Unimpressed

30 December 2010  at 08:02
So for whatever reason, all of my fingernails except my left pinky break as soon as they get even slightly long. My left pinky, though, it grows & grows if I let it. This past week I told Andy instead of cutting it down I was going to see how long it would grow. I guess I must have jinxed it.


Now how will I do coke?!

Can You Smoke It?

29 December 2010  at 07:58
To that, in Andy's world, the answer is always yes. To be fair, though, we've really only had one thing that didn't turn out so great...Stick with the grill or indoors for asparagus...It tastes like ashes on a smoker. Stuffed mushrooms, though, two thumbs WAY UP on the smoker!

Once upon a time, probably during the summer, the topic came up of smoking a meatloaf. I can't remember now how it came up, but we Googled it to see if it had been done. Of course, it had. We decided to do it at some point, and left it at that.

A few nights ago, I suggested to Andy that we buy some ground beef to keep on hand. It's not something either of us love but it can be cooked straight from the freezer for quick meals if you haven't planned ahead. Much to my surprise, when he ran to the store that night for something specific he brought some home. 3 whole pounds, easily enough for 3-4 meals with leftovers!

....and then promptly proceeded to turn all 3 pounds of it into a meatloaf to be smoked.


Smoked Meatloaf


The good news is, even though he fell asleep and it cooked 2 hours longer than intended, it was pretty damn good.

Slave to Fashion

28 December 2010  at 07:47
Do you ever see someone wearing something, and wonder to yourself whether it's that they're incredibly fashion-forward or they just don't have a mirror? That person is me.



When I got these paisley tights, I thought they were the coolest fucking thing I'd ever seen. They don't fit me all that well, so I'll share with you that today when I wore them I wore a pair of underwear OVER them just to keep them from sliding all the way down my butt. I wore them today to work with a dark blue sweater dress and a yellow cardigan.

I always make Andy approve my outfits, and he said that I looked 'fun' and 'cute', so off I went to work. When I got here, one of the HR ladies said I was 'so bold'. She has a way of saying things where you're not sure if it's a backhanded compliment or a thinly-veiled insult, so I didn't really say anything back.

This is the same woman who a few weeks ago when I was coming in from outside told me I looked like a bag lady. When I very sarcastically thanked her, she seemed surprised I'd taken offense and told me she meant it in a good way.

HOW do you say someone looks like a bag lady and intend for it to be a good thing?!
[Note: In addition to being "bold", I also don't own a proper full-length mirror (I have one, but it's decades old, cracked and covered in weird brown dots that make it difficult to see anything in it.).]

Gifts that Keep on Givin’

27 December 2010  at 07:42


Today Andy's boss gave me these. I was more excited about them than anyone should be about Velcro (TM) bells. I was instantly transported back to 3rd grade, when we would ring these bells in Music class while we sang silly Christmas songs.

Once the nostalgia faded, I realized how totally useless these are and now I'm left wondering what the hell to do with them. For now, they are hanging on the doorknob of my back door. Call it a low-budg security system, if you will...

The Eve of Christmas

24 December 2010  at 17:20
Well, the holidays are officially here! Tonight we did dinner and the exchanging of gifts with my Dad's side of the family, out at my parents' house. It was a nice visit, and it's odd to have little ones on that side of the family, but it was odd in a good way I think. My cousin and his wife told everyone on their way out that they are expecting another one, so by next Christmas there will be at least one more addition. Pretty cool. My grandparents got my sister and I pearl earrings, which is probably about the second 'nice jewelry' I have. I should probably class it up some one of these days. When I was younger I had a few more things, but move after move I ended up with none of it.

Anyway, everyone left pretty early, and Andy & I were planning to spend the night and have Christmas morning over there, so once everyone else left we played The Game of Things with my family. For hours. It was a blast. Andy of course came up with the most absurd answers ever and you always knew which one was his but it was still good for a belly laugh.

This is my sister, making some saltwater for Andy to soak his toe (he has an ingrown toenail that has been pretty ugly, on and off), wearing an apron she made when she was approximately 5:

Our Little Helper

A New Year’s Epiphany!

22 December 2010  at 09:46
Okay, so like nearly everyone else in this country, year after year I vow to shed those extra pounds...and then don't.  This year, I've probably taken more positive steps than any other year, so I'm proud of that at least.  I'm enrolled in Zumba through May of next year so far, and don't really intend to stop after that - I freakin' LOOOOVE Zumba!!!  Partly, I'm sure, because of our super awesome instructor Mandi....when we have 'sub's I don't love it as much.  My bar is set high enough for a Harlem Globetrotter to effortlessly Limbo under.

ANYWAY, I was being depressed the other night about how little difference I've seen despite my half-hearted attempts to the contrary.  Me & pickle nachos were working through it (they're not that bad - really!), and I had an epiphany of sorts.

For 2011, I'm not going to resolve to 'lose 50 pounds', I'm going to resolve to lose '1 pound a week' - that sounds WAY less intimidating, dontcha think?!

Christmas Vacation!

20 December 2010  at 17:13
In North Kansas City, there's a Screenland theater that Andy & I love going to. They play a lot of independent and local movies, and also have fun things like 'Glee' & Chiefs watch parties (never been to either), and they show 'cult classics' on occasion. An example of this is they play The Big Lebowski on the last Friday of every month. I've been dying to make it to that, but haven't yet either. They serve booze, which is a wonderful bonus (Yes, when the day comes that I see 'The Dude' on-screen, I will be drinking a Caucasian), they have a bar food menu (fried green beans!) and they also have a row of red leather recliners, which totally rock:

]

Besides that there are some loveseats in the front and little living room set-ups in back. There is also a nifty robot guy who opens the curtain. As you can tell, it's pretty awesome.

Andy told me last week that they were showing National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. He has a tradition of watching that on Christmas Day at some point, but last year we weren't able to. We didn't figure we'd be able to make it to the theater on Christmas either, but I checked the times anyway. As it turns out, they weren't even playing it on Christmas. The last day to see it was the Tuesday before. So we saw it on Monday.

And it was glorious.

(I also discovered that they sell the DVD of Blackhand Strawman [a movie about organized crime in KC], so I will be purchasing that next time I am there and have money.)

Mum’s Fiesta

19 December 2010  at 07:11
Mom's party was Saturday night and it was more or less a success. Sobriety checkpoints and snow had people leaving way earlier than I'd have hoped, but the core group hung around the whole time, and if you counted all the in & out folks there were probably close to 70 people who showed up. I had a good time, but more importantly I think Mom did. I suppose it was worth all of the insane amount of work!

