I am finding myself a bit behind in the things I need to get done at work lately, and less than motivated to persevere. I have been annoyed, irritated, and unmotivated, which is completely unlike me. All are results of the issue I am dealing with involving the two "kindergarteners" that have taken up residence in my office. I finally moved out of the office but I am struggling without my computer and without a quiet place to get some of my work done. Something has got to give. I am a NASA property custodian-I have to keep track of NASA owned items that we use on a database- and a Baseline Configuration Administrator-don't ask- on the side as well as being heavily involved in several other groups and doing my regular job, and I can't keep up without my computer. It is not feasible to have the computer moved. I will talk to my boss again tomorrow, but I don't see any solution other than me transferring to another area of the space center, and that is not an option due to my side responsibilities. I swear, all I want to do is come to work and do a good job, that is all. I don't need this crap.

Remember how I mentioned that Andy and I were planting a giant bowl of weeds for Virgil the tortoise to eat? I received the "tortoise seed mix" in the mail a couple of weeks ago, and finally it was starting to grow in enough that we decided to let Virgil crawl around and sample the greens. It needs to grow a lot more, but it didn't hurt to let him test it out. I think he thought he had died and gone to heaven. He wandered around the bowl munching on whatever he came across, though he did seem to prefer the broadleaf weeds to the grasses. He is a little eating machine.

Don't forget to stop by our other blog, Tortoise Hollow to see how things are going with our new house plans.

I made my "Island chili" today in the crock pot and experimented with it even further. I think this is the best one yet. The ingredients were almost the same as the ones in my chili post, but I substituted halved cherry tomatoes for the yellow tomatoes because they were not available, used red instead of white onion, and added tomatillos and the zest and juice of two key limes grown right in our backyard. I can't wait to taste it after a couple of days in the fridge when it has gotten to its best.

I am going ahead with my plans to make the cuccis (sounds like goochies) or cuccidati I mentioned in my last post. I purchased a rolling pin today- believe it or not we didn't have one- and found an old fashioned crank-type meat grinder that clamps onto the counter just like Grandma's at a specialty cooking store. The meat grinder will grind up the dried figs and nuts to make the cucci filling. I can't wait to try this. I think that will be my project next weekend.

Ever since anyone in my family can remember, my Grandma has been making Sicilian fig filled cookies at Christmastime that are to die for. We always called them "goochies," which I just found out today is short for cuccidati, pronounced "goo-chi-data" thanks to the internet. The recipes for these traditional Sicilian cookies are many and vary widely, but about fifteen years ago I was at Grandma's house when she made them, and I was smart enough to document the process and write down the ingredients. This turned out to be a very good thing, because a few years ago, my mom called and asked if I still had the recipe written down. Grandma had always made the cookies by memory, and she couldn't quite remember some of the amounts of the ingredients she normally used. I was able to help refresh her memory with my written notes, and save the day.

So today, as Andy and I were grocery shopping, I noticed that the packages of dried figs were out on display and it reminded me of the cuccis. I started pondering trying to make them myself, as Grandma has problems with her shoulder now and I don't think she has made them in a few years. Besides, this is a family tradition that I definitely want to keep going. I searched the internet for different recipes to compare to Grandma's and hers is a little different from all of the others out there. The finished cookies have beautiful designs carved into the tops of them where the fig filling shows through and none of the other recipes I saw called for as much artistry in this area as Grandma's. She said that the women in Sicily used to try to outdo each other with the designs they cut in the cookie tops.

So, I am going to go for it. It is a process that takes place over a couple of days, and I need to buy a meat grinder first to grind up the figs and a rolling pin, but I have got to give it a try. I will try to take photos of each stage of the recipe so I can post them here and you can see how much goes into these cookies. The recipe on the Food Network website for cuccidati lists the skill requirement to make them as "expert." Sounds fun, huh?

