Finally getting around to organizing my recovered pictures and music. I started with the music first because that was slightly easier and not nearly as many files. Most of it came back intact, though I did find one entire folder where the music did not match the files... not just that they were named wrong, but it was like the files shifted how. In one file there would be the last half of one song and the first half of another song. Very annoying. I'll probably be asking for help soon in getting some of the files replaced.

In going through the picture folders, I'm missing a few pictures here and there, most of which is replaceable from other people's computers or CDs of pictures I'd previously burned. One picture I'm missing though is from last month, when I was still doing Project 365. It was the only picture I took on December 18th, and I can't for the life of me figure out what I took a picture of that day. It really sucks. But nothing I can do about it now :(


Today I slept til nearly 2pm... felt so nice to turn off the alarm and wake up whenever I felt like it. I was highly productive this afternoon though! I did the dishes, washed my sheets, did two loads of laundry and took out the trash (which is officially my least favorite chore). I also finally mailed out my camera to Canon for repair... the dead pixels that appeared last month have been spreading, and it was starting to look like the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I should have done it much sooner, but I kept forgetting. Finally Matt reminded me yesterday and I called them today. It will probably take a week or two for it to be repaired and sent back to me, which sucks because then I won't have it for when dad and I go to Daytona next weekend... but I'd rather have a fixed camera than deal with the big splotch of dead pixels, and it's my own fault for waiting so long. Plus, I only had a month left in the warranty, so better late than never.

LOVING this cold weather... and adding another blanket to my bed tonight :)

found the connector cable for my laptop!! forgot how slow and crappy ths thng s especally consderng some of the eys on my eyboard don't wor... as you can tell. please forgve the lac of certan letters and pretend le ths entry s an epsode of wheel of fortune :) except you can't buy any vowels. Lucly my passwords to log nto webpages such as lvejournal and faceeboo don't use any of the letters that can't type.

my laptop has Frefox verson 1.0.7 wow. tred to download the latest verson... the download too nearly 5 mnutes. Then tred to open the fle and an error message says the fle s corrupt. What the crap?? oh well. verson 1 s better than nothng at all.

Anyway off to bed go. more cryptc updates to come later probably... just because ths amuses me so :)

I'm still alive. Sadly I can't say the same for my computer. But I'll get to that in a minute.

Had a pretty good New Year's Eve... spent the evening with Yeny, KC, Kris, Keith and Tera. We played board games and ate a ton of chips and dip. Went to sleep around 7am and slept in til nearly 2pm. After we dragged ourselves out of bed, Yeny and KC went furniture-shopping with me to pick out a new couch (as my Christmas present from my parents). I ended up finding a huge, cushy corner couch. Black leather bottom and arms with tan suede cushions. Soooo awesome. And I picked out the matching black leather cocktail ottoman to go with it. Came back home to my computer, which had crashed earlier in the day and gave me the blue screen of death. I got so mad that I broke the keyboard drawer on my desk... knocked it completely off both sliders and now it's stuck. But that was the least of my worries at the time. KC tried to fix it and unfortunately didn't help much. Luckily Keith came over to look at it the next day. I thought I lost all my files, but they are recoverable... it will just take a few more days to rescue everything. Anyway...

My new couch got delivered today. It just fits in my living room, and it looks so nice. I had to do a bit of re-arranging, but in the end I think I really like how my living room looks now. I still have to work on re-arranging the stuff on the walls though. That'll be a project for this weekend maybe.


Before the couch got delivered today, I had to get rid of the love seat and two couches that previously occupied my living room. I planned on just giving them all to Goodwill this morning. The other day I mentioned this to Simon and he asked to take one of the couches and the love seat. He came over yesterday and helped me get them in the truck and over to his house. Afterward he took me out to dinner to say thanks. We went to this adorable little Italian restaurant. Wonderful food and great conversation... one of the best nights I've had in a long while :)


I love random little moments... Sitting here at my computer, I heard my cell phone (out in the living room) receive a text message. Usually when this happens I'll check the twitter home page to see if someone tweeted so I know whether or not to get up and check it (I'm so lazy). and sure enough, it was Adam, as usual. that just made me laugh :) btw Adam, I figured out the problem from yesterday with me not getting the messages... every once in a while Twitter will disable the texts to my phone because it says it hasn't heard from me. It's done this a few times now and it's annoying, especially since I can't even re-enable it from the mobile site, I have to do it from my computer. Annoying, but oh well.

That's about it for now. Keith is taking my hard drive with him to finish recovering all my data, so it'll be a few more days before I have a fully functioning computer again. I apologize if anyone has made any important updates lately... I haven't read anything since new year's and probably won't get to for a few more days. Hopefully I can find my connector cable for my laptop though, then I can still have internet here *crosses fingers* If not, at least my cell phone has media net, mobile e-mail and aim. I will survive. haha!

Where did December go? How is Christmas already here and gone? 5 days until a whole new year.

