Archive for February, 2007

A little nanny-story for you;
Yesterday I was paying bills online when the boys came home. Loren (the snoop), saw my wallet and picked it up. Now my wallet is black with a jeweled “M” on it. Loren says, “OOO what is this?” I say, “that is my wallet.” Loren: “Did you BEDAZZLE it??” me: “no, it came like that.” Loren: “Are these REAL jewels?” me: “No I don’t think so.”
I thought that was funny, since I always joke about getting a bedazzler. Oh kids.

LOVE!

Tweet this!

In 23 hours my friend Kelly will be landing! I’m so excited. Cecilia and I have planned out some exciting things, it’s gonna be a grand time, believe you me.
In a little more than 58 hours we’re going to see Dave Barnes performing. This is gonna be great! Then Saturday we’re off to sightsee in DC. We will probably get a late start due to the late night we had the night before, but that’s okay! I think the National Cathedral and National Building Museum (it sounds boring but it looks cool, and apparently it’s a “must-see” in DC, so stop thinking those mean thoughts about it) and perchance some ice-skating. I’m thinking our sightseeing ventures are on a schedule, we go every 3 weeks, because it takes us that long to recover, especially when it’s cold out! I just hope it doesn’t rain because that makes it doubly-miserable. Not that it’s miserable…well okay when you are outside walking 50 blocks to the next destination, it is miserable. Luckily I bought myself some longjohns or “underwonders” as my dear cousin Ashley calls them, so I’m gonna be WARM! Now if I could just finish those mittens, my hands would be warm too. Speaking of the mittens, I totally unraveled both of them and started again. This is partly due to my perfectionism but also it’s actually easier to start over than to halfway unravel and have to get the loops back on the needle. I showed them though, because I left them for two whole days out of spite! I’m thinking now that I know how to do it right (I just didn’t do it right) that THIS will be it. Plus I’ve got another project in mind, so I need to move onto that.
I really want a Cinnamon Dolce Latte…I’ve got it bad.

LOVE!

Tweet this!

Well color me happy, you would not believe how productive I’ve been today and it’s only 11 AM! First of all, let me say that I most likely got 5 hours of sleep last night. I woke up this morning to see what the school status was. They called a 2-hour delay, so I went back to bed. Unfortunately my body knows that I’m usually up between 7 and 8 and therefore I can never get back to sleep! Even when I convince my brain to nod off again, my stomach is growling from not being fed at the usual time. Somehow I think I managed maybe half an hour more of sleep. I made “homemade” (from a mix) waffles for Loren for breakfast, so he could eat ONE waffle. Luckily I cut the recipe in half, so I only had 2.5 leftover. I only like to eat my Kashi for breakfast, and Alex didn’t want any (which might be due to the fact that he was asleep on the couch). It’s SO hard not to eat something when it looks so good and you know it will probably be thrown out anyway. But I stuck to my guns, a cup of Kashi and a cup of Naked Blue Machine were all that passed my lips this morning. I eventually got Alex to take the half waffle with him to the bus stop, so he wouldn’t merely have had a Pepsi for breakfast (which was NOT my doing, his friend bought him one to take to the bus stop and I figured it’s sort of a special day with the late start, and since caffeine has the opposite affect on him, oh well). Then I decide I should just go ahead and make dinner, which is lasagna, so that I can use the rest of the 2 POUND container of Ricotta that my boss bought (seriously 2 pounds?) Plus I happen to know you can put lasagna in the fridge until you are ready to cook it, which I find to be very useful. It’s too much work to make the lasagna, then cook it, while trying to make side dishes as well all at dinner time (which happens to be when Loren needs assistance on his homework too). So I made lasagna while Alex slept on the couch and Loren threw snowballs at the kitchen windows. Loren also made a snowman, at my suggestion, so admist all this I ran outside (in my jammies) to take a picture of him with his foot-tall snowman with the digital, whose batteries were dead. I came back inside to charge the digital and finish the lasagna, only to find myself short of some shredded mozzarella. Loren came in and shredded some mozzarella from some sandwich-sliced mozzarella (necessity is the mother of invention!) to add to my lasagna. Somewhere in here, add to this, that the dog came inside with very muddy paws and walked all over the kitchen. Alex finally awoke (albeit to my yelling at him to give his dog a bath), took the dog, while I cleaned the floor. Also add to this that I did my dishes as I went. Alex went off to school, I took the anticipated picture of Loren, Koda and the snowman and finally finished the lasagna. I’m pooped and it is not even 11:30. Although I have showered and brushed my teeth too.

Whew.

LOVE!

Tweet this!

Caffeine withdrawal + drinking maybe a little too much water = headaches Otherwise the kick-the-bad-habits program is going well. Only a little over 40 more days to go! Cecilia and I are planning a pretty great Easter celebration including chocolate, some DPs and cupcakes, mmmm.
I haven’t even touched the mittens today, they make me sick. I actually threw them while in a fit last night. I’ve spent more time FIXING the mittens than actually knitting them.

