Things that fall down and go boom.

That would be my husband, Jim. Yesterday afternoon at work, I get a call from my hubby. "I am in the hospital." He told me he might have a shattered kneecap. After two minutes of not breathing, I finally say I'll be right there. When I get to the hospital, I find out nothing is broken (thank GOD) but that he just has a cracked rib, a sprained wrist, and is in a walking cast for his purple knee. How lovely. Since he started his job last May, he has dented the company truck by running into a Metro bus, fallen off the loading dock and hurt his back, and now fallen off the company truck 4 feet onto the pavement resulting in an ambulance trip to the hospital. Luckily, he has an understanding boss (so far), but he doesn't get paid for sick time, so we are screwed for a while, and just in time for Christmas. Yippee. He is doing OK this morning, just a little stiff and sore, but OK. He gets to take the good drugs and sleep all day.

Things you shouldn't do at 3 am.

Make Brownies. Saturday night (or should I say Sunday morning), I got a wild hair up my ass to make brownies. My husband was snoring in his recliner, and the only light on was coming from the TV. I had just finished watching a movie (surprise) and I was hungry. Since I wasn't interested in eating anything healthy (who is at 3 am?) I decided on Triple chunk chocolate brownies. I mixed them well, sampled half of the mix (now wondering if there was still enough left to bake) and put them in the oven. It takes 52-57 minutes. OK. Set the timer. Fall asleep. Wake up to obnoxious beeping. Dogs and husband still snoring. I wasn't sure how long the timer had been beeping, but to my glee, the brownies were not burnt. As I cut the gooey, steaming chocolate mass, I kept telling myself that I should let them cool first. So, I put a piece on a plate and decided to wait 5 minutes before shoving it into my face. While waiting, I robotically stuck the spatula into my mouth to lick off the chocolate residue. DOH! 4 am: CrazyDogMama is doing a version of the "African Anteater Ritual" in the kitchen while her tongue is on fire. Dogs start barking. Husband never wakes up.

The Couch Potato Emerges

I slept most of the last three days, either on the couch or in my cozy bed. I don't think I was awake more than 4 hours at a time without a nap. It was WONDERFUL. After 3 months of constant running here and there and everywhere, meeting deadlines and trying to keep commitments, I feel I am finally caught up on some much-needed sleep. Of course, I did wake up late this morning, and had to rush off to work. It makes no difference how much sleep I get, I still don't want to get up to go to work. Now, if I was getting up at 4am to go, say, skiing, I would be wide awake and ready to go. Speaking of skiing, the passes are open and I'm trying to figure out what it will take to get my arse on the slopes this year. It has been several years since I have been able to go, but this year I feel I need to get back at it. I only live about 40 minutes from one of the ski areas, and there is no reason why I shouldn't be going! It is hard to get motivated to work out in the winter, and skiing would be perfect for those winter-workout blahs! There's nothing like leg cramps, snow-chapped lips, sweating in long underwear and a nice array of bruises! I could just see myself now, in my 30's, haven't skied since my 20's, trying to get on the chairlift, and BOOM! Yard-sale! (Yard-sale = each ski, each pole and me, scattered all over the hill.)

Anyway, I did get to watch a few movies this weekend so here are some more reviews:

28 Days Later
I liked this one! It held my attention well and had some cool camera effects. I do have one question, though. Why didn't "the infected" attack each other? Things that make you go hmmmm.

Finding Nemo
Very cute flick. Great Pixar-animation. I'm not much for kid's movies, but it was cute. I especially liked the ending, the very last line in the movie, "What now?" The story of my life!

Bruce Almighty
It was OK. I wasn't especially impressed. Typical Jim Carey antics. I got bored half-way through.

Party Girl
This was a very odd movie. One of my Netflix movies that took me two months to watch. I kept putting it off because my husband said he would rather watch commercials than watch this movie. But I finally fed him enough to keep him from wrestling me for the remote. Now, I really like Parker Posie, so that is why I chose this movie. It was actually entertaining, and I wanted to keep watching just to see where it was going. All-in-all, I liked it, but you really had to pay attention to figure out what was going on. We both watched this one with one eyebrow raised the whole time.

