Nov 12-Nov 18th.

Happy Birthday to Me!  This is my Birthday week and I spent my special day, Nov 13th,  working at my new job. I treated the rehab staff to brownies. My supervisor reports that in India, it is tradition for the person having a birthday to give other people gifts. She lived/worked in India for a few years. I enjoy giving gifts, but I also enjoy getting gifts!  My big gift this year was a new set of tires for the van. I had the last set for 5 years with lots of mileage. I had taken the van in to Costco before Halloween and they told me to come back in November when my tires were on sale, as well as 1 cent installation per tire. So I had to order my tires and then come in to have them installed while I waited. So I spent some time shopping until they were done(its already that time of year to start Christmas shopping!). Then on Tuesday, I celebrated my birthday with Tom and Allison in the evening with dinner at Shake Shack before seeing the Bohemian Rhapsody movie at the AMC $5 movie theater. They have discounts on Tuesday nights. I had wanted to see this Queen movie and was waiting for Tom and Allison to join me. Turns out we really enjoyed the film!  It helps that I am a major Queen fan. And I think Allison is a new fan. Plus it was a better deal than the early preview of Fantastic Beasts. They were showing the movie on IMAX to AMC members for $21!  But you got a pin and a little poster. Yippee. We will wait until we see it on $5 night. Plus I think only Allison and I want to see that one- its the Harry Potter series before Harry Potter was born.

After our movie we headed home for cake and more presents!  Thank goodness I did not have to wrap my tires. Tom picked me up a new raincoat and also felt compelled to get me a new phone. Huzzah. I am not a big fan of new technology. I loved the beautiful green stone heart pendant he bought in Scotland, Zombie soda from Comic Con and the wonderful chocolates from Kilwins in Grand Rapids, MI. Allison found me a little Peter Rabbit flag-too cute to hang outside. I will have to add it to my Peter Rabbit collection indoors. And Scott made me an adorable Buster Bronco Christmas ornament since the school does not sell any. He also picked up a little WMU sled ornament.  Most importantly, I got another Mary Englebreit wall calendar. I am already filling up dates for 2019. Overall, a very enjoyable birthday!  Thanks family. And Thank you Mom and Dad Seitz for the Birthday money! I spent it on my yearly Hallmark Christmas Rocking Horse ornament, as well as an Anniversary Rocking Horse ornament. I think the Christmas tree is going to fall over!  Mom B paid for a wall tapestry for Christmas and one for Halloween that I picked up at the Renaissance fair. Great stuff and a Great Celebration!

I was going to continue my celebration with Mom B at a Sr Thanksgiving Luncheon put on by the Howard County Senior Center. They rent a large hall and provide a wonderful luncheon with entertainment and small gifts for Seniors living in the Howard County area. Mom has gone every year since she has been here in Maryland, as well as my Dad while he was living. I thought it would be fun to take mom this year, so I signed up to join her. Unfortunately, Maryland had a snow/ice/sleet storm that day, and everything was closed and canceled. So sadly we missed the event this year-no reschedule. I feel bad for the organizers that prepared all the food. They did not call it off until that morning. The weather was getting worse as the day went on, and they really did not want all those seniors slipping and falling on the ice and breaking something. So maybe next year! Instead I stayed home and worked on my online classes for my on call jobs. I added a second facility to my list and have even more paperwork to complete!

Scott has also been enjoying the snow up in Michigan. Looks like it is here to stay!  Good thing we sent him another hat!

Our snow quickly melted and turned into rain. I worked two other days this week and was glad not to have to go out in the lousy snow/ice storm(poor Allison and Tom). The roads were not in good shape-a firetruck flipped over on I-70 near Frederick. Traffic was backed up for hours at a stand still. Glad it did not interfere with Allison's commute. Our neighbor Dan braved the nasty weather to walk over to our house and enjoy Thursday night football with Tom. Tom is enjoying his time off school right now but should start up again after Thanksgiving. He is also using some available time to patch walls and paint. He was not too excited to repaint our family room ceiling. Seems like the house continues to settle and leave small cracks especially in our kitchen and upstairs master bedroom. At least it looks like this year we are done cutting the grass. We rarely get snow before Thanksgiving in Maryland. I did not even get a chance to get all my winter flowers planted. I had to run out when it warmed up a bit to plant the last of the petunias and decorative cabbages. They last all winter and look great in the flower pots. I also continue to attempt to rake and bag leaves when it is not too windy or snowing! I still had a long list of outdoor projects that I would have liked to finish including washing the windows,  a bit more edging, repotting indoor plants and trimming outdoor bushes. Guess it will have to wait until next summer!  I have also been busy putting away the Halloween decorations in the attic and soon will be bringing down the Christmas decorations!

On Saturday I had the day off so I took advantage of the time to get my Thanksgiving dinner shopping done as well as some Christmas shopping. I usually try to get my errands run during the week, but since I was working I did not have any time available. And I was not shopping on the snow day!  Instead I headed out early on Saturday morning. Good thing because by lunch time the stores and parking lots were packed! Especially at Sams Club since they had The Taste of Holidays where they pass out lots of free food samples. Crazy!  I did not have much time to shop(or eat) since I was scheduled to sing with the Girl Scout choir at the opening of the German Christmas village at the Baltimore Harbor. We were scheduled to sing at their Christmas tree lighting ceremony before and after the Mayor's speech. I talked Allison into joining me. We have fun walking around the shops at the German village, eating bratwurst and drinking warm German wine. Our GS choir sang before the tree lighting ceremony, and were followed by a few girls singing from a city youth center before the mayor, Catherine Pugh showed up. I don't think she actually heard our girls sing, and then everyone mobbed the stage after the lighting ceremony. But we were supposed to sing again. Everyone wanted a photo op with the mayor. We had to wait for her and her entourage to leave before finishing our holiday concert(but most of our audience had left with the mayor to check out the Christmas village). Oh well, good practice for our choir and it was a beautiful night to walk around the harbor. We have several more events scheduled in the coming month.

Allison was also asked to become one of the GS Gold Award Committee member. Her meeting was postponed however since it was scheduled on the day of our nasty snow storm. She also attended a Distinguished Women's reception for past Shadow Girls. A good place to network and meet up with her previous supervisor from the Maryland Chemical company.