Frank just got an email from Alan Colmes, and we are cracking UP here at the House of J. I’m sure my hubby’s going to post about it, so make sure you follow up over at IMAO. I’ll say one thing for him — he’s got a sense of humor. I guess you have to have that to be such a flaming liberal.

The fatality I mentioned last night was 9 months pregnant and wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. On very icy roads. No seatbelt. The baby was delivered by C-section at the hospital, but there’s no news on the baby’s condition.

St. Alphonsus Hospital? That’s a good 25-30 minutes from where she was killed, and that’s without ice on the roads. That doesn’t sound good for the baby.

Well, day two of the new job was even better than day one. I learned some more stuff, which was cool, but the cooler part was that about five minutes before I got to work, it started snowing on me. And it snowed all day long. Did I mention I have a window? Sure, the window looks out onto another building, but hey. It’s a window, and I got to watch the snow when I was at my desk today.

The drive home wasn’t so awesome, because we got a good four inches or so today. I just took it slow, and everything turned out fine. Even less awesome for Frank. He went over to shovel his parents’ sidewalks, etc., and when he was on the way home, an idiot in a truck pulled out right in front of him from a side street, and Frank was going crawl speed, so the fact that the guy pulled out so closely that Frank had to choose to either slam into him or go into a ditch says a little about this idiot’s driving. So Frank went into the ditch, and then the car wouldn’t come out of the ditch, and traffic on the road next to him was suddenly piled up… it turns out that there was an accident up ahead. While Frank was deciding what to do about his car, the police showed up and cordoned off the street all around Frank. The accident apparently involved a fatality. So sad, and we both felt awful about it… yet I was thankful it wasn’t my husband in the accident. A little selfish, I know, but that’s the truth. After the accident was cleared up, Frank was helped out of the ditch by the police, and then he took a very long way around to get home, as the road was still closed.

Even worse for my cousin today (and for the man she hit). She was in the hospital when I talked to my mom this evening, and the other person in the accident was CareFlighted out and is probably not going to survive. She knew him, too. Awful.

And now, peeps, I am hitting the books and the bed. I’m exhausted just knowing that tomorrow’s drive will likely be horrendous, and knowing what other people went through today.

I’m reading three different books right now, btw. The Reagan Diaries, on which I have to really pace and restrict myself, because when you pick that sucker up, it’s really hard to put it down. Absolutely fascinating. Also Inkheart, which my MIL loaned me. I haven’t gotten far into that one yet, just because I’m reading three books. The final one being Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, of course.

Nighty night. Be safe.

If I had to guess, I’d say that Volume II of The Chronicles of Dubya will not see the light of day. I would love to edit and compile it (especially since there would be no learning curve on how to publish a book this time), but Frank doesn’t think it’s worth it. I know he’s basing his theory on the fact that it took me half a year to get the first one done, and while we did make a little bit of profit from Volume I, it wasn’t enough to justify the time I spent on it. Of course, the second time through the book publishing monster, I would already have my footing and know what I’m doing, so this time around it would be a lot better. But it isn’t worth keeping up our license to be book publishers in Florida due to the ridiculous yearly fees there – ridiculous considering we were a tiny operation, and the license fee per year is about 10% of what we made on the first book.

Maybe someday we’ll get back into it. I loved doing it when I didn’t have a migraine (okay, those days were rare back then) and when I wasn’t losing a ton of changes because Word decided to corrupt my file all on its own.

Jury is still out. Sil and I ate at Louie’s (Italian) last week, and the food was really good. I’m not sure what salad dressing I had on my salad, but it was some kind of vinaigrette, and it was yummy and didn’t *seem* to be glutinous. Then I had Capellini Vesuvio (capellini replaced with rice fettuccine); that, too, was yummy. But you know? My intestinal… issues have been here ever since, I think. No other problems, no migraines, maybe a seizure or two.

Then yesterday when the whole department was leaving for lunch, the Big Boss asked if we all liked Italian. I nodded while thinking, “Maybe I can eat a salad, if they’ll mix it in a separate bowl for me and leave off the croutons?” Of course, as I was nodding, BB looked at me and remembered that I can’t have wheat. It came up in the interview. “What’s a major challenge you’ve had, and how did you deal with it? And it doesn’t have to be work-related.” “Well, I can’t eat wheat. And I had to completely re-learn how to cook, and every time I go to a restaurant, it’s a challenge.” Not everywhere, but most places. Anyway, he remembered I couldn’t have wheat and started apologizing. I kept assuring him that really, it’s okay (because it is, I’m used to it), I can usually at least find something to eat everywhere. Are you sure? Yes, I’m sure. If nothing else, I can usually have a salad or something like that. So in the car on the way to the restaurant, I asked where we were going. We were going to Louie’s, it turns out. I said, “Ooh! I can eat there! They have gluten-free pizza and pasta!”

