Shadows

On Andrew's suggestion,  I tried Google + to edit my picture for February.   It will have to do since after April I can't use Picasa anymore,  but I'm not 100% thrilled with it. I fully admit Google runs my life (I use gmail,  Blogger even though I like Wordpress better,  Google Docs,  Picasa...)  I just don't like Google +.   I'm pretty sure Facebook is second when it comes to running my life and I'm fine with that.  I don't need Google + as well,  but now I have to use it.   And I can't put fun images on my picture,  like last month's super cool firecracker.    I really need to get Photoshop but since I have a next to useless computer that probably can't even run Photoshop,  I'm  not about to spend the money on it right now.   I have to buy it before my mother retires though, since she gets a teacher discount on it and she'll never need it for herself.

That also brings us to the actual picture.   I've already admitted I've been awful about taking non-iPhone pictures lately,  so I had nothing to use for February.  I did take my camera down the cape yesterday,  but I never got to the beach to take some winter scenes.   I went through that past year's winter photos but they were all very snowy.   Since it hasn't really snowed yet this winter and I would love to keep it that way,  I'm not about to jinx myself and end up with a blizzard. 

In the end I picked a picture from early April last year.   I like to remind myself that spring is coming!   Poor Baby Girl could not understand why we were down the cape, but NOT going to the beach to swim.   We kept driving by the beaches and at one point Baby Girl said  "is that the beach we are not going to?".    Poor kid.  I had to keep promising the next time we were down there we could play on the beach - which now means I can't go back to the cape until May-ish when it's at least warm enough to run around on the sand.    She certainly is my little beach baby!   She is so unlike me in many ways,  but we do share a love of the beach.   My perfect beach day involves margaritas and trashy novels though... I'm pretty sure hers includes me taking her swimming 8765 times and making sand castles all day. 

But for right now it's February and cold.   But the Patriots play in the Superbowl today!!! 

Let's go Patriots!!  Add another one! 

2 more weeks

I have an anxiety problem that I learned it from my mother.   We both tend to have anxiety over issues that don't need to be given a second thought.  I have been known to have anxiety over TV character's problems.   I lose sleep all the time over the silliest things.  Given all that,  I have a VERY hard time watching the playoffs of any sport (if by "any sport" you mean football or hockey.   Basketball doesn't exit in my universe and I just can't stand baseball).  And now I have 2 weeks to re-live the last Pats/Giants Super Bowl match up.   I may not sleep for 14 days.   I am so excited my boys are back in the Super Bowl! 

 

In 15 days I find out if Lil Sibling is a Lil Sister or a Lil Brother!  Yay!  I can decide on a name (HA, like I'm going to tell you) and start buying blue clothes if I need to!   I have a very strong boy feeling but I had the same thought when I was pregnant with Baby Girl,  so we can see how good I am at that whole mother's intuition thing.

Speaking of Baby Girl - guess who is potty trained!  One accident in 11 days!  And to be honest, that accident wasn't completely her fault,  the bathroom door was closed and she didn't know what to do  - apparently asking one of the 6 adults who where around for help didn't cross her mind.   Special, that one.

Stop it!

It doesn't make me feel any better that pitchers and catchers report next month. It doesn't mean that the Patriots just lost the AFC divisional playoffs. It means that in a few weeks, players on a different team that play a different sport start their pre-season. It has nothing to do with football and the fact that it's over for me until next August. So just stop talking about it!

Also - Rex Ryan - you are still one of the most annoying people on the face of the planet.

I have no idea who to root for next Sunday. Root for the Jets? Seriously? Never. Root for Ben Roethlisberger? The man who clearly knows how to treat a lady? Put him on par with Tom Brady? Never. And I'll go on record with my belief that Tom Brady is seriously overrated. But he's 10 times the man Roethlisberger is.

So it's going to have to come down to alien overlords coming down to earth and sucking up the entire rosters of both the Steelers and the Jets. Any other way will destroy the balance of the force.

