Happy Holidays!

Today was my first day of a FIFTEEN day vacation!!! I am so excited! Fifteen days with no commute. No 5:30am alarm. And no working holidays! (Although my first day back is New Years Day, so I'll be working a holiday, just not my favorite holiday.) I got so much accomplished on my first day off. Unfortunately, I have so much more to check off my to do list. Plus parties and travels and celebrations abound! 

My "Santa on the shelf"

My blogging creative juices have been flowing lately. Which is awesome! Unfortunately, that has prevented my creative juices from flowing in other areas. Namely, in the writing department of another project I've got in the queue.  Thus, it is with a sad heart that I must bid you adieu. And take a vacation from the blogging world as well. Fear not. I shall return. And this time I truly mean that. Not that I haven't truly meant it in the past. So maybe it's better stated that this time I truly believe that. So as I sign off, I'll leave you with this.

 Merry Christmas!

Happy Hanukkah!

Peaceful Kwanzaa!

Feliz Navidad! 

Happy New Year! Catch ya'll on the flip side. 

PJs

On a particularly shlubby day, a few weeks ago when the cold weather set in, I broke out the winter pajamas. When the hubby got home from work I was decked out in my favorite, blue, flannel pj pants. He told me I looked cute. Which is major points for him, because my favorite, blue, flannel pj pants are about 3 sizes too big. They are incredibly baggy. The elastic has stretched out so much I have to roll the waist band down (and they still want to slide off my hips) and I could probably fit my entire body in just one leg. But I've had my favorite, blue, flannel pj pants since the eighth grade. Which is way more years than I'm willing to admit. Incredibly they haven't shrunk, faded or ripped in all the years I've had them and slipping them on is like slipping into a warm hug. 

The Prime Rib: A Super Fancy Restaurant

The Prime Rib, or the PR as it is affectionately known, is an upscale, white linen tablecloth restaurant that resides inside Maryland Live! (Maryland's very own casino and entertainment venue). Casinos are usually not my thing. Gambling makes me nervous and, in general, they are just way too overstimulating. My father-in-law, however, is a poker player and he had accumulated "player points" that could be used at the fine dining establishment. And so he generously treated the hubby and I to dinner. Which is how I came across this. This is a $46 filet.

That's a high-end cow

Piano Guys

The Meyerhoff "pods"

The other night we saw The Piano Guys at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore. First off, the Meyerhoff is about the coolest venue I've been to. For the most part the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra plays there, but on occasion other groups pop in. I've been twice now and both times have been awesome both acoustically and visually. The venue is super cool with the upper tiers shaped like little space pods. And the seats aren't the usual auditorium style flip down chair. They are individual plush red velvet on wheels! I've had the pleasure of sitting in a "pod" both times and I have to say the experience is delightful. The chairs are comfy and spacious and the view is awesome. 
The Piano Guys are a super cool group that has become popular in the last three years. Made up of a piano player, a cellist, a videographer and a producer you only see two of them on the stage for most of the night, but when they all come out THIS is what happens.



I mean, who even thinks of this stuff?!? While they do write original music, what has made "the guys" popular has been their mashups of popular songs that they put their own unique instrumental twist on. They manage to make a piano and a cello super cool. What I found really awesome was these guys are Morman and they aren't afraid to make fun of it. But they also aren't afraid to share it. It's refreshing to find a contemporary artist that talks unashamedly about faith and spirituality. It is REALLY refreshing to find a group that keeps the music classy and clean. I am not one to really censor the music I listen to. Language and content don't usually bother me...if I like the song. What has been bothering me recently, however, are "artists" that can't put out music without the language and explicit content. It gets a little old when it's so repetitive. And so I've banished certain artists from my playlists and I'm more than happy that I now have room for these guys. All they're songs have to pass their "Sesame Street test" meaning, the song lyrics and video have to be appropriate for their kids to watch. While I don't have such strict rules with my music it is nice to know the guys aren't going to be jumping over to my do not play list.
               www

PS-I've never thought cellists to be cool, but if I had any musical talent I'd totally be learning to play an electric one

Bringing You Christmas Cheer

Today, I was told I look like a "little elf." Not exactly what I was aiming for when I put my Christmas colors on this morning.

