Snow, then sleet, then freezing rain, then more snow

It's been a pretty active weather-week over here. We received a solid 12" of snow on Thursday, which caused me to have a 2 hour commute to get back home and we ended up missing J's big company Christmas party on account of the bad roads. Then today we got hit with a ton of sleet, which changed over to pouring freezing rain, and now it's snowing again. Sheesh - never was the popular New England weather phrase "wait a half hour and the weather's bound to change" more apt than today.

But on a brighter note - I love my new car! Actually I love the 4WD in my new car! It was sure put to the test on Thursday when I climbed a massive hill in our neighborhood that was covered with at least 4" of snow. Two other cars were stuck trying to get up, but I had no problems at all. There was no way my old Honda would have been able to get up that hill - go RAV!!

In holiday news - Christmas cards were sent out earlier last week and my Christmas shopping is DONE! Nevermind that - I'm also done wrapping all those gifts! AND my cousin from Canada IS coming down for Christmas! So I'm excited! And Christmas is only about a week away!

I wanted SNOW not ICE!!

This blog has been sitting here rather neglected for the past few weeks, so let me take a few moments during this yucky, icy day to give a quick re-cap of the past week's activities.

First of, Thanksgiving turned out great and all of my stress over planning and preparing for the feast turned out to be well rewarded. I can honestly say that all 15 of us ended that day with full bellies and good cheer. And thanks to my sis-in-law's boyfriend, we even ended the evening with a bang as he set off the last remaining fireworks left over from the summer. The mild evening turned out to be perfect for it. Now I'm wondering if this is going to have to become a new family tradition to have fireworks on Thanksgiving...hmm...

And the very next day I finished cleaning up and went right to work putting up the rest of the Christmas decorations in the dining room. So now we are entirely in the Christmas mode instead of being 1/2 Christmas and 1/2 Thanksgiving!

And to top it all off - I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping! Just one more thing to get for B and his cousin and a few stocking stuffers and that'll be it. Nevermind that, J thinks I've gone completely mental now because not only is my shopping almost done, but I have already finished wrapping everything I have so far! (Only spent an hour and a half to wrap 17 gifts - not bad!) But I do have to give him some credit. He actually started his shopping last week, which is crazy for him since he's usually out there on Christmas Eve still shopping.

Next up - Christmas parties! I'm starting to lose track of how many parties we will be attending this year. At last count I think we were up to 4 not counting one that we are hosting. They range from the extremely informal, beer, wings and a grab bag to the formal company-wide cocktail party. Three of the parties are related to J's work in some way, one is for the Land Trust (which J is now the proud VP of!) and the last one that we will be hosting is a small group gathering for my co-workers. On top of that I offered to host Christmas this year for the family and we started a tradition last year of having a few friends over to ring in the New Year too. Sheesh - I'll need a vacation after all of that! But THAT is why I wanted to get the shopping out of the way early.

And while all of this is going on, I am desperately trying to get my cousin from Ottawa to come down and spend Christmas with us. It would be great if he came down, but right now it's up in the air. And I figure being busy at this time of year won't be too a bad thing. It'll help work off those million or so calories that I'll be inhaling over the next few weeks!

I'm starting a new holiday - Christmas-Giving!

Thanksgiving is this week and I'm so excited! We're hosting yet again this year, and we're pretty much all set for the big turkey dinner. But I also have to say that since I started my Christmas shopping early this year (last week actually!) I am also getting all wrapped up in the spirit of the holiday season even though Thanksgiving is still a few days away. I don't know - could it be the Christmas music I heard in the car over the weekend while traveling between stores? Or the stores themselves who take down Halloween decorations on Nov 1st and immediately put up Christmas trees all the while there is a small (trivial really) display somewhere to hold the not-so-important Thanksgiving-themed paper plates, cups and napkins and left over autumn-leaf garland? I don't know, but what I do know is, this past weekend, I was ready to decorate!! So Saturday afternoon, the tree went up and by Sunday afternoon, the entire living room was filled with Christmas stuff. That's when my poor husband asked me to stop. He apparently still wants to celebrate Thanksgiving, while I appear to be ready to blow right past it and celebrate Christmas (a month early, but who cares!) So right now, the living room is decked out for Christmas but the dining room is still decorated for fall/Thanksgiving. I wonder what an interior designer would say about that. Oh well, all I can say is, once Friday comes around, I'll be able to finish the decorating in the dining room and then it'll be Christmastime in our house for sure!

