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I've been suffering some major blogging burnout these past few months, but I am forcing myself to write something today. It will either get me back into it, or confirm that I really don't want to do it anymore.
When you last heard from me, I was awaiting the long overdue arrival of our new couch. Long story short, it came, it was the wrong color. We put up a huge stink and finally found out that the color we had ordered was discontinued and this was the whole reason for the long delay. The factory was trying to special order it, and in the meantime they were supposed to have someone call us to let us know, and get a second choice selection from us in case they couldn't get it. For whatever reason, they didn't do that. The store gave us $100 back and we were promised $200 more from the manufacturer, but we have yet to see it. Oh well. We got the color we would have probably chosen as a second choice anyway, and we'll live with it and likely never do business with that store or manufacturer again. I'll refrain from naming names publicly, to protect myself, but if anyone really wants to know you can ask me privately.
While it seems trivial in the wake of everything else that has gone on this summer, details of which I'll get to shortly, I have to follow up on my iPhone 4 and that case for my old iPhone that I was so excited about yet so sad I wouldn't be able to use it with the new phone. It turned out it did fit on the new phone... sort of. It definitely wasn't made to fit it, and eventually due to the improper fit, I cracked it and had to throw it away. But I was pleasantly surprised to find I was totally wrong in my assumption that a back-only cover for the iPhone 4 would be impossible. In fact, a great many of the cases that have been designed for this phone are just that. They don't go on and off as easily as the ones for curved-edge iPhones did, but the most important thing is that they keep the front surface of the phone perfectly smooth for easy cleaning and no dirt/grime left in the corners. My 4 is currently sporting a "Barely There" case by Case-Mate, in purple of course. As for the phone itself, I'm completely and totally in love with it!
In early July I took my annual week-long vacation from work. I turned 31... we saw some awesome fireworks with some awesome friends at India Point in Providence. We went to Boston, spent too much to park... saw some fishes at the aquarium and then ate some fishes at a nearby sushi restaurant. Walked, drank, got sunburned. Went to pub trivia the next night with some of those awesome friends. Some more awesome friends came over for dinner and brought me cute cheeseburger cupcakes and a gift card for music and apps for my new phone. My sunburn turned into sun poisoning. We met yet more awesome friends out for karaoke. Spent a lot of time relaxing on the new couch. All things which should have recharged my motivation at work, but for some reason this year it didn't.
The rest of July, while there were some highlights, brought an unusual amount of stress, and toward the end of the month I felt myself starting to get depressed, which is highly unusual for me in the summertime. Recognizing it, I worked hard to fight it. I focused on eating healthy and exercising. The exciting news that I will soon have a new niece or nephew genuinely helped. Chris and I attended an OK Go concert in Providence with Crystal and Eddie, and had a really great night.
And then, on August 7, the day after that concert, just as I was beginning to feel like everything was going to be okay... fate sucker-punched me in the gut. My ex-coworker and dear friend, Norm, went out for a ride on his Harley with a buddy of his, and was hit by a careless driver in an SUV who decided to turn from the wrong lane just as Norm was passing him.
He didn't survive.
I can't even begin to describe the shock, the devastation, the anger... It's left me completely broken. Yes, I'm doing my best to carry on and enjoy life while treasuring all of the fond memories I have of him. But there are days when I wonder if I'll ever not be faking, ever really be healed. And sometimes I just want to close my eyes and not wake up until then.
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Talk about things that make a person want to scream!!!
I occasionally use my state's paratransit program to get home from work when Chris has to work late or otherwise can't be there to take me home. A few weeks ago I called to schedule a ride after not having used it in a couple of years, and discovered two things: 1) that my eligibility for the program had expired and I needed to renew it; and 2) that once I got my new account number I'd be able to use a completely automated telephone system to schedule my rides rather than talking to an agent.
