Still Alive

posts a-brewing.

In the meantime...
...I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Who wants to do something for New Year's Eve?

Sigh.

Jim: How Many Shoes Do You Need?

Dwight: I don't know. Two, maybe three if one wears out. How many shoes do you need?

I went to the mall tonight. I hate the mall. I hate the crowds and the pushy kiosk vendors and the never-ending parade of stores that don't carry pants in tall sizes. I hate the onslaught of store credit card offers and the tittering packs of middle-schoolers shuffling around. I hate it. But...I love finding an awesome bargain. And tonight, I hit the mother lode. Ann Taylor Loft. Four pairs of super-cute flats. $200 worth of shoes. For 20 bucks. $20. Total. Wizard.

I had no luck finding pants though. I mean, come on - how hard is it to find a pair of dark brown, tall-length, non-dressy pants? Turns out: very.

This Is Me Trying To Blog More.

so you get posts like this with scattered bits of information that you probably already know.

I had to crawl around in my attic last night to (hopefully) fix a water softener leak that was causing water to run down the wall in my bathroom. This required quite a bit of crawling and contortions to maneuver past two-by-fours and protruding nails and fiberglass insulation. As I was telling htd and the Bea, it was like that scene from Entrapment with Catherine Zeta-Jones and the string "lasers"...only the non-sexy version.

Some guy wasn't paying attention in stop and go traffic and ran into the back of my car on the way to work yesterday morning. I was PISSED. But it didn't do any damage and, as Bree so astutely pointed out, the FIT is still GO.

I watched two movies this past weekend that have been sitting on my shelf waiting to be watched for a couple years at least. The first one was Sleepers - a really intense movie with a pretty incredible cast and some fantastic acting. I'd recommend it. The other was Suicide Kings - I still haven't finished it (I had to go pick up my cousin from the airport), but my sister and parents tell me I didn't miss much. And then we all went to see Four Christmases. It was pretty funny with the usual just-over-the-line moments. I'd say if you liked Meet the Parents, you'd probably like this movie.

I signed up tonight for a 5K at the fancy little shopping/theater district in Mesa next weekend. It's called the Jingle Bell Walk, but it's really a walk/run. It seems like the perfect way to get back into "racing" before I'm staring down the barrel of the P.F. Chang's half marathon next month.

If you've ever wondered what the literal version of A-Ha's music video for the song Take On Me might sound like, you should go here. "I'm gonna kick some ass with my own pipe-wrench."

Band montage!

A Thanksgiving Feast

in words and pictures. (mostly pictures)

(htd, you will notice that I snagged the pictures from your camera. It was sitting right next to me, so I took the opportunity. And guess what?? I love you I love you I LOVE YOU!!!!) (for all of you gagging right now, that was from Elf, so really, you should be laughing.)

Herbed Turkey Breast (me)
















Aunt Jeanette's Egg Rolls *not the Chinese variety* (htd)
















Classic Green Bean Casserole(me)
















The Family Favorite (Pops)
















I say Dressing (me)
















Jello Fruit Salad (htd)
















Pumpkin Pie (htd)
















Traditional Thanksgiving Trifle (htd)

Bad Poetry?

Oh Noetry!

My sister has a magnetic board with little words on it that you can arrange into sentences and poems and whatnot. Dad started it off yesterday and by this evening all four of us had come up with poems (some more serious than others). Although, it was harder for the last couple of people (read: me) because there were fewer words. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Enjoy.

Pops:
I am a concrete man &
happy to make you house
in the summer or autumn.

Mom:
her morning walk in garden green
with dandelion wind flying full
so dream could stream before
no sad thought blossom there

me:
I want television
people
sound
journey
watch.

htd:
black windows
must be wildest
between snowy dawns
and we almost hear winter
listen he said
as very stilly
night melts me

Hmm. Who are the real poets, I wonder? :)

Slanted Thanksgiving Traditions

tilted so they tumbled southwest.

I am hosting Thanksgiving at my new house this year. My parents arrived just before midnight on Tuesday night. My cousin was here for a night and will be back tomorrow. My brother and sister-in-law and niece would have been here if ticket prices had cooperated. My sister and I totally cooked Thanksgiving dinner. HTD made fruit salad and rolls and pumpkin pie from scratch. I made a turkey and dressing and green bean casserole and mashed potatoes and gravy and...and...and... Pictures are forthcoming (what, like we wouldn't document the one time we actually cooked?).

The house has been filled with that unscented aroma of home, which is strange because in my mind, even now that I have a house of my own, home is still my parents' place in Nebraska. Having them here seems to have brought a little of that homestead magic to the Valley of the Sun. I think a large part of it is the holiday traditions that we continued down here. The food, the laughter, the good-natured teasing, Dad working on fix-it projects, Mom finding holiday bargains, decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving, watching/reciting National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation after the tree is trimmed - it all adds a bit to that feeling of home.

I love that a little of that warmth has trickled down to my house.

Some Nights

it's the little things that make us happy.

This is the first weekend in pretty much forever that I haven't had something planned to do. And I am LOVING it. These are the things that are making me happy right now:

1. Sweatpants.
2. Zion Lutheran School 6th grade spring musical t-shirt from 1994.
3. Giant brownie from Whole Foods.
4. TV on DVD.

Bliss.

And, last weekend I did this: