Change of plans

As I was on a (2 and a half hour late) flight to PA on Wednesday, my dad was being rushed to the hospital. All I can say is... never have a family emergency occur during the Christmas holidays. I was finally able to get a flight back home to Phoenix on Saturday morning to see my dad in the intensive care unit and be with my family. The great news is that he's steadily improving, will be moving out of the ICU soon and will then get out of the hospital in the near future. Needless to say, I probably won't be blogging much until things have returned to normal.

Have a great New Year's! Mine already will be. :-)

Home-in-law for the holidays

Our bags are packed and the taxi should be here shortly. My hubby and I are heading of to PA to spend the holidays with the in-laws. Don't worry, I actually enjoy being with my in-laws, so this is a good thing! However, being Arizona-born-and-raised, I'm not looking forward to the cold weather. I've purchased several pairs of long underwear and flannel-lined jeans. This, together with the fact that I will try not to venture outdoors too often, will hopefully keep me comfortable.

One of the nice things about traveling for the holidays (there should be at least one, right?) is that we began opening Xmas presents early. My mom sent a box of presents that arrived last week. I've been opening up one present each night for the last seven days. Then, my hubby and I exchanged most of our presents last night. I'm not religious, so Xmas in my house was a "commercial" holiday. But, if I were to become religious, I'd have to become Jewish so I could celebrate Chanukkah. Getting gifts over a long period of time is infinitely more fun than a blitz of presents one morning. (Yes, I realize religion is about more than receiving gifts at a holiday celebration. I'm just joking.)

Anyway, I have to tell you about two of my presents. (Don't get your panties in a bunch when you see that there are no photos. The camera is packed away and impossible to get to. So, you'll just have to imagine everything until I can show them off). On Sunday night, my hubby and I went down to Ghirardelli Square to eat junk food and look at the shops. One of the stores carries imported sweaters and Vera Bradley bags. You know Vera Bradley bags, right? They have a quilted material and are great for using as a knitting bag? Well, I was drooling over one of the VB bags, which is a black backpack. I had never seen this bag before, and therefore never mentioned it to anyone until this time. On Monday night, I was opening my final present from my mom and as I pulled away part of the paper I could see quilted, black material. All I could think of was "no way."

See, I have to give you some background info here. When I was in college, I worked a crazy schedule and rarely made it home for dinner. My mom was sweet enough to have dinner waiting for me, whether it was leftovers or something she would pick up for me. Every so often I would sit at work thinking, "fried chicken sounds really good." Now, it's not like I would eat fried chicken all of the time, or that my mom made fried chicken, or that there was any other reason I could expect fried chicken to be at home. It was simply a random food craving. I would get home from work and find that my mom had picked up... fried chicken! It was the weirdest thing!

So, back to present day, I opened up just a small portion of the paper and see the quilted, black fabric. My hubby says that it's probably something else that has similar fabric. Nope! I finally opened the package up and there it was. The black Vera Bradley backpack. So weird!

Ok, onto my second, and most favorite, present. Don't worry, there's no long, drawn-out story on this one. No fanfare. No drumrolls. Just a matter-of-fact statement. That my hubby got me...... DIAMOND EARRINGS!! Really, really, really nice DIAMOND EARRINGS!!! I absolutely love them! He even picked out a size that I really like (I'm very picky about the size of earring that I wear). And they're so sparkly! See? I keep telling you that my hubby is the most wonderful man in the world. I hope you start believing me soon. :-)

I better wrap up this blog post and finish getting everything packed away before said most-wonderful-man-in-the-world starts wondering what the heck it is that I'm up to. I'm going to try and blog while I'm away, but I can't make any promises. So if you don't hear from me....

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

New shtuff

I thought I'd give you the highlights of my life as of late:

New countdown
Remember my "end of the semester" countdown I had going? Here's a photo of my whiteboard which I was using to keep track of the countdown.

Once I hit zero, I had to begin a new countdown of course. I could do as everyone else is, and count down to Xmas. Or, I could depress myself and count the days until the start of the Spring semester. But I had a better idea...

Yes, those are hearts.

A torturous 73 days! For whose who are wondering (which would be all one of you), I'll tell you why I'm so obsessed with this group. Yes mom, it's that story. Sorry!

Back when I was 13, I was completely, head-over-heels, in love with Duran Duran. Although my friends all adored Simon, I was planning to marry John Taylor. I simply needed to meet him and I knew he would fall madly in love with me. The band finally had a tour date in Arizona and I absolutely had to go. But my mom declared I was too young to attend. Can you imagine? Too young to meet my destiny? One of the local radio stations broadcast the concert and I remember lying in my dark bedroom listening to the concert. sigh...

