Month: December 2003

Dan doesn't visit our site very often. I went to the site and his comment was, “wow, you've changed the site.” Yes we changed the site, like 6 months ago. Shows us how much we're loved.

It's 6:30 and I'm already up. Yet I'm not pissed off. Why? Because it's travelling day. Yep. We dropped the puppy off last night and this afternoon we'll leave for Nashville.

Packing last night was an adventure. We've got so darn much to pack for … and presents and stuff to bring. We ended up down in the apartment's weight room at 11:30 weighing our suitcases on the scale to make sure they met the weight requirements. Two didn't. So then we had to disperse contents into a fourth bag. It's very sad … the amount of stuff we're bringing. I feel bad for our poor taxi driver. Oy!

I can't wait to see everyone. It's going to be so very much fun! We're going to really relax. More to the point, Matt's going to really relax. I think he needs this vacation a whole lot.

Yeesh! There are so many things to do before we hit the road. The biggest one is … duh duh duh Clean the Apartment! Yes, grime and grossness linger in every corner. It's really quite overwhelming. And worst of all, it can't be stopped until Matt decides to STOP BAKING. He's been baking like crazy. I had to go to Walmart last night to find another tin to put all of his (our, really as I help too) culinary creations in. Luckily, Walmart's got tins aplenty … and acheaply too. Tonight ends the baking insanity … because we must clean!

I don't mind having lots to do though. I like to be busy. Not overly busy. Just busy. *bounce* I'm so excited about seeing everyone. We get to see people we haven't seen since May! It's going to be so much fun. The only bad part is that the puppy can't come along. But she's going to stay with people who will love her and pet her and feed her an occasional table scrap. I think she'll be OK.

The Cat in the Hat!! Bar None, they have made the most and bizarrest (is that a word? well it is now. i just used it) promo deals. They've got the kids meal toy market cornered at Burger King. They're pimping electronic toys from Radio Shack. They're merchandised like crazy. And they've got two of my favorite gigs… Swiffer and The USPS. That's right. The Swiffer commercials feature the Cat and the Hat characters and the USPS has posters featuring them as well. Not that I'm complaining. They just get the award, that's all.

I also noticed a list of the FBI's most wanted on the wall at the Post Office. I thought that was something that was in “The Old West.” I never expected to find a huge binder-like thing of them hanging on the wall at the post office, complete with fingerprints!

It's snowing like the dickens, but I had to go out and run errands. I needed some stuff for dinner and I had to mail a couple of things. Of course, it rained last night, so we've got slush underneath the snow. I've never really had much occasion to drive my CR-V in the snow … the first few years I had it, I was in Nashville where it only seemed to snow on our Christmas breaks. It melts the next day anyhow. Last year it didn't snow much and somehow I never really drove a bunch in snow. But today I did. And I must say my car handles very well. The ABS engaged a few times and that helped get around corners and stop and stuff. It's nice to live in a place where people actually know how to drive in the snow. They do what they're supposed to do … slow down and not do anything too dumb. In Nashville, everyone just freaks out. You'll see 4x4s in ditches because no one knows how to drive.

Matt and I started wrapping the gifts destined for CO last night. Man I love wrapping gifts. You put a lil' Christmas music in the stereo or pop a Christmas movie in the VCR (or DVD) and pull out your supplies and it's instant Christmas spirit. I love speculating how people will react to our gifts, especially the ones we've made and I get to spend time with my Matt. He's pretty good company.

We're prolly going to go on a field-trip this weekend. I don't know if we'll got to Chicago or Milwaukee yet. I want to visit an American Science & Surplus shop. They've got tons of cool stuff … I think it'd be really fun. So there's stores in both Chicago and Milwaukee. Milwaukee has some cool things, including an awesome art museum that Matt hasn't yet been to and the traffic is much easier to handle. Chicago on the other hand is further away and a freakin' madhouse. You spend half your time in traffic or fighting a crowd of some sort. But they've got Ikea and California Pizza kitchen and CB2.

Of course on the other hand (I'll have to borrow one from Matt, I'm all out), Christmas shopping is mostly done, so there's no real reason that way to go to Chicago (or Milwaukee for that matter) and I need to do Christmas cards, some work and clean the house. Maybe that's a better use of the weekend. Plus, we're going to have to say bubye to the puppy pretty soon. So maybe we can take her to a park or something.