Okay, so this time at Louie’s, I don’t know if they just have different salad dressings on different days, but she didn’t name off any vinaigrette that sounded like the one I had previously. Their balsamic vinaigrette has blue cheese in it, and blue cheese and Gorgonzola are made from bread mold and are not gluten-free. I thought I’d had the balsamic vinaigrette before, but I had specifically told the waitress the first time that I couldn’t have blue cheese. But maybe that’s why I’ve been having problems. Anyway, I got the creamy garlic, and it was good. I had fettuccine with chicken and artichokes in pesto sauce (fettuccine replaced with GF tubes). Very good. But twenty minutes after lunch, I got a mild headache that I still had this morning (Tylenol seems to have knocked it out), and I have had a couple of seizures this morning. So I don’t know. It could be the prep. It could be that I forgot to order my salad without croutons (but I was diligent in removing not only the croutons but also anything those croutons had touched, and I could tell because of the seasoning on the croutons). Or maybe there was cross-contamination in the kitchen.

Anyway, I’m not sure Louie’s is safe for me. Which kinda sucks, because the food is good, and I don’t know that many restaurants here yet. And they have GF pizza. Oh well, I make my own GF pizza, and it’s always gooooood.

Hey, Idaho’s on the news! Avalanches, etc.

Later, dudes.

Today was your typical first day. Take the tour, meet the people whose names you won’t remember, meet with HR, get the accounting program walkthrough, history of the company, lunch with the department, meeting with Big Boss… we didn’t get to our desks until after three! My office mate (who also started today) and I only got to look over the books for our respective companies (the ones we’ll each be responsible for) for about fifteen minutes before it was time to go home. Tomorrow I’m looking forward to digging in. Maybe they’ll even let me post something. :-D

Also, Frank took Rowdi in for doggy daycare today at the place she’ll inhabit during the days when we’re both working. She made herself a high energy friend (just what she needed), and they played all day. So she’ll go once a week or so for all-day socialization until we’re both working, and then she’ll go every day.

I’ve gotta go to bed, but I’ll try to update y’all in the morning. I want to talk about gluten-free dining.

Awesome: Waking up in the dark, worrying you’re running late for your first day of work, then realizing that you have over an hour left before you have to get up.

Not Awesome: Waking up in the middle of the night thinking someone is beating on your windows. Turns out it was a very loud ice storm.

Awesome: Being excited about a job. This is the first time I’m actually excited about a job since… um… 2000? I mean, there’s always the excitement of finding out what you’ll be doing, meeting new people, getting into the work, but true excitement about what I’m going to be doing? That just hadn’t happened in a long time.

Not Awesome: All these political calls we’ve been getting. Every single one of them is calling our Florida number, and every one of them is a recorded call for McCain. Come on! At least let me talk to a person so I can properly tell them what I can think of the man that screws the American people every chance he gets.

Awesome: I had lunch with lottiedottie’s SIL the other day (she agreed to change her name to SIL, but lest y’all think I’m talking about my own SILs when SIL comes up in the future, I’m going to call her Sil. Clear as mud?). We had a lot of fun and a very nice time and talked about everything. Including religion and politics! Haha, only mature adults can do that over a meal. Mature adults and me. Sil brought one of her precious children along, and he was just adorable. Hardly threw any food in my face at all! ;-) Kidding, kidding. We’re going to try to drag our husbands out, the four of us, soon.

Not Awesome: I’m about to go walk the dog, and it’s surely going to be stinking cold. I love the cold, I don’t so much love to walk in the snow and ice, and Rowdi can’t stay out in it too long, because her wittle paws get cold.

Awesome: I’m wide awake!

Not Awesome: I’m wide awake early enough to catch some of Fox and Friends. I’ve been getting up late enough to miss it every day. Alas, no more.

Awesome: Yesterday all the snow and ice melted off of the ground and, more importantly, off of my car. I was pleased with this, because we ruined Frank’s windshield wiper blades the other night when we did our snow shopping, and I don’t want Frank to have to get out and scrape my windshield on my first day.

Not Awesome: Our cars are covered again this morning. Too bad for my hubby! (Hey. I still don’t own a pair of gloves, because I haven’t found any I like, and he has gloves. Plus, it’s his job.)

Awesome: I precooked all of the chicken for the week yesterday, so cooking dinner will not take so long this week. I’m going to try to precook chicken every week so we can eat before 8 p.m.

Alright. See y’all later, peeps!

Haha, just kidding. Yesterday Frank had been home for an hour or so (after his interview, which went well, by the way), and I’d been inside for a few hours since walking Rowdi, trying to find the floor in our bedroom before the storm called work hits on Monday. We decided we’d go to the outlets (I LOVE the Bass and Van Heusen stores there), then the post office, then Wal-Mart. We let Rowdi outside to do her business before we put her away, and… everything was covered. Completely covered in snow. Sidewalks, cars, lawns, houses, streets. We were confused. Like, how did we miss that? We’d gotten at least an inch of snow.

The snow was still coming down when we left. Barely, though — just a light drizzle of sparkling frozen water. So we went ahead and ventured out. It was light out, the snow was hardly coming down, it was all good.

Flash to twenty minutes later when we were on the highway, heading down to the outlets. It was dark by then, and traffic was moving slowly. It was nice and calm, but I was a little nervous, just because there were semis everywhere, and none of them were wearing their snow chains. I’m such a snow newbie. I own it. We thought about turning around, but eh, we’re tough. We made it to the outlets and found an awesome sale at Van Heusen. See, Frank has lost weight, so we needed new khakis for him (on sale), sweaters, button-down shirts (both also on sale). It was awesome. And I was able to get three more pairs of pants so I have enough clothing to make it through my first week of work. Seriously, anything business casual I owned? Gave it away long ago. We stopped by Bass and got me a pair of brown work shoes (I had black ones from my shopping earlier in the week, same style), and Frank even found himself a pair of dressy casual shoes. When we came out of the shops, the car was completely covered again, and another half inch or so of snow was on the ground. Do they make car covers for SUVs? One cool thing about the snow (as much havoc as the ice it left wreaked on our windshield wipers), though… the way it sparkles. My goodness. Fresh snow is so crisp and pure and sparkly, looks like tiny diamonds… we should bottle it up and sell it for $400 a jar.

