Happy Happy

Happy New Year everyone!

This year I'll try to make it to midnight without falling asleep. So far it's not looking so good as I am droopy-eyed already (at 6:45pm) and we have the wood stove cranking. The couch looks awfully warm and comfy...

Have a wonderful and safe New Year!

Has it really been a week?

Wow, it's been a whole week since I've posted? I'm slacking. Let's all get caught up. When last I left you, Christmas was coming and I was fighting a cold. Well, I lost the battle on Friday and have been sick for a week now. It's getting a bit ridiculous. I have the week off and I've spent it feeling gross and nappy and not getting anything fun accomplished. But on a good note, Christmas came on Monday and so did this:

Woo-hoo! I do feel a little bad taking a picture of my new camera with my old camera, but oh well.

Luke makes me nervous every Christmas by not putting ANY presents under the tree until Christmas morning when he sneaks a present or two under there while I'm not looking. I wake up excited to give him his presents and kind of pissed at the thought that maybe he didn't get me any presents. Well, sneaky Pete had slipped this baby under the tree when I was in the kitchen making coffee and he wrapped it in bubble wrap before he wrapped it in paper so I thought he bought me a blanket. Great. A blanket. Instead I unwrapped the box for my beautiful new camera and when I gasped with surprise, he snapped a picture of me with it (he had the camera hidden in his pocket - I told you he was sneaky). All the gasping and surprise caused a horrible coughing fit, but I survived and took a very fine picture of Molly, where she sat all morning, in the wrapping paper:

The camera has so many awesome settings, which is the reason I most wanted it, that and the fact that it's PINK, and the best setting is the night one which enabled me to take this shot of our tree:

Pretty. Christmas morning Luke and I hung out and opened presents. Luke got all things motorcycle-related including the heated grips he's been talking about forever. The we headed to my mom's house to exchange gifts and have dinner. My mom and my brother-in-law were sick, too, so were we a fun trio of coughing and squeaky voices. Cameron and Alex enjoyed their gifts. Here is Alex in his chair (which I finally finished painting on Christmas Eve):

Cameron got a fun V-Smile TV game from Auntie Lisa and Uncle Luke and had present fever and was delirious with unwrapping and me, me, me! How can you not be when you're four? My sister gave me a Halloween present - she's a little behind - a beautiful hand-made Halloween table runner. I love it! Luke and I got some great clothes from my parents and Luke scored a set of the coolest stainless steel martini glasses from my sister. It was a great day!

As I said, I had the week off, so Tuesday was our annual food, friends, and family celebration - Girls' Day In. We started a girls' night out a bunch of years ago by going out to dinner the day after Christmas with me, my mom, my sister, my sister's best friend since birth, Jesse, and her mom, Vicki. Eventually we decided to gather earlier in the day, and then we decided to stay in and have brunch rather than going out, so it became Girls' Day In. We're like one big family and since Jesse moved to Massachusetts, we don't see her as often so we make sure to get together on this day to catch up and eat too much. This year we also decided to go see Charlotte's Web with Cameron, so that was fun. It's great to go to the movies with a four year old and remember that movies are incredible miracles. Cameron liked everything but the spider, poor Charlotte, and I thought it was a great movie. They added fart jokes (thanks to the cows) and a little love story with Fern and a boy from school, but otherwise it stayed fairly true to the story and was just beautiful to look at.

Since then I've been coughing and feeling sleepy and running errands. Luke's been home with me because he hasn't felt well either, so today is the first day I have the house to myself. It's kind of nice! I love Luke, really I do, and want to spend all of my time with him, but I expected to have this week alone to get stuff done and to blog, at least, and it's just not the same with Luke home. He's always hanging around and asking what I'm doing on the computer, or when I'll be done on the computer. Thankfully though, he was with me yesterday for my day of outrage and frustration, (that's going to have to be another post all together), but today alone. I'm planning to lounge, to catch up on my blog-reading, and to go paint pottery with my friend Paula this afternoon. It should be a good day.

This weekend, I'm sure I'll run more errands, have day of outrage and frustration parts three and four, and then a quiet New Year's with Luke's cousin and family. So if I don't get back to the computer before then, happy New Year everyone. Have a safe and happy one!

Christmas Cuties

I am so sleepy from baking and crafting and all the Christmas chaos that I have nothing interesting to say that doesn't involve complaining.

For today, I'll leave you all with this. My two favorite Chrsitmas cuties - Cameron and Alex.Cameron asked Santa for a robot and a castle and Alex just shook his head and said "uh" which is all he's interested in saying at the moment. Who needs words when you're that cute and have a big brother who is more than happy to speak for you? Cameron's translation is that Alex wants a robot, too.

Merry three days before Christmas!!

I Need Sunshine!

Today is the winter solstice, which means it's not only the first day of winter, it's also the shortest day of the year.

I have been looking forward to this day since November when the days started getting shorter and darker, and I had to put my refelctive vest on in the morning to walk with Molly in the dark where only weeks before it had been light. That's just depressing to me. I have been looking forward to today becasue this is the end of the shortening days. After today, each day gets longer and we gain more and more sunshine with each passing day. Yay. I really need some sunshine, not only for my mood, but also for my translucent skin. Man, am I pale. I put sunless tanner on last night after I realized that I was so white, you could see every vein in my arms through my sad, pale skin.

In other news, the nasty funk that has attempted to settle into my body is still closing in, but it's not slowing the present production schedule. Most gifts are now done, I made great progress on the rocking chair (pictures will come later), and the baking will commence tonight. I think I'm back on schedule. Luke even offered to assemble the gift that came in twenty-seven thousand pieces so that one's off my plate, too. Yay.

Invasion

I'm being attacked and I refuse to submit.

As per my last post, you see that I have a long list of things to do in the next five days. Now is not the time to get sick. I feel lousy, I ache and I'm whiny, but I'm trying to stay positive. I'm fighting back with echinacea, elderberry, zinc and vitamin c, oh, and a big healthy dose of positive thinking.

I. AM. NOT. SICK.

Once, in college, it was final exam time and I was starting to develop one killer of a cold. I remember sitting quietly in my room, breathing deeply and thinking that I cannot get sick, I will not get sick, I can will myself to feel better. I basically meditated on feeling healthy, then drank a half gallon of orange juice and went to bed. The next day I felt better. I'm hoping the same strategy will work again because the last thing I want now is to be sick. I am not sick!

How Did I Get Myself Here?

Today is December 19. That means that there are six days until Christmas. Six days in which I have to work (well I only have to work four of those days), and also I have to:

• finish up shopping for a few last minute gifts
• make cinnamon buns for Christmas Eve breakfast
• make a plan, shop for, and cook Christmas Eve dinner
• bake an apple pie for Christmas
• bake a coffee cake for Girls' Day In, our annual day after Christmas celebration
• assemble a gift that came in twenty-seven thousand pieces (no wonder Santa hires all those elves)
  
• finish knitting (I think the knitting is going to have to be an after-Christmas gift)
• paint the rocking chair I'm planning to give to my nephew (see the above picture - that's how far I've gotten - ug)
• try to finish the jewelry gift experiment I started (which makes me want to poke my eyes out with a soldering iron) so I can have the two gifts I was planning to give all finished
• sew the binding onto a blanket
• bake cookies as thank-you gifts for Luke's helper and pre-loader (nonsense UPS talk)
  
• and I'm sure there's more!

I always give handmade gifts of some sort. To me, making gifts usually isn't stressful. This year I'm actually giving fewer handmade gifts than ever, it just seems that this year's gifts are harder to make. They're all taking so long and that is precious time I do not have! My friend Paula made it even harder by making me promise to only give her things that I have made. I can't buy her anything from a store. That sounded good back in July, but now - holy crap! Paula, I hope you like cookies becasue that might be all I get around to finishing for you! :)

Christmas will be here soon and it will be wonderful. This is only momentary panic and stress I'm feeling and I know that it is nothing compared to the stress your friendly UPS delivery guy is going through right now. If you see one out on the street, give him a hug and thank him for your Amazon.com packages.

