Two Things I've Noticed

They show two types of commericals on New Year's Eve:

Diet commericals
Dating commercials


Meaning the only people at home on New Year's Eve are either fat...single or both.

Bastards!

Top 5 On Friday

Top 5 musical things you wanted to get for Christmas but didn't

1. There were no iPods under my Christmas tree this year. (Sniffle) My old 30 GB Zen is getting a bit tattered and I wanted either a Touch or a Classic, but that just wasn't happening this year..AGAIN.


2. Elvis Costello: Apparently Diana Krall doesn't want to share him with me.

3. Concert tickets: I knew that wasn't happening...just as I know I'm not going to see my favorite band on April 2...because that's my dad's birthday. ~big selfish sigh~

4. Mika: I'm not sure why he wasn't in my stocking....He probably would have fit too! I must have words with Santa!

5. Justin Hayward and John Lodge..again..its the whole wife thing...DRAT~

Post Christmas Burnout

I was manic before the holiday. I was on a baking binge. I got stuff done. I was on Cloud 9.

Christmas came and went and was overall uneventful.

Now I feel very blegh.

Not depressed, because things went well as far as people staying healthy and no one arguing etc..but blech because I did all that work and the 24 hours came and went and I felt like it was all for nothing.

And ever since Christmas I can't shake the tired feeling I have. It is like all the work I did last week has caught up with me and now I'm spiraling downward.

That kind of sucks too.

I'm hoping that New Year's is a more stress free or at least relaxing holiday. I just want to eat appetizers and drink lots of good booze and then sleep.

What about you?

Good Riddance Day!

Good Riddance Day -- a day to say bye-bye to whatever it is that made you blue in 2011.

Where to begin?

I think the primary thing that made me blue in 2011 was my father's health. I wish I could say goodbye to his hospital visits and all the bills. His Procrit shots alone are $70 every other week unless his blood count is about 11.

Each ER visit is $50

Doctor visits, $10 and $20.

ARGH!

So I say good riddance to bad health! Let's hope Dad has a healthier 2012. I know it is a lot to ask for, but we can keep our fingers crossed.

Oh and FYI...extreme temps aren't good for his lungs..so we don't like temps in the 90s (I never did) and temps below 32 either. Plus with the age of our house..heating and cooling is damn expensive.

Waiting On The Storm

Parts of my area are under a winter storm advisory.

Two words for the weather: Boo Hiss!

Thankfully Washington County isn't under the advisory, but I'm figuring my car doors will be nicely frozen shut since it has been pouring down rain much of today, and it is supposed to dip down into the 20s tonight.

BLERGH!

The only good thing is, the cold is only supposed to last 24 hours. Thursday and Friday will be back in the 40s and that's just fine by me.

We don't want it to get too cold. I fear extreme temps with my dad's health the way it is.

So let's keep our fingers crossed for more unseasonably warm weather. Plus when the weather is crappy, I end up losing time at work, and I do that enough now with my dad and his doctor's appointments.

Things I Learned In 2011

~ I'm a really awesome baker. Come try my cookies!

~ I can cook for an army of 6 on holidays without going insane.

~ I actually enjoy cooking.

~ I'm strong in the face of fear.

~ I've learned the fear of almost losing someone

~ I've come to appreciate my faith again, something I never thought I'd do.

~ I learned TV and movies are seldom worth the time spent viewing them.

~ I've learned to hate doctors almost as much as I hate Republicans...erm politicians.

~ I've learned that I've reached that age where concerts just don't matter anymore

What I Did On Christmas 2011

~ Went to church where the organist decided to blow out our ears by playing our pipe organ REALLY  loud!

~ Made dinner.

~ Decided that no matter what I do...I always get screwed on Christmas....not in a good way.

~ Determined the cause for most of my grief is the wisdom teeth that have decided to bug me for the first time in 3 years.

~ Watched The Tudors...and said...Wow, that's a whole lot of naked!

~ Watched Doctor Who...and fell asleep through it..cos lordy that wasn't Moffat at his best.

So yeah, that's my Christmas! How was yours?

Merry Christmas Eve!

What a wonderful evening. I made dinner and many of the cookies for dessert. I even did some of the dishes.
All went very well.

Oh and no one is in the hospital or sick.

Truly it was a great Christmas Eve.

Here's hoping that Christmas Day goes just as well.

I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday as well!