Now, I know a lot of people can't stand these automated systems, but I love them, for several reasons. A lot of it comes from the fact that I hate talking to strangers on the phone... I always have. It's this social awkwardness that I cover well when I have to, i.e. all day long in my job, but I welcome every opportunity to take a break from trying to sound like a normal person, and just carry on my conversations with computers, with whom I get along much better. And specific to the RIde program, the thought of never having to deal with one of their agents again was especially appealing. These people, although it's their entire job, never sound like they are particularly thrilled to be talking to you. And not only are they short and unfriendly, they often mix up details or just completely fail to do their jobs correctly. Most commonly they reverse pickup and drop-off locations, and I am left waiting for the shuttle at work while they sit outside my condo and then report me to dispatch as a no-show. There was one time, I sat waiting at work over thirty minutes past my pickup time, and called the dispatch center only to find out the reservationist I spoke to just the day before never entered my trip into the system. So you can see why I was happy for the opportunity to enter my trip requests directly into their computer system myself, bypassing these incompetent morons.
Except it seems those incompetent morons must have been who designed the new automated phone system. I tried to use it for the first time today, and for the first time ever felt like one of those people who ends up ripping their hair out trying to get through one of these systems. First, it's voice activated, which is fine as long as the people recording the prompts realize that they eventually have to shut up to give the caller a chance to say a command. Interrupting it doesn't work; it inevitably fails to recognize what was said, then spends another five minutes explaining what the options are before taking a two second breath, during which the caller must try to quickly blurt out their command before it starts talking again. There is an option to switch to touch tone only mode, so I try that instead. But now my trip time (5:00pm on April 28) is invalid; it tells me I can only schedule up to 48 hours in advance... But wait - a minute ago when I was on the voice activated system it said it had to be at least 48 hours in advance, up to 14 days! At this point I hang up and call back, staying on the voice activated system. This time I manage to get through the date and time selection, which it accepts, and next it asks where I need to be picked up. "This can be home, or one of your five favorite locations." Since I have never used the automated system before, there are no favorite locations configured, and it gives no indication how to configure them. I try saying, "favorite locations". "I'm sorry, what was that? I need to know where you are being picked up. This can be home, or one of your five favorite locations. For home, say 'home'." Yeah, thanks, moron robot woman, what do I say for a favorite location... or to create one, for that matter? I try saying the address. Same response. Fine, I'm fed up... I say "agent" to be transferred to a live agent (something which it has assured me I can say at any time during the call). "Okay, please hold while I transfer you." The line goes silent for several seconds, and then I am transferred... back to the beginning of the automated menu.
Seriously, has anyone ever managed to successfully schedule a trip through this thing?!
The worst part is, I still never managed to schedule the trip! I called back, opted not to press 9 for the automated system and instead pressed 2 for the old live call center, and sat on hold longer than I ever had before they installed the automated option, before I finally had to give up and get back to work. So much for the new system reducing call load for the live operators, eh?
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![[photo of our nine year old sofa set]](http://www.confoozled.com/archives/assets/oldcouches-thumb-200x150.jpg) The ol' couch and loveseat. And Chris in the background on the phone... LOL. We bought our first brand new living room set back in 2001, a year after we moved into our first apartment. I remember what a frustrating process it was, finding something we both liked which would fit into our existing color scheme, which we were not interested in changing. The set we were replacing, which had been handed down to us by Chris' parents, as a result of its age was extremely low to the ground, and having recently developed arthritis in my dominant right knee, I was no longer able to stand up from it without help. So the new furniture needed to be nice and high, both to facilitate healing in my beat up knee, and to prolong the time before it, too, would become too low for me to stand up from. Any visible wood would have to match the finish on our TV cabinet and coffee table. And the material had to be something we'd both be comfortable on. No leather, as it's too cold. Nothing with too high a friction factor, so it wouldn't be hard for me to shift positions and my hair wouldn't constantly be standing on end with static electricity. We hunted, and hunted. And hunted. For weeks. We were about to give up entirely when we walked into one last furniture store... and there it was. The couch and loveseat that fit all our criteria straight off the showroom floor, including price, expressed our personalities perfectly, and would serve us faithfully for the next nine years.
Time has taken its toll, and these pieces have gradually reached a point where I'm having a hard time getting up from them, just like the old hand-me-down set. They also took quite a beating during Brooskey's puppyhood. Two of the throw pillows have had the decorative buttons in the center pulled out, and one cushion had its zipper totally obliterated and much of the foam torn up and spread around the house. And the armrest on one end of the couch, where Brooskey sits all day long, has taken on a much darker hue than it had originally. So, we knew it was coming to be time to replace this set, now that Brooskey has matured and is no longer destructive, with something that would be easier to keep clean and be more ergonomically sound for both of our aging bodies.
