Chiweenie

This is our cousin's new dog! She's a Chi-weenie and is only 9 weeks old. I'm in love!!!

Unmotivated

I am literally counting down the days until this week is over! Who the hell is motivated to work during the last week of the year? So Christmas has come and gone and the decorations will probably stay up until the middle of January because I have no motivation to put them away. Christmas was fairly low-key for us this year. We had a steak and seafood dinner at the in-laws Christmas Eve which went okay. Hubby had to work part of the day and there was a minor issues with him and his parents, but dinner wasn't a knock-down drag-out fight, so I guess I should feel lucky!

Christmas morning we woke up and Hubby and I exchanged presents first. He surprised me with a massage gift certificate that came with aromatherapy, foot reflexology and a hot stone treatment! I also get to pick out a new camera since mine is possessed. Hubby bought himself a dirt bike last month, so that was his big present. I did get him the Hangover DVD, new coffee travel mugs so he'll stop stealing mine and live DVD's of Rob Thomas and Kings of Leon. Afterwards, we headed over to his parents to do the big exchange. I was surprised with 3 hours of maid service (hot damn!) and a super warm blanket. Hubby got a new blower for the backyard and Sirius radio. It was a very nice Xmas morning and we finished it off by watching the Hangover and laughing hysterically.


Later that evening was the family get-together for a ham dinner and a funny White Elephant exchange. The gifts I brought were a hit! I picked up a kit of all kinds of stick-on mustaches and a funny pen set with totally random companies written on them.

Saturday we hit up a bunch of stores trying to find my new camera, and eventually found one later in the evening. We also went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie, which was awesome! Totally fun and the cast of characters was great. Sunday was spent picking up the new camera and making chili. I was so over family by then, I was happy for a break.

Randomness

While waiting for Hubby last night, I popped into World Market and picked up this cute dog bed!

Then I headed over to Ann Taylor Loft and scored this jacket on sale for $34! I'm in love!

Weekend Wrap-Up

I know I say this every Monday, but I need a weekend to recover from my weekend! Friday night I ended up staying late at work to help my boss finish his Shutterfly photo book for his wife. I had been helping him make a book documenting his new baby girl so he could surprise his wife at Christmas. My boss is a bit of a procrastinator, so of course we're rushing to finish it on Friday so we could get it shipped by Christmas. I finally got home about 7:30pm and we went to dinner in the hood with our friend B. Dinner was super yummy, I had the Southwestern Grilled Chicken, which was topped with a melted Buffalo mozzarella that was out of this word. The cilantro butter sauce that topped it was ridiculous and made the rice fantastic. I passed out for the night around 10ish, while the boys drank and goofed around until 2am.

Saturday morning I hit the ground running and started with my Body Flow class. The boys went off to the shooting range to act macho for a few hours. We all met up for lunch afterwards and chatted and laughed for about 2 hours. Then Hubby and I went off to finish up our Christmas shopping. I'm happy to report we are done! We were exhausted and went home about 7pm. We totally spaced about our friend C's pub crawl, so sadly we missed out on the fun. Hubby zonked on the couch by 8pm and I watched Enchanted on TV. I love Amy Adams and the movie is so damn cute!

Sunday I cooked breakfast for us while we relaxed a bit. Then it was off to get my hair colored. I was a deep chestnut brown and this time I went for espresso bean dark. It's REALLY dark, about as dark as you can go without being considered goth-y. I'm still getting used to it, but so far C and T have said it looks good, so I'm going to stick with it until March. Then I'll gradually go lighter for the summer months. What's cool is I can amp up my eye-makeup with out it seeming overdone because it matches my new hair color really well. I met up with C. for a yummy lunch of Chicken & Shrimp Pad Thai at Fire Bowl, my new favorite lunch spot. Then we went to Party City and stocked up on New Year's decorations. Our theme is Black, Gold, and Silver and we picked up some really great supplies. I've already designed the cake theme, so this week I'll start piping out the pieces in both royal icing and fondant.

New Hobby?

I'm thinking of taking some photography and darkroom processing classes in the new year. As much as I love digital cameras and their capabilities, I've always been drawn to the whole process of developing the film you shoot. I took photography classes in my freshman and sophomore year of high-school and loved it. I'm pretty sure I have an old school film camera somewhere that I could use to save money in the beginning. After doing some research, I've found a few people who will teach you the basics of the darkroom developing process for about $125 for 20 hours of lesson time.

My plan is to do more research on the general cost of supplies and the time involved to re-learn the developing process. Once I get a hang of it, I would need to find a darkroom to join so I would be able to do and develop whenever I choose.

I Heart Zooey Deschanel

I watched Elf again the other night and I love this girl! She is too cute and has a vintage-y style that I adore. Plus she's a great singer and I love her hair.

Here's a clip of her in Elf:



She's in a music group called She & Him as well.

Dear USPS

As you probably know, the holiday season is here and Christmas eve is knocking on our door. Every year people scramble to send packages to their loved ones far away and they rely on USPS to ship them with tender loving care. So why is it I see the same issues repeating themselves each year? From 25 people in line and only 2 cashiers, packages marked "Fragile" that show up beat to shit? Really, I'm so confused on why we must play this game of cat and mouse each year. Aren't there enough people to hire to help cover the expected holiday rush? Sigh.