The End

Well, I did it. We all did it! Thany, Amy, Crayl, and me. We blogged every day of November. 30 blogs. I thought it would be hard. It wasn't as hard as I thought. You just learn to pay attention and remember things throughout the day so you have something to write about. So in essence it's much more than a writing exercise...it's an exercise in living presently. It was fun. It was quiet time spent with my writing partner, Littleman (a.k.a Henry) (pronounced "little-mun" - see below). Time when there was peace in the house because he was locked in the office with me and couldn't pester his brother.

I think I'll do it again next year.

Ponderings

So, being Christmas season and all, I've got the XM radio tuned to the Christmas stations. Same old stuff. I still like it and all, but it seems that no one is able to write any new
Christmas songs that are anywhere NEAR as good as the old traditional stuff. Why is that?

Another thought I have while driving to and from work: music has been around since...well, forever. Many of the Psalms are actually songs, right? I took music lessons, there's only 7 notes (A-G) plus sharps and flats, plus octaves, right? So, mathematically speaking, isn't there a fininte number of ways notes could be combined? Will we run out of new music someday?

Is that why no one writes good Christmas music anymore?

Porn for Women (don't worry - squeaky clean!)

Got this funny at work today. I think if men understood how much of a turn on these things truly are, there'd be a lot more happy marriages...

I Know You Are Probably Sick of This Topic...

..but there's only 4 more days of NaBloPoMo and I'm running out of topics.

So here's a picture of my house with it's pretty pretty (and lonely) lights. Still no neighbor light action yet. Of course it looks better in person. And I look at it now and think: what else can I add?

Cruel Shoes

Ever read that collection of short stories written by Steve Martin? My sister had it when we were kids and I'm reminded of it every few days. It's the shoes I've been wearing to work. Every time I walk to the bathroom, the cafeteria, to my car, I think, "Cruel Shoes". My feet even have phantom pain when I'm not wearing them. They're new, and clearly I made a bad choice, but since I can't return them, I feel compelled to stick with them until they wear out so as not to waste the money.

Here's a link if you want to read the story. Think of me. If you scroll down, you'll see it in its entirety. http://www.compleatsteve.com/miscellany/cruelshoes_1.htm

If you keep scrolling, you'll see another interesting story entitled, "The Diarrhea Gardens of El Camino Real" (yes, that's San Diego, friends), right after one of my faves, "Serious Dogs".

Back to Work

Why can't all weekends be 4-day weekends? Doesn't that strike a better work-life balance? More life, less work?

For those who are somewhat following this story (I know, few details have been provided...it's really not a topic for a public forum), Scott is actually reporting to a different department tomorrow. The new director he will be reporting to is a good person (or so I've heard). I think Scott views this as a temporary fix, so I'm still not sure what the future holds. I just hope it's better - he's been under a great deal of stress. Oh, and to top it off, he hurt his ankle today helping me with some lights. I had to go down to Wal-Mart and get him a cane!

Well, only 4 weeks until my next 4-day weekend. Wouldn't it be nice if the whole month of December was a holiday? I could get so much accomplished!

Got My Camera Back

Pics from our Thanksgiving:


The hostess with the mostest (she did the flowers herself!)

Clara, Dad & Emma

Clara, Julie & Friends

Mac (a.k.a. Mac Daddy, Big Mac, etc)

Just Call Me Mrs. Jones

And if you're my neighbor, please try and keep up.

The rest of the outside lights are up, the tree is up, and the window snowflakes are hung. Still need to decorate the tree and spread whatever other Christmas knickknacks I have around the house. My neighbor walked by this afternoon as I was putting the ladder away and said, "Wow, you're kind of ambitious." That's right baybee! Get it together! Hang some lights, dude! Where's your Christmas Spirit?!

Am I being too harsh?

Hmmmm...the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear....

Is it too early to Carol my neighbors?

Happy Thanksgiving!

How do you say it?

You probably say "Happy ThanksGIVing, right? Scott's family hails from Texas and Alabama. They say "Happy THANKSgiving" with a twang.

Either way, I hope yours was happy. Mine was. Lots to eat, lots of laughs, a brisk walk in the cold weather. I had a lovely picture to post of my sister and her beautiful table but, alas, I left my camera at her house. Boo.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Friday Friday Friday Friday Friday

O for Friday how I wait
Eagerly for that awesome date
The day I shall open the Christmas crates
And all around will decorate.

