Spite Cards

So, as most of you know I like sending out Christmas cards. It is something my mom always did growing up. I like receiving Christmas cards even more. Because, even though I get plenty of mail now, growing up December was really the only time of the year I opened mail. (I still love opening mail, so, if you ever feel like sending me something don't let how small and/or dumb it may be hold you back.) I was allowed to open all the cards that had "and family" on the envelope, if they were just addressed to my parents I had to wait (I am not totally sure of the reasoning there, but thems the rules).

I see this whole Christmas card thing with my family (friends are excluded since I know not all of them send out cards) as a tit for tat kind of thing. For example, if I send my Aunt Larry (names changed in case someone ever stumbles across this blog... or I tell someone to check it out and forget I posted this) a card , I expect one in return from her, because I know she sends one to my mom. For the past 5 years I have sent her a card. Guess how many I have gotten in return... go ahead, guess.

You are a genius! You are right, 0. Zero cards.

One would say maybe I should just stop sending her cards. But...I can't. I am physically unable to stop. What if she finds out I sent one to Aunt Curly and Uncle Moe and not her? It doesn't matter that she never sends me one. If she were to find out, I could never go to Christmas again.

Now, Aunt Larry isn't the only one who doesn't return cards. Many of my cousins don't reciprocate either. Again, I know they send them out, with pictures of their children, because my mom gets them. I don't even need the pictures, just send me the damn card!

So now, these are my Spite Christmas cards. I will send them out to be the "better" person, to wish them the JOY of the holiday season. Of course all at the same time I am mad that I am sending them a damn card.

I am a complicated human being.

And yes, I know I should see someone about this.

Huh

Kind of morbid, but kind of fun...

$4425.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth.

Austin Dating

Thanksgiving Part II

So you know what I did this weekend?

First, and foremost, the floor, a year and a half later, is finally finished. Here is a beautiful picture of the molding:



The we re-arranged the furniture... look how spacious it looks!



And from the other angle (pay no mind to the screen):



Also! We installed a new shower head, which wasn't even a job I was planning to do!



(Did you notice me waving?)

So, who wants to pick paint samples?



....and then help me paint some? Also, any ideas for art work? I don't like anything that I have now.

Thanksgiving Part I

Two words: Kid's Table.

Yup. I had 11 years on the next oldest person at the table, and yet, there I was. I was also (jokingly, but totally not funny) that if I bring a man next year I can sit at the adult table. My sister, joked, which was funny, that I should bring a woman and see what happens.


But, at least the week did get better. I know this is a v.short entry, but it is to get me back on the wagon after my sabbatical from NaBloPoMo...which I have obviously lost at this point. Hopefully, this has gotten me back on the habit and I will post more often for the rest of the year.

Rain, rain...Come Here!

I want to wear my new boots! I have never owned a pair of wellies, and I can't wait to try them out, even if that does mean I am walking to work in the rain.

Running out of Steam

Hmmm...I have no idea what to write about today... work was worky. The Gap didn't have the shirt I wanted. And, to top it off, Whole Foods was lacking in the salad bar department tonight.


On the upside, WF did have scallion parsley hummus, and my parents get her tomorrow...which means I should be cleaning rather than blogging.


PS - Has blogger been wonky for anyone else? It adds links places I didn't put them? Messes up formatting? Oh wait, none of you know since you haven't been updating!

Oh my...

My nephew is 12 years old.

He is in the 7th grade.

He plays football and is already being recruited by high schools.

I don't even know how to react to that.



Especially when my sister goes over to talk to the coach and see what he is talking to Brad about and asks to talk to my brother-in-law instead. Stupid coach.

Save the Date

May 17, 2009... that is my 30th Birthday. That is a little weird to type.


Because it is my birthday, and therefore I can do what I want (that's the rule right?), I have decided we are doing one of the tasting menus at Restaurant Eve.

However, I plan on paying. I want a big party, but I don't want you guys to foot the bill. Again, it is my birthday so I can do what I want.

So Abi? Fitz? Are you listening? You need to be home in 18 months (exactly).

That is my decree for the day.

Everubody getting tips

So, right now I am very tips... very tips. If I close my eyes, everything is spinning. And, it is kind of hard to keep my head up and my eyes open..... oh man, add some martinis, JD, and limoncello and this could turn very, very bad.

