23 December 2006

Better go on and do it now...

...because I've become the queen of procrastination. I haven't gotten a THING done really that I was supposed to get done today because I got very wrapped up in cleaning the house. My friend Mary is coming down tomorrow (or tonight, not sure at this point) to babysit the Zoo while I go to see my family for Christmas.

So, Merry Christmas to my faithful, what, five or six readers? I'll be off tomorrow to Atlanta to see my sister and brother in law, go to church with one of them, and then head north either that night or the next morning to see my parents for Christmas. Before then, I have to finish cleaning house, do a bit more shopping (yeah, I'm one of THOSE people), wrap pressies, pack the car (which includes performing the transformer routine where it goes from hauling vehicle to one that actually has passenger seats in the back, dog hair and all), and be ready to head out after I've kissed their noggins for the umpteenth time tomorrow.

I really hate being away from them on Christmas, but since I'm the only one in my family that is a dog person really, save my brother in law, there just isn't a way for me to take them with me. I'm trying not to think about this being possibly Profile's and Franny's last Christmas with me, about the fact that last year at Christmas my Zoe-Boh was still with me or that I was still living close to my friends in Greenville, or that if fate were a little more kind I'd be looking forward to New Year's Eve in London. Instead, I am drinking the fab PG Tips that Amy sent me, tossing toys for my maniac old man Prof in the den and watching Newcastle Utd football on TV...when I should be out the door to shop.

Merry Christmas, y'all!!

19 December 2006

I'm TOTALLY stealing from Liz on this post.

She had a great idea, to put the first bits of the first and last posts from each month over the past year, so I'm gonna steal it. I don't think it's creeping if I admit it. Flattery and all...much love to you, Liz. Much love.

January 2006

First: ...So that ebeth will have something to read...just kidding.
Last: I think I got tagged by Amy...

February 2006

First: I think it's going to be a Bad Ear Day all around.
Last: Those with more widely read blogs probably wouldn't blink an eye at this, but lookee what I found on the internet today...

March 2006

First: The pups and I are taking off on our first real vacation together tomorrow morning.
Last: I still haven't managed to recover the pearls of wisdom that apparently washed down the drain with the food and the soap and the bubbles while washing dishes yesterday.

April 2006

First: I think I may be coming down with something, so my post today is going to be random stuff slung together...that's about the best my brain can do at the moment.
Last: My season with the Georgia Renaissance Festival has now come to a close.

May 2006

First: When toys attack...I'm glad Hunky loves me...
Last: Hope everyone had a safe Memorial Day...

June 2006

First: Amy and I started out today for Mountain Hounds, a weekend greyhound gathering for greyhounds and their humans, at 7am.
Last: ...and then there was the YELLING...Holy moly. I was raised in a very quiet household.

July 2006

First: Do I regret not putting her on a raw diet sooner? Yes. (Lizzard's birthday)
Last: In 19 days I will leave my precious hounds with my friends, then kiss my kitties on their furry noggins and beg them not to make craft projects out of my carpet and drapes.

August 2006

First: Shamelessly stolen from the sig line of a friend's email...
Last: Missed me? Probably not...I've been out of the country in the UK since 20 August, and have only just gotten home tonight.

September 2006

First: Hunky: Whine Whine Whine...pause and tilt head in cute manner...whine whine whine.
Last: Hunk: (lying on the floor in the guest room, making a moaning noise)

October 2006

First: I'm back online, finally! Here's the Reader's Digest version of the past two weeks of my life...
Last: Yesterday morning I was in Huntersville, NC for the Carolina Renaissance Festival.

November 2006

First: I'm still here, though I admit I'm finding few things to write about for Brave Lettuce these days.
Last: he looked the same tonight when I got home from work, tired from a long day of problems psychosis target languages and long training sessions

December 2006

First: Every Friday night my "Montgomery Family" gets together to watch Battlestar Galactica. I'll let the uber nerdiness of that statement sink in for a moment...done? Good.

14 December 2006

A Christmas Meme from Gracious Light

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Hot Choc, specifically the hazelnut kind from Tar--jay. Yum.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Yes. :)

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
White for both, but colored is quite festive.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Nah, too much pressure. I'm more about the sneak attack.

5. When do you put your decorations up?
Um, this weekend, hopefully?

6. What is your favorite holiday dish?
Either my mom's homemade Andes Candies or my Aunt Mary's fudge.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
All of it, from Thanksgiving till New Year's.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
Some kid in I think fourth grade told me, so on the ride home from school I asked Mom point blank and she didn't lie. She said that Santa was a creation of the good feelings that we have toward each other all year that manifest at Christmas and that he reminded us of the gift God gave us in Jesus. All that wisdom, so eloquently stated, and all I could manage to think was how fast I was gonna tell my sister so that I wasn't the only one whose Christmas was ruined. Mom knew me well enough to remind me to let my sister ask for herself and not tell her just yet...

