New Years: Better Than I Could Say It

I was just reading through the folks I follow on my Google Reader, and after reading the most recent post over at 1000 Awesome Things, I felt extremely compelled to make a post on my own blog with a link to it.

Everyone's had hardships this year, some more than others, but this post really just makes you realize that ... hey, it's ok!

http://1000awesomethings.com/2009/12/31/601-getting-through-it/

This is a great post that makes me smile regardless of all the stressful, late-night-crying crap that's happened this year. :) Life is GOOD!

New Years & Awards

Amanda over at Teasingly Diverse hath bestowed an awesome award upon me!! :)


The Happy 101 award!! WOOHOO!!!! :D :D It looks like the rules for this one are to list ten of the things that make you most happy! I was originally going to do photos for each one, but that might take up a lot of space, so without further adieu... the ten things that make me happy as of late... :

tea*sleeping*fondue*birds*my new camera!* yummy scented candles*the beach!*milkshakes*my pink fuzzy socks*and family guy reruns! (heehee)

Now to give this to a few awesome folks! The three bloggers I'd like to pass this one on to are:

smileyfreak*life love & wine*overwhelming fullness like carbonated joy

YAY! I like passing on awards! :)

Soooo regarding my little health issue, I have a doctor's appointment set for Tuesday. I had to call 3 OB/GYN offices to get an appointment; the first one couldn't see me until mid month, the second was closed until next year, and finally the third could get me in. :) Phew! I'm not nearly as nervous as I was; I'm pretty sure it's a cyst, so that makes me feel a lot better!

In the meantime, Mr. Cats' sister and her boyfriend are heading into town tomorrow to spend NYE with us here at the house! Fun!! I'm looking forward to that... lots of tasty food to be had this weekend! :d Mmmm, food.....

So this will probably be my last post until next year, so everyone have a great New Year's Eve and here's hoping 2010 brings you health, happiness, and lots of sunny days!! :D <3

An update?! No way!

Happy Post-Holidays!

I know I'm not the only one that's been MIA lately... we've all been soooo busy! Crazy holidays! Ours was actually pretty low-key; Mr. Cats and I stayed home and opened our presents from both of our parents and each other, watched Christmas Story, and went out to an amazing sushi bar for Christmas dinner! Yummmm. :)

So overall, there is good news and bad news:

GOOD NEWS
I finally got the Nikon D3000 that I've wanted!!! I started up a little photo blog here - http://ensoh.wordpress.com/ - and am already loving my camera and having a ton of fun learning how to take great photos. :) Please feel free to follow!!

BAD NEWS
Maaaaybe TMI, but I found a lump in my right breast on Christmas Eve - not the best time to find something like that. While it's gotten smaller, it's surely still there, so I'm forseeing a doctor's appointment in my future. Yay for having no health insurance... ugh, more fees that I can't afford! But I can't afford not to get it looked at. Three years ago, right before we moved to NC, my doctor found a lump in my left breast that I had ultrasounded, but the ultrasound showed nothing. I'm hoping this one is equally nothing, or just a cyst or something, but just feeling it there makes my stomach go cold. :( Sigh. I'm VERY nervous. BUT, I'm doing my best to stay optimistic. :)

That's about all for now ... we're trying to figure out where we want to go to dinner for New Years Eve! We'll go eat somewhere and then come home to share a bottle of champagne while the ball drops on TV. :) Nothing better!!

Photo Sat-... err... Friday!

I'm a day late and a dollar short with this, but this is still one of my favorite photos ever! Taken when the cats were kittens, and lovingly manipulated by me... enjoy! Tis the season!!

Waiting ...

Don't you just hate waiting on someone for something, when they said they'll be right there, and 45 minutes later, uhhmmm so where are ya??

(Don't tell anyone, I'm actually talking about World of Warcraft; waiting for someone to get back so we can start something... yeah yeah, I play intarweb games!)

Definitely a pet peeve! I hate being late... I'm always early or on time. I feel so bad when I hold stuff up. Guilt guilt!

Anyways ... What are your pet peeves? Aside from waiting on people, I'd say mine are being interrupted when I'm talking, and bad parenting! You know the type, parents in a restaurant with kids, kids screaming bloody murder and flinging porkchops around like it's a rodeo, parents trying to pretend they're on a beach in Cozumel... yeah, not so much!

Baby, it's cold outside...

Thanks for all your input on my last post! I've been sort of in a "blog rut" as of late; I am blaming the cooler weather personally! Brr! No fun. Today it is 41 degrees but feels 32! AACCCKKK! Guess who's not going outside today?!.... Muahahahaha....

At any rate, I'm sitting here with a microwavable hot pack on the side of my face because I feel like a large man decked me in my jaw in the middle of the night! I have a horrible habit of grinding my teeth and tensing up my jaw when I sleep, so today I can barely open my mouth without any muscle pain. Sheesh! Eating my morning waffles was ... interesting.

And I can't BELIEVE Christmas is a measly two weeks away... aaaack?? Luckily I'm almost done with all of my shopping... it's budget Christmas! ;) One small yet meaningful thing for everyone on my list. That's okay. It's refreshing to push away the commercialism for once and get to the good stuff. A warm house, loved ones, and a cozy blanket in front of the TV with a warm snack? That's all I need. :)

Stay warm out there!!

Oh hi!

Wow, I've been delightfully absent for a while now. Eek!

I've been doing a -lot- with the holidays here in full force, and I just can't get myself to sit down and think out a post. Isn't that lame?!

I've been thinking about this blog lately and what I want to do with it... I'm pretty sure that I will be getting this for Christmas:

And if that is true I see myself dropping this blog for a photography blog. I've got some really neat ideas in mind, one of them being a project of 52 weeks of creative self portraits (one a week) that I'd really like to hit the ground running on. :D I've already got some fab ideas, and have been perusing other like-blogs with the same idea! (It will have its own URL too, not hosted on blogspot.)

