KirstenL4W

Today marks the end of the first decade of the 21st century. It’s also the end of the first decade of the new millennium. It’s a night when most of us like to go out and celebrate the fact that we hang a new calendar tomorrow. Sounds ridiculous when it’s said like that, doesn’t it? Mister and I were invited to a party, but we still aren’t sure at this point if we’ll go. We usually don’t like being out on NYE, since most people like to celebrate by consuming copious amounts of alcohol. While I’m not averse to having a drink or three, I prefer to do it in the safety of my own home, especially on a day where it’s considered sacrilege to abstain.

What we will definitely do is watch all the people who pack themselves on to the Las Vegas Strip on TV. The Strip closes to cars on NYE because about 300,000 people will be out there, drinking like fish, acting like idiots, and screaming, “WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!” every time a camera pans by. It’s even more pathetic than watching people in Times Square, since it’s perfectly OK to have a drink as you walk down the Strip. Not legal, mind you, but it’s overlooked in the vicinity of the Strip. Anyway, you can watch it for yourself on our local news channel, KLAS. Keep in mind that I’m on US Pacific time, which is GMT-8. See my time here.

I remember when everyone was worried about Y2K. I was living on the east coast then, and had the weekend off from both jobs. I got up early to watch the celebrations around the world on CNN, and was able to see Sydney and Tokyo. I went out for provisions after lunch, then came home to watch the European celebrations, watched a movie as midnight crossed the Atlantic (I like to watch When Harry Met Sally on NYE since the final scene takes place at midnight). Then it was our big moment. I pretty much knew at this point that nothing would happen as far as Y2K went, since the rest of the world saw their clocks and calendars change with no ill effects, but you never know - there was still that chance since it was hyped beyond all belief. Down the ball in Times Square went, and then - TA DA! It was 2000. My clock did the same thing it does every single day. My computer still worked. My lights were still on, and I was watching the Times Square revelers disperse.

I called my mom to wish her a Happy New Year (and to see if the phone still worked) and continued to watch tv. Then my neighbor called and invited me over, so I went. I was fine with drinking since it was only a short crawl home, so I did just that. I drank. And drank. And drank. Then I puked and passed out. Or passed out, woke up, then puked. Either way, I got sick. I ended up crawling the 30ft home and passed out again, and ended up spending 1/1/00 with a major hangover. I’m pretty sure that was the last time I was hung over like that.

Anyway, it’s time to get myself dressed, go do a few errands, and get home before the mayhem begins. Happy New Year, everyone!

Here’s my Christmas wrap-up. Wrap. Christmas Wrap. Get it?

Anyway, moving on…

Since Mister recently had surgery, we decided to keep it a very low-key day at home. With all the goings-on, it was all I could do to decorate this year, but a few days before Christmas I finally put a few ornaments on the tree to make it look like I cared. It was a bit hard to get it the spirit this year, but in the end everything turned out OK.

Christmas Eve I went to church for the candlelight service. I don’t attend church too much anymore, but I really love the candlelight service. I got home in time to watch a movie with Mister. Since the Christmas Story marathon wasn’t on this year, we popped in the DVD. After so many years of watching it on Christmas Eve, it’s pretty much a tradition. After the movie was over, I kept trying to get Mister to go to bed so I could fill his stocking. I think he finally went to bed around 1am. I filled his stocking and joined him shortly thereafter.

I woke up on Christmas Day at 8:30 because Mister kept calling me from downstairs. He’d been up for almost 2 hours and couldn’t wait for me any longer. I stumbled downstairs, got some juice, and we went about opening our stockings. Mister loved his stocking. I wanted to do a non-food stocking for Mister, since 1. it’s too easy and 2. he couldn’t eat it anyway, and after having a bit of a tough start, I finally was able to fill it. He got a gardenia votive candle (his favorite scent), some frankincense and myrrh soap, a Rubik’s cube, a yo-yo, a kazoo, some LCD screen wipes, Nun-chucks (those little boxed novelties on a spinner near the checkout at the bookstore) and a bouncy ball with red glitter in it (and probably a few other things too - his stocking is huge). I got a few CDs and some candy in my stocking. One thing about the CDs - they are both Christmas CDs. The ONLY thing that sucks (the CDs themselves are great, and were on my wish list) is that when you receive Christmas music for Christmas, you really only have a few hours to listen to them before packing them away for the year. Remind me to put some non-holiday music on my wish list next time.