It was again a long, tedious hunt to find something we liked and could afford (thankfully, we had some help in the latter department from Chris' parents, as gifts for Christmas and Chris' birthday). Amazingly, we found ourselves once again, nearly at the end of our rope, walking into that same furniture store where we ended up nine years ago... yet again confronted, in almost exactly the same spot on the floor, with our next sofa set. Why we didn't start in this store to begin with is beyond me! This time it was something similar to several sets we had looked at in other stores, but nearly half the price. And this time the floor model wasn't quite perfect: we needed a slightly different configuration (it's a sectional) and a different fabric, so we custom ordered it.
We're expecting the new couch in any day now, so we have precious little time left with the ol' faithful "first" living room set. It is moving on to help out Chris' cousin and his girlfriend, who recently got their own place, and if they get that zipper fixed I'm sure it will serve them well until they are ready for their first brand new set. In the meantime I am getting pretty anxious for the new one to arrive!
This post inspired by a writing prompt from the Imagination Prompt Generator: "What are you saying goodbye to?"
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Ugh. It's time to focus on getting healthy again. I've let myself go for too long, and there is no excuse except that restricting myself all the time seems to slowly drive me to a huge rebellion like the one I've been on for the past eight months or so. This time I'm going to follow the 80/20 rule and see if that can keep me from going completely off the rails again. "Eating right means cutting yourself some slack and enjoying your food."
Chris bought me Wii Fit Plus for Christmas, an upgrade to the original which he gave me for Valentine's Day last year. I haven't even opened it yet. We are expecting our new couch in this weekend, which will create a little bit more space to move around in the living room. We just need to get some furniture sliders put on the bottom of the coffee table so I can move it out of the way without help.
I'm also going to focus on only five pounds at a time, to make the task of losing weight feel a little less daunting. I'll update you all for every five pounds I lose, and hopefully having my friends, family and blog readers as a cheering squad will keep me motivated to start working on the next five pounds!
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I am so ready for a vacation. I have a week coming in July, but I could use a whole month off. Not only do I wish I had more time off, having the money to afford a real vacation would be nice, too. I wish I could take a whole month off with a magical unlimited vacation budget. Oh, the things I could do with that time and money.
First, I would rent a private jet for the whole month. Brooskey and Vixen would of course come with us, and with a private jet they could ride in the cabin with us instead of being checked like baggage.
Our first stop would be Alaska. Chris has always wanted to go, and although I'm not a fan of cooler weather destinations, a few days in the summer, while knowing we're headed for more sunny skies later on, would be all right. We could rent a cabin with lots of space outside for the dogs to run around.
Next we'd head down to Arizona to visit a good friend of mine who relocated there from Oregon, and her husband whom we have not yet been able to meet in person. We'd spend a few days there playing Rock Band, us girls watching our men geek out to some other video games, and relaxing and swimming in their in-ground pool. And go enjoy some good restaurants as well.
After that we would head up to Oregon, spend some time with my family, visit old friends from school and summer camp, and even do some of the more touristy things available. Definite musts are OMSI, Kah-Nee-Ta, and Voodoo Doughnut. Maybe we would even take a day or two excursion up to the Seattle area.
From there we would scoop up my niece and nephews, and anyone else who wanted to come along, and go to Walt Disney World in Florida. After a week there, we'd send the family members back home on the jet, board the doggies in the best kennel available in Florida and sail away, just the two of us, on a Disney cruise to finish out our month long vacation.
So... now that I've got it all planned out, who'd like to finance this? LOL
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For quite some time now it has been my plan to replace my three year old original iPhone model when this year's model comes out. For the past few months Chris and I have been in an ongoing debate, as he has somehow convinced himself that Apple is not releasing a new model this year. I'm not saying I know for a fact that they are, just that there's no way he can know for sure that they're not - especially since it has been their consistent pattern for the past three years to introduce an updated iPhone model every June. It's only April, and Apple has given no indication that they plan to break that pattern this year.
But there's another reason why I think he's wrong. As shown by their continued advertising efforts, Apple would still like to convert more consumers into iPhone users. But someone who is looking to purchase a new phone this year is not going to buy an iPhone 3GS that is already a year old, when there are other newer smartphones out there... like the Motorola Droid and the HTC Hero. Apple would be stupid not to entice those people with a brand new model of iPhone that surpasses these phones in performance.
