Posted on

Wrapped Up in All the Fun

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.

Posted on

Good Morning!

I'm feeling better this morning. I had a very good night of sleep (a change from the past two days). I guess it helps to be dead tired. I've just had a lovely bowl of oatmeal, and I'm ready to get set working.

But not just yet. So I'm planning to spend the next few minutes surfing. I'll go visit the Alias Boards, next, I think. I've got some questions about the episode last night (it was SOOOO good!) and they'll have some answers. Then I've got to order some new perscriptions at Walgreens.com. And I'll have to check on some new Sims downloads at SimsShowcase. And of course, maybe they'll have some new crafts to look at over at Craftster. And of course, what would some surfing be without a visit to CookingLight.com to check out their new features. Then I'll work!

Posted on

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I love this time of year. We've been doing loads of fun stuff. Christmas shopping, making edible gifts, driving around looking at Christmas lights, listening to Christmas music and making plans! It's just cold enough to be really pretty and we've had a dusting of snow to make everything look nice. The puppy is very apprecative of the snow. She rolls around in it for as long as possible when we take her out. It's the funniest thing.

View the link below to have some seasonal fun.

Posted on

Origami and Motivation

OK, so I've been kind of short on motivation. It might have something to do with having an irritating head cold. It's not the sort of thing that knocks you on your butt, but I get to sniffle a bunch and feel sort of icky. But whatever the case, all I really want to do is read and sip tea. No working. No working out. Can't I just go on strike for a few days?

The other thing I feel like doing is making stuff. The sort of stuff that doesn't require tons of brain power, but keeps your hands busy. I've been quite big on origami lately. I never realized how extensive it is. I found a great book at Borders for a few bucks and I snapped it up. I've been able to make almost all of the ones I've tried so far. I did have problems with this one box. Oddly enough, it's not one of the ones written in Japanese or Chinese.

Posted on

Success!

Matt & Jess
OK, so last night, Matt and I tried two new recipes and both turned out really successfully!! For dinner I cooked (actually w/o Matt's help, but he ate it, so I guess that counts) Orzo with Chicken and Asiago. That took me about 15 minutes to make, which was GREAT and it was really tasty and pretty good for you. I think I'm a fan of orzo now. After dinner, we made meringues. We'd tried to make them back in college and they came out like crap, but this time we had success!! Since we didn't have a piping bag, they didn't come out super pretty, but they taste just like a chocolate chip meringue should. The only bad thing was that they took 3 hours to cook. Yeeeeesh. But they're definitely worth it. Matt now has designs on making other variations on this recipe.

Posted on

It's a Good Thing

If I happen to be working out at 11 AM, I usually turn on MS Living. Martha's a bit irritating, but I like some of the things that they feature, especially around the holidays. Today she was making truffles (not the kind that the pigs dig up, the chocolate kind). I was actually surprised how easy it is to make them. I'm sure mine wouldn't come out as pretty looking as Martha's, but it might be worth a shot. I know a few chocoholics that might enjoy them. She was also making lip balm. Apparently, she sells a kit for it on her site. That sounds pretty fun. I might have to add that to my wishlist.

Posted on

A Lotta Nuthin!

We've been blissfully passing our time playing loads of video games, watching loads of TV (thank you Spike TV for the James Bond Marathon) and doing a little bit of Christmas shopping. It's amazing how stress free Christmas shopping can be when you do it little by little.

It's been damn cold here. It tried to snow on Friday but it didn't stick. I'm not real sad about that. I love how snow looks on the first day but it stays around way too long here and gets icky and grey. It's not real fun to walk or drive in. So no snow, but very cold. We went to eat at a middle eastern restaurant on State Street today and nearly froze or butts off getting there. Brrrrr!

We went to see Love Actually on Wednesday night. I knew it would be funny, but I was not prepared!!! I laughed so hard a few times I couldn't breathe. I hardly think anyone could dislike this movie (well I know a few people, but they're the type w/o a sense of humor). Anyhow, I want to see it again because it had tons of good one-liners. I remembered a few, but not nearly enough. We also went to see Thirteen. That was last night, I think. It was the type of movie that you're not sorry you saw, but you just don't want to see it again. Very scary … not in a horror type of way … but just in a something you'd rather not think about sort of way.

We rented Hit and Run and Price of Persia as well. Hit and Run was sort of boring. You kind of repeat the same thing over and over and over and it gets tedious. But it is a fun game, esp. if you're a Simpsons fan. POP:Sands of Time is great. We've had tons of fun playing that. I'd highly recommend it.

OK, that's my weekend rundown. Bye!

Posted on

mmmm … Turkey

I love Thanksgiving. The weather is getting colder, our AC is freezing over , Thanksgiving food is always good , the new recipes we tried this year were great, and you don’t have to go to work. But the reason I like Thanksgiving the most is that is signals the start of the Christmas Season!

Posted on

Giving Thanks for Thanksgiving

I've always enjoyed Thanksgiving, but now I enjoy it even more. Kelly comes to visit and we spend a week hanging out, watching movies, playing video games and board games and shopping for Christmas. It's a most excellent time.

I've got all sorts of fun things planned. We're going to rent a bunch of video games, including Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Simpsons: Hit and Run. I'm also thinking about Karaoke Revolution (the bastard sibling of Dance Dance Mix Revolution).

It's been a very nice Sunday. It's been raining since last night (a few breaks) and we've got a nice pot of soup simmering on the stove and the rain falling outside and Rush Hour is on TBS. Perfect evening.