Be safe, be happy, be festive.

I will be watching the downtown fireworks at midnight from a friend's apartment way up on top of an apartment building with a killer view of Hartford.

Labels: holidays

As inspired by Lisa's post about Christmas and picture of Molly I bring you ... Wrapped Cat!



This is my friend Carolyn's cat, Cat, enjoying a little bit of Christmas cheer.

And, as requested, some pictures of my robotic friends!



The two of them hanging out under the tree.



The big one guarding all the sweet, sweet X-Files goodness.

Labels: holidays, pictures

I just finished the book I started on Christmas Eve, The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer. It's a memoir, which is far and away my favorite genre. I'm a really fast reader and this took me from Christmas Eve night to last night to read, reading a bit each day to finish, which is actually a good thing. It was just that dense and winding. I felt a connection with the author in a lot of ways, especially in his childhood fears/neuroses. He mentions being terrified to be the last one awake at night. I had the same fear as a child but had never encountered anyone else with the same thing.

The ending is a bit rough, especially the epilogue, as it takes place just after 9/11. The author grew up in Manhasset on LI and that community lost 50 people in the attacks. In his capacity as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, he returned to Manhasset just after 9/11 to do a huge story on how the town was coping. Some of the characters I got to know and love through the course of the book died in 9/11.

I had read somewhere that it is an "addiction memoir" but I really didn't see that too much. The author definitely has a problem with alcohol, as well as smoking and gambling, but it's not the centerpiece. He tends to couch his alcoholism in his love of this one particular neighborhood bar. When the story ends he's still drinking, then the epilogue brings us in 10 or so years later and he's been sober for about that time.

The book really rattled me, which is a sign of a good book for me. After I finished it, I was lying in bed unable or unwilling to get up to turn off the light, my head swirling with thoughts and images. Eventually I turned off the light and had to find a happy, quiet, restful place so I could sleep.

Labels: books

So, does anyone else find MRIs relaxing? No? Just me then? I actually sort of dozed off in there, in between wishing there was some sort of LED show going on inside the tube for me to watch. Nate was disappointed that he couldn't go in the room and see the images.

Now it's off to Wood-n-Tap for a friend's birthday. Yay!

Labels: health

I know I already posted today but this story on Pamie.com had me in tears laughing because it's happened to me.

Sometime recently my coworkers and I became fixated on text messaging. We'd send each other weird text messages at odd times. Amanda would never get said text messages. Then one day I got a new phone with a camera and wanted to test the function where you assign a picture to a person and when they call their picture pops up. So I took a lovely picture of Amanda (Exhibit A: ) and set it up and tell her to call me. She does, no picture.

"Maybe you need to do the area code?" she says.
"I think I did, let me check ..." *pulling up menus, both of us peering at it* "See, I did!"
"...that's not my number," she says.
"What?"
"That's not my number!"
"OH MY GOD!"
At this point we both dissolved into laughter as the full weight of the situation hit us. You see, the aforementioned "weird text messages" usually said something like "I'm watching you" or "Don't turn around."

So, to the nice old lady whose grandchildren forced her to get a cellphone, you can turn yours back on now. I promise, the demons have all been exorcised.

Labels: funny, other bloggers, pictures, stories

So, that's it. Sort of. We still have a family party on January 6, and still have to give my dad and his family their gifts, and other assorted family members their gifts ...

It never ends!

I did really well this Christmas, courtesy of a very smart Nate. The big things were a mini roboreptile, a BIG roboreptile, and the entire X-Files DVD collection! Some of you may or may not know that I was a HUGE X-Files nerd in high school. Huge. We're talking went to conventions (not in costume, mind you). So this gift is just insane for me. I'm so excited to dive back in from the beginning and revisit old favorites.

Now, for my new robotic friends. They are SO COOL! The little one just walks around, but he's adorable. The big one is incredible! He's pretty lifelike and has very articulated movements. Mine seems to be the bad seed, though. He comes with a plastic piece that you fit over his head to put him to "sleep." You're supposed to put it on him and he calms down (the same effect can be achieved by turning off the lights or just putting a towel over him). WELL. Mine just tosses the hood off! He sits quietly for a few seconds, lulling you into a false sense of security, then he swings his tail, tosses his head, and off the hood comes, leaving him free to attack anything in his path! Leave it to me to get the bad raptor.

