The "I'm Still Alive" Post

Okay, so I've tried to be better lately about posting something on my blog regularly. "Tried". It hasn't been working so much. But I have plans, yes, big plans!

I'm sorta kinda of working on a video of the kitties enjoying their Christmas presents (though it might be Valentines Day before I get it up) and have lots of stuff to share about Christmas and New Years and the joys that are 5-day weekends (so cool).

But I'm rapidly approaching a time where all that info is no longer relevant. Not that this will necessarily stop me from posting about it, but still....

(In my defense, I've been fighting a cold the past week and currently I think the cold is winning so I've not felt all that up to blogging. But don't feel slighted. I've greatly decreased my online socializing across the board this week while I can't breathe.)

So as an apology for slacking on somewhat frequent updates to my blog, I offer you a Sam belly.

The Sam belly is one of the more frequent kitty-sites to be seen at the Zimmermann house. I speculate because Sammy is so freakin' fat, he's always hot, thus always in the cooler, belly-up position.

So enjoy looking into those handsome eyes and imagine the delightful squishiness of the belly and have faith that more posts are to come. Eventually. I hope.

Shoot Me A Waco!

I've been quite for a little bit... Leah (Dan's sister) was in town last week and I've spent this week getting back into the groove of working again. But now I've finally gotten in gear and resized a few pics to share from Leah's trip, in particular the day trip we took to Waco via Waxahachie.

In Waxahachie, we stopped for lunch at the Catfish Plantation, an old home that has been converted into a lovely restaurant that fries pretty much everything except the table decor and is reportedly haunted.

At the Catfish Plantation

While we saw no ghosts, we did partake of some delish fried yummies, including fried pickles, hushpuppies and sweet potato fries (covered in sugar and cinnamon). Oh yeah, and catfish.

Then it was off to Waco for the Dr. Pepper Museum.

Dr. Pepper Museum

It's a pretty neat little place. I mean, a bit kitschy, but that is part of the charm. Kind of like the Mustard Museum in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin.

Apparently, Dr. Pepper was invented in Waco, so that's kinda cool.

Shoot Me A Waco

It's nice that, in theory, Waco can be known as something other than the home of whacked out cults that get into a standoff with the ATF.

Leah in front of the "Scary Guy", aka Doc Alderton, the inventor of Dr. Pepper.

And since it was a bit chilly the day we went, Leah decided to sample some of the seasonal specialty, hot Dr. Pepper.

Hot Dr. Pepper with Lemon

Leah let Dan and I have a sip and it was different, but surprisingly good. I mean, I don't think it will replace my regular hot tea or anything, but I liked it.

I chose something a little different, a fountain ginger ale.

Circle A Ginger Ale

Check out the syrup at the bottom. And it was gooooooood. Sadly, it isn't available in stores (though you can buy a bottle of the syrup to mix your own at home).

A Dr. Pepper Exclusive

So yeah, all in all, it was fun. Dan and I both really enjoyed Leah's trip (and we think she did, too) and the Dr. Pepper museum was fun too!

Leah, Me and Dan

Now if only we could find a mustard museum to visit for Leah's next trip...

Hubba hubba, Part II

At the beginning of this month, I posted about our new lovely big screen TV. Of course, our new entertainment center hadn't come in yet, so the picture showed our lovely TV sitting on top of our coffee table.

Well, yesterday the entertainment center came in and we got the TV all set up. It's even prettier now! Don't believe me? Look:

Our TV on the new entertainment center

Oooooh.

New Address!

All that are related to me on my mother's side:

Due to a crappy internet provider, Mom's thinking of switching away from her current ISP. Which would mean that the current Crook Family website would lose it's hosting site. So in preparation for the switch, we've got a new address so we are now hosted by Blogspot.

The new address is crookreunion.blogspot.com.

Other than the new site, it all looks the same. We'll hopefully send out some sort of notice to make the switchover official and begin planning for 2009's reunion. Yay!

Is the Stomach Flu the Flu?

So my whole resolution not to get sick in November (because I had three separate illnesses in October) didn't work out so well. I managed on Monday night to get the stomach flu.

And yeah, apparently even though the doctor said post-surgery way back when that I would not be able to throw up... well, that's just not true. He should have said it will be really painful and make you want to die, but it can be done.

Now after 3 days of wishing for death, I'm actually doing much better. Mind you, not good but much better. There is a difference.

Today's goal is two-fold: eat something I have to chew and eat more than 1/4 cup of soup at a time.

Hopefully neither of those are pushing it.

Hubba hubba!

Dan and I got our Christmas present today: a 52-inch TV.

Seriously.

Now, we don't have the new entertainment center (it's coming in on the 18th) so we are using our coffee table (well, actually it's my parents and they have ours right now - we traded earlier this year) as a temporary TV table. But keeping that in mind, check this lovely thing out. (Well, first check out what we used to have, then check out the newness).

Before

After

To give you an idea of proportions, both pictures were taken from the couch and the tall speakers on the left and right of the TVs are in the same location. In other words, yes, our new TV is almost as wide as our old entertainment center.

Yes, currently our center speaker and stereo receiver are on the floor, but they will only be there until the new entertainment center comes in and we can deal for two weeks. Shoot, it will take that long for Dan to get the TV settings how he likes them.

And can I say, hockey is gorgeous on this puppy!

GO Ducks!

Happy Halloween

In honor of the upcoming Halloween, Gidgie displays her costume idea, The Headless Gidgie:

Just a little freaky, if you ask me. And no matter now much she begs, we will not get her a jack o' lantern to wear.

I'm Feeling Accomplished

I'm having troubles at work getting all of the pastors to turn in all of their credit card receipts each month. And considering there are six people on the account and each person does anywhere from 2 to 20 charges a month, having to chase down receipts to do the budgetary accounting to pay this bill can be an adventure.

So I made it a competition. The one who turns in the most of their monthly receipts wins a prize. This month's promised price was homemade chocolate covered cherries.

So that's what I did this evening (and some yesterday - I couldn't finish yesterday since I forgot to get chocolate chips). This time though, I put them in little mini-muffin papers. I was a little worried because the chocolate got kind of close to overflowing a few of the cups, but I just tried a sample one and YUM! And the papers look pretty.

Edible, yes? Even with the poor picture quality

Tomorrow, about half of the cherries will go to work with me as rewards for receipts and the rest will stay at home to be eaten by Dan and me. Most likely mostly Dan. They are super rich.

But oh so good. I'm tempted to go eat another one.

On Ducks and Monkey Pants

Duckie Stuff: YAY! The Ducks finally won a game! They finally have one in the "win" column. They finally have a point! You can't see me, but I'm doing a little happy dance!

Mind you, 1-4 is not a record to be happy with. But it is so, so much better than 0-4. So I dance.

This is really the first game that I've been able to give my full attention to and I admit, I was looking for whatever was going on that made the Ducks start the season off so poorly. Aside from way too many trips to the penalty box, there wasn't anything that really stuck out. Now, the heavy penalties they kept taking did get me a little ticked, but you know, that's not all that unusual for the Ducks - they've always been tops in the league for penalty minutes. Looks like this season is shaping up to be no different. Other than that, there was nothing that screamed "I am the problem - I am why the Ducks keep losing!" so I guess the Ducks saying that they were putting in the effort and doing the right things but it just wasn't coming together were right. Or else whatever was the problem was fixed so it didn't show up in tonight's game. The Sharks pretty much dominated according to stats during the game, but ultimately the score is what counts, so whatever.

