This week has been a little hectic. Chris had 3 migraines in the 5 days immediately after we got here, but now he has had 2.5 migraine free days in a row and he seems to be doing well. On the day after Christmas the dog decided to get so sick he couldn't keep down water. We rushed him to the vet and luckily the vet seemed to think he was healthy and probably just got overexcited due to the changes in scenery and diet. She gave us a little tummy medicine for him and he was better the next morning.
Despite all the insanity, we managed to get through christmas eve dinner, christmas breakfast, opening presents, seeing my family and seeing most of our friends. We got a great haul this year because our parents (especially his mom) spoiled us entirely too much. I can't possibly remember everything we got, but here are a few of the more notable things:
Tons of restaurant gift cards from my aunt
a nice blender from my aunt
a new George foreman grill from mother in law
Lots of kitchen things (pans, measures, etc.) from various sources (mostly my mother in law)
and umm... tons of other crap that I'm too lazy to go in the front room and look at.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
I made it--there was a santa letter this year.
There was indeed a non-depressing, non-pessimistic santa letter this year. It's not as classic as last years, but it wasn't bad, and it gave dear old santa enough to work with.
My letter to Santa:
Dear Santa,
This year i need magic wands for the following things:
1. to make edgar allen poe appear so that i can always have someone to
help me say what i want to express. Writing this letter has been darn
near impossible, but I thought you would worry about me if i didn't
write a letter.
2. to make anyone below the age of 6 fall asleep instantly so that i
can finally get kids down for nap without gaining anymore grey hairs
3. to make allergies go away so my husband doesn't have to snore and
wake me up in the middle of the night. And maybe because I don't want
his throat to hurt all the time either.
4. To make the dog stay away from my hot dogs by giving him a little
magical shock if he ever goes near them again.
I also would like a nifty robot that takes the dog outside when it is
cold or rainy.
Give my husband and family anything they want. They have been better
than angels this year.
I hope your year is wonderful. I'll leave a gift certificate for a
massage next to your cookies this year. All that work has got to
leave a man stressed out.
--Hillary
Santa's Reply to me:
Hello Hillary and a Merry 2007 Christmas
I can understand needin some help with writing stuff, Lord knows I have a
problem with that also.
One of the elves thot that it would be a good idea to write an autobiography
but it went something like this.
First year on the job, get elve crews organized and make every toy
imaginable, get raindeer in training for the big one day trip, work like
crazy until Dec. 23. Work realy crazy on Dec 24. Take a loooong trip in a
sled packed with a lot of toys and stuff and make sure all the right stuff
gets to all the rite houses.
Get full of good cookies, hot chocolate and ohter goodies.
Go home and rest for 4 to 6 months.
Find out where all the elves went.
Get all elves back from Florida, Hawaii and Southern Califronia. Seems
packages weren't the only things getting off the sled during my trip to
deliver the presents.
Then repeat every year since then. NOT much of the makings of a book or a
poem !
But might be interestin to write about all the neat technolgy that we've
seen -- and the elves they now are real good usin the technology to findin
new "vacation" spots via the internet --
And using the blackberry to text message and write e-mails as the reindeer
and I are travelling from town to town.
and funny that Poe guy was one of ur dad's favrite authors - Before we
conjur his literary spirut there's some things you might want to know about
the other stuff he did beside writin. As I remember, ur dad was not all
that good with histry but I bet he remembers some of the things that Poe
did. I heard a story that Poe could jump farther than my lead reindeer !
As far as gettin kids to take a nap without causin more gray hair - look at
me , mine's white now ! Seems like it only took a year or so for that to
happen after I took this job --
Word is ur dad was one of the wurst for not sleepin and not lettin people
sleep when he was little so don't bother to ask HIM for advice on that one.
Allergies are not fun and I truly hope ur husband's can get better so he can
feel better and everyone can get some sleep.
I've got some elves that have reindeer allergies and some that say they are
allergic to snow (!) --- and that's the reason why they stow away and jump
out of the sled in Florida, Hawaii and Southern CA.
As far as the hot dogs go my dogs have informed me that the rules in the dog
world are:
If it gets close to the floor it could be mine - if I'm fast enough meaning
faster than anyone else around.
If it gets to the floor it's like a fumble in a football game - whoever gets
there first gets to try to keep it. The best way to keep it is to eat it
quickly. Gulping whole hot dogs is allowed and even preferred in these
situations.
If I get it I can try to keep it using other means including running and
hiding it somewhere -- in an obscure place where you might find it a few
months later when it looks like a biology experiment gone wrong.
To help on the hot dog avoidance training of ur really nice dog I do have
one elf that is quicker than greased ligtning taht I can loan you for a few
months.
This elf is so fast that our dogs don't even try any more. He'll probably
work pretty cheap just to get out of this cold weather for a few months.
Just a warning tho - he has a real soft spot for some kind of dog called a
labradoodle dog.
As far as something for taking the dog outside start watchin them late night
commercials on TV.
The elves have informed me that they know how to use the surplus of the
robot lawn mowers and vacuums to turn them into a totally different product
that may sweep the market soon(or so they think) AND it sounds like just
what your lookin for -so maybe there is a market after all.
The elves tell me that the basic model will walk the dog for you, the delux
model will walk the dog and clean up his mess. Optional accessories will
include things like GPS tracking via the internet so yu can tell the
location of the robot and your dog.
I'll do the best I can for all the saints out there this year !!!
The cookies sound good and I'm not really sure about this massage thing -
Usually Mrs. Claus and several of the reindeer walk up down my back after
the long trip and it seems to put me bak into shape quikly - that and a
couple of nips from the bottle that a guy up in Tennessee leaves for me
every year and I'm ready to go again !
Santa
My letter to Santa:
Dear Santa,
This year i need magic wands for the following things:
1. to make edgar allen poe appear so that i can always have someone to
help me say what i want to express. Writing this letter has been darn
near impossible, but I thought you would worry about me if i didn't
write a letter.
2. to make anyone below the age of 6 fall asleep instantly so that i
can finally get kids down for nap without gaining anymore grey hairs
3. to make allergies go away so my husband doesn't have to snore and
wake me up in the middle of the night. And maybe because I don't want
his throat to hurt all the time either.
4. To make the dog stay away from my hot dogs by giving him a little
magical shock if he ever goes near them again.
I also would like a nifty robot that takes the dog outside when it is
cold or rainy.
Give my husband and family anything they want. They have been better
than angels this year.
I hope your year is wonderful. I'll leave a gift certificate for a
massage next to your cookies this year. All that work has got to
leave a man stressed out.
--Hillary
Santa's Reply to me:
Hello Hillary and a Merry 2007 Christmas
I can understand needin some help with writing stuff, Lord knows I have a
problem with that also.
One of the elves thot that it would be a good idea to write an autobiography
but it went something like this.
First year on the job, get elve crews organized and make every toy
imaginable, get raindeer in training for the big one day trip, work like
crazy until Dec. 23. Work realy crazy on Dec 24. Take a loooong trip in a
sled packed with a lot of toys and stuff and make sure all the right stuff
gets to all the rite houses.
Get full of good cookies, hot chocolate and ohter goodies.
Go home and rest for 4 to 6 months.
Find out where all the elves went.
Get all elves back from Florida, Hawaii and Southern Califronia. Seems
packages weren't the only things getting off the sled during my trip to
deliver the presents.
Then repeat every year since then. NOT much of the makings of a book or a
poem !
But might be interestin to write about all the neat technolgy that we've
seen -- and the elves they now are real good usin the technology to findin
new "vacation" spots via the internet --
And using the blackberry to text message and write e-mails as the reindeer
and I are travelling from town to town.
and funny that Poe guy was one of ur dad's favrite authors - Before we
conjur his literary spirut there's some things you might want to know about
the other stuff he did beside writin. As I remember, ur dad was not all
that good with histry but I bet he remembers some of the things that Poe
did. I heard a story that Poe could jump farther than my lead reindeer !
As far as gettin kids to take a nap without causin more gray hair - look at
me , mine's white now ! Seems like it only took a year or so for that to
happen after I took this job --
Word is ur dad was one of the wurst for not sleepin and not lettin people
sleep when he was little so don't bother to ask HIM for advice on that one.
Allergies are not fun and I truly hope ur husband's can get better so he can
feel better and everyone can get some sleep.
I've got some elves that have reindeer allergies and some that say they are
allergic to snow (!) --- and that's the reason why they stow away and jump
out of the sled in Florida, Hawaii and Southern CA.
