It's Wedddddddddnesssssssdayyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Does anybody else think to themselves "Wed-nes-day" as they're typing Wednesday? Why isn't it spelled "Wendsday"? Wouldn't it make more sense?

First things first, I'd like to welcome two of my close friends to blogging! Both of them have started (or resumed) blogging over the last couple of days, and I'm super excited because now I'm not the only weirdo I know in real life who has one of these "blog things".

I've been friends with Katie for almost 7 years (I think?)...and since I'm 24, that's a pretty large chunk of my life. Her blog is called Shadows Kept Alive. Check it out!

I met Cheryl when I was living in Montana while my husband was serving active duty in the Air Force. Yep, I lived in Montana. For some reason, people are always surprised when I say this...and then I tell them that I've also lived on a tropical island (called Kwajalein), in California, New Mexico, Massachusetts, Ohio, Texas, and Wisconsin before I moved here to Rhode Island. Anyway...Cheryl's blog is The Adventures of an Average Family of Four. I love the layout, go see it!

On Wed-nes-days I try to head over to my e-friend Helena's blog Life in the Pitts and submit a link to her weekly Craft Therapy blog party. This week, I'm sharing my mini dresser makeover because I am so goshdarn proud of it. I also made over the nightstand and the bookshelf, which I'll be sharing with you all shortly. Possibly today. So anyway, if you're crafty you should head over and share your stuff as well. I highly recommend it.

Speaking of, I've been thinking about starting my own weekly blog party. I'm just not sure which theme I'd like to go with. And I need to pick a day. A day besides Wed-nes-day because when you copy somebody, you should always try to make at least one thing different about your version. I think we all learned this in grade school when we copied homework...at least, if you were smart you did.

And finally, I'd like to share that I'm teaching myself to speak French. Because I've decided that I'm going on vacation to France next year. I informed my husband of this, and he laughed at me...but I'm not sure why because I'm dead serious. We'll see who's laughing while I'm sitting at a French cafe enjoying Croissant-Brioche with a glass of wine. Yes, I will drink wine at breakfast. Because that's what I would do in France.

Paypal Paypal Paypal!

My husband, while reviewing our bank account transactions: "What's this? Paypal...$19.85, Paypal $10.50, Paypal...Paypal...Paypal. What are all of these for?!"

Me: "I don't know...stuff."

Husband: "What do you mean, you don't know?"

Me: "Well, honey, I can't tell you what every transaction is for. But I can assure you that each of those purchases made me a little happier!"

Husband: :)

Me: :D

My Cat Suffers from Species Confusion Disorder (SCD)

When I went to pick out a kitten for my birthday last year, I think I accidentally took home a dog in a cat's body. I'm going to point out right now the fact that I really dislike dogs. Oh sure, sometimes they're cute, I have nothing against the way that they look. I just don't like them because:

a) they're smelly b) they're needy c) they drool and slobber d) they jump up on you e) they tear destroy things f) they shed their stinky dog hair everywhere g) their food is expensive h) they eat their own poop and/or everybody else's poop i) stepping on dog shit really sucks.

However, I'm not going to deny that dogs do have some good qualities that make them appealing, that cats don't normally possess. Like how dogs are loyal, affectionate, and keep you company whereas most cats kind of mind their own business unless you're about to feed them. Dogs will play games with you. A dog will always sleep in bed with you if you allow it (but the idea of a dog in bed with me really squicks me out...the smell!). And dogs make good body guards and work well as an alarm system.

My cat, Yoshi, is quite the character. He follows me around everywhere: when I'm moving from room to room doing chores, he's tagging along at my feet. If I take a shower or go outside, he's waiting patiently at the door for me when I'm finished. He curls up next to me wherever I sit or lie down, and if I'm in the kitchen he stands on my kitchen island watching me.

Yoshi plays fetch. If you toss one of his favorite toys (a little green frog or a fuzzy squirrel catnip toy), he will race across the room, grab it with his mouth, and bring it back. Though he won't play the game forever like a dog will. Which is fine with me because it gets boring after a few throws anyway.

