Wednesday, February 11, 2009

I love Super Bowl commercials. I have never watched a Super Bowl in my life. In fact, I've never watched a football game in my life. I have no clue how the game is played except that some guy tries to get the ball to the end of the field before the other guys knock him over. That's it. That is the extent of my knowledge of football.

Anyway, despite my ignorance of the game, I do love the commercials, which I watch most years after they've been released online. This year, my favorite was the ETrade baby commercial. So you can imagine my delight when I found out that ETrade put alternate baby commercials and outtakes on their website.

I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard. You have to go see them. And watch all of them, because if you miss one it will probably be the funniest and that would be a tragedy. You can find them at http://etrade.com/baby.

Enjoy!!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Has anyone seen any of that global warming lying around lately? 'Cause we could really use some up here in the frigid north.

We woke up this morning to discover this:
So please, if you have some extra heat, feel free to send it our way, because global warming seems to have missed us around here.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Guess who turned 40 today!

No, not the dog.

My Favorite Geek has officially been around for 40 years, and he's just as cute as ever. See that boyish grin? The book in his hand? The gigantic puppy in his lap? The comfy sweats? Yeah, they pretty much represent what I adore about him. He's funny, smart, affectionate, and casual, and I love him more every day we're together.

Happy Birthday, Sweetie! I hope your 40s totally rock!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

...in no particular order.

• a high of 22 degrees when yesterday was zero
• this joke - the alternate version totally outdoes the original
  
• bacon
• cheese
• fresh untouched snow
• puppy and kitty kisses
• this monkey
  
• fresh-cut Christmas trees, softly lit and covered in nostalgia-inducing ornaments
  
• the sound of my Geek's voice when he gets home from work each night
• soft kitty bellies begging for rubbing
• a box full yarn waiting to be used
  
• home-made vanilla pudding, still warm, topped with real whipped cream
  
• a day off
• the distinct rhyming and rhythm patterns of old fashioned poetry
  
• clever children's poetry like poems by Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein
• picking out gifts for friends and family and wrapping them up pretty
• being at home
• sunbeams pouring through my living room windows
  

Monday, December 22, 2008

I picked up this Christmas Meme from Yellojkt over at Foma. Can you believe Christmas is this week already?

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
I prefer wrapping paper, but a bag will do in a crunch.

2. Real tree or Artificial?
Real. We cut down our own just about every year. This year we misjudged just a little bit and the tree we thought was only about 7 feet turned out to be 9 feet. We had to tie it up with twine because it's too big for our tree stand to handle. And the top 2 feet have no ornaments because neither of us could reach, even with the ladder. Yup. We're fancy.

3. When do you put up the tree?
Whenever we get around to it. This year it was the 2nd weekend of December.

4. When do you take the tree down?
Whenever we get around to it. Usually right around New Year's Day.

5. Do you like eggnog?
Yes, but only in very small doses.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
Hmmm. I don't think I had a single favorite. The doll that cried actual tears was pretty cool. I remember being really, really excited about the Cabbage Patch Doll, Larissa. (So what if she was the off-brand version. She was great.) And I would have worn that purple wool sweater with the lavender oxford shirt every single day in 7th grade if I could have gotten away with it. It was the coolest outfit I ever owned.

7. Hardest person to buy for?
My dad. Actually, I think most guys are hard to buy for.

8. Easiest person to buy for?
My mother-in-law. I think I just understand her taste. Hopefully she doesn't disagree. That would be embarassing.

9. Do you have a nativity scene?
Yes. It's a Fontanini set and I absolutely love it. My parents bought us one piece a year for several years. By the way, has anyone ever come up with a great way of dealing with those hanging angels in nativity sets? I just never know what to do with her.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Email. Definitely email. I should really email our Christmas card....

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
Even if I remembered a really bad one, I wouldn't be so rude as to tell.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
The Grinch. I have always loved Dr. Seuss, and the Grinch is one of his best. Not only is it a great story, the rhyme and meter just make me really happy.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Every year I think that I'll start picking things up as I see them throughout the year. And every year I start to panic around the end of November when I don't have a single gift yet.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Not to my recollection.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Lefse! Forget the turkey, ham, oyster stew, cookies, etc. Just give me a heaping plate of warm lefse and a stick of soft butter and I am in heaven.

16. Lights on the tree?
Of course! I like white lights best. Our lovely mish-mash of ornaments provide enough color without adding colored lights. And please don't make them blink. That just makes my head ache.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
It was "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" for a long time, but this year I've been jonesing on "Sweet Little Jesus Boy".

18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home?
Either one, as long as we're with family.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's?
You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen. But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer....
(Quick fact about me: I can remember just about anything if you set it to music.)

20...
...seems to have gotten lost somewhere along the way.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
It was always Christmas Eve when I was a kid, but since we got married it's a little of each.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
The fact that retail "Christmas" starts before Halloween now, and the ultra-commercialization of a religious holiday.