There were a few fights (Parros even drew blood from Shelley), some good saves by Giguere, not quite enough defense for me (but nothing too bad), and a lovely breakaway by Sammy Paulson that made me happy (and resulted in a goal). And it was a shut-out for Giguere, so yay all around! I'm happy!

Another thing that made me happy (and is probably the real reason for the Ducks' win) was Chris Pronger turning up clean shaven.

Say "Bye-bye" to the Beard

Now, I'm totally anti-beard, but I just really am not a big fan of seeing them outside the playoffs. Shoot, I'm not even a big fan seeing them in the playoffs. But for post-season hockey, I deal.

Anyway, congratulations to Chris Pronger's razor for winning the game against the Sharks tonight!

Monkey Pants: In other news, I am sick. I'm 99% sure I got it from work and I think Dan is coming down with it now. It's this weird virus thing. I say weird because it is hard to say exactly what is wrong. I go from burning up to freezing cold, my temperature keeps going up and down and last night I was having some really weird dreams/hallucinations about pants not fitting or something that was vital to tell Dan, but when I was able to tell him this oh so important information, he just ended up laughing at me.

Anyway, I went home from work early yesterday and only managed to swing a couple of hours at work today before I had to come home and die. But about 6pm tonight, my fever broke (again) but this time it seems to be sticking so hopefully I'm over the worst part.

But until I feel 100%, I will continue to wear my fleece monkey pants.

Monkey Pants!

Seriously, how awful are these? Bright green, fleece and monkeys! I love them! They are my ultimate I-need-cuddles-because-I-feel-wretched pj pants. So I will keep wearing them and my Blues shirt circa 1990 that I stole from Dan when we started dating until I feel like I'm ready and able to rejoin the land of the non-infections.

Until then, please slather yourself in Purell after finishing my blog.

Thank you.

Life Is Dull. Good. But Dull.

Okay, so I haven't really been posting any "meaty" posts lately (well, unless you count the whole clogged sink but that was more "leafy". HA! I crack myself up).

Anyway, this post is basically an apology post for the fact that my life is very boring currently. I mean, the most excitement I've had lately was having a nurse come to my job last Friday to take my blood, have me piddle in a cup and ask a few questions so I can hopefully get life insurance. Woohoo! Life insurance! Ugh, I'm old.

So yeah, no big excitement in my life currently. But while not being blog-worthy, life is good right now. I still hadn't fully accepted that it was September (still dating things "August") and it is officially now October - that's pretty much the biggest drama in my life right now. Meh. I can deal with that. And hockey season is rapidly approaching so that's a big time bonus. Go Ducks!

Other than that, Dan and I have just been working, hanging out, watching TV, not getting enough sleep, loving on some wonderful kitties, and paying on the house. It's a thrill a minute, let me tell ya.

But I like it. But then, I don't have to read about it like you do. Muahahahaha!

Yum!

So, a few posts ago, I mentioned something about lately wanting to play with watercolors. Well, I haven't yet, but I was bored tonight so I decided to play with the cheapy acrylics I got to mess around with my journal. I asked Dan for a shape and he said, "Apple" so this is what I came up with:

My Apple

I think it turned out way neat! I did do some other doodling paintings but this one is by far the best. And I think considering I only had cream, pink, green and neon yellow, this is one awesome apple.

I put it on the fridge. Hehe!

Kaleidoscope of Homes

Yeah, this post is late, but whatever. I post dated it so it looks like I was actually on the ball and updating my blog in a timely manner.

Saturday, Dan and I went to the Fort Worth Kaleidoscope of Homes. It was amazing. It was crazy. There were five different homes, all of them worth more than 2 million. One of them was even over 9,700 square feet. Seriously. It took us two hours to go through the five homes and we accidentally missed a section of one house.

I took some nifty pictures, but looking back on them, most of the pictures ended up being of bathrooms, tiles or sink fixtures. But they are still cool. And I did manage to snap some shots of pools, courtyards, and patios. For, you know, when we plan on building a 9,000 sq. ft. house.

Ha! Right!

A private courtyard - I wants

Lovely pool (oh yeah, and a parking lot)

A barrel sink. Crazy. Yet oddly cool.

Fun faucet

Blue! Love the tile - the sink is just funky

More sink-ness

Yep, so that is all I'm sharing. Those and other goodies will be printed out and put in my "New Home Wishlist" book. Though the 7,500 - 9,000 sq. ft. think is not on the "want" list.

Awww!

My host sister from Japan, Yurika, had a baby girl last week!

Baby Waka with Grandpa and Grandma Arai

Yurika's labor took 19 hours and was apparently pretty tough (though I gotta think any labor is tough). But I'm sure she thinks Waka was worth it!

Caring Bridge

Dear Friends and Family,

My mom (& I) created a CaringBridge site to keep you up to date on Adelea Ibsen. CaringBridge is a nonprofit organization that helps friends and families stay connected.

If you would like to stay posted on Adelea’s progress, please visit her CaringBridge site.

Please visit her CaringBridge site anytime. You can use the site to check in on Adelea, read the journal entries and send her messages by signing the guestbook. When you register with CaringBridge and sign the guestbook, you will automatically receive e-mail notifications each time her journal is updated. Or, you can subscribe to receive these notifications even before you sign the guestbook. (Of course, you can unsubscribe from these e-mail updates at any time.) We’ll keep the journal updated based on Adelea or Jill’s notes and conversations with us until Adelea is able to post entries herself.

CaringBridge is a free, nonprofit web service that connects family and friends to share information, love and support during a health care crisis, treatment and recovery. http://www.caringbridge.org

Scrapbooking and Celebration

I've got a lot of scrapbook pages to do from before 2007, so while I try to stay (relatively) updated in my current scrapbook items, I also try to make sure that old events get equal attention. Thrilling, huh?

I'm sure you are wondering why I am sharing this information (especially since I'm sure I allude to it any time I post an old scrapbook page). It's because I feel the need to justify why I have just finished this page now when it is from 2004. And I feel like a slacker for not having done it sooner.

Enough with the babble. Here's the page:

Spring 2004

It took way too freakin' long. Mostly figuring out what accents I'd use. I tried some other flowers but they didn't do it for me, then I tried something else which didn't work, and finally I got on the idea that I used, but I had to take the original white flowers off of the stems and replace them with the flowers I made and then I had to glue the single stems all together to make something that would fill that space. Yeah. It took way too long. Kinda crazy, but I'm really pleased with the results.

In Other News
I keep forgetting, today is Dan's and my anniversary. Six whole years! Woo hoo! I can't believe he's put up with me this long!

Friday we went out to dinner and went Costco-ing but that wasn't really in celebration for our anniversary, but since we haven't done anything today aside from go to church and watch some TV, I'm retroactively making our Friday night dinner a celebratory dinner.

Journaling

I got a journal yesterday and I'm really excited about using it. It's not the typical "write your feelings" journal. This one is called Wreck This Journal and was actually in the craft section of Barnes & Noble.

My New Journal

The pages of the journal each have different directions on them - all directions that lead you to basically wrecking the journal.

Not surprisingly, this journal is dedicated to perfectionists. Of course, who else would need rules about destroying a book?

Ironically since this is all about ultimately destroying the journal, my instinct was to buy the book in the best condition. Yeah, Dan made fun of me.

