My day started out with a frantic, fruitless search for my glasses. Without them, working has been twice as hard. I can't see the computer screen without moving in really closely, and driving this morning was real scary, since I see a lot better with my glasses than without them. I thought I left them in one place, but it wasn't there when I went to get them, and now I have no idea where they are. When your day begins like that, you figure you already have two strikes against you, right? Damn!

I should be doing some work now, but I've been going non-stop since I got here this morning. With Connie on vacation, it means more phones for me to answer, and she has all this stupid paperwork to input that for her is busywork and for me, total annoyance. I should be doing that, but I'd rather be doing THIS! Bad Robin!

I wanted to add to my blog earlier than this, but it just seems easier to write from work instead of home. I can't explain why, but that's just how it is.

It was a nice weekend. I got really irritated with Dan and his anal retentiveness on Thanksgiving day, so I escaped to the gym, leaving him home with the turkey in the oven and the rest to prepare. My God, the man cooks once a year and behaves like the world is coming to an end! And he pissed me off so much, I ran away to exercise, and found myself more able to put up with him after getting some of my pent-up anger out on the machines. It was incredibly busy; I guess everyone was preparing for the upcoming feast, hoping to wipe out calories in advance.

They did fly the giant balloon characters at the parade this year, but the wind forced them to fly them lower than usual to prevent potential accidents. I didn't watch the parade, but was glad for everyone who looks forward to it that they would see their favorite characters. Unfortunately, it poured on Thanksgiving, a cold, nasty rain, and I felt sorry for the scantily clad, shivering gals walking in the parade.

Dan's dinner was fantastic, the turkey moist and delicious, the gravy perfect, the potatoes and stuffing sublime. Our only guest was Mike, and he's so close to being family, I half-cleaned the house in preparation for his arrival. Nancy and Chris didn't show, nor did Dan's boss, but at least we issued invitations to others, right, even if they didn't take us up on it?

We had three different kinds of pie--coconut custard, pecan, and pumpkin. Mike brought minty whipped cream to top them, and I provided sugar free whipped cream in a can. Brad thoroughly enjoyed the food and spent the rest of the afternoon watching football and relaxing.

Friday, Dan attempted to participate in Black Friday; he went to Circuit City, where DVD's were selling for $5 each. After waiting on very long lines for two hours, frustrated and tired, he had to give up, come home and help me take Bugsy to the vet. This is why, Dan explained, he prefers buying online. Of course, our search for Wii was fruitless, but he will get one someday.

Saturday, Dan bought himself a portable DVD player at Circuit City. The salesman who showed it to us said it was on sale for half price, $70. When Dan brought it up to the register, however, it came up for $140. The manager insisted the sale price was for seven hours on Friday and no longer available, but Dan insisted; the salesman told us it was half price, and damn it, we were getting it for half price! The manager, realizing she had a troublemaker on her hands from Dan's determined face and rising voice, gave us the sale price. Wise woman! He purchased a case for it, $10 with a $10 rebate. Free! That's how I like MY merchandise! Freecycle is spoiling me.

We took Bugsy to the Southgate Animal Hospital for his checkup and shots. He was pretty good in the car (I sat in the back with him while Dan drove), but once we got to the vet's, he began to whimper, as if he could smell the fear from other dogs who'd been there before him. We petted and hugged him, doing our best to comfort him, but he was still shivering, the poor thing. Once we got inside with the vet, Dr. Mauro explained that Bugsy has become the alpha dog in our home--and it's our fault. Biting is his way of keeping us in line. She doesn't think he was abused, she just thinks he was allowed to do whatever he wanted in previous homes and turned into this domineering little shit. She didn't use those words, but she didn't have to; we got the idea.

Bugsy was well behaved at the vet. He didn't bite them, but an assistant was holding his mouth closed, just in case. He got his shots, and she examined him thoroughly. He weighs 24.6 pounds, and she said he is NOT overweight, unlike what the groomer told me. The main thing is, he's healthy but undisciplined. Sounds like every dog we've ever had! Dan always wants to get a big dog, but if we allowed a larger dog to get away with what all the small ones have, we'd have been devoured a long time ago! As it is, Bugsy has done some major damage to both Dan and me, yet we still keep the little bugger!

Dan and Mike saw CASINO ROYALE and really enjoyed it. They invited me, but I had been napping and really didn't feel like going at that point. They rented a Pay Per View wrestling show, so I watched TV up in my room.