Either way, once we know for sure one way or the other, I intend to upgrade my phone to the newest iPhone model available, whether it's the 3GS or a brand new 2010 model.
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Who'd have thought that less than two weeks after I mentioned the record-breaking flood stage of the river near my house, it would flood again and break even more records? This time, instead of stopping across the street from the complex, it came all the way to our side of the street and into the property entrance. While it was at its highest point, Chris got some photos of the flooded bridge at the property entrance and the mouth of the river where it empties out into the bay (which is just around the corner from us). The actual buildings were safe from the river, but the lower lying ones did have some basement flooding due to the rain. Our building, however, is the highest on the property and was never in any danger.
Since "floodpocalypse", as I like to call it, the weather has gotten better and better. Yesterday we broke 90 degrees! Yes, that was probably a bit excessive for April, but today is much more seasonable... about 68-75 degrees, depending which weather station you check.
Last night, after work and sushi for dinner (yum!), we took the dogs up to play in Chris' parents' yard. They were very happy and excited to be there! Vixen especially was the most excited I think I have ever seen her. When we let her out of the car, she just started running crazily around the yard - she even got excited when she pooped!  Chris unhooked her leash and she spent a good twenty minutes sprinting from him to me and back again as we called her name. It's amazing what a good listener she is, without having had a single obedience class. To think of the hundreds of dollars we wasted on classes for Brooskey, and to this day we still can't let him off leash. He has a fifty foot rope we put on him when we play outside, which makes him think he's tied up even though it's not attached to anything... without it, he'd bolt. But we regularly let Vixen off leash both at home and in "Nana & Papa's" unfenced yard, and she never wanders too far away from us, and always comes right back to us when we call.
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A couple of weeks ago we took a day trip to Groton, Connecticut to my former coworker Norm's house. The primary purpose of the trip was to help Norm set up his new business computer, but we also brought Brooskey and Vixen along to play with his two Australian Shepherds, Summer and Merlin. Summer, the adult female, somehow managed to evade the camera, but our two and Merlin, who's just a puppy and an adorable one at that, had a blast playing together all day and Chris got a few photos of the three of them. (The first one, with Chris in it, was taken by Norm.)
The day went so well, and even Vixen did not once get scared of the strange people and big dogs. Merlin had never seen a dog so small and was fascinated with her. He was also amazingly gentle playing with her, as if he understood she wouldn't be able to handle his full strength.
All four dogs were exhausted by the end of the day, and our two slept til about noon the next day. And even after they were awake, they were just barely awake.
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Winter. My most hated time of year. Specifically, that long stretch of winter after the fun of the holidays is gone, until it's possible to comfortably wear short sleeves outside again. That depressing, draining, drawn out second half of the season, when there aren't even any work holidays to break up the monotony. (Oh, I know some of you get MLK Day, Presidents' Day, Good Friday even... I don't.)
I get depressed at this time every year. And I hate when people ask why or tell me I don't have anything to be depressed about, because that's not what depression is. It's not being sad about something. It's your brain not processing stress correctly, or focusing on every little negative thing in your life and making them all seem a hundred times worse than they are. It's chemicals all out of balance and making you sad, angry, mean, forgetful, super sensitive... sometimes all at the same time, and with no apparent reason. When someone asks you why, you just burst into tears because you honestly don't know why.
I've come to know myself well enough to recognize what is happening, but that doesn't necessarily give me the power to do anything about it. The only cure is the onset of spring: the warmer weather leading to more time spent out of the house, leading to more sunlight, fresh air, and social interaction. But there are a few things I can do to help myself cope on the really tough days.
One of my favorite things to do to get out of my head is to sing. I love to fire up Singstar on the PlayStation 3, pull out my professional microphone stand, and just sing my heart out, pretending that I'm up on stage in front of thousands of adoring fans. In that moment all I am thinking about is the song I'm singing, and everything else just disappears. I honestly think that belting out my favorite karaoke tunes produces endorphins just like exercise does for most people.
They say laughter is the best medicine, and it is definitely up there for me. Our TiVo is set to record plenty of comedic TV programming, and sitting down for a good dose of humor almost always makes me feel better when I've had a rough day. My all-time favorite giggle-fest is America's Funniest Home Videos, but I also get a kick out of Jay Leno's "Headlines" segments and lots of other shows, including The Office, Community, The Middle, and 30 Rock.