He begs for human food while you're eating...which is one of his less amiable qualities. If you're not careful, he will snatch a piece of meat right from your plate and run away with it. Also, he has a major thing for cups of water. It doesn't matter if he has a brand new, fresh bowl of water next to his food. Or if I fill a cup of water just for him. If I've got a cup of water and I set it down somewhere where Yoshi can get it, he's going to drink out of it.

Basically, he's a dog. Except he always poops in the same place, he doesn't drool, or destroy my house. He does sleep with me in bed, but he doesn't take up much room and doesn't make my sheets dirty or smelly. If an intruder tried to enter my house, there is no doubt in my mind that Yoshi would leap from a high place and scratch the mofo's eyes out. And he's much cuter than any mutt.

And he does an adorable "Halloween Cat" impression when I startle him.

Today's Big Project: Tiny Dresser Makeover in Leopard Print.

I'm in the process of reinventing my daughter's room with a theme: leopard print. Today, my mother-in-law came over to help me with some deep cleaning of the room and to hang curtains. I then decided that I was going to paint all of her furniture black with a leopard print. We lugged everything downstairs, and the first piece I looked at was this small drawer tower (isn't it sooo dull looking in the photo above?). And then I had a brilliant idea: I would still paint it black, but instead of painting on the print, I would attach some pink leopard print fabric I had (and it matches some pillows I made her the other day).

One of the drawers has been broken. So rather than attempt to fix it, I decided to leave it out and attach the bottom of the drawer back to the unit after it had been covered in fabric...creating a shelf.

I also painted and added on some brand new knob handles for the drawers, and added some decorative silver studs in the corners. Isn't it AWESOME?

Oddly enough, I had to finish off the last coat of black paint with a tiny bottle I had...since somehow my large pint of it had been tainted towards the end of the project and turned into a navy blue. Wtf? I now don't have enough black to continue with the rest of the furniture today like I had planned, but I'm really excited about how this turned out! High five!

Yep...I did the lamp today too :)

I Have Nothing Interesting to Say

I haven't updated for a couple days, because well...I really don't have anything too exciting to share with you all at the moment.

Here's a quick rundown of my past week:

- Last week, I pulled my daughter out of school for the day and took a little ride to the school district office, where I grabbed a packet of information for yanking her out of the public school system since I want to home school her for the rest of the year.

My daughter is being severely bullied at school by several children (yes, she's only in first grade. Frightening that this crap begins so early, isn't it?). It's been going on for the majority of the school year, I've had several conferences with her teacher about it, and she is genuinely concerned about Teagan as well...but there's only so much that the staff can do. She is so miserable that she starts crying nearly every day when I pick her up after school, and every morning it's a battle to get her ready since she's busy throwing a temper tantrum and begging me not to make her go.

Why is she being singled out and picked on? I don't really know. Actually, I do. It's because they're jealous. She's a beautiful, smart, funny, and kind little girl...and they're all just a bunch of h8rz.
That's my girl on the left. Isn't she gorgeous? Why yes, I did cut my mother-in-law in half when I cropped this to share with you.

So anyway...all of this has taken up a lot of my time lately: preparing to finish up her school year with myself as her teacher (I plan to start her homeschooling next week), gathering advice and information from friends and the local homeschooling association, etc.

- Sunday my mother-in-law took all of the children for the day, so my husband and I had approximately 10 hours to ourselves. We had a long day full of activities planned, but we ended up just eating out for lunch and then opting to come home to take a nap.

And yep...that basically sums it up. I haven't even had time to craft. I've received some awesome fabric in the mail over the last few days, but whenever I have the time to choose to sit down and sew, I'm just too tired and would rather lay down and relax with Netflix.

So that's what's going on, just in case any netizens have missed me!

When You Eff Up Your Own Tutorial...

...it's totally not worth posting.

Yesterday, I decided to create a tutorial for better freezer paper stencil printing. I whipped up a quick design, and cut it out using my X-acto knife. The problem is, I am in dire need of new blades, so the paper ripped and slightly frayed in some parts of the design...resulting in a messy final result after I applied the fabric ink.

