meme I found whilst tooling around on the 'net

I found it here by way of here :

1. Flip to page 18, paragraph 4 in the book closest to you right now, what does it say?

admit[v1] allow entry or use accept, be big on*, bless, buy, concede, enter, entertain, give access, give the nod*, give thumbs up*, grant, harbor, house, initiate, introduce, let, let in, lodge, okay, permit, receive, shelter, sign*, sign off on*, suffer, take, take in, ; CONCEPT83 -Ant. debar, deny, dismiss, eject, exclude, expel, oust, refuse, reject, repel, shut. Can you tell that the book closest to me is a...thesaurus.

2. If you stretch out your left arm - as far as possible, what are you touching?
the work-in-progress bookshelf for Maddie's room (which used to be Nikki's room & was initially to be Nikki's bookshelf)

3. What's the last program you watched on tv?
football -back & forth b/t the Liberty Bowl & the Sun Bowl

4. Without looking, guess what time it is.
8:40pm

5. Except the computer, what can you hear right now?
V & G & horseplay in the t.v. room. Lib laughing. Fi chewing her quesadilla & talking.

6. When was the last time you were outside and what did you do?
2 hours ago -almost fell on my ass in the skating rink for a parking lot outside work. One of the pitfalls of gorgeous Colorado weather after a massive snowstorm is massive amounts of melt-off during the day which naturally freezes at night.

7. What are you wearing?
paint clothes

8. Did you dream last night? If you did, what about?
I did dream, though I don't remember what.

9. When was the last time you laughed?
an hour ago -Lib, Fi, Mad & V all playing hide & seek & Lib hid w/ her face down under the dining table -classic "you can't see me". Too cute!

10. What's on the walls, in the room you're in right now?
eraser board, drawing of Christ, holy water, picture my great aunt in Germany waterpainted, wall clock

11. Have you seen anything strange lately?
Does Lib's new 'do count? Better yet, another little girl today @ work, same age as Lib, same haircut! hahahahaha!

12. What do you think about this meme?
usual time waster

13. What's the last film you saw?
"Prozac Nation" onDemand

14. If you became a multimillionaire, what would you do with the money?
Donate scads & scads of money to various charities.
Pay my student loans & my daughter's student loans & my brother's student loans & my sister's student loans & G's sister's student loans. Hmmmm. Buy the victorian home that I want. Pay back all the money I've ever "borrowed". Invest. Buy a vacation home in the mountains. Snowboard all year long. Have horses.

15. Tell us something about yourself that most people don't know.
I was afraid of the dark until I was 12 or 13.

16. If you could change ONE THING in this world, without regarding politics or bad guilt - what would it be?
Pay teachers & police & firefighters & other worthy folks higher salaries & pay celebrities less.

17. Do you like dancing?
Yes

18. George Bush?
"there's a village in Texas that's lost it's idiot"

19. What do you want your children’s names to be, girl/boy?
Nikki, Madeleine, Fiona, Olivia or Nikki, Sean, Angus, (none for Lib b/c we knew she was a girl)

20. Would you ever consider living abroad?
In a heartbeat

21. What do you want God to tell you, when you come to heaven?
welcome home

22. Who should do this meme?
Everyone else who has a blog and anyone who needs a 5 minute break.

xmas evening

lovely nikita

ooooh, a smaller, new, improved camera/video/make-your-own-ringtones phone! Who's a lucky and much loved girl?


an appropriate xmas gift for little girls from the dairy queen herself



Sue, see how the lip gloss doubles as all-over the face makeup?

I now know why, as children, we never ate those large ginger cookies from Germany but instead always hung them as decorations in our rooms...the girls tasted them (as did I) and that's as far as it got -a taste. hahahahaha!

snow day!

maddie finally gets it that snowboarding pants are all about staying warm & maximizing the time outside in the snow -no matter how she thinks she looks. Doesn't she look happier than, I don't know, a dog in a butcher shop?

food stuff, etc

I totally forgot to snap the xmas bird. It was soooooooooooooooooo yum! It turned out really well. We have a new electric knife & it made a huge difference in the thickness of the white meat cuts. A couple days b4 xmas I saw this episode of The Barefoot Contessa; I decided to try the turkey & the spinach gratin. OMG! It was probably one of the best birds I've ever roasted (of course it helps that our oven works 100X better here than the one in the last house!). The spinach was like Boston Market but way better. We had sweet potato cassarole & stuffing w/ gravy. My stuffing probably wasn't any less fattening than if I had baked it inside the bird: I used pan drippings & butter to moisten it. But it was damn good. Gravy was a dry mix with 1/2 water & 1/2 pan drippings. Hey, it's only once a year, right?

