Thursday, November 30, 2006

My Throat Hurts

Let's start with yesterday. I started coming down with a cold and by last night I had chills and bodyaches. So I took some Advil PM. I usually don't take that stuff on a work night because I'm afraid I will oversleep, but I took it fairly early and felt ok about it. So at 10 pm I basically passed out in my bed. I know that I was dead to the world, because when I woke up this morning I saw this:



I immediately knew who the tissue terrorist was. Dolly! She has a thing for boxes and paper, so I wasn't surprised that this happened. What amazed me is that it happened 3 feet from where I was and I never heard a thing!
That Advil PM really works.

So anyway, when I got up and looked outside, there was new snow:




Driving to work wasn't very bad today, but it will be worse tomorrow when it will be icy.

Here is what my cats Blossom and Grace think about the snow:




That's as far outside as they cared to go. I hear that some cats love the snow, not mine I guess.

Tonight I'm sleeping without my friend Mr. Advil PM. I'd better get to it.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

You CAN Go Home Again...

And boy did I ever! I spent 51 hours in Monterey and visited with more than 51 people I think. I just went from place to place and person to person, ending up at my church on Sunday morning. It was a great fun time. Thanks to Shannon and Sharlene for letting me crash at your houses. It was a perfect visit. Not only did I visit Monterey but I also had a good amount of time with my sister and her family in San Jose. And even though I went everywhere and saw everybody, it was still very relaxing. I even had time to go knit by the ocean for a while on Sunday morning:



This was the only picture I took the whole weekend. I was sitting in my borrowed car (thanks, Dave!) with the window down in short sleeves. Just lovely.

And when we got back to Spokane, it was winter. I mean WINTER.



That is tomorrow's forecast, and here it is for the week:



I SAY BRING IT!!

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Poor Rachael Ray!



She seems so successful with her TV shows and her cookbooks and her kitchenware. So when I saw this in a magazine, I thought for sure there would be fabulous turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie recipes. So imagine my shock when I opened up the pantry doors and found this:



Rachael Ray is eating CRACKERS for Thanksgiving! Oh, how the mighty have fallen. How did it come to this, Rachael? Did your accountant run off to South America with all your money? Does your husband have a gambling problem? Do YOU have one? I'm just sick over this, will someone please invite her over so she will not be reduced to eating crackers instead of cranberry sauce?

Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

I Am The Mother Of An 18 Year Old!

How the hell did that happen?? I am still only 23 in my mind! Oh well, time flies. Just watch.













See, wasn't that fast? Happy 18 Max!
And yes, that is Drew Carey.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

When I was growing up my mom used to have a waffle iron that the plates flipped over to a flat griddle so it could make either waffles or grilled sandwiches. It was cool and I always wished I could have one. I have been looking at waffle irons and none of the ones I saw had flip overable plates. Until last Sunday. Ladies and Gentlwmen, I present the George Foreman G5 Next Grilleration Grill with 5 Removable Plates!

In the six days we have owned it, we have made hamburgers, waffles, chicken breasts (frozen to done in 15 minutes!), and steak. Tomorrow there will be more waffles and possibly omlettes. We love it! The only thing is that I get the Star Trek reference mixed up with The Terminator so I keep calling it the Grillinator instead of the Next Grilleration. Maybe I should just start calling it the G5.

SOME OTHER THINGS I HAVE TO SAY--

1) I think that is it a crying shame that they don't show Bugs Bunny cartoons on Saturday mornings anymore. So I decided that since I have several DVD's full of them that I would just run them myself on Saturday mornings. I am changing the world one house at a time!

2) If you live in Spokane and like Christmas, you should go to Mel's Nursery on Division up north by Mr. Wendle's at the Y. Faythe and I went today, they have a huge area of really cool decorated christmas trees, it's like Beautiful Happy Christmas Tree Land in there. Amazing. And if you live in Monterey, you should go to Brinton's at the mouth of Carmel Valley. Same thing as Mel's.

3) Plans are firming up for my Thanksgiving weekend visit to Monterey to include an evening at the Golden State Theatre for The Sound of Music Sing-Along!! Woohoo!! I can't wait, I have been singing How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria for a week.

How DO you catch a cloud and pin it down?


Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Can't Get Enough Of That Funky Stuff

OH YEAH!!

I have the CD playing on my computer as I type this. I have heard these songs a million times and I never get tired of them. My kids have heard them a million times too. I hope when they get older they will love this stuff as much as I do. And even if they don't it's ok because these songs are permanently burned into their minds, so that in 50 years if they hear one of these funky 70's songs they will think of their crazy old mom and how we used to disco dance in the living room on Saturday nights when they were kids.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Third Time Had Better Be A Charm Or Else

1) Well I had to rip out my slipper and start over AGAIN last night. Same story, wasn't paying attention and blew it. Tried to fix it and made it worse. I'm pretty pissed at myself, I'd like to think I could make a slipper, I know the stitches. It's just like in school, those careless mistakes will get me every time. I think the lesson here is not to watch Heroes while knitting. Or Arrested Development.

2) I'm writing in the morning before work which is something I never do, but I am noticing that not being dead tired at the end of the day helps this go better.

3) I watch the KHQ morning show from 6:30 to 7 am. I really like it. I especially like the snips of music they play before and after the commercials. Today it was "Long Cool Woman". You know, she was a Long Cool Woman in a black dress, something something something. Just one something was a bad something, but that Long Cool Woman had it alllllllll. They play everything from Elvis to AC/DC, I love that.

Time to go to work.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

THIS IS MAX.

This is very cool please read it and click my invite. Thanks.

**********************************************
LOST is a student project. The aim of LOST is to show how 3.5 million people connect to one another, and break the record for the game with the most players ever!

To play LOST you have to find an invitation. An invitation is an internet address that looks like this: www.lost.eu/example, but instead of the word 'example' there are some random numbers or letters. There are invitations on the internet, and in the real world. They could be anywhere - on web pages, inside book covers, written in chalk on a pavement or across a beach in the sand.

Once you join the game, you will be given a username and password, so that you can log in to your profile. Your profile will show a timer, counting down from seven days to zero. If the timer reaches zero, you will lose the game. You can reset your timer by inviting someone to the game yourself.

For every person you invite to the game, you gain one point. For every person they invite, you gain ½ point. The person with the most number of points wins the prize when the game ends. Prizes will also be given to the nine runners up. This will happen when the game reaches 3.5 million players.

The top prize is £500, but the game should be played for fun. The prize is funded by advertising.
**********************************************

CLICK TO START PLAYING THE BIGGEST GAME IN THE WORLD!

www.LOST.eu/3d03

-MAX

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Blurbs

1) I had wanted to post a picture of the slipper that I have been working on that I was so proud of, but I forgot where I was on the pattern and screwed it up big time and had to unravel the whole thing and start over. AARRRRRGGGHH!! I wonder if my grandma ever threw her knitting needles across the room because if she did then the transformation is complete.

2) We went to another hockey game tonight with my friends Faythe, Jennifer and Remi. It was Faythe's first time to a hockey game, I think she had a good time. She had her camera with her and even though we found out later that they don't allow cameras, she got some pictures and I'm guessing she will blog about it.

3)Ever since we got a DVR for the tv (which is similar to a tivo) I am a slave to the TV. I have a backlog of Oprah's, and thanks to the return of Laura to General Hospital, I'm recording those now too. My newspaper goes unread, as does my Country Living magazines. I blame it on my job. It interferes with my off time.

that's all I got.

Monday, November 06, 2006

I Am Becoming My Grandma!

So I am taking a knitting class and so far I have learned how to knit and purl and I have learned 2 types of increase stitches and 2 types of decrease stitches. Next time is the last class and my instructor is going to get me started on a pair of slippers. The pattern that I will be working is almost identical to the slippers that my grandma used to make for all of us. My grandma was a very prolific needleworker. My whole family each had a granny square bedspread, also slippers, hats, baby blankets, washcloths, you name it. I even had the traumatic experience of having to wear the purple crocheted bell bottoms and vest she made for me to school in the 5th grade. She also was a bit of an artist, and handmade us all birthday and christmas cards for years. She had a dry sense of humor and enjoyed life. She was a little old German lady and I used to send her cards in the mail that I had bought from the German delicatessen. The cards were in German and I didn't know what they said but if they were pretty I would send them to her. One day she called me up and said thank you for the lovely card, but I'm not having a baby. We laughed about that one for a while. Another time when she was about 85 or so I asked her why she didn't get a boyfriend and she said that men her age require too much care, and that she didn't want to have to take her boyfriend's thing out of his pants with a pair of sugar tongs just so he could go pee. I bought her some sugar tongs, but she never did get a boyfriend.



My grandma, Erna Rupp, and me on my 21st birthday. She died when she was 92 and I was 25.

ANYWAY...

I started this post because of the slippers I will be making that are like the ones my grandma made, but I ended up rambling about how fun she was, and I realize that I would love to end up like her in other ways besides slippers. But slippers are a good start I think.

Friday, November 03, 2006

A Product Whose Time Has Come

Leo and I were in Wal-Mart tonight, the big one out at the Y, and we were in the grocery section when I found it. I don't know how long it has been around, but this was the first time I had seen it. You could probably call it a seasonal item, but I would buy it all year long. It is Peppermint Whipped Cream. I bought it and came home and immediately made hot chocolate and squirted a bunch on top. OH MAN!! I was worried that the peppermint flavor would be weak, but it isn't, it's perfect! It leaves a cool sensation in your mouth, and your burps taste minty. I heartily endorse Peppermint Whipped Cream by Land O Lakes, yeah!!

I am in a Christmas-y mood already. I bought a John Deere ornament for the tree and multi-colored icicle lights for the outside of the house. I can't wait to put them up! Let me rephrase--I can't wait for Steve to put them up!

Thursday, November 02, 2006

OK Back to Nothing

1) On Halloween we got 8 kids total at the door. The last group of three were Leo's friends and we just poured the candy bowl into their bags. Next year I'm buying like 15 or 20 full size bars and that's it. I will finally be living my dream of being the House with the Full Size Candy Bars!

2) It sort of snowed a little bit today. I'm a little freaked out about driving in the winter but today was okay.

3) I learned 4 new stitches at knitting class tonight, I can now increase and decrease--YAY! Next week I'm going to start knitting slippers!

4) I figured out why I number things in my posts, it's because of my mom. She used to talk in numbers--"Now Karla, while I'm gone, Number One, do the dishes. Number Two, there are mini pizzas in the freezer. Number Three, don't let anyone in the house while I'm gone." I never did Number Three. Number One either for that matter.

5) Thanks to everyone who commented about my brother, I really appreciate all your thoughts and prayers.