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
No, I'm generally at home with the dogs alone so it's kinda anti climactic.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
White lights and colored lights and ornaments...each of which has a significance and a story. Just ask my ex husband. He heard every one of them for 7 Christmases.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Love it if it's real snow and not the icy wanna be we get in the south.

12. Can you ice skate?
Yes and did I mention there is an ICE RINK at the MALL here? Wooooooooo!

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
My puppy called Lady.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Being able to show the people I love how important they are to me since I'm one of those that can't remember to do it all year long.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
I have to pick one?

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
My sister putting the baby Jesus from the nativity on top of the barn.

17. What tops your tree?
An angel.

18.Which do you prefer giving or receiving?
Giving.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
Carol of the Bells or Silent Night by Manheim Steamroller.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
Yum.

13 December 2006

Why did I never listen to Coldplay till now?

Here and on my Myspace blog (yeah, I have a myspace, so? You wanna fight abowt it?) I've listed the lyrics to two of my favorite songs by this incredible band that I've only just discovered, sadly...

"Til Kingdom Come"

Steal my heart and hold my tongue.
I feel my time, my time has come.
Let me in, unlock the door.
I've never felt this way before.

The wheels just keep on turning,
The drummer begins to drum,
I don't know which way I'm going,
I don't know which way I've come.

Hold my head inside your hands,
I need someone who understands.
I need someone, someone who hears,
For you, I've waited all these years.

For you, I'd wait 'til kingdom come.
Until my day, my day is done.
And say you'll come, and set me free,
Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me.

In your tears and in your blood,
In your fire and in your flood,
I hear you laugh, I heard you sing,
"I wouldn't change a single thing."

The wheels just keep on turning,
The drummers begin to drum,
I don't know which way I'm going,
I don't know what I've become.

For you, I'd wait 'til kingdom come,
Until my days, my days are done.
Say you'll come and set me free,
Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me.
Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me.
Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me.

10 December 2006

Wise Beyond his Years

i dont know if this will help at all but maybe instead of thinking of the cancer as a totaly bad thing think of it as his special little message to you to tell you that he is getting close to learning how to love and wanted to let you know so that you would be ready when ever his time does come and so you can prepare your self.
-R. Cales, 14 years old, commenting on my guilt that I've let Profile down...he had said earlier in that message that each creature on the earth is here to learn how to love and then is called "back home." Animals catch on faster than humans, and therefore their lives aren't as long.

...it's like nothing bad could ever happen to you there...

pretending to be audey hepburn NYC 1997

It's beginning to look a lot like a BLINDING Christmas

Lois Lane Eat Your Heart Out
Yesterday I fulfilled a dream I've had since I was a child. I got glasses. Growing up I was the ONLY one in my family that didn't have glasses and I felt rather left out. My parents and sister think I'm INSANE. I see it as the same as being the only redhead in the family, or the only deaf member of a hearing family (as many of my friends are), you just want to be the same as your biologicals, right?

Anyway, I had apparently lost my mind because I went to the Lens Crafters AT THE MALL yesterday around 11am, thinking I'd be in and out in not more than two hours. No Rx Ms Lassiter? Ahhhh you need to see the eye doctor. No problem. I'm a walk-in, so 45 minutes later I'm reading letters projected into a mirror and testing my depth perception. Then I go into another room for the dreaded glaucoma test...the puff of air in the eye. Somehow they had to do my left eye three times and my right only once. Go figure. No glaucoma there.

Next the dreaded question that I'd heard from the lobby..."Now, are you okay with us numbing and then dilating your eyes?" Huh? No idea, never had it done before. She explained what it would involve and how they'd be dilated for about 2 hours afterward (try FOUR, in actuality) but by the time I got my glasses I should be okay to drive home. I agreed to it and ended up back in the lobby waiting my turn with the doctor.

I suppose because they were numb I couldn't feel the pupils actually stretching to the edges of my eyelashes because I was just reading the BBC on my blackberry when suddenly the lights got BRIGHT in the room and the text got fuzzy. BAM! I'm a big baby about most things, ask anyone that knows me, but crimney that was scary. I mean, I've gotten used to things being fuzzy a bit, but that was bizarre...from a news story on post office closings in the UK to a grey mass in my hand with slightly blue edges.