Anyway, I've done a couple of pages in it - it's lots of fun!

Burn This Page

This is the first one I did. Dan watched me as I light the page on fire over the sink (yes, I know most people might take it out of the book before burning, but I want to record the destruction of the book page by page as much as I can). Anyway, I was giggling like mad while doing this and Dan was even laughing. It was fun to do!

Another page I did which I think turned out really well and actually kind of pretty was this one:

Poke Holes in this Page Using a Pencil

Anyway, lots of fun. (Geez, I keep saying "fun" - but it is!) I can't wait until I get to the "Chew on this Page" page!

Guess what?

Today, I turn old. Hehe.

Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday to meeeeeeee
Happy birthday to me!

I actually don't feel like it is my birthday. I think because normally I take the day off and today I didn't. Oh well.

This weekend Dan and I will go to my parents to celebrate Dad's and my birthdays (he's July 22) but other than that (and getting sung to by DH and my parents), no big birthday plans or parties. Should be a nice quiet day.

Which I guess is good because, at 30, can I really stand the excitement?

Happy 4th!

For the 4th, Dan and I went and spend the day with my parents in Graham. We went to a pancake breakfast and 4th of July parade but even more important than that, we met Kate!

Convict Katie

She is a doll! And such the puppy! I have this funny little video of her attacking a bush. She's nuts. Sadly, I cannot post the video since the new camera takes only .MOV movies, which I currently can't edit.

We also made home-made ice cream. Yum!

Before the Churning

And boy, that hand churning is tough! I worked hard making the ice cream!

Working Hard!

Okay, okay. So I did just enough churning to say I helped. Dan and Dad did the majority of the churning.

Doing the Real Work

The Other Worker Bees

The Finished Product

The ice cream was soooooo good. We used maraschino cherries and it tasted so much like the snow-cream mom used to make when we lived in North Carolina after a snow. Mmm. So good.

And, of course, you can't have a 4th of July without fireworks. Or, in this case, sparklers.

Oooh, look at the pretty!

Yep, so all in all a very good time.

New Addition

Well, looks like our family keeps growing! And no, Dan and I didn't get another cat!

Look who just joined the family:

Welcome Katie!

Aww, isn't she cute? But fear not, we didn't get a new dog, either. This precious thing is Kate, my new sister and my dad's new hunting dog.

Check out those legs and paws. She's gonna be huge.

She's the same breed as Cody, Dad's current dog, who is getting a little old to keep hunting. Mom gave her to Dad as a Christmas present (even though Katie hadn't been born) and Dad picked her up this last weekend.

Yep, no bonding going on here. None at all.

She'll go back to Oklahoma in August to start her hunting dog school. But until then, she gets to be a well-loved puppy.

Ah, puppy-dom.

I can't wait to meet her and smother her in cuddles. And then come home and be thankful we have cats!

TMFP Take 2

Lookie what I got:

It has been named TMFP, just like my old red one was (which has been renamed to TMFR while it is still in the house). It even has a webcam and a biometric finger scan thingy. Neither of which I will probably use all that regularly, but they are fun to play with. And it is pink!

The tea in front is Special Teas' No. 621 Formosa Ali San Oolong in my lovely Noritake Savannah china, which is the china that my dad's dad started collecting for me right after I was born.

Mucho Mas Posting Going On

Okay, so lots to share since last week and several different topics, each of which have a very distinct probability of being very looooooong, so I'm going to do multiple posts today and do some back dating of the posts to keep things in order. So for those of you that actually read my blog regularly, scroll down a few posts (I'll label them Post-Dated) so you don't miss any info about what happens in my oh so thrilling life.

Tea Pass Box! (Post-Dated)

Yeah, this was so needed! After the frustration of Dell's "Next Year Service", it was the coolest thing in the world to come home and see a big box o' tea sitting on my porch.

Adagio Teas not only has really awesome teas, they have a really neat forum, Tea Chat, that I've been hanging out in. And a brilliant poster started something called the Tea Pass Box were someone would start out a box of teas and send it to the first person on the list. That person would try some teas, add some teas, then pass the box on to the next person on the list. Well, I signed up to participate and Tuesday was when the box got passed to me!

And there was a ton of tea in it!

Opening the box - the two items to the side were in the box, too

The Tea Pass Tea - Yum!

I've imposed Wednesday at the "must go out" date to get the box passed on to the next person on the list. I still have about 12 teas I want to try, so I had best get cracking!

Pretty Dell Brick (Post-dated)

Maybe I just have the kiss of death when it comes to laptops. I had tons of issues with my not-so-trusty ole Gateway which is happily collecting dust, only to be dragged out when Dan wants to test out some random and possibly unhealthy operating system or program.

But my Dell has been a lovely friend. We've laughed together, we've cried together, and apparently we've also decided to just sit and stare at each other.

Look at the pretty colors!

Granted, staring at TMFP has been at least a squidgie entertaining since, really, the colors are very pretty. But it makes it really hard to check email.

The actual plot: the video card went out. Dell's "Next Day Service" really isn't - we called on Friday (6/8) and finally, after taking my pretty brick back and forth to work to be available for repair during work hours, random Dell-man finally came out Thursday (6/12 - that's even pushing "Same Week Service") to replace my computer's motherboard (to which the video card is attached). Ran wonderfully. My Dell and I spent time together and bonded, then I shut it down and brought it home. Where it proceeded to not turn on again.

Power button doesn't work. At all.

I finally figured out a cheat to get it to work: remove the battery, unplug the laptop from the adapter, unscrew a screw in the battery compartment (that is on the other side of the power button), wait a few seconds, put the screw back in and tighten, turn the computer over and open it up (very important - when I missed this step, I got no video, just audio), reconnect to the adapter, computer will run a self-test and start beeping with error messages, cancel out of the self-test, tell computer to boot up anyway, put the battery back in. Now the computer is running.

The power button would be so much easier.

So today, 6/13, I'm waiting for random Dell-guy to come back "sometime between 5 and 7pm" to fix the motherboard (to which the power button is attached) again.

And did I mention that it is 7:15?

Fixed Fence

Our fence is fixed! YAY! Okay, that makes it sound like it just randomly happened. Not so. My dad came down Thursday afternoon and he and Dan dug up the old and broken support posts and the concrete they were in, then got new posts and set them in new concrete.

Digging up the old posts

This is what they were digging up - three of them. Not fun.

They had to let the concrete set on the new posts, so they weren't able to replace the panels until this morning.

Getting ready to put the panels back up.

Replacing the panels.

Screwing the panels in place.

Our fixed fence.

They got some extra fence slats to replace a few damaged ones on other parts of the fence, too, not just the ones damaged in the latest fence fall, so that's pretty nifty. There are two more that need replacing (rodents have chewed the bottom of two slats off for easier access to our yard - stray cats use it, too), but it was trying to rain this morning (unsuccessfully actually, but it looked pretty promising for a bit) so once the big fence repair was done along with replacing the most damaged slats around the yard, the guys came on in just in case it did rain.

Or else by that time they were just really ready for a beer. But they did a great job, so that beer was well-deserved.