Instead of doing a regular guestbook, we made some postcards that were 1960-themed, and had people write messages on the back of them. Then we will make a sort of scrapbook of them. When I was going through them, I found this:



Mom thinks it's from her cousin (the one from Indy I mentioned before). We do all have the same twisted minds...

Cross Stitching Success

18 December 2010  at 07:00

Finished!

I was able to get this finished in the nick of time - with Mom's party and all the other Christmas ends to be tied up, I was a bit worried I wouldn't make it! I stayed up late last night until I fell asleep working on it, and finished it this morning. I have to say, I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out, and am even toying with the idea of starting an Etsy shop. I would mostly start off cross-stitching song lyrics, but if people wanted specific phrases I could do those too. Then, if I ever get good at any other crafty things I could put them there too. What do you think?

I hope Andy likes it!!!

Let the Surprising Commence!

16 December 2010  at 11:49

The Good Foot

My mom, being who she is, was not about to let her birthday party be a surprise...SO her cousin and I came up with a way to surprise her so at least there was something! Her cousin Tina lives near Indianapolis and decided to come to town for the party. Since the party is Saturday, and Tina and her husband Mark were planning to come in early Friday, they wanted to be able to visit with her for that extra day without 'ruining the party surprise'.

They'd wanted to go to Knuckleheads since they'd heard all about it, and it just happened that Thursday night my friend Q's band, The Good Foot, was playing there. I asked if they could come in Thursday night and it turned out that they could. We beat them there by about 15 minutes, and when they walked in it was hilarious. Mom had no expression whatsoever. She looked past them like they weren't her family. She later said, "I thought, 'That looks like Mark and Tina, but they don't live here'." So that's Angie -1, Mom -0, for those of you keeping score. (:

'Twas a good time.

Feliz Cumpleanos, Madre!

12 December 2010  at 11:39

Masterpieces, if I do say so.


Hooray Patron!

On Mom's birthday I spent the majority of the day finishing up the centerpieces and some other last-minute thingies, then went up to Mom & Dad's to watch the Chiefs game, and then we all went to dinner at Bonefish Grill. YUM. Hopefully she had a good birthday, and hopefully the party goes well next weekend!!

DIY Centerpieces Gone Wrong

11 December 2010  at 11:36

Ghetto rigging.

Tonight Jenny & I began working on centerpieces for Mom's party. I had a general idea of what I wanted - a photo cube with 3 wires to hold 6 pictures on each. We went to Hobby Lobby and found some wooden blocks, crafter's wire, some star & circle clips, and got some gold spray paint, and some ribbon to put around them. I bought some hot glue refills for my glue gun, and we were off to get the photos copied.

The pictures to be put on the centerpieces were pictures of Mom throughout time. I didn't want to use the original photos, especially since many of them weren't mine, so I planned to go to CVS and scan them in, edit some, and get reprints done. We headed to the CVS nearest my house, and the computer with the scanner attached was out of order. We waited 10 or so minutes for a lady at the neighboring kiosk to finish (read: get off of the phone and leave), and plugged the scanner into it, but that didn't work.

We headed to Walgreen's, and only had to wait a couple of minutes for someone to finish up with their scanner kiosk (Sidenote - why do people always use the scanner kiosk if they're not scanning?! Assholes.), and we were good to go. I went through the on-screen steps and then the system froze while the scanner was 'warming up'. We had the photo attendant restart the machine which probably took about 20 minutes. Then we did it all over again, only for the machine to end up frozen at the same step. FML.

Finally, we headed to the busier CVS a couple miles farther from my house. Lucky for us, third time's a charm! By this point in time, not only was it frigid cold but the snow was starting to look pretty foreboding. We scanned in the 72 pictures, and just an hour & a half later we were touching them up, and 30 minutes after that we were finished! Yes, it literally took 2 hours. The woman working the register actually said to us, "You should have brought some dinner, ladies!". About 15 minutes before we finished up we realized there was a portable DVD player on display right next to us, and it had a DVD in it, so we got to see the beginning of The Last Unicorn. I'd never even heard of it, but it's an animated movie from the early 80's and it has some pretty great actors doing voice work: Alan Arkin, Jeff Bridges, Mia Farrow, and Angela Lansbury! Okay, maybe Angela Lansbury isn't a GREAT actress, but she's pretty damn famous so it counts.

We head home, after Jenny's car threatened to not start in the cold, to put the centerpieces together. I go to the last place I saw my glue gun, and you guessed it - not there. Not ANYWHERE for that matter. I decide to focus first on drilling the holes in the wooden blocks and then crossing the glue bridge only when I have to. Come to find out, my cordless drill is still at my parents' house from when Andy helped them with a couple of projects. I think that's okay because Andy has a corded one on the shelf...only it turns out that's not a drill; it's some weird drywall screwer or something like that that has virtually no depth and will be completely useless to me.

I found an aluminum roofing nail that I'd found in the yard the previous day (Great news, right?!) and we use it to hammer holes into the block. Getting it back out of the block takes a fight, and the holes aren't as deep as we'd like them to be, but we think we can make it work. Several blocks split as we try to hammer the holes through them. I find some wood glue and clamps to try to repair the split ones.

FINALLY we get holes in all of them, and I look around for the glue gun, to no avail. I find some spackle and decide it will work. It sort of did.

We assembled the wires and clips before we put them into the blocks, and the plan was to just twist the wire around the clip with some needlenose pliers....except Andy doesn't have any at the house. So we used regular pliers.

...You get the drift. It was a nightmare, and what should have taken us a couple hours to produce quality products, will now take a day and a half to produce shoddy work.

Such is my luck.

Beer Tasting/Pairing Party

10 December 2010  at 11:22

The Ranks

Friday we went to a coworker's house for a Beer Tasting & Pairing Party. I totally misunderstood how it was going to happen, but I had a great time anyway. I (and Andy) thought that the judging was going to be based not only off of the beer but off of your pairing choice.

The party started at 7, and Andy worked until 5:45, and we had to go home first, and it's a half-hour trek...I wasn't sure at all what kind of food I could make in 10 minutes. I finally came up with the idea to make soft pretzels out of refrigerated canned breadsticks, and alter the leftover Rotel cheese dip we had to make it go. I worked as fast as I could and we managed to make it to the party only like 20 minutes late, with 2 dozen warm soft pretzels and a 6-pack of Arcadia Nut Brown Ale.

