juno

ok, so maybe it was trying a little hard to be cool. i noticed this in the opening credits that just dragged on too long, ignored it through the rest of the movie, and ended up very pleasantly surprised. michael cera is such a great little nerd. i would definitely say that i would own this movie. you should go see it.

a toast for gaby

we drank a toast to innocence...










we drank a toast to time...










Just for a moment I was back at school
And felt that old familiar pain
And as I turned to make my way back home
The snow turned into rain --

thank you dan fogelberg for the cheesiest holiday song that will forever be stuck in my head. if you have not heard "same old lang syne", please humor me and listen to it. gaby and i heard it once and have had a running joke about it since. enjoy.

oh tannenbaum, oh tannenbaum

we got our tree a few weeks ago (at the same dreaded tree lot we work at), but i haven't had a card reader to download the pictures from my camera. so now look at our tree.














we got the ornaments at d.i. and savers and the lights the day after thanksgiving for $2. we had so much fun decorating it. then we had fun photographing ourselves with it.

good times at the tree lot

whether or not you knew, zack and i have been working part time at a tree lot this holiday season. it's been pretty awesome, let me tell you. here a few pictures from the worst day there, which i sadly shot from the safe, dry, warm shed where the cashiers (me) get the hang out.












can someone please tell me why it was so busy during such a storm? do people find it charming to pick out a snow covered tree and make the poor workers trudge along and tie trees to their cars in a blizzard? zack was soaked and possibly frost-bitten when we finally got to leave.












i also like zack's tree lot outfit. just thought i'd let everyone enjoy. do you see how wet he got? so awful.

if i could make anything...

can i just say that sally mann sure has the right idea? any photo she takes is beautiful, just beautiful, even the little girl smoking. please, why am i so uninspired and so lazy and so lame? i need to make photos that feel this perfect.

awesome calendar

my friend showed this calendar to me the other day and now i'm obsessed with owning it. who knew i liked kate spade?

stealing gaby's idea

my dearest of friends, gaby, wrote a list of little known facts about herself on her blog and it sounded like such a fun idea. i don't know if people even read this, so it may not bring anything to light for anyone, but it will keep me entertained. here goes:

-i don't really care for any blue food and try to avoid it when possible.










-i usually start listening to christmas music in october, though if there was enough variety i could probably listen to it year round
-there was a time when i thought i'd rather be a concert pianist than a photographer/ artist. i took piano lessons for 13 years.
-i would secretly love to go to culinary arts school
-i want to be a regular at a restaurant sometime, so i walk in and they know what i'll order before i order it
-i want to learn to play the lap steel












-whenever i'm sick all i want to eat is homemade mac and cheese and ice cream
-i already have a good portion of my funeral planned out, at the ripe old age of 23
-at some point i want to live in a tiny old town that's so small everybody knows everyone else
-i've always preferred odd numbers to even ones
-and last but not least, i can hardly stand sleeping next to someone and not cuddling, regardless of who it is. even ask gaby.

well, i hope someone enjoys that as much as i did.

a thanksgiving for the ages

isn't thanksgiving a funny holiday?  i think it's somewhat humorous and ironic that we as americans, i hear the fattest country in the world, have a holiday devoted to eating.  and not just eating anything.  eating fatty, sugary, gooey, delicious, comfort foods.  no, there is no religious or theological meaning to any of it.  eating to celebrate a large feast the settlers of our nation had long long ago.  how interesting, how bizarre.  

by the way, none of this is to say that i don't enjoy eating these things.  i love it all.  this year was somewhat disappointing in the fact that not only did i overeat, but i definitely gorged myself at two, not just one, dinners.  i didn't really get to savour the goodness of these meals, as time was rushed, and i didn't even get to lie around like the beached whale i was in a thanksgiving nap.  plus neither of the meals took place where i live so there were no leftovers to fill my stretched out belly the next day.  sad times. 

i did, however, make time to look at the ads in the newspaper for the coming sales on the blackest of fridays.  having little to no extra money is a bummer while scouring the good deals.  in the end, zack and i didn't even get up for the door-busters.  we did go to target later in the day and made a few necessary purchases (christmas story on dvd, lights for a tree we don't have yet, and a rain-check for catch phrase).  good thing we still had some gift cards from our wedding...

moving on, i was pretty proud of my contribution to the festivities.  i made two types of sweet potatoes.  one recipe was roasted sweet potatoes with herbs, very tasty, and the other was sweetened mashed sweet potatoes with a struesal topping.  i used to always hate sweet potatoes when i was little and avoided them like the plague, but now i've acquired quite a love for them.  my final contribution were carrots glazed with lemon.  quite enjoyed those too.  

anyway, i could talk till the cows come home about good food but for now i must ready myself for my second shift at my new job.  yes, i work (as a third part time job) at a christmas tree lot.  it's actually kind of fun though, cause i work with zack and some of his friends.  just like hanging out, except it's really cold, there's christmas music, and everything smells like sap.  more later.

oh and don't forget...

i need some inspiration on organization and creative projects, plus i really do want to make good food...

things i want for christmas

no this isn't a joke, i really am a little child who makes a wish list several months in advance.

real good soup

we had our parents over for dinner for the first time after moving in a couple weeks ago. i thought making soup would be the easiest and best thing for 8 people, so i got this recipe off of my sister's friend's blog and i loved it. so thank you to the inventor, it's amazing soup. just thought i'd share it again.