Six more days - eeek!

Chocolate Overload

This is a small aside, because you know how your computer can remember the things you type and suggest them to you as you go? Like in the name field of a form, I type an "L" and a drop-down box will suggest "Lisa" so I don't have to type the whole thing. Well just now, as I started to type "Chocolate" in the title field, this was suggested to me: "chocolate AND pot". Who has been using my computer? I especially like the all caps "AND" which, I assume, is from a boolean search, but I like to think it was just the excitement. Chocolate AND pot? No way!

OK, anyhow, what I was going to talk about is chocolate and the vast quantities I have consumed in the past week. It's disgusting how much chocolate I've eaten recently. I just can't help it. Holiday baking, holiday parties, holiday gifts of M&Ms which cannot remain uneaten in my presence, it's a horrible law of nature.

Last night we had a family holiday party at my house and, of course, there was plenty of chocolate. I consumed a better part of it and by midnight had one killer tummy ache. I haven't done that since I was like ten years old. I couldn't fall back to sleep and lay awake in bed thinking that in the morning, if I survived, I would pledge to go all day without chocolate. I survived and I pledged and I want chocolate. I brought raisins and pears to work and thought I'd eat those when I wanted chocolate. Well, it's just not working.

I think I'm addicted. I should go to a support group. Hello, my name is Lisa, and it's been eighteen hours since my last piece of chocolate. Wait, does hot chocolate count?

The Road to Recovery

Here we are at the vet. Molly's least favorite place on the face of the earth. Despite the fact that there are lots of dogs to sniff and treats coming from every direction and people who want to love her and snuggle with her - this is also the place where they give shots and that place, three years ago, where she had to stay overnight and they stole her womanhood. Or something to that effect. Either way, she really hates the vet.

It's the only place where she actually recognizes the parking lot and will hit the deck as soon as we pull in. She hides on the floor of the passenger side of the car and refuses to come out. Once I pry her out of the car like a big meanie, she starts to shake uncontrollably and pant. She does this the entire time we're in the building, unless I let her hide inside my coat, and only then does she relax.

So my poor poopsie had to go to the vet to see about that bladder infection thing. It was all relatively painless, except for that part where they decided to just give her her vaccines today rather than wait a week and a half when her appointment was originally scheduled. Three small shots and a big kiss from the vet. Luckily she blamed him for her discomfort and not me. She refused to take the treat he gave her and dropped it on the examination table as if to say, are you kidding? You think I'd trust YOU?

He did mention some interesting things to me about Miss Molly. For instance, she's a mutt, or "one of a kind" as I like to say, and I thought she was maybe cocker spaniel, poodle and terrier. He believes that she has schnauzer in her, based on some skin things she has going on. Interesting. Cockashanauzapoo? She also licks her feet a lot and I worried she had a food allergy but he said that it was more than likely a seasonal allergy to mold and pollen. Interesting again. Maybe I'll share my Allegra with her.

While we were waiting for the vet to come into the exam room and I was petting Molly's scruffy butt where it was sticking out of my coat, it occurred to me that she hadn't been groomed in a while. She usually goes every six weeks and let's see... last time was about... six weeks ago. CRAP! I checked my calendar and there were no appointments written down. When we left the vet it was 4:30. I called the groomer to see if she had an appointment, which she did at 5:00. Phew! We just made it. So Molly had a stellar day - the vet, shots, AND a bath and a haircut. At least she got it all over with in one day. Now she's all pretty and clean and soon she'll be feeling better.

However you spell that frustrated growling noise you make when something goes wrong - yeah, that's what we'll call this post

Just when I think I want to get another dog, Molly decides to show me that I can barely afford the one I have.

Last year at this time, she split open the pad on her foot on ice. (ICE! can you imagine we had ice at this time last year?) She needed stitches and bandages and office visits. The ordeal caused me incredible anxiety, made me so distracted that I managed to lose my debit card, and cost me a whole lot of money just before Christmas.

This year she's showing symptoms of a bladder infection. A week and a half before she's scheduled to have her annual physical exam, I have to take her in for another office visit so she can have this taken care of. I feel terrible that she might have an infection and might not be feeling well, but an office visit, an exam, a urinalysis, antibiotics, all the extra peanut butter I have to buy to get her to take her antibiotics... ug. I'm not done Christmas shopping! Maybe that tire money I can't seem to give away is going to go to fix my pup. I think one dog is enough.

Happy Birthday Dad!

(Photo courtesy of Cameron taken last Christmas.)

Hope you have a great b-day Dad!

Santa Baby, Just Slip Some Radials Under the Tree

Honestly. How hard do you think it would be to buy tires less than two weeks before Christmas? Who the heck is spending much-needed present money on one of the crappiest ways to blow a ton of money other than gambling or dental work? Apparently everyone and their grandmother is.

Three times now I've tried to go get tires and three times now I've been turned away. A three to four hour wait before they will even LOOK at my car is simply too long for me to wait this time of year. This Santa's little helper has places to go and gifts to buy. I can't spend all day sitting in a waiting room, getting high on the overwhelming scent of rubber.

I had put off getting tires until now because, as you know from my incessant whining about my car, I wasn't sure that spending $500 on tires would be a wise investment, seeing as how everything else north of the tires could explode at any moment. After my miraculous emissions test, though, I now have renewed faith in my car and decided I could finally get tires.

Or so I thought. You see, tires are expensive! Nauseatingly expensive. And I found a good deal at Sam's Club. So that's the only place I want to go. Unfortunately, every other Sam's Club member in the general Manchester, CT area feels the same way. And they all seem to get to Sam's before me. I just can't go somewhere else and spend an extra $100 on the same tires. That's $100 that could be going toward Christmas presents!

So Santa, if you're reading, I've been a mostly good girl. A set of four BF Goodrich 225/75R16s would be awesome! Thanks so much.

Nostalgia

I think I would have been happy growing up in the 40s and 50s. I love old radio shows, I love the scenes in A Christmas Story with Ralphie listening to the Little Orphan Annie. That would have been me. And I'm sure, if I had been around at the time, I would have definitely been a dedicated listener to the Lux Radio Theatre.

Many many years ago I found this cassette of the Lux Radio Theatre broadcast of Miracle on 34th Street. Every Christmas I listen to this tape and the Lux recordings of It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol. Listening to them just makes me so happy and nostalgic for something I never had. I love the language, I love the civility, I love the safety. When will you ever again hear a little girl say "shall I tell you what I did at school today"? When will it ever again be all right for a little girl to go visit at the home of her single male neighbor whom her mother has never met without her mother's permission on Thanksgiving? Life just sounds so much simpler and so much safer.

Even more than all that, I love the commercials. Ads for Lux soap, of course, the wonder soap which apparently you could use to wash your face, your body, your hair, your clothes, your "delicates", and then, if you had any left over, you could mix it with water and make realistic Christmas snow to decorate your Christmas tree. They give the recipe. I've even memorized it from listening so often. I wish I could find myself a large box of Lux Flakes so I could try making it myself.

There's just something about the formal way that everyone talks. The male announcer speaking to the female actress - there's something flirty but stiff in the whole exchange. You can just picture them (in black and white, of course). He's in a suit, slick dark hair, confident air, a cigarette in his hand, most likely. She's in a lovely dress with a tiny belt, her hair is in perfect waves as she talks about Paulette Goddard's wardrobe in A Rogue's Regimen and how each piece of it could be "Luxed". I just love it!

Now I have the urge to go search on Ebay for a box of lux Flakes.

