Saddam Hussein hanged

Guess that means the war in Iraq is all done now, right? Mission accomplished?

Junior is world-famous!

OK, so, several months ago I noticed how the Hartford Courant was running pictures of people's pets online every Saturday. So, of course, I entered Junior's picture with a little description. I checked back for several weeks and I never saw it, so I thought it got lost in the shuffle (of course - otherwise, why wouldn't they run it? It's Junior!). This morning, my mother called me to say that Junior is in the Courant today on page F4 (I think, I haven't gotten an actual hard copy yet) - apparently they also run pictures every Saturday in the actual paper too! She said that Junior's picture is the biggest. So I went online to the Life section of Courant.com, and there is Junior's mug right on the homepage of the Life section (you have to scroll down a bit). Then when you click on the Pets section, he's the first story - "125 Pounds of Style" - that's my pup! Check it out! He makes a mother proud.

sniff

Well, I've been hit by a festive holiday cold this week. I feel like complete crap, which is why I haven't been blogging - not much to say, except I'm just trying to get rid of this thing before I go back to work next week. I did go to see one movie, The Holiday - it was a fairly good chick flick, but it's definitely rentable. No need to rush out to the movie theaters. We tried to see The Good Shepherd as well, but didn't make it to the movie theater on time.

I can't believe it's already Friday. I've been off of work for a week (save a few hours I worked yesterday) and it doesn't feel that way at all. Feels like I just left! I could definitely use another week off.

Well, back to the TiVo. Just wanted to check in.

aaand...it's over!

So the festive Christmas season is over. We had a very nice time with my family on Christmas Eve and Greg's family on Christmas. I got lots of cool new toys, including an automatic car starter (tres luxurious!) and a new cell phone from Greg. Overall it was pretty hectic but a good time. You can see Tweedledee and Tweedledum, despite having each received tons of new toys, agreed that this present from my mother for Junior was the best.

christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat

Well, knowing me and my posting regularity, I think this'll be the last post before Christmas. Today is Christmas Eve, which I love. This year, we will be at my mother's, which is always fun. We go to church at 4, and then come back and have lasagna and play board games. Scattergories, to be more specific. I love that game. One of my sisters and her family will be there, as well as my brother. Tomorrow we will be off to my mother's first thing in the morning to do gifts, and then down to Greg's parents' house for the afternoon.

So, to all of my blogger buds, have yourselves a merry little Christmas! Hope Santa is good to you! See ya on the flip side.

O Christmas tree

So, Greg surprised my bah-humbuggy self with a Christmas tree today! Up until today, we hadn't gotten one, and I figured we just wouldn't end up getting one this year. But when I came home from work, there was one up and decorated in our living room! It's kinda Charlie Brown Christmas tree-esque, but still. It was a very nice thing of him to do.

I've been wrapping presents all afternoon. Have I mentioned that I hate wrapping presents? This has nothing to do with having Christmas spirit or not. This is just a matter of I have no skills wrapping gifts, whether it be for Christmas, birthday, Groundhog Day, what have you. I used to hate it when I worked at Barnes and Noble and someone would ask me to wrap their books (it was a service we offered for free). Hey, they got what they paid for!

bah humbug

Well, I'm now 99% done with my Christmas shopping. Just have to get some stocking stuff for Greg and a present for a kid - which always proves difficult for me - I'm not good at shopping for little kids, because I don't know what they want, or what they have. I didn't have the strength to hit Toys R Us today, because the mall drained me of my soul enough as it is. I was about to lose my mind in there.

I guess, in the end, I just don't have a whole lot of Christmas spirit this year. We never had the time to get a tree, so although we have some decorations up, we definitely didn't go all out. I do like receiving the Christmas cards in the mail, but other than that, it's just not doing it for me this year.

That's OK. I really am looking forward to having most of next week off from work - I haven't taken a week off since the first week in July - so I am definitely celebrating something!

hello? is this thing on?

Wow, ever since I quit the great blog-off of ought-six, I am MIA around here, huh? Well, it was a busy weekend. Friday, I attempted to do more Christmas shopping. Saturday, we went to another holiday party. Sunday, we took a break from the holiday partying to do some birthday partying, and celebrated the birthdays of my niece and nephew. My niece is 11; my nephew is 20. 20! Good Lord, I feel old. But then again, I was a very young aunt when I was 13. Still. It ain't right.

Last night was also the season finale of "Survivor." I've watched every episode of all 13 seasons of this show, and I must say, I really did enjoy this season. I was enraged at first, when they divided up the tribes by race, but it was a moot point after about one episode, and the rest of the season was really entertaining. I was happy that Yul won, although I would have been happier if Ozzy won. I know none of you watch or care, but still, I like to weigh my opinion in on the internets.

My TiVo is basically empty right now! It's barely recording any shows for me this week either. Am I going to have to go start reading books now?

yeah, I'm here

Alan is disappointed with me because I didn't write about our Secret Santa festivities at work. But Alan should know that I don't write about work on this blog (it can only backfire, as far as I'm concerned) so all I will say is, Secret Santa was fun, and I got some nice stuff.

I took today off of work, because I had remaining vacation time that I had to use before the end of the year, or I would lose it. So far it's been really exciting. I watched a "Daily Show" from this week and started to watch "The Office," but Greg got all upset because he wants to watch it with me, and he had to go do some work stuff, so I suppose we will watch it later.

