Thank you for my festive sweater!*

It's that time of the year again, the time to make New Year's resolutions. I like having the whole rhyming theme. There was "Get a date in '08" where my main goal was to get an even number of dates. I failed - I got 5 but couldn't seem to seal the deal for 6. Well, okay, my main goal was to get a date, in the which I succeeded. But upon getting 5 dates I felt I couldn't live with an odd number (call me OCD, I don't care). Some of you are thinking how sad it is that I could only get 5 dates in one year...it gets sadder, that was considered a very successful year.

Then it was"'bout time in '09" I didn't have anything in particular in mind for this, but I did get a boyfriend, and that certainly earned an "about time". Especially if we follow the theme for the previous year.


This year I am going with "Do it again in 2010" (pronounced 'twenty ten'). What 'it' is I'm unsure, but you know, leaving all that to chance in '09 worked pretty well for me. No need to get specific. My other options was "Get more men in 2010" but I don't want to come across as that kind of girl. Besides, a lot of my goals are surprisingly (sarcasm) repeats of the years before. You could look at this in two ways. The first: That they are repeats because I failed; the second: that they are repeats because they worked so well. Or Three: that they are repeats because they are so good and I failed.


Goal number one: Read one book a month - A mix - I failed and passed, if you average things out I passed. When the months were good and the nights were lonely I did an excellent job reading. I read so much that I made up for the time when the nights/months were busy.


Goal number two: Finish writing my own story. Not "my own story" like my memoirs, but the fictional story I am currently writing. I have a feeling the end of the year (2010) could sneak up on my and I may never finish it.

Goal three: Become more handy: I want to change my own tire, I want to fix things around the house (but actually know I am doing them right). I still want to build something, maybe start simple with a bookcase, but I want to build something with my own hands.

Goal four: Budget. Yup, still on there. Some months I am amazingly good at...tracking what I spend. I need to get better about telling myself 'no' to those impulse buys and keeping the limits I set for myself in different areas.


Goal Five: Have more self discipline. I'm what you would call lazy...to a fault. As if lazy could ever be considered as anything but. I would like to set goals and stick to them, I would like to wake up early to work out, go to bed early enough to no longer have these circles under my eyes. This really should be Goal Number 1 if we look at it on a scale of importance, but we don't, so it stays here. Once this goal is begun the others should be easier to handle. Like learning Latin before all the other languages (or was that Spanish...I don't know I took sign language).

Goal Six: Get my PHR designation: Technically I am cheating by putting this one down because I have already signed up for the class...but that doesn't guarantee that I will sign up for the exam, much less pass it, so this is a 'must' as far as goals go. Get that designation!

Goal Seven: Pay Attention! I am the girl who is lucky she knows that Obama is president, Michael Jackson died, ...and that's all I can think of. That's how out of touch I am. I'm not going to start watching TV or anything, but I could make more of an effort to know what's going on in the world. I wish they had a Current Events for Dummies that you could have delivered to your door each day, but they don't, so I have to be proactive and get out there and read!


Goal Eight: Lose Weight: It just isn't a New Year's resolution list without this one. I'm doing good so far, but I could always lose more.

Goal Nine: Floss: Okay, maybe I'm having a hard time thinking of more goals, but it's a good one.

Goal Ten: Be bold: Not to try and steal Ford's amazing motto, but seriously, I think I lack a spine most of the time. I'm too timid when I need to be more brazen (most of this all has to do with work, but there are other areas too). I need to stop being afraid that I am going to get in trouble for demanding more (i.e. a response to someone when I send them an e-mail or leave a voicemail...I didn't do it for my health buddy). Ahem - as I sit here waiting for a response from someone at work, blogging rather than going and confronting, that's why it's a goal...for next year.

There you have it peeps, ten goals for the next year.

Only at the precipice do we evolve.*

I got a flat tire today. I didn't notice until I was home. Scratch that, I didn't notice until Julie called me to tell me that I had a flat tire, then I went and checked and sure enough, a flat one. I called Joanna, Ben, my parent's house, Kathryn, then I tried the house again. Nothing. So I finally called my dad. I can't tell you what a relief it was when he picked up the phone. There is something about calling my dad when I am in peril - no matter how minuscule that peril is. He wasn't even near the house, he was at Lowe's on Route 1 and he said he would leave there and come on over. Then he came and changed my tire. Gotta love dads.

