Resolutions?

Are you one of those people that does the whole soul searching where the heck did the year go and how come I didn't accomplish a single thing all year guess I'd better make some new year's resolutions and maybe even keep some of them next year kind of person?

No? Me neither. Well, maybe the soul searching where the heck did the year go part of it. And the how come I didn't accomplish a single thing all year part of it.

What is it about the new year that makes us all run around making resolutions to improve ourselves-resolutions that will last a week or two and then we'll revert to our slovenly ways and then feel extra bad about ourselves because we can't keep a few resolutions? The whole fresh start, brand new year full of possibilities thing? Clean slate and all that? A spring clean of our bad habits? Peer pressure from all around us to at least pretend to join in with our fellow resolution makers and find something (preferably easy) to resolve to change about ourselves or our lives in this brand spanking new year?

Aren't there some studies about how depression rates go up a few weeks after the new year when everybody breaks their new year's resolutions? Are resolutions really a good idea in terms of our mental health?

Open up a newspaper on new year's day and every store ad will be full of specials on slim fast, diet pills, exercise equipment, and workout clothes. Get fit and lose weight in the new year! So, we'll all run out and help the economy a little by buying treadmills and stair steppers and workout clothes, only to find that in a few weeks the treadmill is just taking up space in your bedroom and has become an extra clothes rack (great place to store the workout clothes that got worn once). Happens every year.

So, join with me in NOT making resolutions that you can't or don't want to keep. Just make a few small ones that are easy to do, don't take a lot of time, and won't make you feel like a total failure who doesn't deserve to walk this earth because you can't keep that resolution.

Here are mine:

Eat an apple every day.
Spend more time petting the cats and giving each one some daily special attention time.
Keep a ledger book of our expenses, complete with attaching important receipts and warranties to the appropriate expense page, so that next December I'm not sitting here wondering what the heck we did with all our money all year.
Do a quick once over cleaning of the bathroom each morning. Okay, this one is setting myself up for failure, but I'll try anyway.

And that's all the resolutions I'm going to make. Oh, and take a walk most days-notice I didn't say every day here. There are some days in the summertime when you are advised not to leave the house because the air pollution is so bad here. Hey, maybe a treadmill would come in handy after all!

Fresh and Easy and Broke Down Car Blues

First, the car. It's really really broken and needs major major work. We are waiting for a complete estimate and then will decide if the work will get done or not. My car is one of those cheap throwaway cars that when it starts falling apart means that it will keep falling apart until all that is left is a trail of auto parts strewn across the road. Do we pay $2000.00 to fix a car that isn't even worth $2000.00 or take that money and put it on a new car? If we fix the old car, do we have any confidence at all that something else won't break down next week? It was probably good that the weather kept us from traveling on Christmas Eve because the car would definitely have broken down somewhere on the trip over the mountain and then we would have been spending our Christmas on the side of the road. We had to go put $470.00 in tires on the truck yesterday so that Keith would have something to drive to work today. Regardless of what we decide, this will be the last year that we drive old beat up cars, a new car is in the future. (unless the economy finishes totally melting down and nobody has a job, of course)

Second, we were excited to see a new chain of grocery stores being built here in town. They are called Fresh and Easy neighborhood markets and originate in the UK. The concept is great, a smaller market for those times when you just need a few things or just want the basics with no frills and no aisles full of fishing and camping gear and garden furniture in your grocery store. Just your plain old groceries in a small store where you don't need a map to find the milk. And, they were handing out $5.00 off your purchase (of 25.00 or more) coupons. The UK version of Trader Joe's. Sounds good, right?

Wrong. The stores are really really no frills with a very small selection in a warehousey type setting. I hate grocery shopping period but really hate warehouse type grocery stores the most. We did buy a few of their house brand (fresh&easy) products to try out. Lunch sized fresh pizzas for $1.50? Sounds good! Not! They were good if you like your pizza with absolutely no flavor whatsoever. Frozen dinners? The prices were good, under $5.00 for a complete frozen dinner, so we got a few to try out. The first one was shepherds pie, which was almost tasteless but we ate it anyway because we were hungry. The second one we tried was tamale bake. The picture on the box looks appetizing enough, right?



