Thursday, November 30, 2006

Thursday Thirteen #13



Thirteen things I look forward to at Christmas

1. Buying/Receiving Gifts
2. Watching Christmas movies
3. Snow
4. Singing/listening to Christmas songs
5. Duck on Christmas Eve
6. Candelight church service on Christmas Eve
7. Decorating for Christmas
8. Making breakfast for my whole family on Christmas Day
9. Watching our daughter hand out gifts on Christmas eve
10. Watching our daughter open her presents
11. Our annual Christmas party
12. Going to Holiday parties
13. Christmas candy & cookies

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It's easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things.trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!


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Saturday, November 18, 2006

Leaving on a jet plane again...

I'm off to Philly again to see Hubby's family for Thanksgiving. Hubby's brother is finally engaged, so I'm sure most of the talk will center in on the wedding. I just hope my future sister in-law decides we are good enough to talk to this time. Hubby and I met her for the first last August when we went out there and lets just say it didn't go well. We tried and tried to engage her in conversation to no avail. I thought at first maybe she was just shy, but I realized that wasn't it. She just didn't want to be around us for some reason. Now Hubby and I can be as irritating as the next couple, but we have friends. We can't be that horrible to spend time with. Of course, this time I will try again. I really want to be friends, so another chance is due I think. I'm trying to think of how to explain her personality. At least the way she was towards us. It's hard to talk to someone and ask them questions when all you get back are yes or no. Normally in a conversation you ask a few questions then the other person asks a few. In this situation all we do is ask questions and get nothing back. She seemed bored by our company and was constantly cutting our time together short and just leaving without a word. Now, I know she wasn't feeling that well at the time, but there is still no excuse to be rude. I'm sure she is a perfectly nice person, we just haven't seen it.
I love Hubby's brother. He is the irritating little brother I never had. He is actually a total sweetheart and deserves to be happy. So, for his sake we will do our best. I don't know...I want to like her and that's why we'll give it the whole college try again. Here's hoping we just met her at a bad time.
I hope you all have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving! I'll be back on Tuesday the 28th.
Cheers!

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Thursday Thirteen #12



Thirteen things on my desk today

1. Computer, Keyboard etc.
2. My bookstore mug
3. Pics of my husband and daughter
4. Flamingo Head bobber ( I love flamingos!)
5. Tin of Hint Mints
6. Stack of store bookmarks
7. Spike Action Figure (Buffy the Vampire Slayer character)
8. Skull Magic 8 ball thing from McD's (Pirates of the Caribbean toy)
9. Black lipstick (leftover from Halloween)
10. Mounds chocolate bar (my employee brought it for me today!)
11. Donald Duck pen from Disneyland
12. My collection of weird postcards
13. A Dolphin clip thing (it's supposed to hold pictures I think)

And of course stacks of paperwork that I'm always behind on!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It's easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things.trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!


