Other parts of my site:
  Home
    Princess Bride
    Nick Sloan
    HP & BMW
    HP Not Allowed
    Disney Trip 5/20
      Trip Calendar 5/24
      Character Pics 10/7

Read All Comments

12/31/06

Karen, Susan and Rachel were in town for the holiday.  I'd made plans to go out with Karen and Rachel in Kansas City for New Years again.  Susan wasn't going to be able to go to Kansas City, and this way I could follow Karen to her new crib.  In the afternoon we did a little furniture shopping and I got Karen hooked on Entourage.  She was telling everybody about it.  We even picked up some cute New Years tiaras.

That's when I discovered that Karen has an issue with asking direct questions.

Trying to find New Years tiaras at Hobby Lobby: "Hi.  At Christmas time you guys had Santa hats and stuff like that and I was just wondering if you had New Years Eve crowns."  What?  Why are you bringing up Santa Claus?

Later that night I met up with her and Tiffany at Elephant Bar, then we drove downtown to a bar called Laclede Parc.  We were down on Washington, and had plans to head to South County to meet up with Susan & Win afterwards, so we needed be sure which way to go to get to 55 when we left.

So she asks a ST. LOUIS CITY POLICE OFFICER, "Do you the streets around here?"  He looked at her skeptically, "Yes."  "Do you know where 55 is?"  "No, no idea.  Yes."  "How do we get there from here."

Honey!  He's a cop, on patrol in the area, of COURSE he knows his way around, just ask him for the directions!  (Right on Washington, Right on Memorial.)

So Laclede Parc is a really pretty bar.  I'd never been there before, they make the best dirty martini I've ever had.  And Karen's a big fan of the mints.

Then we drove down to South County to meet up with Signor e Signora Anderson.  And the bambino/a to be named later.  Win & his friend were telling ridiculous stories from Kirksville, and Karen was yelling at Susan for not letting her hang out with Win in college (for fear he would run screaming in terror).

After we closed down the bar, and were hustled out by super-impatient bouncer, we headed back to my condo.  I noticed when we were driving north on 55 that my gas warning light was on.  When I'd left the condo for elephant bar, I thought we'd just be heading one place, and more than likely, not in my car, so I wasn't too concerned about it, just figured I'd gas up before we left for KC in the morning.

So I thought I'd have enough gas to get back to the condo, and fill up at the Mobil down the block.  I was wrong.  Or should I say, we'll never know if we could have made it to the gas station. 

We were coming around the curve on Natural Bridge in front of the Bridgeton Police Station when I felt the gas pedal fail to react.  I was pumping the gas and barely retaining my speed.  Then I started to slow down.  We were just a couple of blocks from the gas station and pointed down hill, so I thought we'd probably be able to coast to the gas station.  Since it's only one lane each way on Natural Bridge there, I moved over onto the shoulder as far as I could, so people could pass me if they wanted to.  I was down to 20 mph, and the condo entrance was just out of sight.  Two cars had passed me already, and a third was coming up behind.

AND THEN HE SLAMMED INTO US.  I saw his hood crumple in my rear view mirror.  We were both wearing our seatbelts, so it was more of a shock than anything else, but we were both shaking from the experience. 

So I pulled onto the shoulder, and Karen called the police, and I called my mom.  At 2:15 in the morning.  The guy got out of his car and said something about "well, I WOULD have said it was a good night."  I told him we had the police call under control.  Then we sat in the car and trembled until Officer Jim showed up.

Officer Jim is the nicest, cutest older gentleman police officer I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.  He got everybody's information, and I'm going to call him tonight to get the report number (because the computers were down).  He was very kind an comforting, like a grandpa.

Limited damage (on my end, anyway), but because the muffler was knocked loose, I can't really drive it until I get it repaired.  So, sadly, the trip to Kansas City had to be cancelled.

In Summary:  crunched bumper, hanging muffler, broken whatever-you-call-that-piece under the taillight.

AWW MAN!!  Not the Princess Bride bumper sticker!  That's irreplaceable!

All the red is residue from the car that hit me.  His whole hood crunched up.  And apparently was, at one point, IN my car.

Scroll down to read comments to this entry (or to leave comments):

12/25/06

This background is the wrapping paper I used this year.  I bought it specifically because it looks like a sweater and had reindeer on it.  I couldn't pass up Mark Darcy wrapping paper.