Yesterday I finally succumbed to the insanity that is black Friday and got up at an ungodly time to wait in line in order to purchase a GPS system for my Jeep at a savings of $250. The night before, on Thanksgiving, Andy and I had gone to CompUSA when they opened at nine to try to get him a digital camera that was on sale. Unfortunately, even though the camera was featured in their ad, they never had any in stock and we came home empty handed. But we caught a glimpse of the craziness that surrounds the stores at this time of year. I don't know why we decided to participate in all this because we both hate crowds, but there you have it.

The next morning I figured I had better set out early, after seeing the throngs of people at CompUSA. I got up at 3:30, headed out at about 4:15, and drove to Titusville to the Staples store there. When I got there at four forty-five, there was a line already, but it wasn't too bad. We stoood there in the dark and I made chit chat with the people around me in line. Strangely, the people in line next to me on both sides had mistakenly believed that the store was to open at 5am, when in reality it was at 6am, but it was god that they got there that early or the things they had come for would have been gone. Staples handled things a lot better than CompUSA had. They had vouchers for the high demand items that were advertised and they went down the line and handed out these vouchers to those at the front of the line. This way, the people in the front were guaranteed to be able to buy what they were waiting for. They actually had quite a few of each of the advertised items, unlike a lot of stores that only have a couple. When the doors open, I was able to go straight to a register and purchase the GPS system I had a voucher for. I was out of the store and back in my Jeep driving away in only fourteen minutes after the doors had opened.

I don't drive to Titusville very often, so on the way home I truly proved to myself why I needed a GPS. I missed my turn twice and had to do an illegal u-turn to get back on track, but eventually I made it. Of course that was after getting stuck at a drawbridge for an eternity for the world's longest barge to go through, but that is beside the point. After I got home, Andy and I went out shopping at a more leisurely pace for a few Christmas gifts. What did you do on black Friday?

Five years ago today there was a small ceremony in our backyard and Andy and I were married, for better or for worse. I would have to say that it has definitely been for better; we have a wonderful life and are each other's best friend. I can honestly say that we not only love each other, but really like each other too and enjoy spending time together. We just really "go" together. Andy loves animals almost as much as I do, loves nature, and shares all the same dreams for our future together, so I think we were made for each other.

This afternoon we went for our anniversary dinner to Carrabba's, which is one of our favorite restaurants. Interestingly, we had the same waitress that we had the very first time we went in there, over five years ago. It was funny to think back about how much our lives have changed since that time when we were sitting only a couple of booths away. And dinner was excellent, too.

Happy fifth anniversay, sweetie. I hope we'll be together for at least another ten times that. I love you!

I love Thanksgiving. What I love even more than having two days off to eat great food and shop is not having to go anywhere and being able to enjoy the day with my own little immediate family of just Andy, the dogs, the bird and the tortoise.

We have our Thankgivings down to a science now. A week or so before the big day we will stop by the deli while we are grocery shopping and order ourselves a turkey dinner. We have a wonderful grocery store here, Publix, and their deli makes fabulous food. The day before Thanksgiving, I pick up the fully cooked turkey and side dishes and stow them in the fridge. About an hour and a half before we are ready to eat we pop the turkey in the oven to warm it up, and the stuffing and mashed potatoes go in a half an hour later. They even cook in the containers that they come in, so there are no pans to wash. It is all so easy and stress free and then we have a lovely turkey dinner and tons of turkey leftover for sandwiches and soups and salads when we are done.

We ate early today because we didn't want to eat lunch and have it spoil our turkey appetites but we were starving, and hey, why not? Now we are all set for an afternoon of watching football, perusing the sale ads in the newspaper for tomorrow and napping. Just perfect. Did I mention that I love Thanksgiving?

This morning I got up from my vanity where I was getting ready and stubbed the hell out of my toe. I think it might be broken- it looks pretty nasty. I have been suffering with a painful toe all day. Other than that i don't have too much for today; I am just biding my time until the Thanksgiving holiday. Hooray for a four day weekend!