Thank You!

(I took a really grainy shot of Molly so I thought I'd make it more interesting with Photoshop. She looks good with blue and yellow hair!)

Thank you to everyone who came out to the spectacular shopping night on Friday, a great time was had by all. A big thank you to Karen (of Simply June) and Karin (of the new KG Photography) for participating and selling, and especially to Deb offering wonderful free chair massages. Many gifts were purchased, and many snacks were consumed. It was a fun night.

If you couldn't make it out - don't despair - you can still visit Simply June's online store here, and you can visit my jewelry shop here and my art shop here.

Friday was a long and busy day for me. It started at 8am with an appointment to have my emissions test done. As per my last post about my car, I was fully prepared to fail. I had already bought a service manual, priced out some parts, steeled myself for the bad news and then I heard the words from the large man behind the counter - you passed. I what?? I was so happy I bounced out of there.

From there I went to the grocery store for snack supplies and Jo-Ann Etc. for MORE beads while I waited for Sam's Club to open so I could get my new tires. This was the third time I tried to get tires there but was turned away becasue of the wait. I stopped in on Thursday at 3:30 in the afternoon and was told there were six cars in line before me and it would be at least 3 hours before they could get to my car. Friday, I got there at 10am when they opened and there were already four people in line in front of me. The man at the desk told the first people in line that it would be about a three hour wait. Ug. By the time they got to me it would have been over a four hour wait and I just didn't have that kind of time.

I did a little more shopping, bought Molly and I some festive gear at Old Navy, and went home where I proceeded to cook for five hours straight. I was exhausted by the time the party started. But I was happy, it was great to see everyone - thanks again!

Keywords Are Fun!

I was perusing my blog stats for fun to see why and how you people come here and how long you stay. Wow, interesting. Look here:"Fluff fruit dip", I'm glad I could spread that recipe around. It's also good to know that I'm not alone in my quest for answers to my car problems. I am apparently the place to go for searches on "Shooting at the Walls of Heartache" and "being antisocial". The best one though is "thumb hurts from knitting". If you search on that in Google, Artsy Fartsy is the first site returned. Ha! Too funny.

Sneak Peek

Too tired to think of something cever to say today, instead here's a sneak peek of what you'll find at tomorrow's shopping night extravaganza. Hope to see you there.

Brrrrr!

OK, I take it all back. That stuff a I said about "come on snow" - strike that. The 60-degree weather in December? It can come back.

Yesterday I didn't post because I didn't regain the feeling in my fingers until late in the evening. I spent four hours of the morning out in the freezing cold and intermittent snow just where you'd want to be: hugging a massive steel gate. I was volunteered to help another employee apply reflective vinyl to the new, massive gates that were installed on campus. It was 30 degrees and windy but it had to be done. We couldn't wear gloves because the vinyl stuck to them, and at times when it was snowing and our frozen skin became wet from the melting flakes, I worried we might get stuck to the cold metal like Flick in The Christmas Story. My knuckles were bleeding and didn't realize it, my fingers swelled so badly when I came back inside that it hurt where my wedding ring was cutting off the circulation to my finger. It was great.

I found out that I had been volunteered to help in this project when I was on my way from my car to my office that morning. It had been the kind of morning where it took me over an hour to get to work, it was snowing so hard at home that I couldn't see the road, my car, which badly needs tires, skidded all over the road, and there was so much traffic for no good reason that I nearly ran out of gas on the highway. I finally made it to the parking lot at work, pried myself out of the car and was walking stiffly to my office when a co-worker stopped to tell me the good news. I had a conversation with him, then walked away and thought - did I remember to do my hair this morning?

Ya, it was that kind of a day.

Sometimes You Have to Be Your Own Santa

Just bought myself one of these. Merry Christmas to me! Get yourself one here.

Age

Since I can't think of anything interesting to write about today, preparing for the big shopping night has wiped me out, I decided to take one of the suggestions from a blog inspiration website (which I can't find again and can't remember the name of) and the question was:

What age would you like to be?

I would have to say eight years old. It was 1984. I was in the third grade, learning cursive, finally enjoying school a little. I got my first pair of skis and went to Florida for the first time. I took my first drawing lessons with Mrs. Sobol. I didn't care about mortgages or car payments or the electric company planning to raise my bill 34%. I didn't care about my hair or weight or looks in general since it would be another six years before I met Luke. I had four grandparents, no one I knew had died, I hadn't faced tragedy, and living in a small small town, I don't think I even faced any mean kids yet. There was no cable, no MTV, no reality TV. I had no reason to lust after a new MacBook, seeing as how there were no home computers. I had no concept of war, I had never heard of Al Queda, and I didn't know who George Bush was. I had never had my heart broken or my trust betrayed. It was a good time.

Of course, at eight I also had never fallen in love or felt the joy of home ownership. I had never ridden my motorcycle down a sunny country road and never felt the warmth of my puppy-dog sleeping next to me. I had never held my newborn nephews and made them smile and I had never felt the pride of receiving a college diploma. And I had never blogged.

OK, I take it back. Thirty is my answer. I would like to be thirty years old.

Happy December

In case you live in Connecticut, I thought I should remind you, it's December. I know it feels like April and the extremely confused forsythia bush in my front yard is starting to flower, but really, it's December. This morning Molly and I went for a walk at 6:30, it was 62 degrees. In my car on the way to work, I sang along with "Let it Snow" on the radio. A little wishful singing. December is the only month where I feel it is acceptible to have snow on the ground. It needs to be pretty and picturesque in December, not balmy and warm. Come on snow!

Sidelined

I injured myself knitting last night. I'm not sure whether I should be proud or embarassed. Is it akin to a war wound, or more like a bed sore? I have a nasty blister on my thumb. I've been knitting with chenille yarn which is kind of sticky, like suede, and it gets hot as it slides through my fingers. I noticed that my thumb hurt while I was knitting and when I put my work down for the night I looked a my thumb and there was a blister. I think I'm embarassed. Who hurts themselves knitting? All I know is this better not throw off my Chrismas present production schedule. I'm already running short on days - tomorrow is December 1st!

Snowkids!

Sure, it's been in the 60's and we have a much better chance of torrential ran than we do a nice snow storm, but that doesn't mean you have to go without snowmen.

I've been working on a new gang of little baby sock snowkids for the upcoming shopping night. they're also going into my Etsy shop today if you want to shop early. They're adorable and made from fleece, felt, old buttons and baby socks. What's not to like?

Auto Anxiety

I’ve never had a healthy relationship with my car. I spend most of my time behind the wheel in a co-dependant partnership where I’m constantly trying to understand why my car is acting grumpy and what I may have done to make it mad.

Bad cars have burned me in the past. This has scarred me and caused me to distrust anything on four wheels. My first car was a freebie that my dad found, a 1987 Hyundai Excel. By the second year I owned it, the engine had been rebuilt twice and, among the many Hyundai adventures I had, on my very first solo drive in it the clutch went out.

I traded the Hyundai for a 1979 Audi Fox. I was in college and the Audi looked cooler. Plus it had a big trunk to hold all of my art projects. Unfortunately it also had an engine-cooling fan that had been rewired so that it no longer kicked on by itself. It had been given a switch that I needed to hit to start the fan and keep the car from overheating. This was fine and all, except the fact that the electrical system had been incredibly messed up by this episode of mechanical genius and if I happened to leave the car with the radio dial in the on position or the cooling fan not switched off (despite the fact that the car was off and nothing appeared to be running) I would kill the battery and need to find myself a jumpstart. I learned pretty quickly to park on a downhill and how exactly to push a car, run alongside, jump in, and pop start it without running myself over.

