What is wrong with people?!

I have a lot of what I call "invisible" friends. These are people I know from online. Some of them I've actually met. One is a woman named Pam that has family here in town so whenever she comes to visit them we've gone out for drinks. She is one of the funniest women I have ever met.

This morning I woke and found out that yesterday, while she was at work, someone broke into her apartment and stole her dog. They took nothing else. All the jewelry, tv, computer, other valuables are still there. The front door was ajar and a window was pried open. Her sweet baby Samantha is missing and Pam is beside herself. I would be too. So all you dog lovers, please be thinking good thoughts for Pam and Samantha in NYC and that they will soon be reunited.

Good News, Bad News

First the bad news....last Thursday the heater in my house started to die. Thirteen year old furnaces aren't exactly inexpensive to repair. It was supposed to be repaired today. More bad news. The part is on back order and won't be here until Monday. Let's take a look at the weather forecast for rest of the week:



brrrrrrrrrrr I've been sleeping under four blankets, which are are so heavy Lulu can hardly get under them.

Now the good news.....Target has space heaters on sale. Buy one get one free! For only $30! Sweet. And even though I know it's a little bit wrong, I'll be returning them after the heater is fixed.

British Airways, why must you torture me?!

Once again, BA is torturing me by sending me great deals on flights to London. It doesn't matter that I can fly round trip out of Houston for under $600 because I do not have $600. Well yes I do, if you count plastic money but really that would eat a hole in my stomach and keep me up at night and what fun would that be?

I hate you British Airways.

not really, call me later, 'k?

ps...that's how I look when I'm in London, don't you know.

Just call me guinea

As in guinea pig. You see, my finances are in need of a serious cash infusion due to some unexpected medical bills (Unicare insurance SUCKS..ahem) and while I've entertained the idea of holding a virtual garage sale and selling off my worldly possessions via ebay and craigslist, well that just takes too much effort (but if you need some yarn, fabric or Stampin' Up stuff let me know). So today I was driving down the highway and I spied a huge billboard announcing a migraine study that pays $400. Perfect! I whipped out my cell phone right then and there and made the call. It's a bit of a hassle, thus the money, because you have to go to the office when you get a migraine and hang out after you take the medication but I'm getting more details later this week.

Lulu loves iPods

So much so that she tried to eat my shuffle tonight! I heard a strange noise in the bedroom and found her on the bed looking guilty, the shuffle at her feet and missing one earbud cover. Upon further inspection, both buds were wet and dented. Thank god I caught her before she ate the whole thing! That is a vet bill I can not afford!

Help a Sister Out

My sister is participating in the Strut Your Mutt 3K fun run next month. It's to raise money for the SPCA. All our dogs are not mutts, only Gus is, but they are all rescues. So help a sister out and sponsor her in her efforts to raise money for this good cause.

Addicted

So today the nice man from the Dish Network came and hooked up my tvs to satellite television. I made the switch from Time Warner Cable because I was paying way too much and Dish can give me the same channels with 2 (!!!) DVRs for like half the money. I will never have to leave the house again! Do you know how much television I can record now? Like 300 hours! How awesome is that?! DO YOU SEE HOW EXCITED THIS IS MAKING ME?!

It's the little things in life that get me through each day. Oh and my neighbor brought me a plant and some slices of lemon pound cake today. Isn't that nice?

My daddy always said....

that if I kissed enough frogs I'd find my prince....


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I'm a genius ya'll!

Smoothie

For Christmas the Boyfriend gave me a blender. Don't worry, it was on my Amazon list and he also gave me jewelry. I come from a family that doesn't mind practical gifts. After all, over the years my mother has asked for and received vacuums and leaf blowers as anniversary gifts (not that I'm wanting those!). Anyway, my point is...I wanted a blender so that I could make smoothies. Last night after I got back from the gym I whipped one up.



8 oz orange juice
6 or so strawberries, slightly frozen
1 banana, chopped and slightly frozen
4 oz plain yogurt

Will it blend? Oh yes, it will.

Just in time

It was really cold today so it's a good thing I finished this scarf last night.

New Year's Resolutions

Not for me. These are Lulu's resolutions.

1. Get more sleep



2. Eat more greens



3. Exercise

My Worst Nightmare

Or at least this would have been this time last year when I was having so many problems with this possums


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When a plan comes together

Some of you might remember this drawing that I posted months ago:



It's a project that I was working on. Well after 15 rounds of changes by the clients, the install finally happened this week. Take a look at the final product. I think it turned out nicely. I'd work there.

Privacy Please

Just now I heard a commotion in my courtyard that sounded like cats fighting to I flipped on the light and went out there to shoo them off. Oh no that wasn't it at all! It was a pair of raccoons getting it on. Having some early mornin' lovin'. Oops.

Christmas Report

I hope that you have survived Christmas and are now able to "chillax", as the kids say. My Christmas was quite nice, even if I did return to work all too soon.

