Well, tonight DS and I finally got around to going Christmas light looking.  What?  Don't look at me like that.  There were mitigating circumstances.  Like impenetrable fog for a week, and DS falling asleep when the sun set.  

At any rate, tonight we went.  We found more than we have in past years, now that we live in a slightly different part of town.  As it turns out though, the only thing we found worthy of getting out of the car to photograph had less to do with lights and more to do with sheer awesomeness.

Yeah, that's right.  That's an IGLOO!  I probably couldn't fit inside comfortably, but children could.  We were in total awe.  (hmm.. awe.. awesome.. yes, those words go together perfectly here, and not just in the middle school "cool" sort of way... sometimes I find words fascinating long after I should have realized their true meanings...)

I made 8 different kinds of cookies yesterday.  EIGHT!  If you want some cookies, come on over, because I have plenty.  Sometimes I get carried away.  Maybe I still am, because the only reason I stopped was because I ran out of vanilla and butter.  It's hard to make cookies without those two things.  But I still want to try making cashew brittle, and it's just wrong to make cookies without including chocolate chips.  There's also a batch of dough in the fridge that just needs to be rolled out so I can put jelly in them, fold them, and bake them.  Yum!  Being on vacation rocks.

The only other thing happening is this:  My Brother's Birthday!!  Happy Birthday Brother!!

Merry Christmas!!

Santa brought Winston and Felix an array of goodies!  Look at all of those new toys!

Felix is very fond of their new cat bed.

Winston was interested at first, but quickly went back to his old standby.

Look at him go!  Can you see the little pink and white mouse he's after?

This is his favorite game, and he is taking full advantage of DS being home this week.

As for DS and I, we used our Christmas money to get a new HDTV!  It's not here yet, but we're trying very hard to be patient.  We also got each other some books and video games.  We thought it was pretty funny that we both got each other such similar things.

Now, I'm going to make a BUNCH of Christmas cookies, because I love doing that, and DS is going to make me a roast chicken!  We're loving our first Christmas at home, and we hope you're having a wonderful time wherever you are too!

Merry Christmas!

5 Days 'til Christmas

Work is stressful at the moment, as I have a deadline on Jan 4th, but am about to be off for 11 days straight... which really means I'll just be working from home during my vacation some. Feeling responsible can really suck sometimes.

At any rate, between that and the following things, I've been both busy, somewhat stressed, and scarce. Here's a rundown.

DS was forced into attending graduation by his mother and I.

It was by far the best graduation I've ever attended: short, painless, and the guest speaker was even pretty funny.

Of course, I then had to make DS pose, which he refuses to do with any sincerity. But I'm okay with it, because this picture cracks me up.

Once the rest of his family left, we took his mom to the zoo.
Seals are pretty darn funny when they're flopping around on dry ground.

Of course, the main reason I wanted to take her is that the polar bears become hilarious once it starts snowing. This guy just flops around on his belly looking so content, and then he'll slide down the rocks on his back. Totally worth going just for that alone.

She was also excited to see actual icicles on people's houses.

She asked me to design an ornament for her with her dogs Jake and Willard in it. I was pretty proud of the results, so I'm showing it off.
And finally, I fulfilled a long-standing dream of mine and designed a 3d Sleep Goblin. You know you want one!! And if not, I do, which means I have to make another, cause this was a gift.

12 Days 'til Christmas

My friend Luke has a window office on the third floor at work (that's as high as it goes).  We think he might be on his way to have the world's largest icicle hanging from the roof above him.  It goes well down into the second floor level.  The girl in the office below him looks out at the bottom.  

I have to wonder about the quality of our drainage system, because the entire campus is covered in stuff like this...  Not that I'm complaining, it looks really cool.  Of course, they also have to close the courtyard from time to time because they start falling and it's quite possible something of this size would kill you.

I finally got DS to let me buy a bunch of Christmas candy.  I love this stuff!!  Also, it looks really cool as a desktop wallpaper.  I won't be offended if you download it ;)

13 Days 'til Christmas

The mystery has been solved!  It was indeed ordered from a person and not a store.  Thanks sister of DS!!

So my guesstimate is that it's snowed roughly every 3 days since Thanksgiving.  I'd say we have at least a foot of snow, and it hasn't been above freezing in a few weeks now.  This is why I love living here!  It's like the prettiest Christmas card you ever saw, with all the evergreen trees covered in snow.  Especially when people put lights on the outdoor trees.  AWESOME!

I'm pretty much in heaven here.  Which I could say the same for DS.... He's lamenting his inability to climb outdoors in this weather.  He really needs new hobbies.

15 Days 'til Christmas

Holy Crap!

Apparently I have a [not so] secret admirer of some sort.  I received a package today from someone in Minnesota.  No note, no card, just a return address and a last name on the envelope.  At first I was sure that DS had ordered me something for Christmas using some account that had it ship directly to me.  Feeling as if I had spoiled a Christmas surprise, I took him the envelope in shame.  But no!  It was not from him!

That means it was from someone else.  Either someone in MN (which seems highly unlikely unless you just haven't really made yourself know, since the only person that I actually know in MN lives in Minneapolis), or someone from anywhere else that used the Amazon's "buy from other people" option.

Who is it?!  I want to thank you!!  

19 Days 'til Christmas

Dude.  I am a horrible wife....  Somehow I forgot to announce that DS gave his defense on Monday, and is now officially Dr. DS!!  (Maybe not so horrible, I did go watch it, and carry all that food he bought and no one ate up 3 flights of stairs.)

Sometime ago, maybe this summer, I bought him a shirt from Dinosaur Comics.  My only caveat was that he had to wear it under his suit during his defense.  He did :)

I present to you:

Professor Science!!

This image and Dinosaur Comics are copyright Ryan North.  

Go read it, it's totally awesome.

This is an old picture, but you get the idea.

21 Days 'til Christmas

More snow was dumped on us yesterday, and I believe more is on the way throughout the week.  Man I love living here!  This year, our families are coming to us, and I have a feeling they won't be so happy.  They all come from much warmer climates...  Don't you just love the way the snow clings to the greenery?  All the fir and pine trees around here look AWESOME!

In store news, the ornaments are now officially posted there*.  So if you don't know my e-mail address but would still like one, you can go there.  It uses PayPal.  I'm also working on some festive earrings.  Nothing overly Christmas-y, but I think they'll be great for holiday parties (and maybe all parties)!

*Click on the SG photo!

23 Days 'til Christmas

They're here!!  Send me an e-mail if you'd like one this year!

Also, in case you don't know, I do take special requests for ornaments.  So if you want something special for a gift or yourself, just let me know.

Wonderful Things

1. Several of my work friends have a tradition of "trashing" a co-worker's office on their birthday. Plans are made in secret, and all work is done after the co-worker has left so they'll be surprised the morning of their birthday. This week was Jim's birthday, and he came in to 3 feet of balloons. Check out that static*! 286 balloons are good for that.

2. I have a large marker board in my office. When it's not full of ideas for work projects, people draw on it. This image started with the sailboat, then came the guy falling off and a shark eating his leg. A few days later, a turtle was eating a shark, and then a whale was eating the turtle. Then Jonah appeared, and then an alien "fishing" for the whale. What I love most is that I never asked any of these people to add to the drawing, it just happened. Often when I wasn't in the room.

3. It's snowing. Hard. And the winter storm warning doesn't even start for several more hours. I love winter!!

4. We put up our Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving as usual while we watched Christmas Vacation. This year I bought extra plug timers so I don't have to turn on or off any of my lights. They're on when I get home from work, and go off some time after I fall asleep. Aside from the fact that we can't keep Winston from chewing on the tree (that crazy cat likes to chew on plastic.. makes me almost wish we'd gotten a real tree), I'd say our new apartment is a decorating success! Also, Winston would like to start the countdown to Christmas!


* Image may require enlarging to see static effects.

Not that selfish

If you've noticed that I moved the buy me stuff section closer to the top, you might be wondering when I became so selfish (or something along those lines). I assure you, I'm not expecting you all to buy me stuff. But when your own husband claims he's never heard of your long-existing Christmas list, it's time to make sure people can find it.

So yeah, you don't have to buy me stuff. Of course, I'm not going to stop you either ;)

Do it!

You can do it too! My store make it easy. So does this one.

MMMMmmmmm!

Every year DS frets about making a turkey.  He spends a few days scouring the internet for recipes because he can't find the one he'd used the year before.  One of these times you'd think he'd save the thing.

This year was no different.  He finally settled on an Alton Brown recipe that involved brining, which is something we've never done before.  He planned the timing of everything pretty well, so that all the different foods finished about the same time (except the mashed potatoes, which was really my fault).  He even managed to do all of this while talking to the five million people that called us on Thursday.

As usual, he had no reason to worry.  This turkey was sooo moist and delicious!  Even now, three days later, it's still scrumptious.  He's so awesome!

Look at that spread!  We found this really good stuffing that came in a bag.  It had cranberries in it, which turned out to be great.  I'll have to see if they sell that stuff year round.

I was in charge of the pumpkin pie, as usual.  I attempted to bake my own pie crust this year, and failed.  I think I was close.  I messed up somewhere around the refrigerating and parchment paper and beans part.  It tasted okay after it came out of the oven, but the parchment paper didn't want to separate so my crust had holes in the bottom.  Not so good for holding pie.  Luckily, I had some chocolate crumb crusts in the cabinet, which turned out to go pretty well with the pumpkin pie.  Crisis averted!

Meanwhile, Winston is trying to remember what it was like to enjoy snow.  He's currently in the "what the hell is this cold crap?" phase.  

First Snow

People keep asking me if DS and I are going home for Thanksgiving. They always seemed shocked when I tell them that DS refuses to travel for Thanksgiving. Then I explain the severely bad luck he's had traveling on this particular holiday, and they seem to get it. I'm talking sleeping in the Detroit airport, and getting stranded in the part of Illinois that is 40 miles between exits and you're not even guaranteed it will have anything more than a grain silo.

And wouldn't you know it? The day before Thanksgiving we get our first snow! I'm sooo glad we're staying home!

Go ahead and look at that house across the street. Those lights went up the day after Halloween. HALLOWEEN!!!

1. Dizziness did not rear it's ugly head today. Score!
2. DS finished his thesis. I'm hoping this means a return to his sanity.
3. I am disturbed by the number of houses in my neighborhood that put up their Christmas decorations the day after Halloween.
4. I updated the store!
5. Trying to decide on an ornament design for this year. Feel free to suggest some things!
6. Still have quite a few from last year if you're interested.
7. My best friend just got engaged!!!!!!!

Summary: Things just might be on the up and up. Hoorah!

Almost There

I learned what withdrawal-induced rage was yesterday. I'm very lucky that DS is such a wonderful husband...

My night was filled with such vivid dreams that I never felt as if I were sleeping. I also woke up after every one.

I'm sure that didn't help how I felt when I finally got up this morning. Usually the dizziness had come on sometime after lunch, but it was already there when I woke.

Luckily, it wore off a couple of hours later, and I've been mostly fine ever since. Maybe I'm about done with this crap!

Screw you GSK

Have you ever felt like your head was going to roll off your shoulders if you weren't careful? I'm not talking about because you're tired, or you have a headache or something. I mean like your head is a bowling ball that rests on a very small pedestal, and the tiniest wrong movement will send it cascading to the floor.

Yeah, that's how I feel. Also dizzy, nauseous, hot, cold, confused, disoriented. The more I try to focus on something with my eyes, the more I have this strong feeling that my eyes are flitting from side to side.

It's not that I was oblivious to the fact that Paxil has some withdrawal symptoms. At least, I knew I wasn't supposed to stop it cold turkey. But seriously, someone could have freakin told me that they included things like this. My doctor is tapering my dose, which means every week, I feel like crap all over again.

So now, I'm trying really hard to keep working through all of this, which is especially difficult since my entire job is me staring intently at a computer screen. That happens to be the thing that makes all of my symptoms worse. If I lie down and close my eyes, I feel a little better. The minute I have to focus on something, twitter eyes.

I'd write a nasty letter to the people that make Paxil, but I'm told there are already class action lawsuits against them. I'm not saying they have to stop making their stuff, because it does do some good. But really, they should have to let you know all the crap you'll go through when you decide to stop. Because I'm pretty sure I would have told my doctor she could find another one of the countless anti-depressants to put me on.

I love you Tori!!

Saturday evening, my friend Renae and I went to see Tori Amos in concert. It was at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee. While I can't say that it's the most beautiful theater I've ever been to*, it's definitely up there.

A chandelier inside the theater.