Things to be happy about

So a few of you may remember this. In late high school - early college
I would keep a list of things to be happy about, occasionally,
these lists would make their way to other people's doors, but usually was found on the outside of my dorm room door. I feel this was the idea of my friend, Rachel (she was always the idea girl, I believe she is the one who came up with eating granola bars in the park after dark too) after the book 14,000 Things to be Happy About. Usually, the list would be elaborate and decorated (I remember some especially nicely colored butterflies) and added to on occasion.

Yes, I do know I was super cool and you all missed out by not being my friend then and just thinking I was the crazy-shorts girl.

So,I decided today may be a good day to revive the list (the original is
long gone). Here is my list for today (in no particular order):

1. Shampoo foam
2. The smell of chlorine coming off your skin after swimming
3. Beta fish
4. Maple sugar candy in the shape of moose
5. New catalogs
6. Heirloom jewelry
7. Sippy caps for my Nalgene bottles
8. Abe Lincoln bobble heads that are missing one hand
9. Peanut-butter chocolate bars
10. Scoring only a 50 while bowling but still having fun
11. New wellies
12. Blue highlighters
13. Strawberry lip balm
14. Peppermint Hot chocolate
15. Easy to fix hair
16. Spider earrings
17. Flying, stuffed, screaming monkeys
18. New calendars
19. Flickr
20. Seeing your friends get married to the perfect mates
21. New blog posts from your favorite bloggers (hint hint)
22. Playing Cubis and getting a "Perfect" level
23. Finishing a crossword puzzle by yourself
24. Sleeping
25. Goofing off at work

Halcyon days of yore

Hmm, is that right? I no longer remember all the differentiations that Fitz came up with.

Anyway, the ice cream story.

So in college, my friends and I always went to the North Campus Incon to spend our points. Usually we bought entire pints of Ben & Jerry's (me - Chubby Hubby, Alison - S'mores) and then would walk over to the ODK fountain eat them and swim (yes we swam in the fountain all of the time... I really am lucky I haven't died of some bacterial disease) or to our rooms to just hang. Needless to say, we didn't really need this ice cream, much less need to eat an entire pint, per person, in one sitting on a fairly regular basis, but we did. In other words though, I loved ice cream, and it was a major part of my "diet" (vs. now where I still love ice cream, but I only have it about once a month - and never an entire pint anymore).

So, in Junior year, for Lent, I gave up ice cream.

What did I do Fat Tuesday then? I ate ice cream. Even though I lived in Somerset, I still went across to the North Campus Incon and got some BJs and started to eat it as I walked across campus. As I was getting to McKeldin I hear the dulcet tones of someone gobbling....obviously trying to get my attention...I look up and see Abi. Stopping to talk, and pry out some ice cream; it was frozen still and getting spoonful wasn't easy.

This is where my memory becomes fuzzy. I think she was with someone else, but I do not remember who. Regardless, we were chit-chatting and I was prying at my Chubby Hubby, most likely to get a peanut butter filled pretzel, when all of the sudden, instead of staying on my spoon, the entire spoonful flies out of the pint, off of the spoon and onto the ground. I looked at Abi. I looked at the ground. I looked at Abi. I bent down picked up the ice cream chunk and ate it anyway.

Definitely more than 5 seconds. Definitely wet, gooey ice cream on a heavily traveled sidewalk. Definitely ate it anyway.

And I liked it.

And, more importantly I didn't die.


Maybe tomorrow I will tell you about the field trip where my professor almost died and the TA had sex with one of the other students.

$795.61

See that amount up there? That is the amount Suntrust will be taking out of my checking account tomorrow. Why are they taking this sum of money? Because it is my

LAST CAR PAYMENT.

That is right, my car (not actually my car... but as close as I could find on google images), tomorrow, will officially be paid off. 7 months early too.

This is a big day for me. I remember when I bought that car... the first car I bought myself. I had just started working for EPA. It was my dream car (almost) and I loved it.

I still love it. Even with all of the dings from DC parkers. And the new brakes I had to get. And the one time that deer ran into me on 495 and I had to get most of the front end replaced. It is my car and even though I only drive it about once a week, I can't imagine not having it.

To you little car! My you always have gas and never breakdown.

God made dirt, so dirt don't hurt

Please excuse the grammar... ah, let's face it my grammar isn't much better.

Anyway, we went out to Ray's the Classics and gorged ourselves for Chris's 27th Birthday (aw, such a youngin'). Let me just say, if you haven't been, you should go, maybe now if you can. I think I forgot how good steak was until tonight. Although, I think my cholesterol is up about 10 points after the mac'n'cheese and creamed spinach. Totally worth it.

