Sheri's Yale project needed some extra time to run yesterday, so she left early yesterday knowing that she would come in today for a few hours to finish things up. I came along with her to keep her company and to check out her office. I brought the laptop and plugged it in to the LAN at one of her coworker's desk and am just killing time that way. I also brought the newspaper.

For Christmas I got her a perfume set, but someone else got her the same fragrance so after we leave here we are going to stop at the mall and return it.

After that we have couple of ingredients we still need for tonight, and then after that I think we are just going to go home, relax, and do some cooking.

We have two movies in, Oldboy and The Island. We will probably watch one of those, put a fire in the fireplace, eat some sauerkraut balls and seven layer dip, and then watch some of the New Years festivities on TV as it gets close to midnight.

Who do I know at Charlie's Dodge in Maumee? Drop me a line. Just curious.

To get Sheri on my medical insurance at the new job they said to bring in our marriage certificate. We looked everyplace we thought it could be but couldn't find it. I e-mailed the HR person and asked if last year's tax return that shows both of our names and the "married filing jointly" box checked would work. I don't know how long it will take to get a copy sent to us from the probate court back in Ohio. I don't remember needing to show a marriage certificate at the previous two jobs where she was on my insurance or Sheri's last job when I was on her insurance.

I have been indulging one of my little quirky obsessions in order to celebrate my new job: watches.

For Christmas (I guess this one is unrelated to my celebrating) my sister-in-law Sunny got me a watch I have been wanting. It is a Timex with a digital compass built in. It works fantastic. It has been very accurate, and it even is accurate indoors which I would not expect from all the electrical interference.

mine is the one on the right


This watch was on special (20% off) on the Wal-Mart web site. It is a Casio G-Shock with atomic time setting and solar power. The G-Shock means that it is about indestructible. I forget how many g forces it can stand or atmospheres or pressure, but it is tough. It never needs to have the battery changed because it has solar cell on its face, and it is always accurate because it synchronizes with the atomic clock in Fort Collins, Colorado every night.



Yesterday I got an e-mail from Wal-Mart saying the watch was out of stock and on backorder. There was a line in there saying if they can't fulfill my order in 10 days, and if they do not hear from me that they will automatically cancel my order. In the header it said do not respond to this e-mail, and there were no instructions or link in the e-mail on how to contact them, so I sent an e-mail to their main customer service address with my order number telling them not to cancel. I have a feeling I might get screwed though. Like maybe it was reduced because they are not going to carry that watch anymore. Oh well.

Last night I was looking at their site and saw another watch that has been on my wish list. It was clearance priced, and I was doubtful about the first watch coming through, so I broke down and ordered it. I have another one very similar to it but with a black face. It is of course atomic coordinated. There is another atomic watch in this line with a red face that I am dying for, but I have not seen that one around very much.



I feel like I have been in austerity spending mode for so long that it felt really good just to make a couple purely fun purchases without feeling guilty. Sheri's job is looking good and I feel really good about my new job. Yeah us!

We were talking seriously about going to Washington D.C. for our upcoming ten year anniversary in May, but as a new employee I am on probation for six months, and one of the things that means is no vacation during that time. I think D.C. in June is too busy and touristy, so maybe we will look into going immediately after school starts again in the fall. I guess that would be mid-September. I think the chances of nice walking-around weather would be good and hopefully because school would be back in session the crowds would be minimal. We will have to do some research.

This also means we will have to think of something special we can do locally and without taking any time off work to celebrate or ten year anniversary. Any ideas? The traditional gifts for the 10th anniversary are made of tin or aluminum.