Merry Christmas (a.k.a. most original Dec. 25th blog title ever)

This week has been slightly hectic in the loosest sense of the word.

Since I haven't worked since Dec. 11th, hectic means I had a couple gifts left to buy.

That's pretty much it.

I also visited the gym. Every day (except Christmas and Christmas), which I rewarded myself for by eating absolutely whatever I wanted all day long.

Merry Christmas to me! (And my elastic-waisted sweat pants)

The day was pretty low-key, with just the immediate family.  It was wonderful, even though I did miss the extended family.

Now excuse me while I climb back into my sweats and onto my bed to sleep for the next 10-12 hours.

Recovery from my VERY stressful week, you know?

Nerd.

I've been experimenting with my music in my car recently, playing my entire iPod on shuffle and seeing where the wind takes me.

It makes every ride, even the ten minute trip to the gym, a little more exciting.

Plus, I have more music than I can remember. Seriously. So it's nice to remember.

I'm kind of a music nerd. Not in the know-every-artist/song/lyric sense, but in the sense that I really enjoy music. A good melody, baseline, or lyric (if I can make it out), makes me happy.

In light of that, I've been hooked on The Sing Off this past week.

I know, I'm a nerd.

I actually got interested in collegiate a cappella a few years ago.  The things people can do with just their voices is amazing.

Nerd.  Yep.

I'll stop now before it gets any worse.

Whiskey

I've been in a bit of a blogging funk. Although I think it may be more due to the fact that I don't have much going on in my life.

I haven't worked in over a week, and I still have two more weeks off.

This probably doesn't bode well for the blog.

I did go to the whiskey tasting party.

And while we sipped on different types of whiskey and talked about the flavors of the drinks, I learned one thing: I don't really like whiskey.

Except in stuff, where it's just an accompanying flavor.

I would definitely prefer taking a shot of the stuff to sipping on it.

I'm pretty sure that's true of any alcohol, the not liking the actual taste of it.

Except I do kind of like tequila, not that I have ever sipped it.

The only other exciting events of note recently include my sister coming home from school for break tomorrow (yay!), running 40 straight minutes on the treadmill tonight (wow), and still not accomplishing Christmas shopping (impressive, no?).

I mean, anytime someone is posting a blog around 11pm on a Saturday, you know there their life is exciting.

Snowcrazy.

The first snow of the year (after a couple weeks of freezing temperatures) meant getting my snow legs/driving skills back.

After a very brief flirtation with the edge of a ditch--I had just followed a car going approximately 5 MPH up a hill and lost control for a moment--I pulled myself together and drove like my mama taught me.

Like a pro. And I was able to arrive to a bridal shower on time.

It was a shower for one of the two people I keep in touch with from school. I by "keep in touch" I mean that have an actual relationship beyond Facebook stalking.

The shower was great filled with laughter and food, friends and family, including a very amusing, cute, and spunky grandmother.

Something I will never have, as one of my grandmothers doesn't even speak anymore, Alzheimers don't you know, and the other is 91 years old.

And even though getting married seems to be the cool thing to do, I've never been very "cool" and am realistically decades from getting married.

Hopefully, I'm exaggerating. No way to know now, however.

The snow does help me get in the mood for Christmas. I have plans to decorate tomorrow, which means some cleaning and reducing of clutter.

I'm also reminded that I have presents to buy. Seriously, is Christmas really less than two weeks away. That's not okay.

I mean it is, or it will be once I get my presents purchased.

Usually I'm way more organized than this. About Christmas presents, not about life.

Did I mention I'm going to a whiskey tasting party this week? 'Cuz it's true.

The last time I tasted straight whiskey, it was from a bottle conveniently hidden on the floorboards of the wagon I rode away from my cousin's wedding in June.

I think I'm supposed to bring a bottle, so if anyone has suggestions for great whiskey, let me know.

As a sidenote, ignore the whining, poor-me stuff above. My life isn't all that bad.

For realz, yo.

Cookies, the day after.

A few weeks ago, when I spotted the Sunset cookie edition, I just knew I needed to bake.  All I was missing was time for it.  Yesterday, I made it happen.

The cookie making expedition was a bit of a win-lose endeavor.  The chocolate cookies turned out scrumptious.

The gingersnaps turned out not to have any baking soda in them.  Oops.  This meant after they cooled they were like little coal lumps.  Not so delicious.

Although if it weren't for the 3 hour refrigeration step, I would probably be trying them out again today.  Because they were that easy.

Those chocolate cookies were pretty amazing.  The dough was a little sticky and difficult to work with, but I have a feeling that a little extra flour would have solved that problem.

I tend to be a little haphazard in the kitchen.  I don't really measure all that carefully (I actually only used a teaspoon while baking) and I tend to make do with what I find in our cupboards.  I ended up grabbing the chocolate we had and going with it.

If you look past the lumps of coal, you can see chocolate-peanut butter thumbprint cookies and chocolate cookies with peppermint icing.

Either option was delicious.

One of these I might just have to try the gingersnaps again.

Cookies!

My nose is running.

My brother, who I spent an unusual amount of time with last weekend, had a no good, very bad cold, and now I'm afraid that it's mine.

And my mother's.  Ka-pow, ka-pow.

But mine isn't going to get that bad, because I command it to and because I'm taking cold medicine and vitamins like they're christmas cookies.

Speaking of which, I'm should make some cookies this afternoon.

Because I don't work again until Friday afternoon, it's Christmas time, and I like chocolate.

Done.

Maybe, since I've planned so far in advance, I'll take some pictures of the cookie-making process.

Or maybe I'll contaminate the cookies with my sickness and eat them all myself.

Candy Cane Lane (and other miscellaneous items)

On my dashboard (it's a Mac thing--either you are confused right now or you get it) I have a weather widget. 

It currently displays a temperature of 45 degrees.  The actual temperature is somewhere BELOW freezing.

Stupid confused widget.

I wish I had something better than that to write at the moment, and really somewhere in my head I probably do.

But the weekend has been 5 parts exhausting (not sleeping in my own bed, end of story), 3 parts emotionally draining (I find funerals tend to be that way), 2 parts unhealthy (i.e. all the crap I ate, but boy was it delicious), and 3 parts wonderful (family time + a new pair of boots + my sister's choir concert).

(I should mention those amounts were all randomly assigned and have no real value...in case you were confused.)

So instead of cute, witty, random things to say, I have soap-box-ish, boring, random things to say.

For example, I briefly flirted with a post about Tiger Woods and society's obsession (and feeling of entitlement) with all things rich and famous.

Then I thought about it and realized a post, in some ways, would just be enabling.

Instead I'll tell you how I drove through Candy Cane Lane--the most beautifully decorated neighborhodd in all the land--except it was very well decorated.  Apparently it's early in the season.

Try telling that to all the Canadians shopping and pillaging for the holidays.  And hogging the roadways.

I just want to drive home in peace people.  (But I'm totally not bitter.  At all.  Love you Canadians!)

Candy Cane Lane did have the word "peace" in different languages in front of each house, including pace, paix, and something in Tagolog, which I have no chance of spelling correctly and am too lazy to look up.

The real silver lining in my weekend (besides the new boots) is the fact that I don't work until Wednesday mornging.  So really, my weekend is only half over.

Be jealous.

PT, what?!

I'm not sure if it's normal or not, but my shoulders are so sore/hurt so much that it's hard to lift my arms.

Thanks Jimmy.

Jimmy is my personal trainer.

By the way, who am I and when did I get a personal trainer?  I mean, who even does that, really? 

I do, because it's the best I can think of to keep myself motivated at the gym and spend way more money than I would otherwise.

On a related note, burpies.  Not fun.  If you particpated in athletics in high school, you may be familiar with them. 

Think push-ups meets up-downs meets mountain climbers.  Sort of.

One set involved throwing a medicine ball as well, the highlight of which was almost knocking the air out of Jimmy.

This was also ironic considering prior to the set he had told me a story about the time he hit a client in the stomach.

I think that makes me a winner.

And stinky.  Because I haven't showered.

Hello, Sun. How are you?

Last week, when I ventured across the not so great water (aka The Sound) for Thanksgiving, I got to ride a ferry.

It was a special moment for me, truly.

Except that it was dark, cold and wet.  So I stayed inside.

As luck would have it, the day of our return trip dawned bright and beautiful.  So my camera and I got to enjoy the trip back across the water together.