Boxing and Relaxing

Happy Boxing Day! Not that I'm Canadian but I have to appreciate a country who actually has a holiday for shopping. I, myself did not do any shopping as of yet today. I should still make a run to the grocery store but I can't convince myself to leave my house, or to be more accurate, my couch.

Though I did do some boxing on Nintendo Wii last night, it really is a lot of fun. We had some of the guys over last night to check out the Wii. A fun time was had and a few people are now talking about getting their own.

So Christmas Eve and Day were good. Christmas Eve afternoon with the in-laws was nice. We actually went out to dinner instead of my sister-in-law stress cooking and while the in-laws seemed impressed, I was less. Just another big chain restaurant. Nothing special. Afterwards, we went to the Allison's for the G.L.G.A. get together which was a lot of fun. (I've added a slideshow to myspace) We spent the night there and got up and had a nice relaxing Christmas morning. Then headed home to shower/change and head to my parents. That was really nice, just my parents, grandparents, brother, his wife and my new niece were left there. The niece is getting so big and is very adorable. I may even volunteer to do some babysitting.

Right now, the husband is on the phone trying to figure out what to do this evening. And I need to get off the couch, and make myself look ready for public. Have a nice night internet.

Sweaters, Cameras and Holidays!

So I did manage to get the Sweater Sunday pictures up on myspace last night. I only put up 16 of them though I took about 140 pictures. Of course, there may only be 80-90 good ones anyway. I'm still amazed with the amount of photos I take even though I'm on my 3rd digital camera in 5 years. It's not because I've broke any of them, I just like to upgrade every couple of years. My last 2 have been Sony Cybershots which I just love. So small and fits nicely in any purse I happen to carry. I got the T9 back in the spring and am just thrilled with it. This camera is better at low light then my first one, which I believe is the T1. Both camera's take their best pictures is either bright natural light or in low-light with flash but if I compare pictures I took on the same day with both cameras I can really see the difference. Take a look:

This was taken on a cloudy afternoon in Bay City in July when the Tall Ships were coming in with the T1:




This was taken about a half hour later with the T9:

The T9 is a lot clearer then my T1, and I still use the T1 since Sony got cheap on me and doesn't include the docking station with the T9's. So I just put my memory card in my T1 and use the docking station that goes with that to do my uploads.

I love, love my camera and can't even imagine not having it. So with the Holidays heading at me this weekend I'll be sure to have some fun pictures to share along the way.

Tonight, I have our dance christmas party. Sunday is Christmas with the in-laws, then GLGA Christmas, Monday with my family, Wednesday we'll be at the Curran's. So lots of fun in the next few days and lots of good photo ops.

I will share 1 Sweater Sunday picture with you here. Dryfuss and Selah would like to wish you a very Happy Holiday Season!

Ben Sweatering?

So last I time I ended with mention of going to look for an ugly sweater. I'm sure this left you wondering why someone would seek out an ugly sweater. Well, let me explain. I have been invited for the 3rd consecutive year to go to Sweater Sunday at Jimmy's 4 Aces in Bay City. The event is held the last Sunday before Christmas/Christmas Eve so it fell on the 17th this year. It just a good excuse for a bunch of random friends to get together and have a 'crates' time while wearing the ugliest sweater they can find. This year I wore a terrible Winnie the Pooh little girls sweater that I got at Goodwill for $1. I have nothing against Winnie the Pooh, but I am not at all a fun of wearing themed garments at all, so this is what made this garment appealing to me.

I have lots of pictures of this event and I may even post some here. No, wait I won't. I will put up a slideshow on myspace, so check it out there. Currently, my myspace is themed for Sweater Sunday as it is. I can't wait to see some of the pictures other people took. I didn't end up with any good pictures of my sweater, hopefully someone else did.

This is an official G.L.G.A Holiday endorsed by a founding member, Ben.

Next G.L.G.A. event is Christmas Eve at the Allison's. That will be a good one too. But I've still got to do my Christmas shopping before then. I'm totally working on it.... sorta. Gift cards make shopping so easy, but present opening rather boring. I may have to make the wrapping more exciting to make up for it!

Functioning at 95%

The voice is mostly back, I sound like truck driving smoker. Please, if anyone who is reading this who happens to be a truck driving smoker, don't take offense to this. See my brother is a truck driving smoker and I sound a lot like him right now. That is all I meant by that.