Today's another snow-in day so we're making cookies. So far it's oatmeal raisin, m&m's, sugar crusted almonds (not cookies, technically, but a sweet treat nevertheless), & egg nog cookies. I also have on deck peppermint candy canes, rice crispy treats, peanut butter blossoms, buckeye's (again, a sweet-once-a-year treat), and maybe a re-attempt at the ginger snaps. Oh, another batch of stollen & my first attempt at nut rolls. Well, that's the big plan. We'll see how long this baking kick lasts. Not to mention, who's going to eat all this cookie goodness? I was baking some for the cookie exchange at work, but the store closed @ 5pm yesterday. That's another post, but long story short -that's 2 weeks in a row without a paid day and I've only had 3 & 2 days on the schedule respectively. Sucks to begin with. Sucks more when I get paid next week. Anywho, it will be me at home with all this "temptation" next week. Just when my resolutions kick in. Drat. I'm sure I can pawn the cookies off one way or another.

On another topic: I've been really looking forward to having podcasts to listen to. I suppose I could have listened all along on my computer (com-poooooo-tuuuuuurrrrrrrr, as Libby calls it). I have found this podcast "The Dead Show on KOPN 89.5 FM". It's just a weekly hour of dead music but OMG does it make me smile! Listening tonight was like stepping back in time for a brief but highly enjoyable hour. And then it was over, abruptly & all too soon. Sigh. Those were the days, weren't they? It's one thing that I would like to live over -again -and again -and again....

And the Libster got from her godmother Angela a doll that sings "I'm a little teapot" when you press it's belly. She loves it. She was very excited when she opened the package "look, I have a new dolly too!" She carries it everywhere & is constantly pushing it's belly. This evening she walked out of the play room & one of the doll's pigtails was out. And the doll had a hair cut. Lib had a new 'do as well. So much for her hair finally growing out. :P



where does the doll's hair end & Libster's begin? Guess she couldn't figure that one out either hahahahaha!

my xmas gift

Let's say I was suckered in by the bells & whistles. oooh & isn't it just so pretty. Or maybe it was my desire to contribute to a good cause -product(red). Definitely I'm loving the expanded 8 gigs of storage over my previous 1 gig. And it is a lot easier to load than my old Zen. Last night I "bought" Ani's latest CD from Itunes. Or rather I should say that I bought the right to download it onto my computer & then loaded onto my nano. I tried two different ways to make a cd for my own use on my old portable stereo or for use in my car stereo. Right. I should have known there would be a catch. The only way I can access the music that I paid for is on my computer or my nano. Period. Okay, so I'm not "file sharing" or downloading pirated music. But now I can't really use the music that I paid for & by all rights should be able to play anywhere, anyhow I choose. What a rip. There's a mistake I'll never make again. I should have known better. Friggin' apple snobs. (If anyone has info to prove me wrong, I will gladly rescind that last comment). Music I downloaded on MSN was easy to burn AND PLAY on any of my devices. I can convert WMA's to AAC but not the other way around. Stupid. It's back to the good ol' cd store for me. Oh, and I found this interesting tidbit in my search for a way to detangle the itunes scheme...hmmmmmm....

craft therapy demise

I've decided to combine my two blogs. I'm not posting as often as I had intended on the "craft therapy" blog. Like I really need yet another thing to do in my life. Look for the pics to be moved over some time soon. I'll probably move all the links too. Now that blogger has finally brought its format up to date & I have the ability to categorize various blog topics, this should have the same effect as having 2 separate blogs. I plan to categorize my archives too. Slowly Slowly Slowly Said the Sloth.

Update: RIP Craft Therapy blog 12.30.06 12:04am

snowplow update

Is it less expensive to run snowplows in a timely manner or to run a payloader & several dump trucks to haul away the snow off of the side streets? Apparantly, in Denver it's the latter. Don't know where they're putting the snow. I do know they were at it around 8am on our street & our side looks mahvelous. No problems for garbage pick-up. Yay!

It was snowing hard & heavy for a little while today; now it's tapering off. The news said that 20 of the 70+ plows were in for repairs & might be still out of commission the next couple days, exacerbating the already sparse plowing the city does.

Personally, I think we aren't going to get dumped on. Maybe that's just my wishful thinking b/c we're supposed to ride lite rail tomorrow morning for a knitting/playdate outing & we're really looking forward to it.

