Weekend

I'd really like to say that Vic & I had an action-packed weekend filled with heaps of stuff to do. I'd like to say that. In actuality we just had another weekend spent recovering from the week spent at Mom's. Our Saturday is usually spent washing clothes and grocery shopping and on our Sunday you can usually find us passed out on the couch. Not very exciting, but at least we're d0ing it together! I'm really hoping that we can take a nice trip somewhere exciting for our 10th anniversary in May. Paris sounds nice...

Something Old, But New To Me

Do you ever come across something that's been around for a while, but that's new to you and you say "Geez, this is fantastic! What have I been missing?!" Well...last night I settled in on the couch and prepared myself for another night of loud HGTV viewing with Mom. We watched some show (they all have different names, but are about the same things) AND THEN SHE PICKED UP THE REMOTE TO CHANGE THE CHANNEL! Apparently she didn't like Candace Olsen in Devine Design because she started surfing. Actual channel surfing! Needless to say, I was in a state of euphoria. I was almost giddy at the thought of watching a show that didn't include anything having to do with curb appeal or designing to sell. I was fully prepared to watch the Golf Channel or the Toenail Network ~ anything would've been a welcome change!

So Mom stops on some reality show about the drama queen fashion designers that have to make outfits out of like cotton balls and old shoestrings and then present them on toothpick-thin models in front of judges who all try to be nastier than Simon Cowell. It was fabulous! There's really nothing better than watching a chubby queenie guy call a skinny queenie guy a be-otch several times over the course of an hour. There was every human emotion represented here; crying, whining, eyes rolling back in your head, foot stomping, more whining, men with falsetto voices and lisps. And what made it even better was that I got to watch it with Mom. I actually cringed at the first "bitch" uttered, but after the 4th or 5th one, I realized that she was probably just saying a silent little prayer for them and moving right along because she found it all deliciously entertaining, too. She actually said that we'll have to remember that this in on next Thursday. Oh. My. God. I think I'm going to have to slowly ease her into baseball season ~ there's a lot of Tigers games in our future. I'll buy her a jersey!

Feast One Hundred & Seventy Seven
Appetizer
How many times per day do you usually laugh?
At least 2 or 3. On the rare occasion I'm actually in the company of Vic, dozens of times.

Soup
What do your sunglasses look like?
Tortoise-shell. Dollar store turtle, actually.

Salad
You win a free trip to anywhere on your continent, but you have to travel by train. Where do you go?
If by train, I'd pick Canada. They have some beautiful locations and some great train trips thru the mountains. And they have mooses.

Main Course
Name one thing you consider a great quality about living in your town/city.
The Tigers. Tigers, Tigers, Tigers.

Dessert
If the sky could be another color, what color do you think would look best?
A light shade of lavender.

Almost Nothing

Today will be the day of nothing. Almost. I got all our grocery shopping, for both Vic's mom and us, done yesterday and I also tidied up around the house we spend so little time in. Today is going to be all about watching football in front of the fire with a warm mug of hot chocolate and a pile of kitties at my feet. And washing clothes. (That's the "almost.") But I don't really mind doing laundry and it can be done while relaxing, so it's really no biggie.

It's been frigid cold here. We were at -3 w/the wind chill yesterday! I know that's it's probably colder in other parts of the U.S., but I'm not in other parts and it was pretty darn cold here! Perfect "stay at home & do nothing (except for the laundry)" day. So, I think I'll get started doing nothing right now!

90 Days of Ignoredness

I've been at my new job almost 90 days. I couldn't wait to leave my old job. As a matter of fact, I quit there before I had anything else lined up. It was possibly the worst job I've ever had, and I've had quite a few. The worst part about it was the people. Since this was a police department, the people were mostly guys and they were all so unfriendly and treated me like a piece of furniture. I'm not sure if it was me or if they just treated every dispatcher like crap.

Anyway, I started my new job 90 days ago all excited and bubbly. Almost all of the bubblies have burst. My team of people (5 other women) are some of the unfriendliest people I've ever encountered. No one speaks to me. I mean NO ONE speaks to me. If I try to join a conversation, they look at me like I've lost my mind. If I asking probing questions like, "How was your weekend?", they shrug and walk away. They order lunch, but don't ask me if I want anything, pass around baby pictures, but not to me and pretty much just ignore me for 8 hours. I just don't understand it ~ I am so not like that! It really makes my day seem like 16 hours.

My manager recently asked me to work in another dept. in the afternoons. Those people are so super nice that I'm in heaven. Everyone is friendly and I'm so starved for anyone to talk to me that I have to be careful not to be too overwhelming with my appreciation for the attention. I'm hoping I can eventually quit working with the mean people and just work entirely with the nice people. I have my 90 day evaluation next week ~ maybe I'll have some good news at the meeting.

Feast

Feast One Hundred & Seventy Five
Appetizer
What is your middle name? Would you change any of your names if you could? If so, what would you like to be called?
No middle name. And if I decided to change my name, I would choose Anastasia Beaverhausen.