Years and years later, I've actually managed to see them in concert twice. This will make my third concert. I'm still waiting for my chance to meet John Taylor. I'm not actually expecting to marry him anymore, because I'm now married to the most wonderful man in the world. So wonderful, in fact, that we have an agreement regarding famous people. I don't think I need to say more...

New hairstyle
I'm in the process of changing my hairstyle. I used to change my hairstyle every 6 months or so, but when I got engaged, I decided to stick with the one hairstyle that I knew I liked. After having that hairstyle for more than two years, I've been itching to do something different. I'm growing it out. I think I'm going to shoot for just-above-the-shoulder. But I've also gone a little darker. I just got it colored yesterday.

It's basically the same color, but it's a couple of shades darker. (Yes, the scarf in the photo is what you're thinking it is. I'll get to that in a moment...) Anyway, here's a "before" photo of my hairstyle.

What do you think? Are you liking the new look? Or should I go back to the old one?

New Xmas present
At long last, The Irish Hiking Scarf is done!

I hope the recipient likes it!

Off-topic question for those that have managed to make it this far. I have a friend who has written a book and would like to know how they try and get it published. I know a lot of knit bloggers are also writers, so I was hoping someone out there might have some suggestions? I know of CafePress, but what about non-self-publishing? (This really is a question for a friend. I have not written a book personally).

Finally, for those who are counting down to Xmas, you've got 2 days to go!

Just kidding! Boy, that look of panic was priceless!

Champagne and bananas

I have one more work-related holiday part to attend Friday night, and I'm bringing a bottle of champagne (what a shock!). I'm going to follow Nathania's suggestion this time and have bananas on hand.

One of the funny things that happened last night while I was still enjoying my champagne buzz... what was that? What's with the bananas? Hmmmm... should I tell you or make you go and read the comments from yesterday? Ah, what the heck. I'm in a good mood.

We all know to drink water after drinking in order to get rehydrated. Well, apparently, the electrolytes in bananas will help you retain the water and stay more hydrated. So from now on, I'll walk up to the cash register with my booze in one hand and a thing of bananas in the other. If nothing else, I should get some interesting looks.

Anyhoo, as I was saying, at one point last night I tried to move the Christmas tree that we have on the counter of our circulation desk. It's one of those trees that is too short to be on the floor, but too tall to be on a counter. Anyway, I try to move it and of course it falls over and half of the ornaments fall off and roll all over the place. Two of my coworkers were nice enough to put everything back together while I stood off to the side cracking up. I know this may not sound very funny to those that are sober, but I thought this really was quite funny. Something tells me my coworkers weren't quite as amused as I was.

The library is closed on Saturday, so for once tomorrow is actually my Friday. I'll be in hyperdrive this weekend trying to get ready for my trip to PA next week. But I should be able to take some pictures of the completed Irish Hiking Scarf and my in-progress Xmas sweater.

By the way, did I mention that I'm going to the Duran Duran concert in March?

Mmmm... champagne

Just got back to my desk from our holiday part at the law school where I work. I don't normally drink at these functions, but I love champagne and proceeded to drink a little more than I should have. I now have to try and be useful for 6 hours. Ummm... yeah... Have I told you how much I love champagne?

Finals are over. Yay! Now I just have to get ready for Xmas. ugh. Can't I just drink more champagne? Do you know how difficult it is to type after drinking several glasses of this stuff? (I think I had 5 glasses total, but I kinda lost count).

For a wedding gift, one of my hubbie's Uncle's got us a bottle of Dom Perignon. Oh. my. god. Everyone should have a bottle of this in their lifetime. It's just soooo good. Anyhoo, the poor guy maybe got a glass and a half of it, because I drank most of it. Yum!

Oh! The Irish Hiking Scarf is done! I'll get pictures up this weekend. I gave it a good soaking today to try and soften the alpaca up. Now my house smells like perm solution. That brings me back to my high school days when I had long hair and spiral curls. Not a good look on me! (Ok, now I have the giggles. I'll have to find a picture of me at my high school prom looking like a poodle!)

I also discovered that my Xmas sweater probably won't be done in time for Xmas. Because I wanted a large, baggy sweater I went up a couple of sizes. Not sure what I was thinking with that one! The body is huge! So, I've gone down a couple of sizes and started on the sleeves. And boy was that a project! I needed another set of addi turbo circ needles so I could do the sleeves in the round, but I managed to buy the wrong size needles. I tried to work with bamboo needles, but I had a death grip on the yarn that rivaled a cobra's. I went back to the store and got the correct size and all is good now. Whew! I'm about halfway done with the first sleeve. Whee! Other than having to rip out the body and start over, I'm in good shape. Isn't that whonderful?!