Then it was on to the presents. I got Mister a few books he wanted, an ellipse template since he wants to draw more drafting type stuff, a speaker dock for his iPod that has a plug and battery power, so he can bring it with him if he is in a different part of the house, some of those LED tap-lights, some photography magazines, the new Harry Potter movie and another DVD, and a piece of game glass. What’s game glass, you ask? Well, you know when you’re looking at a slot machine and there’s the graphic near the top that tells you the name of the game you’re playing? Since I work for a company that makes these games, and since my company recently offered employees a chance to buy these game glass pieces from old machines (proceeds went to charity), I bought one with a theme that Mister would really like. I got it framed, and he said it was one of the coolest gifts he’s ever gotten.

Mister got me a few books I wanted - On Writing - A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King and Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose. Since I’ve become more interested in honing my writing skills, and I love to read, I put these on my wish list in hopes that they would inspire me and help me refine my mad skillz. And also? Remember the Wii that I wanted last year and didn’t get? I finally got it! Mister also got me the Mario & Sonic 2010 Winter Olympics game, which is a bit harder than I thought it would be after I mastered bowling so quickly. Now I need to add the Wii Fit Plus to my wishlist.

Here’s a sampling of our loot:

Once the damage was done and there was Christmas carnage all over our living room, Mister and I sat back to relax a bit. We watched some Christmas Britcoms on BBC America, called our families, and settled in for the day. We watched the new movies, I took a nap, and we played the Wii for a bit. There wasn’t a fancy dinner since it was just the two of us, so it was nice to not have to go through that sort of effort.

Overall, it was a very nice Christmas - we were both happy with our haul and the fact that we didn’t have to run around anywhere or worry about making a big fancy dinner. I hope all of you got everything you wanted and enjoyed your holiday!

It’s time again for my annual Christmas post, just like the ones I did in 2006, 2007, and 2008.

This past year was one of trials and tribulations, and my poor little blog has suffered because of it. The Drama that started early in the year has continued, though it’s leveled out to a point that it’s not driving us to the nuthouse. Mister’s unemployment is related to The Drama, and neither situation is resolved at this point. Also, Mister had a surgery recently, so all this stuff brings a lot of stress, tension, and help-me-before-I-crack moments.

But even in these worst of times, I realized how much Mister and I need each other. How much we love each other. How much we lift each other up. When I spend too much time and energy worrying about him, he’s the one who says, “When you’re out at the store today, why don’t you stop and get yourself something special. You deserve it.” I know I married the most wonderful man in the whole world, and I don’t think either one of us would have made it through this year without each other.

Some good things happened this year as well. I turned Thirty-Five (not sure you can call that a good thing, but whatever), and Mister and I celebrated our First Anniversary. We also took another vacation to New England to visit my family. I miss them and that part of the country a lot, so the vacations there are always nice.

One thing that I don’t think I mentioned here is a promotion! I got a promotion at work last month, due to someone on our team retiring, and I’ve been crazy busy. The extra money is nice, and so is the job security! As busy and crazy as it can get (like now, since I work in finance), I really enjoy my job and the people I work with, which makes it worth it. I’ve been there 2 years now (2 1/2 if you count the time I was there as a temp), and I’m looking forward to many more years.

That about sums up my year. There’s just a week left to 2009, which I’m looking forward to spending with Mister in the most relaxing way possible.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

This is not a true story about someone I may or may not be related to. But it is too funny and needs to be shared with the world at large.

It all started with a Facebook update:

“i will write a book about last night!!! I put a crack in the mooon! last night was explosive,…… No pun !goin to the hospital hit the cell!”

This was posted the day after the 4th of July, by someone who is known by, oh, everybody he’s ever met to not always use the best judgment when it comes to activities that could land someone in the hospital. Out of concern, I called him.

“Hey, it’s me, I just wanted to see if you were still alive.”

He called back the next day and told me the whole story.

“Me and my buddies were at the fireworks in [insert small town here] hanging out. When it was over, we were looking at the pile and noticed that there was a canister that still had a wick in it. We found 5 of them, actually. So we took them.”

