Jul
03

Found this on a blog somewhere, but I don’t remember where. :(

30 Questions:

1. It’s 2AM and you are not home. You are more than likely:
There once was a time when I could tell you I was in Deep Ellum, but those days are long gone. I’m probably in jail or in the hospital. Or we’re in Dallas and trying to stay on California time by staying up til Midnight CA time. LOL

2. What’s the last thing you spent more than $100 on?
Does rent count? I’ll be getting tires soon. Um, probably the hotel & flight for my cousin’s wedding.

3. What do your bank checks look like?

Just the regular free checks from my bank. I only write checks for my part of the rent, so I’ll probably NEVER run out.

4. Where did the shirt you are currently wearing come from?
The Milwaukee airport from one of my trips back to Wisconsin. Not when I was just there, but the time before that, I think.

5. Name something that will be on your Christmas wish list:
If I don’t get it before Christmas, either a Kindle or Amazon gift cards so I can get a Kindle. :)

6. What color is your toothbrush?
Pink

7. Name something you collect and tell us about it.
Sock yarn. LOL

8. Last restaurant you ate at. Who were you with? How was it?
Wendy’s for lunch with Joe.

9. Who was the last person you bought a birthday card for?
My grandma

10. What is your worst bad habit?
Buying yarn, but I haven’t bought any in a couple months. (go me!)

11. Name a magazine to which you subscribe?
Cooking Light

12. Your favorite pizza toppings?

We usually get half pepperoni & half cheese, and I get the cheese half. My favorite, though, is ham & pineapple. :D

13. Whose number were you looking up the last time you used a phone book?
They still make those? ;)

14. Other than family, who is the person that you love most?
Um… all my friends?

15. What is the last thing you cooked?
Frickin’ tacos.

16. Name something you wouldn’t want to buy used?
Underwear

17. Which shoe do you put on first?
The one that’s closest?

18. What is the last thing you remember losing?
my needle sizer, but I found it.

19. What is the ugliest piece of furniture in your house?
the card table holding all my yarny crap.

20. Last thing you bought and ended up returning?
I’ll be returning some jean shorts this weekend. I only wore them ONCE, and the pockets ripped so there’s a hole right where the pocket is, and the other pocket, there’s one starting. WTF?

21. What perfume/cologne do you wear? If none, why?
I don’t really wear perfume a lot, but I have some Bulgari that I got as a gift a while back that I wear sometimes.

22. Your favorite board game?
Sorry!

23. What was the last board game you played?
Monopoly

24. Where did your vehicle come from?
I don’t have a car, lol, but the one I drive came from a dealership. ;)

25. If a movie was made about your life what would the theme song be?
Loser by Beck. LOL

26. You’re sad, who can cheer you up easily?
Joe. :D

27. What was the color of the bridesmaid dresses of the last wedding you went to?
Pink & green

28. What house cleaning chore do you hate to do the most?
Well, I hate all of them, but the dishes are the worst.

29. What is your favorite way to eat chicken?
any way. I love me some chicken!

30. It is your birthday. You hope the cake is?
in cupcake form! :D

Category: Meme-ville  One Comment
Jun
20

Blogger say wha??
Two blog posts IN THE SAME MONTH?! In practically the same WEEK (give or take a day)??

Well, I told you I’d probably be back. We did bottle wine yesterday, but I completely forgot to take my camera until halfway through the whole thing. Suffice it to say, it’s awesome, and I’ll try to remember the camera next year. Also, the wine is delicious. :D The benefit of helping in the kitchen getting stuff ready for lunch and being outside and taking care of oaking and corking and boxing up the bottles is that we have to remove excess from the bottles. Excess in bottles = drink! tasting. :D

I Made This! the Wine version

The bottle on the left is from last year’s wine (2008’s grapes). Joe’s sister helped bottle, so she got her name on the label. The bottle on the right is this year’s wine (2009’s grapes). Joe and I helped pick those grapes, so we got OUR names on the label! :D

All very exciting – I can’t wait until this year’s picking! :D

Jun
15

*blows the dust off her blog*

Why yes, I still exist. I’m being guilted by my newly married cousin to start blogging again. We both made a promise to blog, and she’s kept up her end of the bargain, and I haven’t, so… here I am. :D

So the last few months have been pretty busy!

April 2010: Graceland

In April, I got the chance to visit five states (six states?) in a weekend, flying from CA to Dallas for a layover on our way to Memphis, TN, then a drive to our hotel in Mississippi, and another drive across the Mississippi River to Arkansas for a wedding! lol! :) After the wedding, we drove back to Memphis, pitstopped at Graceland, and then flew back home by way of Atlanta. I was so freaking tired after that trip. haha :)

April 2010: Graceland

April 2010: Graceland

At the end of May, I had the pleasure of attending my cousin’s wedding. She was a beautiful bride, and her hubby is pretty cool. Not only was it fun to see one of my “baby” cousins getting married (the other one is getting married next year! they’re making me look bad! LOL!) but it was great to see family again. I haven’t seen my peeps in WI in quite a few years, so it was really great to see everyone and also introduce them to Joe. :D

044

058

Kim & Andy's wedding: 5/30/10

Aside from the wedding, I basically spent the month of May knitting a baby blanket. LOL I found out a co-worker was pregnant and got the invite for the baby shower. I started a baby blanket for her as soon as I got home the day I got the invite. The blanket started out great, but after a few weeks of working on JUSt the blanket, it got really boring really fast. Too bad it turns out so cute, cuz I’ll probably be knitting it again. LOL

FO: Blankie of Doom

I finished it the night before the baby shower, and it was a big hit.

