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!