Casual Thoughts
Happy New Year!
Jan 4th
A few days late maybe, but better late than never. We’re trying out a new theme for the new year. Let us know what you think. (For good or bad, it is one of the most popular themes on the WordPress site right now)
Christmas Meme
Dec 20th
I got this from Swistle, and it looked fun. Also, I am too lazy to write a real entry tonight. I’m playing the pregnancy card.
Eggnog or hot chocolate? I prefer hot chocolate, although I do like to try a glass of eggnog once a year.
Does Santa wrap the presents or leave them open under the tree? Santa hasn’t visited Ryan and I at our apartment, since we always are at one of our respective parents’ house for Christmas. At my parents’ house Santa doesn’t wrap gifts – he leaves them under the tree with our names marked on them or in our stockings. At Ryan’s parents’ house he wraps them – even the ones in the stockings. I’m not sure what will happen if he ever visits us here…maybe some of each?
Colored lights on a tree or white? We have some of each, and I like it that way.
Do you hang mistletoe? Nope.
When do you put your decorations up? Since we are usually out of town for Thanksgiving we don’t usually put them up until during that next week or the following weekend. Whenever we get our tree from Pappy’s Trees (this cute old guy that sells trees out of his yard).
What is your favorite holiday dish? Lefse. Mmm…real lefse with butter and sugar (probably made by Lutherans in the church basement – that’s the best kind, you know).
Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? My family opens our gifts on Christmas eve, after a light dinner (usually just hors d’oeuvres) before Midnight Mass. Ryan’s family opens gifts on Christmas eve too. Christmas day is for Santa/church/relaxing.
How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Usually I string lights right up next to the trunk and then come out from there, so there are a lot of lights all through the tree. Our ornaments are mostly things that we’ve gotten as gifts. Last year it was pretty sparse, but Ryan’s sister got us a few boxes of pretty ornaments to add to our collection, so this year it’s much better.
Snow: love it or hate it? I love it as long as I don’t have to deal with it. Especially now that we have a 4-wheel drive vehicle. It’s the cold I can’t stand.
Can you ice skate? HA. I grew up in a town where the high school hockey games were THE events to be at. We went skating for gym class in the winter, and until I was in 7th grade we lived next to a river and would make our own rink on the frozen river every year. I’m not very good though, for all that learning.
What is your favorite holiday dessert? Pie. I love pie. Although the candies my mom makes are a close second.
What is your favorite holiday tradition? Eating a light meal on Christmas eve for dinner before opening gifts. Cheeseball and crackers and meat and candy. Yum.
Candy canes: yum or yuck? Traditional ones are ok. I really like the Starburst ones, but I don’t buy candy canes because the stickiness drives me crazy. There’s no good way to eat them without getting completely sticky.
Favorite Christmas show? How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Always the cartoon version. Although A Christmas Story is a close second. “You’ll shoot your eye out!” HAHAHA. My sister and I got bb guns for Christmas one year. I don’t think anyone told us that though. And we were (are) good shots.
Phone people
Dec 15th
I am not a phone person. I think you all know what I mean. There are some people that love to talk on the phone. They can visit for hours at a time, always thinking of something new to talk about, and they are usually good at multitasking while they do it. My sister comes to mind (only one of them). She calls me once or twice a week, usually, and its a good thing, because I don’t call anyone, ever. She updates me on the funny things her kids are up to (her kids are awesome), and asks me questions about my life, and talks about her school work and their dairy farm and the neighbors and the people she knows from her job at the nursing home. You will notice that her life is considerably busy – she has 2 kids that live with them full-time and 2 other kids that come and go, along with a dairy farm that she and her husband run, a part-time job at the nursing home, and she’s currently taking 18 credits at a local college to get her degree in social work. The woman is seriously motivated. Anyway, even with all of this going on, she calls me. And she calls my mom and my other sisters. She is a phone person (and it’s a good thing, because I get most of my family news through her).