B's Birthday

We had a nice laid-back family birthday party for B last Saturday. I made yet another cute cake (I can't help it, my mom always made her own cakes for my birthday and I want to continue that tradition with B.) This time is was bumble bee (in homage to his favorite stuffed animal given to him by my sister-in-law and her boyfriend.)

Not sure if you can tell, but it is missing something - antennae. That's what happens when you've got a 3 and 4 year old running around the house while you're trying to frost a cake. We watched my niece in the morning before everyone arrived and with those 2 running around I'm surprised I didn't forget anything else. Funny, though, no one even noticed they were missing and I didn't even notice until I downloaded the pictures the day after!!

In not-so-good-news, I'm battling yet another cold. The 2nd cold I've had in 2 weeks. Thankfully I was pretty healthy for the party on Saturday, but by Monday I was feeling yucky again. I've been trying to catch up on my sleep and I really hope I can kick this thing soon. Isn't it supposed to be the KIDS who get sick often when they start school? Since when did that rule change? Cause I'm not in school anymore!

But that news is nothing compared to the news I received earlier last week from one of my former teammates. Right before Halloween, his brother passed away rather suddenly to what the family thinks may have been a heart attack. Losing a relative is the worst thing in world, but it's double-ly worse when it happens near the holidays. JP and IP - if you guys are reading this are thoughts are still with you!

Happy Halloween!

Yeah, ok I know I'm almost a week late with that, but I did want to share some pictures from that frightful night! First off - everyone who knows me knows that I love carving pumpkins. And I love doing the really challenging ones that you find in those pumpkin carving kits that come with all the tools you need to carve neat things. I've done witches, scorpions, haunted castles, spiders, etc. so this year was no exception - a pirate ship.


And of course a picture of my firefighter!

A birthday party, a wedding, a baby shower, another birthday party, oh my!!

And that was just last weekend! Yup, we went out for a night on the town with a bunch of friends to celebrate the birthday of one of my best friend's boyfriend who turned 40 that weekend. Even headed up north (out of state) for some bar hopping, mechanical bull riding, and strip club action. It was a fun evening, especially since we got to drive around in a limo and all, but also ended up being a very late night. Not a good way to start a weekend full of stuff.

So on to last Saturday - wedding day for 2 of our closest friends. Unfortunately it rained so their outdoor ceremony was moved indoors, but it was still a beautiful wedding. Most of hubby's closest work-crew friends were there and we partied until they turned the lights up at 11pm. Then we drove home. So another it ended up being yet another late night.

Sunday was my cousin's baby shower (as well as B's 4th birthday!) I have no idea how my cousin is going to manage to fit all the baby stuff she received into her and her fiance's house, but they did manage to pack it all into his truck. Somehow. The best part of the whole day was seeing 4 of my aunts from Canada that I haven't seen in quite a while and having them all meet B. Then, since my aunt hosted the shower, she felt compelled to also invite us all back to her condo and celebrate B's birthday. Combine 4 faraway aunts, about 10 other people crammed into a small condo, a little boy's birthday and what do you get? 4 of the noisiest, most obnoxious-sounding trucks ever invented. Thanks! Just what I needed! More noisy things that require as much battery power as a small car. He loves them though, especially the firetruck with the ladder that extends about 3 feet from the top of the truck. My personal favorite is the dancing Hummer. It actually does dance to the music by rolling back and forth. But the best part is the "comeback" feature this thing has. Once it drives forward for a bit, it literally will go in reverse and goes back to it's original starting point! A boomerang hummer! Ok, enough about the new toys...

After all that running around and late partying, I ended up coming down with a cold. No surprise to me, this seems to happen every time I get run down. I should have known better. But now I'm in the midst of preparing to host B's birthday party for hubby's side of the family. More on that to come...right now I need to get a good night's sleep so I can get over this cold!

Back from vacation...back to the daily grind...

