Pain in the neck

My neck hurts. At least my head no longer hurts. At least the room's not spinning anymore. I was supposed to go to tennis tonight, but I'm in a wee bit of pain. How did I get hurt, you ask? Was it from doing something exciting? Rock climbing maybe? Bungee jumping perhaps? Well, I'll tell you. The thrilling, risky activity that I engaged in today was...wait for it...wait for it...walking across The Oval.

Yep, I managed to get hurt walking while in school today. The Oval is this large concrete area that connects the buildings at my school. It serves as an extremely large sidewalk, a gathering area, and, unfortunately for me, a recess area. I hate walking across The Oval during recess as there is often kids running, jump ropes swinging, and balls flying. The flying balls terrify me the most and today I discovered why they are so scary. They are scary because when basketball-like balls are kicked they can cause damage if they should happen to squarely hit the back of someone's neck and head.

Bloody hell, anybody got an advil?

Time flies

This weekend Matt and I participated in a friend's career day. We've all been friends since intermediate school, but this was the first time that I'd seen her at work. Before it was our turn to speak, I watched her address her students and give them instructions. She was dressed all professional-like, with her glasses and her hair pulled back and everything. As I watched her tell her students to be respectful and not to embarrass her, it suddenly dawned on me how old she looked. She looked and acted like an adult.

I don't know why this was so mind-boggling to me. We've all been adults for quite awhile now. It's funny how adulthood just kinda sneaks up on you. Sometimes I'll be doing something small like cooking dinner and it just amazes me that I'm old enough to be responsible for my own dinner. Once in awhile it hits me at work too. I'll be writing an evaluation report and it'll suddenly amaze me that writing reports is no longer just an exercise. It's my job, I get paid to do it, and people actually trust me with their child's communication. And I admit, sometimes I think, "For real? I'm not old enough to do this." And then I remember that I am.

After Matt and I spoke, our friend showed us around her office. I couldn't believe that she actually had an office. When did we all get to be adults? Why did no one warn us? It feels like it was only yesterday that we were signing yearbooks and chuckling over how many guys she flirted with and now she has an office? I know it's a cliche, but it's true - it's funny how time flies.

Somebody stop me

Folks, it's that time again. The time where many in the United States are spend 2-3 nights a week in front of the tv cheering and booing hopeful singers. Yes, that's right. It's American Idol time. The season just began last week so we're still at the early audition/crappy singer stage. Some of the singers are amazing and I look forward to seeing how they do. Others are either in it for the attention and the five minutes of fame or are horribly disillusioned.

I had this dream a few years ago. I was at the American Idol auditions and I had agreed to audition to support a friend. My audition was only to be supportive because I, unlike some of the auditioners, was fully aware of my limitations and I knew that singing was not one of my strengths (incidentally, that's true in real life as well). So imagine my surprise that I had made it past the first two rounds of auditions! And that's when the confusion set in. I knew that I had no vocal talent whatsoever, so how did I make it to the Paula/Simon/Randy round? And then it hit me. I had made it to the third round because I sucked so badly that they put me through so that all of America could make fun of me.

And so I have a request to make. Should I ever have the misfortune of having something happen to me that would make me forget that I do not sing well, please, please, please stop me from auditioning for American Idol. It will not end well.

I. Am. Pissed.

I often talk on my cell phone while I drive. Yes, not the best of habits, but I at least always use a hands free device when I do it. In August 2006, I got a new cell phone. It came with a wired hands free device so it was adequate to use in the car, but I wanted a bluetooth headset. So in October 2006, I went to Honolulu Wireless after eating at the Pearl City Genki Sushi and purchased a Samsung WEP200 because the person who worked there (I think it was actually the proprietor) told me that it was a popular model. I usually like to research these kind of purchases before I buy them, but I really wanted it so I impulsively bought it. When I got home, I tried it out and was dismayed to discover that the sound quality was horrible. I could hear the person on the other end of the phone fine, but the person I was talking to complained that I was difficult to hear and understand when I used the device. I wasn't happy, but it wasn't that big of a deal because I still had my wired device.

