Here's a cup of cheer!

I am feeling back to normal, although now I have a pain in my lower back that I am really unsure of where that came from. Doing some yoga stretches and heating pads are helping a little bit.

Today is an off Friday for me so I tried to think of every last thing I was going to need for the month of December before leaving the house today. I know I am going to have to go back out at some point, but I tried to get baking ingredients, boxes, tape, etc. because of the people who show up in public during the next month. I think some of them already started as well though because I ran into a number of rude pushy people today while I was shopping. Bah. My least favorite part of the holidays. I think everyone just needs to paste a huge smile of their face and count to 20 with a cup of cheer in their hand. It would be a more pleasant place I am sure.

I have managed to decorate the house this week. The tree is up and decorated and looks pretty at night. I have the candles in the window and the garland on the stairs. So far the cats have only knocked down 3 ornaments which I had planned for. I put kitty proof ones of the lower branches because I know they think they are their toys. I want to decorate the outside, I just need to buy a converter for the light bulb socket to accommodate outdoor lighting. How pretty.

As I mentioned, I did pick up some baking supplies and I have a huge cookbook for cookies. So now the question is, what ones am I going to make today? Hmm.... If time weren't the issue I would make them all today. Oh well, small steps will get it done too. Now to go find my cup of cheer and my apron. :)

Feeling Yucky

I came home from work today at about 10:30am. I just feel yucky. It's a technical term, I swear. I feel nauseas and in general blah. So when I get home not feeling well and have prepared my stay to the couch for the rest of the day, what do you think my cats do? Well, it seems they wanted to do everything in their power to sit on my not feeling to hot tummy. I know they just want to snuggle and are super excited I am home, but have you ever had a 18lb cat try to lay on you when you are feeling this way? Or even when you are feeling good? Gosh my cats are huge.

In my hours of the couch today, I sent a few emails, watched About a Boy (I thought it was only so-so), finished the last disk of LOST Season 2, took a nap for an undetermined amount of time, and now I am writing a blog entry. I have eaten soup and probably about a third of a loaf of bread because I know toast is supposed to help. At least something along those lines.

I hope I feel better tomorrow. Bleck.

Thanksgiving Traffic

For Thanksgiving, Rob and I traveled north to Newport News, VA to spend the weekend with some of my college friends. We left on Thanksgiving rather early as it is a 10 hour drive to their house. Along the way we were greeted with that mythical holiday traffic that people have been known to warn others about while traveling on the roads. This was helped out of course by the first serious down pour the south has seen in months.

We had left at 8am and were about 30 minutes from the house traveling on 285E heading onto 85N when the first incident happened. There are two exit lanes onto 85N, the left hand lane was a split from 285. We were in the right exit lane and in the left lane was a double trailer 18 wheeler. We were traveling behind him and watched a red pick up truck try to pull in front of him to make the exit at the last second. The pick up basically hydroplaned, spun around, was clobbered by the 18 wheeler in the rear passenger rear wheel (got to hear the crunch that makes your stomach knot) and ended up perpendicular to the highway in low visibility. I got to make my first 911 call to report the accident. Not a good omen to start the trip.

The second incident happened about 2 hours into the trip in South Carolina. We had been happily cruising along being careful about the roads when traffic came to a somewhat sudden stop. I say this because we had time to stop, but a tracker trailer didn't. To avoid hitting anyone, he veered off to the left shoulder which didn't really exist. He got to a point where the trailer almost tipped because he was at about a 30 degree angle on the grade. He managed to hold onto to it and got back on the highway. Holy crap. I think he did an awesome job with that one. It was sad to see people not letting him back in though. So why were we all stopped? Well we came upon some minor secondary accidents of people rear-ending others and then saw THE accident. This was a rolled SUV with a door missing, dented roof, and grass all over it. There were a few people along the highway picking up what looked to be what used to be in the vehicle. Scary.

Thankfully we made it the rest of the way without incident. the combination of bad road conditions and holiday travelers make for an icky ride. Let's hope the ride home is better.

