Happy 2nd Elopiversary

Two years ago today, I left work a couple hours early so that I could run off and get married by a preacher in a track suit. Tim and I did not exchange vows that day (we saved that for the proper wedding in April), but by legally marrying on that day in 2005, my dear Tim was allowed to stay in the United States with me. Aaaaaaaw! In honor of our elopiversary, I decided to make the traditional desert of elopement: spice cake! But somehow that turned into carrot cupcakes with a lovely orange & cream cheese frosting. Still spicy, though, so it counts! And that frosting is too amazing for words. Maybe I'll post the recipe someday so you can eat it straight out of the bowl while watching "Somewhere In Time" for the 16th time.

But before you do that, please gander at these pics from the second day of my visit to Seattle! It was Friday - Derek's birthday - and it was chock full of fun.

Dizzy was quite interested in the wind-up toys we got for george at the market.


For lunch, Derek & I met up with george for cupcakes. Guess which cupcake is Derek's!


What is more stereotypically touristy Seattle than Starbucks and the Space Needle?


The Fremont Bridge Troll (which, oddly enough, is NOT under the Fremont Bridge. Hmm!).


The largest Lenin statue in the USA. You can own it for only $150,000. Really!


Archie McPhee - home for tons of happy crap!





After a marvelous dinner of Thai food, we went back to the apartment & played with all of the wind-up toys we could find.


Bubba & Stewart, paralyzed with joy.

Seattle Pics, Part 1

Some of the harsher edges of my jet lag have smoothed out, so it's time to post some piccies from Seattle! Wee!!!

So I arrived in Seattle at about 11am Pacific Time on Thursday, January 25th. Within about an hour of picking me up, Derek had already taken me to Pikes Place Market. And that is where I took my fist pic of the trip.
That's right. It's a giant squid. It was hanging near the store that sells nothing but wind-up toys (That's it! Just wind-up toys!). I believe it was at this moment that I realized that this trip would truly kick ass. And boy was I ever right! I must admit that the first day was kinda overwhelming. So much to do and see! I was also feeling a bit self-conscious about taking photos. But here's what I got. Enjoy!


This is the fish stand where they hurl fish through the air to amuse the tourists.










"AARRHHRR! I'm a monk fish!" Another sign says "We deliver to downtown hotels!" Are they implying that one should purchase a raw fish as a souvenir?















Elvis is working as a fortune teller in a magic shop in Seattle. Who knew!


















The Giant Shoe Museum. Note that museum itself isn't giant; just the shoes.



After george got out of work, I was taken to Ikea - my very first trip to the famous store. I think I was too overcome with shock and joy (and exhaustion) to take pics while we were there. It's like a multi-hour Disney World ride dedicated to furniture. Amazing.


Food ethnicities consumed on my first day:
Indian (at the buffet around the corner from george's job)
Swedish (at Ikea!)

Mary: The Return!

The good news: I'm back from Seattle! And I had a faaaaaaabulous time. Truly. No words can express the fabulosity of my visit with george & Derek. I urge you all to head up there as soon as you can.

The not so good news: I am exhausted. So I'll post pics from the trip later.

Winter (Here and elsewhere)

Yesterday morning we awoke to find that winter had finally visited our neighborhood. Hooray! Our first snow at our new place! It was so nice to see the white stuff clinging to the tall pines that surround the house. I gotta say, though ... after all the snow that the rest of the country has gotten, I kinda feel like we're the lame kids who jumped onto a trend just as it has started to lose its hip edge. But unlike the rest of you, we have already managed to discard that oh-so-yesterday layer of snow and ice. A shame, too. I was enjoying it!

My family isn't enjoying this, though. My parents' house has been without power for a solid week now. My parents are staying with m mom's best friend (and my Other Mom), Helen. There is still a very solid, very thick layer of ice all over everything & more snow may fall in the Tulsa area this weekend. I'm sure they are positively SICK of winter now. But I must admit that I haven't had enough yet.

