I think jparks and I are finally accepting the fact that we will not be able to fly home to NOLA for Christmas. I had pretty much given the dream up when we returned from Ireland and the economy took a sudden hit, but jparks was still holding out. When my grandfather passed away that was the final nail in the coffin. (what, I thought it was funny. Also, I am sick) We spent so much money flying home for the funeral that there was really no chance we would be able to afford to make the trip again, two months later. Also, I’m currently negative 34 hours into my vacation time at work. As in, I won’t be seeing an hour of vacation for months. I check that line of my paycheck every payday and watching the number slowly creep back to zero is killing me.

But the good news is that since we won’t be out of town I can get a Christmas tree. Like a real one, not a pink one that makes jparks rant about how I should remember that a man lives in the house too. I’m also putting twinkle lights on my porch. And possibly reindeer horns on Lily.

Of course, since we usually go out of town for the holidays, I have no ornaments or twinkle lights. So today I went to Target to check out my options and, OMG, my options are endless. I’m not going to go inflatable decoration levels of crazy, but I am going to buy the fancy led twinkle lights. And I’m going to attempt to make some of my own ornaments, complete with crazy levels of glitter and sparkly adornments.

Because nothing fills the void of not seeing your family at the holidays like led lights and glitter. Also, I think all of the mulled wine I plan on drinking is going to help too.

You can all probably guess that I didn’t have a relaxing weekend. I stayed tied to my computer, as much as possible, constantly refreshing two sites, trying to get the most up to date information available. It seems Gustav was bad, but not as devastating as we were all expecting. Don’t get me wrong, things are not great in New Orleans and it’s surrounding areas, but we’re far from the worst possible outcome of a hurricane Gustav’s size.

And while I did stay online way more than necassary, I knew that I had to cut the cord occasionally or else jparks would be dealing with post-Katrina freaked out Regan, and that’s not good for anyone. So, in order to distract myself some, jparks and I had a movie marathon weekend. On Saturday we were the last two people in the world to go see The Dark Night. And while it was good, it made me nervous. Like, not able to watch the screen, tapping my foot, poking at jparks nervous. After the movie we walked around Great Mall, which is so much fun because jparks can’t stand all the people that are there not shopping, but just aimlessly wandering around, cutting each other off, and generally being pains in the asses. He so can not handle these people and his reaction to them is free entertainment at it’s finest.

On Sunday we went to San Francisco and I ran 18 miles while jparks rode his bike. On the way home I ate a chipotle burrito in record time. Seriously, I killed the burrito in less than 10 minutes. I knew I would be hungry post-run, but I didn’t really expect to be that hungry. Also, it was the best burrito I have ever consumed and I’ve consumed a hell of a a lot of burritos. After digesting the burrito we went and saw Tropic Thunder, which I had my doubts about, but really, go see it. Right now. That was followed by tapas with friends and, if you’re judging me for the amount of food I ate on Sunday, let me remind you that I ran EIGHTEEN (18) ((10 plus another 8)) (a whole butt load) miles. I could have eaten a whole cake and it would have been acceptable.

Today jparks and I finally got updates from our families back home and they are all out of power but generally okay. Our friends that evacuated haven’t been able to go home yet, but from the news reports, I’m betting their houses will be okay. I spent the afternoon roasting a chicken and making a cake because I am Martha Stewart and Betty Crocker in one body. I had no idea that roasting a chicken was so easy because I am dumb. I shoved a couple of lemons up the chicken’s butt, stuck it in the oven, and less than an hour later we had some good eats. It’s safe to say that roasted chicken has earned a spot in the regular cooking rotation.

And now it’s time for bed. Because that much running really does leave you tired for at least two days and honestly, I didn’t sleep that well last night. I felt compelled to stay up hitting refresh for half the night. You know, because that accomplishes so much.

Is there anyone out there that thought I was still young, cool, and hip? Yeah? Heh, let me provide just how silly of a thought that is.

Last night, on New Year’s Eve, the biggest party night of the year, jparks and I hung out with some good friends and welcomed the new year by watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and playing Guitar Hero. And I totally enjoyed every minute of it. Sometimes staying in and doing dorky things while consuming champagne is more fun that being out at a crowded bar. Plus, bars don’t like it if you light RoboDog at midnight. And it’s not a party without RoboDog.

Happy 2008 ya’ll. May you stick to your resolutions for longer than I stick to mine.

I’m not really one of those “Christmas is the most amazing time of year” people, but I do love certain parts of the season: Gingerbread lattes from Peets, the Aimee Mann holiday show, and Christmas trees. While the lattes and Aimee Mann are easy for me to obtain and enjoy, the whole tree aspect of the season pretty much eludes me. Since jparks and I tend to fly back to NOLA for the holidays it’s ridiculous for us to get a tree, we would either have to take it down before we left or arrive home to a dead tree that the cats have had their way with. Neither seem like a particularly good idea and that’s why I’ve been investigating fake tree options.

I know a fake tree won’t be as good as a real tree but it’s better than no tree. And I was thinking that if I’m going to go fake, well then I might as well go really fake. Which is why I want, more than anything else right now, one of these: clicky click

Oh yes people, I want a brightly colored tree. Perhaps the Lemon-Lime Sublime (although it might be too close to a natural tree color). Or the Tuxedo Black, which could help take me back to my high school days of only wearing black and listening to the Cure. Truthfully the one I really want is the Pretty in Pink tree. Why? Because, apparently I am a 13 year old girl and IT’S PINK. Also, jparks’ head would explode and that’s just a good time no matter what time of year it is.