As far as the hot dogs go my dogs have informed me that the rules in the dog
world are:
If it gets close to the floor it could be mine - if I'm fast enough meaning
faster than anyone else around.
If it gets to the floor it's like a fumble in a football game - whoever gets
there first gets to try to keep it. The best way to keep it is to eat it
quickly. Gulping whole hot dogs is allowed and even preferred in these
situations.
If I get it I can try to keep it using other means including running and
hiding it somewhere -- in an obscure place where you might find it a few
months later when it looks like a biology experiment gone wrong.
To help on the hot dog avoidance training of ur really nice dog I do have
one elf that is quicker than greased ligtning taht I can loan you for a few
months.
This elf is so fast that our dogs don't even try any more. He'll probably
work pretty cheap just to get out of this cold weather for a few months.
Just a warning tho - he has a real soft spot for some kind of dog called a
labradoodle dog.
As far as something for taking the dog outside start watchin them late night
commercials on TV.
The elves have informed me that they know how to use the surplus of the
robot lawn mowers and vacuums to turn them into a totally different product
that may sweep the market soon(or so they think) AND it sounds like just
what your lookin for -so maybe there is a market after all.
The elves tell me that the basic model will walk the dog for you, the delux
model will walk the dog and clean up his mess. Optional accessories will
include things like GPS tracking via the internet so yu can tell the
location of the robot and your dog.
I'll do the best I can for all the saints out there this year !!!
The cookies sound good and I'm not really sure about this massage thing -
Usually Mrs. Claus and several of the reindeer walk up down my back after
the long trip and it seems to put me bak into shape quikly - that and a
couple of nips from the bottle that a guy up in Tennessee leaves for me
every year and I'm ready to go again !
Santa
Monday, December 24, 2007
Sunday, December 23, 2007
i don't know if there will be a santa letter this year
As some of you may already know from last year's Christmas blog post, I still write letters to santa (generally emails now) and dad writes me back as santa claus. Every year, I have a hard time coming up with something, but somehow I always manage to come up with something silly or, if I'm lucky, downright hilarious. This year, I don't know if it will happen. Right now if I wrote a letter to Santa, it would go something like this:
Dear Santa,
I don't know if you can help me, but this is what I really and truly want this year:
Please give my daddy a gold medal and a million dollars for being such a trooper this year. He woke up at 5 am on a Saturday, went in to work, left work at 10:00 to go shopping with me for three hours and then went straight back to work until about 5 or 6 pm at which point he went home and immediately fell asleep. He got up early, ended up working late and left work as soon as I called him because he knows how important it is to me to go shopping for my mother's Christmas presents every year. I got my daddy time with no trouble, no objections, and no hidden "work is more important" messages. Seriously, give him a fucking medal.
For my mommy, I want something to make her pain go away, something to make her understand that everything will be okay eventually even if it's frustrating right now, and some way for her to communicate with someone everything that's really going on. She already had to give up dance for the rest of this year (and she only went for a couple of months last year. I know she's a worry wart, and I know that her hip pain and her shoulders and her sleep problems and her newly found diagnosis of osteoperosis have probably caused her to start worrying that she'll have to give up teaching, and volunteering and everything else. I know that she's probably worried that she'll be in pain until she dies and at this point, she's just wondering what the hell else is going to go wrong. She's never told me this, but I inherited my way of thinking from her so I know she's probably keeping this and a few other things from me and everyone else just to spare us all and to keep from breaking down into tears in front of every person she talks to. Mind meld with her or something and figure out what she needs so you can give it to her. It sucks to see her sad and frustrated all the time and not be able to do anything about it.
For my husband and I, we just want to not lose a job or have to move or have something else screw up our plan of getting a house, which have been trying to do since right after we got married. The dog needs a yard to run in, I need a space to dance in, and we all need a place where all of our things don't either sit in boxes or get boxed up every 2-10 months.
I know this is a lot to ask but I really need your help. And, yes I really do believe in you even though I'm 30 years old. I know god isn't real, so I have to have something to hold on to.
--Hillary
...yeah.
I don't think that's exactly the message that I should send mommy and daddy on Christmas
Dear Santa,
I don't know if you can help me, but this is what I really and truly want this year:
Please give my daddy a gold medal and a million dollars for being such a trooper this year. He woke up at 5 am on a Saturday, went in to work, left work at 10:00 to go shopping with me for three hours and then went straight back to work until about 5 or 6 pm at which point he went home and immediately fell asleep. He got up early, ended up working late and left work as soon as I called him because he knows how important it is to me to go shopping for my mother's Christmas presents every year. I got my daddy time with no trouble, no objections, and no hidden "work is more important" messages. Seriously, give him a fucking medal.
For my mommy, I want something to make her pain go away, something to make her understand that everything will be okay eventually even if it's frustrating right now, and some way for her to communicate with someone everything that's really going on. She already had to give up dance for the rest of this year (and she only went for a couple of months last year. I know she's a worry wart, and I know that her hip pain and her shoulders and her sleep problems and her newly found diagnosis of osteoperosis have probably caused her to start worrying that she'll have to give up teaching, and volunteering and everything else. I know that she's probably worried that she'll be in pain until she dies and at this point, she's just wondering what the hell else is going to go wrong. She's never told me this, but I inherited my way of thinking from her so I know she's probably keeping this and a few other things from me and everyone else just to spare us all and to keep from breaking down into tears in front of every person she talks to. Mind meld with her or something and figure out what she needs so you can give it to her. It sucks to see her sad and frustrated all the time and not be able to do anything about it.
For my husband and I, we just want to not lose a job or have to move or have something else screw up our plan of getting a house, which have been trying to do since right after we got married. The dog needs a yard to run in, I need a space to dance in, and we all need a place where all of our things don't either sit in boxes or get boxed up every 2-10 months.
I know this is a lot to ask but I really need your help. And, yes I really do believe in you even though I'm 30 years old. I know god isn't real, so I have to have something to hold on to.
--Hillary
...yeah.
I don't think that's exactly the message that I should send mommy and daddy on Christmas
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Unbelievable conversation at work:
Cast of characters:
me - duh
Ramona- Coworker in the infant room. She's been there since before I have and we used to close together every day for a couple of months.
Lindsey- new coworker who's been there about six weeks. She teaches music and usually works with the threes and fours but is occasionally seen in just about every room in the center.
me: Hi Ramona, I got your candles in the gift drawing. thank you. Hi (i turn and wave at Lindsey)
Ramona: You're welcome
Lindsey: Hillary you are so sweet.
Me: Lindsey, You have the prettiest smile I've ever seen.
Lindsey: Let's leave our husbands and run away together. We can live in Idaho where you can spend all day dancing in the park and then I can sing you to sleep every night.
Me: I'll pack tonight.
...Okay so, that was how the conversation went somewhere in the multiverse.
Maybe in this dimension it went something more like:
me: Hi Ramona, I got your candles in the gift drawing. thank you. Hi (i turn and wave at Lindsey)
Ramona: What a coincidence! I got the ornament you brought! Wow!
Me: Oh wow. yeah.
Ramona: Do the candles smell pretty?
Me: Oh yeah, thank you! Well, I'll see you guys tomorrow. Have a good night.
Ramona: O.K. bye
Lindsey: Bye
me - duh
Ramona- Coworker in the infant room. She's been there since before I have and we used to close together every day for a couple of months.
Lindsey- new coworker who's been there about six weeks. She teaches music and usually works with the threes and fours but is occasionally seen in just about every room in the center.
me: Hi Ramona, I got your candles in the gift drawing. thank you. Hi (i turn and wave at Lindsey)
Ramona: You're welcome
Lindsey: Hillary you are so sweet.
Me: Lindsey, You have the prettiest smile I've ever seen.
Lindsey: Let's leave our husbands and run away together. We can live in Idaho where you can spend all day dancing in the park and then I can sing you to sleep every night.
Me: I'll pack tonight.
...Okay so, that was how the conversation went somewhere in the multiverse.
Maybe in this dimension it went something more like:
me: Hi Ramona, I got your candles in the gift drawing. thank you. Hi (i turn and wave at Lindsey)
Ramona: What a coincidence! I got the ornament you brought! Wow!
Me: Oh wow. yeah.
Ramona: Do the candles smell pretty?
Me: Oh yeah, thank you! Well, I'll see you guys tomorrow. Have a good night.