As it turns out, Tori is difficult to photograph from afar when it's dark and you can't hold your camera steady.

It's so hot when she plays two pianos at once!

There were some pretty cool lighting effects. This was one of my favorites.

This picture is actually clear. I was playing with the manual settings on my camera, something I've never really done before. I have absolutely no idea what they do, and no idea what I did to make this happen. Anyway, it was pretty awesome.

*Somewhere around the Fall of 2000 I believe, I saw Tori at the Fox Theater in St. Louis. Pure Bliss!

Pictures at last

I decided to take full advantage of iLife '08 (one of my birthday presents from DS). Instead of uploading a bunch of pictures that will take up a ton of space, I made a little movie. Here are a selection of pictures from the last couple of months. Some things I've talked about already, so they may sound familiar, but I'm a big fan of photos.

*grumble* The quality isn't nearly as nice as it was on my computer. *le sigh*
Also, I don't know what happened to Winston, so here you go.

Check In

I have lots of catching up to do, but not a lot of time to do it. Short version: therapy still sucks, though I finally said so, so maybe it will get better; work is going well; DS has set a date for his defense!; have a new friend; went camping; my 1-year wedding anniversary is next week; DS and I had birthdays;

Prolly more stuff, but I can't thing. JB's parents are in town, so we're going to dinner with them tonight. I'll try to post more soon, and with pictures too.

time for some cuddly kitty action

Mandala Therapy

My birthday present from my best friend from home, Kel, was a Mandala meditation kit. According to the book, simply coloring these designs will help me be calm and centered. I spent the last two days doing this one. Now I'm supposed to meditate on the end result.

Say it with me

Well, my therapist says that while I definitely have aspects, I do not have full blown borderline personality disorder. So that's good. He doesn't have the ability to prescribe meds though, so I'm seeing a psychiatrist sometime next month. My regular doctor doesn't think Paxil is my best option any more. That is both terrifying and a relief.

What my therapist can do is give me mantras to say to myself when I get upset. Supposedly, these will allow me to just be regular ol' sad and not depressed.

So say it with me!
"I am both lovable and have issues"
"Not everything that makes me happy hurts other people"

ZZZZzzzzzz....

Valium... sleepy...

Texas is a hot and dusty state

I learned a very important thing about myself this weekend. I do not belong at three-day music festivals, especially in Texas.

Highlights:
1. Saw Bjork. Totally freakin awesome. There's nothing cuter than that woman saying thank you after each song.
2. Learned I can actually appreciate meat when it's cut and cooked properly. Which means everything else I've ever had has been a sorry excuse for meat...

Drawbacks:
1. Got lots of blisters on my feet.
2. Learned Sleep Number beds are the worst beds known to man. How the heck do people sleep on those things? I've never woken up so sore in my life.
3. I'm allergic to Texas. I needed my inhaler just to breathe by the end of the trip.
4. Had a panic attack Sunday night. And then again this morning. An awesome new development in my deteriorating mental state.
5. Was the source of a fight between my two best friends, the result of which is that I feel as if I've lost them both. Options: Stick around and be the source of jealousy and friction or leave and lose my two best friends. Just great.

Conclusion:
I'm miserable. I want to go to sleep and never wake up. Seriously. I feel like hyperventilating everytime I leave my apartment, or just thinking about leaving my apartment. And I'm not allowed to die, according to DS, so I'm waiting on a phone call from my doctor who seems to be too busy to help me.

Yup, Texas sucks ass. I'm going to go bury myself in my bed.

Catch up

Lots of this on my blog lately.... sorry guys.

1. Saw the Flaming Lips for free. Dude walked over the crowd in a giant bubble. Nutso, yet totally awesome.

2. Going to therapy. So far it sucks. Trying to hold out for the making me feel better part.

3. Heading to Austin, Tx tomorrow for the ACL music festival. Driving... Let's hope I have enough books and cd's to make it there an back with my sanity intact.

4. Have finally gotten DS to enjoy reading, more than 8 sentences at a time. He's plowing through Harry Potter books. In fact, he's read 4 books in the last month alone, and one was a random book about tree climbers. I think aliens have stolen my husband.

5. Did you know there's an OCD dedicated specifically to peeling off your own skin? It's called dermatillomania, and I'm pretty sure I have it. At least, I have to wear band-aids on my thumbs to keep from picking, because even bleeding doesn't deter me. EW.