“Obviously, being you, that’s what you’d do.”

“So we took them back to my house and were trying to figure out what to do with them. We wanted to set them off but they’re too big for the neighborhood. Then someone mentioned that the putz down the street blew up my garbage cans with some M-80s. So we brought them to his house.”

“Good idea, since it’s in the same neighborhood and his yard is half the size of yours.”

In my mind, I’m sitting there trying to imagine what 5 commercial sized canisters of fireworks looks like when set off from the backyard of a quarter acre lot. I couldn’t wait to hear the rest.

“So we brought them over to Putz’s house at like 4 in the morning and set them off. It was the funniest fucking thing I’d ever seen in my life! But then we realized that every neighbor within a 5 mile radius would be calling the cops, so we took off running.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if The Family heard it - I’ll have to ask my dad.”

“As I was jumping over the 4-foot chain link fence, I hit my balls. I reached into my pants and they were all bloody. Putz said he called me on the phone because he figured it was us, but I didn’t hear the phone ring. I must have landed on it and answered it when I fell on the ground. All he could hear was me saying, ‘Oh, my balls, my fucking balls!’ I tore my ballbag open! They’re coming out - they’re all grayish and kinda look like steamers without the butter.”

“Thanks for the visual. So did you go to the hospital?”

“No, I was at a cookout today and some of my friend’s moms are nurses. One of them looked at it and put some of those little white bandages on it. They’re not staying on, though.”

“Well, it’s hard to get a bandage to stick to sweaty balls. You should still go to the doctor.”

“Yeah, if it doesn’t get better I might do that.”

Then he said the funniest thing that I have ever heard come out of his mouth.

“Kirsten, I have a date tonight. What am I going to do?”

“Well, I know what you aren’t going to do. How’s about you show her your torn nutsack? According to your FB updates, you don’t seem to have an issue showing everyone else.”

A week later he told me he was still laughing about the whole incident, even though by the time he went to the doctor it was too late to stitch them up and he had what he called “the never-ending ballbag period.” It’s people like this that, if you happen to be related to them like I may or may not be, make family get togethers loads of fun.

I’ve been wondering what I should write for the “G” edition of the Encyclopedia of Me, when suddenly the holidays rolled around, I gave and received gifts, and this post was born.

I love giving gifts, so when it came time to shop for Mister, I was delighted.  Here’s what he got from me:

• Netflix gift subscription because we never get to the movies to see what we want and are bored with our current DVD collection
• The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History (which he loves!)
• Nikon D80 Digital Field Guide - I liked this book because it seems easy to understand and shows the results of certain techniques.
• a UV filter for the camera - we sure need that here in the desert!
• Death at a Funeral
• a bunch of other stuff including new socks and chocolate

I got a bunch of stuff from my Amazon wishlist, which now needs to be replenished

• The Tales of Beedle the Bard - I put the paperback version on my list, so as not to be ostentatious, but Mister knew better and got me this instead. It will look awesome on the bookshelf!
• Understand Your Dreams 3 Ed - I have the 1st edition of this book, which I got to write a paper in college. It is the absolute best dream analysis book I have ever seen, and this updated version contains 1000 more images than the original book.
• The Emigrants - This is the 1st in a series of 4 books telling the story of a family from Sweden who emigrate to America. I do have the first book, which was a gift from a friend in Sweden. She thought it would be similar to my great-grandparent’s stories, since they also came from Sweden. When I finished reading it, I wanted the other 3, but the covers didn’t match the one I had, since it was purchased in Sweden and the others from Amazon. Now I have a nice matching set for my bookshelf, and of course the one from my friend still holds a special place on my bookshelf.
• Silent Nightclub
• Mr. Bean - The Whole Bean (Complete Set)
• Pleasures Perfume by Estee Lauder. I’ve been in need of new perfume for quite some time, so I have been strictly rationing what little I have left. Mister got this because he likes when I “smell like a girl.”
• Methuen (MA) (Images of America). This is the town I grew up in, and it has a really cool history. Now with this book I can have a little piece of home with me.
• An overflowing stocking filled with my favorite chocolates and a bunch of Burt’s Bees goodies.