Apparently the food and beer were totally separate things, so I could have just taken a bag of chips or some bakery cookies, but oh well! Now I can make fast, semi-convincing soft pretzels at least!

I made some new friends, because they had Order of the Engineer rings! I need to Facebook stalk them so we can hang out with them again - they live right near Debbie & Robert!

...Our beer placed right in the middle, if you were wondering.

Babies Everywhere!

08 December 2010  at 11:12

This > Flowers

Sara and Alicia both had their babies yesterday, and Melanie had hers Saturday, and Andy's cousin and his wife (Kaleb & Stephanie) had theirs today...there are apparently a lot of people getting it on in early March.

There is no aphrodisiac quite like green beer. As a Rolla student, I can say that for certain. And all of this concrete evidence only backs me up.

Instead of getting Sara flowers when we visited her, we got her this chocolate bouquet. THAT'll get rid of the post-partum acne!! (I don't even know if you get acne after you have a baby, I just made that up.)

Sooo....

Welcome:

Charlie Liam

Alexandra Ann

Jackson Dennis

:)

Budding Ad Execs

06 December 2010  at 11:07

Branding Geniuses

This is what Andy & I did while we ate lunch today. I'm not even sure how we started talking about it. Apparently though, we've invented a new laxative, called Turdlelax. The logo will be a turtle walking away from a pile of steaming poo, sporting a toothy grin.

FUUUUCKING COLD

05 December 2010  at 10:44

Beer + Sub-Freezing = :(

Okay so you really can't tell at all in this picture what's happening, so let me explain.

Jenny gave me some tickets to the Chiefs-Broncos game, and I happily took them. Turns out it was like 1 degree outside, and in my half-awake state of packing I didn't do a very good job of being prepared for the weather. Usually when I go to Chiefs games I'm the one person who has everything I need to kick the cold's ass. Not this time. Honestly I'm not sure even if I brought everything I ordinarily do I would have been warm.

This picture, my friend, is a frozen tap. All of the taps in the stadium were. No draft beer for this crowd. :(

On a positive note, bottled beer was the same price as bottom-shelf cocktails, so I had a bourbon & water and it helped warm me from the inside.

In Soviet Russia, Vodka Drink YOU.

04 December 2010  at 10:41


Or Poland. Whichever.

This vodka is $120, and if I had an extra $120 I would have taken this picture from my house instead of the liquor store.

The flask is a hand grenade....it does not get any better than that.

God Bless ‘Merikuh.

03 December 2010  at 10:40

Liberal Propaganda

I got this sticker from Turn Off Fox, and I love it. I wasn't sure where I wanted to put it - we're definitely not the stickers on cars types, and putting it at home wouldn't do any good - most of the people crossing our threshold are already bleeding heart liberals. I decided for now to hang it up in my cubicle at work, to maintain my reputation as a young (read: naive) hippie-type.

I'd like to have about a million and stick them at every high-traffic area I can think of, but alas I do not. Anybody who watches Fox News and believes it to be unbiased or wholly factual is on crack. You want to watch it, fine, just don't cite it to me or anybody else who is interested in legitimate news journalism.

Turn off Fox is a product of CREDO, an organization that fosters slacktivists such as myself. It's a site worth checking out, even if you just want to find out about some of the issues Congress is dealing with at any given time.

The Elusive Christmas House

02 December 2010  at 10:31


There is this house, probably just over a mile from mine, and they have SO many Christmas decorations in their yard! Ordinarily, I think it looks gaudy and tacky, but they've somehow taken the high road. Rather than inflatable snow globes, and life-size nativity scenes, they just have a lot of lights - light trees, light snowflakes, and just lights - in a wonderful variety of colors. It's not like any other yard decorating I've ever seen.

I've been trying to get a good picture of it for like 3 weeks, every time we pass it on Tuesday & Thursday evenings, and this is what they always look like. Much like my tree, this house apparently doesn't like to be photographed. Before Christmas, I will make Andy stop and I will use my real camera and I will try my damnedest to properly capture it. It's awesome.

Sexting FAIL

01 December 2010  at 09:57
Me: Too bad you're not here, we could sneak into the shower and do it.  ;)

Andy:  You're not getting me Star Trek Online are you?  I just found one marked down to $10.

Things I Love, Vol. Five. Annie Lennox.

29 November 2010  at 06:16
Ever since I was much younger, I've had an undying love for Ms. Annie Lennox.  Besides the fact that she is HUGE into charitable giving and extremely socially and politically aware, I admire the way she keeps to herself and is as private as a celebrity can be.  Her humility is inspiring, and I think most people should strive to be like her.  She is an amazing individual, and I haven't even said anything about how talented she is! I actually wrote several papers on her during my college career - my obsession with her might have bordered unhealthy for a while...

She went to school at the Royal Academy of Music and is a classically trained pianist and flautist.  Probably another reason I love her so is that she is a flute player - for some reason, even though I haven't played my flute in years, I always seem to be drawn toward people who play or played flute, even if I don't know they do/did!  Anyway, she joined band after band, most notably the Stocking Tops and The Tourists (first band with Dave Stewart) before she and Dave started Eurythmics and exploded into popularity.  She picked up a number of bizarre instruments, and constantly pushed the envelope with her androgynous haircut and clothing.

Something I find strange is that my favorite of her albums is probably Medusa, an album consisting solely of cover songs.  As someone who is typically morally opposed to covers, it's odd that when I discovered that album I completely fell in love, and it was what led me to really pursue all of her music.  I believe I have nearly everything she's ever recorded - one of my most prized possessions is a copy of The Tourists' Luminous Basement on vinyl.  Anyway if you aren't familiar with her work, you should definitely check out Medusa - covers of some really great and underappreciated songs.

I simply can't say enough wonderful things about Annie.  :)

Anyway...She's a Christmas baby, and so it seems appropriate that this year (~2 weeks ago) she has released a Christmas album, called A Christmas Cornucopia.  I want it.

Here is a video teaser:

Stitchin’ Bitch

28 November 2010  at 10:25

Progress!

I have been taking my cross stitching with me just about everywhere I go. Sitting on Dave's smoking patio while eating 75-cent tacos and drinking beer...I didn't think it could get any better until I started cross-stitching too!

I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy picking this back up or lose interest right away, but I've been doing well and I really am enjoying myself. Maybe I'll cross stitch song lyrics and frame them and sell them on etsy for outrageous amounts of money!

