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.