Mark: I realize that, when I met you at the turkey currey buffet, I was unforgiveably rude and wearing a reindeer jumper.

Although this is much more subtle than Mark's jumper.

Let's see, what's been going on...

OH!  I'm the Mario Party champion!!  Wednesday at Jen & Bob's we made goat cheese ravioli from scratch (we're very fancy).  Jen made the filling and Kate & I assembled.  Then we played Mario Party and I DOMINATED.  I ended the game with 5 stars and that was after Bob stole one, and then Bowser took one away too.  It really just confirms my opinion on how completely random that game actually is.  Mostly a matter of luck.  I did really well in the mini games through happy accidents.  Managed to get paired with Jen on the "button mashers" where it's just a matter of how many times you can hit a button in a set period of time (and Jen and I happened to be better at it than Bob or Kate--so together we're unstoppable), and got good games when I was alone in the 3 against 1s.

Then they taught me Mexican Train Dominoes, and while I don't think I'll become quite the domino fiend as the three of them, it was fun.

Thursday night was drinks with the girls after work--I met up with Caroline & Andrea for margaritas (except Andrea, she has a tequila moratorium, so daquiris for her) at this little Mexican restaurant a few blocks from my office.  It was easily the best chicken quesedilla I've ever had.  And the margarita went right to my head.  Always been more of a two-drink-maximum kind of girl.  Katie picked me up and we went out to the movies.  The Holiday was just as good the second time--and Jude was JUST as HOT. 

Then Friday was waking up early for another drive out to Freeburg.  Two full days of nothing.  This was a rescheduled trip from last weekend--Grandma's birthday.  This is one of the few times in the year that we visit Freeburg when there's not really anything happening in town.  So it's eating, sleeping and church--and practically nothing else for the entire time.  Woo!  We headed back after church on Saturday night.  We don't usually drive back after dark, but this gave us the chance to see the Christmas lights.  There was one house that had EIGHT light up Santas in the yard.

Sunday was Christmas with the Carpenter relatives.  We started out with church.  All the kids were very well behaved.  Later there were presents!  Michelle had my name this year and she got me some really cute socks and a gift card from Kohl's and SANTA got me Miracle on 34th Street!!  I had no idea Santa read my blog!  (Which makes me think one of my aunties told him.)  We tried to play Yankee Swap with the board games that Aunt Sa bought, but it was more just Yankee Open--not so much with the swapping.  I got a game called Visual Eyes, where you make words and phrases from the pictures on a bunch of dice.  McKenna wanted to help put the stickers on the dice, and I was hesitant, because I am anal, but she did a very good job.

I watched The Bishop's Wife tonight--the Cary Grant movie that The Preacher's Wife was based on.  He wasn't even supposed to be in the movie originally.  Brought in to replace the actor playing the bishop, but then he threw his weight around until they made him the angel and transferred David Niven over to bishop.  That was kind of a dick move.  I bet DN was pissed.

I didn't get to watch Hardware!  I set up the VCR and everything, but it got interrupted by one of the recurring recordings I set up.  But I ended up taping The Robinsons instead, which is pretty funny, too:
 

Scroll down to read comments to this entry (or to leave comments):

12/18/06

It's been a good weekend for old timey movies.  Turner Classics ran Sunset Boulevard and Philadelphia Story.  I'd never seen either.  Sunset's a little cheese--with the exception of some good diva lines (as above), but Philadelphia Story is fantastic.  How can it not with Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn AND Jimmy Stewart.  Everyone's so clever and charming--

Dexter Haven & Macaulay Connor.  They had some fantastic names in those old movies.

DUDE!  I just saw the trailer for the new Ninja Turtles movie.  It looks pretty good.  Fav line from the trailer: Aren't you cute.  You want a butt-kickin' little fella?

Watched some BBC America this weekend while I was cleaning up.  I'm going to have to start watching "Hardware."  It's got Tim from the British version of The Office (and Love Actually & Hitchhiker's Guide) and just the brief commercial I saw got me interested:
 

Just the idea that boys think the concept of escape even enters into it... 

Speaking of the weirdness of boys--I don't know if anybody else watches "Rob & Big" but it does offer some entertaining moments, like this bit, directed at Rob's smelly bulldog:  "Start taking responsibility for your own smell!"  I think it would probably help if they stopped smelling the dog's butt.  Just my opinion.

Scroll down to read comments to this entry (or to leave comments):

12/11/06

That line ALONE should have convinced you that you need to see The Holiday--especially because Jude Law says it.  Another Monday off work; another afternoon movie with Jen.  Everybody in the movie is adorable.  Except the three assholes, but everybody ELSE is adorable.  Jude Law is the prettiest guy in the whole world (it's a run-off between Jude and Tom Welling, but the accent cements it for Jude), and he was bringing his "A game", and they had my current TV star boyfriend, John Krasinski, in a cameo where he still manages (in his two minutes of screen time) to be completely adorable.  (I love Jim Halpert!)  I don't want to say much about it, because some of it is better if you don't know it's coming, so suffice it to say, it's absolutely worth seeing.  (Jen thinks Jude is too pretty; that the wavy hair is too much.  She is an insane person.  She makes her dog wear clothes, case closed, right?  KUMA, you're the cutest!)

Upcoming movies that look good: We Are Marshall, that football movie with Matthew McConaughey and Jack from Lost.  That movie is totally going to make me cry.  The TRAILER made me a little misty.  Night at the Museum looked dumb when I first saw some teaser ads, but the more I see, the more I want to see the movie.

The MAIN reason I watch "How I Met Your Mother" is for the numerous bon mots that fall from the lips of Neil Patrick Harris.  They're--wait for it--legendary.

Tonight Barney had a cold, but refused to acknowledge it: "I'm fine.  My nose was just overflowing with awesome and I had to get it out."  And, "Whenever I'm feeling sick, I just stop being sick and start being awesome!"

LES MIS IS COMING TO THE MUNY!!  THIS SUMMER!!  I'm excited, can you tell?  The 2007 season also includes "The Pajama Game," "Oklahoma!," "Grease," "Peter Pan," "Hello, Dolly!" and "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat."  I've never seen "The Pajama Game," but I've seen all the rest AT LEAST once.

Scroll down to read comments to this entry (or to leave comments):

12/10/06

I love Miracle on 34th Street.  LOVE IT!  I think it the most perfect Christmas movie in the world.  I cannot explain why I don't own it.  It was on this afternoon.  AMC showed it twice--once colorized, once classic.

Also, watched a REALLY amazing movie today called "Something the Lord Made."  It stars Alan Rickman and Mos Def as a pioneering surgeon and his assistant.  They were the first people to perform surgery on the heart.  Prior to this time, it was considered taboo to cut into the heart--a violation of the hippocratic oath, as it was believed it could only be harmful (nolitangere - do not touch).  But they created a surgery that would help with a congenital heart defect that caused "blue baby syndrome"--where the baby turns cyanotic (blue) because the artery between the heart & lungs isn't working properly so there's not enough oxygen getting to the body.  Poor little blue babies!  It was such a good movie that it made me want to go out and see if I can find a biography of Vivien Thomas (Mos Def's character).

So I haven't posted in about a week.  THAT'S why you have to pace yourself!

On Monday, Jen & I were enjoying the fact that neither of us had to work (ha ha, suckers!), so we met up for lunch and a movie.  We decided "Flushed Away" looked pretty cute--and it was!  Hugh Jackman is the voice of "Roddy" and as a little joke, one of the outfits in Roddy's closet is a Wolverine costume.  (He doffs that in favor of an Elvis jumpsuit.)  It was a cute movie.  While chock-a-block full of pop culture references, they are primarily window dressing and do not exist at the expense of the plot.  What's amazing is that they still managed to get the tactility of the previous Aardman movies that were done with clay puppets, in a completely CGI environment.

Tuesday was a Melting Pot night out with the girls.  We had a really good waitress, definitely tried to make sure we got the most out of our evening, so we were very good tippers.  I told my fondue fork to the uvula story while she was at the table, and she was semi-horrified.  I just said, "hey, it's a good way to get kids to stop screwing around with the fondue forks."  She agreed and said she'd have to tell the rest of the staff.