Neighbors & Christmas

I have a confession. I have a favorite neighbor. It's not because they are friendlier. In fact, I haven't even met them. Really, it's their house that's my favorite. Brick front, black shutters, side loading garage. They have a corner lot and the front yard is large and flat and then gently slopes down the side. Their yard is alway perfectly maintained. Super green, well cut and nary a weed, leaf or brown spot in site. I walked by today and they had decorated for Christmas. Super fail. They had white lights and green lights and red lights and blue lights. They had large bulbs and small bulbs and flashing bulbs. They had Christmas trees and snowman and, the opposite of a cherry on top, they had a large plastic santa right at the corner. Super tacky. Being a Christmas baby I feel I have the authority to judge Christmas decorations. I may have given that authority to myself, but judge them I will. In my younger years I was all for the colored lights. But in my maturity I've grown fond of the soft whites. Not those crappy newfangled bluish LED ones. But the soft yellow-white, candle-like ones. To me, white lights, green pine and red bows...that's Christmas. Makes me want to curl up in front of the tree with a cup of hot chocolate and Christmas carols. Except for maybe the carols part. As my husband will contest, music is about the only part of Christmas I'm not particularly fond of. Funny, since I married someone who will literally play it year round. Anyway, I walked by this house and was disappointed. It could have been so beautiful. 

Christmas Cards

Periodically, one of the popular internet photo sites sends me coupon codes for free stuff. I rarely take advantage because usually that "free" coffee cup with your face on it will end up costing $15 in shipping, and I'd rather spend $2 on a coffee mug without my face on it. This fall, however, I received a code for 10 free cards. So I made Christmas cards. In September. And I ordered my 10 free cards, paying $6 and change in shipping (which is ridiculous for mailing a few cards, but still a deal). In November I got another code and ordered another 10 cards. Now in December I'm short Christmas cards for everyone on my list so I logged on to order more. For 20 more cards they wanted $45.20!  I find this ridiculous. Over $2 per card!! Way to take advantage of the holiday season, Shutterfly. I have a few more days to see if they get a better deal going and then some people on the list are getting plain old dollar store cards with no photos. You'll know I love you if I share my "bargain" with you. :)

College Basketball

A few weeks ago my brother mentioned he had never been to a college sporting event. What!?! How is this possible? In his defense he went to Salisbury, a D3 school on Maryland's Eastern Shore. And his older sister's went to Catholic University and Fordham. None of these schools are really known for sporting events. Still, 25 with a college degree and never having attended a sporting event...this needed to be rectified. So the hubby and I got tickets to the Maryland basketball game and took him tonight as part of a belated birthday celebration. They played North Carolina Central on it wasn't a high attendance game.

That's the hubby and brother on the far right.

The Bro

Our seats weren't as far away as that pic makes them look. We actually got to sit about 20 rows closer than our tickets due to the low attendance. So, overall, kinda a poor first event in terms of college spirit, but fun nonetheless. I have to say, basketball is probably the only sport I prefer in the college rather than professional setting. They just try so hard. Twenty points down and the boys were still kicking. They ran the plays, boxed out, went for the rebounds and tried for the threes. Versus the NBA where players all too often frustratingly rely on their "skill" and fail to follow the basics. I mean, would it kill them to put their hands up!?! I guess I shouldn't complain. I mean, I  don't have the skills to play at any sort of higher level, and never did. But the thing is, it's nice to watch a game where the players don't have the million dollar contracts. Where they play for the love of the game and the pride in their team. Ok, I know they're probably playing to one day get the millions, but at least they put their hands up and break a sweat while doing it!

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Organized

I love when my cabinets look like this! They hardly ever do. But on those rare occasions when everything lines up perfectly, it makes my type A heart skip a happy beat. Living with my husband, and now my younger brother who's temporarily moved into our basement bedroom, I know if I expect them to unload the dishwasher, I can't also expect them to do it my way. And so usually the dishes are haphazard. Often they aren't in the cabinet where they "belong." And most of the time the three of us are too lazy to even get around to unloading. I'm not so crazy that I spend my time going around straightening dishes. But I am so crazy that when they line up I take a moment to appreciate. I take a picture. And I post it, and rave about it, and make every one think I'm crazy because I'm so happy about some neat stacks of dishes.

Christmas Tree Stand

When we got our first Christmas tree five years ago we were persuaded to buy this stand. It was the best, we were told. Guarnteed to hold the tree straight and secure. It has been nothing but a pain since. To work, you must drill a hole in the base of the trunk. We've come across tree guys that don't have the ability to drill for you. Drills that are too weak and thus have gotten drill bits stuck in the sappy trunk. And holes that were drilled crookidly, leading to a lopsided tree. It has also wreaked havoc on my soul. I've visualized it falling off the shelf and impaling my eyeball. I've visualized tripping over something and impaling myself on it. I've spent five years trying to get a non-crooked tree, not to injure myself and trying to find a safe place to store this Christmas torture device. This year, we finally found a place that could not only drill for us, but could drill straight! Problem was, I found such an obscure, out of the way hiding spot, that I couldn't find it. 

