I have a quandry.

Steve and I looked in the backyard the other day and we noticed that there was a lot more stuff back there than normal. I say stuff, because we don't have a clue what it is. We took some time today to go out there and pick it up, and we noticed that it was all stuff from next door. This has been going on since the new neighbors moved in, and we know that this stuff belongs to them. The quandry part of it all is this: we don't know if the kids next door are throwing this stuff into our yard, or if our dogs are somehow getting it another way. We've found all kinds of things, but there is a small chance that Cleatus and Kay Bob could have dragged it too close to the fence and Butler and Bear somehow pulled it underthe rest of the way. This little chance is the one thing keeping us from asking them to keep their junk on that side of the fence! We don't want to come across as jerks to these people (who have a warped sense of who we are anyway), but I'm tired of their trash showing up over here. We are getting concerned that they are throwing things over here that are being eaten by the dogs. We find pieces of toy cars and tools with handles missing and the like. I just wish we could just once catch the kids doing it. If I ever do, I have a feeling I might run out there and throw the bucket of dog water on them! That would be rude, though. : P

In other news, I made a Gooey Butter Cake this morning! It is actually verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry good! The recipe is from the Lady and Sons cookbook, and I made it for Josh, who told us that they are really popular in St. Louis. Of course, I have a feeling that to Josh, it won't be made well enough or up to St. Louis standards...but he can bite me. I'm being nice, and I already know it tastes good! So there! heeheehee.

Tonight we plan on going to a party, thrown by the afore mentioned Josh, in his new casa. We are going to have a ton of food and everything else. It'll be fun. : ) One thing, though, is that he's invited a couple who are constantly fighting, but I hope they can put it all aside while we're there. There is nothing quite as uncomfortable as trying to look at everything else but two people who are really arguing. Bickering is one thing, unmitigated hatred and venom is another. I guess I could throw a bucket of water on them too, if I have to! ; )

To everyone who reads this, I hope you have a great and blessed new year!

Ew.

This morning, I was driving to work when I decided to open the bottle of juice that I had in my lunch sack. Well, it's not so much juice as a smoothie with kind of the consistancy of thin baby food. Anyways, something told me not to do it, but I ignored that voice in my head and did it any way. At the 4 way stop near the house, the juice bottle suddenly wrenched its self out of my grasp. I say this because there was no other good reason why I should have dropped it. I wasn't moving, I wasn't car dancing, I was just sitting there. Well, I saw the bottle start to fall in slow motion, like in the movies. I tried to catch it, but I didn't, and it spilled all over my leg, the seat, and into the pocket on the door. I sat there making a helpless gutteral noise, hoping that I would be able to get to work without anyone noticing. Oh, and I was holding up traffic. So I came to the realization that a giant orange colored splotch on my pants would be noticed, and I had to turn around and go home. When I got there, I had to get out of Rudolph, which is pretty high off of the ground, so I couldn't just step out, I had to slide out, further mashing smoothie-juice-pulp into the butt of my pants. Let me tell you, walking outside with cold, wet pants isn't in any way fun. I finally got inside, threw my pants in the washing machine and found more pants. Then I had to go out and clean the interior of my car, which I'm pretty sure is still going to smell like orange-mango smoothie no matter how carfully I looked for the stuff. To add insult to injury, I fired off an e-mail to one of the guys in my office to let them know I'd be late, dreading the jokes that would no doubt be made at my expense the whole way back to work. I just hoped that they would get most of it out of their system before I got there. When I did finally get to work, I was the first one here...so now I'm just cringing in my chair, waiting to see if anyone walks down to my office to make fun of me. Maybe not. Oy!

The Year of the Cookbook.

That was the theme of this Christmas for me. As of last night, I realized that I have received 12 of them this year! I'm excited about possibly making something out of them! As you know, I love the cookbooks that are either unusual, from specific places or have a specific theme. This year I got some of each! So if you come to dinner at some point this year, I will possibly be making something from Rome, London, New Orleans (that last one struck me as terribly sad...it was full of resturaunts and places that no longer exist), or Savannah. I might make a fancy Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner or maybe something just for two people. Maybe I'll just make soup, cause I now have a book specifically for that, or I'll be making something Greek, Thai, or Spanish. For dessert, I will make Wookie Cookies from my Star Wars Cookbook, if for no other reason than it is SO much fun to say. : ) Now, the next order of business is learning how to actually cook. The Adventure Begins!

I found a grey hair! It's so pretty! The woman in my family have absolutely beautiful white hair when they get older, so I hope that I follow suit. Of course, I say this now...

I know I haven't been in my job long enough when get excited when I see something I designed actually in print. Space Camp has a deal with Arby's, starting in February, where they will have space related stuff in the kids meals. There is this really awesome little cardboard punch-out lunar rover that you fold and put together. I had nothing to do with that, BUT I did make the tiny little diagrams on how to put them together! Simple cat, simple pleasures.

Welcome to the Special Holiday Edition of my Weekend Update!

Hmmmm, feels as if I should have a musical number to kick this off. Nah, I'll save it for another time. : )

If I had never known how blessed I was before, I would certainly have found out this past week/weekend. It was a perfectly amazing parfait of everything lovely and fun. God has blessed me with so many wonderful things and people in my life, and I'm very sure I don't deserve any of them. Maybe that's why I'm so grateful for it all. : )

Thursday night was the time Steve and I had set aside to do our own little Christmas. He had already let it slip what he was getting me, the Williams-Sonoma cookbooks that I collect (not to mention he couldn't resist giving me three of them at varying intervals before Christmas too), but I was still excited. I had been finding him a few little things here and there, and so we exchanged our gifts and had fun looking them over. After all of that, he asked me to come sit next to him for a while. He gave me a hug and said "So, did you get everything you wanted?" (A line we are all familiar with due to the ubiquitous "A Christmas Story") so I took the que and said "Well, almost". He leaned forward and pointed and said "well, what is that in there?" Of course, I didn't know what he was talking about, so I just laughed. He said "No, really, I think I saw something in our room." So we walked back to the bedroom, and there was a HUGE box on the bed. Needless to say, I hadn't had any idea about another gift, so I was surprised. I was so taken aback, that I didn't open it right away. In fact, I was a little scared of it...pretty sure there was something alive in it (don't ask me why). So Steve finally told me to open it, and I did. He had gotten me an iMac G5, with all the bells and whistles! I was completely floored! Not only had he not let it slip that he had gotten this for me, he had managed not to give it to me before hand! It was awesome! So of course, we set it up right away. : ) Now I can make all of my movies and DVDs at home, I can video conference (someone out there, PLEASE get a camera so I can do this), and everything else that iMacs do! It was totally unexpected! Of course, one of the first things I did was cause it to crash - and now it's at the Mac Resourse place getting fixed (doh!) but still, what an amazingly thoughtful gift! Thank you Steve! : )

Friday was set to be a kind of Blah day, but it turned into anything but. In fact, it was Anti-Blah, if there is such a thing! There was really nothing for me to do at work so I had brought a few things to keep me busy, and my-very-favorite-Kenny was meeting me at the SpRocket for lunch. I puttered around the office until he got there, and we had such a good time! Since I don't get to see him that often, I always forget how much fun it is to spend the day with him. When we were younger, and I lived in Athens, he would come to visit his grandparents for Christmas and we would always pick a day, or a couple of hours at least, to go out and act silly. I'm glad to know things haven't changed that much. : ) Everyone should have a day of acting silly, in my opinion. We exchanged gifts, both of us had gotten each other books. He got me three very awesome cookbooks (I think I'm going to have to learn to cook!), one from a place in Savannah called "Lady & Sons" resturaunt. I think I gained six pounds just reading the recipes! I don't think I have ever seen the call for more butter in my life! He also, wonderful man that he is, remembered my weakness and gave me a little box of Godiva.

*moment of silence*

Okay, whew! After that we just sat and talked for hours about everything, and to end the day, of course I had to show him the sunset view from the roof. I mean, how often do you get to see the sun set behind the only standing model of the Saturn V? I also had to reach back into the dusty cobwebs of my memory to try and tell him what all of the other things in the park were, but to be fair, it's been about 8 years since I gave THAT tour. : )

Saturday was Christmas Eve, and we always spend that at my Grandmother's house for Lunch. We ate, and ate...and ate, and sat around talking for a while. It's like a mini class reunion for me whenever this part of my family gets together. My cousin Scott and I were in the same class at school, and he and my other cousin Michael both married girls from our class as well. Together with my sister's kids, I think there were about 7 kids in all with us that day, but I can't be sure because it seemed like a lot more before we left! The adults played "Dirty Santa", but there was very little stealing this year. I ended up with a candle with the scent "Bird of Paradise". It smells good, but I'm not sure that's what a bird of paradise smells like. The smaller kids didn't understand the game, and when my dad got a gift card from my Aunt Delilah, her grandkids ganged up on him and took it back. It was like a tiny little battle of Gettysburg! When we explained that it was okay to do take the things from others in this game, he finally got it back. : ) After Grandmother's lunch, we went to Steve's parent's house to open gifts and have dinner. We had a great time there, too, but we were so tired that we didn't stay late. We went home and I think I made it to about 9:30 before I fell asleep.

Sunday was a wonderful Christmas day. We went to church for the worship service that morning, and then headed over to my parent's house to have snacks and open gifts. My youngest nephew, Seth, was foaming at the mouth to open gifts. I finally had to tell him that every time he told us to hurry up, we would wait another hour to open gifts. I know, I know...but it was the only way we got to talk or eat. My mom always makes this huge buffet of finger foods, so of course, we took full advantage. : ) We opened our gifts, and I showed everyone the birthday DVD that I had made for Steve, and afterwards my sister, me, Steve and Seth played a game of giant Jenga. The Jenga tower was about three feet tall, and it's HARD to play! It was a lot of fun, though. Steve was the one who knocked it over in the end. I think I like games that end with a loser rather than a winner! heeheehee. After that, we went back to Steve's mom and dad's house to open our stockings. Now, the Pratt tradition of opening stockings is different than anyone elses that I've ever heard of. Instead of actual stockings, we all have big gift bags and everything in them are wrapped. A stick of gum, wrapped. A fridge magnet, wrapped. I was in charge of stockings this year since Rhonda has been sick, and I think I went a little overboard. It took us the better part of two hours to open the stockings! It was a lot of fun, though. We also had dinner with them and Steve pulled out the two movies that they insist on watching every year. "Christmas Comes to Willow Creek" and "Babes in Toyland". For the past few years, I have refused to watch either of them, so I found a novel and read it while the movies were on. That might sound a bit rude, I guess, but you'd probably feel the same way if it were you. "Babes in Toyland" just scares me, I don't know why. It's really not any different from any other Disney film made back then, I guess, but it creeps me out. "Christmas Comes to Willow Creek" is the cenematic equivelent to jamming dull pencils into your eye sockets. I'm not kidding. It's schmaltzy, it's cheesy, and it's probably got more cliche moments per second than any other movie ever made. If a movie called, "The Movie of Christmas Cliches" was ever made, it STILL wouldn't be like this one. It stars Tom Wopat and John Schneider (post Dukes of Hazzard I think) as brothers who hated each other. Their ailling father asks them to drive a semi-truck full of gifts and supplies to a tiny failing Alaskian town, who wouldn't have Christmas without it. They would have to work together to get it to them on time, so not just one brother could do it. Of course, you can probably guess the rest. I saw this movie once, about 6 years ago, and I still twitch whenever I see the tape case come out of the closet. I avoid it as if it were an Ebola sandwhich.

