Flip Me Some Bird

It's two days before Thanksgiving and I'm starving. Two small facts of my life at the moment. Hubby is late coming in from work and since no one has work/school tomorrow, we're waiting for him to eat. In the meantime, I shall shrivel up and wither away from hunger.

Well, not really. I have enough body fat to last me a decade or so. But I'm still working on that.

Things have been generally good. Kids are good, hubby is fine, work is swell. It's been nice having this week off from work (half days for the kids, no lunches!) and taking a break from chicken nuggets and grilled cheese sandwiches. By the time I go back next Monday, I'm sure I'll be refreshed and ready to nugget once again. I swear, I don't know how the kids don't get sick of that stuff, but they love it. My lunch counts have been higher than ever.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving on Thursday. I have my turkey thawing and my shopping is complete. We'll be seeing the family and eating at my Aunt's. The food I cook here is for us. By 10:00 Thanksgiving night, we're all pretty hungry again and looking for leftovers so I cook a little bit here too. Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, (homemade, not that slop from a can) biscuits. So when we get home that night, we have a little nosh, put the kids to bed, pop open a bottle of wine and relax. Can't wait. I'm really ready for the holidays this year.

Speaking of wine, we had a bottle of amazing Moroccan Syrah the other night. Don't remember the exact name off the top of my head, but it was very fun, fruit forward, spicy, and earthy, lots of cherry and clove. It was excellent paired up with some Double Gloucester and Camembert. Loved it. We drank the whole bottle and went to bed feeling loopy. What a treat!

Bummer note: True Blood wrapped up it's season this past Sunday night. It's sucks. (Maybe for True Blood, that would be a compliment?) What a great season ender, though. I never thought Rene would be the killer, NEVER. I was literally on the edge of my seat watching poor, frying Bill trudging through the sun to try to save Sookie, only to fail. Thank God Sam/Dog came to the rescue, and Sookie cutting Rene's head off was a bit of irony not lost on me! Excellent stuff there. Anyway, slow clap for True Blood Season 1. It was outstanding. Those are some DVD's I'll be scooping up as soon as they're available.

Guess that's it for now. Hopefully, I'll be able to update before Christmas, but you never know around here. My few spare moments are normally spent catching a few winks, and things are so busy from here on out. Cooking, cleaning, entertaining, working, blah blah blah. And shopping. Let's not forget the shopping.

Santa's job is never done, you know.

V-Juice and Other Stuff

I'm loving HBO's new series "True Blood". Totally awesome. Loving hottie vampire, Anna Paquin is fantastic, great story so far... so that can only mean one thing.

They'll cancel it. That seems to be the pattern.

"What's that? Annie in upstate New York likes this show? Cancel it! Immediately! There shall be no more Vampiric joy in her life!"

Dramatic? Yes. Realistic? No. Probability? Better than good.

So anyway, I'll enjoy it while it lasts and restrain myself from looking at the ratings reports. Why torture myself? I'd rather have hottie vampire do it anyway. Speaking of which...let me take a moment to look up the good looking fanged one...

Stephen Moyer. Great choice for the part. He has the tortured/dead/lovesick/dark/handsome/mysterious/sexy vampire thing down cold. Click on his name if you wish to check out his IMDB site and drool for yourself.

Still hitting the gym regularly. Down 24 lbs. so far and still going strong, plus I'm becoming one lean, mean, toned beast! Still can't believe how well it's going and how motivated I still am. That's unusual for me, to say the least.

Work is going great too, besides a few glitches that I actually took myself out of the middle of today. Being caught between your boss and the principal of the school is a bit sticky, but I was able to gracefully excuse myself today so they could hash things out on their own. I've had my say over the situation, now they can make the big executive decisions. *snort*

Hubby's 33rd birthday was this past Saturday. I wish I was 33 again. Not that I'm old, but I'm older than him and that sticks in my craw these days. And to think, 15 years ago it was fun being a cradle robber. Hee. Anyway, we bought him X-Box 360 and Rock Band for his present. He loved it and we've all been obsessed with Rock Band ever since. Our band is on a world tour now, last spotted in Stockholm if I remember correctly and we were kicking ass. Long live Undercooked Pork!

It's been nice having the kids back in school. At least they're no longer scratching each others eyes out during the day anymore. They go their separate ways and by 3:30 are ready to come home and be friends again. It's a good thing. Mostly for me because by Labor Day I was ready to feed them both to the dog.

So, the mornings are getting crisp and cold, the leaves are once again beginning to change colors, and fall is here. Love this time of year. Time to bust out the boots and sweaters, pull up the blanket, tuck away the air conditioners, and leave summer behind for another year. It was a good one, but I'm glad to see it end.

I was getting tired of shaving my legs so much.

I Don't Wanna Get With the Program....

It's almost my son's birthday...tomorrow, he'll be turning eight. How the hell have eight years gone by already? It almost seems impossible, really. What a hideous birth that was, and what an amazing child came from it. I guess it holds true then that where there is pain, there is pleasure. Or something like that. You know what I'm trying to say. Either way, Happy Birthday, Pumpkin Puss. I love you more than life.

So, my biggest news is that I joined a gym. Hubby and I both did, actually, and I'm surprised to find that I LOVE it. I love the challenge of the weights circuit and I love pushing myself on the cardio machines. I feel better than I have in ages. I actually have energy all day long, and I'm toning and losing weight and building muscle. Funny, isn't it? Those gyms actually do what they claim to do. Har de har.

Now, I'm not foolish enough to think I'll ever get back to looking like I did in High School. (120 lbs. and I thought I was FAT. Can you imagine? What an idiot I was.) Two kids and years of bad eating have wreaked havoc on my body, but I'm ready to do this in a serious and earnest manner. I have to. It's time and I know that any kind of improvement is a good improvement. Just getting my blood pumping four times a week is a really, really great thing. And funnily enough, I find that when I exercise, I want to eat better too. It all goes hand in hand and so far so good.

Hubby surprised me with a trip to the beach for my birthday. Spent three blissful days in Cape May soaking in the sun. We had perfect weather the whole time and the kids had a blast, I picked up Craig McManus' Ghosts of Cape May Book 2 while I was there, and came home rested and rejuvenated. There's nothing like beach time to chill you out. At least for me. There's something about the sand, sun, and crashing waves that just DOES it for me. *Sigh* I'd give anything for a few more days before summer ends, but I don't think it will happen. It's busy time now.

The actual day of my birthday was extremely low key and anti-climactic, just as I wanted it. I did nothing out of the norm....cooked, cleaned, played with kiddies....and hubby brought a cake when he arrived from work. The kids blew out the candles and I had one skinny slice of chocolate heaven, so as not to negate the awesome workout I'd had the day before. Now THAT'S dedication. *snort*

And so, tomorrow will commence with the Indiana Jones themed activities for my son.....lots of Indy toys, eyeball punch, spider webs, tiki torches and of course, snakes. Sorry, Indy, but it had to be snakes. I find it to be one of those fun little ironies in life that my son loves Indiana Jones at this age, considering the first movie came out when *I* was eight as well. Seems he's inherited my love for the rugged Archaeologist.

And Harrison Ford is still a hottie. Even if he's 66.

Post Vacation Musings

So, here I sit at 10:49 on a Thursday night, the kids are asleep, the dog is snoring soundly, hubby is on a plane home from Atlanta, and I'm clicking away at a new entry as I load up all the pictures from our Florida trip. It's taking forever. My computer is only four years old and it already sucks.

The trip went well. Visiting with the relatives was wonderful, dare I say the best four days of the entire vacation. My Aunt's house in Boca is quite large. Very large. Extremely large. Great pool, hot tub, sauna, huge bedrooms with private bathrooms...I mean, it's a vacation unto itself. It was relaxing and fun and SO incredible to see everyone. I cried like a baby when we left. I freely admit that. I was okay until my Uncle teared up and then it was over.

From there, we spent a day in Melbourne (no, not THAT Melbourne) on the beach. Absolutely gorgeous. One of the nicest beaches I've ever been on, and I've been on many. Perfect weather, perfect everything.

Disney was great. I will say, it was unbearably hot, which, unfortunately, was not the only unbearable thing that we were dealing with. I won't go into details, but just know that I held on through the whole week by the skin of my teeth. The kids, though, loved the whole thing....Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios-- which was the big hit I think, what with the High School Musical show and all and my showdown with a pushy English cow that decided to push in front of my kids. My kids have a whole new respect for me now I think. *snort*--and Epcot. It was a fun few days, I'll admit, but the last time I'll ever travel there in July. You'd think I'd have learned a lesson after my honeymoon.