Wrong again. I'm sorry, but this dish just totally reminded me of VOMIT! Yes, vomit! I couldn't eat it, it just looked too too nasty. Keith tried it and said it not only looked like vomit, but kind of tasted like it, too.



And, like so many frozen dinners, once again the actual product looks NOTHING LIKE THE PICTURE ON THE BOX!

Oh, and they have no cashiers. All of the checkouts are self checkouts. And if you buy beer the whole checkout stops and you have to find a well hidden button to push to call somebody over to get the whole thing going again because they have to make sure you are old enough to self checkout that beer.

Sorry, fresh and easy, I don't think I'll be stepping into your store again anytime soon, I just wasn't impressed and the food we tried was a total waste of money.

Broke Down Monday Blues

It's Monday, a day when Keith normally gets up and goes to work and I get up a few hours later and don't go to work, but rather mess around on the computer for a while and maybe clean the cat boxes or empty the dishwasher. Maybe even do some laundry.

Not this morning, though, today Keith is taking my car over to the shop because it broke down AGAIN! I'm hoping it actually makes it over to the shop, which is about a mile down the road. Keith has to walk home because the truck's tires are rotting right on the wheels and it needs work, too, so he hasn't been driving it at all. He's going to take it over to the tire place to see what kind of cheap tires we can get so we'll at least have it drivable for times like this.

We are considering just giving up and buying a new car, but the thought of monthly car payments for the next five years just doesn't sound like fun. Ackkk!

Sometimes I wish we lived in one of those big cities where you don't even need a car to get to work, you've got taxis and subways and nobody owns a car because there's no place to park it anyway. But, when you work 30 miles away from home you kind of need some way to get there, don't you?

So, that's our Monday morning, spending money that we don't really want to spend on car repairs. Sigh...

Ho Hum

We are having a very very very quiet Christmas here. We were supposed to get a huge storm moving in late yesterday and then rain all day today, but like many of our weather forecasts, the big one has not really happened. We didn't go over the mountains yesterday for the annual family holiday extravangaza because we were afraid we might not make it back over the mountains last night. Every year when it snows in the mountains here, you see news reports of stranded travelers sitting in their cars in a long line of other cars all being forced to turn around at the base of the mountains. I didn't want to be on the news so we played it safe and stayed home.

We did go out to dinner last night, to The Roadhouse, where I had salmon and a baked sweet potato-yum yum. Then we watched a movie (from the comfort of our new sofa!) and then to bed. We took a walk this morning over to gaze upon the great empty parking lots in the shopping center nearby and noticed a bunch of cars over by the IHOP. Is the IHOP open today? Nope, but Starbucks was, so we got a coffee and walked back home before it started sprinkling again. It was really windy so we got to watch shopping carts being pushed all over the empty lots by the wind. How exciting.

It felt almost like we were the last survivors on earth, walking along the empty streets and parking lots, just the stray car here and there, and one other couple out walking, braving the huge storm with us.

So, soup is cooking for lunch and a roast is in the crockpot for dinner, and the cats are once again all snoozing on the bed. I'm sure after lunch Keith will be joining the cats in a little nap.

Happy Holidays everyone!

A Fine Holiday Feast

Here are some recipes from our local paper just in time for holiday eating!



Herring Salad! Or, more commonly called purple brain and intestine salad! Yum Yum!

And, here we have anchovies au gratin! Do you smell something fishy here?



And here is a picture of the entire Christmassy feast! My favorite part is the cheese and crackers. How festive! I'm surprised the meatballs aren't actually fishballs.



If it's too late to plan your Christmas dinner around these recipes, save them for next year! I know I'd be looking forward to a dinner like this!

The New Sofa is Here! The New Sofa is Here!