Kristin loved her Pioneer Woman calendar



And we all had a good time opening our many many gifts.



There were mashed potatoes, recipe courtesy of Pioneer Woman.



And we lit firecracker tank thingees on the driveway.

Want In!

Lulu was not happy that she had to stay outside while we ate our Christmas dinner. She would have preferred to be inside with all her people.

Last minute crafting

This morning I woke up at 6am, wide awake. This has been happening lately on my days off. What is that about? So I got up and made peppermint bark and then got started on making the pouches for the boyfriend's nieces. See, he got them ipods for Christmas (best uncle ever!) so I thought that since I had waited until the very last minute (we're leaving around noon to go see his family) that I would forgo the zippered things and just whip up something simple. Which I did. Only, I have no snaps or velcro. So no way to close the little pouch. Leaving the precious iPod unprotected. That just won't do.



So I went back to the zipper plan. And hey! I finally figured out how to work the zipper foot correctly. I R SMRT. But as you can see, it still didn't work out so well. The fabric was too close to the edge and got stuck in the zipper. Oops.



So that's it. I'm calling it quits. No presents from me. I doubt they'll even notice. If you got an iPod, would you? No, I didn't think so.

ps. Beki over at Artsy Craftsy Babe sent me this fabric in a swap over a year ago and I finally decided to use it.

Living up to the Name

So as 2007 winds down I am once again living up to the Lazy name. See, I had grand plans to whip up some cute little purses for the boyfriend's nieces. They're all about 13. Do you remember what it was like to be 13? I do. Getting a purse with some lip gloss would have rocked. Wait. I totally sound like a dork don't I? Am I officially old now?

Hotch-Potch Zippered Pouches
Originally uploaded by salt and chocolate

Anyway, the other night I ran across this blog that has a tutorial to make the pouches like pictured above. Now if I got it together I could make 3 of these in a night easy peasy. But do you see that happening? No. Because it's 5pm and I have had butter softening on the counter since 8am to make cookies and I still haven't done that so what makes you think I'm going to set up the craft table and dig through my fabric stash to find just the right combination of fabrics and so on and so forth and oh god it's just so exhausting. I think I need a nap now.

I just hope they didn't get me anything because then....awkward!

Holiday Stress

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Do you feel a little stressed out about the approaching holidays?

Gift Tags

Amy over at Angry Chicken has made just about the cutest hilarious gift tags I've seen this season. She's got them in a PDF format so that you can download them and print them out for yourself. Go check 'em out. If I didn't have such a crappy printer I'd be printing a batch right now! Guess what I'll be doing at work tomorrow.

I can't help myself

I loves me some LOLcats.


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Crazy Christmas Lights

One night a couple of weeks ago I drove by a house that was so badly decorated for Christmas that the next night I had to take the boyfriend by it so he could see it too. So Friday night we drove by it again just so I could take a photo of it for ya'll. In the photo, it doesn't look so bad, does it? Trust me, it's bad. The fact is the lights go on like this for two houses and the yard between them. There is also music. And inflatable things. Given my neighborhood, I'm surprised no one had shot or stabbed the things yet.



Over at Finny Knits she is posting photos readers have sent her. Go check it out.

Trail of Lights

A couple of nights ago, the boyfriend and I went downtown the walk Austin's Trail of lights. It's held every year in Zilker Park and is a mile long display of lights. At the beginning of the trail is this pretty tunnel of lights. I have to say, it does put the tunnel of lights at my other favorite walk of lights to shame.



The boyfriend and I attempted to take our own photo. It took 3 tries to get this one, which is not the greatest but it will have to do to capture the moment.



And then we were off, walking down the trail oooing and aaaahing over the lights. Okay, not really. But I did take a few photos. I really liked the first display which was of Where the Wild Things Are (which btw I just discovered is being made into a movie...interesting).



Further down the trail was a cute train headed to the North Pole.



Across from that was a food area and we were excited to see that the Hey Cupcake! people had a stand. But they were out of cupcakes, which I was okay with actually because I was still stuffed from our dinner earlier at Romeo's. So we continued on. And on and on. Who knew a mile trail could be so long? Were we starting to feel Grinch-y?



Then we saw something we could not believe. Southpark characters mingling with the Peanuts gang. What?! Who thought that was a good idea?



Near the end there was another tunnel of lights. It was very cool since in the dark the blue lights really looked like they were floating.



And then the finale, the Zilker tree. We did not go stand underneath and spin around, as is the tradition, mostly because we were tired and also because I might have hurled my dinner everywhere. So I just stood across the street and took a photo for y'all.



Of course, no Trail of Lights (or any other Zilker park function for that matter) would be complete without getting yelled at about damnation and eternal fire by people trying to save your soul as you left the park. I get what they are trying to do, I really do, but come on. How receptive do they think people are going to be to that? Not to mention the yelling really shattered the mellow holiday mood.

