There's Nothing Like It

The other day I was standing in Target, and some ladies were talking in line in front of me. The one lady said to the other, "yeah, there's nothing as good as that". Now I can't remember exactly what they were talking about, but I remember thinking, 'really, that's the best you can do?'.

Today I had a great time playing with the pup out in the snow, just running around and tossing snowballs (she loves that). So that got me thinking, what do I think is better than that (whatever it was)?

Popping off your bra at the end of a long day.
Snuggling under a down blanket on a cool night.
A nice cold beer on a hot summer day.
Playing hooky from work and goofing off for an afternoon.
Clean sheets on the bed after a shower.
Grabbing the dog and a ball and playing around in yard.
Sleeping in.

Those are a few of my favorite things, how about you?

Current Music: Adrift - Barenaked Ladies

Nobody Likes a Tease

I hate to say bad things about my girl, Mother Nature. I love her, but she is a serious tease.

This was Monday, all was right with the world:



And then Tuesday happened:



Wednesday was the bringer of all things spring, the sun was out, the birds were chirping, there were signs of green in the lawn and the piles of snow were melting. I was absolutely sure that spring was here for good.

And this is what I found when I left the office tonight...



Seriously - I am a California girl, when you promise good weather, you can't mean for the next ten minutes!!!!

Current Music: California Sun - Jem

The Morning After

After springing forward that is.

Don't get me wrong, I love Daylight Savings Time, mostly. I love the wonderful long evenings. I love that we can't set off fireworks till 10pm. There's lots of things to love about Daylight Savings Time but this day is always one of my least favorite days of the year.

I figure I lose at least at least 3 hours of sleep and am probably about as unproductive as I can get (well and be at work).

Now, falling back an hour - that's good stuff. Rested, relaxed and ready to go to work on Monday, it's all good! I'm going to figure out a way to only fall back, then run for office - I think I could go far on that platform!

Current Music: Lily Dreams On - Cotton Mather

Happy New Year!

Feeling very optimistic about 2008 so far, strange but true. Typically when I wake up on a New Year's morning I'm not really very excited at the prospect of a new year. But I woke up this morning and felt really good, and not just because it's the end of the Holidailies (which is very good - really)!

A friend of mine last night said "everything will be great in 2008" - sounds a bit trite and rhyme-y, but not a bad catch phrase for the year. And so far, she's been right. Woke up with out a hangover with a purring sleepy cat cuddled up to me (that is a great way to wake up!), the cats let me sleep till 10am, I woke up to a serious winter wonderland (the weather men finally got it right, we've got at least 6 to 8 inches right now and it's still going), and when I went to shovel the deck stairs for the dog there was no snow on the stairs. Small things? Yes, but maybe enjoying the small things in life will be the secret to having everything be great.

We had a great time last night, the party of 8 turned into a party of 15 and was insanely fun. As I said - I've never really gone out for new years, no big parties, nothing, so this was a great way to start! We live just a few doors down from J&M, so no driving was required late at night and we could imbibe as much as we wanted to - we still managed to get home by 2 am. Scott went a bit farther than he should, I left him asleep in the chair in the living room, holding onto a bucket (just in case). I on the other hand did quite well, didn't drink so much that I was wrecked, and still had a great time. Once I get all the pictures back I'll post a few (sadly I do not have one of Scott and his bucket, I left my camera at J&M's).

Speaking of pictures, I am contemplating a 365 project - no not NaBloPoMo's 365, PhotoJoJo's 365 Project. A friend of mine did something similar a number of years back - the Internet was in it's infancy and blogging wasn't even a glimmer in some geeks eye yet - but she took a picture a day as a type of visual journal. Sounds kind of cool doesn't it? I'm thinking about it, though not having a camera today might put a little dent in the plan.

I found this link over on Contrary's blog - love the idea. Blogging because you want to - no restrictions on anything, as it should be. After NaBloPoMo and Holidailies I am totally down with it!

I guess that's as much as I have to say to say on this first day of the year. I'm off to finish watching the rose parade, watch U of M play in the Capitol One Bowl, straighten up the house a bit, maybe take a picture, work on some resolutions (one of which is to make sure to visit all my bloggie friends more regularly!), and possibly do a Daily Something page (it's been a while and this seems like a good day to pick that back up).

Current Music: New Day - Kate Havnevik

P.S. Very funny about the rose parade - just saw a float go by and they are wearing gloves, but it's almost 70 degrees there - WTF?!

Odds and Ends

Not much happening here today - well, that's not right, there's a lot it's just not interesting.

I've spent the morning doing laundry and starting to clean the house. I still have to go to the restaurant tonight and work tomorrow so I'm trying to pack a lot of things into a small amount of time. I am having motivational issues though - I'm currently sitting with a cat on my lap, all warm and cozy. It's going to be tough to get everything done!

I did manage to take some time to do the Smart or Stoopid? test over on Scoober's blog, that was fun, and I actually did better than I expected!

Verdict: Smart
Average Score is 17.9
Your Score is 22
You are 22.8% smarter than average

(Here's the part where I tell you that I committed at least 7 typos, and couldn't find the percent sign as I typed the results - so really how smart is smart?)

Oh I almost forgot - Happy Solstice! I'm super excited about that. Today is the longest day of the year - which means I'll get .7 seconds of daylight (well that's how it feels anyway) today. So why am I excited? Because from here on in the days get longer! And that means that soon I won't have to wake up in the dark and go home in the dark, and generally live in the dark.

Okay - I'm off to do something interesting, just so that I have something to post about!

Current Music: Christmas Pics - Barenaked Ladies

There Are Good Reasons

To live in Michigan that is. While it doesn't always have a lot to recommend it, but this is one of those good reasons:


Yep, spectacular sunsets (alright, this isn't one of my better shots, but I can't find the one I want to post)! You would think, Hawaii or California would have the best, and I've seen a few of each of those -they're good, no doubt. But there's something about a winter sunset here - just beautiful! I will concede that you need a nice winter day, which can be few and far between, but give a girl a few points from trying.

Current Music: Mele Kalikimaka (Hawaiian Christmas)- Jimmy Buffet

Snow Day

I woke up to a "Blizzard Warning" - while we slept we'd been upgraded from a Winter Storm Watch. But a Blizzard Warning isn't so bad on a Sunday morning when you don't have any thing else to do right? At 9am the day was filled with promise, the promise of a fire, a couple of movies on DVD, catching up on reading blogs, working on the Christmas Cards and of course more snow.

I'm not sure when it happened, maybe it's when I had to spend 20 minutes combing the snow off the dog, or maybe it was when I burned my fingers on the heat tool I was using on the cards, but at some point my good mood turned into a supremely crappy one.

The cards are still not done, the house isn't clean, the laundry isn't done, the Christmas shopping isn't done, there's so much to do and Monday is on it's way. Crap.

Current Music: Today Has Been Okay - Emiliana Torrini