On the way out, Jeff was getting a mint out for Angela (poorly btw) when it popped out onto the ground. Angela, never one to waste food, promptly picked it up and ate it anyway. You would have thought she dropped it in nuclear waste by people's reactions.

5 second rule people! (Shut it! I don't care about your "research".)

If a little mint, a dry mint, isn't okay to eat, that ice cream off the sidewalk in front of McKeldin junior year should have killed me. That's right, I ate ice cream (Chubby Hubby) off the ground.

And I am not ashamed.

Single, Thin, and Neat

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

So, I think my work crush is gay. What do I have to back up this suspicion? Nothing. Not one good thing, except for the fact that he is single, thin, and neat.

So why do I think he is gay? A) I don't really think he is gay, or at least I am not sure he is gay. B) I don't really care if he is gay, it's not like anything was going to happen anyway(which annoys Angela to no end, I know...btw, UPDATE).

So, really, why do I think he is gay? When I first started crushing, I had no suspicions and I usually have pretty good gaydar. Well, I googled him. He has a very unique name, so I am confident that most of the returns that are in English are from him/in reference to him. Most of the returns were all about work, but there was one, a blog reference that intrigued me (I mean besides the entries for j-pouch ...only click that link if you really want to know more than is probably healthy). Now, the post I found is completely innocent. It is one person wishing another, the crush, "a darling man," a happy birthday.

What about that would make me think he is gay? Nothing, except the author of the blog is apparently a gay man. That's it. But really, how many straight men have gay-man friends? Maybe more than I think, but once I saw that, something just.... clicked in my brain.

And then, of course, he is thin and neat.

So, am I crazy?

Adventures in Food

So you may or may not know, Deb is my new FoodBlog girlfriend. She doesn't know either, so it is okay if you were unaware. Last night... er, Saturday night, was that last night? Anyway, Court and I made three of her recipes on once. I have no idea how she makes recipes after work, because starting at 3:30ish Court and I cooked until 8.

Recipe 1: Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Gallete

We decided to add bacon, because really, why NOT add bacon?




So good, but we decided more bacon, and maybe some extra cheese on top. You know, just so we can gild the lily.



Recipe 2: Roasted Stuffed Onions

Court was so surprised that I wanted to make this.. onions are not my favorite. This is my Angela approach to getting to like things.




Also, here we decided with the leftover stuffing that didn't fit in the onions, why not add some goat cheese? Really, you can thank us later for our genius.




Oops... we forgot to take a picture of the finished product, just trust me, they were awesome.


Finally: Peanut Butter Brownies

Even with reduced fat peanut butter these were awesome (the reduced fat peanut butter wasn't to save calories, it was just what was on hand. After 5 sticks of butter, I don't think it matters if you use reduced fat or not.)




Obviously, the best picture of the brownies:

Success!

So normally, I don't like to take medicine. I don't like how it masks how I really feel. I don't like how it can make me feel out of control of my own body. I just don't like it. So you know if I am actually willing to try something, I must be sick. So last night when Court offered me some Ambien (does this make her my "dealer" now?) I took her up on it. I actually think she was a little surprised by how fast I said yes. So after our marathon cooking, once I got back to my place, even though I could have ended up sleep-driving, which would have been especially embarrassing since I didn't wear pants to bed, I took a little blue pill (not the same one as Mr. Dole).


Woo Hoo! I slept last night. All the way to 7 AM, a full five hours longer than I have been for the last week. My hope is, that this has kicked my system back to its regular schedule and I won't have to take another one. But, I am so happy to finally have slept and entire night.

Doop... part 2

But this one has nothing to do with being mistaken for a homeless person!

Point the first: I lost NaBloPoMo... I forgot to blog yesterday. Oops, sorry, my bad. Oh well, this weekend was going to be touch and go anyway. Maybe, I will revise to only blog during the week. Then I just have to make up for yesterday.


Point the second: I forgot it was my sister Carol's 40th Birthday today! Happy Birthday! I called her, because there is no chance she reads this blog. I am not even sure she knows it exists. However, with five kids I am pretty sure that they would not be a priority for her. Especially since they aren't even really celebrating her birthday. :(


Point the third: I am tired. I have been all week. This is what I am blaming the lack of blogging yesterday on. I went to bed at 9:30. The problem is that I have been waking up really early. I have no problems falling asleep, but I wake up way before my alarm (I am not sure how early because I can't actually read the clock... but early). This is starting to piss me off. Stupid body.

Point the fourth (and final): Support the WGA!

Crazy Shorts Girl

So, when I first moved to the DC metropolitan area I didn't wear pants. Not like that you perv!

I don't think I even owned a pair of jeans. If I did it is only because my dad made me buy them because I would "need" them.

Generally, I wore a uniform of a race t-shirt (preferably the starting line-up of the Brickyard 400 or Indy 500)and some shorts, most likely khaki. It wasn't pretty, but it is what I wore.

This what I wore year round, even in winter here, I would just add a pair of tights under the shorts (I know, I was HAWT, beating the college boys off with a stick I tell you, just like now) and a jacket. When it got really cold, I might wear the one pair of jeans, and I did have a winter coat, but that only came out around exams. Once, when I was still in high school, there was a blizzard and temperatures, with wind chill, were in the -20 to -30 range and still I went outside in shorts...sure I had on tights and long-johns underneath and I only stayed out for a couple minutes (Rascal had to be walked), but I did it.

Today, when temperatures were in the 40s, almost 50, I had to wear a winter coat! Me, a winter coat, already.

I think I have lived out here too long. I am officially a pansy like the rest of you.

Doop

So, since I started this whole NaBloPoMo thing...uh, yesterday...I have been carrying around a post-it note with topic ideas on it, just incase I am struck with an idea as I am walking home from work, because believe me I would not remember if I didn't write it down right that second. Even with the post-it, sometimes I don't remember what I meant. (I have Annie as one of the list entries... that is all, and I am pretty sure I didn't mean the musical.)

I should have realized that is was completely ridiculous and I would have plenty to write about, like how someone thought I was homeless today.

Here's how it went down:

Scene: Downtown DC, crossing Pennsylvania Ave NW at 14th St. on my way to my second office.

Vendor: Would you like to make a dontation to help the homeless today and buy a copy of street sense?

Me: No, thanks. I can't today.

(Side note: Normally I do, but I didn't have any $1, plus I usually buy from the same guy that stands outside the CVS by my house. It would have been like cheating to buy from this guy.)

Vendor: Hey, can I ask you a question?

Me: Sure.

Vendor: I noticed you seem weighed down by a lot of bags; are you experiencing a bout of homelessness?

Me:(Trying to laugh it off)Nope, just moving between offices right now.

D'oh. So was it the two full bags or the unwashed hair (my hairdresser told me not to!)? And I thought I looked nice; good thing I haven't seen my (possibly gay - that's a topic for another day)crush today.

Swirl and Tap

On the recommendation of Leah, the lady who did the make-up for Court's wedding, I went out this weekend and bout some mineral make-up. Specifically, I bought Bare Escentuals... the get started pack in light to fairly light (because there isn't a Casper white shade).

Over all I really like it. It doesn't feel like I am wearing make-up at all. I think it does a very nice job blending covering redness (Seriously, acne at 28? That is so uncool t-zone.). I kind of want to go out and get the other collections (beyond the basics and get started eyes). The starter pack I got had two "foundations", two "all over face colors", the mineral veil, three brushes and a DVD to show you how to use them all (although I am still unclear about one of the brushes... it seems superfluous to me.), this was all for the bargain price of $63 at Ulta.

The really nice part of the make-up is that a) it is quick b) I feel like I am using less make-up and not clogging up my pores and c) it is subtle... here are some pictures:

Washed face, after toner (and a little eyebrow plucking... not that you can tell since I apparently can't take a clear picture to save my life):



Here is me with the foundations on (I use one to cover red and the other all over):



Finally, with warmth, glee and the mineral veil on (no mascara or lipstick.... because I am lazy):



PS - Please ignore the hair... I need to buy a diffuser I think and/or buy some new pomeade.

NaBloPoMo

I have decied to do this. I don't know that it will work, but I need to do something. So far for 2008, I only have 8 entries... that barely takes two hands to count!

So, my goal is to actually follow this and blog once a day. Obviously they aren't all going to be winners, but really, how many of my past entries ever have been?

I am hoping this will also make me look around more and find interesting things in my life, because currently? I am a little bored.

First, of course, I have to catch-up and post entires to make up for November 2, 3, and 4... thank God I got my hair cut on the first!

Doop... I will have to cross-refernece these posts, to show up on Blogger... maybe I will do a best of on Blogger at the end of the month.

Too Cool

My predictions:

Court won't like it.

Angela and Mike will call me hipster.