NEW BLOG!!!

Oay, so I had to completely change it.

Head on over!

Just click on the title of this post and it'll take you there...and in case I fudged it up....editortera.blogspot.com

Guess what all!

I'm changing my name! Woo hoo! Anyone who reads this that knows me personally, knows that Ann Klein is not my real name. It's my middle name and the first part of my soon to be last name. My real name is Tera. Instead of editing under Ann Klein, I'll be editing under Tera Kleinfelter, which will officially be my last name on October 11, 2008. I figure that I may as well start getting used to the name change now. =) I'm hoping I can figure out some way to change everything on this blog instead of having to start all over. Eek!

Wish me luck in getting everything changed over!

Back to the grind

So, today I had to go back to work after a long weekend. Blech. But at least it's only three days this week, one of which has already been completed, thank God.

I've decided that since I am now able to take a lunch hour at work, I'm going to be spending it reading. And I'm also going to be going to bed a teeny bit earlier so I can read, too. I've found that lately I've been spending all my time reading books I have to read, not that I want to read just for pure pleasure. Yes, I love the books I edit...if I didn't love them I wouldn't have contracted them, but I want to read and not have to work. LOL I've got a huge pile to go through, so I'll be working my way through it and giving y'all my opinion as I finish them. Most definitely giving my opinion on them. And keep in mind, I'm behind and I don't always go to the store and pick out new reads, so they might be pretty old. =)

I bought a pile of books a LONG time ago, so I'm reading Perfect by Judith McNaught right now. Only finished the first few chapters, but so far so good. Have I mentioned how much I adore Judith McNaught? Whitney My Love is one of my all time faves. Brilliance. I'll be letting everyone know what I think of Perfect, which I only bought about a year ago. LOL

Yay for Myles and Christmas!

Hopefully everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I know I sure did. =) Myles completely and totally surprised me this morning.

On Sunday, we had a big family Christmas at my uncles and aunt's house. After dinner and presents, my cousin and I went downstairs to play Guitar Hero III. Brian and I ended up staying down there for about two and a half hours. Yes, my hand was damn sore, but it was worth it!!! So, while Brian and I were downstairs and absolutely cracking up at his son, Cole, who was dancing to our mad guitar skills, Myles and my dad left to go Christmas shopping. I didn't find this out until today. =)

So this morning, we all get up at the butt crack of dawn -- ten year old little brothers like to wake up VERY early to open presents -- I am informed that I had to open my present first. So Myles hands me a gift (he wasn't supposed to be buying me anything) and I'm sitting there saying "No, let Matt open all his first" but I was forced to open it. Okay, twist my arm.

And what was it but what I've been KILLING for...a red Nikon Coolpix camera. Woo hoo! So yeah, he did GOOD. I open more presents later and he completed it by getting me an HP photo printer, extra ink cartidge and paper. Yes, I'm so looking forward to all the pics I get to take in Hawaii now while NOT using my outdated, inherited bulky Canon. Yes, he did very very very well. He's awesome. =)

So now I'm spending my evening getting some edits done...gotta have everything done by the 8th...and Myles is prepping the new rental to start painting it tomorrow. Only a couple of more weeks until Hawaii...wow. It'll be here before I know it.

Again, hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Now bring on NYE and our party!!!

It's almost here!

Yes, Christmas is almost here. =) We'll be leaving in the morning for my mom and dad's house and staying in South Bend until Tuesday evening. And for once, I'm not bringing my laptop!!!!! I might get online at my parents' house to check email quickly, but, no I won't be working. I'll be spending time with my thirty or so immediately family (yes, we're big...Myles says we're a typical Italian family...only we're Irish...I guess he's not used to big Irish families.) Monday we're going to see Alvin and the Chipmunks and heading to dinner and such. I'm really looking forward to it.

We were supposed to go out tonight with some friends, but after working on our new rental we closed on yesterday that we need to have "flipped" by Jan 1 so we can get tenants in it, we just didn't feel up to it. I'm content to sit on the couch watching Property Ladder and getting some editing done. And eating Dairy Queen. But, we could be out with Jay and Nikki, riding around with some other friends, in the limo, drinking and making fun of Christmas lights. Gar. Now that I think about it, I wish we would have gone... Oh well.

Since this will be the last time I post before Christmas, I just want to take a moment to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and hope that Santa brings everyone everything they asked for. Have a wonderful time with your family and friends and no writing or editing!!