Blankie of Doom

I’ll have more to blog about after this weekend. We’re bottling the wine we picked grapes for last September. I’m sure that will be loads of fun. :D

May
11

Megan & Symphony
Megan & Symphony

Symphony was our cat. We got her shortly after my mom and stepdad got back together. So, we’ve had her like 10 or 12 years, and she was already about a year old when we got her from the pet store. She was a playful kitty, and more human than cat. She liked to eat pizza crust. And bananas. She hated anything cherry flavored. She liked to sniff things.

I remember the first time we tried to take her outside. We put her on a leash so she wouldn’t run away. She wanted to go outside so bad, so we took her out and set her on the ground. She FREAKED THE FUCK OUT and tried to get inside. We opened in the door, and in the span of about 30 seconds she ran into the living room to one couch, across the coffee table to the other couch, through the computer room and into the family room under the couch with the leash still attached & flapping behind her. She could’ve gotten caught on something, but she didn’t. She liked to drag yarn around the house, meowing while she held it in her mouth. She liked to fight with Goatee. She liked to follow you in the bathroom and sit in the bathtub, waiting for you to turn the water on so she could drink from the faucet. The only time she growled is when my sister would cradle her in her arms like a baby and twist around. It was so freaking funny.

I couldn’t take her with me when I moved out, so she stayed at my parents’. She was really the family cat anyway, even if she was mine in my heart.

She was a crazy cat, and now she’s gone to kitty-cat heaven. In the last year, she’s just deteriorated. Her medicine hasn’t helped, and she couldn’t move around as well as she used to. She couldn’t jump up on things, it was too difficult for her to get into a litterbox, and she’s been dehydrated. Age has caught up with her, and my parents had to put her down today. We went through this a few months ago before they changed their mind. I’m glad they did because I got to see her one last time when I was there at Christmas. I knew it’d be the last time, and I actually cried driving back to our hotel. I love that cat more than most people.

She was awesome, and I hope she’s not suffering anymore.

Love you, Sympha-cat.

(I would’ve put more pictures, but apparently, that one of her and my sister was the only one I had up on Flickr or on my computer.)

Jan
24

I would just like to put it out there right now that I hope the Saints win the Super Bowl. :D

Jan
20

Rain

It’s been raining for the last 3 or 4 days, but that’s okay. We really need the rain. The only time it actually bothers me is when I’m driving on the highway. What is it about driving in the rain that brings all the jerks out of the woodwork? On my way to work, two out of three days, some jerk has been driving stupid and won’t let me in. I’m not an experienced enough or cocky enough driver to just wing my way into my lane because I need to be there, ESPECIALLY in rainy, crappy weather. It’s not safe, and it pisses me off when other people do it, so I won’t do it. So, I ended up just taking the exit that my lane turned into an off-ramp for, and I took the city streets. Honestly, at that point, I was moving faster than the highway anyway.

If you’ve been paying attention to my Flickr page, you’ll notice that I’ve been uploading at least one picture a day. I’m trying to participate in that Project 365 thing, where you take a picture of something every day, then post it. I haven’t posted them on a blog anywhere, but I’m considering opening one up. I was going to put it here, but the domain and the hosting on this is up at the end of March, and I’m not planning to renew it. I haven’t blogged enough the last year to warrant spending the money on the hosting or the domain name, so I’m not going to. I’ll probably have a LOT to say, of course, once it expires, so I’ll open a new blog somewhere on Blogger or Wordpress.com or something like that and post the address when I figure all that out.

Anyway, this Project 365 thing.. the one thing it’s made me realize (not that I didn’t know it before) is that I am REALLY boring! lol.. there is NOTHING going on here. lol :) I need to fix that. Or just take random weird angle shots that make it look like I’m interesting. In any case, I had to document today by immortalizing the fact that I cooked dinner in photographic form:

020.365: I cooked.