23. What theme or color are you using?
I have no idea what this question means.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
See #15.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
One less house and two less mortgages.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Woo hoo! I sprinted to victory today. It took me all day – literally all day. I sat at my laptop, typing from about 8:00 this morning until 5:15 tonight, with a short break for breakfast and one for lunch. But it was so worth it. I now have another 50,000+ word NaNo novel under my belt and another award to display on my blog.

Now it's time to get back to real life. I have a website to finish and an Etsy store to stock. But first, I think I'll have a little dinner and a victory evening off.

Friday, November 28, 2008

NaNoWriMo is over in about 2 days and I have 10,000 words to write by midnight on Sunday – technically 9,999, but who's counting. That plus I have to work today, drive into the city to see a cousin I haven't seen in years this evening, make Thanksgiving dinner for my family tomorrow, and finish a website I'm redesigning for a friend by December 1st.

Yikes. December's going to feel downright lackadaisical after this!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Great news! I sold my first bookmark! It actually wasn't on Etsy. I had told a few people at work about my Etsy shop and one of them came to my desk yesterday, plopped some money down in front of me and asked me to make her a bookmark. Yay!

Then, when I got home today, I had an email waiting for me from a fellow Etsy seller who had featured one of my bookmarks on her blog. I checked, and while I haven't had any sales yet, I did have quite a lot of people viewing my items today.

What happened is this: I did an Etsy Treasury this weekend, which is essentially a gallery of 12 Etsy items that you like. Any Etsy member can make a Treasury (the limit is 333 treasuries at a time) and generally they are collections of items that are alike in some way. Mine was made up of items that were made of pewter or pewter in color.

One of the items in it was a pretty gray peyote cuff bracelet by SandFibers. In return, she posted a screen shot of my Treasury and my bookmark photo on her blog. You can find them both in this blog post. Just do a find on the word "pewter" or scroll down until you find the Treasury called "Pretty in Pewter".

By the way, I added another Austen bookmark to the shop. This one is in a pretty pale green with ivory trim. I have more items to add – something other than Austen bookmarks this time! – just need to get the photos ready to list them.

But right now, I need to get back to NaNoWriMo. I'm a few thousand words behind on my word count, so it's time to go catch up!

Monday, November 10, 2008

You would think that at the core of NaNoWriMo would be hard work, dedication, and insanity, and you would be right. But there is another value at the core of NaNo that is dear to the hearts of it's followers:

Procrastination.

There's even a category in the forums which is dedicated to those who are willing to share their most beloved (and often creative) forms of procrastination. (It currently has 18181 posts in it!) Heck, there's even a Procrastination Station on the front page of the website!

So, today, I would like to introduce you to my very own favorite form of procrastination. It's called Elouai, and it's just so darn cool. It's kind of like paper dolls for the new millennium. The site lets you choose a head shape, eyes, nose, mouth, clothes, hair, shoes, etc. So very cool.

I figured out a couple of years ago that it was a great way to visualize my characters, and I did it again this year. So, today I'm going to introduce you to the darlings of my (yet unnamed) novel. (If you remember me doing this 2 years ago, or followed that link, don't worry. The format is different this time so there will be no danger of these characters losing their heads or their clothes.)

Pru

Pru is a no-nonsense, single (widowed) quadragenarian (soon to be quintagenarian) who owns a cooking store in NYC – a thousand miles away from her closest friends. She has pewtery hair and striking blue eyes (though they are not nearly as big as that picture makes them look). And her glasses are not green. They're pewter, to match her hair, of course! Her favorite color is purple, which is reflected in her clothing and in her store where the walls are all painted in shades of purple.

Charity

Charity is a brilliant 23 year-old from Minneapolis who hates her name – Charity Love. She has been in Bible College for five years and is still no closer to her goal of an MRS degree (or any other degree for that matter) than when she started. In the meantime she works at an Italian restaurant where she hopes to find a dishy Italian guy who'll change her name for her since she can't seem to find anyone acceptable at school.

Evie (who you'll meet next) was her youth group leader when she was in high-school and Charity absolutely adores her. She loves her kids too, but don't tell Evie that; Charity needs her social time and when Evie asks her to babysit, she can never say no.

Evie

Evie tends to dress for ease and comfort since she has eight kids to chase after every day. Yeah, that's right – eight – and only one set of twins. They range from 14 years down to 6 months and all have pretty normal names, except for the last one, who for some reason (she can't really remember why now) ended up with the name Ocean. They call him Jack.

She once had a dream of being a fashion designer, but now that she's a mom, the only models to wear her creations are her kids. Despite her typical look of whatever clean clothes she can find to throw on, she cleans up pretty nicely when she has the occasion to do so – like this...Ahh. Much better. She told me that she would really rather that skirt was a nice robin's egg blue (her favorite color), but the store only had it in this bronzy color, which is okay, since it goes with just about anything and it's the only dressy skirt she owns.

So there you have it. Despite my valiant efforts at procrastination, I'm actually doing pretty well. I have written 15,816 words so far, and as long as I can write another 800 or so tonight, I'll still be on track for the 50,000-word goal. Guess I better get busy!