Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!
Be safe tonight and have fun!

Crimes Against Language

There's a dry cleaner and a liquor store in the same mini plaza near my new home, which is handy because I needed both services this week.

I park my car between them which happened to be in front of a beauty salon... another service close to my home that I imagine might come in handy someday if anything, god forbid, ever happens to Paul the Official Library Hairdresser.

I pull in to my spot, put the car in park and notice a sign in the salon window for a make-up line called Bare Escentuals.

*blink, blink*

Escentuals?

Now, I'm no champion speller, but that doesn't look right at all. It's a printed sign too so it must be intentional, or should I say intensual? I looked up their website today and yup, that's how they spelled that.

Is it a play on the words essentials, sensual and scent all in one horrific blow? What WERE they thinking?

Yummy!

So we went to a holiday gathering last Saturday and one of the attendees brought something WONDERFUL!

Green grapes soaked in pinot grigio for a couple days then rolled in sugar and serve with a toothpick. It tasted like heavenly booze soaked candy. The woman who brought them suggested they can be served with a chunk of cheese on the same toothpick, though I'm all for my booze tasting like candy.

I'm making some right now for another gathering!

ZZZzzz...

I am so sleepy tonight...

We went to see my brother and his wifes new addition to their house and hang out for a while. Very nice! And playing with their toddler darn near wore me out! Off to bed I go!

Off to See More Relatives!

Last weeks family gathering at Ron's cousin's house got postponed to today due to last weekends double whammy snowstorms. Soon all the holiday hoo-ha will be done!

I know, I know... this isn't terribly exciting reading but it's all I've got right now. Maybe I'll have news later... Only 4 more days and I will have blogged every day for one year!

Perspective

Just when you think your job sucks along comes an episode of the show Dirty Jobs that puts it all right into persepctive.

Click HERE to watch Mike Rowe bite the testicles off a lamb. NOT for those with weak stomachs or intense barf reflexes.

Merry Christmas!

Fun!

Christmas Gift Toy & MySpace Layouts at pYzam.com





This is so neat I'm going to leave it at the top for a few days! Leave me a present, will ya!

More Adventures in Home Ownership!

I dropped Ron off at the train station this morning and came back home just as the sun was rising over the complex. I can only see our deck in full from the road as I come in and I noticed how lovely the sun looked inthe early morning light. I also thought, damn, that's alot of icicles. Then I thought, oh crap... ice dams!

That side of our house has no attic space as a buffer. The ceiling in the living room is part of the roof in that part of the house. I figure if we were going to get an ice dam it would be along this side, right where the lovely ice is hanging from the gutter. I did a quick search online for what to do and found a few sites... but HERE was something I could actually do on my own, so I did. I don't know if it's working, but there's no water inside my house yet and it certainly made me feel like I was doing something about it.

In other news, a friend just sent me a link to THIS disturbing news article. Ick.

Christmas... HUMBUG!

Ahhh... two days off from work for the Christmas holiday. Too bad.
Don't get me wrong... a small part of me loves Christmas, but the last 10 years or so Christmas and I, well, we don't get on so well. The little kid in me loves the decorations and the food and the presents... the adult in me doesn't give a shit. Every year gets a little better and easier to bear, but then, my expectations get lower each year... maybe that has something to do with it?

Merry Christmas! Go Make Babies!

Been having weird dreams again but I forget them by the time I wake up... I'm going to bring a pen and paper to bed tonight to see if I can manage to write something down...

In other news, I got a disturbing Christmas card from my grandmother today... I ought to scan it, but the scanner is still at our old house. She uses the words "nesting" and "instinct" in the same sentence in reference to us and our new house. Nice fucking holiday card, eh? It's like saying "Merry Christmas, now go make babies!" While I should say never say never, it's not the sort of thing one expects to see in a Christmas greeting. No, my nana ain't subtle... not one bit.

Adventures in Home Ownership!

Ron is applying the final clear coat to the railings he and Kenny stripped as I type this. They are lookin' mighty pretty!

We have discovered that the toilet in our downstairs bathroon is not so, how to put this delicately, hardy. Damn thing clogged twice today! Perhaps we need to change our diet some... but that's more than y'all need to know.

We are enjoying having a dishwasher in the house, but we have found that we do not have enough dishes to fill it. We own enough dishes for the two of us to enjoy two meals... this was on purpose back in the "old days" when we were washing our own dishes... having fewer dishes meant they didn't pile up as badly and we were forced to keep on top of them in order to use them.

Now that we are paying for water and electricity it is not very cost effective to run a half empty dishwasher and there's no point in having the darn machine if we keep pulling dirty dishes out of it to hand wash and eat off of.

