a day late and a dollar short

(and fifty pounds heavier!) i usually write a happy Thanksgiving post and ruminate on the things for which i am grateful. i was so busy baking up a storm and playing games at my family's house that i never got around to it. so without further adieu, here it is.

i hope everyone had as great a Turkey Day as i did. i baked my famous pumpkin cheesecake in a gingersnap crust that was gobbled up faster than i ran out of work on Wednesday afternoon. (and that, my friends, was super fast.) i also did stuffed jalapenos breaded with a turkey sausage mixture. i've already got requests for more of those. and of course we had tons of the traditional fare: boatloads of turkey, can shaped cranberry sauce, enough stuffing to feed a small country.

but, aside from the great food, i have much more to be thankful for this year.

of course, i am grateful for my family. they may be a bunch of obnoxious losers who should never be allowed in public, but they are truly people that i can count on for anything. this year was difficult in many ways, but my family came through in just as many ways.

on the other side of that coin are my friends. they showed their true colors this year, and those colors were beautiful.

sleep! my insomnia has been cured. i've suffered with severe insomnia for years, but not anymore. i put my head on the pillow and fall asleep quickly. i rarely wake up in the middle of the night, and if i do, i just roll over and go back to sleep. you may think that's nothing, but to someone who has never slept well, it is a Godsend. i didn't realized this was how people slept! i wake up energetic and ready to go. it's amazing.

my weasel. i love him with all my heart, and i know he loves me with his little weasel heart.

surprisingly, my job. i am lucky to work with people that i enjoy and to have job security in these crappy economical times. plus, i get free cable and internet. can't beat that, and God knows i'm grateful for my internet.

i am so thankful for coffee. whoever first decided to get beans and brew them was probably the smartest person that ever lived. i thank that person!

well, i could go on forever with this list, but i'll wrap it up. hope everyone had a great holiday. now go stimulate the economy and buy me a Blu-Ray player.

two extremes

several things have made me laugh these last few days:

-i rise and shine early every morning without an alarm. okay, well maybe i don't "shine," but i do rise. the other day i got up super early and had plenty of time before i had to be at work at 8. so, after i ate breakfast, i decided to clean Simon's cage. while i was cleaning it, i heard a really loud *CRUNCH CRUNCH* coming from behind me. turns out i had dropped some cereal without realizing it. my weasel was just munching away. it was the cutest thing. i laughed and laughed all day about his eating people food. he's always had a sweet tooth, but i try to keep him on a strict regimen of weasel food only.

-a while ago, i changed my MySpace name to Martha Dumptruck (from the movie Heathers.) one of my work peeps got all bent out of shape about something and yelled, 'listen here, Ms. Drumstick!' i quickly retorted, 'it's MS. DUMPTRUCK!!! DUMPTRUCK!!!' i got an apathetic, 'whatever.' so for the rest of the day people were calling me Drumstick.

-the McRib is back. my waistline may not be laughing, but i am.

-i get to eat two turkey school lunches with my other niece and nephew tomorrow. that's right, two! i love me some tryptophan.

however, several things have not made me laugh lately:

-my niece took a plunge off of the top bunk and plummeted down to the floor. the only thing that broke her fall was the corner of a dresser which she smacked with her face. now she has three stitches, a swollen face, and two teeth that appear to be missing but are, in fact, only shoved back up into her gums. attractive! but she took it like a pro.

-roofers have been stomping around for the past week and making my life miserable. don't get me started on the leak that was finally repaired but that left a huge mess on my furniture and my belongings. i'm most upset about things with sentimental value such as my stuffed turtle that is now speckled with spackle. ironically, his name is Speckle. he is not amused. neither am i.

-it's unbelievably cold here in Lubbsuck today. for a second i thought my face froze off this morning, but it didn't.

you can't squeeze blood from a turnip.