Stop over at Andy's blog to see some interesting photos of him in a SCAPE suit, which is a sixty pound rubber suit that he sometimes has to wear at work, like last night when he was freezing his ass off in it until nearly four in the morning. They stayed so late last night that I got up to go to work before he was in bed. This is a glimpse of real space program operations, so please go by and pay Andy a visit.

Family Day used to be an annual event at the space center, but due to security concerns there hasn't been one in six years and they finally decided to revive the tradition. Yesterday was the day, and badged Kennedy Space center employees could bring a carload of family and/or friends to see some of what we see every day, and way more than can be seen on even the expensive paid tours that are offered by the Space Center Visitors Complex. Those tours only take people around the space center in buses to allow them to see the outside of the buildings; yesterday we got to actually bring our families inside to see the orbiter Endeavour and inside the firing rooms and the VAB and more. My mom and dad made the trip from Tallahassee to see the sights and Andy and I took them around. Here are some photos from the event:

I scrubbed out Virgil the tortoise's water bowl this evening and filled it back up with warm water for him to soak in. He has a shallow water bowl that is big enough for him to walk around in, and it even has steps so he can get out of it on his own. He wandered around in there for a while, then started rocking back and forth and I saw some teeny bubbles come from his rear end. Then I saw the end of a poop poking out of his butt. The next thing I knew, a huge turd befitting a much larger animal shot out of his butt and he almost smiled at me. You can see the giant turd here, floating in the water behind him. I swear, it is bigger around than one of his legs.

After he was done, he climbed right out of the water and was on his way, happy as can be. Don't you wish your life was that simple?

Just now Andy and I went to pick up his truck from the shop- see post below for story on that. We pulled out of the garage and Andy commented on how the dash of my Jeep was so dim. I said, "Yeah it seems dimmer lately. Is it adjustable?" Andy looked at me incredulously, as though I had just at that moment sprouted another head. He said "Is there a little knob you pull to turn on the headlights?" I said "yes, there is." He said "then turn it." I turned the little knob and my dash brightened instantly. I turned it the other way and found that it turned on my dome light. "Oh, I said, isn't that neat?" Andy was not impressed. He couldn't believe that I could have had the jeep for six and a half years and not know that. In my defense, there is nothing on the little knob to indicate that it performs those functions, but Andy says that is because EVERYONE ELSE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD ALREADY KNOWS THAT. I guess I am a dumbass. *Sarcastically in a retarded voice* Doh, I am smart. I work on the space shuttle!

Andy left around 2:00 this afternoon to work a Sunday shift in preparation for the next space shuttle launch. He had just had a bunch of maintenance done to his truck yesterday so all was good. Right. On the way to work, he had some problems with his truck, had to call Triple A and get towed back to the place the work was done. It ended up that when they changed his timing belt yesterday, the new tensioner that was put in was faulty, and the belt slipped off, stranding him. So this afternoon, I drove up to the shop to pick him up and get everything settled.

I was in the middle of doing some heavy house cleaning and had just finished doing a major cleaning of the bird cage. This is something that only gets done once in a while because it is so time consuming and messy. I normally spot clean it, but sometimes it needs to be cleaned more thoroughly. The cage is as tall as I am and huge. I roll the whole thing outside into the backyard and spray it down with the hose and scrub it. I take all of the perches and toys out and soak them in hot, soapy water in the kitchen sink while I am cleaning the cage. Charley has a smaller travel cage that he stays in while all of this is going on. There are two boards that rest at the bottom of the cage, inside the metal seed catcher area, that we have placed there simply to block a small gap below the bottom grate at the bottom of the cage where the dogs like to reach their little paws in and grab hold of the newspaper lining the bottom of the tray. They have been known to pull out big sheets of newspaper with bird food and poop all over them and make a big mess, so the boards keep them out of there.

I had washed the boards outside with the hose and set them out to dry leaning against the house. I went off to pick up Andy at the shop and when I came back I was getting the boards to bring them back inside when one of them fell over and landed on my poor big toe. Ouch! The damn thing still hurts. I think it is going to leave a mark. Flip flops don't offer much protection, unfortunately. So now Andy is home, his truck is still at the shop, and my damn toe hurts. Things went to shit in a hurry! Oh well, tomorrow is another day. Too bad it is Monday, though.