All in all, bad movies or not, I had a truly blessed and wonderful Christmas. Now, I suppose, it's time to get back to the real world.

Ooooooooh, Ijust realized that this is my 400th post! Woo-hoo!

However, what will really bake your noodle is whether or not I would have posted that if the dashboard hadn't told me what number I was on.

There is no spoon...

Anyway, I had forgotten to say anything in my last post about my grades. They were officially posted today. I made an A- in Medieval Art History, an A- in Lithography, and a C in Algebra. I NEVER HAVE TO TAKE A MATH CLASS AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*flips on iTunes to K.C. and the Sunshine Band and does a celebratory happy dance*

*pauses to write a little more*

Next semester I will be taking my first 400 level Graphic Design course, Ancient Greek History, and a one night a week Yoga class. I'm excited about everything but the Greek History at this point, but I'll at least have a better idea how to handle the coursework since it's the same professor.

*resumes music and happy dance*

Oy to the world...

Before I write, let me just say that I do indeed love my husband...no matter how it may appear sometimes.

Last night was kind of a mess. Remember when I said I was done shopping? I wasn't! I was wrapping gifts the other night and realized that two very important family members had inadvertently been left off of my list. Steve and I had planned on meeting at home after work and doing this last little bit of shopping together. He doesn't normally shop for gifts, that's my thing, but I asked if he would go with me so that I could be restrained when a holiday stressed soccermom shoved me out of the way for the last iDog...or whatever. Anyways, I get a call close to 5 that he (being the nice and helpful guy he is) had agreed to help Josh return the trailor that they had borrowed and go to dinner. I wish I could say I was gracious about this, but I wasn't. I had a lot to do without this distraction, so I emotionally beat him about the head and shoulders for a few minutes and then promptly forgave him. : ) Anyways, so we get the trailer and they decide that they want to eat...at the mall. The thinking was that Steve and I could eat and then finish our shopping. Fair enough, makes sense, convenient...good idea. But we end up going to one of the sit down resturaunts which takes a while. Then we finally leave to shop. I knew what I wanted to get for one person, the other was a mystery. Josh needed to get a gift for his new girlfriend's mom, and so we spent some time looking for something with a lighthouse on it. Score, we find something! Of course, it takes him a while to decide if that is indeed what he wanted to get. The store I needed was on the other end of the mall, so I figure we will make our way back there. However, Josh realized that he needed another gift, so we end up stopping at one of those overpriced chotchki places that are so stuffed with merchandise that if you happen to burp too loud, you shatter a shelf full of crystal animals and Gone With the Wind figurines. Anyways, so we look around there for a while...and I mean a WHILE. Anything I suggested, he shot down. He had asked me for help, and wouldn't take it, so I went outside of the store with Steve and we waited for him to come out. That didn't happen. I finally had to lean in and call for him to come on. We went into another shop, where Steve found the answer to out mystery gift problem and we went back upstairs towards the store I needed to go in. Right next to that store is a toy store. Steve stops and says..."Let's look at Star Wars stuff", and I told him he(and the horse he rode in on) could go in there while I looked for the other gift. I found what I was looking for and went back for Steve, but he wasn't in the toy store anymore. I thought, great...he's gone to look for me so that means I'll never find him. You know how that is. Why is it that you can buy harnesses for children, but not husbands? Just strap on the bracelet and you can drag him around without his getting away from you! Surprisingly enough, we found each other quickly and decided to wait until we could compare some prices before we bought the last gift. I also ended up helping Josh carry his purchases, which were considerable, while Steve went to get the truck. We didn't get home until late, so I couldn't do any of the other things that I had planned. In fact, I pretty much waited until the dogs were in bed and I went to bed too. It had been a super long day.

Before you just believe that I'm completely evil (I'm not...completely), I need to explain that I was tired from work and uncomfortably dressed. I was wearing my super villian spikey heeled boots, hose, and a skirt. These things are fine when you are at work sitting in front of a computer, but for what ended up being a 5 hour shopping trip, walking about and standing, they are BAD. Not to mention that every time I looked at the clock, I realized I would have less and less time to do anything once I got home. Granted, it's not a good reason for getting irritated at Steve and Josh, but it was my reason!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The Tea wisdom for today is:

"A secret is as near as your own silence"

I can't believe it! That actually makes sense!

Joyuex Noel!

"In each cup brew a thousand stories"

Well, I guess if a thousand monkeys brewed a thousand cups of tea for a thousand years...

Did I ever mention that I am the coolest wife ever? Heeheehee, well, maybe not, but I was able to pull of a birthday surprise for Steve that I'm awful proud of. Last week I had taken my camera to work to upload some pictures, and I got an idea for something I could do for Steve. The camera takes short clips of digital video, and I got the idea to have his friends here say happy birthday to him. I also have a couple of fairly awesome programs on my work computer that I want to learn how to use, iMovie and iDVD, so that I can do slideshows with music or learn editing to string together digital media if I'm ever required to do so for the SpRocket. Anyways, I got everyone I could think of that was here to say happy birthday, plus one of our friends from church, plus Josh and my family were all in on it. I wanted his parents to be on it too, but I never had enough time alone with them to get a clip of them. I used iMovie to create a title sequence that looked like a trailor for a disaster movie, and a sequence of calling him old interspace with pictures of old people and stuff. I was going to wait until his birthday, but I couldn't stand it, so I told him to come to the SpRocket because I had a birthday surprise for him. Our friend, Anthony, used the digital projector to show his birthday in IMAX! He loved it. In case you work with him and want to see it, he has a copy of it with him today. If not, hopefully one day I can figure out how to post a link to it on the web. : )

Oh yeah, I forgot to add earlier...

At the Christmas party, my boss was out there dropping it like it was hot. : ) He also had moments where he was dancing like Ed Grimley. I had no idea that the man could dance like that.

Priceless!

Weekend Update!

This weekend was very, very, busy, but I had a lot of fun in the process of being busy! It's been so long since I have had fun, I almost didn't know what to do with myself.

Friday after work, I was supposed to go to Josh's new house for a house warming party. Well, actually, I was supposed to go there to cook for a house warming party. This was the first time that I had ever known anyone to close, move in, and have a party all in one day. Steve had had the day off to help Josh move, so I had to leave work a little early to go home and take care of some stuff for him, and then I went to Target to get some food and supplies for the party. Have I mentioned how much I hate shopping at Christmas time? You know, I realize that people have to put things off until the last minute sometimes, but can you explain to me why they lose any shred of human decency in the process? I was almost run over, stomped on, and hit by cars. I was able to get in and out with what I needed in a very short amount of time, amazingly enough. At this point though, I was running late. I knew I was supposed to be at Josh's house before 6, but I knew that wasn't going to happen, so I just figured that they could deal with eating a little later. : ) So after searching a while, I finally found his subdivision, which turns out not to be that far away from where I grew up in good ol' Limestone County. He now lives in one of those labarynth type new subdivisions where all of the houses are about 3 feet apart on both sides, so finding his actual house was more difficult than anything. I finally arrived, gathered all of the groceries, and went to the door. No one was there. I knocked and rang the doorbell, just in case someone was in another room, but nothing. I stood there feeling slightly silly, holding about 8 plastic Target bags and peering into all of the windows I could reach. At first I thought maybe I had gone to the wrong house, but when I looked in the windows, I saw some of his unmistakeable furniture. Well, I thought, wherever they are they'll be back soon, so I dropped all of the bags and had a seat on the porch. They actually didn't come back as quickly as I had hoped, so I sat out there long enough to start to worry about dying of hypothermia. Also, this neighbor lady kept driving by in her car, slowing down to stare at me and make sure I wasn't doing anything weird. I wanted to stop her and say "Ma'am, I'm the new breed of theif. Instead of taking things and causing damage, I bring food and set up for parties. Like a renagade Martha Stewart." Granted, I know she was probably just concerned, but if I wasn't doing anything but sitting there for her first two drive bys, it's a safe guess that I will not be doing anything the next three times you drive by. Oh, and it's a cul de sac, so I am going to notice the same car driving by many times. Way to be stealthy there, Mrs. Smith. Anyways, they FINALLY got there, and we started unpacking and putting kitchen things away. I fired up the stove and started making the snacks. I burned the heck out of my finger by being stupid, dropping a pan full of frozen mozzarella sticks under the glowing red thingies in the bottom of the stove in the process. We finally got everything cooked, we sat back and watched "It's a Wonderful Life" and proceded to have a very nice evening. We didn't end up leaving until about 1:00 am, which is later than I usually stay up, but it was worth it! : )

