Resolution Rehash

Since 2011 is winding down, let's take a look at 2011's resolutions and where I stand on them.

1. Be a better wife - you'll have to ask the hubster, but I think I can check this off the list.
2. Get back to and maintain pre-holiday weight - I can't say what the pre-holiday weight is, but I'm going to say "check!" since I haven't gained any weight this year.
3. Run a half marathon - half a check, I only ran about half before I got injured.  This is going on next year's list.
4. Regularly post on my blog - CHECK!  I can hardly believe that I've had this blog for a year and I still write in it!  Amaze-balls!
5. Save money - I'll get back to you on that...

I'll be back tomorrow to post 2012's resolutions.  Maybe a bit more specific and bit a more ambitious.  No one really wants a list full of successes right?  That just means you didn't aim high enough.  I think the hubster would call that ridiculous and that no one but me operates with that mentality.  Always striving for more!

See everyone next year!

Grrrrrrr....

I'm so mad right now.  Every year since we got married, we've made photo calendars from mypublisher.  We've always been super pleased with them and pay a premium for the larger calendars.  Well, not this year.  I placed my order last week and I guess I didn't read the fine print.  They changed the calendar size from 13" x 20" (opened) to 11" x 17" (opened).  I'm seriously displeased.  If I knew this was the case, I would have ordered with snapfish despite some of their design shortcomings as I wrote about earlier.  The days on the new smaller calendars are so tiny.  I have to squint from like one foot away to see them clearly.

At first when I ordered them that I must have made a mistake when creating them and didn't select the larger size.  I went back into the program to double check and lo and behold, they only had the one size.  There was no notice or anything letting people know the change, and I would think that at this time of year when people are making calendars for next year that it would be something you want to let people know.

I know I won't be using them next year.  The hubster called them and we were able to return them for a refund, but it still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.  I don't think I'll be using them to make photo books either.

Dog picture of the day

Look at the fatty. She barely fits on the pillow, but she wouldn't dream of sleeping elsewhere.

King size bed, a love-hate relationship

I love my king sized bed.  It's the perfect size for the hubster and the two dee-oh-doubles (that's doggies for those not in the know aka anyone besides me and hubster).  Yes, the four of us barely fit on the bed.  I spread out, Red spreads out, and the poor hubster and Egg Roll have to find room for themselves somewhere around us.  Case in point:

For such a small to medium sized dog, she takes up a lot of space in prime real estate no less.  The hate part comes when trying to find sheets for the bed, more importantly inexpensive sheets.  Lately, my sheets have lost their elasticity and the corners are starting to come loose and come undone.  Ask the hubster, I hate an unmade bed.  The sheet and duvet must be made before I get into bed.  He likes to kick the sheet and push them aside under the duvet.  So I've been looking for inexpensive sheets and I'm just unwilling to pay $70+ for sheets, but I don't want cheap low thread count either.  Ugh!  Am I searching for the impossible?  I really don't think so.  My other sheets I purchased at Marshall's/Home Goods, but those places have turned up nothing for me.  I don't even think those are high thread count and they are soft enough for me.  The search continues...  along with other home decor stuff.  I'm totally in nesting mode right now.

Recognizable states

My brother and his girlfriend got us scarves and these mugs for Christmas.






I love mugs and these are great, but it reminds me of a discussion I had while I was in Vail. All the Ohio girls were adamant that the shape of the state of Ohio is highly recognizable. Me being from California said that I would not recognize it. They kept saying that it's heart shaped which to their credit it is, but it's not something you notice when you glance at a map.

Even though I now live in this state and have been a residence of it for 5 years, I still don't immediately recognize it.  Does that make me a bad Ohioan?

So if someone other than my brother and his gf has sent this, I think I would have a hard time recognizing the state.  The green heart does help, but I don't think I would have identified this as Oregon on the first try.  In my mind recognizable states are California (I may be biased like the Ohio girls), Florida, Texas, New York, and .Oklahoma.  I wanted to put more East Coast states in there, but I definitely think that is because I grew up in PA and with all that history in the state, the 13 colonies stuff was pretty much crammed down our throats.

Anyway, I forgot the point of this post.  Ohio is not a recognizable state shape...

Blue jackets game

The hubster's mom gave us some free hockey tickets and we went on Tuesday. They were great seats and we had a great time with his friends even though we lost. We had dinner beforehand at Bar Louie. It was $1 burger night and the burgers were fantastic!

Here are some pictures from the evening:



Fight!

Dog picture of the day

Look who is sticking her tongue out at me!?!?

Christmas Crafting

Now that Christmas is over and presents have been handed out, I can write about the Christmas presents that I made.  There were two different types.  First, the calendars.  Every year for the past 3 years, I make calendars for everyone is the hubster's family.  Every year, I think they are going to get tired of these calendars, but they don't.  So I keep making them.  The first year, it was exclusively the hubster and I.  How vain of me.  As the years go by, we add in his sister and her husband and now their daughter.

I usually use mypublisher because they allow you to put photos in the dates in the calendar, but they are pretty pricey at $20 a pop plus shipping per calendar!  Even if it's to the same address.  I used Snapfish this year because they had a buy one, get two free promotion.  They also have the same picture in the day feature.  How could I pass it up?  The calendars were pretty nice when we got them in.  They were glossy and laminated.  Also larger in size than the mypublisher ones.  The only thing I didn't like was that there were not a lot of layout options.  There is definitely more freedom with mypublisher.  So that was made present number one.

