Kong

So we saw King Kong last night, and what a good movie it was! Matt and I agree that they could have cut out some of the over the top special effects. But all in all, I thought it was such a great story. I mean, underneath that grizzly facade of catastrophic proportions, Kong really is cuddly and romantical. Poor misunderstood, Kong....*sigh*...

Starving...

Well, the leftovers are already gone! 6.5 pound holiday Ham: gone; Green been casserole: gone; Salad: gone; Pecan pie: gone; Cheese ball: gone. Now what the hell am I going to eat?!

Unbelievable!

What I don't understand is how in this day in age -- with cell phones, email, instant messengers, blogs-- how in the hell is it still impossible to get in touch with certain people. I just don't get it. I don't understand. I quit!

For A Lack Of Anything Better To Do...

Three Things About You....(Copy and Paste in your own blog)

Three Names You Go By
1. Marie
2. Ms. Harkins
3. Rie-Rie

Three Parts of Your Heritage
1. Irish
2. German
3. Native American (I don't' know, I just made that up..)

Three Things That Scare You
1. Unsolved Mysteries
2. Mice
3. Big cities

Three of Your Everyday Essentials
1. Lots and lots of Jergins Ultra Healing Lotion for Extra Dry Skin
2. My Diamond necklace
3. Some sort of bath and body works body spray

Three Things You Are Wearing Right Now
1. Sweat pants
2. T-shirt
3. undies

Three of Your Favorite Bands or Musical Artists:
1. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
2. Kings of Leon
3. Dave Matthews Band

Three Things You Want in a Relationship (other than Real Love)
1. Lots of laughter
2. Honesty and trust
3. Random acts of kindness

Two Truths and a Lie (in random order)
1. When I was a kid I watched wrestling and ate hot dogs in the middle of the night
2. I e-stalk people in my spare time
3. I am a size 4

Three Physical Things about the Opposite Sex that Appeal to You
1. Bright Eyes
2. Wide shoulders
3. A little scruffy facial hair (but not too much...There is a fine line between cute southern boy and scary grizzly man)

Three of Your Favorite Hobbies
1. Sleeping
2. Going out to eat
3. Spending time with the BF

Three Things You want to do really badly right now
1. Go to the gym
2. Have my apartment magically self-clean itself
3. I really feel like getting all dressed up going somewhere (but its like almost midnight on a Monday night and I have no friends)

Three Places You Want to go on Vacation
1. Skiing in Colorado
2. Vancouver
3. Paris

Three Things You Want to Do/Be Before You Die
1. Write a New York Times Bestseller
2. Get married and have 5 kids
3. Own my own business

Three Ways that you are stereotypically a boy/girl
1. I feel naked without make-up
2. I could easily kill a man for chocolate
3. I love to cook and bake
4.I can be a very clingy and needy girlfriend

Three Ways That You are Not a stereotypical Boy/ Girl
1. I hate to wear dresses and I can't walk in heels
2. I hate to shop for clothes
3. I don't like girly fruity drinks like cosmos or appletinis...I much prefer a Jim Beam and Coke or a nice cold beer.
4. I don't like to take baths

Merry After Christmas Sales...

Well, Christmas has come and gone. Its hard to believe; the holiday seems to get shorter and shorter each year. So this was my FIRST (and hopefully last) Christmas away from home. Don't get me wrong-I had a great Christmas: Matt and I FINALLY, after more than three collective years of dating, FINALLY spent a holiday together. Finally. And eventhough it was just the two of us, we pulled out all the holiday traditions: Decorating the tree, staying up late watching Christmas movies, matt even made a delicious cheese ball with his own two hands, waiting up for midnight mass, driving around looking at Christmas lights, waking up at the crack of dawn on Christmas day to eat cinnamon rolls and open presents and see what Santa left in out stockings, the taking of the Traditional Christmas Day Nap,and last, but not least, we ate a big Christmas dinner with ham and green been casserole and salad and pecan pie. And while that was just so much fun, there was one thing missing: noise. I missed having a whole bunch of drinking and laughing aunts and uncles and an army of cousins running around all hopped up on sugar and the Santa-Clause-Is-Coming-To-Town adrenaline. So lets just keep out fingers crossed that Matt gets out of the Army next December so that we can both be home for Christmas.

Another Life Lesson From The Mom: When you think your vacuum cleaner has exploded, it probably has not exploded, but it most definatly needs a new belt. Too bad I did not know this before I bought my new vacuum cleaner. However, I will say that my new vacuum (a Dirt Devil Featherweight: on sale at Target) is everything I have wanted and so much more; it makes me feel like a brand new woman!

4 Days Till Christmas!!!

So...the vacuum cleaner exploded today. It was not pretty. So this Christmas, I need a new vacuum cleaner. Am I old, or what?!

Ah, San Francisco...

This week was an episode straight out of Country Mouse goes to the City. Let's just say that San Francsico is overwhelming (Thank God Fiona was with me, or else I would still be in California lost on some public transit). There is just so much to see and do and not near enough hours in the day! Here is a list of what we acomplished in five short days: Wednesday we explored Union Square and all of its glorious shopping destinations-including the seven story mall of San Francisco and the four story Gap. That night we ate some of the best sushi of my life! Thursday we took a cable car through the city to Fisherman's Wharf. There we did more shopping, bought from fake Fendi sunglasses, took a ferry ride across the bay, and toured the Alcatraz prison. It could quite possibly be one of the creepiest things I have ever seen. This is a picture of me and Fiona on Alcatraz with the city of San Francisco behind us. On Friday we woke up before the sun and picked up a rental car from the airport. We imediatly proceeded to get lost and ended up driving through the crazy-trafficy-city-bus-and-cable-car-ridden-unusually-narrow city streets of downtown San Francisco. (Good Times) After we survived that, we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge--unfortunatly, it was so foggy we could not see the top.

Then we drove to Sanoma, did some outlet mall shopping, and went to a spa for massages. The rest of the afternoon was spent at Buena Vista, California's first winery. We took a tour and drank a couple glasses of complementary chardonnay. It was delicious! Then our guide took us to this dining room, where we tasted more wine and cheese and nuts and chocolates. It was the best $15 I ever spent! On Saturday, we slept in and woke up to find that it was defiantly raining outside. However, we still ventured out to Golden Gate Park, Haight-Ashbury, and Chinatown (I am not sure what I was expecting, but it was not as impressive as I thought it was going to be). Sunday was the day of Airport chaos. First of all, it was thunderstorming and raining buckets from the get-go, so we couldn't really do anything in the city anyways. To top it all off, our flights weren't scheduled until 6 pm. Now, that wouldn't have been so bad if it were not for the numerous airport delays. I think we finally left SFO around 9:15ish. That's right, our delay was longer than our flight time. But all-in-all, the trip was amazing. I have decided though, that I will always be a small town kinda gal; the big cities are fine for vacations and such, but I want to live in a town that is just a few backstreets wide.

My Dad, My Hero

Funny Story: Several nights ago, I woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee. Much to my dismay, I flipped the switch in the bathroom, and nothing. (It's okay, I peed in the dark.) So, in the morning, I try changing the light bulb, and nothing. I even went as far as to open the fuse box. At this point I had exhaughsted all my knowledge about home repair. Still, no lights, and what is more, my electrical outlets were not working either. After about three days of doing my business in the dark and blow drying my hair in the kitchen, I call up Daddy, my hero. Before I can even open my mouth Dad says, "You've tripped a ground fault." And over the phone he led me to this tiny--practically invisible--button right there between the two electrical outlets. WHO KNEW!!!! Now, everything is working as it should, and it was such a simple fix. What a great life lesson...

A year ago this morning, Matt was getting on a plane to Afghanistan. It's hard to believe it has been a whole year because it feels like just yesterday. Anyhow, I am very thankful that he is safe and sound and with me this Christmas. (I love you, Matt!)

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

So there is this radio station in town that plays Christmas music 24 hours a day! It makes me oh-so-happy and full of Christmas Spirit. Currently, my favorite Christmas song is Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas --the Frank Sinatra version, of course. It's just so pretty. So I pose the question to you: What is your favorite Christmas song?

Monday...

I love not going to work! This being a teacher thing is just great! I had the oil changed, went to the gym, did the laundry, wrapped Christmas presents, finished writing out Christmas cards, baked cookies, and even had time for a nap, PLUS the day is still young! Look at how productive I can be when they don't make me work!

Also, my cousin Kate is engaged to be married. Congratulations Kate and Eli! (And thank God for facebook, without it, I may have never heard the news! Mamaw is really slacking on the gossip.)

Lucy and the Shepherd Boy...

Lucy has a confession to make: She is in love with the little shepherd boy. So Matt made sure that we put a manger under the Christmas tree, and ever since its introduction, my Lucy-Cat has been enamored with it--especially the shepherd boy. Sometimes I catch her sneaking under the tree to eat some more of the moss off the manger. And without fail....the next time I turn around, Lucy has that little shepherd boy between her paws and she is licking his face.
Come on, Lucy, Santa saw that!

JUST THREE MORE WEEKS....

This weekend was just full of holiday festivities: Matt and I went out and bought Christmas decorations. We found the best little tree and carefully picked out all the trimmings. We even put candy canes on the tree. I think there was only one Christmas that I can recall where Mom put candy canes on the tree. And I do believe my sister and brother and I successfully ate all the decorations within the first few days (long before the Family Christmas Party, for which the canes were intended). I guess when you are a kid there is just something astounding about the idea of candy growing on trees right in your living room--No self respecting small child can resist. Needless to say, I don't ever recall another candy caned Christmas Tree....until now. My new favorite past-time is visiting with my beautiful tree and eating 'canes.

So Saturday night Matt and I put on some classic Christmas music and decorated the tree (becuase trees cannot be trimmed in broad day light). It was so much fun. And then we watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and ate butter/cheese/carmel popcorn. What a festive weekend!