Ramona: O.K. bye
Lindsey: Bye
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
What America Needs is a Grinch
We've all seen or heard "How the Grinch stole Christmas" by Dr. Seuss. The Grinch gets mad at the who's and takes away their stuff and then learns the real meaning of Christmas when the who's gather together and sing and are happy regardless of their lack of stuff.
We need a Grinch. Christmas has become about rioting and shoving people out of the way to get the newest toy for your kid or yourself. If there was no stuff to shove someone over, maybe we could remember why it is that Christmas is so cool. For some, it's a baby in a manger, for others its an epic battle and for others, it's time spent with family.
Christmas is not about the presents. Maybe someone should steal all our shit and we'll remember that. But more likely we'd all grab the nearest blunt object and some torches and go find the bastard and hang him from the nearest tree by his genitals and then fight over the re-distribution of stuff. *sigh*
I'm not sure why it is that people get so obsessed with "MY KID has to have the best toys" or "MY HUSBAND has to have the expensive digital whooziemawhatzit that he'll never learn how to use anyways." Gifts are about giving something that shows that you thought about the person and that you cared enough to try to get them something good. This year if someone handed me the expensive shoes I asked for and said, "I had to beat up three old ladies to get these, but they're yours", I would be highly disappointed and would probably try to find an old lady to give them to. (although if it's an imac, all bets are off. sorry, old ladies ;) ) If you got me a gift that involved hurting someone else, you weren't thinking of me when you got it. If you get someone a gift at all costs, it's not really a good gift (unless they're a pushy asshole who would have done the same thing themselves). A good gift involves the spirit of the giving as much as it does the actual object.
I guess this is what Christmas comes down to for me is the "spirit" (not in a religious sense). I guess that it's just not about that for everyone, but I wish one Christmas something would happen so that we could all give that a try just once. Next year people could go back to beating up children to get to popular toys if they wanted, but I am willing to bet that at least a few people would remember the year before and opt for cheerful giving and spending time with others.
We need a Grinch. Christmas has become about rioting and shoving people out of the way to get the newest toy for your kid or yourself. If there was no stuff to shove someone over, maybe we could remember why it is that Christmas is so cool. For some, it's a baby in a manger, for others its an epic battle and for others, it's time spent with family.
Christmas is not about the presents. Maybe someone should steal all our shit and we'll remember that. But more likely we'd all grab the nearest blunt object and some torches and go find the bastard and hang him from the nearest tree by his genitals and then fight over the re-distribution of stuff. *sigh*
I'm not sure why it is that people get so obsessed with "MY KID has to have the best toys" or "MY HUSBAND has to have the expensive digital whooziemawhatzit that he'll never learn how to use anyways." Gifts are about giving something that shows that you thought about the person and that you cared enough to try to get them something good. This year if someone handed me the expensive shoes I asked for and said, "I had to beat up three old ladies to get these, but they're yours", I would be highly disappointed and would probably try to find an old lady to give them to. (although if it's an imac, all bets are off. sorry, old ladies ;) ) If you got me a gift that involved hurting someone else, you weren't thinking of me when you got it. If you get someone a gift at all costs, it's not really a good gift (unless they're a pushy asshole who would have done the same thing themselves). A good gift involves the spirit of the giving as much as it does the actual object.
I guess this is what Christmas comes down to for me is the "spirit" (not in a religious sense). I guess that it's just not about that for everyone, but I wish one Christmas something would happen so that we could all give that a try just once. Next year people could go back to beating up children to get to popular toys if they wanted, but I am willing to bet that at least a few people would remember the year before and opt for cheerful giving and spending time with others.
Friday, December 7, 2007
so... welcome brandy, i guess.
Last weekend Chris and I hung out with our friends Adam and Brandy. It was fun. This post is not about the fun. My posts are never about the fun ;). Anyways, the subject of blogs came up and Adam tried to explain my blog to Brandy. First he made a big awkard face and then said "um" when asked what I usually wrote about. He said something about it generally being when I was pissed off and that the blog was entertaining. His facial expression leads me to believe that Brandy's head is going to explode when she starts reading my blog, but I hate it when my friends don't know the real me. And reading the archives and posts here is about the best way for anyone to know what i'm really all about behind the butterflies and pink santa hats. So, um, welcome brandy, and I hope you don't disown me after this.
Monday, December 3, 2007
this weekend i found out i liked...
to follow suit with
Richard's blog entry:
This weekend I found out that I like
Gingerbread bagels from Panera and the name "Lyra".
We went to Panera with Adam and brandy before going to see a sneak preview of "The Golden Compass". The main character's name in "compass" is "Lyra".
Yep. That's all.
Richard's blog entry:
This weekend I found out that I like
Gingerbread bagels from Panera and the name "Lyra".
We went to Panera with Adam and brandy before going to see a sneak preview of "The Golden Compass". The main character's name in "compass" is "Lyra".
Yep. That's all.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
You showed me yours, so i'll show you mine... whether you want to see it or not
Since David posted his wish list, I figured I would post ours, just because.
so here
it is.
I also figured I would be a self-important ass per usual and post my own gift giving guide as if there aren't enough out there already.
Vo0's Gift Guide
For the boys: The Dangerous Book for Boys. This book has everything a curious boy could ever want to know from paper airplane designs to stock cars to things involving fun scientific reactions. Having looked through it myself, I say it's good for "boys" of any age.
For the girlie girls:
Lush "Secret Santa" bath gift pack. Lush makes hand made bath products using as many natural and organic ingredients as possible. I have not personally bought anything from them, but I know a few people who are hooked on their products, including a guy who I would never suspect of liking froofy bath products over good old dial and suave.
For the Cunt who likes to cook:
I like you by Amy Sedaris. This is an honest to god guideline for hosting parties with real recipes, but it's odd and really funny by virture of the fact that Amy Sedaris wrote it. I thoroughly enjoyed looking through this one in the cushy chairs at the book store.
For the chocoholic:
See's Candies King Tut Truffle Assortment or custom mix. My mother-in-law has gotten me sees numerous times. I even finished off most of a box that my husband bought me for valentines about 10 days after I had started on weight watcher's.
For the Wino:
A wine from Castel Grisch Winery in Watkins Glen New York--yes, the Watkins Glen where they race the cars. On my wine tour, I came across many fabulous wines, but theirs stood out to me as being something almost anyone would like. I would recommend the Seneca Dream Red, which you can get in nifty seasonal packaging if you ask for the "winter's dream red." If your favorite Wino prefers white, I would definitely recommend the Seneca Dream White, which you can also get in nifty seasonal packaging by ordering the (you guessed it) "winter's dream white".
For foodies with unusual tastes:
Stardust by Neil Gaiman--The graphic novel version with artwork by Charles Vess. This is a fairytale in the truest sense of the word, but it's not juvenile. Actually, adults who are into sci-fi/fantasy books would love this too. As a matter of fact, I got this for Christmas last year and it was one of my favorite presents. oh, I forgot to mention the artwork. There are gorgeous watercolors interwoven throughout the story text and they really bring the book to life.
For the Fragrance/Candle Lover:
Klassic Candles--spice cake flavor. Made in Alexandria, Alabama. The smell is warm and spicy and sweet and utterly divine. For a cooler scent try the midnight dream.
For the Geek:
DIY Drinking Strawz. Straws that you can put together yourself in any weird or wonderful configuration your mind can imagine. The set comes with 20 connectors and 16 straw pieces.
For the Gadget Lover:
USB Memory Watch. A watch that can hold top secret files? I'm so in!
For kids/families:
Matilda (DVD). It's hard not to love this movie regardless of age. It's geared toward kids and very child-appropriate, but the first time I saw this movie, I was like 18 and my husband and I routinely watch this when it comes on even though I'm 30 and he's 32 (well, almost).
Hopefully that has given those of you who are stuck some ideas. If you want ideas for someone who's not in the guide, email me or post it in comments, and I'll be glad to help.
so here
it is.I also figured I would be a self-important ass per usual and post my own gift giving guide as if there aren't enough out there already.
Vo0's Gift Guide
For the boys: The Dangerous Book for Boys. This book has everything a curious boy could ever want to know from paper airplane designs to stock cars to things involving fun scientific reactions. Having looked through it myself, I say it's good for "boys" of any age.
For the girlie girls:
Lush "Secret Santa" bath gift pack. Lush makes hand made bath products using as many natural and organic ingredients as possible. I have not personally bought anything from them, but I know a few people who are hooked on their products, including a guy who I would never suspect of liking froofy bath products over good old dial and suave.