This year was a pretty good Christmas. Didn't get to go home, but I spent it with friends and still had a great time.

I did most of my Christmas shopping early since I had to mail my parents their presents. Shopped for their presents first and shipped off the package last week. Finished the last of my shopping by Saturday so I could take my time wrapping everything (which is my favorite part). Actually, I think it took more time for me to find boxes for everything than it did to wrap them. Luckily I have a whole stash of boxes in my storage closet outside.

Had Wednesday off from work so I slept in and relaxed most of the day. Spent the evening hanging out at Simon and George's house. Kathy and Michelle came over, and two of Simon's friends. We watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. My first time seeing it, and it was hilarious. I'm sad that it took me this long to see it. Hung out for a while then went back home and picked up all the presents and headed to Yeny's place around 1:30am. Helped Yeny and KC put together photo frames and wrap presents for the morning. Finally went to bed around 4:30am, and we got up around 8:30am.

Yeny, KC and I headed off to KC's parents' house in Ocoee for a few hours, then we all went to Groveland to his grandparents' house for Christmas with the extended family. He has three cousins that are all around our age, and us "young'uns" hung out together most of the day. Everyone opened presents, then it was time for the big meal, which had some awesome food as always. The "old people" sat at the formal dining room table and us "kids" ate at the kitchen table. A few people napped after lunch... most of us sat around the living room and the porch half-asleep.

Eventually we cleared the tables and got some people together to play Apples to Apples, which i had recently aquired. Such a fun game! But playing with 10 people takes for-ever, especially if the older people don't get the idea right away. But it was still a lot of fun. We headed back to the apartment around 8pm and opened the last of the presents. I gave KC the classic edition of the board game Risk, which we played until I finally was half-passed out at the table by 2am. Finally went home and passed out in my bed.

Didn't get many presents this year, but I wasn't asking for or expecting very many anyway. My best present is a new couch and love seat for my living room from my parents. I will have to go pick them out soon. I can't wait to get rid of my old, itchy, lumpy floral couches!

Work today was pretty slow in the morning, and got really busy around mid-day, then slacked off again by the end of the night. All my customers were in much better moods than the ones I had the day after Thanksgiving, so that was good. Anyway, it's late and I have slept about 12 hours in the last 3 days so I'm off to bed. Hope everyone else had a great holiday as well, even if they just spent the holiday eating Chinese food and playing video games ;)

Can't believe I haven't updated yet this month... but December has been pretty boring so far. Work, home, sleep, repeat... that's about it.

Got almost all my Christmas shopping done last week, and shipped off all the presents for my parents this afternoon. I only have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off, which isn't much time to go home. So I'm staying in Orlando again, like I did last year. Sucks... but at least I did get to go home three times earlier this year. I also mailed off a bunch of Christmas cards, so I feel pretty productive lately.

That's about it for now... I seriously need to work on my bedtime, because my current sleep schedule sucks.


Did you know there's a School for Santas?

I've slept about 14 hours in the past 3 days... don't know how I'm this awake at the moment. But it's been a fun few days. I worked Monday and Tuesday, then had Wednesday off. Went to see Twilight for a second time with my co-worker Reena. So worth it. and it was much nicer to see it without a million screaming girls in the theater. We chatted for a while after then I headed home to clean stuff up and get ready to head across town.

Spent the night at Simon's house Wednesday night so we could all be up early Thursday to get cooking early for Thanksgiving dinner. Didn't go to sleep til about 4am, and was up by 8am. Everyone else slowly started showing up around 11am, and pretty soon the kitchen was packed with food and people. We had lots of appetizers and started getting full from them! Luckily the cooking took longer than expected so we were hungry again by the time dinner was ready. George smoked the turkey for about 10 hours, and put it on the grill to finish off. It ended up catching on fire (I'm behind on Flickr, but check out facebook for pictures!) but he rescued it pretty quickly. It still turned out amazing... the best turkey I think I've ever had. We had a TON of awesome food, and more leftovers than we knew what to do with. After dinner we all hung out and played Rock Band for a few hours. Then it was time for a suger overload with dessert. Someone bought a caramel apple pie with pecans on top... it was soooo gooood :) and my pecan pie tarts pretty much disappeared. We hung out for a while longer, and finally everyone was gone around midnight. I was so tired I crashed on the couch again.

Had to work today, which kinda sucked. Everyone else that had to work was cranky about having to be there too. But, we get double time and a half because today was considered a holiday as well, so that made us feel a little better at least. My co-workers Mari and Alice were practically alone in their section so I sat at Chris's desk and kept them company for the day, which was fun.

That's about it for now. I need sleep... still need to make it through another 8 hours tomorrow! blegh.