Saturday was going to be a full day from the begining. I had so many things to do, as well as my company Christmas party that night. I can't believe it, but I actually gt organized by making a list, with sublists and bullets, just to make sure I didn't forget anything. First off, I had to finish off my Christmas cards...minus one since I forgot to bring the address home with me. I was going to print all of the envelopes since my handwriting is so messy, so it took a little longer than it should have. That done, I had to go out and finish my shopping. I have never shopped so efficently, or quickly, in my life. I made sure that all of my purchases could be made in the same strip mall, save one store, and I was in and out of all of them in record time. Once again, I did this to avoid the angry people who treat Christmas like a demolition derby! I got home and had lunch, and began working on making my jewelry for the party that night, and also on a totebag I was making for a lady at my church. I was having difficulty getting the iron on things to look right, so I wasn't paying attention to the time. I finally look at my watch and see that the Christmas party would be starting in about half an hour! So I had to wake up Steve, who had fallen asleep due to his cough medicine, and I started getting ready. I did decide to wear my vampire dress, at the request of my husband who apprently is disgusted by my lack of pigmentation and didn't want to have to look at too much of it. : ) Now, don't get me wrong, I love that dress. It's not really a creepy goth thing like I make it sound. It's actually more of a black and purple Medieval dress with big bell sleeves and laces up the front. The only thing I don't like about it is the neckline. Somehow, I can't feel safe with the front of my dress cut to mid-sternum. Well, we arrive at the Civic center, and there is no where to park. Well, we could have parked in a gravel lot about a block away from where we were going to be, but I was wearing heels and a black dress, so I would be darned if I'd risk breaking an ankle and getting dirty before I got to my the party. As we sat in the truck, were were surrounded by a river of folks who look like they were going to a rodeo. I haven't seen that many Wranglers, Ropers, and giant silver belt buckles since my high school graduation! We found out later that the mass of rednecks were headed to a Charlie Daniels, Gretchen Wilson, and someone else concert. Also, there were 7 parties going on there as well. Me thinks that the Civic Center overbooked a bit. At any rate, we finally found a parking place across the street and found the hall we were in. There were more people there than I expected, but we were so spread out that you couldn't tell who anyone was. Steve and I chose a table off in the corner, where we were accompanied by Anthony and Alan the computer guy and his wife. We had a ball. I don't know what made everything so funny, but we laughed and joked about the ladies who were misled in their wardrobe choices (and I know that sounds mean, but when you are clearly not a size 6, you shouldn't wear a size 6...you know?) and we sang along with the music...just had a good time. I'm afraid that I am going to have to start finding a new date for these events because Steve doesn't like to dance and will not dance unless it's a slow song. I can't dance either, but there comes a point where you just need to not worry about it and have fun. So me and Anthony danced out there for a while, I finally talked Steve into dancing to the "Play That Funky Music, White Boy" song, and I even did the electric slide. Why I did that, I will never understand. I suppose it's just a relief to know I'm doing some steps right, no matter how corny the dance. After that night, Steve and I have decided to take ballroom lessons. I was afraid that people were going to think I was drunk, because I went into "Having so much fun that I began to get silly" mode. However, I was not thankyouverymuch! We finally left after all of the door prizes were given out (which I didn't win one of) and we went home to let the dogs in and go to bed. It was a full, yet enjoyable, day.

Sunday was a lot more restful. Church and my parent's house for lunch, then stopping by Steve's parent's house to visit his mom (who is still really drained, so please keep her in your prayers) and after running a few errands, we got to go home. Steve still hasn't been feeling well, he found out a few days ago that he had bronchitus (?) so we stayed home while he rested and I wrapped gifts.

I like weekends...

"Sipping thoughts of peace, hope floats my way."

Once again, the tea bag wisdom isn't wisdom at all. It's some kind of abbreviated haiku. Part of me wonders if the person who writes this is some kind of poet that couldn't make it in the Fortune Cookie industry. Maybe he's got some kind of mental block for syllabuls. Kind of like Zoolander couldn't turn left, this guy (or girl) can't write the standard 5-7-5.

You know, it just dawned on me. Someone who makes these tea bags with the lame sayings on them is someone who has the same job I do. One of these days, I may be designing lame fortune cookie tea bags! Oy Vey!

The directions are a little more interesting today. "Pull fresh water from the orange grove spring." Um...okay. Let me just go do that. Somehow, I think you have to live in some kind Zen neitherworld where the orange grove springs have wise water and you can relax at the drop of a hat to drink this properly.

I am driving the Chick Magnet today. Josh is moving into his new house, and needed to borrow Rudolph, so we did tradsies until he's done. The Chick Magnet is an Eclipse of indeterminate year. It's a sporty little black thing that's low to the ground and has a spoiler the size of Steve's head. It's like the Bat Mobile! I haven't driven a sports car in so long that it feels like I'm sitting on a skateboard being pulled by some unseen force. It's so much lighter than the Durango. I'm a little offended that Steve and Josh were so worried about me driving the car. I mean, last night on the way home, I wanted to drive it to get a feel for it, and Steve was acting like my mom used to when I only had my permit! He was -get this- giving me directions to our house. Okay, I know it's a different car than I normally drive, but I don't think it will impair my sense of direction. It's not like it's going to go all Night Rider on me and take over or something. Oh well, hopefully I can get it back to Josh in one piece. : ) We are supposed to go to Josh's new house and celebrate his first night as a homeowner. I get to cook. Let's hope I don't burn down the house before he gets to sleep in it! : )

I like the way my office is arranged much better than the old way. I think my chi flows much better. Well, either that or not sitting in a direct beam of sunlight for two hours in the morning is allowing my brain cells to heal. Brain cells, Chi...it's pretty much all the same.

This morning I was walking in and happened to see two very beautiful leaves limned in frost on the pavement. Luckily I had my camera in my purse, so I pulled it out and kneeled down to take a couple of close up snaps. The security guard either thought I was having a seizure or was bowing to Mecca. Next time I will hold the camera up over my head so that it can be clearly seen before I get down on the ground. That way I won't scare anyone.

I will begin by saying this: It isn't my birthday. I was born on February 14th about a hundred and seven years ago.

I rearranged my office during my lunch break. I had no idea how heavy these desks were until I had to scoot them across carpet. I have one L shaped desk that houses my personal stuff and computer, and two giant rectangular ones (that are really drafting desks from the 60s) made of oak that weigh a million pounds apiece. I got trapped behind those at one point, so that was a lot of fun having to crawl under them. It was like playing Tetris in here for a while, but now my back isn't to the door and my desk is somewhere near the flow of air conditioning.

Go me!

Nelson, that's a good idea, but the party is on Saturday. I don't have time for a vote. However, to incorporate your idea of wearing the most festive one, I am now in the process of painting reindeer on the back of the vampire dress. It'll be awesome! : )

Numi Tea Advice of the day isn't really advice:

"Breath embraces sunshine, I drink the moment."

Huh? It almost sounds like a hikau, but not really. The directions tell me to sit back and relax before I pour the boiling water. I probably shouldn't relax too much or I might miss the cup altogether. Maybe I'll relax after I make the tea. But what if the tea requires relaxed water pouring before it will steep? What if I can't have the tea? See, now I can't relax at all! STUPID TEA!

For the first time ever, I am cold in my office. Probably because we've had two consecutive days of overcast skies, so the greenhouse effect isn't in effect. When I get cold, I get sleepy. This should be an interesting day!

Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.

I've gone all Captain Picard with my tea choice this morning. I don't know that I've ever had Earl Grey Tea, but if it's good enough for Patrick Stewart, it's good enough for me! : ) I almost got attacked by the Camoflage Ninja on my way back to the office with my hot water. This guy is funny. He's Jason's roomate, Lance, and he has learned that he can jump out and scare me if I'm not paying attention. Luckily I saw him in time to warn him before he made me jump and scald his face off.

Oh yeah, my Numi tea wisdom of the day is:

"Wisdom steeps in youthful moments."

I'm suppost to bring the "wisest" waters to a boil. I had to improvise with SpRocket Center water. I wouldn't call that too wise. Hopefully it will be okay.

Yesterday was my last class for this semester! WOO-HOO!!!!!!! I thought we were just going to have to drop off our prints, but we had a critique. :P Apparently whatever I did to my prints was good because I had two classmates ask me for a copy of the one with the red bird on it. Eat that Mr. Your-Work-Is-Almost-Too-Cutsey!!!!!!! Personally, I would rather my artwork be appreciate by a more mainstream consumer base simply for revenue purposes. Even if any of my prints or drawings are bought and used to make greeting cards, at least I'll see the fruits of my labor. All of those people who focus on hidden meaning and all of that hippy artsy stuff will have to be dead before their work is appreciated. So NYEAH!

Steve and I have decided to go to the Rocket Center Christmas party and I don't know what I'm going to wear. I have three choices, all with both pros and cons attached.

The Wilma Dress--Pro: I already know it looks good, I really like it, and I have a pair of great earrings to wear with it. Con: The whole being strangled by the scarf thing and I'll have to be spray painted again so as not to glow in the dark.

The Silvery Dress--Pro: Love the dress, finally found a sweater that matches it enough to not have to go outside in December with only spaghetti straps and no sleeves, and the Prettiest Shoes I Own match it. Con: Probably not as thin as I should be for this dress, sweater is made of angora and sheds (making me sneeze), can't wear hose with the great shoes.

The Black and Purple Goth Vampire Dress--Pro: Made of velvet so it's warm, long sleeves and long skirt cover up...everything, interesting and certainly no one else will be wearing one like it. Being pale isn't an issue. Con: It's a freakin' Goth Vampire dress. I don't know if it will look appropriately on me now that my hair isn't dyed black anymore.

Eh, I'll try all of them on again and choose. Maybe I'll just wear the vampire dress for funzies! Who knows?

I had a couple of replies to my entry about the "Pickle Tweezers". Just to let you know, it's also fun to say when your frustrated, so instead of using bad language, just yell PICKLE TWEEZERS! To Lauren, you should yell that at your new boss when she ticks you off. If nothing else, she may think you're unhinged and leave you alone. : ) To Jason: Anyone can use a fork. Use the pickle tweezers, Luke...

Feliz Naviblah everyone!

"Pure joy is meant to be shared"

I just love getting these little snips of wisdom from my tea bags. : ) Today I'm trying a new kind of tea called "Numi Full Leaf Organic Tea" and it has all of this Zen-like advice on the packet. On the directions, it recommends humming while pouring the hot water over the tea bag. Then I'm supposed to let the soothing taste "warm and delight" me. It'll have to buy me dinner first.

Yesterday I had a "Mentos" moment when trying to figure out how I was going to salvage my lithography prints. As I told you, the color ones didn't register and the final ones had to be reprinted from an old plate. Well, since none of the color ones were straight, I cut off the edges of the print until there was no border left, so you can't tell that they were crooked. Then I took the reprint, and trimmed the edges as close as I could to the image, and hand painted a red bird into the tree. They both look 100% better than they did, so hopefully the teacher will not be repelled.

"Mentos, the Freshmaker!"

You want to know how to freak me out? Just put a hoodie sweatshirt near the bed in case I wake up cold. The other night I woke up freezing cold. I reached over, half asleep, and grabbed a giant NASA sweatshirt with a hood and tried to pull it over my pajamas. Apparently, I wasn't awake enough to realize I was putting it on backwards, because the hood flipped up over my face and in my clouded, sleep addled mind, I thought it was trying to eat me. I thrashed around trying to escape until I woke up a little more and realized I just needed to turn it around. No wonder Steve has trouble sleeping. :(

If you're having a bad day, I've found something that can make you smile. Just say one of these phrases out loud, and you will smile, either because you feel silly saying them or you'll just realize how much fun they are to say!

Nibby Bar

Feisty Chicken

Snappy Corn

and my personal favorite:

Pickle Tweezers!

That last one just kills me.

