Sadness, Glee & Fuggs

**Yesterday morning I read that James "The Rev" Sullivan had passed away. He was the drummer of my much beloved band Avenged Sevenfold.



I'm sure most of you don't know who he is and that's okay. Just imagine a member of your favorite band suddenly dying & you'll get it.

The Rev will be greatly missed.

**I'm so ready for TV to come back to life. It seems everything went on hiatus for the holidays and now there is absolutely nothing on. You would think that during this time I could find more productive things to do. If so, then you would think WRONG.

I need TV time to relax and refresh.

**S gave me the Glee Soundtrack Vol 2 for Christmas. I already had Vol 1 and LURVED it. It's one of those albums where I can sing along with every track and I fully expected to be enthralled with this one too.

I'm not. It's good, but not as good as Vol 1. There are a few songs that I belt out to but I don't love the entire cd so I find myself going back to the songs I like over & over.

**Pictures of my gifts as requested:

<--My boots. Or as I call them, my "Fuggs" aka fake Uggs.
<--Cute socks from Sis. There was a black pair too but I wore them. And now they are in the laundry.
<--It looks pink but I swear it's red. S likes to call it "hooker red". Either way I love it.
<-- My new Kathy. ♥

**I also got a cast iron pan so if you have any advice and/or recipes please let me know. I'm a cityfied girl that has never owned a cast iron pan & had to call Lula to find out if "pre-seasoned" really meant it was. Her advice: Don't believe the hype.

It's a wrap!

Another Christmas over and gone. Bah. Where does the time go?*

Christmas was great and chaotic all at the same time.

We always spend Christmas Eve at my aunt's house, crowded in her apartment, opening presents and enjoying holiday only foods. This year was no different although I do think, much like Gremlins, we multiplied because it seemed to be more of us than ever.

The more, the merrier right?!

I guess it was that phrase that led to me having 5 extra overnight house guests on Christmas Eve plus an additional 4 on Christmas morning. For the math challenged that would make 12 peeps at my house.

Everyone seemed to love their gifts, including me. S gave me some fabulous stuff including the new Glee soundtrack, The Tudors season 3 DVD(that we've already watched in it's entirety), stainless steel pans, cast iron pan, boots, purse, etc. etc.

He spoils me. And I deserve it.

Lil Sis gave me a Keurig carousel for my k-cups and my middle sis gave me knee socks that are adorable. (I'm wearing a pair today!} My aunt gave me a new Kathy Van Zeeland purse.

I'm carrying the red one that S got me today but trust me when I say it was a tough choice since they are both cute!

Okay, enough bragging. Let's just say I had a great Christmas!

As documented by the 350+ pictures I posted on FB. Woowee! Here are few of my favorites:

Christmas Eve

Christmas Day

It's a wrap! Literally...

*Please tell me I'm not the only one that honestly thinks she is a year younger than she really is & catches herself trying to put the wrong age on forms. All. The. Time.

White Out

You may have heard about our blizzard here on the East Coast. Let me tell you we are not used to that kind of winter weather here.

Oh yeah, sure we get snow every year but this time we got
S-N-O-W.

As in 14-20" inches of snow. I measured 14" on my deck but it was still snowing so I don't even know what the final tally was at my house.

Nor do I care.

Cause even though it's breathtakingly beautiful, it was also dangerous, expensive & messy. Not to mention extremely inconvenient since it took place the last weekend before Christmas.

It started on Friday around 2 in the afternoon and by 3 it was already covering the ground. It came down fast & sticky.** The snow fell for the rest of the night on Friday and well into Saturday before it stopped.

Because it was SO much (and VDOT was sorely unprepared) we were stuck in the house the whole weekend and Monday. I finally left the house yesterday afternoon but the roads were still not great. Even today with the sun out it will not melt much, and what does melt will become ice as soon as the sun goes down.

Friday night



Saturday morning




The expensive part (this is our dog's kennel where the roof collapsed)


The beautiful part



And Monday morning


Topping off all this, they are now calling for wintry mix/freezing rain on Thursday & Friday. Oh joy.

To all those people who yell "Let it snow!" you can SUCK IT! And I mean that from the bottom of my frozen heart.

**That's what she said.

Ocupados

Please excuse my absence as I have company today. And I'm dealing with some "poopy" situations.





Literally.

The Game Plan

Wrap, wrap and wrap. Then wrap some more.

No one can "Keurig" this addiction

This affair started about 10 days ago and already I feel a little Tiger Wood-ish with all the varities I've tried. (ba-dum-bum-CHING!) Caribou, Coffee People, Tulley's, Timothy's and even Gloria Jean have touched these lips.

I love every minute of it.

Even if it only takes a minute. A minute to brew that is, cause I got this little baby from QVC and have fell madly, deeply in love.



Every morning I tweet about what flavor I'm drinking and then say Amen. Cause it's THAT good. And easy.