I, on the other hand, am not a phone person. It’s not that I’m too busy – we don’t have any kids (yet), I only have my one full-time job, and it’s a strictly 8-4:30 gig M-F. I was volunteering at the library twice a week, but I quit doing that when all the bending over was making me dizzy (sometime around 15 weeks pregnant or so). I just don’t enjoy talking on the phone much, I guess. I view it as a very utilitarian thing. I call someone if I need to talk to them about something – where are you, what time are we meeting, how do I make this, etc. Or if I need to share news, and usually I try to call if it’s a special occasion (birthdays, for example), but I’m not great at that either.
It’s not that I don’t like talking to the people I know. I love visiting with people in person, and I’m great at email…I just don’t like the phone. I’m not very good at making small talk. I ask a lot of stupid questions like “So, what’s up?” over and over if I get the sense that the other person expects me to stay on the phone, or if they call me and the conversation lags. I’m just not good with down-time on the phone. Usually I call, ask the obligatory question about how things are going, and get right to my reason for calling. And then I hang up.
Are you a phone person? Do you know someone who is different than you are, and does it bother you, or fascinate you (or some of each)?
We aren’t dead or anything; I promise.
Dec 14th
Things have been busy around our place, between getting all the Christmas shopping done (we weren’t able to do it all online) and catching up on stuff that should have gotten done the week after Thanksgiving but got put off because we were in class most of the week. We are finally mostly caught up, but over the weekend we had Ryan’s company Christmas party, and I didn’t get nearly as much done yesterday as I wanted to. I had big plans to be making candy and stuff all day, and then I just didn’t want to. I did get the caramel made for chocolate covered caramels (it has to refrigerate overnight before I can dip it), but that’s about it. Although I made a real dinner, so that should count. My mom’s beef stroganoff recipe is AWESOME, and I really wanted some yesterday, so I ran to the store and grabbed enough stuff to make it twice. One recipe is enough for Ryan and I to eat our fill and still have a few lunches out of it, so that’s exciting.
I can tell that I’ve become more comfortable in my cooking because I remember when she first gave me this recipe I was like “What do you MEAN you don’t know the exact measurement of flour/ketchup/whatever ingredient!?” I’ve always been a big recipe follower (which is why I like to bake so much). And in the past I’ve stressed over the stroganoff because I wanted it to turn out, but I was so afraid that it wouldn’t because I would use 2 tablespoons of ketchup instead of 3, or I would put too much flour in the beef broth or whatever. This time I didn’t worry about it. I didn’t even measure those things really. And it turned out great. Just goes to show that I should just chill out. That is the story of my life.
My work Christmas party is this Friday. We leave the office at noon to head over to a local restaurant and eat and drink all afternoon while exchanging gifts and generally just hanging out. Afterward, those of us that drink go out to the bar where the spouses join us. While I’m obviously not drinking this year, I still plan on going out afterward because it’s part of the tradition and I would feel lame just going home. Of course, true to tradition it is also supposed to snow on Friday. Lucky for Ryan he doesn’t have to pick my drunk butt up anywhere. He can actually just come drink with my coworkers if he wants to.
I have a lot of stuff to get done this week; Christmas cards need to be mailed, candy needs to be made, packages need to be shipped, and I drew a coworker’s birthday (we exchange names) that happens to fall on Saturday, so I have to come up with a treat that needs to be either made or purchased and brought in to work at some point. Thankfully I already have her gift ready to go. A few of us from work are also volunteering one night at Bentleyville (a huge light display down by the lake done by a guy in town and free to attend – it’s pretty awesome). I think it might be Wednesday, but we don’t know for sure yet, so that will take one night out of consideration. All of this stuff will make the week go by quickly, that’s for sure. Which is awesome, because then it’s a really short week and then it’s Christmas!
Funny
Nov 19th
I just saw this blog entry, and I think you should check it out because it is frickin’ hilarious. Ninjas. heh.
Also, I was just sitting here, browsing the internet when Ryan says out of nowhere in a high voice, “Look! It’s my little polar bear friend!” Um…yah. On World of Warcraft he has a pet polar bear. And a pet penguin.
