Get in the Christmas Spirit!

It’s full-force Christmas mode now, and what better way to get in the Christmas spirit than to watch some Christmas movies!?!?

I think my favorite Christmas movie is The Family Stone. I love it! My friend Megan hates it. She says it’s too uncomfortable for her to watch and she feels bad for Sarah Jessica Parker’s character. Whatever. That movie rocks, and SJP’s character is a way annoying up until the time she hooks up with Luke Wilson.

I love that when my friend Brianna went to see it in the theatre she accidentally went to the subtitled showing. Hahaha! You know you can’t do anything but read the subtitles across the bottom when they are there…even when you already know what they say.

Christopher’s fave Christmas movie is the original animated The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, which was always my favorite as kid. My parent’s taped it on TV one night – old school style: record+play, stop at commercials, and pick up just a few seconds late after the commercials. I used to watch The Grinch and Frosty the Snowman over and over again. Great movies.

Also quite enjoyable for me over the holidays? White Christmas with Bing Crosby, Miracle on 34^th Street, Love Actually, and Bad Boys II. What? You didn’t know Bad Boys II was a Christmas movie??? Well, technically I suppose it’s not, but it’s probably my favorite movie and I got it on Christmas, and then watched it (to the dismay of my mom and Keith) about ten times on Christmas. Now I kinda associate it with Christmas.

(the dancing - it's my favorite!)

(*heart*)

(What about this doesn't say "Christmas???")

What’s your favorite Christmas movie???

Kitty-face’s favorite seems to be the Grinch as well…

Cincinnati…or is it two t’s and one n…? Two n’s and two t’s?? SEVEN n’s???

I never knew I didn’t know how to spell Cincinnati until my friend Jennifer moved there, and I had to talk about it in email. Crap. Another word to add to the list, along with ludicrous and fabulous. In my defense, the rap and hip-hop industry ruined those for me. See here – Ludacris and Fabolous.

Anyway, my friend Jennifer is in C-i-n-c-i-n-n-a-t-i, and she totally has a miniature person in her belly. Proof:

(I packed an extra bag just to fit my camera, and I took blurry pictures. Geesh!)

Two of my coolest friends, Brianna and Jessica, and I went to spend the weekend with Jennifer. The last time we all saw each other was at…my wedding…?

{photo credit: Sally Gupton Photography}
(Brianna is there, but you can’t see her.)

Ah! Here we all are!

{photo credit: Sally Gupton Photography}
(Somewhere someone’s mother has a picture of the four of us where Jessica, Brianna, and Jennifer are looking at the camera, and I am looking away. People: always look at the camera that is being paid! Carmen? Do you have this picture??? Cindy? You?)

We all had a great time. We had a ton to celebrate: Jennifer’s (and of course Joe’s) mini person, Brianna’s upcoming wedding, Jessica’s upcoming move to New Zealand for her NEW JOB, and the impending [hopeful] sale of our house in Raleigh! Jennifer actually took us out Friday and Saturday. What a good sport! (I SWEAR, we did not make her do this, and we did not stay out late.) We went to this one bar, and Jessica went to the bathroom…and gave Jennifer her beer to hold. You should have seen these girls across the bar. “That girl’s pregnant! And she’s drinking!” They totally looked like the type of girls that would make the duck face.

The Duck Face: Somehow we started making fun of “The Duck Face” on the plane ride to Cincinnati. It was basically the theme of the weekend. We all tried to recreate it, but I think Jessica came the closest.

Brianna’s and my attempts were pretty lame.

Jennifer couldn’t even keep a straight face long enough for a solid attempt.

We did meet this one little guy at a bar who had absolutely mastered The Duck Face. Brianna’s hand talked to him all night.

Saturday morning, Joe (Jen's husband) cooked us a GREAT breakfast, and then we went to this great little park and took a walk on a nature trail. I would love to share some pictures of that, but none of us thought to bring a camera… We also went to a new outlet mall – who wouldn’t have a good time there?!?! We were too busy trying things on to take pictures, but I did get this one of Jess after we had been waiting in line to get through a red light for 40 minutes. They hadn't quite mastered the traffic pattern at the outlet mall.

(Are we ever going to get out of here?)

So, we all had a great time, and I can’t wait to meet the little person when she comes in February. As Jacey once said to Ouida: Jennifer, “when are you going to hatch that baby?”

Did You Really Just Wait In That Line?

Today was one of those days where I went to work, pulled into the parking deck, and thought “Oh crap. Did I just come in to work on a Saturday???” This happens several times a year. To be more specific, it happens on every federal holiday that we do not get to take off; we share a parking deck with the courthouse.

Happy Veterans Day to all the veterans out there!

On these federal holidays, you usually still have to either swipe your card or take a ticket to get in the deck, but there is nobody taking tickets on the way out – so you don’t have to pay…so the gates are up. There are two gates one for “card holders” and one for “tickets.”