Would you follow a photography blog if I had one? Or should I stick with this?

I think my shots may just be more interesting than my current blog content... ;)

Garages, and the crap therein.

So I live in a neighborhood where everyone has a garage... oddly enough as we were heading out today, I realized something. Over half of these people don't park their cars in their garages. Ya know why??



TRASH!!!!!!!

Seriously, the lady living next door to us puts this picture to SHAME. Laundry baskets, tall standing fans, big wall pictures, boxes of who knows what... YIKES. There is even one house down the road that has an ENTIRE wall of shelving on one side of their garage full of ........ shoes. Yes. 100+ pairs of shoes in the two-car garage.

From what I've seen anyone that parks in the driveway here has a garage that would rival an evil Halloween corn maze, except there's no room for walking paths. Call me crazy, but I have a funny feeling that junkola in there isn't going to be used anytime soon... why not, hmmmm, throw it out? I know we didn't pay extra for a two-car sized crap storage unit attached to our house. Our cars go IN the garage. Not in the driveway, while mounds upon piles of those creepy little ceramic frogs that sit in your garden take over your garage. Or old desk furniture. Or 200 pairs of worn out, fashion-backwards Payless* shoes. I just can't stand clutter in large, ominous amounts! (You know all those garden gnomes are going to amass at the foot of your bed one night, staring at you...........)


(Note that I do love Payless, just in moderation!)

Post-Thanksgiving relaxation time!

Is it possible to STILL be sleepy from all the turkey you ate yesterday?! :O

I hope everyone had a wonderful and tasty Thanksgiving!! This was my first time cooking a full Thanksgiving meal, and everything came out WONDERFUL - no kitchen mishaps, nothing cooked improperly, everything done at the same time and nice and hot with juicy turkey! How in the heck did I do THAT?! :)

And today ....... BLACK FRIDAY.


In all of my shopping days I have never gotten up before the butt-crack of dawn to do Black Friday, with two exceptions. One was with an ex-boyfriend when we still lived in Massachusetts, to drive up bleary-eyed with the headlights on over the border of New Hampshire (no sales tax up there) about an hour away, to some sort of Best Buy type place where the line wrapped around the store and it was about two degrees out. And we didn't even make it out of the store with anything. Boy, that sure was delightful!

The second exception was today; Mr. Cats and I have been wanting a Playstation 3 for years now, and they had a great deal at GameStop where you could get the system plus 3 free games, so we went half and half on it and got one at 5:30am today. :) AND the best part, it only took about half an hour, so I was able to come back home and slide into bed around 6am. Sweeeet! We've been playing Gran Turismo and Little Big World all day! :)

Tonight we're going to get some Starbucks and go to the big tree lighting~! Can't wait!

And oh, I got an award from the lover-ly Meg over at Lost in Thought! Thank you!!!!!! :)

I'm a Superior Scribbler! WOOHOO!! :D I'm supposed to tell seven facts about myself, then tag some other folks to join in the fun. Okay, here goes...

1. On the video game topic, I started off playing an Atari when I was 5, then got my very first Nintendo at 9.... and it aaaaaall went from there! I've been playing video games all my life!

2. I used to hate salsa, but now I ADORE it. One of my favorite snacks is just a big bowl of tortilla chips and some fresh salsa.

3. I often have many, many dreams in the course of one night. Sometimes they are weeeeird!! But rarely do I have nightmares.

4. I am a homebody - I am generally happiest when I am at home, relaxing and doing things around the house. Sometimes I like to go out for extended periods of time or travel, but most weekends you will find me happily chillin' at the house. :)

5. I am claustrophobic! We were watching a Mythbusters show last night where they were trying to bust the "three inch punch" out of the coffin from Kill Bill, and they had a guy in a coffin, and the close quarters camera really started to freak me out.... eee....

6. I never dreamed I could be so lucky as to live by the beach - but here I am!!! :D 10 minutes away! (5 on a good day!)

7. I was one of the first kids in my kindergarten class to start reading; when I was 5 I read The Night Before Christmas all by myself at our Christmas pageant.

Yay! Now to tag some awesome bloggers...

Laura over at Anything But Blonde; she's a military wife living over in Germany, and she posts some LOVELY photos!!

Jessica at Have We Met?, a fellow North Carolina-ian (LOL) who has been posting about her amazing honeymoon in Asia, and I want to hear more! :D

Luna at Magic City College Girl (I'm a Magic Smaller-town Working Girl!! :D)

And Smileyfreak over at Keep Smiling, Smileyfreak! never fails to make ME smile with her LOL-worthy posts!! :D



Wow, this entry turned out a LOT longer than I imagined!! PHEW!! Will definitely make a holiday card post this weekend, but until then ... happy leftovers!!! :)

Once Upon a Time Wednesday...

Once upon a time...

When I was a very small cat herder (about 9 years old), I took Taekwondo. It's a korean martial art, and I actually ended up taking it for about 12 years, and am a second degree blackbelt now! But that is beside the point. Anyway, at the end of every class, our instructor would read us a passage from the Tao Te Ching while we were in "mah-kyum" (Korean for meditation... I can pronounce it great, but probably butchered the spelling! Sorry!!) After every class he would read a different passage, and after about 12 years of listening to said passages, they became deeply ingrained in my brain.

The Tao is actually a very old Chinese text written by Lao Tsu - it contains a lot of very short, very thought provoking philosophies - advice and lessons for life, let's say. Since it is a very old text, about 2500 years, it has thusly been translated many, MANY times, by many different people. The thoughts and ideas of the original Chinese were there, but every translation was a little bit different, so the words and sentence structure would vary.

Flash forward many years, to about 2006, when I am a more grown up cat herder and out on my own. I decide I want a copy of this book, the one I grew up listening to, that exact translation. But every book store I went to had about 500 other differently translated versions! Okay, I'm exaggerating. But it was still quite a hunt.

I managed to stumble upon one copy in a Barnes and Noble that was the 25th anniversary edition of the same, beat up old book that my "Sah-boom-nim" (Korean for master/instructor) would read from... :) And I was delighted!!

During my search, I would always flip to a certain passage in the book to see if it was worded exactly, then I knew I had the right one. Since I had no idea who had translated the copy I grew up on, I had to rely on my favorite passage by memory to judge it right! I'm going to share it with you; I have a handful of favorite passages in the book, but this one definitely means the most to me.

FIFTY

Between birth and death
Three in ten are followers of life,
Three in ten are followers of death,
And men just passing from birth to death also number three in ten.
Why is this so?
Because they live their lives on the gross level.

He who knows how to live can walk abroad
Without fear of rhinoceros or tiger.
He will not be wounded in battle.
For in him rhinoceros can find no place to thrust their horn,
Tigers no place to use their claws,
And weapons no place to pierce.
Why is this so?
Because he has no place for death to enter.



What do you think it means? I think it means, live your life for the present, make every day the most important day of your life, because it is the one you are experiencing right now, and don't be afraid to live and experience life before it passes you by!! :)


I probably won't post until after Thanksgiving, so I hope everyone has a wonderful, relaxing holiday cherishing the things that are really important in life - something we should do every day! ...Oh, AND eat lots of turkey, stuffing, potatoes... we definitely should NOT do that every day, or else we'd all be 700 pounds with coronary failure, LOL :D HAPPY THANKSGIVING Y'ALL!!

I'm BAAACCCKKK!!

TA-DAAAA!!! I'm back, up and running with internet at the new and VERY AWESOME house!! We are all moved in (mostly; save for a few boxes of stuff hanging around) and couldn't be happier!! :D The move went smoothly, the cats are mostly adjusted, and all is well. Now if only Finnegan would stop meowing over and over at night... boy, you know where you are! ARGH!

I'm going to try valiantly to catch up with my Google Reader, but I don't know how successful I'll be... wish me luck! ;)

Tonight Mr. Cats and I went to buy our Turkey Day dinner - turkey, stuffing, a nice bottle of red wine, etc. etc. We are going to make yummy muffins that morning for breakfast, watch the Macy's Day parade (and the dog show afterwards!), all while cooking some yummy food... then... EAT!!! And finish off the day with Peanuts Thanksgiving on TV. :) We're very excited to have our first Thanksgiving together in our cozy new home!!

I'm reading a book lately that is really thought-provoking and puts a lot of things into perspective... it's called Nickel and Dimed and it's about this journalist that goes out into three areas of the US and tries to get by for a month, by herself and on her own, on minimum wage. Granted it was written in the early 2000's so it's a little outdated, but it still is an amazingly eye-opening read, especially with the economy the way it is today. I'm glad to read this book around Thanksgiving, because it really does make me thankful for what I do have -- a lovely home, an amazing boyfriend, a loving mom, two great cats, even my half job... we have food on the table every night, a warm place to sleep, and more than enough to make me happy. :) There are so many out there that are just barely making it by... this is a great book and I'd recommend it to anyone that's interested in just how rough it can get, or just to put things into perspective. Enjoy what you have! Be thankful! And, to end off on one of my favorite quotes...

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." --Plato

Let's all engage in some random acts of kindness this week for Thanksgiving!! :D

Moving Time, and a short hiatus!

Yeah, it's getting to be that time.

MOVING DAY.

So I'm taking a brief hiatus until next week when we are settled in and have working internet. I am just exhausted lately and taking naps every chance I get!

But by next week, smooooth sailing! (I hope!)

See you then!! ;)

I'm a dummy..

So a lot of people are posting search results for their blog - like what people searched for to find them.

I'm a dummy but I want to play too!! Where do I find this in Google?? Aiieee...

In other news, Mr. Cats and I are baking chocolate chip cookies!! Want one? :)


Also, remember CardFest!!! :) I've gotten some emails and I know I haven't replied to a few yet, but I'm getting there y'all! Clicky to read all about it if you haven't already! One of my future entries is going to be about where to get cute, CHEAP cards... and some pictures! :D

CARDFEST!!!!!!

(Sorry for such a short entry... things are SO BUSY here... T-minus four days until the big move!! Can't WAIT to get our stuff over there and settle in!)

Oh... it's coming...

That's right, less than two weeks now. November 26th. The day where you're going to eat so much you're going to want to wear the elastic pants!

YEAH! Thanksgiving! I didn't mean to overshadow it with my CardFest post - no jumping ahead in the holiday line. Thanksgiving is one of my favorites; IMO it really kicks off the holidays. :) So, this year, we were going to have Mr. Cats' family up here for Thanksgiving but there was some confusion and it looks like it will just be the two of us. But honestly, I don't mind at all because after all the whirly stress of this move, I'm more than happy to make a small meal for just the two of us to RELAX!!

So, without further adieu, I've compiled a pictorial of tasty things I will cook and happily eat! If you're hungry you may want to stop reading here!

Mmm... yes... the staple of any great Thanksgiving dinner! (Unless you're vegetarian, in which case, insert the awkward silence.) I never have turkey any other time of year, well except for the occasional turkey club, but that's SO not even in the same league as a roast turkey fresh from the oven!! Mmm... warm and juicy and tasty, and definitely prompting a nice nap in a few hours.


Turkey and potatoes go hand in hand, right?? These mashed potatoes look SCRUMPTIOUS! I love to add a little sour cream to mine when I'm mashing them, along with milk and butter. Carve a little hole for gravy in the middle and you're good to go!

I may love cornbread more than any other bread on the planet! How southern! I'll probably make this a day ahead of time, so we can warm some up with butter for breakfast (yes, I'm drooling), and have a slice with our dinner! Mr. Cats is into jalepeno cornbread, but I'm all about the tried and true original. :)

Look, more carbs! But this holiday is SO not about watching your diet! Bring on the carbs, I say!!! And what yummier way to have them than fresh stuffing. (Stuffing is also full of sodium a lot of times, but there are brands out there that are healthier for you!) At my house when I was young, we used to cook the stuffing in the bird, but now I'll just fire up the stove and cook it that way. Now I love cornbread stuffing, but for Thanksgiving I'll usually just go with the regular turkey stuffing. Don't mess with success!

Mr. Cats is not a fan of cranberry sauce!! What in the?? Yeah, it's true, but that always means more for me! ;) (And isn't that container up there adorable?) I'm going to embarrass myself here and say that my favorite cranberry sauce is .... the gel kind that comes in a can. AH!! Yes, it's true, it is old tradition. :) Love it to bits!

And last but DEFINITELY not least!! I love pumpkin pie as much as the next guy, but this year I think I want to try a pumpkin bread pudding. We both adore bread pudding, and it seems like a pumpkin twist would be just natural! I think this one has a little caramel glaze going on, too...



Okay, are we hungry yet?? I know I am!! And the next best part... is leftovers. ;) What are your favorite Thanksgiving foods?? It's almost time!

HOLIDAY CARD SWAP!!!!!! It's TIME!!!!

Hey everyone!! I hope you all had great weeks and that Friday the 13th isn't going to do you wrong. As for me, today is MEGA PACKING day, and also mega moving day. I'm sure tomorrow will be mega achy day. ;) But, the rain has finally subsided and although it's chilly, I can get my stuff to the car without getting soaked!

At any rate, since my laptop STILL does not have a power supply and I don't have access to all my fun photos, Photo Friday will be on hiatus for a bit. But that's okay.. because it's time for ...

HOLIDAY CARDFEST 2009!!!!!
(I will make a great graphic for this, give me a few days!)

Yes, it's that time ladies and gents. Because we KNOW we're busy, because we KNOW Thanksgiving is coming up and once that starts, it's a never-ending whirl of holiday MADNESS until next year, and because we KNOW we're gonna procrastinate! LET'S DO THIS!! :D

It's excruciatingly simple. Send me an email -- nikineu[@]gmail.com -- with your mailing address. I'll reply to you with mine. We send each other awesome holiday cards! FIN!

See, told ya it was easy! ;)

I'd really like people to think about doing something like this on their own blogs, if they feel comfortable. There's so much going on in the world right now, and so many people are caught between a rock and a hard place for whatever reasons. And wouldn't it be great to make someone's day and light up their face with a smile when they get a simple card in the mail? Showing that their blogfriends care to bring that holiday cheer? AWESOME!! Love it. :) It's something simple we can all do to spread what the holidays are REALLY about!

So if you're in it to win it, place this little banner on your blog, and the more people that see what we're up to, the more goodwill and cheer will be spread this holiday season!


And now ... I need to get dressed and PACK! Oh joy of joys! ;) Have a lovely day y'all!!

Mini-hiatus!

Hi everyone!

My laptop decided to blow up! KABOOOOOM! Okay, not really that bad at all, but my AC adapter fizzed and smelled like plastic, and now it won't work, so I need a new one!

I'll be getting one this weekend so until then I'm not going to blog very much. I'm soooo behind on my Google reader too, and I will try and catch up with that tonight, but I want my laptop back! :[ (Yeah, I am on a desktop computer now that I game on, but it's just not the same!)

Hope everyone is having a good week! Mine has been a catastrophe thus far, but that's neither here nor there. ;) Ciao for now!

Giveaway Winner!

So I know this was supposed to be posted yesterday on the 6th.. and here we are on the 7th...!! Ooooops! Yesterday was just SO hectic that it completely slipped my mind; I woke up this morning, and, AAAACK! GIVEAWAY!!!!!

So I went to the randomizer and out of the 16 entries I had, got my random number, then counted down from the first entry...

O.F.C.J from Overwhelming Fullness Like Carbonated Joy, girl you have WON! Drop me a mailing address sometime at nikineu[@]gmail.com and your yumminess will soon be on its way to your tummy. :D

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I hope a great weekend is in store for y'all; I honestly don't know WHAT we'll do... probably nothing!!!! The house closed yesterday so it is OURS, we have the keys and have already been dancing around like ninnies inside! :) We scheduled a moving truck for the 21st so we will be officially moved in then, but until then we'll bring over what we can, when we can. I am SO EXCITED, you have no idea!

That's all for now... I have to go scrounge up some breakfast.

Once Upon a Time Wednesday...

Once upon a time, when I was a very young cat herder (about 5), I did a really silly thing. Not very silly at the time, but years later, pretty silly! I was an inquisitive kid and liked to get into everything, as most young'uns are wont to do. I was in the bathroom one day, poking around and being a general nosy gal, when I discovered... *drumroll goes here* Tampons! Yes, the T word that makes men feel kind of awkward! I had no idea what they were. But they looked fun, and I decided that not only should I unwrap a whole box of them and put them in the toilet, but I should also give it a good flush or five.

Well the T-things created quite the cottony beaver dam in our toilet pipes, much to my parents horror. The plumber actually had to physically remove the toilet from the floor so he could get at the pipes. (Hey, this was 1985, I'm sure toilet snakes weren't so advanced back then.) So where did we put the toilet while it was removed?

On the front lawn.

And what did I delight in doing?

Sitting on it and waving to passing cars.

Never a dull moment! :D

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

There you are, more embarrassing stories from my childhood, and beyond! ;) I had a pretty bummy day yesterday -- the job I applied for and was real hopeful about fell through -- so I've been trying to cheer myself up today! And it's been successful. :) Let's all sit on toilets in our front yards!!

Besides, our house closes in two days (YIIIIKES!!!!) so I can't afford to be bummy!!

And just two more days for that giveaway! :)

Also, a question; how many of you awesome folk (if any!) would be interested in exchanging snail-mail holiday cards this year? I know it's just November, but once Thanksgiving hits time seems to fly by at the speed of light and I wind up at New Years realizing I never sent out any Christmas cards. And it makes me feel like a mega-bum. So let me know if you're interested!! :) I may try to hand-make mine this year, I have some leftover scrapbooking paper and stuff from last year.

A busy week approaches...

Happy November y'all!! :) I hope everyone had a delightfully spooky and fun Halloween - Mr. Cats and I are very into horror films, especially foreign ones (they just seem so much scarier!) and we watcheed a Spanish film called [REC]... they recently remade it to be called 'Quarantine' here in America... oh man, the end of this movie scared me SO MUCH! There are very few horror movies where I have to actually hide my eyes, but this was one of them. Oh man... good stuff! Then Bram Stoker's Dracula was on Chiller (ah, Gary Oldman), so we watched that, and a bunch of awesome short films. :) Good times!

But yeah, this week is going to be BUSY! You may remember me talking a while back about a house we are building... well it's DONE! Our final walkthrough is tomorrow, and the papers will be signed Friday! WOW!!! It's gone from this ...


... to THIS!!!!


We are SO excited to start moving in!!! Right now we are only a few miles away so packing and moving will be easier for us, and we will be completely moved in by Thanksgiving week, as some friends are coming to help. :) :) :) YAY!!!! We started this process way back in May and finally settled on a house plan and a lot, and it took about three straight months to build. It's a little one story ranch with three beds and two baths, a two car garage, lovely hardwood floors and granite countertops and a great screened in porch on our big backyard! So yeah, it's been going on for a while, and Friday it's ours!!!! :D

Friday is also the day I'm choosing a winner for my tasty fall chocolate giveaway, so head on over and check it out if you haven't already! Yum yum yum :)

Also, the job I am hoping to get will hopefully call me in for an interview this week. Fingers crossed, I could use it!

AND, I'm hoping to finish my scarf. I know, kind of trite compared to the other big stuff going on, but it's my very first scarf I've knitted EVER and I've been working on it on and off for about a month now. It's pink! And it will have tassels on the ends. :) I'll show you once I'm done!

And .... I got a new layout for this blog. I really like the colors and columns, I hope it looks good for you guys too!

So that's my big week, hope you guys have a fun and exciting one too! It's about 78 degrees here in North Carolina today so we're heading out to take a walk soon. :)

Photo Friday

In an effort to post more cool photos to my blog (because I have a lot of old stuff, and even new stuff!) I'm starting my own Friday meme called Photo Friday. Feel free to play along if you are so inclined! :)

This Fridays photos feature some absolutely YUMMY holiday cupcakes Matt bought for us as a Halloween present... don't they look just delish? They're all handmade from a local cupcakery!



They are white cake with rich chocolate frosting. Mmm mmm good! Better than halloween candy! I couldn't resist taking a bite of that ghosty cupcake...




Happy Halloween!!! :)

Why I am SO Not a Twilight Fan.

Okay, so this is sort of taboo. Everyone LURVES Twilight, amiright? Well, I don't. But I'm not going to be a giant ass about it, as not only do I understand that many people enjoy Twilight and are certainly allowed to, but I also enjoy things that other people may not like. (uhm, Warcraft anyone?) There's no reason to hate on people or things just because you don't like 'em! TOLERANCE, go team!! :)

Okay, now that my pep talk is out of the way. No, I don't like Twilight. Honestly though, I've only read the first book, but I was just so disinterested and unimpressed that I just didn't want to read anymore. Let me tell you why...

The LURVE Story

I like love stories as much as the next guy... uhm, gal. But this one seemed to advance WAY too fast. I mean, at the end of the first book, they were talking marriage already. Wait, whaaaat? Back that truck up! Now I know that doesn't happen until later on in the series, but I think marriage would be one of the LAST things on a highschoolers mind. It was very unrealistic for me to read! (Yeah, I know the vampires were also unrealistic, but they were supposed to be; the humans are still humans!)

I'm also of the love-at-first-sight-is-a-lie camp. The fact that Joanie and Chachi fell in lurve within a mere few school months left me a little uneasy.

Now, like I said, I like the lurve story. When it's done well. This seemed to be done far too rushed to seem realistic. I like it when love takes time to grow and blossom and all of that smarmy crapola, it's great to read and really makes the story and characters that more engaging. (Yes, they had a few awkward talks in the car, and at that restaurant, but ... I feel it's lacking!) It needs more than just half a book to break out the L word.

Mary Who?

To me, from what I've read book-wise and cliff notes wise, this book just screams Mary Sue to me. Writers, you should know what that is, but for the rest a Mary Sue is pretty much an author self-insertion. Taken from Wikipedia, "...primarily functioning as wish-fulfillment fantasies for their authors or readers. ...single underlying feature of all characters described as "Mary Sues" is that they are too ostentatious for the audience's taste, or that the author seems to favor the character too highly."

Ok, here goes. Unpopular sort of mousy girl moves to dead-end town, immediately finds her the fancy of one of the most mysterious, charming, gorgeous boys in the school, oh wait let's not forget that other guy in her class that has a serious crush on her (Mike), the guy that hits her with her van and then asks her out for like forever (Tyler), OH, and the werewolf that develops a severe crush on her (Jacob), oh and wait, I forgot that other geek that talked to her on her first day of school and got all googoo over her (Eric)... and that's just the first book! Again, wait WHAAAAAT? It's a bit much. The main girl really doesn't need nearly every main guy fawning over her, does she?