For the Cunt who likes to cook:
I like you by Amy Sedaris. This is an honest to god guideline for hosting parties with real recipes, but it's odd and really funny by virture of the fact that Amy Sedaris wrote it. I thoroughly enjoyed looking through this one in the cushy chairs at the book store.
For the chocoholic:
See's Candies King Tut Truffle Assortment or custom mix. My mother-in-law has gotten me sees numerous times. I even finished off most of a box that my husband bought me for valentines about 10 days after I had started on weight watcher's.
For the Wino:
A wine from Castel Grisch Winery in Watkins Glen New York--yes, the Watkins Glen where they race the cars. On my wine tour, I came across many fabulous wines, but theirs stood out to me as being something almost anyone would like. I would recommend the Seneca Dream Red, which you can get in nifty seasonal packaging if you ask for the "winter's dream red." If your favorite Wino prefers white, I would definitely recommend the Seneca Dream White, which you can also get in nifty seasonal packaging by ordering the (you guessed it) "winter's dream white".
For foodies with unusual tastes:
- Sees pecan pie truffles. I haven't tried these personally, but they sound perfect for someone who doesn't like run of the mill candy.
- Dagoba Xocolatl. This dark chocolate bar with chilies added in is truly delicious and mindbogglingly different. Having tasted it I can tell you that this is for someone who appreciates very dark chocolate and is used to eating it in small doses. This is definitely not for the foodie who prefers to down a whole chocolate bar in one sitting.
- Huckleberry Cordials. These are exactly what the name implies--cordials with a huckleberry in the center instead of a cherry. In case you're wondering what a huckleberry is, it's a somewhat tart berry that grows in the mountains. I've tasted these chocolates and they're very good, as cordials go. I'm personally not a big fan of cordials, but I intentionally ate more on a few occasions.
- Huckleberry Vinaigrette. Again, exactly what the name implies. I haven't actually had this particular huckleberry vinaigrette, but I had other types in the restaurants in Idaho all the time and loved them. This was the only salad dressing I ordered in Idaho, assuming the restaurant had it.
- Huckleberry flavored coffee. I've never personally had it, but my dad made some that we had gotten as a part of a gift basket when he visited one time. It smelled incredible and Dad liked it.
Stardust by Neil Gaiman--The graphic novel version with artwork by Charles Vess. This is a fairytale in the truest sense of the word, but it's not juvenile. Actually, adults who are into sci-fi/fantasy books would love this too. As a matter of fact, I got this for Christmas last year and it was one of my favorite presents. oh, I forgot to mention the artwork. There are gorgeous watercolors interwoven throughout the story text and they really bring the book to life.
For the Fragrance/Candle Lover:
Klassic Candles--spice cake flavor. Made in Alexandria, Alabama. The smell is warm and spicy and sweet and utterly divine. For a cooler scent try the midnight dream.
For the Geek:
DIY Drinking Strawz. Straws that you can put together yourself in any weird or wonderful configuration your mind can imagine. The set comes with 20 connectors and 16 straw pieces.
For the Gadget Lover:
USB Memory Watch. A watch that can hold top secret files? I'm so in!
For kids/families:
Matilda (DVD). It's hard not to love this movie regardless of age. It's geared toward kids and very child-appropriate, but the first time I saw this movie, I was like 18 and my husband and I routinely watch this when it comes on even though I'm 30 and he's 32 (well, almost).
Hopefully that has given those of you who are stuck some ideas. If you want ideas for someone who's not in the guide, email me or post it in comments, and I'll be glad to help.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
2nd best birthday ever...
...Because my husband would kill me if I said that anything was better than the trip we took to Spokane on my birthday two years ago to see Henry Rollins.
I am currently in upstate new york with my mother and her family. We went on a wine tour in the Senaca lake area and stopped at like 7 vineyards. Some of them had some fabulous stuff that I really enjoyed. Most of you know how much I make faces at wine, and I ended up with four bottles of wine, some lovely chocolates and some jelly. If I drank wine more, I would probably would have ended up with a case or close to a case full of assorted wines.
My birthday isn't technically until Monday, but they made me spice cake cupcakes from great gram's recipe and served them on the limo bus. It's quite an experience to have a bus of 20 people all sing happy birthday to you. It's also quite an experience to be on a bus with 20 people you don't know and be too shy to say anything. It's fabulous when you realize that they have noticed you being quiet and shy and they're just letting you enjoy yourself as you. There were no forced social interactions, and no one seemed to care if I wanted to sit there and just listen to everyone else, but they listened to me talk when I actually felt like I had something to add.
And actually, I must give a huge kudos to my husband for my birthday present as it turned out be extraordinarily useful on the trip-- Lots of money. Every winery had a small fee for tasting, which I gleefully paid because I knew I had enough money. I even paid for a couple of extra tastings and bought 3 bottles of wine and some jelly, which my aunt is going to ship to me. OH--I also got some chocolate at one of the wineries. yum.
I am currently in upstate new york with my mother and her family. We went on a wine tour in the Senaca lake area and stopped at like 7 vineyards. Some of them had some fabulous stuff that I really enjoyed. Most of you know how much I make faces at wine, and I ended up with four bottles of wine, some lovely chocolates and some jelly. If I drank wine more, I would probably would have ended up with a case or close to a case full of assorted wines.
My birthday isn't technically until Monday, but they made me spice cake cupcakes from great gram's recipe and served them on the limo bus. It's quite an experience to have a bus of 20 people all sing happy birthday to you. It's also quite an experience to be on a bus with 20 people you don't know and be too shy to say anything. It's fabulous when you realize that they have noticed you being quiet and shy and they're just letting you enjoy yourself as you. There were no forced social interactions, and no one seemed to care if I wanted to sit there and just listen to everyone else, but they listened to me talk when I actually felt like I had something to add.
And actually, I must give a huge kudos to my husband for my birthday present as it turned out be extraordinarily useful on the trip-- Lots of money. Every winery had a small fee for tasting, which I gleefully paid because I knew I had enough money. I even paid for a couple of extra tastings and bought 3 bottles of wine and some jelly, which my aunt is going to ship to me. OH--I also got some chocolate at one of the wineries. yum.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
quick update
I have about a thousand things to do this morning, so this will actually be short, but I realized that I haven't updated since the beginning of June and it is now November.
I still work at a daycare. I'm full time now and I work with the older toddlers instead of the infants (thank god). The dog is still the dog and he tried to pick up a frog yesterday (maybe whitey will post more about that). I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to make and buy things for Christmas, which kind of sucks, but is kind of cool since it means I will probably be done in two more paychecks. Chris actually seems to enjoy his job, which is a first in a long time.
The only big thing going on is that I am going to upstate New York to go on a wine tour with my family. I leave Friday, the tour is Saturday, we're having a baby shower for my cousin's wife on Sunday, and I come home Monday. The fun thing is that I didn't ahve to pay for a bit of it, as this is my birthday present from my mom (it's about $60/person and she used frequent flyer miles for my airline tickets). My birthday is monday and I am hoping to get lots of cool things, and lots of cake, but not nearly as much as I ate at David's birthday party (ouch).
So yeah, that's my story and i'm... you know the rest
I still work at a daycare. I'm full time now and I work with the older toddlers instead of the infants (thank god). The dog is still the dog and he tried to pick up a frog yesterday (maybe whitey will post more about that). I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to make and buy things for Christmas, which kind of sucks, but is kind of cool since it means I will probably be done in two more paychecks. Chris actually seems to enjoy his job, which is a first in a long time.
The only big thing going on is that I am going to upstate New York to go on a wine tour with my family. I leave Friday, the tour is Saturday, we're having a baby shower for my cousin's wife on Sunday, and I come home Monday. The fun thing is that I didn't ahve to pay for a bit of it, as this is my birthday present from my mom (it's about $60/person and she used frequent flyer miles for my airline tickets). My birthday is monday and I am hoping to get lots of cool things, and lots of cake, but not nearly as much as I ate at David's birthday party (ouch).
So yeah, that's my story and i'm... you know the rest
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Another thing I meant to post about a long time ago
My dog is seriously something else. Every dog I've ever had (okay there were only 2 before this one) disliked the vets, tried to jump off the table, contorted and jumped and even tried to bite the people clipping their nails. Oreo required a couple of vet assistants to hold her down and among those couple HAD to be Betty. If Betty wasn't there to help, you could hang it up.