Grown Up Holiday Party

I was given an invitation at work today for a holiday party at my boss's house in a few weeks. It was like opening a new level of adulthood. I have never been to a holiday party at a boss's house. I have hosted one party and if I may say so, it was far from sophisticated with the help of Mad Elf and a few Tigger decorations. BUT! It was an absolute blast and I think everyone had a great time.

I like my boss. He is a pretty cool, down to earth guy. I am comforted in knowing that other people from the office will be attending (or were at least invited) so I will have a pool of familiar talkative people to socialize with. I think this could be a pretty fun casual non work with work people event.

But how casual? It's for drinks and hours devours. Sounds simple and light, but I am already thinking, what it considered a good outfit for these things? Do I bring anything? Even if I ask and they say no, is that supposed to be overlooked and I should bring cookies anyway which my boss doesn't eat but maybe his family does, because that's the polite thing to do?

Thankfully, I think my magazine will help spell it out for me as I think they did an article on just such things. Otherwise, I may implode. Got to love stress free holidays!

Message Boards

I was just looking around Amazon for the shop from the comfort of your home in your PJs gifts and stumbled across some message boards. Message boards can come in all shapes and sizes depending on the website and topics. I was utterly amazed at what people could do with a 5 minute old post.

For one, I thought Amazon was an odd place to list what you are thankful for. I mean, it's a nice topic, but why is it on Amazon? I have no idea, but 42 replies in 4 minutes signaled that perhaps it was something people needed to express. You have to love the person that started it, they actually included this caveat, "Walk away from this thread if you can't say something nice" as if that ever stops someone. In fact, I have seen it actually encourage "bad behavior" so to speak.

The other thing that struck me as different was the people that were posting. I read through two message boards less than 5 minutes old each and some of the same people were on each. It's probably not that odd, but the way they were responding to one another or defending (isn't that a given in message boards?) you would have thought they were best friends, but made it obvious they weren't.

I go to message boards that get me answers like, why does my car do this? Or, if I want to sew a skirt without a pattern, what's the best way to do so? I guess that's the beauty of the internet, it's always changing.

Shop Til You Drop

I have spent the better part of today shopping. I had a dental appointment at 9:30 this morning (which went awesomely!) and decided that I could spend the rest of the day shopping for... well odds and ends of everything.

I had a path all laid out and just worked my way down the shopping corridor. I started at Wal-Mart to buy my dads socks. It's the only place I seem to be able to get them. I want to pat myself on the back for going into that mad house now while it was relatively empty. I also picked up some Toys for Tots too.

I weaved my way down Cobb Parkway and had a funny experience at Micheal's. There was a stereotypical person of his cell phone in there. He must has passed me a few times while I was shopping, then I ended up behind him in line. He had his ear piece in and was having what seemed to be a very in depth conversation about something. At the register he completely ignored the cashier. Never said hello, thanks, have a nice day, anything. How rude. The cashier and I had a chuckle about him while he rang me out.

I finally called it a day after being out and about for 5 hours and came home with the goods. I picked up plenty of holiday things, but also got stuff like a new pillow, cat litter, and tissues. All things you need for a merry holiday. I hope from here on in Amazon can come to the rescue. Time will tell.

Tis The Season

I thought the holiday season started a little on the early side, but now I am noticing it's mid-November (how did that happen?) and I think maybe it started just right.

Last years holiday season I felt disorganized and spastic. The was probably due to a combination of things. I had just moved here in mid-October, so I was still learning where things were and some boxes weren't even unpacked. I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for Rob and some of his international classmates that have never experienced a Thanksgiving before. This was a lot of fun, but a LOT of work. Then the first week of December I was on the west coast. Not ideal for shopping, but I did it anyway. On top of all of that I was trying to bake about 10 different kinds of cookies in my free time (HA). This year, I am determined to not be crazy. Well, beyond the normal state. :)

I didn't just move, Thanksgiving is happening somewhere else, no trip to the west coast is planned, and I already have a head start on the shopping. Even with the head start, I still have a lot of stuff left to do. I just would like to enjoy this season and not have to spend my time in lines at Target behind 30 people who decided to do their entire Christmas shopping in one trip and I just have a bag of socks. Not going to happen. I am looking over catalogs, ads for stores, and I am planning my attack. The deals the day after Thanksgiving are never that good to drag me out to a free for all anyway. So here's to a season of sanity enjoyed with friends and family!!!