Minestrone Soup

• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
• I large onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, miced
• 8 cups of vegetable or chicken stock
• 28 oz can of tomato sauce (or crushed tomato's)
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 2 med-sized carrots, sliced
• 2 potato's, cut into cubes
• 2 med-sized zucchini, diced
• 1/2 C fresh parsley, chopped (or you can use 1 Tbsp dried)
• 1 C small pasta (shells, macaroni, etc.,)
• 1/2 C Parmesan Cheese
• 2 tsp. dried basil leaves
• 1 tsp. dried marjoram
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
• 1/4 tsp. ground celery seed
• Dash of cayenne pepper

Directions:
Over medium heat, in a sautee pan combine olive oil, onions & garlic and 3 Tbsp of stock. Sautee until onions are translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Add the remaining stock, tomato sauce, celery, carrot, potato, zucchini and all spices (do not add pasta or parmesan). Mix and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to simmer and simmer for 15 mintues. Bring to a boil again and add pasta & parmesan. Reduce to a simmer for an additional 20 minutes. I usually sprinkle some more parmesan on top once it's served. Enjoy!

our new found debt

a few days ago my husband found out about these special deals on computers at the bookstore on campus. not only were the computers being sold at a discounted student rate, but last night, as part of some pre-christmas sale, there was also no sales tax. our dream of owning a new imac suddenly because feasible, with the oh so generous financing the bookstore has to offer. (no, sadly, we could not afford the computer even with the discounts.) but being a student really does pay off. we got the microsoft office suite and cs2 for cheap (comparatively speaking), plus we got more ram added to our computer at 1/3 the price of doing it with apple, not to mention the fact that with the purchase of said imac, we got a free canon printer. granted it's pretty basic, but it has a scanner and it was free. no complaints here.

so the point of the story is, education is very important, especially the part about discounts that come along with being a student. and going into debt to further your education, build your credit, and make emailing at home a possibility is definitely worth it.

can't wait to set up our new computer...

halloweenie

has anyone seen the halloween episode of pete and pete lately? my husband and i just watched it last night in preparation for this, the most joyful of holidays, and let me just say that i'm a believer. i heart halloween.

dressing up for halloween has always been a big ordeal in my family. it's pretty much always thought about and planned for weeks in advance. the first halloween costume i remember dressing up in was a crayola crayon, ca. 1988. the next was a little devil with red hearts painted on my cheeks (though i'm not really sure why the hearts were necessary).

the remaining list of halloween costumes i can remember (definitely not in the correct order) are as follows: ballerina; gypsy with a beauty mark painted in black eyeliner on my cheek; a fifties girl (with the same beauty mark); a french maid; a mad scientist (don't ask me why); an eighties girl with lightening bolt makeup; an angel; a goth; and a showgirl/ model from the price is right.

my costume this year was a choice between a vampire (cause i'm secretly amoung the thousands of 12 year old girls obsessed with the twilight series) or a harry potter character (again with the 12 year olds). after much consideration, i will be the dreaded bellatrix lestrange, and my husband, zack, will be lucius malfoy:



i got this pirate wig at savers and, after removing the pirate bandanna that was attached, spent 1 1/2 hours last night ratting it and making it more presentable. i also got a dress at d.i. that may or may not have been a temple dress at one point, dyed it black, and basically deconstructed and reconstructed the whole thing. i'm pretty excited. i'll have to post pictures of how it goes. we're helping to put on a halloween party tonight with some friends and i can't wait. it's going to be a good time all around.

online quizzes

i sometimes, embarrassingly enough, get sucked into those online quiz things, with all my spare time at work. here is the latest:

Who Should Paint You: Gustav Klimt

Sensual and gorgeous, you would inspire an enchanting portrait.. With just enough classic appeal to be hung in any museum!

What Artist Should Paint Your Portrait?

so in the next life, when klimt is around, i'm definitely hitting him up for a portrait. the internet said so.

blog continued...

why not just a journal? what's wrong with that? so it happens to be internet based. it's just a mindless collaboration of my current thoughts, ideas, and complaints anyway, so why not? this is now my semi-public journal. that's all.

blog? perhaps not.

so this is my first blog entry, and i would just like to take this chance to say, i am absolutely opposed to calling it a blog. it makes me feel ashamed to say i have a blog, as if i should have spent my day chortling with my hard core d & d role-playing pals over our recent sword-fight or conquered video game, whilst making conversation largely of quotes from the simpsons and monty python. nope, not interested.

as i sit here at my pointless occupation, my mind is blank as to a new title, so i guess i now have a purpose for the remaining three hours of my ten hour shift. more to come...