We skipped the post office, because well, I couldn’t see the exit ramp, and I was almost past it when I saw it — I don’t do big swerves in the snow. Wal-Mart was a most productive visit. I decided we need an ironing board after all (among other things), because I don’t want my new coworkers to know I’m a slob. Do you think I can fool them, Magic 8 Ball? “Outlook is bleak.”

The phone rang this afternoon. The caller ID said “Political Call.” Frank and I both saw the caller ID at the same time. We had previously agreed that should the politicals call again (they called a couple of days ago, and we didn’t get to the phone in time), I would get to answer it. I’ll tell them all exactly what I think about them, and see, I was rilly rilly rilly hoping it was The Republican Party. I have words for them. Frank’s a very nice person, so he holds back a little, tries to act like an adult and all that. Anyway, I yelled, “Ooh! Ooh! Let me get it!”

SARAHK: Hello?
POLITICAL CALL: Hello. This is Jack Kemp. Blah blah blah… [Sounded like a recording, and from McCain of all peeps. Nuh-uh.]
SARAHK: Is this really Jack Kemp?
POLITICAL CALL: … blah blah blah blah…

Click.

FRANK J. [from the other room, cracking up]: “Is this really Jack Kemp?” Did you really ask that?
SARAHK: Well, I didn’t want to be rude and hang up on him if he wasn’t a recording. But he was a recording, I assume for McCain, so no thanks.

I was disappointed. I wanted to tear into some elephant hide.

Ok, so this job. First, thanks so much for the many congratulations. Y’all are the bestest.

I’m so excited about the job. Like I’ve said, it’s dreamy. Plus it pays well (not as well as my last job, but the maximum I expected to get here at this level). And the people are so nice, the work is going to be so much fun, etc. The benefits are good, too. No more COBRA! I’m psyched about just that part alone.

Here’s the state of things now: they’re hiring three new people to go along with the three people who are already there. The management issues that I mentioned? Didn’t turn out to be management issues at all. Three people left, all for different reasons, none of them to do with any of the other people there. That was my big worry going into the interview — what if the department is managed by micromanagers? But it’s not. I’ll report to a very nice and smart lady who is moving to a whole different type of position, and she’ll be training me. We totally get along, personally as well as I’m sure we will professionally. We’ll call her Boss for now. Then there’s her boss, who we’ll call Big Boss for now. He’s also very nice and smart.

Ok, so I sent them my resume over the interwebs on Friday. Monday, HR called to schedule an interview, and before she scheduled the interview, she told me some things. Told me about all the people leaving, and about the job itself, pay, etc.

Anyway, I went to the interview, and I interviewed with Big Boss first. We went over my resume, blah blah blah, went through those interview questions that everyone hates (”Where do you see yourself in ten years?” “What is your favorite color, and how does it relate to your personality?” etc. BTW, the color one is a joke, but you know, those kinds.). Of course, “Taxes” is an honest answer to my biggest weakness, and it goes along with that question of what I do not want in a job. And then, my very favorite part. He quizzed me on journal entries! First the simplest of simple journal entries, and then he moved on to easiest of easy. Either I just answered fast enough that he didn’t doubt my financial accounting awesomeness anymore or he only had two questions to begin with. Anyway, we moved on. What’s my ideal manager like? I personally *love* this question. This is when you get to tell them, hey. Don’t micromanage me, but also be okay with me asking questions, even the occasional really dumb question, and don’t make me feel like an idiot when I do ask questions. Because then if they hire you after you’ve given them their boundaries, it’s kind of a pact. And they understand that if they start to breathe over your shoulder every five seconds when the report isn’t due until tomorrow, and you are working diligently on said report, they’ve broken the pact, and they will lose your respect, and the working relationship is doomed. And on the other side, you’re agreeing that if they are the kind of boss you’ve requested, and any failure on your part is all on you. Big Boss was great, I really liked him. Then he had me interview with Boss, who was also great. And she asked me the strengths and weaknesses question. I made a dumb face and mimicked, “I’m a perfectionist.” We got a good laugh out of it. We saw Big Boss on the way out, and he said they wanted to move really fast, to which I replied, “I’m available, so if you want to hire me, you just let me know.” I left feeling good about it.

In the afternoon, I had an interview with a staffing agency, and after the girl asked me what I want and don’t want in a job, she handed me a job description. I recognized it exactly and told her I’d interviewed with the company earlier in the day (I think I’ll call the company The Playground for now). So I was going to be my own competition, which made me very happy, especially knowing that The Playground wants to move fast and get someone hired right away, and there was a good possibility that the staffing agency wouldn’t come up with another candidate that soon.