Tomb Raider II - Cradle of Life
The soundtrack for the first Tomb Raider was much better, I actually bought it, it is great to do kickboxing to! The only entertaining part of this movie was getting to see what Angelina Jolie was going to wear next. She is a very unique looking person. My husband has no interest in her, he is a Jennifer Aniston and Drew Barrymore fan. Me? I like Sam Elliott (Yes, I know he is ancient, but he is so manly!) and I also like Vin Diesel, but his movies suck big-time. Anyway, don't waste your time unless you like looking at Angelina.

Gorging and Scrappin'

I had a nice relaxing turkey day, and I hope you all did too! I cooked, then ate, then slept, then scrapped. It has been a whirlwind week (that's why I haven't posted) and I'm exhausted. This is the first weekend in two months where I don't have anything planned, and I've been a movie-watching, face-feeding couch potato. It's soooo great. The dogs love it when I don't leave the couch for hours on end. All that said, here are some pics for you.

Maggie, Louie and Molly (my mom's dog) scavenging the kitchen floor on Thanksgiving, and one of my favorite scrapbook pages to date.

The Joy of Potlucks

We had a company potluck yesterday. This is a day of no egg whites, no fat-free or low-carb foods, and definitely no low calorie anything. It is graze all day until you feel like you are going to puke day. You are probably wondering by now if I EVER eat right. Well, yes I do, but it has been a challenge lately. Smoking is also still a challenge. I am doing better and better every day, though. I haven't had a venti mocha Frappuccino for a whole week! Ha! You also must know that I didn't eat any bread at the potluck, and I did have quite a few veges. OK, OK, YES, I HAD A COOKIE. (Or two.) I have added some different things to my workouts to keep them interesting, and I did 120 lunges in a ROW a couple of days ago. (Still recovering.) I wanted to see how many I could do before falling over. For the last 30 I had to drop the weights and just use my body weight, which of course was, ENOUGH. My next thing will be to see how much I can bench-press (weight-wise). Everyone always asks me, and I've never known!

OMG

They make LEATHERFACE HOLIDAY LIGHTS!  Must. Get.

More Movie Reviews!

Legally Blonde 2:
Don't waste your time. Now, I loved the first one, but this one was just plain ridiculous. I really like Reese Witherspoon too. I can't believe my husband sat through the WHOLE THING without saying a word. He must really love me.

Freeway
What a great flick! This is also a Reese Witherspoon movie, but in this one she is a badass! It is a dark comedy (my favorite kind) with some great "unconventional" twists. It is older, made in the mid-nineties, and also has Kiefer Sutherland in it. A must see!

Wrong Turn
Not great, not horrible. Entertaining, with some good killing scenes, but still a little too "teenagy" for me. The Netflix envelope described this movie as "License to Drive meets Deliverance". Based on that, I had to watch it.

Terminator 3
So-so. I do love Arnold, though. There was some really cool big-trucks-flipping-over and crashing scenes, and the female terminator (Terminatrix) was a great foe, but all and all, I was disappointed. Not a gripper like the second one. I missed Linda Hamilton and the guy playing John Connor was a little "femmy". If they make a fourth one, Skwigg should play the woman kicking ass. :)

Anger Management
Not as good as the hype. Two great actors in a mediocre movie, in my opinion. Very predictable. OK, but wouldn't watch it twice.

About Schmidt
You know, people either loved this movie, or hated it. I loved it! I wasn't grossed-out by seeing Kathy Bates naked, come on people, not everyone looks like a super-model, and quite frankly I like a little reality once in a while. I think this movie dealt with issues that no one likes to think about. I liked it because the main characters were controversial, meaning you didn't know whether you liked them or not. Something different! I'm tired of the same old movie.

I still need to watch 28 Days Later. I can't bring myself to watch the Matrix movies yet, they just don't do anything for me. Everyone keeps telling me to watch, but people flying through the air doing flips and kicks and shooting guns just seems stupid to me. Apparently, I am a minority in this one.

Lip Issues

Today, I look like I got beat up. I have a crack down the middle of my bottom lip, and two, count em' TWO fever blisters, also on my bottom lip. I thought about wearing my Leatherface mask to work today to cover it up, but somehow, I don't think the nice auditor lady would find the humor in it. So, I'll just dress up and wear lots of lipstick on my diseased and scary mouth. We have another freaking audit. I so need a vacation. No snow today, so I couldn't call in cold. I am going to beg all my blogger-friends not to write anything funny today because if I laugh, my lips will bleed, and I will cry. My trainer would be so disappointed in my wussiness.

Rain, flooding, wind, snow and sunshine?

That's Washington for you. I went to bed to high winds. I woke up to rain and flooding. The commute to work resulted in massive snow to the point where I couldn't tell if I was on the road or the grass because I couldn't see anything. The weather report says sunshine by the afternoon. There are power outages everywhere and traffic lights don't work. Weather report today: EVERYTHING.  For up-to-the-minute weather reports: LOOK OUT YOUR WINDOW. I live an hour from work and live in the mountains. Every other mile or so, something different was happening. My husband can't even GET to work. The lucky rat! All this going on, and of course, my work is operating quite nicely. Damn.

Spilling Stuff

We all have skills. Mine happens to be spilling stuff. I have replaced 3 keyboards at work from spilling liquid on them, and every day at lunch I spill some sort of food content on my shelf. (My breast-area.) My co-workers howl in laughter at me every day. When someone else does it, they have just done a "Cheryl". I do this so often, that if there is NO spot on my shirt, I get comments like "We know you are an imposter, has Cheryl been taken to the mother ship?" This morning was no different. I had to wash my shirt in the bathroom sink to get all of the coffee off of it. I am walking around with a completely sopping wet shirt, and no one has said a thing. It is a normal day. I have been told that my secret Santa this year will be getting me an adult sippy cup.

Fake the Funk to Facilitate the Fraud

This is my favorite quote ever in the history of the world. It is a "Jiminism". (A quote made up by my hubby, Jim.) Not only is it fun to say, but it can really describe some situations well, like yesterday for me. It is really funny to say it to co-workers and watch their facial expression go from blank to confused, then out comes the word, "What?" EVERY TIME.

I had an OBGYN appointment yesterday that I forgot about. I looked at my wall calendar at 12:45 pm and the calendar said the appt. was at 1 pm. HOLY CRAP! Not that I wouldn't mind missing one of THOSE appointments, but it is nearly impossible to reschedule and I'm out of birth control pills, yikes. So, I do Mach 4 trying to get there on time, and I get a call on my cell phone right as I'm pulling into the parking lot saying, "Can we reschedule you, the Dr. had a delivery." How dare he deliver a damn baby during my appointment! Now, I told my boss I would be gone for 2 hours. Do I go back to work and tell him what actually happened? HELL NO. I take a nap in my car. Faking the funk to facilitate the fraud.

Camp Nut-job

Just got back from scrapbook camp. It is usually 48 hours of pure bliss for me, but this time there was a nut-job among us, and the weekend turned out to be somewhat of a catfight. There is always one bad apple, I tell ya, but really, this is a given when you get 40 women together. Women are just plain PITAs sometimes. (PITA = Pain In The Ass) This person was as uptight as they get and had run-ins with several of us. You might think of scrapbookers as docile and hen-like, but you are sorely mistaken. We use things like razor blades and hammers as we put together our cute little scrapbooks. (My scrapbook pages consisted of pictures of our Halloween night and was titled "Leatherface, the saw is family.") So, really, it is not a good idea to piss off a scrapbooker. There was squabbling about what music was playing, too much noise, food not cooked right, etc. Sometimes I think it would just be easier to go scrapbooking with men. We could belch, fart, drink beer and have the latest sport playing on a TV somewhere nearby instead of some gay-ass soothing CD. Although, that is how my personal scrapbook workshops usually are, my customers KNOW how to scrapbook properly. If I get some time, maybe I'll post some of my pages. You may get a kick out of them, and the obnoxious amount of time it took to create them.

Duck and Dog Drama

My birthday is over. Poo. Dinner was great, we all shared duck in a plum sauce, 7-flavors beef, sambal coconut prawns, spicy pepper and onion asparagus and Szechwan green beans. Our appetizers were buddha spring rolls and lemongrass chicken! YUUUUMMMY. I had a glass of red wine, then we ate chocolate torte and ginger ice cream for dessert. OMG! Then, when I got home, my awesome hubby had an ice cream cake with candles and a CD waiting for me! What a sweetie! Especially since I didn't get home until about 10:30! Oh, and YES, I had another piece of cake.

Since I only got about 4 hours of sleep, today will be a joy. I am working a double. 6 am to 11pm. Fun.

Dog drama. Louie and Maggie got in a fight. Louie weighs about 22 pounds, and Maggie is a petite little 17-pounder. She kicked his ass. Jim called Louie a "vagina-dog". If it hadn't been so funny, I would have scolded Jim.

OK, What the Hell is going on?

My birthday has had a rough start. I accidentally slammed my head into a door. No kidding. I was bending over to pick up some paperwork I dropped and bumped my noggin' on the DOOR HANDLE. YEE-OUCH! I yelled some cuss words. (Not always a good idea at work.) Now I have a nice red mark on my forehead along with the ZIT I woke up with. Nice. Especially when I'm going to a posh restaurant for dinner. The first work-thing I started today was, of course, a nightmare. No one communicates with anyone, and so we all duplicate work (in a rush) and then have to do it 5 more times at a freaky stress level. Every job we do, or so I'm told, is of utmost importance, and the company's future depends on it. Yeah, whatever. Me typing a memo can't possibly affect the fate of the company. Unless it was a memo saying we were no longer allowed to eat chocolate. That would shut us down in 2 seconds flat.

Happy Birthday TO ME

Another Birthday! Yikes! I'm gettin' old. Stopped off for a Frappuccino this morning (yes, I was a little late), and I'm looking forward to a nice half-day at work. My co-workers are force-feeding me (ha!) fattening food today for lunch. I will then proceed to a nice hour-long massage. Following the massage, I will shop, then I will eat again at a fabulous Seattle hotspot called the Wild Ginger. MMMMMM. My OTHER co-workers are making me go there. This is the only time where it is good to have two jobs! This weekend I will be scrapbooking with 40 other women up at a lodge at the pass. It's all about me.

Somebody Wake Me Up

I feel like someone slipped me a Mickey this morning. I cannot keep my eyes open! I'm even typing while my eyes are shut. Just one of those mornings, I guess. My husband is all upset. He is a veteran from the gulf war (the 1st one) and he has to work today. He says everyone has the day off but the veterans. I think he is right, he should have the day off, but then again, I think I should have the day off too, cuz it is the day before my birthday (send presents).

Bath time or Armageddon?

For Louie and Maggie, it may as well be Armageddon. My husband begged me to give the dogs a bath on Sunday. (Apparently, they were stinky, I never notice.) You don't even have to say the word "bath", all you have to do is go into the bathroom and say "Maaaaaagieeeee, Looouuuuiieeee!" and they know. It took me a half an hour to get them in there. Then, Louie was my first victim. There was howling and yowling when I clipped his nails, the most pathetically depressed look when I was brushing him, and utter misery and the end of the world when I soaped him up. I tried to get him to give me a kiss, but he actually turned his head away from me. The hair dryer was death. He buries his head in my crotch with his butt sticking up when I'm trying to dry him. (He is trying to hide.) But when I'm done, OMG he is the happiest dog on the planet. He jumps and plays and wags his tail when I say, "All done handsome boy!" Then he gets a yummy carrot.

Giving Maggie a bath is like trying to innertube behind a hydroplane. I was sopping wet and exhausted afterwards.

Justification for reading other people's blogs.

"You can make more friends in a month by being interested in them, than in 10 years by trying to get them interested in you."
- Charles L. Allen Roads to Radiant Living

Happy Monday morning to you all. I am eating chicken and vegetable stir fry and a nonfat mocha for breakfast. What on earth is wrong with me? Normal people eat eggs, oatmeal, cereal, but not me. I'll be having my egg whites for lunch.

Another justification for a blog.

"There is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day."
-Alexander Woollcott, Long, Long Ago

Ponder that one.

Oh Happy Day!

You are all most likely really sick of me talking about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but with the new movie out, I have rekindled my fondness. I ordered the Special Edition of the original movie on DVD (it just became available, and it has "meat" packaging!), and it came in yesterday! So, you can guess what I did last night. What a great movie the original is! I had forgotten! Marilyn Burns is truly the scream queen! I had not seen the original for a while, so it was great fun. Louie and Maggie and I all curled up on the couch together to watch. Jim fell asleep. Oh well, guess we'll have to watch it again tonight!