We noticed while changing the tire that there was a nail in the top part of the tire. I couldn't figure where that would have come from and then it hit me, Kroger (throws fist in the air, face towards the heaven's, curse you Kroger parking lot!). They recently completed construction on their gas station and the spot I got last night must have been too close to the former action. Isn't it incredible how one little nail can actually get stuck in a tire? I mean, the conditions have to be just right in order for that nail to pierce through the tire tread. (p.s. it is also while he his changing the tire that he mentions he hasn't had a chance to call his HVAC guy to go look at the house I want. I told him that was a clever ploy, using the 'dropped everything to come change your tire' card to tell me he hadn't called the guy...tricky man).

Anyway, once this is identified, Dad tells me I can go to Ronnie's to get the nail pulled, the tire patched, and maybe for a little extra get that tire put back on in place of the dinky spare. So I do just that. They said it would be half an hour wait, I'm already late getting back to work so I check to see if they are open tomorrow, they are, but I should call ahead. In the meantime I go to Pep Boys to see if they can get it done faster since they usually have a team of guys. I have avoided the Pep Boys since the last time I had something amiss with a tire because I felt awkward. There was a guy there who was taking lunch orders for the people who work there and I was just waiting to drop off my keys and he tells me that the wait will be awhile, and asks if he can pick me anything up, on him. Don't get me wrong, it's a super nice gesture, but he didn't offer it to the other three people waiting, and then his colleagues call him out on it while I'm standing there. Needless to say, I associate the place with the utmost awkward sensations. I step into the Pep Boys and wait fifteen minutes. I am kicking myself because adding the travel time and the waiting just to be acknowledged time I could have my tire already being worked on at Ronnie's. After some rude exchanges between two coworkers and five phones calls being answered the girl asks how she may help me. I tell her the situation and she says it will be an hour and half to two hour wait! No thank you, it's almost 4 o'clock and I have to get back to work, if not to simply warm my chair - I still need to be there. So I tell her I'll just keep driving on the spare and get it taken care of tomorrow.

So Ronnie's in the wee hours of the morning it is!

Man I hope 2010 calms down for me...chances are unlikely, but a girl can dream can't she?

May I admire you again today?*

Saturday I went to see Sherlock Holmes with the family (really good by the way, at least I think so). I rode with my parents to and from the theater and on the drive home we passed a house that was for sale. Right next to the 'for sale' sign was a sign that read 'I'm beautiful on the inside!'

My first thought: Ah, the sweet spirit house.

For those of you who don't know, sweet spirit is a term often used to describe a girl who may not exactly be attractive on the outside, but she's a really nice person. At least that is the way it has been explained to me. Anyway, it made me smile because that totally goes into my whole theory about how house hunting is just like dating. Then it made me smile more because somehow I can relate everything to dating (i.e. baking, shopping at thrift stores, and now house hunting).

With that being said, I have fallen in love and feel more than ready to take a leap into the biggest commitment of my life (thus far). The house I went to look at yesterday is just as adorable in real life as it is in the pictures. Granted, it's got that, "I want to buy all new appliances right away" feel, but that's what I like to call 'potential'...plus, what house comes perfectly fit for you? None. I really want this house, cross your fingers and say some prayers for me!

Would you want to see Dustin Hoffman save the Alamo?*

Today we went to my uncle's for a Christmas open house - which was scheduled for before Christmas but it snowed and was postponed. While there, the most intriguing conversation ensued. I made a ham biscuit, except it wasn't on a biscuit. There was some comment made by Samantha and then we were all wondering what the bread before us was. We know what a biscuit is, that's easy enough. But what is the different between a bun and a roll? We know about dinner rolls and hamburger buns, but sometimes there doesn't seem to be a difference (especially rolls and buns of the potato variety). We asked Joanna because she worked at a bakery in her younger, working days, she didn't know. Mike, a chef at a catering company, didn't know - unless he did and he just kept quiet for pure amusement. And what the heck are hot cross buns? Not knowing this made it more difficult to tell what the difference is. And yes, we spent quite some time as a family talking about this. I think it's easy to see now how I spend so much of my life dwelling on pointless topics.

However, you may find one day that this very topic comes up at your dinner table, so to prepare you for that moment I have googled the information. Just a warning, DO NOT google "buns"...add 'bread' in there, but don't just put 'buns'. Okay, let's get on with it.

Buns - are made from sweetened, yeast dough enriched with butter, often with raisins or spices added and are glazed or decorated before baking.

Rolls - are less sweet, or unsweetened, and are not enriched.

That brings us to an important question, and I feel certain you all know where I am going with this, but what the heck is a cinnamon roll then? It is sweet with spices (is cinnamon not a spice? -which, pardon the randomness but 'does not a buttock compare to a people matter?'*) and often has raisins, yet, it is not a cinnamon bun (though there is the cinnabun...hmmm, curiouser and curiouser*) Am I to understand that a cinnamon roll is an exception to the rule?