Going on vacation is a great thing...getting back in the daily grind is not. Although coming back to the nice cool fall temperatures and spectacularly colored leaves was really nice compared to the heat and humidity of Florida (the next time we decide to go down to Disney, it will definitely be in the middle of January!) But despite the heat, the sore, tired feet, and the hour wait for some of the bigger rides, we all had a great time. We pretty much spent a day at each of the parks - Animal Kingdom, MGM Studios, Magic Kingdom and we went to Epcot for dinner at a different country each night. Which then meant that we were right in the area to watch the fireworks over the lagoon after dinner.

We stayed at the Polynesian which is absolutely gorgeous. Our building was called Tahiti and the view we had out of our room really made you think that you were in Tahiti! And yes, time was spent in that hammock!

We also had a character breakfast at the Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom and Brendan had a blast getting his picture taken with Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore. Who wouldn't like eating breakfast with these guys walking around? Even just being in Magic Kingdom makes you feel like a kid again!

Brendan wasn't scared of the characters, but he didn't really want to go on too many of the rides. I think the monorail was his favorite "ride"! And on our last day there, we got to sit up in front with the conductor. He really enjoyed that. He did go on the Tea Cup ride with me and grandma, and the Indy Speedcar ride with daddy and grandpa, but a lot of the other rides scared him. Especially if any of it had to do with the dark.

We had planned our dinner for each evening and made reservations several months ago to different restaurants around Epcot - The Coral Reef in The Seas, the German Biergarten, inside the Aztec pyramid in Mexico and the English Pub in the UK. In all - the food was spectacular. I have yet to have a bad meal anywhere in Disney. And the view of the fireworks from the patio of the English Pub was even better!

By the time we arrived back home Monday night, I was amazed to see how much the leaves had changed color and how much has already fallen. Things were still pretty green when we left last week. And it's so much cooler up here. Hard to think Halloween is next week already!

Our first howdown, a family birthday party and vacation is coming!

It was yet another busy weekend in this two black cat household. We (Brendan and I) attended our first howdown this past Saturday in honor of the famous FunnyGal KAT who will soon be tying the knot with her PH (Pretend Husband as she likes to refer to him. KAT - you're going to have to change that title in a few weeks!) KAT shares a blog with my long-time friend sj over at FunnyGals. And sj, in her usual party-planning greatness, organized a great jack-and-jill with a good ol' country theme for the bride and groom. As soon as she mentioned the fact that there would be Greer's fried chicken there, I was sold! So the next thing I knew, I ordered 2 cowboy hats from an online store and we were ready to go. Hubby unfortunately couln't attend since he worked to organize a bachelor party for one of his good friends that same afternoon/evening.

Sunday turned out to be a nice day and we invited the family to come over for some pizza, cake and pie for hubby's mom's birthday. I think everyone had a good time. And Brendan got to spend some time sharing his new swing set with his cousin for the first time. They were having so much fun, I don't think they realized how chilly it was outside. Quite the contrast to the 90° heat we'll be experiencing at Disney later this week!

Way too early to be dealing w/colds...infections...ugh...

Well it isn't even winter yet but B had his first upper respiratory tract infection this past weekend. I have no idea where he got the bug (although I'm suspecting school since that's where he is during the week and he is now exposed to more kids than he ever has been even at daycare), but Sunday night the fever began and it lasted until Tuesday evening. He had a minor cold the weekend before, but that seemed to come and go. Then on Monday morning the cough started and that's how we knew that his cold must have migrated south into his chest. By Tuesday the fever still hadn't broken yet (although it was a low-grade fever ~101) so we decided to take him to the doctor's and get checked out. Two days and 3 doses of antibiotics later, he's pretty much back to his usual self. Let's hope he stays healthy for a while now!

I flew a plane!!

Well ok - I didn't exactly "fly" it as in taking off or landing, but once we were in the sky, the flight instructor pretty much handed the controls over to me and boy was that fun! A few weeks ago hubby arranged for a demo flight for the two of us and a flight instructor for Saturday morning. Since he's been in a small plane before, he offered to sit in back so that meant I was able to sit in front as the PIC (pilot in command.) The plane was a small 4-seater Cessna Skyhawk. It had the latest in aviation technology (commonly referred to as a "glass cockpit"). Along with all the regular dials and gauges you see in older aircraft, this thing also had 2 LCD screens - one of which was a moving map display so you can see your aircraft on a map as we flew over major roads and landmarks. Pretty neat stuff. We even took part in the pre-flight checklist and the instructor walked me through which switches to turn on and which levers to press when. Now that was confusing and completely overwhelming, but it was still a lot of fun once you were up in the air. And I've got the video to prove it! This first one was taken as we were climbing after take-off. Those who are familiar with the location of this little airport might be able to recognize some landmarks. And yes, that is me in the driver's seat. It was quite hazy yesterday morning, so the visibility wasn't great, but it was still a really cool ride. On a clear day from our altitude, we should have been able to see all the way to the Sound.