Brad was supposed to join Dan, Mike and me for dinner last night, but he and Dan got into a big argument over Brad leaving the adaptor for his phone hanging on the floor, where Bugsy found and chewed it up. My main worry was that Bugsy could have been electrocute, since the adaptor was plugged in, but Dan's only (and obsessive) concern was replacing the frigging thing immediately. Brad, infuriated by what he considered an attack on him the instant he walked into the house, snapped at his father, "I don't want to go out to dinner with YOU!" It made me so upset, my stomach was roiling, and I ended up taking most of my dinner home. They squared it away when we got home, but it showed me, yet again, how obsessive and irritating Dan can be. I was concerned about Bugsy's well-being, but my husband's concern was on the THING, rather than the living creatures involved (Brad and Bugsy). He's done that in the past, and it pisses me off because I question his priorities.

So here I am, back at work, no overtime, thank God. I love the money but hate to have to invest the time. I'll hit the gym quickly after work, then go home to my sweet doggies.

At least I have MY priorities straight. Now, if only I can find my glasses. . .

Love, Robin

I took a different route home last night, but I must face the fact that a lot of humans leave work at five o'clock, and the roads are crowded no matter how I drive home. It took me half an hour, about the same as the previous night, but I was less stressed, so I guess I'll go home the same way this evening.

I'll let Bugsy and Snaps out to do their business, then run up to the store for white potatoes and yams. It appears that only Mike is joining us tomorrow, and that's fine by me; we don't need to clean up for him the way we'd have felt obligated to if Dan's boss or Nancy and Chris were coming. Nancy returned to work today. She's still pale, but seems a lot better than when I drove her home Monday.

Someone just announced that it's sleeting outside. I'm not surprised; when I took my walk today, the air was raw and the sky had a cast to it I can only describe as snow-on-the-way. I'm not a big fan of snow, especially driving in it, so I hope whatever is falling from the sky turns to rain. The prediction is for nasty winds that might prevent the popular balloons from making an appearance at tomorrow's Thanksgiving Day parade in NYC. That would be a real shame, since people from all over the world come to see that spectacle every year. I hope the kids get to see their favorite balloon characters tomorrow. It's not something I especially look forward to, but I know many do.

Some factoids about me:

My grandmother (Mom's mom), who we called "Nana," was a heavyset woman who never seemed happy. My brother and cousin, Don, used to call her Nanorama or Nancity. I think Nana is part of the reason the reason my mother suffered from depression.

I take two doctor-prescribed anti-depressants, yet I sometimes still feel depressed. I don't know if it's because of peri-menopause or because my depression is so huge, it can't be contained by those two drugs. When I see what people do to each other, and to sweet, innocent animals, it overwhelms me.

I'm a morning person, so perky, you'd want to kill me. I sing, talk to myself, walk really fast and am so animated on the phone, I'm sure my co-workers must think I'm totally nuts--and I don't care!

I really wish someone had invited us to their house for Thanksgiving this year. I SO miss my mother's Thanksgiving dinners.

When I was 11, I went into the city with Lil and Norm, friends of Mom's, to see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas show. Donna, 5, Lil's little girl, came along too, and both of us were excited and wide-eyed over the tall buildings, gigantic Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and exquisitely decorated Macy's store windows. When it started to snow, it became a totally perfect day.

Forty-one years later, Norm is dead, Lil misses him terribly, and Donna is battling breast cancer. And you wonder why I'm depressed?

I love the TV show HEROES. I want a cool ability, too!

My birthday is December 14, and yes, I do feel cheated, gift-wise, with Chanukah and Christmas falling in the same month. Also, I wish I'd been a warm-weather baby instead.

For my 15th birthday, Mom took me and several girlfriends first for pizza, then to see ROSEMARY'S BABY. It was great, but so scary!

I love a good joke, but can never remember them to tell others.

I'm thankful for this blog--and you readers who share my life. Hope your holiday tomorrow is absolutely perfect.

Love, Robin

Dan and two of his friends are going to a wrestling event at Nassau Coliseum tonight. Better them than me! I worry about this only because Mike is driving Dan, and given the penchant of the former for always being late, I'm concerned that there might be a problem. I shouldn't worry, though, since it's my concern only because I don't want Dan to get upset. If he's upset, I can guarantee that he will stress ME out, and I try to avoid that whenever possible. As far as wrestling is concerned, it's all soap opera, and while I have been involved with some soaps over the years, I do not like RAW or WRESTLEMANIA or whatever it's called now. When Dan speaks excitedly about what happened the previous night, I roll my eyes with disdain and make a bitchy remark. What really pisses me off is that they tend to hold Pay-per-Views on Mother's, Father's and other holidays. THAT should be outlawed!

When it comes to my hubby of 28 years, though, it's often difficult to avoid stress, or at the very least, annoyance. This morning, shortly before the alarm was to go off, he was holding me in his arms (romantic) while snoring and farting (not so much). I sometimes thinks he does things like that because he knows they DO irritate the shit out of me. Granted, it's one weird way of showing love. But Dan wants to be accepted the way he is--frequent-farter, bathroom-stinker-upper notwithstanding. I am guilty of frequent farting lately, too, but I don't take as much PRIDE in it as Dan does.

Wii is the latest incarnation of Nintendo console, and Dan really wants one. Locally, people waited in lines in pouring rain to do so, but Dan says he's too old to go that route. The man is getting a permanent handicapped parking sticker, for God's sake! He haunted dozens of web sites to see if he could buy one, but they were all sold out--except for those scalping on eBay or elsewhere. He knows I won't let him pay an inflated price for one, and frankly, I think we have too many game systems/games as it is that barely are played. However, Brad was downstairs last night playing a new game, so I guess I might be mistaken. $250.00 just seems awfully steep for a lousy video console, but at least Dan isn't wasting money on drugs and hookers (that I have evidence of, anyway).

I'm working another 10 hour shift tonight. Two more hours of overtime, whooppee! The trip home last night was horrific; the normally 15 minute ride took half an hour. There was one crazy soul passing on the left, passing on the right--on the one-lane New Highway! I was so frightened by this guy's actions, I hastily exited the road to get on Route 110, which was a bumper to bumper nightmare. Tonight, I'm going home through the industrial park where Dan works, and hope that works out better for me. I just hate making Bugsy and Snaps wait to be let out when I'm already two hours later than usual. This is preventing me from going to the gym, too. Believe it or not, LA Fitness is open Thursday from 8-3, and I plan to go early in the morning, before stuffing my face with turkey, stuffing, and all the trimmings.

My neck is killing me! I really need a good masseur!

Love, Robin

It's been crazy. John, my Stupidvisor, is out this week, leaving me to work three 10-hour days. The extra overtime money is nice, of course, but I hate having to stay here two extra hours. I especially hate leaving poor Bugsy and Snaps to wait another two hours to go out. And getting dinner ready in a timely manner is a lot harder when I just get home before 5:30. Sometimes, you gotta sacrifice, right?

During my lunch break, I rushed Nancy home. She was feeling terribly dizzy and ill, and her husband couldn't come and get her until later, so I volunteered to help. I barely made it back in time, two units late, but if you can't help a friend in need, what's the point? She was so pale and shaky on her feet.

What's nice this week is that we get Thursday off for Thanksgiving, and I took Friday off so I get a four day weekend. Niiiiice! With Connie off all next week, however, it's going to be a bitch of a week for me, one I don't look forward to. But that comes AFTER the four days off, and I'm going to not think about that right now. Me and Scarlett O'Hara will think about that some other time.

Saturday, after going to HIP to get Dan blood tests, then breakfast at the buffet, we checked out a Christmas sale at the church on Park Blvd., but all they seemed to be selling was Christmas-oriented items. I thought it would be more of an all-purpose flea market type affair, including jewelry and housewares, it didn't, and we didn't end up buying anything.

According to Town Crier, Last Hope was having an anniversary party at their year-old Lindenhurst location, including refreshments. I knew I could talk Dan into going (if there's free food, that man will be there!).

It was right on Route 109, easy to find, and attached to Basic Pet Care. There was so much food--giant heroes, cake, cookies (such good, chocolate-topped cookies, I was so bad and ate too many), veggies, fruit--too much! It seemed to us that most of the "guests" were Last Hope volunteers. They asked everyone who came in, including us, to check out the dogs that were there for adoption, and I felt so guilty saying we weren't there for that but to wish them a happy anniversary (and eat their food, which had to be obvious from the way we were stuffing our faces). They had half a dozen large dogs for whom they were hoping to find homes. They were walking them out in the parking lot (such sweet, kind, hopeful faces on those pooches), hoping to entice visitors, but it seemed to me that Dan and I were amongst only a few who stopped by; the rest were volunteers. They were celebrating from 11-2, and we arrived around 11:45. I got a sad, funny feeling that after the party was all over, they were going to be left with an awful lot of uneaten food--and six unadopted dogs. It depressed me.

