best so far

So far, this has been the best New Year’s Eve ever! That is solely because we went to Edgewood Creamery after dinner, and they had Cake & Batter ice cream! I jumped up and down when I saw it, and I skipped back to the truck. Booyah!

choices

Of all that is on the word wide web, why can I never find anything to look at online? I am the worst time killer ever.

I have lots of travelling that I want to do during the year 2010, and I hope at least some of it happens.

I just finished reading my new book by Chelsea Handler, and it was seriously hilarious. I am going to buy everything else she’s written next time I purchase some books. I’m moving on to the Family, per recommendation by Casey. It’s way smarter and more serious than Chelsea’s book, so it will take some adjusting. I’m a little leary of getting angry and/or creeped out by it, but I have to see what’s in there. It’s like a train wreck or a scary movie. I’m reading through cracked fingers!

Tonight was pretty sweet because I had no plans. We wanted to eat early tonight, and we drove to Sam’s Deli to get some yummy and cheap burgz. We also shared cheese fries! today at lunch, I ate a vegan Kashi meal that was the Mayan Harvest Bake, and it was pretty yummy. I can’t remember everything in it, but it’s plantains on their pilaf with sweet potatoes, amaranth (whatever that is) and polenta something or another with ancho chili sauce. It sounds weird, but it was really good. My least favorite thing in their meals is their special pilaf, which sucks because it’s in every dang one of them. It has a strong taste, so it kind of takes over at times. I actually bought 2 more of those tonight at the grocery store and a different one I want to try.

Choxie is sleeping beside me on the couch and is experiencing some crazy twitches right now.

Oh! I forgot to mention: Last night at the UMW dinner thing, I had lots of fun. We met at someone’s house and talked business for a minute, mostly just to learn about the big fundraiser we’re doing this year, and then we had a nice dinner with fancy Christmas china and all that. We had really good chili and salad with the best dressing – raspberry vinaigrette – and some bread. Then, we all got some ice cream with a brownie and some other SUPER yummy dessert. The best part was all the funny conversations we had at dinner. I was laughing so hard at one woman asking about what goes on at the spa….I almost wanted to call her today to see how her first trip turned out!

GOOD THING: Brian made it up to Decatur to wander in the wild and back safely today.
BAD THING: It just got late – fast! I need to go get in bed.

comic

This cracks me up still:

marriedtothesea.com

nothing new

I have checked my Bloglines a million times today, and no one is doing new blogs! With that being the trend today, I decided to do a blog of my own so you will have at least one lousy blog entry to read today.

Today is my first day back at work, and it isn’t bad. It’s almost 2:30, so the day is going by fairly quickly, and I have had plenty of work today. Tonight, I have to go to someone’s house for dinner with the rest of our church’s Circle chair(wo)men. I am not super excited to have plans tonight, but it really should be kind of fun. At least I only have to work 2 more days this week!

Yesterday, I went shopping for some after-Christmas sales and found some ornament sets for my tree (decided this year I needed another set of glass balls of another color, so i got silver/white/gray) and some giant gold ornaments to decorate a giant tree outside our house next year! Everything I bought was 50% off. The only thing I’m missing for the outdoor tree is the lights, but I can get those sometime in the next year. I haven’t decided if I want white or colored.

Anyway, Christmas is over! It’s time to think about New Year’s. I have no idea what we’re doing yet because there is a family wedding on the first, but we’re not sure if we’re going. Our neighbors also invited us over for brunch that morning, and we missed it last year since we weren’t at home when they came over to invite us. For New Year’s Eve itself, we have zero plans yet. We don’t ever do too much.

After New Year’s is over, it’s time to look forward to the new year! I think 2010 is going to be awesome. I can just tell!

GOOD THING: work is kind of almost over for the day
BAD THING: had to pee a million times today

birmingham

We’re back in Birmingham! We had lots of fun in Georgia, but I’m glad to be back at home, too. I can’t wait to sleep in my bed tonight! It was great taking a shower in my own shower and washing my clothes and being able to put up some of my gifts. I can’t wait until Brian lets me take down the tree! I put about 10 ornaments up, but he stopped me and wants it to stay for a while. That’s really fine because I surely didn’t want to do it all right then, anyway. I’m just ready to get my living room back to normal since it’s rearranged temporarily for the tree.

Hopefully, this week will be decently fun even though Christmas is over. I am off work Monday, so that will ease me back into working. We are supposed to go get dinner and hang with Dan & Carrie either Tuesday or Wednesday night, and Brian’s sister is still in town until at least this coming weekend. There’s a family wedding this Saturday at the lake, so that is another thing on our plan list. Surely work will be fun this week since everyone is still in the Christmas spirit but now has some stories from the holidays (hopefully).

Today, we went with my parents to Five Guys for their first time. I think they both liked it, but my dad didn’t get enough food. He needs to order 2 burgers next time, I think. The one in Dalton isn’t set up anything like the one here in Homewood, but the food was just as delicious. I missed sitting upstairs, and the music sucked at the Dalton one, too. It was still “classic” rock, but none of the songs were so classic. Maybe next time! We followed it up by getting milkshakes across the street from Steak & Shake.

Choxie almost got hit by at least 5 cars in about 24 hours, so we have to figure something out with her. She is now interested in chasing & barking at passing cars and trucks, and she has no concept of the road being a dangerous place. I got scared to death today, so we have to have a plan next time. Brian is going to research good ways of teaching her not to get near the road, and we can practice next time we go. It won’t work doing it here because it’s just so different here. No cars go down our road, which is awesome, but that is why she doesn’t get it. The speed limits are so low here, too, that it wouldn’t help, either because no car is scary going 25 mph. Anyway, we’ll figure it out. She’s super smart so I know she can learn, but we have to be the smart ones to know what will work for her. It’ll be fine!