My third pick-me-up is similar to the second, but instead of TV, the entertainment comes from my two dogs, Brooskey and Vixen. First, each of them is wildly entertaining on their own. Just last night, Brooskey gave me one of the heartiest belly laughs I've had in a long time. He likes to chase the beam of a flashlight or laser pointer, and he also likes to steal both items, not seeming to realize that if he has it in his mouth, we can't aim it for him to chase. We've often remarked how much easier life would be if he could just aim it and entertain himself. So last night, when he decided to steal the flashlight, Chris got up and turned it in his mouth so that it was pointed forward, and Brooskey actually started chasing the beam around with the flashlight in his own mouth! It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. (Don't worry, we didn't let him do this for very long, for both his safety and that of the flashlight.) But anyway, a whole new dimension of entertainment comes into play when Brooskey and Vixen interact with each other. They can be comical, and other times downright precious, because they love each other so much. Either way, everything they say about pets being good for your health, and good for your soul, is true.
(This post is my entry for yesterday's 3x Thursday: Pick-Me-Ups.)
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I'm again amused by how things change in just a few short years. Here are some more examples!
Almost exactly three years ago, I posted a blog survey that was geared toward us geeky types. Rereading it today, I laughed out loud at the first question and my answer.
- Did you not only sigh the biggest sigh of relief ever once you saw that Apple had introduced the iPhone, but you also thought it was totally the coolest phone ever? More like rolled my eyes. Yet another gadget that Chris will insist he must have, but will never use (like his iPod).
One part of my prediction came true: Chris had to have one. But that's the only thing I was right about. Not only is the thing glued to his hand, but so is mine to my hand!
Here's another item from the same quiz that I thought was interesting... and timely.
- Did you tell your Broadband ISP to take their Cable Modem and shove it and go buy your own (a real one!)? Yup, and eventually we'll be telling them to take their whole service and shove it when Verizon's FiOS becomes available in our neighborhood.
Finally, three years and one day after writing that, this Saturday, it's happening. We're getting FiOS. I am so excited, and can't wait to tell Cox Cable "goodbye and good riddance!"
Also about three years ago, I participated in Friday's Feast, a weekly five question meme - each question a "course" in a five course meal - which sadly doesn't appear to be around anymore.
- Appetizer
Which television shows do you just refuse to miss?
Well I can't give you my entire Season Pass list off of my TiVo, so let's see if I can narrow it down to just the ones that I will insist on watching again if I fall asleep. 24, House, ER, Heroes, The Office, Scrubs, Criminal Minds, Jericho, Brothers & Sisters, Grey's Anatomy, and Lost.
All of those shows remain on the "can't miss" list, with exception of a couple which have been canceled. But now, I can show you the entire TiVo list, because just last night I took twenty photos to document the entire list just in case we have to rebuild it after the FiOS switch on Saturday. Now, I don't watch all of these shows: some are Chris' shows and some are just filler material we keep a couple of episodes of for those times when there is nothing else to watch. I'll leave it to you to figure out what's what.
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It's kind of fun to dig back in my blog and see how things have changed over time. For example, this meme I did about five years ago, where one is supposed to go through the alphabet and see what comes up first in their web browser's auto complete list for each letter. I don't even remember some of those sites! (And many of them no longer exist.)
Not only have my web browsing habits changed drastically in five years' time, so has the way auto complete works in modern browsers. Here's today's list.
- A: American Greetings
- B: online banking for the bank where my accounts reside
- C: online banking for the bank where Chris' accounts reside
- D: my DailyBurn nutrition log
- E: Ebates
- F: Facebook
- G: Joe's Goals
I use this site to keep track of how many days I have succeeded in staying under my daily calorie limit. It hasn't been used much lately.
- H: Holey Donuts
Don't worry, these are low fat, low calorie donuts. Expensive, but delicious. You'd never know they were diet friendly.
- I: Instapaper
A tool for temporarily saving web pages you want to come back to later. I always forget to go back.
- J: Rhode Island Holiday Tweetup 2009 (#jollytweetup)
An event I went to in December to meet some of my nearby Twitter friends.
- K: an accounts payable spreadsheet on my work Google Docs account
- L: Logical Media
This is one of the affiliate networks I belong to.