It was January when we had the first wind damage to our fence. Six months later, we have this. So I figure right after Christmas we'll have another section fall. My money is on the section that the fence door is at. That's pretty much the only section of fence that gets the full force of the wind that hasn't fallen. Though there is more fence to the right side of the recently damaged portion, but as the Lady Banks rose bush has taken over that corner, I'm pretty sure if it did break, we wouldn't know it because the rose bush would hold it up. So I figure one more section of fence will fall soon and then we'll be good for another 5 years before the new stuff starts falling. And I'm hoping by that time, Dan and I will have built our next house already and whoever buys this house can deal with it.

And the next house? Not on a hill. And I want trees around as windbreaks. And metal posts. Or maybe a concrete/brick-faced fence. And I'd like to be in a weather bubble where we would not have 40-50+mph wind gusts.

I hate the wind.

Shocking!

Guess what I did today?

I got a hair cut. Not just a trim, but quite a dramatic one.

Before:the Back

This is the longest that my hair has been. Ever. It beat the length I had at 16 by about a half inch to inch. So once I hit that record-setting length, what did I do? Chop it all off!

After. Just a little shorter!

The front

Anyway, I'm really happy with it. It took almost two hours to do and no fewer than four women expressed shock or dismay at the fact that I was cutting off so much hair. My stylist said he was happy I didn't cry - apparently some girls do when they get their long long hair chopped.

Not me, though, I was excited. Henry (my stylist) was pretty nervous, though. Before the first cut, he told me his heart was racing and was I sure? Hehe. Yep! And I love it!

Boo!!

I'm grumpy today for two reasons:

Reason one: The Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup last night in Game Six last night. Dang it. Oh well, at least now Sidney Crosby can shave off his horrid excuse for a playoff beard.

Crosby attempting a beard

I feel like he should be wearing a stained apron and a hairnet and be bussing my table.

Reason Two:
This is the big one. Guess what sight greeted us after we got up this morning.

Stupid wind!

Yep, another section of fence was blown down. I hate the stupid wind we get here. Dad's coming down to help fix the fence today, so that's good but still, I hate the wind.

So now I'm grumpy. *pout*

Lightcatcher Fishery

This weekend, Dan and I actually did something. How amazing is that? Actually, it was my dad's idea to meet them for lunch at the Lightcatcher Winery since they had gluten free pizza so Mom would be able to eat there safely. But hey, it got us out and doing something other than just paying off our house!

Look, we go out! We do things! And aren't we so cute?

Food was way good, too. I even had a dessert wine (but I couldn't finish it because wine? Is strong! At least to lightweight me!)

GF pizza, sausage and cheese plate, yummy burger and a wonderful salad - goooooood food!

And speaking of good food, guess what I made today? Fried fish! Yum! I've made fried fish before, but I did southern style fried fish. This time was beer battered. It turned out pretty tasty. And of course, I made hushpuppies to go with them (not pictured - the poor, neglected things) and my hushpuppies are always good.

I think the one on top looks like I fried a salamander.

Okay, so not the prettiest fried fish in the world, but hey, it eats. Unlike the exotic dish of deep fried tong.

Artery-clogging and teeth breaking! Yum!

It's just a thrill a minute at the Zimmermann household, I tell you what!

Oh, almost forgot - I also made a cake today. Vanilla funfetti with strawberry icing. I haven't had any yet because honestly, full from the fish. But it looks pretty!

Can't wait to cut this puppy open! Yum!

Blooming Crawfish Tea

Once again, it is that time of year. Memorial Day weekend, also known as Mudbug Madness weekend (you should so go to that page, at least for a minute - they have fun zydeco music playing).

Yep, this weekend we were in Shreveport, Louisiana, eatin' bugs!

Mudbugs - the only "bugs" I'll eat

Dan had at least seven boxes of bugs and I'd say at least that many beers, too. I had a whopping three boxes - which is a lot for me - and no beers (duh).

Dan playing with his food.

Of course, there is more than just crawfish to eat, if you so desire.

Mmm, tastes like chicken.

We had a decent sized group this year to eat, drink and be merry - fourteen people for the whole group.

Part of the group enjoying the music.

Now, we take our bugs pretty seriously, but there are some folks that come way more prepared than we are. Like this guy:

As Dan said, I bet this guy gets all the chicks.

In less timely news (as these pictures were taken before Mudbug), our yard is still in bloom, but different parts - no more irises. Now we have the oleander in bloom.

Oooh, pretty!

And, how cool is this: we have apples!

Mini-gala apple

It's only about the size of a ping pong ball, but isn't it pretty? We have several others, too, but this one is the prettiest.

And in something even more outdated, this is from earlier last week. Found a lovely tea, Adagio's Birthday Tea Blend. It's a mix of vanilla, cream and caramel tea - with sprinkles!

Birthday Blend

It's really good. It smells so yummy and tastes like licking vanilla icing but without the sugar coating that coats your mouth. And it tastes creamy and yummy. It's quite good. And so pretty!

Holy Monkeys

I'm in shock.

Dan and I just ran the numbers to see how long it would take to pay off our house at the rate we currently have budgeted. I was hoping for 4 years but honestly expecting about 6.

Three and a quarter years.

Seriously. Barring any major financial disaster, we will own our house and be 100%, totally, completely debt free by August 2011.

And that's assuming that Dan gets no more raises or bonuses. And that's still maxing out our IRAs every year.

How. Freakin. Awesome.

Still in total shock. But excited. And I so am feeling the need to go hunt down Dave Ramsey and give him a big ole hug.

Summer Haircut

This whole thing started because of Gidget. Last night, I found a bad mat on her back (her hair type makes her very prone to them). I cut it out and had to get pretty close to the skin to get it all. This left Gidget with a little bald spot on her back that looked, well, less than lovely. So I decided to shave her back (we do this every so often to deal with the mat issue, especially when the weather initially heats up making her shed more). Her tummy rarely gets bad mats, just her back, so that's all we ever shave with her - we give her kind of a Schnauzer cut.

I must say, Gidget did wonderful while I was shaving her. She sat down and didn't squirm or anything. Let me get a really good and clean trim on her back with no problems. Good Gidgie.

I haven't been able to get a good picture of Gidget's new haircut, but if you look closely enough in this one, you can tell that her back isn't too fluffy.

Bad picture of a shaved Gidgie

I'll see about getting a better picture later. But I do have some good pictures of something else: Ashes's haircut.

Dan and I have been talking about needing to shave the Big Girl recently since the weather is getting warmer. And since I had the clippers out for Gidgie's trim, I went ahead and did it!

The clipping begins

And the pile of fluff begins to grow

This is where she starts getting grumpy

And this is where she starts getting mad

She does not like her tail getting shaved

Daddy comes to help with the clean-up...

...and the belly trimming

And we're done!

Ta-da! The end result
(The pink spot on her side is a scar from a burn she got years ago while sitting in a window).

The resulting fluff pile - my vacuum hates me

All in all, it took only about a half hour. But then, we've had a lot of practice over the years. It used to take much, much longer. And those were the times that Big Girl would get pissy and end up pooping on us.

Really.

As a defensive mechanism, it really is quite effective. Gross, but effective.

I'm so happy we've gotten quicker. She doesn't get worked up enough to bring out the "big guns".

Ew.

New Addition

I'd like to introduce you to our newest addition, Samuel.

Sammy-boy

Sammy is a 16-pounder that was abandoned at the vet about three weeks ago. He's a very sweet boy that has already earned the right to run around the house unsupervised - less than a week and he's already if not friendly with the others, hasn't had any hits put out on him.