When I do prints, I normally take the long road and create my own screens for them. However, I'll occasionally use freezer paper if I'm just making a quick design. The thing that I hate about the tutorials for freezer paper stencils is that every one I've seen instructs you to use a brush and paint directly onto the fabric over your stencil once you've got it ironed on. This results in visible brush strokes...which is good if you're looking for a textured appearance, but unsightly if you want a crisp, professional looking print.

So until I get my new blades (which won't be until I make the journey to my craft mecca - Joann Fabrics, 40 mins away. No, my Walmart does not sell X-acto blades...wtf), I'm just going to tell you the secret of cleaner prints (when you have a crisply cut out design, anyway).

The trick is to use a hybrid of home screen making along with the freezer paper. Take your "screen" (I use a fine, sheer tulle), and simply place a big enough piece over your design after you've ironed the freezer paper onto the fabric. Next, take a glob of your ink and toss it on top. Finally, hold the screen firmly in place with a hand and use a straight edge to smooth the ink over the design evenly (I use a putty knife). Remove the tulle, peel off the paper, and walla! A freezer paper print without brush strokes.

You Guys, I Have a Serious Problem.

Want to know how many things I've bought that I am waiting for in the mail right now? 23. Mostly fabric. The bra fabric? Oh, that's one I just got in the mail yesterday.

I get something exciting in the mail almost every day. I just can't stop myself...when you can buy a fat quarter of super, super cute fabric for a little over $2 on eBay or Etsy, it's really hard to resist. Today, I just bought 5 more FQs on Etsy. 1 2 3 4 5

My husband isn't as thrilled about my obsession as I am, but I'm lucky in that he doesn't complain about it either. Still, I'm not sure if he's aware of the magnitude of the situation since I try to put things away as soon as I get packages, until I'm ready to use them at least. As I like to say: "Shop now and hide the evidence".

I accidentally...

...stabbed my husband with his badge when I was pinning it on him.

Home From Snowboarding, and Officer Starfish

Laying on the snow with the sun in our eyes...

I'm home! We had a great time at Mt. Sunapee ski resort in New Hampshire. We left for our three hour drive immediately after we celebrated my husband's graduation with family at a restaurant...arriving at the 1806 Inn around 9:30PM. Our stay was wonderful. We were the only guests on Friday night, so the innkeepers upgraded our room to the Robert Frost room - which included satellite TV and a big, huge jacuzzi bath tub!

The next morning, we got up early and were served a fantastic breakfast before heading out to the mountain. Bill and Karen Carruth (the owners) were such warm, chatty people. We felt like family in their home!

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Friday was my husband Billy's Rhode Island police academy graduation. It was great! I was beaming with pride. That's MY MAN!

He earned an award for leadership. I'm thinking I've got a future Chief of Police on my hands! Tomorrow morning, he will be sworn in as an official...Official for the city police department he will be working in. I will be present, and I have the honor of being the person to pin his badge on him.

Here are some pictures!

He was his class's leader. Here he is walking them out for the inspection ceremony.

Giving his classmates commands.

More commanding.

Holstering his gun.

I cannot even begin to describe how proud I am of my husband. He excels in everything he does. While he was in the military, he qualified several times for "below the zone", meaning he was promoted much faster than normal. He went up 2 ranks in four years (started out as an E3 and left the Air Force as an E5). He was chosen to compete in (and won) two major Air Force fitness events (The Guardian Challenge). He was selected to be a member of an elite team called the Tactical Response Force, which is the Air Force's version of a SWAT team.

I just know that like anything else my husband does, he's going to go far with this career. And one day, if he wants it, he will make it to the top!

Fabric Design For Sale - Domo! ...etc

I designed an awesome Domo fabric and it's now for sale at Spoonflower.com! You can find it by clicking here.

Also, I will be away for the weekend. Tomorrow is finally the big day - my husband Billy's police academy graduation! We're going to the ceremony, supper at a restaurant, and then the hubs and I are taking off for the weekend on a snowboarding trip together. I'll be back to updating the blog by Sunday...and if not, I probably crashed into a tree and killed myself.

Have a wonderful weekend everybody! I know I will.

If I Had These Things, My Life Would Be Perfect.

I'm bored. And I've planned a long, hard day of laying around in bed. I've got a cold that I'm trying to kick before tomorrow for my husband's big day. Then we're supposed to go away for the weekend snowboarding...which won't be much fun if I'm sick.