Top 5 On Friday

Top 5 ways music plays a part in your holiday celebrations


1. It creates a lovely setting in the house before company arrives.

2. It annoys the hell out of me at church, because no matter how much practice our choir has, or how many people come in to play fancy instruments (oh yeah, there was a violinist last week) you can't make a bunch of old ladies that think they are still sopranos sound good. (Let the men sing...cos they can..PLEASE)

3. Its what I give instead of cards. If you haven't downloaded this year's mix...check the tags and grab my 2011 CD card to all of you.

4. It brightens my mood when making holiday treats.

5. Certain songs bring back memories of past Christmases.

To sum things up, holiday music in particular plays a huge part in our celebrations. What about yours?

Tonight's Cookie: Russian Tea Cookies

Please ignore the fubarred table cloth. I wasn't changing it tonight because the cats would do their best to shred it before our guests arrive.

Here's the recipe from Betty Crocker for this super simple, super tasty cookie.

Ingredients

1cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2cup powdered sugar
1teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
3/4 cup finely chopped nuts
1/4 teaspoon salt
Powdered sugar

1 Heat oven to 400ºF.

2 Mix butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and the vanilla in large bowl. Stir in flour, nuts and salt until dough holds together.

3 Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

4 Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until set but not brown. Remove from cookie sheet. Cool slightly on wire rack.

5 Roll warm cookies in powdered sugar; cool on wire rack. Roll in powdered sugar again.

It's Been A Day

I spent about 3 hours in the ER this morning with my father.

Not with the usual COPD related issues, but with a common nosebleed.

OK, there was nothing common about his nosebleed. It was like Niagara Falls coming out of both nostrils. Yeah, that's the kind of morning I was having. I had to call 911 over a nosebleed, and then pay $50.00 to have him see an ER doctor.

ARGH!

Then he had to go back to the hospital, because today was his appointment with the hematologist for blood work and his Procrit shot.

What a crazy day it has been.

All of this started at 6:30 this morning. I'm so tired right now, I can hardly keep my eyes open.

Randomosity

~ I found my very first Christmas mix CD yesterday. I made it in 2003. I can't believe I've made them for people for 8 years! Yikes.

~ Made the kolachy cookies..or most of them. There are now about 4.5 dozen in the house filled with raspberry, apricot or nutella filling.

~ I'm going through a lot of my reading challenges for the year from my book blog. I did well on several and on others I failed miserably.

~ Tomorrow is dad's appointment with the hematologist. That's always fun, but his doctor (who he doesn't usually see on these visits) is very nice and so is the rest of the staff.

~ All of my Christmas shopping is done. Yee ha!

~ My cat, Skimble only likes to play in the Christmas tree when I'm around to yell at him. Apparently he likes the attentiion.

~ Cutest pic of Sugarplum ever

It's Beginning To Smell A Lot Like Christmas!

Tonight I made the dough for the kolachy cookies. My house is filled with that wonderful smell of yeast. Mmmmm.

Tomorrow, I'll roll the cookies and bake.

Wednesday, I'll make the coconut cookies.

Thursday I'll do the cream cheese dough cookies and make some Pochettes and the Apricot Hanukkah cookies. Hey! Any cookie is good! I don't care what holiday it is.

Friday night is the night for the butterscotch haystack cookies.

Can you just feel your hips expanding? I know I can feel mine!

I absolutely love the smell of cookies baking. The kolachy cookies are my favorite because they use cake yeast. I know it is absolutely crazy but the smell of the yeast is so comforting. It makes me feel like all is well in the world, or at least in my kitchen.

Sweet Niblets!

Yes, I've watched too much Hannah Montana!

But no matter what...there's only a week til Christmas and nothing is going as planned.

I have so much to do...and so little time to do it. I did get cards done...and the mix cds. Trees are up and presents bought. So there's that, but it is the baking that I enjoy that isn't getting there, because I'm just so damn tired. I just can't get anything done.

Well, except staring at a computer screen. I can do that pretty well.

I guess I just have a case of the holiday lazies, which I'll have to get over or there won't be any holiday worth mentioning.

A little FYI...all I want for Christmas is a few hours of reading time, uninterrupted please!

Mmm Biscoti!

Here's a little sumthin' sumthin' that I made tonight! Sour Cream Biscotti! I found the recipe on the Taste Of Home website.

Ingredients


1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

1-1/2 teaspoons almond or Spice Islands® pure vanilla extract

3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

In a bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in sour cream and extract. Combine dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture.