Ah, a couple days in the life

The past couple of days have been pretty good. Yesterday was our buddy Jason's birthday, so we headed to our favorite bar, where Jason just so happens work, and spent way too much time there last night. But, oh well. It's a long weekend coming up. Drank too much and Myles ended up wussing out and staying at home, but I was a champ, got up this morning, got my Starbucks and some Mickey D's and I was good to go. Of course, I didn't want to be at work this morning, so I just read submissions instead of doing what I was supposed to do. And then Misty called and managed to convince me to play hooky in the afternoon and go Christmas shopping and such with her. Yeah, wasn't too hard to get me to go. LOL I gladly left, took a few hours of vacation and even snuck my credit card out of it's hidey hole and bought my Myles some stuff. I even gave him one of his Christmas presents early tonight, cuz, well, I get ansty and I couldn't wait. A Ferrari model for him to put together and some Ferrari cologne. Yeah, he smells yummy and he'll match the car. Woo hoo! Yeah, when we get from Hawaii, we'll be starting on that project again...damn timing belt. So the engine must be yanked again and we'll need to tear it apart, but at least not down to the bare block again like last time. Hopefully, no pistons were damaged or anything.

By the way, have I mentioned before that I'm a gearhead? =)

White Chocolate Candy Cane Cheesecake

This is my absolute favorite cheesecake in the world, one that everyone always begs me to bring to functions, and I GLADLY take it along. =)

Enjoy!!!

Ingredients:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar, divided
3 tablespoons butter, melted
3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
3 eggs
4 squares Baker's white chocolate, melted
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees if using a silver 9-inch Springform pan (or 300 degrees is using a non-stick 9-inch Springform pan).

Mix graham cracker crumbs, 3 tbsp of the sugar, and melted butter; pat firmly onto the bottom of pan. Bake at 325 for 10 minutes.

Beat cream cheese and remaining 3/4 cup sugar in large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until well-blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed just until blended.

Stir in melted chocolate and the extract. Pour over crust.

Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until center is almost set. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

Ah. the holidays

Man, this weekend has been crazy with getting Christmas stuff done. Got all of my shopping done last night, with the exception of my mom (She's always the most difficult), got my cookie boxes made for my coworkers, got all my presents wrapped, got the cookie party taken care of, got Christmas cards done. Wow. Just a little bit more to go and then I'll be all set to go. I've still got to make some more cookies to take to work and for Myles to take to his work, a candy cane white chocolate cheesecake for Friday...and...I think that's it other than shopping for my mom.

Nothing else going on this weekend other than that we got about a foot of snow last night. Ah, in three weeks I'll be in sunny Hawaii and I won't see any snow for two weeks. Thank god!

This should be a pretty easy week at work with all of the holiday stuff. Then a four day weekend in South Bend with family, then three days of work, then a four day weekend, then three days of work, the weekend, then a half a day of work and I go to Hawaii!!!! Yeah, I'm so looking forward to this no work crap. I've sooooo needed a break. I haven't had a vacation for a year and a half, and before that it was about four years, so yeah, I'm due for one.

And that's all I have to say about that. Now off to edit! And make chicken and dumplings for Myles for dinner...poor guy did our driveway and the neighbors, and it's a REALLY wet, packed snow, too.

I succumbed to an infomerical

Yup, that's right. I bought something off an infomercial today. But it exercise stuff, so it's okay. It's a program called The Firm (No, not the movie with Tom Cruise) that combines cardio and weightlifting. So, yeah. This is me trying to fit into all those size 4 clothes in my closet from five years ago. I'm not the type that likes to work out in the gym where people can see me, so some DVDs and weights for home is poifect for me. =) It won't get here in time to have me ready for Hawaii, but lets hope for Florida in July...well, gosh, hopefully some major result before then. LOL I'm making it my goal to be in my old, skinny-ass clothes by May. And if I make it before then, well I rock. So, this is my Christmas present, which is a darn good one, because I think, in the long run, it'll last a lot longer and make me a heck of a lot happier than I am right now. Ooh, I can't wait to get my big black trash bag of old clothes out and go through them and actually be able to wear them! I have a lot of expensive, damn nice clothes in there. Ah, when I didn't have to pay a mortgage and utilities and buy groceries and could spend all my money on frivolous things. I miss being able to do that.