I may have another chance to experience winter because, in less than a week, I'm going to Seattle! I'm still kinda in shock that I'm going to be traveling to the other corner of the country, but I'm quite familiar with long flights, as my dear readers should know! What's funny is that I feel positively SURROUNDED by Seattle-related messages. I've seen 3 or 4 travel or food shows about Seattle in just the past week! I guess one could say that I have caved under the pressure of the Seattle Tourism Bureau. But I think we all know what has really drawn me to the Pacific Northwest; It'll be so fun to see Derek & george & the cats! And as a bonus, we'll get to go all sorts of places and see new things. We may even run up to Canada just for the hell of it! Hooray!

Random Seattle-related links I'm investigating:
Urban Spoon Seattle: Restaurant info!
Chowhound's Pacific Northwest board: More food-related stuff. A gal has got to have priorities.
Bremerton, WA : One of my on-line friends lives here
Daiso: A chain that carries cheap, cheerful Japanese stuff. I thought george might enjoy it.
Seattle Virtual Tour: Not as fun as being with us, but whaddayagonnado? ;)

Ice Ice Baby

It was an interesting week. We had a dinner party last weekend, which was nice. And then Tim decided that he'd really like a telescope, so he went to an astronomy club meeting. And my mother said some things that scared me (the words "pinky ring" and "your father" were uttered in the same sentence), but we got that straightened out. And Aunt Flow came over & made me miserable for a while (A bleeding Mary is a melodramatic Mary). And to top it all off, there was an ENORMOUS ice storm.

Well, there was an ice storm in Oklahoma, at any rate. But not here. No, it was unseasonably warm & occasionally sunny around here. Notice the woman in shorts in the above photo. Shorts, for gawd's sake! Such apparel is not proper in January, Indeed, I felt it wasn't quite warm enough outside for shorts on the particular day in question. But it was unusually warm. One might even say it has been "toasty" lately, but only if you're talking about the kind of toast that has been sitting on a plate for a while so that it has gotten a bit cool but has still retained some heat and has accumulated a bit of condensation on the plate-side so that it has become slightly damp underneath. Yeah. That's the kinda toasty weather we've had. It isn't moist, but there's a bit of moisture in the air from the occasional fit of rain.

Nevertheless, it has been fairly sunny & we've even ventured outdoors without coats. One of those occasions occured yesterday when, in an effort towards empathy, we went out in search of ice. Flavorful ice on a stick, to be precise. And that lead us to Locopops, a little shop that sells gourmet Mexican-style popsicles. In those brief moments while we sucked on our popsicles, it felt almost as though we, too, were frozen under two inches of ice with our loved ones. Almost.

By the by, I got the chocolate brownie & Tim got strawberries & cream. We are nothing if not .... painfully boring. We'll get something exotic next time. Promise.


Speaking of Scooby Doo, we bought the telescope. We looked at Saturn & star clusters last night! Yay!

Chick Pix

Without further ado, I bring you a chicken's memories of Tulsa.

First stop: ORU and the Praying Hands


The Golden Driller at Expo Square. There were go-cart races going on while we were there!

Downtown T-Town



Getting her kicks on 66


A chicken's first Christmas

Xmas piccies

For Christmas this year, my darling husband got me a digital camera.

This made me feel kinda crap because all I got for him was a Dr. Who box set and some slacks. Okay, I also got him a sweater (seen in the above photo), but that certainly pales in comparison to my sweet camera. It's much nicer than his old camera (which is so old that it does not even have a zoom. I kid you not). Plus, my camera fits in my purse! So now I take it with me everywhere.

And this means you all should expect more photos from me from here on out. Yay! But I've never done this before, so in addition to this post being a little slide show of our Xmas celebrations, it is kinda a test. If something looks wrong or the pics are so huge that you can only see Tim's eyebrow in the first pic, I hope you'll mention it to me. Constructive criticism is all good. And many thanks to my brothers because they took many of the photos here.


