I’m up in the middle of the night, again!  I went to bed early (10:15 or so) and fell right asleep.  When I woke up, it was still dark out, but I thought it must be almost time for the alarm to go off (alarm is set for 5:30 am) cause I was wide awake and felt rested.  But, I looked over at the clock and it clearly showed the time to be 1:30 am!  My reaction was that it couldn’t possibly be correct – I must have got it off kilter somehow!  So, I pressed the button on the side of my watch to illuminate the face and it confirmed the clock time!  It was, indeed, 1:30 am!  Still skeptical, I wondered what the odds were that BOTH the alarm clock AND my watch were incorrect.  Then, I noticed that all three girls were sound asleep – no stirrings or excitement that I was obviously awake!  They, of course, are the definitive clock in our house – they wake at precisely 6:00 am, they insist on breakfast no later than 7:00 am, they start to get all worked up over supper at exactly 4:30 pm, and they start pacing around ready for bed by 11:00 pm!  So, since they were not at all curious about why I was up, I finally conceded that it must NOT be time to get up!  I tried to resist getting out of bed, but (as the borg taught us) resistance was futile!  I tossed and turned and got myself all tangled up in the covers.  I finally just gave up and got out of bed!

So, here I am – wide awake and wondering why I can’t sleep – AGAIN!  Could it be the onset of the full moon – I believe it is supposed to be at it’s fullest tomorrow night…could have something to do with it!  Or could it be that I have too many thoughts screaming to get out of my brain…maybe the fact that I was laying in bed debating with myself about whether or not my alarm clock and watch were correct is a strong indicator that might just be the case!  So, let’s dump some of those thoughts right now…

Weekend Review:

I went to The Shops at Steele Street for the open house on Saturday to see what Amy had to offer.  I had a nice chat with both Jonathan and Amy and bought some sweet treats and a couple dip mixes.  Wise Amy (or maybe it was his idea – either way, it was wise) put Jonathan at a table right inside the door as the gracious greeter with samples….he’s such a sweetheart (with or without the samples)!

I also looked over Emily’s offerings from her new business – “A Charmed Life” (check out her announcement on her blog).  She had some really nice things.  I decided to get a set of wine glass charms for my nephew and his wife for Christmas – they are wine fanatics and I like to get them something that will enhance the experience for them.  The ones I picked out for them are pictured in photo # 5 on Emily’s post.  The charms in that set are all wine related – a wine bottle, a bunch of grapes, a cork screw, etc.  (BTW – I feel confident I’m not spilling any beans, here – Bryan and Brianne don’t read my blog – at least I don’t think they do – well, just in case – Bry and Bri – if you ARE reading this, please act surprised and humor me when you open your gift!) 

I’m glad I popped in – it is always a pleasure chatting with the Burns’ and I have my first Christmas gift taken care of!

Netflix:

I’ve been really pleased that I started doing Netflix!  I have 50-some movies on my wish list – I get 3 in the mail and turn those babies around quickly to get the next bunch and make the most out of the membership price!

TiVo vs DVR Update:

A couple weeks ago I wrote a post about wondering which would be a better way to go — well, I have since found out that DVR from Charter isn’t an option at all…  I called to see what it would cost and how it works and they told me it isn’t available in this area, yet!  What?  I don’t have a lot of complaints about Charter Communications – I rarely have outage problems or other issues that I hear others in the area have.  But one complaint I do have is that they are WAY behind the times!  Time Warner has sooooo much more to offer and the price (from what I hear friends in the Raleigh area pay for comparable service) isn’t all that much different!  I don’t like the dish option at all, so I will stick with cable, but I just wish Charter would get with the program and give us the options that we could get if we were allowed the flexibility of choosing our cable company!

Crock Pot:

I bought a new crock pot a couple weeks ago.  I used to have one and loved it – used it a lot!  But, when it died, I never replaced it.  Lindsay’s blog has a bad habit of making me think about wanting one every once in a while, so I finally broke down and bought one at Wal-Mart!  It is a really cool one — Hamilton Beach 3-in-1 slow cooker!  It has 3 different size bowls – a 2 qt, a 4 qt, and a 6 qt – so that you can have just the right size for whatever meal you are making – but, you don’t have 3 lids to make room in the cabinet for – they all have the same size opening, so one universal lid is all you need!  You select the button for the size bowl on the base unit and it distributes the heat according to the size bowl being used – COOL!  It has the normal “high” and “low” settings to choose what speed you want to cook at, but it also has a “warm” setting that I haven’t had on past crock pots – that will come in real handy!!!  The bowls are pretty enough to serve in, too, and they nest together nicely for storage!  I did a nice pork roast with potatoes, onions, and carrots that came out beautiful!  I have a corned beef brisket in the fridge that I plan to pop in there one day this week.  I just love my new crock pot!  Here is what it looks like – the first picture is what it looks like when cooking and the second one shows the 3 bowls (FYI – this is a photo of the multi colored version – mine are all white and the base looks like the one in the larger photo):

DWTS:

I snoozed through Monday’s DWTS, so I didn’t post an opinion for who might get voted off, but if you are a friend on my Facebook, you may have read my comment that I thought Maurice and Cody would be in the bottom 2 and that Cody would be my choice for who will go home!  Well, I was right about the bottom 2, but it was Maurice that went home!  Jamie was right — the teenage girls with text messaging capabilities had more power than Maurice’s fans!  But – he’ll likely go next week.  My thoughts on the bottom two next week are Cody and Lance – in which case, Cody is sure to be the one to go!  My prediction for the finals:  Brooke, Warren, and Lance will go head to head for the final show and Brooke will, of course, win it!

Well, maybe I can get a couple hour’s sleep before the alarm is REALLY ready to go off…although, I’m not a bit tired, so I have my doubts!