Good Stuff

Last night we went out to Bar Italia and Bailey's Chocolate Bar. Bar Italia was ok. It was the first time I'd ever been there and I really wasn't that impressed. My food (shrimp & scallops) was waaay overcooked and it tasted mediocre. The pricing blew me away too. A little too expensive for the level of service/quality of food they're serving. However, apparently a lot of people like the place..so maybe I just hit an off night. Or, maybe I'm just a snob when it comes to food. I dunno. It's hard to beat LaMora in Chicago when it comes to Italian. Anyway, on to Bailey's Chocolate Bar. Awesome! I totally loved it. We had a group of 6, with 2 joining us a while later. I had the Nutty martini and it was absolute heaven. I got a chance to taste the Mexican, Espresso and Dark Chocolate martini's as well. They were soo good! David Bailey knows how to make a martini! The desserts were just as awesome as the martini's. We had the Bread Pudding, Chocolate Bar, Banana Split and Pear Chocolate Tart. Yummy! The buttercreame between the chocolate bars was d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s! Besides the drinks and food, the atmosphere absolutely rocks. It's so warm/sexy/cozy/contemporary/plush all at the same time. A great place to go to hang out, have some great drinks and delicious snacks!

Ok, enough about food. Lets talk about vacation! I'm trying not to freak out about the tsunami situation, in relation to vacation. I know it's nothing I should worry about, but I'm already a worry freak..so now I'm just extra paranoid. In May, we're planning another cruise. We haven't picked the destination yet..but I got the Currents magazine the other day and there are some great prices for a bunch of different destinations, with a 2 category upgrade! So, hopefully we'll be picking somewhere soon!

This weekend we're heading to my sister's to spend New Years and exchange Christmas gifts with her and my mom. I'm excited to see my mom. So, it should be a fun weekend!

That's it for now. I'm so tired I can hardly hold my head up. (That's what I get for going out last night.) So, I'm heading to bed. Night and Happy New Year! Be safe and have fun!

Back To Work

Today was my last day of 'Christmas' break. Back to work tomorrow. I don't really want to think about the work that has piled up while I've been gone. I did manage to check my email today, and unfortunately my inbox wasn't full of spam and "Hello" messages. Too bad for me!

This afternoon I went to exchange and few Christmas gifts. I ended up at Old Navy for like 30 minutes trying to exchange *2* things. It wasn't the line that kept me there...it was the lady who was helping me. She couldn't find some code on the receipt...the receipt was from an internet order..so it was sort of a hassle, but we eventually got it straightened it. After that, I came home and did laundry. Chris worked on his Accord today. He told me this afternoon that he thinks he's going to get a new car soon. That's cool I guess. Considering I just paid off every single credit card we own. I guess we can use that monthly surplus money for a new car. We'll see. It seems like everytime something good happens (paying off credit cards), something bad happens (having to buy a new car) that sorta cancels out the good thing. But, that's the way life goes I guess.

Tonight Beckie & Ryan and Jason, Nicole & Dagon came over. We exchanged our gifts and ordered Chinese. Then, we watched Shaun of the Dead and Resident Evil 2. Shaun of the Dead was actually half way entertaining. Res Evil...not so much. Anyway, I got this neat oven mitt from Jason & Nicky. I've been wanting one for a while, but never bothered to get one. So, woo!

Tonight, we were all sitting in the living room watching TV, and we heard this loud pop...like glass breaking. So, it turns out the candle we had burning on the fireplace mantle burnt down and popped the glass. So that kinda sucked. I'm really choosy about candles anyway, but this is the 2nd candle incident I've had. I wish I could find an alternative to candles..the Glade Plug In things work...but they're just not the same.

Tomorrow we're going out for Katy's (my sister-in-law) 25th birthday. I haven't gotten her anything. Not even a card. It's a good thing Chris is off work all week! I'm not sure where we're going yet though.

Well, that's it for today. Hopefully tomorrow will go by quick and the week even quicker! 3 days is better than 5!

What Did You Get?

Ah, Christmas! How was yours? Mine was great! While I didn't get to see my family on Christmas Day, I had a good time. We will be celebrating Christmas with my family this weekend. I got some good stuff too! I got this in "v green", a Game Boy, some games, pearl earrings, a really cool brooch, perfume, Cranium AND Cranium Turbo Edition, a silpat baking sheet, stuff for my ipod mini, shower gel and lotion, pj's and various other stuff. I still have presents to open from my side of the family too. Wooo! Hope you all got what you were wishing for!

This was a really good Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we went to church, ate at our favorite restaurant in So Co that we never get to go to, and stopped by to visit Jon & Jamie. It was a pretty low key night. Actually, later on Christmas Eve, Chris and I opened our presents from each other because we couldn't wait. HA! Christmas Day we went over to his mom's and opened our presents, then went to his Auntie's with the rest of his family for a big dinner and a Rob Your Neighbor! It was a blast! Later, Beckie & RJ came over to our place, along with Carol & John and we watched some movies and snacked on left overs. It was a nice Christmas.

Today, Chris and I went shopping, but the only thing we ended up with is a new pair of shoes for Chris, and 4 boxes of cheap ornaments. Then tonight, we went to see Meet The Fockers. Which, I didn't think was as funny as the first one. And, it was really slow in places. But, that's just my opinion. After the movie, we were going to go to St. Louis Bubble Tea, but as we walked in, we noticed that they didn't take credit cards...so we just left. I hate it when people don't take credit cards. I never carry cash anymore. Does anyone, really? But, that's ok. We'll have to make it a point to go there with cash though. I hear Bubble Tea is good.

Tomorrow we're going to spend the day with my Aunt/Uncle/Cousin units. Should be a good day. I don't have to go back to work until Wednesday. Woo!

Well, that's it for now. Enjoy your new toys! Night!

Almost done...

The Christmas party was last night. Went over great! I had a great time, seemed like everyone else did too. And, as a bonus, there was no destruction of my furniture. (Some of you remember the infamous Williams Couch Incident last year.) Anyway, everything was good. However, I have a shitload of ham left over. If anybody needs a pork fix, I'm your dealer. The Pork Dealer. I have no clue what I'm going to do with all this meat. I will have to consult many recipe books.

I feel a little more relaxed now that the party is over. I was worried about getting everything ready and planning, shopping, cooking etc etc etc. But now I can relax for a few hours, at least. HA! I should really be shopping right now, finishing up my Christmas stuff, but my bestest friend ever, Melissa, came up for the party (from Springfield)..and we've just been lounging around all day. So, I don't know if I'll get anything done today.

I did manage to clean up the house last night and then finished the rest up this morning. Beckie & Ryan were nice enough to hang around and help me put stuff up last night. Thanks guys! And Mel helped this morning..so it wasn't bad at all.

I really want to go see a movie tonight, but I'm torn on which one. I either want to see Closer, Finding Neverland, Lemony Snicket, or Spanglish. I'll have to choose one, or draw straws or something. I haven't been to the movies, in what seems like a long ass time.

In other news, I was happy to learn that Modest Mouse will be coming to the 'Lou on Feb. 23rd! Tickets must be purchased. Actually, I meant to buy tickets on Friday, but totally forgot to do it. So I'll have to do it today.

This week is going to be busy. (What's new?) The good news is, we get off at 3pm on Thursday, and are off Friday. Also, Conveniently, I will be off the Monday & Tuesday after Christmas. YAY! For New Years weekend, we're going out of town to be with family also. So, lots of traveling this Christmas!

Well, I suppose I will continue lounging around for a few more hours, then maybe go do some shopping and see a movie. If I don't post before Christmas, Merry Christmas everyone!

Tree Pictures

Tree
IMG_2178.JPG

Ornament

IMG_2172.JPG

IMG_2176.JPG

IMG_2167.JPG

Ring Ring Ring...Banana Phone!

This weekend was a good weekend. Very productive. We put up our Christmas tree...which happens to be the biggest tree we've had yet. I like to call it the 'wintergreen' tree...since we only put white and green lights on it. But Chris said he didn't want to put blue and white up, (my favorite)...because he was tired of telling people we weren't Jewish...though..Jews don't usually put up Christmas trees. Anyway, besides that...I did some Christmas shopping, laundry, put away misc. junk that has just been lying around the house, cleaned up for the party this coming weekend (even though the cleaning lady comes tomorrow), and did a bunch of other stuff.

Today I got a new comforter for our bedroom. It's red and some other colors, but I quite like it. Oh, today we also found a new entertainment center for the living room. We want one that fits a 30 in. widescreen, and we actually found one that goes with our living room furniture collection. So, we'll probably pick it up after the Holiday's.

I still need to wrap presents (before this weekend..because my sister is coming to visit) and I have most of her and her boyfriends presents in the guest room. And, I need to pick up junk around the kitchen (not that there's much) and also I want to organize the cabinets in the master bathroom because they're kinda getting unorganized, and I hate that!

I think I'm pretty ready for the Christmas party this weekend. I've got a menu, and a grocery list. Decorations are up, and Christmas music is qued up, and people have been invited. It should be a great mix. This week I have a ton to do, shopping and cooking and such. It will be a crazy week though. I have 2 doctors appointments on 2 different days, errands to run, misc junk to do, plus a ton of meetings at work and on Wednesday, we're having a Holiday lunch that *I* am in charge of organizing and I've also got to wrap up the campaign for the 2 families my department adopted for Christmas. We had a Chili Cookoff last week and raised $266. That's pretty good considering I work in a secured department, and we didn't have a lot of traffic. We're having an ongoing raffle that ends on Wednesday and from that we've already raised $180. I'm really hoping by the end of the week, we'll have a total of at least $600. We still have the raffle and a bake sale to go. Oh, and there's a huge deadline (that we missed) on a project that's super important at work. This week should be excellent fun!

Today while I was at Target, I found a card on a shelf with some writing on it. I opened it up and it was a birthday card to 'Debbie' and it had $20 in it. I turned it into the customer service desk, but I didn't hear them make a store announcement for 'Debbie'. I kinda feel bad because I don't think Debbie got her money back. I hope that Target at least would donate the unclaimed money to some charity for Christmas. *shrug*

We ate at a really good new Mexican place tonight. It was called La Carrera and it's in Plaza 94 in St. Charles. It was really yummy and the prices were good. If you live in St. Charles, you should check it out.

Well, that's about it for now. I'm not going to say I'll try and update this week, because honestly I just don't think I'll have time. But, if I do have time..I'll update.

Trying not to freak out.

I'll start out by saying that things are okay. I'm not as freaked out about the thing from the other day as I was the other day.

However...I'm not freaking out about something totally different. Christmas. I have no tree up, no presents bought, no Christmas cards ready to send...nothing. Next weekend we're having a Christmas party and I'm starting to freak out about getting ready for it. I have so much to do. I just feel like nothing is going to get done. Maybe when I get my tree up, I will feel better. I have no idea really. I'm just stressed out. STRESSED the Fuji out.

My ankle is doing okay. I go back to the doctor on Wednesday of next week and I'm hoping things will be A-OK. I did notice 2 new bruises today, which kind freaked me out...But I'm just going to chalk it up to my ankle trying to heal or something.

Now, with my gimpy ankle maybe you can realize why I'm so stressed. I have all this shopping to do, and things to do, but I can't move as fast as I normally do. It's so frustrating.

I'm really tired. And I'm a loser for not posting more. Work is too busy for me to do anything but work..And by the time I get home..I'm pooped.

I'm trying to think of some good news..But I don't have any off the top of my head. I need a haircut. (Like you needed to know that.)

Well, I'll try and post tomorrow about my fabulous Christmas party. Later!

Well..

the weekend was great. Today was great too. Until I got home and opened the mail. I'll just leave it at that. Now I'm in a bad/sad mood and don't know what to do. But, I think it's going to include retaining a lawyer.

I really hate how when things are going good..and life is happy..something bad happens and just makes you feel worthless.