I promised SIL I'd get a video of his little neurotic habit as soon as I can. It's pretty cute - when he dances, he suckles on the third knuckle of his right paw, like he's nursing. It is so weird but really pretty cute. I'll be stalking him with the camera to get video.

Nibby's Urn

We got a new camera today, so here's a picture of Nibby's urn.

It is about six inches tall, black and white marble. I think it works for the Big Man.

Sigh

My camera is broken. I dropped it off the counter onto tile and yeah, it no longer works. Dan and I should have a working camera this weekend, but until then, I have things I want to post pictures of but can't. Boo.

We got Nibby back yesterday. He is in a lovely black and white marble urn. It is similar to the one we have for Princess, but with a different shape - a little more slender and the lid is tapered. It's very pretty and it feels so much better to have Nibby home. I still miss him so much and it makes me terribly sad but it isn't as painful anymore now that he is home.

Also, this week is "Administrative Professionals' Week". And being an office manager, I fit in that category. So guess what I got yesterday? Flowers! The church got me flowers! They are really pretty pink and yellow tulips in a lovely vase. I have gotten a gift card and a bath/lotion set at previous jobs (and I've also gotten nothing), but never flowers so I think this is way cool. They are sitting on my desk looking pretty. I'm hoping they'll last long through this weekend so I can take them home and enjoy them there, but I want to have them at work this week. I mean, I am here 8 hours a day so I will enjoy them more at work than if they were at home, at least until the weekend.

Hopefully we'll have the new camera soon and then I'll post pictures of Nibby's urn and my pretty flowers. Until then, yeah, you get text.

Niblet Jay Zimmermann

At about 4:45pm today, our precious Nibby-man unexpectedly passed away. He suffered heart failure brought on by heart disease.

He had started panting on the way to his annual vet check-up, but that wasn't unusual for him as he always got stressed going to the vet. But after we came home and had been home for an hour and he was still panting, I called the vet and they said to bring him back in. I rushed him to the vet and when we got there, he was responsive but fairly limp. They took him to the back and got him hooked up on oxygen. They intubated him and put in a catheter but he continued to worsen. CPR was performed but Nibby did not respond. His poor little heart just gave out.

The vet performed an autopsy and basically said that while ultimately the stress of taking Nibby into the vet today is what triggered the heart failure, his heart was in such condition that he would not have been with us any longer than another month. His heart was greatly enlarged - a wall between the chambers which should be about 2mm thick was 15mm and a section of his heart that should have been able to hold 10mL was able to hold less than 1. Most kitties with heart disease pass away between three and six years old. Nibby would have been six on August 10 of this year.

Needless to say, Dan and I are heartbroken and still in shock. I'm really not sure what I'm going to do without our Big Man. I've been crying for the past four hours, I feel horrible, and I just want my Nibby back.

Oooh, Pretties

Saturday, Dan and I went to Graham and spent the day with my parents. We all went to Clark Gardens in Mineral Wells. Wow. Oh so very wow. We were there for probably a little less than 3 hours and saw maybe 1/2 of the gardens. All of the flowers were absolutely gorgeous. And so you know what that means: graphic-heavy post! (Sorry all you dial-up users!)

Formal Gardens

Juniper

Lily Pads

Bluebonnets - also in pink and purple!

Poppies

Rose

And they have a ton of irises (they seem to be well known for them), so you know I was happy.

Ah, so lovely. And I even got to take home two souvenirs - a bit of a sunburn and this beauty:

Mixed (Tea) Bag

Okay, so I rarely use bagged tea anymore, but still I thought the title was marginally witty.

Mostly, though, I'm referring to the goings on of the past two days. Yesterday I was sick. Ugh, I hate that. I don't know if it was allergies or the leftover seafood pasta I had the night before, but anytime I stood I started feeling like I was going to throw up (lovely, yes?). Mind you, I'm not even sure if I can throw up. After my hiatal hernia surgery, the doc said I would not be able to throw up, but I can't remember (or never knew) if that was just while I was recovering from the surgery or for as long as my stomach has the wrap in it). Thankfully, I didn't have to find out yesterday as I only felt violently ill instead of being violently ill. Still a bit queasy today but it is better so I can deal. And I'm sure you are all overjoyed you now know all that.

Anyway, I did a tea order from a couple places last week and they have come in. One is from New Mexico Tea Co. Based on a recommendation, I got their Orange Blossom Oolong. Not as sweet as I was anticipating and I had to cut the brew time down, but really very good. I drank several infusions of that yesterday and it really helped keep my stomach calmer.

I also got from the same company a Kyoto Cherry Sencha. I'm not even going to post a link to that one. Not good. The cherry was a cherry cough syrup flavor. Eew. Not a winner and I have no idea what to do with the rest of the tea. I don't think I'd even give it to someone else, it was so unpleasant. I have some in the fridge to see how it is iced so maybe that will redeem it, but not holding out high hopes.

But, even though that cherry tea was icky, it all worked out because New Mexico Tea Co. sent me a free sample with my order. Jasmine Moli Chunhao. Now this totally makes up for the travesty that is the Kyoto Cherry Sencha. It has a very strong jasmine taste and reminds me of this great iced tea I had last time Dan and I were in Japan. Now that tea was a white jasmine I believe, but I loved it.

(Not my picture - I saved part of the wrapper in my Japan scrapbook but have no pictures of the bottle so I found this online).

And this jasmine taste is very similar. It is good cold, as well, though I think best hot.

So anyway, good stuff and bad stuff Friday and today. Good tea, bad tea. Feeling bad, but today is good because I'm better.

Oh, and another "good/bad" thing. Got a little yard work done today. Planted a few lilies and trimmed the rosemary and oleander with the hedge trimmers. That is good. The bad thing was, well, I also managed to "trim" the cord to the hedge trimmers with the hedge trimmers. Oops. I'm so brilliant. Dan just said he was happy that it wasn't a finger.

Finally!

Well, it took over 24 hours, but I finally got all the Hawaii pictures uploaded into our online album. I might have gone a little crazy - there are over 500 pictures. Because of the size of the original photos (3.5M), I have lower quality pictures in the album, but I have the original high quality photos, so if you want a copy of a high quality one, let me know. Anyway, go check out the massive number of trip albums in our Hawaii 2008 album.

Oh yeah, videos will be coming at some point, but uploading the pics to the album took way longer than I thought it would.

Better Late Than Never

Okay, you may have noticed that I have neglected to post the pictures from our final day in Hawaii. No, I didn't run away and stay in the islands, as much as I wanted to. Our luggage tried to, actually. It was tracked down, though, and arrived back home about 8 hours after we did.

Our final day in Hawaii, we got up and left Kona and flew into Honolulu, where we spent about 12 hours before returning home to DFW by way of Salt Lake City.

Two sea turtles that were hanging out near our hotel during breakfast time (our's not their's - well, maybe it was their's too)

The Kailua-Kona Airport - seriously the best airport ever.

This is our gate at the airport. Seriously. Isn't that great?

On Oahu, the first place we went was Pearl Harbor...

...where we went to the USS Arizona Memorial.

After Pearl Harbor, we went to Byodo-In...

...a Buddhist templed copied after one in Uji, Japan.

Then we took a nice drive along the north coast before returning to the airport and flying home.