You people aren't updating your blogs quickly enough, giving me new material to read. So, I'm making myself another list.


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This Brother sewing machine. My current machine is a Singer (1120), and while it works fine (most of the time, though it's been acting up lately) and is only about 5 years old, I could really go for an updated, fancier machine.

Also, my serger is a Brother...so I think it would only be appropriate to have a little family of sewing products.





Nintendo DSI XL. Because I'm a Nintendo fanatic. And I want to play the Mario games that are made exclusively for the DS. And I could connect it to our Wii.

My kids want it, I want it...anybody want to trade? My PSP for your DS.




Asus Eee PC. Just because they're awesome, and I really want a laptop that I can carry around in my purse. My husband doesn't get it. "You already have a Macbook!" he says. "But it's even more portable! And I can take it to the coffee shop and write in peace and quiet!" I whine. "You can do that with the Macbook." he replies. "..." I have no rebuttal. I still want one.




Cuisineart Food Processor. I've pined after this machine for years. I have a food processor, but it's by Hamilton Beach and basically, a piece of crap. I've had to replace the lid several times because it keeps breaking, and there are hardly any additional attachments to buy for it.

I do a lot of cooking. This would make my life so much happier (and simpler)!




Pasta attachments for my KitchenAid stand mixer. I love to make pasta from fresh homemade dough. There's nothing quite like pasta that's been made by hand, and cooked immediately after. However, I have a cheap, basic hand-cranked roller and cutter at the moment...I would make pasta a lot more often if my mixer could help me make it.



Natal for Xbox 360. Okay, so this one doesn't come out until November. But oh em eff gee...have you seen the demo videos for this? I don't care how much this thing costs, it's going on my Christmas shopping list. I'm going to buy it "for my husband".

Because this is just freaking awesome:

Something Really Awesome Happened Yesterday

I got my first blog award! Jon Paul from Where Sky Meets Ground apparently thinks my blog is good enough for some sort of recognition, so he passed on the Sunshine Award to me. It totally made my day, thank you JP!

I'm still kind of a blogging newb. Well actually, in the past I have started several blogs that are now abandoned and frightened, lost in cyber space. This is the first blog that I've kept around for more than a day. The point being that I'm not sure if I have 12 blog friends to pass the award on to. So I'm just going to choose a small handful off the top of my head (in ABC order)!


- Maddie from Craftie as a Cookie - she makes really cute stuff, mostly plushies.
- Elizabeth Gwen at Elizabeth Gwen Originals - beautiful, beautiful creations. I hope to one day be as talented in making children's clothing as her (currently clothing is not my strong suit)!
- Valerie at I Should Be Writing - a young woman blogs about her adventures in writing YA!
- Helena from Life in the Pitts - love her! She has a great sense of humor and I love her crafty goodness.
- Ayumills from Pink Penguin - a major source of inspiration for me. I used her tutorial for fabric baskets as the base of my basket making...though I do some things a little differently.

All of the above are wonderful blogs and very deserving of an award. Make sure you check them out!

Some Things That I Hate More Than Anything

I'm up late due to a precious child of mine who refuses to go back to sleep. It's 1:15AM. I need to be up at 7:15AM to get my daughter ready and off to school. I'm grumpy, I'm tired, and I've got a cold. And I feel like complaining. A few posts ago, I talked about some things that I love. So in the spirit of being in a foul mood, here's a post about things that I really, really dislike.


1) Canned email support responses. On top of shitty customer support, this makes my inner beast explode from the inside out...like the Hulk. Except my alter-ego monster is red. I know, red is such a typical color for anger. I can't help what color my beast skin is, so stop being racist.

For example, recently I've been dealing with a little problem with eBay. I spent several minutes of my day typing out a well thought out, detailed email describing the problem. Since you know, nobody can help you out unless they know exactly what the issue is. Four days pass, and finally: a response. Oh, what do you know? It's a canned "support" message that doesn't even address my specific problem. So I did what any rational person would do...I sent back a snarky response and threatened to blog about it and take down their entire empire with my massive Internet army. All 59 of you, and Red, my angry monster alter-ego.

2) People who drive with their blinkers on with no intention of turning. I think I literally start to go insane when I'm stuck driving behind one of these idiots.

3) Simple grammatical and punctuation errors. And by simple, I mean when adults make errors that my 7 year old knows better than making. Like confusing your/you're, they're/their/there. Or adding an unnecessary apostrophe like I'm about to here: "Reading Book's Make's You Smart". Thing's like this basically make me want to stab my eye's out. I don't know why it bothers me so much...I don't think people who make these mistakes are stupid (most of them aren't, anyway), but I have to say that I feel a little disappointed in them when they butcher their own language in such a way.

4) People who pull a stop and chat in grocery store aisles. Bllleeeeeerrrrrggggggg! I don't understand why people think this is okay. I see it happen nearly every time I go to the grocery store, especially when it's very busy and there already is barely any room to maneuver shopping carts around safely.

Bonus: I hate the words uber, touché, and the phrase "I digress". I also think that people with too many tattoos are obnoxious, especially if they have tattoos of dragons and skulls. Oh, and I hate t-shirts that have wings or any sort of spanning tribal design over the chest. On the back is okay...but the chest...ugh.

So I guess if you really wanted to ruin my day, you could drive ahead of me with your blinker on, be covered in tattoos and wear one of those hideous shirts, then angle your shopping cart in front of me and stop to have a long conversation with somebody while I'm walking down the aisle at the store. And then, when I email you to complain about all of this, don't address my concerns at all but be sure to include grammatical and punctuation errors...and throw in some words and phrases that I can't stand.

Animal Cracker Messenger Bag

Made this cool little messenger bag tonight. I found a new valance of this Animal Cracker fabric at the store yesterday and I thought to myself "I need to make a bag out of that curtain". I have enough left over for another (smaller) handbag too!

The strap is serged and the bag is filled with organic cotton batting and the lining is a soft blue (though it looks gray here) that matches one of the hues on the cracker print. Fancy.

After I took these pics I added some snaps for decor to the front flap.

This is MY Phone Number, Nucka!

Because of some strange twist of fate, when we moved back to Rhode Island and switched our Vonage service to a local number, we ended up with the old phone number of a very popular tech-related website.

So now, I get phone calls for the website several times a day. Phone calls where people ask to be transferred to sales. Phone calls where people ask for the company president. Most of the calls are sales calls, cold calls. Oddly enough, these callers don't take the hint when they get our answering machine and it greets them with "You've reached the Briggs', leave a message...".

When I answer the phone, the caller is always taken back and confused when I inform them that no, this is not ***.com...though I sure wish it were. I would almost cut off my right arm (which is my default and most important arm) if I could go back in time and register that domain name before anybody else did. Almost. I'd be a wealthy lady if I could.

I could change our phone number easily enough. I'd bet that this number has probably been passed on to several different households, and then dumped by them when their sanity couldn't take it anymore. I won't give up on the number just yet. I need to think of a way to use this to my advantage.

Giant Bread Basket and Matching Place Mat Set

I got my new serger (love it) on Friday and here is my first completed project using it! My sister-in-law's birthday is today, so I decided to make her a basket and some reversible place mats to go with it. I actually started sewing these before the serger came and had the place mats nearly finished...but then I decided that some serging was due around the edges. But really, I just wanted an excuse to use my new toy.

Mats rolled up in the basket.

Basket detail.

Mat detail.

All tied up in a bow and ready to go!

The mats look a little wrinkled...I actually had them all ironed and nice looking, but then I rolled them up and put them in the basket, preparing them to go to Samantha today. Then I remembered that I had wanted to take pictures of them, so I unrolled them. I was feeling too lazy to iron again just for the sake of a picture.

I have been a very bad girl...

...or at least, a very bad blogger. I'm starting to feel some blogger's guilt, so I'm going to do a quick random update post!

* Amie from Living Water Boutique handspun this beautiful bright green yarn especially for me. I absolutely love it! We participated in a craft swap as partners. She should have had her package from me yesterday but according to the tracking page, it appears as though there's been a routing error made by USPS.