Weekend Update...yee and/or Ha

Friday was my last final for this semester, and I honestly don't think I did so hot. We spent so much time doing those inane class presentations that we didn't have much time to devote to actually, oh I don't know, learning about the things we were going to be tested on. Her whole thing was "Well, you had the study guide a week before the exam." and that's all well and true, but she didn't seem to remember that we were finishing our Stupid Papers and putting together our Stupid Presentations, and studying for the billion other finals we had. But that's okay. we had the study guide a WEEK before the final. That solves everything. Anyways, so I struggle through that exam and head on down to the printing studio where I was going to finish up my projects and get everything completed before the weekend! Did I, you may ask? Well, I tried. My next to last project, the one I'd been having so much trouble with, wouldn't register. I did my best, but only one out of ten even looks close to being right. So I move on to my last project. I was so proud of this one. I took some (unsolicited) advice from a classmate and drew an abstract nativity scene. If I do say so myself, it looked really nice. I painstakingly transferred the image to the plate, got it prepped for printing, and the image wouldn't print. At. All. All of the shading, everything was lost. I didn't know what to do! I didn't have time to think up a new project, or anything else, so I ended up using an old plate of a former project to print 10 rather sad copies so that I could bring them home and do something creative with them. I still haven't gotten around to it, so we'll see. Now I'm going to have to include a note in with my final project so that the teacher will know I wasn't just slacking. Sigh. It was a very frustrating day all around.

Saturday was a little better. Steve and I had some errands to run and some christmas gifts to buy, so we did that. We also had planned on visiting his parents that night because his Aunt and Uncle from Texas were driving through town on their way back from Atlanta. We were going to have dinner with everyone. Steve found a wonderful gift for his grandma (who's visiting and who's birthday was a week ago), so we got it for her and wrapped it before we left for their house. I love to give gifts, I can't help it. It's so much fun when you can pick out something you know someone will like and watch them open it. We got her one of those electric music boxes that play 50 different songs and have little figures waltzing in a little glass fronted space down at the bottom. She loved it. : ) Then me, Grandma and Aunt Molly finished making dinner. Rhonda is doing well with her chemotherapy, but she's still weak from her first surgery and the treatments keep her kind of drained, so she supervised. : ) We ate and talked, and sat around for a while afterwards before Steve and I had to come home. It was a nice day.

Sunday, Steve woke up with a bad sore throat, so I went to church alone. I stayed through sunday school, since I'm still doing the secretary stuff for Rhonda, and I left to get Steve some medicine. I never think about the sheer amount of different kinds of medicines you can get for different symptoms, but I swear, I stood in front of that display for about 15 minutes trying to figure out what to get. I finally setteled on some viscious blue Tylonol for Sore throats, some Wal-Mart Brand numbing spray, and some of those candy sorta things that you suck on...can't think of the names of those right now. Those seemed to help a little. He was still feeling too bad to go with me to Mom and Dad's house, so I did that alone as well. Angie and her family weren't there, so it was just Mom, Dad, Tommy, and me. We had spaghetti, we watched a DVD and I promptly fell asleep on the couch. I don't honestly think I fully woke up until I was driving home. That's kind of a scary feeling! I had been asked to sing at church at night, so Steve (who was feeling better) and I went back. We invited Josh to hear me sing, Steve's grandma loves Josh to death and wanted to see him as well, and I always love it when he comes to church with us because he's Catholic. Now, he's pretty much used to visiting a Baptist church at this point, but there's always some little thing he forgets or starts to do. Our church doesn't stand on much ceremony at all, but it IS different from what he's used to, I guess. The first time we invited him, he was kind of nervous, you could tell. He had to remember not to genuflect (almost did), got halfway through crossing himself after a prayer, and almost kneeled during another one of the prayers. Afterwards he was so embarrassed, and I kept having to tell him it was okay. I mean, we are worshipping the same God, after all, and I don't think He would mind that Josh did it a little differently than everyone else in the room. Well, at least I don't think so! : ) After church we went out to eat with Steve's family and about a hundred other people from church.

So, except for my projects getting screwed up, it was a decent weekend. I don't think I've quite gotten the concept that school is out (well, except for tomorrow when I have to go to school and drop off the ill fated prints). Hopefully I will get a day soon where I can relax.

I'm officially stressed.

Yesterday when I went to the doc for a physical, I told him about the headaches I've been having. I thought they were sinus headaches (of which I am not unfamilliar) but when I told them where they were, he told me I was having "tension headaches". Well, shock my drawers...could I possibly be tense? You think? Today will be the first of two final exams this week, and then I will have to finish my lithography prints to turn in by tuesday of next week. It'll be a miracle if I don't have a complete cardiac episode before all of this is over with. Last night I tried studying for my algebra exam, and not one thing on my study guide has stuck in my head. This specific exam is going to be over everything we've learned this semester. I don't remember everything we've learned this semester!!!!!!! Steve figured it up, and even though I don't need to make an exceptionally high grade to pass the class, I'm scared that with the epic "nothingness" that is in my brain this morning, I will not make even that! Then I have to come home and study for my history exam that I'll have tomorrow afternoon, and I'm sorry, but most cathedrals look the same to me. My head has been crammed with transepts, flying butresses, scissor vaults and stained glass. To be quite honest, I've been so focused on the Stupid Paper, that when I think of medieval churches, all I can see in my head is the Arena Chapel, which we didn't even study!!! ACK! Please pray for me. I'm going to need it!

Yoga Breath....Yoga Breath...Yoga Breath....

On lighter topics:

I get to add "cruel to animals" onto my weird next door neighbor title. Yesterday, I had to come home early to let the exterminator in, so apparently I was here in time to actually see the elusive kids that live next door. I heard this awful barking sound and a child screaming, so I look out the window to see my dogs playing the "I'm going to eat your face" game with Cleatus and Kay Bob (neighbor dogs) through the fence, while the kids are egging them on.

Now, I may have two of the cutest dogs in the world, but they can't be accused of being the smartest dogs in the world. When they get worked up around a new dog, and that dog is out of their reach, Butler and Bear turn on each other in the "Alpha Dog Caged Death Match". To be fair, Bear usually forgets that he's smaller than Butler and starts the fight, but Butler, being bigger and stronger, will get the upper hand...er...paw.

Anyways, the barking and the screaming seemed to be getting a little raucous, so I am walking out the door to bring them in and put them in the kennel, when I beging to hear the unmistakble sounds of "Dogs of the Serengeti" snarling and mauling each other. So I run to the door, rip it open, and do my shrill football whistle (which still amazes and delights those who don't realize I can make a sound like that) but it does nothing to get the dogs apart. The children are all standing still and watching wide-eyed as Butler goes all Mr. Hyde on Bear and has him by the throat on the ground trying to kill him. So I go to plan B: I grab the water bucket and run as fast as I can across the yard, spilling water all over my yoga pants and qualifying for the neighborhood wet tee-shirt contest in the process. Well, the dogs see me coming, but they aren't ready to break it up yet, so they sort of roll away from me, but I aimed and got them both with the bucket of water. The same bucket of water that was probably close to freezing cold. That did it. They broke apart and ran for the house, and I'm standing there wet, while the neighbor kids are looking at me. I just turned on my patented "Southern Belle" smile and said "I'm sorry, ya'll!" and did my pagent wave as I turned back towards the house and went in. The poor dogs were soaked and cold, and they kept looking at me like "What was THAT for?! We were only trying to kill one another! It's what dogs DO!" When I closed them up in their kennels and sat on the couch, they glowered, yes GLOWERED, at me while they licked their feet dry. I don't even want to know what those kids told their parents!

Weekend Update

I had a fun weekend, if I do say so. Wrote a blog about it. Like to hear about it? Here it go...

Friday was payday, and we all know what we have to do on payday, right? Bills. Well, After I took care of my bills and such, I took myself to the mall to use the coupon I was e-mailed from New York and Co. I love that store. They have clothes for grown ups, in my size, that look nice! I bought a two shirts, a sweater and a couple of pairs of earrings. I don't normally buy earrings since I make jewelry, but I really wanted some dangly-sparkly ones. I can't help it, I'm a girl. Then I had to go to Target and pick up a prescription, which led to other shopping I couldn't control. I think it's a sickness. : (

Saturday I was going to go to school and work on my lithography project in hopes that I would have the studio to myself. Unfortunately, I didn't because a whole lot of people have left their project's until the last minute like I have. I worked for hours, all for nothing, because my prints were scummy. It was all my fault because I didn't have enough of a mask on my plate when I transferred the image onto it. I didn't want to turn it in as it was because I know I could do better, so all of that time was wasted. I was determined not to get my hands dirty because Steve's work Christmas party was that night, and I didn't want to have grease monkey hands, but unfortunately I didn't have my left glove on when I picked up the roller and my whole thumb was black. Oh well, it would at least match my dress! For Steve's party, I finally had the opportunity to wear my Wilma Flintstone dress! The one that is one shouldered that he made fun of when I tried it on for him? (He actually chose that one for me to wear when I asked, so he must've changed his mind about it, or he still feels guilty). I was kind of nervous about wearing it because it has this scarfie thing attached to the shoulder that you wrap around your neck, and I had an ungodly fear that it would get shut in a door and strangle me to death. Anyways, to make a long story short...I was a hottie.

Stop laughing. ; )

We got there a little late, which was totally my fault for some reason, but we still got there before anything started. As we walked in, Steve started pointing out people that he tells me about, but I didn't know who they were until he gave me their code names: i.e. "Inflatable Moose Head lady" "Day Planner Virus" and such. Well, not everyone had to have a code name, I do know some of his co-workers by their real names! Unfortunately in a bad move on my part, I didn't wear my glasses in an effor to look more formal. That sucked because I am so nearsighted. If I wanted to see someone across the room, I had to do the squinty eyed pirate face thing (Arrrrrrgh), which I'm sure looked attractive.: ) Anyways, when we had been there a few minutes, one of Steve's co-workers told us that the "guy/girl" was there. Me, with my morbid sense of curiosity, wanted him to be pointed out right then and there. Long before that night, Steve told me all about this man that works with him that is a pre-op male to female transexual. I had a sort of idea what the guy would look like: a tall, masculine looking woman, right? Nooooooooooooooooooo, not at all. Even though I couldn't see anything else, I zeroed in on this...dude in a dress. I wish I could be more nice about it, but I can't. He...she...whatever (there should really be a pronoun for situations like this) looked like a dude with a receeding hairline mullet (all party in the back, going out of business in the front) wearing a dress and makeup. I'm really glad that he didn't turn around and see me, because I'm fairly sure he would have been offended. I don't know what I looked like, but I felt like...well, have you ever seen a confused dog? You know, they kind of turn their heads sideways with one ear cocked up and make a "merf" sound? That's how I felt. Of course, then the trying-not-to-look-but-helpless-to-stop part of my brain turned on. To make matters even worse, ge ended up behind me in the buffet line singing in a soft, falsetto voice. It was all I could do not to turn around and stare with my mouth open. It really made me wish that it was possible to step aside, while all of the lights go off around you and you stand in a spotlight, so that you can do a little monologue like on TV, just so that I could have been bewildered out loud. Luckily Good Kelly won out over Bad Kelly, and I was able to get my food and sit down without incident. I got to meet a lot of really great people. Everyone seems to really like Steve, or they just pretend to so that he will not format their hard drives! Maybe it's a little of both? We danced all of three times because Steve won't dance with me unless it's a slow song, on account that we don't know how to dance. This has never stopped me before, but apparently it is a problem for him, so we just schmoozed a little and went home. It was a fun night!

Sunday we went to church, as per our usual. I started getting a bad headache, and had to dig around in my purse for some Excedrine. That was kind of a bad move on my part because I hadn't eaten anything that morning, and I also take some medicine that already makes me kind of hyper. By the time the music part was over, I was wired for sound. I tingled all over, and I was beginning to see auras! I don't know what was going on, but my mind was going a mile a minute. I'm glad we aren't a charismatic Baptist church, because I might had said some weird stuff. That afternoon we went to my parent's house, and dropped in on his parents as well, and then I had to go back to school for more torture in the Studio. Did I accomplish anything? Very little. I was there from about 5:30 to 9:30, and all I got done was 10 blue rectangles. I was so mad! See, we are working on our photographic technique, which is where we coat an aluminum plate with a light sensitive material and expose it with a negative to make our image base. Did it work? NO! Because some hastared(and I know who he is, dagnabbit) brought the light sensitive liquid out of the darkroom and into the studio. He didn't seem to believe me when I told him that was a bad move, but I finally convinced him to take it back. I didn't think it had been long enough to do any damage, but I was wrong. My plate didn't develop fully, and it set me back a few hours on this project, and I still have another one to go!!!!!! By this time my hands looked frostbitten due to the black and blue ink I was using, I had a smear of paint on my face, and I was MAD. So I left. Usually when I have to stay at the studio late, I will call Steve on my cellphone as I walk to my car. I figure that somehow the fact that I have him on the phone will deter anyone from abducting me, and if it doesn't, at least he can call the police right away. Well, unfortunately, I couldn't do that this time because I have lost my cellphone. I thought to myself that I would be fine this time, it was a short walk...no problem. However, when I looked outside, I saw a car just sitting there with it's lights trained on the building. I didn't feel safe without my cellphone, but I was still going to have to leave, so I just grabbed the first thing out of my bag and put it up to my ear. Unbeknownst to the creepy car (which actually turned out to be a security guard), I walked form the building to the car, calmly talking on my granola bar!

Time's up and I am out!

If anyone out there is having trouble thinking of something to get me for Christmas, I will go ahead and tell you the perfect thing!

I want to sit in front of my Christmas tree and eat Godiva dark chocolate while Josh Groban holds my hand and sings to me in Italian.

I don't think I'm asking too much, do you? : )

Actually, I have just recently fallen in love with Josh Groban. A friend lent me a CD of his where he is singing Christmas songs with "el Divo" or something like that. Of course, when I heard that I was expecting operatic versions of "Whip It" but "Divo" turned out to me the male counterpart to the word "Diva". I'm not kidding when I say hearing him sing "Oh, Holy Night" makes me get teary eyed. His voice makes me think of caramel...I don't know why except for the fact that I hear in color, and that's what color his voice is. There is absolutely nothing more appealing to me than a man with talent. Merely good looking guys are boring. Give me a man who can make music, write, or create art. *siiiiiiiiiiiigh* Josh Groban...

You'll never guess what I did yesterday. I got a spray on tan. It looks good, albeit a tinge too orange, and I don't have to worry about getting cancer from it, so there's a bonus. I don't ever get a chance to get a tan because I'm not outside that much during the summer due to the fact that I don't like to be hot, so usually I'm Goth pale. The only thing I don't like about it is the smell of the stuff. It's some kind of sugar derivative, and anytime you get it wet or if you get hot, it smells kind of unusual. No one else seems to notice it, so I guess it's just because it's on me. Anyways, I did it because Steve's office party is soon and I wanted to be able to wear black without anyone asking him where he picked up the zombie.

Butler had his birthday party last night. We didn't go wild or make him wear a party hat this time. I think he was confused. He kept going into his kennel and looking out like he was asking us when we were going to lock him up so he could go to bed. He got Krystals fries and some dog cookies, as well as some cheese. Parties for the dogs usually revolve around things they can eat. Mostly that's because they don't have thumbs and wouldn't be able to play Pin-the-Tail-On-the-Donkey.

I am now one of two very awesome chicas who have finished an important and long paper. Of course, the other chica is more awesome than me because she's graduating with her masters on the 17th (you know who you are...congrats!) and I have merely finished the Stupid Paper that has loomed for months, but it's all about perceptions, right? I did my happy dance right in the parking lot. I don't have to worry about looking strange there, it IS the art building after all.

I thought I had about an hours work left on the paper last night. Josh was coming over to watch our annual dose of National Lampoons Christmas Vacation (one of the funniest movies...EVER) and we were going to put up the Christmas tree. Well, I got down to work on the paper at about 6:00, took a break for dinner and to watch as much of the movie as I could while I was eating, went back to work on the paper...and didn't get done until 1:00 am. So I didn't get to help with the tree at all, and I have to live with the fact that Steve placed the ornaments all over the place without my discerning eye! He's a computer guy, for the love of Pete! What does he know about placement? : ) Well, at least he got Han and Chewie and Rhett and Scarlett together in the right places. I still had another assignment to finish, so I didn't get to bed until about 2:15 this morning, and I had t get up around 6:15, so I'm running on very little sleep. This should be an interesting day!

Speaking of interesting days! Today is Rhett Butler Bernard Pratt's 3rd birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUTLER! So this makes him 21 in dog years now, I think. I wonder if we can get him into any bars? We are going to get him some french fries from Krystals, which are his favorite treat and we also got him a little box of special dog treats too. I think we are going to forgo the hot dogs this year seeing as how he yarked in the kennel last time he ate those. We all know how I feel about that! I wish I could post a picture of him here, but for some reason my Macintosh doesn't format the blog page the same as my PC, so I can't link, post pictures, or check my spelling. : ( Oh well, just realize he is one of the two cutest dogs in the world!

Now, go away, I have things to accomplish!

You know that cliche about being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel? Well, I'm seeing it! I'm almost done with my paper! I want to do the happy dance, but I won't allow it until I've slapped that sucker into my heavy duty report folder and handed it to the Art Department secretary. Go me, go me, go me!

Now, I have work to do. : )

Outside it's cold, inside the museum it's chilly, in Algebra class the room was freezing, and up in my office it's about three hundred degrees. I'm going between cold chills and hot flashes so quick, it's like being in an episode of the Golden Girls! Oy!

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by my office being hot. Two out of my four walls are made of glass, and not that double layer, zenon filled stuff either. I basically work in a greenhouse for a good three hours of the day. The rest of the time I'm just trying to cool it off enough not to pass out. I suppose I can look on the bright side, though. If I'm ever strapped for cash, it's the perfect place to start a marajuana growing business! I mean, I can even borrow the Space Camp hydroponics equipment! : )

I didn't finish the Stupid Paper last night, but I came close. I don't know if it's because I've spent so much time reading over it or what, but it's stopped making any sense to me at all, so I've been adding some things and taking other things away. I've been inserting my footnotes and trying to figure out if I still need to put quotes around the stuff if I am indeed making footnotes. I'll have to consult my MLA book on that one. Hastared paper!

Yesterday, poor Butler had an unfortunate turn of events in his kennel. When we picked him up, we forgot to ask if they had fed the dogs, so we fed them that night at the regular time. Apparently, Butler decided he would just be a goldfish and eat everything he could get a hold of, even if he was already full. Well, we put him to bed, and the next morning I walked into the living room to find that he had gotten sick all inside of his kennel. It was dried and disgusting, and we didn't have time to clean it out before we had to leave for work, so Steve moved it outside until we got home. When we got home, I started trying to clean it out, but didn't have much luck with the bucket of water I was pouring into it. So we pulled out the hose from it's winter storage.

Now, I'll pause here to say that for Steve and I, our life is sometimes like a Three Stooges short. We can make the simplest thing complicated and messy, and it's sometimes done in full veiw of people who have no idea what it going on.

Anyway, we pulled out the hose and I set about hooking it up. I couldn't get the stupid thing to attach. Now, I was taught by my shop teacher (yes, I had to take shop in order to be in the FFA, as weird as that may seem now) that anything with screw threads is "righty-tighty, lefty-loosy" and I was doing that. It would still not go on. I didn't have a clue what was wrong, I mean, I have trouble with Velcro, so this confusion didn't seem so far fetched. So I just handed it to Steve who looked it over and realized that part of the last faucet we had the hose attached to was stuck in the screw on end! So he had to pull that out somehow while I stood guard over the disgusting kennel and try not to look at the inside of it. He got it fixed and hooked it up, amd handed it back to me so that he could change out of his work clothes. So I'm trying to hose out the kennel, and it's still not getting clean. I realize I don't have enough pressure, so I turn it up as far as it will go, but it still isn't working! So I ask Steve if he's got one of those attachment thingies, which he did, and asked him to hook it on. Well, if you've ever tried to hook a hose attachment on while the water is on, you probably know what happened. All of the deflected water squirted me in the face. Steve laughed, and I cursed him silently. When we finally got the thing on, the extra pressure inside the hose caused a hole to burst out of one side, which sprayed me again. Once again, Steve laughed, and I cursed him silently. By this time I'm determined to just get the stupid kennel clean. Armed with a broom and a bottle of soap, we fill the kennel with suds and I start scrubbing with the broom! while I'm doing this, water is going everywhere, I'm getting soapy and wet, and I'm loudly asking how Butler could be so inconsiderate as to not promptly wake us up the minute he got sick and let us know about it so that we could clean it out! I mean, if Lassie can tell someone that Timmy was stuck in a well, Butler could have figured out how to unlock the kennel and woken us up! Well, we finally got most of it out. I sent Steve after more soap, and decided (like I'm sure anyone would in my position) that since I've got a hose apraying in four different directions, I'll just pretend I'm a sprinkler. So, sound effects, movements and all, I do this...right as the neighbors drive up. Did I mention I was in the front yard? These are the same neighbors that had the crying child in their front yard not long ago, remember? Well, The hooker next door with an imaginary friend is now holding a water hose in the middle of the front lawn with her arms standing out and twisting from side to side...and Steve is once again nowhere to be seen. So I just continue what I'm doing, kind of hoping they'll just assume it's some kind of pagan water hose ritual and not ask any questions. They didn't ask, but they did run inside with much haste. We finally got the thing cleaned, and I got to go inside and boil my hands and burn my clothes. The next time Butler does something so unspeakable in the kennel, I'm just going to throw it away and get a new one. ;)

So I lied.

Technically the Stupid Paper isn't done, but the rough draft is, so I'm back just breifly for a quick post.

Did you guys have a great Thanksgiving? I did. My dinner was lovely, thank you for asking. You would have been so proud of me! For the first time in 5 years, the smoke alarm didn't even go off once. *happy dance* I was able to do some of the preperation the night before by making my little bundt cakes and decorating them and getting together all of my other ingredients so that I wasn't scrabbling around looking for things. Steve and I spent the morning getting the rest of the house cleaned and doing some laundry, and by the time Rhonda and Lee came over at noon, everything looked nice. I didn't know when they were going to get there, so I didn't have any food to feed them lunch. I felt bad! However, Rhonda still isn't able to eat that much and Steve and Mr. Lee went out to get lunch and would bring me something back. Unfortunately, they went to a buffet, and when they got back, they were full. I was cooking by that time, and they had brought me some lunch, so we hung out until dinner. I ended up making way too much food since Rhonda can only peck, and Steve had gotten a mild case of food posioning from the place they ate lunch, but Mr. Lee and I at least got to enjoy everything. I sent home a ton of the food with Rhonda and Lee, and set about cleaning up. While I was doing that, Steve was watching his recorded episodes of "Prison Break" which is really a very good, albeit far fetched, show. Then we watched a "horror" movie called Spirit Trap, which starred Billie Piper (the newest Dr. Who girl). It wasn't scary at all to me, but Steve hid his eyes. ; ) I ended up throwing away all of our leftovers except for the turkey, so when Steve felt well enough to eat, we didn't have anything left! I felt bad, and he's been ribbing me about that all weekend. Oh well, you snooze, you lose!

We were still going to go to Georgia to spend the rest of the weekend with his family on Friday, so after we dropped off the dogs at the kennel, we drove out there. We have a tradition of listening to the newest Rick & Bubba CD while we go out there every year, but he hadn't bought it yet. We were going to have to go to Wal-Mart and get it. Now, I avoid shopping the day after christmas like the plague. I especially avoid Wal-Mart on this day. I don't like to be shoved out of the way by women in stretchy pink pants, who are willing to rip out my soul for a Holiday Barbie. It's not my idea of a good time! However, I was nicely surprised to find that it wasn't THAT bad. Apparently we had missed the door buster sale earlier that day, thank God. We couldn't find the CD, so we didn't stay long, so we moved on to the Boaz outlet center to see what they had. The Tanger (?) Outlet center out there used to be huge, but most of it has closed down, but there are still two fairly busy sections where the stores haven't been closed down. I knew that it would be busy, but I wasn't expecting what I saw when we got there. It was the shoulder to shoulder, walking in front of moving cars, loaded down with bags, bringing your whole family and herding them around, kind of shopping. I went into one store, and it was a soccermom free-for-all, yanking things off of racks, knocking things over and not picking them up, digging UNDER piles of already searched through clothes and even reaching under the displays in case something got under there...and that was just the GAP outlet. I hate stuff like this. I HATE shopping at this time of year. The monster of consumerism has bitten the general population and turned them into these rude, pushy, irritable, gimmie-gimmie jerks who obviously don't remember why we celebrate Christmas in the first place. I have worked in retail around Christmas, and it was enough for me to want to crawl into a bomb shelter and just wait for it all to me over. I try to get my Christmas shopping over with by the end of September. I always have some little thing I want to get, but it's the only time of year I want to get in and out of a store in the shortest amount of time possible!!!!

Anyway...

We got to Waleska around 6 or 7, I think, and we had dinner with the family. We had a great time laughing and talking and watching the news footage of the people getting stomped on at shopping centers. If you havent seen the footage of the woman who got knocked down, and was so worried about getting her wig back on before she stood back up, that she got trampled. Classic. The next morning, Steve and Greg were supposed to go hunting, and I got settled down to work on the Stupid Paper. I worked on it all day. I took some breaks, but for the most part I was alone, highlighter in hand, trying to formulate a way to finish writing the darned thing. By the time dinner was ready, I was at a stopping point, so I joined everyone else as they ate and watched some college football. I think it was Florida and Florida State...one team had bright orange helmets and the other team was wearing pale blue and yellow. I just cheered when everyone else did. We spent some time after that sitting around waiting for the Georgia & Georgia Tech game to come on, and I ended up grabbing a couple of books and settling back to listen to everyone else do their thing. All in all it was a nice visit, marred only by the Stupid Paper looming over my head.

Well, I'd better get back to work! Duty calls! : )

Apparently getting a degree in art doesn't mean that you will know how to use velcro. It took a LONG time for me to figure out that the reason the sign wasn't sticking was because I had the hook side of the velcro on both the back of the sign and the sign frame. My professors would be so proud. Not to mention that I'm working in a space museum. Velcro was designed for the space program...you see this mentioned in more than one spot here. If nothing else, I should know how to use velcro!

I'm still not done with my paper. I would honestly rather eat my laptop with no salt than work on it, but if I don't I will still be in college when my grandkids get there. I've just hit kill me mode I think... I'm going to be typing on that #%@^$&*(!!! paper while I'm eating Thanksgiving dinner, I swear. The bad thing is, it's my fault I'm not done, so I can't even blame Steve! Strike that, I'll find a way! : ) Actually, one of my friends made a very valid point. If I took as much time to write my paper as I do to write my blog, I'd be done by now. *ouch!* So after today, I am taking a short sabbatical from the blog and focusing my mental energy (equivelant to a AAA battery at this point) on the Stupid Paper. I've gotten a couple of pages done, but I'll have to go back and add in all of my citations and footnotes later. I can't think when I've got to do all of that at the same time. At any rate, I'm on my way to getting it done, so GO ME! I'll give you the limerick version of my paper, so you'll know what I'm dealing with. I wrote this is math class today:

A usurious man named Enrico,
feared his soul up to heaven would not go.
All his sins tried to bury,
by building a chapel to Mary,
And intrusted its frescos to Giotto.

It saddens me that I have to come up with many, many pages to say what I just said in 5 lines.

SIGH.

Anyways, I'll go ahead and do my weekend update. Well, at least what I remember of it!

Friday started off a lot of fun. I was almost out of gas, so when my car had trouble starting that morning, I just thought that I had better get gas ASAP, so I stopped at the Cheveron near our house to fill up. After I paid, I tried to start my car. Nothing. I tried several more times, wondering what the heck I had done to Rudolph to get this kind of reaction, but still, nothing. The good samaritans next to me, two big dudes who had been jawing about the Iron Bowl, or "Arn Bow" and I've come to think of it, never even looked my way. In fact, when I tried cranking it up for the fifth time, they ran away. Oh well, I suppose that helping people isn't as important as talking about college football. Buttheads.

Anywho, I went inside to let the owners know the reason Rudolph was blocking one of their pumps and the nice Indian gentleman who owns the store offered to give me a jump. Apparently, he didn't have a stake in the game. (Sorry, but I'm a little bitter about that.) Well, we got my truck started, and luckily was next door to a place where you can get your oil changed and other automobile type stuff, and they checked my battery and informed me that I would need a new one. Great. Well, with that taken care of, I got to work about an hour late, and was surprisingly productive! I stayed an hour or so late to get a few loose ends tied up, and then went to Wa-Mart to get food for Thursday. We normally got to GA for Thanksgiving dinner, but since Ms. Rhonda can't travel, I decided that we would have dinner at our house, and I would make it! I mean, the holiday is about families getting together, so I wasn't about to take her only child off somewhere else if she couldn't be there. I'm a little nervous about making a whole dinner. Of course, I've made a Thanksgiving dinner once before, but Josh was helping and it was much more complicated than what I'm doing this year, so I shouldn't worry too much. I just know we are going to have 7 cubic tons of turkey left over, but I was given what I was told was a great recipe for Turkey Salad, so I'm going to make that and use it for leftovers!

Saturday Steve was off with the Fellas, so I used the quiet time to work on my art history stuff and to clean. I think I swept up enough dog har to make four new dogs. Yuck. I can't wait until School is out and I can disinfect the place. I was able to get a lot done to the house, as well as get my class presentation and slide show ready to go. As Forrest Gump says, "That's good. One less thing." Steve called and asked if I wanted to go to see Harry Potter that night, so I was all about that, however, those plans fell through and we ended up going to dinner. Afterwards, Steve took me home so that I could work on the Stupid Paper some more, and he and Josh went out for coffee.

Sunday was church in the morning. Steve caused me to have "laugh in church syndrome" right as service started, so I didn't get to laugh for about 45 minutes! We have a guy who comes to church who is an...eccentric dresser. I mean, he's got some unusual taste to say the least. I'll just say: Pink Zoot Suit. Well, he didn't dress very weirdly that day, but he had his hair spiked straight up on the top and slicked back on the sides, looking for all the world like Vanilla Ice. Both Steve and I saw him come in, and I was about to ask Steve what he thought of the guy's hair, but when I turned around, Steve deadpanned "Word to your mother" without me even mentioning anything. Of course, Service started right then, so I sat there trying to look like I wasn't laughing and making choking noises. Steve does that to me all of the time!!!

Since my mom and dad had plans for lunch, Steve and I went to visit Ms. Rhonda and Mr. Lee. After that was more working on the Stupid Paper, and FINALLY I got a respite to see Harry Potter. I am an utter Potterphile, and the movie was great. I hated that they had to cut so many of the little subplots out, but if they hadn't, I'd probably still be sitting in the theater. I still give it too thumbs up, and another thumb for their choice of the actor who plays Voldemort. I don't know his name, but he played Francis Dolerhyde in the movie Red Dragon, and he is one scary guy. I hope no parents took little kids to this movie. It would cause nightmares for weeks.

Today hasn't been that eventful. I went to school and found that I didn't fail my algebra test, by the sheer grace of God, and I was also given my grades to see what I will need to make on my Final to pass. I think I'll do that now.

In case I don't get to write again for a while, I hope you have a very special Thanksgiving, and that you have plenty of things to be thankful for! I know I do!

I am officially an idiot.

This morning Steve had to get up early and go to work, so since I was already awake, I got ready and came into work almost an hour earlier than normal. I had to make a vinyl label for the Harry Potter banner (which will be shown in IMAX here at the SpRocket in February along with Batman Begins (movie, not just banner)...just FYI) and I was also going to get organized for going to take my math exam. I had a chance to look over my work, and I got my study sheet together so I could do some last minute cramming once I got to school. In an attempt to be organized, all I grabbed was my study sheet and my purse. In my head it made sense. Not as much to carry, less to worry about. Well, I get to class, and almost immediately realize that when I was being so smart by leaving my backpack behind, I also left my homework behind! There was not enough time to go back and get it, and the teacher will not take it after the class period, so I was boned! The sweet, nice, wonderful girl who sits next to me loaned me some paper and her book, and I got as much done as I could before the teacher came in. It wasn't enough to make a passing grade, but it least I will have something other than a zero. I wrote a note explaining what happened, but I'm pretty sure the teacher won't care one way or the other. I was so irritated with myself that when I got my test paper, I couldn't even concentrate. So I am pretty sure I bombed that test too. In the immortal words of Charlie Brown "ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!"