O Christmas Tree

27 November 2010  at 11:32


No matter how hard I try I can't get a good picture of the tree really....maybe it's because I'm using a cell phone, maybe it's because my tree is actually a ghost...who knows!

In any case, I tried to get this daylight shot of it. Now I just need a tree skirt! And some gifts to put underneath 'er!

Don We Now Our Gay Apparel

26 November 2010  at 09:34

Christmas vomited on the cubicles

I guess I can't complain, at least they waited until the day after Thanksgiving.

Stoned Recipe #1

23 November 2010  at 11:21

Stoned Soul Picnic

I made some chip dip out of ranch dressing and salsa and watched Family Guy all night. It was fucking sweet.

Pampered Chef, and a Bitchin’ Chair.

22 November 2010  at 11:11



Yesterday was the Pampered Chef party, and Sherrissa showed up with this chair that her daughter didn't like/want. It just so happens Andy & I had been using a dining room chair at the computer desk, so hooray! Now we've moved up in the world! Plus I love it! Although I may have to reupholster it one of these days...but I totally dig the form of the chair itself.

Now here's hoping that the party makes lots of money, and therefore I get lots of free/discounted shit!

Getting Couple-y...

  at 10:27
After spending much of my day yesterday looking for some sort of inspiration (I was feeling under-the-weather and particularly dumpy), I decided to write this blog about couples that either remind me of Andy & I in a way that makes me ultra-happy, or ones that I think we should aspire to be more like.  I'd like to tell you that they are in order, but my inability to make concrete decisions only gets me as far as the list - ordering it is just too much!

1.  Alex Ebert & Jade Castrinos



They are just too damn wonderful for me to even put into words.  Long long ago, I saw Imarobot in concert.  I thought Alex Ebert, the frontman, was incredibly sexy in this rebel-punk sort of way.  That's never been my type but there was just something about him!  How odd that 8 years later I would fall in love with Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros before ever realizing that Alex is the frontman!  Talk about a 180 - now he's this hippie 'peace and love' type and I love him even more!  BUT, being the creep I am, I probably love his girlfriend/muse Jade even more!  She is basically everything I wish I could be, and the 2 of them combined is sickeningly cute.

Andy's also fallen in like with Edward Sharpe & TMZ, and I know he also has a crush on Jade...perhaps even a man-crush on Alex, but that's only speculation.  :)

They write and sing about how simple love really is, and their mutual adoration is apparent at all times.

Anyway, some sources insist they're still together, but it seems they split up.  Even the ones that say they're no longer together, though, talk about the close relationship they've maintained and how much they mean to each other.  I read somewhere they "started off as best friends, it got romantic for a while, and then went back to being best friends".  While I'd definitely prefer to be the together version of the 2, I do hope that if something ever happens to mine & Andy's relationship that we would stay a large part of each others' lives.  The amount of respect I have toward him is tremendous and I'd hate for that to ever change, regardless of our romantic situation.

2.  Una LaMarche & Jeff Zorabedian


Una, aka The Sassy Curmudgeon, is my blog idol.  She shares my odd sense of humor, general distaste toward a large portion of society, and love of sweatpants and wine.  The idol portion comes along in that she's much better at expressing these things than I am.  I like to think it's because she's a few years older than me, or has taken classes in these sorts of things, but it's likely just that she's more clever than I (sigh.).  In any case, while I admire her writing skills and quirky points of view, one of my favorite things about her & her blog is the way she portrays the relationship between her & her husband.


She makes me realize that perhaps it's Andy & I that have a "normal" relationship, and not the characters in romantic comedies.  Either that, or I'm consoled by the fact that a couple whose dysfunction closely mirrors ours seems to be working out so well, even on the long term.  Either way...


I've also popped over to her husband Jeff's photography blog on several occasions (I think we all have), and was delighted at the way he spoke of his "Liz Lemon" ( :D ).  He also referred to her as his muse...funny....maybe I just want Andy to put me on a pedestal?  Meh, that's neither here nor there...


Because Una is a nutjob like me, and her husband seems to be the 'quiet at first, then ridiculous' type (as is Andy).... her blog gives me faith in the fact that 1) not all people are irritating, and b) ridiculousness can be attractive, and even a key component of a relationship.  I take solace in that.


3.  Carl & Ellie Fredricksen


If you've seen Up, you know that Carl & Ellie are basically the cutest cartoon couple EVAR.  As you watch them grow old together, over a span of 10 minutes, you can't help but fall in love with them.  When Andy & I watched the movie, I kept saying how I wanted to be like them.  THEN (SPOILER ALERT), Ellie dies!  I don't know if it was just the movie or the fact that I'd kept saying they were us, but Andy cried.  That was one of those moments that I knew how madly in love I am with him.  While I generally find men crying to be quite off-putting, I thought it was incredibly sweet.


Anyway, in spite of their sad ending, they start off as 2 hyperactive nerdy "explorer" kids, and they grow into adults who spend their time just enjoying each others' company.  Even now I'll occasionally say to Andy, "You're my Carl."  He is.  (He also didn't get the reference the last time I said it.  It definitely loses the effect if you have to explain it.  I guess I'll have to say it often enough that he remembers...old man!  :-p)


Saturdays!

20 November 2010  at 09:36

I came from that. Probably unsurprising.

...'Tis my ma.

On Saturdays, we have a loose tradition of going to Dave's Stagecoach Inn for 75-cent tacos. It's my favorite bar in Kansas City. It's cheap, the bartenders are awesome, they have a great little smoking patio, and the jukebox kicks total ass. Also, it's nearly impossible to go there without befriending at least a couple of the other patrons. It's like a Cheers, only with less of an Applebee's vibe, and more of a Grotto vibe (for you Rolla folk....for all other people, read: dive bar vibe).

My love for dive bars is limitless. If you know of any around KC I should check out, do share. I believe it's about time to start planning the 2011 Dive Bar Crawl.

(Oh...to relate the post to the picture, that's my Mom on the aforementioned smoking patio! We like to sit out there and play spades...I've also done some cross-stitch there...I've turned the smoking patio into an old folks' home...with booooooze!)

Gift Giving for Po' Folk

18 November 2010  at 08:09
This year I am more broke than I have ever been before. I fully intend to obsess over online sales, as well as scour eBay & craigslist for bargain gifts. I have ideas for everyone on my list and all of my ideas are out of my price range, so I'm just waiting patiently for good sales to come.

