Nothing to post

When one has nothing to post, a Meme goes up.

FOUR...
... jobs I’ve had:
[1] video store clerk
[2] office assistant at a non-profit org
[3] cash vault teller
[4] system support tech

... movies I could watch over and over:
[1] Star Wars (all of ‘em)
[2] Napoleon Dynamite
[3] The Parent Trap (the original with Hayley Mills)
[4] Amelie

... places I’ve lived:
[1] White Oak
[2] Silver Spring
[3] Claymont
[4] Laurel

... TV shows I love to watch:
[1] Gilmore Girls
[2] ER
[3] Monk
[4] America’s Test Kitchen

... places I’ve been on vacation:
[1] Thailand - Bangkok, Chiangmai, Pattaya, Rayong
[2] Europe - Paris, Cologne, Luzerne, Amsterdam
[3] China - Beijing, Xian, Gobi desert
[4] California - From SF to SD and points in between

... websites I visit daily:
[1] former co-workers (bjciii, crusher, dave)
[2] knitting blogs (too many to list)
[3] Bank of America (to check my account balance)
[4] Moreno Family Website

... favorite foods:
[1] Thai
[2] steak
[3] fish
[4] Chinese

... places I’d rather be right now:
[1] the beach
[2] with John
[3] Thailand
[4] in bed taking a nap

Coolest Gadgets

Although my husband is mostly Cuello Rojo, he's also a geek and loves gadgets. For Valentine's Day, he gave me a device to go with my iPod and it allows me to listen to iPod in the car. I. LOVE. TECHNOLOGY. (Are you singing the song Kip sang to Lafawnduh at the end of Napoleon Dynamite?) I've downloaded a bunch of Podcasts, mostly related to knitting, and listen to them on my commute home from work when I don't feel like listening to Don & Mike.



I had President's Day off today and it was glorious. I didn't really do much. Went to pick up my new specs at Columbia Mall. Went to the yarn store. Came home and did laundry. Grilled some chicken. I should have slept in more!

Remember that iPod cover I made a few weeks ago? It didn't fit, remember? Well, I ripped it out and turned it into these:


Manos Mittens on Poinsettia

Saturday, the gang had dinner at Maggiano's. It was an awesome feast as usual. We actually sent back a bottle of wine, as it was kinda skunky. The other 4 or so bottles were delicious, however. William distributed some souvenirs from his trip to Key West. He brought back something no 'Skins fan should be without:



Speechless, huh?

Pearly

Would you believe I'm not talking about "purl" as in knitting, but "pearl" as in a color? Johnny and I went to check out more kitchen countertop samples and we actually agreed on this:

It's Sile Stone - a quartz product. Color we like: Ebony Pearl. We also liked Rainforest, a very deep mottled green. This material is minimally cheaper than granite, but just as pretty. I like Corian too, but wanted something with a little more shine. This isn't the beach cottage/mediterranean themed colors I had originally envisioned, but I'm sure we can incorprate blues and teals into the paint and/or tile.

I'd like to do the tile similar to what I saw a few years ago at one of the OBX houses we rented (the Beer Bong Contest house). The kitchen had white cabinets, dark blue Corian counters and the backsplash was tiled with semi-translucent blue glass in various tones. Some of the glass tiles were thicker than others, installed so the surface wasn't level (like a relief art piece) and very dark grout was used. It was really pretty.

Our kitchen is galley style and not very big. I think if we get the black countertop and do blue paint/tile, it will flow nicely into the dining area where Phoebe Buffet (I changed it's name from Jimmy) resides next to the blue vertical blinds on the sliding glass doors. Hmmm... I'm also thinking of painting our bedroom a deeper blue than what is currently on the walls. Blue everything! I'm turning into John!

Stay tuned and have an awesome weekend!

My Funny Valentine

Get yours here

John's butt would like to wish Freddy a very happy Valentine's day.

For many years when I lived/worked in Delaware, Valentine's Day meant my co-workers would pass around a copy a card I received from a "stalker". The card had very little blank space, as the guy who gave it to me wrote bizarre thoughts and declarations of love all over it. I barely knew or talked to him. This dude was seriously whacked. At the time, it was pretty scary. You never know what people are capable of when they have a one-way infatuation!

Some other bizarre incidents occurred between this guy and other people in the company and then he just stopped coming to work. He got my home number through a department call list and I had his number blocked. Gotta love Caller ID too. Thankfully, he didn't know where I lived.

The guys I worked with had their favorite passages from the card and would recite them to me all day long. I did grow to enjoy the annual reading of the card. I think Hogweed's favorite was "One Jal equals one unit of love". Or was it the one about the deer in the woods? Maybe Bill will post his electronic rendering of the card in his ramblings.

LOVE and HUGS!

A Snowy Weekend

I had been looking forward to spending Saturday night with the girls over at Laurie's but the threat of snow nixed that plan. It's been a very long time since we last got together. I believe it was probably this time last year when we had our last Girls' Night. It had snowed that weekend too. Every year, Laurie's husband goes on a ski trip to Utah with some of his buddies. And it seems that most years, it SNOWS whenever he's away on this trip! A few years ago, Laurie was stuck in the house with the kids as she was unable to dig herself out. Coincidence? I think not.