Loretta, the wonderful, kindly volunteer who helped us adopt Bugsy, was delighted to see us. She took down my e-mail addy so she could let us know when their December candlelight ceremony--for people who saved animals' lives through Last Hope--would take place.

I took another of my lengthy naps with my dogs when we got home, and awoke in time to go out to the diner for dinner with Dan and Brad. The food was good, but the company better. Then I watched my saved DVR TV shows, enjoying them immensely.

Sunday was gym, followed by a way-too-late lunch at Sizzler (which, by the way, is where we had dinner on Friday, and exactly the same food, too). Inbetween, we bought a ton of meat at Cosco and I got two books--Stephen King's latest and a book about a dog called MARLEY & ME. The bill was about $165, but how often do we buy a lot of meat, when you think about it?

We were SUPPOSED to see the new James Bond movie this weekend, but Mike screwed us up on that one by not calling yesterday like he said he would. Sigh. Perhaps we'll see it Thanksgiving, after the meal. They say this new blond guy makes an excellent Bond. We'll see. I'm a Sean Connery purist, but I'll give this guy a chance. Reviews are excellent, which is more than I can say about the last few Bond movies, none of which I even wanted to see.

Dan spent all weekend trying to find Wii, the new Nintendo system, available on the net. No go. People camped out for days to get one, and many went away empty-handed. Some were robbed of theirs, and there were even some shootings. Over a game system, people! That's why I prefer animals!

I think that's enough of my whackadoodle life for y'all. Hope your preparations for Thanksgiving are going smoothly and you're not waiting in line for anything except a new kidney.

Love, Robin

I went to the gym last night--15 minutes each on the treadmill, bike and rowing machine. That's a solid 45 minutes of exercise, especially since I race from one machine to the other, with virtually no time inbetween. Then I go into the pool for a few laps, then a quick dip in the whirlpool to ease the tight muscles and temporarily make my pain go away--except that for some reason, the entire pool experience makes my left foot hurt like a bastard. Go figure.

Our oil company is sending a guy to fix the humidifier on the burner this afternoon. That means coaxing Bugsy and Snaps into the backyard for as long as the job takes--and who knows how long that's going to be? However long it is, they're going to be barking and whining the entire length of it, and it's going to stress me to the max. Sigh.

We had a tremendous rainstorm last night, complete with winds gusting up to 50 MPH. I haven't seen our backyard yet, but I'll bet we lost a few more large branches. Ever since we had those trees trimmed, they've been shedding branches, twigs and limbs at an alarming rate. Pretty soon, all we'll have left is trunk!

Generally speaking, after we have a rainstorm in fall, it grows colder afterwards, but not this time. Perhaps all the rumors about global warming are true. Here it is, mid-November, and we've been enjoying temps in the mid 60's. After the rain, it's STILL balmy! I took my walk this morning and oh, boy, I was wearing a sweater and took it off halfway through, I was so warm. It's amazing--and wonderful!

A woman who works here, Rosie, just came to see me--she bought a Westie and might need me to visit, feed and walk him in the future. Sounds like a smart, funny little pup, and I can't wait to meet him. I wouldn't stay over, but I would pop in a couple of times a day to take care of him while Rosie's on vacation. Hey, who knows? I might start a new business for myself. Nancy told her about my pet sitting for her dogs and cats, and here I have a potential second client!

Speaking of which, Dan's been driving his building's new security guard, Stan, back and forth to the bus stop every evening. Stan called me last night and explained that he has an opportunity to write an op-ed column for the Daily News, but he needs an editor. He called during SMALLVILLE and droned on and on about Iraq, Israel, politics, Bush, blah, blah, blah, and you can only imagine how hard it was for me to concentrate on what he was saying. He asked about my price, and all I said was, I'd read his work first and let him know. I wonder how much he'd make? I'd like to ask for a percentage of the take. He REALLY wants this opportunity, understandably (what writer wouldn't?), and needs a good editor. The problem is, I don't know politics, and I wonder if I'm the right person to work on this project with him.

I was so tired when I got home yesterday, I took a nap for an hour. I slept past the ding of the timer I took up with me, but was able to quickly broil three pieces of steak (I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner and gave the boys the steak) and head out to the gym. It just started raining when I left.

I had other things to relate, but I've lost my train of thought--completely derailed. I'll be back!

Love, Robin