No Celery Please

My how the time does fly.

I feel like it was just yesterday we were stocking up on rice and beans to make it through the end of the world that would be brought on by Y2K and now here we are… practically in the 10′s when no one has really yet decided on a proper nomenclature for the 00′s.

So – traditionally, New Year’s day is a time to make resolutions and what not.

I am not a big resolution person. I figure if I want to change something, I can just go ahead and do it any old time.

But this year, I think I will resolve to bring my camera with me more. Last year was probably the lightest picture year since I got my Fuji in 2003. I think more pictures need to be taken.

Plus, last year I bought a ton of scrapbook stuff in addition to some stuff I had gotten for Christmas and I said I was going to chronical the WHOLE YEAR in a scrap book.

Then I proceeded to not touch ANY OF IT and to not take hardly any pictures all year.

When I punk out on a resolution, I really go for it. Good thing I never resolve crap like losing weight or being more healthy or else I’d probably eat myself to death inside of a month. (No, I know from personal experience that it takes years to get that kind of effect).

OK um, so for 2008 I resolve to take more pictures. no – wait – FEWER pictures… maybe that’s the ticket. Resolve to abandon the camera altogether and maybe I’ll find myself brining it along a little more.

Sitting here watching my Steelers get run over by Baltimore.

Phhhhhbbbtttt.

I can watch my Panthers lose all day and it doesn’t bother me. But Pittsburgh, come on.. losing to BALTIMORE? Freakin’ MIAMI beat Baltimore.

This is akin to how my Mom would react to report card season… I would get speeches and disappointment if I didn’t get all A’s, but my sister would get praise for B’s and C’s.

I never thought it was fair, but they just expected better from me.

That’s how I feel about my two teams.

The Panthers? well… if they manage to get a score on the board I feel pretty good. A win is never expected and therefore all the sweeter when it happens.

But Pittsburgh’s supposed to be good! no losing! NO LOSING!!!

Only tonight they are losing.

OK… just get it out of your systems before the playoffs start!

Well, The holiday festivities are over (almost) and I have made it out the other side in one piece and weighing pretty much what I did going in – whew.

The SB really came through for Christmas.

I got…

A new comforter for our bed (very nice and squishy and warm – so warm, in fact, it’s going to take some getting used to and thermostat adjusting and jammy-changing. Still – very nice)

TWO football shirts – Panthers and Steelers – Woo Hoo!

THREE Rings (This is starting to sound like the 12 days of christmas, no? uh, yeah, ok, no.) One is a “real” ring and the other two are costume jewelry so I don’t have to feel bad about him spending too much.

A teeny tiny DVD player for my work-out room so I can rent exercise DVDs from Blockbuster online. It’s the cutest little DVD player you’ve ever seen and fits just so on top of the 13 inch TV I have in there.

Two long sleeve T’s that I already knew about because I was going to buy them in November for myself and he said he would by them and wrap them up for me.

And I got him…

An assortment of CDS.

The Band of Brothers DVD set

Three – yes THREE – pairs of Nike Oregon Waffle running shoes. Nike released them and then pretty much turned around and stopped production, so I bought extra so he can put them on ice and take them out when his current crop is worn out. He’s a total sneaker fiend.

There’s only one thing on my list o’ things that I didn’t get – which is a plant pot for a plant I have been “rooting” for about 6 months now and is in dire need of a pot. I’ll just buy one of those myself. Although, come to think of it, we still have “Christmas” with the SB’s family on new years day – he may have passed that tid-bit on to his folks. So perhaps I’ll wait to buy that until the new year. One more week isn’t going to hurt the plant. It’s waited this long.

My Mom got me a nice vest from LL Bean and one of my sisters painted a portrait of our dog for us (super nice – gotta find a good place for it in the living room) and one of my other sisters got me some new jammies – which – ironically – are still too warm when combined with the super-cozy new comforter.

So all in all it was a festival of excellent presents for me, combined with a shrieking, crazy, three day family extravaganza that very nearly gave me a nervous breakdown. OK – that’s an exaggeration, but I was sure glad to get home at the end of each family day.

Oh – also – I saw “I am Legend” yesterday – which ROCKED!

And… the hand-made scarves went down really well with the people who got them – or at least, they made noises like they did. I mean, really, no one’s gonna tell me they think my present sucks. My family is crazy, and often drunk, but never rude. I still have three more to go at the in-law xmas.

So that’s the holiday bru-ha-ha update.

So happy to be back at work where I can get a little rest.

Think I’ll take a blog-break until I get back to work on Thursday.