Sam recently changed service providers so he got a new phone. He gave me his old phone (though it's pretty new) and I love it, love it, love it. But I needed a hands free device. So I dug up the bluetooth that I had purchased because I read online that bluetooth devices perform differently with different phones. It paired easily with my phone but it didn't work at all. So I tried it with Lance's phone. It worked, but the sound quality was pretty crappy even though we were at home. Frustrated, I turned to the internet and was surprised to find out that the Samsung WEP200 actually rated pretty high on cnet.com and it got a lot of good feedback from other users. I was pretty grouchy already so Lance took over the computer to search online forums for troubleshooting information. As I contemplated chucking the device across the room, I watched him pick up the box and snort. He told me to look carefully at the box. So I did and saw that on the silver authentic looking sticker it said, "Samsing Official Accessory." Samsing? WTF?

I was sold a knockoff. I'm pissed. It's not like I bought the item from the Swap Meet. At least there I would expect to go home with a knockoff. And it would've been priced like a knockoff, instead of the going rate of a bluetooth device. I bought the device from a bloody "reputable" store. I had every intention of marching myself into the store and telling the owner off and contacting the Better Business Bureau, but the fact of the matter is that I bought the device over a year ago and I don't know if I even want to deal with it. I'm trying to live a more stress reduced life and I feel as though dealing with an issue that I should have dealt with over a year ago is not conducive towards that goal. We'll see.

Renovation Update #3

Upstairs air conditioner in? Check (sure, it was sitting on the bedroom floor for 2-3 months, but whatever). Last of bedroom stuff unpacked? Check. Living room coffee table cleared? Check. Disgusting laundry room tile removed? Check. Scraping in laundry room/entry way completed? Check. We're moving along quite nicely here at Hale Spice. The most exciting part was when the final crap was scraped from the front area and the horrible, disgusting black plastic sheet (think heavy duty garbage bag material) was finally removed. My uncle came over yesterday to help us install the tile in the front of the house. I'm feeling quite handy right now. Lance and I finished it up yesterday afternoon and we're giving the thin set a couple of more hours to set before we venture into our first grouting experience. I don't know what my favorite part of this project was. Perhaps it was when we initially tried to remove the tile and discovered that whoever had installed the original ugliness used a particularly strong bond in the front area. Or maybe it was the lovely entryway of bumpy concrete covered with black plastic that we lived with for six months. Or maybe it was when Lance and I tried to cover the area with self leveling concrete but discovered it came out crappy and had to re-scrape the laundry room. Or maybe my favorite part was when they had to re-do part of the tile because they discovered that it wasn't straight. I don't know, there's been so many "favorites" during this project. All I know is that my body is ridiculously sore and I hope it feels better in the next hour or so because I'm getting back down on my hands and knees soon to do the grout. I must admit, however, that it is looking pretty snazzy. M*Bark wants us to hurry up and finish. This was her tethered to the stairs landing while we worked:
Next up: The Bathroom

2007: A Look Back

I can't believe the new year's here already. As we entered 2008, I took some time to reflect back upon the last year. Like any other year, 2007 had its share of good times and bad, but all in all, it was a good year. Here's my Top 10 experiences from 2007 (in no particular order):

Number 1

The selling of our first house: Lance and I loved our first house. We had a lot of happy memories there. Our townhouse was pretty and comfy and was the perfect place to start our life together. However, we decided to sell it in order to buy a single family home. Which brings us to:

Number 2

The purchase of our new home: After we had our townhome listed, Lance and I started looking at properties to purchase. We found one that we loved but needed to accept an offer on our first home first. And it was meant to be. Our dream house had other offers on it that fell through and although that wasn't good for the sellers, we were thrilled as it was like the house was waiting for us. When we were finally ready to put an offer in, we were dismayed to discover that we were a few hours too late, as the sellers had just accepted an offer. Our offer was stronger and I don't know how it happened, but the sellers accepted our offer and we were blessed to purchase our single family home. There's a lot of cosmetic work to be done but the layout and the location was perfect. I love looking out of my living room windows and seeing nothing but green.