My dog is a pistol. In some ways he waaayy more of a pistol than Oreo ever thought of being. He competes with me for pack position all the time, he practically pulls me over when I'm walking him on the leash and he gets excited and he runs away if he's off the leash and doesn't like what I'm saying. When he goes to the vets, I have to drag him through the doorway (As with any new doorway), and THEN, he wags his tail when the assistants come in, lets the vet check his ears, tummy feet, etc. with little to no objection and behaves like an absolute angel except some slight hesitation when I hand the leash over to someone else. This last time he even let the vet assistant trim his nails while he was laying on the floor.
He never ceases to amaze me.
My dog is a pistol. In some ways he waaayy more of a pistol than Oreo ever thought of being. He competes with me for pack position all the time, he practically pulls me over when I'm walking him on the leash and he gets excited and he runs away if he's off the leash and doesn't like what I'm saying. When he goes to the vets, I have to drag him through the doorway (As with any new doorway), and THEN, he wags his tail when the assistants come in, lets the vet check his ears, tummy feet, etc. with little to no objection and behaves like an absolute angel except some slight hesitation when I hand the leash over to someone else. This last time he even let the vet assistant trim his nails while he was laying on the floor.
He never ceases to amaze me.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
"it's a pretty shoulder!"
Waaaaay back on april 20th, I went to workplay to see the lovely and talented Ms. Vienna Teng. For those of you who don't know her, she is a pianist, singer and songwriter who's music sounds like it is influenced by classical styles, tori amos, and sarah mclaughlan, among others. She considers herself to be "chamber folk" music.
I heard a song on of hers called "1 bedroom 1 bath" on XM Radio and thought it sounded like something I might like. So, I looked her up on Amazon and loved all the 30 second samples, but it never went further than that. Until... I saw in Black and White that she was going to be here at Workplay, which is one of my favorite venues because it's small and somewhat intimate, and if you get a good seat, you can sit literally 15 feet away from the musician. So, I was curious about going, but not convinced since I had only ever heard about 30 seconds of her songs. I asked around and someone pointed me to internet archive, which has lots of live performances from different artists. It took about 5 minutes for me to fall madly in love and I practically begged my husband to give me $15 and say it was okay for me to go despite that he was feeling under the weather that day.
It was an incredible show. I am so glad I went and I will totally go any time that little lady plays at Workplay.
So, that huge, long, rambling info was all to talk about something that happened during the show. Vienna's real piano was off to one side and tilted on an angle. She had an electric piano in the front of the stage as well. At one point in the middle of the show she came up to the electric piano and said, "I always try to do one or two songs up here on the electric because the people on the side are stuck looking at my shoulder all night..." and someone yelled out "It's a pretty shoulder!"
This makes me wonder what it would be like to be her. She is up on stage in front of lots of people who are watching everything about her. They notice her voice, her facial expressions, her technique on the piano, her clothes, whether or not her toenails are painted and make judgments on all of these things. I can promise you that at least one person made a judgment on whether or not she has a pretty shoulder, quite possibly before it was yelled out from the audience. That's a lot of pressure. If I constantly heard that I had "pretty shoulders", "nice toenails", "great hands", etc. it would do two things after I got over the initial warm fuzzies: 1. It would make me very paranoid knowing that everyone was constantly watching and judging every little aspect of me. 2. I would feel that it would be hard for me to judge the reality of any situation.
A person can't possibly always have pretty toenails, sexy shoulders, perfect pitch, great rhythm and be wonderfully cheery. Yet, there will always be someone around to tell Vienna, and other musicians (and actors and directors and...) that she has pretty shoulders and her voice never fails.
To further aggravate this situation, she also has critics. There are some people who will never like anything about her no matter what she does. Someone will always comment that her lyrics are trite, her style is old fashioned, she's a rip-off, she's an asshole because she dares touch the electric piano instead of only using the baby grand--you get the point.
...And we wonder why musicians go crazy at the end of their careers and write awful crap that they seem to think is brilliant and then start asking for camels at 3:30 am and just seem to live on another planet altogether.
Luckily, Vienna doesn't seem like she's started joining prince world yet, and she seems down to earth enough that maybe she can avoid it. I'll cross my fingers.
I heard a song on of hers called "1 bedroom 1 bath" on XM Radio and thought it sounded like something I might like. So, I looked her up on Amazon and loved all the 30 second samples, but it never went further than that. Until... I saw in Black and White that she was going to be here at Workplay, which is one of my favorite venues because it's small and somewhat intimate, and if you get a good seat, you can sit literally 15 feet away from the musician. So, I was curious about going, but not convinced since I had only ever heard about 30 seconds of her songs. I asked around and someone pointed me to internet archive, which has lots of live performances from different artists. It took about 5 minutes for me to fall madly in love and I practically begged my husband to give me $15 and say it was okay for me to go despite that he was feeling under the weather that day.
It was an incredible show. I am so glad I went and I will totally go any time that little lady plays at Workplay.
So, that huge, long, rambling info was all to talk about something that happened during the show. Vienna's real piano was off to one side and tilted on an angle. She had an electric piano in the front of the stage as well. At one point in the middle of the show she came up to the electric piano and said, "I always try to do one or two songs up here on the electric because the people on the side are stuck looking at my shoulder all night..." and someone yelled out "It's a pretty shoulder!"
This makes me wonder what it would be like to be her. She is up on stage in front of lots of people who are watching everything about her. They notice her voice, her facial expressions, her technique on the piano, her clothes, whether or not her toenails are painted and make judgments on all of these things. I can promise you that at least one person made a judgment on whether or not she has a pretty shoulder, quite possibly before it was yelled out from the audience. That's a lot of pressure. If I constantly heard that I had "pretty shoulders", "nice toenails", "great hands", etc. it would do two things after I got over the initial warm fuzzies: 1. It would make me very paranoid knowing that everyone was constantly watching and judging every little aspect of me. 2. I would feel that it would be hard for me to judge the reality of any situation.
A person can't possibly always have pretty toenails, sexy shoulders, perfect pitch, great rhythm and be wonderfully cheery. Yet, there will always be someone around to tell Vienna, and other musicians (and actors and directors and...) that she has pretty shoulders and her voice never fails.
To further aggravate this situation, she also has critics. There are some people who will never like anything about her no matter what she does. Someone will always comment that her lyrics are trite, her style is old fashioned, she's a rip-off, she's an asshole because she dares touch the electric piano instead of only using the baby grand--you get the point.
...And we wonder why musicians go crazy at the end of their careers and write awful crap that they seem to think is brilliant and then start asking for camels at 3:30 am and just seem to live on another planet altogether.
Luckily, Vienna doesn't seem like she's started joining prince world yet, and she seems down to earth enough that maybe she can avoid it. I'll cross my fingers.
Monday, April 16, 2007
quick update
I now work at a daycare center in the afternoons here in Birmingham. So far it seems like a really nice place. I don't like going there because A. I don't want to spend the rest of my life in daycare and B. I told them I did. I hate lying to people, but in a larger city where there's lots of job competition, I kind of feel like I have to lie and say that their thing is the thing I want to do for the rest of my life in order to be able to get a paycheck. Because, seriously, would you hire someone who said "yeah, I have a degree in something else which I would rather be doing, but I'm desperate for a paycheck, so I thought I'd apply here."? Of course, I'm never quite that blunt about it, and I've actually gotten good at disguising the desperation, but still, no one wants to hire someone who they know will eventually leave when they have numerous other qualified people who say they want to stay forever.
Anyways, what else is going on... umm not much, we got another guitar controller for guitar hero and played together this weekend and it was a blast. I made home made cereal this past week and it actually turned out good. The recipe needs a little tweaking and I need to figure out how to make the production process less arduous, but I definitely think it'll be worth the effort once I get it down.
Oh, I guess easter has come and gone since the last time I posted. We had Whitey's mom and my parents down and we cooked a big Easter dinner. I made a whole roast chicken with Caribbean spices and rum, banana bread muffins with dried pineapples and rum, fruit skewers with rum and macaroni and cheese. Whitey made a tasty pot roast in the crock pot, white bread and stove top. Our parents brought vegetables and dessert and we all ate ourselves into a coma. It was a blast.
I guess that's all that's happened.
Thanks for listening to my rambling.
Anyways, what else is going on... umm not much, we got another guitar controller for guitar hero and played together this weekend and it was a blast. I made home made cereal this past week and it actually turned out good. The recipe needs a little tweaking and I need to figure out how to make the production process less arduous, but I definitely think it'll be worth the effort once I get it down.
