over the hills and...oh who am I kidding... Down the highway we go.

We are all piled in the car, the trunk bursting with luggage and our tummies full of Chic-fila. It is about a three hour drive to my parents house. The holiday traffic isn't too bad right now. Going towards the city is a different story. They are already stop and go on the East bound side on the Interstate.



Brief pause for a flat tire. Matt changed it in 10 minutes flat! Yeah... I have a badass husband. On the side of the highway in the dark while rummaging around a full trunk to find the spare and the jack. Just as he was tightening the lug nuts the Road Rangers showed up. We told them we were cool and they drove off with a honk and a wave! Happy Thanksgiving to them for driving our roads and helping to ensure everyone arrives at their destinations in a timely manner.



Arrived safely and got settled in. McKenzie lost a tooth! We didn't even know it was loose but apparently it has been "wiggly ALL week!" Bit of a scramble for the Tooth Fairy. Silly me for emptying my wallet of cash before leaving. Too bad kids can't take plastic. Ha.



Now it is Thanksgiving day. I brought chocolate covered oreos and made deviled eggs and stuffing this morning. This is my Turkey Day MO. My mom seems to like my stuffing and eggs. McKenzie made place cards for the table. Too cute! We even took some family photos. It was a nice day.



Now it is Black Friday. We know one present we are getting. New tires for the Mustang. Damn my tires are expensive. Over $500 for the whole shebang. And that is with the tires themselves being 50% off! *sigh* Cars are expensive. We started the shopping frenzy off right by getting the very last Wii Fit at Sam's Club. The guy behind us told us we suck but we all laughed about it and had a nice breakfast provided by the store. Then off to the tire store. Next was Staples, Walmart, Bealls and Kohls. Not a whole lot out there that we wanted/needed. But we did get some great deals.



Ok this coffee time has spanned three days. Enough. Happy holidays!







*Angi WB*

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Florida winter

Well it is starting to be cold here a bit more often. The sun is still warm but there is a chill in the air. Today it is windy and cloudy. Brrr! My blood is thin from living in Florida for too long.



Cooper loves this "winter" weather. His fluffy coat no longer hinders him and he demands to play outside much longer than our puny skin can handle. Even my layer of fat can't protect me the way his gorgeous fur can.



Matt has been having coffee time with us lately. I love it! He and Coop play ball while we talk about what needs to get done today. We add and subtract things from our BlackBerry To Do lists while slurping coffee and taking in the nice, undeveloped land behind out backyard.



The undeveloped land is such a great addition to our little spot in the world. It has just about every bit of flora and fauna you expect in Wild Florida. There is no water so we are free of 'Gators but I swear we heard a cougar the other night. It was a sort of roaring noise and the Poo freaked out. Barking ferociously but doing it from under Daddy's chair. Ha ha!

Plus we have a bird of prey nest. When Cooper was tiny we had to watch because the Egrets would circle near him to contemplate dinner!



Ok, enough coffee time.

Lunch with Jamie today! Woot!



*Angi WB*

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

A nice weekend

Yay we had a nice party! It was small but mighty. We think we had about 15 all together. I loved seeing everyone and catching up! We were going to take pictures but...



So the cookies were a big hit. I had about 75 at the top of the night and I think we had about 25 left over. The milk chocolate dipped peanut butter was the winner by quite a bit. I was also surprised that more people didn't like the mint ones. But so I think I know what I will do. I'm ordering some quality dipping chocolate and will be getting to work on them this week.



Mmmmm have you ever had Breakfast Bread from Publix? It is so good! I toasted mine and added a touch of butter. Yummy coffee time today!



Ugh daytime tv is awful. I can't stand to look at it for more than a few minutes at a time most of the day. I do like having the Food Network on in the background while I putter around the house. I tried crock pot BBQ pork the other night because of a recipe I caught.



I also am trying to find a hair stylist to work in THE MORNING on new years day for my sis-in-law's wedding. She is going for a 1940's old hollywood look with fingerwaves. Should be cool but it sure isn't cheap!



Right, time to get moving.



*Angi WB*

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Feeling icky

Not feeling so hot today. Went grocery shopping, cleaned kitchen and finished expense reports. Now...



Naptime.

Then...

More cookie making, more cleaning, dinner making.

Yay housewifery. *pause to think of Iago's line in Othello 2:1:112*

Stupid Facebook

Facebook is really honking me off right now. First off, now that I have Facebook mobile, my computer version has turned Captcha back on so I have to fill out that annoying "words in a box" thing EVERY time I write on someone's wall. I tried to reverify but it is not going well. I emailed support but have received no reply. ...yet. I think I will have to delete Facebook mobile and try to reinstall it. Maybe that will fix the computer version. I should note that when I hit the verify button it tells me to verify my phone number, which I have obviously already done because I am receiving the mobile updates. *sigh*

Secondly, why do we have friend lists if we can't message all of them at once? If you have less than 20 friends on the list, you CAN send them a message. Seriously? I have over 600 friends. The only list that is smaller than 20 was my High School list and it jumped to 24 yesterday. There is not even a function that allows you to select PART of the list. You just have to find them one by one. Which brings me to my biggest gripe...

I have been trying to blog everyday. It is harder than I thought it would be! Coming up with topics that I think people will find even marginally interesting everyday is a little taxing. Recently I wrote about my hometown. I thought the people I know who have lived there might get a kick out of it. Hence the trying to message everyone at once thing. When it didn't work I started going to their pages individually and posting a note with the link on their wall. Bad move on my part. Now Facebook thinks I am a spammer because I was pasting the post on the walls and I was audacious enough to do it 10 times in a row. How do they tell me they don't like it? They put up a pink box that says I have exceeded my wall post allotment and am banned until further notice! Bleah! I am not a spammer! Now don't get me wrong, I hate spammers as much as you do, but seriously? 10 posts? Well I think it is because I cut and pasted. I guess telling people about this blog is out of the question on Facebook. Silly me, assuming the friends I have don't look at my posts every day. Apparently Facebook thinks they will!

Ok ok. Enough ranting.

I just discovered that the lock out time is 3 hours. I guess first time offenders only get a little slap on the wrist. Ooooo I wonder if this is going to go down on my permanent record... *brief pause to sing Kiss Off by the Violent Femmes*

Ok. Laundry is dry, coffee is cold and Cooper is snoring away on the couch. I guess Coffee Time is over. Bummer.

Xx



*Angi WB*

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Why, oh why, do we dye?

I'm getting ready to dye my hair. Oh gosh, you know my secret, I'm not a natural red head. Ha ha, as if. It is funny though, a lot of people did think I was a natural red head. I guess I have the skin color for it or something. I remember the first time I went blonde while I was in Utah... People freaked! They said "your natural color is so pretty, why did you go blonde?" I responded that I had not seen my natural color in many, many years and doubted they even knew what it was.

I have that sort of weird chameleon hair. On its own it is different shades all over my head. Combined it makes that dirty, dishwater blondish-brown - almost looks gray - color. You know what I mean. You see it in real life on the mousy-haired, dull, lifeless "I don't need a bad-ass hair color to be cool" ladies.

I am not that sort of gal. I am vivacious and obnoxious and plain-Jane hair would not work on me. (The people who know me in real life are snickering right now.)

Well now I am in the waiting stage. I have mixed the gunk and put it on my head. (You must be nuts if you think I would post photos of this!)

In 25 minutes I will be back to the red you see in my profile photo. Yes, I will probably post some "after" photos tomorrow.

Highlights tomorrow...... yeah you didn't think beauty was easy, did you?

Peace out.

My hometown...

I'm going back to Indiana for a brief holiday trip. It's always bittersweet to go back to the old home front. I like seeing my family and the few friends that still live there. But it is sort of depressing too. Although my hometown has been getting more fast food chains and prefab stores like Best Buy, it seems to be losing people. I googled Muncie this morning to see what I could see. I particularly liked the Wikipedia page.

LAZY MUNCIE (Parody of the LAZY SUNDAY skit on SNL)


Oh go watch it, you know you want to see where I grew up.

Yes, Jim Davis (Garfield creator) lives there. Yes they filmed Armed and Famous there. Actually several "people of note" are from Muncie. (check it out on Wikipedia)

My hometown was also a sociological case study. You can learn all about the Middletown Studies here. I know all this stuff already as I played one of the authors, Helen Lynd, in college.

Also, my hometown is 83% white, 12% African American and 5% "other races." Yeah, I'm from the Rust Belt..... The KKK was big in Muncie in the 1920's. *sigh* I learned about it in Magic Middletown and Citizen Klansmen. I own Magic Middletown, btw, if you are interested.