In our family, Christmas just isn't Christmas without my mother's made-from-scratch yeast rolls. They are amaaaaaazing.
My brother, Ray, helps make the rolls now, too. He was at my parents' home before 8am on Xmas day just so he could start making the dough. Now that's dedication! In the photo below you can see his hands rolling the dough into balls. My only job in this process is to drench the rolls in a couple layers of melted butter before we pop them in the oven. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.


Notice the paper tubes at each place setting? Those are Christmas Crackers - an English tradition. I got them as a surprise for Tim. Rip them open & they make a CRACK sound. Inside is a paper crown, a bad joke, and a toy. I chose crackers with a musical theme, so we all got a little whistle & music to go with them. It was ... an interesting experiment. :)
Obligatory photo of the tree post present-opening extravaganza. Mom has developed this habit of buying us wacky Xmas ornaments every year. I think the weirdest one she got for me is made up of three multi-colored chickens wearing high heels and fancy hats. They're 3 French hens, get it? Huh? Get it?!?! HaHaHa!!! Well, it always amuses Mom, at any rate. In retaliation, last year I got her an ornament of a lobster in a grass skirt that will wave its claws if you pull a string that comes out of its tail. Beat THAT, Mom!
The Emily Pup looking unusually calm and dignified.

Me in my Christmas cracker crown. King me!

One: Cut a whole in a box ...

Shortly after I arrived in T-town, my parents' internet connection. Died. Or at the very least, it behaved as if it were barely holding onto the last little dregs of life. One night it took 20 minutes for a single page to download. And that was on a good day. So that's why I didn't up-date my blog while I was gone. It's a shame because now I'm struggling to remember all the things I wanted to write about!

At least I can give you this belated Christmas present. If you're reading this, Mom, I apologize. For the rest of you, enjoy!


Randomness: Here's the MySpace page for the guys who make the Tulsa t-shirts. According to George, I know one of them. Small world!

Don't Hate the 918

I'm back. In fact, I got back Wednesday night. Or should I say that I barely got back because I almost missed my flight out of Tulsa (grumble security mumble grumble). I had to do that whole running-down-the-concourse thing, because (of course) my gate was the VERY last one. My flight was announced as closed just as the gate came into view, so I ended up yelling, "Wait! Wait!" as I finished running to the gate. Yup, just like in one of those damn movies.

I've noticed that my life is turning into one big cliche after another. Even my romantic life feels like a strange mix of Sleepless in Seattle plus You've Got Mail plus Notting Hill. My father-in-law once said we should write our story & sell the film rights. Maybe he has a point. But then I think about what sort of actresses might be chosen to play me & I wince a little.

At any rate, I made it. I left the 918 & am back in the 919. But I'm suffering from a bit of a post-holiday hang-over. It isn't that I miss Christmas. It's just that I miss Tulsa. Which is why I am now the proud owner of a "Tulsa Rocks" t-shirt. Yay. :)


Random fact: The Blue Whale in Catoosa has a MySpace page. Yup, even a giant fiberglass whale is more hip than I am.

Leavin' on a jet plane ...

I'll be in Oklahoma tomorrow afternoon. In the hours before that, I will be running around like crazy, trying to accomplish all the crap I should have done in the last few weeks. Joy!

Bunnies & waffles!

We officially have a social life. For 4 weekends in a row, Tim and I saw people. We had them to our place or went to their place or went out someplace else. Amazing!

Saturday night, we visited Kevin & Shawna's place (They own bunnies!). Jennifer and Kyle and Mark (the only other F1 fan in the area) came over, too. Jennifer and Kyle had just left a bell choir concert. T'would seem that the local bell choir kicks some serious ass! They do the traditional Xmas songs, of course, but apparently they do an amazing rendition of "Rock You Like a Hurricane"! Oh, how I wish we'd known about that concert. Maybe next year.

