I heart "Glee"

Our poor neighbors...

Found some videos! Trust me, this is the LEAST offensive to the ears, so imagine WORSE singing the rest of the night. Plus, you can see J's rack, and she was the one taping!

And we did warn our neighbors.



Some more party prep.

Cookies: A Series

Last weekend, J-Diddy came out to Chicago. It was her first time seeing out condo. It was also the weekend of our Christmas party. It was supposed to be a much larger affair than it ended up being, but there were several last minute "something-suddenly-came-ups". We would not be deterred! We still made cookies enough for all, whether they showed or not!

The cookies were delicious! We made pumpkin chocolate chip, almond butter kiss, Mexican wedding, sugar (with canola oil -- which ended up tasting a bit fishy *grimace*), and sugar with butter cookies. We neglected to account for the 2-hour chill time for the sugar cookies, so we were frosting them while people were arriving. As a result, they looked like we had taken them to a local kindergarten class to decorate. Also, we didn't end up using many of the tons of cookie decorating items we purchased. But all in all, it was a fun night!

Also, it's not intentional that I'm only including pictures of me in this post. Turns out, through all the karaoke, food and drinks, there literally isn't a single flattering picture of anyone from our party. Not that these are flattering of me, but... well, think of these as an early Christmas gift.

Am I boring you?

Cat Cams: What DO Cats Do Home Alone?

Republished from Huffington Post, which sites http://www.friskies.com/scratchingtonpost for the original story.

LOS ANGELES — What do cats do when their owners are away? There was one way to find out – "cat cams."

Fifty house cats were given collar cameras that took a photo every 15 minutes. The results put a digital dent in some human theories about catnapping.

Based on the photos, about 22 percent of the cats' time was spent looking out of windows, 12 percent was used to interact with other family pets and 8 percent was spent climbing on chairs or kitty condos. Just 6 percent of their hours were spent sleeping.

"What surprised me was how active the cats were. I believed my three cats were sleeping during the day," said Jill Villarreal, an animal behavior scientist who collected the data for Nestle Purina PetCare's Friskies brand of cat food.

The 777 photos studied by Villarreal showed the cats looking at a television, computer, DVDs or other media 6 percent of the time and hiding under tables 6 percent of the time.

Coming in at 5 percent was playing with toys; eating or looking at food finished at 4 percent.

Will the cats get movie cameras next? "We are in the think tank now," Villarreal said.

A formal request to Carmen...

Shakira - Loba (Official Music Video) - Amazing videos are here

Baila! And have your parents tape it.

If you've not already seen it, catch Carmen's sweet moves here.

Haaaaaaaaaappy Biiiiiiiirthday... toooooooo P!

Happy Birthday, P! And welcome to your mid-30s. :)

All blog readers are invited to P's official birthday dinner Friday night. We'll be dining at Sun Wah BBQ, then it's off to dessert at George's!

The Holiday, Part One

There is something I LOVE about walking into a Starbucks and discovering the holidays are here!

What is it...?  The sweets and the calories?  (Like the 450 calorie grande egg nog latte)  The spending of money?  The meaningless gifts?  ("Here's a gift from Starbucks!  What?  You don't drink coffee?  Who doesn't drink coffee??")

I really think it's something about the graphic design that gets me.  All the red and white.  Sort of vintagey.  Clean and sparkley.  It makes me think of homemade mittens and paper-wrapped packages and pretending not to notice that there's way too much rum in the eggnog.  It's like I grew up on the Dick Van Dyke show.

OMG, why won't our cats do this?

I am such a loser. I always tell people that I'm not a "cat person", I've just been waiting for as long as I left home to get a dog but have never been able to. But I do love cats. Not always our cats. But anyhoo, on my google home page I have the "Funny Cat Photo" widget. Every time you log on a new funny cat photo. Some are hilarious. Such as the one here.

Why won't our cats tolerate such costumes?

New great room colors

I was home the last two days (off after 8 straight days of hell at work) and wanted to do something around the house. So it took me two days but I painted our great room and hallway - the bulk of the painting that needed to be done in our condo. Before it was a "sage" (more like mint) green with a dark green accent color. It looked like something your grandma would choose. So we chose antique copper, basketry and chocolate swirl. Ehh?

(By the way if you click on the picture you will see it enlarged)

Holy Sh**, don't try those moves at home!

This has got to be the weirdest / coolest dance / sex / fight routine I've ever seen. Please no one suggest doing this themselves as they will get HURT. I imagine broken necks and other injuries.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD, MADELEINE!!

This morning at 2:53 A.M. (PST) our new niece, Madeleine Louise, joined us! So in her honor I thought I would see what other significant events happened on this day in history.

Sorry, Maddy, until today November 5th was not too exciting. But just so that some day you know what else happened on this day, here goes:

1605 Gunpowder Plot: Catholics try to blow up English Parliament. Plot uncovered & leader Guy Fawkes hanged - England now celebrates Guy Fawkes Day on November 5th (exciting!)

1875 Susan B Anthony arrested for attempting to vote (it's never too early to start... vote Democrat!)

1912 Woodrow Wilson (D) beats Theodore Roosevelt (Prog) & President Taft (R) (see, voting is exciting!!!)

1935 Parker Brothers launches game of Monopoly (when you are old enough to play, your Uncle will teach you how to throw the board when you are losing)

1955 New Vienna Opera house opens (we'll go there some time but first I'll teach you German)

1987 Iceberg twice the size of Rhode Island sighted in Antarctic (we'll all try and make sure that by the time you grow up there are still icebergs)

Oh yeah, and in 1977 Your grandma was 15 days away from bringing your favorite uncle into the world!

And who do you share a birthday with? Well, if someday you enjoy the smooth, adult-contemporary sounds of Simon and Garfunkel, we'll know it's because you share Art Garfunkel's birthday. And Corin "Corky" Nemec... unfortunately, you missed his short-lived "Parker Lewis Can't Lose".

So, you see, Maddy you've just taken a boring day and made it much more exciting.

Madonna can still make fun of herself

g

The End is Night(sic)! Part Deux

As you may have heard, Denver got 18" of snow last week.  There was a lot of news about it early in the week (including more than one phone call from my mom making sure I knew about the upcoming storm since I never listen to the local weather.  Since I walk to work, she pictures me getting stranded in all types of severe weather including wind.).  And you never know how seriously to take the local weather report.  Even last week, they were using their gravely serious tone of voice to warn about a blizzard that promised the potential for 2 feet of snow in the Denver metro area.  Hm.  But then they qualified it saying if it turned out to be an upslope instead of a downslope, we'd have spring-like weather.  It was a crap shoot.

Speaking of crap shoots, I was a little put out considering I had to FLY OUT OF DENVER ON THURSDAY.  TO LAS VEGAS (hence the "crap shoot" reference).  Considering getting to DIA is a trek in and of itself, AND considering I am a nervous flyer ANYWAYS, it all added up to way too much anxiety on my part.  I couldn't really fully enjoy my TWO SNOW DAYS (well, officially one and a half, but I took liberty with the first one and called it earlier than work did), even though I had company (and had a lot of fun walking to the store, eating sweets and playing Scramble together). 

Turned out because the snow was expected and didn't dump in 2 hours as per usual, the drive to the airport wasn't actually that bad.  But THEN, there was a breach in security.  Then, our plane had encountered a bird strike on the way in and they had to do a mechanical check.  And then, of course, we had to de-ice.

But, in the end, it really wasn't that big of an ordeal.   THANK GOODNESS.

The end is nigh!!

I am sitting in my new, expensive condo watching the rain POUR DOWN wondering WHY THE HELL I CHOSE TO SETTLE IN CHICAGO!

Now granted, the city I left, Denver, was just slammed by a terrible snow storm (I'll tell you this since our affiliate in Denver, J, is apparently dead or drunk or hung over or something... are you now too good for this blog?!) so apparently there is no escaping the crappy weather right now.

But seriously! I haven't seen the sun in what feels like weeks. (Irony alert: I used to complain about too much sun in Denver... oh well!)

Last night, on my way home from one of my last-ever PM shifts, I got caught in a DOWNPOUR. At one point I was trying to avoid big puddles on the the sidewalk and went into the street (bad idea) and got caught in a flash flood! Seriously, I was ankle-deep in water. I had to put my shoes in the drier this morning (YES, D, I did and NO, D, the drier didn't break!) Now today... we are again in a freakin' flood watch.

Oh NBC Thursday... j'adore!

I'll freely admit it... I have no life. I look forward to days of the week based on what TV is on. I should do something about that someday, right? Meh...

In the meantime, let me just gush about the comedic genius that can now be found on NBC Thursday night (note to NBC Universal / GE: please send my commission for this plug in the form of high-end GE appliances at your earliest convenience).

The new lineup trimmed out the show that I didn't watch, namely "My Name Is Earl" and added "Community" which I'm starting to love. Joel McHale... you had me at... whatever you first said in the pilot of your new show. "Parks & Recreation"? Who doesn't love Amy Poehler? No, seriously... who doesn't love Amy Poehler? I want to know because you, sir/madame, are someone that I don't know if I can trust!! And if you missed the wedding episode of "The Office"... well, I'm sorry for you. But there will always be a special place in my heart for "30 Rock". Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski... never has such an amazing ensemble cast been put together.

Now I know what some of you are saying: "damn, if you have such a hard-on for NBC why don't you just... do it!" Well, smarty-ass... you can just... suck it or something. How can you not love the writing on a show that contains a sequence such as this which takes place while Liz and Jack are driving to Stone Mountain, Georgia looking for a new cast member who will speak to "Middle America"?:

Liz: Jack, for the eightieth time no part of America is more American than any other part.

Jack: You are wrong. Small towns are where you see the kindness and goodness and courage of everyday Americans. The folks who are teaching our kids, running our prisons, growing our cigarettes. People who are still living by core American values.

Liz: There are plenty of core American values in New York. [spots garish fast-food joint on the side of the highway] But there are NOT restaurants called "Fatty Fat's Sandwich Ranch"! Turn here TURN HERE!! [grabs wheel to force Jack to make the turn]

Jack: Ah, Lemon if this is going to play out like lunch I suggest you crack your window now and save yourself the embarrassment in twenty minutes. Now... they have hush puppies here which you might know better as a knish or beniet.

Thank you, DVR!! This same episode also featured Tracy Morgan freaking out that he would be the 3rd celebrity to die (they always die in 3) and in an effort to avoid that fate he crank calls Betty White with "Boo!" trying to scare her to death. OMG, who comes up with this! And props to Betty White on that fabulous cameo.

Okay, I'm done...

How about this??

These colors are called "tyler taupe" and "tawny rose". Ehh?

P. D. and J.: Color Correction

P. D. and J.: Color Correction

So, I know we had this whole discussion before in our old apartment, but here we go again. P and I can't decide on colors for the condo. Basically everything in the place is green. Living room/kitchen, hallway, master bedroom, master bath. We aren't green people.



Clearly, we're contemplating color in this shot. Also, it should be noted that this was the final walk-through before we actually owned it. There's a LOT more crap crammed in it right now, which is why you can't see any "live" shots just yet. The living room and kitchen are both in one space. You can see the cabinets in the picture, and that's black granite countertops. No backsplash (yet). At the other end of the room is the fireplace, also granite.



So, smarties, what would you suggest?

Hair today...

...more hair tomorrow? I'm doing it. I threaten it every year, but I'm growing my hair out. This is what I'm thinking, though honestly, I can't see myself as wearing it THAT messy. Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns? Discuss. Via the blog comments.

And condos!

So the condo is really great. We have a mile-long list of improvements we'd like to make (and no money to do ANY of them). Slow and steady wins the race, I suppose. I'd post pictures, but the condo is still primping. In anticipation of the pictures, some of my favorite highlights include:

1. The incredibly clean and sparkly bathrooms. We came from a vintage apartment with a very old bathroom. The hot water didn't work until my brother fixed it. And even after it started working, the water would leak all over the top of the sink. Plus, there was only one bathroom, and it smelled like mildew. I bet if you tore the tile off the walls of the shower, you'd find a metropolis of mold.

Our new bathrooms are all tiley and granitey. My new Sunday ritual is to scour them both from top to bottom. My sick secret is that I enjoy it.

2. The incredibly clean and sparkly kitchen. Our old kitchen can be described in one word: sick. It was about the size of a shoe box, and there was about one foot of counter space. The cabinets (all four of them) didn't match, the counter didn't fit, and I had to scrape an inch of grease off the stove when we first moved in.

Our new kitchen has TONS of cabinets and appliances that work. Well, except I hate the dishwasher. It's the most awkward appliance I've ever seen, and none of our dishes really fit. But the REST of the kitchen is wonderful. Our pantry cabinet holds more than all of the cabinets combined in our old kitchen.

3. The closet space. If I was good at html, I'd insert one of those heavenly "ahhhhh!" sounds here. We had no closet space in the old apartment. What we did have was crammed full of my "old lady Christmas village" (P's words, not mine) and miscellaneous other Christmas decorations.

We have a full wall of closets in each bedroom (which badly need organization -- #3 on our list of wants), a coat closet, a linen closet and a full storage room. *sigh* Also, have I mentioned all of our kitchen cabinet space?!

We're definitely still unpacking -- we're also still getting used to where things are. Example: Last night, at about 3:30am, I woke up to a very loud boom. I yelled something like, "holy shit!" and got up to turn on the light. I found P on the floor holding his knee. The poor guy had hit his knee on the corner of the chest at the foot of our bed. As soon as he did, he hit the floor. Hard. He was ok, but I'm pretty sure the cats are scarred for life. Think low to the ground and wild-eyed.

I have these grand ideas that I'll come home from work and completely organize one room each night. What actually happens is that I come home from work, make dinner or clean up after dinner (depending on who is cooking), and sit on my ass watching tv for the rest of the night. If good intentions were dollar bills, I'd have enough to buy numbers 1 through 3 on our wants list. Well, gotta go! "Real Estate Intervention" is on!