Number 3

M*Bark: With the move to our new house, we were able to bring M*Bark home. I am notoriously a cat person, though because of Lance, I've grown to love dogs as well. But still. I always imagined my first "adult" pet to be a cat, despite the fact that my husband is a wee bit allergic to them. But M*Bark has been an absolute joy (okay, most of the time). I think it helps that she's smart and is a little bit cat-like.Number 4

Weddings: 2007 was the Year of the Weddings. Lance and I went to 9 weddings this year. We were supposed to have 10, but let's not discuss that. 2007 saw many of our friends and family united. Note: I love the Willows food.

Number 5

Spice Girls: Yes, 2007 also saw the reunion of the Spice Girls. A reunion tour, a best hits CD, and a new single? Girl Power. I entered online for the opportunity to purchase tickets to one of their concerts and was thrilled that I was picked to purchase tickets for their Vegas show. Unfortunately, as I was about to purchase them, my personality got in the way. The show was right before Winter Break and we were supposed to be saving money to renovate the house and to go to San Francisco with the MIL. So of course, Good Kat overwhelmed Bad Kat and I missed my opportunity to see the Spice Girls. I'm starting to think this practical side of me is really a character flaw.

Number 6

12-0: The University of Hawaii football team had an amazing, undefeated season. We were fortunate enough to have tickets to the last regular season game against Washington and it was an amazing game. Trailing 21 points, UH came back to win it. A perfect season. For the first time ever, UH was selected to play in a BCS bowl game. Although they eventually lost to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl (and wow, lost they did), the Warriors gave Hawaii an unbelievable season. Colt Brennan, June Jones, and the rest of the Warriors: We believe.

Number 7

Little people: 2007 also brought the arrival of new little people. Kiyomi and Alli both had wonderful little girls. And now that Alli's brought a great-grandchild to popo, she's leaving me alone. Well, sort of. And I got to feed Alli's baby on Christmas Eve, which is a first for me. I had to hold her while I did it (I also waited until she was old enough to not be so scary...) and guess what! She didn't break! I wanted to post pictures of both Kiyomi's and Alli's babies, but I don't believe in posting pictures of young people without permission. But trust me. They're cute.

Number 8

Harry Potter: 2007 also brought upon the moment that I had been looking forward to for two years - the completion of the Harry Potter series. Of course I joined the throngs of "crazy" people at Borders at midnight to pick up my reserved copy. And of course I started reading at soon as I got home. I read until 4 am and I only went to bed because I knew I had to get up relatively early the next day. I admit, I had to remind myself to be a good matron of honor and not tell the bride-to-be that bridesmaid dress shopping was occurring on Harry Potter weekend. Truth be told, there's not many people that I would've stopped reading Harry Potter for. Sadly, she was one of them. In 2005, I had to put down Book #6 to attend my cousin's graduation and graduation dinner. She's another one that Harry Potter went down for. Anyway, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows did not disappoint and it was the most satisfying conclusion to a series that I've ever experienced. J. K. Rowling? Genius.

Number 9

Knitting Club: I taught Melissa and Vera and finally convinced Joy to learn to knit this year and the knitting club was born. It was a small knitting club (it was really just me, Joy, and Melissa), but it was a knitting club nonetheless. And then Jodi wanted to learn. And then Doreen wanted to learn. And yes folks, we have a knitting club! The best part was when I found out that three of them were knitting together at a complex wide meeting (I didn't have to go). Most of the time knitting relaxes me and I love the feeling of creating something. I also find it an effective way to pay attention in boring meetings. I always take a project that doesn't demand too much of my attention and keeping my hands moving keeps me awake and attentive during the inevitably long presentation. I love knitting and I'm glad I was able to share the joys of it with others this year.

Number 10

Rock Band: Lance and I looked forward to the release of Rock Band ever since we heard rumours of its development. The game was not a disappointment. There's drums, a mic, and a lead and bass guitar. I'm finally realizing my dream of playing the drums and it's awesome. And Rock Band's delivering on their promise to have lots of downloadable songs to expand the game's offerings even further. The game's been out for less than two months and there's already quite a few selections to purchase and download. We just got Buddy Holly. :) However, playing the game has really made me realize how much I miss playing music so I'm planning to get my piano from my parents' house in the coming months.