But in a completely different note, as horribly ugly as my red HHR is (and it is) I'm really glad I still have it, since we're getting more snow AGAIN tomorrow. I've also decided that I really like the size of the HHR. There is nothing else I like about that car, but I may consider one that size the next time I'm in the market for a car. Unless I win the lottery sometime in the near future. Then it's the Lexus Hybrid 450. In black, natch.


Random, I don't think I ever saw an HHR before I had to rent one. Now I am seeing them ALL OVER THE PLACE. I think they are following me to freak me out even more. I even saw a red one on the highway last weekend. Maybe it was Nic.

And.... according to Slate, you should only put one space after periods when you type. My whole world just got knocked upside down. What's next? No more capitalizing proper nouns? My head cannot compute.

So what do we think about Randy Moss?

Here's my take on the whole sitch: 2010 is clearly a rebuilding year. I don't think anyone over in Foxboro really thought that this was going to be another Super Bowl year. Randy started running his mouth (and using atrocious grammar), he had been rumored to be causing trouble for awhile, and we all know that he wasn't going to finish out his contract with any sort of effort (or dignity for that matter).

The biggest head scratcher for me is that we only got a 3rd round draft pick. I know that the Vikings only picked up the rest of his contract, and no one is going to give up a first round pick to get someone for 13 more regular season games, but still - only a 3rd round pick? You'd think they would at least throw in a funny viking hat. Or a box of highlighters.

Though I know that there are holes in this argument (that I have already pointed out in some conversations), but Andrew pointed out tonight that they won three Super Bowls without Moss and none with him. And we did score 6 times on Monday night without his help.... so I'm guessing we can move on.

Of course now the guys that were covering Moss are now going to be attracted to Welker like a magnet...

mmmm.... Wes Welker.......

end of an era

Today is the end of an era - it's my last day of maternity leave and Bruschi's retirement ceremony. What's a girl to do on her last day of staying home with Baby Girl? Indulge in some retail therapy, of course! And since #54 will be celebrated tonight I decided that my shopping spree should take place at the Pro Shop at Patriot Place! I'm now the owner of these two shirts:I did already have a Bruschi jersey, but it was a Boy's Medium. I had to upgrade to a Boys XL, but thankfully I can still wear the Boys XL. There's a $50 difference between the Boys and Adult sizes - for the exact same shirt!! I did go browse the replica jersey's just for fun... but I'm not about to shell out $250 for a jersey. Not even a Bruschi one.

And the throwback t-shirt is way cuter in reality than the picture would have you believe.

So now I'm home from Gillette Stadium, Baby Girl is asleep, and I'm trying to psyche myself up for returning to work tomorrow. BLAH

strangely at peace...

Did someone spike my coffee with Valium this morning? I'm strangely okay with the Pats being out the playoffs. I'm even okay with the fact that Brady might not be back next season - as long as we keep Cassel, and I'm outwardly laughing at Mangini getting fired. Freaking Jets cannot do anything correctly. Okay, maybe I'd be laughing at Mangini without the suspect coffee.

I don't understand the point of the divisions in the NFL

I know why the Patriots have a better record than some teams going to the playoffs, but I think it's a terrible way to decide who is going to the post season. Almost as stupid as deciding the college championship game.

There's a minute and forty four seconds left in the 1st quarter. And its been a whole lot of wind and not a whole lot of scoring. 3-0 Pats right now. Lets hope we stay ahead for the remainder of the game.

As you can see by the ticker on the top of my blog, I'll be finishing up grad school in a few months. It's been a long and difficult road, and I'm buying myself a graduation present in May. What I want retails for about $799 (see here and image below)

It's a Canon Digital Rebel XSi 12.2 MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens (Black). Which means that $634 will get you a really nice camera with an attachable zoom lens. But let's face it, I probably will not be able to afford that. The XSi is the top of the line, but there's also the XTi which retails for $699 and be currently purchased for $529 on Amazon, and the XT which retails for $599, but can be found on Amazon for $549. That last price leaves me scratching my head, you could get the XTi, which retails for $100 MORE than the XT but can currently be purchased for $20 less than the XT. Riddle me that. So while I would love the XSi, it will have to depend on what the prices on Amazon are when I go to make my purchase. If they remain similar to what they are now, I'll get the XTi. So that's my HAPPY GRADUATION present to Meghan from Meghan with love. It doesn't make the past 4 years worth it, but since I can't have my all you can drink Margarita party of 1 on my gradation day, it will have to suffice.