Well, that was our trip! This weekend I'll be adding ALL of our pictures to a photo album and I'll post a link to that on my blog. I also am going to edit the videos I took. I'm not sure which I want to do - either make one long video to show all of our Hawaii goodies or just edit the videos and post them separately. Or do both. Any opinions? C'mon! Someone tell me what to do!

Thar She Blows!

Whee! Wales! No wait, not the country. Whales! Gia-normous fishies!

Today we got to whale-watch. And boy, did they do stuff for us to watch! There was a very interactive pair that we saw that swam around the boat a lot and then later we saw a mama and her baby. There were even some dolphins that played around us! It was awesome. Very exciting.

Whales!

More whale!

Breathing whale!

Whale flipper!

Whale tail! (Okay, that makes me giggle because it makes me think of this.

I also took a lot of video. Here's a rough edit of one (about 1:20):

(I'm hoping to edit the videos I took and either post them separate or make a long video focusing on all the Hawaii neat-ness. Any preference?)

Awesome-ness at 900+ degrees

So today's theme was volcanoes.

We went to Kilauea...

...where we saw Halema'uma'u Crater and inhaled some noxious sulfur fumes...

...and saw some steam vents...

...and into a lava tube and through a Hawaiian rain forest where we saw some neat flora...

But forget all that junk! Let's get to the good stuff: erupting volcano-ness!

The distant smoking is where there is lava flow (no, not the drink) going down the hillside.

But we also got to get up close and personal with the real thing...

...and let me tell ya, it is hot!

Everyone was asked to stay away about 10 to 20 feet from the faster moving lava (which was still slow) so it wouldn't spit stuff at us in case there was a pressure build up...

...but since the "cool" silver lava is about 900 degrees, even that "far" away you can still feel a lot of heat! And we were allowed to get even closer to the non-flowing hot lava (Dan says that whatever company insures the State of Hawaii has not seen this set up).

Flowing into the ocean, turning the water to steam.

All in all, a really long day but way cool. I've got some video of the flowing lava (which was awesome! - if you haven't figured that out yet) but I need to edit it first.

Oh, and we swung by Long's Drugs this morning and found some aloe with lidocaine. Woot!

What Time Is It?

Time to regret not applying sunscreen!

Dan has a permanent watch now. But it keeps time horribly.

I particularly like the scalloped edges of my burn. It's the new style.

The white stuff on my chest is Noxema. Aaahhh, cooling.

Green Sand Beer

Today was South Point, the Green Sand Beach, then the Kona Brewer's Festival.

There were a lot of lava fields on the way to South Point...

...including some spots that had this type of lava formations - called pahoehoe (pah-hoy-hoy) which is so fun to say I had to include it (really, it is, say it with me - Pah-hoy-hoy. Wee!)

View from South Point, the southern-most tip of Hawai'i.

In between South Point and the green sand beach, is the Pu'u Ali'i burial site...

...which is a site that hundreds of sets of bones have been found.

Also on the path, there is some graffiti - white rocks on lava rock. You can see this sort of thing beside the highway in a lot of places, too.

That swell in the middle of the horizon is where the green sand beach is. The hike was 50 minutes one way. Seriously.

Of course, that gave us plenty of time to admire the flowers...

...and try to figure out what type of flowers they are.

But finally we made it!

So we decided to take some pictures to delay the hike back!

The green sand is from olivine, which you can also see in the lava rocks in the area, like here.

After the hike back to the car, and a nap in the car back to the hotel, and a shower to wash the dirt, dust, sand and sweat off of us, it was time to go to the Kona Brewer's Festival.

Dan used both his tickets and most of mine (we got 8 each), which probably isn't a bad thing since he's not feeling the pain of his sunburn now!

Tomorrow (in theory) is the Volcanoes National Park and Hilo.

The First Full Day in Hawaii

What we did today:

After eating breakfast, we wandered around the outside of the hotel...

...including the beach next door...

...where we saw all manner of critters, including sea urchins,...

...a blue crab,...

...and even a green sea turtle (don't worry - he's okay, he's just basking... he perked up when I got about 4 feet away).

Then we meandered back to the hotel where we saw several geckos...

...and some really neat flowers.

Then we took of to tour the island. (This was on the way to Waimea).

In Weimea we stopped at Merriman's...

...where I had a delightful pinapple, genadine and coconut rum martini...

...and then we went on to Waipio.

I just think this is a really good picture of us so I had to post it - still overlooking Waipio Valley.

Then we went to Akaka Falls, where we walked a rain-forest-y path...

...to see one of Hawaii's two tallest waterfalls.

At 440 feet high, I couldn't back up far enough to fit the whole thing in!

Then it was time to go back to the hotel, where we got lost looking for Costco and almost got lost looking for our hotel.

We just shouldn't be on the road after dark. Currently we are 0-2 for finding things in the dark.

Too Tired to Think...

I'm too tired to think of something witty to write (or something I think is witty), so instead I'll just post some pictures.

My Parents on the way to Salt Lake

Mountains on the way to Salt Lake

Dan and Me on the plane from Salt Lake to Oahu

Landing at Oahu - Pearl Harbor

A liquid dinner at Honolulu Airport

Departing Oahu - Diamond Head and Waikiki

Landing at Kailua-Kona (this is the coolest airport - no ceilings except for baggage claim!)

At baggage claim

Our hotel room

My parent's is adjoining

And I assume looks like a mirror image of ours

Even though it is nine-something here, my body thinks it is one in the morning. I'm dying to brush my teeth, wash my face and feet and go to bed.

Aloha!

Please Help

Can you help me identify this white stuff that was outside this morning?

White stuff? Powdered sugar maybe?

I'm stumped.

I think my hand is going to cramp...

Guess what I did today? Painted! I spent 11 hours at our church, painting the main room in the church office with two other ladies. Not all 11 hours was spent painting - probably just the first 5 hours. Then we moved the furniture back and did a HUGE cleaning. The other ladies left at about 5 or 6 but I hung around because Dan was working with another man from the church, installing a new server and three new workstations. So I kept cleaning for a couple of more hours.

Anyway, the room we painted was a converted garage, so it was quite large. I used the roller because, as anyone who knows me well should know, you really don't want me to do anything precision. Anyway, all that painting, and on my goodness, my right hand is so tired. I'm exhausted.

But you know what? The office looks soooooo goooooooood. I really wish I had taken a "before" picture. I should really take some "after" pictures. The walls are a lovely warm light gold, the old couch and love seat were moved out and replaced with leather(like) chairs, a side table and a sofa table with two very nice lights. The tacky mailboxes we had were replaced with a very nice bookshelf that we put nice metal and leather boxes on which have hanging folders in them that we are now using for people's mail"boxes". Oh, and there is a new clock and the room was given a huge cleaning, most of which was done by the senior pastor's wife - which was such a life saver since the three of us that had been painting probably didn't have the energy to do it, especially not to the thoroughness she did!

Anyway, I'm very pleased with how the made-over room looks. Which will probably be good tomorrow when I am so sore I can barely walk!

Oh, and the ultimate irony? Guess what I did after I came home and showered all the paint, dirt and grime off?

Painted my toe nails.

Dave!

Should have posted this yesterday, but it was a long day so I didn't. And it didn't get posted earlier today because I was totally lazy today. Didn't even change out of my pjs. And yes, we did miss church today (as much as those at church would love my green fleece monkey pajama pants, that is an experience they will have to miss). Dan and I didn't make it to church because we overslept. By about 3 hours. Even with the alarm. I guess all the busy weekends we've had kind of caught up to us.