Seriously, my luck would be the first comment someone would ever leave would be hate mail from a truck driving smoker. Though, I'm sure I don't have to worry at all since no one reads this. Ok so if you are reading this, please leave me a comment! See what this is doing to me, now I'm a comment whore. Next, I'll make you tell me how smart and pretty I am. Also, please tell me how thin I look cuz then I'll be super nice to you even though I'll awkwardly handle the compliment unless I've had a few adult beverages in which then I'll be "I know, thanks." See, I get a little cocky sometimes when I've had a few. I also get loud and that filter that keeps you from saying things you shouldn't, it vanishes. Totally gone. The next morning I'll ask the husband "Did I really say "erghkegerg" to x?" and he's like "Yep, the filter was gone".

Wow, the other 5% of me that I need to function must be the part that stops me from rambling. So enough of this. I'm off to find an UGLY sweater!

And then I lost my voice.

Yep. So I thought I was good on Friday. Nope, see I was in a haze due to the Daschle/Nyquil combo I had going on. So Friday was Hef's 40th birthday party and it was fun, but as the night went on my voice just started slipping away. Then I hit the Secrets. They didn't help. I tried some Diet Vernors, that didn't help. By the time the lovely staff of Jake's Corner Bar asked us to leave, I could barely talk. I woke up on Saturday with little voice, same on Sunday AND the headache and throbbing were back. Monday, I had to do it. I went to the Doctor and while I know most people have horror stories about their doctor visits; mine was quick, super quick. Appointment was as 2:45, I was out of the there by 3:05. No kidding. Turns out I have laryngitis. So I got some antibiotics that I can tell are working and some nasty ass cough syrup. I mean old school stuff I remember choking down when I was a kid. I do it like a shot and chase it with some juice.

Which reminds me. When I'm healthy and can partake in the adult beverages again. I want some Gin n' Juice and maybe to hang out with Snoop Dog. (No it's not the cough medicine making me say that). Though it could be the Diet Pepsi.

Boo to Colds

I was getting cocky, I'll admit it. I hadn't been sick since last April, which considering the amount of time I spend around germy people is amazing. It hit me early Tuesday morning, the sore throat, the throbbing head. So yesterday I drank some cough syrup and slept most of the day, today I stayed home again but actually did some work. I think I'll be good enough to go back tomorrow.

Here I was thinking the Whey protein shakes I incorporated into my diet last April were really boosting my immune system and they could have, but I didn't get a whole lot of rest last weekend and then did my typical long Monday and BOOM. Cold.

As long as I'm good by the weekend I'll be happy!

Introducing Dryfuss and Selah

Winter has happened. We had our first storm of the winter, great way to start out December. Not really. I decided to work from home today as did a lot of the other folks I work with. This morning was mainly ice, I woke up about 3:30 am to the sound of the ice pelting the window and the ice kept going until mid-morning. A couple hours ago everything started switching over to snow but its not really sticking yet, so it is just mainly sloppy outside now. I'd almost of rather to have the nice dry cold snow. Mainly, because Selah, (GS#2), loves those cold snowy mornings. She is so funny to watch play in the snow. This stuff, no one likes, Dryfuss (GS#1), hates being wet anymore. He's 10, almost 11, he wants to potty in a nice dry warm place. Can't say I blame him. So since I've never mentioned these guys before let me tell you more about them.

They are both German Sheppards, hence the GS.

GS#1 - Dryfuss or D for short, as I said he'll be 11 in April, we've had him since he was about 18 months old and we were still living in in Troy. We were asked to house sit him while his owner went to India. Dryfuss had been living in an apartment, so when he came to our house and had his own little fenced in backyard to hang out in, he was thrilled. When the owner came back and took D home. D just wanted to be outside and the owner asked him if we wanted to keep him. I begged since the first dog I ever had was a GS named Chris. I got my way and now years later, he's starting to slow down some. Instead of playing catch with a tennis ball all day, he'll do it a few times and then lays down.

GS#2 - Selah, after we moved to Bay City and fenced in about an acre for D to play on I thought he was lonely and should get a friend. One of the ladies I work with knew someone who had a female GS that needed a home. We drove to Dewitt to meet her and I fell in love, she is just so sweet and soft. D seemed to like her too. So we adopted her. She had more issues then D as far as behavior, it was obvious she had been abused and liked to get into things. We got her a crate since she was crate trained and then we couldn't get D to stay out of it so we had to go get him one.

Here is a picture of them:


As much as they can be a pain. I do love them, just not to much all the constant shedding they do.

D almost always has a tennis ball with him, he's on right, Selah on the left.