Hooray for Christmas!

I'm so excited this time of year. I think it is more of the Christmas lights and anticipation of everyone's happiness.

Christmas cards are going out soon. That is also exciting.

Work is kicking my butt, but it's okay. We'll hopefully hire my boss soon.

Going Christmas shopping tomorrow night at Oak Brook.

Had a ham and cheese sandwich for dinner. It was sooooo delicious. Medium chedda and delicious Krakus ham. So.not.Kosher. So.delicious.

Thoughts???

Beep Beep, Your Ass!

Two reasons I need to post this: one, I remember my mom having a t-shirt that stated the title with the Roadrunner from the Looney Toons characters on it. Secondly, the stupid smoke alarm has gone off twice in the past 20 hours and it's all been from my cooking capabilities (or incapabilities).


Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.... off to bed now...

Wedding Song by Naguib Mahfouz

Naguib Mahfouz is a favorite author of mine. His Arabic tails base themselves on real living in Egypt. Sadly, this nobel prize laureate has recently passed away on August 30, 2006. But his words live on.

Wedding Song is a wonderfully quick read, but designed with characters described so that you could imagine meeting them on the street. The story is broken up into four sections. Each section is told by a different character of the story, from his/her perspective. The setting is Egypt, at an actor's theatre. What is interesting is how a person's point of view changes the reader's perception. The wedding song is about the son of two actors of the theatre marrying an older actress of the theatre and the lives that are affected because of it. (An Arabic man marrying an older woman is considered a huge faux pas.) Masterfully crafted, this story is sad, to be sure, and not a typical 'wedding song' one recently married would recommend as a 'pick-me-up'. But Mahfouz's stories are hardly any one should pass up.

Whine and Wine

So, I'm back from AZ and have been trying to figure out what my major malfunction is. Physically, I have sinus headaches. But I am crying for no apparent reason. Everything is making me sad. And no, I'm not pregnant.

My husband, who graciously agreed to stay home with my broken self today and listen to my sobbing and talking, has diagnosed what ails me: work. He pointed out how I am doing two people's jobs right now and how it's wearing me out. My freetime is spent thinking over things at work. My dreams are work-related. I have stress in my neck, shoulders and back.

(The muscle stress could be from raking leaves this weekend. We got the yard done in about 4 hours! Good job, honey.)

Anyways, I need a vacation and badly. And I need to stop doing two people's jobs.

Thank you for letting me rant. I had a glass of wine as 'dessert'. It was delicious. I bought the mini bottles of riesling, so I can enjoy one glass at a time.

Now I know how the moon feels...

On my plane ride back to IL, I had a window seat. It was really nice because my side of the plane had the sunshine. But what I found, once we were up in the atmosphere, is that the 'sunny side of my body' (head, right arm, etc,) was all warm, but my backside, feet, etc. never saw the sun.

Now I know how the moon feels...

Arizona, Arizona

Here I am, in sunny AZ!

I sat by the most interesting man. He used to be a wedding singer! He guessed my age at 24 (I think he was being nice.) We chatted only at the end, since we were sleeping in-between beverage service rounds.

Anyway, I'm tired and have to finish the day here. Tomorrow is going to be interesting...

Nauseous super naus...

I have the Mr. Grinch song stuck in my head, hence the title.

So, I think I'm getting ahead of everyone by grocery shopping at Jewel at 9AM this morning. Worked out pretty well. Got tons of groceries, got home, put them all in the cupboards in less than an hour and a half. Then I start making the lasagna. Now I was just putting it together for later, mind you. Well, Mr.Nosey comes downstairs and 'inspects' my browning of the meat. Lo and behold, although I had hidden the evidence, the ground turkey had not browned enough to cover my evidence. So he knows ahead of time that it is indeed turkey meat in the lasagna, not ground beef. Trying to be tricky...

Also, on my way out the door right at lunchtime to visit with the rest of the Man clan (well, the women anyways), I forget my cell phone. As I make my way back into the house, here is Mr. Catman making himself a fine lunchy of chicken fingers and french fries. CAUGHT! He is a trickster, but I think we're even now.

Christmas is a-coming

Yes, I know we have Thanksgiving first, but something about going and buying my James Taylor at Christmas CD made me very excited. And I bought Love Actually as well because it's a beautiful movie and I was in a sappy mood.

Now that I think about the CD, I'm wondering if I need to start buying things MP3 style. I wonder what the majority of people are doing right now. And no, I don't think the husband will buy me an i-Pod. He's anti-Mac. *teehee*