Neat Article on the town I live in

Check it out here

Santa Letter '08

Santa,
I don't know how you did it, but you read my mind last year. I asked you for help walking my dog and getting my former students down for a nap, but what I really wanted was for mom to feel better, for my husband and I to have stable jobs and stable housing, and for my Dad to realize how important our silly shopping trip at the end of the year is. I got it all. Thank you.
Since you’re so good at fulfilling wishes, this year I expect that I will become a better chef than Emeril Lagasse, one day I will wake up and my house will be a gigantic castle filled with butterflies and purple glitter, My husband will write publish and article in JAMA on me being a medical miracle because I am so brilliant and creative, and in the morning, I will come downstairs and be greeted by a hippopotamus named ahboo with that tornado of fur we call a pet never to be found again.
Thanks in advance,
your favorite hippie princess,
Hillary


There was no reply this year due to this being printed out and since "santa" was staying here for Christmas and he came downstairs after I did.

Christmas with me.

Turkey? nope
Leftovers? nope
dirty house despite hours of cleaning? check
Sick husband? check
Consuming mass quantities of sweets despite constantly berating myself for being overweight? check
Holiday Meltdown involving cursing at family members? Check
Understanding family who doesn't threaten to take away my presents despite that I don't deserve a bit of them? *sigh* check.

Three THREE wishlists AH HA HA HA !

Chris'

Mine

Mom's

The FOUR List

This an email my mom sent me, but I thought it might be interesting to post the results here.

A) Four places that I go to over and over: Work, Dance, Whole foods, Publix
B) Four people who e-mail me (regularly): My mother, My husband, My father and My Aunt Greta
C) Four favorite places to eat: Ted's Montana Grill, Frankie's Market Cafe, Wright Dairy Ice Cream, Daylight Donuts
D) Four places I would rather be right now: Beach, Dance, Bead Store, Thrift Store
E) Four people I think will respond: N/A
F) Four TV shows I watch: Breaking Bad, Dexter, Pushing Daisies and Mythbusters

mom's wish list

mom set up her own wish list. Thought I would post it here so you could have both of ours in one place. I'll post my husband's when he gets around to making his
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html?ie=UTF8&type=wishlist&id=PRBMTSFZ8ZXO

in case you didn't get the email...

Every year I get a barrage of emails about what I want for chirstmas. Honestly, I don't care if I get anything, but if you want to get me something:

An interesting twist

I'm not sure when or why Pixar switched from a company who makes cute, technologically advanced film about toys and super heroes to a company who makes gorgeous movies about dying Americana and the wastefulness of the human race, but I like it. WALL-E definitely featured the best animation I've ever seen in any application (a lot of it barely even looked rendered). The plot was cute, but not ridiculous, and it managed to tackle some major issues. All without any real dialogue for about an hour of the movie.... which actually really added to the charm and realism of the movie. Even if you don't like animated flicks, you should go see this one. Pixar movies usually entertain me from start to finish, but this one had me absolutely entranced. There were several spots where I was on the edge of my seat, and a few where I was misty-eyed... from a cartoon. They did an amazing job, and I hope it goes up for a few awards this year.

unusual but cool

So I was walking in wal-mart with a scowl on my face mumbling something under my breath because it was 7 on a thursday and i was out buying cleaning supplies so i could go home and wipe the counters down before i got down on my hands and knees to srub the awful kitchen floors when this woman i've never seen before touched me on the shoulder and said "you should always smile, you're really pretty." I wasn't sure whether i should question her sanity or give her a big hug, So i just said "thank you" instead.

house hunting!

My husband and I are now on the hunt for the perfect house to buy. We were going to rent, but we figured out very quickly that a good rental house in the neighborhoods we wanted to be in would cost us more than a mortgage, so we decided to try to buy instead. I'll spare you all the mundane details of financing and all that nonsense, but I wanted to show you the top three of the ones we went to see with the Realtor yesterday.

This one's in Chelsea (near where we live now). It's probably my third place if we don't take into account location or pricing.

This one's in Helena, which is a nice area, but it's a ways out from where both of us work, although it's very convenient to the highway. The cool thing about this one is that the current residents finished off a little attic space and made it into like a guitar studio/music room... which we could use for the same thing or I could use for a craft room. This is probably my first place not taking price or location into account.