From the Audi I moved up to a 1987 Subaru Justy. The only car to never let me down. This car was awesome and I would still be driving it today if it hadn’t started to spontaneously lose important parts, like the steering stabilizer, while doing 65 on the highway.

We junked the poor Justy (I’ll never forgive myself) and I bought a heap of crap from the Kia dealership. A used 2000 Kia Sportage which not only needed to have the transfer case replaced twice and the 4-wheel drive replaced once, but I actually broke the driver’s side air bag one early morning in Hartford by honking my horn at the FedEx guy who was about to back into my car. I should have let him hit me.

Because I come from the one step forward and two steps back school of car-buying, I traded the Kia for my current bad relationship – a 1997 Isuzu Rodeo. Just like anyone in an abusive relationship, I really do love my car. It just doesn’t love me back in the same way. The first month I owned the Isuzu was a nightmare of stranding incidents and rides with nice tow truck drivers. This was all related to a bad starter wire which, unfortunately, took a long freakin time to uncover. The dealership was very nice about all of this and I didn’t have to pay for any of the repairs, or even the long tow from Hartford to Ellington one cold morning.

I had several lovely months of stress-free driving and then a few months ago, the check engine light came on. I usually don’t hold any faith in the check engine light knowing that it is set to light up at certain intervals to get you to take your car in for service. I ignored it until my car started to run badly and then finally I took it in to the shop. I received a diagnosis of a bad EGR valve, which is apparently expensive, so the nice repair guy cleaned some things and changed some others and got the car to the point that it ran smoothly but told me to save my money becasue I most likely wouldn’t pass emissions if I didn’t change my EGR valve. That’s fine, considering that the Connecticut emissions testing system was such a mess that I hadn’t received a notice for testing in over four years. I could possibly be on my next car before I got a notice to take the Isuzu in for testing. Ha! Fates, you mock me. What did I get in the mail last month but a notice for emissions testing for my Isuzu.

Just about the time I got the notice in the mail, my car began doing something strange. The check engine light would occasionally go out. Then suddenly it would come back on. I began a careful study of when and where it happened as well as the time of day and weather conditions. I needed to discover the pattern. When the gas tank was low, the light would come on. After I filled up, it would go off. Riding home from work in the rain, it would come on. Some cold mornings when I would head out to work, the light would be off. It wasn’t entirely consistent and it was driving me crazy. So crazy, in fact, that I began to hear noises. Small whistling noises when I would take off from a stop. I was obsessed with figuring out this new sound. What made it happen? Where was it coming from? Was it a precursor to a larger problem? Was it the sound of my engine mounting bolts slowly falling out or was it just wind in the roof rack?

I was studying the check engine light pattern and the whistling noise one night driving home in traffic when a new annoyance popped up. As I would coast to a stop with my foot on the clutch, the 4-wheel drive indicator light would flicker on. As I would let out the clutch to take off, the light would go out. Back and forth, the light would flicker on, then flicker off. I checked to see that it was in 2-wheel drive, put it in 4, then back in 2, still the light flickered. Then one morning driving out to Stafford, the check engine light suddenly flashed on immediately followed by the 4-wheel drive indicator light, which came on and stayed on. It’s been on for a week now. Luke has assured me that it is truly not in 4-wheel drive, but still I’m worried.

I drive my car the 20 miles to and from work every day holding my breath and hoping that nothing falls off or blows up. I’m just waiting for my transmission to fall out of the car or a big cloud of smoke to come from under the hood. Add to that the stress of my impending emissions test – I can’t handle this anxiety! I just want a car I can drive. I don’t really care what it looks like. I want it to be decent on gas, have a working gas gauge, to have heat and a/c, and no major mechanical problems! Is that too much to ask? Why can’t there be a subway connecting Andover and Hartford? That would make my life so much easier.

Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Killing a Tree for Christmas

Well, four days off from work and I've already forgotten my routine. Last night I couldn't remember what time I was supposed to set the alarm for. This morning I left the house and came back in three times for things I had forgotten and still I managed to leave without packing anything for lunch. Luckily I rememberd how to get to work.

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone! We had a nice day. We woke up late and watched the parade while I started putting up Christmas decorations. Then we spent some time with Luke's side of the family and had a nice dinner. We stayed until after midnight and despite the fact that I didn't get in to bed unto almost 1am, I was excited about going shopping early the next morning.

For about the past seven or so years, since I stopped working retail and being on the cash register side of the counter, I've been going shopping early on Black Friday and I have to say that I love it for some strange reason. I love to get out there early, before the sun is up. I love to be in the stores browsing around for nothing in particular while the mommies get into fistfights over Easy bake Ovens. I love the unexpected deals and I love to have all of my shopping done and wrapped at home before noon. I had planned to get up around 7 and head out. I wanted to go to Toys R Us to find something for my nephews, Jo-Ann Etc. for something for my sister (and me), Target for more stuff for my sister, and maybe Pier 1 just for fun if I was up to it.

I woke up and looked at the clock, saw that it was almost 7, so I got up and got ready. I kissed good-bye to a sleeping Luke and Molly and went out to the kitchen to leave where I saw the clock and it said 6:20. Ug. I could have slept for another hour. Oh well, I set out and got a jump on my big shopping day with a whopping 5 hours of sleep, no makeup and no coffee. My grumpy, sleepy, wild bedhead and bags under my eyes should scare everyone out of my way.

I hit Toys R Us as the sun was coming up and found that the line wrapped completely around the inside of the store and the things I wanted weren't on sale. Not worth waiting in line if it's not on sale. Bummer. Then I hit Jo-Ann's where I couldn't find what I wanted to get for my sister. Almost another bummer, but I walked past the bead display on the way out and saw that everything was 40% off, plus I had a 20% off coupon on top of that! Excellent.

It's now 8am and all I had purchased was $40 of beads for me. So far, not good.

I went to Target to see if I could find the toys for my nephews but found a mostly empty toy section. I tried to find something for my sister - nothing. I bought some wrapping paper and a tablecloth.

9:30am and I have beads, wrapping paper and a tablecloth. This is turning into a particularly black Black Friday. I was tired, coffeeless, giftless, and I just wanted to go home.

I headed home to get Luke and head back out for lunch and to cut down our Christmas tree. We get our tree each year the day after Thanksgiving and despite the fact that it was almost 65 degrees on Friday, we went out to see Santa and get our tree. There's a tree farm down the road from us that we've been going to every year and the old man who lives there is very sweet and dresses like Santa every day to greet the people coming to get their trees. An hour later we were home with our tree but we didn't have a chance to decorate it because we had friends coming over for dinner.

Saturday I spent all day decorating the tree and watching Christmas movies. I swear I was in slow motion this weekend. I started putting the lights on the tree around 11am and by 6:30pm I was finally done adding ornaments. Now the living room looks sparkly and Chrsitmasy and the cat is camped out on her usual spot under the tree on the skirt.

Well hopefully today I won't be in slow motion and since it is "Cyber Mmonday" maybe I'll start my online Christmas shopping and make up for my pathetic Black Friday shopping trip.

Moo

Playing with Flickr this morning I found this from Moo:
I think this is so awesome. 100 Beautiful business cards with your own photos or artwork on them for $19.99. You can have 100 of the same design or one of each of 100 designs. I think this is such a great idea! I can't wait to upload some artwork to Flickr and make some art cards. I think I'll make 100 for my artwork and 100 for my jewelry.

My Application For Suzuki’s “Ride of A Lifetime” Contest

Have two long-time motorcyclist friends? You know, the ones you’ve shared the highs and lows of the road with for as long as you can remember? Perhaps more importantly, two that could put up with you for 1000+ miles on a bike road trip?