#50 is an eligible receiver

So there I was, sitting on my bed, writing a mind numbingly pointless paper on made up stuff that has nothing to do with reality (okay, there I go on my tangents again) and I hear Andrew come in with the coffee. He's running around shouting like a mad man about going to the Patriots today and how my father has been trying to call and we have to go to Shaws. Um... what? I look at the clock. 11:59. Kickoff is at 1:00pm. No way in hell can we make it. Despite the fact that we live about 10 miles away from Gillette, traffic on Rt 1 on game day brings a new meaning to the word hellish. But, Andrew points out in his mad frenzy, there is no fear of Rt 1 traffic today!! These tickets are coming with a ride from my father's friend who has the special parking pass! Alrighty then, problem solved. I get up and pull some clothes on in about .09 seconds, brush my teeth, and fly out the door. About 12 minutes later we're sitting at the Shaw's parking lot in Sharon/Foxboro (somewhere around there) and about 30 seconds later my father and his friend show up. 10 minutes later, and we're in the back entrance parking lot, walking towards our seats. My father and his friend go up to the club seats; Andrew and I go to the 20th row. On the 45 yard line. And we sit down with our overpriced food just in time to watch kick off.


And we watchted the Pats trounce the Bills. It could only have been better if it was the Colts.

Ticket you can't buy

scoreboard and lighthouse
That's how close we were!
break my heart just a little more
Tedy!
Memories... of the way we were
Patriots and Dunkin Donuts. Fabulous day!

And let's not forget the NKOTB concert I went to on Thursday! Who says you have to grow up? Though I must say Mr. Wahlberg grew up nicely.

lazy

Andrew's parents have a really nice TV. So we're sitting at his parents house (sans his parents) watching the Pats. And it makes me hate my own television. Too bad we cannot afford to upgrade our TV - that's so far down the list, we might never get to it.

Andrew was still a little sick this weekend, so it was another quiet couple of days for us. We're in Keene (obviously) and it was kind of nice just taking it easy. Next weekend we're installing a new toilet, vanity, sink, medicine cabinet and light fixture, so it will not be relaxing. (okay, so we're going to help Andrew's brother as he installs everything... but still, we won't be sitting on the couch)

In other news, today marks 8 years of us being together. Though our relationship 8 years ago was pretty different than it is today! 8 years is 30% of my life. Kind of strange to think about it like that.

busy bee

Another crazy weekend. I took tomorrow as a vacation day, but Andrew has to work. I'm really happy I can sleep in tomorrow. I'm exhausted and the Patriots are going to keep me up past my bedtime. Though the way this game is going, I may go to bed at halftime.

Yesterday we spent a lot of money at Lowe's and bought a new vanity, sink, toilet, and medicine cabinet/light fixture. The first weekend in November everything will be installed. If you haven't seen my turquoise bathroom you've got about two weeks to come view it. Though the bathroom is staying blue at this point, we'll tackle that later. We're still debating whether to do bathfitters or re-tile ourselves and have the tub glazed white. Re-tiling will look better, but we have no idea what we're doing, so there's a huge possibility we will mess it up. We're still debating what to do... I'd like to get it all done now, but it will look much better with what we're going to be doing.

Last night was my cousin's wedding. It was a really nice affair, but it was a late night. And we got up early this morning to head to Keene where we spent a few hours putting the in-laws' new TV together. It's a pretty sweet TV, it made coming back to our little 37" TV hard.

So we're home now, I'm exhausted, the Pats are sucking, and my lips are ridiculously chapped. I'm not at my best right now

agony of defeat

It's okay, we're all Sox fans up here. Up until 2004, this was our life. There's always next year. So congratulations to the Giants and the Mannings.

We'll meet again next year.

This is our country

After a weekend in the Deep South where people are different, and let me tell you, there is no such thing as Southern Hospitality, I'm back up North where I belong. And the Pats are on. Life is good. I was down there for a family wedding, which was very fun, but I'm glad to be home. It's cold down there!

