why i love friday

kristin and i have started a tradition. on friday nights we get together (in comfy pants - people who lounge out in jeans annoy me) and get something for dinner (either chipotle, pizza, or something of the sort) and maggie moo's ice-cream. then we just sit and chat and watch a movie or t.v. oh - and we also have cheap alchohol.

i love friday nights (and kristin) (and maggie moo's)

Chairry

today was another ho-hum day - they're becoming rather run-of-the-mill and i for one am getting rather sick of it. you probably are too. hmph.


i started it all out by stuffing another 500 envelopes. it was supposed to be 700 - i didn't get that far. and judging from what was left over it's WAY more than 200...looked more like another 700. ay-yi-fucking-yi.....


the day proceeded to get worse. i just felt like crap. more and more this crabiness has made me want to act like chris's 3 year old nephew - stomp my feet and yell to anyone who will hear it - no! i don't wanna! don't talk to me evergain! (and promptly stomp away). immature? yes - very. but it's what i've felt like doing....


i decided that the only way to get rid of this was to call up kristin and invite her to come over for a movie. supplies = cheap booze, pizza, maggie moo's ice-cream (i got a quart this time!) :) before we settled in for the evening we went couch shopping as kristin is in need of a new one. while looking we came across this chair.....


...anyone remember Pee Wee's Playhouse? Chairry the talking chair? It doesn't really look like that one in particular but you can so see the mouth and face - can you not? we thought it was pretty funny...


when we finally settled in for the night we enjoyed our cheap booze out of matching Campbell's mugs :) we ended the night by watching a History of Prostitution and eating our ice-cream. It was a great night and I feel a tons better. fatter but better :)

and i'm not so much worried about the whole fat thing. i've been doing a pretty good job with the dvd's and eating (except for 'exception' days) and even though i wasn't going to i measured myself. i'm down 1.5 inches in each thigh! in a week's time! well - 2 weeks. but still! :) the whole weight loss challange ends on March 3rd. all of a sudden everyone seemed to lose 5 lbs. i don't buy it. but if they keep it up i won't win so i didn't worry about the ice-cream :)

Happy Birthday Kristin!

dear kristin,

i know you don't look at my blog and will therefore probably never see this (thank god because you'd kill me for putting that picture up...but you know...you really should let me take more so i have more options :)) but i just wanted to write you a little note and say 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLD WOMAN!!!'

yes, yes, i know you are actually younger than me - but i can't help the fact that i look younger, can i? (kidding! kidding!) remember how in the 7th grade we were science lab partners and you thought i was incredibly annoying? well - some things never change, eh?

it just occured to me that you're one of the oldest friends i have (not age wise - that would be chris - ha!) but one of the friends i've had the longest and that i continue to talk to on a regular basis. pretty amazing! you're a terrific friend kristin - always there for me, always giving it to me straight and never sugar coating it. i can always count on you - thank you. i hope you can count on me too (except remembering you're actual birthday - i lucked out this year. i always know that it's the day before or after V-Day....).

i'm glad we've become closer this past year. playing tennis, walking in the dog park, drinking cheap alcohol and/or expensive bourbon (i know how you love that stuff!). thank you for continuing to play Monopoly with me despite the fact that i kicked you at Gina's house that one time. thank you for continuing to let me drive - despite the fact that i turn into a horrid driver whenever you're in the car with me (i swear - only you would make me stop in the middle of a freeway!). thank you for letting me lodge at your house for awhile (and for letting me continue to use it for a lot of my stuff) - for letting me use your squeeky bed! (ah memories...that sounded bad...)

alright. i'm gonna get going here. hope you had a fantastic birthday. sorry i bailed early on the celebrations - i'll make it up to you next week with a cake! maybe i'll even back into your car and knock your plates off for old times sake :)

love you, michelle

Talkin' Bout Last Night

here are some pictures from our evening.


as i mentioned - kristin had come over. she brought a lovely bottle of Arbor Mist ( i don't care what you say - it's cheap and tastes like sweet).


chris worked on our cat scratching post. this is the 3rd thing he's built for the cats (1st being the kennel, 2nd being this cardboard scratching square). he'll never admit to loving them but i think it's fairly obvious that he does :) he's worried that it looks rather 'white trash' right now but it's not finished. we need to stabalize it some more. get some more twine. and some carpet remnants. (speaking of - does anyone know where to get those carpet sample squares. i asked at Home Depot last night but the guy was extremely rude and snotty and said no). the cats love it so far though. they scratch the twine (which is SO much better than scratching the couch!) and argue over who gets the top perch (only one hitting fight though).


later on we played Monopoly. for those of you who do not know - i love this game. love it. i have about eight million and one different versions. somewhere along the line it become the family joke to buy me a new one each year and then refuse to play it with me. ha ha. so funny. last night we played the Rudolph version - the first time it's been openend despite the fact that i've owned it for more than 2 years! i lost. i came in third. (see chris - i can admit it). we tried to make it more interesting by having the rule that each time you were sent to jail you must take a sip of Maker's Mark bourbon. (i don't know how people aquire a taste for that stuff....). luckily i only went to jail once :)


alright. time for breakfast. chris got me a cinnamon role on his way home from a call this morning. what a sweetie.