View More Thursday Thirteen Participants


Friday, November 10, 2006

Mystery Couple

Mostly we get lots of really nice people into our store. Some not so nice, some weird and some just plain scary. We really enjoy having a chat when our regulars come in. Sometimes it's just about the weather and sometimes it turns into a deep discussion on the meaning of the book they are reading.
We have one couple (I'll call them Linda & Tom) that comes in about once a month. We rent the space above us to a hair salon/permanent makeup business. We noticed they started coming in after they would visit the salon.
This is a really nice couple. I have nothing but nice things to say about them, so do not take this the wrong way. I mean no disrespect at all.
Let me just say there was something different about them. We couldn't really nail it down at first. "Linda" is extremely soft spoken and can be very difficult to hear, but it's easy to get her to laugh. She is a rather tall big woman. Her partner, "Tom" is a short man who can be very nice, but you have to be careful. He can get grumpy fast if you say the wrong thing. You can tell that he is very protective of "Linda". Overall though very nice people. We soon figured out that "Linda" was a man. "Tom" we have not figured out yet. He might be a man from birth, but it's hard to tell.
Anyway, they are regular visitors who frequently come in and trade books. When we get books from people you would be amazed at the weird stuff that gets put inside them. Maybe I'll do a Thursday Thirteen on that next week...hmmm... Anyway one time inside one of their books we found a piece of paper from a psychologist. It was a form that explained that "Linda" was diagnosed with "Gender Identity Disorder". We immediately felt guilty for ever reading the paper as it was none of our business and threw it away.
We really like these people. They are so nice to us. They even brought us cookies one time. They really like the spooky decor of the store and will bring us things they find to add to the decor. The reason I bring all of this up is because it is a frequent conversation around the store on how we can treat these people as normally as possible. It's human nature to be curious and look a little too closely, but we don't want to make them uncomfortable. We want to treat them like every other customer that walks in the door. Unfortunately, I think we end up over doing it in the welcoming squeals we let out every time they come in. We just feel like it has to be so hard for them to go out in public and we want them to know that they are always welcome in our store. Does that sound weird? It can't be an easy life. People staring at you all of the time, whispering behind their backs. We just want them to know we do not care. That they are nice people. I realize I am talking behind their back right now, but not in a bad way. I just want to do the right thing and we often get confused on how to treat them without over doing it.
I'm not sure why I brought this up. We just feel very frustrated with ourselves sometimes. We want to be completely normal with them and we end up sounding like bumbling idiots. This is probably coming out all wrong. I'm not good at expressing myself obviously and I hope that we are doing the right thing. We just want them to feel comfortable.
Obviously this is just me babbling on and on. I'm not even sure what I am trying to say/ask, so I should probably shut up.
Cheers!

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Thursday Thirteen #11



Thirteen Favorite Romantic Comedies (in no particular order)

1. When Harry Met Sally (1989) (I know...everyone's fav)
2. Bridget Jones' Diary (2001)
3. Two Weeks Notice (2002)
4. How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)
5. You've Got Mail (1998)
6. Pillow Talk (1959)
7. That Touch of Mink (1962)
8. While You Were Sleeping (1995)
9. A Countess From Hong Kong (1967)
10. Something's Gotta Give (2003)
11. Overboard (1987)
12. Everyone Says I Love You (1996)
13. So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It's easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things.trackbackss, pings, comment links accepted!


View More Thursday Thirteen Participants


Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Wordless Wednesday #7

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

My dental odyssey

About two years ago I decided it was time to get over my fear of dentists. Up until that time I had been a very sporadic visitor. As a child I went regularly and then somewhere during my teenage years it all fell apart. We moved to Colorado when I was 12 and had a really hard time finding a good dentist. So, long story short...I had some horrible experiences during the next few years and developed this paralyzing fear. In my 20s I was forced back because of an abscessed tooth (major ouch!) and that just added to my fear. Don't get me wrong I took care of them. I brushed twice a day, mouthwash etc. Well, my Dad's side of the family has horrible teeth. My Mom's great. Of course which teeth did I get? You got it! There is a name for it, but it escapes me at the moment. Basically they break easily. Well, over the years some of my back teeth had broken down so much, that it was time to suck it up and do something about it.
Hubby did the research for me. I was too scared to even think about it too much. He ended up finding this great dentist who I have really come to like and trust. She understands my fear and really works with me on it. She's definitely more expensive than your average dentist, but she has really helped me. I even get to watch DVDs while they work on me. That's my favorite part!
There is a reason I brought this up. I'm kinda celebrating today. Two years of receiving multiple dental surgeries, 2 bridges and 3 dental implants. Dealing with painful floating bone fragments and nightguards and more novocaine shots than I care to remember. Today my odyssey has almost been finished and I can move on to 6 month checkups. I just have a small follow-up appointment in December. I have spent so much money on my mouth these last 2 years. Dental is not offered through our health insurance. I could have bought a really nice car for the amount of money I've had to spend on my teeth the last few years. Just one question...why is dental not covered in most health plans anymore?
Cheers!

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Date night and other disasters...

So, last night was date night. Luna had the day off from school so she went to the grandparents for the day and a sleepover. I've been working so hard for the last month that my sweet hubby decided I needed a night out now that everything has settled down. I was looking forward to this all week. Nothing special really, just dinner and a movie. You know some relaxing veg time. We had planned to go to "Lime" a new Mexican restaurant in town that took over the building of our old fav mex place. It was a total dive, but totally yummy and cheap. This place is decidedly more upscale, but we wanted to try it and see what they had done with the place. I left work a little early and set off. The place was PACKED solid at 5:30. It's a small place and there was a big wait, so we decided to go someplace else. We remembered a place we had seen that we wanted to try up north, so we thought what the heck we'll try it. After a 1/2 hour of driving we could not find it again! We thought we knew where it was, but we were apparently wrong. Finally we went to place that we were passing that looked like it could be good. Wrong again. After messing up my extremely easy order two times I finally just ate the chicken chimichanga they brought me even though it was so not what I ordered. I ordered quasadillas and got a burrito first and then the chimichanga. Time to give up. The waitress was surly and would forget everything we said as soon as she left the table. I normally try to be understanding with waitresses, since I've been there...it's a tough job, but this was horrible. Not even an apology...nothing. It wasn't too good either. Way too spicy for me, so I didn't even eat much of it. So, by the time we left we had missed our original movie time for the "The Prestige". I had printed out the movie times in our area and we saw that a theater down south was playing the movie we wanted in 20 minutes. I said there was no way we could make it, but Hubby was like, "WE WILL! HOLD ON!". He just didn't want my night ruined anymore than it already had been. Again...wrong! We got there in 22 minutes, but the massive line outside told us we would never get in there in time. By this time it is 8 pm, the next showing is 10 pm at a theater near our house in the mall. So we went to the mall to poke around for awhile. Sweet Hubby told me to go buy a new purse (I've been complaining about my current everyday purse for a while now) in Macy's while he shopped in the Apple store. YAY! I was still hungry since I hadn't finished my dinner, so I went and got a pretzel first. YUM! Finally got to see the movie and it was actually really good. After the night we had been having I wasn't expecting much, but I was wrong. It was great! So, after all it turned out to be a good evening. I had wanted to get to bed somewhat early and get some rest, but in the end we didn't get home until 12:30am. Oh well, I got a really nice Coach purse for my trouble, so I guess it was worth it!
Cheers!

Friday, November 03, 2006

Friday Five

Well since "Friday Feast" is taking a break I thought I would try "Friday Five" again. So, here it is.

Music Soothes the Savage Beast
Or so they say...

1) What was the first CD/Record/Album/Artist you ever bought and what format was it in? (Vinyl/Cassette/CD/MP3 Download)?
I was about 8 or 9 when I bought my first Donny & Marie record back in the 70s. I don't remember the title, but I saved and saved for it.
2) How do you usually listen to music? (iPod/Walkman/Stereo/Radio)
iPod or Radio
3) What is your favorite genre of music and why?
I like most music except Rap and Hip Hop.
4) What is your opinion on music video shows and music televion?
No where near as good as the 80s. They were fun then. I never watch them anymore. Do they even do videos on MTV anymore? Seems like all shows now.
5) Do you usually agree with who the winners of the Grammy Awards are?
No. They seem to only care what teens listen to. There is a lot of original music out there that just doesn't get the attention they deserve.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Thursday Thirteen #11


Thirteen types of Halloween candy I love!

1. Reeses anything
2. Mounds
3. Bottlecaps
4. Sweet-tarts
5. Smarties
6. Milkyway Dark
7. Butterfinger
8. Three Musketeers
9. Runts
10. Hershy's Special Dark
11. M&Ms
12. Take 5
13. Kit Kat

Okay...so pretty much anything chocolate especially if Peanut Butter is involved.