The next video will also look pretty familiar to those who live in this area. Those 2 towers on the hill are a predominant landmark but they look so different from the air! Hubby also filmed one of the largest houses in the area. Owned by a popular rapper who bought it from a former boxer. I think it's up for sale again if you've got a few million to spare.

I also flew us over our own house. You'd be surprised how hard it is to find things from the air. You really need to know your landmarks! After turning us north and keeping an eye out for a very large reservoir, I was actually able to follow the roads and turned us right toward our neighborhood. And not long after that, I found our house. Or actually I found our back deck. The red stain is amazingly very visible from 2000 feet up! At that point the instructor took over and put the plane in a 45° bank. Now that was a bit freaky - look next to your shoulder and the wing of the plane is pretty much pointed straight down. But by doing that we were able circle it and the neighborhood a few times before heading back towards the airport. The landing was pretty smooth, but it looked really complicated. All-in-all it was definitely a fun ride. Now on to the more pressing question...would I want to learn how to do all of this myself?

Brendan's birthday present is almost done

It's been a pretty weekend so far and here's why -

The swingset is pretty much up and ready to be played on! The only thing missing are the rocks on the rock wall and the rope that helps you climb up. Then it will be totally be done and within a few weeks we'll probably have to start taking some stuff down for winter storage...go figure. At least he'll have a few more weeks to have fun with it before it really starts to get cold.

A Truly Commercial Mouse

And no I'm talking about Micky or Minnie or any of the other mice characters created by animation moguls like Disney or Warner Brothers. I'm talking about a real mouse...in a commercial establishment. The CVS at the center of our town to be precise.

After picking up B this afternoon from school, we headed over to CVS to pick up a few things. As we walked to the back of the store towards the pharmacy, B who was trailing behind me says "Look mommy!" Now's the time to flip a coin because that phrase usually means there's something really neat to look at or something really bad has caught his eye. Strangely enough, this one falls in the middle. The middle of the cold medicine aisle to be exact. There stood a cute little mouse. The first thing out of my mouth was "Aww...he must have caught wind that there's an oversupply of halloween candy here these days." Then the "screamer" walked by with her son. You know the type - those ultra prim and proper 50-year old women walking around in heels because they think they're 30 years younger than they are. The kind that you know would scream "Eeeek!!! A mouse!!!" at a decibel level that would make you think she was getting attacked by the damn thing. So thanks to that woman, the poor mouse went scurrying down the aisle as fast as it could.

By the time it stopped, I had a chance to grab a hand basket from the end of the aisle and managed to pin it down underneath the basket. Given the size of the holes though, I'm very surprised that mouse didn't try to escape as I'm sure he could have easily fit through. Luckily one of the pharmacists (who actually had a very strong resemblance to SJ's J - I literally had to do a double-take when I saw him) came by with a big container and was able to capture the poor mouse and put it outside. Then the "Eeek" woman came by and pretty much announced to the whole store that I was some sort of supermom and was so incredibly brave to get close enough to cover it with a basket. Umm..not really but if that's what you want to call it, ok! Little does she know, we deal with mice in our own home quite frequently especially in the fall and winter months. And considering the fact that we have 2 superb hunters in the family (the black beasts in the picture) and that I would rather not pick up mouse guts in the house if they managed to capture one, I have gotten pretty quick at the "cover and throw it outside" maneuver. But if that woman has her way, I think that pharmacist just might have earned himself the title of "Employee of the Month" today!

Popular mom phrases

I have no idea who this woman is, but her rattling off of nearly every phrase used by moms everywhere set to the William Tell Overture is hilarious!

Hilarious mom on Yahoo! video

Exactly one week ago...