Number two were yarn wreaths for his mom and grandmom.  I'm particular proud of these because I was able to use some ornaments that we already had for embellishments and I actually liked how I laid everything out.

They seemed to like them, so that's good.  And I liked making them, win win.

Ruined Plans

So I don't think we'll be going snowboarding this week as I had planned.  Since I had the week off, we were supposed to go with the step son on Thursday or Friday.  The weather is just not cooperating.

It's been unseasonable warm and the rain isn't helping.  Even though there was some snow last night.

Here's a picture that my friend posted on Facebook:

Not very encouraging and I really don't want to drop $150+ to "snowboard" on this.

Maybe sometime later in the season.

This is for Chao

Because I know she is one of maybe 5 people who read this blog.

Can you wear these for your next skating show?

Pretty please.

I Work Out

I didn't quite get up early enough to hit the gym with the Chaos, but I did manage to go to my gym.  I did Jeff Turner's circuit three times and I was tired!  I managed to find all the equipment I needed available and didn't have to improvise!

Afterwards, I decided to try and run.  Remember the first time?  Three laps and my knee started hurting,  This time?  6 laps and then the pain!  Nothing fabulous since it was less than a mile, but still an improvement.  I probably could have ran through the pain to finish the mile, but I don't want to hurt myself even more.

I finished up with my stretches and headed home to wake the hubster.  Not a bad start to the day.  Planning to hit up JoAnn's and Home Depot (again) to start on the photo booth for the recognition banquet.

What started out as a bust

Ended up turning out to be pretty awesome.  I had plans to travel down to Cincinnati with my friend, Caroline, to hit up Nordstrom Rack and Ikea.  We planned to leave at 10:00 am so I had to wake up a little earlier than I wanted to to go do some after Christmas shopping.

First stop was Target.  What a bust!  They had no net lights, the decorations, ornaments, and bags were less than desired.  I did end up buying two white pinecone ornaments and two silver glitter snowflakes for the second tree since it's red and white themed.  I also got 3 rolls of wrapping paper, an outdoor extension cord for when we finally get some net lights, and an timer for the second tree.  Since I came up empty handed with the lights, I skipped on over to Lowe's.  BUST!!  I couldn't even find the Christmas section.  I did see some blow up decorations on the top of the shelves, but that was it!

I went to Michael's next since it's the next shopping center over.  I had the most luck there.  I bought two wreaths, two bows, and some tissue paper.  I put the bows on the wreaths and put them over the sconces by the garage.  On the way home, I went to Home Depot and that was also a BUST!  There was one box of net lights and they weren't colored.  What am I supposed to do with one box of lights.

Overall, a very disappointing morning.  I rushed home and made a quick breakfast.  I tried to talk to the hubster before I left since I knew I was going to be gone all day.  He wanted nothing to do with me.  WTF!

We made it to Nordstrom Rack and I left with these:

Ugg Kensington

30% off retail!  I had to stalk these and I'm not afraid to admit it.  While perusing the racks for shoes, I saw a woman and husband talking to an employee about these.  The woman wasn't sure about them since they were a little small.  Since I have small feet, I wasn't too worried.  They were discussing for a while and I just walked around the racks keeping my eyes and ears open.  She finally decided that even though they were discounted, they were too small for her.  That's where I swooped in!  I knew a 5 would fit since I fit into my mom's size 5 Uggs.  I'd been looking for replacement Uggs since my current pair (scored at Marshall's), so this was perfect.

Next stop, IKEA!

I returned some stuff I had gotten on a previous trip and ended up walking out with the futon cover, not the futon, three sets of the wood hangers for $0.99 each set, four picture frames, two pictures with pinecones and science-y stuff on it, and a candle for the hubster.  The same one we passed up the last time we were there.  So I basically spent the same amount for what I returned.  Is that a win-win?

Once we got back to Columbus, we went out to dinner with her sister at Bonefish Grill.  It was pretty tasty.

So even though the morning started out kinda crappy, it ended up being a pretty successful day.  Now the next questions is whether I can wake up tomorrow morning and join Caroline at the gym....

Prime Rib

I made prime rib for Christmas Eve dinner.  It was amazing.  This is the second time that I have made it and it was even better than the first time.  It's expensive, but definitely worth it for a once a year meal.  The hubster picked up the three rib standing rib roast at Carfagna's and I marinate the roast for 24 hours.  It makes that delicious herby crust that is on prime rib.  I'm totally eating like a pig like any other holiday.  Today at the MIL's, I had a huge lunch and at 4 cookies.  Yes, I keep making fucking cookies.  A batch of peanut butter reese's cup cookies and more Rolo cookies.  The hubster wanted to bring some down for his family and send some home with the stepson.

It's a good thing I went to the gym on Friday and have plans to go this week.  I've been doing my stretches, but haven't tried running again.  So maybe I'll try to do a few miles this week.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!!

It's my first time playing "Santa" with the hubster.

And the hubster took advantage of playing Santa to the fullest.  Here he is being a cookie thief.

Seasonal Workers

I don't know who usually applies for seasonal jobs (except me, but only because I've always wanted to work retail), but I'd imagine those who do work seasonal jobs do it for the money and that they would want to keep their job by actually doing it and maybe caring.  Perhaps the caring part is a stretch.

Well, last night, I went to Kohl's because I got a $10 coupon in the mail that expires on Saturday, and I had a 20% off coupon.  After wandering the store with the hubster for 30 minutes, we decided on a meat thermometer and a Christmas ornament for the second tree.  Since everything is almost always on sale at Kohl's, I wanted to make sure what the price of the thermometer was because I wanted to get as close to $10 as possible, so it would as close to free as possible.

I price checked the thermometer and it scanned at $12.99 with 25% off, so $9.74, but the tag on the back said $10.99.  I wanted to make sure that it would be 25% off the lower price.  So we get in line and are called to a register with two cashiers.  We soon figure out that one is being trained.  Here comes the fun part.  So the cashier in training (CIT) scans my items.  The thermometer is still ringing up at the higher price.  I politely ask why it's ringing up for $12.99 instead of $10.99.  The CIT looks at me like I have two heads and says , "But it's $9.74."  I said yes it is, but shouldn't it be 25% off $10.99?  She continues to stare at me and again says it's $9.74.  The hubster chimes in and says something.  Honestly, if she didn't know why and said that's just the price, I might have just paid for it.  But she was acting like a total bitch.  Like I was inconveniencing her so much.  Obviously to her, the fact that $9.74 is less than $10.99 should be good enough for me to pay for it.  It's the principle of the damn matter.  It wasn't ringing up correctly.

I've seen stores (I think grocery stores) that will give you the item for free or give you a discount on the item off the correct price.  I wasn't really expecting that. I just wanted the right price.  Finally, the other cashier steps in and resolves the situation and I get the right price.  Thank god!

Then I have to go through the ordeal of paying.  I hand over my 20% off coupon and then my $10 Kohl's cash.  The CIT stares at me again like I was crazy.

CIT: What's this?
Me: My coupon.
CIT: Yeah, but what's it for? 20, 30% off?
Other Cashier: no it's Kohl's cash, Scan the bar code.
CIT: I know what it is.  I know what to do.

Me: (thinking)  Christ, get me out of here.

I paid my $0.54 and ran out of there.  She just didn't care about anything.  I'm sorry that you have to do the job you are being paid to do.

My dress is very popular

So I blogged about this dress before, but here it is again:

Well, I've seen it on TV twice!  I don't know what that says, but I was pretty excited to see it.  Angela from Bones was wearing it and Pierce Brosnan's dead wife had it in her closet and he smelled it when he was mourning her.

This isn't the first time an article of clothing I owned was on TV.  The white dress I wore for my rehearsal dinner was also spotted on Lost.  Kate was wearing it in one of the episodes in the last season.  I think it was to a birthday party or something.

Not sure if this means anything at all, but it's always fun to see my clothes on TV.

Genius

I decided to clip my socks to my space heater at work to dry them!  I'm so smart.  They are beginning to smell a little bit though.  Eep!

I also remember that I keep a spare pair of appropriate business casual shoes at my desk (i..e close toed for when I forget to bring some into work and there is a surprise visit from corporate and I'm wearing flip flops).  So I changed back into my old clothes even though I didn't want to so I would have the option of going to the bathroom without putting on wet shoes and socks.  Yay!

Worst Decision of the Day

Taking off wet shoes and socks at work to realize that you don't have any other socks and that your other pair of shoes are knee high lace up black boots and you're still wearing sweatpants...

Putting them back on is not going to be fun.

Ouch!

My legs feel like I'm being poked by a thousand needles.  I forgot that I was supposed to play volleyball today so I quickly shaved my legs last night.  And by quickly, I mean with no water and the hubster's razor with my leg propped up on the counter.

I just walked back inside and it was pouring outside.  My legs got all wet because I haven't changed back into my work clothes which I don't think I will and I was wearing my capri sweatpants.  My feet and sneakers are soaked too.

I guess that's why you don't dry shave.  Still stings.

It's a good thing Red is not real kid

Today was Red's first day at doggie daycamp.  I admit we are a little nervous about day camp.  Here's why:

When we first got Red we took her to the dog park.  She had a ball.  She loved running around and having other dogs chase her.  She was super fast.  That dog park closed and was relocated to another location which was not in as good of a neighborhood as the other location.  We noticed that Red was getting into more fights at this other dog park.  She is not an aggressive dog.  She is so sweet.  I think the dogs who were chasing her were nipping at her legs and weren't being very nice.  You could tell that the dog owners were not the same as the ones at the old location.  So ever since she started to get into fights at this new dog park we stopped going.

I really think that those experiences changed her.  We went to the pool at the end of summer and she got into another fight. =(  Hopefully, doggie day camp will help her socialize better and be more dog friendly.

Anyway, the point of this post.  The morning started off anything, but normal.  Egg Roll wouldn't let me leash her up so she ended up not being walked.  (Grrrrr!) and I didn't feed Red because she's a slow eater and her food just would have ended up sitting her bowl while she was away.  Red just sat in her crate wondering what the hell was going on because she didn't come out the whole time I was getting ready.  When I called her when we were getting ready to leave, she came out with her head down like she was in trouble.  Poor girl!  It was so cute though.  We hope into the car and I buckle her in.  I was carpooling today and didn't want her to jump all over my carpool buddy.