Lulu & Santa

Lulu & Santa
Originally uploaded by Elizabeth_K

Success. Doesn't Lulu look cute?

Getting ready for Christmas

It's a little bit hard to get in the Christmas mood when the last few days we've had high temps of 85 degrees. So far I've only addressed two whole envelopes for Christmas cards. And speaking of cards....I have a little bit of a card problem. I may have mentioned before that I like to buy them on sale at Target after Christmas. So I've got a couple of boxes from last year. But then I saw some boxes this year that are just so cute that I had to have them. There are now about 8 boxes of Christmas cards and I'm paralyzed by indecision. I can't decide which ones to send out! What is wrong with me? Seriously.

This afternoon Lulu and I are going to Petsmart to have her photo taken with Santa. Hopefully it will turn out better than the one from last year.

Christmas is Coming!

DSC_2605
Originally uploaded by CourtKnee

Do I really need another?

Another piece of Dachshund art that is. But how adorable is this watercolor print I found on Etsy? It looks sort of like Lulu. But then the symmetry of the wall I have my Dachshund art on would be off (must have an odd number grouping you know) so then I'd have to purchase yet another piece and before you know it I'd be like one of those crazy cat ladies. Only with dog art.

Happy Thanksgiving

Image from ljc@flickr

Image from nutmegknitter

I'm a Winner!

Tonight I went to an IIDA fundraiser and participated in a silent auction where I won this fab painting:



It was a steal at only $65. Of course, the framing will cost way more than that.

My Wild Thursday Night

Watch out now. I lead a very exciting life. Tonight I spent my evening watching tv (the season 4 premiere of Project Runway from last night) and Grey's Anatomy while knitting on my scarf and then winding another ball of yarn.

Secret Admirer Update

The rose was from a coworker.... a female one even! Scandal! No, not really. She want to a Mexican food place on the East side that gives out roses to the ladies at lunch and she thought it would be funny to leave it on my car. She didn't realize that it might freak me out just a little bit.

Torture

This post is specifically just to torture Kristin. Her birthday is next Friday, the 23rd. She wrote a blog post last night about how her boyfriend, El Hombre, has presents for her sitting out in the open, just taunting her. Well lookee what came in the mail today kiddo.



That's right. You're getting a card board box. Sweet! Not really. There might also be some craftiness involved, if I can get off my lazy ass and get to it.

Why am I knitting?

Why am I knitting a scarf that is 75% wool and that will be warm and bulky when it was 85 degrees today? Why? Where is my fall weather? This is my latest project. It's another K2P2 scarf using Noro Iro. Like many other knitters out there I have a bit of an affinity for the Noro. It's just so yummy. There are several skeins in my stash. They are just so pretty to look at. Sometimes, I just pet them. Man, I'm so weird. Anyway, the scarf is half way done and I've been making pretty good time on it, doing a bit each night while I watch tv.

On books into movies

Another one of my favorite books is being turned into a movie. The book is P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern (who just happens to be the daugher of Ireland's primie minister). I loved this book. It made me laugh and it made me cry. Oh hell, what book involving love doesn't? I'm such a sap. Anyway, it's being made into a movie. Yay! Sort of. The female lead is being played by Hillary Swank. I'm sorry but she has a horse face. Not cute at all. Also, the book is set in Ireland. Are you telling me that Hollywood could not find enough actresses in all of Ireland to play the roles needed for this film? But the highlight and the reason why I will pay $7.50 or whatever it costs to see in the theatre is because Jeffrey Dean Morgan, aka Denny from Grey's Anatomy is in the film. *swoon* He's so hot. Seriously. And that's not just the fever from my cold talking.

You know it's time to go to the store....

When the only thing you have to eat for breakfast in your house is a Lean Cuisine pizza. I might have soldiered on and skipped the meal but reading the archived posts from The Pioneer Woman Cooks makes me super hungry. So instead I'm eating my pizza and making the worlds longest grocery list. So watch out, there might be actual cooking happening again soon!

Secret Admirer

This afternoon, even though I left the office early, I was the last one out the door. When I got to my car there was a rose on the windshield, tucked under the wiper blade. Do I have a stalker? A secret admirer? My office is in the middle of an industrial park so it's not like there is a florist on every corner. Very strange. And just a little creepy. I brought it home anyway because it seemed not right to just toss it on the ground.

Lulu says....

Aren't you glad it's almost the weekend?

I am not happy

Tonight I went to Target after a long, hard day at work. It seems like every day for the last couple of weeks has been long (hence the lack of blogging). I know it's only November but the Christmas candy is out. And that means Mint Hershey Kisses! Yay! Or so I thought. Until I went to the candy aisle. Oh sure, there were plenty of Kisses. Kisses as far as the eye could see. But not the kind I wanted. It seems my beloved Mint Kisses have been replaced by Mint Truffle kisses. They have a green center.

Now what am I supposed to do?!