But then again, what high school girl (or any girl, maybe?) wouldn't want a werewolf and a vampire fighting over her? And add some silly ol' humans in for fun? Now I know Steph wrote this book from a dream she'd had (chapter 13), but it seems like she may have had a boring old youth and is making up for lost time.

Movie Edward

Now I REALLY may be the only girl in the world to think this, but I think movie Edward is well ........ yucky looking.



The Cure called, they want their bad hair, semi-stoner eyes, and sickly skin tone back.



Okay, those are my main three points of contention. Well, the first two really, I'm just getting tired of seeing three eeeeverywhere! And I understand that it's supposed to be written as a fantasy novel, but IMO there are just so many other fantasy novels that aren't as amateur and mindblowingly overpopular. Anyone else not a Twilight fan? Or are you a fan, and want to holler at me for defaming literary genius? *hack cough* :) In all seriousness, if you like Twilight, you should check out her book The Host. Amazing story, I loved that one!!

And I love y'all, no matter what you read! <3

It's a giveaway!!

There's nothing like warm, tasty treats to get you in the mood for fall. Pumpkin pie, warm cinnamon streusel, hot chocolate... bundle up in your scarf and sweater and prepare to get tasty!



I'm REALLY excited to be able to host this special Fall is HERE! giveaway! :) I was lucky enough to recently come into a decent amount of absolutely decadent drinking chocolate -- yes, it is called "drinking chocolate" because it's THAT GOOD -- so I wanted to share some of it with you!



If you've never heard of or had Schokinag, you're missing out. They are a producer of extremely fine drinking chocolate - think hot chocolate but WAY more decadent. This ain't your mom's Swiss Miss!! Inside every tin is a sealed bag filled with extremely small, high quality chocolate morsels that you microwave with milk to create an absolutely otherworldly hot chocolate experience. :) (The website says you can actually -eat- the chocolate bits out of the tin with a spoon, if you are so inclined!)

I'm sipping on a cup of Moroccan Spice drinking chocolate as I write this, and all I can say is, WOW. This is a thick, luxurious, creamy drink packed full of heady chocolatey flavor. A healthy dollop of whipped cream would do well on this, I think! Okay, I'm in love!

What I have to offer you, fellow chocolate-loving reader, is this: a 12 oz tin of either Dulce de Leche, Extreme Dark, or Chocolate Mint drinking chocolate. (You can read about the flavors here.) Each tin comes with a sealed bag of yummy morsels inside, along with an awesome fold out brochure with recipes that will make you start to drool!

To enter, all you have to do is leave me a comment (one only per person, please!) with the following info:

• Add the line "It's chocolate time!" into your comment somewhere, so I know you want to enter as opposed to just say howdy. :)
• Specify which of the three chocolates you'd like to have; Dulce de Leche, Extreme Dark, or Chocolate Mint.
• If you want an extra entry, you can blog about this giveaway and post a link to it, but it's not required at all!

That's it! I'll choose a winner on November 6th. :) Plenty of time to get in on this. Happy fall y'all, and good luck!

Spooky pictures!

I'm posting some of my pre-Halloweenie pictures I took the other night of neat looking things around the place. :) Hope you like them, and they get you in the mood for full mons, spooky movies, and candy corn!!

Time to: Get Over It!

So yesterday marked my first day as being a part-timer. It was weird leaving at lunchtime! And today, I have the WHOLE day off!! WHOA!

If you can't tell, I've decided to go with the "enjoy it for what its worth" option as opposed to the "laying in a swamp" option. Things could really be a lot worse; I still have half a job, at least! And even though I had to pay $430 in emergency credit (eek) to replace calipers and brakes on my car today, it needed to be done, and such is life.

SO, I am making the most of things by enjoying the time I have to myself now! Today was a beautiful Friday in North Carolina, and I spent the majority of my day doing the following:

• Sitting outside and enjoying the amazing 80 degree weather! It was warm, sunny, with a nice breeze, and beautiful blue skies like that one up there.
• Watching the jillions of little yellow butterflies romp through the trees :)
• I reheated some chili for lunch and ate it out there too... soooo good!! I LOVE chili with cheese and sour cream... mm mm, nothing better.
• Listened to some great music, and just relaxed and enjoyed the day.

Mr. Cats has been the best boyfriend ever and is taking me out to dinner tonight, after taking me out to dinner LAST night too! <3 Fondue last night, and off for some yummy local seafood in a bit.


I am looking to enjoy some of these yummy seafoods tonight. What is your favorite seafood? I have to admit, before I started dating Mr. Cats, I hated seafood. And I'm from New England, yeah, I know! But now I loooove it. My favorites would have to be grilled shrimp, grouper, and sea bass. I love grouper with a citrus glaze and pineapple salsa, or sea bass done in a nice teriyaki ginger. Yummmm!! And shrimp in ANY form is just dandy with me, thanks. My least favorite would probably have to be tuna, it has a very strong taste, and is a very "meaty" fish. Oysters also are not cool with me. So slimy... ugh.

Here's hoping everyone has a relaxing pre-Halloween weekend! :)

Not all once upon a times are charmed...

Once upon a time, I found out that my work hours were getting cut back from 40 to 20.

Oh wait, that happened today.



I'm officially a part-timer now, and I'm none too pleased about it. Pretty freaked out and unhappy, actually, because while I love this town the job market is lower than Britney Spears' standards. It came as quite a shock and I'm left worrying, like most other people that have gotten hours cut or lost jobs, how exactly I'm going to pay for things. I was right on the 3 month mark to start getting benefits too. Oh well. I suppose it could be worse.