Here is a list of Cultural References to Muncie, Indiana. (I loved reading through this! This list is copied from wikipedia...the links do not work but you can go to the wikipedia page and click on them)

Cultural references to Muncie

• The 1960 Korean War film All the Young Men features Alan Ladd as a soldier from Muncie.
• In several episodes of Hogan's Heroes (1965-1971) Carter and other characters refer to Muncie. Carter seems to have either grown up there or spent time there while growing up.
• In the 1966 Dick Van Dyke film Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N., Lt. Crusoe complains that his malfunctioning navigational equipment will only tell him how far he is from Muncie.
• The "star" of the eponymous Tom Slick segment of the late 1960s animated series George of the Jungle frequently raced to or from Muncie (and, at least once, to and from Muncie).
• The "What Are Sex Perverts?"' segment of Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972) features a rabbi from Muncie.
• In the 1976 TV pilot movie for The Love Boat, Tom Bosley plays Muncie native George Havlicek.
• The 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind is partially set in Muncie.
• Television talk show host David Letterman, whose national career began in 1980, often refers to Muncie when needing to name a small, provincial town.
• Though the 1986 movie Hoosiers pits Hickory's basketball team against South Bend's team, the real life story that inspired the movie features Muncie Central High School's 1954 championship loss to the team from Milan.
• The A-Team episode "Mission of Peace," which originally aired March 11, 1986 mentioned that the lion statues in front of the fake Mission were actually from the public library in Muncie.
• It is revealed in the 1987 Garfield Goes Hollywood television special that cartoon characters Garfield, Jon, and Odie live in Muncie.
• In the Saturday morning cartoon Garfield and Friends, characters often mention Muncie. Examples include Roy Rooster asking for "a pickle in the shape of Muncie, Indiana"; Garfield growing a minimall on the shores of the "Muncie River"; and Binky the Clown interrupting surgery at "Cedars of Muncie Hospital."
• In the musical revue The Taffetas, about a four sister singing group, Muncie is named as the sisters' home town. The show began off Broadway in 1988.^[20]
• The cartoon character "Snake" from The Simpsons (1989- ) played lacrosse for Ball State University located in Muncie Indiana. Also, Superintendent Chalmers went to BSU.
• Knights of the Dinner Table (1990- ) - A comic strip set in Muncie. Parody of Roleplaying groups and Dungeons & Dragons.
• Bikini Summer (1991) features "Holly from Muncie, Indiana" in a wet T-shirt contest.
• In the 1994 film The Hudsucker Proxy the main character, Norville Barnes, was born and raised in Muncie. The city is referenced throughout the movie.
• Gregory Howard Williams' best selling autobiography, Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black (first published in 1996), is mostly set in Muncie, his adopted hometown.
• The X-Files episode "Salvage," which first aired on January 14, 2001, was set in Muncie.
• Toby Keith's 2001 song I Wanna Talk About Me contains the line "We talk about your nanna up in Muncie, Indiana."
• The romance in Say It Isn't So (2002) begins in Muncie
• In the fifth season (2004-5) of The Gilmore Girls television series one of the characters (Doyle McMaster, a native of the state and boyfriend to Paris Geller) reports that he spent his summer interning at the fictional Muncie Messenger newspaper.
• Muncie was the setting for Armed and Famous, a celebrity reality TV show that premiered on CBS in January, 2007.
• In the popular viral video spoof of the original Saturday Night Live sketch Lazy Sunday, Lazy Muncie references the Muncie cityscape, including Muncie Mall, McGalliard Road, and a cameo appearance by Jim Davis.

Ok, I doubt anyone is still reading because who cares about my hometown, but it is MY hometown and I love it no matter how much of a craphole it is... wait...

....It can't be that bad, huh? I turned out ok.

Weekend musings

We had the Munchkin this weekend. When she is here I get to play mom. She is 10 and awesome. I am very lucky that Hubby's ex is a wonderful lady. We are all friends. When Matt and I got married Munchkin's mom asked her if she knew what StepMom meant. She told Munchkin that StepMom means "Best friend with whipping powers." How cool is that? She was only 4 when we tied the knot so she has grown up thinking this about me. I know, I am blessed to be in this situation.

Having a kid in the house changes everything, eh? We close our bedroom door at night and have to remember to be dressed when we get up to make coffee. Other funny things happen too... I was walking by the guest bathroom Saturday and heard the Star Spangled Banner being sung loudly while a certain girl was on the toilet. Her dad shouted through the door and she told him to stop listening because she was concentrating!