Yay! The new cushy sofa (with dual recliners) is here!



The cats circled the new sofa with trepidation, sniffing every corner of it, trying to figure out what this big new thing in the middle of their living room was. But, after a little while, they caught on. It's a new cat bed! Thanks humans!

It Was Like A Sign From Above

We have been talking about getting a new sofa for a long time, like a couple of years, but have been hesitant to spend the money on a big piece of furniture that has the potential to become one big huge cat bed/scratching post.

We did buy our loveseat and chair at a yard sale for 40.00 and while cheap, they are incredibly uncomfortable and every night I go to bed with a backache from sitting on them.

We had been seeing ads on TV for a local furniture store featuring recliners and comfy looking sofas at some reasonable prices and had this store in the back of our minds for future furniture shopping. Then, yesterday morning we walked over to walmart and got the local Sunday paper and some socks for Keith, then as we were walking home we saw a delivery receipt from this same furniture store laying on the sidewalk right by the entrance into our neighborhood. We were nosy and read it to see who got new furniture, and then after we got home we settled down to read the paper. On page 5 of the front page section was a huge ad for the same furniture store. Well, we really should drive across town and check out this store, right?
Right.

So, we drive over to the ghetto side of town, which was originally the downtown area, now the poster child for urban blight, and found the furniture store. I was pleasantly surprised at the huge store and quality furniture, this wasn't one of those buy your entire house of furniture for 499.99 type of places, this was a nice store! We looked around a little and then of course were approached by a salesman to see if he could help. I told him we saw the ad and were interested in the recliner sofa for 699.00 complete with free delivery. He took us right over to it, Keith sat down in it and was sold. Are you sure, you don't want to look around a little more? Nope, this one works for me. Dual recliners, made out of that microfiber fabric that supposedly cats won't tear up, and long enough for him to stretch out for a nap. We ordered the protector spray stuff that guarantees that blood, vomit, popsicles, spaghetti sauce, and drool will come right off by blotting with a damp (or even dry) cloth.

So, tomorrow our new sofa gets delivered just in time for our lazy Christmas day that we have planned. I'm sure the cats will enjoy it too, at least until the first time they get squished under the reclining parts.

And, here is our new sofa!

In The Mood for Christmas?

I'm having a hard time getting into any kind of holiday mood this year (well, actually for the past few years). With no little kids at home to take to visit Santa and buy toys for, and no tree up (see previous posts as to why no tree), and no cookies to bake because we're too fat already, and no lights on the outside of our house (because we're too lazy to put them up), Christmas just isn't that exciting any more.

Keith and I were discussing that since we spend Christmas Day alone, we really should try to come up with some sort of holiday tradition for the two of us. But what? We don't buy each other gifts that can be unwrapped, so no ripping into presents from under the tree, since there are no presents and no tree. If we did do gifts that would only take about 3 minutes out of the day anyway, since there's only the two of us. A big holiday breakfast? Yeah, that would be great, but wait a minute, am I supposed to COOK that big holiday breakfast? The only restaurant open on Christmas is Denny's, so we could go over there for our big holiday breakfast, right? Um, maybe not, Denny's isn't known for their five star cuisine, that's for sure.

We talked about having a holiday dinner for the two of us, but what should we make? Turkey? Ham? One of those premade dinners from Vons with the turkey and dressing and a sad looking pumpkin pie all frozen in a big box? Keith suggested putting a roast in our new crock pot and letting that cook all day, so today I got a roast and that's what we'll have for dinner. Later in the week I'll go back to the store and find some decadent dessert to have, too.

But what else to do all day? Rent some movies? Drive around town and look at all the stores that are closed for the holiday and marvel at the empty parking lots? Drive up to the mountains and look at the snow? Don't know.