2007 was a fantastic year and I have no regrets. I'm looking forward to see what 2008 will bring. I'm sure it was be a fantastic ride.

Ahh...it's here...

Ahh...I love winter break. Well, I love it once we get past Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas. I just don't particularly care for the craziness of the last minute have-to-dos. I think I did better keeping my wits about me this year, than I did last, though. Baby steps to sanity.

So I love winter break, heck, I love all breaks. I love them way more now than I did when I was a student. I feel that breaks should be a time of relaxation and rejuvenation but my teachers never seemed to agree with me. Many of my high school teachers felt that vacations were just a time for us to work on lengthy, time-consuming projects so throughout high school a little part of me dreaded vacations just because I knew what was coming. It got better in college because at least winter break was stress free. But now that I'm working, all vacations are wonderful. There are things to do when I go back to work, but they can all wait until I get back to work. I am planning to enjoy this break because I suspect that I will not be able to enjoy spring break as much since it is the week before the convention. On my list for Winter Break 2007-2008:
1) Knit - I knit like crazy in the beginning but that was Christmas knitting. Now it's time for more relaxing knitting. I have some unfinished objects to work on and my mother has requested scarves for her and my aunty for their upcoming trip.
2) Read.
3) Work on the house - We actually plan to do quite a bit of this. Lance has been scraping away at the floors and we've been organizing and putting stuff away. I cleaned a bit and we've been working on getting some of our decorative stuff up. We just bought some stuff from Inspiration today and although it won't be delivered for a few weeks, we do have to prepare for the delivery. Hopefully we get a significant portion of our floor done during vacation. We still need to have a house warming party.
4) Relax.

Oh Christmas Tree

Two years ago, Lance and I celebrated our first Christmas together. We brought the tree home and learned that a Leatherman is a poor replacement for a saw. No matter, it was our first Christmas. Last year, we didn't get a tree. I was bummed but we were trying to sell our townhouse so no tree. This year was our second tree together. I thought it'd be easier than the first year since we had a little experience under our belt, but alas, an easy time it was not:

1) First weekend of December: Want a tree, but husband thinks it's too early to get one. Husband promises to get tree following weekend.
2) Second weekend of December: Too busy to get tree. Bummed.
3) December 10: Concern sets in that all of the trees are gone.
4) December 10: Drive by Star on the way home. Panic sets when no trees are spotted. Hopes Husband realizes that his Christmas will be unpleasant if there is no tree in house on Christmas morning.
5) December 10: Continue driving past Wal-Mart. Thrilled to see big white tree tent.
6) December 10: Husband arrives home and the tree hunt begins.
7) December 10: Go to Wal-Mart, only tree left is 9 feet tall. Proceed to Daiei.
8) December 10: Get distracted by Home Depot, end up buying tree. Strange woman approaches M*Bark to coo at her, impedes tree progress.
9) December 10: Arrive home w/ tree, stick it in large bucket outside.
10) December 11: Gear up to set up tree, realize that if tree is set up with no skirt around the stand, M*Bark will probably drink the water. No tree skirt found, remember that the skirt was thrown out two years earlier. Decide to put off tree decorating until tomorrow.
11) December 12: Buy new tree skirt, go home to set up tree.
12) December 12: Husband arrives home and brings tree in. Tries to put tree into stand, realize that stand is way too small for tree. Decide to put off tree decorating until tomorrow.
13) December 13: Buy new tree stand. Husband comes home.
14) December 13: Husband brings tree in. Tree goes into stand and doesn't fall. Rejoice.
15) December 13: Tree looks thirsty. Realize that forgot to cut off the base of the tree. Very quietly tells husband.
16) December 13: Realize that still do not have adequate saw. Go to dad's house to borrow one.
17) December 13: Take tree out of stand, saw off base.
18) December 13: Tree refuses to stand in base, realize that bottom branches must now be cut off.
19) December 13: Cut off bottom branches. Tree stands nicely. Rejoice.
20) December 13: Put up lights and ornaments.
21) December 13: Realize that there is no star/angel for the top of the tree. Realize that amount of ornaments too small for size of tree.

Oh Christmas tree.