With my weekend free of plans, John and I decided to do what everyone else was doing... head to the grocery store for TP and milk. First, we went to the library so I could return (and check out some more!) knitting books. Then to Lowes to look at kitchen countertops. I'm not sure what I want. I have a certain idea about what I'd like. Black countertop with a blue-green glass tile backsplash. I'm not sure how this will look with the honey-colored cabinets. Also, all the magazines and books show stainless steel appliances. When I find a "look" I like, I can't picture it with white appliances. Maybe we'll just keep the green countertop we have for now...

After returning from the grocery store, I worked on my mohair sweater and surfed the cooking shows. Johnny did this:


Installing a new vent requires special gloves and tools

Our lower level is rather chilly in the winter as there's only one heating duct. So, John installed two more ducts. Hopefully, this will distribute the heat better.

For dinner, I did this:


Lots of chopping -- onion, green pepper and jalapeno

I forgot to take a pic of the finished product (that would be Chili, folks... keep up here!). It was yummy!

This morning, we woke up to about 10 inches of snow. It was good snowball fight snow... the kind that packs well without being too slushy. Hopefully, William made it home OK from his trip to Key West and Mike, Diane and kids made it home from San Diego. They picked a good weekend to head someplace warm!


Big Dig

Lunch at the Greene Turtle ($3 off all burgers on Sundays!). Back to the grocery store (forgot to get milk, but they only had gallons left, which is too much). Home to laze around. Dinner of leftover chili and then Johnny helped me decorate these:


Luscious chocolately cakey goodness

Have a wonderful week, everyone! And wishing lots of love (in advance) to our family and friends for Valentine's Day!

Currently Listening to...

Hall & Oates and Liz Phair -- generously gifted to me at X-mas by my mother-in-law

Madonna -- my own purchase

Joan Osborne -- Johnny selected this for me from his vast collection

The Hall & Oates and Joan Osborne CD's have the song "I'll Be Around" and I like both versions. I can't wait to get my CD's from William's so I can load up my ThaiPod (you can thank my buddy bjciii for that!).

If It Was Up Your Ass...

Yesterday proved that John shouldn't buy me nice things from Tiffany as I will quickly break or lose them. I wore my cute little heart necklace to work on the shorter chain it came with instead of the longer one I had already. At some point during the day, it must have broken (or maybe wasn't clasped on properly to begin with?) and slid off my neck. In the evening, I discovered my necklace missing by coincidence. Or should I say by discomfort. The kind requiring an adjustment. I was wearing a pullover bra/tank thing and the pendant had dropped into my bra. "What the... ???" was my first reaction when I felt a round metal thing drop out of the bottom of the bra into my hand. Before seeing it, I thought, "How did I get a dime in my bra?" Then I looked at it and was immediately saddened (and mad at myself). I'm such a tard!

The chain is who knows where. Not in my underwear, as John suggested. Not at work. Not at home. Not in the jackass. Not in the parking lot. Not in my scarf. Not in my coat hood.

As John's co-worker likes to say, "If it was up your ass, you'd know where it was!"

Oh well... at least I have the pendant.

XL -- not so Large

Congrats to Valerie, Jodi and Travis on the STEELERS' win last night in Super Bowl XL! If I missed any other Steeler fans, please forgive me, as I only know 3.

Last night, the gang went to Uncle Jed's to watch the big game. Sean and Val traveled to Pittsburgh to be with other Steelers fans, so it was just Freddy, William, Mike, Henry, me, Johnny, Lena, Jake and his buddies, Oscar and Javier. Some of them arrived at the bar around 2:00 to watch the Maryland game. They passed the time between the games by playing cards and challenging one another to various trivia games via boxes of Trivial Pursuit questions and Biography "Who Am I?" cards.

I love a good block pool... makes the game more fun when you have no actual preference in the outcome of the game. John and I had 3 squares with the following numbers:

Seahawks - Steelers
0 - 0
9 - 0
3 - 6

We were sooo close in the first quarter and were hoping it would go scoreless. We also had some hope the Seahawks would score a touchdown to go 10 - 0. On paper, the numbers looked pretty good, but after the Steelers scored two touchdowns, it was pretty much impossible. Mikey did win one quarter with the 3 - 7 score. He bought the table a round of Black 'buca shots. I'm not a fan of licorice, but I drank it. And boy, did it F me up for about 20 mintutes!!! This was on a full stomach too! Johnny and I left before the 3rd quarter ended and caught the last 4 minutes of the game at home.

I was surprised the bar wasn't more full. It's usually so packed for other games. I guess this is the one event where people host parties and go to parties. It was actually kind of nice that we were able to put a couple tables together and most of us had bar chairs instead of stools.

Hope everyone enjoyed a safe and fun Super Bowl event (hope you feel better, Chris!) and I hope to have some pictures to post soon! William took some good ones with his camera phone.

Word Cloud

I found this thing that takes words from your blog entries and makes a "cloud" of words. I wasn't able to take a clear screen shot (you can't enlarge their preview of the final product). If you have a blog, check this site out!