We usually drive down to Castaic on the Eve, but may not make it down there this year after checking the weather forecast. It's supposed to be rainy next week, which means snowy on the mountains, so we'll have to wait until the last minute and check the road conditions before going anywhere. Every year on the news they show stranded travelers on both sides of the mountains sitting in their cars wondering where they are going to spend the night since the roads are closed and there's no way in or out of the valley. Last week every road out of the central valley was closed except for the road to Morro Bay, so if you wanted to get to LA, you had to spend 7 hours on the road instead of the usual 2 hours. I just know I don't want to be on the news so if there's a chance of snow up there on the interstate, we're not going!

So, here's to another quiet Christmas with just the two of us eating our breakfast at Denny's and our pot roast for dinner, with a whole day of forced relaxation in between.

Dear Bakersfield Drivers

I'm so very sorry for having the audacity to walk to Target today rather than driving like all the normal red blooded Bakersfieldonians do. Driving at top speed with little regard for your fellow drivers. And no regard for the hapless pedestrian who must have something wrong with them because they are WALKING rather than driving the less than 1/2 mile to Target. I know my walking caused you undue hardship when you had to wait for me to cross not one but two crosswalks on my way to Target. I caused you to have to wait an extra what, SIXTY SECONDS? while I crossed that street (in the marked crosswalk at the intersection). I know that extra sixty seconds that you had to wait must have been just incredibly frustrating for you.

And to the driver who started to turn left and stopped in the middle of the intersection after you saw me already in the crosswalk and waving my arms at you like a madwoman, I'm just so very very very sorry about that.

Sigh...

Christmas Trees and Cats Don't Get Along

Well, our little tree is now outside. First, somebody bit through a cord and only half the lights worked, so we took those off the tree, and then the next day Mimi knocked the whole thing off the table while she was gnawing on the branches. Then yesterday, I see Buddy carrying something around in his mouth, went to investigate, and found a shatter proof Christmas ball in his mouth with big holes punched in it by his teeth when he ripped it off the tree. So, no more tree.



But, we do have stockings for the kitties! We got three cat toy filled stockings at walmart and hung them up where so far they have ignored them and not tried to rip into them.

In other news, I heard the dumbest commercial for Culligan water softeners on the radio this morning. Get a water softener for the introductory price of 9.95 and SAVE MONEY ON SOAP! Apparently you use less soap if you have a water softener. I'm sorry, but how much does soap cost? Would you really use that much less soap to where you are saving money after that 9.95? Highly doubtful.

It's wintery here in sunny California. Yesterday you could see the surrounding mountains covered in snow and today it is dark and dreary outside. But, I don't have to go anywhere today so I can stay cozy and warm inside. Right now all the kitties are napping on the bed, which always makes me tempted to join them.

Lazy Sunday

This is what our tree looked like this morning:



The only reason it wasn't on the floor is because the chair broke its fall.

Today we decided to go to the movies. Keith wanted to see The Day The Earth Stood Still and I wanted to see Four Christmases so we compromised and went to see Four Christmases. We only made it through about an hour of that movie. Very predictable and kind of annoying and boring. So, instead of leaving the theatre we double dipped and went in to see The Earth Standing Still. We had to wait through about 20 minutes of movie commercials and previews and then sat through the entire thing. Keith is a fan of the original Earth Stood Still movie, which I'm sure I've seen but probably blocked from my memory. I'm sorry, but this movie was stupid and boring and I almost fell asleep. I kept hoping that the alien would just go ahead and destroy all the human life on the planet so we could go home. Hurry it up already! I got really tired of the preachiness of it, too, how many times did I have to hear 'but we can change'? No, we were destroying the earth in the original movie and now thirty or forty years later we're still destroying the earth so nope, we're not changing much. Don't bother with either of these movies. Well, maybe the Christmas movie if you don't go with your husband who really wanted to see the Earth movie and was just being nice by going to the Christmas movie with you.

After our day at the movies I remembered why we usually wait for the dvd to come out.