Well get your riding gear ready, because Suzuki is looking for three close friends (and licensed motorcyclists) to take “THE RIDE OF A LIFETIME.” The chosen few will ride new, 2007 Suzuki Boulevard cruisers on a 5-day, 1000+ mile road trip through some of this country's most beautiful scenery, on roads that you'll swear were made for motorcycling. To top it off, the entire trip will be filmed for Suzuki’s new 2007 Suzuki Boulevard advertising campaign, and you & your friends could be the stars!

APPLICATION:

Rider 1: me
Rider 2: Luke
Rider 3: Keith

Riding Experience: four years

Current and Previous Motorcycles Owned: none
Current and Previous Motorcycles Borrowed From Husband: ’83 Honda Nighthawk, ’00 Buell M2 Cyclone

How Long Have You Known: Luke – 16 years, Keith – 5 years

While addressing a large group of people, select which of the following is going through your mind:
Great Group! Can we hang out later? ___ I’ll be glad when this is over! _X_ Just shoot me! ___

Describe yourself and your two friends’ personalities on the road, either Leader of the Pack/Navigator, Mid-pack, Bringing up the rear, or Where’s lunch/are we there yet?
Me: Mid-pack
Luke: Leader of the Pack/Navigator
Keith: Mid-pack

Describe your favorite motorcycling memory:
I have some great memories of gorgeous days and twisty roads. Of realizing the power beneath me and that capability within me, but my favorite memory is from early on, before I even had my license. I was taking the motorcycle education class and the big, burly teacher went around the room and asked why we all wanted our motorcycle licenses. I said that I wanted mine to make my dad proud. My dad really wanted me to learn and I wanted to do well for him. We were on our first day of the road course and we were doing the typical exercises of circling and swerving, going around cones and I was having a great time. We were all doing one last big circle around the course and as I came back in to the parking area, the burly instructor said to me, “why did you say you wanted your license?” I said, “to make my dad proud”. He said, “I think that did it”.

Describe the funniest thing in your motorcycling life:
That would have to be Luke. He’s hard on me when I make mistakes riding, but he’s also the only thing that can make we laugh when we’re on a long, wet ride or stuck in traffic on a 90-degree day. He’ll reach out and pretend to pinch bicyclist’s butts as we pass them by on the road. If we see someone bending over, working on their garden and their showing a bit of “plumber’s crack”, he’ll make a hand motion like he’s dropping a quarter in a slot machine. If we’re in traffic or behind a slow driver, he’ll motion like he’s pushing himself along with his feet. It’s the stupid little things like that that keep us both going on long days. With no radios and helmets covering our faces, we have to rely on creative sign language to pass the time.

Describe what it is about your two friends that makes them worthy to be part of the Suzuki “Ride of a Lifetime” with you:
To put it very simply, if it wasn’t for Luke letting me ride his motorcycles, I wouldn’t be riding. He cautiously encouraged me to learn to ride and offered his bikes for me to ride on. He’s been my constant riding buddy and I feel like I’ve forgotten something if I ride anywhere without him. That, and we’ve been together forever and he’d kill me if I did this without him. If it wasn’t for Keith getting his license, I wouldn’t have mine either. When he was getting ready to take his test, he needed a bike to ride and the old Nighthawk had been sitting, unloved, in our garage for a while. It needed a little work but since Keith needed a bike, we took her out and dusted her off and got her up and running. After Keith got his license, he bought a bike of his own and the Nighthawk was free for me to ride. The rest is history. That, and he’s really tall so our awesome leather-clad trio would look proportionate on the promotional posters with tall Keith in the middle and me and Luke like short bookends on either side. He also sent me the link to the contest, so it would be mean if I didn’t include him.

Describe something that each of your two friends did that drove you crazy:
Well I’m married to one of them, so eventually everything he does drives me a little crazy. Keith, I cant say there’s anything he does to drive me crazy, but give me five days and 1100 miles with him and I’m sure I’ll change my story.

I'm Back

Well, after two weeks of sleepless stress, a twelve-hour work day on Friday, a punctured finger, a funeral on Saturday morning and an overnight babysitting gig watcing my 4- and 1-year old nephews, I'm back.

I took the day off to sleep in and not do a damn thing for anyone but me. Ironically, I would have had the day off anyhow because the University where I work had no power. I guess I'll just save that vacation day for later.

I spent the morning cleaning the house (that was for me, so it still fell within my day off rules), I listed a couple of new things on Etsy, (by the way, have you been there recently? The new site is BEAUTIFUL! I love it). And I spent the early afternoon designing a postcard to announce the holiday shopping extravaganza we're hosting at my house on December 8th with sparkly Lisa Gaumond goodies and beautiful SimplyJune things. Here's how it looks: You're all invited, so please come! Email me if you need directions. Well Molly's pestering me to go out and I have lasagna noodles burining on the stove, so that's it for now. I'll be back tomoroow - I promise!

Show and Tell

Here's my hat. Cute, huh? I've already finished another one to give as a Christas present and I'm working on yet another. My fingertips are red and sore from the needles but I can't seem to stop knitting. I might be able to graduate to mittens or socks soon!

You can see a shot of my new painting on the home page of my website: www.LisaGaumond.com. I decided to call it "Trouble Sleeping" and I really do like the way it came out. Come to the Alumni Show opening this weekend at the Joseloff Gallery and See it in person!

And more exciting developments: I'm planning to team up with Simply June to have a holiday sale night extravaganza at my house in early December. We're still planning it all out but I hope to have the date and time set in the next day or two. You'll have a chance to come have a glass of wine, browse around, and buy all of your Christmas presents in one place. Purses, jewelry, hats, artwork, notecards, magnets, handmade cards, tea towels, children's aprons, and so much more! We may even have a masseuse on hand for chair massages. I have to see if she'll be available. I'll let you know the specifics as soon as Karen and I figure them out. Stay tuned!

And thank you for being patient. Work has been so busy and so stressful lately. I haven't been sleeping much, which means that the funny part of my brain isn't exactly functioning at top form. I can barely remember how to answer the phone, let alone write, spell and punctuate correctly. Once this week is over and my brain can rest, I have many blog ideas I've been writing down of things I want to talk about. There will be much more regular blogging coming soon.

Hello?

Anyone still reading? Sorry I've been gone so long. A combination of work, a few days off to rest and relax, more insanely busy work, and my forgetfullness led to several dead days of Artsy Fartsy. Sorry about that. I have so many things to share but, as I said, I forgot to grab my memory card before I left the house and all the images are still at home.

Here, just imagine...

I finished my hat finally and I love it. It fits perfectly, I'm now a hat-making machine.

I'm working on a new painting to submit to the Hartford Art School Alumni Small Works Show at the Joseloff Gallery. It's a cute little painting I think I'm going to call "My Sleeping Problem".

There are several new gift sets in my jewelry shop on Etsy. Etsy is also changing its format this weekend and will soon be even more awesome than before, I can't wait. So don't try to shop this weekend - the site will be own - but next week go and enjoy!

I also have more pictures of Peanut and Molly's new haircut. Lots of pretty things to look at. Too bad the pictures are at home. Sigh.

Well thanks for being patient. I'll be back to my semi-daily posting schedule soon.

Peanutty Goodness

Say hello to Peanut. This little love-nugget belongs to our friends Paula and Karlo - but not for long! We're stealing her. Peanut is the new little sister of our other favorite greyhound, Bentley, and she is nothing but love. If you were really this close to her, she'd turn to look at you and lean in for a snuggle. She loves to be near you, loves to be touched. She's just too cute.

We're watching Peanut this week while her parents are away and her big brother is hanging with another family, but we're considering just not giving her back. She's perfect. She gets along well with Molly, she's mellow and sweet and lovable and I don't want her to go away. I think that I have a secret love affair with greyhounds. I've always wanted to steal Bentley, too. Greyhounds are just the sweetest dogs and I think I need to get one. How about this one? We could just change our locks and ignore the doorbell when Paula and Karlo come to collect her. Yes, I think that's a plan...