This weekend was Gavin's birthday party.  Michelle was sweet enough to give me a ride.  She picked me up after her shopping trip and we went to back to their house.  Skylar was pointing out the stockings over the fireplace to me:  "M name (Mike), m name (Michelle), m name (Mckenna), and ME!"  That's right.  Because you're special.  S for special.  Until she gets her new little sister, Reece (or Reece's Pieces Princess Barbie Mermaidia Twelve Dancing Princesses, depending on who you ask).  Then in the car, upon seeing my Sleeping Beauty purse (which she insisted upon holding during the ride--and very sweetly, just held it on her lap looking at the picture), I had to give a command performance of princess stories.  First Sleeping Beauty, then Cinderella, then Belle...  Then Hayley's favorite song (Fergalicious) came on and we had to turn that up, so they were distracted before Jasmine.

Gavin got the scariest birthday present I've ever seen--a 50cc dirtbike that can go 35 mph.  Kirsten said not to worry, they'll get all the pads in the world before he's allowed to ride it.  Plus, little kids + pinata + inside space = HORRIFYING! They have this incredible lack of awareness of their backswing, and you can hear the whole room gasp when they suddenly swing a little too close to somebody's head.  They're just so focused on the target.  And all the other kids are staring at the pinata too, so they're not paying much more attention than the kid swinging.

Mini Cooper is getting big!  He's still got that shocked look to him.  I like it.  I think he's trying to take everything in.  Like if he opens his eyes further he'll see more.

Scroll down to read comments to this entry (or to leave comments):

12/3/06

Okay, it's a fact.  Based on a comment from Kim the other day, I cruised past Tony's Restaurant this morning on my way to church, and it's officially scorched.  There's a big hole in the roof and every building in the strip is boarded up.  So apparently my fireplace theory was off the mark.  I apologize, local fireplace owners, you're very responsible, I apologize for implying otherwise.

For those of you that I hadn't dragged to Tony's yet (which is quite a large number of you), it is home of Missouri's Largest Omelet.  Seriously ginormous omelets.  Nine eggs easily.  And while the promise of freakishly huge omelets gets you in the door, they also had some freaking spectacular (completely normal-sized) pancakes, too.

Watching Gilmore Girls Season 6 and noticing a variety of cross-over guest stars: Ari's daughter (from Entourage) was a guest at April's birthday party, Jan Levinson (from The Office) was Christopher's set-up, and a "My Name is Earl" double-play with Patty the Daytime Hooker as the snotty woman in line for "European Hot Chocolate" at Doose's, and a member of Liz's angry women's group ("Can I get you ladies anything?  Compassion?  Perspective?") and Gay Kenny as the Stars Hollow bike cop.

I suppose, now that more than a week has elapsed, I could give you the run down of the Pensacola trip.

Arrived on Saturday, after a pretty uneventful flight through Memphis.  Can't remember dinner, but after church (no singing at ALL), we went to the Pensacola Little Theater where Gwen & George recruited us to fill out the usher staff.  Grandma was FREAKIN'.  She was terrified that she'd have to show somebody to their seat and not be able to find it.  We put her on program duty at the top of the house (where nobody was actually going).  The show was called "Bedroom Farce," and it took place in three bedrooms, with the three couples being tied together by their relationships to a fourth.  It was funny.  You could tell it was a British play, they didn't Americanize the Britishisms--somebody was scolded for being cheeky, that's the only one I recall right off.  I can't remember anyone mentioning a "flat" so maybe it was just a half-assed conversion and they missed some. 

Sunday - Drove into Alabama for brunch at the Gift Horse with Martin and Agnes, or as they are otherwise known (among the Freeburg contingent) as "Jinx & Aggie."  They're talking about moving to Freeburg, to be closer to relatives.  I just don't know if the sweet little old southern lady will be able to cope with Missouri in wintertime.  They haven't lived in Missouri in decades. 

Then we followed up with the outlet mall in Foley.  I love outlet shopping in Foley around the holidays.  I just come out of the dressing room with the stuff I want, hold it out, and ask, "Who wants to buy me this?" and they don't have to worry about finding my Christmas present.  Fun all around. :) 

Monday - Went for a run this morning.  It was so cold that I got that rasping/choking/too much too cold air in the lungs phenomenon.  Also, Gwen & George's subdivision is much smaller than I expected, so I didn't get quite the workout I was hoping for.  Hit dinner at Logan's Roadhouse, one of those peanut-shells-on-the-floor steakhouses.