I have bought 2 gifts so far, both for Andy. In case he reads this (which he won't), I will not tell you about one of them. The other was inspired by this. I believe I was looking online for a good photo of Alex & Jade when I was pondering my couples-I-want-to-be entry when I stumbled across it. When I was MUCH younger I really enjoyed counted cross-stitch, and since Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros have become a "thing" for Andy & I, I decided I'd try my hand at it.

I printed off some 14 graph paper, and several hours later I had a pattern:



We popped in to the Hobby Lobby after my massage (fuuuuuck yes.) last night, and here's what I got:

$10: 50% reclaimed wood picture frame (8" x 10")

$2.76: 4 skeins of variant color embroidery floss (yellow-brown)

$2.99: navy blue aida, 14 ct, 12" x 16"

$1.49: #22 needles

Andy's delight upon opening the gift -- Priceless???

... Perhaps not, but I think for $15 it will be a pretty cool gift! I hope he likes it. My mom said it was lame, my sister says adorable. We'll see what Andy thinks! I'll keep you guys posted on my progress :)

WWJD?

17 November 2010  at 12:05


...Graffiti a bathroom stall?

Who's down with JHC?!

Things I Love, Vol. 4: Band of Horses

  at 10:11
I know that I'm long overdue for a post, and I have good intentions of catching up, but maybe not today...

I wrote a bit about Band of Horses after I saw them in concert about a month ago, but I chose to revisit them today because it is the release date for the video for "Dilly".  "Dilly" is my favorite song off of their latest album, Infinite Arms.  It's upbeat and it makes me in a good mood.  It's my "The General Specific" of this latest album.

The video, however, confuses me.  For the most part I think I like the video itself, but I am not understanding at all if/how it ties into the song.  It's an odd video... Watch it here.  Tell me your thoughts!

Don't Go Breakin' My Heart

14 November 2010  at 06:36

Daddy's Got a Gun

Sunday was spent shootin'. A group went bird hunting and didn't get anything, so we shot some targets and some clay rock. That is my dad, sighting in his rifle. If my parents had a front porch to speak of, he probably would have been cleaning it out there the first time Andy came over. That never happened, though, and now they shoot each others' guns (giggle) so I guess he's beyond playing the threatening role.

I shot a lot of guns, and Dad says almost for sure he'll give me a .22 rifle - hells yeah! I'm glad we brought him along to Deer Camp this year! Next year I'll make clay rock my bitch!

Porno for Pyros

13 November 2010  at 06:12
Okay, this post has nothing to do with porno, just pyro. What DOES that mean, anyway? Porno for Pyros - I'm imagining naked chicks with their hair on fire or something...maybe it's that just a picture of fire gets their motors revved up? I always take pictures of Andy (clothed) doing housework and call it Lady Porn...It doesn't have to be nude to be sexy...although nudity would definitely not hurt the level of sexy.

Huh.

Ya know, come to think of it, their one radio hit, "Pets", is pretty weird too. Although the older and more jaded I become, the more I completely agree with it. If you didn't know, the song is about how humanity is going to destroy itself, and then we'll make great pets for aliens or whatever race takes us over. Very Fantastic Planet.

(Apparently, he named the band after he saw a fireworks ad in a porno mag. Thanks, Wikipedia. Sometimes I wonder what I'd do without you. Another interesting tidbit - the directors of Little Miss Sunshine directed the "Pets" video.)

Okay, I got a bit sidetracked there. The whole time I watched that video I thought to myself, "Damn, I miss the 90's." Most specifically 90's alternative music - it will always hold a very special place in my heart.

After all that linky goodness, I'll get back to the original post I intended...Okay actually one more related sidenote - they are in the process of creating a Fantastic Planet remake, and I can't decide at all how I feel about it - do any of you have feelings either way??

Anyway...

the Saturday of Deer Camp was much like the Friday, and so I present another fire picture:

Deer Camp

12 November 2010  at 03:12

Fire Monster

So after Thursday's debacle, I got to leave even earlier for my vacation! Well, we left town at the same time, I just worked even less than I planned. Debbie talked me out of Thursday Zumba which made me sad, but we went and had dinner and visited, which was nice. Friday morning we left around 9 and headed down to "The Farm" (Andy's family's property in Central Missouri). We had a nice relaxing weekend.

The point of going down there that weekend was for Deer Camp, opening weekend of deer season. His family goes down there and some folks hunt, and the rest of us hang out around the barrel fire and play around outside and drink beer. It's a good ol' redneck time; I love it.

Dad came with us, and he went hunting. Unfortunately the only deer he saw was before he had sighted his rifle in. Nobody got anything, which sucked because a lot of neighboring properties did...we think it's because Andy's uncle decided to mow for 2 hours on Friday afternoon...

Anyway, Sunday we shot some targets and the boys shot some clay but I don't think I'm ready for clay rock yet... I am getting pretty kickass at ground targets, though! Whoop whoop!

(Oh, and Dad says he's got a .22 rifle he might give me - double hooray! I loves me a .22!)

All Hell Breaks Loose!

11 November 2010  at 03:02


The picture doesn't capture the way the day went. You can see the white umbrella in the far room if you look really closely....

Some contractors are working upstairs in our building to knock a wall down and double the size of our upstairs server room. In the process, a sprinkler line got broken...and chaos ensued.

Water started pouring through the ceiling downstairs. The IT manager ran upstairs in a frenzy when he'd heard the upstairs server room (mainly phone servers) sprinkler was broken. In the meantime, one of his employees heard water and opened the door to the downstairs server room, only to see water pouring down on top of all of the equipment that keeps our building functional. Plastic, umbrellas, and shop vacs came from all directions.

About that time, we hear that there are several inches of standing water in the locker room and it's still leaking into there as well. They emptied the sprinkler lines out at that time, but because of the pressure there was still a LOT that leaked. I walk through the ladies' room with a wet-dry vac to try to help with the locker room once the server room is under control, and there's water coming out of the light fixtures...not so good!

I then spent the afternoon in my socks squeegee-ing water toward the floor scrubber that someone else was running. The servers were basically all ruined. Our operations were down for the better part of 3 days.

What. a. disaster.

The Magic is Still Very Much Alive.

10 November 2010  at 10:24
Last night, Andy played & sang "Norwegian Wood" in the doorway as I scrubbed the toilet.

Aren't we so romantic?

Ain’t She Sweet

07 November 2010  at 01:44


Sunday I got to hang out with Audrey, which never happens, so that was nice. We went to Jack in the Box and got an obscene amount of food, and then played Carnival Games all day. Not much really exciting to share, so here is a picture of Yoshimi being cute.