Nelson The Super Engineer once again explains something I didn't understand. If you look below to my Saturday post, read the comment he left that explains how a CPAP machine works. I had no idea it inflated you! I've got to think of another hard question to ask and see if Nelson can answer it! : )

You know, if you have access to Steve today, beg him to sing "Lapti Nek" and do the Star Wars dance!

Well, we went back to NovaCon on Saturday night to get Dirk Bennedict's autograph, and he wasn't there...again. Apparently it just wasn't in the cards for us to meet the Faceman. When we got there, we found his table, but he wasn't there, so we stood around and waited for a while to see if he would come back. I should have figured out that he was gone for good when I didn't see any pictures on the table, but I wasn't thinking. We had been there three times, and hadn't seen him, so I got irritated. I didn't go away completely empty handed, though. I took Dirk Bennedict's coffee mug.

Don't judge me!

On Monday in Art History, we had a very interesting guest speaker. She was talking about, and you'll need to forgive me for not remembering the exact title of her lecture, but she was talking about the interuse of Islamic, Christian, and Jewish artistic styles and images within Medieval Spain. It probably would have been more interesting to me had I not been sitting beside the person I was. She shall remain nameless, but I have known her for years. She is what I think of as being a "Shake-a-snake" Baptist, or in laymans terms, a very, very scary protestant. Now, before anyone gets offended, let me just say that normally I don't have a problem with anyone who is strong in their faith. In fact, I commend their dedication. However, this particular person is of the religious school that immediately and violently rejects the very idea of another kind of belief system if it differs with her own. I don't mean she doesn't want to believe anything else, but I have gotten the feeling that she takes personal offense with the fact that other beliefs exist.

But I digress.

During the lecture, the guest speaker is being very careful not to step on anyone's toes. When it comes to religion, you have to tread lightly, I know this. However, I also know that in a situation (such as art history) where you are going to be faced with ideas different than the ones you have, you have to let some things roll off of your back. If you don't, you will never be able to understand what the image or object is about. Well, the guest speaker goes on to make a statement that could have been seen as anti-Christian. It wasn't, but her choice of wording was unfortunate. I knew this, everyone else in the room knew this, but in the desk next to mine, I feel the girl get tense. I look over at her and she's ramrod straight and staring down at her notes. I can just tell she is using immense restraint not to say something. All I could think of was, please don't do anything, please don't do anything... She didn't, thank goodness. However, I could feel waves of disapproval coming off of her for the rest of the lecture. By the time the lecture ended, I was in the early stages of a plan that would have included me throwing a coat over her head and kicking her legs out from under her if I needed to, but I'm really glad it didn't come to that!

RANDOMNESS

We have this security guard that works at the SpRocket that kinds of scares me. I don't know what it is about him exactly, but he has this "It puts the lotion on it's skin or else it gets the hose again" quality about him. I'm sure he would be a nice enough guy if I ever got to know him, but he gives me the heebs. He looks a LOT like the guy who played the Green Goblin in the first Spiderman movie.

Stupid rain. I watch all of three shows on TV these days and weather reports have broken in and displaced two of them today! Granted, I suppose I need to know if I'm going to get blown away by a tornado or something, but DARN IT I wanted to see "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office"!

This will mark me as a helpless dork, but we all know my fondness for Napoleon Dynamite, right? Well, I don't normally like all of the cheesy stuff that is marketed out for the movie. You know, like the dolls (oops, sorry Steve, I meant Action Figures), and stuff like that. Well, a couple of months ago, I was at Wal-Mart and I saw this key chain that played sound bites from the movie when you pushed each of the 6 buttons. I bought it. I don't know what posessed me, really, except for the fact that I wanted it to have at work so that I could point it at my co-workers and press the "freakin' idiot" button. Well, I kept it in the pocket of my lab coat/utility jacket and it kept falling out of my pocket, so I put it in my purse, and completely forgot about it. Well, the other day I went to class, and I was rummaging for a piece of gum in my purse when all of a sudden, my purse says "Freakin' Idiot". Well, it not only scared me a little (because when my purse talks, it ususally doesn't sound like John Header) but the girl in front of me looked around at me with a confused look on her face. I was embarrassed about owning such a childish thing, so I started looking around like I didn't know what it was either. I felt so stupid, but I wasn't about to admit that it was indeed my purse quoting Napoleon Dynamite.

Do you believe in karma? Well, I actually hate to call it karma because I don't so much believe of it in that sense, but I do know that there is something out there that comes back and bites you right in the behind when you've done something bad. And before you ask, no, this isn't from watching too much "My Name Is Earl". The thing is, I think it's happening to me right now, whatever this thing is, because of something I did to someone years ago. It wasn't something that I meant to do, but I'm afraid I might have really hurt someone once and now it's coming back on me. It's a bad feeling to know there is nothing that can be done but just deal with it. Anyone got any good anti-karma ideas?

For all of you who followed my link yesterday, you know that Steve and I celebrated our fifth anniversary (and wasn't my mini website about it cute? *gag*!

He already had the day off because of Veteran's Day, so I also took the day off so that we could actually spend time together for the first time in a few months! We got to sleep blessedly late (7:00 or so for me) and we had a day planned of things to do. First we had to go to the Sleep Clinic where Steve found out the test results from his sleep study. Happily, he doesn't have sleep apnea (so no Darth Vadar mask, thank goodness) but they are going to do a couple of other tests later to rule out other stuff. We left there and got lunch, and then we went on to what we had planned our day around: NovaCon, the sci-fi convention they are holding in Huntsville this weekend. *pause for a few moments to marvel at our geekiness* It was only a little after noon by this point, so we got in and everything was still being set up. It wasn't big at all, but we had kind of expected that since it was the first year they were having it and everything. We went ahead and got weekend passes so we could come and go as we pleased, and we saw everything there was to see in about 15 minutes. Now, as I said, it wasn't supposed to be this huge thing like DragonCon, but to be able to see EVERYTHING in 15 minutes was not something we had planned on. We were actually hoping that the sci-fi celebrities who were scheduled to be there would have already set up, but they hadn't arrived there. We were specifically looking for Dirk Bennedict (The Face Man from the A-Team and the original StarBuck from Battlestar Galactica) so we could have our anniversary picture made with him. It was apparently still too early for him, so we kind of stood there for a few minutes while this guy in a Star Trek Voyager uniform told us -for the second time that day- to take a free copy of their newsletter, or sign up to become a member of their "crew". We decided that we would come back out on our way to dinner in hopes that everything was set up and ready by then.

We left and went shopping for our anniversary gift, year 5 is apparently wood, so we went to the unfinished furniture store, but didn't find anything. We eventually went home and after a while we got ready for dinner. Steve had gotten us reservations at this place in Madison that I we had heard all kinds of wonderful stuff about, and it's one of those places where you need to dress up, so Steve got all handsome and I did my best to look nice. I realized something while I was getting ready that sort of surprised me. As much as I like to get dressed up and go out and do fancy stuff, it had been almost a year since I'd had the chance! We've been so busy that we haven't done anything like that in a while, and not only that, but when I was dressed and everything, I didn't feel like myself. I felt like I was wearing too much makeup and that my skirt was too short. I mean, I know I didn't look bad, but it was something I wasn't used to anymore. It was weird! Anyways, so we finally get ready, take our commemorative anniversary snapshot, and walk out the door. Almost immediately, we hear this kid, somewhere outside, absolutely freaking out. At first I thought someone was getting switched, but we both stopped and realized this poor kid had apparently screamed herself hoarse yelling "Moooooommie, Moooooommie!" and she sounded scared. We had not been able to hear her from inside, so it kind of rattled us a little. We both stopped and kind of looked towards each other like, What should we do? Should we go over there? We listened to her freaking out for a few minutes (yeah, we'd make super parents, huh) trying to figure out what was going on. ***I suppose I should tell you that we have never met the neighbors who live there. We all have such strange hours, plus the fact that we aren't exactly the "take-the-new-neighbors-a-batch-of-cookies-and-introduce-ourselves" kind of couple, so we have never really crossed paths. I know that they have two kids, a boy and a girl, who I see walking to school, and I know they have that crazy dog that I've named Cleatus, but that's all.*** About that time, my imagination goes into overtime and I'm seeing this little girl standing over her mom's lifeless body for one reason or another, so I decide I'm going over to see what's wrong. I am in spiky high heels trying to walk through the yard (which with as clumsy as I am, could have been a broken ankle waiting to happen) and I amazingly make it to the next yard without falling, and I see this little girl of about 3 or 4 just standing there calling for her mom, and completely alone. So I reach inside myself and try to find some tiny scrap of maternal...whatever, and I start saying stuff like "Sweetie (because that's what you call crying kids, I guess) are you okay? What's wrong" and so forth. This little girl looks me up and down, and goes off on another gale of "Moooooomie!" So I look around, and don't see anything amiss other than this little girl alone outside. I looked at the house and realized someone was home, but no real idea ever came to me as to why a toddler was outside at night alone. So I turn back to the little girl, and I tell her we'll go knock on the door. She is still freaking out, but she walks with me to the front door. I looked at the door and realized the handle was broken, so she was probably just locked out, so I tell her I'll ring the doorbell, which I found out is also broken. So I just start banging on the front window. At this point I am close to panic myself because what in the world would I do with this child if this wasn't even her house, or if her parents were punishing her by making her stay outside, or dozens of other equally unsavory things. I see a woman sort of peek around the corner and come to the door. When she opened it, she had this surprised look on her face and she kind of looked me over. I could only read this look as "well, okay, there is a hooker on my front porch with a little girl! How odd!" The little girl runs inside to another lady (a visitor to our neighbors) who had walked into the room and I explain that we found her outside and she seemed to be scared and was crying. The mom of the little girl looked horrified. I kept trying to explain that "we" just wanted to make sure everything was alright, and that "we" didn't know if anyone was home and "we" blah, blah, blah. The moms then explain that they thought she was with the other kids, they surmised that the kids must not have let her into the back gate, and they both kind of had that slightly desperate "please don't call DHR" look on their faces. My neighbor smiled at me and asked where I lived, and I turned and pointed next door, only then relizing that Steve was still on our stoop and not next to me. He was afraid he'd scare the little girl more than she already was, so he'd stayed behind. While I had been talking and saying "We", they didn't see anyone. So now I'm the hooker who lives next door with an imaginary friend. She introduced herself and I did the same and we said goodbye. It was...uncomfortable. Hopefully next time we speak, there will not be a terrified, crying little girl involved!