Line two baking sheets with foil; grease the foil. Divide dough into thirds. On a floured surface, shape dough into three 8-in. x 2-1/2-in. x 3/4-in. loaves; place on foil. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven. Lift loaves with foil onto a wire rack; cool for 15 minutes.

Place on a cutting board; using a serrated knife, slice diagonally 3/4 in. thick. Place slices, cut side down, on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes or until golden. Turn cookies over; bake 10 minutes longer. Cool on wire racks. Store in an airtight container. Yield: about 2-1/2 dozen.

Top 5 On Friday

Top 5 musical highlights of 2011

1. James Taylor & Zac Brown Band @ the ACM awards



2. Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert's wedding. (Another hot country power couple!)

3.  Elvis Costello touring with the Spinning Songbook again (even though I didn't get to see him)

4. Duran Duran's Girl Panic video..which is super ridiculous and so totally them!



5. New music from Erasure, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert and Dolly Parton!

My Bloo Pod Of Christmas Music

I have filled my little iPod shuffle with so much Christmas music it is ridiculous. Now if only I could have some place to go so that I could listen to it.

I put as many of my old Christmas mixes and winter mixes on Bloo as possible.

I really need to feel as festive as possible.

Why?

Nothing is going right.

I can't get anything done and I'm super frustrated. I wasted a whole evening because I totally fell asleep after supper tonight and didn't wake up until 10:30!

I had so many plans for tonight..that included laundry and updating the pod some more and my Nook. I guess I'm going to be scrambling in the morning as usual.

ARGH!

I think when I go to bed, I'll put my Bloo pod of Christmas music on.....maybe I'll have festive dreams...

An Episode of Argh

Can't fry Rosette cookies around my dad.

That's all I have to say..

Off to the ER...

ARGH!

A Winter's Rant

For as advanced as we are in some things...I marvel at how lagging we are in others.

It is freaking cold outside.

My car's windshields front and back are totally frosted.

I turn on the defrost.

10 minutes later..the rear window is clear...the front, which is really the most important of the two...Still frozen.

WTF!

So Detroit...why can't you come up with something that will allow the front windshield to defrost quickly? There has to be a way. You can turn cars into big ole computers that will do everything but drive themselves to the destination of choice, but you can't unfreeze a windshield in 10 minutes?

C'mon boys..You can do it! I have faith!

Christmas Mix 2011

Here's the Christmas Mix for 2011. Sadly when it ripped it ripped to m4a and I haven't had the time to convert back :( So I hope this works for you.

Download

October Project - Angels We Have Heard On High
Nick Bukuvalas - Give Me All Your Love
Matt Wentz - Christmas Just Ain't Christmas
Matthew West - Come On Christmas
Carole King - Do You Hear What I Hear
Dolly Parton - We Three Kings
Michael Buble - All I Want For Christmas Is You
Neil Diamond - Little Drummer Boy
Andrea Bocelli - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
Keri Noble - Giving You My Love
Celtic Thunder - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day
Chris Isaak - Brightest Star
Straight No Chaser - Little Saint Nick
Cast In Bronze - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Gary Puckett - Medley: Away In A Manager/The First Noel
Nicole Kehl - Christmas Crush
Over The Rhine - North Pole Man (demo)
Jeff Meegan - What Child Is This
Carrie Underwood - Hark The Herald Angels Sing
Julieanne Hough - It Wasn't His Child/Mary Did You Know



Please comment if you take the mix.

The Christmas Mix From Hell

I'm pretty sure this year's Christmas Mix CD is cursed.

First: My printer started printing a pretty rainbow through the middle of the image I picked for the cover.
Then I bought a new color cartridge, because after troubleshooting, that's what was supposed to fix it.

I put an emphasis on the word, supposed.

ARGH!

But wait, my tale of woe isn't finished yet.

I get the CDs burned..and every flipping time I print I notice an error in a song title.

I had to print the tracklisting sheet 4 times before I got one that was totally correct. For some reason, Nero likes to cut off the song titles when it transfers over to the labeling program.

ARGH!

But at long last the 2011 mix is complete. I'm not mailing out many, but for those of you, like Bilbo who enjoy them, I will be posting this year's mix in the next day or so.

Amazing

Thanks to two little bags of change that I kept adding to, I have a  little over 100 dollars to spend @ Amazon.com.

Yay for Coinstar!

Yay I can buy my nephews and my BFF Christmas presents this year.

Up until the moment I realized that I had that little nest egg, I didn't think there was going to be much in the way of Christmas presents coming from me.