Fi-Fi speak, etc

Fi says:

"prittytend" = pretend -any pretend play is always clarified with "I'm prittytend mommy", "this is my prittytend lion", etc

"moosmic" = music

"mismas" = christmas

"sainta" (actually, very appropriate) = santa

And right now everything is "Maddie Maddie Maddie" -not in the "Marsha Marsha Marsha" way, but in the "I want a low ponytail just like Maddie's", "Look, I have new pants just like Maddie", "I want a braid just like Maddie", etc etc etc. It's kind of cute -for now. It actually makes Maddie think a bit when she's mistreating her sisters or excluding them when I point out that she is Fiona's hero the way Nikki is her own hero. I remind her that "Nikki would never say mean things to you (exclude you, hit you, scream at you, etc). Imagine how you would feel if...."

"Her" song this xmas was "let it snow".

Her favorite xmas gift? A $.99 notebook in her stocking that she carries everywhere with a pencil. Xmas morning she didn't want to put it down so that she could have 2 hands free to open the rest of her gifts. She sleeps with it under her pillow. She has a thing for notebooks & writing. Not a bad thing, but interesting considering there are two writers & a calligrapher/artist and fine & modern arts artists as well as crafty folk in our immediate & extended family.

Have I ever told you how odd my children are? They ALL sleep with books instead of stuffies. And now it's notebooks or sketchpads. Very interesting. Maybe not so odd b/c I usually fall asleep reading & end up sleeping with a book too. And I guess I carry a book & notepad with me everywhere I go out of the house. The nut doesn't fall far from the tree?

yummy

we bought weisswurst from the kristkindel markt & I made spetzle to go with. It was real, "authentic" weisswurst. By far the tastiest I've had that I can remember since the summer trip to Germany when I was 11. The sausage place is local & they DELIVER! Looks like we'll be having this more often. Yay!! We also bought some knackwurst. They were tasty too. I wanted knockwurst but they weren't selling it. Oh, and yes that is the real mustard in a tube from Germany on the side

well, now

Supposedly we are to be inundated with snow again starting in the a.m. Could be just like the last storm, so some meteorologists are saying. I hate to be a complainer -you know I love me some snow- but our garbage didn't get picked up last week b/c the trucks couldn't get around. We're supposed to have it on Saturday b/c of the holiday instead of our normal Friday pick up. Recycling too. Our bin is overfloweth. It was so by Friday last (that is only one reason to not have daily newspaper delivery -it takes up alot of bin space. alot.) We started in on our second garbage bin on Monday. That's not including the xmas refuse. You know that picture of our tree taken before the girls woke up? The wall of presents? If we have our garbage pick up suspended again this week, by next week we'll have a wall of garbage in front of our house. A stinky wall, to be sure.

And escape artist Cody broke, that's right folks -BROKE, her metal tie-out leash. Could be that she just couldn't stand for one more day that the pesty squirrel stands over by the tree & teases her. Either that or the mailman's scent was just too irresistable today (I hope not, for his sake). I think really she was mightily curious about the dump truck on the next street up that was hauling away snow all day. Don't know when it happened or how. In the afternoon I let the cat in & I saw the dead leash lying there in the snow, Cody nowhere to be seen, just some tracks in the snow leading up to the back fence and then in the neighbor's yard & away out the front. She showed up in front of the house a couple hours later, big 'ol bone in her mouth, half the leash dragging behind. Hmmm. Maybe it was the overwhelming smell of rotting garbage next to every house in the city that enticed her away.

xmas morning

oh my!

finally some snow pics

I'm sure you saw a ton of pics from Denver last week. Don't they all pretty much look the same? Yeah, well, these are MY pics.

Turns out we have a very friendly neighborhood here. Everyone worked together to get all the sidewalks & driveways cleared.

here's Saturday. Lovely Colorado blue sky.

Yet another snow loving girl in our family

snow day!

Maddie's having her first snow day since kindergarten with that March 2003 blizzard. It's very exciting b/c we just don't get snow days as a given every year like PA does -it's not planned into the school year, etc, and the conditions have to be darn severe here. I can probably count on two hands how many snow days Nikki had 3rd grade through 12th. And one of them was a "wind day" (75+ mph winds overnight)and one of them the pipes had frozen at her middle school and 3 or 4 of them were due to that '03 blizzard. So yeah, it's an exciting big deal today.

So far we have a few inches; Cody didn't really have to squat to pee, if that helps with the depth visualization. It's pretty to look at; the flakes are getting bigger and it's all powder. We'll be braving the cold here shortly to get some snow action. Remember the last "big" snow of the season was freaking wet. Not fun to play in.