This one's in alabaster, which is a long ways from anything except alabaster (actually it's not too far from the helena/pelham area). There's plenty of civilization in the alabaster area, which was one of my big concerns. This is a very close second if we don't take location and price into consideration.

If we had to buy one of those three right now, I'd probably be happy. But since we don't, Were going to go look at about 8 more houses next weekend because I'm sure the realtor wants to do nothing more than spend another 4.5 hours with us on a weekend. Hopefully we can either make a decision or get it narrowed down far enough that we just need to visit two or three one more time before we make the decision. I'll keep you posted.

i haven't mentioned the job lately

It's going well. That's not to say that I don't have issues, and I don't have a lot to learn, and I don't get stressed out. But overall, I really like it. 99% of the clients are at least halfway pleasant and polite, but I would say probably 60-80% are sweet and just thankful for whatever they can get. The other nice thing is that since i's a small agency, if I have an issue, I can bring it up in staffing and we actually hash out options and discuss what those options would do and come up with a solution that works for everyone. This is a good thing.

upcoming move?

We've gotten quite tired of being cramped up and having half our stuff in boxes in storage and decided that we wanted to rent a house. The thing is that when you crunch some numbers, you end up paying as much (or more) to rent the house as you would on a mortgage. Despite the market being kind of risky down here (you buy stuff for really cheap, but if you have to sell anytime soon, you might end up selling for less than you paid), we decided to at least explore buying a house as an option. We talked to someone in the real-estate business that my mother-in-law's realtor friend knows and got hooked up with a finance person who said we were pre-approved for $220,000 based on our credit, job history, etc. We wouldn't buy that much house, but it's nice to know we can get something. We hooked up with a realtor and we're going to start looking probably this weekend.
So we will be moving once again, but hopefully this time it will be to a place where we're going to stay, and on where it's not so cramped we have stuff laying on every flat surface, even with half our stuff in storage.

geocaching fun!

Chris and I have started geoaching again. For those of you who don't know, geocaching is like a scavenger hunt that you do with a handheld GPS unit (a TOM TOM is an example of a gps for your car. A handheld gps is kind of the same, only smaller and better designed for use on foot). We've done several caches over the last couple of weekends. There's pictures and stories to all of them here, as well as all the ones we did when went geocaching years ago.
I won't Bore you with the details of all of them, but there was one that I thought was noteworthy. Someone put a cache near this alabama war veterans memorial in a nice park in leeds, alabama (about 20-30 minutes from where we live). It has a memorial with names of all the veterans from alabama that died in just about every war that's ever happened, even the alamo. I felt honored to be there, and it's in a beautiful park. I suggested to Chris that maybe we should go have a picnic breakfast with the veterans on memorial day. Maybe we could do that and then do more geocaching!

you asked for pictures

here's a link to a BIG gallery of pictures that my husband uploaded. (sorry, the link wasn't working originally, but now if you click "big gallery" all the pretty pictures will show up)

update on the car

The car is reparable, so i just have to give the insurance company the $500 deductible and they shall fix it up so I can drive it again. Even though insurance doesn't cover a rental car, I decided to get one because sharing a car means that one of us is stranded if the other one has the car and this is not a good arrangement when you have two people with migraines, one of whom has odd work hours and a dog thrown into the mix as well. It will run me less than like $200, so it's not very expensive, and I got lucky and got a sonata at the economy car rate because they didn't have a little car.

oh yeah i forgot to mention the uhh... car thing.

Friday (mar 28), I had a car wreck. "What happened?" you ask. "I'm an idiot and I was on the phone and I stopped at a stop sign to pull across a street with no stop sign and I swear I looked, but I ran right into someone in the farthest lane and smacked my car into hers good enough that the front bumper was a good 8 inches separated from the car and there was some manner of fluid leaking from the right front area of the car." I'm not as much an idiot for talking on the phone because it impairs me (I personally have never noticed a problem although data suggests that talking on the phone is as bad as driving drunk), but because if I am on the phone and I am in an accident, there is no way for me to prove that it wasn't me being on the phone that caused the problem.