GOOD THING: burgz today were yumz
BAD THING: indigestion!

merry christmas!

Today is Christmas! I am so sleepy, but the day has been good. I seriously hope I can sleep late tomorrow, but I’m not so sure the dog will let me. She gets pretty pumped when we’re at my parents’ house. We went to Brian’s cousins’ house on Christmas Eve for dinner before going to the 11PM candlelight service. After that, I still had to make Brian’s Christmas card and pack some more, so we ended up not going to bed until 1:30AM. Then, we got up before 7! We’ve been to Brian’s parents’ house, then drove to my parents’ in Georgia only to get directly in the car to go to my grandparents’. It was actually pretty fun because someone had the idea to play charades. We finally left and came home to MY parents’ and opened more gifts! I’m typing this on my new laptop! Tomorrow, we’re going to my uncle’s for my dad’s family Christmas. I will hopefully get to see my cousin’s new baby!!! Anyway, I’m too tired to talk much now. I hope you’re having a great Christmas!

GOOD THING: hopefully get to sleep some tonight
BAD THING: nothing!

dog park

We went to the dog park today after lunch. While we were there, I turned around and saw a boxer with his leg hiked up and realized he was peeing. Then I realized he was peeing on Brian’s shoe, and Brian had no idea. I died laughing and told Brian, and the dog ran off so we could see Brian’s shoe with all these wet drops on it. I glanced over at a bench, and two women were laughing hysterically.

fotografias

Brian worked late today to stay and photograph this guy, Eduardo Verástegui:

Apparently, he likes lion cubs.

And water.

Oh, and he loves Jesus, too, apparently. He was on one of the talk shows discussing various mission trips and such. Brian said it sounded pretty cool except it was in Spanish, so he didn’t catch all of it.

sparse

I haven’t been updating very much lately, and I bet you are pretty sad.

I took 2 days off work last week to shop for Christmas gifts, and I was somewhat successful, but I still have more to do. I can’t finish until I come up with some ideas, though. I also was supposed to shop for things for me (I had a dollar amount), but I really can’t find much in stores right now that I want. I need roughly $75 more of stuff for me, but I just can’t find anything. If I don’t soon, I will just opt for money and save it for something I really want later. I’m thinking it could offset some of my Salvation Army buys in the future.

Sheena graduated! We went to her party Saturday night, and it was good.

Tonight was A Night in Bethlehem at church, so I went with Brian, his mom and his sister. I was dressed in costume last year and volunteered as a census taker, but this year, I was merely an observer. I think it was way less amazing this year because I saw it last year. If we do it next year, I’m not sure I’ll go – especially if it’s on a Sunday night because I don’t like doing anything on Sunday nights.

I have to go back to work tomorrow for a full week this time, so that kind of stinks. My parents are coming to visit and to go to Brian’s parents’ party Friday night, so that will hopefully be fun. They’re leaving by lunch on Saturday, so they won’t be here very long. We’re going to go visit them a week later, though, so that’s no big deal. Plus, we were there last weekend.

Choxie surprisingly hasn’t bothered our Christmas tree at all. She watched me put the lights on and didn’t even pay attention very much, so I went ahead and put some basic ball ornaments on that she also hasn’t bothered. She noses them around a little bit every once in a while, but she never tries to bite them. I still haven’t put some of our ornaments on, but it looks like it has enough. I left the little and fragile ornaments off just in case.

I did find myself some new workout pants from Academy this week, and they’re so awesome. They’re for cold weather, and they really are so warm and comfy. I put them on when I got home from lunch today just because I was cold and wanted to feel snuggly, and guess what? They made me want to go out for a walk! I walked the dog today in the misty rain, and the pants are awesome. They also have great pockets that are
deep. They get an A from me.

GOOD THING: got some Christmas shopping done
BAD THING: need some more ideas – especially for my dad even though I’m excited about one thing I got him so far

past, present & future

This past weekend: visited my parents, went out to eat at Red Lobster, went to the town’s Christmas parade, went to watch a drive-in Christmas song/light show, hung out, visited my grandparents’ and other family for lunch/dinner Sunday afternoon

In the very recent past, I went to the Salvation Army this evening to get a chair I found today at lunch. It was gone. I am let down, but it’s okay because I’ll find an even better one in the future that is more awesome. Also, while I was there, I found a great Christmas gift for my dad! That is so hard to do, so I’m pretty pumped.

While I was out, I also had to deal with Office Depot because a box of 250 envelopes I bought today at lunch only had 210 in there, and I needed them all. So, I went back this evening to straighten it out. Guess what? They had NO more envelopes that size except for a pack of 25, so they gave it to me for free. I will just try and scrounge up some envelopes just like them at work tomorrow. I think I have a few, and I can shave my need down to like 240 probably.

Presently, I’m obviously typing a blog entry, but I’m also cooking dinner. Basmati rice is simmering as we speak. Since my plans for dinner got nixed last night, I’m instead doing my Meatless Monday on Tuesday night.

In the future, later this week, I am going to possibly take off work Thursday and Friday to use the rest of my year’s vacation time, go to Bible study Wednesday night, go to Emily’s house for family dinner and the Muppet Christmas Carol movie, and a weekend involving Sheena’s graduation party! Also, Ann is coming home for the holidays either this Thursday, Friday or Saturday! She’s driving, so she doesn’t have concrete plans.

Anyway, that’s a lot of stuff happening, but it’s all good. I also ordered Brian’s Christmas gifts today, so that’s taken care of. I still have to buy for my parents and Sheena. I will also assist Brian in helping find his sister’s and his mom’s gifts. I think he’s taking care of his dad. Anyway, yay!

GOOD THING: found an unlikely gift tonight
BAD THING: lots of work still to do at work tomorrow