* I posted a random status update on my Facebook the other day whining about how I wanted a serger but my husband would kill me if I spend any more money, and my mommy came to the rescue and bought me this one! I have no problem with taking handouts. It should be arriving via FedEx today. I am so excited...a little frightened...but mostly excited.

* I hate the fact that my closest decently sized craft store (Joann's) is 30+ minutes away. We've got a Michael's here in town, but it's tiny and they don't even sell fabric! There's also a tiny sewing boutique a few towns over, but the little old ladies in there were mean to me the first time I visited (the store sucked anyway). Anyway, I've got to go buy some supplies today: serger thread (yay!), and some things to make my sister-in-law a birthday gift...and while a craft store is my favorite store to shop at in the whole world, I'm really dreading the trek over there with three kids in tow. I curse the craft store gods every time I have to take the pilgrimage to Joann's. Why??? Why can't there be one closer? I don't live out in the boonies. It doesn't make any sense. And it makes me angry. Bitching about it to my husband doesn't do any good, men don't typically care much about crafting or the necessity of having a well-stocked store within a 5 mile radius.

* Speaking of my husband: he is graduating from municipal police academy in exactly one week! We are all so excited about it. It's been a long journey from his Air Force discharge (honorable, of course), to months of police job searching, the interviews, the unbelievably long application processes...the waiting...and waiting...the joy of finding out he had been hired, then waiting for the academy to start back in November. And now, he's about to graduate! I am so proud of my Starfish...soon to be Officer Starfish. I get to have the honor of pinning his police department badge on him at the swearing-in ceremony!

That's him over there on the right. I get to kiss that guy every day. Rawr!


* I guess that's about all for now. I've got places to go, burritos to eat, fabric to buy, things to serge, Facebooking to do, and blogs to read. Oh, and maybe some cleaning and laundry too. Maybe.

Yeehaw! It's my Second Blog Giveaway!!!

I've got a bunch of Amazon money from SwagBucks, and I think it's time that I do another blog giveaway! In my most recent post, I talked about some of my favorite things. I've decided that I'm going to give away one copy of my favorite real life humor book: Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris, because I think everybody should have it on their bookshelf. I wasn't planning on doing another giveaway while I wrote my post, so this is a spur of the moment (and amazing) decision.

This time though, I'm going to be a pain in the ass and make it a tiny bit more difficult to win the book. To enter the giveaway, I would like you to pick any post from my site and blog about it, or at least mention it in a link roundup. The post must include a link to my blog (any page). Make sure to post a comment here (also please leave an email address if you're not logged into a Google account, or I might have a hard time contacting you and will have to call you out like I did for the last winner)!

For people who are not already following my blog, you can earn an additional entry by following using Google Connect (look! over there! on the right side of the page!). For those who are already following, you can earn another entry by Twittering, Facebooking, or Google Buzzing a post.

Let's make this short and close the entry period on Friday night at 10PM EST. I will announce the winner and order the book for them on Saturday! 1-2-3 GO!

Copy Cat AKA These Are a Few of my Favorite Things

I've been doing a lot of sewing the past few days...but well, I can't show you anything yet. I made a couple things for a craft gift exchange at a forum I participate in, so for the sake of not ruining the surprise I cannot post about what I made until my partner receives her package. I know, I know, settle down people. You'll just have to wait a few more days to see pictures.

Last night I took advantage of the time since I was up until 2AM with my youngest who likes to wake up in the middle of the night and started working on another little project. But I'm not going to show you that either. Because it's not done yet. So you're going to have to wait, nucka.

So anyway, in the spirit of needing to feel that I've posted something important here, I'm going to follow Helena's lead from Life in the Pitts and post a list of some of my favorite things at the moment. Because lists are fun and everybody loves them.



Movies

Avatar in 3D - AMAZING. My daughter wanted to see this. I wasn't too excited about it, but as soon as I put on those "Real D" glasses for the previews I knew it was going to be a cool experience. It was so good that I saw it a second time when I took my husband to see it a few days later. Gooooo see it if you haven't already, and make sure you see it in Real D.

I found out recently that my closest IMAX theater is playing it as well...in 3D. I can't even imagine what it would be like to see it in 3D and IMAX. I can only hope that it will still be playing there over the next couple of weekends, because I would really love to try to get over there to see it. Even though 7.5 hours of lifetime Avatar watching seems a little nutty.

Sunshine Cleaning - (Netflix watch instantly) Very cute movie about a single mother who starts a cleaning company specializing in picking up after suicides/murders/other deaths.

Hancock - (Netflix watch instantly) I just watched this the other night after avoiding it for awhile since a Will Smith movie is kind of a gamble in my book. It was surprisingly good. Funny with a nice twist towards the middle.



TV Shows

LOST - the final season! Isn't it amazing? I thought the season was off to a slow start when it began, but I'm really starting to enjoy it now. I'm looking forward to my glass of wine (or 2 glasses, maybe 3...) and a cuddle on the couch with my husband while we watch the next episode tonight.

Nip/Tuck - another final seasoner. The series finale is tomorrow night. It'd better be good...because the past couple of episodes have sucked pretty badly IMO. For a show that is normally so shocking and full of twists and dark humor, it seems like most of the last season has been overflowing with filler episodes. The most exciting thing to happen was when a major character (who happened to be a favorite of mine) supposedly committed suicide. Which was pretty shocking. I just wish that there were more WTF moments this season, that's all.

True Blood - oh man. This is so 2009, since it's currently the off-season. But I cannot wait for the season premiere sometime this summer. I'm pretty picky about the vampire genre. I hated the Twilight books (or I should say, book, since I only read the first one to see what the hoopla was about. I wasn't impressed, and I put myself through torture finishing the book since I have a tic...I cannot start a book without seeing it through to the end). I never got into the vampire thing before then. The only vamp movies I ever saw and liked were Interview with the Vampire (though I never read the book) and From Dusk Till Dawn.

Anyway, I was browsing on Sidereel.com last spring and noticed True Blood in some of the top rated shows...and I was bored, so I gave it a shot. For the next couple of days, I could not pull myself away from the computer. I watched hour long episodes back to back until I was finished with the first season and was ready for the second by the time it was about to premiere. I told friends and family about the show and blackmailed made them promise to watch the first episode. Every person that did also became an obsessed fan. Try it out. Even if the vampire genre isn't normally your thing, you'll love it. Unless you're offended by softcore porn and a bunch of other definitely adult-themed content...then you may not love it so much.

Jericho - (Netflix watch instantly) Suchhhhhhh an amazing show. It's canceled, so I wasn't sure if I should even bother to watch it when I saw it in Netflix W.I., but I'm so incredibly glad that I did. It's about the plight of a small town surviving a post-nuclear USA.

A fun fact about this show: it was canceled after the first season due to low ratings (which is shocking, because it's an incredible show. It also had a really shitty spot in the TV line-up, I'm suspecting that had a lot to do with it). Anyway, when it was canceled after the first season, rabid fans organized a movement and ordered over 20 tons of nuts over the Internet and had them sent to CBS headquarters in NYC. The network responded to the fan enthusiasm by promising another 7 episodes of Jericho. Unfortunately, the show didn't make the cut after the second "trial season" and was canceled again. You can see crazy pics of the nuts at CBS here and here.

There are now rumors that the idea of a movie is being tossed around to finish up the story line...but for now, the writers have come up with a comic book (Jericho: Season 3) so that the show may live on (kind of, anyway). I had never read a comic book in my life, but I HAD to know what happened next. I now have a subscription to receive the comic books as they are published...while they're not nearly as satisfying as the show was, they still give me the fix I need. Bottom line: if you have Netflix, go check it out. Even though it's a dead show, it's worth watching. Fo realz.



Foods

Taco Bell's 89 cent five layer burrito - I can't get enough of these. I just wrote about them in my last post. I ate three yesterday. Lord help me, I can't stop myself. Take mercy on my ass and thighs.

De Boles Pastas - De Boles is my favorite pasta company. Why? Because they are one of the handful of pasta brands that my daughter (who is allergic to everything, remember?) can actually eat (though some varieties she cannot have). Prior to my discovery of these back in October, the only time my daughter ate pasta was when I made it by hand at home specially for her. The only ingredient in the corn pasta? Corn flour. I had first found them at my local natural foods store, though they were a bit spendy there at nearly $4 a box.