Virgil, our little Hermann's tortoise that we got last week, was acquired rather quickly, but he was not exactly an impulse purchase. We have been researching tortoises for several months now, and I can say with assurance that Andy and I don't do anything half-assed when it comes to our animals. As a tiny hatchling he is too small now for an outdoor enclosure, but we have big plans to build a really neat park-like home for him on our new property. He is in a roomy indoor enclosure now, with a heat lamp for basking and a full spectrum and UVB reptile light for his health. He has a lovely little turtle hut to hide and sleep under and his the rest of his furnishings are nice as well. Certainly his current setup is more than adequate until he gets larger. I have big plans for his outdoor home- I want it to be terraced with divided living areas for other small tortoises, and nice warm, heated tortoise houses and burrows for night time.

The big thing that we need to work on now is his food. I have been feeding him some leafy greens such as escarole, and he likes romaine and spinach, but from what I have read, they aren't that great for him because they tend to block the uptake of calcium. Grocery store greens in general aren't the best food, but they will do in a pinch. Commercial tortoise foods are no good either, according to my research. The tortoise's normal diet consists of certain types of grasses, weeds, dandelions, and flowers, but it is quite difficult to find things like that around here that have no traces of pesticide on them. Everything gets sprayed with pesticides, it seems, and that is no good for our Virgil.

Today Andy and I went out and bought a very large shallow terracotta planter bowl. It is nearly three feet wide. We are going to fill it with dirt and plant seeds of all the foods that are the best for our little tortoise. I even found a "forest tortoise seed mix" for sale by a tortoise rescue group on the internet and have ordered some to grow in the bowl. It is supposed to grow very quickly, within a couple of weeks, and we will be able to let Virgil crawl around the bowl and choose his own meal from time to time. He is going to love it.

Have you ever had an image of how you thought someone looked only to actually meet them and find them completely different than you had imagined? Today I met two people in person that I had conjured up images of in my mind and my mental images were not close at all. One of the two is a guy Andy and I have been talking to on the phone for the past year in reference to environmental permitting for our new house and road, and the other one was a lady working with an agency we are dealing with to complete the project. I pictured her with black hair and I was way off, because she was blond. It was funny because afterward I asked Andy what color hair he thought she had and he instantly said "black," so I wasn't the only one to get it wrong. I wasn't quite as wrong with my image of the guy, but still he didn't look like I thought he would from hearing his voice. They never do.

Along these lines, the image that shocked me the most was of a lady at work that I had emailed with and talked to on the phone. I would have bet money that she was a petite black woman. When I finally saw her I was in shock because she was fair skinned, blond and HUGE. I couldn't have been more wrong that time. Are you any better at visualizing people than I am?

Last week, my best friend at work and only female friend that I work with directly was fired. She is going through so much now and I am doing my best to be there for her. I wish her only the best, which is what she deserves and I feel confident that in time she is going to emerge from this and things will be better for her. Still I am faced with the fact that things are not and will not ever be the same at work. It really sucks having no female friend to confide in and hang out with. I have always gotten along well with the guys, but it just isn't the same. I can't talk to them about the same kinds of things that I could with her. We have talked on the phone pretty much every day, so that helps but it is just that everything at work is a little less fun without her. The timing is very bad too, because it is just starting to get cooler outside and in the cooler months we would take walks around our area at lunch time. I shouldn't go off walking by myself, because there are lots of alligators around and it really isn't safe to go by myself, and not any fun either with no one to talk to.

I have a lot of work and projects to keep me busy, and there are some other women that I interface with at work, but most of them are outside of our work area so I see them infrequently, and they work in more of the support, engineering, and clerical type jobs rather than the technical side of things where I work and they can't fully relate. It was so nice to have a friend that was going through the same types of things on a daily basis that I was. Andy felt bad for me because I have been moping so much and got me flowers today to cheer me up. Hopefully I will adjust to the change soon.

I got back the results of my latest blood test, and it helped exactly none. The doctor still has no idea what the hell is damaging my liver, only now we know that it is not hemochromatosis. In a way this is bad news, because that would have been easy to treat, and now it just means that they are going to keep sticking me with needles and doing test after test after test until concievably there is no blood left in my body. Okay that is a bit of an exaggeration, but I find this whole thing to be exceedingly frustrating and ridiculous. Hopefully they will either figure it out or give up before then. I am over it already. Where is Dr. House when you need him anyway?

The poll below showed that by a good margin, you all chose the name Virgil for my tortoise. It is funny because I never mentioned it, but Carol-anne made the connection anyway, as I saw from her comment, that the name Virgil has significance to the space program making it an even more perfect name. The Virgil that she was referring to was Virgil "Gus" Grissom, one of the three astronauts that died in the Apollo I fire during a test, in one of NASA's worst disasters. Prior to his death he became the second American to go into space when the Liberty Bell 7 was launched in 1961. So you have chosen wisely, thank you for your participation and I will hang on to the other names that were suggested because this will not be the last tortoise to join this family, for sure.

Our vacuum cleaner hasn't been working well in a while. I noticed that it didn't even sound the same; instead of the deep roar it initially had it made sort of a whiny sound and didn't pick up much at all. The last time I used it I declared to Andy that the damn thing was broken- I had gone back and forth over the same stupid little feather that was laying on the carpet and it wouldn't even pick THAT up. I was pretty sure it hadn't worked right in ages. Andy kept telling me it was fine, that we should just keep using it because he didn't want to buy a new vacuum cleaner now because we are having all wood floors in our new house.

Well, I am not sure what got into him today, but when I opened the garage door to pull in when I got home, I noticed the vacuum cleaner was in the trashcan. When I got in the house there was little note on the counter that said "look in the laundry room trash can." I looked, and there was a mountain of crap- dirt and lint from inside of a vacuum cleaner. I went to go see if there was a new vacuum cleaner in the closet, and when I opened the door there was a new vacuum with a bow on it.

Andy called me from work just then and said that he had gotten TONS of crap out of the carpets with the new vac, all the junk that was left behind by vacuuming with the old one that I had sworn didn't work. I guess he believes me now. At least we can use it on the area rugs in the new house. And that is still at least a year away.

I have compiled some of the suggestions for names for my new tortoise with some that I have picked out and I thought I'd have a poll to see which name everyone liked the best. Please vote for your favorite.

Every time a new creature comes into the family I am on a mission to find the perfect name. I can't explain it, but names are very important to me. I like for everyone or every critter to have a name that really "fits" and a name that works for that individual. I actually even have a pet name book that I have consulted on several occasions in my quest for ideas for the perfect name. My sweet Louie was named from an idea from the book as was our parrot Charley, though Annabel and Denny were both named by a foster mother and transporter with the poodle rescue. Louie was just a name I loved and Andy liked also; Charley was named after the black poodle in the book "Travels with Charley" by John Steinbeck, Annabel was a cute name and really fit her, and Denny just sort of felt right after a while. Denny was named Dennis Hopper by his transporter with the poodle rescue because he had a broken foot and hopped around, but we shortened it to Denny. Michaela came with her name from the people that surrendered her so I haven't had to think of a name in a while. I have been poring over my pet name book looking for the perfect name for my new tiny tortoise, but it is tough to choose. There is a section for multiple pets with names that go together like Fred & Ethel and that sort of thing. The funniest one in the book to me is Get off the rug & You too. There is also one for a trio of pets that is Hey you, Who me, Yeah you. Talk about confusing! So far for my little baby I am leaning heavily towards the name Virgil. I dunno, does that work? I really like Virgil for him, I think.

