Black Friday

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and the mashed potatoes were plentiful!  We had a great holiday and Baby Girl was so excited to see all her relatives!  This is the first time she would actually interact with them without me practically holding her the entire time.

This morning, for the second time in my life,  I braved the Black Friday crowds.   The first time was a few years ago,  I woke up at 3:30,  got to Kohl's by 4 when it opened and bought the sweater I had my eye on, and went home to go back to bed.   It was pretty uneventful.

This year was slightly different.

We have needed a new TV for awhile,  ours tended to do a weird squiggly line thing and be funny colors that was somehow related to the HDMI input.  We've tried to fix it,  but everything was a short term fix and it was clear the end of its useful life was coming.  We decided to watch the Black Friday ads to see what was going to be on sale and if we could get a good deal on a TV, we'd do it.   Target had a 46" Westinghouse for $298  so we had plans to get it.

We knew there wouldn't be a lot of inventory for this TV,  it was well marked that each store had limited quantities.  Andrew though we should get in line at 9.   I thought he was being rediculous.   9:00?  Three hours early in small town NH?

We did a drive by past Target at 8:00 before heading back to the hotel to get ready.   I told Andrew 30 times it was ridiculous to check,  that there was not going to be a line.

There was a line.   At 8:00.   Luckily for me,  it was still a relatively short line and Andrew hopped out with nothing but a mostly dead iPhone to keep him company.  I went back to my in-laws' house to get a camp chair, and some gloves for him.  Why I didn't get TWO camp chairs and a blanket is still unknown.  Not my brightest moment.

I went back to the hotel and tried to figure out what to do,  now that we were going to be sitting in line for 4 hours in the (literally) freezing cold.  I put on my flannel pajama pants,  put my jeans on over them (thank god I don't wear skinny jeans...),  put about 3 shirts on,  packed flannel pants, jeans, and a sweatshirt for Andrew and that was the best I could do.  I grabbed both of our Nooks (and mine isn't backlit, so clearly it wasn't going to do me any good.   Andrew had requested a coffee,  but hello - coffee and 4 hours without a bathroom is not a good combination.  

The first few hours were awful.  It was freezing - I had to go back to the car a few times to warm up my feet since I decided not to bring my Uggs to New Hampshire with me for this trip.   What can I say, I'm an idiot.   We only had one camp chair, so we had to trade off every 10 minutes.   I couldn't ready my Nook.   Andrew's phone was practically dead.  I wanted to cry I was so cold.  It sucked.  I almost went back to the hotel about 30 times. 

At 9:30 the manager came out,  explained how the TVs were going to work.  They had 43 tickets for 43 TV's.  They were going to give out tickets and you'd bring your ticket to the changing rooms and get a TV.  Sounded easy enough.  Then he handed out Luna Bars and I decided to name my firstborn after him.   (I'll explain to Baby Girl why her name is Manager Jason from Target later).

At 10:00,  he actually handed out the tickets and we knew were we guaranteed a TV!   It almost made the past 2 hours worth it because there was a VERY long line and most people had to give up the 46" TV for $298 dream.   Not us though!  Just two more hours to wait!

Around 10:40ish,  two of my brothers-in-law,  my sister-in-law ,and niece showed up to get in line for X-boxes (and they ended up being lucky to get them,  they ran out of them before we left the store!).   We chatted for a bit and then the BILs went to get me and Andrew coffee!  I have never been so excited to get a decaf coffee.    After that,  the time flew buy.    

For crowd control purposes,  Target was letting 30 people into the store,  waiting 30 seconds and letting another 30 in,  rinse and repeat.   We part of the first 30 in the store,  ran and got in line for our TVs,  ran over to the x-boxes and grabbed three of them and handed over two when the ILs came in,  paid, and hit the road.   We ran into a slight snafu when the boxes didn't fit in our car,  but some car shuffling today took care of that.

So....  long, freezing, boring night of Black Friday insanity yielded a new TV and somehow Andrew ended up with a new x-Box too.   I'm still not quite sure HOW that happened. 

If we had been more prepared it actually wouldn't have been that bad,  but we were kind of flying by the seat of our pants.  I hope to not need a new TV for a long time... but we desperately need a new laptop.   Good thing Black Friday only comes once a year, and Cyber Monday can be done from the comfort of my house!

Turkey day!

Happy Thanksgiving!   We leave tomorrow morning for our Thanksgiving festivities.   I'm not ready, I still haven't figured out what I'm wearing,  though I'd put money on some sort of grey insurance professional outfit that makes me look like I'm 45.   Baby Girl has a cute dress,  although I didn't bother to check to see if it fits.  I'm sure it does...  or I should say I'm sure she will wear it anyway.  

HOTEL!!!  TOMORROW NIGHT!!!!

If only I can convince Andrew he wants to sleep on the floor at his parents house... then I will have a King sized bed to myself!  And I can watch whatever I want on TV! 

oh, if wishes were horses.... I'm not really sure what that saying means,  but I think I'd have a horse.  And a King sized bed all to myself.