- M: my Movable Type dashboard
- N: Netflix
This might not stay on the list much longer, considering their poor decision to make a deal with one of the major movie studios to refrain from renting that studio's DVDs for the first twenty-eight days after release. The studio thinks this is going to make people buy the DVD instead of renting it. They are going to find out that they are sadly mistaken.
- O: Outbrain
The power behind the little star rating widget you see at the bottom of every confoozled.com post. Which, by the way, I wish people would use more!
- P: the same spreadsheet triggered by K
- Q: a budgeting spreadsheet on my personal Google Docs account
- R: Google Reader
- S: SwagBucks' shopping page
- T: Twitter
- U: the administration site for my employer's healthcare plan
- V: Google Voice
- W: the login page to pay Chris' car payment
- X: that accounts payable spreadsheet again
- Y: YouTube
- Z: Zenbe Lists
A list making site where I make up our shopping and chore lists, which can be synchronized to both of our iPhones.
Want to play along? Post your list to your own blog, Facebook (be sure to tag me), or here in the comments (if you include links it might get snagged by the spam filter, but be patient and I will rescue it). If the result for any particular letter is private, obviously don't post a link, but at least give a vague description of what it is, like I did for a few of mine.
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Well, here it is, my last post of 2009. It wasn't an extremely eventful year, but there were a few highlights. I went to Oregon to visit family and old friends. I turned 30 and celebrated in two parts: a surprise party thrown by friends, and a day on Block Island, RI with my sweetie. And we went to a few weddings, including the long anticipated wedding of Joe and Sandra, for which Chris was the best man.
Checking in on the bucket list I started in January...
Get the hell outta Dodge... I mean, Hood River.Go to Disney World.Ride on a boat in the ocean.- Go on a cruise.
- Drive my own vehicle.
Swim with dolphins.Make contact with my biological father. *- Compete on a television game show.
Have someone call me Mommy.- Have someone human call me Mommy.
- Visit Australia.
- Travel somewhere solely for the purpose of meeting an online friend in person.
- Own an actual house on my own land. (new)
- Get a prize winning video on America's Funniest Home Videos. (new)
* I Googled his name and found a listed address in the right area for where we thought he'd be living. I wrote a letter, and mailed it. In the letter I stated that I was not sure I had the right person, gave some details that would identify who I was looking for, and I also promised that I would not make repeated attempts at contact if he did not wish to have any. I received no response. If it wasn't him, the person who read the letter didn't see fit to let me know as much. If it was him, he made his wishes clear.
So, not much progress on the bucket list this year either. I've added a couple of new items, but I don't expect to get very far in the coming year either. Now that I have my new camera I guess I can at least work on the AFV video and some application videos for game shows. Who knows, maybe one of those will happen in the next year.
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Mondays can go jump off a cliff. Especially the ones that follow a long weekend.
Today's misery aside, I had a pretty awesome Christmas. I totaled up $330 in cash and gift cards toward my new camera - the one thing I wanted this year. I went Saturday and got a Canon Powershot SD980. It's a sweet little camera. It's a member of Canon's "Digital ELPH" series, super compact for what it does, but not too small for me like many of these cameras tend to be. 12.1 megapixels, touch widescreen, and shoots HD video.
One of the main reasons I wanted a new camera was so I could use a gift I got last Christmas from my sister Dana: my 2GB Eye-Fi SD memory card. This thing is awesome. It's wi-fi enabled, and uploads your photos to your computer wirelessly as soon as you power your camera on within range of your wireless home network (or wherever you choose to set up the software). For a $10/year subscription, it will also automatically upload to any photo sharing web sites you choose out of the thirty or so that are available (this is a free feature with the more expensive versions of the card). With Eye-Fi I will almost never need to fiddle with manually connecting the camera to my computer, unless I need to upload video (something else the more expensive cards do but this one does not).
Apart from the camera, Santa also brought me some clothes, the "World Adventures" expansion for The Sims 3, and Wii Fit Plus (just the software as I already own a balance board). Chris got a TomTom GPS and a Griffin PowerDock 2 (a dual charging dock for both of our iPhones), clothes, cologne, and lots of underwear. His parents gave us some money to put toward a new couch at some point in 2010, and our crazy friends Joe and Sandra got us a toaster oven.
Even Brooskey and Vixen made out. Brooskey got a new bed from us, and two new toys from Auntie Dana and Nana (Chris' mom). We got Vixen a soft, plush blanket to cuddle up in, Dana sent her a pretty pink coat/harness, and Nana got her a rawhide bone almost as big as she is - just the size she likes them.
I hope Santa was as good to you as he was to us! What was the best gift you received this year?
(FTC Disclosure: Product links are affiliate links which will generate a commission payment to me if purchases are made through them. My opinions on these products are not influenced by this compensation.)
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I love my man for so many reasons, but I'd be lying if I said his awesome talent in the kitchen wasn't one of them. Though we own many cookbooks, they don't come off the shelf very often, because the best meals he makes are not those from a recipe followed to the letter. They are the ones which come about when he thinks, "Hmm, I wonder what this would taste like..." This past Sunday saw not one, but two such meals.
We'd heard of cooking a whole chicken in a crock pot, and Chris decided he wanted to try it. Without any idea how others had gone about it, he just decided to chop up some veggies - onions, carrots and celery - and put them in the bottom of the crock pot in a few inches of chicken broth, then put the bird, generously coated in a poultry seasoning rub, on top. We bought a chicken with a popup thermometer already inserted, and he simply cooked it on low until that popped. I believe it took about five hours. It was some of the juiciest, most tender chicken I have ever eaten, and so delicious! I paired mine with some potato salad from Walmart's deli (which you should definitely try if you have a Supercenter in your area). Chris just had meat.
After we ate, he stripped the remaining meat off the chicken and put it back into the broth and veggies, added some rice and turned it into meal #2: the absolute best chicken soup ever made. That's not even an exaggeration. The seasoning he used on the chicken infused with the broth, giving it almost a lemony flavor. I've never had anything quite like it before. I'm having some for dinner tonight for the third night in a row.
![[my Christmas cupcakes]](http://www.confoozled.com/archives/assets/cupcakes-thumb-200x150.jpg) The finished product: The most festive Christmas cupcakes you will ever see! And speaking of adventures in the kitchen, I had one of my own last night. I made some highly festive Christmas cupcakes for a Yankee Swap party I'm attending tomorrow. Devil's Food, of course, with very vivid red and green frosting, and four different types of adorable Christmas sprinkles: snowflakes, candy canes (which are actually peppermint flavored), gingerbread men and holly berries & leaves. I had a little bit of help with the parts I couldn't quite manage myself, like cracking eggs and actually putting them in and out of the oven, but for all intents and purposes I made these things myself. That seems like a silly thing to be so excited about at thirty years old, but hey. I got cake batter all over my shirt and my hands, frosting on my hands, and sprinkles everywhere, but I'm told that's all part of the fun.  It just sucks that I can't get my hands to my face to be able to lick them! I even think I spotted some batter on the edge of my shoe this morning...
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![[photo of us in our costumes]](http://www.confoozled.com/archives/assets/costume09-thumb-150x200.jpg) Me and Chris dressed up as party hosts Beth and Mike. The past few weekends have been pretty uneventful, but we did attend the annual Nelson Halloween Party on Friday night. This is the same party to which we went as Peter & Lois Griffin last year. This year, Chris came up with the brilliant idea to have a little fun with Mike and Beth, the party hosts, by dressing up as them. The focal point of the whole costume was Mike's "crappy yellow Jeep", which Chris replicated using a Dell computer box, some styrofoam discs, and a whole lot of spray paint and duct tape (in spite of which it still did not hold together very well). Despite losing a wheel, the Jeep made the costume and got him the first place ribbon for best costume.
My costume was much easier, and much more comfortable. Beth is an ER nurse at the local children's hospital, so all I had to do was put on a set of scrubs and hang a stethoscope around my neck. To our shock and amazement, two other guests also came dressed as Beth! I guess great minds think alike. However, they both wore generic blue costume scrubs and plastic toy stethoscopes, while my scrubs were purple and my stethoscope real - so as far as I'm concerned, my Beth costume was the best!
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Here's a lovely Halloween dance video for you to enjoy! (Note: If you're reading this somewhere other than confoozled.com and can't see the video, click here.)