Nate also loved his gifts. They were all cooking related. I got him a grill pan, a digital probe thermometer, some grill pan accessories, and a bunch of fancy marinades and sauces. I see many tasty dinners in our future ...

Labels: family, food, holidays

Ah, Christmas at home. My new motto this year is "Christmas is about doing whatever it is you want to do." So, we slept all day. Pretty cool. Well, we got up to open presents and stuff, but mostly we lazed around. Now we're making the baked apple pancake we meant to make around noon but couldn't be bothered to do using Nate's birthday apple peeler/corer/slicer device. It's SO COOL. Everyone should have one.

Tonight, we may hit up a movie. God bless Hollywood for staying open even on Christmas.

Labels: food, holidays

Well, at long last it's here.

Today will bring brunch at a friend's, then off to Nate's rehearsals and two church services, then back to Ye Olde Hartfordshire to pass out and then tomorrow we'll exchange our gifts to each other. This is our third Christmas together but the first one we're doing our gifts just the two of us on Christmas day itself.

No idea what we're doing tomorrow. Maybe we'll just laze around and play with our new toys! Have a happy one, all. :)

Labels: holidays

This year's tree! And that big one on the floor there is for me, yay!

Labels: holidays, pictures

This is another favorite Christmas picture of mine. It's Nate playing the guitar in front of our tree in our old apartment on our first Christmas together.

Labels: holidays, pictures

I took this picture in college. One morning we woke up to find that someone had hung colored Christmas balls in the bare trees all over campus and then it had snowed. It was surreal and beautiful. This has become one of my favorite "winter holiday" pictures.

Labels: holidays, pictures

Hooooly crap. We just got home from a marathon shopping session that resulted in our new American Airlines miles card getting suspended for suspicious activity. Oops. To be fair, Nate did buy $600 worth of stamps for work tonight.

Anyway, we did pretty well. We at least successfully finished anything we'd need to get in the Manchester area. That place will kill your will to shop.

Today I received the best Christmas gift so far: my insurance company approved my MRI. Thank you Jesus.

Now it's time to scarf down some pasta and get ready to collapse into bed because I have to be at a networking thing at 8am. This sounded like a good idea two weeks ago ...

Labels: holidays, whiney

Labels: family

They're getting so expensive! We got a 3-pack of wrapping paper for $6 that is, admittedly, nice. However, each of the rolls is only 12 sq. feet. What kind of crap is that? Italian tole practically costs less per sq. foot. We also didn't find a tree skirt. They barely had any and the ones they did have were $40. I'm usually pretty good at estimating what something will cost and I estimate that a freakin skirt to go under your tree should NOT be $40! I think Target is getting too big for it's Christmas breeches. They used to have a range of stuff.

Leaving my cranky old man persona behind ...

Nate and I continued the tradition of him opening his birthday gifts the night before his birthday. I come up with good reasons but really, it's just that I'm a child and cannot wait for people to open their gifts. Tomorrow we're going out to dinner with some friends. It was kind of a last minute thing so I'm pretty psyched that it worked out so well.

It's a good thing I'm not Santa cause I certainly would not fit down any chimneys by the end of this week. Lunch at Grants tomorrow, dinner at Plan B. Lunch at Friendly's on Thursday.

Labels: family, friends, holidays, whiney

Aunt Mary-palooza was fun. We were only a little late, mostly due to Walgreens being out of my prescription and sending me to another store. Oh well. It was nice to catch up on all the family gossip. The Somerset Marriott, where we stayed, had lovely rooms but a godawful restaurant. Ugh. $11 for a burger that tasted like it'd fit better in a high school cafeteria.

It was ... interesting to see my grandmother. She's shrunken and kind of out of it and mumbles when she talks. Not at all what I remember. I also saw one of my dad's sisters, which was nice, and one of my cousins. Didn't even recognize her. The last time I saw her she was 10 and now she's 16 which, if you can imagine, is a lot of growing up. I'm not sure what I got out of the visit, not sure what I was looking to get out of it, but I did it so I won't regret anything.

Drive home wasn't too bad, We stopped at Chili's and met my mom and I got more of the post-party family gossip, plus shared some of my own.

Man this is really boring, mostly cause I shouldn't SHARE said family gossip on the intarwebz.

Just very glad to be home, though not so glad that it's already time for another week.

Labels: family, holidays, whiney

Today is the 4th Annual Aunt Mary-palooza! It's the big yearly family reunion Christmas party that my Aunt Mary puts on. It makes me laugh cause most families don't see each other all that often and here we all are, gathering everyone from immediate family to distant cousins, every year. It's nice.