A few of my co-workers like to get a little loud and crazy once in a while (well, more like every day). Two in particular that sit right behind me are a big source of entertainment for the rest of us. They always get into discussions about the strangest things. and one of them is a total backwoods country boy. He comes up with the funniest sayings sometimes. Here's a conversation I overheard tonight...
(imagine S talking with a very strong southern accent)

S: Dag dabbit!
J: *sigh* What's wrong now? [S is always complaining about something]
S: My screen was stuck like a knot on a log!
J: Huh?
S: You know, a knot on a log!
J: I've never heard that before.
me: I've heard that before. Not for a long while though. But think about it, it's true.
S: Yeah, stuck like a knot on a log. You don't see the knot movin' nowhere.
J: That's true I guess... Though it would probably move if you were drunk...
me: haha, I bet it would!
J: Come to think of it, I've seen a lot of inanimate objects move after I start drinkin... hah!
me: *dies laughing*

my co-workers crack me up sometimes :)

Back in Orlando... had so much fun this weekend. I drove home Friday afternoon; got some stuff done around town and visited some old co-workers. Had dinner with the parents. Went to bed late and got up way too early (5:30am!). Got to the track before 7am and parked in the second row, which was perfect. It was so hot on Saturday... we tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. We went to the grandstands for a while to watch practice, and I had to go downstairs after only 20 minutes before I passed out. I drank lots of water and we had some lunch and a quick nap, then headed back to the stands for the race. Yay Carl! and yay Clint on getting the championship! Headed home and went to bed late and got up early again, 5am this time!

Got the same parking spot again on Sunday morning, this time setting everything up in the chilly air and gusty winds! That was an adventure. We had pit passes for Sunday so we spent about 2 hours walking up and down pit road, taking tons of pictures. Didn't get any autographs or run into any drivers (but Bob Osborne walked right by us!). Went back to the truck and ate lunch and took another power nap then headed back to the grandstands. Broke my camera (knocked the lens crooked as it was turning off) and finally fixed it about an hour later (yay!) The chilly air was great, but I was only wearing a t-shirt and jacket, and by the end of the race was pretty damn cold from the strong winds. Went back to the truck and grilled hot dogs for dinner while waiting for the traffic to clear. Got even more cold, and was practically running circles around my truck trying to keep warm. Finally drove home and passed out pretty early.

Monday morning we all had breakfast at home, then dad and I headed back to Orlando. I took him to dinner at High Tide Harry's and he loved it. I love that place more and more every time I go there! Tuesday I had the day off again so we went to breakfast then shopped for a while (well, did more looking and planning than actual shopping). He headed north in the afternoon; he's spending the week with his mom in Lake City. He'll be back Saturday night to spend the night with me again, and I have to take him to Smokey Bones... no complaining here! :)


So after 2 straight days of walking all around at the racetrack, I decided my sneakers had just about had it. They're about 2-3 years old so they had a pretty good run. I decided to go shoe-shopping tonight... and couldn't find anything. I've only worn Adidas for the past 10 years or so. But tonight, between two different shoe stores, I barely found any Adidas, and the ones they did have I didn't really like. Well, I really liked one pair but of course they didn't have my size. I finally found an awesome pair of black and tweed skate shoes though, so I'm happy. and it was buy one get one half off, so I got another pair of skate shoes in white and blue. score! :)

After my extended weekend of vacation it was hard to go back to work today. Usually I don't even feel like I was gone when I come back from vacation, but this trip was so long and jam-packed and exhausting I felt like I was gone for a month. I'm so glad I took an extra day off yesterday so I could relax and have a vacation from my vacation! haha

That's it for now. I'm still recovering from this weekend and I feel dead right now. Off to bed!

I cannot believe Thanksgiving is in two weeks. There is no way that's possible.

Earlier this month I went to Adam & Liz's wedding, my second wedding in as many months. At least I didn't have to help plan anything with this one, I just had to show up and have fun. And take lots of pictures. They had the ceremony at Cypress Grove Park... what a gorgeous place! It was so much fun. and I loved taking pictures of everything and everyone there... over 300 by the end of the day!


This weekend I'm taking my last few vacation days of the year... Yesterday was my last day of work until next Wednesday. I'm heading home this weekend. Dad and I will be spending all day Saturday and Sunday at the track for the last races of the season. After this weekend I won't have anything to watch on Sundays until February! haha.


Finally got the Twilight soundtrack... Amazon sent me the wrong thing the first time around. First time I ever had a problem with them. They shipped out the correct album pretty fast though, so that was good. and speaking of Twlight, I've gotten three other people at work to read the books after me. We're trying to make plans for everyone to go see the movie the Friday evening that it comes out after everyone gets out of work. Hopefully I can get everyone organized and buy them online before it gets sold out for the time that we can all go. I can't wait!!!


My digital camera has a bunch of dead pixels on the screen. Sooo annoyed!!!


My high school physics teacher just added me on facebook.  wow.

That's it for now. Probably won't get a chance to update again until I get back to Orlando. If I even remember then. I've totally sucked at updating lj lately. But you can always keep up with me on Twitter! :)