I seriously think this is the best solution to my “no tree” problem. I wonder if I could order one and when it arrives tell jparks that “no, it’s not pink, you’re just color blind. Really, it’s just a light green.” If he doesn’t buy that excuse I could tell it my options were the Pretty in Pink or the $9299.00 Ginormous Tree. I’m sure even he would agree that the pink tree was the smart decision.

I survived my first time hosting Thanksgiving, although it was questionable if I was going to make it towards the end. Apparently, staying up until 1am cooking sides and then getting up at 6am to put the turkey in the oven, was not a good plan. And did you know that it’s a myth that the turkey takes HOURS AND HOURS to roast? In reality, a 22.59lb bird only takes about 3.5 to 4 hours to cook. So basically I got up at the crack of dawn for nothing.

Oh, and I cooked the bird with the baggie of giblets in it. Totally not my fault! Before brining, I tried to reach into the bird’s ass to remove the extra bits, but then decided that I wasn’t feeling up to groping around the cavity, so I put jparks in charge of the job. He reached in, removed the neck, and then claimed that he didn’t feel anything else. I kept insisting that there had to be more, but he assured me that there wasn’t. Jump ahead to the next day when, after carving the bird, a plastic baggie was discovered. Not surprisingly it contained some cooked giblets. I was totally embarrassed, but also impressed that the bag hadn’t melted. I guess turkey farms have gotten smart to how stupid some people are (read as: me and jparks) and are using melt-proof baggies.

All in all, I think the day was a success. We ended up having more food than could fit on the table and now have leftovers to last another week. The house handled having 13 people in it and no one seemed to mind having to balance their plate on their laps. It might not have been the traditional Thanksgiving people are used to, but I still think everyone had fun.

In closing, I would like to share some pearls of wisdom I learned from the day:

jparks was swiffer wet jetting the floors this morning (the cleaning crew didn’t show up yesterday as planned)

“I hate cleaning the floors! I’m no good at it! This sexy body was not built for housework!”

Happy Thanksgiving!

It is 11:48pm and this is the first time I’ve sat down since 3pm. Thus far I’ve made:

Why did that short list take me that long? I haven’t a clue. These people coming tomorrow better recognize my mad skillz.

sigh, so tired. tiiiiiirrrreeed.

This year jparks and I are not going home for Thanksgiving. I am fairly buttsore about this, but I knew our trips back to NOLA would have to become less frequent once we bought the house. Stupid house

What I’ve been debating is even though I can’t go home does that mean that I have to skip having a traditional Thanksgiving meal? Can’t I have some turkey and pumpkin pie like a normal person? Can’t I stuff myself so full I pass out on the couch? Don’t I at least deserve that?

So here’s what I’m thinking: Undead Easter, but at Thanksgiving and sans zombies. And more potluck-ish. I would happily make turkey and a dessert item and then have everyone bring over one Thanksgiving-y item. Are there any people that aren’t going out of town that might be interested in doing this?

Did I mention that we have a larger house now with more options for the sitting? And a bigger tv with surround sound for the watching of the movies? And a large coffee table for the playing of the games? And a cute dog for the petting?

So, who’s game for Outcast Thanksgiving?

If I had to pick one month to be my bestest friend, October would win. We would have sleep overs, eat pizza, and braid each other’s hair. I would buy a best friend’s heart necklace and October and I would wear it proudly. I love October. Lily’s birthday is in October. Jparks‘ birthday is in October. Jobs that I start in October turn out to be the ones I like the most (I started my current job on October 16th of last year). October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month (ladies go feel around on your boobs). Plus October likes to go out with a bang, the best holiday ever, Halloween.

I’m hoping that by the time Halloween rolls around jparks and I will have some kind of fun plans that require costumes. And since I hate last minute costume planning, I’m starting to think about them now and am coming up with absolutely no ideas. I’m going to turn the task over to you in the hopes that you might have some great ideas for us.

I’m fine with matching outfits (two years ago I was a witch and he was my black cat) as well as totally unrelated costume ideas. I would love for his to be as embarrassing as possible, because really that just makes it more fun for everyone involved. Except for maybe jparks, but whatever.

And even if you don’t have costume suggestions, you should leave me a comment in honor of The Great Mofo Delurk which is happening around the interweb today. Drop me a line saying hi so I know that more than just spammers are checking out this here blog o’mine.

Happy Easter all!

Last year jparks and I started our favorite holiday tradition: Undead Easter. We sit around, eat candy, drink, and watch zombie movies. This year we expanded on this by inviting way more people than will fit in our apartment over for Undead Easter. I cooked, made a huge Easter basket, and watched as even more food rolled in.

We ran a bit short on zombie movies as I was more concerned with cooking and jparks had said he was going to handle getting more movies, but then forgot. We supplemented the zombie movies with Ricky Bobby and everyone seemed okay with this.

I’m happy to say that I’m sitting here with a pissed off stomach after eating nothing but cheese and candy all day, but am still quite content. I honestly like nothing more than having a bunch of friends over. I don’t mind all the cooking, cleaning, and general hostess duties involved with it. Being surrounded by friends makes our year anniversary in this overpriced area, that’s bound to fall into the ocean, a little bit easier to accept.