And did I mention the bunnies? Yay! Anyway, Mark and Jennifer had not had the pleasure of playing on the Wii yet, so we played doubles tennis, as well as bowling & golf. And we drank a bit and shared the fact that "Fergilicious" is following us all over the place and there seems to be no escaping that damn song!!! And after dinner we played Texas Hold'Em and I did sooooooo well. I took risks I wouldn't have taken a year ago & won oodles of chips! Guess all those hours watching poker with Tim is soaking in, afterall. And I got to pet the bunnies, too.

But I gotta confess; bunnies are kinda ... creepy. I mean, they seem really sweet and fluffy and the hopping is adorable, of course. But they make no facial expressions whatsoever. They just STARE. And STARE. They even sleep with their eyes wide open sometimes. How can you tell when they're happy? Or annoyed? Or even tired? That's not right. At least we all had a great time and agreed that we have to get together again after Xmas.

And then there was Sunday!

Remember Thanksgiving? When Tim and I went over to eat with "Tes" and about 2 dozen of her loved ones? That's when we met her best friend, Meryl. Meryl gave me a call last week & said, "Let's get together!" but she's still recovering from a surgery she had a month ago, so we decided to have a girly brunch-&-a-movie thingy at her house. We ate waffles & apple cinnamon muffins & tea & chocolate. We talked a loooooot; we've had some eerily similar health issues (that I won't get into here) & it was amazing to talk to someone who really really understands some of the things I've been through.

We eventually watched "Memoirs of a Geisha", which is basicly a chick flick dressed up to look like an artsy movie. It's got love-at-first-sight, a make-over montage, a wacky "This isn't what it looks like!" scene ... the whole bit. It's very pretty to look at, too, but the story is VERY chick flick. Just so ya know.

Since Meryl still cannot lift anything over 5 pounds, I whipped up a little dinner for her while she drifted off into a Xanax-induced cloud. She has another MRI scheduled for after Xmas. Fingers crossed that she gets to return to work soon. Staying at home is driving her insane!


Getting out and being social is good. It's making me feel less anxious about living here for a while. But ya know, it still isn't as good as hanging out with my old peeps. I love you guys!!!!

Back to our usual diversions

How can it be Saturday already? It doesn't feel like Saturday to me. It feels more like ... oh, I don't know ... Thursday. Maybe Friday. But since Tim is home and puttering about the house, it must be Saturday. Which means it has officially been more than a week since I visited the local yarn store.

Yes, that's right. Yarn. I know that I said that I was switching over to cooking as a hobby, but all that talk made me feel nostalgic for the feeling of sitting on the couch with my latest project sprawled across my lap.

So I stopped by the new yarn store & met the owner & had a nice chat with her. I told her I was thinking about making a light shawl for my mother-in-law. She brought over a huge book, opened it up to a random page and suddenly my mind was flooded with memories. The first picture was an undeniable image of the Mathematical Bridge in Cambridge (see left). There were photos of Kings College and the Clare Bridge (see right) that I crossed every day on my way to meals. It was a wonderful journey down memory lane.

And luckily, the patterns also featured on these pages are GORGEOUS. The book is titled "Victorian Lace Today". Kris, if you are reading this, please take my advice and hunt down this book. The photos from it on the internet do not do it justice. Beautiful things. Tons of inspiration. I think I may have to pick up the needles again.

In other hobby news, last night Tim had a dream. He dreamed up a variation of Double-12 Dominoes that involves playing the game with poker chips. He described the basic rules to me & we've been discussing the variations in game play & score keeping. I imagine we'll test it on the family at Christmas. They're good guinea pigs for this sort of thing (even though my brother Mike can get a bit emotional about the results sometimes). If only there was a way that Tim could profit from these games he invents! I'm afraid there's little hope for that, though. Afterall, whatever happened to the guy who invented No Limit Texas Hold 'Em? Has his idea earned him anything more than bragging rights?

I must say, though. It's kinda comforting knowing that he's back to his ol' game designs. Gives him that charming air of a wacky scientist.

Snippets o' Conversation

Here are some things said to me during recent phone converations.

Derek: I think I'm getting my first period.