I'd like to say that we're prepared for disaster, but we're not. We've got the faucets all dripping. We've filled all of our nalgenes & pitchers with water. The flashlight has batteries. We've a battery operated clock & my phone is charged. There's the makings of a first aid kit and some non-perishable food. Drat. It didn't even occur to me until this morning that we might have to contend with conditions like those folks in Oregon. Well, hopefully we won't. Oh yeah, we've got diapers & wipes & pet food -all pertinent to a shut in.

According to cotrip.org I25 is closed just a short 10 miles south of our home all the way to NM & then north of the city to WY. I70 is closed at the airport east to KS, as is I76 to NE. It's looking like maybe Maddie won't have school tomorrow either. Yay! An extra 2 days of vaca! Luckily I don't have to work tonight. I do tomorrow & Friday though. So much for getting any last minute xmas shopping done, huh? G tells me he may have to spend the night @ work. I may not be able to pick up Nikki from Boulder tomorrow morning as planned. Unfortunately, she has to be out of her dorm by Friday. On the upside, she does have a few friends that I'm sure she could hang with in the event that I can't get out of my street. You know my feelings about the plowing priorities in this city, so I won't even go there today.

So that's the exciting news. Don't you wish you were here now? Or rather, when there is no trace of today's blizzard left on the ground -probably a couple weeks max- won't you wish you were here?

update: You know when I said Cody didn't have to squat? Imagine the depth of the snow & what her tracks would look like in it. Now imagine that her tracks are completely -I mean COMPLETELY- covered. Like there's no trace that she even left the house a couple hours ago. Now I hear they're predicting another 9 inches tonight. Definitely going to be another snow day! I sure am missing my 4WD right about now.

snowboarding recap & customer service extraordinaire

Why yes, the Madster did indeed enjoy herself. Alot. So much so that she asked if she would be going every weekend. She woke slightly when I came home from work that night & groggily suggested that she would ask for a snowboard for xmas but that it would be expensive & she wouldn't get anything else. The next day she was still excited about it & requested that Kelly or I take her to practice so that she would be prepared for her next lesson & would impress her instructor.

Yay! Has she finally found a sport that she likes?! She was the youngest in her group lesson & one of two girls. She came home with all equipment intact but for her water bottle. Apparantly her board passed the eyecandy test -it had a dragon & a lotus blossom & a dragonfly on it, "It was perfect for me." She had some probs with the tow rope. She was also concerned that she wouldn't "pass" the test b/c she couldn't get the stopping down. All in all it was a good experience for her. Oh & the bus ride was equally exciting b/c it had a toilet & a movie to watch each way.

My fabulous experience w/ customer service today? The UPS man & his seasonal helper stopped by today -totally for no reason, other than to ask if we got our t.v that they had left on the side of the house last week when no one was home. Wow. Very impressive!

dreams & memories

I had the most bizarre dream last night. Starring me & also this guy from high school whom I haven't seen or thought about in many many years. Can't remember the details (nothing racy, so get yer mind outta the gutter). I recognized this kid in the dream but it didn't really occur to me who it was until I was on the outer edges of dreaming & had started to wake. This particular guy had committed suicide, I don't remember how long ago. Was I still in high school? Or had I graduated? He was a couple years older. In fact, he was the first person with whom I ever got rip-roaring drunk. Some of you reading this may remember that night. Hahahaha! Mad Dog!! And those Friday night dances at the firehall!! (I can only imagine now, really, how my parents must have felt at the time!) And so those few of you reading this & remembering that night will also remember that person to whom I am referring. I don't feel comfortable naming names just now. Anyway. Isn't there some old wives tale or superstition about dreaming of someone dead? Please remind me.

my quintessential xmas song

whoop! raise the roof!

Madster is on her very first snowboarding trip today! Alone! Well, not entirely. She's gone with an organization that picks kids up at various locations around the city. In a big coach bus. It's an all-day lesson. With the initial sticker shock from the investment in head-to-toe clothing (excluding coat, for now) came the worry that she may not even like the sport. Oh how I want her to like it, really really like it. "How can she not?" replied the REI clerk. How, indeed. I mean, I was so excited for her Thursay night that I couldn't sleep. I want to go I want to go I want to go I want to go I want to go!!! There is no other physical activity in the world that I would rather do. None. My body still remembers how exhilarating it feels, the way one's body retains certain memories -good and bad. The difference between my sleep last night & my sleep on nights before my own snow excursions?? I dreamt last night of driving Maddie to the drop off spot whereas seasons past I dreamt of making some turns down the mountain. Sigh.

Mad's excited that she is the only one out of her friends who snowboards. She was concerned that she might be the only girl. Or the only first-timer. I tried to give her a brief verbal explanation with some physical modeling on the dynamics of snowboarding (e.g. stopping on one's heels, snowboard will go where one looks, what happens if one goes both toes forward, it's all about one's center of gravity, etc). She was really curious & the instructions made sense to her.

I can't wait to see her this evening to get her reaction! With any luck, she'll be going again next month with the same operation. She said this morning that she'll be asking Kelly (are you reading this Kel?) to take her snowboarding (I know, you ski). I think I'll go to! Maybe even go next month with the organized group. Maybe. Depends on the job situation. But that's a topic for another day. For now, I have visions of a very happy but exhausted Madster exiting the bus this evening. Yay!

why oh why

sniffle sniffle why can't we have an IKEA here????? I MISS IKEA. It has cool, affordable furniture. AND a play area for kids so parents can shop in peace. I couldn't wait for the day when Snick was potty trained so that she too could join the ankle biters in the ball room. I think it was an incentive for her as well. Lord knows we could use some incentive around here. But back to the topic. Sniffle. I'm told that IKEA keeps its costs down b/c it only puts stores close to ports? But to what port is Chicago close? Or Minneapolis, for that matter? Sniffle. It's just not fair. Sniffle Sniffle. Sigh.

whoa

Ya know, I work at this easy-peasy part time job but I give it my best effort at all times. I'm damn good at customer service. So we have these "pins" that employees get for positive comment cards. There are some women there who have like 30 of these pinned on their smocks -and I've seen one woman have a downright crappy attitude with customers on a number of occasions. I have two of these pins. I wonder sometimes why I even bother with the outstanding customer service when I get no acknowledgement for my efforts. Then tonight I saw these two guys who were customers that I helped a couple weeks ago. I asked how did the project go & they were totally appreciative of my help & went on & on about how it was the best customer service they'd ever had. Ever. And that they should write a letter, etc etc. Honestly, it was the standard go-out-of-my-way type service that I give to everybody. This was in the middle of Home Depot where we're chatting, not at my work, but it was the nicest thing any customer could have said -regardless of not getting a pin to show off. (not to mention, it totally negated the paint mixing dude's condescending attitude). Yay me :)

yum

   two for Mad's class

   one for us

I think this may be the best batch of stollen I've made. Not bad for midnight baking AND for shorting the liquid but realizing it after I've kneaded and then adding some water to compensate. Whew. I thought I might have killed the yeast & would have to make a new batch. Not a pleasant thought at 1am. But lo & behold! It tastes as good as it looks!

St. Nicholas Day

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

you know what tonight is

don't you? The night when all the little German (and German-American) kids put their boots out for St. Nicholas to fill. I love this tradition that I grew up with. Here's a new take on a old theme: Me: you better straighten up or you won't get candy from St. Nicholas. Maddie: or what? I'll get nothing? I'll get a lump of coal? Me: no, when I was little, St. Nicholas brought switches for bad kids. Maddie: what are switches? Me: long sticks for parents to swat the bad children's butts. Maddie: that's pretty violent.

 

Maddie is so on the brink of not believing. Yesterday she asked me why does he always bring candy canes & clementines? I know there's an answer for that in a legend somewhere. I need to look it up & refresh my memory. I don't recall asking specifically about it when I was little; we just took it for granted that we always got tangerines & candy canes. I think the candy canes represent his shepard's crook thing; don't all saints have one to walk with??? And I vaguely remember the oranges representing something (duh). Better get to looking b4 she wakes up. She wants to do a little presentation for her class. Coincidentally, Madster's snack day falls on St Nicholas Day. She thought stollen would be a "very appropriate" snack to share.

She said she would tell her friend Z to put out her boots too. I told her St Nicholas only comes to German kids. She (barely) mumbles under breath "yeah right; I know it's you guys". She volunteered her requests to Santa last week -but a couple weeks ago she told me her theory about parents giving all the gifts. We talked about it a little; she even revised her list so as to not have so many "expensive" things on it. It seems she'd rather have alot of gifts under the tree rather than a couple pricey ones. It's a little sad that she's outgrowing santa. Ah well. At least she's in 3rd grade. Then again, Nikki -who will deny it with all her being- believed until she was at least 10.