Tuesday - This is the day the weather broke.  We'd arrived in the middle of a cold snap, but today it finally got warm.  McGuire's for dinner that night (Motto: Feasting, Imbibery & Debauchery).  It's an Irish pub style restaurant with fantastic burgers.  We were seated in their new wine cellar room--it's probably the only room in the place (except the potties) that isn't covered in dollar bills.  It's one of their "things," along with kissing the moose and the mislabeled bathrooms--which we had a great view of through the floor to ceiling windows in the wine cellar, so we could watch people deliberate on which bathroom to enter.

Wednesday - Headed into downtown Pensacola to visit the art museum.  It's a tiny little thing, just two exhibits--Tiffany glass and 20th Century graphic artists.  Didn't take long, but it was a nice way to pass the afternoon, nonetheless.  Mr. Tiffany was an a-hole.  Apparently he used to inspect all the work that had been done each day, and when you handed him a piece, if he didn't think it was up to the Tiffany standards, he would just let it fall through his hands and crash to the floor.

For dinner we headed over to Yamato's, which is a teppanyaki/hibachi restaurant (I never remember which is the cooking style and which is the grill), where they cook the food in front of you.  They were closed the next day, we were disappointed to hear there would be no hibachi turkey for the day.  Quoth Gwen:  "I'm making the same thing tomorrow that I made today--reservations."

Thursday - The Hilton for Thanksgiving brunch.  SO yummy.  There was a salad station and a fruit station and an omelet station and a pasta station and a carving station and a bread station and an "other" station...  I had mahi-mahi.  It was good.  Tried bits of a bunch of different things, and even stood in the really long line for some turkey.  It was Thanksgiving, after all, and if you don't eat turkey on Thanksgiving the federal marshals can come take you away to the clink.  I was kind enough to share a bite with mom & Gwen so the marshals wouldn't be after them.  Everything was totally delicious. 

BUT there was this crazy family that I think must have been staying at the hotel on vacation, sitting nearby.  They weren't all crazy but...  Anyway, the kids were in and out, which is what makes me think they were staying there.  One of the kids left a circle covered in all different bits of food all around her plate.  When the waitress came to clear some plates, she made some comment about the kids "having fun with the sundae bar" and the mom responds, "Oh, she's our messy eater.  She always has been, ever since she was a baby."  Well, no shit lady, she was a BABY.  She's probably twelve now, so maybe there's a point where you make her grow up and eat like a person instead of an animal.  Obnoxious.

After the food we headed out for a walk on the beach.  I have just now realized that Mom has stolen all my seashells.  It was a little chilly to be in the water much, but ankle deep wasn't too bad.  Spent a couple hours sitting in the sun, just to get enough color to prove to myself I'd been to the beach.

Friday - Woke up early to hit Black Friday with Mom & Uncle George.  This was Uncle George's first black friday experience.  I don't think he was quite prepared for the scope of the madness.  Got to Best Buy more than an hour after it opened and there was still a 50 yard line out the door.  (Occupancy limits?)  So we decided that Best Buy would have to wait.  After a trip to Office Depot for Uncle George's new Flat Screen Monitor, we hit Target, then back to Best Buy.  The line went all the way around the store--but I got everything I'd set out to buy.  Target was the biggest bust.  They had an Atari throwback machine that I really wanted to take a look at (my Atari joysticks have been misplaced, and I couldn't hook it up to my current tv anyway), but they seem to not be allowed to use any of the licensed arcade games, so no Pac-Mac, Frogger, Space Invaders, and therefore, no point in buying it. 

That night we headed downtown for the official lighting ceremony for the downtown lights.  They had an "Elf Parade."  A bunch of little kids with pointy ears, followed by a 12-person high school marching band, which made a loop around the square.  The junior high jazz band played some carols and that was about it.  It was all very Stars Hollow.

Saturday - Travel day.  Headed back through Houston this time, with a three-hour layover.  We basically sat and read while we waited, had some dinner.  Our table overlooked the passenger pickup area, so we could watch the security yell at all the people stopping in the no-stopping lane.  We landed in Houston around 3, and our plane wasn't scheduled to leave until nearly 6.  Saw on the departures board that there was another flight to St. Louis leaving at 4:10.  In the end we decided not to see if we could switch, since our luggage would still be on the later flight, and we'd have to make a return trip to the airport to pick it up.  So we just patiently waited until our flight, which left from this out of the way corner of the terminal that was on a lower level, and they made you take a bus to your plane.