Mom: Oh dear. Maybe I should have included instructions with the marshmallows.

George: They should put signs on each individual Christmas light saying, "This light is not funded by the City of Seattle".

Meryl: It's Thanksgiving and I'm wearing a freakin' neck brace, but my mother is accusing me of being an abusive child.

Leazle: I just drove past the Liberace Museum. Holy crap, how did people NOT know he was gay?!?

Christmas List

My family has been asking me for my Christmas list. Since I am spoiled rotten, it was hard for me to come up with things, but I beat my head against the arm of the couch for a while & came up with these gems. I've sent the list to my family via e-mail, but hey! Why not make a blog entry that details my desires, too?! What better way to peak into a person's mind than to see what they want for Xmas? The following is the entire e-mail.

Sadly, I forgot to add mint M&Ms to the list. Drat!

====================================================

Here are some ideas for me for Christmas! I would also be fine with gift certificates or a hair cut or interesting books I've never heard of or just love and understanding. I honestly can't think of much that I need! But I racked my brain for you & came up with these.

DVDs:
"Moulin Rouge" box set (complete with all the extras, please!)
"My Neighbor Totoro" 2-Disc set (NOT the full-screen edition)
"Waiting for Guffman"
"Beauty & the Beast" Platinum edition box set (This is the one with all the special extras, but I don't think it's available in stores anymore. You might find it on Amazon, though).

CDs
Scissor Sisters - "Ta Dah" (But if you can't find that, their first CD "Scissor Sisters" would be nice, too)
Regina Spektor - "Begin To Hope" (I'd like the one in the YELLOW box, please. It has an additional disc of songs.)
Soundtrack to the "Josie & the Pussycats" movie (No, I am not kidding. The movie would be good, too, but I want the CD more)
Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer - (Actually, anything by this band would be nice. They're hard to find.)

Books
"I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence" by Amy Sedaris
"The Everlasting Story of Nory" by Nicholson Baker

Magazine Subscriptions
The Sun (No, not the gossip rag! www.thesunmagazine.org )
Cooks Illustrated ( www.cooksillustrated.com )
Cabinet ( www.cabinetmagazine.org )

Company Holiday Party

Last night was the big holiday party for Tim's workplace. And right on schedule, I felt severely nauseated about 30 minutes before we were supposed to leave. Silly psychosomatic blahbiddyblah. Not to worry, though. I managed to pull myself together & we only left 20 minutes late. And since the first hour of the party was just a cocktail hour thingy, that means we didn't really miss anything.

[Speaking of Scooby-Do, some guy on Antiques Roadshow just said "Purple is the color of morning." But he may have meant "mourning". But neither of those versions of the statement makes sense to me. Granted, this is the UK version of the show and you know how crazy those English chaps can be.]

Anywho. So we got there & Kevin & Shawna were there & waiting for us & we picked a place to sit together & drank wine & wondered if Jennifer & Kyle were going to show up & I speculated that they were avoiding me. First they skipped our dinner party last weekend, and now this! Yeah, so maybe Jennifer got in a bad car wreck & is having back problems. But I know better. They hate me. That's the obvious answer. 'Cause it's all about me, ya know.

Next the hors d'oevres were presented. Which we then called "horse derves", like ya do. Then we just started calling them "whores" for short.
Tim: I'm going to go get some whores.
Kevin: Mary, do you want to get some whores?
Me: No, I'll just eat some of Tim's.

Ah, the hilarity!

We had a fun time. I met more people. Talked a lot. I couldn't eat all of my filet mignon because I was still feeling sickly. And then we noticed that some people had gotten to the point where they were having a little too much fun. Honestly, why do companies provide an open bar at company parties? They're only asking for trouble. One guy in particular was talking with Tim about a current project and, while he mightily praised Tim and his efforts, he also said some rather harsh things about another co-worker ... and he said these harsh things kinda loudly. And then he suggested that Tim should go to the bar with him and get smashed. It was around that time that Tim decided that we should head home. I'm sure Tim would rather hear about the scandals on Monday morning rather than be a participant on Friday night.