So anyways, my neck was sore Friday and Saturday, but it's fine now, and the car is reportedly reparable, so everything will be okay. Although, I don't know if my diet is ever going to be fixable. I've had too much fun with all my old bad eating habits such as multiple large desserts per day, snacking on junk just because the food is there, etc. I probably gained 3-5 pounds since Friday. Oh well... it will all be okay somehow. :)

the new job (the first non-archive post)

So far the new job has been very interesting. We have a lot of very sweet clients and then some who are not so sweet. I haven't come across any that are truly hostile, but I have come across a few who have tried to get extra gas vouchers ("I always get 8 for my Dr's appt.", and if I look it up, they always get 2) because they know I'm the new girl. Luckily it's easy to look up what they usually get, and what they've been told in the past.

The big ugly thing about the job right now is paperwork. I tend to get way behind on it and there's not much I can do other than stay late like every night and that's no fun. Today it had to be finished because it's the last day of the fiscal year, so my supervisor helped me. We started doing nothing but paperwork at 3 and we still both left around 5:45.
My ability to stay at this job is going to depend on my ability to either a. get a reasonable system going whereby i don't get behind (or too far behind) on my paperwork (that doesn't involve too much in the way of nights and weekends) or b. come to peace with the fact that I will be behind.

So far I actually really like the job because I deal with all adults, so I don't have to worry about a lot of the nit picky nonsense that I do when dealing with children, and because it's a very diverse, beautiful and accepting crowd--- including clients, volunteers and staff. I think it's definitely worth the effort to figure out how to be comfortable with the paperwork and the general insanity ("oh, btw, that thing we told you you're working at 7 in the morning? it's on a saturday... this saturday.") to be able to work in that environment.

march 2008 archive #2

Friday, March 7, 2008

yum

i forgot to mention that Tuesday there was peanut butter chocolate cheesecake consumed in celebration of the new job. YUM!!!!!

archive from March

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

"No! I don't Accept This!"

...Is the reaction I got when I turned in my two weeks notice and told my boss I was going to a new job. What I wanted to do was put on my best Cartman voice and say "screw you guys, I'm going home", but I was gracious and told them how much I would miss them and the babies (I definitely will) and answered questions for the next 10 minutes about why I was leaving and if there is anything they could have done better, etc.
I spent the rest of the day working up the nerve to tell people I was leaving. I actually have left jobs where only a handful of people knew I was leaving and all but one of them was staff (this was at another daycare). So, i decided it would be bad if that happened here. I didn't realize how many people would be really upset by it. know i work hard and i try to be nice, but i know i can be a little umm overwhelming or plain out obnoxious sometimes.
A couple of people when I said "i have news" said "you're pregnant?" to which i politely said no instead of going "EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW" and proceeding to gag for the next ten minutes, which is what my true reaction really would be if I wasn't trying to be polite to all those lovely people in the building who have children.
I promise you that when i tell Tina (who used to work in my room with me), this is going to be her first reaction, even if she doesn't think it's true, just because she likes to see me get my feathers all ruffled. Actually, I love Tina and i have no concept of how I'm going to say this to her.
I will definitely miss my co-workers and my babies,
but seriously, screw them, I'm going somewhere where I can act like an adult.

Archive from February (after valentine's)

Friday, February 15, 2008

update

i feel compelled to update. I don't know why because it's only been a couple of days and there's not much to say, but I'll attempt to say something in my half-awake state. Then I need to go to bed.
Last weekend I cooked dinner for Chris as his Valentine's present. The piece de resistance was Molten lava cake sundaes. The "meltdown" or "lava" style cakes are ridiculously easy to make, and I personally think mine was as good as any you can get at a restaurant (good quality ingredients are the KEY in that recipe). Afterwards we watched a very well done french "romantic comedy" type movie called Love me if you dare. Actually, that description makes it sound really cheezy, and it's not. It's not an art film, but there was definite attention paid to the artistry and creativity, I wouldn't call it a comedy but it's very funny in some places, and I wouldn't call it a romance type movie, but it's definitely a love story, albeit a complicated one. I had never heard of this one before I picked it up from the library just based on the description on the box, but I'm glad I took a chance on it.
Whitey's Valentines present to me was to go out to the village tavern Wednesday. I had grilled tilapia with chardonnay butter sauce MMMMMMMMMMMM mmmmmmm. I love that place.

In other news, I have a second interview for a social services position at an aids outreach place on monday. How, I'm going to swing this, I don't know. I have time off from work to do it, but the interview is in the middle of the day. I am taking an extra long lunch that day for a "doctor's appointment". The difficulty is that I need to leave work in jeans and sneakers and return in jeans and sneakers, but somehow get into a suit and mary janes and look professional in the middle... not to mention fitting lunch in there somewhere.

That's all for now.

archived post from february 2008

join the BANDwagon (i'm clever)

My friend Adam posted a thing about a "meme" to make your own fake band. I'm too lazy to explain it all, so you'll just have to look it up on wikipedia or something. Anyways, I was just going to look and see what the randomness would create for me and wasn't planning on posting about it or doing anything with it, but the combination I got was too good to pass up.



Btw, I should give
this guy the credit he is due for that incredible picture.

December 2007 Archive (after Christmas)

Saturday, December 29, 2007

crazy but good

This week has been a little hectic. Chris had 3 migraines in the 5 days immediately after we got here, but now he has had 2.5 migraine free days in a row and he seems to be doing well. On the day after Christmas the dog decided to get so sick he couldn't keep down water. We rushed him to the vet and luckily the vet seemed to think he was healthy and probably just got overexcited due to the changes in scenery and diet. She gave us a little tummy medicine for him and he was better the next morning.
Despite all the insanity, we managed to get through christmas eve dinner, christmas breakfast, opening presents, seeing my family and seeing most of our friends. We got a great haul this year because our parents (especially his mom) spoiled us entirely too much. I can't possibly remember everything we got, but here are a few of the more notable things:
Tons of restaurant gift cards from my aunt
a nice blender from my aunt
a new George foreman grill from mother in law
Lots of kitchen things (pans, measures, etc.) from various sources (mostly my mother in law)
and umm... tons of other crap that I'm too lazy to go in the front room and look at.

Archive from December 2007 (Christmas)

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

there was a santa letter this year.

There was indeed a santa letter this year. It's not as classic as last year's but it wasn't bad, and it gave dear old santa enough to work with.

My letter to Santa:
Dear Santa,
This year i need magic wands for the following things:
1. to make edgar allen poe appear so that i can always have someone to
help me say what i want to express. Writing this letter has been darn
near impossible, but I thought you would worry about me if i didn't
write a letter.
2. to make anyone below the age of 6 fall asleep instantly so that i
can finally get kids down for nap without gaining anymore grey hairs
3. to make allergies go away so my husband doesn't have to snore and
wake me up in the middle of the night. And maybe because I don't want
his throat to hurt all the time either.
4. To make the dog stay away from my hot dogs by giving him a little
magical shock if he ever goes near them again.
I also would like a nifty robot that takes the dog outside when it is
cold or rainy.
Give my husband and family anything they want. They have been better
than angels this year.
I hope your year is wonderful. I'll leave a gift certificate for a
massage next to your cookies this year. All that work has got to
leave a man stressed out.
--Hillary

Santa's Reply to me:
Hello Hillary and a Merry 2007 Christmas

I can understand needin some help with writing stuff, Lord knows I have a
problem with that also.
One of the elves thot that it would be a good idea to write an autobiography
but it went something like this.
First year on the job, get elve crews organized and make every toy
imaginable, get raindeer in training for the big one day trip, work like
crazy until Dec. 23. Work realy crazy on Dec 24. Take a loooong trip in a
sled packed with a lot of toys and stuff and make sure all the right stuff
gets to all the rite houses.
Get full of good cookies, hot chocolate and ohter goodies.
Go home and rest for 4 to 6 months.
Find out where all the elves went.
Get all elves back from Florida, Hawaii and Southern Califronia. Seems
packages weren't the only things getting off the sled during my trip to
deliver the presents.
Then repeat every year since then. NOT much of the makings of a book or a
poem !

But might be interestin to write about all the neat technolgy that we've
seen -- and the elves they now are real good usin the technology to findin
new "vacation" spots via the internet --
And using the blackberry to text message and write e-mails as the reindeer
and I are travelling from town to town.

and funny that Poe guy was one of ur dad's favrite authors - Before we
conjur his literary spirut there's some things you might want to know about
the other stuff he did beside writin. As I remember, ur dad was not all
that good with histry but I bet he remembers some of the things that Poe
did. I heard a story that Poe could jump farther than my lead reindeer !

As far as gettin kids to take a nap without causin more gray hair - look at
me , mine's white now ! Seems like it only took a year or so for that to
happen after I took this job --
Word is ur dad was one of the wurst for not sleepin and not lettin people
sleep when he was little so don't bother to ask HIM for advice on that one.

Allergies are not fun and I truly hope ur husband's can get better so he can
feel better and everyone can get some sleep.
I've got some elves that have reindeer allergies and some that say they are
allergic to snow (!) --- and that's the reason why they stow away and jump
out of the sled in Florida, Hawaii and Southern CA.

As far as the hot dogs go my dogs have informed me that the rules in the dog
world are:

If it gets close to the floor it could be mine - if I'm fast enough meaning
faster than anyone else around.
If it gets to the floor it's like a fumble in a football game - whoever gets
there first gets to try to keep it. The best way to keep it is to eat it
quickly. Gulping whole hot dogs is allowed and even preferred in these
situations.
If I get it I can try to keep it using other means including running and
hiding it somewhere -- in an obscure place where you might find it a few
months later when it looks like a biology experiment gone wrong.

To help on the hot dog avoidance training of ur really nice dog I do have
one elf that is quicker than greased ligtning taht I can loan you for a few
months.
This elf is so fast that our dogs don't even try any more. He'll probably
work pretty cheap just to get out of this cold weather for a few months.
Just a warning tho - he has a real soft spot for some kind of dog called a
labradoodle dog.

As far as something for taking the dog outside start watchin them late night
commercials on TV.

The elves have informed me that they know how to use the surplus of the
robot lawn mowers and vacuums to turn them into a totally different product
that may sweep the market soon(or so they think) AND it sounds like just
what your lookin for -so maybe there is a market after all.
The elves tell me that the basic model will walk the dog for you, the delux
model will walk the dog and clean up his mess. Optional accessories will
include things like GPS tracking via the internet so yu can tell the
location of the robot and your dog.

I'll do the best I can for all the saints out there this year !!!

The cookies sound good and I'm not really sure about this massage thing -
Usually Mrs. Claus and several of the reindeer walk up down my back after
the long trip and it seems to put me bak into shape quikly - that and a
couple of nips from the bottle that a guy up in Tennessee leaves for me
every year and I'm ready to go again !

Santa

archived post #2 from November 2007

Sunday, November 18, 2007

You showed me yours, so i'll show you mine... whether you want to see it or not

Since a friend of mine posted his wish list, I figured I would post ours, just because.
so here it is.

I also figured I would be a self-important ass per usual and post my own gift giving guide as if there aren't enough out there already.


Gift Guide

For the boys: The Dangerous Book for Boys. This book has everything a curious boy could ever want to know from paper airplane designs to stock cars to things involving fun scientific reactions. Having looked through it myself, I say it's good for "boys" of any age.


For the girlie girls:
Lush "Secret Santa" bath gift pack. Lush makes hand made bath products using as many natural and organic ingredients as possible. I have not personally bought anything from them, but I know a few people who are hooked on their products, including a guy who I would never suspect of liking froofy bath products over good old dial and suave.

For people with an odd sense of humor that like to cook:
I like you by Amy Sedaris. This is an honest to god guideline for hosting parties with real recipes, but it's odd and really funny by virture of the fact that Amy Sedaris wrote it. I thoroughly enjoyed looking through this one in the cushy chairs at the book store.

For the chocoholic:
See's Candies King Tut Truffle Assortment or custom mix. My mother-in-law has gotten me sees numerous times. I even finished off most of a box that my husband bought me for valentines about 10 days after I had started on weight watcher's.

For the Wino:
A wine from Castel Grisch Winery in Watkins Glen New York--yes, the Watkins Glen where they race the cars. On my wine tour, I came across many fabulous wines, but theirs stood out to me as being something almost anyone would like. I would recommend the Seneca Dream Red, which you can get in nifty seasonal packaging if you ask for the "winter's dream red." If your favorite Wino prefers white, I would definitely recommend the Seneca Dream White, which you can also get in nifty seasonal packaging by ordering the (you guessed it) "winter's dream white".

For foodies with unusual tastes:

• Sees pecan pie truffles. I haven't tried these personally, but they sound perfect for someone who doesn't like run of the mill candy.
• Dagoba Xocolatl. This dark chocolate bar with chilies added in is truly delicious and mindbogglingly different. Having tasted it I can tell you that this is for someone who appreciates very dark chocolate and is used to eating it in small doses. This is definitely not for the foodie who prefers to down a whole chocolate bar in one sitting.
• Huckleberry Cordials. These are exactly what the name implies--cordials with a huckleberry in the center instead of a cherry. In case you're wondering what a huckleberry is, it's a somewhat tart berry that grows in the mountains. I've tasted these chocolates and they're very good, as cordials go. I'm personally not a big fan of cordials, but I intentionally ate more on a few occasions.
• Huckleberry Vinaigrette. Again, exactly what the name implies. I haven't actually had this particular huckleberry vinaigrette, but I had other types in the restaurants in Idaho all the time and loved them. This was the only salad dressing I ordered in Idaho, assuming the restaurant had it.
• Huckleberry flavored coffee. I've never personally had it, but my dad made some that we had gotten as a part of a gift basket when he visited one time. It smelled incredible and Dad liked it.

For the young teen:
Stardust by Neil Gaiman--The graphic novel version with artwork by Charles Vess. This is a fairytale in the truest sense of the word, but it's not juvenile. Actually, adults who are into sci-fi/fantasy books would love this too. As a matter of fact, I got this for Christmas last year and it was one of my favorite presents. oh, I forgot to mention the artwork. There are gorgeous watercolors interwoven throughout the story text and they really bring the book to life.

For the Fragrance/Candle Lover:
Klassic Candles--spice cake flavor. Made in Alexandria, Alabama. The smell is warm and spicy and sweet and utterly divine. For a cooler scent try the midnight dream.

For the Geek:
DIY Drinking Strawz. Straws that you can put together yourself in any weird or wonderful configuration your mind can imagine. The set comes with 20 connectors and 16 straw pieces.

For the Gadget Lover:
USB Memory Watch. A watch that can hold top secret files? I'm so in!

For kids/families:
Matilda (DVD). It's hard not to love this movie regardless of age. It's geared toward kids and very child-appropriate, but the first time I saw this movie, I was like 18 and my husband and I routinely watch this when it comes on even though I'm 30 and he's 32 (well, almost).


Hopefully that has given those of you who are stuck some ideas. If you want ideas for someone who's not in the guide, email me or post it in comments, and I'll be glad to help.

an archive from November 2007 (my birthday)

Saturday, November 10, 2007

2nd best birthday ever...

...Because my husband would kill me if I said that anything was better than the trip we took to Spokane on my birthday two years ago to see Henry Rollins.

I am currently in upstate new york with my mother and her family. We went on a wine tour in the Senaca lake area and stopped at like 7 vineyards. Some of them had some fabulous stuff that I really enjoyed. Most of you know how much I make faces at wine, and I ended up with four bottles of wine, some lovely chocolates and some jelly. If I drank wine more, I would probably would have ended up with a case or close to a case full of assorted wines.
My birthday isn't technically until Monday, but they made me spice cake cupcakes from great gram's recipe and served them on the limo bus. It's quite an experience to have a bus of 20 people all sing happy birthday to you. It's also quite an experience to be on a bus with 20 people you don't know and be too shy to say anything. It's fabulous when you realize that they have noticed you being quiet and shy and they're just letting you enjoy yourself as you. There were no forced social interactions, and no one seemed to care if I wanted to sit there and just listen to everyone else, but they listened to me talk when I actually felt like I had something to add.

And actually, I must give a huge kudos to my husband for my birthday present as it turned out be extraordinarily useful on the trip-- Lots of money. Every winery had a small fee for tasting, which I gleefully paid because I knew I had enough money. I even paid for a couple of extra tastings and bought 3 bottles of wine and some jelly, which my aunt is going to ship to me. OH--I also got some chocolate at one of the wineries. yum.

archive from august 2007

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Another thing I meant to post about a long time ago

My dog is seriously something else. Every dog I've ever had (okay there were only 2 before this one) disliked the vets, tried to jump off the table, contorted and jumped and even tried to bite the people clipping their nails. Oreo required a couple of vet assistants to hold her down and among those couple HAD to be Betty. If Betty wasn't there to help, you could hang it up.
My dog is a pistol. In some ways he waaayy more of a pistol than Oreo ever thought of being. He competes with me for pack position all the time, he practically pulls me over when I'm walking him on the leash and he gets excited and he runs away if he's off the leash and doesn't like what I'm saying. When he goes to the vets, I have to drag him through the doorway (As with any new doorway), and THEN, he wags his tail when the assistants come in, lets the vet check his ears, tummy feet, etc. with little to no objection and behaves like an absolute angel except some slight hesitation when I hand the leash over to someone else. This last time he even let the vet assistant trim his nails while he was laying on the floor.
He never ceases to amaze me.

archive from april 2007

Monday, April 16, 2007

quick update

I now work at a daycare center in the afternoons here in Birmingham. So far it seems like a really nice place. I don't like going there because A. I don't want to spend the rest of my life in daycare and B. I told them I did. I hate lying to people, but in a larger city where there's lots of job competition, I kind of feel like I have to lie and say that their thing is the thing I want to do for the rest of my life in order to be able to get a paycheck. Because, seriously, would you hire someone who said "yeah, I have a degree in something else which I would rather be doing, but I'm desperate for a paycheck, so I thought I'd apply here."? Of course, I'm never quite that blunt about it, and I've actually gotten good at disguising the desperation, but still, no one wants to hire someone who they know will eventually leave when they have numerous other qualified people who say they want to stay forever.
Anyways, what else is going on... umm not much, we got another guitar controller for guitar hero and played together this weekend and it was a blast. I made home made cereal this past week and it actually turned out good. The recipe needs a little tweaking and I need to figure out how to make the production process less arduous, but I definitely think it'll be worth the effort once I get it down.
Oh, I guess easter has come and gone since the last time I posted. We had Whitey's mom and my parents down and we cooked a big Easter dinner. I made a whole roast chicken with Caribbean spices and rum, banana bread muffins with dried pineapples and rum, fruit skewers with rum and macaroni and cheese. Whitey made a tasty pot roast in the crock pot, white bread and stove top. Our parents brought vegetables and dessert and we all ate ourselves into a coma. It was a blast.

I guess that's all that's happened.
Thanks for listening to my rambling.

archive from Christmas 2006

Monday, December 25, 2006

He knows if you've been bad or good...

So even though I found out when I was like 9 or 10 that Santa isn't real, I have written him letters almost every year. It usually involves some ludicrous request like a hippopotamus, a lemur or getting to decide who lives and who dies. Sometimes Santa replies and sometimes he does not. The year I asked for tamarins Dad/Santa sent me a slew of links to zoo websites with pictures of the cute little things. This year his reply was classic so I thought I would share it with you.

My Letter to Santa
This year for Christmas I want you to give me wand that will make the dog disappear until I wave it again. Either that or replace the oatmeal in his brains with a Intel Xeon EM64T 3.8 Irwindale 3.8GHz 2MB L2 Cache Socket 604 Active. I would also like a wand that makes my husband do whatever I want-- even if it worked half of the time, I could at least get some peace and quiet and a meal that i didn't cook every once in a while ;) . Also, I want a fruit leather wand that turns any fruit i touch with it into tasty fruit leather. Oh, and maybe you could get my husband some coal and a chocolate bar or something since he has managed to listen to me on one or two occasions this year.
Thanks in advance.

Love and Kisses,
--Hillary (the most patient, non-naggy, unobtrusive wife and dog mother ever)


Santa's Reply to Me
Hillary

I did some checking on that nice dog of yours and found out that even though it may seem like oatmeal occupies his anatomy the Intel Xeon EM64T 3.8 Irwindale 3.8GHz 2MB L2 Cache Socket 604 Active is nothing compared to his real pedigree. Seems his mom and dad spent a good bit of time hanging around a place called Alien Ware - he told me that you MIGHT have heard of that place and that you would never be able to guess his real processor but if you follow the technology news at all you will hear about it in a few more years.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Claus found out about those special wands for use on husbands and she is either keeping them for herself or going into business on the side again - based on some of her past behavior if you're really interested in getting one I'd advise you to check ebay later today. You'll probably want to use the "buy it now" option cause once wives start bidding on those things no tellin what will happen with prices - even if they don't work half the time ! As a mater of fact one of her last ventures was trying to make moccasins from some kind of fruit leather - so if a designer pair of slippers from banana and pineapple sounds ok we might be able to do something there.

For your husband chocolate I can do but coal is being phased out very fast

- old technology, too many darn new regulations and not so environmentally friendly I'm told.

How about a cold fusion kit or hydrogen fuel cell instead ?

SC

First Post!

I started this blog so I could keep family up to date on the goings on in my life. I'll go back later and post some archives from another blog that might be of interest to you guys. Than eventually, i'll get around to psoting the current details of my boring life.