Tomorrow ... I see my grandmother, whom I haven't seen in about 5 years and haven't had any sort of relationship with in probably 20. Yeah. Think good thoughts for me, okay?

Labels: family, holidays

Where is your hammer, and what did you last use it for? The hammer is in the pantry. God, I don't even remember the last thing I personally used it for. It's been used a lot recently for putting lids back on paint cans though.

What is your everyday cutlery like? It's metal and some of it is pointy and some of it is round.

What are you using for a toothbrush? A toothbrush!

How particular are you when it comes to writing implements? Pretty particular if I'm writing a letter, less so if I'm jotting down notes. Nice pens make me happy, though. I'm quite excited about the red and green pens I got from my Secret Santa!

What is the most use-specific tool you own? A garlic press.

Labels: friday five

If any of your Nutmeggers are still looking for a tree, head up to the Canton baseball tree sale. It's sort of behind the Canton Feed & Supply shop, right where 44 and 179 meet. They're really nice there and have good prices on nice trees. We talked to the guy for awhile and he tried to figure out what's wrong with poor ol' Al (Al is our noble Honda, for the uninitiated). We bought our tree from this place two years ago and were very happy. We didn't do a tree last year, though if we had, we planned to go back to this place. It can be a bit of a trek (it's WAY up 44), but it's worth it.

Right now the tree, which I have named Norbert, is sitting in his stand and shaking his branches out while we get dinner ready. We still need a tree skirt though, hm. We got one at Pier 1 that didn't have a price on it but was nice and it turned out to be $50! I'm all for quality items but this tree skirt is not worth that much. So back it goes.

Holiday potluck was super, as was Secret Santa. I was totally wrong about who had me but that's half the fun. I was almost jumped for my mac & cheese, which made me feel really good. I don't cook much at all so it's pretty cool to make a dish that everyone remembers and looks forward to year after year.

I did decide to go to the doctor today. He's setting me up for an MRI on my back because my last one was 4 years ago. If that shows nothing we move onto a bone scan. I really like that he's pursuing this and not just telling me that it must be nothing because he doesn't know what it is. However, on the advice of my advisor, Amanda, I am going to reschedule my regular doctor's appointment on 12/26 because who wants to get bloodwork done the day after Christmas?

Labels: food, health, holidays

My world-famous macaroni and cheese is in the oven! I got smart this year and made an extra tray of it for home. It smells SO GOOD in the oven and I always want to eat it when it comes out but I can't because it's for work or a party or something. But tonight we feast like kings! I always forget how time-consuming it is. No wonder I only make it a couple of times a year. This is no boxed stuff with powdered cheese (or KD, as it is known to our friends way up north in Canadia, eh Alan?).

We didn't get a tree tonight because of the weather. Who wants to bring a wet tree into their house? It's probably just as well. It took me from 5 to 6 to get out of the grocery store then 6:30 til 8 to make the mac and cheese.

I'm so wiped out. I think I'm just going to relax while the food cooks. 15 minutes to go ...

Labels: food, holidays

Got this little beauty at Trader Joe's last night. It's making the front hallway smell quite festive! As an aside, I also got Trader Joe's new pear sauce last night. I love apple sauce and I figured pears are a little less sweet than apples so it should be really good. No. It tastes like overripe pears. Cloyingly sweet instead of cool and refreshing. Ugh.

Anyway, back to festivetown! We're burning the Bath and Body Works The Perfect Christmas: Tree candle and it really is perfect. When I was little we had this fat green pillar candle that was "tree" scented. It wasn't anything fancy, just a pillar of wax. Every year out it came with the Christmas decorations and I looked forward to it each time because the scent was just so ... CHRISTMAS. It melted and burned funny, as old candles did, and I don't know what happened to it. I spent a long time looking for a candle that was similar but nothing measured up. Until last year when B&BW put out their Tree candle. It was a ticket back to childhood simplicity. Mmm.

I can't wait until we get our tree! We're going tomorrow after work. I'm so excited. I was in a really bad way, depression-wise, last Christmas. I read some old stuff I wrote and I forgot how anti-Christmas I was. I just couldn't get into it and that made me sadder because I LOVE the holidays. I'm glad to have the old me back this year.