but apparently you can steal 50 gallons of it from me! last Thursday i had a doctor's appointment. before i knew it, ol Doc SoDoMe was herding me to the lab to get blood drawn. before doing so, he asked me if i'd eaten breakfast. my mind raced as to what answer would get me out of the lab work. "yes, i ate cereal!!!' i yelled. wrong answer. so down i went to the lab. when i was younger, i didn't mind giving blood. but every year that passes. it makes me queasier and queasier. so i was stuck waiting at the lab for about an hour which is just enough time to let my nerves hit a fever pitch in anticipation. i finally got called so there i go. what i don't understand is why it's so hard for technicians to hit a vein. i'm super pale. practically translucent. my veins glow bright green underneath my sickly pallor. you can see them from a mile away. but they never hit them. this time was no different. the tech was fishing around my left arm looking for it while i winced and tried not to look. finally she gave up and asked for my other arm. she stabbed it with the needle and finally found a vein. i was still avoiding looking. so far i was good. vial after vial after vial, and i was still good. finally she was done. that's when i made the mistake of looking at the vials. everything went black, i started to sweat profusely, and i thought i was going to hurl that God forsaken cereal that got me in that mess. i'm pretty sure i freaked the technician out. she ran to get me a towel and some water. anyway, next time someone draws blood, i will probably go into seizure. hope they're ready.

found my newest forte

remember a few weeks back when i mentioned that i helped renovate a house? well here are some before and after pics. we actually did the work in a matter of weeks, but i'm just now getting around to posting the pictures. there is still more work to do so i will post the parts that are done.

THE BIG ROOM (so named because it's big.)
before: it's hideous, obviously. the hardwood floors were partially painted white. don't ask me why. the walls were full of holes and looked like crap. the tiled ceiling was literally sagging and about ready to collapse. everything was filthy. don't ask me what that turtle thing is. he was posing for the pic when we toured the house.

after: ahhh! look at that beautiful carpet, and the soft beige walls. the ceiling was ripped down and sheet rocked. then it was lovingly popcorned. we cleaned and spackled and repaired, and now it's a great cozy bedroom!

THE FRONT ROOMS (bedroom and living room)
before/after: i don't have the before pic of the living room, and i don't have the after pic of the front bedroom. but just imagine them both looking like crapola before and stunning after. the living room had been stained a tobacco. literally.

THE KITCHEN
before: the kitchen was, by far, the most daunting task in front of us. i mean, just look at it! there was a giant hole on the floor, the metal cabinets under the sink were rusted out. there were literally four layers of linoleum on the floor. everything was covered in grease and needed scrubbing and painting. just typing all of that made me tired!.

after: man, look at that awesome kitchen/dining area! we totally redid the floors after tearing up a half a century of decrepit linoleum. we patched holes and put in new appliances. doesn't it look great?! (that is not a dead body on the floor. i think that's my sister's father in law. i can't say i recognize his ass, but i think he was doing some work under the sink at picture time.)
we also changed the house from a gas/electric to a complete electric and put in a new sewer line. two rooms and both bathrooms still need to be redone, but we did a lot to make this house move in ready as fast as we could. i think we did good considering we had no previous experience renovating. yay!

free day

i took the day off of work because i had a lot of overtime and because it was a long week. i did something that i never do. i went back and re-read my blog posts from this past year. it's easy to see that it was a difficult year for many reasons, but the summer in particular was a difficult one. looking back, i realized that i really went through a lot. i'm surprised i'm not curled in a fetal position crying for Mom.

with that being said, i still have some difficult things to deal with in my near future, but i think that, if i survived all of the things from this summer, i can survive the small obstacles currently in my path.

for today, though, the biggest challenge will be what eyeshadow to wear tonight. i'm taking it easy. i'm not even going to think about how i'm already 10,000 words behind on my NaNoWriMo...

updates

so here are a few updates:

-i have been waiting on the Wii. i have a coupon so i will use that either this weekend or next. get ready for a Wii party, peeps!

-i have almost decided to go get another degree. UT here i come!!!

-speaking of UT, we creamed those bastards. it was a fine game! at the party, i got body slammed by a big buff dude, and i also got wasted. then we went to the bar to drink for free. what a great night!

-NaNoWriMo is coming along at a snail's pace. but i like snails so that's okay. i just need to hurry up and get some shit done this weekend before i am too far behind.

"Yes, we can."

Congratulations to President-elect Obama. January can't get here fast enough.

Happy Election Day!

so today's the big day.

years ago, before anyone really knew who Sen. Obama was, i told quite a few people that he was going to be our next president. i don't know if my prediction will hold true, but perhaps we will know by tonight. in any case, i will be casting my vote during my lunch and getting my free Krispy Kreme donut afterwards. everyone get out there and vote for your candidate, too. don't let your opportunity slip through your fingers.