Before the Keurig, S always made the coffee because while I'm gifted in many, many areas I just never felt like I made a good cup of coffee. That meant on mornings when he wasn't working or out of town, yours truly was coffee-less.

Not a good situation. At. All.

Now we both have steaming hot cups o'joe in whatever flavor we want. This morning he had extra bold and I'm enjoying Gloria Jean's hazelnut. I even ordered some K-Cups called Santa's Brew yesterday so that we celebrate Christmas the proper way.

The Keurig way.

**While yes I am pimping this machine, it's not because I received a dang thing for free. I bought this from QVC because it was a Today's Special Value and on easy pay. (Holla! I love easy pay.) Having said that I'm not above accepting free stuff so... Keurig hook a girl up k?

The Men of CW

Yesterday I banished the bah humbug attitude so I'm not going to be kvetching that it's only 16 days to Christmas, or that I didn't get much sleep last night, or talking about the tractor trailer that was blocking every lane of traffic last night while trying to make a U-turn.

Nope not going to do it. I will not step up on the soap box today. I'm giving my blood pressure a chance to stay low & my heart a break from racing so much.

Maybe.

You know I watch (and/or DVR) a lot of tv. Three days a week my tv is set to CW. That's where I find all my "teenage" shows, my weekly vampire fix and The Chuck Bass.

Let me show you the reasons why I heart CW:

Mondays begin with One Tree Hill & although there are a bevy of attractive ladies on this show, I've never been that impressed with their men. But I do enjoy Nathan Scott's character. He's an upstanding family man that I don't hate to see in his locker room scenes.



90210's characters were a little young for me when the show started. Thankfully they filled out the cast with Matt Lanter who plays bad boy Liam.



Then there's Colin Egglesfield whipping up dishes on Melrose Place. Unfortunately they have cut him from the cast (along with Ashley Simpson-Wentz) so I hope that the plot can keep me interested once he's gone.




The Salvatore brothers headline the Vampire Diaries on Thursday nights.* I can't deny that Paul Wesley is attractive as Stefan, the younger better behaved brother.



But it's Damon, the bad brother, that really grabs my attention. Ian Somerhalder's eyes are mesmerizing.



Sticking with the bad boy theme, I've saved the best for last. Gossip Girl is must see TV so if you are not watching you are totally missing out. All the cool kids are doing it!

It could be for Chace Crawford. He's a good looking guy but a bit too emo for me.



I much prefer the bad boy of the show - Chuck Bass. Ed Westwick is not your typical pretty boy but when he turns on the Bass Charm I just melt.



CW is how I've been filling my hawtie factor since True Blood ended their season. But truthfully I can't wait for Eric to show up on my screen again.



Who do you look forward to seeing on the small screen? I'd hate to think I'm missing out.

*If you've missed the Vampire Diaries and want to get in on the drama then tune in next week. CW is doing a week long marathon so that's 5 times the Salvatore brothers. Rawr.

**I just noticed that Eric is the only blonde. Guess I got a thing for dark hair. Unless they are tall sexy vampires.

Merry SITSmas!

The Secret is in the Sauce is hosting their 2nd annual SITSmas today and giving away more prizes than you can shake a stick at.

Every HOUR.

Since I'm obviously in the holiday spirit**, I want to also share some linky ♥ with my fellow SITStas...

There's Always Room for One More
Lulaville
Land of Bean
Keep in Touch with Mommakin
It Really Is All About Me
Welcome to the Nut House
Angie's Spot
Buried with Children
Manic Mariah
The Buzz
Rant Rave Roll

These are just a few of the SITsas that I love. Be sure to check out my blogroll for more!

Merry SITSmas to all and to all GOOD LUCK!

**If you have read any of my posts from the last two weeks you would know that I was very much NOT in the holiday spirit. Although I still say medication is a necessity to go shopping in this mess, I'm trying to banish my bah humbug attitude starting today. We'll see how that goes...stay tuned!

Taking out the garbage...

Budget cuts for the arts?

No worries. The true artists improvise.

Have a great weekend ya'll!

"Crazy ass people like me"...

Yesterday I was bitching about putting up the tree and I would like to say that my mood has much improved since then.

Not so much.

My morning was off to a great start when I got behind this HAG driving 10 UNDER the speed limit in the left lane. When I was finally able to get around her, I showed my appreciation by flipping her the bird.

Ahem.

I've always had a low tolerance for stupid people but now my patience is also gone. It makes for a nice combo when I'm in public.

Yesterday I thought I could make a quick run to Big Lots and pick up some new ornaments. I grabbed what I needed and went to the front to check out. Lines were 6-7 people deep. On a Tuesday. At 1 o'clock. WTF?!

And by "lines" I mean TWO. There were only TWO frickin' lines open. Apparently they had failed to recognize TUESDAY as a big shopping day.

I tried to patiently wait. One customer down. Two customers down. Okay, only 4 in front of me now. Even though I had exactly one thing to purchase and everyone in front of me had full carts, "I CAN do this!" I thought.

Then it happened. The retard at the counter had the wrong thing and the clerk had to go off in search of the right thing or a price check or something that required her ass to leave the counter. I'm not exactly sure since I was STILL 4 people back.

What I do know is that when she still had not returned a couple minutes later I did a BBW (remember?)- put my stuff back & left.

I honestly could not stand there another second.

Of course I still needed ornaments so I stopped at Walmart after work. I thought it would be a quick trip since the outdoor center entrance is where the seasonal stuff is.

Why do I keep doing this to myself??

Those Walmart whores had closed that entrance.

Okay fine. I'm already there so I go in. I cannot find the ornaments I want but that's okay too. I change up my plans a couple of times while browsing the aisles.

Here's where the problem lies. I said 'excuse me' what seemed like a MILLION times. Only ONE lady responded. One. ONE!

Does shopping make most people deaf and/or mute and I just don't know about it? Because honestly if one more person had ignored me I would have Karate Kid'd their ass.

It was at that moment I decided it was time to go.

I got in the express lane where there was only one customer ahead of me. They had several items (well over the express limit) but that didn't bother me since it appeared they were at the end of the transaction when I got there.

Then the last item wouldn't scan. OMG! Enter the manager, the price check, the frickin' whole shebang again.

Seriously. I couldn't believe my luck, but this time I waited.

Finally the manager got the price in and gave the couple their total. It was only at this time that it occurred to the guy that he would have to pay for his stuff. I can only assume that since he only pulled out his wallet and began to count cash at. that. very. moment.

I can also assume that math is not his strong suit since it took him FOREVER to count it out.

I thought my head would explode. "CLEAN UP ON AISLE 2!"

I realize it's the holiday shopping season. I know there will be long lines and new cashiers. I can deal with those things but some stuff is unforgivable.

For the love of my sanity please follow these simple rules while shopping: (Not following them might result in violence. I'm just sayin'. There are probably other crazy ass people like me out there.)

-Please finish shopping BEFORE getting in line. No, I will not hold your spot while you get Lil Johnnie's underwear that you forgot. Yes, I will sigh and give you dirty looks when you are too stupid to know what you picked up.

-Please be ready to pay at the end of your transaction. It should come at no surprise that you will need money for that. Whether it's cash, credit or check have it ready. Not in your pocket, not at the bottom of your purse or with your husband who's in the car.

-Please acknowledge me when I say excuse me. Or better yet, say it yourself when you cut in front of me.

-Please park in ONE space. I know it's hard but COME ON one car=one space. Parking diagonally or with your tire in the space next to you prevents someone else from parking there. And no one likes slashed tires.

These are just a few of the things that irk me. Trust me when I say there are dozens of other reasons why I would cut a bitch these days.

Tell me, what's your biggest pet peeve? Go ahead get it off your chest. You're among friends.

Birthday Wishes (& other stuff)

Today this little guy...


...turns 6.


When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday he asked for a Transformer toy & a new hoodie. That crazy kid. But that's what he wanted so that's what I got him - a new hoodie & Transformer game for his DS.

Cause that's what aunties do. Spoil them and send them home.

Happy Birthday buddy!

**^^^**^^^**^^^**^^^**^^^**^^^**^^^**^^^**^^^**^^^**
As for the "other stuff"...

Thanksgiving was fab, although a little rushed. Having mixed families (boyfriends, step moms, sisters who don't talk to brothers, etc.) makes for one heckuva scheduling job.

S & I went out shopping on BF, but not super early so it wasn't too bad. The most crowded store I went into was Bath & Body Works. I literally was in line for 20 minutes before I said forget it.

The people in front of me had coupons and bought specials but got the wrong stuff so the cashiers were sending them back into a very crowded store to get the right stuff. Frankly I couldn't take it anymore.

After that we took a break to see New Moon. I'm not going to go into a big review post about it because everyone has already said it's better than Twilight. And it is. While not perfect, I didn't want the movie to end if that tells you anything.

We did a bit more shopping before going home on Friday and with the pretty spectacular deals I found online yesterday my Christmas shopping is about 60% done.

Not too shabby.

The people I have left to buy for are the ones that need nothing & are a PITA to buy for.

If everyone would just write a Santa wish list shopping would be so much easier.

Speaking of easy, or should I say NOT easy my Christmas tree is up. But not decorated. In fact the decorations are all over my living room floor because I just couldn't talk myself into "fluffing" the tree and putting it all together.

When did it become such a chore to put the tree(s) up?

It was one of my favorite things to do when I was little but now it just seems like work. Especially when I know in a month I'll be putting it all away.

Seems someone has a little bah humbug going on huh?