So not long after I got home from the staffing agency, HR at The Playground was calling. She asked how everything went in the morning, and I told her that *I* thought it went great, and it sounds like a great job, great people, a lot of fun. She was glad to hear that, because she was calling to offer me the job. “Oh, and guess what? I’m going to be able to offer you the job at [what you asked for]!” Wahoo! I was very happy to hear it.

So I start Monday, and I’m not freaking out. Mainly because I went on Monday or Tuesday back to the outlet mall, and I had a most productive shopping outing. I found two sweaters at the offensively named Dress Barn, four pairs of shoes (at 70% off!) and a pair of jeans (!) at Bass — I love them so much. Bass is the only place I’ve ever found truly comfortable shoes. And I would have bought more jeans except that they had only one pair in my size. Then at Van Heusen, I found four sweaters (nice enough for work) and two pairs of pants (they finally had my size!). Such a relief.

Oh, and while I was gone, Frank got called for an interview, so this could turn out to be a really good week!

Frank and I went together down to the job fair so we could scope out the engineering staffing agencies, and afterward, we went to P.F. Chang’s to celebrate the new job. I’ve never been, but I knew they had a gluten-free menu and they even change up some of the regular menu items to make them GF. It was such a great dining experience. Oh my. The Chang’s Spicy Chicken? Awesome. We also ordered the Cantonese Shrimp, but it was just okay. Probably because when you have Chang’s Spicy Chicken, the other dishes can’t add up. We also had the lettuce wraps, which were yummy. The best part was that we asked for a GF menu at the front, and they had them right there. No one had to go to the back to print it off the internet. And when the waiter saw we both had GF menus, he immediately took away the soy sauce and came back with Tamari. Oh, and we got dessert, too. Chocolate dome or something like that. It was soooo good. It comes with a lot of raspberry sauce and fresh berries. Basically it’s solid fudgey chocolate. Mmmmmmm.

Okay, I have to go walk the dog and then I’m going to get our bedroom in order. Be good.

Today was crazy, so I am just now starting to watch tonight’s AI show. You can follow along (once I get my first bit up — I publish at commercial breaks) over at Snark Raving Mad if you’re interested.

Later I have so many adorable animal pictures to post (most of them center around how much the animals love the fireplace), and I also took some pictures of Career SarahK. Because I’m a total dork.

Thanks for all of your well-wishes and support. Y’all have been teh awesome. I interviewed this morning for the dreamy job, and it went really well. Then this afternoon I went to a staffing agency to do the interview where you tell them what you want. The staffer (or agent?) handed me a job description just like the one I interviewed for this morning. I said, “Is this with [Company X]?” It was. So it turns out I was going to be my own competition. Haha.

Anyway, I got home from the staffing agency, and within ten minutes the phone was ringing. It was HR at Company X calling to offer me the job. And I start Monday. So that worked out well. :-)

Frank and I are rushing out, so I’ll be back later. Mwah!

Found dead.

I was driving down the road listening to Hannity (by default — the other choice in his time slot here is Dr. Laura), and he said they had breaking news. He mentioned Heath Ledger, and then started talking to his crew about what movies Ledger has been in… and before he even said, “Well, he’s been found dead,” I had this sense of dread. I don’t know why, I just thought that breaking news about a young star who isn’t typically seen as a train wreck had to be bad. I still gasped when Hannity said it, though.

So so sad. He has a two-year-old daughter. Even if he didn’t, it would be tragic. But that just makes it worse.

I have a second interview the same day I have the first interview. The second one is with a staffing agency.

It’s been two and a half years since I interviewed anywhere. Ack! I did a phone interview with HR today, and it wasn’t so bad, because, as y’all know, I have a sparkling personality. ;-) Anyway, I’m hoping the accounting jobs around here move faster through the hiring process than do the engineering jobs. I’m not convinced it will. I put my application in with Accountemps on Thursday, and they haven’t even called yet. I know that sounds silly, because it’s only since Thursday, but in all of my accounting life, any time I’ve worked with Accountemps or Robert Half, they have called either the same day or next day after receiving my resume. So it’s a little disturbing that they haven’t called.

However, I did only submit my resume for this job on Friday, so at least at this company, they may be moving fast. And the job is one of my dream-type jobs, except that there has recently been a full accounting department upheaval, meaning all new people except one or two. That part doesn’t scare me, though, because I’m used to a lot of turnover in the audit world, and as long as I’m doing something I like and the problems that caused the turnover are fixed (I’ve been assured they have been), I’ll be happy.

Industry! I loved working in industry. I’m actually excited and hope they want to hire me soon. I’m not going to stop looking, in case they drag out the hiring process for months, as it seems companies here tend to do.

The only big downside is the money. It’s like I’m right out of college again! But whatever. Benefits are good.

Call me a sucker for power ballady-type songs. We saw The Scarlet Pimpernel Friday night in Nampa. I really liked it! Some of the singing was a little eh, but the songs were great, and the dialogue is so much fun. Especially Percy Blakeney. And the guy playing him and the girl playing the French prostitute were excellent. The best part? Nobody sold their hair to pay for a watch fob no one could use!