Well, they Patriots have already scored. I'm not sure if this is going to be an exciting game. My father has said it isn't fair that Brady and Moss are on the same team. Nope, it isn't fair, but I'm glad their mutual team is the Pats!

Oh, and I've lost a bit of respect for the NY Times. Only a New York paper has that much Klass to put an asterick in their weekly standings. Sorry the Jets are SUCKING, but don't be a poor loser. Asshats.

Well, it's the time of year to be Thankful. Count your blessings. Reflect on the good in your life. So... why am I thankful?

1. I have electric heat, not oil.
2. There was a drought this summer which resulted in awesome weather down the cape.
3. Tedy Bruschi still plays football
4. I only have 19 months left of gradschool
5. My husband puts up with all my crap and still loves me
6. My neice will make her appearance in a little more than 2 months!
7. The internet exists
8. I was able to travel a fair amount this year
9. I have a Carolla which is has great gas mileage
10. I have extremely comfy flannel sheets

the short list

1. Apparently Kuwait is hot and sandy.

2 I have linked two more blogs on the side. The first one is Dooce, which I have read off and on for the past year. I don't know why I haven't linked it sooner. I highly recommend it. The other is Ian's blog (linked in #1 as well). He has promised his blog will become more interesting now that he is in the sandbox otherwise known as the middle east.

3. Yay for the Red Sox. Yay more for the Pats, Yay again for the Eagles.

4. My parents are selling my childhood home on Thursday and moving out for good on Saturday. Check back later this week for a weepy update about that.

life on the couch

I'm lying on the couch watching the Patriots game. Life is good. :) But I really hate the uniforms that the Browns wear and it's bothering me. I have yet to see Tedy on the screen either, and we are into the second quarter. Maybe more TV watching and less blogging will help me actually see more of the game. But that would mean I have to see more of the Browns uniform. Did you know that the Browns were named after their original owner? Check it on on wikipedia, the story is actually kind of interesting.

2d & 5. on the 47. We just got 2 yards because Faulk tried to run it down the middle. That does not work. I hate when they do that. Run around the large mass of large men, not through it.

Brady just threw it to someone. That someone was not Randy Moss. Not shockingly, it wasn't a completed pass.

More ads. This one is for Bud Light. I drank a lot of beer last night. That's because the Browns were here (not the Cleveland Browns, the Sand Diego Browns. Confused?) The next time we gather with the Browns I am going to try to not drink as much. Actually, I probably will because the next time I am with the entire Brown family, we will be celebrating Ian's return from Iraq. There will be much celebration and a multitude of frosty beverages at that occasion :)

I just saw Tedy for the first time. My father just made the astute remark that Tedy Bruschi is underpaid. Really, I think the sky is blue too. Call the presses.

Another ad - this one is the iPhone. I would like one of those, but I won't be paying that much money for it.

Wow, Tedy just had someone PLOW into him. I bet that hurt.

McDonalds ad. I think just watching an ad for Mickey D's clogs my ateries.

That's good for a ....... PATRIOTS FIRST DOWN!!

Brady has a green dot on his helmet. I don't know why. Maybe it's like getting a gold star. He did a good job last week so he got a green dot for his helmet. Maybe not. His son is cute. Even though his name is Jet. in my mind.

Brady to Stalworth. I don't know how to spell Stalworth. I guessed. It might be wrong. Now it's 1st and goal after that nice throw. We need a touchdown. I want it to be 17-0

Timeout. which means more ads. Now it's a truck ad - umm.... Ford maybe? Chevy? Nope, Dodge.

My brother is at the game. With Goldman Sach's tickets. I bet he has a nice view. He's probably on the 50. The most I get from vendors/clients are brownies and pens.

3rd and goal. Come on - I want to be 17-0. touchdowntouchdowntouchdown.

Nope, we actually lost yards. Damn. well, it's 13-0 now.

SKIING ADS!!!!! Well, snowboard ad. I don't snowboard, I ski. Actually it was an HP ad. Huh.

My cheeseburger is ready.