All moved!

I'm here! I made it! And the boxes are GONE!

I am safe and sound in my new apartment, literally three minutes from work. If I go walk Liberty, I can see the looming Children's Medical Center sign. If I go to the parking garage, I have the most beautiful view of downtown. From inside my apartment, I see the pool and the palm trees surrounding it. It's a very tranquil existance.

The movers (yep, I sprung for movers. I have very little I'll put out money for, but that is one of them!) came yesterday morning about 8:20AM and were done just after 11AM. My parents helped by cleaning the old apartment so I can get my pet deposit back! Michael and Jennifer came over around 1 to help get rid of boxes. I am actually very humbled to say that the boxes are gone! We got everything unpacked and the house actually appears mostly livable! That's not to say there isn't clutter, but it's MUCH better than I anticipated! I'm just one of those people that needs to get as much unpacked in the beginning or I'll put it off and it might stay that way for months! The cable guy came yesterday afternoon, ending my seven hours living in fear that I might get a donor call that needed a response. I'm having issues with the wireless, but as long as it works with a cord in place, I will do without wireless for the moment!

Okay, I should probably get moving. Liberty is adjusting to the new place, mostly by barking. She'll get over it.

Have a wonderful week and a relaxing Labor Day! I sure hope mine is!

The end of the packing nears....

Oh, I am so tired of packing. Tired Tired Tired. I'm getting so close to that end point, but I'm at a tough stage. There's stuff all over that needs to be packed, but by this time, there's not going to be a good place to put it. It's gonna all end up in one box in a big jumbled mess. If you look at my apartment, there's lots of boxes strewn about, but also clutter...which makes it seem like I haven't packed at all! ARG! All I know is that I want to stop packing, but I can't. I'm moving in 36 hours!

My parents are coming tomorrow to assist in the moving fun. They should get here in the evening, just in time to assist in the fun of taking down pictures and puttying nail holes. Yippee! It will be wonderful to have someone help with putting up curtains, hooking up the electronic, and giving me opinions on where things should go.

Oliver had to go to Becca's two days early because the poor little man got sick. Liberty was sick over the weekend and I believe Ollie got the sickness two days later. He's doing much better now, but I couldn't stand another day of cleaning the carpet after "accidents", even though the poor boy couldn't help it. Liberty is coping pretty well with the stress of the move, which she doesn't normally do. I took her to the new apartment today to sniff around and explore. She sniffed around and then sat in the corner and wagged her tail. Silly thing.

Okay, I should probably go throw all the clutter into one box and get it off my counter. One sweeping motion is all it should take!

What a week!

Last Saturday, I started having problems with my computer. It started running extremely slowly and was generally misbehaving. Sunday afternoon, it stopped running all together! Retarded piece of crap! I ended up taking it to "Geek Squad" (insert laughter here!) for them to run diagnostics and back up all my data so I would hopefully not lose the over 2000 pictures I have! I guess it was a good time for it to crash because I am thankfully not on call this week! Well, five days and a lot of money later, I have a new computer. Let's just say my hard drive was fried, and in crunching the numbers, it was a better deal to get a new one than to fix the over five year old one. Thank you SO much to my parents for the early birthday present! I am so grateful that they stepped up in my time of crisis.

I am moving NEXT WEEKEND! AAHHHH!!! I still have stuff to pack, but a whole weekend to get it done. I'm absolutely tired of living out of boxes and hopefully I'll be motivated to unpack once I'm moved. The dogs are starting to go slightly crazy as well.

Work has been nuts this week, but really, when is it not? My co-worker has almost driven me clear over the edge this week, and I think I might have strangled her today if she had not needed to "get out of here early" (of course, while there was a new kid who needed evaluating and another one who needed to be admitted). My goal each day starts out by saying to myself "I will not strangle her today" and so far, I've been successful! :)

As you can see by my ticker, I'm up to a ridiculous 86lb weight loss! That's NUTS! I feel good, except for the lingering jelly legs. I'm eating lots of veggies and trying to cram down as much protein as I possibly can. It's SO much better than the days where water made me vomit. I am very thankful.

Okay, I'm certain there's a box that needs packing. And I don't think I've eaten dinner yet. Hmmm, guess I should go do that!

How close was THAT?

Is Michael Phelps even HUMAN? Every time I see him, I am more amazed. He is such a beautiful swimmer. This last race was INSANE! I'm certainly glad that I'm not an official. Wowsers. He's phenomenal.

Oh, the Olympics!

Is it just me, or is EVERYONE sleep deprived during the Olympics? And why does all the good stuff come on after 10? Arg. Despite the sleep deprivation, I am still absolutely glued to my television. I know that Michael Phelps already has fifty bazillion medals, but I can't help but watch him win AGAIN! I guess it's just waiting for that medal ceremony....the best part! I think the dogs are getting tired of the very close races because I end up squeezing and squishing them whilst screaming in my apartment late at night. Hopefully, this gets my neighbors back for the late night (usually around 11:30pm) vacuuming.