Even though the suit debacle is finally over, I still kind of need some stress relief. Probably lingering effects from all that shopping. I took a muscle relaxer a couple of nights last week, and they helped a little, but I don’t really like to pop extraneous pills every night (I’m so happy to be down to only one regular night-time med – now if we could just do something about that epilepsy…). Of course, the next step in muscle relaxation is finding a massage therapist here. Ugh, I hate finding massage therapists. I’ve had two great ones, and I’m always afraid that no one will match up to Mary (whom I once threatened to kidnap so I could take her with me when I moved) and now Vicky (my excellent Florida therapist).

In Florida, Frank used to help when my muscles were sore by bringing me a flower delivery from Publix. Alas, there is no Publix here, and I did love their flowers. I have yet to check out the flowers at the stores we do have nearby to see if they match up. But for now, I think the man should check out the online florist and find me something pretty.

Of course, my shopping-related muscle aches and all-around moodiness are not the only reason my hubby should send flowers to his sweetie. Beside the dismal results from yesterday’s big primary (seriously, do these primary voters do the slightest amount of research into their candidates, or do they just go for the guy who talks the prettiest and the one who screws over the party the most?), there was a little incident with the laundry this morning. I promised I wouldn’t hold a grudge over it, because he apologized (as he always does for the same offense), but I’m thinking I deserve them anyway. See, we don’t have an ironing board (gave it away before we moved, and I haven’t bought a new one yet), so I make sure to get the laundry out of the dryer and fold it or hang it right away. But Frank decided he was going to do some laundry (that part was nice), and he started with the delicates, which, you know, took a good twenty minutes of coaching. And then he washed his socks next, and when I went to get some undies from the folded laundry basket this morning, I noticed that he’d just thrown the delicates in a big, wadded pile on top of the folded laundry. As wrinkled as bathtub toes. Rarr. I spent a little time this morning reminding him that he’s an adult now. :-) But I’m not mad anymore, so technically that’s not a grudge, right?

My in-laws have bought a very nice house close to ours. Not the same neighborhood or anything, but closer than they are now (the mileage may be close to the same, but the traffic from our house to theirs is much better than from our house to the place they’re in now). The house is gorgeous (I drool over their inside paint). We actually like hanging out with them, so it’s a good situation. I know they’re planning to meet a lot of people in their neighborhood so the Mean Old Man can have a bridge club (just kidding) but I think we’ll still hang out. We all like playing board games and cards and watching some of the same TV shows on DVD.

It also doesn’t hurt that they have an elliptical machine, so on cold days, I may have to take advantage of their hospitality and their equipment. And when Rowdi is bad, we can just send her to visit the grandparents. ;-)

When I got downstairs, the Fox election coverage was already on, so I just kept my mouth shut and hoped for the best. However, after Fox has declared Nevada for Mitt Romney, here are the standings with <1% of the vote in (this flips above the ticker at the bottom of the screen):

Romney 46%
Paul 14%
McCain 14%
Thompson 13%
Huckabee 7%
Giuliani 3%
Hunter 2%

And then when they did that big screen a few minutes ago (when the standings were Romney, McCain, Paul, Thompson, Huckabee, et al), guess which three candidates they showed? Romney (1st place), McCain (2nd place at the time), Huckabee (5th place).

We report what we want you to see. You decide based on what we want you to know.

Oh, don’t worry. I’m sure they have an excuse, such as “these are the top three per the polls in the nation, so they’re the only ones you really want to hear about.” Even if that is their excuse, haven’t the polls been wrong in almost every race this year? Fair and balanced has become such a sham.

Forget this. I’m going shopping.

UPDATE: I’m not shopping yet; I’m finishing my cherry soda. Meanwhile, I emailed Fox to ask why they were misleading people with their big screen flashes. After I emailed them, they started reporting Ron Paul (I did make it clear in my email that I’m no Ron Paul fan) and even Fred Thompson! I’m not saying I had anything to do with that, but you’re welcome, America.

that I’ve gone all this time (into my thirties, yo) without seeing or even hearing a soundtrack to The Scarlet Pimpernel?

Good fun and good music.

Ok, so we’re going to see a musical tonight, and when Frank’s mom asked if we wanted to go, that reminded me that I never blogged about the musical we saw in December. We went with the whole family to see The Gifts of the Magi. Hmm. Well, this post isn’t about the performance of the show, it’s about the show itself. The writing. First of all, I think the story is dumb, boring, and depressing. And in the car on the way home, I learned that this is actually a children’s story! That they tell to kids! Because they want kids to be sad every time Christmas rolls around, I guess. “Santa’s coming. That makes me think of those sad people who sold their stuff to buy each other irrelevant Christmas presents! Waaaah!” If someone had read that to me as a child, I would have dreaded Christmas, I’m sure of it. I would have dreaded Christmas just knowing someone would be reading me that story! Even the end is depressing. At least with Les Mis, there is redemption and a marriage at the end and beautiful music throughout, and you are mesmerized. You don’t care that you’re crying over Fantine and Eponine and poor little Gavroche, because for the love of pete, the music when they die is heartwrenchingly beautiful. Not so with The Gifts of the Magi. The music is awful. Most of the songs are monotone, and when they’re not, the melodies make no musical sense. When I saw Les Mis (and I do realize that this is an unfair comparison), I never wanted it to end. I have the entire soundtrack memorized! Both parts of the Confrontation, even! But I couldn’t *wait* for the Magi musical to be over. To be fair, there are some funny parts to the musical. And most of the performers we saw were very good. But yeah. Why anyone ever decided to tell that story to kids is beyond me. Much less make it into a musical.

