have my house done (i.e. complete #s 3, 4, 5, 16, 17, 18, 23, 32, 33, and 34 first).  I have picked out the couch I want.  (Actually, I also want the matching loveseat and chair.  Possibly also the end tables.)  Now, must start saving. 

I have completed #68, with a little help from my grandpa.

So, I lost my original Nalgene bottle (the one I bought in Hadley, MA) about 8 months ago.  REI had them on sale in June, so I bought a new one.  TRgirl and The BIL also gave the members of their wedding party Nalgene bottles,  so I had 2, which is a good number, except that I usually use my Camelback for day hiking.  Yesterday I went to the carwash (the good one, where they vacuum your car and everything), and they found the original under one of the seats.  Now I have three (!) Nalgenes. 

On a somewhat related note, I think the next time I go to the carwash, I shall try Bunkey's or the AutoBell.  I've been going to the Scruffy Duck, and the past 2 times it has looked like they had a St. Bernard cleaning the windows.  With his tongue.  I even had the kid rewash the windows yesterday, and I still have to rewash them today.  Ugh!

And now for a completely unrelated story.  Thursday I was driving to Cdub's from the barn (rode Bruno, no stirrups, and my legs were SORE!) (oh, Cdub needed me to help move a recliner into her house.  This recliner has been in her van since Thanksgiving.) and my phone rang.  It was Bud, who said, "What does Goose want for Christmas? "  I didn't remember exactly.  He hung up to call TRgirl.  He called me again, when I was 5 minutes from m house, because he wanted to know what I got him (him being Goose in this instance) and I told him I'd call him again when I got home so I could give him exact details.  When I got home and called him, HE DID NOT ANSWER THE DAMNED PHONE!  He called me again, because he didn't get the voicemail I left.  At about 9:30 that night, the phone rang.  "What does mom want?"  Dude, it's called making a list before you go shopping.  Look into it.

So, I don't think I've told y'all this yet.  Jasper is obsessed with the closet in my bedroom.  He wants the doors open at all times.  He has learned to open them himself (they are the kind that you can just pull open; the doorknobs are strictly for decoration) by sticking his paw underneath and pulling.  He will work at this doggedly (for lack of a better word) until the door is open.  Then he will go downstairs.  Because he doesn't want in the closet, just wants the door open.  I have other closets with doors like that, but he doesn't open them.  Just my closet. 

Also, the other morning he woke me up at 0215, all, "Hey lady, do you want to pet me now?"  No, I do not!

So Dad IM'd me when I got home from work this evening to tell me that Bud had gotten into an accident.  He is OK, but his truck, well, judge for yourself:

I later called Bud, and our conversation follows:

Bud:  Hello?
Watergirl:  How are you?
B:  I'm OK, but pissed off.  I liked that truck.
WG:  Well, you might could* get it fixed.
B:  Yea, I know.  How are you?
WG:  Pulled hamstring riding Bruno, but otherwise OK.  How's the woman you hit?
B:  She's OK.  She was upset because it was her mother's car.  She told me since it wasn't her car we had to get a police report, and I was all, well I clearly have over $500 in damages, so yeah, I need one.
WG:  But she wasn't hurt?
B:  No.
WG:  That's good. 
B:  Do you know what the worst part was?  I was supposed to go snowboarding tonight, and that was totally ruined.
WG:  [silence]... So, I am putting a picture on the website, but I won't show your license plate.
B:  You're going to put it on the website?  So you can make fun of me?
WG:  That's what the website is for. 
B:  To make fun of me?
WG:  Well, not just you.

*might could- A Southern expression that I originally vowed to never use.  Now I always do.   

OK y'all.  I haven't updated lately, but that is because I am at my parents' house, where it is a.) crazy and b.) my dad does not know about this here website, for reasons which are very clear to you  if you know my dad.  So, he is sleeping, and I am on the work laptop.

Anyway, I got here on the 23rd, after a long drive from Culpeper.  Lots of traffic.  Some understandable (NJ Turnpike) some not so much (the entire fucking state of Maryland).  Christmas Eve we went to my Aunt's for dinner- they moved about a year ago, and I'd not seen the new house.  It's a nice house.  Very large, and if I lived there Orion would spend the entire day jumping from the walkway overlooking the family room onto my head.  Also on Christmas Eve, my dad made me wrap all the presents he had bought for my mom, telling me he didn't have time.  When Goose learned this, he said, "But he's just walking around upstairs."  I made him sign the card, however.

Christmas morning I was first up (it was 0800 people!), and I walked into the kitchen to get coffee.  Mom had set the pot up the night before, but overlooked the part where you have to put the pot on to catch the coffee.  There was coffee all over the kitchen.  And, I kid you not, 2 paper towels.  So, I cleaned that up, remarking to mom (whom I had woken up to ask where there might be more paper towels) that there seemed to be less water then I would have expected.  Bud later discovered that the reason for this was that the coffee had run into the cabinet under the sink. 

Funniest story?  My parents gave me the Band of Brothers DVDs for Christmas, and Bud told me I could only watch it if I called it BoB.  I said, "No, I like to call it Hot Men in Little Shorts," to which he replied, "That's only the first episode."

But Linda says it so much better than I ever could. 

Christmas photo essay later today (I hope), but for now, I present the list of impulse buys I made at WalMart today:

1.  Paper Towels
2.  Cat Litter

and finally...

3.   A new mop!

See how spontaneous I am?