So yeah, we need some new dishes. Maybe we'll pool the gift cards we will inevitably get for Christmas and buy a nice set for 8. And lord knows we have the cabinets to store them in now!

The snow is looking lovely on the pond behind our new place! I am hoping to take some new photos of the place and post them soon... but my computer is still at the old place until after Christmas. Stay tuned!

CAFFEINE!!!!!

I have a confession to make... I have started drinking soda again.
While I am not happy about this because I know how difficult it is to stop, I have been doing alot lately and the caffeine I am ingesting is doing what it does best, which is, keeping me going. Unfortunately the sugar I am ingesting is having starting to have an impact on how my pants fit. I thought it might be PMS bloat at first, but everything is just a wee bit snug right now.

*sigh*

Oh well... just have to get through the holidays and then I quit again. I bet y'all can't wait. I'll try not to be too crabby.

So far this snowstorm doesn't seem to have been too terrible... but then, I havent tried to actually get out of our condo complex since it started. You see, there's this steep hill we have to go up to get out... that could be interesting. I guess tomorrow we get to see just where our condo fees go!

Ron got the day off so we went to his parents house this morning to decorate their tree and pick up another carload of stuff. Driving home was a little hairy, but mostly because the other fools on the road forgot how to drive in this shit, as they do every year. We've been puttering around the house the rest of the day and since I haven't gotten off my ass to buy clothes drying racks yet I am currently using two lightstands and a backdrop pole as a clothesline in the basement.

Now I am off to watch some bad television and finish those damn holiday cards!

Last weeks ice storm notwithstanding, the seasons first big-ass snowstorm is due to arrive tomorrow. EVERYBODY PANIC!

Of course, I don't actually have to go anywhere tomorrow if I don't want to, well, except the bank, but I do plan on getting up early to do that. Really. Stop laughing. I will not sleep in... I have all afternoon to sleep once it starts snowing.

I could clean my new house or unpack some more or something constructive... we'll see what happens.

And now for a late dinner and off to bed! After 9 photo shoots and working full time this week I am damn tired. What are the photos for? CHeck out the first batch HERE.

ZZZzzz....

It's not everyday you photograph a police chief and a senator in the same day. Other than that I got nuthin'.

I know, I know... y'all are getting sick of hearing how tired I am. I am working on a huge photo project for work, all while trying to get my regular job done... I thought I was tired yesterday. Nope, yesterday was nuthin' compared to how I feel tonight. And you can take this holiday cheer and shove it up the wazoo.

FEH.

Is it Christmas yet?

I am so tired! The last couple of weeks have worn me the hell out, and I have a crazy week ahead of me at work too... GAH! And then it's Christmas! DOUBLE GAH! I need a vacation...

Oh, wait.... I just had one. Fuck.

Welll, I need another one. Does Santa give vacations?

Well, so far living in our own home is like staying in a really nice hotel, without the creepy "who slept in this bed" factor. It's a little surreal.

And we have our first official houseguests! Taki & Jess don't have power or heat in Leominster due to the massive ice storm that hit that area this week. We are having fun with our refugee friends.

Eyeballing Game!

THIS GAME is seriously addictive... the first time I played it I got a score of 3.19 (lower is better) and the second time I got 4.46. And while utterly exhausted! I'm going to try it when I'm not so tired sometime.

Brilliant!

Watch Robo Dog in Game Videos View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

HERE is a brilliant prank. This reminds me of something Improv Everywhere would do.

We are sleeping in our new house tonight!
Woo-hoo!

We are both so damn tired! Gonna go to bed early and not set the alarm tomorrow... too bad our bedroom windows face east... though we are so tired it probably won't matter.

Halfway through the week and so much more to do!

FUN!

You do not own your stuff. Your stuff owns YOU.

Do you know what today is?

Today is Pretend You're a Time Traveler Day!

ZZZzzz....

Today a miracle happened.
I got up before 8am on a day I didn't have to and stayed up. And got shit done.

And now I am going to bed.

Happy Belated 40th Birthday Margaret Cho!

Well, the painting continues at a steady clip and though we are no where near finished we hope to be living in our new abode by the end of the coming week.

Umm...

How NOT to test bullet proof glass.

FEH.

It's the middle of what is lookin' to be a long ass week. L-O-N-G I tell ya...
Other than that, I got nuthin' tonight. Sorry to be so tired and boring.

GAH!

Why is it the week prior to a vacation and often the week after a vacation sucks so badly? It almost makes me not want to to take a week off from work... EVER.

GAH!

Where Have All The Acorn's Gone?

HERE is an interesting article about the lack of acorns this year. Frankly, I haven't been outside enough this year to notice, but I will keep my eyes open. Anyone else notice this? Sure glad I'm not a squirrell!