The other day I was browsing the natural foods section of my Shaw's Market and noticed that they now stock the brand! And it was on sale for $2.50 a box! And they had varieties the natural food store didn't have! I still haven't tested out the other boxes on my daughter (a spinach pasta and some other one that I don't remember and I'm feeling too lazy to get up and look)...they should be okay for her but with new foods/ingredients (it has a type of flour I haven't heard of before in it) I try to give her small amounts first and watch for any type of reaction before deeming it safe to eat. Here's a link to the De Boles Pasta website.



Games

Super Paper Mario - oh man. This game made it into my top 3 console games the first time I played it. (along with Super Mario Bros 3 and New Super Mario Bros for Wii). As most of you already know, I am a huge fan of the Mario series. I've been playing them since the days of the original Nintendo console. I've grown up with them and they've been one of the few childhood things that I never grew out of...like taking baths, Disney movies, and mac n cheese. It's an incredible game. If you like the Mario games, just get it. Trust me. My kids love it, I love it, it's wonderful.

OMGPop Games - I discovered this recently when my brother and I were looking for a way to play Tetris online together (he lives in another state, so playing online games is a way that we spend time together). All of the games are fun, colorful, and multiplayer. Most of them are new twists on old favorites, challenging, and competitive. My favorite games are: Blockles (a tetris-like game), Dinglepop (like Snood), Letterbox (anagraming game), and Draw My Thing (like Pictionary). Feel free to add me as a friend.



Books

This is always a difficult topic since I read a good 2-3 books per week. So I'm just going to list the first ones that come to mind that I've read recently:

Queen Betsy/Undead Series - I had first seen a set of these books at a used book store sometime in 2008 and almost bought them, just because I liked the illustrations on the covers and the plot sounded entertaining. It wasn't until I was going through True Blood withdrawl that I looked them up online and gave the first, (called Undead and Unwed) book a whirl. They're very quick reads, I could and did fly through two books in a day sometimes...the kind of book you just cannot put down. The series is kind of like a mixture of Clueless (the movie) and True Blood (the show). I swear I'm not a crazy vampire fanatic. But these are good books and came to mind because I just recommended them to somebody a couple days ago.

The Year of Living Biblically - A.J. Jacobs decides to take the Bible literally and live by all of its rules for a year. He also explores views and interviews people from all places in the religious spectrum. Entertaining, and I learned a lot. I'm not religious (spiritual), but I love reading about religions and learning as much as I can about them.

Me Talk Pretty One Day - I love David Sedaris, writer of hilarious non-fiction essays about his life. I own all of his books, and this is my favorite.

The Lovely Bones - such an incredible, astonishing, shockingly...huge waste of time. Don't read this book, it really sucks. Seriously.



YouTube Videos

Badder Romance - a group of college students get together and remake Lady Gaga's Bad Romance video (and it's LOL funny). As an added bonus: these people live like 30 minutes away from me, which I find awesome. I wish they would be my BFFs.

I Rock Onesies - music video of a bunch of guys dancing around, rapping, and wearing adult sized footie jammies.

Policeman VS Kitty - a cop is writing out a ticket for a man in a car, and an overly friendly cat climbs up the policeman like a tree for some lovin. I have no idea how that man kept a straight face.

False Blood - a True Blood spoof. You'd have to watch the show to understand.



Links

I'm too blogged out to even begin going through my massive amount of favorites for this one, so I'm just going to link you to my Del.icio.us., where I keep most of my bookmarks. I try to tag every site/article/picture that I like as I browse. Sometimes I forget though, and it drives me absolutely crazy when I try to find a site I liked but can't find it in my Delicious because I never tagged it! Gah!

Beefy

I don't have anything useful to say at the moment (I probably will later...maybe.) but I felt like I should update since it's been a few days.

I've been lying around in my pj's all day...resting, and spending too much time on the Internet. I'm getting ready to be productive: I need to do the dishes, sweep the floors, and vacuum. But first, I am going to Taco Bell and ordering 10 of their beefy five layer burritos. Those babies are so good that they've lead me to hoarding. I've decided to start buying them and freezing what we don't eat right away. Or I might just stuff 10 of them down my neck today.