Oh, I guess easter has come and gone since the last time I posted. We had Whitey's mom and my parents down and we cooked a big Easter dinner. I made a whole roast chicken with Caribbean spices and rum, banana bread muffins with dried pineapples and rum, fruit skewers with rum and macaroni and cheese. Whitey made a tasty pot roast in the crock pot, white bread and stove top. Our parents brought vegetables and dessert and we all ate ourselves into a coma. It was a blast.
I guess that's all that's happened.
Thanks for listening to my rambling.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Sunday, April 8, 2007
You gotta go see this!
Grindhouse is the shit!
This is the best movie I have seen in a long time and that's saying a lot because we just watched Clerks II, which was pretty fucking fabulous (although, he should have left most of the deleted scenes in in my opinion, but I digress), and most of the stuff I watch is pretty good. I will try not to give away too much, but yes, a girl with a machine gun for a leg is as sexy as you think it is, as is rose McGowan's naked ass. The action is awesome, the stunt work is amazing and I left the theater with adrenaline shakes. For those of you not understanding what I mean, adrenaline shakes, are what happen to me (And other people) when I ride tower of terror or almost get in a car wreck or something else comparably exciting-- my body and especially my legs shake and I'm restless. This doesn't generally happen unless I'm doing something, like performing in a show, or in something, like in the roller coaster when it loops upside down. Watching the roller coaster might make me nervous, but I don't get the shakes from it. This movie gave me the shakes. It was that good. As a matter of fact if any of our friends want to go see it again, both my husband and I are up for going again. Really. It won't bother us. I PROMISE!!!!!
This is the best movie I have seen in a long time and that's saying a lot because we just watched Clerks II, which was pretty fucking fabulous (although, he should have left most of the deleted scenes in in my opinion, but I digress), and most of the stuff I watch is pretty good. I will try not to give away too much, but yes, a girl with a machine gun for a leg is as sexy as you think it is, as is rose McGowan's naked ass. The action is awesome, the stunt work is amazing and I left the theater with adrenaline shakes. For those of you not understanding what I mean, adrenaline shakes, are what happen to me (And other people) when I ride tower of terror or almost get in a car wreck or something else comparably exciting-- my body and especially my legs shake and I'm restless. This doesn't generally happen unless I'm doing something, like performing in a show, or in something, like in the roller coaster when it loops upside down. Watching the roller coaster might make me nervous, but I don't get the shakes from it. This movie gave me the shakes. It was that good. As a matter of fact if any of our friends want to go see it again, both my husband and I are up for going again. Really. It won't bother us. I PROMISE!!!!!
Sunday, April 1, 2007
The Dog is a hellspawn
...?
Somehow, certain people who shall remain nameless have gotten the impression that the dog is a hellspawn. They say that our posts basically consist of "he ate everything in the house but we love him". I think this person is grossly misinterpreting my posts. Yes, my dog occasionally eats things like socks, blankets and poop.
First of all, He generally does not hurt things in the house unless there is something stressful for him going on. When the blanket died, we hadn't even had him for a week, which means that he had been in the shelter, where he would shake every time a dog barked because he was so nervous, and then moved from there to a new place with new people both of which he knew nothing about. The time he ate Chris' sock was within a month of moving houses in Idaho. The time he ate my shoe was within 2 weeks of moving from Idaho to home. The time he ate the sock most recently, Chris was on a business trip and didn't come home for a night (an occurrence that has never happened before while Ahboo was with us). The only times he's escaped the house were around moving as well. I'm not saying it's okay that he eats things, runs away, etc. or trying to minimize it, but I'm saying 1. he's a work in progress and 2. He is not a QUARTER as bad as the dog I had in high school was the first 2 years we had her. She was a sweet dog, but she ate something every time we left the house, and forget poop, she would chew rocks.
Second of all, when I post about the dog the purpose of the post is not "I love the dog despite the fact that he's a hellspawn."
Here's the thing: I wasn't too keen on having a dog, but my husband was SO keen on having one, that I eventually gave up and told him we could get one. I didn't want a dog because I liked my life the way it was. So, every time I get up in the morning I either resent the fact that I have to let the dog out before I eat and get started with the day, or I eat and get started with the day and then resent myself for not taking care of the dog in a timely manner/not putting his needs before mine. Since it would be tedious and most of you would view me as a horrendous bitch and it would get to be a drag every time I got upset about something dog related (because as I said, it happens pretty much daily), I only post about the really bad stuff. My posts are not so much "OH MY GOD AHBOO IS EVIL BECAUSE HE CHEWED UP A SHOE" as "Oh my god, I agreed to put up with this for the next 15 years?"
The posts always end with "but i love the dog" because I feel bad for bashing the dog for two pages because it's not the dog that I dislike. As dogs go, he's absolutely awesome. The honestly couldn't be a better dog for us. But I don't recall wanting to have to rearrange my schedule (or lack thereof) to make sure something else gets fed, gets to pee, plays appropriately, etc.
I realize i have not justified why the dog is aw some, and I realize that none of you will take it on faith that he is if you already view him as a hell spawn. So here we go: He knows the following commands:
Sit, down, up, stay, release, jump, speak, crawl, shake, come, drop it, bring it here, go to bed, go potty (all without obedience training)
AND he knows hand signals for all of those except drop it and bring it here. He can do a series of every trick he knows, sometimes with some repeated, then he'll stay when we tell him to, we can throw a cookie on the floor or roll a ball past him and he will stay and not touch the toy or cookie until we say "release". It usually takes him a handful of days to learn a trick whereas most dogs take closer to a month.
He knows the following words/phrases despite the fact that probably half of them we never intentionally taught him:
Ride in the car
poop (he knows the difference between potty and poop and we never intentionally taught it to him--this might seem trivial and/or gross but it is invaluable when he is poking you every 3 seconds and you can't figure out why and you say "do you need to poop" and he responds accordingly by dancing if he does or standing there if he doesn't. If you then keep asking questions, he'll dance when you get to the right thing)
French Fries (learned this after hearing it only a few times)
Peanut Butter (probably his favorite food)
Walk
out
O-U-T
B-E-D
bedtime (he automatically goes to bed when you say this now)
No (he knew this one pretty well when we got him)
How do we get attention? (to which he responds by sitting down)
Pup-peroni (learned this one very quickly. It may actually surpass peanut butter in his food preferences, but we won't give it to him anymore after reading the ingredients list)
Food
Dinner
Lets go in
Cookie
Nana (if you ask him where's Nana, he walks right to my mother-in-law)
Dad/Daddy
Mom
He knows our cars by sound (or at least mine) as evidenced by the fact that he paid no attention to the 3 or 4 or 10 other cars that passed him as Chris was walking him outside the complex, but promptly turned around and started wagging his tail right before Chris saw me come over the hill.
Seriously, I have never met a smarter dog. I have met much more mischievous ones. I have met much more strong willed ones. I have met ones that are much less willing to please. I have met dogs that are downright snobbish. I have not met a dog that amazes me almost every day, except this one. But that doesn't stop me from getting annoyed at disruptions caused by having a dog. Hence the ambiguity of my posts, which is somehow being interpreted as emotional blindness.
I'm not blind, I know exactly what Ahboo is: He's a brilliant toddler who has no way of expressing himself other than barking and chewing.
Somehow, certain people who shall remain nameless have gotten the impression that the dog is a hellspawn. They say that our posts basically consist of "he ate everything in the house but we love him". I think this person is grossly misinterpreting my posts. Yes, my dog occasionally eats things like socks, blankets and poop.
First of all, He generally does not hurt things in the house unless there is something stressful for him going on. When the blanket died, we hadn't even had him for a week, which means that he had been in the shelter, where he would shake every time a dog barked because he was so nervous, and then moved from there to a new place with new people both of which he knew nothing about. The time he ate Chris' sock was within a month of moving houses in Idaho. The time he ate my shoe was within 2 weeks of moving from Idaho to home. The time he ate the sock most recently, Chris was on a business trip and didn't come home for a night (an occurrence that has never happened before while Ahboo was with us). The only times he's escaped the house were around moving as well. I'm not saying it's okay that he eats things, runs away, etc. or trying to minimize it, but I'm saying 1. he's a work in progress and 2. He is not a QUARTER as bad as the dog I had in high school was the first 2 years we had her. She was a sweet dog, but she ate something every time we left the house, and forget poop, she would chew rocks.
Second of all, when I post about the dog the purpose of the post is not "I love the dog despite the fact that he's a hellspawn."