Saw the doctor. No big deal there. Get this...I don't have enough astigmatism for him to write a Rx for glasses to correct it. "Not yet," he said. What did I need? Are you ready? I wasn't...

Bifocals.

So after that stunning news I was sent out to pick out frames. Remember my bright and blurry vision? Yeah, who knows what some of those glasses really looked like on me! I know that there was one pair I ADORED but it was burgundy with a hint of green...I never wear those colors and I didn't want my glasses to clash with my clothes.

Yep, I just said that. Y'all that know me well take a second to recover.

Got frames, paid exorbitant amount of money, headed out to kill an hour in the mall. Holy smack is the mall bright and twinkly and painful when your eyes can't close to block out light. UGH. I made my way to the food court, had some lunch, and then wandered back to find an ICE RINK in the middle of the mall! ICE SKATING! I love ice skating! I fought with myself for a few minutes not to spend the $6 to take a turn on the ice...picture that why don'tcha? Me spinning around on a slick surface...a slick WHITE AND REFLECTS LIGHT surface surrounded by children that are whizzing past and knocking each other down? Thankfully for my knees and bum I decided NOT to try skating while under the influence of dilation drops.

Got the glasses, headed out for more shopping. Thankfully the dreary weather we had last week cleared up yesterday and it was SUNNY outside. I made it to Target and then went home. Didn't make it in time to get to talk to my friend from Yorkshire on the phone, so I finally fell asleep on my chair in the den watching television.

What an exciting life I lead...but hey, I've got GLASSES!!!

05 December 2006

Mobile Blogging For Dummies

So I'm here at the Alabama DMV, waiting to get my new driver's license. I'm number 46 (and 47, truth be told, I pulled the thing too hard and got two numbers) and they are on 31. I really thought that I'd be beating the crowd by coming on a Tuesday morning, but it seems that everyone else had the same idea. But in a bit and after almost $30 I will be legal to drive in Alabama.

The big news really is that I am blogging from my blackberry. I know that Liz at least will be applauding me for finally moving into the 21st century...

Ding! 32!

02 December 2006

Convening the Urban Family

Every Friday night my "Montgomery Family" gets together to watch Battlestar Galactica.

I'll let the uber nerdiness of that statement sink in for a moment...done? Good.

Last night was no different. I got a call at about 6pm from Bryan that they would be over at about 7:30 and that they were bringing dinner. I was on the phone with my friend from Yorkshire at the time, and only clicked over to the cell phone a moment to answer the call, then back to Yorkshire. Three times my call waiting beeped in, but since I was on the phone to another country I didn't answer it. The first time it was my friend Kimmy (whom I still have to call back) and the second time I thought it was my friend Leah...as often happens if one of my Sistahs calls me and doesn't get me she calls the other Sistah to see if she's heard from me, so I assumed that the number I saw in the caller ID was Leah. Only...Leah's area code is 336 and the number, it seems, in the caller ID was 334. But I was working so hard on my Yorkshire at the moment I mistook the 4 for a 6.

The person calling, in fact, was Ben, Urban Family Member. There was a plan hatched that I totally ruined, you see. Ben was calling to tell me that he'd locked his keys in his car and needed me to come get him where he was stranded. Then, when I of course dashed out the door to his rescue, Bryan and Christy would come over to my house (they have my spare key) bringing birthday cake, chili, hot wings, and ice cream along with balloons, gifts, and a birthday tablecloth/napkins/plates set and have me a nice wee surprise party when I returned with Ben. However, since I didn't call Ben back, they all showed up at my house just before Battlestar came on, bearing gifts and food and balloons and looking a bit cranky.


Insert me as Class A Heel! Even Franny thought I didn't deserve any cake...


We had a marvelous time, though, and it really turned out to be one of the best birthday parties I've had in a long time. They really did too much, and I love them dearly for just thinking of me.
I admit that I was a bit down this past week, the news of Profile's cancer coinciding with spending my 35th birthday alone rather set me in a dark mood. But we laughed until we cried last night, Ben and Bryan sword-fought throughout my house, the food was good and a grand time was had by all.

I think the boys had a little too much of a good time, as they were crashed out on the sofa till about 5am...


When I feel alone in Montgomery all I have to do is think of the three of them and I smile. I'm not alone. Urban Family to the Rescue!
L-R Me, Ben, Bryan, and Christy

Music Monday: Sweet Lark...I mean, Melissa

Yeah, so today's song is speaking to my current #WIP but only in the eyes of the male MC I think. But at the same time, it is a call bac...