absurd AND beautiful

I've been meaning to comment on this photo for some time. Mike brought home this ad from the shop and now it resides on our fridge. It is both beautiful and ridiculous. Gorbi in Louis Vuitton, sitting next to Louis Vuitton. Now THAT is a juxtaposition I thought I'd never live to see!

makes me giggle

hilarity WILL ensue

Mike and I plus guest will be attending the Funny or Die tour stop in Chapel Hill for my birthday. Excited... let me put it this way:

zorgas borgas, i just got bit by the love bat
and it's driving me MAADD!

Hello New Year!

and hello friends.

Christmas was a whirlwind time that flew past too quickly. Tickety boo, here I am after my first day back to school. Mike and I began an on-going digital Christmas card. You can view it here. We're pretty proud of it and hope you'll keep up with it, as well as us, for years to come.

At the start of my break we had a good meal with our neighbors. We enjoy their company quite a bit. Then it was on to Mexican with some colleagues. After that much needed social time we were ready for break. We also saw Sweeny Todd and it was brilliant. Johnny Depp- he's the bees knees. The Friday prior to Christmas was spent at Market Street Books for their fifth anniversary festivities. This included (but was not limited to) the piano styling of Eric, food, wassail (Ala me), Christmas story hour, and a visit from Santa for story time. All the while Mike was fighting off a cold of some sort. Fighting it quite poorly I might add. We got home and he ran a high fever for the next two days. I think he's still fighting the phlegm and cough. Poor thing.

Christmas Eve was also spent at Market Street. After a day at the store we headed home to change and then went to Durham. We attended the Duke service which was a lesson of the carols. It was lovely.

Christmas morning was pleasant. It was relaxing and most importantly spent at our own pace. Family time is great but it is a real joy to spend a major holiday without any stress or obligations. Good first Christmas. After all this we headed up to my parents home.

The week continued on with my family, then Mike's family (plus our favorite Rachel), then with Jake in Pittsburgh. Might I say we heart Pittsburgh- a lot. Jake lives a few blocks from Station Square and the incline. Not only does the city have a great skyline but it also has the most terrifying streets known to man. The three of us ate dinner at Fat Heads (delicious by the way) and Jake drove. He deliberately took us the "long" way just so he could drive down the most treacherous road ever. You make the turn onto the street and the road disappears from underneath you. I squealed a little. This could be due to the saw stowed behind my head as well. Overall, great food and thrills.

Now in the midst of all of this craziness we got gifts. Lots of gifts. I'm not going to list them because I hate when people rattle off everything they got. I will say I kept cozy with a new North Face jacket and Mike continued rocking with Guitar Hero III for Wii. If I told you how much we've played GHIII in the last week you'd cry of laughter. That means a lot. I am up to 'medium' playing level which is a huge advancement for me. Mike is having his face eaten by level 'hard'. This is unusual you see because he plays expert on everything else and makes it through the game quickly.

Alrighty, I said I was going to get some work done and I wrote a blog entry. Awesome. Ah well, back to Guitar Hero. Weezer is calling my name. My name is Jonas.

It is done

rejoice! i am now a north carolina resident.

that was an ordeal.

My faves

Market Street's Fifth Anniversary is this month and all sorts of exciting things have been happening for the store. Katherine recently sat down for an interview with American Booksellers Association. Next Friday is the anniversary party. In honor of all this hub-bub, they're collecting lists of "Top 5 Books". Here are mine, in no particular order:

Thanksgiving with the Family

p-u

Mike has been feeling a bit under the weather lately. Recommended to him was eating garlic. Now this makes sense, in normal doses. Well my genius husband decided to eat two cloves, CLOVES, of garlic...two days ago. He just popped the two cloves and it has been bad ever since. Hopefully water and one more day will cure it. HOPEFULLY!!

so productive

I have spent the entire morning being productive and it's completely satisfying. It was refreshing to wake up when i'd normally be greeting my first class of the day. I then was able work on a list of "wifely duties" and even had time to catch up with Martha Stewart making pumpkin pie with Andy Samberg. That boy can make a pie.

My Accomplishments: (i'm such a wife)
dishes (check)
put away dishes (check)
laundry (check)
fold said laundry (check)
pack for holiday (check)
water plants (check)
take out trash (check)
clean kitchen (check)
put away old laundry (check)

this still leaves me a few hours to go to the gym, clean up, and play Super Mario Galaxy*!
my life is finally in order. **


*i know you're SO jealous. it's a wicked game and i have to say I'm pretty much the most awesome wife for buying it for my husband. there. i said it. i'm awesome.
** .38 special: hold on loosely is on my mind now. thank you VH1 classic.

