I got some nice presents, including a Cuttlebug that I can use with my cardmaking.    TLK and I had fun making cut-out butterflies and frogs, and playing with embossing, which I must say… using a machine to emboss is much easier than hand-embossing… more dramatic and less painful. 

The people at work bought me an ice cream cake and my friend put a banner on my cubicle so everyone knew.    I received flowers from my family in Texas and the funniest card from my family in Kansas.   I put a call into my parents via Skype, but had to leave a message.  Not sure if they’ll hear the voice mail.  My dad says he can’t get through the Italian prompts.. but maybe he can by now. 

We went to Applebees for dinner, which was nice.  They have good steaks and something wonderful called “Peach Sangria”    Yum

Oh, and everyone I knew on FB said, “Happy Birthday”, which was fun. 

Overall, a really good day.   It is good to be 23 again.  “Mommy counts backwards now”.  LOL.

It’s been nice having 2 short weeks in a row. This is normally when it becomes blatantly obvious that work is going to consist of 5 long workdays for quite a long time.

On the immigration front, we received a couple of communications from USCIS. One was a biometrics appointment, set for January 13. The other was an RFE (Request for further evidence). We’re waiting for the letter that identifies what else is needed, we’ll send it in super-speedy, and it will all be fine.

It’s the extra incidence of special mailing that’s annoying, but it’ll be fine.

Other than that, we’ve been buried in snow. Some of the heaps of snow have been stacked up to 8 feet. When they plow the snow, they have to stack it somewhere. The only problem is that it’s difficult to see around an 8 foot pile of snow when you’re trying to see oncoming traffic, so the driving is a bit hazardous, but so far, so good.

Tomorrow is my dad’s birthday. You should stop by and say hello.

to my lovely boyfriend, whom I plan to spoil a little bit from remote today.   This man keeps enabling me to look on the bright side of life and be the best person I can be.   You bring joy to my life.   Everyday.    Thanks for being exactly who you are.

Ambien is very addictive, even though they say it’s not. It may be more the feeling of a guaranteed nights’ sleep that’s addictive, rather than the drug itself.

In any event, I’m going without it now.   I’ll be fine.       Do you know that Ambien is used to help Air Force pilots sleep after missions?   Also, it’s supposed to be helpful in the treatment of restless leg syndrome.

In other news, my brother’s birthday is today!  I enjoy having a sibling only 15 months younger than me. Just as I am thinking, “I can’t believe I’m (this age)”, his birthday comes along, and then I realise I’m not the only one hitting those ages. hehe 

I love my brother.    He IS a nut.    The last time I was with him, he tried to scare the heck out of a large flock of birds (very large crows, I believe) in the Wal-Mart parking lot by aiming at them with his SUV and putting his foot down (heavily) on the gas pedal… braking just before he got to them.   

Off they went.    (no birds were damaged, although they might have been scared slightly during this scientific experiment)    I should hasten to mention that I love all animals, for the sake of any PETA employees who might be reading this.

The funny part was the man standing in the parking lot, he noticed afterwards, staring at him like “WTF are you doing?”

I hope he has a fun day (although I suspect he is working!)