...Was the last time I posted something. See, I told you this would eventually turn into a once a week kind of thing. Well things have been busy at home the past week and I actually do have some stuff to blog about, so that's good! Last week was a busy week at work, but the weekend was even busier. We spent the majority of both Saturday and Sunday in the yard assembling Brendan's brand new swing set with the help of my dad. There's just a few more things to attach to it (the rocks on the rock climbing wall, the vinyl roof for the fort, etc.) but overall it's pretty much all together and Brendan loves it! I'll have to post some pictures when I get around to taking a few.

In the midst of all of this, the poor kid came down with a nasty cold and was sniffling the whole weekend. Which was great considering we had dinner on Saturday with one of my former co-workers and his wife and their 2 kids. (I wonder how long before I get an email from him indicating that his kids are sick.) Then on Sunday we had dinner with the in-laws (Yup...spreading more love...) But he was actually doing much better on Sunday especially after his nap. Yeah - he was so tired he actually took a nap. That hasn't happened in like a year! Then yesterday I get home from work with the tell-tale sore throat tingling. So this morning you can guess how I'm feeling...downright yucky with an even worse sore throat. We'll see how long I can last at work. Someone might be going home early today.

End of single parenting...now back to your regularly scheduled week

My week of single-parenting ended with no major issues on Friday night when I picked up J from the airport. I say no "major" issues but we did have a minor issue to deal with that night. On our way to my pregnant co-worker Jessica's house for dinner (and here I thought I wouldn't be calling her "my pregnant co-worker"...oh well) B fell asleep in the car somewhere between our house and the airport to pick up J. After the airport, we headed straight to her house. He didn't wake up until we were less than a mile from Jessica's house and the first thing I hear is "Mommy, I just wet myself." Not exactly what you want to hear when you're on your way to a dinner gathering with no spare change of clothes. I mean, he's been potty-trained for a year - who thought to bring a change of clothes? I haven't carried a diaper bag for him in ages, but now I had to do some quick thinking. Thankfully there was a Kohl's not too far away, so I had just enough time to run in, buy a new outfit and run out for a quick change in the parking lot. But let me tell you how gross a wet car seat is to pull apart so I can wash all that fabric...yuck! So disaster was averted - but note to future parents - ALWAYS carry some spare stuff in your car cause you never know! Of course for some of my friends that's not a problem - they carry half their wardrobe in the back of their cars anyway. And some of them are even lucky enough to have some spare food in there too in case they're caught in a blizzard or something!

The weekend went rather well. Sunday we spent the day at the Simsbury Airport for their annual Fly-In. B loved all the planes and he even got a chance to sit in LifeStar and a fire engine. Very fitting considering he wants to be a firefighter for Halloween. Of course, this event just fueled J's desire to someday get his private pilots license...sooner rather than later. And surprisingly, it actually got me more interested in flying also...as a pilot, not a passenger.

New picture...

Of the 2 cats for which this blog is named after. My love bug Paco is on the left and his sister Hailie is on the right. That picture was taken 2 years ago while they were perched on the railing of our back deck enjoying a nice summer day. These two get photographed often, so there will more of them to come.

Single mom status - 4 days down, 2 more to go...

Well I have to admit, this week has been going a lot smoother than I thought it would be. With the exception of the morning drop-off to nursery school. For some reason, B has reverted back to a level of separation anxiety not seen since his infant days. The mornings start out great - he's in a good mood, eats his breakfast and even seems excited to go to school. Then we arrive at the school and the kid does a complete 180. All of a sudden he no longer wants to go and pretty much tries to pull my arm off as I try to redirect him to some really cool toys. Then the lower lip sticks out, followed by the watering eyes and suddenly I feel like the worst parent in the world. Of course, it's only week 3 of nursery school, so I guess some of this is normal. Even though this is a huge place compared to his tiny at-home daycare that he had been going to for the past 2 years, you'd think that after spending 2 weeks at their summer camp in August (and totally loving it!) that the transition to nursery school would be smooth. Not so much. Of course, witnessing the other kids having a meltdown as their parents try to leave doesn't help either. Yet another stage in growing up I guess. This can't go on forever, right?

Ok, the good part about being a single mom for a week is only having to make dinner for two out of the six nights. And that's if you count re-heating leftovers as 'making dinner'. So far, I've been to my parent's and my in-law's for dinner. Then my mom calls up last night and says she wants us to come over again tonight. Friday night we have plans to eat dinner with Jessica (the PG co-worker...well actually I pretty much told her we'd be stopping by with a nice homemade veggie lasagna so she'd be crazy not to let us in!) and Saturday morning JG will be back. I wish every single-mom week worked out that well.