I've finished taking pictures of the great living room redo. I even found an old picture I took of the living room when we first moved in, for comparison. I just have to put them all together in a coherent format. I'm excited to share! It's really a remarkable transformation. I'm very proud of us. We went from a post-college mishmash of crap in a room to a real, cohesive, styled room. Next up is the dining room, but that won't be so drastic. It's already a color close to what we're painting it, we'll just freshen it up a bit.

I'm so tired, again. After-work happy hour was a blast though, as usual. I love my co-workers, seriously. I'm super lucky. No pictures, alas. Perhaps it's better that way ...

Labels: daily report, food, friends, holidays, home, pictures

Well, I set out at 5 pm to get some Christmas/birthday shopping done for Nate cause he wasn't feeling well and therefore wanted to stay in and relax. I was full of the Christmas spirit due to a late gift from my Secret Santa at work and having some really good gift ideas this year.

4 hours later, after fighting for parking, hurting shoes, lines, and being unable to find a freakin' wreath bow until visiting the LAST of 3 stores, I returned with juuuuust a bit less spirit. Oh well. I think all my brick-and-mortar shopping is DONE. God I'm so tired.

Pasta's on the stove (I must have been focused, didn't even get tempted to stop at Wendy's or something with a magazine and veg out), I'm in my comfy chair and in for the night. And hey, we got a pretty nice wreath.

Now to survive the rest of the week. I have the after-work happy hour thing tomorrow, then Christmas tree hijinx Wednesday as well as cooking for Thursday's Holiday Potluck Extravaganza, then I have a doctor's appointment that I may or may not cancel on Thursday (may cancel it cause it's the rheumatologist and he already told me my problem doesn't fall within his realm of expertise, but I may go cause he said he'd consider sending me for an MRI and I really want one done on my back because something's not right), then down to NJ on Saturday for the annual Croghan, et al Christmas, then possibly visiting my dying grandmother on Sunday ... whew. I need to lie down.

Labels: health, holidays

This is one of my favorite pictures of my mom, taken at Mystic Aquarium in January 2003 for her Penguin Birthday Surprise. She didn't know about the penguins yet, so she was still asking "An aquarium? What are we doing here?" hence the look on her face. :)

Labels: pictures

Happy holidays from Westfarms!

YAY!!! Man I missed furniture. It's all in and set up. Needs to be broken in a bit, but it's here! Delivery adventures included but were not limited to:

--Me standing outside with no shoes or coat on to hold our gimpy screen door open
--Deliverymen joking about stealing our TV
--Me getting locked out of the apartment after I signed the paper and the men left with nothing but the clothes on my back

Yeah. Fortunately, I now have feeling back in my toes, no one has stolen our TV, and I managed to get back into the apartment in maybe 5 minutes using Ancient Chinese Secret and/or voodoo.

I'm hoping maybe pictures tomorrow or Sunday. I want to do this up right and show the complete progression. I'm quite excited.

Tonight I guess is some Christmas shopping, including getting stuff for my Secret Santa. I'm actually looking forward to work on Monday!

Labels: holidays, home

So, who remembers this day when Honda tried to take my car payment 100 times? Well, it was all resolved happily, even resulted in an overpayment. The upshot of it is the bank rejected the charges/refunded the money just as Honda wired us money to cover what they had taken. So, we waited for the letter telling us where to send the payment, we sent it, all's well, right?

Wrong. Tonight I get a letter threatening to sue me for the outstanding amount. My already angry, twisted back is now so bunched up in knots my muscles probably look like a boy scout quiz. We double checked the checking account and, sure enough, the check was cashed. Well, long story short, turns out the dumbasses cashed the check all right, and they APPLIED IT TO MY ACCOUNT. Even though the check EXPLICITLY said that it was for the overpayment. Their offices are closed now, of course, so I can't even get it resolved and get them to, y'know, NOT sue me. These aren't official ... lawsuit ... type ... papers or anything, but still, I don't like seeing a letter threatening to take legal action addressed to me. RAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!

(It's okay Amanda, I can hear you in my head telling me to calm down and do I want to get sick again? It's kind of scary.)

The good news is we hit up IKEA (hence my back) and got the furniture. The loveseat and chair will be delivered tomorrow afternoon, but we got everything else. We got a nice paper lantern for the corner by the TV. It's a hard corner to do anything with, but it NEEDS light, and it has a hook in the ceiling for this sort of thing, so it works. We also got a really nice print of the Brooklyn Bridge and a frame that will look awesome on the big wall.

Hry, 30 Rock is pretty good.