What a wimp!

06 November 2010  at 12:07
Oh, how I wish I'd have taken pictures of the desk move.  On Saturday I got myself into a predicament not all that different from the lawn mower incident (Oh nostalgia - my very first blog entry!).  I'd inherited a refrigerator from my aunt earlier in the week, and went downstairs to spray it out & clean it.  I sprayed some spray in it, and decided to let it 'soak'.

In the meantime, I thought I'd move a desk upstairs.  It was given to me as a birthday gift in August, and I'd yet to move it upstairs to the spare room.  I ran up and moved the wing chair that lived in the hole I intended to move the desk into.  Back downstairs to move it.  I tried to lift and realized it was much heaver than I'd anticipated, but this would not deter me.

I pushed it over to the staircase.  Now I am not talking about a nice carpeted regular staircase - this is a cliche basement staircase: narrow, and STEEP (This would have been another useful thing to photograph).  I tried lifting the desk up and walking it up the stairs but that wasn't working.  The staircase was too steep to do it that way.

I decided that if I flipped it over it would be easier to slide the surface up the stairs.  I didn't want to mess the surface up, though, so I found some flannel shirts and buttoned them around it.  I started to slide it up and that wouldn't work.  I found my way around it and had a little bit more luck pulling it up.  The grade of the stairs was still an issue - it was making it HEAVY, not the easy task I'd envisioned.

After realizing that if I pulled the desk up high enough to go up another stair my legs were stuck, I had to do it sitting down.  Stair by painful stair I got it going up.  I had to lift my ass up each stair with my elbows and the wall, as it was the only way I could go anywhere without dropping the desk.  I got pretty near the top and my hands were all sweaty and I was about to lose the desk.  One more step.

Got it!  Now just one last burst of energy to pull the desk up to the landing!  ...except a drawer fell open and now I can't pull it past the bathroom floor/garage ceiling.  FFFFUUUU---

At this point, I don't have enough fight left in me to do anything but drop it.  I start to guide it down the stairs as slowly as possible when I realize it is going to take me with it.  Palms sweaty, I am frantically searching for an option other than watching the desk crash to the basement floor.  Finally I got it wedged in the staircase by shaking it until a drawer falls all the way open and catches on the railing.

I'm gasping for air, and when I stand up my legs and arms are weak.  I can't help but wonder how I've gotten myself into yet another one of these situations.  I go find some work gloves and some water and take a 20-minute breather.

Work gloves in hand, I take some painters' tape and tape the 2 drawers I can reach.  I'm still not sure how I'll get the third drawer closed (the one I opened to hold it up), but a restored sense of confidence has me tugging again...

I got it all figured out, and even finagled the last drawer shut.  I jerk with all my might and the desk pretty much doesn't want to fit through the oddly-narrow doorway of the stairs.  I forced it.  There was no other option.

So finally, I got the desk upstairs.  I got it where it needed to be and then proceeded to scrape all of the visible paint off of it (paint from the doorway).  Anyway, it looks great now - wish I had a picture of that to put here too!

Long story short, I didn't take a picture on Saturday.  Daaaammit.

The Window of My Soul

05 November 2010  at 11:55
...As it would turn out, looks much like a Powerbook screen.

[
Purr.

I don't remember if I told you or not, but a couple weeks ago I broke my Powerbook's LCD screen in a drunken rage...or something like that. It was a rough night: too much wine + too much estrogen = Sloppy drunk. That's Angie math right there, folks. Realistically, that's Woman Math, but I'm not sure if they'd all admit it.

Anyhow, after much searching on eBay, I found an entire lid assembly for $55 OBO. I offered $35, they countered $40, and the rest is history. Since I had the whole assembly I was very tempted to try to fix it myself, but I would be crushed if anything went wrong (I learned this after sinking into a deep depression upon the cracking of screen). I enlisted the help of one of our friendly IT guys, who will fix it on Monday. He doesn't know that yet, because he doesn't know the screen came today....but he will.

And then I'll be happy again.

Thursdays Are My Least Favorite

04 November 2010  at 11:41
I think they are the crappiest day of the week. I mean Monday & Tuesday are early enough that you aren't bothered by them, Wednesday you're fueled by the fact that it's the middle of the week, and Friday is Friday! So Thursday is the SUCK.

I had the serious 2:30 feeling, and so I kept asking random passersby if they had chocolate, which ended in this:



JACKPOT!

One of my coworkers had brought in her daughters' leftover Halloween candy, and apparently they don't much care for chocolate.

...Crazies.

I never used to be a choco-holic. As a matter of fact, I didn't used to like sweets at all. I can't decide if the 'What's wrong with me?' should be for Now Me or Me Who Didn't Like Sweets...

Jack in the Box, WUT!

03 November 2010  at 04:32
My momma got surgery today on her bladder. Apparently the women in my family have saggy bladders or something, which leads to the very real 'sneeze and pee' situation. So basically they put your bladder on a hammock & it chills.

I want a hammock. Not a bladder one, an actual hammock so I can lay outside in it ALL the time.

...Anyway, we stopped and visited her after work and hung out for a few hours.

Surprisingly I haven't mentioned this already, but on Monday the first Kansas City Jack in the Box opened. For those of you who don't know, I fuggin' LOVE me some J in the B tacos. With ranch. Ooooooo yeah!

When we left the hospital, we were starving and had $7 between us (By between us I mean Andy had $7 and I had none)...Andy started driving toward the Kansas side.

Me: "Are we going to Jack in the Box?"

Andy: "Mayyybe."

Me: "I'm crying."

My eyes seriously got watery. Not because of that but it was an awesome coincidence...or was it?

We got there quickly, and the drive-thru line was wrapped around the building, through an adjoining parking lot and almost out to the road. The inside line also went outside. It was absolutely nuts. I was hoping since it had been open for a couple days by then it wouldn't be quite so crazy. Cars couldn't park in the lot because on the off-chance they got into the parking lot they wouldn't have been able to get out due to the drive-thru cars.

We were in line for 1 hour & 20 minutes before we got our food. By then we were both ravenous...I'm not sure if it was SO good because of that, or because it was Jack in the Box from KANSAS CITY! I'd never had a Jumbo Jack before (I always get tacos & bacon cheddar wedges - picture of health), but I was coerced and it was a damn good $2 cheeseburger. We each had a Jumbo Jack & 2 tacos...it was heaven.


Dreams really DO come true!