I don't know how single moms do it...

So the husband has taken off for a week of training on the west coast. Lucky duck. Now it's time for some good mommy/son bonding time. That is until I discover the Sony Playstation is yet again pulled out of the entertainment cabinet (I'm really going to have to store that thing away real soon) and find my Pirates of the Caribbean DVD is jammed in there even after I asked him if he put any disks in there which he fervently denied several times.

Single mom status - 2 days down, 4 more to go.

I just hope I can retain my sanity once this week is over. In a way, all I can say is thank god for work. Those 8 hours truly do turn into a respite from the kid craziness that ensues from the moment I pick him up from nursery school. And now I get to add the morning craziness into the mix since hubby is gone for the week (the morning duty and school drop-off routine is primarily his responsibility.) Is it bad to get into work in the morning and take a deep breath and go "ah... no kids..." and literally feel a bit of relief? I feel guilty thinking that way, but in a way, going to work is quite the relaxing break at times. Thankfully these weeks of training do not happen too frequently. And as for my single-mom friends out there, I honestly don't know how you do it. Yet another thing to be thankful for - the ability to share the child-raising stress with someone else!

So I think I've got this color thing figured out...

But that's probably about it! For now anyway. Although I have had quite a bit of spare time today, which is very unusual for me. I'm usually pretty busy at work, but not so much today. Which is bad in the sense that I'm not being too productive, but good in the sense that it gave me the time to get this blog up and running. Something I've been meaning to do for quite some time, but just haven't gotten around to it. There was just no motivation to stare at yet another computer screen at home after I've been staring at one all day at work.

Speaking of work, one of my co-workers (who has also quickly become one of my good friends) just found out recently that she is pregnant. I'll call her Jessica here, which is not her real name, but easier than constantly referring to her as "my pregnant co-worker" or some other such phrase. I am so excited for her as is she since she called me the night she took the test and I'm positive she was jumping up and down on the other end of the phone. So since I found out I've been experiencing a wave of nostalgia for those days of being pregnant. Which was 4 years ago! Now that may not sound like a long time, but in "kid years", trust me it is. Which then makes me wonder if I'd be willing to go through all that a second time. Right now that answer is yes on some days, and no on others. And Jessica isn't helping matters since she thinks that it would be cool if we could both be pregnant together. Heaven help our other team members (they're all males) if that ever happened!

There was one day in particular where I remember thinking - "B (nickname for my son) would love to have a brother or sister. He's such a gentle soul and he'd make a great older brother. They would grow up together, be great friends, etc etc." That thought lasted until I got home, where I discovered he had wet the bed the night before (great, yet another load of laundry), a cup of milk from the previous night was wedged in between the sofa cushions (you can imagine the smell when I took the lid off of that sippy cup), all while B was pulling out the Sony Playstation so he could "play" a game (and he's already broken one of my favorite game disks so he knows the Playstation is off limits.) Then I started to wonder if I could handle this amount of chaos times 2 and quickly came to the realization that life is pretty good with just one child right now. And that's the way it's been for the past few years...every time I think we could probably handle another, something happens that quickly changes my mind. But now I have someone that I can tell all my crazy pregnancy and infant-hood stories to. Now there's something to be excited about!

Wow I just realized I wrote a stinkin' book here!

A brand new blog - cause sj made me do it

Well ok, sj didn't exactly "make" me do it, but she has hinted on several occasions, both in person and in her own blog that she shares with KAT - Funny Gals that I really need to get going on this whole blogging thing. The thing is, I've never been a great journal-keeper, nor a great writer. I hate writing - hated it back in school and I still hate it even now. I'm a very technical math/science oriented person, so creative writing (or writing in general) was never a strong skill for me. So if it looks like I'm struggling for words or just can't put my thoughts together in a meaningful way, my apologies in advance. And along the journal-keeping front, I'm going to have to apologize in advance for that too in the event that days go by and I haven't posted a thing and readers simply go away due to lack of any updated or interesting content. Some days I just won't know what to post, so you've been forewarned.

And if this blog looks really boring and blah for awhile, you'll have to excuse me while I learn the ins-and-outs of customizing this stuff. Which hopefully won't take too long with this IT brain of mine!