But I'm getting off topic (surprising, isn't it?). Yesterday, Dan and I got to see Dave Ramsey! Whee! We went to his Total Money Makeover LIVE! event in Dallas.

Dave Ramsey at Reunion Arena

Dave!

It was 5 hours long but went really fast. It was so fun and very motivating. I mean, Dan and I are currently debt free except for the house, which we are working on paying off early, so we are at Baby Step 6. But it is still nice to hear all those things... very encouraging. I keep thinking about one thing he said:

"What could you do if you had no payments?

Anything you want."

I mean, how true is that? Already not having a car payment is awesome and just the thought of having no house payment.... It just blows my mind. And it has been so cool because the better we handle our money, the more we seem to have! I mean, it keeps increasing! In the past two months, we've paid more principle on our house than we did in all of last year! And the neat thing is - it's fun!

Okay, I need to nip the gushing in the bud or else I'm going to write paragraphs about the neatness that is Dave and probably end up posting our budget or something.

Yeah, Dan and I are totally drinking the Dave Ramsey kool-aid!

Because I Have Too Much Time On My Hands...

I've made some videos. Nothing long, just from some footage I took this week of the cuteness that is our kitties. They are both pretty short but, I think, cute.

The Amazing Balancing Nibby

Also, on a slightly less random note (though still not "educational" or anything) we had quite the weather happening yesterday. Lots of rain. And of course, Dan and I were out in it (without an umbrella), but it was worth the dampness and squishy socks because on the way home we got to see a HUGE full rainbow.

By the time we got home and I got the camera, the sun was setting and the rainbow was fading, but I managed to snap a shot of it.

Fading Rainbow

Pretty, isn't it?

I have this thing...

I have this thing, this "touch of death", if you will, when it comes to kitchen thermometers.

First, I killed Dan's electronic fork meat thermometer. I put it in the dishwasher. Yes, yes, I know. I'm an idiot. But I would have sworn that I saw it being removed from the dishwasher one time, so I just popped it right in there.

Didn't even take the batteries out.

So anyway, Dan's new handy-dandy electronic fork meat thermometer has removable tines that are dishwasher safe.

The next one I killed was my mom's candy thermometer. It was a big ole mess and I managed to dunk it in oil and, surprise surprise, it was NOT airtight so hot oil got all in it, destroying the cardboard temp readout card beside the thermometer among other things. All in all, that one died a torturous death. It managed to live like 20 years with my mom and I kill it in a matter of days.

So I got mom a new one and picked up one for myself, too. Just the little cheapy ones you can get at WalMart. I was hoping for something better, but candy/oil thermometers are hard to find.

Turns out that mom, being the kind soul that she is, had already bought herself another one with the plans to let me keep her other one which she didn't know had been boiled in oil. Literally. After keeping the now spare thermometer around for literally months, I managed to finally get my act in gear last weekend to return the darn thing. Because no one needs two candy thermometers around.

Well, until you break the first one. Yep, I broke another thermometer. I was measuring the hot water in my mug because I wanted to see what I needed to do to get the 195-degree water that comes out of my awesome hot water dispenser to 175-degrees (perfect for green tea - the dispenser can also be set for 175 (and 208, too) but Dan and I figured to keep it on 195 since that is for black tea, knowing we could cool it easily to 175-ish for green tea). Where was I? Oh yeah, I went to measure the water and I dropped the thermometer. Not much, just maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch in the cup (filled with water so even more of a cushion, right? Wrong).

Can you see it coming? Can you?

Yep, it broke. The glass around the tip shattered. *sigh*

So now I'm going to buy me a new thermometer with an Amazon gift card I have. This is the one I'm getting:

It's a "professional" one so I figure it should last more than a few weeks at my house.

I hope.

Happy Scrapbook Day, My Hubby!

Today is Dan's birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAN!!!. He's a whopping 29 years old. For his birthday I pulled out all the stops and made a big dinner of his favorite (meatloaf) with baked potatoes, green beans, garlic bread, salad and even a two-layer Red Velvet cake. Yeah, it's a good thing his birthday is only once a year because I was cooking for about 4 hours today. But you know what? He's so worth it!

In other news, I did my Christmas 2007 layout this weekend.

Christmas in Graham

Christmas in St. Louis

Fun, yeah?

In more fun, Kitty Bellies!

Chlo-belly

I guess Chloe got a little warm today. So had to expose that cute pink belly.

Co-belly

This one if from a few days ago. I took a nap and so did a horde of the kitties. Dan got this classic Cocoa-belly picture. It's so big!

And while this one isn't a belly, it's a kitty and it's cute so I'm sharing.

When my parents come visit, they usually have a bag of goodies for us - magazines, cards, random goodies - and nine times out of ten, I give the bag to the kitties so they can play in it. Well, lately they've changed the way they use the bags.

Nibby utilizes the paper bag

The kitties aren't climbing in it (well, Chloe did until it got flattened), but laying on it! I'm not really sure how I feel about this. I mean, it's just one step up from laying on a piece of paper on the floor. But it is still cute. So I share.

Hmm, Nibby obviously enjoys the paper bag. I wonder if I should have gotten one for Dan's birthday. Nah, he probably likes the cake better.

But he better not lay on it.

How Could I Forget??

Guess where we are going?

Guess Where?

Recognize it? If you said Peru, you'd be wrong. I mean, seriously. Peru is not an island, folks. That picture? Yeah, island. So those that said Peru, stop reading this and go stand in timeout for 5 minutes or something because. No. But if you said Hawaii, you win a virtual cookie.

Please only look at the cookie if you guessed correctly.

That's right - we are Big Island bound! w00t. Hehe.

Anyway, the "we" going is my parents and Dan and me. Dad always said he'd never go back to Hawaii unless it was to go to the Big Island and Mom found this travel package that is centered around the Kona Brewers Festival so you know Dan and Dad are on board with that. And please, like it takes any convincing to get Mom or me to go back to any part of Hawaii.

Right now, I'm trying to figure out what all we are going to do. There are tons of things to see: turtles, whales, volcanoes, lava tubes, reefs, funky architectural and elaborately painted churches, ancient Hawaiian refuges, ranches, botanical gardens, there is even a green sand beach!

So yeah, I'm fairly excited. Of course, this means I need to get my little behind moving on some of my scrapbook pages I have planned because I'm going to have to make a Big Island scrapbook when I get back.

And I get the feeling this post is a little odder than my standard fair (though no odd purses are included) so I feel I must apologize. The past couple of days about half of my diet has consisted of sugar - mostly SweeTarts, Runts, Gobstoppers and yes, even a packet (or three) of actual sugar. Needless to say, I've been kind of buzzing a bit and I think Dan is ready to muzzle me.

And just because I can, I went back to that place with the chicken purse and found these lovelies:

Who thinks of this stuff?

Die Papercuts, Die!

Okay, this whole job thing may not be all that cool. The paper at work has tasted my blood and now constantly thirsts for it.

Dramatic much? Sorry.

The point being, my hands have 3 papercuts and they all hurt. That's an average of a papercut a day (yes, average, not actuality - I got two today, none yesterday and one Tuesday). And these are painful. One is on the cuticle of my right ring finger, one at the joining crease of my left middle finger and the final one is in the webbing of my left thumb (yeah, okay, not really 'webbing' - what's it really called since I am neither waterfowl nor amphibian?).