LOVE!

Tweet this!

Panera tricked me into eating a WHOLE bowl of clam chowder yesterday. I ORDERED chicken noodle. I hold Panera responsible for the extra calories and my upset stomach throughout the rest of the day. I’m starting to think that the world is conspiring to get me to eat seafood and/or fish. I’m onto you, world, oh yes I am.
In other news, CECILIA F. RIESTER got a job with Perot Systems! YAY! Praise the Lord, it’s SO exciting.
Next week is going to be so crazy. My dear friend, Kelly, is flying in on Thursday, Friday is the Dave Barnes concert and I imagine the rest of the weekend will consist of lots of sight-seeing and bonding.
For those of you who don’t know, I’ve decided to retake the MCAT. I’m going to start preparing with all the daytime free hours I find myself having.
Last night, Cecilia and I ventured here because they had a discount studio fee if you wore your pjs, which we most definitely did. We want to go again, but we’ll have to wait until another discount night. We also got there a mere hour before closing so it was a marathon to finish our pieces of art! I’m so excited about them though!

mitten status; one mitten is fully knitted but needs to be sewn together. It seems to be rather long. I’ve started knitting the second mitten. We shall see if they are worth all the trouble.

LOVE!

Tweet this!

I’m gonna try to break some habits, starting tomorrow, the beginning of Lent. It may be cliche, but I need a swift kick in
the butt to get working on some things. Supposedly it only takes 3 weeks to break a bad habit. I have a feeling there will be much knitting in these next 3 weeks. Speaking of which, after restarting the mitten project about 10 times (I exaggerate not), I finally got it down and got my rhythm back, praise the Lord. I was getting extremely frustrated. It’s not fun to have sore hands and fingers, for which all you have to show is unraveled yarn.
I can’t upload the pictures from our soiree last night, so if you have facebook, check them out there. If not (mom and dad), I will post them tomorrow.

LOVE!

Tweet this!

I have no will power I tell you. Today I caved and bought more knitting paraphernalia. I can’t help it though, because knitting is such a useful hobby, it keeps my hands busy so they forget that they like to snack AND I end up with a great product. I need mittens and to stop snacking and knitting is my solution. Judge me if you must.
I’ll let you know how the mittens turn out. Oh and I will post pictures of the dinner trio (not really a dinner party) soon.

LOVE!

ps danza_conmigo, thanks for the IQ test link, it provided me with a much needed ego-boost.

Tweet this!

SOOOO we didn’t go into DC yesterday (cue the debbie downer music), we woke up late, I was still sore from “the fall”, and the National Cathedral had a thingy going on. We ended up doing we do best, hanging around, running errands, then finding ourselves in strange situations while performing said errands. At least we found a snow shovel, which was a major accomplishment.
I took some pictures of cecilia’s cute townhouse, mostly for you, mom. The pictures are a bit blurry and the backyard one isn’t really that great, but oh well.

this is the view from the front

the living room when you first walk in

the view of the staircase and the entry to the dining room (also when you first walk in)

the dining room, which is between the living room and the kitchen

the kitchen from the dining room entrance

the kitchen from the backdoor

the view of the backyard, so cute!!

LOVE!

Tweet this!

It was only a matter of time. I knew that and yet I still CHOSE to tempt fate. Of course I don’t believe in fate, but the word “fate” fit in there, so there it is. What is the catastrophic event which was bound to happen? I fell. Big surprise, I know. Two inches of packed and thrice-refrozen ice + my natural clumsiness (remember those times I fell without being able to blame inclement weather?) = Mandy fell hard and fast on her 5 foot journey from the car to the mailbox. Oh brother.
In other, less silly news, Cecilia and I had a great discussion about our futures as we drove to her place tonight. I really need to get my butt in gear as far as my future goes. I feel as though if I keep putting off a decision it will never happen and I’ll end up not doing I’m something that I’m passionate about and THAT would be a capital offense. Today I was thinking about working in a laboratory, using the skills I learned in micro lab (I really enjoyed micro lab). While that would be good and would utilize my major, I don’t see myself doing that for the next 40-something year, not to mention passion!! The moral of the story is, I gotta get going.
Tomorrow is another day of DC-filled fun. I am taking a camera, so I hope to show you how much fun we had.

LOVE!

Tweet this!

Another snow day tomorrow, thank goodness for the holiday weekend, I get a break from work, yay! Sorry for poo-pooing on everyone else’s snow days, it’s just that instead of getting a free day, it means I get to work all day.
We went to Alex’s check-up appointment today and managed to annoy everyone there. The good news is that his wound is not infected, AND he can get it wet, so no saran wrap necessary!
This knitting project is going awry.

LOVE!

Tweet this!