6. There's a similar disorder related to pulling out your own hair. Can't really put a band-aid on that, so I feel lucky.

7. My birthday's tomorrow, and I will officially (in my mind) no longer be what I consider a "young adult". I'm not worried though, because I'm young no matter what my age. My blankey says so. 26, here I come!

8. I go through phases with my satellite radio, and I'm re-falling in love with channel 26, Left of Center.

9. The high today was 66. I think fall is finally coming. I can't tell you how happy this makes me.

10. Of course, it's slightly tainted by the 90 degree weather I'm about to drive into.

11. I'm about to start listening to the Count of Monte Cristo on my ipod. I hope it's as awesome as my friend Anne says it is.

12. Speaking of books, I started my own book club. It's called "let's get drunk and talk about books". So far, we've read Stardust, and I believe we got as far as "who was your favorite character" before we moved on to playing boardgames.

13. I'm cool with that, because at least it got people to come to my house.

14. I've finally decided it might be worthwhile to learn to cook.

15. I blame Alton Brown for this. And also Matt and Anne, who made me the most amazing baked macaroni and cheese I've ever had in my entire life.

16. As it turns out, I can sautee a mean shrimp, and mash a mean potato. DS is quite pleased with this prospect.

17. Might be gone for a while, but don't worry. I'm sure I'll be fine, just busy or something. If you know my e-mail address, feel free to use it. I check that everyday. If you have facebook or myspace or anything along those lines, don't expect fast responses. I've been internet lazy lately.

OCD is a weird disease

Okay, so I found this book in the craft section of Barnes and Noble the other day. It didn't take long to know that I had to own it.

It's called "Wreck this Journal: To Create is to Destroy", by Keri Smith, and it's basically a "journal" of sorts, but the kind where each page is an opportunity to do damage to the book. For example, one page instructs me to tie a string around the spine of the book and take it for a walk, letting it drag along behind me.

This book is pure genius, and is perfect for someone like me. I like to consider myself an artist, but in truth I create very little. I stare at a blank canvas and agonize about what to put on it, afraid to taint it with anything less than perfect. Unless an idea is clear and distinct in my head, and I know it's something I can do, I don't create much of anything. I never just let my imagination go without restraint.

However, this book is an exercise in destroying; in purposefully making something NOT perfect. And in the process, I hope, my creativity can take flight, and my canvases will not be blank.

Here's where my OCD comes in. There are pages that tell me to eat things that stain and then paint with my tongue, or document what I had for dinner by actually smearing parts of it into the page. But today I discovered that I had done this by accident, and I was devastated. The book had been in my canvas tote bag, where yesterday a small to-go box full of sweet potato fries had also been. Apparently, one of those fries escaped, and hid itself in my book. Now there are grease blots covering a good 15 pages, and I cannot bear to look. DS laughed and told me how ridiculous I was being, and he's right. It is, after all, the point. But somehow the accidental destruction of my book is much different than the intentional destruction of my book...

Well, as the warning at the front of the book says, "You may grieve for the perfect state that you found the book in." And it's true, I do. But it also says, "You may begin to see creative destruction everywhere. You may begin to live more recklessly." So I shall attempt to use this as a creative opportunity.

I have such faith in the concept of this book that I want to start buying it for every person I know who's even the slightest bit creative. And even for people who aren't necessarily creative. And especially for people with a tendency towards perfectionism, like myself.

If you feel like you need a little creative destructivism in your life, or maybe you just need something that's okay to destroy to release some tension, you can get the book here.

Not a month! Ha!

I know what you all were thinking. "It's almost been a whole month since she's updated! A few more days, and I'm calling her on it." Beat ya to it, suckers!

I'm moved in, I love my apartment, and I'm too lazy to take pictures and upload them. The cats used the move as an excuse to find new ways to annoy us.. like waking me up at 3:30 am. Every. Morning.

Here are some random lists. Just cause.

Top 5 Songs That Keep Running Through My Head and Making me Want to Kill Myself:

1. The Farmer in the Dell (specifically, the line of "The cheese stands alone")
2. There was an old lady who swallowed a fly
3. Party - Nelly Furtado
4. Maybe it's only those three... but I think the cheese stands alone over and over and over counts as three.