Also, when did the popped collar come back into style? I feel certain that it hasn't, but this afternoon my cousin purposefully popped his collar. I put it down and seconds later he comes into the room with a popped collar! I told him that I wouldn't stand for popped collars in this house, but in the end I had to threaten him in order to get that collar unpopped. He wanted his remote control car and I happened to have it in my hands while staring at his hideous collar so I told him if he wanted the car the collar had to come down and stay down. He said, "Okay, but what it I am playing and it pops." ...because we all know that sometimes collars pop themselves. So I told him that he had to stay vigilant, I didn't want to glimpse that collar up the whole afternoon, and if I did, the car would be mine. It worked - the rest of the time I spend in the same vicinity as he there was no sign of a popped collar.

And just as a self serving side note. It really does bug me that I have 28 followers and not something more complete...like 30. So 30 blog bucks to new followers and also to the people who "recruit" them, the new follower would simply have to leave a comment saying who referred them. We'll see if that works. Desperate? No...just taking advantage of the competitive people who read my blog. Muhaha!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

...and then I walked through the Lincoln tunnel*

Dear Blue Bunny,



I have often found myself enjoying your ice-cream which still seems to sell an actual half gallon for a fair price, unlike two of your unnamed competitors. Being an individual who does not consume chocolate products I am always on the look out for sans chocolate ice cream flavors that do not involve some kind of fruit combination. I am a fan of the classic vanilla bean with real bean specks, Ben and Jerry's Cinnabun, and the seasonal Pumpkin and Peppermint. So you can imagine my surprise and complete joy when I came across your Peanut Butter Cookie ice cream. How I have dreamt about a cookie ice cream that didn't involve chocolate! I have wanted ice cream makers to have "brown sugar cookie dough" ice cream and "Golden oreo cookies and cream" but there doesn't seem to be the market for it. I must admit that peanut butter cookies did not find their way into my mental idea pit, but upon seeing it I marvelled at how they hadn't before!


I quickly purchased the ice cream and thought of little else until I was finally able to scoop some into a bowl and partake! Oh it was exquisite, pure peanut butter joy that my tongue has never before experienced from a carton. But then...then I came to what I will refer to as, the cookie chunk. It has been years since I have had cookies and cream ice cream, but I feel most ardently that the cookies within that ice cream are softened, for they must be to match the softness of the ice cream that encapsulates it. The cookie chunk however has had no softening. To be fair I feel certain that the cookie chunk on its own is marvelous, probably best warm, but never in my life have I ever had a peanut butter cookie that hard, and within the gentle folds of the ice cream? I shudder to think that in someone's mind they thought a consumer would be delighted to find in the midst of their soft ice cream a veritable land mind of potential tooth breaking cookie chunks. Some say that they must be frozen, that is why they are so hard. However, I have tested this hypothesis, I have left them out at room temperature, but nothing seems to change these hard hearted cookie chunks.

Do yourselves and me a favor, soften the cookie chunks! As is, I find it is as though you have concocted peanut butter flavored rocks! I would very much like to continue my purchase of peanut butter cookie ice cream, but I find it goes against every moral fiber of my being to purchase it when it houses such abhorrent little chunks. Please write when the cookie chunks have been sufficiently softened and I would love to do business with you and your peanut butter cookie ice cream once more.

Sincerely,



Lildonbro
Confection Connoisseur

The House of Fug

For those of you who don't know I'm house hunting again...did I already say it on this blog? If so, I'm sorry for repeating myself. This is the house I am going to go look at on Monday morning.

I try not to get emotionally attached with the houses before I see them, the last one was such a disappointment. It looked nothing like the pictures and said nothing about the indoor swimming pool (i.e. the flooded basement). The other realtor said to not freak out because there will be a little water in the basement, she did not say that I could baptize grown men in the depths of the murky water. She also didn't mention that the washer/dryer hookups are located beneath that water, so...good luck.

Not having an exact location in mind where I will be living in a year I find it incredibly easy to imagine what it will be like to live in this house (this yellow house, not the pool house). That's a bad thing really, it's getting emotionally involved with a house I haven't even met. It's akin to crushing on a boy that you know nothing about. He looks good on the outside and from a distance, but until you walk through and see for yourself what he is really like you shouldn't let yourself get too involved...you shouldn't but you can't help yourself, you make him better then he is in your mind. No matter how many times you do that and tell yourself not to anymore, you still do it...frustrating.

But we'll see, maybe I will fall more in love with this house on Monday morning, maybe I'll walk through the doors and have to work incredibly hard not to let my feelings of abhorrence show on my face. Who knows.

We'll see.