Anyway, Dan doctored me all up when I got home so now I have three smiley face bandages on my papercuts. Okay, one is smiling, one is grinning with little hearts and one is red and angry. And then, super-husband that he is, he took me to buy medicinal scrapbook goodies and then took me to eat medicinal Mexican. Oh, and we bought an office chair that we are going to donate to the church for my desk because the current chair is ugh. Oh so ugh. And Sunday we are going to re-org the desk and computer goodies (and I will be bringing a mouse and keyboard, too, though they aren't being donated currently since it is a stop gap measure until new computers are purchased which is planned for this budget year).

So, yeah, my biggest issue with work is papercuts. Evil things.

That's all for today. Exciting, yeah?

Picture-less News

No fun pictures for this blog update (which automatically rules out yet another scrapbook page - aren't you thrilled?).

Anyway, the update for today is after my first real day at work. It was fun. Yes, work was fun. Crazy, huh? I'm working from 8:15(ish) to 4:15(ish). It's not going to a super-challenging job but it looks like it will be filled with all the goodies that I like doing so I think it will be a job I really enjoy. And it helps that the people there seem to be a good group that will be nice to work with.

Of course, the biggest thing that I'm dealing with now is the fact that I have to do it all again tomorrow. My schedule has been so different from day to day since October, but now a big part of my schedule will now be fixed, so that'll be a bit weird.

Yeah, so that's my news today. Woo hoo! Job=fun. I think that's way post-worthy.

Okay, so I felt the need to put in a picture. Couldn't help it. I was going to put a picture of a chicken, but when I found this, I had to post it. I don't know whether to laugh or run away screaming. Who thought this up?

A Chicken Purse

Seriously - someone is selling this. Want one? You can get it here. You're going to get one, aren't you? Don't lie, I know you are itching to carry one of these puppies, uh, chickens, around.

Gainfully Employed

Guess what? I'm gainfully employed! Or rather, I will be as of 1/22 (next Tuesday) when I start my new job. Whee! I'm actually excited! I'll be working as the office manager for our church, Bear Creek Bible Church. I'll be doing facility stuff, too, so it's right up my alley, all stuff I've done at my time at JLL and even at TCU. It's 4 days a week, so 32 hours. I'm really looking forward to it!

Eeeeeewwww!

No pictures in this post and you'll be thankful for that when you hear what it is about.

Monday night I burned the everlovin' monkey out of my thumb when I was steaming green beans. So yeah, steam burn. I spent a good 5 hours with my hand on ice and all mustard'ed up and the next day with the mustard. So anyway, my thumbs are sensitive, especially the right one that got burned the worst (and over the largest area).

But the fun part came yesterday. My skin started tearing off. EEEWWW! And ouch, but mostly EEEWWW! I guess the steam caused a blister and now the top of the blister is coming off? Very not cool.

I wasn't even going to post about it because, honestly, if I posted about every time I got burned or some other minor injury, I'd have the worlds longest (and most boring) blog ever (though that last bit is probably debatable anyway). But the gooey skin melting off.... Now that's post-worthy.

See, aren't you glad there aren't pictures?

Chocolate Covered Fences?

So, part of our fence sort of blew over. Or maybe a better thing to say would be the wind broke one of the supports to our fence so it started sagging. Either way, Dad came to help Dan fix it. It consisted of lots of digging (the support post was 2' into the ground), a Home Depot trip (thankfully Dad came down with his truck so the 8' support could be hauled home), and some quick-set concrete (which anchored aforementioned 8' support).

Setting the new support in concrete

Filling in the hole

Putting back the fence

Dan said that, aside from the digging which wasn't fun at all, the whole process wasn't as hard as he was fearing. Dad even said he didn't help much other than provide transportation. But hey, transportation is important! Especially since we asked for his help last night and, with a little bribing, he was up here not too long after church.

Now, the important question to ask after reading that sentence is "What did we bribe my dad with?" Well, beer, of course. That's a standard thank you between the menfolk. But we threw in a little extra (at Dad's request) - chocolate covered cherries.

Cherries!

Oh, did I mention they are homemade. By ME.

Ignore the express - check out the chocolate-covered hands (that was fun to clean off - I licked it off!)

Yes, I made chocolate covered cherries. And today wasn't the first time either! Every year for Christmas, I give Dad a box of chocolate covered cherries (store bought), but this year, I decided to make them. They were yummy! Dan wanted some and Dad wanted some more, so today I made a double batch. These suckers are rich but oh so good. And though they are time consuming (excluding the final time in the fridge to set the chocolate after dipping, they take about three hours), they are pretty easy. Especially since I figured out the whole double boiler thing for melting the chocolate.

And not that anyone will ask, but just in case someone is simply dying to know, here's the recipe:

Double Chocolate Covered Cherries
Makes 24 candies

1 (10 ounce) jar maraschino cherries (with stems if possible)

Chocolate Fondant
3 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 teaspoons milk
2 cups confectioners' sugar

Coating
1 (12 ounce) package white chocolate chips (can use semi-sweet chips instead)
1 tablespoon shortening or 1/4 paraffin wax block

1. Drain cherries on several paper towels and press out excess moisture; allow to drain at least an hour.
2. Fondant: In a medium bowl, combine butter, corn syrup, chocolate and milk; beat until smooth.
3. Stir in confectioner's sugar (mixture will seem dry).
4. When most of the sugar is mixed in, turn out onto counter and knead until smooth.
5. Divide into 24 pieces (about 2 tsp each) and shape into balls.
6. Flatten each ball and mold around cherries, covering cherry completely (leaving stem out).
7. Refrigerate at least an hour or until very cold and very firm.
8. Line large cookie sheet with waxed paper.
9. In a small saucepan over very low heat or in the microwave, melt chips and shortening or wax until smooth.
10. Place pan or bowl over hot water to keep dipping consistency.
11. Holding stems (or use toothpicks if your cherries have no stems), dip covered cherries into melted chocolate and allow excess to drip back into pan or bowl.
12. Place on waxed papered cookie sheet to set.
13. Place in miniture muffin cups if desired and store in tightly covered container or in the refrigerator.

And let's just say you don't even want to know the nutritional information for one cherry, shall we?

So a fixed fence and a double batch of chocolate covered cherries. Not a bad day!

Habby Nuw Yeah

Who knew you could type with a cold. *sigh* I'm sick. I have a cold. And I think it is currently trying to turn into either a sinus infection or bronchitis. Or both. I blame St. Louis. Because it was cold there. *sigh*

Spent New Year's at my parents where we had our Christmas. That was fun. It was good to see them. My aunt Grace was there, too. It was a good, relaxing family time. We even took family Christmas pictures.

Dad, Mom, Gracie, Me and Dan

And now, on to something completely random... With all the St. Louis hockey I've been seeing, I just had to comment on this. The Blues goalie's mask. Toivonnen's mask has ears painted on.

Check out the EARS. Freaky.

Every time I mention how those painted on ears freak me out, Dan has to comment on the fact that it is modeled after the mask that a very well known Blues goalie used to wear and so those ears are that famous goalie's ears. But still. Freaks me out.

And now for something fun, not freaky, to end this babbling, cold medicine-induced post:

Attack Moneky

My mom sent me this. My mom rocks.

And oh yeah, happy 2008!