January 12th, 2008

today has turned out to be pretty good.

it's the first weekend in a long time that chris and i have both have off and had absolutely no plans. we slept in together. ate breakfast together. and when we were both ready we went out and did some shopping.

i had to stop by the sprint store as my phone is dying (yay! one more thing i have to buy!) then we had chipotle (yyyyuuuuummmm!). after that we headed off to see juno. extremely good movie! i cried

i might have time to write more later but right now i should go. kristin is over. she's bored watching me blog and as a result has started to break my belongings :)

the above picture is of chris working on a cat scratching post stand thingamabobber. isn't he a sweetheart? right now he's actually off to home depot to grab some more twine :)

'Al'

al: 'Al'

chris: 'Hi' (can't recall what he said after that....)

al: 'Nice to meet you'

chris: 'I'm not the guy you're looking for' (or something to that effect - his memory is hazy)


shall i start at the beginning?

al franken spoke at the como park school in st. paul today. my friend kristin teaches there and invited us to come and hear him. i worked and was unable to get it off but chris (lucky duck) had the day off and went.

kristin had her cell phone off so chris headed into the office and told them he was here to see kristin - that she had invited him to hear the speaker. the kid calling kristin's room got confused and told her that her speaker was here. chris said 'no no - i'm not the speaker - i'm here to hear him - al franken.' at this the kid hangs up on kristin (leaving her very confused) and says 'there's al franken now.' chris turns around and al walks up and the above words were exchanged.

after that kristin and chris listened to him speak for about 45 minutes. after that chris came home and resumed his post on the couch (he's been pretty sick last night and today). kristin returned to her classroom only to be surrounded by a hound of students all asking about the hot guy she was seen with :) knowing that it makes no difference how you answer she just said nothing. all the kids agreed that she had a hot 'boyfriend' which we both thought was great :)

so - it was a pretty darned good monday (aside from chris being sick and all that is)




(photo courtesy of South Dakota Politics @ southdakotapolitics.blogs.com/.../index.html )

Lost and Stuffed '07 : Day 8

Hmmm.....

It appears as though I have no pictures from Day 8! This is due to the fact that we through almost a pair of AA batteries a day! The camera was making some wierd crunchy noises - I think it ate the batteries. Or maybe I have something that sucks the energy out of them (Carrie - didn't we have a conversation about this at one point?) Whatever the problem - the camera always died and always when I was using it! So I think we just let Day 8 slide by without a photo. Seems strange though - I think Chris may have some phone pictures but as he's not here at the moment I can't get at them.

Anyhow - on to Day 8!

This was our last day (on actual away-from-home-vacation) of vacation. We got up and had breakfast with our hosts Kari and Mark - she made us all a wonderful egg souflet (the second one that week!). Chris and Kari are both morning people - they seem to have no problem getting up early and actually being awake. Mark and I on the other hand...well...we sleep...hard. I wake up when Chris nudges me and tells me to get up - but I pretend I'm still asleep and ignore him. So it takes awhile. Mark just doesn't wake up - or if he does it's a half awake/half asleep type of thing. I don't feel bad for Kari when she tries to get him up! :) But I guess it's good we're paired up the way we are - if it were the other way around and Mark and I were together - we'd never get out of bed!

After breakfast Kari had to head to work so Chris and I got ready and then headed off to Kari's place of employment to say our goodbyes. (Kari and Mark have promised to come up to MN next year! :)) Then it was off to find Chris some coffee (this was an ongoing struggle throughout the vacation as you'll find out in later posts). Having found the coffee we were off to Oxford!

Not New Englad Oxford - Oxford, OH :) Home of Miami University - the school I attended for all of 1 semester! It's everything you imagine a college campus to be - old brick buildings and all. I loved it - but for stupid reasons transferred to UMD (although I don't regret it looking back - although I still think the reasons for doing so were dumb...moving on...). We walked by the dorm I used to live in and around the buildings where I had class. One building - Upham Hall - has an archway through it. The legend goes that if you kiss under the light in the arch that you'll get married. We kissed :) (Sorry Chris - was that too much information? :))

After Oxford (and another coffee shop) we headed up to Dayton to catch our flight. We opted to fill up the rental car upon return - I thought it would be difficult to run it to empty. Turns out the light for gas came on right as we reached the airport! Argh! So we paid an arm and a leg at the gas station across the street to fill up the car (Jeep Liberty - NOT cheap :( ). Then we went through security. I think I may have mentioned how security at airports drives me batty? So maybe I'm repeating myself - sorry. I understand all the regulations and such but all the airports seems to pick and choose what ones they want to follow. Or how high they set their metal detectors. The woman at this airport royally pissed me off by tossing my wallet, shoes, and face creams into another mans tote! Thankfully he was polite and asked if they belonged to me - otherwise he could have just walked off with them! I wanted to go smack her (or at least be bitchy to her) but I figured that might just delay us - I might be considered a threat. Thinking back - I should have made a complaint though. Ah well....

