You know what’s really exciting today? Janet, over at 5 Minutes for Mom is giving away an awesome 37″ Insignia Flat-Panel LCD HDTV! Its being donated by the fine folks at BestBuy & the contest is open to everyone with a US or Canada mailing address!

And on the homefront, I’m a little peeved. The Goo Goo Dolls are playing here in September & I’ll bet I don’t get to go because Troy will think the tickets are too high. Like always. Its very frustrating, our daughter & her fiance will go, I’m sure friends of ours will also go & I’ll be sitting at home, sadly watching the clock, knowing I’m not there.

I’m pretty sure that most of you realize that I write blog advertising for extra money to help make ends meet & to help fund my crafting habit, but have you ever thought about it yourself? Its a really fun, easy way to make money, and I’ve met some really great bloggers this way, too. So, if you have a blog, and some extra time and want to earn money blogging, I really would click that link up there & visit my friends at PayU2Blog – they’re a great company to work for!

We had a great time last night, the dinner was good, the company was better & the evening was beautiful. The spaghetti I made was pretty good & about half of it got eaten, unfortunately, that made people too full to finish the manicotti, so there was quite a lot of that left. I bought a new beer for Jason & I to try, it was an apricot one by Wasatch Brewery, it was really good, too. There was a lot of talk about what we want to do in August, since Vicki is having a coed adult toy party, and its BYOB, so we had to figure out what exactly we wanted to bring, and who all was going to attend the Las Vegas renne faire in October. Then Morgan & Roger dropped by to tell us all that they finally got approved for a car loan & had bought a used Hyundai, which is awesome news, since they had nothing they could drive with a car seat in it. They also decided that they were going to get married after all, and set the date as June 21. So, we’ll have two weddings, less than a month apart. Again.

All of this got me to thinking about a conversation Troy had right before Faire with a friend of ours named Ray. He had just bought some investment property in Alaska, and then they decided that they were going to move there & he wanted Troy to buy some land so we could move up there, too. It’ll never happen because why would I want to leave my awesome friends to live in a place where I’d know 2 people, one of which I can’t stand for more than 10 minutes? I’m pretty sure Ray must be crazy, or think we like his wife a lot more than we do, one or the other. I have people that I can hang out with any time I want to, and I’m always welcome. People who understand and love me for who I am. I’m not trading that for anything. There would be no more shared dinners, new beers and great conversations. That would be a shame.

I really ought to be doing my dishes so I can start my spaghetti sauce for tonight, but yet, I’m sitting here, making up reasons (excuses) as to why I can’t right now. How typical of me, really. I’m taking a pot of my spaghetti over to Dawn’s house for dinner tonight, because Vicki is making manicotti & I can’t eat that on my diet, but my family loves it.. so I’m compromising by bringing an offering of my food, which I can eat, so that I can enjoy their company & see Jason a little while longer before he leaves (he’s a truck driver). That way, everyone is happy.

Hey, while you’re here, check out my Etsy store!!

Troy & I used to have this friend, name Kim. We met her through a historical re-creation organization that we once belonged to. She is also the reason we no longer belong to it. Anyway. She had this really beautiful home built after her mom died. It was really big, two-story with a basement, too. She only had one bedroom built & it had no doors at all. It was in this big loft, and there was a bathtub in the bedroom. The bad thing was that you could see right up into that room from the living room, so there was no privacy at all. Even the toilet up there was just in a recessed area with no door. The only room with a door up there was a small storage room.

On the main floor, she had a bathroom with a door, thankfully, and that was about the only room that had one (other than the doors going into the house). Her office was full of this beautiful, black contemporary office furniture, but she had nothing on it. She didn’t own a computer, had no typewriter or any other office equipment, but yet, here was a huge desk unit that took up a whole corner of the room. Most of the house had no furniture, so we all sat on the floor. She had no TV, as far as I remember, but she did have a dining room table & chairs.

The basement was just a big room, with an area she had partitioned off for storage. She eventually got some of our young, single, male friends to move in & they started building walls & rooms down there for privacy, but I don’t believe they ever finished them. I always wondered if she really believed that she’d live alone forever, and why, since she never did in the years I knew her. She still doesn’t as far as I know. I often wonder if she ever got more furniture or did anything with her yard, or made her home more welcoming. I’m not about to go & try to find out, but I do wonder.

Ever since we bought our new gas grill last spring, I’ve had ideas rolling around in my head to get an outdoor kitchen all set up. We have the nice 4-burner grill with a burner off to the side already. I’ve seen some really nice units that have a place to store food, a sink for preparation, fold out work spaces, and a bunch of other storage options for not a huge price. There was also a really cool grill awning I saw on someone’s blog the other day that would be perfect for our yard, since shade is at a premium most days. We have enough space in our yard to do something fairly nice, we just have to plan it out to make the best use of the room. A little table a few chairs would be nice too!

So the weight loss is coming along. I haven’t had my official first weigh-in, but I’ve lost some weight, which is always good. I just want to get back to a healthy weight, I don’t want to be so skinny that I need a padded panty to make it look like I have a butt, I just want to be able to do normal, everyday things. Without having to take a break or catch my breath. Even on an 1800 calorie, reduced fat plan, I’m getting plenty to eat & don’t feel like I’m starving, which is great! Hunger seems to defeat me more than any craving ever could. Speaking of hunger, I need to go fix my lunch!

I just ordered some water crystals, so I can make some cool collars for our Guild next Faire and also, some to sell, if I can find some appropriate fabrics. I want to make them kind of fancy, so they fit into the Renaissance look and feel and don’t appear to be as modern as they are. So, I guess those will be what I make first, since I’m already getting the stuff together for them.

In between all of my Faire preparations, I’ll also be making things for a wedding, since our daughter is getting married on May 31, 2008 and we can’t afford to buy a bunch of stuff, so she & I will be making most everything. I’m happy to do it, its just going to be a lot of work on top of everything else.

I woke up at 6 this morning with the best of intentions to get out of bed & get started early, but I fell back to sleep after Troy left for work & slept until 9:30. I did get up then and take pictures. After that I started listing things on Etsy (that’s a link to my shop right there) and took my pill, ate breakfast and finished my listings. Up so far are the tooth fairy pillows, ID wallets, booties and cuffs. I need to iron the little purses before I take pictures of them and there’s one more pillow that needs picture retakes.

I’m just happy that I did what I told myself I was going to today, because so often I get up and put things off until I can’t anymore. So yay! Anyway, if you were interested in any of the things I listed, check them out in My Etsy shop.

So, I’m back on my quest for good health and smaller clothes. Again. I’ve been taking hoodia for awhile, and Saturday, I started an 1800 calorie, low-fat diet, in preparation for starting a new medication to help me lose a little more weight. I start taking the medication tomorrow and I have to say, I’m a little nervous. I never thought I’d be the one taking a weight-loss drug. I always believed that I could and would do it all by myself. But I can’t. I’m so tired of fighting and losing. I’m tired of being fat, uncomfortable, embarrassed and unhealthy. I’m afraid that I’ll fail again, and end up even bigger when its all over and that I’ll have no options at all then. So, if you read this, send me a little flare of hope and keep me in your thoughts, its an unhill battle and I really want to win this time.