I do have to say, though, that with all those goodies, the best gift of all was being able to spend Christmas with my super amazing husband.  Christmas (and every day) is a thousand times better now that he’s in my life.

Just like I did in 2006 and 2007, it’s time for the annual holiday post.   So much has happened this year, so sit down and try to keep up!Big changes here at the blog started off the new year - I moved my blog to self-hosted WordPress!   Thanks to the lovely Snoskred, I was able to take advantage of great features, including having separate pages like this one and this one.  I also had a go at a regular feature called Music on Mondays.  That lasted a little over 10 weeks, but it was fun and I might resurrect it on a not-so-regular basis.  I also completed NaBloPoMo in November, and outside life has kept me away from the blog for most of December, but I’m still here.

Outside the blog, my life has seen a lot of new and exciting changes this year.  It all started happening when Mister (who was then known as Boyfriend) proposed to me.  We bought a house and moved into it, and continued planning our wedding.  On June 21 of this year, we got married.  After that, we settled into married life.

The second half of the year was, thankfully, not quite as eventful.  We went to visit the in-laws a couple times, and I flew back east in September when my Grandma passed away.  A month later I was back in New England when Mister and I finally took our honeymoon.  What could be better than New England in the fall?  Then it was back home to the temps cooling off, finally, and I hosted my first Thanksgiving dinner.  December has been busy, and we saw a rare snowfall here in Las Vegas!  I’ll leave you all with a picture of that.  Merry Christmas!

So yesterday I cooked my very first Thanksgiving dinner.  In the days leading up to it, I was getting a bit nervous.  I’d never done such a big important dinner before, but I’d seen it done dozens of times.  It always looks so easy when I was over my mom’s or my grandparents homes for the holidays, so I was sure that there was going to be some big thing I was going to mess up.  I’d never even cooked a whole turkey before, not even a roaster chicken.  Then there’s just the sheer quantity of food, and trying to coordinate it on 4 burners in a small kitchen to all be done at the same time.  It can seem impossible when you start to think about everything that goes into it.

Before we even get started, I did get my Bell’s Seasoning.  My mom sent it express mail, so it was here on Tuesday except the postman didn’t leave me a note.   Wednesday when I got home from work I still didn’t have it, so I called my mom and she gave me a tracking number.  It said a delivery attempt was made and a notice left.  I never got a notice, not in my mailbox, front door, in my yard, anywhere.  I printed out the tracking info from the computer and went to the post office, where they did in fact have my package.  Hooray!  Now I can make my stuffing properly.

I woke up with much reluctance around 7:30am.  I really wanted to sleep in, but I knew I had too much to do.  I went downstairs, had my juice and sat down for a few minutes to finish waking up, found the parade on tv, and started.  First I baked cinammon rolls (from the can!) for breakfast, because it’s kind of a tradition - my mom does this quite often on holidays.  Then I made cheezy puff pastry sticks for appetizers.  Once that was done, I got to work making the stuffing.  As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one way to make stuffing, and it does not come from a package.  The night before, I had ripped up my bread and chopped my onion and celery.  I’m glad I did, because that is very time consuming stuff.  So in the morning, all I had to do was cook the onions, celery, and sausage, chop the apple, and mix it all together.  I got that all mixed up and got the bird out.  This is where I started having a few questions.

My sister told me to make sure I rinsed the bird well, and I knew to take the giblets out, especially since they were in a plastic bag inside the bird.  That would not have tasted very good if I forgot those!  I rinsed the bird, including the cavity, and plopped it in the pan.  My sister will rub plain old butter between the skin and meat to keep things moist and give it a bit of flavor, so I did that before I stuffed the bird.  At my sister’s suggestion, I put about 1/4 inch of chicken water broth that Mister has 3 large cans of in the bottom of the roasting pan, again for moisture and a bit of flavor.  Then I put it in the oven, which was set at 400°F from the cinammon rolls and puff pastry sticks that I had already baked.

An hour later, I took the bird out of the oven - it was a hair under 12lbs - and basted it.  It was then that I realized that the oven was still at 400 and I was supposed to cook it at 325.  I turned the oven down, finished basting, and put it back in.  It still looked fine at that point, so I took a watch and wait attitude.  I took a shower and came back downstairs to start cooking up the side dishes.  When I took the turkey out at hour 2 to baste it, it was looking kind of done, so I called Mister over.  He took the temperature and the bird was done, but when we tested the stuffing, it was a bit cool so I left the cover off the pan and put the turkey back in for another 20 minutes or so.  I continued cooking, and our friends arrived as the last mad dash was done to get food on the table - mashing potatoes, broiling those last few dishes, and of course making gravy - again with chicken water.

I have to admit that I was a bit nervous when we sat down to eat.  This was the big test.  Mister didn’t make any comments when he was carving the turkey, and it looked good, so that was sure to be good.  The stuffing, I knew, was delish because it was my mom’s recipe and it looked just like hers does.  Mister did have to make a comment about the spices in the stuffing seeming a little off.  I knew what he was getting at, because of my minor breakdown over not having Bell’s Seasoning, but he got away with a dirty look.  Amber’s comment on my last post, I think is the best commentary on how my dinner was.  Mister and I have been eating it, and Mister wants to make his favorite turkey leftover dish of turkey enchiladas.  That’s one of those California things, I think.  I was all set to make soup from the turkey carcas, but Mister reminded me that I don’t know how and will I really eat turkey soup?  No, and probably not.

For dessert, Mister made a pumpkin trifle, and Amber brought a chocolate tart and some pink champagne that she mixed with pomegranate juice.  It was all devine.  I’m glad we didn’t have a huge spread of desserts though.  I can control myself through the turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes, but I lose all control with dessert because I have to try it all.  We had 2 kinds of desserts, so I had 2 desserts.  If we had 10 different pies, I would have had to have 10 pieces of pie.  Dessert is where I stuff myself silly on Thanksgiving, so the amount we had was just right.

Also just right were the amount of people I was cooking for on my first Thanksgiving as hostess.  Mister and I are both away from our families here in Vegas, as were our friends that came over, but we enjoy their company no matter what day of the year it is, so it was a very nice day all around.  I hope all of you had as good a Thanksgiving as I did.

I survived cooking and hosting my first Thanksgiving dinner - and so did everyone else.  I’ll give you details tomorrow.  I’m exhausted.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s the last week of NaBloPoMo, and so far it’s looking pretty good for me as far as accomplishing this.  I am finding it increasingly difficult to come up with stuff to blog about on a daily basis, at least when I’m trying to tend to my own life, Mister, the housekeeping, and getting ready for Thanksgiving.  Usually I end up sitting at the computer with just a few hours left in the day, desperately reading blogs and rapidly scanning the internets for inspiration.  It shouldn’t be like that - I believe that especially with a personal blog such as mine, the posts should happen more naturally.  For those of us that blog, we either think about it every day or we don’t.  If you’re in the group that thinks about it every day, then it shouldn’t be too difficult to find something to write about at least once or twice a week.  If you’re in the group that doesn’t think about it every day, or even once in awhile, then why do you blog?  Do you get a lot of personal satisfaction from it?  Even when I’m only putting a few posts out there per month, I enjoy blogging and reading blogs very much.  I think that’s the purpose of blogs.  I don’t think of my blog as something that can pay me, or as a job, or a way to get rich.  It’s a personal blog.  Personal.  What I get out of it isn’t monetary, it isn’t to boost my ego or make me famous.  It’s just because I like to write, and I like seeing something that I created out there for everyone else to see.  That’s all.

So, anyway, now that I really went off on a tangent there, let’s change the subject.  There’s only one month left until Christmas!  Do you have your shopping done?  Are you braving the crowds on Black Friday?  My answers are no and no, respectively.  I’ve done some shopping and have some ideas in my head of what to get people, but I really need to sit down and make a list and get my shopping organized before I hit the mall.  My card list is done, though, so I’ll be sitting down this weekend to make cards.  I’ve always wanted to do that, and this year I’m crazy enough to try.  Yeah, I’m nuts like that.  But it will make me appreciate throwing a few boxes of cards into my basket next year.  There’s a reason for everything, right?

24 down, 6 to go.  I can do this!

There are just over 90 shopping days left until Christmas.  I really hope that I have been a very good girl this year, and I am only asking for one thing: