Our New Year's Eve was quiet, peaceful, and a lot of fun. Mike and I had talked about going out and doing something, but by the time yesterday rolled around, all we wanted to do was stay in and enjoy each other's company. Even though we had initially planned on going to bed early, we ended up catching up on the current season of CSI, pausing right after midnight to wish each other a happy new year, and by the time we went to bed, it was after 4.

2008 was an interesting year. I lost friends, made new ones, had enough medical procedures to last me a lifetime, survived two more semesters of school, learned some things about myself (both good and bad), and tried to continue on my path of improving myself and finding a better balance. I'm looking forward to continuing that path in 2009, hopefully with even more success.

I voted this morning, just like I did in 2007, 2006, 2005, and the last presidential election. Four years ago I worried that another term for Bush would damage America even more, and it did. Mike and I were at the polls before they opened this morning, and it was encouraging to see so many people in line with us. Regardless of which candidate they support, I was happy to see so many people in my area taking the time to come in and vote, even if it meant standing in line for almost an hour. I'm anxious to know the results of today's election, and I'm anxious to see how the next four years go. I doubt I'll be staying up to see who wins, but I plan on checking first thing tomorrow when I wake up.

I don't know whether or not this further cements my "crazy dachshund lady" status, but I just ordered these for the pups from Dachshund Delights. Jordan's will be yellow, Maddy's will be red, and Max's will be blue. The lady I spoke with is very familiar with DRNA and more specifically with Jordan's foster mom. She even remembered Jordan, which, of course, won me over as a customer for life. Even cooler - when I get around to ordering harnesses for the pups (either the hug-a-dog or the hold-a-dog), they'll give me a discount because I adopted Mister Jordan.

I still think it's stupid to mess around with the time, but as long as we have to keep doing this, I'm going to continue to enjoy the extra hour. I do love checking the clock and seeing that it's earlier than I think it should be all day. That part of DST I don't mind one bit. In addition to sleeping late, I FINALLY got the floor by my side of the bed cleaned up, something both Mike and the puppies are happy about - Mike because he no longer has to worry about breaking his neck walking around the bed, and the puppies because now they've got a straight shot to the kennel. We all have our own reasons to be happy about the extra hour yesterday.

"Fringe" caught my interest when I first heard about it, primarily because of how similar it sounded to "The X-Files." It doesn't hurt any that it has Joshua Jackson in it, either. I meant to check it out on Hulu but kept forgetting until this week, and once I saw the pilot, I was hooked, for a few reasons.

The subject matter: "Fringe" deals with unusual events and is similar enough to "The X-Files" to fill that void for me. In fact, I kind of like "Fringe" a wee bit more because it doesn't just leave things dangling as paranormal events, it delves a little bit more into the scientific possibilities behind them.

Joshua Jackson: I used to grit my teeth through Dawson's Creek just for Pacey, and now I can see him every week (sort of) without having to listen to Paula Cole too. (When I called my sister this week to squeak excitedly at her about the show, her first response to the Joshua Jackson point was, "Ohhh. But...isn't he getting kind of old?" He's two years older than I am. I SUPPOSE some people consider 30 "old," but I'll continue to think that it's not.)

The level of detail: I love the little things that are woven into the episodes - clues to the next episode, the repeated appearances of The Observer (even before the episode where he's a major player), subtle references to Massive Dynamics, etc. - and the attention to detail outside of the episodes as well, to include a pretty comprehensive Massive Dynamics website.

I'm not crazy about everything on the show, but I like it enough that I'm glad it was picked up for a full season, and I'm very interested in seeing how the bigger "Fringe" picture comes together.

I'm pretty sure my pups are allergic to something in their food. I plan to have them tested for allergies when I take them all in to have their teeth cleaned in January, but in the meantime, I'm trying to eliminate some of the more common allergens from their diet (starting with corn and wheat), and in my quest to take good care of my dogs, it appears that I may have stumbled on the smelliest dog food evar: Purina's Pro Plan salmon and brown rice formula. I knew it was going to be a smelly food when I grabbed the bag off the shelf at PetSmart and caught a whiff of salmon, but that didn't prepare me for how strong it would be after I actually opened the bag. The dogs love it, of course, but their breath right after they eat? HORRIBLE. I'm currently mixing the new food half-and-half with their old food to transition them to it, and I'm a little worried that once they start eating just the new food, I'll have to try to explain to them why Mama doesn't want kisses until after they've had a bowlful (or three) of water.

I have a midterm to take after work today, so I'm busy studying, procrastinating, and panicking, although not necessarily in that order. 100 questions - all multiple choice or t/f, thankfully. The class average at this point? 51.8%. Holy shit, that does nothing to make me feel any more confident about this thing. What this means is that really all you'll hear out of me till at least 5pm is, "Meep! Exam!"

According to this article from MSNBC, the Virginia State Board of Elections voted yesterday that Virginians aren't allowed to wear clothing, hats, buttons, or "other paraphernalia that directly advocate the election or defeat of a specific candidate or issue" on Election Day this coming November. I haven't been able to confirm this yet with the Board of Elections - I didn't see anything on their website about it, and I've been on hold for over half an hour to try to speak with someone about this - so I'm interested to hear what they have to say about it whenever someone finally picks up the phone.

Personally, I don't see how a t-shirt or button is any different from walking in with literature that I've been given by one of the people outside the polling place. If someone is going to be intimidated by a candidate t-shirt, that's a pretty sad state of affairs, and if someone is going to get pissy with another voter because they don't like who or what their "paraphernalia" is promoting, that is even sadder. When did it become necessary for the government to act like a babysitter to adults?

My eyebrow ring fell out sometime between when I went to bed on Thursday and when I took a shower Friday morning. It's still AWOL, so I haven't had one in since Friday, and so far no one has noticed it until I call their attention to it. My family and co-workers may not notice anything different, but I feel like I'm missing a limb. It feels really weird to dry my face off after a shower and not have the towel tug on my eyebrow anymore. I tried getting a new ring over the weekend, but after a painful attempt to put the new ring through the hole in my eyebrow, I realized that one shop's idea of a starter eyebrow ring is not necessarily the same as another's, so I had to turn to the internets for a new eyebrow ring - one that is the correct gauge this time. I got an e-mail yesterday letting me know that it had shipped, so I'm going to be haunting the mailbox this week, hoping that I can finally have an eyebrow ring in again by the time the weekend is here.

If you've been on hold for hours over 20 minutes, make sure you've actually pressed the "speaker" button before you put the receiver down to finish out your hold-time on speakerphone, because if you don't press it and accidentally hang up on your call, the billing department will be closed when you immediately call back to start the process all over again.

When I read distracted spunk's words this morning as I was catching up on the internets, this part in particular hit home:

I'm tired of falseness. I'm tired of perceived relationships that faded out years ago and pretensions and status updates from people who can't type words properly. Let the past be the past. I know who my friends are and I know who will be there when the chips fall. I know who I want to keep friendly tabs on, and I know who I could care less about. I'm tired of trying to be something I'm not, and until I am, I'm not all that interested in being social.

While I'm not in the same place she is, I am working on figuring out who I am and refining myself until I'm the person I am capable of being, or at least closer to it than I am now. As the saying goes, "Be true to yourself." I'm trying to do this, and at the same time I'm trying to learn more about who the self I'm being true to is. This year has marked the beginning of that journey, especially the past few months as we move into fall and winter. As the season changes over, I find myself more motivated to make changes too. There have been casualties online and in real life as I asses relationships and determine how or if they fit with my current path. I'm actually doing things when I say I will instead of putting them off endlessly. The discipline I've allowed myself to slack on for so long is slowly being reintroduced, and I'm finding I'm much happier for it.

Mike and I picked up Iron Man over the weekend, which meant we had a date to watch it again that night. I still love it every bit as much as when we saw it in the theater. I also loved watching some of the behind-the-scenes special features. The more RDJr, the better! We watched some of the cut scenes, too, and, as much as it pains me to say it, I think the movie was better off without them. I might feel differently if I'd seen the movie with them first, but having seen it as-is, there's no way that adding them back in would make it any better.

This is how Max ends up whenever the puppies sleep with us in the big people bed. She always starts off under the covers by our feet, but by the time we wake up, there she is, head and shoulders on a pillow, the rest of her under the covers - and it's always my pillow she winds up sleeping on.

It took me over 2.5 hours to get in to work today. OVER 2.5 HOURS. I live approximately 26 miles from work, give or take one or two, and with the traffic it took me 2.25 hours to go ~16 miles. Insane. However, all is not lost! Thanks to my pretty little PDA I was able to enter a month's worth of receipts into my financial spreadsheet while I and my fellow commuters were at a standstill. Walking in and being able to shred a wad of receipts right off the bat helped calm me down a little bit, although I still wish I'd been in a position to just turn around and go home.

This morning I e-mailed a little write-up about Jordan to DRNA to include on their "Happy Tails" page, and they've already put it up. They even used all the pictures I sent in!

I got an e-mail about the upcoming Puppy Mill Awareness Day, an event scheduled for September 20th in PA, and it absolutely breaks my heart that there even needs to be an awareness day for this. Those poor dogs live in atrocious conditions and have the saddest lives I can imagine. Former puppy mill dogs have to be taught how to be loved. They even have to be taught how to play. They have no idea what it's like to cuddle up with their owner and nap. I hate the fact that there are people out there who view dogs as livestock and breed them relentlessly, thinking only of profit. There's nothing wrong with breeding dogs, but for God's sake don't just churn out puppies. Shit like that is what makes me want to buy a farm and adopt every dog I meet/hear of that needs a home.

I just got home a few minutes ago, even though today was supposed to be a half-day. Just as I was leaving work this afternoon Mike called me to ask if I could come pick him up and take him to the hospital because he was pretty sure he was having a heart attack. He's pranked me with similar calls before so it took me a couple of minutes to determine he was serious, after which I immediately headed up north to get him. While I was getting on the road, his clients ended up calling the paramedics for him, and by the time I was halfway there, the paramedics had picked him up and were en route to the hospital in an ambulance. One of his clients was kind enough to give me directions to the hospital, but I still managed to get turned around and ended up in DC before I finally made my way to the right place, and then when I got there, some feisty little lady in the ER tried telling me that I couldn't go back to see him until after I'd waited 15 - 20 minutes. She wouldn't even check the computer to see if he was registered or not! I burst into tears, and she tried to placate me by telling me that Mike was going to be fine (which was rich since she hadn't even bothered to look to see who he was!), then FINALLY she went back to check and see which room he was in.

They did chest x-rays, EKGs, bloodwork, checked for blood clots, damage to his heart - the works. All the tests came back negative, though, so they're not sure what happened to him. The doctor didn't want to "diagnose" him with something just to give it a label, but he told us that if it happened again, we should go to Mike's regular doctor and arrange to have more tests done. I'm praying that this is an isolated incident, because driving up from work knowing that Mike was being taken to the hospital and worrying that something horrible was going to happen before I got there is not an experience I ever, ever want to repeat. I was so scared he was going to die. :( I know I've joked about this being the year of the health insurance, but C'MON.

The kids and their mom sent me these lovely flowers yesterday to cheer me up on my first day back at work. When the florist rang the doorbell, the dogs went flying down to the door, barking madly to let me know that SOMEONE WAS THERE, and, as usual, I shut them in the landry room so I could answer the door without them dancing around my ankles, trying to escape. After signing for the flowers, I opened the door to let them out of the laundry room. Jordan came bolting out like his tail was on fire, in a hurry to get back to the front door to see who had been there. Maddy came cautiously creeping around the door like she was afraid of it. Max, well, Max was behind the door looking at me through the crack, and she didn't seem to realize that she could back up and go around the door. After a few minutes of calling her with no result other than more tail wagging, I gave up and went into the laundry room to show her that she could get out on her own.

I can't believe I haven't written about Dr. Horrible before now! Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is the result of Joss Whedon, his two brothers Zack and Jed, and Maurissa Tancharden all getting together during the writer's strike and putting together three acts of an online musical tv show. Neil Patrick Harris won my heart as Dr. Horrible, and Nathan Fillion does a great job playing Captain Hammer (corporate tool). If you haven't seen it yet, take a few minutes and watch. I don't think you'll be sorry. Also, the soundtrack is available on iTunes now. <3