excitement of the day

today i purchased the best coffee on the face of the planet.. well, at least as far as i know. i mean, SRSLY. it's de-lish. i bought me some Creme Brulee flavored coffee, recommended to me by a specific favorite Kansonian i know.

i would just like to say.. :::tear::: "Thanks, Michelle."

a tad bit sick of listening to christmas music.

it's true. i'm sick of it. i was so excited by the joy of christmas that I became a loyal listener to the christmas station on Thanksgiving day. Enough about Santa, Rudolph and dreaming about white christmases already!
It was somewhat anticlimatic this year. No children frolicking around in the house asking about Santa or even much family to spend it with this year. Just my mother and I.. which could easily have been a nightmare, but it turned out we got along well. She sent me home with about forty-seven thousand ornaments for Dougie, the dying Christmas tree. He likes to excrement needles all over the floor and reject all somewhat heavy ornaments with which i have attempted to adorn. I suppose his branches are withering and the end is near for his short lifespan.
I also arrived home with two lovely longaberger baskets (things i could never afford)
as well as some lovely dishes and such useful things to scatter around the townhome with glee.

The end.

christmas cookie extravaganza!!!

it's that usual time of the year, and i'm in the midst of planning my christmas cookie marathon this weekend. unfortunately, i will be all alone for the endeavor this year.. i'm a bit sad and reminiscent of traditional family baking, but excited to be able to do it ALL myself! i shortened the usual list as i have a LOT less people to give cookies to in this particular area where i now reside. but here goes..
candy cane cookies
peanut blossoms
snickerdoodles
forgotten cookies (meringues)
christmas wreaths (made with cornflakes and marshmallows, mmm)
homemade fudge
sugar cookies
oreo truffles
raspberry thumbrints
russian teacakes

any other suggestions, favorites, comments, questions? woohoo! let's. get. started.

bronchitis is the bane of my existence.

i seem to have a magical throat disease with the ability to sustain itself for three weeks. i have tried literally everything to kick this wretched thing to the curb. amoxicillin, robitussin with codeine, theraflu, mucinex, nyquil, dayquil, emergen-c's, ricolas, cloroseptic, vitamens, green tea with honey, and even gargling with warm salt water. NO effect whatsoever. My doctor just prescribed some more drugs. We'll see if it works.

I thought these problems would cease two years ago with a tonsilectomy.

the universe must hate me.

pianosick.

after precisely twelve days of exasperating sickness causing me to be bedridden with bronchitis and guilt-ridden for having missed so much work, i simply could not stand the challenge of staying inside for one more single day. and so, i charged my still recovering body to explore the city for an evening this past weekend. boy, was it worth it.
cheesecake factory is food heaven, i think. chicken marsala agrees with my tastebuds.
and so does red wine.
after which we stumbled upon a piano dueling bar. we stepped inside, walked upstairs to a giant room filled with tables and chairs and rowdy people drinking their happy hour rail drinks and enjoying two grand pianos in the middle of the room. two men were dueling with weapons of raw talent and amazing memory of every popular song of the past 50 years that anyone could possibly think of to request. wads of paper with already fulfilled requests were strewn about their feet as they sang mightily of every favorite song i could conjure. i enjoyed myself immensely.
it made me miss playing ,actually. i have not played rachmoninov, chopin, or beethoven in eighteen months.

Dougie.

i recently decided i absolutely must get myself in the christmas spirit. so, i went out and bought many many decorations, twinkle lights, and even [my very first] real christmas tree. after 23 years of the same fake christmas tree my mother alwaysalwaysalways chose to reside in the corner of her living room right into the month of February. clearly, i have no experience in the choosing of the lucky Douglas Fur that shall litter my clean floor with pine needles and waft the smell of pine and sap throughout my little townhome-like atmosphere. So i chose the first one i decided to like. It was a done deal when the Christmas-tree-salesman-wearing-scary-flannel-from-the-90s told me it was a Douglas Fur. So I took my little Dougie home with me. Got it through the door juuuuust fine, and then attempted the process of standing Dougie upright in my own living room. What i failed to notice is that Dougie is of a gargantuan[umm sp?] stature at 7 feet tall.

My ceiling is apparently only 6 feet tall.

These are the things that occur when short people fail to realize that everything/one generally is usually much taller than we think.

CRAP.

so, i immediately transformed into Macguyver, got my carving knife out (scissors are way too small for this job) and shaved the top of Dougie's head off.

and now, i have a decapitated christmas tree.

poor dougie.

tonight, i shall adorn him with twinkle lights.

cookie monster and elmo

oh how i miss love and adore these children.






somehow i ended up a rather flamboyant flapper.