Easter Eve Shopping Trip

... plus Blue with Easter Bunny Ears!

Labels: Blue, holidays, make-up, shopping

posted by Miss Rachel 3/22/2008 10:47:00 PM

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You know, I just don't have enough in my sidebar so now I've gone and added voice comments. I would love if you would leave me one. You have to create an account on Snapvine, but it's pretty easy (I mean, I did it) and it's free. And if you don't, you may still hear my happy little greeting here on the page. Do I sound like you thought I would? When I hear my voice, I always think it sounds much more... I don't know... nasally (?) than it does if you're inside my head. It sounds much lower and smarter inside my head. Anyway, I'd love to hear from you.

Did everyone have a nice Christmas? I totally did. I went on this cleaning bonanza the weekend before, finishing it off the morning of the 24th. I also had to go and get another present for my mom that day too, but other than that there was no exceptional stress. I didn't bake or cook anything and I didn't send Christmas cards this year. I decided that doing those things would only add to the holiday by making me crazier instead of making me more joyous.

My mom and sister came down on the 24th, but they went directly to Andrea's friend's house (where they were having dinner) without stopping here first so Sweetie and I didn't see them until we got home from the dinner we had at his sister's house. At his sister's house, there was her and her husband and their two kids, his other sister and her husband and their two kids, plus Sweetie's parents and the two of us. One of his sister's kids is getting to be just the age I love - 7 years old. And she and I were exchanging glances and smiling at each other about some of the crazy things one of the little ones was saying. Cute.

I got to spend some quality time with my mom and Andrea later that night and we were together all day on Christmas. (By the way Mom and Andrea said, "Who cleaned the house? It's immaculate!") Our Christmas day dinner included me, Sweetie, my mom, my sister and Sweetie's parent at an Asian fusion restaurant. There were some issues with the food there - cold plates and some of the dishes not quite hot enough. Sweetie and I go to this restaurant a lot for take out, and it seems better at serving that than serving in house, especially for people like my mom and Sweetie's parents who like their food HOT. But it was still a good time because we always have fun talking and telling stories with Sweetie's parents.

After we got back from dinner, I called GG (my friend from work) to wish him a merry Christmas. He answered the phone "Upsot?!" a reference to Barbra Streisand's version of Jingle Bells that we joke about, when he saw it was me calling. Then we chatted a bit about what we had been doing. I was glad I made an effort to call him because he sounded really happy to hear from me. I'm glad we're friends.

Well, as you can see what I really like about holidays is time with loved ones. I hope everyone else in Blog Land had a nice time too.

Labels: blogging, family, friends, holidays

posted by Miss Rachel 12/30/2007 08:20:00 PM

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I just tried to take some pictures of my Christmas tree, but none of them showed what it really looks like so I'm not going to post them. I have decided to just leave it with lights and no other ornaments. I put the star, which lights up, on it today. It really looks nice. And Sweetie has put some presents under it. I wonder who that little white box with the Apple logo on it is for? Hmm...

I went to my in-laws' to do laundry today. I washed two loads. While the second one was in the washer I put the first one in the dryer (naturally) but my MIL warned me it didn't work well. We're quite a pair - my washer doesn't work and her dryer doesn't work. I ended up drying the laundry at home. And when I came home, Sweetie was vacuuming - what a great guy.

I went to Walgreen's and picked up the print of the kitty photograph for my sister. It looks great, I think, even though the "photo computer" warned me yesterday that it was too small and might come out pixelated. I got a frame for it too. I also got another marshmallow Santa for my mom (I already bought her one yesterday). She loves marshmallow, but it's hard to get in regular candies so I usually try to get some for her at holiday times. Then, I saw they had the full size Ghiradelli peppermint bark candy bars - !!! Now don't get me wrong. The little squares are good, but they are thin and the full size bar is thicker and the thickness makes it taste SO much better. Peppermint bark is a limited edition so I bought four (!) bars, and put three in the fridge.

Did anyone notice my new pet? I finally got a pet rabbit! At least a virtual one. See her over there in the sidebar? That's Flopsy. Speaking of rabbits, I am still adoring Rabbit Bites and if you subscribe to them in You Tube you can see even more videos than you can at their site or Video Dog. I have not been watching my usual Christmas movies so far this year. I guess I'm just enjoying hanging out on the couch with my Macbook and watching You Tube videos.

Labels: busy life, holidays, rabbits, watching

posted by Miss Rachel 12/23/2007 05:42:00 PM

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Christmas Eve Eve

Gosh, I didn't mean to sound like such a complainer yesterday, but I guess I did. I put the lights on the tree yesterday afternoon. That's right: I did get a Christmas tree! On the way home on Thursday night, I went to the same place I went last year (by the train trestle) and picked out a tree in minutes. It's a very full tree, and it kind of takes up a lot of space. I'm thinking of just putting the star on it, and calling it done. It looks really pretty with only lights.