I have a lot I have to do this weekend, including mailing my Christmas cards, finishing my shopping, going to a holiday party tomorrow, and going to a birthday party on Sunday. December is not a time for the lazy and tired, that's for sure. Too bad I'm lazy and tired!

Did anyone see "The Biggest Loser" finale on Wednesday? It was awesome. This is one of my all-time favorite shows. I find it so inspirational and emotional. I really like how these people commit to spending several months away from their families so they can focus on losing weight and getting healthy. Sure, there is a prize at the end for "The Biggest Loser," but you can tell for most of them, it becomes about the lifestyle change and the emotional journey of losing a lot of weight. Because if you do it through diet and exercise - really, the only proven way to do it and keep it off - it's incredibly difficult. Back in the day, I was overweight, and during '99-'00, I lost over 70 lbs. That's nothing compared to what some of these people on the show lose - one guy lost over 50% of his body weight! - but it was hard for me, and keeping it off is even harder. It's very easy for me to gain weight, and to stay where I am now requires a lifetime effort.

Well, that's enough of that. Have a great weekend, y'all!

back in the game

I think it's safe to say that I took a significant break from theater. As Alan reported, he and I were cast in Love Letters in Southington - it's a two-person show about a man and woman who write letters back and forth throughout their lives - you see how their relationship develops from childhood through middle age. It's pretty intense.

ANYWAY, we won't start rehearsals until after January 1, which means I will have taken a full two months off of doing a show. PLUS, we will only have to rehearse a few times. PLUS we are doing one performance out of four (there are three other pairs doing the other performances - people do this a lot with Love Letters). SO, I think it's safe to say that I fulfilled my promise of taking a break.

I was in Love Letters before at the Warner Studio in Torrington, almost three years ago. When we did our performances, I had bronchitis and my partner had walking pneumonia. It was scary stuff. Even so, we were reviewed by a local theater critic and she had only good things to say about us.

I am looking forward to doing a show with Alan again - I've been friends with Todd and Alan since we were all in a production of All in the Timing together at Hole in the Wall in 2001, but I haven't done a show with either one of them since! I told Alan at auditions that the letters in this show are much more interesting than if a show was written based on our emails back and forth during the work day, which would go something like this:

Alan: So, what are you having for lunch?

Amanda: I'm not sure. But I'm starving! And it's only 10:00.

Riveting stuff.

shopping update

I managed to get even more shopping done at the mall after work yesterday. Even though I left work at 1, the mall was still super-packed. I got some stuff for Greg, presents for Connor and Cole (Heather's twins), some Secret Santa stuff, my SCT board meeting/Christmas party grab bag, and....uhhh...that's it. But it's progress!

Today we have to get Greg's grab bag for the family party tomorrow (his side). I already have my grab bag. We also need to come up with some sort of appetizer. I have to run to my sister's now and drop off my super-duper new-fangled cupcake holder that my mother got me for my birthday. I love that thing!

uncle, uncle!

As I told Alan tonight, I am quitting the blogging-every-day business. My posts have been barely interesting - seriously, I'm putting myself to sleep with them - and I've only been doing it in the spirit of competition. So, as Wheezer says, I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me? (Was it Wheezer? I think it was. Or some other similarly angst-ridden band from the '90s.)

It's been fun, y'all! I'll be back when I have something interesting (at least to me) to say.

ETA: It was Beck. Not Wheezer. I am ashamed of myself.

and we're off

Well, I finally did it. I started my Christmas shopping. I did some Amazon shopping for my niece, started my Secret Santa shopping, and bought five more gifts at the mall tonight. So, while I am not overcome with Christmas spirit, I am happy that I finally got off my arse and started checking things off of my "To Do" list.

Tonight is a big night - the finale of "America's Next Top Model" - I know that you may think I'm completely lame for watching this show but I don't care. I'm an addict and I love it. That said, I don't have a real favorite to win, except I'd rather Melrose didn't win. Which means she will. Because I never get my way, reality TV show winner-wise.

ETA: Caridee won! Yay! For once I wasn't wrong.

deck the halls

Despite the fact that it's only 21 days until Christmas, despite the fact that I live near the mall and therefore cannot escape the holiday madness, despite the fact that I've been hearing Christmas music everywhere since before Thanksgiving, despite the fact that I've burned up several batteries for my digital camera working on a Christmas card picture of my dogs, and despite the fact that I've already gone to two Christmas parties, I am really not feeling the holiday spirit yet. I'm kind of there, but not there as much as I should be, considering.

However, tomorrow I receive my Secret Santa recipient at work, and I loooooove Secret Santa, so hopefully that will be the thing that kickstarts my Christmas cheer.

And with that - another Christmas card reject.

Someday I will do a real post again

In the meantime, enjoy some of this year's Christmas card rejects.

testing picture posting

I think it's working now..

Is anyone else having trouble posting pictures?

Because I keep getting this little box with a red x in it. Boo.

five inches

That's how much hair I had cut off yesterday. My hair hasn't been this short since before I got engaged over three years ago. I'm still getting used to it, but I think I like it.

World AIDS Day

Go here and light a candle to help raise money for the fight against AIDS. It's free and it'll take you a second. Thanks Flannery for telling me about the site.