Here's the thing: I wasn't too keen on having a dog, but my husband was SO keen on having one, that I eventually gave up and told him we could get one. I didn't want a dog because I liked my life the way it was. So, every time I get up in the morning I either resent the fact that I have to let the dog out before I eat and get started with the day, or I eat and get started with the day and then resent myself for not taking care of the dog in a timely manner/not putting his needs before mine. Since it would be tedious and most of you would view me as a horrendous bitch and it would get to be a drag every time I got upset about something dog related (because as I said, it happens pretty much daily), I only post about the really bad stuff. My posts are not so much "OH MY GOD AHBOO IS EVIL BECAUSE HE CHEWED UP A SHOE" as "Oh my god, I agreed to put up with this for the next 15 years?"
The posts always end with "but i love the dog" because I feel bad for bashing the dog for two pages because it's not the dog that I dislike. As dogs go, he's absolutely awesome. The honestly couldn't be a better dog for us. But I don't recall wanting to have to rearrange my schedule (or lack thereof) to make sure something else gets fed, gets to pee, plays appropriately, etc.
I realize i have not justified why the dog is aw some, and I realize that none of you will take it on faith that he is if you already view him as a hell spawn. So here we go: He knows the following commands:
Sit, down, up, stay, release, jump, speak, crawl, shake, come, drop it, bring it here, go to bed, go potty (all without obedience training)
AND he knows hand signals for all of those except drop it and bring it here. He can do a series of every trick he knows, sometimes with some repeated, then he'll stay when we tell him to, we can throw a cookie on the floor or roll a ball past him and he will stay and not touch the toy or cookie until we say "release". It usually takes him a handful of days to learn a trick whereas most dogs take closer to a month.
He knows the following words/phrases despite the fact that probably half of them we never intentionally taught him:
Ride in the car
poop (he knows the difference between potty and poop and we never intentionally taught it to him--this might seem trivial and/or gross but it is invaluable when he is poking you every 3 seconds and you can't figure out why and you say "do you need to poop" and he responds accordingly by dancing if he does or standing there if he doesn't. If you then keep asking questions, he'll dance when you get to the right thing)
French Fries (learned this after hearing it only a few times)
Peanut Butter (probably his favorite food)
Walk
out
O-U-T
B-E-D
bedtime (he automatically goes to bed when you say this now)
No (he knew this one pretty well when we got him)
How do we get attention? (to which he responds by sitting down)
Pup-peroni (learned this one very quickly. It may actually surpass peanut butter in his food preferences, but we won't give it to him anymore after reading the ingredients list)
Food
Dinner
Lets go in
Cookie
Nana (if you ask him where's Nana, he walks right to my mother-in-law)
Dad/Daddy
Mom
He knows our cars by sound (or at least mine) as evidenced by the fact that he paid no attention to the 3 or 4 or 10 other cars that passed him as Chris was walking him outside the complex, but promptly turned around and started wagging his tail right before Chris saw me come over the hill.
Seriously, I have never met a smarter dog. I have met much more mischievous ones. I have met much more strong willed ones. I have met ones that are much less willing to please. I have met dogs that are downright snobbish. I have not met a dog that amazes me almost every day, except this one. But that doesn't stop me from getting annoyed at disruptions caused by having a dog. Hence the ambiguity of my posts, which is somehow being interpreted as emotional blindness.
I'm not blind, I know exactly what Ahboo is: He's a brilliant toddler who has no way of expressing himself other than barking and chewing.
Friday, March 23, 2007
A question for all my friends
...Or rather some questions... or maybe it's just one; I don't know, I'm tired.
Anyways,
At a job interview, How do you ask questions that could seem nosey, presumptuous or make you look lazy, ungrateful, etc.? I'm not nosy presumptuous ungrateful or lazy but there are some things that I would like to be able to get a feel for before I start working at a place. There are certain things that are very important to me in a job (particularly social services jobs) mostly because I know what i need to stay safe and sane and I want to know that I will be able to do so at the job I'm potentially going to be doing.
The questions are things like:
What do you do if a worker is on vacation and their case explodes?
(a place I used to work for before called one of their workers back from vacation because there was a problem with her case)
What is your feeling about a worker's recreation time?
(As noted above, some places care more about getting things done than their workers' sanity)
What is your on call policy (how do I discuss this one without sounding like I am unwilling or would be unhappy with on-call time?)
How do you help or encourage workers to prevent burnout? (I thought this one might actually be okay the way it's worded, but I wasn't sure)
What is your standard caseload and what do you do if more cases come in? (again not necessarily a bad question, but could make you sound lazy especially if asked in conjunction with a lot of the other questions above)
Also, what are some good questions to ask interviewers when they say "do you have any questions?"
And how do you answer stupid questions like "why should I hire you?" and "name three strengths and weaknesses" and... well i don't know all the stupid questions you get asked at interviews (you tend to get more "stupid" questions at business oriented places than social services, but I'll probably be interviewing for both to start with).
Anyways,
At a job interview, How do you ask questions that could seem nosey, presumptuous or make you look lazy, ungrateful, etc.? I'm not nosy presumptuous ungrateful or lazy but there are some things that I would like to be able to get a feel for before I start working at a place. There are certain things that are very important to me in a job (particularly social services jobs) mostly because I know what i need to stay safe and sane and I want to know that I will be able to do so at the job I'm potentially going to be doing.
The questions are things like:
What do you do if a worker is on vacation and their case explodes?
(a place I used to work for before called one of their workers back from vacation because there was a problem with her case)
What is your feeling about a worker's recreation time?
(As noted above, some places care more about getting things done than their workers' sanity)
What is your on call policy (how do I discuss this one without sounding like I am unwilling or would be unhappy with on-call time?)
How do you help or encourage workers to prevent burnout? (I thought this one might actually be okay the way it's worded, but I wasn't sure)
What is your standard caseload and what do you do if more cases come in? (again not necessarily a bad question, but could make you sound lazy especially if asked in conjunction with a lot of the other questions above)
Also, what are some good questions to ask interviewers when they say "do you have any questions?"
And how do you answer stupid questions like "why should I hire you?" and "name three strengths and weaknesses" and... well i don't know all the stupid questions you get asked at interviews (you tend to get more "stupid" questions at business oriented places than social services, but I'll probably be interviewing for both to start with).
Monday, March 19, 2007
It always comes back to this...
Last night we went to PF Chang's and I found a menu item there that was lower in calories and sounded like something I would like. So, I got the singapore street noodles (instead of the old standby of double pan fried combo noodles) and I was highly impressed. I also got brown rice with my entree. I brought them both home and will probably be having the street noodles for the next two days for lunch. The brown rice got made into Brown Rice Porridge for breakfast today. After that, I can guarantee you I know what I'm having for breakfast every morning until the rice is gone or it starts growing green things.
yep.
That's all I wanted to say.
yep.
That's all I wanted to say.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
moving on
I'm really exctied about moving to birmingham. I can't fucking wait to have my own space and have a dog park for the dog and to be able to go back to my old dance school. But damnded if I won't miss my mother's class. Tomorrow's my last day.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
hmmm.... about that looney bin....
As we get ready to move, I find myself more ocncerned about getting my specialty flours down tor birmingham than most of my clothes. Yeah, it's about time to make the phone calls to the nice men in straight jackets
Friday, February 23, 2007
minor update
So ummm... let's see. The recruiter for baton rouge eventually stopped calling and stopped returning calls. We're assuming this means that either Whitey didn't get the job or the company couldn't give a decent enough offer that the recruiter wanted to tell us about it. I swear to god that is so fucking tacky when a recruiter just leaves you hanging. I mean, I know that some people can be assholes when you tell them they didn't get a job, but the ones who aren't assholes don't deserve to wait a week and a half for you to call back only to have you avoid them. We need to know if we have to rearrange our lives or not. I put so much shit on hold because we might be moving to baton rouge and now I have to rush to get it all done.
Speaking of, I have been working on CEU's for my social work license and have managed to knock out 14 hours worth in about 5 hours time with a lovely online CEU site. I'm sure you wanted to know that.
Whitey got offered a job in Birmingham and is going to take it. We should be down there in a couple of weeks. Actually, if any of you know of good places that do short term rentals, let us know. We want to be sure he gets hired permanently (it's a contract to hire position) before we buy a house.
In the middle of all this, I decided that I wanted to put together a dance for a talent competition that is taking place on march 3rd. I decided this last weekend. Yep.
In other news: I used my $50 that my mother gave us as a valentine present to go impulse buy things like orange chili coated cashews and kashi chocolate chip cookies and parmesian potato chips and bake doritos and gourmet soda.
yes, I said $50.... actually I had to kick in $10 of my own too.
Yeah.
Speaking of valentines: mine was rockin'. Whitey and I went to Tai Pan on tuesday to celebrate Valentine's (going out on actual Valentines is insane). Wednesday I went to work early and helped with the valentines party which meant free pizza and goodies. I knew my mom had put vegetables and stuff on the list, but I figured people would bring 109283091283091238 cookies and cupcakes and a tablespoon or two of vegetables and fruit. There were quite a few cupcakes and cookies, but there were waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more fruit and vegetables than cookies. I had like a cup and a half of carrots and some other mixed raw vegetables and a cup or so of fruit salad by myself and that barely made a dent in either. I was ecstatic. That night for dinner, whitey's mom made an exceedingly yummy pot roast. I ate too much and caused my stomach to be upset.
For valentines I gave whitey some cookies and some gourmet lemonade and he bought me dinner, ice cream twice, gave me a lovely card and got me some sugar free peppermint patties. yum!
Anyways... um... yeah that's my life.
Speaking of, I have been working on CEU's for my social work license and have managed to knock out 14 hours worth in about 5 hours time with a lovely online CEU site. I'm sure you wanted to know that.
Whitey got offered a job in Birmingham and is going to take it. We should be down there in a couple of weeks. Actually, if any of you know of good places that do short term rentals, let us know. We want to be sure he gets hired permanently (it's a contract to hire position) before we buy a house.
In the middle of all this, I decided that I wanted to put together a dance for a talent competition that is taking place on march 3rd. I decided this last weekend. Yep.
In other news: I used my $50 that my mother gave us as a valentine present to go impulse buy things like orange chili coated cashews and kashi chocolate chip cookies and parmesian potato chips and bake doritos and gourmet soda.
yes, I said $50.... actually I had to kick in $10 of my own too.
Yeah.
Speaking of valentines: mine was rockin'. Whitey and I went to Tai Pan on tuesday to celebrate Valentine's (going out on actual Valentines is insane). Wednesday I went to work early and helped with the valentines party which meant free pizza and goodies. I knew my mom had put vegetables and stuff on the list, but I figured people would bring 109283091283091238 cookies and cupcakes and a tablespoon or two of vegetables and fruit. There were quite a few cupcakes and cookies, but there were waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more fruit and vegetables than cookies. I had like a cup and a half of carrots and some other mixed raw vegetables and a cup or so of fruit salad by myself and that barely made a dent in either. I was ecstatic. That night for dinner, whitey's mom made an exceedingly yummy pot roast. I ate too much and caused my stomach to be upset.
For valentines I gave whitey some cookies and some gourmet lemonade and he bought me dinner, ice cream twice, gave me a lovely card and got me some sugar free peppermint patties. yum!
Anyways... um... yeah that's my life.
Friday, February 2, 2007
most of you have probably seen this by now....
....But in case you haven't. The press conference video for the cartoon network employees arrested for the whole "OMG BOMB HOAX" thing.
Fucking hilarious.
Fucking hilarious.
Monday, January 29, 2007
I think there is something seriously wrong with me
I have mourned the loss of my home made strawberry pear applesauce since the day we had to turn the power off, four days ago. I spent an hour online researching flours and grains to potentially put in breads, crackers, etc. I spent at least another hour reading about different types of cheeses, oils and sugars.
yeah.
Just do me one favor: make sure the loony bin has a good kitchen and an organic market next door.
yeah.
Just do me one favor: make sure the loony bin has a good kitchen and an organic market next door.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
quick update
well... there's nothing going and tons going on all at once.. per usual.
Whitey might be getting a job in baton rouge. I'm not entirely thrilled at this idea because I just moved, it's not within an hour of family or friends, etc. However, we wouldn't be more than 7 or 8 hours away from everyone, there's great fucking restaurants (most of which have seafood which is fabulous for the diet), and it looks like my artistic hippy side could be in full swing there-- several dance schools, symphony, a choreography/dance festival, etc. Oh, yeah, I forgot the best reason to live there: Fleur de tease, (sorry their site doesn't work in firefox) a true burlesque entertaining group.
heehehehehehe, So anyways, back to the update. I'm still working at the daycare and am proud to report (read mortified) that some crayon artwork that happened on my shift has caused the walls in the toddler room to be repainted. Our wonderful (read stupid) son (dog)has learned how to speak on command (and sometimes not on command too). I managed to make whole wheat, reduced fat, reduced sugar, chocolate mint cupcakes that tasted fabulous (even whitey approved and he's the pickiest goddamn eater I know).
Oh yes, I forgot the fun event from Tuesday. We woke up Tuesday to a lack of power on the upstairs floor (except one outlet) and part of the downstairs. I saw Nana (my new nickname for my mother-in-law: that's how we distinguish between her and other people when we talk to the dog) when I was fixing my oatmeal and she said that she tried to flip the breaker but the box sparked when she tried. So she called an electrician and I went to work. Whitey calls me at work, "yeah um, the wiring in the house was so bad that the wires on that circuit (yes, all of the upstairs and half of the downstairs was on one circuit) shorted out and started melting the wires on the other circuits. We're lucky the house didn't burn down. Can you get off work early tonight so we can get our stuff together to go spend the night at your mother's (known to the dog as "grandma")? We have to shut off the power to the house tonight so that the city can shut of the main power so that the electricians can come first thing in the morning to fix the wiring. So we packed up our son and his bed and his toys and a few of our own things and headed to grandma's for the night where ahboo got to play with another dog and run around a fenced back yard.
When I came home from work the power was back on and we thought that maybe some of the food in the fridge and freezer might be okay until we saw that the ice cream had melted all over everything. Whitey and his mom spent a nice chunk of time throwing out everything in the freezer and fridge today. Bah. So much yummy food and so much money spent on said yummy food, completely down the drain. Goddamnit (yes, I know this complaint pales in comparison to having a house that was supposed to be built to your specifications wired so badly that the house could have burned down and then having to pay an exorbitant amount to have to fix it, but I like my food).
Other than that, we have a Wii and we got the WOW expansion, but that's about it.
Whitey might be getting a job in baton rouge. I'm not entirely thrilled at this idea because I just moved, it's not within an hour of family or friends, etc. However, we wouldn't be more than 7 or 8 hours away from everyone, there's great fucking restaurants (most of which have seafood which is fabulous for the diet), and it looks like my artistic hippy side could be in full swing there-- several dance schools, symphony, a choreography/dance festival, etc. Oh, yeah, I forgot the best reason to live there: Fleur de tease, (sorry their site doesn't work in firefox) a true burlesque entertaining group.
heehehehehehe, So anyways, back to the update. I'm still working at the daycare and am proud to report (read mortified) that some crayon artwork that happened on my shift has caused the walls in the toddler room to be repainted. Our wonderful (read stupid) son (dog)has learned how to speak on command (and sometimes not on command too). I managed to make whole wheat, reduced fat, reduced sugar, chocolate mint cupcakes that tasted fabulous (even whitey approved and he's the pickiest goddamn eater I know).
Oh yes, I forgot the fun event from Tuesday. We woke up Tuesday to a lack of power on the upstairs floor (except one outlet) and part of the downstairs. I saw Nana (my new nickname for my mother-in-law: that's how we distinguish between her and other people when we talk to the dog) when I was fixing my oatmeal and she said that she tried to flip the breaker but the box sparked when she tried. So she called an electrician and I went to work. Whitey calls me at work, "yeah um, the wiring in the house was so bad that the wires on that circuit (yes, all of the upstairs and half of the downstairs was on one circuit) shorted out and started melting the wires on the other circuits. We're lucky the house didn't burn down. Can you get off work early tonight so we can get our stuff together to go spend the night at your mother's (known to the dog as "grandma")? We have to shut off the power to the house tonight so that the city can shut of the main power so that the electricians can come first thing in the morning to fix the wiring. So we packed up our son and his bed and his toys and a few of our own things and headed to grandma's for the night where ahboo got to play with another dog and run around a fenced back yard.
When I came home from work the power was back on and we thought that maybe some of the food in the fridge and freezer might be okay until we saw that the ice cream had melted all over everything. Whitey and his mom spent a nice chunk of time throwing out everything in the freezer and fridge today. Bah. So much yummy food and so much money spent on said yummy food, completely down the drain. Goddamnit (yes, I know this complaint pales in comparison to having a house that was supposed to be built to your specifications wired so badly that the house could have burned down and then having to pay an exorbitant amount to have to fix it, but I like my food).
Other than that, we have a Wii and we got the WOW expansion, but that's about it.
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