I was ready for home after two weeks though. There's nothing like your own bed and your own bathroom after awhile. Sometimes, you just gotta pee with the door open, ya know?

And so, I await my birthday and my sons birthday, coming shortly. It's bound to be a lovely August.

All I know is, I better get back to the beach. My tan is fading.

Rasputin Was An Evil Genius and Other Uninteresting Thoughts

Crap.

Has it really been since February since I've updated this thing? Time surely does fly and I stink at keeping up with it. I feel like I just started work and here we are, mere weeks away from the end of the school year.

So, I'm sitting here on a fine Friday evening, listening to the dulcet sounds of Grant Wilson, pianist, artist, author, and paranormal investigator extraordinaire. I quite like the piano music on his My Space site. I'm not normally one for this kind of music, but this is pretty. And it's soothing. And he's awful cute. *Gets all shallow*

Check out his music, though, if you have a chance and like that sort of stuff. It's real purty.

So, we've decided to bring the kids to Disney this year. They're old enough to remember it now, and it's an experience I want them to cherish. I'm looking forward to it as well, although I think I'm just looking forward to any vacation at this point. I'm just hoping we're able to squeeze in some beach time while in Florida...in between seeing relatives and licking The Mouse's head, there better be some beach activity or I'll probably cry.

And no. I'm trying very hard NOT to think about how hot it's going to be in Florida in July, okay? So quit bringing it up.

I'm more worried about the fact that it'll cost more money for us to drive there then it will to actually spend a week in the Disney complex. Seriously, $4.29 a gallon? I think I'm going to puke. The last time we drove to Florida in '01, I remember complaining that gas in Boca Raton was $1.59.

$1.59.

I'd chew off my left breast for $1.59 gas.

Music has changed, now. I just put on Weezers latest. The Red Album. To go along with the Green and Blue ones, of course. Love this one much. It's another road that Rivers is taking us on....kind of a sentimental journey of sorts, completely different from Make Believe but just as illicit. Standouts so far: "Dreamin'" and "Pig". And Rivers is sporting a really cool vintage 1890's cowboy type look, complete with OK Corral moustache. I'm digging it. But I always dig Rivers. He's distinctive. And his music gives me joy.

There's not been much else going on, besides the fact that I'm obviously still away from the computer much more than I used to be, and I do miss it. I just haven't had the oomph to sit and play at night, but I do have friends that I need to catch up with. Hi, friends!

So, I'll bring to a close this completely tedious and dreary entry with hopes that I'll have something more interesting to write about next time.

I'm such an apathetic ass!

I Know He's Dennis and Dee's Father Now But....

Had to take a moment and look up Stephen Collins as Jake Cutter, after the mention in yesterdays entry.

I had pretty good taste back then, I must say!




On my days off from skinny, angsty musicians, I go for the rugged, sturdy type.

Words Fail Me.....Sometimes

Last night, I was reading through some old stories that I've written, mostly short stories, or vignettes, I should say, because I rarely have time to get an entire story written out due to...well...life....and you know, I used to really have fun writing. There was one story in there, in particular, that I thought was really good, a little piece of fic that I'd written for a friend. I won't get into the details of it, but hot damn.....I did a good job on that one.

Another story in there is/was a longer piece of fanfic that I started that I still want to finish someday, and hopefully, I'll find the time here and there to do so. I'm sure by the time that happens, there won't be a soul alive interested in reading it, but at least I'll have the satisfaction of reading it myself.

I truly do wonder sometimes how long the actual fanfic genre has been acknowledged....whether it's just a virtual thing or if it was around in some form (besides in peoples personal lives) before that, because I recently found some stories I wrote while cleaning out my parents house (another whole blog in itself) from around 1982 and 1983, when I was 10 or 11. They were stories about that old show "Tales Of the Gold Monkey" which I was obsessed with (and YES, Stephen Collins as Jake Cutter was my first major celebrity crush). There were 4 or 5 short, but complete stories about adventures with Jake and I and the Golden Goose and the dog Jack....and I have to say, they weren't half bad. The female heroine of the show, Sarah, was "conspicuously" missing from all the stories.....a conscious decision of my adolescent brain, no doubt, because I'm quite sure I wanted Jake all to myself back then. Ah, the raging hormones of a 10 year old. Ick.

So anyway, it was pretty cool to find the stories (and many, many others) and realize that writing is something that I've always done, in some shape or form. At least I know that the person I am now is just the natural continuation of the person I was then. I'm just older, wiser, and have a better vocabulary. And much, MUCH more experience to draw on.

On a completely different note, I'm currently LOVING two new CD's I bought over the weekend: The White Stripes "Icky Thump" and Rivers Cuomo's "Alone". Pure musical happiness, let me tell you. "Icky Thump" just makes me want to get up and go seven ways of crazy and Jack White is all kinds of sexy. Rivers "Alone" CD is essentially an album of Weezer demo's, and I LOVE demo's. There's nothing better than witnessing first hand the evolution of a song, and Rivers has one of those flat out, open book, honest voices that I crave. There's not many that have them, but he's one. At least in my opinion. Anyway, this CD has a lot of demo's, some released before, some "leaked" over the years, but it's nice to have this compilation all together in one place. I'm a big Weezer fan, but I'd not heard many of these before.....thorough musical bliss!

And so, accompanied by good music, I am off to sojourn into the familiar territory of dinner preparation and home work supervision.

Until we blog again.

The Most Wonderful Time Of the Year...

So.

I'm back to work. Couldn't you tell? There hasn't been a blog here in like what....? A month and a half? I've been so freaking tired at night that I've consistently been in bed by 11:30. Me. In bed. 11:30. It's almost like an anomaly or something.

I started back to work the week leading up to Thanksgiving, doing something that I fell into completely by accident, but that I've ended up absolutely loving. I put my name in for substituting at a neighboring school district (my kids district wasn't hiring, unfortunately, but this district has essentially the same schedule) and within a week, I was interviewed for a substitute cafeteria position and within another week, I was made the head cook at the districts Intermediate School (grades 3-5), cooking lunch for 350 kids every day. Talk about a whirlwind.

Let me tell you, though. Being a sedentary creature for the last 5 years has NOT helped me prepare for this job. At all. I start at 9:00am every day, and I don't sit down until 1:30 when I climb into my car to go home. It's constant physical activity, which my body has taken it's own sweet time getting used to. The aches and pains and muscle strain the first couple of weeks was devastating, but I'm finally getting there. For anyone who anytime in their life has ever made fun of a cafeteria lady...take it back. Take it back now. There are no harder workers in ANY school anywhere than those that prepare that meal for those kids every day. I can say that now that I'm among their ranks. The job I do every day kicks my ass.

And I absolutely, positively LOVE IT. It's the best job I've ever done. Ever. Not only do I love the fast pace and the responsibility that I have, but I adore the women I work with. In a very short time we've become a well oiled machine, and better than that, we've become friends, which I'm sad to say, was something that was sorely lacking in my life. My real life anyway. I have cyber friends that I love dearly (and have neglected awfully lately. Me bad), but having that personal contact every day is something that I didn't realize I needed so much. I was becoming a bit of a Hermitt McDermitt in my own home, but thankfully, that's now been remedied. I can't live the life of a hermit. It's way too lonely. No offense to hermits.

Oh, and bringing home a paycheck again feels great. No complaints there.

The best part is that I leave after my kids leave and I'm home before they get home. They don't even miss me. I'm blessed. I truly did fall into the perfect job for me.

Oh...one more added perk. Since I've been busting my ass, running around like a mad woman, and drinking more water than I have in ages, I've managed to lose 12 pounds. Not bad!

So, we're 10 or so days away from Christmas again, I'm just about done shopping, and I'm dumbfounded that the holiday is upon us again already. It feels like once we get past Halloween, the time just flies. But it's good. Our tree is gorgeous and the kids are uber excited so it'll be fine. I'm just hoping that I have the oomph to do all the cooking that I normally do. I'm so whupped I don't want to do anything at night!

On a slightly sad note, one of our parakeets died on Sunday. My little Finback, aka Finn. Rest in peace, little fella. I loved you.

I feel like there was so much more that I wanted to write about, but now that I've sat and begun typing, it's all escaped me. It'll come back to me tonight when I'm lying in bed pondering my day, as so many things often do. Why is it that my best thinking comes on the brink of sleep instead of when my hands are on the keyboard?

I guess that's one of life's little mysteries best left unsolved.