I love my ipod

Wednesdays are my testing/paperwork/catch up day. Today I didn't have to test so I used my day to catch up on some stuff and to do some paperwork. As usual, I reached into my bag and extracted my ipod. I also use my ipod in the car and at home (Lance got me a iHome so I can wake up to the Spice Girls), so it's not unusual that my earphones were not connected to my ipod. I looked in my purse/bag but no earphones. I didn't panic because I thought surely they were in my backpack. They were not in my backpack. Panicking, I re-searched each bag twice and finally resigned myself to a musicless day. No music = Grouchy Kathleen. Near the end of the day my friend found a pair of extra earphones in her classroom so at least the last hour of my day had music in it, but still it was a pretty grouchy day.

Music's always been an important part of my life. I don't know why, it just always has been. I'm not one of those people who is a music critic. I generally won't pick apart a piece and talk about it. I just like what I like. I had a friend who considered himself a music critic. Actually, he thought he was a critic about everything. Music, movies, restaurants, he had an opinion about it (and annoyingly he felt the need to pompously share his opinion, regardless of whether or not you cared to hear it...). He couldn't help but share when he thought that what you liked sucked. It would've been okay if he could've just left it to a "I don't like it," but he felt the need to tell you exactly why he didn't like it. He never understood why people got offended but I never understood why he couldn't understand.

Anyway, I love my ipod. After only a year and a half my first ipod died. I was so devastated that I felt a little piece of me died with it. It was a horrible couple of days as I desperately tried to revive it. No such luck and I ended up replacing it. The newer model was sleeker and had video but I was still sad that I had to get rid of my first one. It took me days to re-add my library. My ipod's with me nearly every day. I wake up to it in the morning, I listen to it on the way to work, and I listen to it during work whenever I can. It keeps me sane. There are days at work when I get stressed having to deal with stupid adults but once they leave I put my earphones in. I feel better when Pink's coursing through my head.

I'm going to bed now. What should I wake up to tomorrow morning?

One project pau

The scarf that I have to deliver tomorrow is pau! Yea! All I need to do is tuck in the ends and wrap it and I'll be all set to deliver it. Even though it'll be given on December 1, I still like to think of it as a Christmas present. It makes me feel better to think that I've already finished one of my presents. :) It's for one of my former grad school professors. She's probably the only one of my professors that I'd ever knit for. Because as much as much as I've admitted that some parts of grad school were great, it truly was a horrid time in my life. We all agree that most of the people who were responsible for teaching and guiding us (ahem, otherwise known as the faculty) only made that stressful time worse than it had to be. However, the professor that I made this for was one of the few that I thought really gave a damn about what happened to us. Anyway, here it is:
I really enjoyed working on this scarf. The stitch was interesting enough to keep me going but was mindless enough that I could work on it wherever I went. And after working on the blanket, it felt like a quick knit. I found the yarn at Aloha Yarn and at the same time discovered that Aloha Yarn was an awesome yarn store. Here's a close up of the stitch pattern:
I'm delivering the scarf tomorrow at a meeting that to be quite honest, I'm not too thrilled to be attending because afterward is the UH and Washington game. We have tickets to the sold out event. It should be awesome.

A disappointment

The week's not over yet and already I feel drained. There have been times in my life where I have moved, touched, and pleasantly surprised by the people who surround me and in life in general. Unfortunately, there have also been times when I am reminded that the weather isn't always sunny and the air doesn't always smell sweet.

I am not an optimist. I am not a pessimist. I am a realist. And this week reality really sucked. I had a setback involving an event that I had agreed to participate in. I had to deal with disappointment and someone's abandon ship attitude, but that part of my week could not compare with the week of a friend of mine. She's had a horrible week, one of those weeks where really all you can say is that sometimes life sucks. And it doesn't matter who you think people are. No profession, even those in the education field, are immune from crappy people.