We get to the day camp location and check in.  When I unleash her, she just goes with the employee.  No good bye kiss, nothing!  Thanks a lot Red!  She just went off with some stranger.  I was a little hurt, but I shouldn't be surprised.  She's the same way when we board her.  Egg Roll, on the other hand, tries to climb my leg in an attempt to not be taken away.

I hope she has fun at day camp.  My co-worker (KWR) says that when he first used them, they gave him a report card on how the day went.  I'm kinda excited to pick her up.  I hope she has a good time!

If it doesn't work out, at least today will be free with the referral coupon that I got from KWR.

Ruh Roh

So Star Wars: Old Republic came out today.  Of course, the hubster wanted us to play.  He bought his copy a few weeks ago and got us codes to get access to the servers early. 

So we've been dabbling in it for the past few days.  It's not a bad game, but I have my hesitations.  Mostly because I don't want to be caught up in it like I was with WoW.  WoW became a second job at one point.  Scheduled to play for crazy hours on a set schedule for a stupid game.  I totally regret the last few months of playing WoW.  It got too much and took over my life.  I had quit cold turkey for more than two years.

When the hubster first proposed playing this new game, I was adamantly against it.  There was no way I'd be going back to sitting in front of my computer nightly, eating poorly, and just being sedentary.  No way, Jose!  The hubster was crushed and promised it wouldn't be like that.  That I could play however long I wanted and wouldn't be guilted into playing longer.  (Yeah right!).  I caved of course and here we are.

It's definitely a slippery slope.  The few nights we've played the time just flies by.  Just like WoW.  I'm beginning to keep careful watch on the clock to make sure play time isn't excessive and to also make sure that I don't play multiple days in a row.  I let the hubster know that real life will always take precedence over a game unlike during our WoW days where we schedule stuff around a raid schedule.  Never again!

Dog picture of the day

Looks like someone is waiting for Santa!

My feet are rebelling

I wore these shoes yesterday for most of the day.

They are pretty tall (see description below),

Dress to kill with these amazing Christian Dior 'Serpent' booties that feature smooth polished calf and funky top-stitching.

• Color: Black
• Polished calf upper
• Round toe
• Lace-up vamp
• Top-stitching with eyelet tabs along upper
• Leather lining
• Leather sole
• 4½'' faceted copper-toned metal heel
• 1'' covered platform
• Approximate measurements taken from a size 8 (EUR 38), and may vary by size
• Calf; Italy; style#307376201

but are the most comfortable heels that I own.  Seriously!  Anyway, I got home yesterday from the cookie swap (which was awesome and I brought home a fuck-ton of cookies).  I chatted with the hubster for a bit before going to bed, but my left foot decided that it hated me and proceeded to crap up F-I-V-E times last night.  It would cramp up and then relax only to cramp up again.  Massaging it and clutching my foot for 30 minutes did nothing for it.  It finally uncramped for long enough for me to put my foot on a heating pad.  That helped a bit and I finally was able to fall asleep.  My legs and butt were tired from the position I was sitting in to relieve the cramped foot.  I wonder if it was the shoes that caused it.

I hope not.  I love these shoes.  Anyway, I woke up this morning and the foot felt fine with no evidence of the excruciating pain from last night.

Cookie Update

I just ate one of my cookies with coffee this morning.  OMG, so good.  I used to make the cookies much larger and I like these smaller cookies better.  The caramel to cookie ratio is much better.

I wonder what makes these cookies better than previous batches.  Is it because I let the butter come up to room temp?  Am I mixing the butter and sugar in better due to the softened butter?  I do notice that the cookie dough is much drier than in previous batches and rolling them into balls is not nearly as sticky with the drier dough.

I'm sad that I didn't get to save any for the hubster.  Perhaps there will be some leftover after the cookie swap.

Go Speed Racer Go!

Ever since the hubster got his Christmas gift in the mail, he's been bugging me to play with it. Well, I did under my own terms. Hence, the ridiculous helmet.






Obnoxious computer monitors.



Look, you can see the pedals too




After I saw the first picture, I was literally ROTFLMFAO. That's rolling on the floor laughing my ass off for all you non-tech savvy peeps. I look ridiculous and that shit eating grin isn't helping me much either. I think I spent a good twenty minutes in fits of laughter. Ahhh, I'm so annoying. I'm glad the hubster puts up with me and my shenanigans.

Baking

I made rolo cookies tonight for the Cap City Lax's cookie swap. I made almost 60 cookies.


I wrapped some in cellophane bags I got at Target for a dollar and made tags for them with craft stuff leftover from other projects.



I was so full from dinner and that choco-peanut butter goodness I didn't even try one. They do look good though. I've noticed that each batch I've made have been getting better and better.

I give up

Office baker bandit, you win!




Well played.

41 minutes!

Is how long my new dryer says it will take to dry a load of laundry! Wtf it took my old dryer at least 2 hours. I'll see if it's accurate. But damn that is a lot faster than the old one. I don't know if it's comparable in load size though.

Inaugural wash

Came home last night after visiting Caroline at her Columbus Gives Back Toys for Tots happy hour after an impromptu dinner at 5 guys and did our first load of laundry!



I was surprised to see that it would take nearly 50 minutes! We watched it for the first 10 minutes because the high efficiency front loaders make some weird noises compared to our old machine. We weren't the only ones curious about our new washer.