Ok, so since I’m pretty much a theater idiot, y’all tell me. Is it just me?

Lookie at me, I had another blogiversary yesterday (that makes four!), and I missed it for the fourth year in a row. Anyway, happy blogging to me! And thanks to all of you, who make it all worth it. Mwah!

My other blog, Snark Raving Mad!, has been neglected even more than this one has. I’m so glad Cadet Happy has been around to keep posting reality snark while I’ve been trying to get settled into the house and, now, looking and applying for jobs. Otherwise, there would have been nothing to read over there for the last couple of months, and the SRM readers would have been sadder than a Paula Abdul without vodka. Before we up and moved from Florida, I was trying to think of ways to get more website traffic for SRM, because after all, a brand new blog always needs more traffic. Heck, I’ve been blogging here for four years now (dadgummit! I missed my blogiversary yesterday for the fourth year in a row!), and I still need more traffic. Ok, want.

I don’t know. With mountaineer musings, I just am what I am, and I think to improve my traffic here, I either need to install more optimization plugins with Wordpress or even consider going to a website optimization firm for help.

Cadet Happy has been great at bringing traffic to SRM! because he’s one of those complete reality TV geeks that watches every reality show (no, really, every one) and also visits all the forums and all the sites. Also, he’s great at getting cross links. It turns out that the key to me actually getting more website traffic over at SRM! was simply the return of American Idol. That is a combination of Idol being a huge traffic maker and me getting my inspiration back. I’ve been happily watching television ever since we arrived in Idaho, but I have had no inspiration to snark it until the return of Idol. When Idol came back this week, I had so much fun! I had almost forgotten how much fun it is to write about AI. And with the return of LOST (a most snarkworthy show) at the end of the month, I don’t think my snark passion will get lost in the shuffle of moving boxes again.

The other day, I was leaving to go shopping, so I was already in a bad mood. I got dressed, got my coat on (and, um, I really need a real winter coat, I decided after yesterday’s walk downtown), put on the scarf and hat, had my car keys in my hand, and I was walking out the door. Then I realized I wasn’t wearing my glasses, so I started looking for them. I looked in the normal spots — my TV tray on which my laptop sits, the loveseat, the cabinet next to my end of the loveseat, master bathroom counters, on my night stand, top drawer in the kitchen, on the counter above the top drawer in the kitchen, on top of the office furniture (aka Old Yeller), and just in case my head had been ensconced in my butt, I checked the coat closet. They were nowhere.

So I enlisted Frank’s help. He started looking in all the placed I’d already looked, because he’s used to me saying, “Where are my glasses?” so he knows where they usually turn up. While he was upstairs checking the bathroom and the nightstand, I happened to find them. They were hanging from the collar of my shirt. I called upstairs. “I found them!” Frank said, “You did? Where were they?” Surely he wants to know for future reference. “Come see.” He came downstairs and looked in the direction I was looking first, and then he looked back at me and started laughing when he saw them hanging from my shirt. “Well, I didn’t know I needed to look *on* you!”

I’m pretty sure this makes me an official dufus.

We went downtown yesterday in the never-ending hunt for The Suit. The one I’ll wear for the interview portion of the job program and then never again. So we were out in the 21-degree weather, and I swear to you that the wind chill had to be in the single digits or lower. When we got back in the car after only an hour and a half of walking the streets (not to be confused with street walking), both of us immediately grabbed our chins and commented that we couldn’t feel them. Chins, noses, we weren’t sure they existed any more. Anyway, that was an unsuccessful jaunt. But at least we got to know downtown a little.

We went back to the mall (this is the third trip to the mall in search of The Suit). I went to the teeniny petites section at Dillards again (it’s about the size of my kitchen). What do you know, they had two suits for all the petite women to chose from. Both the same suit, actually, just in both brown and black! They love us short girls! And the buttons on the jacket go from the neck to the waist, and what is up with that?? But it’s a long skirt (near ankle length), so I didn’t have to worry about all the fitting issues that come with pants. It was still frustrating, because this suit is as plain-Jane as they come (not even a pretty cut, and with cheap plastic buttons), and for the skirt and jacket I paid $95. Oh, and even though I bought double digits in the skirt (if I say the size out loud, it will make it real, so let’s just leave it at double digits), the size 4 jacket didn’t fit me all that well. I first went in with an 8, then had Frank bring me a 6, and then a 4, and I sent him back for a 2, but they didn’t have them. Argh. It fits for the most part, but it hangs around my torso and waist like I’m supposed to have absolutely no waistline. And I actually do still have one of those.

But whatever. It’s done, and I can apply for this job I’ve been eyeing.

In other news, we had a ridiculous offer on the house today. $30K less than we’re asking, and $20K less than we can afford. We countered at our absolute lowest price, and they couldn’t do it, but if they can figure out a way to do it, they will. And I’m actually sad that they can’t afford to buy it, because they have rented her brother’s house next door to us every winter, and they’re very nice people. I’d love for it to go to someone we know. But for now it’s not happening. So that’s that. If we haven’t sold it by March, we may rent it out, but we’d much rather sell it and not be bound to Florida anymore.

In other news, my back still hurts. I’m going to give in and find a massage therapist.

Frank implores you.