Thanksgiving weekend

So this Thanksgiving was a little different than recent Thanksgivings. Sure, we did the traditional, way-too-tiring relative thing on Thursday, but other than that it was odder than usual. Why?
1) While baking on Wednesday night, I discovered that our monthly payment to our security company is money well spent. When the smoke detector goes off, they really do check to make sure you're okay.
2) As usual, Lance and I examined Black Friday's sales. Oddly, there were very few things that we were interested in.
3) We didn't really partake in any of the sales. Joy and Brad went to Hilo and I dropped them off at the airport and once again, the sales weren't very good.
4) Lance was sick all weekend, which is actually probably why the rest of the weekend was weird.
5) I did not go to either the Okinawan Center craft fair or the Blaisdell craft fair, both of which are Thanksgiving weekend traditions.
6) I spent most of the weekend in the kitchen. I'm actually fairly domestic, but it's odd that I spent that much time cooking/baking. Wednesday night I worked on the overnight layered salad, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin squares. Friday I made a yummy loaf of bread. Saturday I made ziti. And today I made cinnamon rolls.

I also did my normal weekend chores (i.e. laundry) and made some progress on my knitting. The scarf that I'm working on now was actually started so that I could have some nice mindless knitting for my "knitting club", but it occurred to me this weekend that scarf delivery day is approaching quickly (umm...like, Saturday...) so I really need to finish it up. It shouldn't be a problem, it's almost done. It also occurred to me that I really need to focus on that Christmas knitting. I have quite a few projects to complete before Christmas. Yikes.

Oh, and I got to rock out to Rock Band today. I didn't play much this weekend because Lance was sick and I didn't think me banging on drums would help him feel better. Thankfully he's feeling better so I played for quite awhile today. Oh, and of course I'm just happy that he's feeling better. :)

Thanksgiving

Ahh...Thanksgiving weekend. Fantastic. I just finished cooking and baking for tomorrow and I'm just waiting for the cranberry sauce and pumpkin squares to cool so that I can go to bed. I'm glad the overnight layered salad is not a third thing that I need to cool because I'm exhausted. Lance and M*Bark both went to bed without me and I'm jealous. So tired. I blame my "boss" for the late finish as she was the stupid one who scheduled a training for the afternoon before Thanksgiving. I also blame myself for going to the stupid training. It was a big waste of time, the speaker was fairly boring and didn't quite seem to know what she was talking about, and I disagreed with many of the things that she said.

Anyway, so we have Lance's cousin's house tomorrow day and my aunty's house at night. I hope to relax this weekend, but I also have a list of things I want to get done. My desire to relax often gets overshadowed by my need to do stuff. Anyway, no matter how busy this weekend turns out to be, I'm definitely going to make time to play with our new toy. Rock Band is perhaps the most awesome game ever. I love Guitar Hero as well, but with Rock Band I finally get to fulfill my dream of being a drummer. Thank goodness this game came out after we moved out of our townhouse and in to a single family house. My poor neighbors.

I just realized that this post is a little different from the typical Thanksgiving titled blog. I didn't say anything about what I'm thankful for or anything like that. It's not that I'm not thankful for everything I have. I realize how blessed I am but honestly, I'm just a little too tired and grouchy right now.

A belated Halloween post

I tried to post this on Halloween, but blogger didn't want to cooperate so now you get a belated (but quick b/c I have stuff to do) Halloween blog. This year, Lance and I turned our pumpkin into a Transformers pumpkin. I don't know if the picture does it justice, but it turned out awesome. We decided to stay home and pass out candy b/c it was our first Halloween in our new home and we wanted to see how many trick or treaters we would get. We got quite a few and way more than we ever had at our old house. If it wasn't raining so hard, we probably would've gotten a lot more. It was neat because they all loved our pumpkin and the kids couldn't stop talking about it. Oh, and for those of you wondering, no, M*Bark did not dress up.