A Really Fake Tree

Keith brought home a surprise for me last night, the little red Christmas tree that was only $20.00 at walmart. A very nice little fake bright red tree that was ONLY TWENTY DOLLARS!! And it's prelit so you don't even have to buy lights. And, the cord the lights are on is RED to match the tree-how cool is that?



Now, this box is small and only weighs maybe 2 pounds, so I had to laugh at the 'team lift' label on the box. As a former walmart worker, these labels mean that you are not supposed to attempt to lift these boxes without getting someone to help you. Like you could ever find a willing fellow walmart employee to help you lift-get real already! So, of course I had to ask him if he got somebody to help him carry the box to the checkout.



The cats were of course totally fascinated with this new big cat toy that we put on the table. Tastes good, too.



Nomnomnom...

There are no ornaments on the tree yet. We don't know where our ornaments are and I think what we have is glass anyway, so we went back to walmart and got some plastic ornaments that we'll put on the tree as soon as we find some string. We don't really want to use ornament hooks in case the cats try to eat them.

More Odd Finds on Etsy-WARNING THIS MAY HURT YOUR EYES!!

It seems like some etsy sellers have an almost unnatural obsession with body parts and poo. Just put poo in the search bar on etsy, and you'll get 285 results for items related to poo. Why?

This is actually really cute, but what the heck do you do with a poo plushie? Give it to the kids to play with or sleep with? Put it on your desk at work so everyone in the office will know how cool and cutting edge you are?



And, you can get your very own personalized labia/vagina pendant custom made. Just send in pictures and viola, your very own vagina immortalized forever! Wouldn't mom just love one of these for Christmas? Of course, getting the picture of mom's privates might be a little sticky. Hey, folks, they are called PRIVATES for a reason!



And here's a fun plush vagina from the same seller-what kid wouldn't love to hug this!



There are currently 332 penis items on etsy (no, I won't show you any of those) and 246 vagina items on etsy. This last one is totally creepy and really scares me. Don't look unless you want to have nightmares!



YIKES!!

Fog Day

It's that time of year here in central California. Fog. Those of us from coastal cities in CA are used to fog, in fact it's called June gloom in Ventura because summers there are not sunny but foggy every day. Yes, I know California is supposed to be the land of sunshine or something, but no, fog is something we all get used to. Today the schools are on fog delay and the delays are broadcast on the local radio and tv stations so you know that the little monsters are going to annoy you for a few extra hours in the morning before you can ship them off to school. Like three hours delay. I wonder if the kids have to go extra days at the end of the year to make up for weeks of fog delays each winter.

We got a tasty little holiday surprise from UPS the other day. The UPS driver rang the doorbell and scared the crap out of me and all the kitties since nobody ever rings our doorbell and I wasn't expecting any deliveries. So, I found this box on the doorstep from Keith's brother and sister in law in Boise, and inside the box was CANDY made right in Boise. Yum. Oh, and the empty spot in the box was full of mixed nuts which Keith ate like it was his last meal or something. Not a single nut was left for me.

Crock Pot Disaster

So, yesterday I blogged about our new crock pot and how dinner was simmering all day in it. Dinner was awful. I used a recipe that was printed on the side of the box and sounded good-just chicken, rice, mushroom soup, onion soup, and white wine all simmered together all day. Nothing wrong or weird about those ingredients, right? Everything was wrong with those ingredients. Rice simmered all day in soup and wine does not taste good. Chicken simmered in this concoction all day does not taste good. Don't try this recipe. It did not taste good. I had a peanut butter sandwich for dinner last night. And, the crock pot was NOT that easy to clean, I had to soak it for hours before all the junk stuck to the bottom of it would come clean. Ugh.

And, here is the latest installment of 'Only in Bakersfield':

Jail Accidentally Releases Son Instead of Father.

Jaime Garcia Jr and Sr were both in jail, having been arrested at the same time, dad for harboring his son, who was wanted on warrants, and son for assault with a deadly weapon and burglary charges and being a parolee at large. Both father and son have served jail time for various felonies. The father was supposed to be released on bail, but the son was released instead because somebody didn't check fingerprints before releasing him. So, now authorities are looking for daddy's boy and ask you to call if you've seen him.