So can I get a woot for unexpected cash?

I think I deserve one!

Top 5 On Friday

Top 5 albums of 2011

Things That Make You Go Hmm

How the hell does Sandusky get bail?

If I were the judge I'd do everything in my power to see that a-hole sit in jail and get his butt kicked and anything else the inmates can come up with.

I know its supposed to be innocent until proven guilty..but this guy is so vile, he makes my flesh crawl. The fact that Penn State covered it all up for so long makes the Catholic church look good.

The whole scandal makes me sick to my stomach.

Grrrr

Randomosity

~ The Moody Blues are coming to Pittsburgh on April 2, which happens to be my dad's 86th birthday and a Monday night. Guess I won't be going. I haven't been to a concert in a year now. That makes me very sad.

~ Dad didn't need the Procrit shot! Woo hoo! His blood count was 11.0, which for him is really good! However at the heart doc, I saw his report from his hospital stays and I don't feel very good at all. In fact, I feel a bit scared.

~ It was cold, wet and then snowy today. That sucks to infinity and beyond. Have I mentioned I have a deep seeded hatred of all things related to winter.

~ I got nothing else done today other than driving my dad to and from his appointments. It is leaving me very frustrated.

~ The Penn State scandal is getting scarier and scarier. How did this man not get arrested before this year? and seriously, bail? I don't think so!

~ 8 year old boy 1, Michelle Bachman 0

The New Stove Cometh!

I got the call this afternoon that the new range will be delivered sometime tomorrow afternoon. The old range is 60 years old. It was the only oven my parents ever had. It is a white Tappan.

They don't make em like that anymore!

It was the most awesome stove. It had 2 electrical outlets on the backsplash and a light! It also had two side drawers for storage!

It looks similar to this one only our oven door has no window. It is a shame that there is no one that can work on the stove, it could be restored, but with dad's health so bad, and there not being a rent-a-man store around, it will just have to go.

~big sigh~

She will definitely be missed

New Stove

What better way to spend $650?

Buying a new stove.

So when they see some economic growth for the month of December...you will know why.

ARGH!

I could think of many things I'd rather have spent that money on...

Another Round Of Bad Luck

Our stove died this morning.

Yipee!

I spent an hour at Lowes only to discover they won't hook up the damn thing if I bought it there. WTF is up with that. It is a freaking gas range. If I buy one..and you deliver and haul away the old one, why can't you hook up the new one so that I know it works?

Asshats.

They will not be getting my business. I'll be going to Highway Appliance. I may pay more at the local store, but I'll know the damn thing will be installed and functioning and that my house won't blow up when I turn the oven on for the first time.

I guess I'll be using the crockpot for the next few days until we can sort this mess out.

Oh and if anyone knows where the money fairy is hiding, send her our way, because I don't know where we're getting the money for a range.

Another Saturday Night

~ cue Jimmy Buffett

I'm working on some cleaning projects, as always. I have the second Christmas tree up. It is a little 6 ft white tree with blue lights. We couldn't put the big tree up this year, simply because of the fear that we'd need the EMS people to come through.

~sigh~

That tree rivaled Father Jerry's super duper gorgeous creation. (Yeah...I'm still hung up on that tree! It freaking spins!!!!!!!!!)


I bought a beautiful (and cheap) dress for Christmas at Fashion Bug. Thanks to Fashion Bug cash I saved $20.00. I'm going to look like a present! It is a red wrap dress and I got a festive necklace and earring set. Woo hoo!

So all in all, not a bad day....it just feels like I've done nothing. However that isn't very different from any other day.

I guess what gets done, gets done.  I only have 2 hands.....

Top 5 On Friday

Top 5 songs of 2011

Oddly my 5 are all country pop. How weird is that? Even the new Erasure didn't impress me much.

1. Jake Owen - Barefoot Blue Jean Night
2. Lady Antebellum - We Owned The Night
3. Miranda Lambert - Baggage Claim
4. Kristin Chenoweth - I Want Somebody (Bitch About)
5. Thompson Square - Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not

Computer Issues

Ever have one of those days where you have every intention of posting something but then nothing goes right?

Yeah, that's me.

I've got Vista running on my puter but for some reason it can't and won't run updates ...and on top of it all I ended up with some nasty malware last night that took about 3 hours to find and get rid of.

ARGH!

I really wish I could upgrade my operating system, but if I'm going to do that I might as well invest in a new computer.

I do know one thing, if I do that...I will not buy a desktop ever again.