Courtesy of our Best Friend, and photographer extraordinaire, Kevin Von Qualen. Google him and check out his site... he is AMAZING for weddings!
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Tis the season
In about another week, dear friends, I will embark on my first true effort at holiday sale maddness. I will become just another willing and even eager participant in the psychotic phenomenom otherwise known as "Black Friday".
For those of you who know me well, you probably realize how unusual this is for me. I typically am a little bit of a "crowd" snob and refuse to partake in the shopping craziness the day after Thanksgiving. In fact, the term "Black Friday", itself, was completely foreign to me. I thought it was just something that had to do with the Great Depression... but desperate times call for desperate measures, kids.
Let me explain. My husband and I have decided to make our first official "real" grown up purchase. Besides our couch. Which, upon further consideration, perhaps we should have waited on that purchase. At least until our puppy was full grown. But anyways...
Well, everyone, we are buying a flatscreen TV. A 42 inch LCD moniter with a special option that will tint the screen according to the level of natural light in the room. Yeah, I know... it's a pretty big freaking deal.
I'm not much of a TV person. I mean, we don't even have cable. But it is really starting to get on my nerves that the three or so hours a week that I spend watching television are constistently being interrupted by our screen going out. By going out, I mean, just that... going out somewhere. I don't know where, but we've discovered through good old fashioned trial and error that if we jump with both feet right in this particular spot in front of our couch, there is about a 87% success rate of having it come back.
Why get such a nice tv, you ask? Why the heck not? That's what my hubbie always says. In truth, we were looking at the 36 inch, but my father-in-law said "Why not just go for the 42 incher?" and Mike, being the easily persuaded man that he is decided that that was enough reason for him.
So a few months back I caved in and we went to work. We called up our respective parental units and explained that this year, all we want is money. Really. True, we've said it before and probably didn't really mean it, but this year we're legit. Then the real struggle began.
The last few weeks have been spent scoping out underground "pre-black" Friday websites and coupon centers during my lunch hours and previewing our picks on the store shelves in the evenings. We've narrowed it down to our top contender, but there is no way in heck that I am writing it out here, in case one of you are my competition come a week from Friday.
So there I will be, 3 am on Friday morning. Fighting my turkey hangover with a hot cup of dunkin dougnuts coffee and plotting our route through the aisles to our prize. Perhaps, if the "nutty holiday shopping gods", in which I don't, of course, believe in, smile upon us, I will have a success story to share with you all!
Wish us luck!
For those of you who know me well, you probably realize how unusual this is for me. I typically am a little bit of a "crowd" snob and refuse to partake in the shopping craziness the day after Thanksgiving. In fact, the term "Black Friday", itself, was completely foreign to me. I thought it was just something that had to do with the Great Depression... but desperate times call for desperate measures, kids.
Let me explain. My husband and I have decided to make our first official "real" grown up purchase. Besides our couch. Which, upon further consideration, perhaps we should have waited on that purchase. At least until our puppy was full grown. But anyways...
Well, everyone, we are buying a flatscreen TV. A 42 inch LCD moniter with a special option that will tint the screen according to the level of natural light in the room. Yeah, I know... it's a pretty big freaking deal.
I'm not much of a TV person. I mean, we don't even have cable. But it is really starting to get on my nerves that the three or so hours a week that I spend watching television are constistently being interrupted by our screen going out. By going out, I mean, just that... going out somewhere. I don't know where, but we've discovered through good old fashioned trial and error that if we jump with both feet right in this particular spot in front of our couch, there is about a 87% success rate of having it come back.
Why get such a nice tv, you ask? Why the heck not? That's what my hubbie always says. In truth, we were looking at the 36 inch, but my father-in-law said "Why not just go for the 42 incher?" and Mike, being the easily persuaded man that he is decided that that was enough reason for him.
So a few months back I caved in and we went to work. We called up our respective parental units and explained that this year, all we want is money. Really. True, we've said it before and probably didn't really mean it, but this year we're legit. Then the real struggle began.
The last few weeks have been spent scoping out underground "pre-black" Friday websites and coupon centers during my lunch hours and previewing our picks on the store shelves in the evenings. We've narrowed it down to our top contender, but there is no way in heck that I am writing it out here, in case one of you are my competition come a week from Friday.
So there I will be, 3 am on Friday morning. Fighting my turkey hangover with a hot cup of dunkin dougnuts coffee and plotting our route through the aisles to our prize. Perhaps, if the "nutty holiday shopping gods", in which I don't, of course, believe in, smile upon us, I will have a success story to share with you all!
Wish us luck!
Monday, October 29, 2007
This past weekend...
I am working on putting up pics on my blog of things I've been up to...
This is from this past weekend. Our old friends from college, the Katerbergs, and their little girl, Abbie came to stay with us. We spent a super fun and super tiring Saturday downtown racing around in trolleys and trains and splashing around in the water room! (be advised: wear the proffered rain coats if you take advantage of all the children's museum has to offer!) Since our trip was "kid themed", we invited my youngest brother and sister, James and Bridget along for all the crazy-hectic fun.
This photo is from Christmas Eve Eve- last year... when our best friends, the Vonqualens came out to celebrate the holidays with toasty warm holiday treats.I realize that we are only days from Halloween... and that that is a pretty big deal for lots of people...
But it isn't such a huge deal for me. I am, of course, looking forward to those cuter then cute trick-or-treaters showing up on my doorstep in want of neighborly enablers to support their sugar habits... and its been highly entertaining scrolling through my friends various websites and checking out their costumes from their last-weekend parties all across the continental US.
Nevertheless, I, personally, am very eagerly looking forward to the day AFTER Halloween. On the day after Halloween the radio will begin playing Christmas music (at least those special seasonal stations will), and the temperature will surely start to drop and I will begin baking and crafting and watching copious amounts of White Christmas and Eloise at Christmastime, starring my very most favorite birthday-sharing buddy, Julie Andrews in all her "Nanny" spendidness...
And I just get giddy thinking about it. The Holidays.
I. Love. The. Holidays.
I love them because they are a celebration of my Savior, Jesus' birth. I love them because we get to give presents. I love them because we hang sparkling white fairy lights everywhere that make the world seem all glittery and beautiful. I love them because I can giggle guiltlessly at the Christmas Lobster in Love Actually. I love them because for some reason unbeknownest to the general population, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is considered a Christmas movie and they even show that sweet kids movie on TV. I love them because we are permitted and even expected to completely gorge ourselves on high sugar, high fat, extra creamy, uber rich comfort foods.
I love them because it is a time of gratitude and fortitude and love and family and everything perfectly wonderful in the world..
If I had my say, Heaven would be a Currier and Ives Christmas Eve each and every day. And I am pretty sure that God reads my blog, so I think that it might be a done deal.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Anther milestone...
I have reached another milestone, my friends. I knew this was coming. In the back of my mind, I have been awaiting it's arrrival with bated breath. Dramatic, to be sure... but I can not say that I am exaggerating. Yesterday was a day like any other. Perhaps a little bit more dreary beause it was a Thursday, which happens to be my least favorite day of the week- but a typical day, nonetheless.
Until I came home and checked the mail.
An invite to my Godson's first birthday party was precariously perched right on top of that little pile of junk mail and Christmas catalogues.
I have been invited to a grown up birthday party for a little boy. It is one thing to have had close friends welcoming little babies into their families. It is quite another to be have those little babies become little kids and to have those little kids have birthday parties!
Don't get me wrong. As I type this, I am beaming. I am absolutely thrilled that Noah, who happens to be the absolute cutest little guy on the planet, is turning one. A little shocked that time has flown so quickly over the past year... but thrilled all the same.
It's just a milestone, that's all. I mean, this is my first time doing this. The first of many, to be sure... for another couple close to us just had their first child this past summer and our dear friends from the southside are welcoming their first any day now... So I will be a seasoned party attender before I know it. Life carries on... and before too too long I will start collecting consumer reports of which hot toys are the safest, and I will find myself fighting the nutty crowds the day after Thanksgiving in order to procure a tickle-me-elmo or whatever is hot these days, to send to my littlest friends. And I'm looking forward to it. Really!
But still, yikes. :)
Until I came home and checked the mail.
An invite to my Godson's first birthday party was precariously perched right on top of that little pile of junk mail and Christmas catalogues.
I have been invited to a grown up birthday party for a little boy. It is one thing to have had close friends welcoming little babies into their families. It is quite another to be have those little babies become little kids and to have those little kids have birthday parties!
Don't get me wrong. As I type this, I am beaming. I am absolutely thrilled that Noah, who happens to be the absolute cutest little guy on the planet, is turning one. A little shocked that time has flown so quickly over the past year... but thrilled all the same.
It's just a milestone, that's all. I mean, this is my first time doing this. The first of many, to be sure... for another couple close to us just had their first child this past summer and our dear friends from the southside are welcoming their first any day now... So I will be a seasoned party attender before I know it. Life carries on... and before too too long I will start collecting consumer reports of which hot toys are the safest, and I will find myself fighting the nutty crowds the day after Thanksgiving in order to procure a tickle-me-elmo or whatever is hot these days, to send to my littlest friends. And I'm looking forward to it. Really!
But still, yikes. :)
Monday, October 22, 2007
I heart Dumbledore.
"I always thought of Dumbledore as gay... Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. To an extent, do we say it excused Dumbledore a little more because falling in love can blind us to an extent? But, he met someone as brilliant as he was, and rather like Bellatrix he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him. Yeah, that's how i always saw Dumbledore."
-JK Rowling speaking at Carnagie Hall this past week
Of course. Of course. It is so obvious and perfect to me that Dumbledore would be gay. From the moment I first visualized his flambouyant purple suit in "The Half Blood Prince", I should have known it. I mean, it was blatently obvious that he and McGonagall never had anything going on... and not a single long-illusive mistress-in-hiding crashed his funeral, nor did anyone contact Rita Skeeter for an exclusive behind-the-wizard expose on his private affairs- which, given the drastic amount of digging around that our favorite love-to-hate reporter did in Dumbledore's past, one likely could have been coaxed out of hiding.
Did Rita Skeeter know that Dumbledore was gay? Did she recognize the relationship between the young Grindevald and Dumbledore for what it really was? I think yes. I think that she elluded to it... pretty obviously, too... but I am certain that, Harry, not inclined to read deep into romanticisms, would not of seen it for what it was. Hermione, yes, but not Harry. And what would that have mattered anyways? I don't think it would have made a difference. Harry was the King of Tolerance and he loved Dumbledore for loving him. As a son. Or grandson, or whatever.
Of course Dumbledore fell in love with Grindevald. And doesn't that just make everything all more tragic? It is one thing to be at war with your best friend, but quite another to be at war with your best friends and the love of your life. Was it mutual? I think it must have been at some level, for in the end, Grindevald refused to give Dumbledore over to Voldemort. His final, remorseful, act of love.
Love. The underlying theme to the entire Harry Potter universe. Love is the most powerful and misunderstood kind of magic. It can both make or break you.
Sometimes, as in the story of Dumbledore, it does both.
My complete respect goes out to JK Rowling. Personal beliefs aside, or perhaps, because of my beliefs, I say this... you have long written of tolerance, acceptance and unabashed love. You have taught generations to care and to stand up for what they believe through your charasmatic and reachable characters... my hypothetical hat goes off to you. Well done.
-JK Rowling speaking at Carnagie Hall this past week
Of course. Of course. It is so obvious and perfect to me that Dumbledore would be gay. From the moment I first visualized his flambouyant purple suit in "The Half Blood Prince", I should have known it. I mean, it was blatently obvious that he and McGonagall never had anything going on... and not a single long-illusive mistress-in-hiding crashed his funeral, nor did anyone contact Rita Skeeter for an exclusive behind-the-wizard expose on his private affairs- which, given the drastic amount of digging around that our favorite love-to-hate reporter did in Dumbledore's past, one likely could have been coaxed out of hiding.
Did Rita Skeeter know that Dumbledore was gay? Did she recognize the relationship between the young Grindevald and Dumbledore for what it really was? I think yes. I think that she elluded to it... pretty obviously, too... but I am certain that, Harry, not inclined to read deep into romanticisms, would not of seen it for what it was. Hermione, yes, but not Harry. And what would that have mattered anyways? I don't think it would have made a difference. Harry was the King of Tolerance and he loved Dumbledore for loving him. As a son. Or grandson, or whatever.
Of course Dumbledore fell in love with Grindevald. And doesn't that just make everything all more tragic? It is one thing to be at war with your best friend, but quite another to be at war with your best friends and the love of your life. Was it mutual? I think it must have been at some level, for in the end, Grindevald refused to give Dumbledore over to Voldemort. His final, remorseful, act of love.
Love. The underlying theme to the entire Harry Potter universe. Love is the most powerful and misunderstood kind of magic. It can both make or break you.
Sometimes, as in the story of Dumbledore, it does both.
My complete respect goes out to JK Rowling. Personal beliefs aside, or perhaps, because of my beliefs, I say this... you have long written of tolerance, acceptance and unabashed love. You have taught generations to care and to stand up for what they believe through your charasmatic and reachable characters... my hypothetical hat goes off to you. Well done.
Friday, October 19, 2007
In my defense.
"Why Georgia," by John Mayer
Might be a quarter-life crisis / Or just a stirrin' in my soul / Either way / I wonder sometimes / About the outcome / Of a still verdictless life / Am I living it right
I just wanted to defend myself to the masses for my teenie little breakdown earlier this month. I'm much better, now... by the way. I'm embracing my 25-ness. Except when I forget that I'm 25. I did do that the other day. There seems to be a mental block... but it was corrected. And I'm okay with it. I like being 25.
I. Like. Being. 25.
That being said, I ran across something today (okay, I'll admit, I googled it- to lead you to believe that it just jumped out at me would be blatent lie and I'm too old to tell white lies). Do me a favor and google "quarter life crisis" and click on the wikipedia link. Scroll down the "emotional aspects".
There. Uh huh. See! I knew it wasn't just me. There is a perfectly appropriate and psychologically recognizable reason for why I freaked out.
I can't say that everything has righted itself. I mean, I still feel a little displaced and unsure how to proceed in my life. But one thing that has occured to me (likely due to my new-found wisdom): I can no longer compare myself to my peers nor my parents. Times are different. Circumstances are varied.
Life works on a strictly case by case basis.
Might be a quarter-life crisis / Or just a stirrin' in my soul / Either way / I wonder sometimes / About the outcome / Of a still verdictless life / Am I living it right
I just wanted to defend myself to the masses for my teenie little breakdown earlier this month. I'm much better, now... by the way. I'm embracing my 25-ness. Except when I forget that I'm 25. I did do that the other day. There seems to be a mental block... but it was corrected. And I'm okay with it. I like being 25.
I. Like. Being. 25.
That being said, I ran across something today (okay, I'll admit, I googled it- to lead you to believe that it just jumped out at me would be blatent lie and I'm too old to tell white lies). Do me a favor and google "quarter life crisis" and click on the wikipedia link. Scroll down the "emotional aspects".
There. Uh huh. See! I knew it wasn't just me. There is a perfectly appropriate and psychologically recognizable reason for why I freaked out.
I can't say that everything has righted itself. I mean, I still feel a little displaced and unsure how to proceed in my life. But one thing that has occured to me (likely due to my new-found wisdom): I can no longer compare myself to my peers nor my parents. Times are different. Circumstances are varied.
Life works on a strictly case by case basis.
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