Tree up, lights on,
Swirly ornaments on my lawn,
No doubt I'll be up at the crack of dawn,
With a cup of joe and a happy yawn.

But first there's Thanks we must be Giving
For all the blessings He's been giving.
For family, for food, and this life we are living,
Even for gravy that may need sieving.

But Friday is the day that comes after,
And I shall try to spend it with laughter
And hang oranaments and lights from every rafter
Then write, since of this blog I am the drafter.

Thanksgiving Eve Eve

Can you smell it yet? Can you taste it yet? Is your turkey thawing? I can't wait. This year we're going down to my sister's new house with her state-of-the art kitchen. She is an amazing cook, so it's fun to watch her work with all the right equipment. Only thing is: she uses every dish, pot and pan in the house and we lesser cooks get dish duty. Her husband was clever, though, he had two dish washers installed. Yeah, he knows her pretty well.

What are y'all doing?

What's the one dish that it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without (besides the obvious turkey)?

I vote for stuffing. Yummmmy!

P.S. To those who read yesterday's blog: according to Wikipedia, "although the pumpkin is botanically classified as a fruit (the ripened ovary of a flowering plant), it is widely regarded as a vegetable."

So it's a fruit and a vegetable?

Pumpkin Pie For Dinner...Why Not?

Made a Costco run this evening. Being 3 days from Thanksgiving, they had pallets of pies stacked all over the store. Pallets! Two different sampling stations were handing out bites of cheesecake. Ooooh. Cheeeeesecaaakkee. The Costco "storemade" brand was better than the frozen Cheesecake Factory kind, by the way.

Needless to say, Scott had pumpkin pie for dinner. Heck, if that's what you're after anyway, why not skip the dinner calories and go straight to dessert? Pumpkin is a vegetable, right? Or is it a fruit? It has seeds...which is it?

Just so you know, Scott would never eat pumpkin pie with such a measly amount of Cool-Whip.

Hotel Del Edwards

A couple days ago, the 16th to be precise, was our 1-year anniversary for moving into this house. Last year we were so busy unpacking boxes that we didn't hang any Christmas lights and just barely managed to put up a tree. We were sorely disappointed when NO ONE on our street hung any lights either. Not one single house. What is up with THAT? It was then and there that we vowed to go all out next year. Perhaps they'd be inspired to do SOMEthing. After all, the street below us was basically a mini Candy Cane Lane.

It's taken two trips to Target (so far), about 18 strands of lights, countless extension cords, and a solid design plan. The main house lights were hung today. (Note, they will not be turned on until Friday, but in the interest of daylight and good weather, they were hung today.) On Friday we'll finish up. It's going to be awwwesome!

Makes me want to turn on the fire, watch Christmas specials and bake sugar cookies!

Graduation Day

Cutie Pie Henry graduated from puppy kindergarten today. He did great. He will move on to the Brilliant Buddy class for the next round. You'd be so proud of him. He's got all the building blocks: sit, down, stay, wait, walk on a loose leash. He's got a lot more to learn and a lot more practice, but down deep, he's a good boy.

Tomorrow: Christmas Lights. This year we BRING it. Lookout neighbors!

It's Late. I'm Tired.

I started out my day feeling like I was in an episode of Numb3rs. Ever watch that show? They solve crimes through the miracle of math. It wasn't so much that I was in a crime drama, it was the fact that I was listening to a mathematician lecture on Regression, slope, F Significance, R2...the guy was very young, but looked nothing like David Krumholtz. Oh my. It has been (seriously) 20 years since my last statistics class. I remember nothing. Zippo. Nada.

But on the bright side, I got to end my day with this lovely man singing to me:

He is still in fine form, may I say. I think he did 5 encores. Awesome, Awesome, Awesome!

Greetings From Sea Level Part II

I know you were wondering (all 1 of you who read my blog), I'm at an Accounting for Derivatives conference. Riveting. Yield curves, Perfectly Effective Synthetic Hedges, Foreign Currency Risk, Fair Value, Forward Contracts, Options, Commodities...these are the buzz words.

Madras. That is also a buzzword.

