I lost my wedding band for a while yesterday and I was extremely upset. I've lost it before - for weeks at a time - but knew it was kicking around the house somewhere but this time I really thought it was gone. I'd been carrying it (with my other rings) in my change purse because I'd forgotten my watch at home on Friday so when I took off my rings for work, I didn't have my handy watch strap to hang them on. My change purse seemed like the safest option. Not actually so safe because on Saturday morning while I was digging in said change purse for change for tip money for the Starbucksians, I managed to throw my gold wedding band in with my contribution.

Thankfully, after a couple phone calls - the first one me, asking if anyone had found a wedding band and the guy telling me "no, and I doubt you'll get it back" and me saying "well, that makes me feel really good. Thanks so much!", hanging up, then crying; followed by Theo's "Can you check the tip jar to see if there's a gold wedding band in there? Okay, when the woman who has access to the tips from earlier comes in, can you ask her to call Theo? Yeah, that's right, 'Leo'." - Theo was able to go in the the store and pick up the ring (I'd gone to a meeting by this point). They had said to bring ID, which I found funny considering that we were the ones who called asking if they'd found a specific item, but aparently showing his identical ring was enough, because 'Leo' wasn't asked to prove he was who he said he was.

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Well, so far so good with the new stereo in the car. The last one they installed seems not to be a lemon so I can stop stressing about the whole situation. Theo thinks the CD players merely had good taste and were protesting the playing of the Darkness, while I don't know how it could possibly dislike a band who is revisiting 70's glam rock, dresses in spandex jumpsuits and sings in falsetto. It's gold, baby!

In other news my mum's poor cat continues to vocally protest her vacation in Australia - she's visiting relatives and travelling to Tasmania with old school chums. He thinks it is complete bullsh*t that we aren't home as much as she is and don't provide him with the attention and pets he receives while she's around. We do what we can with the attention but generally have to listen to him howling like he's being dismembered any time he's awake and we're not downstairs with him. We've tried to bring him upstairs to hang out with us on several occasions but he just heads straight for the downstairs door again - not that I blame him with both Sephie and Morgan hissing and growling at him. Yup, we're just one happy family. At least he's very well behaved about the insulin shots I have to give him twice a day. I'm getting better with the needles and I think I have poked it straight through the skin to shoot insuling straight out the other side once this time.

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I spent a super-frustrating afternoon yesterday getting my Christmas present from Theo - a CD player for the car - installed in said car. I decided to buy a refurbished unit, which I figured would work fine, but just maybe not as long as the more expensive new one. What a mistake!

Within 4 songs of leaving A&B sound, the unit died. I drove back and they installed a different refurbished unit. Within 5 songs, it died again. I drove back yet again and they installed yet another refurbished unit. I made it home with that one still working - keep your fingers crossed for me - but I wasted my whole afternoon waiting around for all the installation and removal. They told me that I could simply buy a new unit for an extra $20 if the problems continued, which was completely contrary to what the dude who sold me the original piece of crap had said (they'll replace it with a better one, free of charge, if they can't replace it with the same one. I guess I'll need to run out their stocks of refurbished ones first). Aack!

I'm so mad that I hadn't just spent the extra money on a new one in the first place. I hadn't realized that the price difference was so low once you added in the extra warantees etc. Now I just feel like an idiot. Gah! And I feel like I should be compensated in some way for having to go back so many times but of course I'm not assertive enough to get my way and I'm sure I'll end up having to pay for the upgrade if this one craps out too.

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I received one of the strangest spam messages for a "University Education" the other day. I inadvertently clicked it instead of the real message below and the following text caught my eye:

necromancers remain makeshift.
He called her Maryellen (or was it Maryellen?). Unlike so many guardian angels who have made their foreign eggplant to us.

Maryellen, the friend of Maryellen and rejoices with carpet tack for. When you see inside menagé à trois, it means that crank case of impresario meditates. Most dissidents believe that inside steam engine sanitize briar patch toward prime minister. prime minister ignore over anomaly.

That is pretty deep stuff for a random collection of words that won't get picked up by a spam filter. Necromancers remain makeshift, indeed.

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I installed a new bifold door for the bedroom closet yesterday. The dude at Rona insisted that the one I bought would fit the opening dimensions I showed him, but he totally lied. Once I'd opened the package, I saw that you could get smaller ones through special order, but being the impatient gal that I am, I simply hacked 2 inches off the new door with the circular saw, drilled new holes for the pivots and installed it as it was. It looks quite nice and saved me having to refinish and reinstall the old door.

I've been trying to get motivated enough to really make a hard effort at getting my tax receipts organized. I've sorted them into envelopes but need to create Excel spreadsheets to add everything up. It's such a big job that I can't quite face it yet, yet I know that getting it over with will make my life less stressful. I also know that there are more of last year's receipts kicking around all over the place and it seems like too much effort to dig through to find them all.

I also keep coming up with other tasks I need to do before I do this - like tidying up around the computer so I can even keep track of the receipts in the stratified layers of paper currently covering the desk. Or maybe reorganizing the closet so I can move the unused-for-10-years-amplifier into the closet, creating more room in the office and (in my fantasy world, anyway) less clutter and mess. It hearkens back to my old college days of "How can I possibly study when the bathroom is such a mess?" Ahh, good times.

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I've been getting acupuncture for a few weeks to see if it can do anything for - too much information alert! Guys, you might want to change the channel now! - my menstrual cramps. I couldn't say if it has made any difference for me yet, but maybe it will take a few cycles to sort things out. Anything that doesn't involve me doubled up, crying, and sucking back the Advil every 4 hours is good in my book. She did give me these cool Moxibustion patches to stick to my tummy - they heat up and are pretty soothing. I love the heat pads Playtex makes that stick to the outside of my undies and heat through, rather than to my skin the way these do, but the Moxibustion ones have a therapeutic herbal component that apparently stimulate the appropriate areas like when they do it with the needles.

The Doctor totally thinks I'm a stress-monkey, though. She's not incorrect, but I just wish it weren't so obvious. We were chatting about how tight my neck and shoulders are and I just mentioned several times that it's due to my job. She said to me quietly, 'it's not all the job, Kate.' And I was like, 'oh.' She then did this weird scraping thing that left my shoulders and neck all bruised but I think they felt better the next day. I seem to have almost full range of motion again when I shoulder check in the car. She made up some sort of tincture for me which I think is supposed to be calming but I'm wary of calm and relaxation. They just interfere with my efficiency...

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