Remember my jelly legs from 2 weeks ago? Well, even with upping my thiamin intake, they haven't gone away. I went back to the doctor today. I had more labs drawn to check my vitamin levels, a sono to rule out blood clots, and a lot of mashing about on the numb legs. Hopefully, the answer lies in the vitamin levels. We'll see next week.

On the packing front...not much is different. I've packed most of the kitchen, except for the food, plates, and utensils. I've left one pot and a roasting pan out for meals. For those who like to pack all at the last minute, this tedious packing chore must seem long and drawn out. Believe me, if I don't start early, I'll end up with 40 boxes of crap thrown in. Not pleasant.

Work is work. I'm alone this week (yes, AGAIN!) and so far, it hasn't been too bad. I don't think my clinic is too busy tomorrow, which is always nice. It's back to two doctors which allows clinic to move faster. I've got some great kids coming in tomorrow, which makes me happy! :)

It's so lovely outside! It's not hot and there's a lovely breeze! I'm sure that tomorrow it will be back to 230 degrees, but for now, the puppies and I are enjoying the lovely open patio door. Hope your weather is fabulous like ours is!

Klutz!

I'm such a retard! As if I didn't have enough issues going on right now, I added a new one! :) Today, I went to Petco to buy the puppies some treats. I was looking around for a air tight container to put the treats in (more on this later!). A random employee was helping me find them. We walked around the corner, and I proceeded to trip right over the edge of the display! I landed on my knees, then on my face! If you've ever been around me during one of my clumsy moments, I normally laugh right afterwards because I feel so stupid! I got up (not easily because of the continued numb legs!) and examined myself for injuries. I have a horridly scraped up wrist (still have no idea how that happened!), bruised knees, a pulled calf muscle, and I ripped holes in the knees of my scrubs! I'm such an idiot! I'm sure I'll feel more sore tomorrow, but today the only thing that's sore is my pride! Thankfully, I don't have much of that! :)

The whole reason for the trip to Petco started with bugs. I have these horrid black flying bugs in my apartment. For weeks, I've been trying many things to get rid of them. I killed off all my plants, cleaned withing an inch of my life, and had the apartment complex spray for bugs. The bugs persist. Yesterday, when I was putting the puppies in their crate for the day, I noticed that the treat jar was crawling. There were these stupid black fly things all in the treats, eating them and no doubt reproducing inside the jar! EW! I threw the whole thing out, and have high hopes that the bugs will slowly die off. They are driving me crazy! Oliver likes them...he chases them and eats them. So, between the constant bug spraying and Oliver eating them, perhaps they'll be gone soon.

The packing continues. I've got a lot of boxes done so far, but haven't even started the kitchen yet. I normally spend my weekend packing and watching Food Network. This will most likely happen again...except for the next three weeks, I'll be addicted to the OLYMPICS! Yes, I admit it. I'm an Olympic addict...or junkie...whichever terminology you prefer. I cry at every touching moment and you can bet I'll be weeping anytime the national anthem is played. I'm exceptionally patriotic...if you hadn'd figured that out by my dog's name!!!

Okay. Enough for tonight. I'm on call this weekend and am alone in the office all next week, so pray for quiet times. I'm never one to wish kids didn't get hearts, but I'd love it if they came in an organized fashion and not all at once!

Good night!

How many have you read?

The story is that apparently the National Endowment for the Arts estimates that the average adult has only read six of these books. Here are the markup guidelines:

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Mark in red the books you LOVE. - I’m skipping this step.
4) Reprint this list in your blog

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. The Complete Works of Shakespeare (I've read a LOT, but not all!)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis - This sure seems like a duplicate to me!
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert -
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie -
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

WOW! I've read a lot of things! Guess I shouldn't be too surprised....seeing as I have an ENGLISH degree! :) I think I counted 40...but there are so many wonderful books still on them! I still can't believe there's a Jane Austen Book I haven't read. Guess I'll be reading that one after I finish the giant PILE I have sitting in boxes. I do love to read, but I go through phases. If I am stressed at work, for some reason reading does NOT relax me! :)

Other than this really cool list of books, I have hit another milestone in my weight loss! I weighed in today and I've lost a total of EIGHTY pounds! WOWSERS! Still pretty amazing.

Oh, vegetable delight!

Starting about Tuesday night, all I have wanted to eat is vegetables! I started out with a Boston Market side trio...mostly because I didn't have time to get good produce. I don't consider Walmart good produce...most Walmarts anyways! I ate that for two dinners and two lunches! Wednesday night, I bought some green beans to steam. I made those yesterday and had them for dinner last night and lunch today. Today, I went to the produce wonderland! It's basically an indoor farmers market with a bunch of organic herbs, vitamins, and groceries thrown in. Their produce is always reasonably priced, so I got a lot! :) I got celery, new potatoes, fresh dill, jicama, spinach, black eyed peas, cremini mushrooms, eggplant, squash, and onions! YUMMY! I probably left something out, but you get the idea. I just had 1/4 a jicama with a little bit of salt and lemon pepper. Again, YUMMY! I have no idea what has inspired this phase of mine, but I hope it lasts. It's delicious! :)