Hello November

no way. i'm sitting here working on things for school and of course i have the television on for white noise. i was trying to find a good program and what do i come across? why, SNORKS! what? oh my goodness. i haven't seen this in ages! i have fond memories of watching this with my smurfs on saturday mornings. i loved this show. did you know both shows were based on Belgian comics?!

wow, what a strange show. i mean these things propel themselves through the water with the snorkles on their heads. I forgot about that. weird. this show was much better when i was four or five.

however, after watching for awhile i am tempted to leave the Snork's in my childhood. goodbye.

RIDICULOUS!

"The eyes are the groin of the head." --Dwight

"I'm going to be a bluncle!" --Turk

"Who's the main character?" --Toby

"Angela?...no wait, the ashes?" --Jim

seeing Colin Hay come out instead of a baby.

"I don't know! Sometimes you chill fat!" --Mike to me

"There's nothing like throwing out a caddy and running down some hos." --Dr. Kelso

Take a moment

Robert Goulet: 1933-2007

First Halloween

Our first of firsts as "marrieds". We gutted. We carved. We now have awesome carved pumpkins. Mike kept with his Jason theme. I however carved Steve Perry (yes i know it looks like a girl), legendary rock god. We still have a dream of owning a Corgi and naming him Steve Perry. What can I say? We heart Journey. And Steve Perry.

Halloween at the Market

"Clothes make a statement. Costumes tell a story."
::Mason Cooley::

The bewitching week has begun and Mike and I got a head start on Saturday evening at Market Street Books. Saturday morning was spent rummaging Chapel Hill for bits and pieces of what would become our costumes.

I, of course, had a terrible time figuring out what I wanted to be. Seeing as I haven't dressed up for Halloween in six or so years I was uneasy about being thrown back in to this creative whirlwind. When I was younger it was so much easier. During my early years I was a ballerina, a bride, a clown (once or twice), a witch (more than once), a fairy, and a fatigue-clad marine.

My tween years saw such costumes as a bobby soxer, day and night woman- complete with half face cream/makeup and curlers. I even resorted to Charlie Chaplin for several years and a medieval princess. I have to say, I was pretty proud of the Chaplin getup. He's my favorite.

But now that I've been out of the game for so long, it was difficult to bring my A-game. It didn't happen.

Mike, after our viewing of Friday the 13th: Part VI Jason Lives, became obsessed with being Jason for the Halloween shindig. By the way, I totally called every death in the movie. (Like it's hard, but whatever). And secondly, eww.

So, here are some photos of the scary yet endearing JasonMike. Oh, and me as a golfer/school marm. Not sure what I was going for, but i got to carry a golf club some of the time.

scary Jason.

the softer side of Jason.

Arnold Palmer, eat your heart out!

my doing

there are things...

that you never want to hear come out of your husband's mouth:

-"Honey, I want a divorce."
- "Oops, turns out I fathered another baby."
- "This printer is sexy."

Oh, wait. Turns out my nightmare has been confirmed by the utterance of the last quote. I kid you not.

returning to a love

There are times that you become so busy with life that the small (and wonderful) stuff gets side lined. After the women folk left yesterday and Mike worked, I had the chance to rekindle my love affair with the Beatles. I have had a passionate relationship with them since I was ten or eleven. Frightful how long ago that was, right? Right. It started so long ago that I don't remember how it started. I can, however, tell you it began before the Anthology series was released. I am no fair weather fan. My favorite song is probably Eleanor Rigby. The haunting string arrangement has always moved me. One strong memory comes from my eighth grade year. A quartet from my first high school came and played for our orchestra class and they played Eleanor Rigby. I'm pretty sure I was the only one in the class that knew what the song was. I have several favorites and they include little known Hey Bulldog and Norwegian Wood. I love any song in which the sitar is played, and I am not a fan of the album Revolver. I understand the importance of their Mercy beat days and their restraint on George Martin when they could. Their music is in me, it's part of me. I'm glad to have revisited it again. I hope I hold onto it for a while.

on the gross side

nothing has bothered me more in a while than the phrase

"i prefer chin meat."


don't question it. it's not worthy.

an atypical day

Under normal circumstances I get to school around quarter after seven and my first class comes at ten after eight. Due to unforseen circumstances I didn't have a class until 10.30. I may have had to work on Columbus Day when countless folk had the day off, but enjoying three hours of work time plus my lunch break- priceless!

uh, what?

So, our new friends next door are great. Young, fun, similar in lives and such. Just how similar, Si almost went to Grove City and he had a cousin who went there. He knows exactly how desolate Grove City is. Go figure. We're everywhere!

Astounding

A remarkable things happened this evening. I was buying some cheapy cheap scissors for my kids to replace some sad safety ones. While I was in line I got to chatting with the lady behind me. Surprised by the rather large pile of scissors she asked if I was a teacher. Here's where it becomes astounding. This blissfully random stranger gave me five dollars to pay for the 25 cents per pair scissors. She said she had two sisters who were teachers and understood what we go through for our kids. It was amazing. What do you say to this? I was speechless and she would not let me turn it down. Astounding.

Humanity, it's still there.