Yesterday afternoon and last night, I was in significant pain. See, I haven’t had a massage in over six weeks, and usually the maximum time between massages is a month. So I’m starting to feel it, and my back was tight and inflamed and so tender, and I felt a tension headache coming on. I’ve been holding off until after I find a job, but maybe I should get a pre-work massage. It was bad enough last night that I was digging through a box for my tizanidine. Which really kind of stunk, because I was at the Department of Mysteries scene in HP5, and I could only keep my eyes open for about five minutes after taking half a pill. But I did wake up in much less pain. I’m not a fan of taking muscle relaxers, but I’m glad to have them for emergencies.

I will be liveblogging the premiere over at Snark Raving Mad! Of course, I have to pause the DVR to write lengthy commentary and such, but it’ll be a semi-liveblogging. I’m sure Cadet Happy will have something to say about it, too.

I’m so excited!

I’ve found my suit at Petite Sophisticate online (thank you, my dear readers!). I have to measure myself before I can order everything, so I’ll do that in a minute. I’m a little worried about the pants, because they don’t have the fit that I always bought before, and anything labeled “modern cut” or “straight leg” means “thighs not allowed.” So I’m worried the pants won’t fit. But I’m kind of out of options here.

Anyway, after I place my order, I’m going to fix my hair (we always look less ugly in fluorescent dressing room lights if our hair is done, yes?) and go shop some more. There’s a 99% chance I’ll only need the suit for interviews, so I need to run out and get slacks and pants and jeans. And blouses and sweaters. And shoes. Ugh. Why did I get rid of all of my work clothes? I should buy hose, too, because I haven’t worn those in a few years — it’s just not done in Florida, and open-toed shoes are pretty much the norm, so I need warmer shoes.

UPDATE: After taking my measurements, I’m back to square one on the suit. Heart-ache.

That little mini-rant I kept talking about the other day was about my inability to watch Fox News anymore. I never finished the little rant, and then I broke my personal boycott of FNC when they had the South Carolina debate, because hey, I wanted all the commentary I could get afterward, and I just didn’t have the guts to go stare at Wolf Blitzer’s smug face. Not that it matters any more, but here’s what it all boiled down to (for that half day that I refused to watch Fox).

I wrote most of this the day before the South Carolina debate, or the day of, or something like that.

That whole “we report, you decide” bit isn’t exactly how they’re operating these days, even if I put my Fred Thompson bias aside and look at their reporting objectively. After the election results came in from New Hampshire, I just couldn’t stomach them anymore, and I even had a hard time stomaching the exclusionary New Hampshire debate that they ran. We’ll get to that in a minute. Anyway, I actually switched to CNN the night of the NH election results and was pleased to find that they were covering *all* of the election results rather than only the top two candidates in each race (novel concept). Note: I will probably watch CNN when the Michigan results start to come in tonight and every night that there are election results to see. Of course, as the number of candidates whittles down, it won’t be as important, but for now, if I want the *whole* story on primary or caucus nights, I’ll have to switch to another channel for results. I’m sure I will find any worthwhile-ish Fox clips (which I expect will be few) floating around the interwebs the same night or next day anyway.

First, regarding Iowa. No secret that Thompson is my candidate and will be until he’s either elected or out of the race or found to be a fraud of Huckabee magnitude. In Iowa, Fred came in with 13% of the corn-sucking vote, barely edging out McCain, but edging him out nonetheless. They get the same number of delegates, yes. Now, if McCain had placed third, this was going to be considered a gigantic success — the FNC pundits all said so in the week leading up to the public-voting caucuses (the stupidest way to hold elections, BTW), so it must be true! But Fred finished third, and it went something like this: “Huckabee! Wow, look how he won! And Romney! In second! No one expected that, but hey, second isn’t bad, and he’ll surely take a lot of early states! Wow! And look, McCain with 13% of the vote!” Fred who? Or they would say something like, “Huckabee with a huge win over second-place Mitt Romney! And then there’s Fred Thompson in third, and WOW! John McCain finished barely behind that third-place guy, whoever he is! McCain almost in third!” And Fred Thompson isn’t the only person who was brushed aside. Believe me, I am NO Ron Paul fan and would never ever vote for him (he’s a freaking nutburger on foreign policy, which is the second most important issue to me, right after illegal immigration), but he got 10% of the vote in Iowa, and Fox completely ignored it. They had one mention of him in about three hours of coverage that we watched that night. And that was just a screen flash of places four through six. They did make sure to point out that Giuliani only received 4% of the vote, but they also made sure to tell you that Giuliani isn’t paying much attention to the early states and is counting on Florida and Super Mega Amazing Ultra Tuesday, so it’s no biggie that he didn’t fare well. Remember that, it’ll be important in a minute. In case you want to know and have only Fox News to tell you how to vote, here are the full returns for the Republicans in Iowa:

Huckabee (seriously) 34%
Romney 25%
Thompson 13%
McCain 13%
Paul 10%
Giuliani 4%
Hunter 1%

Oh, another thing about Iowa. Chris Wallace, of all people, was talking the other day about John McCain’s chances. This was before the South Carolina debate. Anyway, I was shocked when Wallace was talking about McCain, “who came in third in Iowa.” No he didn’t! He came in a very close fourth and receives the same number of delegate votes, but Fred had a few hundred votes more than McCain. I don’t know how after weeks of everyone knowing that Thompson got third, Wallace just decided he would revise the results like that.