A finished object

Well, I finally finished The Blanket. I started this blanket last year and it was to be a present for my popo. It was the present that I was frantically trying to finish on Christmas Eve. I managed to finish her lap blanket, like two seconds before I gave it to her. She didn't know what it was because it was so small. I explained it was a lap blanket and she was happy. I also asked her if she wanted it bigger because I wasn't sure if it was big enough to comfortably cover her lap. She said no but then changed her mind three months later. She wanted it long enough to cover her shoulders when it got chilly. Of course by then I had already moved on to my next project, which was a set of colorful bibs for my cousin's first child. And so the blanket sat, untouched in my house. Truth be told, I wasn't looking forward to working on the blanket again. It was knit in garter stitch so it was quite boring but it was too large for me to take to places that I normally knit boring pieces at (i.e. the dentist's office). And it was knit in relatively small needles and in long rows so it took forever to make any noticeable progress. Anyway, I recently realized that it was almost Christmas time again and I still had this blanket in my house. I forced myself to work on it and it's finally done! Of course, M*Bark discovered it:

The great pumpkin

Isn't The Great Pumpkin a beaut? This weekend, we went to the pumpkin patch to pick this year's pumpkins. It was the first public weekend of the patch and it was crazy busy. There were so many people there and so many cars in the lot that people were parking out on the street. In the end, I had three pumpkins that went home with me. Two medium size ones (the kine you can't you really carve) and this beauty of a pumpkin. I also ended up purchasing a small pumpkin from Safeway. As you can see, M*Bark had to check out the newest addition to our house. The pumpkins are going with me to school tomorrow because I'm going to have some of my kids talk about small, medium, and large and what better way to illustrate that than with pumpkins?

It starts...

Look what arrived today!
Yup, this year's Christmas yarn arrived today in the mail! I'm glad, I needed a little pick me up. The only thing bad about the Christmas yarn arriving is that it means that Christmas is quickly approaching. I really need to get started soon. We (and by we, I mean me and everyone around me who will put up with the craziness until Christmas) don't want a repeat of Christmas 2006. It was Christmas Eve and I was frantically trying to finish a present. I wanted to...well, what I wanted to do isn't important. It wasn't pretty. The junk thing is, I have two fairly large items to finish in addition to my Christmas presents. And me, being me, had to talk myself out of adding two more items to my already long list (they were a pumpkin hat and a pair of bee booties, in case you were interested). Anyway, here's M*Bark checking my the yarn pyramid:I promptly put the yarn away after taking the picture. I suspected that she wanted to knock the pyramid over and take a ball to play with. We've been having little spats over my yarn lately. I'm having a hard time knitting one of my projects right now because she's fond of the yarn.

Random things

Fall break has come and gone. I'm making myself feel better by reminding myself that the second quarter always seems to go by quickly. I think all of those lovely holidays help. Anyway, Joy and Brad got married! She looks great, huh? Anyway, I learned that I enjoy bossing people around and maybe I'll become an event coordinator person if this whole speech thing doesn't work out.
We also did more home renovation stuff this break. We painted our master bedroom and although it was a hassle to paint it two different colors, it really came out fantastic. We're getting closer and closer to having the house of our dreams.
M*Bark discovered a fun new game. Apparently Lance puts his dirty clothes on the bathroom floor while he's taking a shower. He's really good about picking them up when he's done and putting them in the hamper, so I didn't realize that he did this until M*Bark started sticking her paws under the bathroom door. She's pulling his clothes out from the bathroom and into the bedroom.

WTF

It is 1:00 in the afternoon on a Tuesday. Any guesses as to where I am right now? I'm at home. I'm bloody sick again. The past month I've been on a nasty cycle where I'm sick for one week (see the blog w/ the orange juice) and then healthy for the next week and then sick for the next week. So I was healthy last week and lo and behold the cycle held up and now I'm sick again. The best part is that these illnesses have gotten progressively worse. This time around I have a fever and at times it feels as though my head is gonna explode, it's so sore. I actually gave in and went to the doctor yesterday and I have a sinus infection. Oh, I actually went to an adult doctor. Yes, I now have an adult doctor. My previous doctor was a pediatrician/adolescent doctor whose cutoff age was 26. Anyway, as Joy so rudely pointed out yesterday, I now have my big girl pants.

J is for Joy

Yawn, I'm tired. Joy and Brad are getting married in two (yikes!) weeks so some of the girls spent a weekend in Waikiki. It was a pretty good definition of a bachelorette party. We spent the night in a hotel, had a yummy lunch, went shopping, someone got a tattoo, ate a yummy dinner, went dancing, went to a bar, had breakfast, and then spent the morning at a spa. It was fun but I'm still trying to recover. Anyway, here's a picture of Joy eating her first escargot. :)