She did not like the noises it made. She would get up close when it quieted down then run out of the kitchen when it started up. I can't wait to see how the dryer does!

Yippee!

I got a phone call at 7 am that the delivery people were going to be arriving at 8 am.




This is what the hubster sent me!

Yay!! They look great. Now what to wash in my first load. Yes, I am that dorky!

Squeal!!!

The noise I made when I saw these beauties:

Must resist...

Ha, like I could afford any of those after this holiday season, maybe the coin purse...

Premature Happy Dance

I got a call from the Home Depot Delivery Service.  My new washer and dryer are set to be delivered tomorrow between 8 am and 12 pm!!

Yay!

Office Baker Bandit Strikes Again

Today, it's coconut pineapple drops.  They are heavenly.  I've eaten two already and have two more at my desk staring at me.  I'm sure 4 is probably 3 too many of my share of those cookies, but these are so good.  I'm usually a chocolate chip cookie kind of person, but wow, these are good.  Have I mentioned that yet?

I keep telling myself since I only had a salad and chicken for lunch, I'm ok.  I'm slightly overlooking that Boston Creme donut I had for breakfast...

IT Band Injury

So I got the results back from my MRI and I have an IT band injury from overuse.  WTF.  Lame.  I guess I should be glad that it's not something worse.  I have some stretches to do and I can definitely feel them and my muscles are tired after the vigorous stretching.

So I went to visit my friend's personal training yesterday to see if a personal trainer will help me reach my life long goal of being able to do one pull up.  I think it went pretty well since I felt like my ass was kicked after 20 minutes.  I have no upper body strength.  He gave me a list of exercises to do and I decided to give them a try on my own this morning.

I managed to complete them all, but wasn't told how many sets to do, so I think I might have overdone it since I could barely finish all the reps.  Afterwards, I did all my stretches and while stretching decided to try and run some since I haven't run since my race a month ago.  Well, it did not go well.  First, it was pretty hard to realize that I'd have to start all over from the beginning.  My legs were tired after the second lap, but I think that is more that my legs were tired from the earlier exercises.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  The worst part was that my IT band injury flared up after the 3rd lap and I had to stop.  I don't want to make it worse.

So my doctor gave me the option of doing stretches on my own or physical therapy.  Since I'm a cheap bastard I opted for stretches on my own.  I'm now wondering if physical therapy will accelerate the healing.  Is it worth the $20 copay per visit?  I think it might be.  I'll give the stretching another week, but I really do miss running.  Eww, that is messed up and I never thought I would say it.

Best Husband Ever

I feel like I've used that blog post title before.  I'm pretty sure I have.

Another reason why he's the best.  So after last night's fail of finding funnel cake, we opted to get turnovers from Arby's.  A poor substitute, I know.  Anyway after stopping at two Arby's on the way home, neither had apple turnovers, only stupid cherry.  I came to the conclusion that God hated me and I was doomed to be pastry-less tonight.  But there was hope on the horizon, we had blueberry muffins from Costco.

Ha, yeah right!  They were moldy =(  WTF Costco, your baked good never last that long, but that never stops us from buying them week after week!  So I cried.  No, not really, but I was sad and had this pathetic look on my face.  The hubster took pity on me and offered to get me donuts.  I said that I appreciated the offer, but reminded him of the last time he went on a late night donut run... Tim Horton's (a 24 hour one) had NO DONUTS!

But off he went to visit both Dunkin Donuts (which turned out to be closed) and Tim Horton's to return with not one, but two Boston Creme donuts.  I ate one while watching TV in my warm bed.  He's the best.  Yay, thanks pookers!

She's so fluffy

Red's winter coat has grown in and she's so dang fluffy and soft. I could pet her all day. It's so thick and luxurious.




She also has no problem letting you pet her all day. If only she would sleep under the covers and keep the hubster and I warm at night instead of under the bed.

Funnel Cake

Why is it that every amusement park/attraction I go to I can never find the funnel cake vendor? I see it everywhere and everyone has one. Ugh I really want some. So what is open at 10:15 that sells something similar or non cold dessert?

What's this?

Looks like we were robbed.




But alas, no. Today we got rid of our washer and dryer to make way for our new ones that are set to arrive on Tuesday. I'm hoping there are no issues with the delivery or else we'll be washer and dryer less for longer than a week. Eep.

Christmas cards!

Now that the Christmas cards are out in the mail I can now post pictures of them here. We ended having to get two different designs because I first ordered these from my publisher because they were free.




I then realized that we needed more than the 10 that came for free. So we got these from snapfish.




We used the same picture since it's the best one we could get. Silly dogs.

Do you know what sucks?

Feeling incredibly full, but unsatisfied from what you ate.

:(

Salad and baked potato pales in comparison to the hubster's cheeseburger, fries, and tortilla soup. At least I ate half a chocolate chip cookie.

Is it bad...

to want Christmas to be over so that I can buy heavily discounted Christmas decoration, ornaments, lights, etc?

We were at Target last night to pick up a few things and I said to the hubster, "Let's go look at the Christmas stuff so we know what we want to buy after Christmas."

I am that cheap.

On the bright side, I saw this at Target:

It's a holiday dinner plate of dog toys.  How awesome is that?  It's a turkey or chicken with baked potato, roll and corn.  There was also a lobster bake one.  Definitely on the list for after Christmas.

I love Florence and the Machine

That is all.