Christmas Trees

Has anyone bought a live Christmas tree in recent years? Have any of you bought them in a city? Or city suburb? I don't know about small towns, but here on the East Coast, in the suburbs of our Nation's capital, decent trees cost upwards of $70! For a tree. That's going to die. I, personally, think this is ridiculous and I fight every year to find an affordable, yet elegant tree. No such luck. My mother (who went artificial many moons ago) informed me tonight if I put the money from last year and this year that I spent on dead trees I could have been halfway to purchasing a realistic fake.While I'm always one for a bargain, I just can't find the magic of Christmas in a fake tree. And my husband agrees.

My husband also thinks it's perfectly okay to pay the outrageous price of $70. He is not a fan of big corporate chain stores. He loves supporting small, local, family owned businesses. And so a lot of the tree stands in our neck of the woods are right up his ally. This year I got a coupon for a fraser fir (our favorite!) from ACE Hardware for $29.99 ($29.99!!). So I casually mentioned how at this point we would only have our tree up for 3 weeks. And how we would be out of town this year and not even able to enjoy it on Christmas. And that maybe we should drive a bit out of our way to a few towns over and take advantage of this deal. I even went so far as to mention that my uncle works as a higher up in the ACE corporation and how could we choose to support another family over OUR family? I had him convinced. And then we went here.

Homestead GardenswDavidsonville. MD

Homestead Gardens is a super cool store. But it's a super PRICEY store. And I was super scared of the prices we'd find on these trees. We went in tasked to get a tree for the husband's office (they were paying so we could go pricey). But I knew as soon as I saw the rows and rows of beautifully displayed trees he was going to want one. And my netted, hardware store bargain was not going to measure up. Cringing, I looked at the price tags (they actually had price tags on the trees, which was so cool--no estimating size only to be told that's actually a 7 foot tree not a 6 foot tree and that's going to cost $20 more, and no, sorry ma'am but we won't split the difference and call it 6.5--where's their giving spirit!?!). Anyway, I looked at the price tag of a gorgeous 6 1/2 foot fraser fir and freaked. $39.99! What!?!  That must be a mistake. But no...it was right! Under $40? Only $10 more than my coupon? And supporting a local business?? SOLD.

M & his Homestead Tree

We later were told our particular tree was a #2. Meaning it didn't quite measure up to be a #1 which were, in fact, selling for $59.99. Our #2 had a "lump" that didn't quite make it perfect Christmas condition. But you know what? Our tree spot faces a wall of windows, so we pushed that "lump" right up against them and you can't even see it. Our reject tree looks quite nice, if you asks me!

And it didn't break the bank!

Sister Sister

My sister and I are working on a super cool project together. We've made it out of the planning phase but are still finishing up the implementation phase. Our plan is to be ready for launch by the end of the month!!! But until then only a select few know all the details. Without giving too much away, for part of the project I get to interview my sister! This is both exciting and intimidating because after I interview her I have to put everything together and actually write the article. My sister is awesome. Driven and motivated, smart and witty and a much better writer than me. I'm nervous about portraying her snappy sarcasm appropriately, being able to emphasize her coolness and doing all this while using the unique words and perfect grammar that will meet her editor expectations. 

Black Friday

I am not a Black Friday shopper. I can remember a handful of times growing up trekking out with my mom, but as an adult I have never once deemed it necessary to get up at the butt crack of dawn to stand in serious lines for a "deal." Really there just aren't that many things I need THAT badly. In recent years it's seemed like the Black Friday deals online have become the rage. Four years ago I booked honeymoon plane tickets to St. Lucia on Black Friday. Not because there was some special holiday deal but just because they were the lowest I'd seen in my three months of stalking them. And that really concluded my Black Friday experiences until this year. This year, I worked. So I decided I'd take andvantage of the online deals and get all my Christmas shopping finished in one fell swoop! The problem with this was nothing I wanted to buy was really any sort of special deal. In fact stores that usually send me awesome coupons only sent me mediocre ones. And I didn't really feel like their prices were any better than usual. Maybe I just wasn't shopping for the right things. The high tech electronic crap and such. And I don't have any kids on my shopping list, so I wasn't trying to get a bargain on the most recent pooping baby or talking whatever. I ended up buying one gift on Black Friday. Then on Sunday I got a "Stellar Sunday" email from the same store that was more along the lines of their normal offers. Curious, I logged on and the item I purchased was $10 cheaper! So I reordered it and with my better coupon saved another $20! Out of pure curiosity I logged on again on Cyber Monday and the item was the most expensive I'd seen it and we were back to the diddly coupon deal again. Moral of the story. Black Friday shopping is for the birds. I'll stick to my bargain hunting/couponing on the less crazy days of the year. And it seems as if I'm not the only one to feel this way.

December 4

Someone told me I should start blogging again. He said I needed some sort of challenge to kick my butt in gear. Maybe a blog every day for a month kind of thing. He didn't actually challenge me. But I'm going to try anyway. Day 4. I blogged. :)

50 States

I have a life time goal to visit all fifty states. I am not sure when or why I developed this goal, but for basically as long as I can remember it's exsisted. Approaching 30, hopefully no where near halfway through my life, I am halfway there. I feel pretty satisfied with my progress. I've visited 26 states. Plus the District of Columbia, because, you know, I work there. Of those 26 there are a least 2 to which I would like to return. California, because I've been to Death Valley, but want to visit almost every other city in the state. And Indiana, which is weird but is the only state checked off in which I know I went, have vague memories of visiting family, but have no real memory of any significant experience. You also wouldn't have to twist my arm too hard to return to Hawaii. Next year I have plans to check at least one (if not hopefully 3 or 4) off the list! And I'm hoping to convince the hubby to help me check my number one. He wants to do London, but for some reason ALASKA just sounds so much cooler to me!

Ultrasounds

I am not a big fan of people posting ultrasound and pregnant belly pictures on Facebook. If it's your thing, I apologize, but when I have insomnia at 4am and log on to accept your friend request I do not want to be bombarded with a profile picture that looks something like this: Click Here.

This one is not even sufficiently creepy enough in comparison, but I could not find a Googlized image that does justice to how horrified I was. I thought about stealing the one from my Facebook "friend" but I couldn't quite bring myself to do it. This is what happens though when you post inappropriately intimate pictures on a public domain. You leave yourself open to creepy fetal picture stalkers.

I am not sure why this bothers me so much, other than the breech of intimacy with many "friends" who are really virtual strangers. And the fact that I just find these 3D ultrasound pictures to be incredibly creepy. It is strange. I am a nurse, so I feel my tolerance level for blood, guts and gore is relatively high. I can handle seeing a brain in the real world. I can handle the bloodiness and smell of an operating room (most people don't think about the smell, but it is quite disturbing I'll describe it to you sometime if you'd like, but I'll refrain from broaching that subject here for those faint of heart). I can even handle babies that are about the same size as this fetus when they come into the world too quickly. I can place them in an incubator and look at the tubes and wires and reddened non-formed skin and care for them. They look like little aliens, but they are sort of cute in their own way. But for some reason this picture of it in utero freaks me out. As does listening to a funeral director discuss the emballing process. As do eyeballs. In almost any situation. I was lying in bed the other night and my overhead recessed lighting made a popping noise which for some reason lead my brain to thoughts of shattering lightbulbs, jagged glass shards raining down and what would happen if one of them landed in my eyeball. Completely irrational line of thought, but it had me sweating and cowering under the covers.

I avoid shopping on weekends at the best of times. I'm lucky enough to have a career where I have random weekdays off and can shop with relative ease while others are at work. I avoid shopping on weekends during the holidays like the plague; and I avoid shopping on the weekend after Thanksgiving AT ALL COSTS. Unfortunately, yesterday, what some retailers have apparently deemed Stellar Sunday, my fridge, pantry and dog food containers were all empty. And our love of food demanded I venture out. I probably could have held out. But I'm not sure I could have handled the vengeance of two hungry pups. Pulling into the shopping center was only mildly more annoying than usual. I don't know who designed the traffic flow of this particular shopping center, but they really shouldn't have quit their day job. The grocery store was, of course, slammed. Everyone being out of leftovers and, like me, wanting to stock up for the work week ahead. But the real kicker was the cats. They were up for adoption and set up on the main aisle in the pet store. Which of course meant everyone was congregating and gawking and generally taking up space in the only real route to the dog food. I zigged past the turtle pond, around the first cage, almost ran over a child bee-lining for the fat tabby, found the food, hefted the 33 pounds into my cart, avoided the husky straining on his leash, zagged into the checkout line only to almost take out the 100 pound girl who, arms loaded, jumped in front of me to go first, and finally arrived back to my car, panting and sweating, mission accomplished. I gotta say, the dogs better friggin appreciate and those fat cats better have found themselves some decent homes.

Sunroofs and Seat Warmers

Today. The last day in November. The fourth day after the first snow of the season. Today, it was a balmy 64 degrees. Today it was sunroof and seat warmer weather. 

I love my car. I love that it has a sunroof. And I love even more that it has seat warmers. I use my seat warmers pretty much year round (they feel so cozy after 12 hours at work). But I use my sunroof maybe a handful of times each year. I love it. It's just rare the weather is nice enough. Summer's too hot. Winter's obviously too cold. But occasionally, usually a nice spring or fall day, the temperature is perfect. Today was such a day. It was just warm enough for the breeze, but had a slight chill to justify a cozy seat. Sunroofs and seat warmers. They really should go together.

Congrats to one of my favorite brother-in-laws for completing his first MARATHON!!