Anyway - I got distracted - stupid airport check points. Hmph. We got on the plane and were delayed. I think it was a new pilot (not extremely comforting when you're prone to panic attacks). We kept getting delayed and taxing back and forth because he couldn't get his paper work in order. Finally we took off - I panicked of course. Had we taken off at the correct time I would have been asleep but unfortunately the announcement of our return to the terminal startled me awake and it was downhill from there.

Actually - I made it through just fine (after the first attack that is). It's wierd - I get panicked at first and then it's like I'm numbed on drugs - I could care less what's going on. I think it's just your bodies natural reaction - it can't take those jumbled nerves and just shuts em down.

We got home and realized we didn't have a ride! Kristin was supposed to be the ride but it turns out she thought we were returning on Sunday and had tickets to a concert Saturday night! Luckily Chris' brother Nathan was able to come and get us :)

We got home - did some grocery shopping as we had no food. Then I think we just kinda sat around and vegged. Watched TV. Played cribbage. Unpacked. Cleaned for Megan and Carter's arrival. That's about it.....

And there you have it - Day 8

Potter Nerd

I am a Harry Potter Nerd.

I have my pre-ordered (of course!) tickets to the midnight showing of 'HP and the Order of the Phoenix.' :)

I along with my co-worker Mia, her friend Susan and my "roomie" Kristin are going. Kristin is actually on her way over with a Papa Murphy's Pizza to watch 'Goblet of Fire' - which she has not seen. (she also hasn't read the books - something I'm trying to change). I even purchased some snacks - yummy Violet Crumble for the chocolate likers - and HP gummies for Kristin to enjoy during the show :)

I'm rather suprised at how quickly my nerdiness came to be. I didn't want to buy into all the hype even though everyone including the Aunt who used to not let her children trick-or-treat because it was evil bought into it. I started out just seeing the first 3 movies. Then I finally gave in and read the books - which I loved! Now I'm off to my second midnight showing. Not only that but I've named both of my pets after HP characters - Albus and Minerva! Wow...

All in All it should be a good night! :)

And did I mention that I have a slight crush on Ron Weasley. I don't feel so bad saying that anymore seeing as how he's legal and all now. But saying the word 'legal' makes me feel rather pedophilish so....hmmm....

Lights Out!

*Sorry for the crappy images - I took them with my camera phone.

candle

Last night we got an honest-to-god thunderstorm! Lightening, rain, thunder, wind and power outages - the whole shebang! I was curled up in my bed reading when it happened. Luckily Kristin was there and grabbed her flashlight and candles - I would have been clueless as to where they were. So we lit some candles and read for a bit. Then we decided to play cards - war - which she won in like fifteen minutes!! WTF? Why do I suck at games so much? It needs to end....

Anyhow. That was my night. Not having my camera present I used my camera phone to capture it all. The images are grainy but you get the point.

reading by candlelight

ghostly me in the window

bored me taking random self photo

moose - he fell asleep 1/2 under the bed. it was cute.

stupid kristin after beating me at war. who loses at war?! apparently that would be me...

Another Bedroom

my newest bedroom home

one of my new roomies - moose

i'm back! (to the blogging world that is)

i finally made that big move - to yet another bedroom. someday i will have my own home - complete with a kitchen and living room and bathroom and all kinds of good things :)

i was supposed to move on sunday but plans changed. i found i was not nearly as prepared to move as i should have been (i'm a massive massive procrastinator!). i also found i was sadder than i thought i would be. i love duluth and will miss it a lot - especially this time of year! i will also miss my parents home - they will be moving to suburbia this summer and the house i've lived in since 6th grade will be ours no more. so all of that combined and i was a little stressed. so chris and i spent sunday driving around and eating WAY too much food (what? did you think i'd actually pack more...please...)

monday we made the move. it was 44 degrees when we left duluth - the lake was absolutely beautiful with marshmellow like fog sitting right on top of it. when we reached the cities it was a whopping (yes - i said whopping) 81 degrees! Insane and very nice! i spent the day unpacking and knitting and chatting with kristin when she got home. then i headed over to chris's to enjoy a bottle of wine - we are becoming lushes.....

today i planned on starting my job search. i don't however have internet on my computer (so i'm currently borrowing kristin's spiffy brand new one - thanks kristin!). i tried to turn on mine but the monitor is not working (and yes - i've double checked it multiple times to make sure the cords are all plugged in properly - although i'm sure as soon as i get someone to help me they will fix it with no problems...sigh....). so - due to that fact i don't have access to my resume i'll just save the jobs i find and apply to them tomorrow. then i think i'll knit. or nap. or drink some wine. it's wierd being unemployed - you become instantely lazy - or so is the case with moi.

p.s. i've found myself getting slightly carried away with these label things. ah well.....