We got into St. Louis on time, and went to collect our bags.  While we were waiting, I thought I heard my name on the PA system.  Don't know if you've been to Lambert recently, but you can't hear the PA over the roar of the baggage carousels.  When it seemed that there were no more bags coming for our flight (there were two flights unloading on the same carousel, but we didn't see anybody who looked familiar still waiting on bags), I kept watch while mom went to see if the luggage office had actually paged us.  They had.  They'd gone ahead and put our bags on the 4:10 flight.  Suck.  The TSA searched both my bags.  It's just so creepy to see that note on top of your stuff, although I'd fully expected it, with us traveling apart from our bags, and the fact that my bag had a bunch of DVDs & stuff in it.  I'd expect they'd want to investigate further.

There are NO special features on Gilmore Girls Season 6.  What a disappointment.  But Field of Dreams has a featurette--if you could call it that--that's only about 10 minutes shorter than the movie itself!

Scroll down to read comments to this entry (or to leave comments):

12/2/06

Hi there.  You might want to check last month to see if you missed any of these back-to-back posts.  Jen told me she missed one when I changed the month.  Spent an hour chopping through the solid inch of ice on my car today.  The shower curtain shield I put over the windshield was actually pretty effective.

ONE NEGATIVE:  To get the snow off their shoes, people seem to be STOMPING up the stairs and it is LOUD.

ONE POSITIVE:  When you have no roommate,  you can peel out of all your snow drippy clothes as soon as you're in the door.

In honor of the weather, Jen & I made soup.  There's a recipe for the super delicious cheese soup they serve at Le Cellier (the steak house in Epcot's Canada) in my Disney Cookbook, and we made that.  It goes through a weird stage ("This looks gross, it's like a bacon-flour paste."), but it came out REALLY WELL.  Jen and I have mad cooking skillz now. 

Plus I bought a chicken.  A whole, organic, dirty hippie chicken.  Our next recipe calls for a whole chicken, so I went ahead and bought it to freeze while I was getting soup ingredients.  And you can only get that (at Schnuck's) if you buy the organic chicken.  Many brands will sell you all the parts of a chicken, but not still put together--and since the recipe requires putting stuff INSIDE the chicken, the put together bit is kind of necessary.  Especially since I don't have Preston Burke around to sew my chickens back together.

Scroll down to read comments to this entry (or to leave comments):

12/1/06

The pink is back!  Yay for a new month.

The storm knocked out the electricity at my office.  So I got to spend the day hanging around the condo.  I didn't do much.  I cleaned, watched some Grey's Anatomy & Ugly Betty that I missed.

There were a lot of sirens this morning.  And the smell of burning (fireplaces, I'm sure).  I think these are related phenomena.  People were firing up fireplaces for the first time this winter and hadn't taken care of them properly, ipso facto--fire.

Hooray for three day weekends.  Oh wait, did I say THREE?  I meant four.  I had three and a half days of vacation left for the year, and I thought not working anymore Mondays sounded like a pretty good plan.  We have our team meetings on Mondays, so I agreed to call in for the meetings.  My boss asked if I was okay with that since I would technically be off, and we agreed that I can trade that time to bulk my half day up to another full day off.  So I still have one vacation day up in the air.  Maybe Friday the 15th.  I decided not to try to take the time off during the week after Christmas, just because it's so slow in the office then that I'd get a lot done and nobody would bother me.

Okay, now I'm depressed.  I just found out that Jeff Dunham is sold out entirely and I hadn't gotten the tickets yet.  Crap.  Most of the time this would be no big deal, people cancel all the time, but this is a "special engagement" so you could only reserve tickets with a credit card.

What double sucks is that I TRIED to call and reserve tix on Wednesday night, but my phone died while I was talking to the guy TWICE, back-to-back.  Then I felt like too much of a jackass to call a third time.  Grrr.

Seriously, I am completely depressed about this.  I have a knot in my stomach.

I'm going to see if they have a wait list.

Scroll down to read comments to this entry (or to leave comments):