My Holiday: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

I think I had a pretty normal Christmas this year-it was filled with some good and bad. Here it is-in a nutshell:

Christmas Eve
1. Slept in=yay!
2. Ate a 4th of a box of munchums for lunch=boo
3. Visit from my sister and brother-in-law=yay!
4. No visit from my mom since she had to work=boo
5. Had great seats to a show=yay!
6. It was the Radio City Music Show/Rockettes Christmas=boo
7. Made salad and pizza for dinner=yay
8. got drunk off the Holiday Punch=boo(?)...nah...YAY!
9. Visit from my dad=mostley yay...
10. He brought his horribly behaved dog even though I asked him not to=boo
11. Went to sleep nicely sloshed=yay

Christmas Day
1. Awoke early=boo
2. Opened gifts=yay
3. Got everything I wanted and then some=yay
4. Got in a mini fight with Zak as we made lunch=boo
5. Made too little mashed potatos=boo
6. Watched Greg the Bunny while drinking mimosas=yay
7. Won playing Trivial Persuit Pop Culture DVD edition=yay
8. Lost playing Trivial Persuit 90s edition=boo
9. went to bed nicely buzzed again=yay!

Boxing Day
1. Slept in and avoided early morning insane after Christmas shopping=yay!
2. Went shopping in the afternoon and avoided crowds=yay
3. Target was out of bows and tags by the time I got there=boo
4. Dad, Sis, me, Zak, Bro-in-law, and Mom travelled to Bro and Sis-in-law's to celebrate=yay
5. also saw 18 month old nephew=yay
6. Dad still brought bad dog and it riled up the two huge dogs my brother has already, scratched at the door, whined, barked, and jumped all over everything=boo
7. Opened more gifts=yay!
8. Played Shout Out movie trivia game and kicked ass=yay
9. Lost anyway on final question=boo
10. Went to sleep too late and awoke too early the next morning=boo

December 27
1. Returned home with enough time to clean out car=boo
2. But also with enough time to take a nap=yay
3. Read Blogger Friends posts and found that they had good Christmases as well=yay
4. Was too tired to blog or comment=boo
5. Went to sleep at 9pm=yay
6. Without any alcohol=boo

December 28
1. Went back to work=boo
2. And realized that it meant the Holidays were over=yay!


So as you see, not much to complain about-atleast not much that I can actually post here without fear that my family will actually find this and realize it's me and be mad about what I posted...I'm so paranoid.
Hope everyone had a great Holiday Season as well!

Holiday Punch

I had a pretty good Christmas Eve this year but mostley because I don't remember all of it. And I have Holiday Punch to thank. Cheers!

1 litre gin (we used Beefeater-it was excelent)
1/2 cup curacao (Does this come in any other color than blue? It's all we could find but I bet the holiday punch is a prettier color if you don't use the blue...)
5 cups orange juice
1 1/2 cups lemon juice
2 oz. grenadine
1 litre lemon-lime soda
lemon and orange slices to garnish

Pour chilled gin, curacao, fruit juices, and grenadine into a punch bowl. Stir well, add soda, and stir gently again. Garnish with fruit slices. Makes about 32 servings. (But it's a lot more fun if it's divided between three people like we did. Goes down smooth as a mountain stream....)

Workin' It

I know some of you will think I'm crazy for saying this but I just got a new job and I'm so excited about it. I used to work for a museum in Washington, DC but my husband and I had to move to Detroit for his job. DC was a good place for an art historian but Detroit, however, has been more difficult. It's been about 6 months of soley working on my thesis papers, searching for work, and being unemployed-at first it was nice but after a while it really sucked. I started to loose faith that I would find anything ever again-I'm a bit fatalistic.
This Friday I will be starting my new job at The Detroit Institute of Art. If you're ever in the neighborhood stop by and I'll show you around.

You Can't Take Me Anywhere...

For our anniversary Zak and I decided to go to my favorite sushi restaurant in downtown Royal Oak. It's kind of weird that I love sushi so much since I don't eat fish or any other kind of seafood but I adore vegetarian "sushi". Anyway, we get our meals and I put a nice little pool of soy sauce in my cute little sauce dish in order to drench my sushi in the stuff. Just as I'm about to take my first big bite, the sushi roll slips from within my poorly held chopsticks and splashes right into the dish of soy sauce...spraying soy sauce all over me and the table. I was so embarassed! I was almost able to convince myself that no one saw but Zak was sure to tell me that everyone saw me and to point out that I now had soy sauce and wasabi all over my shirt-all while he stuffed his face with tempura. Nice. Oh well. You just can't take me anywhere.
The worst was that for the rest of the night I stunk like soy sauce: All through our dessert at Cold Stone Creamery, all through our shopping, and all through our movie search at the local video store. Finally, when we returned home, I was able to change my clothes and escape the soy sauce cloud that followed me. Or so I thought. However, it did not. I apperently also got it in my hair. Yuck. So I smelled like Kikkoman's until I took a shower this morning.