Labels: holidays

posted by Miss Rachel 12/23/2007 10:21:00 AM

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I went out today to try to get some things done. The main thing was to take care of the graves (my dad's and my maternal grandparents') for my mom. She wanted me to get Christmas arrangements or cemetery logs for each of them. Then I also wanted to get this photo printed and framed as extra gift for my sister "from Woody." I wanted to do laundry as well. Unfortunately, doing laundry involves going out because our washing machine is broken. What an inconvenience. I wasn't planning to go to any laundromat, but to my in-laws' but still, what an inconvenience. I mean, I like putting in a load of wash and then going and doing stuff around the house. And that's hard when you're not at your house.

So anyway, I headed to Plainville with laundry in the trunk and the photograph on a CD in my bag. They only had one Christmas arrangement at Gnazzo's, the local market, so I decided to head over to this place where I've gotten plants in the past, called Sunflower Farm, only to find they're out of business -! Not just closed, but out of business. Oy, so I drove aimlessly through town and then pulled onto a side street and called my mom. She was actually I surprised that I was trying to do the graves (because of the snow she said), but I had promised her so there I was. I told her about my dilemma and she suggested since I was already in Plainville I might as well try to go ahead with it, and suggested I see if they had cemetery arrangements at Big Y.

So off I went, only to find a huge line of traffic backed way up, far from where the Big Y is. There's a whole shopping "area" there now (with lots of big box stores) so I guess that everybody and their brother (as Nana used to say) was out shopping there and causing a veritable traffic jam. I was already reaching my frustration threshold and knew that inching along for forever to get store that might not even have what I needed could put me over the edge.

So I pulled off onto a side street, headed to a "fancy" store in (fancy) Farmington and found cemetery logs for $19.99. Yikes. I called my mother again and she told me that was too expensive, thanks for trying and go home. I briefly looked into a cheap hair salon there to see if I could get my ends lopped, but there were 4 people already waiting so I bagged the idea and headed home listening to a A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector. I did stop at Walgreen's to make the print of the photo, but it wasn't going to be ready right away so I went home (maybe Sweetie can do the laundry tomorrow).

Labels: busy life, family, holidays

posted by Miss Rachel 12/22/2007 08:26:00 PM

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Agh - I thought I would feel really relaxed once school was over, but between the winter storms and work and other chaos, I still haven't gotten a Christmas tree or finished my Christmas shopping / chores, and I'm feeling kind of tense about it all. It looks very Chritmasy with all the snow here though. And yesterday I got a Christmas postcard from the fabulously anti-linear Laura. Thanks Girl!

Labels: holidays

posted by Miss Rachel 12/19/2007 08:17:00 AM

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As you may have guessed, I've been working a lot my Skype tutorial which is due this Saturday. I even took off yesterday (Tuesday) to work on it, and I'm also taking off Friday. I've typed up a good chunk of it, Tonight with my teacher's help, I finally figured out the chat function. I think it will work out all right.

Then I have another project which is called a memo, but is really more of a proposal. We have to write a memo convincing (an imaginary) library to adopt some sort of technology. I didn't have a topic for that so I asked my teacher what he thought and he suggested offering Skype at the library. I'm not sure I'll be able to get five pages out of that, but I'll try. There is some controversy around Skype so I'm sure I can dig some of that up to make it interesting.

I can't believe I haven't even posted about Thanksgiving. Me who loves holidays! The meal was completely vegan and Sweetie did most of it:we got the Tofurky kit, but he roasted the Tofurky in the this yummy caramelized onion and sour cherry relish type stuff that he made. He also made Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish, which is getting to be his annual tradition. I cooked up some green beans (fresh) and mashed pumpkin (from a can), and I also made an apple crumble pie (completely from scratch of course). His mom brought a fruit salad and an orzo pilaf of sorts.

It was just Sweetie and I and his parents. After we ate, I brought out some old photographs I have from my mom's side of the family and everyone seemed to enjoy poring over those with me. The ones from my grandmother's wedding in 1926 are always quite the hit. She was beautiful. I also got to hear some stories about my mother-in-law's family that I had never heard before. Fascinating stuff. I love family history. I am really blessed to have such nice in-laws. My mother-in-law even called later Thanksgiving weekend to say what a nice time they had had.

Labels: family, food, holidays, school

posted by Miss Rachel 11/28/2007 09:36:00 PM

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