We first heard this story on the news last night and, like many of the odd things that happen in Bakersfield, this story had us looking at each other in total amazement. Where else but in Bakersfield do family members celebrate their bonds by going to jail together? Like father, like son, I guess. The family that jails together stays together!

Weekend Festivities

So, we went to the company party Saturday night, which wasn't too boring. Nobody got drunk and made a fool out of themselves which was kind of disappointing. The party was at the clubhouse at the local golf course which overlooks a lake which I really couldn't see since it was dark outside. The food was good, the awards took a long time and everyone had to have their picture taken with the obligatory hand shaking with the boss. The gift exchange was interesting, they did it by drawing tickets to see who picked a gift when, and if you wanted something that someone else already had you could take their gift. The most popular gifts were booze related, so we know what we're bringing next year! BOOZE! We got one good gift and one not so good gift, a really ugly candle centerpiece thing that Keith wants to regift to his mom because he thinks she'll love it. The good gift was a crock pot with the removable crock. We have a crock pot that has always gone unused because without the removable crock they are a pain in the ass to clean, and being the lazy person that I am, if you can't stick it in the dishwasher, forget about it! So, this morning I used the recipe on the outside of the crock pot box and we will have an almost effortless chicken dinner tonight!

We did some shopping this weekend and were looking at prelighted fake trees, thinking that we should make some effort to get into the holiday spirit and put a little tree/huge cat toy up. Of course the trees that we liked were all out of stock. Except for the little retro looking red aluminum tree at walmart for only $20.00 that Keith absolutely hated but I liked. He wouldn't let me buy that one, so we came home treeless. Do we really want to spend a whole bunch of money on a tree and cat proof ornaments? I had been thinking of doing an entire tree with just cat toys all over it since they would think any ornaments we would put on a tree would be something to play with anyway. So far, no tree, but I did happen to find fake poinsettias on sale for 60% off at Michaels and got three of those to bring a little holiday color into the house. I had to put them up high though, since Buddy thought they looked good enough to eat.

New Used Workbench

About 3 or so years ago, Keith and I bought a workbench for $10.00 from a company that was either going out of business or getting new workbenches, something like that, with the intention of putting this workbench in my workroom. Three years ago. Well, like many well laid plans of mice and men, and so many other projects begun but not finished, this workbench took up space in the garage for those 3 or so years.

Until last weekend, when Keith chopped and sawed and transformed this $10.00 workbench into a functioning piece of equipment for my creative endeavours. He built a bottom shelf, reinforced the formica top, and even cut a round hole in the top for cords to go through. And presto chango, only 3 years in the planning, my new workbench.


Complete with studio cat.


All of the little cats have found my stool to be an excellent napping spot, which sometimes necessitates in nap disturbing when I'd like to sit and work. Pepper hasn't tried this stool yet, mainly because it's a little too high for her fat little body to jump.

And, in other breaking news, that old bitch karma certainly came around to bite OJ Simpson in the ass, now didn't she? 15 years! HA! He got away with murder, but this time around the invincible is not so invincible any more. I'm sure he'll waste more of the taxpayers money in endless rounds of appeals, though. If you've ever seen that show Jail they have one episode where it shows him being booked into jail in Las Vegas after his little crime spree. I'm embarrassed to admit that I like to watch that show, but it's pretty entertaining sometimes.

Shopping

Keith and I went shopping at Kohl's after he got home from work yesterday, and it was entirely his idea to go. We are going to his company Christmas dinner this Saturday and I needed something other than blue jeans to wear. We don't really want to go to the dinner, because why do you want to spend any more time with the people you have to work with than you already do? But, for good PR, you really have to go to these types of things. Plus, the quarterly bonus will be given out at this dinner, and if you don't go they won't give it to you until January as punishment for not showing up. It's not a huge bonus, but a couple hundred dollars is worth going and sitting through a company dinner I suppose. Kind of like they have to pay you to show up.