Soup
If you were a fashion designer, which fabrics, colors, and styles would you probably use the most?
Lots of blue things. And pink burlap, a purple boa, dangly earrings (maybe snowmen, because everybody loves snowmen) and some Jimmy Choo shoes. Say "Jimmy Choo shoes" real fast. It's fun.

Salad
What is your least favorite chore, and why?
Cleaning the litterboxes for the obvious reason. And anything involving the bathroom ~ especially the tub.

Main Course
What is something that really frightens you, and can you trace it back to an event in your life?
Being in debt forever. It started the instant I signed the mortgage paperwork on this house. I cried for weeks afterward just thinking about owing all this money for so long.

Dessert
Where are you sitting right now? Name 3 things you can see at this moment.
Sitting at my desk in my house before I head over for the HGTV marathon with Vic's mom. Actually, I think she mentioned something about checking out some "Like yourself naked" show on Lifetime hosted by one of the Queer Eye guys. I really hope there won't be any naked people on the show ~ I just don't think I could watch naked people with Vic's mom. And the 3 things I see are 1) a framed picture of Shannon Banana, 2) our stack of firewood sitting next to the stove that we are definitely going to light this weekend for the few short hours we're home, and 3) our little Christmas tree that we haven't found time to take down yet.

HGTV Hell

So are you wondering what it's like to watch the Home & Garden channel all day, every day and with the volume turned up 2 decibals louder than dog hearing? Just. Ask. Me. I know far more than I'll ever need to know about how to stage my home for a For Sale open house, how to determine my own unique color splash, how to operate handsaws, bandsaws, tablesaws, seesaws, a shocky way to bring romance to any room, and how the colors in my home reflect who I am. And the loss of hearing in one ear is a small price to pay for the invaluable lessons I've experienced every frickin' night with Vic's mom and the HGTV home improvement crew. Did you know that artwork that's too personal is a big no-no when you're trying to sell your home? And everyone likes a big bathroom! Well duh!

Pam & Jim & Avril

I finally found a way to combine two of my favorite things; cheesy pop songs and The Office. You just gotta love that Avril Lavigne ~ what a wordsmith!

Hey, hey, you, you

I don't like your girlfriend.

She’s like so whatever

And you could do so much better

I think we should get together now

So feel free to enjoy a little Pam & Jim and Avril (do you think her mom just didn't know how to spell April?) and be thankful that I don't like some Jessica Simpson song. Does she even still sing or is she just mainly a football floozy now?

Bumming

Shortly before Vic & I started "Mom duty," I got slightly hooked on a few TV shows. The first is The Office. I really liked the British version, but never tuned into the American version because I didn't want to be disappointed. Huge mistake. I was surfing one night, happened upon a rerun and stuck around to check it out. Now I'm hooked and the stupid writers are on strike and I'm bumming. The other show I got slightly addicted to is Ninja Warrior. A real guy show if I've ever seen one. It's really just a bunch of Japanese guys going thru a ninja obstacle course to see who is the ninja-ist. But I like it. And Mom likes the Home & Garden network. A lot. HGTV is decidely not ninja-like and I'm bumming. Again.

Checking In

Not much new in my life right now, but I thought I'd check in anyway. About 75% of my time now is being spent at Vic's mom's house. When I do get home, all I want to do is just sit and enjoy my own messy house. I think Vic probably feels the same way, too. I decided to drop my online class; partly because I really didn't need it and mostly because I just don't have the time to write weekly papers. I'm still have my other class on my schedule ~ it starts in the middle of February. And maybe Vic & I will take down the Christmas tree today. Or maybe we'll just sit.

Resolutions

I made it to Mom's house before the big storm hit. And Shannon came with me! It doesn't sound like a big deal to you, but it's huge to me because Mom is allergic to just about everything, so Shannon never gets to visit. I guess she didn't want me driving back home early the next morning to let her out, so she said my Sweet Baboo could spend New Year's Eve at Grandma's! And it did storm ~ we got heaps of snow dumped on us. New Year's Eve was spent cross-stitching and I woke up Vic (she fell asleep on the couch) just before midnight so we could watch the ball drop together. New Year's Day was spent laying around Mom's house, cross-stitching, watching the Rose Parade (I voted for the Law & Order marathon, but was outvoted!) and watching Shannon play in the snow.

So I guess I'm suppose to resolve something, right? I never make New Year's resolutions because I'm afraid I won't keep them, but the whole point is that they are supposed to be motivators, right? So here are my 3 resolutions for2008:

1. Paint the upstairs bedroom. The only reason it hasn't been painted yet is because Vic & I have both been too lazy up to this point. No more.
2. Scrapbook at least thru 2006. I've got a shoebox of photos and souvenirs (all neatly organized, of course) that I really need to catch up on.
3. Try to get healthier. This one is kind've vague. I don't have a specific goal in mind, I just want to feel better all over.