IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN.

My streak of getting to the gym in the mornings finally was broken, thanks to an unplanned oversleep. Not that it started out that way. No, I did wake up, but then for an unknown reason, I fell back to sleep and didn't wake up until 2 hours later! Obviously, I needed the sleep.

Way too much partying this weekend was one reason. We had our annual office party on Thursday night, a formal affair, and while it wasn't terribly late when I left, I was so tired that day anyway that I was bleary-eyed most of the evening. And I actually had to work overtime that day, so I got to the party late. I had decided to take Friday off, however, just because I had some packages that needed to be readied and sent out by Friday, inventorying the gifts I had already bought, and catching up on my wrapping. That evening, I took my grandsons to see Peter Pan on stage, and while they were mesmerized, I couldn't keep from nodding off almost from the start.

Saturday, of course, was the 3 mile race, half mile swim after, work for a couple of hours to catch up lost time from the week, and then head home to wrap some more before getting ready for another party. This was given by one of the attorneys at his home, and only a small group was invited. Because I had ditched this party last year, I felt I should attend this year. I had a hard time getting myself out the door, since I was still so sleepy. It was nearly midnight by the time I got home, and then had a hard time sleeping, since I was a-buzz from all the chocolate and sugar I had consumed! It was probably 1:30 by the time I went to sleep.

Sunday I woke up early and then went right back to sleep until 8:30 am. I still felt sleepy and out of sorts, but I still had a few shopping items I wanted to get done, and I figured it would be better to get out there early before the after church crowd showed up. So I was out the door by 10 am and on to the mall! I was pretty much done (and out of money) by 3 pm so headed home. It had been a lovely, warm, and partly sunny day, enough so I could open the sun roof in my car and enjoy the fresh air. I was glad I had taken the time to get my car washed the day before too or there would have been a nasty glare from the sun shining through the salt buildup on my windows.

Don and I had talked about running later in the afternoon, but at this point I decided walking would be enough. My shoulder was aching something fierce, more so than it had in a long time, and I also didn't want to spend the extra time it would take to get dressed to run and then shower after. So we walked. For 45 minutes. He was ready to go longer, but I had had enough, and twilight was actually upon us. The street lights came on and it wasn't even 4:30! We are approaching the longest day of the year, and then happily it will start staying light out longer each day, probably only by seconds at first, but I always do notice a slight change after December 20.

When I got home, I decided to tackle the candy making I had started the day before--Buckeyes. For those who are not familiar with these, they are chocolate covered peanut butter balls. To give them the "buckeye" appearance (chestnut), you dip them in the chocolate leaving just a portion of the top showing. Ha! While I have made these successfully dozens of times over the years, today was not going to be one of them. For one thing, the "dough" was too soft. Trying to roll this into balls left nothing but a melted mess on my hands and only a semi-firm ball to work with. Worse yet, trying to then pick them up to dip them into the chocolate, they melted even further, making it impossible to dip. So I had to pour the chocolate over these semi-shaped peanut butter blobs, wasting a lot of chocolate in the process. What I didn't eat then (you have to taste your creations), was wasted on these unsightly messes.

On to the other disaster then, my first attempt to make turtle candies. I had the pecans, the caramels, and more chocolate to be melted. I followed the directions of a recipe I got from the Internet, a very simple, hopefully no-fail recipe. Once again, things did not go well. The recipe called for placing the pecans on a baking sheet in the shape of a turtle. ?? What would that be? Try taking pecans and making them look like a turtle, I dare you. On top of this, you put one caramel. Then you place the cookie sheet into the oven just long enough to melt the caramel. Remember, my oven has been on the fritz (hopefully to be fixed today!), so I had to put them in my toaster oven. While the caramels were melting, I was spooning chocolate over the peanut butter balls. The next thing I knew, the caramels were still not melted, but now the pecans were looking scorched. Great! I turned the oven off and just let the heat finish melting the candies, but again, by the next time I looked, most of the caramels were melted but had oozed off the nuts. It almost looked like burnt cheese. Well, I guess I'll just put the chocolate over these and see how they taste later. In the meantime, I will not make any more. (Now what do I do with all the other unwrapped caramels??)

I spooned the chocolate over these messes and then put everything into the refrigerator to set. When this was done, I tried to get the turtles off the foil and could immediately see that they might not be edible. They were hard as a rock. But they actually tasted okay, burnt nuts and all.

By this time, I'm about sick from all the chocolate and nuts I had been munching on and decided to do some wrapping for a while. My shoulder was now hurting so bad that every move made me groan. I started wondering if I was out of alignment and would have to go see my chiropractor, which was not on the schedule until Wednesday.

After I wrapped for another hour, I made some dinner and then found it hard to get up and continue on with the rest of my chores for the night. I was tired and achey. I finally made myself get up and clean the kitchen and make my lunch, wrapped a few more things, and then finally tried to settle down. It was after 10 o'clock by then, and my shoulder hurt so much I was really miserable. I took an 800 ibuprofen and a muscle relaxant, to no avail. I then tried some heat, and that relaxed me enough so I finally was able to fall asleep around 11.

I didn't sleep well because of my shoulder, so today I will have to go have it looked at. I'm sure all this contributed to my oversleeping, ya think? It will be nice when all this is done later this week. I am having my family for Christmas again, instead of my sister, but hopefully the oven will be fixed and I have everything ready! If I get a workout in today, it will definitely have to be after work, but I am not betting on it.