Kevin & Shawna invited us to their place next weekend. I like them. Kevin is Tim's office mate & they have very similar temperments. They spend their days solving programming riddles & debating the differences between hot pots and proper electric kettles. Shawna is sweet, too, & her piercings remind me of friends who are far away.

The only downside is that they are yooooooung. So young. Neither of them had heard of Abba. Or Erasure. But they own bunnies and they're going to let us pet their bunnies & that's why we really wanted to befriend them in the first place, so I'm sure we can get past our differences for the sake of the bunnies. Yup.

You're Dead To Me!

Hobby or disease?

I'm kinda crafty. Not in the sneaky sense, but in the sense that I enjoy making things as a hobby. I learned how to crochet just before I left for college - way back before it was the hip thing to do. In the years since then, I've knitted & crocheted many things, including 3 blankets, a handful of hats, and more scarves than I can recall.

And here is where we confront the problem with this hobby; When you're done with a project, you're stuck with this object. This thing that takes up space. My hobby began to make me feel restricted. I felt that either I had to make something useful for myself or for someone else. This is why so many of my loved ones now own scarves made by yours truly.

But I have developed a new hobby since moving to NC: cooking. It's fantastic! I can finish a project in one day! And other people can enjoy it with me! Indeed, I'm making something useful that everyone needs everyday: food. Why didn't I realize this before? Love it! So as you can imagine, I have been cooking a lot lately. We barely ever eat out any more. Tim definitely enjoys my little experiments in the kitchen and I love the fact that the house isn't crowded with the results of my efforts. Although I must confess that I have bought a few more kitchen tools, but I humbly argue that these are far more useful and take up much less space than all of those scarves.

My latest purchase was a rolling pin. And you would not believe the amount of research I did on rolling pins (there are a lot of opinions out there on the subject). I was compelled to buy a rolling pin because we had friends over for dinner last weekend (Tim's office mate, K, & his girlfriend) and Tim requested apple streudel for dessert. Yup, real apple streudel. Homemade. I rolled out the pastry dough on our countertop. And I gotta tell you, I have never been more happy while using a rolling pin.

Which kinda makes me concerned. I mean, what the hell is that about? Could it be that something bizarre is happening to my brain? Am I officially turning into one of those precious little stereotypical housewives? Or is it something I can blame on the brain spider? I don't know whether I should be concerned or if I should just sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labors. Is this an illness? And if so, did I catch it from The Food Network or Cooks Illustrated magazine? I don't want to give up Cooks Illustrated, though. That's a reeeeeeally good magazine. It's like Consumer Reports for cooks. You should check it out sometime. Really. It'll blow. your. miiiiiiiind, man.

See?!? Now I'm becoming a pusher! Ack!

Another American accent quiz

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Forgive me, but I find these accent quizzes to be simply fascinating. Who knew I had so much Boston in me? I have to agree, though, that I have a very dull middle-of-the-road accent. No one in this country ever asks where I'm from because my voice isn't different enough, but that really isn't a bad thing. When I was at Cambridge I met a guy with that sereotypical Boston accent and, holy god, I could barely understand a thing he said! Granted, he wasn't as bad as Brad Pitt in "Snatch", but it was still difficult.

Anywho, as you can probably tell, I'm tinkering with the color scheme on my blog. I want to make the header shorter so that you don't have to scroll down to see the top of the latest post, but I can't figure that out on my own. I'll pester Tim about it when he wakes up. As for the colors, the greens felt too dark and gloomy for me. Plus, I'm not fond of reading light-colored text on a dark background. I've still got some tinkering to do. And I'm open to suggestions if you have any. Just put 'em in Ye Olde Comment Box.

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!

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!

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!

Whut kinda 'merican do youinz talk like?

Your Linguistic Profile:

60% General American English

20% Dixie

15% Yankee

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

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.

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. :)

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.)