The SB got me a Steelers shirt for xmas which he had me open today so I could have a football shirt to wear to the bar today to watch the football (so what if the Steelers played on Thursday?) Ain’t he sweet? Oh yeah – that’s why I call him the Sweet Boy!

Merry Christmas, All!

I am off tomorrow, so I doubt I will be posting.

The SB and I got married on December 21st.

Tomorrow, that day will mark 11 years.

11 YEARS! (How the time it does fly)

Now, I know I am supposed to be all “Oh, sweetie, it’s been a wonderful time” and all that…

But the SB knows I am not sappy like that, and, hell, he’s the poet, not me, so he knows that when I say “Loveooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo” when I sign off the IM, that I mean all that nice crap that Halmark wishes I would buy a card to say but frankly should not be expecting me to shell out $4.95 for a freakin” piece of cardboard with some bad poetry on it – my god!

So tomorrow… first thing is getting up to take the MINI in for annual maintenance and a minor repair – still under warranty! Then, probably go for a walk or something if it’s not raining. We’ll probably go to lunch or something.

Ah – the romance! (Just as well, we neither of us like romantic-y stuff)

We don’t do presents – it’s too close to christmas to spend the extra bucks… sometimes we do pick out a christmas present to open, but that’s about it.

Once you’ve been married for 11 years, well, you (or at least I) lose the need to make a big fuss.

So…

Happy Anniversary, there, Sweet Boy.

(insert sappy hallmark card crap here)

Loveooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I am nothing if not willing to rip off other people’s topics.

Today, Miss Kaply enlightened us on the subjects that she no longer wishes to discuss.

It really resonated with me. There’s a whole bunch of stuff that I just NO LONGER WANT TO HEAR ABOUT and people just won’t freakin’ leave alone.

Who’s going to be the Presidential nominee? Oh God – just shut up! We live in NORTH CAROLINA!!! Do you know how late our primaries are? We have ZERO say in who the nominees will be. They are already chosen by the time our primary comes around. IT DOES NOT MATTER WHO YOU LIKE OR DO NOT LIKE BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT GET TO VOTE ON IT! Also… the fact that NC ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS goes Republican on the president means that the actual presidential voting won’t make a damn bit of difference either (although I always do it).

Illegal Immigrants. OK, I Get It. You think illegal immigrants are somehow destroying the country, taking all our jobs, costing the government too much money and generally ushering in the apocalypse. OR, conversely, you think the borders should be wide open and free for all to roam in and out at will and do whatever they want. Either way… I am sick of hearing about it. Immigrants, illegal or otherwise, are not doing anything to me – I will return the favor by ignoring them.

BIAs – OK, this is a work thing and you have no idea what it’s about… but I’m sick of those too.

War in Iraq. I know. I know. I should care. I really should. The 5th grade civics student in me is ABSOLUTELY APPALLED that I no longer want to hear about this. But I don’t, god help me.

Gas Prices. Yes. I know. It’s expensive.

It’s getting to the point where I just don’t want to watch the news at all any more. Which is sad, because I used to think of myself as an informed person. Maybe I just need a break.

On the up side for you folks… I am not going to talk about soup today.

How much celery can one company jam into a 15 oz. cup of soup?

A LOT! That’s how much

Must have taken me ten minutes to pick out all the damn celery in this soup.

The label indicated that it was VEGETABLE soup. Not CELERY soup. The label showed ONE TINY PIECE of celery on their picture spoon.

LIES! ALL LIES!

Damn you, Progresso!

Not buying this one again.

My little cups of microwaveable soup bear the instructions… “heat and enjoy”

What they do not say is…

“But if you accidentally press three minutes instead of two minutes don’t expect the lid on this bad-boy to actually CONTAIN the soup as it boils wildly in the container and spurts out the little vent holes in the cover because you are a dumbass who cannot even manage to correctly heat a cup of soup in the microwave without blowing it all to hell all over the inside of the thing.”

Maybe that just wouldn’t fit on the side.

So this year, for the first time in a few years, I am starting to feel a little Christmassy.

I think it’s the hand-made gifts.

I’m actually looking forward to seeing what people think of these scarves I am making (and the other thing I made that will get where it’s going soon).

I made two so far and they have turned out nice. Actually, really nice. So now I am getting all crazy and thinking. Oh! I can make one for them, and them, and them…

Handily, a scarf takes about 5 or 6 hours to make, so I have plenty of time to get them all done before xmas.

I gotta go tonight and get more yarn!!

Listening to xmas music on the computer right now!