We had a great weekend at home. We all pitched in to do more "spring" cleaning and took breaks playing Wii and Playstation. This kid is smokin' at bowling and Guitar Hero!

Hubby and I have been talking about getting WiiFit. It has mixed review online about not being able to play multiplayer but I really like how almost every reviewer said they thought about the WiiFit telling them they are fat whenever they went to over eat! Ahhh motivation.

Cooper is doing better. His little nose is starting to heal. We still don't know what happened but I think he had a run-in with the Aloe plant forest we have on the back porch. The lizards like to hide there. Oh how he loves to hunt lizards!

Ok I think that is enough Coffee Time for today. Life IS good, isn't it? Hope you have a wonderful day!



*Angi WB*

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Doggy Smiles

Our favorite son has many names. Cooper, Pooh, Boo Boo, Little Face and even Senior Farty Pants.

He is a big dog in a little dog body. Right now I am watching him patrol his patch of land in our back yard. He is like a little sentry, watching the perimeter, sniffing out all lizards and making sure they know he will kill them if they drop their guard.

I particularly like it when he "reads the newspaper," - as Matt calls it - by sitting on the hill and smelling the breeze. He is like a little King checking on all of his subjects.

He has a doggy posse too. His boxer pal, Fergus, lives a few doors down. Fergus is like a knight. He gets to roam much further into the undeveloped land behind our place and brings news of feral cats and the birds of prey that live in a big man-made nest that we can see. Max is a schnauzer that lives the other way down the block. Max has a nice older lady owner who walks him around the neighborhood so he is like a greybeard advisor with news from the townspeople. There is also a beautiful old border collie who lives close but doesn't venture out much. There are two other schnauzer and a pomeranian named Felix who live katty-corner to us. That is a neighboring kingdom and there is usually a lot of barking and demands when we venture by their place. Cooper takes it all in stride and prances through as if he doesn't notice the noise.



Yeah... Dogs are cool.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Blog test

The chocolate covered oreos were pretty successful. I have been researching how to temper chocolate so the next batch won't melt on your fingers so much. I think for Christmas I will try mint in the chocolate. I also read about Trader Joe's having mint flavored oreos so maybe I will get some when I trek to Indiana next month. We really need a Joe's here.



I am also going to make peanut butter filled chocolate covered oreos for Christmas, I think. KenZie wants to make popcorn balls. Take that, Suzy Homemaker!



Hey Gruber got a cool new job as Production Manager of Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. He needs a kick ass Company Manager so if you are one... Let him know. Or tell me and I will pass it on. Dates are like early May to end of August. Google it. It looks like an awesome outdoor space.



Aaargh. I have to finish spring cleaning. I have the master bath and the guest room to go. After those are good then Matt and I have to tackle the office. How long do you keep old bills anyway?



Ok. Enough coffee time. Back to reality. ...does that make me Rabbit?





Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Virtual Coffee Time

I was up early this morning and wanted to call Ms. Debbie but it was the middle of the night on her side of the country. So I used my CrackBerry to write her an email. I called it virtual coffee time because of our old Porch tradition. If you ever hung out on The Porch in Utah, you know what I am talking about.

Coffee time starts with that "I'm alive but not awake" time of the morning where you auto pilot into the bathroom and then on to the kitchen to make some coffee. I let the dog out when I am home. Debbie drinks a huge glass of water to rehydrate. Nykol talks to her cat. Everyone has their own ritual.

Anyway, by the time the coffee is done I am ready to have a nice sit. When people are around its the time to rehash "last night," discuss what the day holds and a bit of time to bitch or whine....take your pick.

Since I am kind of alone now I do all this without opening my mouth. Matt is either still sleeping when I get up or vice-versa so I can rarely share coffee time with him. Boo...as Michael would say.

Being on extended vacation is boring but my house is looking awesome. We have rearranged most of the house and cleaned almost every surface in the place. Nice. I like clean, shiny house.

Today I experimented with Milk Chocolate covered Oreos. I am thinking of making them for Christmas presents. Heh heh those of you in Orlando and possibly Indiana are in for a treat.

Love ya

P.S. I think I will be in Indiana Dec 10-15. I'll keep you posted.

I got a CrackBerry...

Oh good lord we got them..... here is the BlackBerry Curve.

I blame Zak for getting Matt interested but I know I need it. It does everything I need and a lot I don't!

Here is mine!Do you like it? I love it!

Matt got the silver one.