Anyway, so we head back towards Madison, stopping again at Novacon, which only had about 4 more people there than when we had been there before, and no Dirk Bennedict. We severly stood out in this crowd, if you can believe it. I mean, there were fairies and Jedi and other manner of thingies, but we were dressed up very nicely. We wondered around a little more and left again. We had some time to kill before our reservation, so we went to CompUSA to look at some stuff, and we also had gone to Target and got our anniversary gift of some wooden television trays. Steve also bought me some color changing rubber duckies, they light up and change color so I was fascinated, and some shoes to switch with the ones I was wearing because I have indeed lost the talent of wearing spiky heeled shoes. We finally made it over to the resturaunt, and we had a great dinner. After that it was kind of late, so we came home, watched part of a movie and went to sleep.

Oh yeah, I almost for got to add this. While we were getting ready, Steve walked into the room with me and said "Today has been a good day" and I thought Awwwwwww, he's about to say something sweet! But then he finished what he was saying "I didn't even have to use my A.K." which I think is a part of a Snoop Dogg song or something. SIGH, oh well.

Good times...noodle salad. : )

Guess what happened about 5 years ago...

WELL, THAT'S SOMETHING YOU DON'T SEE EVERYDAY

Today I went to my lithography class completely unprepared for the critique, but lucky enough that the teacher got too busy doing a demo to actually have it. He told everyone who had already pinned their stuff on the wall to just leave it, so during our break, a few of us sat back and talked about what was up there. There was one particular project that was made up of two sheets of paper. The print was the same on each page, but the paper was different. One sheet had the word "proprtions" on it and the other page had silhouettes of sky scrapers on it. That alone should have told me something. I looked again and saw that the picture was an actual print, like, he actually put printing medium on his body and stamped an image of a hand, a foot...an ear...and....what was the other thing? Apparently the guy made a print of his, um, naughty bits.

Altogether now: EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!

It was bad enough to have to draw naked people, but at least you were prepared for it because the teacher warned you about it in the syllabus, but this... I don't care who you are, nothing prepares you for THAT! If that wasn't bad enough, when we were leaving, the guy I was walking out with stops right by the door, blocking my escape, and begins pointing out details on the print, which was pinned by the door. I was so embarrassed...what could I say? "Um....wow, that's nice. Lots of...details...and stuff..." He finally let me out, and then proceeded to talk about it in the elevator as we leave. So I'm trapped in a tiny little room with a guy who is apparently obsessed with...naughty bits...who is talking about them as other people get in and out of the elevator. I tell you, that was the most uncomfortable elevator ride of my life.

Oy.

Got a call from Steve today at about 2:00 giving me an update on his mom's surgery. Apparently when the doctors went in, they began the "whipple procedure" and in the process they found a new tumor, but this time it's cancerous. I don't know specifics, but I do know that they found it early, and so far it hasn't spread to any organs, but is localized in the lymph nodes near the liver. They didn't take it out during the surgery because the doc was afraid they wouldn't get all of it, so they did a mini-whipple (my word, not theirs) and got her closed up. They are going to give her some time for recovery from the surgery, and then start a two week stint of chemotherapy, and hopefully that will stop the growth of the tumor and they will finish whippling her later and also take out the tumor at the same time. I would just like to ask for more prayers, please, because this is a really scary thing.

Thanks

WHERE DID FALL GO?! No, that's not a title, that's me screaming out of the window at the weather! I don't want to be hot anymore (well, temperature wise anyways, I don't really have a choice with the other kind. Heehee)!! I have sweaters I want to wear, a great coat, and boots! If this happens again, I'm moving north, I swear it. I want snow or something! /frustration

MIND THE GAP
I had a very lovely weekend, if I do say so. Friday night after work, I went shopping for some work clothes. I've gotten to an awkward place with my weight where just about everything I own is either too big or too small. I had some kind of coupon for New York & Co. and I needed to use it before it expired anyway, so I went to the foo-foo Parkway Place mall. I will just say that, it doesn't seem to matter what it feels like outside, but that place will crank the heat up to a degree past unbearable. "Hey, it's November. It's supposed to be cold. What? It isn't? Eh, who cares, let's go ahead and set the thermostat to 'High Noon at the Equater.'" I don't think any building north of hell should feel like that place did on Friday night. I guess that since the Christmas decorations were already up (huh?) the mall owners didn't feel air conditioning was festive. Oh well, anyways, I went down to NY&CO. and couldn't find anything that jumped out at me, so I decided to see what else was out there. I was just about to give up finding anything, when the GAP called to me across the building. I don't normally enjoy going into the GAP for the simple reason that the clothes there make me feel...old. I will buy jeans there, but that's because jeans are pretty much ageless, everything else just screams "JUNIOR HIGH!!!" at me. Anyways, I took a turn through the store and saw a sale section that gave me pause. I found a pair of corduroy khaki colored pants and a pair of jeans in a wash that I can never find in my size. Now, rationally I knew that I should try them on before I bought them, but I didn't want to be in the mall of Hades any longer than necessary. So I snagged them, finally found a shirt I liked in NY&Co and went home. After Steve and I had dinner, I decided to do my ritual of trying on the new clothes. I tried on the corduroy pants: Score! They fit, but I have the feeling they might be the kind of stuff that will shrink easily, so I'll need to be careful when I wash them. So I grab the jeans and read the tag, they are in my size and they say "curvy" on them. I thought, "Hey, that's good, I have curves! Heck, I've got sine waves! These should fit fine." and I promptly ripped the tags off. I pulled them on and relize they aren't pulling up as far as they should. My first thought was...well, it was something I can't type in here because people from my church and my mother-in-law read this, so I take a look in the mirror and see that they fit everywhere else, so why aren't they....Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! I had grabbed a pair of those pants that only come up as far as your hips. The ones I make fun of all of the time! The ones that are perilously close to being chaps! Oy! I had already torn the tags off! I wouldn't ever find the wash in my size again! I debated with myself for a while before I decided that these would be my "long shirt" jeans. As long as no one sees the top of them, they won't have to wonder why I'm trying to channel Britney Spears. I figure that their only clue will be my constant pulling on them to make sure they are still up!

Saturday was almost productive...almost. Steve and I decided to give the lawn the last mow of the season (hopefully), so I jumped on the riding mower and got into "lawnmower zen" mode. Everything was lovely and peaceful, well as peaceful as one can be on a lawnmower, until I ended up on the east side of the lawn next to the new neighbor's house. Their mongrel dog, whom I've names Cleatus until I know his real name, ran up and started barking at me like no one's business. I was making faces at him, since he couldn't get at me through the fence, so I didn't happen to notice that their walnut tree had dropped a significant amount of golf ball sized undried walnuts into the grass. It wasn't until I heard *Boom! Crack! Pow! Fling!* that I relized that walnuts are shooting out from under the lawnmower like baseballs out of a pitching machine. All I could do was cover my mouth and hope that they never notice the dent in the side of their van. I was horrified. I finished as quickly as I could so that Steve and I could go to run some errands, and while I was getting cleaned up I suddenly got the icepick in the back of my head again. Another migrane. I pop some Excedrine and put on my brave face, and we went on. Steve needed a haircut, so we go back to Parkway Place Mall. I didn't want to sit in the salon, so I staggered around the museum trying not to walk into doors or look directly into any bright lights. I ended up going into Spencer Gifts and quickly remembered why I hate that place. I can't believe I used to think that store was funny. Ick. Anyways, after we left the mall, we got the truck washed and went to Target to pick up a couple of prescriptions and went home. We were supposed to go see a movie with Shannon and Greg, so I took a nap to see if it would help my head, and happily enough, it did! Yay! So we went to dinner and out to see Chicken Little. I wasn't execting much from the movie, but it was actually really funny. A whole lot of Speilberg references, a couple of Star Wars references for the Steve, and what I think were homosexual innuendos thrown at a pig, but I'm not really sure about that. All in all, it was a good little movie, two thumbs up, a fine family film. : )

Sunday we went to church in the morning, and we had a lunch date with some friends after that. They are a married couple who go to church with us, and they are trying to have a baby. You know, I really didn't need to know that, but I suppose if they need to talk about it, I'll listen. Part of the way during lunch, Husband looks up at me and says "So, are you and Steve going to have kids anytime soon?" I was in the middle of chewing a burrito so I couldn't react in my usual manner of screaming and hiding under the chair, so I just kind of stammered that we hoped to wait a while. I hate it when people ask that! It's such a private thing! Anyways, he said "You guys should go ahead so that you and Wife and be pregnant at the same time!" He said this as if he was suggesting we get matching purses or something. I just kind of laughed nervously and said "You guys are wanting them now, and that's a little soon for me." Then I changed the subject. I'm going to have to start carrying around one of those air horns so that when people ask me that question, I'll just blast them with it. I'll think of it as aversion therapy. Even if we were thinking about it, I don't want to talk about it with everyone...it's just too...none of anyone's business! I say this now, of course. I'll probably be the worst one about it later on. *shudder*

Oh yeah, I have two new entries to make in my Chocolate Nightmare Scale.

Whoppers: I only ate two of them. I give them a 5 on the nummy scale. I can't remember exactly what I dreamed, but I woke up perched on the end of the bed like a gargoyle telling Steve "Don't move...just don't move." as I pull the light chain on the fan to turn it on. He asked what was wrong, and I said "Spiders. I've got to see if their are any spiders." Then I flipped off the light and went back to sleep. Nice way to freak out the spouse, no? : )

Choxie Truffles: Depending on the middle, I give them a 7-9 on the nummy scale. I think I might have to put these on the same scale as Godiva as far as nightmares go. BAAAAAAAAADDDDDD Dreams!! I dreamed we had been invaded by aliens who picked about a dozen earthings to be on a televised reality show that I like to think of as "Survivor: Earth". I don't remember a whole lot of details, but I know that the rules of the game were that we had to give up everything that we held dear to us, which included family, friends, jobs, everything. We were also not allowed to eat or drink for the duration of the show, which was one of the ways we were eliminated, by getting sick or dying that way. We were given a task to perform every day, and we had to complete it or...we were "let go". If we broke any rules, they would destroy the earth. Granted, it sounds like a bad lucas film, but it was pretty creepy. I kept getting more and more thirsty, and they wouldn't let me drink anything, and it was making me sick. I actually woke up sick to my stomach and so thirsty that it hurt to swallow. After being awake for a while, that passed, but it was so real!

As an end not, I'd like to ask for some prayers for my Mother-In-Law. She is going to Birmingham tonight because she is having surgery tomorrow morning at 8:00 am. We've been told that her surgery is routine, but she will have a long and not so plesant recovery time ahead of her. Please just keep her in your prayers if you don't mind. I'm sure she'd appreciate it.

Wow, that was a LONG post!