Well, not all.

I'm also so jealous of my brother and his girlfriend.  They got to go see Mumford and Sons last night.

*sigh*

MRI

I got an MRI today and I didn't know those machines were so loud.  The hubster had warned me, but I still wasn't prepared.  He told me to take the music to help with the noise and to pass the time.  I did, but NPR was not a good choice for station.  Once the machine turned on, you couldn't hear them talking.  But it really didn't matter because I fell asleep in the machine.  I guess it couldn't have been that loud.  I found out the results on Thursday.  I hope it's nothing bad.  I've got a race to run in May.

Wasteful

I find myself becoming more wasteful when it comes to food.  I've always been a member of the empty plate club.  I always finish my plate when eating at home.  That's just how things were when growing up.  You had to eat all of your rice and drink your soup before being able to leave the table.  My mom would keep us there until everything was cold and we still had to finish our dinner.

I cut soda from my diet about two years ago.  I completely cut it out at first and it's slowly crept back in.  The majority of the time, it's two cans a month.  When I'm vacation or travelling, it goes up.  But for the most part, it's out.  The funny thing is prior to cutting out soda I would drink the entire can because I can't waste of the rest of it.  Now when I indulge in a can of soda I only drink half of it and pour the rest down the sink.  It's the only thing I can do in terms of portion control.

Same when I serve myself dinner.  I plate the normal amount of food, full well knowing I won't be able to finish it all.  And then at the end of dinner, I throw it away.

I just did the same thing here at work.  The same person who brought in the cake pops brought in chocolate covered mint oreros and Ritz peanut butter crackers.  Of course, I took two.  After taking a bite of the first one, my first instinct was to throw the rest away because I should only allow myself one bite.  Ask me a few years ago and I would have laughed and shoved the rest of the cookie into my gaping maw.

I feel bad sometimes because of think of the starving children all over the world, but then I think that it's better for my waistline and perpetual journey to lose/maintain weight.

Music Recital

I went to the step son's musical recital last night.  I'm appalled at the state of musical education.  Maybe it's because I grow up in a different time, but man, I felt bad for those kids because their experience with band/strings/choir was nothing like mine.

Time to make comparisons (which I'll stick mostly to band because I played the clarinet)!

These poor kids had to stand.  We had arranged chairs in a semi-circle shape fanning out around the conductor and everyone had matching stands for their music.  This was a discombobulated mess where after the strings performed, the kids ran up to the stage got their instruments and set up their spots.  What?!?!  We did this all behind the curtain or had our instruments ready at our seats.  We also had chairs to rank us in terms of how well we played.  I doubt these kids had that.

Their songs lasted 30 seconds at most.  I'm sorry, but Hot Cross Buns should not be performed at a recital.  It's for learning.  Maybe I'm a snob, but my recitals, we played 3 to four songs that consisted of pages of sheet music.  I was a little disappointed.

The whole thing was a little unorganized.  The transitions from strings to band to choir where disgraceful.  The kids just mad rushed the stage and ran off the stage when they were done.  Back in the day, we all had assigned positions the day before and we arrived to the event early so that we sat in order in the audience.  Then we walked in single file up the stage for choir or onto the stage from backstage.  We looked semi professional.  How else would you instill in children that performance is something to take seriously if you just let them run around like little monkeys?!?

Ok, I'm done ranting about an elementary school music recital.

I'm definitely earning my way to hell today.

WTF Work?!?!

So my work offers incentives for people to be healthy.  By completing 3 easy tasks, the hubster and I can earn up to $600.  Pretty sweet, huh?  That's what I thought before I found at that that $600 is taxable!  Really, work?

So this past paycheck was when the tax was taken out.  It was almost $200!  How lame is that?

Things I learned this weekend

Here are some things I learned this weekend:

1. I should really be eating more meat.
2. Eat less white rice (what?!?!?)
3. I don't do squats correctly
4. My butt is asleep
5. I will be a tyrant of a parent
6. I still love inspirational competition moves (formerly known as inspirational sports movies because I saw Secretariat this weekend and I don't consider horse racing a sport and I saw a trailer for a movie that reminded me of Sister Act, but without the witness protection nuns, and all these don't fall under inspiration sports movies, but do provoke similar theme of rooting for the underdog.)
7. I should always double my meatball recipe. (I <3 three boxes of meatballs in my freezer.)
8. I can easily pull together three separate Britney outfits from my closet without purchasing a single item.
9. I still suck at karaoke.
10. My diet sucks and I will be in big trouble once my metabolism slows down and catches up with me.

It's the litte things

I love being surprised by the hubster.  I don't mean in the romantic thoughtful way of flowers or balloons or a just because gift/card.  I mean chores or tasks on the to-do list that sometimes slip my mind or just helping with things on my plate.  I woke up from a nap from the hubster to an email he forwarded to me for a listing of our washer and dryer on Craigslist.

I was so surprised he followed through on it.  I was elated.  I had originally just wanted to let Home Depot haul them away for us for free because I didn't think we'd be able to sell them on Craigslist anyway.  But he listed them and they sold in like 10 minutes.  Amazing!  I'm sure we could have asked for a little more, but we got double what the hubster originally paid for them and we definitely got our monies worth with them.  I'm so excited things are working out this way.  I'm not posting our new washer and dryer until we get them installed, but I am sooooo excited.  I've been wanting a new set for FOREVER.