We have to bring two gifts for the gift exchange to this dinner, so we whipped in and out of walmart and got a Halston cologne gift set for the girl and a pocket knife gift set for the boy. I love those gift sets already packaged up and ready to go! Maybe I'll just pick out my own gift since I like Halston (ala Kevin on The Office with his foot massager).

And, then we went to Kohl's for the clothes. When Kohl's first opened in our area I really wasn't all that impressed with it, I'm not much of a department store shopper anyway and lots of the clothes are just plain old ugly. But, every time I've ever bought anything there, it's always on sale. And not a crappy 10 or 20 percent off, but sales like 40 and 50% off. All the time.

So, we start heading for the fatties department, and Keith is all confused over the miles of racks of clothing, and how do womens sizes run, and look at this sweater, this is nice, how about this one? Hello, Keith, you are looking at the juniors section and that sweater might sqeeze over my head, but that's all. I'd be walking around with a sweater on my head and my fat belly and boobs hanging out underneath it. Well, what size do you wear? he says. FAT size, I said. Well, I'll find you something over here, let me look, he says. Keith, listen to me, you will find nothing to fit me here, we have to go to the fat girls department, believe me. I was standing in the middle of Kohl's trying to explain the unexplainable about how womens clothing sizes work. Loudly.

So, we finally find the fat girls department and find that the sweater I bought there on sale a few weeks ago is on sale again, and I really like that sweater and it's very comfortable, so I should get another one in red this time, but they are way up on the wall where you have to get that hook thing to get one down, so Keith goes off to find the hook and get me a sweater. I found a couple of dressy looking jackets to try on and some black pants that are styled like jeans so I might actually wear them again. I tried on both jackets, which were like 68.00 each but on sale for 40% off, and decided on one of the jackets, even though it would need to be dry cleaned and I would never wear it again anyway. But, it will do even though it's a waste of money. But wait, I see one of those fake shirts with a sweater vest thing in white and grey, not fancy but businesslike and something that I will actually wear again, and something that is more my style. And on sale for 40% off. I tried that on, liked it, and tossed the jacket onto the discard rack. I got some cheap fake pearls to dress up my shirt a little, and so I will go to the holiday dinner in something that will be comfortable, but probably totally underdressed. But, I don't care.

Keith was telling me stories the guys at work had told him about previous holiday dinner parties and the gift exchange where one of the guys got a regifted used spice rack that had kitchen grease still on it. He was also advised that the boss will watch everyone very closely to make sure they are a 'team player' and not a drunken idiot who gets wasted at the company dinner and makes a total ass out of himself. Hopefully Keith won't do that.

For Sheets and Giggles

We got some new sheets last weekend. Yes, we did a little shopping on Black Friday weekend, but, no, it was not at 5am and we didn't stand in line for hours in front of Walmart hoping to be the first ones in. And, no, we didn't trample and kill anyone like they did at the Walmart we all heard about in the news. I was so disturbed by that story. Here's this man making a few bucks an hour at Walmart, probably so thankful that he had a job, any job, so that he could feed his family and maybe buy them a few gifts this holiday season, and he gets trampled to death while trying to open the doors for the hordes of frenzied shoppers. And the worst part was how angry the shoppers got when they were told that the store had to close because someone had been killed.

Anyway, no we didn't kill anyone in our quest to join the bargain hunters this weekend, we weren't even shopping for sheets. We were shopping at Target for cat food and cat litter (what else) and just happened to see a display with 1000 thread count sheet sets at 40% off. 1000 count? I don't think I've ever even SEEN 1000 count sheets before in my life, much less on an end cap at Target, and at a sale price about the same as a set of scratchy 300 count sheets. So, we got some to replace the sheets that I hadn't noticed were two different colors until we got better lighting in the bedroom.

So, that was our exciting weekend, new sheets!