America: Home of the Impatient and Ignorant

02 November 2010  at 10:59
Collective America seems to think it has accomplished something by completely halting progress in the legislative branch. I, as per usual it seems, disagree completely. I am not even radically liberal, but still too liberal for my own good it seems.

I wasn't able to vote, as I didn't realize until about a week before the election that I was still registered at my parents' address. The whole thing was quite distressing, but would clearly not have made a bit of difference anyway. With the exception of Jackson County & St. Louis County, Missourians painted the state red.

Andy was able to go & cancel out his father's votes, though:


Civic responsibility turned on its head

Me: "You put your sticker on upside down?"

Andy: "I did?"

He really didn't know. Sigh.

Moving along, here are the Missouri initiatives.

Missouri Earnings Tax Initiative


Prop A, popularly known as the 'Let Voters Decide' initiative. I wouldn't have a problem letting voters decide, but voters don't seem to understand anything beyond not wanting to pay taxes. This bill will put the earnings taxes currently in place in St. Louis & Kansas City on the ballot next year. Voters can repeal the levy, which would then phase out the taxes slowly, a tenth of a percent per year, over 10 years. It also prohibits the creation of an e-tax in other cities.

For 60 years, there have only been 2 cities in Missouri collecting this 1% tax. If you do not live or work in Kansas City or Saint Louis, it basically has not and almost certainly would not ever have an effect on you. It does however, potentially eliminate 40% of the cities' annual budgets. In a city that just was forced to close 30 schools due to budget cuts, that frightens me. I work AND live in Kansas City, and I would have voted NO. Not because I don't think we have the right to vote on it, because I have little faith that people will vote to keep it in place - and then what? Sales tax rates go up, property tax rates go up - it starts to affect everyone, and in larger ways. They'll get the money somehow; they have no choice, they need it.

Passed - 68.4%-31.6%


Missouri Dog Breeding Regulation Initiative


Prop B is an attempt to lessen 'puppy mills', which Missouri has more of than any other state. It's pretty straightforward and the guidelines set forth for the treatment of breeding dogs are not outrageous by any means. The one thing that I could even sort of see upsetting people is the 50 dogs breeding limit, but that's a huge number! Anyway, how this even became political is beyond my grasp - since when did the Bible thumpers not want to turn morals into laws?! When early polls were showing it losing 55-45, I was appalled.

Passed - 51.6%-48.4%


This means 934,000 Missourians just don't have hearts.

As for the candidates voted to office, I will have to save that for another day. I will close with this - If you think John Boehner has the average American in mind, or that he will be a better Speaker than Nancy Pelosi...you are a silly silly idiot.

Boot-Wearin’ Weather

01 November 2010  at 10:00
Since Halloween night was kind of a bust we decided to drink & be merry on Monday. It was too cold to do anything outside so we hid inside and drank vodka tonics. Audrey came over, and Andy was finally able to introduce her to the Cheez-It sandwich, which she of course loved.



This is a double, and it was quite delicious. Andy came up with this snack, I'm not sure when...it was before he & I ever met. Anyway you buy the hormel pepperoni log-looking things. You find them with the sliced pepperoni usually. Slice them up and put them between two Cheez-Its and voila!

They are DElicious. And addictive. Like white cheddar popcorn addictive.

All Hallow's Eve

31 October 2010  at 09:41
On Halloween, I spent most of the day cleaning my house. After Andy got off of work, we donned our costumes one last time to take his nieces out trick-or-treating.


My knight in shining armor!

It was fucking cold. I wore pants and boots under my costume and still after about 5 minutes of being outside my entire body was numb. We walked them up and down essentially 2.5 blocks before his older niece all of a sudden had a serious attitude.

She'd been whining the whole time we were out - her costume was too long, her bag was heavy & she didn't want to carry it, etc. but I guess about then she reached her breaking point. She refused to go to any other houses, and stomped along about a half block ahead of us. We went back to their house intending to drop her off & take her sister out some more but she decided she was done too.

Wimps. Like I told Andy, "Not to be one of those 'I walked uphill both ways to school' types, but I remember WAY colder Halloweens than this that I was out in until Mom made me go home!" Seriously. So we got home fairly early and I was hoping to watch a scary movie or something but Andy was asleep within a half hour or so.

Wimp.

Halloween, Part 1 – the Parties

30 October 2010  at 09:25
Saturday was both my boss's and Andy's boss's Halloween party day.

We went to mine first - it's a family-friendly one. There's beer, don't get me wrong, but there's also a lot of children. Their party was awesome because his wife goes ALL out. Every part of their house is done up in Halloween. She puts fake moustaches on photos on the wall, hangs pictures of their kids in Halloween costumes from years past (what a great idea to get photos done then!), and they have every little detail fall or Halloween themed.

After a couple of hours, we mosied down to Andy's boss's party. It's a good ol' fashioned drinkin' party. He and his girlfriend had also done a lot of decorating, and turned the garage into the "haunted house", which was both amusing and festive. It's more of a ridiculousness sort of event than the other. It involved a jack-o-lantern lit by a kerosene-soaked roll of toilet paper and a costume that consisted of tighty whities and a chicken mask....if that gives you an idea!


Fire in the hole!

And so it Begins.

29 October 2010  at 08:17
Halloween, that is.

Today was the office potluck. I ate so much buffalo chicken dip. Uggg, I don't even want to think about it now. I made triple-layer pumpkin spice pie, which has become my favorite easy fall dessert. Andy brought some cakes shaped like a blob and a dead rat. Besides that, there were some spooky treats and some not, but I ate a ton of all of it! I'm a tad worried I won't be able to get my costume on tomorrow!!!


Early stages of the goodie table

If anybody reads this, you should tell me all about your costumes this year!

I love Halloween!!!!! Happy Halloween weekend everyone!

Facebook - the new reality?

28 October 2010  at 11:36
Let me start by saying this: I am addicted to Facebook. My name is Angie, and I'm a Facebookaholic.

That said, there are still TONS of things that piss me off on Facebook, and I am going to take this time to tell you about it. Here are my guidelines to remaining my Facebook friend. Unfortunately, if you are family, you are exempt from these and I'm forced to accept your request by default...but that doesn't mean I won't put you on limited profile, beyotch!

Apps

  • If I don't already have your app, don't send me any notifications. I don't want a fucking bale of hay - I don't have a farm! If it's a game I have, fine. I always need parts for my lightning stove.

  • Don't send me any invites. If there is an app I decide I want, I will get it myself, thank you.