This set we are selling takes so long to dry clothes.  Like 2+ hours.  I'm sure it's because I overload the washer, but still it makes doing multiple loads on a weekend require major logistical and scheduling skills.  With the new ones, I won't even have to set a time for how long to dry.  Apparently, this feature is standard for most dryers, but I'm on could 9!  My electricity bill will go down.  Win win all around.  Yay!

And double yay for the hubster!

I am an interrupter

The hubster is always telling me things about myself that I never believe.  Only when an outside third party makes the same observation do I believe him.  Perhaps I should just start believing him without evidence.

Well, apparently, I have a really bad habit of interrupting people when they tell stories with inane questions or unhelpful questions or questions that would have been answered if I had let said storyteller finish the story.  I can't help it, I'm impatient.  Get to the point!

Anyway, this second confirmation was made on Friday at lunch.  The conversation with my co-worker started in the car on the way to lunch about a purchase made on-line at Kohl's.  It's a short ride to the restaurant and in essence the story could have been told in that 5 minute ride.  Well, it didn't end until after we ordered food because of my questions.  My co-worker got so frustrated with me that he yelled "I can't remember what I was going to say or the point of this story anymore because you keep interrupting me!"

I was shocked.  Not because he yelled at me, he does that sometimes, but that the hubster was right all along.  I wonder who else I do this to.  Honestly, stories would be better if you let me edit them before anyone opens their mouth.  Truely!

So if I do this to you, think about refreshing your storytellings skills. =P

Competitiveness

So my work has about 8 women in the entire facility, yet we have as many stalls for bathrooms.  While on the other hand, there are 50+ men with probably less stalls than us.  It's quite strange. It is very rare that you find yourself in the bathroom with another person.  There are two different restrooms so it's highly unlikely.  There is also only one sink in the most used of the restroom.s

On the rare chance that you do find yourself in the bathroom with another person, I feel compelled to either get my business done super fast to beat the other person to the one sink or go really slow so that I don't run into them and have to wait to use the sink.

I always go pee super fast.  I'm a speed peer.  The hubster has commented on it before.  I pee quick and wash my hands and get out of there.  Who wants to spend more time than they have to in the bathroom?  Anyway, I find myself peeing even quicker to beat the other person to the sink no matter how long the previous person has been in the bathroom and no matter what step in the peeing process they are in.

I'm weird.   I know that and I accept it.

*sigh*

It's official.  I picked a black so dark that my once golden highlights are now blue.  I've had a few male co-workers comment on it.  If guys can notice it, then it's gotta be pretty obvious.  It's still shocking to see how dark it is.  Maybe after a few shampoos it'll calm down.  I still have moments where I go who is that in the mirror.  And I also think I look like some goth emo chic which is definitely not a look I want to be going for.

Overwhelmed By Boxes

I have a growing hatred for boxes.  In the beginning, I was always scrounging for boxes to ship stuff out in, but now, I'm overwhelmed with boxes.  My crafting room used to be the box storage room where boxes went to live after arriving at their final destination.  When I got tired of seeing a room full of boxes, I finally broke them down and stored them in there.  At least they were taking up less space.  Now even the flattened boxes are getting out of control.  I finally started throwing them away.

Well after the Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday sales and orders for Christmas presents and holiday cards, I'm being inundated with boxes again.  In the past three days, I've gotten boxes from Express, Kohl's x 2, Best Buy, Amazon, MyPublisher and Toys R Us.  I'm getting a few more in the next few days from MyPublisher (again) and Snapfish x 2.

And I still have to get rid of the larger boxes from the storage ottoman I bought and the mirror I bought over a month ago.  I feel guilty for throwing them in the trash when they can be recycled, but recycling is not so easy for me.  I have to take my recycling into work because my community doesn't offer recycling so I give it to a co-worker to recycle for me.  I don't want to overload him with boxes.  They would be so cumbersome to unpack from his car and a lot of work too.

Why so many boxes?!?!  Maybe I should stop ordering stuff online, but even if I did, the hubster would not.  I think his packages are the biggest offenders because he doesn't do anything with them.  He leaves them around for me to dispose of.

Back to Black

I dyed my hair black last night.  I don't know if I like it or not or if it's just weird to see my hair so dark and monotone.  First off, I think I relapsed to my college days and picked an unnatural color (The bottom layer of my hair was red/pink for a good portion of college).  It's really black.  Is that even possible to be really black?  I mean black is black right?

After washing out the dye and drying my hair, it looks blue in certain lights.  I also missed a few spots, so yeah, not the best job.  Maybe I should have waited for the hubster to help me or asked some friends.  Well, it's done.  Maybe I just need a few days to get used to it.

It's just so black...

So Cold

I am freezing here at work today.  I have no idea why.  I just cannot get warm!  I feel sick and nauseous and of course, cold.  I felt the same way the morning of my wedding when the AC in my parent's condo in Maui was cranked up to super cold.  Once it was turned down, I was fine.

Maybe I really am getting sick.  Blargh.

Boom

Goes the dynamite.

Movember mustache contest!

My entry for best faux-stache:

I don't have to worry about rusty nails anymore

because I got a tetanus shot yesterday.  I'd been meaning to get one since getting a physical done at my doctor's office which was probably 6-9 months ago...