Then there is Wyoming, which has more delegates than New Hampshire but was completely ignored because of this farcical notion the old media has instilled in most Americans that the people of Iowa and New Hampshire are the most politically educated and therefore the most important in the whole entire election process (hahahahaha — how many of them were still undecided when they woke up on election day? Voting by feeling, anyone?). I heard in a solitary mention on FNC, during a ten-second break from their reporting on the New Hampshire campaigning, that oh, by the way, Mitt Romney won Wyoming. That’s it. Nothing about the fact that even if he lost New Hampshire, he would still be out ahead of McCain as far as delegate count. And I would be remiss Fox if I didn’t bother to tell you that Fred Thompson also received 25% of the Republican vote in Wyoming and that Duncan Hunter received 8% of the vote. But you know, no big whoop, because Wyoming isn’t an elite coastal state or a corn-subsidy-loving state. So it doesn’t count (those silly conservatives). The Wyoming returns, since FNC didn’t report them:

Romney 67%
Thompson 25%
Hunter 8%

And then there was New Hampshire, which may be an indicator of how wishy-washies are going to vote but does nothing more than tell other wishy-washies in future voting states who the wishy-washies in that state think should be president. Yeah, it’s important because of all the media hype that makes it so, but good grief, NH only has twelve delegates! So everyone knew for weeks that Fred was spending zero time in New Hampshire. It was common knowledge to anyone willing to pay actual attention to politics. If there hadn’t been a debate there, I’m sure he wouldn’t have shown up at all. Because New Hampshire is a liberal state, and its independents tend to not vote for actual conservatives, and it was widely expected that they would swing to the Democrats anyway. Fred had no chance there, and he didn’t have the resources of Romney and Paul, so no point wasting money. It made sense to everyone. So the results came in, and this time, since Fred had none of the vote in New Hampshire, Fox made sure to point it out. “McCain wins New Hampshire! What does this say about conservatives? [Nothing.] Romney got second! He’s in real trouble now! Look at this, Fred Thompson with only 1% of the vote! When will he get out of the race?!” ARGH. Everyone who has paid attention to Thompson’s campaign knows he’s working hard on South Carolina and other southern states.

Oh, and let me just take a little second to disagree with Fox’s decision to not allow Ron Paul to participate in the New Hampshire debate. I mean, I kind of did a little cheer when I saw that he wasn’t going to be included, because his supporters drive me absolutely *nuts* spamming all the (admittedly always ridiculously inaccurate) online polls and those stupid text message polls that Fox does and cheering at the most ridiculous things he says (let’s trade with Cuba!). Ronulans notwithstanding, he had received 10% of the vote in Iowa, which is force-fed to us as super-important, mind you, yet they left Giuliani (at 4%) in and shut out Ron Paul. I think it was a bad decision, and they showed that they’re no different from the rest of the old media. We report (part of the story), you decide (between the candidates we tell you are okay). New Hampshire results:

McCain 37%
Romney 32%
Huckabee 11%
Giuliani 9%
Paul 8%
Thompson 1%
Hunter 0%

I do have to give credit to Fox for allowing Ron Paul to participate in the South Carolina debate. It was the right thing to do. However, Frank Luntz appealed to the Ronulans yesterday with basically the thoughts of everyone who isn’t one (I wish I could find the video), and if they do care about their candidate, they should consider following his advice for future debates and just when they’re out in the general population. I’m not pleased that Fox keeps leaving out Duncan Hunter, because he is still running. On the other hand, I’m happy to have debates with fewer candidates. Fred is already having to interrupt and push his way in for anyone to give him a question.

Also, until the South Carolina debate, Fox basically ignored Fred when they talked about the Republican candidates. They would mention Giuliani, McCain, Romney, Huckabee, Paul… no Thompson.

Of course, now it’s just me ranting, no personal boycott anymore. I will tune to CNN for results tonight, because as boring as their commentators are, and as much as I would prefer Brit Hume and Chris Wallace over the stale suits at CNN, they actually show *all* of the results every few minutes, not just the top two finishers. Or I can utilize my PIP and watch results *and* get commentary.

And then tomorrow, I’m sure Fox will be back to saying that Fred’s surge in the South Carolina polls must have been a fluke, because after all, look how well Mike Huckabee (who loves Jesus, in case you hadn’t heard) did in Michigan! They’ll fail to mention that Fred has been parked in South Carolina for almost two weeks. If you hear someone yelling at the TV tomorrow, that’ll be me.

Ok, this is long and rambly, and I don’t feel like proofreading. I’m just going to stop now.

UPDATE: Tonight’s problem solved! I’ll be watching Idol (and liveblogging it at SRM!) and checking Michigan results on the interwebz, yo.

So awesome that when she knows she’s about to throw up, she gets up and zips to the back door. Yes. My dog understands that we don’t want her to puke on the rented carpet. Last night she bolted up from her downstairs bed and ran to the back door and let out a little yelpy whine. I was in the kitchen and looked over and said, “What are you doing, puppy?” Frank said she had her throw-up face on, so I ran over and let her out. Yep, as soon as she got outside, she ran to the grass and puked. What a gooood giiiiiiirrrrrl.