So I'm either going to be a) blogging a lot to get my mind off things and keep myself motivated, or b) heading to the nearest swamp to lie face down in it. Probably a, but I'm feeling a lot of b tonight.

Sorry for the depressing post! But life isn't all about farting rainbows, I guess. (But that would be neat to see.)

Danger!!

This is a dangerous time of year, my friends.

Do you know why?

No, not because of ghosts and Freddy... (although that could be pretty rough)

Because of yummy temptations like this...



Pumpkin Cheesecake? All together now; one, two, three, DROOL!! I had a piece of pumpkin tiramisu the other night and let me assure you, it was nothing short of heavenly.

Let the sweets (and my ass growing fatter) begin!

Weekend!

Hey y'all! Happy Weekend! :) Here's hoping it will be super enjoyable and relaxing with great weather! I'm glad you all liked Once Upon a time Wednesday, I thought it would be fun, and I have many similar stories to tell.

I have to say, my mom called me from Massachusetts yesterday to tell me it was snowing...! Say WHAAAAT?!



Okay, so it didn't snow anywhere CLOSE to that amount, but I am so not even close to being ready for snow yet! It snows very little down here in coastal NC, if any, but the weathermen are predicting a really harsh winter with more snow than usual. Get your boots on!!

Mr. Cats and I went out to a yummy local pizza place last night, and we were the ONLY ones in short sleeves... it was about 60 and everyone had coats and scarves!! I was like, really now! It's October! There will be plenty of time for THAT nonsense once winter shows.

So we are pretty busy lately; our house is nearly done and our final walkthrough is November 2nd. Then papers are signed, and boom! House! It is stressful though, but will be all worth it in the end. :) But yeah, busy stuff. We can't get any more photos of the house easily because the doors are always locked now, because all of our lights and counters and expensive stuff is in there, they need to keep it safe. Oh well! :) I like that option better.

Today we are carving PUMPKINS!!!!!!!!! I will post pics of those! ;)

Once Upon a Time Wednesday...

Once Upon a Time Wednesday will hopefully get me to post on more Wednesdays ;) And, as the title sort of states, will feature an interesting/amusing story or vignette from my life. Fun! :)

So enjoy, at my expense... ;)

Once upon a time when I was living in Maryland, I was doing some laundry on a cold, cold weekend in February. My boyfriend at the time was not home, and I was upstairs on the third floor minding my own business. I suddenly became aware of a very low, continuous beep. Ignored it for a little while... nope, still there. Going down to the second floor, hey, there's that beep, a little louder! I head down to the first floor and the garage where the washer & dryer are, and the beep becomes a minor roar. Upon opening the door to the garage I find .... the entire thing flooded with about an inch of water.

WHOA! The beep is pretty deafening now so I run into the washroom, as it's most definitely coming from there. Somewhere, there is something alerting me that MY WASHROOM AND GARAGE ARE FLOODED. But I don't think of that. I'm thinking that I'm standing in an inch of water while something electric is beeping, and about to blow.

So, I freak out and climb up onto the washer. .. The metal washer. Good one, Thomas Jefferson. (He flew the key on the kite into the electric storm, right?)

I can't find what the hell is causing this shrill kill-me-now consta-beep, so I climb off the washer, run upstairs, and as any young dumb and freaked out 20-something would do ... call 911. I think the call went something like this:

Operator: "911, your emergency please."
Me: "Uuuuhhhh hi my garage and washing room are flooded and there's this thing that's beeping and I don't know what it is but there's water everywhere and I'm like really worried about electric shock and stuff."
Operator: (probably banging head on desk) "We'll send someone over."

So yeah, not the best 911 emergency. But I didn't know what else to do!

Anyways, not two minutes later, I hear not one but TWO fire trucks in the distance... sirens... and they come screaming down our tiny little hill road into our tiny little cul-de-sac that is SO not even big for a Power Wheels fire truck. (Do they have those?) Not only am I already embarassed, but I'm shaping up to be the talk of the neighborhood.

I open my garage door and a minor tidal wave of water floods out over the boots of some pretty strapping firemen, I remind you that it's February in Maryland and it's pretty chilly out. I lead them into the washing room and one of the firemen instantly goes to a little wire on the wall, bends it up, and the beep stops. .... Oh. Teehee. Can I get you a cookie, or perhaps some animal crackers? Okay, so that's out of the way, and we determine that one of our water exit pipes has frozen and all the water blasted back out of the machine.

However, to make sure of this, I needed to empty the machine for them to look at. Oh, you know what I was washing? Yeah, I emptied all of my cold and soaking underwear, bras, and other assorted lacy underthings while three completely suited up firemen watch me. That was about ten seconds of absolutely awkward silence and embarassing hot flashes that I will never be able to scratch from my mind.

The machine was okay, they say good day, and leave. And I immediately bury myself under 10 pounds of blankets and feel like an absolute imbecile!!



The end. :)

Award time!!

My sickness has faded down to a dull roar, thankfully. I'm still feeling pretty icky, and my sinuses are all clogged now! Thanks everyone for your well wishes and sickie-medicine advice, I appreciate it!! :)

I've gotten a few awards recently and I wanted to post them! The first is the Dragon's Loyalty award from Moonjava. She just got a new betta fish, and I want to see pictures!! :)



And the lovely Ladytruth over at Happily AFTER Ever has bestowed upon me the Ultimate MeMe Award! If you don't go and visit this awesome lady now you will be SORELY missing out on lots of laughs and great posting goodness!!



The rules for this award are as follows: create 5 categories each containing 5 favorite items of said category but without necessarily being listed in any particular order. Then tag 5 people to do the same.

Five categories, eh? Let's see if my illness-addled brain can get this going...

