Thursday, November 30, 2006

Hoffy B-day, G!


Today is george's birthday! Everybody say WOOT!
WOOT!
Here's hoping it is her first chocolate-free birthday ever.

Last night I called her just after midnight my time 'cause I figured she might as well start celebrating early, right? Right! I also thought that maybe she could open her b-day box from me whilst on the telephone, but said box was languishing at the local post office. Poopie. Here's hoping that she can make it there today, despite the blizzard-like conditions. I hear the weather is miserable in T-town, too. Ice! Sleet! And up to 2 feet of snow! Madness! Especially considering it is currently a sunny 72F in my neck of the woods.

Back to birthday stuff. There is one little thing that I could not include in george's birthday box, but I've decided to make up for it by sharing it with all of you. It's an unusal gift because it's a link. But it's a good one. It will fill your heart with gladness. Delight and good humor will flow through your veins. You'll be shvitzing joy. Truly.

Warm up the printer. Grab some scissors and crayons. And above all else, enjoy.
"I <3 The Hoff" Super Fantastic Activity Fun Book.

What's that, you say? You'd rather not hassel with The Hoff? Prefer your arts & crafts to have a more punk edge to it? Fine. For the hipsters out there, I also bequeath unto you, the Dead Milkmen's Punk Rock Girl paper doll

Happy George's Birthday to everyone!

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Visitors, past & future



Hey, gang! Check out these hot chicks! Does it get any cuter than that? I think not. As I said yesterday, it was sooooooo so good to see Kris & talk with her & just hang out with a friend who has known me for ages. Very fun, and also comforting in a way. Yay!

And it sounds like another pal will be visiting the area in April. This is an internet pal (I have quite a few. No shame in that!), so although I've been aquainted with her for about 6 years & we've chatted & mailed stuff to one another, we've never met in person. Her name is Janice. She's a writer. You can learn all about her at Girlbomb.com. I am so thrilled that we'll finally get to meet!

By the by, Janice finished the final draft of her second book this week & she sent the first chapter to me today.
Oh.
My.
Heavy stuff, as I was expecting. But sooooo good. Can't wait to flip the pages & read the rest. But knowing the publishing biz, it might be another year before I can pick it up at the local Borders. Oh, the anticipation!

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Thanksgiving weekend


From a recent phone conversation ...
George: How was your Thanksgiving?
Me: Well, we have a 20-pound concrete chicken sitting on our dining table. I think that about sums it up.

Thanksgiving was SOOOOOO fun! This was quite a surprise, seeing as we were surrounded by people we'd never seen before, but no matter. We had a blast. That's what counts. As you probably know, Tim and I met on the internet on a message board. Another person on that message board ("Tes") invited us to her house for Thanksgiving. Tes is a hilarious lady and I was flattered that she invited us (and relieved, as well!). There were about 20 other people there, all of them very sweet and welcoming and funny and interesting. Tes was an excellent host and really helped us all feel comfortable, which lead to some great conversation. I had a great time!

There was also a concrete chicken in attendance. Apparently, this chicken is very well traveled. Tes and her husband bought the chicken a number of years ago as a prank. Since then, the chicken has periodically disappeared, always returning accompanied by photographs from its journey. With help and encouragement from Tes' niece, we decided that the chicken should see Oral Roberts University. So we are now in posession of said chicken. I wonder if Tes has figured that out yet. Tee hee!

On the day after Thanksgiving, we got together with Kris! She and Josh were in town visiting family for Turkey Day. It was soooooo nice to see her and talk with her! We did a little shopping, ate a little lunch, & even brought her out to the hizzouse, peeps. So she can confirm that, indeed, we live in a cute little corner of the world. We played on the Wii with her (and took pics just to make Josh jealous), then spent a couple hours hanging out with Josh's family. Good times.

But here's the problem. Two days of solid socializing has totally spoiled me. Now I feel like Tim and I need to GET OUT! And SEE PEOPLE!!! What a concept!

Friday, November 24, 2006

Whut kinda 'merican do youinz talk like?

Your Linguistic Profile:
60% General American English
20% Dixie
15% Yankee
0% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Wii! Stuff I like from the last week

1. Cinnamon ice cream. Our local dairy is making it as a seasonal flavor. Nummy. Not as good as sticky toffee pudding ice cream, but still loverly.

2. I can tell that I liked the new James Bond movie because I didn't finish my bag of candy ... and the movie was about 2 & 1/2 hours long. A good sign for me.

3a. Sounds like out darling Love Gunn has pierced many a heart out there! Tim Gunn is featured in the People sexiest-men-blah-blah issue. Haven't seen the issue, but I'm thrilled for him anyway! Yay! You can watch a video of Tim here. Who knew he prefers boxer briefs! Niiiiice.

3b. Mr. Gunn on the Colbert Report! Check it out here. Tim shows up around Minute #1. My vote is for Jefferson #2.

4. Here's where the geekiness begins. You've been warned.

I like the Wii! I actually like playing video games. Who knew this could happen?! Astounding. We got ours late last week, a few days before they hit the shelves. It's smaller than I thought it would be and certainly more fun than I expected, too. I wish you all could go to a store and try it out, but that's kinda impossible because ... well, the handset is wireless & I guess they don't want to risk anyone wandering off with it. Sorry. Such a shame because the handset is the BEST part of the system. That and the cute kawaii-esque interactive menu thingy. But the handset (they call it a "Wii-mote") is so fun! For those who don't know, it senses movement. So you play games by moving the handset. So, for example, when you're playing tennis, you just swing the handset as if it were a tennis racket. Super cool!

The machine came with Wii Sports (the sports consisting of golf, bowling, tennis, baseball, and boxing). Good times! The golf game takes a bit of practice (especially the putter). But the bowling! Oh, the bowling. I scored a 147!!! Coming from a gal who usually scores around 40 during real-life bowling, I couldn't be more thrilled with my Wii bowling score. Oddly enough, Tim's Wii bowling score was pretty similar to what he gets in real life. Interesting, that. I think it's because he's putting more spin on the ball than I am. And yes, you can put spin on the ball simply by twisting your wrist a bit. It's so cool the way that the handset works! Tim said that at work they were playing doubles tennis & it was fan-damn-tastic. Sadly, that won't be happening in our home for some time because we only have one full handset (in gamer's terms, that's 1 Wiimote and 1 nunchuck). We will bring it with us to T-Town for Xmas. Should make my brothers happy.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Top 10 - or Shot Through the Heart by a Love Gunn

I am convinced that there is some sort of evil blog-eating monster out there that goes around, eating blog entries. I suspect this because not only did George lose a post recently, but so did I! I just know that I posted in here more recently than the 3rd. Hmmm.

Well, here are the top 10 events of my life since my last post.
1. We went to a post-Halloween party and met some more of Tim's co-workers. They're actually really cool! And the guy who was hosting the party has converted his basement into this amazing video arcade. I think there were 15 old-school video games down there! Soooooooo kick ass! Tim and I also played pool and a lot of people sang karaoke. A nice time was had by all.
2. I finally finally saw an entire play here. It was The Exonerated, performed by a company that Byron recommended to me. I saw it with Tim and Pam. It was good, but it kinda shook me up because it made me think of Richard. Sigh. George and I need to start having theatrical-viewing experiences that do not bring us to tears.
3. We ended up seeing the play on the afternoon before Guy Fawkes Night. How bizarre is it that we saw a play about death row inmates on a day that is named after a man who was publicly executed? Very odd. At any rate, we ate bakes potatoes and hot dogs, so we kinda sorta kept up with tradition.
4. The election! Yay! I know that not everyone who reads my blog is a Democrat, but I hope that a part of them will appreciate the idea of having a more balanced system of checks and balances. Yay!
5. Britney left her skanky sperm factory! And yes, I know it sound ridiculous to be happy about this, but I am.
6. Tim's company had a fancy surprise breakfast catered for the employees ... just because. Chefs were available to make omelets & everything. How cool!
7. My favorite thing: George met Tim Gunn!!!!!! TIM GUNN!!!! From Project Runway! My FAVORITE person on television! He just walked into her workplace of his own free will and stood around and chatted with her for a few minutes! And she told him about the fact that my cable system is trying to come between me and my love of PR. And he told her to thank me for remaining a fan! Tim Gunn THANKED me, people! Tim Gunn appreciates my love! Can you say eeeeeeeeee?! I know I can! EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!
8. Lots of happy foodie things are happening around here. We have a genuine French patisserie right here in this tiny town in which I live. Yay! And we went out to a pub in this widdle town for dinner, where I ate quail for the first time (New foods! Yay!). And we went to our favorite gourmet foodie place, where we met someone from Joseph Schmidt Confections and ate free chocolate truffles and bought even more truffles.
9. I finally saw Flushed Away. It was okay. The characters are not nearly as endearing as the ones in other Aardman films, but it was okay. I wish it were doing better at the box office, though, because that would translate into more sales of the video game! ;)
10. The only down side: I hurt my foot. Basically, my foot was asleep and I tried to walk on it, but instead of putting my weight onto the sole of my foot, I ended up stepping down on the top of my foot. There was a popping sound. And pain. But since my foot was still kind asleep, the pain just got worse and worse as my foot continued to awaken! Ouch! It's okay now, though. After 4 days, I'm now walking normally.

Ummmm ... I think that's about it. Random happenings. Yay. :)

Friday, November 03, 2006

Happy things


The internet is bothering me a bit lately. So negative! So much bitchery! I'm weary from it all. Let's focus on things that make us happy, shall we?

Happy thing #1: I bought a sweater shaver. And I am in love. Laugh all you like, but this thing kicks serious ass. I have a teal-blue sweater that was covered in ugly pilly bits & was looking tired and old. But now that baby looks brand new and feels sooooo smooooth. I feel compelled to shave all the woolens in the house. So far I have merely shaved 3 sweaters, but I need another fix. By the by, the image here is not of the shaver I got. I simply purchased the cheapy $5 version at Target. But that baby on the right is the fancy-schmancy Alessi sweater shaver. It has 3 different settings and costs almost $40. It may be a bit more shaver than I need, but I may buy it in a moment of weakness just because it's so freakin' cute.

Happy thing #2: Trick-or-treaters. I stayed home on Halloween this year for various reasons. But I'm glad I did. I enjoyed going door-to-door for candy as a kid & I'm glad to be keeping the tradition alive for the next generation. So I saw princesses and pirates and even a little frog that was so captivated by our aquarium that he ran into the house to look at the fish!

Happy thing #3: Leftover Halloween candy. Mmmmmm ... Junior Miiiiiiints ...

Happy thing #4: I saw a play with Pam and her friend Byron last week (I will probably write about that later). And this weekend Pam and I are hoping to hang out again. And on Saturday night Tim and I are going to a party with his friends at work. So we are slowly developing a social life! Wee!

Happy thing #5: A fluffy duvet on a cold night.

Happy thing #6: Bjork singing "Cry Me A River" (Click here to hear it). Not a happy song, I know, but she sounds great singing it. It also somehow got me to wondering what it would have been like if Bjork had married Robert Smith and they made babies together. Wouldn't that have been fantastic?

Happy thing #7: The soft ginger cookies I'm going to bake now. Yum!

Happy thing#8: Shoes. Shoes. Shoes. Omigawd! Shoes.
(Just watch this. My favorite part starts at the 3 minute mark.)