Playing a little bit of hooky

So, I cheated and told everyone I was sick and came home from work at 12:30. =P I've been stressing over getting things done and getting the house clean and all sorts of things, so I'm cleaning and getting all sorts of productive things done. Woo hoo! I might even get my Christmas cards finished tonight when I'm done...now if Myles will only remember get my damn stamps. Man, it feels so good to get everything done and clean and nice and tidy. Yes, I'm a clean freak, so for me to let the house go for over a week when I don't feel good is a BIG deal. Now, just to get ideas from family for their dang presents. Grrrrrrrrrrrr. It's like pulling teeth. Except for Matt, who's ten. He's always got ideas of stuff he wants. LOL

Only two weeks until Christmas! Wow. This weekend is the Cookie Party at my house that my friend Misty throws every year (she moved WAY out in the country, so it's at my place this year. It's nice to take the four-wheelers through the cornfields and drive them sity down the road and not get in trouble, though). Yet another reason for me to have the house looking poifect. And to get everything all in order for when we leave for Hawaii in a few weeks. It would kill me to have to come home to a mess, so it needs to be spic and span before I leave.

And, enough of my rambling. Have a great rest of the day, all!

Finally back to "normal"

For the frist day in about a week, I feel better. No fever, no aches, and I even have some energy back. Thank God. I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to get better. Suddenly, the whole flu shot thing doesn't seem like a bad idea anymore. Yeah, I always shirk it because I hate needles...well, I shouldn't say needles. Shots, to be more precise. And when they take my blood. Needless to say, I could never be an intravaneous drug user. LOL Even watching other people do it on shows like Intervention creeps me out.

And my tidbit of information today...Supposebly is NOT a word. Please, people. For the love of Pete. It's supposedly.

Thank and have a nice day. =)

I'm so not in the holiday spirit today

Yeah, I've come to the conclusion that people, Wal Mart, McDonalds, and those damn bell ringers are Satan incarnate.

Though, I'm guessing most of my ill will today has to do with the fact that I've got a bad case of the flu or some stomach virus or something. I just feel beat. Sore, body aches, headache, my skin feels raw. Yeah, it's not a good day. This week I've felt off, but I think it's culminating today. And what's worse, is that I leave in an hour and a half to go pick up my neice from a wedding her mom and dad are attending today. Ann wanted the Squirt at the wedding reception for a bit, but I took the opportunity to get to spend lots of time and the whole night with my Samantha. =) God, I hope I don't get her sick.

But, back to what I was orignally talking about...the Satan incarnate stuff. Okay, first up...people. Oh, let me count the ways. Yes, I am a smoker. It's a bad and nasty habit, but Myles has had trouble quitting and if he can't quit, than it makes it extremely difficult for me to quit. Anyways, I may be a smoker, but I still have couth and general...oh, I don't know the word, politeness, neatness....I'm drawing a blank on the right word. I go out shopping today to get my other neice her birthday present for tomorrow (a TON of craft supplies for her to have at my house) and I open my car door only to step in a huge pile of wet cigarette butts that someone had dumped out of their ashtray and onto the parking lot. How gross! Grrr.

And Wal Mart...all I wanted to do was get a damn box of Theraflu to try and make some sort of attempt to feel better (by the way, not working so well), and I had a hell of a time trying to complete that simple task thanks to the annoying people and the lines and the incompetent workers.

And McDonalds. All I wanted was a damn cheeseburger, some fries and a strawberry shake. I know it's not the bes food to eat when one is sick, but oh well. I'm sick, comfort food is allowed. What I got was a cold cheeseburger, some cold fries and an eggnog shake. Yeah, that was a bummer. Probably because everyone there was illegal and didn't understand a damn word of the English that was coming out of my mouth when I ordered. But I'm not even going to go there or else this post will become a novel.

And, at last, the bell ringers. Granted, the Salvation Army is doing a good thing and I've got to give major kudos to the people willing to standing out there in the freezing rain, but when I feel like shit and I have a headache because of it, it doesn't make me joyful to have to enter every store to the music of ear-piercing bells.

Yeah, this is a not a good day for me.

My trees. =)

The house looked pretty when the leaves finally changed. =) Now, the tree is empty and it look all blah outside. But now I have a new tree to look at that's all pretty. My Christmas tree! Woo hoo. I wanted to get a bigger one this year, but it just wasn't in the cards. How come everything money-sucking related always happens around the holidays? Oh well, maybe next year. So, here's my tree, and my special ornament I found this year....a pink/purple elephant. Now, I know some of you are thinking "Huh? An elephant?" But, if you know me, you know I'm elephant crazy. I LOVE them. Dunno when it started and dunno why, but it's been years now. I've got tons of them...eventually when we have a baby, the nursery is going to be in elephants. =) I've even gone so far as to get a pink elephant tattoo on my hip. So, yeah, I love elphants. =) And yes, instead of a star, I have an abominable snowman on the top of my tree. =) I love him, too.