I think I need more champagne...

Edited to add: It's several hours later and I'm dying. I have a champagne headache and it's literally killing me. I still have over an hour left at work. If I crawl under my desk and hide, do you suppose anyone would notice?

Quick post to say...

HP Pavilion

Wednesday

March 2nd

8:00pm

Duran Duran

Just got my tickets. Life is good.

:-)

So... close...

Not much new to report. I'm just working on the last of my finals and then I'm free! Well, aside from the shopping I have to finish, the trip I have to pack for, and the pet sitter I have to clean for. Good grief, isn't it Chistmas yet?

I discovered the Bay Area bloggers ring today. Very cool! I also discovered one of those goofy quizzes that I hate to love.

You Are From Jupiter

You are exuberantly curious - and you love to explore newness. Enthusiastic and optimistic, you get a kick out of stimulating intellectual discussions. Foreign cultures and languages fascinate you. You love the outdoors, animals, and freedom. Chances are you tend to exaggerate, so try to keep a lid on that. [Me? Exaggerate? Never. Well, ok, maybe once in a while...] If you do, you'll continue to be known for your confidence, generosity, and sense of justice.

What Planet Are You From?

What were they thinking?

To the folks at TNT: If you were trying to make a movie that would put librarians in a positive light rather than the negative stereotype they're used to... don't.

I watched the movie The Librarian last night. There are so many things wrong with this movie, that I'm not even sure I can list them all. I mean, the script appeared to have been written by a a 12 year old that has a fixation with Indiana Jones and has read too many Harry Potter books. My high school drama team could read lines better than the movie and tv stars that made up the cast. Then there were the "little" details. Like the fact that Noah Wylie's character is 30 with 22 Masters degrees. Unless these degrees are obtained in 6 months, or maybe he started working on them when he was 10, there is no freaking way someone could have 22 Masters degrees at the age of 30. And the special effects. I realize this is a made-for-tv movie, but they could have tried a little harder at making the green screen effects seem less like, well, green screen effects. And why in the world did Bob Newhart's character enter through a wall?

All of this made for a crap movie, but the part that really steamed me was at the end of the movie. Noah Wylie's character is having lunch with his mom when she turns to the table of women next to them and says "My son is just a librarian now, but he's capable of so much more." Excuse me? "Just"... "Capable of so much more?"... What the hell is that supposed to mean? grrrr...

On a positive note, I did enjoy the fight scene that Bob Newhart's character had. I just wish they had showed more of it. I mean, Bob Newhart's kickin' ass! That's right up there with Bob Barker's fight scene in the movie Happy Gilmore. Oh! There should be a movie that has a fight scene between Bob Newhart and Bob Barker. Now that I would pay to see!

Thankfully the new Knitty came out today. This cheered me up so much that I almost couldn't summon up the strength to rant about the movie. But I managed.

I have no life

I'm in a frenzy to get my finals done this next week (Woo Hoo! Only 1 more week to go!). So, it's probably going to be quiet here for a little bit. If you haven't already, might I suggest you head over to Brooke's blog and see pictures of her new baby? Jack's quite the cutie! And, if you have been over there, why on earth are you here at my blog? Go take another look!

:-)

Making lemonade

One of the bright points about finishing this semester in the very near (as in "I'll-never-get-everything-done-in-time" near) future was that I would have the holidays and the entire month of January to look forward to. See, I culminate next semester. The culmination is my program's version of a Master's thesis. It's only two 20 page research papers, but you only get 10 weeks to do them in.

Although two 20 page papers doesn't seem like a lot to some people, this is my Mount Everest. I love research. But I hate writing. With a passion. Anyway, because it's a shorter semester (10 weeks as opposed to 15), we start later and end earlier than everyone else. Well, apparently some squeaky wheels asked if we could start earlier. We just found out that we might be starting up on January 10th. When I first saw this announcement, my first reaction was to pee my pants. My second, and thankfully the one I went with, was to call and shriek to my hubby. The great guy that he is calmly listened to me and thus I was able to calm down. The frustrating thing is that they aren't going to officially make an announcement until after December 10th. So this might not even be an issue. But I've decided that if fate tells me I'm starting early, well then I guess I'll be jumping in with both feet. At least I'll be done with the semester on March 28th. Yippee! (shoot. me. now.)