Chelonians are turtle and tortoises, in case you are wondering. Today we took a drive over to a reptile show over in Orlando. It was what I wanted to do for my birthday so we left this morning and got there right when it opened. I was completely awestruk; right in the front there were tons of chameleons, big beautiful ones with eyes that move around independant of each other and those fabulous feet that look like two big toes spread in a "V." I am nuts about chameleons and I got to actually hold a couple of them and it was incredible. I swear I am going to own a chameleon one day. That day was almost today, but Andy thinks I am nuts and that I should wait until we get into the new house to get a chameleon. I should have taken pictures, darn it, but I didn't. Sorry.

Anyway, I did manage to work on Andy enough to get a new addition to the family, a teeny tiny tortoise called a Hermann's Tortoise. They are one of the smallest tortoises in the world and never grow beyond 5-10 inches. I walked up to the tank where he was and he looked me in the eye. He looked so intelligent and so wonderful that I was hooked. Andy liked him too, but I had to do a lot of convincing to be able to bring him home. You know, play that "but it's my birthday" card and all. Here's the little cutie:

Isn't he great? Those yellow things next to him are kernels of corn, so you can see how very tiny he is. And I say "he" but we don't really know if it is a he or a she. It is too young to tell. And I am not sure about a name for it. I am leaning toward male names and just making the assumption he is a male until I find out otherwise, I guess. I have thought of the name the name Shawn for him, what do you think? I suppose it could be Shawna later on if he turns out to be female, right? Or do you have a better name for him? I am sort of open to suggestions, but it has to be a people name. I always name my animals people names.

So, it is my birthday. And it is a perfect, beautiful day here: sunny, breezy, and temperatures in the mid seventies. Mom and Dad got me an eBay gift certificate, which is my favorite- endless possibilities there. Thanks, Mom and Dad! The dogs and bird all signed a card for me, with Andy's help of course, and I got another one from Andy. He says he'll get me whatever I want for my birthday, but I am not sure yet what that is going to be.

Right now it looks like what I want for my birthday is to go to a huge reptile show in Orlando. It is going on today and tomorrow at the Orange County Convention Center and I want to go to look at turtles and lizards, mainly. I think we might plan to make the trip tomorrow. Andy is feeling a lot better today after having his wisdom teeth out yesterday, but I think he needs another day of taking it easy before we go out to something like that. I just love animals.

I think we are through the worst of the post wisdom tooth extraction. Andy is awake and surfing the internet on his laptop while in bed. The first gauze change was the worst because there was still so much bleeding. It got better after that and we followed the suggestion from the nurse about putting the gauze just inside the cheek and that helped him with gagging thing. I ran out for a few minutes to the pharmacy to pick up the four prescriptions that they had given him.

I had to get him to eat something so he could take pain medication. He was able to get some applesauce down, and a pain pill, which was good because the numbness is starting to wear off. Andy is not the best patient and as previously discussed, I am not the best nurse but we are surviving.

Holy shit. Andy had all four of his wisdom teeth out this morning. I couldn't believe how quick it was; he was only in there for about half an hour. I was called from the wiating room to the back where the nurse gave me instructions for him. She said that he did great but was bleeding a lot which is normal for fair haired people. We have to change his gauzes out every forty minutes or so and that is the part that is killing me. We have done one change so far and Andy is a gagger. He almost had me heaving. I called the nurse right after and she told me to have him keep the gauze more toward the cheek so he wouldn't be so gaggy. But good Lord it is gross. I am not cut out for the blood and guts scene at all.

The numbess is still in effect and should be for several hours. At some point I have to leave him for long enough to go get his prescriptions- I dropped them off on the way home. And then we have to try to feed him something so he can take the pain meds. Hopefully the bleeding will stop and make that process easier. I would do anything for Andy but this is really hard. Will keep you posted.

Isn't it weird how when you are a kid it seems like a lifetime waiting for your birthday and you anticipate it for at least the six months prior, but when you get older, it sneaks up on you? I swear it just comes out of nowhere, all of sudden my birthday is Saturday. This coming Saturday. I really don't want anything for my birthday this year or anyone to acknowledge it even because it just makes me feel like I am getting old. Thirty damn two already. Sheesh.