Five Foods I COULD NOT Live Without!
1. CHEESE. Except blue cheese. But aside from that black (blue) sheep, I adore cheeses of all shape, size, and stink! :D
2. Shrimp. Preferably grilled over a hot flame with a little bit of lemon and garlic. Popcorn shrimp happily accepted too!
3. Pizza. Nuff said.
4. Caramello bars. Yeah, they get their own category, they're THAT good!!
5. Spinach salads. There is nothing better than fresh spinach, hard boiled eggs, and onions with a little bit of dressing and croutons... :)

5 Names of Cats I've Had
1. Scooter
2. Molly
3. Zelda (Hey.. I was 11 and very heavily into video games.. so sue me!)
4. Lain
5. Caesar (Big white cat!)

5 of the HOTTEST Actors Out There!
1. Keanu Reeves
2. Edward Norton
3. Tim Roth
4. Gary Oldman
5. Johnny Knoxville
(that was extremely easy......)

5 Movies I Could Watch Over, and Over, and Over....
1. Bio-Zombie (if you're even remotely into zombie flicks and/or cheesy chinese film, you NEED to see this, right now)
2. The Lion King
3. The Boondock Saints
4. A Christmas Story!!!! (I know I'm not the only one that chain-watches that at Christmas... right??)
5. Happy Gilmore (it's just a classic~!)

5 Awful 80's Clothing Items I Have Owned in the Past
1. Those plastic oversized shirt ties that looked like a no smoking sign
2. The sweater + leggings combo (bonus points, my leggings had those straps that go under your feet)
3. Gold lame (imagine an accent over that e) pants..... ayiyiyiyi....
4. Those awful evil slap-bracelets
5. A FELT FEDORA HAT!!!! Remember those?? Mine was PURPLE!!!! Ohhhhh the humanity....



Now that I've duly embarassed myself, I'm going to give out these awards! You don't necessarily have to post them, but I wanted to highlight some blogs of note, ones that I am reading a lot lately and am always happy to see pop up on my Google reader sidebar with new posts. :)

For the Dragon's Loyalty award, I choose The Caped Tirader!; he does, of course, wear a cape and tirade around, and is quite witty doing it, but lately he's been doing a set of Halloween-themed posts about great horror movies!! Love it. Paul at Graduwait.com is another great read with lots of insightful, funny, and well-written posts.

For the ULTIMATE MEMEEEE (imagine that fading off slowly), I choose KS at While We're Waiting... She is hosting an awesome fall giveaway that I neeeed to enter, and her posts are always so fun and full of lovely pictures!! Lauren From Texas gets this one too; she is wonderful lady with a great blog, an adorable dog, and she has fantastic hair!! What more could a gal ask for, I wonder?? :)

And okay, before I forget: KS is having a fall giveaway full of tasty smells and you should really check it out here!! Yankee Candles are the mega-yum!

And now, I do believe it is time for some more sinus medicine... stay healthy, y'all!!

Sickies!

Good morning, blogworld! Why, do you ask, am I blogging at 8:30 on a Friday morning and not on my way to work? Because I'm home sick.

And no, it's not swine flu. That was the first thing my mom asked me when I told her I came home early from work yesterday.



To give a short rundown of how I got this evil crud, coworker comes in Monday feeling (and sounding) like junk... sneezing coughing blowing nose, etc. I sit across the divider from her, so I'm already trying to bolster my defenses by only breathing every 10 seconds and washing about 3 layers of skin off my hands. I think I kindly mentioned in there somewhere about how rest would be a good thing, but she said she had no sick days left. (Well hey, I have none either, but here I am.) Tuesday she relents and goes home early. Tuesday and Wednesday I feel ok, but Thursday morning... ughhh... I also go home early Thursday, and here I am today, home and sick with no sick days. But, life could be worse! I could have a curly tail sprouting from my behind!

I figured I would take the chance then, while I'm home and maybe only a little infectious, to post some of my favorite songs that, no matter what, get me happy!! No matter if I'm having a miserable day, a listen to one of these just gets a little smile out of me. You know the ones; you're in the worst mood ever, you got to work late, your boss yells at you in front of everyone, you break the heel on one of your expensive amazing new shoes, your lunch gives you food poisoning, and you hit a puppy in the road while you're trying to rush home to make it to the bathroom because said food poisoning is rearing it's ugly head.. yeah, THOSE days. These songs NEGATE those days!! :) (Well, for me at least.)

Bob Marley and the Wailers - Three Little Birds

This song always brings the happies!! Don't worry ... 'bout a thing ... 'cause every little thing ... gonna be all right now ... :)

Frank Sinatra - The Girl from Ipanema

If you don't know the words to this song - shame on you! (Okay, maybe that's a little harsh.) ;) Frank Sinatra is one of my absolute favorite artists of all time - trivia, my grandfather saw him for $1.25 on his honeymoon!! - and if you're not into the beachy sound of this one, you're more than welcome to substitute "I Get a Kick Out of You". :)

America - Sister Golden Hair

Another one that's SO much more fun as a sing-along. ;) Sing, dance, even if creepy people outside are watching! It will make you feel so much better!!

Counting Crows - Mr. Jones

August and Everything After was the very first CD I ever bought! I never used to like this song, but now that I'm older (and maybe wiser) there is just something infectiously uplifting about it when you're belting it out in your car. :) (Rain King is another fun one!)

The Cardigans - Carnival

You know these guys, they sang the "Love me, love me, say that you love me!" song. NOT their best track. The Cardigans are one of my favoritest bands EVER and this song is so happy and poppy that even Oscar the Grouch couldn't deny it!



Okay, that's all for now. What songs pick you up from a dumpster-dragged day? Hopefully today is not one of those days! :) Happy Friday everyone, and steer clear of sickies like me, who SHOULD be home and not infesting their coworkers! (Bitter? Me! Never! ;) )