I finally got it done and man, does my arm hurt.  I rolled onto my side last night while sleeping and the pain woke me up.  Even lightly grazing my arm sends pain up and down my arm.  Yikes, they weren't kidding about these side effects.

Feeling Violated

So when I came back to San Diego last month, I landed and found in my email, two paypal payments that were not authorized by me.  It was definitely a WTF moment x 10.  I immediately opened disputes against these fraudulent chargers.  The process was painless except that it takes  along time, but I don't think that's Paypal's fault.

I initiated proceedings on November 15 and finally got a resolution last night.  Two weeks, not too bad.  I got my $40+ back, but I feel so violated.  I don't know how they got my information.  It didn't surprise me that after I googled the seller it was linked to a online MMORPG.  I left that world a long time ago.  And the kicker is that they charged me pounds and not dollars.

I'm glad I got my money back, but I'm going to be wary using Paypal in the future.  I didn't even feel this bad when my gmail got hacked.  Passwords and security questions have been changed, but the feeling is totally different when it involves money.

Pants?!?!?!?!!?!?!!

I own three pairs of work pants, two that I actually wear on a regular basis.  I double up on pants and sometimes wear jeans to work.  Well, after this past week, I will only have one pair of work pants that I want to wear.  The third pair were unfortunately hemmed too short.  On occasion, I will wear them, but never willingly reach for them.  My second pair I lost to my own mistake.  I was not paying attention when I was doing laundry and I threw them in the dryer.  So those are now too short.  Ugh.  I hate short pants more than anything in the world.

I guess I should take advantage of some of the deals going on and see if I can find some new work pants.  I did order a pair from Express, so maybe those will fit the bill.

Tagg, the final update?

Tagg, the pet tracker, how I loathe thee?

We thought everything was fine and dandy once we got the alert about the tracker being out of the home zone a few weeks ago.  We were happy that it worked and had plans to keep the damn thing.  However, on this trip to PA, we didn't get a single notice the entire time we were gone.

When we arrived at my aunts, we reset the Tagg home zone to my aunt's house.  No alerts, but then again, Red never left the house.  On the return trip home, again, no alerts.  We called the technical support to find out what the heck was going on.  The customer support person had no idea what she was talking about.  She sounded like a 15 year old idiot.  Apparently, they have syncing issues.  Not a dealbreaker, so I asked if we'd still be able to track the Tagg if it's not synced.  She did not know the answer, but her little script made it sound like you couldn't.  Well, how often does the Tagg get out of sync?  How would I know?  No answers.

WTF.  We'd have to wait to get home to power cycle the docking station and tracker.  The hubster and I discussed it on the rest of the trip home.  We were pretty close to the end of the 30 day trial period.  I looked up more reviews of the product and found that several other people experienced the same sync issues as us and said that the power cycle didn't always work and that troubleshooting with tech support was painful.  We decided that as much as we wanted to like the product, it just wasn't ready and in a state that we wanted it to be.  So I called Tagg back and requested a return.

It does make me a little sad that we run a greater risk of not retrieving Red if she were to run away, but having this costly item would not have helped, not with all the bugs it has.  But what does give me some kind of relief is that Red did amazingly well at my aunt's house.  She didn't try to run away, she only escaped the kitchen once at the end of the trip.  She didn't need personal potty breaks like previous visits and she went out in the yard without supervisions.  She did so well with the baby too.  She calmed down within 5 minutes of new visitors and didn't jump up on people.  I'm so proud of her.

So if Tagg ever gets their act together, we'll definitely consider trying it again.  We really wanted this product to work, so this potentially could be the final update, but hopefully not.

I hate it when this happens ... sorta

So I bought a Living Social thing (I think it's more convenient to call it a Groupon even though it's not from Groupon) for a 30 page photo book for $19.  I thought it was a good deal.  It was for a photo book that I'm making for my niece.  My computer has been on the fritz for a while and I finally got fed up and told the hubster to reformat it so that it can be stable enough to make the photo book.  It didn't even require that because all my photos are on my back up hard drive.  He just needed to plug it into any computer.

Anyway, I spent part of my day yesterday taking photos for said book.  I finally got around to ordering it and was pretty pleased with myself.  I still had to pay shipping, but it was $29 total for a $55ish book.  Well, what do I get in the mail today?  Cyber Monday deal from mypublisher for 65% off.  WTF.  I instantly get mad because I love to save money (you can't really tell because I spend it so quickly and often).  I get all worked and I'm doing math on how much I could have spent if I saved 65% and am grumbling to myself.

I finally calm down and actually read the email.  Save 65% on $200.  *blinks*  Yeah, so way to get all dramatic over nothing.  This must be what the hubster is talking about when I get mad at him.  I'm so quick to anger.  Sorry, hubster!

Perfect Ending

To a thanksgiving weekend.

We came back a day early from my aunt's because everyone left or was busy with their SO's families. It wasn't worth it to drive to my cousin's in Jersey so we headed home. We get an extra day to rest before going back to work, we skipped the traffic on Sunday, and we did this today!




Tree number 2 and yes that is a Santa hat tree topper. Gotta work with what you got.




Lights from inside of our door




Wreath on the door

It's a win win situation all around. Here are some other Christmas-y pictures.







From last weekend




Yarn wreath DIY that I made in PA. I'm gonna make some more for presents.

Now time to take a break and watch tv before making dinner and heading out to Michael's.