Well today the ticket gate was up, but for some reason, the card holder gate was still down. When I left work, there was a long line of at least five or six cars – all swiping their cards to raise the gate and leave the parking deck. Uhm…hello! There is the other gate – wide open, and not a single car going through!

I’m sure I got a dirty look or two when I drove past everyone and out the deck, but come on! Open gate – right there. Don’t hate because you weren’t paying attention. What are you waiting for? It looked like a scene that should be on one of those “page-a-day” calendars.

Okay, Liberty Plaza Deck People – be honest: did you wait in a line to swipe your card, or did you slip out the open side? I know Kendra didn’t wait to swipe her card! She doesn’t mess around waiting in lines. Who else?

I've Got a Wii

This is one of the funniest videos I have ever seen, and what makes it even better is I know T-Pain!!! (Okay - not the real T-Pain, but the T-Pain in this video.) That's Bryan. I work with him, Christopher plays softball with him, and he and his wife are super cool and fun to hang out with.

Bryan and crew made this video to enter in the "I Am T-Pain Contest." It is a parody of the "I'm on a Boat" skit. If you are not familiar with the T-Pain "I'm on a Boat" SNL skit, you can watch it here. If you ARE familiar with it, and/or T-Pain, I demand written apologies from each and every one of you who make judgments regarding my musical acumen.

You can see the video below, but be sure to visit YouTube, rate it, comment on it, and share it!

Four Hungry Mice

Buster has four special toys. They are his loofa mice, and he loves them dearly. He loves them so much that he feeds them on a semi-regular basis. You don’t believe me? Take a look:

He gets into patterns; sometimes I come home daily to find mice in his food bowl, and sometimes I will go a week and not even see one in the kitchen. He doesn’t really show a preference to any of them. They each get some rotation in the food bowl.

I thought this was super cute and wanted to get a picture of all mice together. As soon as I removed them from the bowl, Buster was right there. He had to check out exactly what I was doing, and he wasn’t crazy about me kidnapping his babies. Take a look at what happened when I was taking pictures:

So, in the end, he got his mice back. Of course.

The Pumpkin Party

Okay, before I go full-force into Christmas, I do need to share some more Pumpkin/Halloween fun.

Last weekend Christopher and I went to our friends’ Ouida and Greg’s pumpkin party. It’s a tradition for them, and this was our first year joining! (We even got our OWN POST on Ouida’s blog! How cool is that?) The whole point of the party is to carve pumpkins. Christopher wasn’t planning on carving a pumpkin, but Ouida laid down the law. As you can see in the picture below, he carved one.

It was super fun and Ouida took some great pictures!

(Ouida affixed that sign Christopher is holding to her ginormous inflatable pumpkin man. It was an attempt for me to make friends with inflatable yard art. It was a good effort, but...)

Aren’t the pumpkins great? They were great for a few days after carving…and then... Well it started out with some shriveled edges, and a couple days later I noticed some bugs. Less than a week after the Pumpkin Party, we decided they should go live out in the woods where little critters could nibble on them.

On the way out of the apartment to see some friends, we picked up the pumpkins. I picked up Christopher’s, and he picked up mine…Whoa! Pumpkin guts just started POURING out of the bottom of my pumpkin (which Christopher was holding). I was shocked there was even that much pumpkin to pour out. It was a little gross and a little humorous. The pumpkins got thrown in the trash, and there is still a pumpkin gut stain on the ground outside our apartment.

(Now, this is an excellent illustration why outdoor carpet is a bad idea. Our pumpkin gut stain is the three splotches in the center, but you can also see other layers of stains mixed in.)

Snowflakes in Target

I went to Target today to pick up some discount Halloween candy for my candy bowl at work (I gotta get it on sale; it goes so quickly!), and all the Christmas stuff is out! I know, I know – it’s been out for a while already, but I’m not just talking about the stuff you can buy. I’m talking about snowflakes hanging from the ceiling shouting, “I’m here, I’m here! I’m Christmas, I’m awesome, and I’m here!”

I am so excited I can hardly stand it. I have, of course, already started Christmas shopping. I don’t have a lot yet, but I do have something for my SIL, and also something for our niece and nephew (both of the human and feline variety). Bethany already knows what she’s getting, and neither variety of niece or nephew can read, so I can talk about their gifts here. I found the cutest little “coloring wallets” on Etsy a couple months ago. I got this owl wallet for Jacey:

(open)

And this baseball wallet for Connor:

(and then it folds up and buttons with elastic)

I figured they would be super convenient to have in places where kids get easily bored: like restaurants, church, and in the car. I think they are great!

I can’t wait to do more Christmas shopping. Shockingly, not many people have given me gift ideas yet. What are they waiting for???

(As a side note, while I was getting sale Halloween candy at Target, I also saw that the previously discussed pet costumes were on sale for $4.99!!! There was even a lobster costume in size S. It took several minutes for me to walk away, but I did. I left Target without a pet costume. I'm still not sure I made the right decision...)

A Year Ago

Happy anniversary, Boo!

(11.01.08)