Completely unrelated: we are planning on doing as much of our christmas shopping online this year as possible. The stores are already insane, and so as much as we can we would like to avoid them. It’ll be a challenge, but fun, I think. And theoretically it’ll mean we’ll get things done early since we need to allow time for shipping. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I just saw another add for New Moon. I read all the Twilight books, and really enjoyed them for their escapist feel. But those movies all look kind of ridiculous. Maybe they are better than they appear, but even reading the books I was thinking “this would be almost impossible to portray in a movie without getting totally CGI/totally cheesey/whatever.” Anyway…if you’ve seen the movie/movies and thought they did the books justice let me know.
I want to talk about the books I’ve been reading, but I don’t know what I want to say right now, so maybe I’ll wait a little while.
As a final note, the commercial for Al Gore going on 30 Rock is cracking me up. “There is an old African proverb that I invented…” HAHAHA.
2 things
Nov 11th
1.) I got my glucose screening test results back while I was on vacation, and all your positive thoughts worked, because my sugar was at 101, which they said was good. Or good enough. Whatever. I don’t have to do the extra test. Yippee!
2.) I have come up with the best idea EVER. Workplaces should be more like airplanes. And I don’t mean being strapped into a seat right next to/on top of the person next to you while breathing germy recycled air. I think that every once in a while someone should come around with a cart and offer you something to drink. Seriously – I am a genius, I know.
On that note, back to the grindstone. I need a job where they pay me to read novels. Or even non-fiction books. But some sort of real books. Not insurance policies. And I would like to do it at home while lazing around in my pajamas drinking Dr Pepper and eating ice cream with the yummy (accidental) chocolate fudgey syrup that I made (yay for happy cooking accidents!). Is that too much to ask, world? I would probably eat some “healthy” food too, if that would help my cause. No? Fine. Water while sitting in my cubicle it is.
We are home!
Nov 9th
And I have the plague! I’m pretty sure I caught it from a hobo in New York City, although I don’t remember seeing any hobos, which means that either they don’t live in the touristy parts of town or I am EXTREMELY unobservant. Um, let’s think this through for a moment…which is more likely? Unobservant for the win!
Fortunately it is not the flu (no fever), but it is kicking my butt. It would help if I could take something so that I would feel human during the day, but they don’t make any of the good drugs for pregnant women. I went in to work for an hour this morning, just to make sure there wasn’t anything that had to get taken care of right away, and I think that I’ll probably go in late tomorrow since I’m still feeling pretty crappy. But I obviously can’t be missing a bunch of work right after I just got back from a week’s vacation.
You can tell I’m not feeling well because I’ve been very quiet compared to my normal self. Also, I haven’t gotten around to posting any pictures, and my answers when people ask about our vacation are short. We had such a good time all week, even after I got sick, but I just don’t have the energy to describe it all right now. Plus, whenever I try to talk for more than a couple words I start hacking up a lung.
Today is Ryan’s birthday, and he’s 30! We went up to Best Buy and got his birthday present (a new receiver for the living room). And for dinner we just had fried chicken from the grocery store deli. It has been a very laid back evening. I think we’ll be going out for dinner later this week with friends, which works out well – hopefully I’ll be feeling better by then so he won’t have to deal with sicko-wife and her smokers’ cough.
Anyway, time for bed. It’s amazing how energy sapping laying on the couch is.
Things to keep in mind for next time:
Oct 28th
- No matter how well-intentioned we are about being “quick” about eating out, if we aren’t eating fast food it will take until at least 7pm.
- When you are tired from doing the dishes for 45 minutes (because you and your husband are lazy and only do them once or twice a week instead of nightly like you should), and you are in the process of throwing together the ingredients for making candy, remember to check the containers before dumping things in. Evaporated milk is NOT the same as sweetened condensed milk (although if you add some sugar it does still taste good when mixed with chocolate – it just doesn’t set up the right way for what you are making).
- After you are done in the kitchen, if it is at all close to the time you would like to go to bed you should just go, instead of sitting down to check Facebook/read blogs/check Twitter. You will soon have wasted an hour and it will be past the time you wanted to go to bed.
Football/Lazy Sunday
Oct 18th
First the Vikings win (it might have been an eked out win, but it was still a win), and now Tom Brady is breaking records with his touchdown passing (in the snow, even!), and I have him as my fantasy football quarterback. It’s a good day for football.
We are one step closer to our vacation – I rented the car today. I read up on it and used Priceline, which I’ve never done before. The websites I read suggested bidding 30% lower than the lowest price you could find. But Priceline says right on their website that you can get cars up to 40% lower than advertised. So I bid 40% lower than the lowest price I found. And we got it! According to them, I got the car for 59% lower than the lowest price their site found, but I’m even happy with my 40%. It basically paid for all the taxes and fees. So that was exciting. I’ll have to let you know how it goes once we actually go pick up the car and stuff. Saving money doesn’t do any good if the service sucks.
I baked yesterday – carrot cake and pumpkin cake, both from The Pioneer Woman’s website. I love her recipes (I really want to try the chocolate truffles on the front page right now). I used yogurt instead of oil in both of the cakes, but they still have a LOT of sugar. But they are yummy. Especially with homemade cream cheese frosting (speaking of sugar). I could eat that stuff all day. I have made the pumpkin cake with the whiskey raisins and whiskey whipped cream – I would definitely recommend it either way. But yah…we don’t need 2 cakes around here, so I cut them up and we gave some to the neighbors, I’m sending some to work with Ryan, and we kept some for ourselves.
This entry is kind of disjointed. Sorry about that.
Ryan is making dinner tonight – either meatloaf or spaghetti and meatballs. Something with the hamburger that’s been thawing in the fridge. Either one sounds yummy to me. I plan on reading my book and watching TV the rest of the evening. With maybe a quick “put laundry away” spurt somewhere in there.
And on that note…back to my book (The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny).
Vacation!
Oct 12th
Ryan and I have been planning a week long vacation to visit some of our friends/family on the East coast for a few months. When we first started talking about it “next fall” seemed like a long way away (that was before we even found out we were expecting a new addition). We didn’t know if it would be possible for us to go, but over the summer we saw a GREAT deal on plane tickets in and out of Boston ($300 round trip for both of us), and so we jumped on it. Even then it seemed like it was a long way away. And yet, here we are…it’s in only a few weeks! We need to book a rental car for the week (we will be visiting people all the way from upstate NY to Maryland, and so a car will be necessary). And we need to talk to all the people we want to see and figure out when they are available/warn them we are coming. I’m so excited to go out there. It’s been far too long, and we don’t get to see those friends and family nearly often enough.
Every time I look at the calendar I think about how close it is. And how fun it will be. We fly out on Halloween, and will be getting into Boston around 3:30 or so on Saturday afternoon, which should leave some time to do at least a little bit of touristy stuff. I’ve never been to Boston, and I think it would be a shame to not look around and have dinner. Any suggestions for an easy to get to place? Or somewhere we can park and walk around?
The other exciting thing about that week is that the annual Halloween party we go to is scheduled for the Friday before we leave, and even though it will make things super-busy we are planning on going. It’s a costume party, and it’s so fun every year, and who knows if we’ll be able to go next year (it’s an adults only party). So we decided we would make it work. Oh, did I mention the party is in Rochester? Yah, not really “on our way” to the cities (where we are flying out of). But still, fun! And when we get back we are going to another party – some other friends of ours have a birthday/halloween party every year, and it’ll be right before Ryan’s 30th birthday, and so we want to make sure to get to that one too. Luckily that one is in the cities, so once we fly back in we can just head over there. I’m sure we’ll be completely exhausted afterward, but it feels like we should try to do as much of this kind of stuff as we can, because God knows it’s not going to get any easier! LOL.
Anyway, that is what has been on my mind recently. I’m so excited I can hardly stand it.
Anything coming up that you all are excited about?