Bang!

I thought I'd try something new. New and scary.

(Don't try this at home - close-up shots of your own forehead are really rather frightening.)

Before:
After:Wow, that's one big forehead. I'm still getting used to feeling the hair tickling my face and I think that everyne is looking at me and thinking I have 80's hair, but I should get over that.

Thanks to all the Halloween movies on TV this weekend, I realized yesterday that I now have Gina Davis's hair from Beetlejuice. Great.

Knitty

Will this be YOUR Christmas present? I don't know, have you been good? I've abandoned the hat project in favor of the easier scarves. After bombing on Hat 6.0 I decided to seek professional help, which told me I needed new needles. New needles will be purchased tonight. Hopefully Hat 7.0 will actually fit on my head. Don't you love this yarn? It's called Licorice, yum.

Tree Art

Check this out: Tree ArtFirst cats were painting and then elephants were playing musical instruments. Now trees are drawing! What's next?

Thanks to Drawn! for pointing it out.

You're Making Me Look Bad

OK, people, it's time to help out your pal Lisa and possibly score yourself a brand new iPod. And, no, this isn't one of those pop-up ads promising free iPods and Applebee's gift certificates; this one's for real.

Remember this?Well in case you need a reminder, one of my regular podcasts (and probably my favorite) is Croncast. I'm a fairly new listener, but shortly after I started, they announced a contest. They want to have 300 listeners by their 300th show, which should happen in early November. The way the contest goes, I recommend the show to you. You sign up as a new listener, paste some info into your iTunes or other podcast software, and you're entered to win. If you're the 300th new listener, you'll win a new 30GB iPod, and so will I, since I recommended you. I'm pretty sure there will also be a random drawing of all the new listeners and that person, along with the recommender, will also win a 30GB iPod.

So what are you waiting for? You have nothing to lose. You not only get to hear some incredibly funny stuff straight from your iPod or computer three times a week - you could also win some lovely goodies! And to make it even better, the 250th listener and recommender will win an iPod shuffle (or similar small MP3 player).

Have you signed up yet? Don't lie, I know you haven't. This is where you make me look bad. There's a weekly round-up of how many new listeners there are and the breakdown of who recommended how many new listeners. Waaaaaaay down at the bottom of the list is LisaLisa (that's me) with 1 lousy new listener. And that was Luke, so it doesn't even count!

See? Don't they look like nice people? That's my cut and pasted Photoshop collage of Betsy and Kris. I stole the photos from their website, hope they don't mind.

I'm not asking you to join my Amway pyramid scam, I'm just asking you to sign up and try out a new podcast that you will most definitely love.

It's hard to describe the show to someone who has never listened. It's just Kris and Betsy talking about life. I've got it... it's like Seinfeld. Remember Seinfeld? It was a show about nothing. The characters just talked about life and the crazy stuff that happens on a daily basis. That's exactly what Kris and Betsy do, but instead of New York, they're living in Naperville, IL. Instead of the puffy shirt, there's puffy cuffs! Instead of Newman, there's crazy Goodwill people! Instead of Kramer, there's Zeus! Are you intrigued? You should be.

Ready to sign up? It's easy.
1.) Click on the red rectangle on the right hand column of my blog, or go to www.croncast.com and click on the "300 by the 300th" banner
2.) Fill in the little form, and where it asks for the handle of the person who referred you, type "LisaLisa"
3.) After you submit your registration, you'll get some code that you have to paste into iTunes - copy it.
4.) Now go to iTunes. Click on Advanced from your top menu. Click on "Open Stream" and you'll get a blank window. Paste your code in there. That's it!
5.) Now search for "Croncast". Two will come up, choose either, they're both the same. Click on "Subscribe" and download away! Then listen, laugh and get hooked just like I did.

Now cross your fingers and hope that we win! Mama needs some good news to brighten her day. A brand spanking new iPod sure would help.

Being Nice Finally Pays Off!

I hate parking meters. Especially Hartford parking meters where you get 2 mintes for a nickel, 5 minutes for a dime, and 10 minutes for a quarter. Seriously. 10 minutes for a QUARTER!?

I had to go to Hartford this morning to work on the chalkboards at Max Downtown again. Since the sun doesn't come up until after 7am, I left in the dark with a still sleeping Luke and Molly snuggled up in bed. I grabbed a handful of change for the meter from the change bowl, not sure what I grabbed since the room was dark, and I headed into Hartford. Well. I got to my meter and found that all I had a bunch of pennies and a few dimes. Crap! I was only able to feed the meter for 47 minutes. Not long enough.

What I hate almost as much as parking meters is parking tickets. $15 parking tickets in the lovely city of Hartford.

I was up on the ladder, adding "Chili Steak Fries" and a drawing of a Veuve Clicquot champagne bottle to the chalkboard, among other paradoxes, thinking that I was totally screwed. I was going to get a parking ticket, there was no way I wouldn't.

I left the restaurant and walked to my car where I see an employee of the Hartford Parking Authority circling my car. Ug. I walked over and said, "that's for me, huh?" He smiled, tapped on his little ticket-making machine, I put my stuff in the car. He looked up and asked me, "why aren't you arguing with me?" I told him that I didn't see any reason to. He was doing his job, I did something wrong, I accept my fate. He smiled. I boiled inside. I really can't stand paying the city of Hartford $15 for parking when they don't wash my car or deliver it to the door of Max Downtown for me. He walked over to me and handed me my ticket. Just a warning this time.For being NICE! Ha! Finally, nice pays off. Check it out:

Ho, Ho, Hold on There a Minute!

I know, Halloween isn't even here yet, it's way too early for Santa pictures. But I was hired to create a Breakfast with Santa announcement. I had to do it. So what do you think? Would you want to have pancakes with this guy? He'll eventually be juggling candy canes and holly berries but now that I look at him, it looks like he's being held up at gun point. Hmm. Better do something about that.

Payback

It's time to hold up my end of the bargain. Karen was nice enough to front me the awesome purse, now here's my end of the swap. Karen, if you're reading, what do you think?

By the way, has anyone noticed how much I say "awesome"? What, is it 1989 again? If I start throwing in "like" and "fer sher" you'll know it's time to up my meds. I say "awesome" almost as much as "so". Time to come up with some new words. So. Awesome.

Cats and Bats and Breast Cancer Awareness

You might remember that last year I painted this lady.

Well she's back and she's celebrating Breast Cancer Awareness Month with an event on Halloween.

The original clients asked that the lady get a spooky makeover for this year's event complete with mask, black cat and bats and this is how she looks now.

Spoooky!

Molly the Awesome Biker-Pup

Our motorcycle trip on Saturday started out well. We were headed to New York for a campout and we actually left early for once. The day was perfect, crisp and sunny, and I was back in my groove, back on the Buell. Everything was going right.

Until this happened:
(that would be my drive belt - a small, but unfortunately very necessary part of motorcycle-riding, BTW, it's supposed to be shaped like an "O")And then this happened:
(that would be my dad's friend Pete's truck with me, my dead bike and my helmet hair in it)And then this happened:
(that would be my bike in my dad's basement [and me with more lovely helmet hair] - the Buell's not going anywhere this weekend)So, rather than complain and whine about having my broken-down butt carried up to the campout on the back of Luke's bike, I did this:Yes, that would be the divine miss Molly riding on the motorcycle with us. I was afraid of her riding on Luke's bike alone in a basket, but curled up in my lap on the back of Luke's bike, now that's a different story. That I could go along with.

We bundled her up in her fleece coat, then her Old Navy parka, then her harness, which I attached to a rope that went around my body. I sat her on my lap and we were on our way. I thought she'd get sick of the wind in her face and tuck her head inside my jacket after a while. Boy was I wrong.Two and a half hours of riding, one short stop for lunch and she was still hanging her floppy ears out in the wind. In fact she kept leaning into Luke's back, trying to squeeze herself in front of him. She perched on the end of my lap, stretching her little neck out to catch as much air as she possibly could.

Once we got to Sioux and Voyle's place in NY, Molly hopped off the bike and had a grand time sitting by the bonfire and hanging out with the crowd. She got to sleep in a tent with me and Luke, she shared (hogged) my sleeping bag and woke up the next morning raring to go. When we packed up the gear and I grabbed her parka she started to wag her tail and when I put it on her she jumped up on the bike, ready to go. She amazed me. She's one tough little cookie and she's fearless.

So if you were in the souhwestern part of Connecticut/southeastern part of New York state this weekend and saw what looked like a fluffy white dog on a motorcycle, you weren't going crazy, that was my biker-pup, Molly.

My Dog is AWESOME.

More bragging to follow. Stay tuned.

My Routine

My friend Keith just got his very own blog, and since he mentioned in his first post how he was "inspired" by my pointless ramblings, I thought I'd gain some inspriation from his newest post about his morning ritual. His routine is, of course, all geeky and Canadian, but mine... well who am I kidding, mine's pretty geeky, too.

First, just like Keith, I need coffee. But I'm not a coffee snob. I don't need any maple syrup-roasted beans seasoned with fresh Canadian air. I'm happy to take anything in a cup that has caffiene and resembles coffee in the slightest bit.

Next, music. I open up my friend iTunes and pick my favorite morning playlist that I like to call "mellow". Jack Johnson, Jehro, Ray LaMontagne and maybe a little G. Love start my morning off right. OK, time for my next ritual.

Blogs. Yes, I love blogs. And I read a lot of them, too. My friends have them so I have to read those and keep up on what's going on with them. Then there are the friends I feel like I have even though I've never met these people - Dooce, Pamie, those guys. I've been reading their blogs for years and I know more about them than I do about some of my close friends. Weird, huh?

I tried to do a little screenshot of my bookmarks toolbar so you could see the order I go in, but it's too darn long to fit in the little blog window. So here it is:

Dooce | Pamie | Ultratart | Cute Overload | Mediacrity | Me, My Dogs, My Life | Optimistic Diva | Keith's blog which has a really long name | Spewing 4th Art | Loobylu | Go Fug Yourself | SimplyJune | Resale Queen

By the time I've gotten through those, I've had my fill of life in Utah, life in LA, cute pictures of animals, funny comments on celebrity outfits, art, crafts, eBay hijinks, and all my friend updates. It's a well-rounded morning. Then I check my email and go to Blogger to update my own blog(s).

And then I stare at my monitor for a while and decide what to do next. Maybe I'll check the blogs again, it's much earlier on the West Coast, maybe Dooce and Pamie have a new update now...

Have Dog, Will Travel - or How We Humiliate Our Dog While She Plots Our Slow, Painful Deaths

Luke has always wanted to take Molly on the motorcycle with him. When we had a quad, she LOVED it and rode on it all the time. Now she jumps up on the seat of any motorcycle she gets near as if to say, take me for a ride!

We took her, a couple of times, up the street to our friends' house but she sat on my lap while I was on the back of Luke's bike and she loved it. But this weekend it's a different story. We have a 2-hour motorcycle trip to New York planned with an overnight camp out, and sure, my mom would be happy to watch her while we're gone (right Mom?) but wouldn't it be more fun to bring her? Of course it would.

Molly's a hit with the motorcycle group we're camping with and when they heard us joking about bringing her, they were all on board. My dad even called last night with a new idea for transporting her in a milk crate lined with foam on the back of Luke's bike. So we've been brainstorming for possibilities and although it hasn't exactly been working out, it's been really funny.

This here is Sunday night at my sister's house. Luke was insistent on trying out one of Andrea's old baby carriers to see if Molly would fit. She fit, but her enormous look of disdain and loathing hung over the top.Luke still thinks that this is the best solution. I say: have you seen Molly actually sit up for more than five minutes at a time? She's more of a lounger and I think it would drive her nuts if she couldn't lay down for two straight hours. Plus there's no room in the carrier for her tail to stick out.

Which led us to the Toto basket (formerly our laundry basket). There's plenty of room for her to lay down, or look out if she chooses, and she can wear her harness so we can tether her to the bike instead of Luke. We fastened the basket down snugly and she actually looked pretty comfy in there. (Don't let that look of disgust fool you, there were treats in that basket. She was happy there.) I'm still worried, though. She's gonna be cold! I've got a fleece jacket for her and even an Old Navy parka with a hood, but I still think she'll be scared and cold. If I was riding on the back so she could lay on my lap, that would be one thing. But all alone in a breezy basket - I don't think she'll go for that. We'll see. I don't think we've given up on the idea yet.

Two Movies I Actually Liked!

Good news! There really isn't anything wrong with me. I finally liked two movies I saw. Two movies in a row! They were Office Space and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

First, Office Space. Yeah, OK, I'm just gonna have to go ahead and say that I loved this movie. If you've seen this movie, you know what I'm talking about.

Peter is a cubicle-dwelling corporate drone who hates his job and realizes that every day is worse that the last so essentially: every day is the worst day of his life. His girlfriend takes him to an occupational hypnotherapist where he finds peace and calm and a permanent state of relaxation due to a little glitch in the hypnotizing process, (namely his doctor keeling over with a heart attack before he can bring him back from his hypnotized state). Peter decides, in his new state of peace, to do what makes him happy, which is nothing. He sleeps in, goes to work in his flip flops, and tells the corporate consultants the truth about how much he slacks off and how unmotivated he is at work. He dismantles his cubicle and speaks his mind to his boss. No matter how bad his behavior gets, Peter never gets fired, in fact, he gets promoted.

I've never worked in an actual cubicle, but in my old office I experienced so many of the same insanely frustrating situations. The same tiny mistake brought back over and over by multiple managers, the repetitive redhead in the cube next door. At one point I was laughing so hard but trying not to laugh because I was watching it with Luke, who, although he hates his job, has never worked in an office. I thought that he would think I was insane since he's never been frustrated enough with office machines to fantasize about taking a copy machine out to a deserted field and beating the crap out of it with a baseball bat. But I was wrong. This movie speaks to the frustrated worker in all of us.

Whether you work at a desk or driving a truck, you still have management to deal with and I'm sure they still say incredibly ridiculous things to you and make your work life miserable. This movie was hilarious and everyone working in upper management should watch it as a training video to learn what not to do to your employees.

Next, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I loved this movie. I want to hug this movie. It was quiet and subtle and fast moving and it just made me happy inside.

For the first time ever I actually liked Jim Carey. His acting wasn't over-the-top and his character, Joel, was truly likeable in a pathetic sort of way. Kate Winslet was fantastic as the spontaneous and wacky, screwed-up girlfriend, Clementine, who decides to have all memory of Joel erased from her mind so she can forget about him and their relationship. Hurt and angry, Joel decides to do the same but realizes during the memory-erasing that he truly loves Clementine and doesn't want to forget her.

There's a scene between the memory-erasing doctor and his secretary, Kirsten Dunst, that makes the point that love isn't just in the mind, it's in the heart. You can have the memory taken away, but the love will still come back.

I was worried that the movie would end on a sad note but I loved the end. It makes you think: if you knew the beginning of your story and you knew the end, would you still want to go through the middle? And the answer is YES!

OK, now for the true test. Up next from the Blockbuster selection: Fahrenheit 911 and Honey.

Never Enough Lisa

What's that you say? You want more Lisa? More blogging? Well your wish is my command. Check me out here: The Joseloff Gallery Everything you never knew you wanted to know about our art gallery. Updated periodically, or whenever I have gallery news to report. Pretty, isn't it?

Eew... Kinda Neat.

This freaky thing has been hanging out on the side of our house for a week or so:
I've been searching online to see what the heck it is and now I have a serious creepy-crawly feeling going on. Too many spider pictures affecting my brain. Is there a bug in my hair? A spider crawling up my leg? Spiders aren't my favorite among the buggy creature community, but this one is apparently a Marbled Orb Weaver, a shy and non-threatening spider that builds beautiful, strong webs.

Now I think I have to go take another shower so I can stop scratching.

Betty Home Crocker

Yes, Betty's back. I had quite the weekend of cooking and crafting. Seeing as how the frost was coming and there were still veggies in my garden, I went out and picked everything and had to do something with them all before they rotted on the kitchen counter.

Between Friday and Sunday I managed to make:
-a large batch of pesto
-stuffed peppers
-pepper and sausage quiche
-clam chowder
-apple pie
-crab dip
-pasta with crab and cream sauce
-extra pastry crust to be used later on
And you know what I had for dinner on Saturday? A bowl of shredded wheat. Sad.

I also managed to craft quite a bit and I made some wall decorations (pictures to come, they're not quite done yet) out of some recycled wall hangings I took from the trash pile at work. I stripped and refinished a chair I bought at a tag sale for $3, and I finished refinishing our old dining set so I could sell it on Craigslist. Then I started to make some curtains, the finished one is pictured above. Cute, huh? They're for our guest bedroom.

It was quite a busy weekend. The funny thing is that I didn't make a bit of jewelry so I feel like I didn't get anything done!

Happy Birthday Melissa!

Here's to the second anniversary of your 29th birthday.

Pretty Pictures

Yesterday I took a little trip to New York City to visit two wonderful exhibitions. My eyes still hurt and can't really focus well from all the pretty things and all the color they had to absorb yesterday. I have art whiplash. There's so much to say and not enough time to tell you everything right now but I can give you the highlights.

We saw: Cezanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant Garde at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Picasso and American Art at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

I recommend: The show at the Met. So many amazing, important works of art in one place! We had a little discussion about the insurance policy they must have on the musuem for this show which ended with the thought, "Who cares about the money. What would you do with it? Build a time machine? You can't replace these paintings. If a bomb were dropped on the museum right now, we'd be screwed." For sure we would have been.

I didn't realize: How much I love Van Gogh. Not the typical Starry Night or Sunflowers, but his portraits and his patterns and backgrounds. My eyes were happy looking at them.

I learned: That there is truly such a thing as too much of a good thing. The show at the Whitney just had too much to look at. Too many comparisons of Picasso's work and the work of American artists he influenced. My eyes and my brain were tired by the end, which is a shame because there were some wonderful Jasper Johns paintings that I would have liked to spend more time with but I just couldn't focus anymore. I also learned that I love Stuart Davis (the painter, not the singing Buddhist monk, although he is pretty cute) and the sculptures of David Smith.

I was surprised: At how I felt standing in front of some of these works of art. I did jump a little when I saw Picasso's Three Musicians because I loved this painting in high school and painted a life-sized version on brown paper for an art class project. I was a little giddy seeing it in person. Some of the other pieces though, I wasn't all that impressed with and that surprised me. An amazing, rarely-seen Picasso or Jackson Pollock and I stood there thinking, "eeh... it's all right".

So that's it for the highlights. It was a great day, beautiful weather, pretty pictures, amazing things to see. You should go see for yourself!

Don't You Love Ads on Blogs?

Yesterday I decided, what the heck. I know I only get about 30 people a day reading my blog, but maybe that's enough traffic to raise a little shoe-shopping cash via Google AdSense. I added the little nifty ad bar to the top if the page yesterday when I wrote about cheating on Blogger with VOX and the first recommended ad link was "Infidelity". I wonder where that would have taken me. I'm prohibited from clicking my own ads so I couldn't find out. I hope you don't mind the new ad format, a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do, you know. The shoes don't just buy themselves.

My Infidelity

Blogger, I just have to get it off my chest: I've been cheating on you.

I feel terrible. His name is VOX and I've spent a lot of time with him today, but I really think it was just a fling. You're my real true love. He seemed all new and flashy and had some cool features that you're lacking, but you're so much more fun to be around. You're easier to manipulate and customize and really, isn't that what we all want in a partner... uh, blog.

I tried it. I was sucked in to the new, try it now, invitation only, new! new! new! blogging service, VOX. I scored myself an invitation and I spent a whole lot of time playing with it today, but I don't think I'm going to change. It seemed cool at first, I've always liked the book and music recommendation columns, like all Typepad accounts seem to have, and VOX has a cool photos links area that I liked, but the template can't be manipulated, the code can't be changed, and I can't find anywhere to add links to other sites I like, or my banners for Flickr, or Etsy, or the Croncast 300 by the 300th (have you all signed up, huh? huh?). So I think I'll stay with Blogger. Maybe I'll keep my VOX account for photos or something. Heck, who am I kidding? I'm barely finding time lately to update ONE blog, how am I going to keep up with two?

If you're interested in peeking at the VOX blog wile it lasts, there's one post and I've already changed the template twenty-seven times. I'll probably change it a few more before I'm happy and then I'll go and delete my account. I'm an idiot. But you can see for yourself here.

One More Post

This is the last of the three-legged dog posts, I promise, (by the way, she's doing great, getting better every day), but I just had to show you this from Cute Overload. What a weird coincidence! I think I might have to get one of those shirts.

On Amazing Pup

(Sorry the picture is so blurry but Sydney was so wiggly that I couldn't get a clear picture!)

Sydney's back home after her surgery and she's doing amazingly well. My sister and her husband both had to work on Saturday when Sydney was set to come home post-amputation so I agreed to pick her up at the vet. Unsure of what sadness I'd see when I got there, Iwas shocked to see her bouncy and wagging her tail, happy to get out of there and completely unfazed by her new predicament. She skips around, up stairs, down stairs, from the front seat of my car to the back. She's amazing.

She hung at our house for a while before my sister got out of work and the vet had told us to put a t-shirt on her when we got home to keep her from scratching at her incision. I found an old BMW t-shirt I had and figured that it was appropriate since we had seen a man at the BMW rally in Vermont this summer who lost his leg and went on to ride over 25,000 miles in one season. Nothing stopped him and nothing's stopping Sydney!

Way to go Super Pup!

Sydney-Girl

My sister's dog, Sydney, is going to have her leg amputated today. She's been fighting cancerous cysts on her paw and has twice had them removed with surgery, but the vet suggested that the only thing to do to make her better was to amputate her leg.

I'm happy that she'll soon be recovering and feeling better and her paw won't be big and lumpy and painful anymore, but I can't stop thinking about her today and how she must be feeling.

On the phone with my sister last night, with my own puppy curled up against me, I said to her that, as much as I would like to think that dogs feel and reason and think the same as we do, I'm sure that they don't. Of course, they can love us and they show something similar to emotion when they're scared or if they get yelled at and know they've done something wrong, but can they feel sad? Can they dwell on what they used to have and don't have anymore (like four whole legs)? I don't think so. It's the only way I can figure that dogs can bounce back from a surgery like Sydney's so fast.

How many dogs with three legs or dogs with paralyzed back ends hauling around doggie wheelchairs have you seen? Those dog's don't show self-pity. They don't shy away from romping around with the other dogs even though they only have three legs. They just love life. Dogs are amazing creatures. And Sydney wil be one of those amazing pups, too. Be strong Sydney-Girl! The worst will soon be over.

(And by the way, that scruffy muppet-looking thing in the picture is a young Molly. That picture is from a couple of years ago, hopefully just minutes before an appointmet at the doggie-salon.)