What's a Madras? Vodka, orange juice, and cranberry juice. Discovered it tonight. Quite yummy. Madras. Must remember that name as I never know what to order at a bar.

Also fun: they're filming "Chuck" here tonight. I've seen it once and liked it a lot. I'm hoping for reruns during the writer's strike so I can catch up. The lead guy is cute. Tall. And really nice, according to the girl playing a waitress in the background who I've been chatting with.

Greetings From Sea Level

I'm writing to you from L.A, Marina Del Rey to be precise. It's been a while since I've been to sea level. It's HUMID here. I live 5000 ft. up in the driest air ever. And I've just about gotten used to it so this feels damp to me. My hair is flat.

Hotels bring out my inner germ-o-phobe. I hate 'em. I know friends like MissThany and Missy Shell love hotels, right? Not me. I always end up sleeping in a tight ball because I don't like putting my feet down in the bed. Creeps me out. And no walking barefoot on the carpet.

Just a little something about me maybe you didn't know.

What I'm Doing Right Now

I need to post this morning since I'm flying to LA tonight and may not have time to do this later. Boy I hope the hotel's business center is up and working or my NaBloPoMo is shot. Oh well. Don't feel like carrying the laptop. Going to training for 3 days. (sigh) It's going to be painfully boring.

So what I'm doing right now: watching music videos on GAC & CMT. Keith Urban is on right now. Every time I see him I think, "Man, I hope he and Nicole Kidman are happy." I meant to grab the People magazine that had his interview, but missed it. They strike me as nice people, but what do I know. Anyway, I just hope they're happy.

That's all for now. Gotta go. Gonna be late for work.

Congratulations to Missy Shell for enjoying her first Gingerbread Latte!

People. It's November 12.

Two houses. TWO houses on my short drive home have Christmas lights ON tonight. And then there's a third with a Christmas tree up and lit in their rear window.

What's up Reno?

We still have 10 days until Thanksgiving!

The rule is: No Christmas lights until the day AFTER Thanksgiving! I will allow for lights to go up prior to Thanksgiving to allow for busy schedules, taking advantage of good weather, etc., but not ON! And I'm lenient. RRRussselll Russellovich doesn't allow lights until December 1!

Tooth Fairy (this might be a little gross...)

These are the three teeth that big boy Henry has lost since Friday. (Miss Thany, did you pass out? Somebody please check if she's still breathing.)

My little boy is growing up! He has empty gums on the left side of his mouth.

Sorry for the gross factor.

Toxic Leaves

Sounds like the name of a grunge band...

Stupid us and stupider lawn service guy, who is a professional and should know better, sprayed weed pre-emergent all over the dirt parts of our yard. We told him we had dogs. He said "water it in, it will be okay once it dries." Except our yard is full of unraked leaves. And he sprayed them. And both dogs like to eat leaves. We had a massive raking party today, okay no biggie, I'm not afraid of a little yard work. But they're all covered with this agent orange stuff so it wasn't just raking most of them up, it was going around and picking up every stinkin' shred of leaf that we could see had orange Cheeto-like powder on it. And I'm thinking, "this idiot is charging me to spray leaves and I'm picking them up and now the chemicals aren't getting down in to prevent weeds." Why didn't he call us and say, "I'll come back when you guys have raked"?

Stupid lawn service guy. Stupider us for not thinking of it.

Job Well Done & Huh?

When there's nothing super clever to blog about, go with the news.

Today was Cash Sharing Day at work. It happens twice a year. We get together and share cash. ha ha ha. Actually, it's profit sharing, they just call it Cash Sharing here. Whatever. I really don't care what you call it as long as I can participate. So that was nice. And well-timed if you read yesterday's blog.

That was the Job Well Done part.

This is the Huh?:

House down the hill. It's been for sale for a long time (like all houses around here). On my way home (in the dark now) I noticed they have a CHRISTMAS TREE ALL LIT UP in their house - you can see it through their big window. Oh my. I know it's for sale and all, but geez.

Tough Times

I don't have much to say today. The biggest thing going on right now is Scott's job. It's horrible. Poor guy. He's actively interviewing for other things, but a small town means less choices. I cannot belive how vindictive some people in authority can be. I've just never worked at a place where people lie, manipulate, deceive, and poison the well against others. It's really surprising. And these are our public officials.

If you remember, could you pray that something great opens up for Scott?

I wish I made more money so he could just quit.

It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year

Tomorrow.

I was told by my local barista that Tomorrow is The Day.

I shall celebrate the occasion with this:

Learning to Wait

Henry and I are in a puppy kindergarten class. This week's lesson: Wait.

Basically I teach him not to cross a certain line that I "draw" by swinging my arm like a pendulum in front of him and saying firmly, "Wait." The purpose is really twofold: (1) teaching Henry better manners by not trying to be the first one out (or in) the door and (2) safety in case we were ever in a situation where I needed him to stay put temporarily. He learned it really quickly. Mostly during my lunch hour today. Of course he will need many, many, many more reinforcements before he really gets it and will do it even if I don't have a cookie in my hand or in the presence of distractions.

So, I was just thinking how much that still applies to us humans. How hard it is for us to wait for things! As my good friend Crayl could testify, it's da#n hard. She probably wouldn't say da#n, though. Are we willing to wait even if we can't see the cookie? How many reinforcements do we need before we get it right? Do we forget after only a short period?

Just my ponderings for today.

I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait,

And in His word do I hope.

Psalm 130:5

P.S. Thanks for praying Crayl. I found my bracelet. :-)

Bummer.

It's a good news/bad news day.

Good news: I found a dress!! Actually I found two dresses which is, like, amazing! Cute and simple but fun and most of all: comfortable! How hard is to find all that in one fancy party dress?! For me, very hard.
:-)

Bad news: I can't find my grandma's pretty (fake) diamond bracelet that I really wanted to wear. It's perfect and so so so pretty. I don't know where it could be since it's not where I normally keep it. Did I put it somewhere "safe" when we moved and now I can't remember? I usually keep it with my grandma's wedding ring, but I know where that is and no bracelet. I don't know where else to look...did I loan it to someone? But who in the world would I have loaned it to? It's not something I would loan except maybe to my sister...but nope, I'm pretty sure I never had the occasion to. Did I lose it last time I wore it?

Where is it???
:-(

*sigh*

It's time.

Time to find a dress to the fancy company "Winterfest" party. I suppose no one dares call it a "Christmas Party" anymore.

*sigh*

This is when all those days I told myself I should get on that treadmill, but didn't, come back to haunt me. How fast can one lose 5-10 pounds and tone up all that unused muscle? I have 35 days. Probably not enough to turn the clock back about 5 years. Bridget Jones refers to it as her "wobbly bits". That's appropriate.

By the way, why in the h-e-double-hockey-sticks was Ann Taylor Loft playing "Let it Snow" and "Frosty the Snowman" today?

*double sigh*

This is how nice my hubby is: next weekend he promises to drive with me for 2 hours to a mall that has a Nordstroms. It also has a Rubios...but I suppose that doesn't fit in with my "Skinnier In 35 Days Plan", does it?

:-)

Mighty Oregon

In honor of my Ducks,
Ranked #5 who BEAT THE PANTS OFF OF #4 Arizona State (ha ha!) today, 35-23:

(sing along!)

(oh, you may get a pop-up notice so you have to allow the ActiveX thingy to run)

Oregon, our Alma Mater
We will guard thee on and on,
Fellows gather 'round and cheer her,
Chant her glory, Oregon!
For the praises of her warriors,
Sing the story, Oregon,
On to vict'ry urge the heroes
Of our Mighty Oregon!

Go! Ducks! Go!
Fight! Ducks! Fight!
Go! Fight!
Win! Ducks! Win!

My Other Choice

So my other choice for a blog title was:

The Mendoza Diagonal

Not familiar? Here.



It made us laugh out loud. Thought it would be a good name. Cuz we're all on that graph somewhere between Hot and Crazy.

By Way of Explanation...

So you've heard of Fat Man and Little Boy, right?

WWII...names of the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki...

Well, this is Fat Boy & Little Man:


Appropriately named as they act like atom bombs dropped on my (once) nice, clean house...but I digress.

That's Fat Boy (a.k.a. Dave, age 5) on the right...Little Man (a.k.a. Henry, age 5 months) on the left. My kids.

So that's where the blog name comes from. Now that NaBloPoMo has started...gotta have a blog...gotta post something!