It’s a recipe that I made based off a conversation I had with some friends this weekend, and it’s pretty good. My friend suggested Trader Joe’s enchilada sauce, but I didn’t really feel like going to Trader Joe’s, so I just bought something at the store. It’s just down the street, but that parking lot is HELL. I got the “hot” spiciness, and I think i would’ve liked it better if I would’ve gotten medium or mild, but it was pretty good. Another thing I would do is that I would make it in a smaller pan (8×8?) so I get a bigger concentration of chicken and cheese. This is kinda spread out. Tastes good though, and if it gets the Joe Seal of Approval, I’ll make it again. I hope it does… I’m really tired of eating out. :/

If anybody has any ideas or recipes for cooking at home, I’m all ears! :)

Jan
15

I am really tired. lol.
J’s been off at work, and apparently I can’t sleep if I’m by myself in the apt anymore. Fun! So I’ve been staying up late and getting up at my normal time for work, and I can’t WAIT until the weekend. I’m hoping to catch up on sleep tomorrow evening, but he’ll be back Sunday, so hopefully I’ll be back to normal then.

So, this probably won’t make a lot of sense, considering how tired I am… but I’m feeling the need to voice an opinion. And to hear keys clicking on a keyboard. This post will probably be extra ramble-y and make very little sense. You’ve been warned, lol.

I am sad for the people in Haiti. I hope for the best for them. Now that I live in California, earthquakes are “real.” I’ve been through my fair share of them, but they’re just little ones. I’ve been very fortunate not to have been through a Big One, but the threat is always there. Every week, there’s something on the news about “THE BIG ONE” and preparedness. I know times are tough for everyone, but we live in one of the richest countries in the world, if not THE richest country in the world. I donated via text. The fact that we can say that … that we can just send a text message, and there! donation made! THat said a lot. I know it’s only $10, but every $10 helps, and the fact that the Red Cross has raised over $4 million dollars just from text donations speaks volumes. If you haven’t yet, just text ‘Haiti‘ to 90999, reply to the message you receive with “yes”, and your $10 donation will just be added to your next phone bill. Easy peasy! Go help some people!

- – -

I know I’ve been pretty silent over here, but because I’ve been staying up late, I’ve gotten my share of Late Night viewing. I grew up watching NBC. We always watched shows that were on NBC… my family’s favorite news programs always seemed to be on NBC, and, in my era, Johnny Carson was on NBC. Obviously when I was little, I didn’t stay up and watch the Tonight Show. When I got a little older, though, I did. It was a little easier when I lived in the Central Time Zone, because shows came on earlier. LOL

I remember when Jay got the Tonight Show. I always enjoyed the Tonight Show w/ Jay Leno. Headlines gave me a reason to look forward to Monday nights, and after an episode of Jaywalking (or some similar segment between the monologue and the first guest) where Jay gave a guy in a really crappy car money out of his own pocket for gas or a taxi or something, I always thought he was a nice guy. I was proud to watch the show, and I just liked him as a person. My parents took a trip to Las Vegas and LA a few years ago. They were driving around and somehow ended up outside of Jay’s house. I think it was one of those Maps of the Stars Homes kinda things, but either way… they were looking around, and Jay happened to be leaving. He stopped to talk to them and took pictures with them. It was the highlight of their entire trip!

Obviously, I am not in the middle of the whole Late Night War thing that’s going on, but it seems to me like Conan’s getting screwed by Jay. Or NBC. Or both. I think it sucks. I think the stupid execs have put everyone in a crappy place, and I am supremely pissed at Jay for taking back the Tonight Show. If this really happens, I will not be watching the Tonight Show ever again, at least while Jay’s on. I’m sure my not watching won’t mean anything in the big picture, but it makes me feel like I’m doing something. I mean, I’m in a Facebook group with a bunch of people called “I’m with CoCo” lol. :) I can’t be the only one. Letterman’s been pretty funny lately. Honestly, we’ve been usually watching Letterman because we watch the shows we watch are on CBS. We watch the news on CBS, and then it’s Letterman time. When I have time, I catch Conan on Hulu.

Mostly, I”m mad that they made him move his whole family and staff across the entire country just to say “SUCKER!” There are families and lives at stake here, and I think the powers that be at NBC (hey! that rhymes!) are being really unfair.

NBC, you suck.

Jan
01

I just wanted to say HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!! :)

I know this blog has been VERY quiet, but I wanted to let you know that I AM alive. Went to Dallas for Christmas and got to see (almost) everyone… it was nice. :) Lots of hanging out. I even managed to walk into a yarn store (DURING A SALE!) and walk out without spending anything but the time it took to walk around.

I hope you have a fabulous 2010. :)

Oct
01

nataliedee.com
nataliedee.com

Oct
01

… that the end of downtown that I frequent every Thursday has become a thriving metropolis.

My knitting group and I knit at a local hotel in the lobby, and a restaurant opened next door, and the restaurant on the other side of the hotel decided they’re going to start doing a music night, and now it’s the Hot Place to be.

Seeing some of the people who go in there, it kind of reminds me of when my friends and I went to see bands in Deep Ellum and Denton, only the people are 20-30 years older, and there’s no rockin’ DFW band playing.

The new restaurant has decided to charge for parking if you are not eating at the restaurant – $20 dollars! It’s almost cheaper to park in San Francisco! Thankfully, I have a secret weapon – the hotel parking pass! lol