Photos

  • Don't take pictures of yourself on your cell phone everyday. There are a multitude of reasons for this one. For starters, I'm tired of looking at your shower curtain in the background. Also, you look the same as you did yesterday. If you get a new haircut, piercing, etc. the occasional one of these is acceptable. After that, get over your damn self.

  • When you DO take pictures of yourself, smile! Being completely straight-faced is NOT sexy, despite what you may believe. The token self-portrait pouty/fishlips face is just obnoxious. Say "cheese" if you have to. It's a tried-and-true method for eliciting picture smiles.

  • If you have a baby, post pictures of it for the world to see. Absolutely! Just not 200 pictures that were all taken within 15 minutes of each other.



My attempt at "That Girl" - I'm pleased to say I can't do ducklips.

Status Updates

  • Do not, under any circumstance, update your status to reflect any mundane daily activity. "So-and-so just put the kids down for a nap and is starting on the laundry now" is not an acceptable status. Nobody gives a fuck. Especially not enough to know on an hourly basis. "Just finished folding the clothes, guess it's time to start dinner." It's amazing you're getting anything done in between this play-by-play!

  • When posting song lyrics as your status, please subscribe to a 12-word limit.


Pages & Groups

  • When you receive an update from a page you've liked, do not... I repeat DO NOT comment 'First!' or anything of the sort. What the fuck is that about anyway?! You may as well say 'I have absolutely no life!'...it conveys the same message to me.

  • If you like a page or join a group, only suggest it to me if it's something I like. For instance if you join 'If 1,000,000 people join this group my soccer coach will shave his head', do not invite me. A) It's complete bullshit, and B) Why do I care if some Canadian high school soccer coach shaves his head? I don't. If you join 'If 1,000,000 join this group American conservatives will start researching their facts', I'm in.


General

  • If someone posts to your wall ' OMG is this you http://bit.ly/aodijacoaisjd' don't click the link! Fucking retard, you will get a virus and spam all of your friends.

  • There is no reason to add extra l's or y's to words. It simply makes no sense.

  • Adding extra words to your name makes you look like a dumbass. Examples of this would be: Angie SmellsSoSweet Lovins, Princezz Angie Dawn, Angela YoMama Lovins, or Angie TheSlickest Dawn. If it's a nickname that a majority of your friends call you, that's fine. If it's random words to demonstrate how highly you regard yourself, leave it out.


Hmm... that's all I can think of for the time being.

If you break any of these rules, I will unfriend you. Please know that because we're not friends on Facebook does not mean we aren't actually friends. It's because your Facebook presence annoys the shit out of me.

Nowadays, your relationships aren't 'official' until they've been posted on FB...If Facebook is going to become everyone's life, then they should behave on there the way they actually behave. If you wouldn't call me and ask me to support your cause 64 times in one day, don't send me 64 cause invitations; If you wouldn't send everyone in your contacts an email about your laundry stains, it probably shouldn't be your status.

357?

  at 10:47
Tuesday my phone was dead all day.  I thought I had my charger in my purse when I left for work, but it turned out I didn't.

Wednesday, I had my charger and left my phone at home.

Yes, I suck.  I can't remember for sure what number I was at, but I believe P357 is correct.

My sincerest apologies.

The Chicken Noodle Diaries

25 October 2010  at 10:12
Monday, Andy was sans 1 tooth, 1 freshly filled, and 1 root canal-ed. I decided I wanted to make him chicken soup the previous Friday when he first found out what all he was going to have done. After all, when I was sickly he made me some. Always the one-upper, I decided to make the noodles from scratch (Also, we didn't have any frozen ones.).

I actually made the noodles on Sunday whilst the clam chowder (CHOW-DA!) simmered.


Do the noodle dance!

I had low expectations for them, and luckily they exceeded them. And the leftover soup the next day was way better - like the noodles sponged up some of everything else by then.


Take that, soft food diet!

Anyway, it was pretty damn good. I'm getting much better at making things up. I've always been a decent cook, but have always relied heavily on recipes. I'm finally taking off the training wheels! Hopefully I don't fall on my face!

Adventures in Soupmaking, pt. I

24 October 2010  at 09:42
As I think I mentioned before, Andy has been having some dental issues the past couple weeks. In light of this, I decided to make some soups for us for dinner Sunday & Monday. Sunday I was going to make a corn chowder, and he insisted on adding clams so we had clam chowder.

[caption id="attachment_110" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Brothy goodness"][/caption]

I also was jonesing for grilled cheese, and he hadn't gotten his teeth pulled yet so he agreed to eating one too. When you haven't had it in a while, grilled cheese tends to be pretty much the best thing EVER.



I'd give it a solid 7 for presentation.

It was good, but a bit runny. I got hungry and gave up on letting it thicken any longer. Tune in tomorrow for chicken noodle!

Hermann Octoberfest!

23 October 2010  at 08:51
As I mentioned before, we went to Hermann this weekend for their annual Octoberfest. It's always a good time, and for some reason Hermann is always splendid in the fall - way more than it is here. It reminds me of the Family Guy episode where all the New Yorkers come to Quahog to see the leaves change. This weekend I was a leafer, haha.

So we spent a bit of time Saturday at Oakglen Winery, which is just beautiful. The band sucked, and we had to pay a $3 cover because of them... I still want my money back, but that is neither here nor there. This is the only winery around Hermann I had never been to, and it's up on a hilltop overlooking the Missouri River with a great view.



The wine was okay there. Overpriced for the norton we got, but that's what you get for being a picky dry red drinker in a state where the sweet grapes grow plentifully!

As Laurinda would say about most of their wines, "That would go great over ice cream!"

Only in the Finest Establishments

22 October 2010  at 08:36

The first-ever cordless remote

Perhaps I should start a new series, of Awesome 80's Technology in the 21st century....the name needs work, but you get the drift.

Do you remember last time I left town & stayed in a cabin, the sweet alarm clock? Well this time I left town and went to Hermann for Octoberfest. We rented the Mueller Haus. It had 5 bedrooms, and "The Dorm" - the basement where Jenny, Laurinda, & I stayed. It was awesome. That part I am being completely unsarcastic about - I loved it.

In The Dorm we had a Zenith TV that looked just like one that we had when I was growing up. Actually, it was frighteningly recently that my parents parted with it. It never had a remote that I know of. Certainly by the time I inherited it to play N64 on, there was no remote. However, I now know what it would look like if it did have one.

My favorite part of it was that it took a 9-volt battery. That thing better last forever!! I'm guessing the battery in it was the second one since 1977.