Only in Georgia

There have been two news stories that have been getting some decent press down here and I want to share so you can laugh too.

News Story 1
For those of you living under a rock, we in the south are in a bit of a pickle with our water situation. It's mostly the not having lots of it around that's the problem. So what is our governors answer to this crisis which they haven't been proactive on? Why pray for rain of course! My favorite quote of the article is "The only solution is rain, and the only place we get that is from a higher power." Now I am ok with praying for things and whatever you want to do, however, when it's the governors solution to easing the drought, I have to wonder what they have been putting in his Cocoa Puffs. The service will be next Tuesday if you care to join.

News Story 2
This next one happened last night. Apparently a man robbed a bank yesterday afternoon and was heading out of town on I-75 close to the start of rush hour. There was a GPS locater in the bank bags he took with him. The police decided to track that GPS unit, isolate it, and hence find the suspect. I think this is a good idea. The method in which they implemented it though I would have to disagree with. They shut down I-75 during rush hour to go from car to car and search for the suspect while trying to find the unit. !!! They never found either and eventually gave up. I am so glad I don't commute on the highways.

I will have to quote Leslie from the morning show here, "Only in Georgia will you pray as a solution for no rain and now we shut down the highway going from car to car looking for the bank robber with the story being broadcast over the radio which people are listening to while stuck in their cars. What is wrong with us?" I have no idea.

To Heat or Not to Heat?

It's November 7th. To most people this means that fall is in full swing, the holiday shopping has begun, for some it's finished (sickos), and that colder weather has come to stay. Being in the south delays the coming of cooler weather for quite some time, however we have finally started to get into the temperatures where you can see your breath in the morning.

This week has really been the start of it though and now I find myself wondering, when is it cold enough for heat? This morning when I got up, my apartment read a nice cool 62 degrees downstairs. I had to put on a pair of sweats last night under my covers to be comfortable and getting out of bed this morning was a bit of a challenge. When I got in my car, the thermostat told me it was 37 degrees. A stupid grin appeared on my face.

I absolutely love it when it gets cold here. The people at work are very entertaining to watch coming in and leaving. You would swear a blizzard was happening with their ski coats and hats. I have a fleece on. The only disappointing part is that even though it gets this cold, it won't snow. In the back of my head, I keep saying, any day now. I know that is further from reality than ever with our all time low precipitation these past few months. Stupid weather.

ANYWHO! The real debate is, how much longer can I hold out before turn the switch to heat? Tonight and tomorrow we are dipping in the 30s again but in a few days we climb back to highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s. I think it would be fun to hold out til Thanksgiving. Maybe I should have a lotto for it. Whoever wins has to pay my first bill. I mean.... have some cookies. :)

Because my cat was high

Giving a cat some catnip has the potential to entertain, enlighten, and inspire. After watching my cats have some this past weekend, I came up with this song. (All on my own I will have you know.... Ok maybe Mike P started it which he stole from someone else, but I made it was it is!!!)


I was gonna use the scratcher, until I got high
I wasn't gonna tear up the furniture, but then I got high
Now I am using the couch and I know why, 'cuz I got high
Because I got high
Because I got high

I wasn't gonna chase the laser pointer, until I got high
I was going to lay around, but then I got high
Now I am running through the house and I know why, 'cuz I got high
Because I got high
Because I got high

I wasn't gonna get twitchy, until I got high
I wasn't gonna eat the treats, but then I got high
Now I am fighting with my sister and I know why, 'cuz I got high
Because I got high
Because I got high