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![[Brooskey sleeping on the floor]](http://www.confoozled.com/archives/assets/post-park-brooskey-thumb-150x200.jpg) We call him "doormat". ![[Vixen sleeping on Chris]](http://www.confoozled.com/archives/assets/post-park-vixen-thumb-150x200.jpg) Does Daddy need deodorant? Last week was rough on Brooskey and Vixen; we weren't home much. By Saturday they, Brooskey especially, were unbearably hyper and anxious. Brooskey could do nothing but wander around the house whining, and crying pitifully out the window every time he saw anyone outside. He was bored out of his mind.
So, we put them in the car and took them down to Warwick City Park. We parked by the beach, took Brooskey out on the sand to see if he would approach the water (he wouldn't), then went for a brisk walk on the walk/bike path (okay, Chris and Brooskey ran ahead of us girls a bit). When I started to feel like Vixen and I would not make it back to the car if we went much farther, we turned around and probably broke some kind of municipal law by walking the wrong way on what's supposed to be a one-way loop. (Too bad, not everyone can walk three miles at one time.) On the way out we stopped to let Brooskey run in the dog park for a few minutes while Vixen and I played dead in the car. It didn't take very long before he was done, too, and we headed back home.
And those two sweet, peacefully sleeping creatures you see in the photos? That's what we had for the whole rest of the weekend.
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It's been a busy week in terms of after-work activities, and all I wanted to do yesterday was go home and plop in front of the TV for several hours of fall season premieres. We had to meet a friend of Chris' first to try to diagnose a misbehaving laptop, so fine, I thought, I can sit at the bar for an hour or so and fill up on Diet Coke. It was determined that the laptop was infected with a pretty nasty virus, so we decided to take it home where there's an internet connection to aid in its recovery. We said our goodbyes, paid our tab and headed out to the car.
The car had different ideas. All Chris could get out of the ignition was an awful clicking sound - it sounded a bit like a taser. After calling AAA and being told it would be about an hour before they could get to us, we we went back inside to the bar to wait, where a sympathetic patron bought us a round of drinks.
AAA sent a tow truck just in case it was more than a dead battery, but they were able to get the car started with jumper cables. The tow truck driver told us a "battery truck" would meet us back at the house in an hour's time, to test the battery and see if it needed replacing, and sell and install a new one if necessary. He told us to keep the car running until the other truck arrived, to see if the battery would charge back up.
It took closer to two hours for the second AAA technician to arrive, during which we stayed outside with the running car and the dogs, who needed some good playtime anyway after being home alone for a very long day. After running for over two hours to charge the battery, the car still would not start on its own, so it was obvious the battery was shot. The tech replaced it, which in itself took quite a while, because Nissan apparently has come up with a rather silly design for the bracket that holds the battery in place, and it was not easy to put back on.
So by the time the whole ordeal was over and we headed back inside, it was 10:00! So much for a night of fall premieres. We turned on CSI: Miami, but Chris was asleep before the opening credits ran, and I, not long after.
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The other night Chris and I watched I Love You, Man, a comedy about a guy who realizes after getting engaged that he has no real close friends who would qualify as best man material, and he has to set out to find such a friend. It was funny and I enjoyed it, but at the same time it was almost painful to watch, because the main character's situation is so familiar to me. He doesn't have anything in common with the people he works with. Check. He doesn't know how to go about meeting people outside of work, without sending the wrong message (that he's looking for something more than a platonic friendship). Check. He tries to hang out with the husbands of his fiancee's friends and humiliates himself. Check. When he finally does meet someone he can see becoming best friends with, he's awkward and constantly finds himself saying stupid things. Check, check, check. I laughed through the whole movie, but inside I was crying just a little.
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I shot this a couple of weeks ago but it's taken a while to get the tools I needed to edit it (I used Chris' iPhone 3GS, and even though I shot it in landscape mode, it came out in portrait once copied to the computer). And I just now noticed that though I thought I trimmed off the end where you see my feet as I'm stopping the recording, apparently I did something wrong because it's still there. Oh well.
This is what Vixen does when we take her outside to play.
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![[photo of me]](http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/7fe9c3e52fcd03d2253441f7ddc89ab3.jpg?size=144)
![[album thumbnail]](/photos/albums/userpics/10001/thumb_img_0986.jpg)
![[album thumbnail]](/photos/albums/flood2010/thumb_IMG_0112.JPG)