Labels: home, tv, whiney

I broke out the holiday cheer today with the following results:





Now we are home and there are potatoes baking in the oven and Nate's preparing some steak and green beans. I'm drooling just thinking about it! I am cozy in my office in my comfy PJ's, a ThermaCare wrap thing on my poor old lady back, and these adorable slipper-socks I got at Target tonight:



We continue to make progress on the living room. Tonight we finally tracked down a torchiere lamp to match the set we already have and love. The room is so much warmer with the red! We've also hung up the prints we bought in Ireland Kennys Bookshop. I have the Thoor Ballylee one because I adore Yeats, and we have a couple more but I can't remember which ones. They're all matted and framed in black so they really work in the room. I can't wait to post pictures of the transformation! Tomorrow will be furniture purchasing.

Labels: food, holidays, home, pictures

I'm home in my PJs eating lunch (high noon!) and watching True Life: I'm Taking Steroids. Ugh. Pisses me off. I can't imagine willingly injecting yourself with crap if you don't need it to live. I'd love to not have to give 4+ injections a day just to live. Maybe I'm just cranky cause I don't feel well. Bleh.

Our living room looks awesome though! Nate put some of the pictures back on the walls last night. We also decided to get beige couches instead. The color turned out a little different than we were envisioning, so we're going in a bit of a different direction. It'll still be awesome, though. The red is so warm.

I wish I was warm. :(

Labels: whiney

Well, Amanda, you've got your fondest wish. I am staying home tomorrow. Fever went away with some advil, but seems to be coming back. So I will keep my sicky germs contained to my compound.

Today was a great day because it was filled with puppy pictures and stories. Puppies make me so happy! If I could play with puppies every day, I swear my days would be better. Someday, we'll find a breed we're not allergic to and get one.

I love all kinds of fuzzy animals. Puppies, kitties, guinea pigs, bunnies ... all of them! Well, I am also deathly allergic to most of them. It makes me so sad! It's so hard to look and not touch. :(

Allergies are your body's way of saying "Joke's on you!" at least in my case. When I was a kid, nothing made me happier than an apple and peanut butter, or a pear, or ... mmm ... a peach. Well, I later developed allergies to many kinds of fresh fruit. Just fresh, whole fruit. I can eat it cooked in any way, or processed, but not fresh. It's not the pesticides, cause I've had fruit off a home tree.

Writing this has exhausted me, so I'm going to go back to watching TV and waiting for Nate to finish making waffles. He's such a good guy, taking care of me. :)

Labels: whiney

Well, maybe not. Nate's making us some tasty waffles for brunch, then it's back to the painting grind for another coat. It dried really nicely, a rich burgundy.

Fortunately, the paint does NOT have those strong fumes like the primer. Ugh. That was awful. When we do our dining room, since the paint in there is pretty much the color of the primer we got, we may just skip the primer. It was that bad. I had to stop with more left to do cause my head was killing me. Nate finished and was slightly loopy. We had all the windows open, too!

I hit another contact lens milestone this morning. I put my contacts in, looked in the mirror, and realized something was terribly wrong. Was I going blind? My right eye was straining and my vision was really off. Wait. WHERE'S MY RIGHT CONTACT??? Fortunately, Nate has mutant vision and was able to spot it on the bathroom rug. I liberally swished it with solution and popped it in. Whew. Normal vision prevails.

Labels: food, home, weekend

WOW that primer was strong.

Our living room now looks like my childhood bedroom. PINK. Thank god it's just the primer and not the actual paint color!

Time to get some dinner while the primer dries ...

Labels: home

Here's it is, the new feature! Every Friday, go here and there will be a new set of 5 questions to answer. Have fun!

When did you most recently receive a massage?
At the spa in Mexico. I am so not a spa person so I left probably more tense then when I went in. However, the mud they used that was supposed to reduce swelling REALLY worked so it was worth it. I saw my real ankles for the first time all summer!

When did you most recently bleed?
I'm sure I've given myself a paper cut sometime in the past few days.

When did you most recently have ice cream?
I had a bite of Nate's on Tuesday night

When did you most recently amaze yourself?
Well, coming back from my "episode" was pretty damn amazing. I never thought my body was that strong!

When did you most recently turn on your vacuum cleaner?
Nate used it on Tuesday. I HATE vacuuming. Hate. I'd rather pick up every crumb by hand, or use a dustbuster.

Labels: friday five