It's Our Anniversary

me and Zak on our wedding day

Today is our anniversary-We've been married for two whole years. To celebrate we're going to dinner and a movie tonight. Nothing too fancy. I have a feeling we'll never be those people who go to fancy dinners and buy each other expensive gifts for out anniversary. Do people really do that or is it just in movies and smarmy commercials? Zak hates that commercial where the couple is in Venice for their anniversary and they're standing in San Marco Square and the guy starts yelling *I love this woman* and the girl shushes him and instead he gives her a ginormous diamond ring and they hug and she wispers *I love this man* in his ear. We're never those people. We're the couple in the background of that commercial with the map out yelling at each other because I just spent our last Euro on gelatto and Zak just got attacked by a rabid pidgeon.
Oh well. I think realistic marriages like ours end up lasting the longest anyway.

Blade

I went and saw the movie Blade: Trinity last night. I think I've mentioned before that my husband and I watch any Vampire movie no matter how crappy-not sure why, we just do. Luckily, it met my low expectations so I wasn't disappointed. Plus my husband got big laughs by impersonating Kris Kristopherson for the rest of the night-he actually does a dead on impression so it was hilarious.
I went into the movie a little snobby-thinking myself a little better than the usual Blade crowd. Good thing karma is always there to bring me down...on my usualy trip back from the pre-preview bathroom visit (I love previews-Never miss them) I walk into the theater to find that the movie was already playing. I find this a bit odd since I thought I'd given myself plenty of time and there's usually a slew of commercials and (my favorite) previews but I don't really question it and I just sit in my seat. Also, strange was the fact that my husband was missing. I shrug this off as well since I know he needed to use the restroom as well and must have just left when the movie started rather than wait for me. So I just sit and start to watch. However, I don't understand whats going on at all. Is the movie so sucky that even missing a few opening minutes would throw me off for the rest of the viewing? Ummmm...NO! I'm just a big idiot. I had walked into the wrong theater and was watching the last few minutes of the movie I had gone to watch. I FINALLY realize my mistake after about 5 mintues, leave, and make my way across the hall to the theater I'm supposed to be-where, my husband was patiently waiting.

I'm glad I can always do something stupid for a good laugh-and for a little humility.

Oh the Humanity

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My brother-in-law found this article on the web.

'Beckham Nativity' Tableau Outrages Churches'

By Paul Majendie
LONDON (Reuters) - Church leaders united Wednesday to condemn a Christmas nativity tableau depicting soccer star David Beckham as Joseph and his pop singer wife Victoria as the Virgin Mary.
Anglicans, Catholics and Presbyterians called the exhibit at Madame Tussaud's waxwork museum in London a new low in the cult of celebrity worship.
In the tableau, Australian pop star Kylie Minogue hovers above the crib as an angel while "Posh Spice" Victoria lays her shawled head tenderly on Beckham's shoulder.
Tony Blair, George W. Bush and the Duke of Edinburgh star as The Three Wise Men. The shepherds are played by Hollywood star Samuel L. Jackson, British actor Hugh Grant and camp Irish comedian Graham Norton.
The Vatican was not amused.

It's weird but that's actually a church service I wouldn't mind going to. I am surprised that the staff at Madame Tussaud's would include George Bush as one of the Wise Men.

X-mas Wrapping

I wrapped the majority of my x-mas gifts tonight. The other gifts should be arriving from Amazon.com anyday now. I think I've come to the conclusion that I should do all shopping on line from now on. Each year I depend more and more on the internet...because each year I get more and more fed up with x-mas shoppers. I feel it's safer for all of us if I stay home on the computer.
Stacey's post about Snoop Dog and the wrapping of gifts reminded me of the year I went home for x-mas eve and had to go see the x-mas play at church. When I was a kid the performance was always the same...the x-mas story, told by us kids, straight from the bible. But that year they had decided to try and modernize it and there was this horrible song/rap related to gift *wrapping*...get it...*rap* and *wrap*...yeah, I thought it was stupid too. I wonder if they ever fixed that glich and went back to the good ole stand by. Maybe baby Jesus will (w)rap this year...

National Treasure=bad

I forgot to immediatly tell you all that I was forced to see National Treasure over Thanksgiving weekend. My family-in-law wanted to see it so I was obliged to go. I'm glad I didn't have to pay for it. I've never rolled my eyes so much during a movie...I've also never been so antsy during a movie. I just couldn't sit still. It was that painful to watch. Usually I'm able to suspend my disbelief and be entertained by almost any kind of big screen crap (or any kind of crap for that matter) but this was really bad. I don't know what pissed me off more: the fact that I felt Disney totally stole the entire story from Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code or Nick Cage. I really dislike Nick Cage. He looks like he smells bad.

Big Slacker

One of my friends decided to create a book club and I, of course, told her I would be part of it. Little did I realize what a big slacker I would be about it. I'm supposed to meet her and some of her other friends tommorow to discuss Celestial Navagation by Anne Tyler. I started the book two days ago. Oops. Luckily I'm a pretty fast reader and I'm almost done. Unluckily I detest the book and have nothing to say about it-except that. I guess I'm not one of "thinkin' book" type of people. It's about all these disfunctional people who are discontent with thier lives until they lose someone and then they finally realize how good it was and then they're too disfunctional to say anything that they mean when it needs to be said. I'm never able to identify with these characters as I tend to say everything I think whenever it comes into my head. Plus, eventhough I'm just as disfunctional as the next person I don't really feel discontent. Ugh. Maybe I'll just skip the get together and tell everyone to just read this blog. Maybe I'll just go and stuff my face...Hopefully there will be good eats. I also hope they pick something a little more my speed next time. Like Entertainment Weekly or something like that.