Top 5 Things Currently Swallowing my Time

1. August 30th deadline at work (10 + hour days and weekends sometimes too... YUCK)
2. Photoshop on my mac = heaven
3. Setting up a dedicated craft space. Now who's going to tell me to clean up my mess? Nobody, that's who!
4. Reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman, and in fact, Neil Gamon's books in general. Pure genious.
5. Rome, Season 1. Holy Crap. Why have I never had HBO?

A whirlwind photo tour of the last two weeks

Saturday, July 14th:

Anne and I had a full out girly sleepover, complete with SIX girly movies watched, and popcorn made on the stove.

Here you can see our nest: an inflatable bed nestled within an L-shaped couch. We gave ourselves pedicures, and invented new margarita flavors. Blackberry margaritas made from frozen blackberries = awesome, until you get to the bottom and start swallowing seeds.

Sunday, July 15th:

While waiting to be picked up by Matt and Nathan, I took pictures of the landscaping around Anne's totally sweet apartment.

More awesome flowers.

No trip to Milwaukee is complete anymore without stopping at the gas station zoo. This rooster was thoroughly confused and crowing around lunch time.

This was bought at the gas station zoo. When you push his stomach, he lets out a very long maniacal laugh. That and his plastic face make this perhaps the creepiest keychain I've ever seen in my life.

The first of two weeks of Brewers games, this is Anne's brother, Nathan. Or as DS still lovingly calls him after I spent Easter with Anne's family, Jerk-athan. I inadvertently made his most favorite dessert of all time, made from scratch lemon bars. He was in heaven.

This was completely unacceptable. Aside from the fact that this is a Boston Red Sox hat, which in my house is treason on it's own, its a PINK Red Sox BEANIE that's much too small for his head. It just flopped around through the whole game. I wanted to shove it in his nachos. I have issues with team paraphernalia that's not in team colors.

Anne is in love with Prince Fielder. We call him her MLB boyfriend.

Wednesday, July 18th:

At the last weekly movie night, where DS, Matt, Dave, me, and now Gloria meet up at Anne's to watch either a movie or a tv series (past shows: Battlestar Galactica and Firefly), we noticed something crawling over the neighbor's roof. Sure enough, it was five raccoons coming out of the vent in the roof. Only Jesse could fully appreciate how funny this is.

Friday, July 20th:

I took this picture when I found my cats sleeping, Felix with her leg over Winston. I was inspired by how much they love each other. Of course, mid-shot they start to wake up, and instead I get Felix yawning, but looking like she's going to eat me. Kinda cool, but not the loving shot I was going for.

DS and I found a "hiking trail" while at Lindsey's wedding reception. It was really just a mowed path around a bunch of corn fields, but I did manage to take some pretty awesome shots as the sun was setting. This one is my favorite.

Saturday, July 21st:

We're on our way to the annual company picnic at Devil's Lake, also know as the "Epicnic". (pronounced epic-nic; they're so clever...) Matt, Gloria and I squished in the back seat of DS's car, while I attempted to have a picture of Matt giving a real smile. Obviously, it didn't work out too well.

This is Gloria. You haven't met her yet, mostly because I've only recently met her myself. The whole past year I've been at my new job, she's been working from Sweden. SWEDEN! But now she's back, and she's Anne's good friend, and now I know that I love her. Here, she's eating steak and lobster at the picnic, and has wrapped her neverending napkin around her like a scarf. She has style!

DS climbed the "impossible" climbing wall, winning himself a free $20. He was only the second person to do it that day.

Don't Anne and Gloria look so happy in this picture? The crowd behind them is for the annual tug o'war competition, for which we missed our turn while watching DS climb. We didn't really mind.

After the picnic, we explored Parfrey's Glen, Wisconsin's very first Nature Reserve. I love how Matt looks like a giant in this photo.

Sunday, July 22nd:

Anne, beautiful as she is, is merely posing as a diversion for the real subject of the photo: the man in the background and his amazing beard. Brewers' games are always exciting, more so when you go back to back Sundays.

Everyone knows the best part of a Brewers game is the sausage race. On Sundays, they do a relay with the "little weenies". DS laughed a long time over this. He's very mature.

Exhausted from a fun-filled weekend, even the conclusion of Harry Potter couldn't keep me awake.