Friday the Christmas tree goes up!!  I'm very excited about that.  I'm not sure when we'll decorate it though... this Friday seems kind of early to me to be decorating a tree, but we'll see.   It depends on how motivated I am.... so expect it to be decorated sometime in the middle of December. 

And I'm about 75% done with Christmas shopping.  Don't hate.  

I've got a case of the Mondays

But it's only Sunday.    I took last Friday off (of course I don't get it as a vacation day, don't be silly!) so we had a nice 3 day weekend, and now it's back to the grind for 5 more days.   Though if I can hold on till next week, there are only two work days!!!  I'm so excited to have a 5 day weekend over Thanksgiving!

Where did November go?  I realize it's only the 13th and we're not even halfway though,  but Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK!   Why doesn't time go by this quickly in January and February?  

I'm eating my feelings tonight and getting Chinese food to chase away all my work stress from the coming week.  That's normal and healthy, right?  Well it could be worse.  I could be chasing the stress away with a few scorpian bowls or something like that

mmm.... scorpion bowls.....

Thanks

By now you've noticed the Facebook 30 days of Thanks, or whatever they are calling it.  People are updating their profiles every day with things for which they are thankful, and they are all lame.  We all know you are thankful for your health,  your family, your friends,  your job, BLAH BLAH BLAH.  I don't need my facebook feed clogged up with all that lameness.    Here's my partial list.    I may come back with more.

1.  On Demand and DVR.   I don't know how people possibly parented without it.  I have no idea how I lived without it.  I'm pretty sure life without these two things was a big barren wasteland of boredom.

2.  K-Cups.   Hi.     K-CUPS.   Do I have to say anything else? 

3.  The Zac Brown Band.   If you aren't familiar with them,  hit yourself over the head, and then download their albums.   Sic Em On a Chicken is one of their songs - how can you not LOVE that?  Also,  Chicken Fried speaks to my soul.   And not just because I like fried chicken.

4.  my iPhone 4s.   I love that little piece of computery-phone awesomeness.   I love having conversations with Siri.

5.  mashed potatoes.  O.M.G.  

6.  The fact that I beat my husband, my father, and my brother in fantasy football.  ALL Y'ALL CAN SUCK IT!!!

sleep

Baby Girl went to sleep at 7:30 last night.    I got into bed at 7:45.   I was asleep before 8:00.   Baby Girl was awake longer than I was.

Apparently my body was desperate for sleep.   I slept right through 6:00 this morning. 

So now I'm no longer falling asleep standing up,  but this cannot be healthy.  I can't live on no sleep during the week and do 10 hour marathons on Friday night.   Especially since I was planning on catching up on some DVR'd shows last night!  

Rumor has it that Baby Girl will be trick-or-treating AGAIN tonight.  She's visiting some family whose trick-or-treating was postponed until tonight due to power outages and she gets to go again!  Never in my life did I get to trick-or-treat more than once a year.   I'm beyond jealous. 

I broke out the  Christmas Carols this morning... I can officially do it now,  Andrew can't yell at me.   It's not my fault there are no Thanksgiving Carols. 

10 on Tuesday

1.  Don't hate... but I'm starting to think about Christmas

2.  Today I decided to absolutely introduce Elf on the Shelf this year.  Then I realized that I won't can't be the one at home in the morning to look for the Elf, and I made another decision to absolutely not do it this year.  I don't think I can handle that right now.  I'm currently having a "where did I go wrong in my life" crisis.

3. I.AM.GOING.TO.ENJOY.CHRISTMAS.THIS.YEAR.  I will not end up crying on Christmas Day.  I will NOT DO IT.   Andrew and I have started taking some steps to make sure Christmas is better for us this year.

4. I've also started thinking about Halloween and Thanksgiving

5.  I did get Baby Girl's costume. She tried it on today.    Much cuteness abounded.

6. We are staying in a hotel the night before and the night of Thanksgiving.  I am more excited about that than I am about Christmas.  My baby is not going to be there.   It's just going to be me and a huge bed.   I may or may not let Andrew in. 

7.  I love that my town still does trick-or-treating on Halloween unlike way too many other towns that do it on the Sunday before,  but damn,  the creators of trick-or-treating never thought about working mother's!  I'm still not 100% sure how the logistics will work out,  but I'm sure everything will fall into place

8.  I can't wait to put my Christmas Tree up.   I think Baby Girl will love it.  She was still somewhat scared of it last year,  and then she ignored it.

9.  I have already asked Santa for 3 different things,  how many do you think he will remember?

10.  what do YOU want for Christmas?

whoa

Well that was an action packed Thanksgiving!

All I did for 5 straight days was eat and drink. By Sunday night I wanted to crawl into bed and never get up. But it was a really fun weekend.

And tonight we have Rudolph and The Grinch on TV... which means it's Christmas time! yay!

And on a non holiday note, I won a raffle at work which yielded me a new iPod nano. I am now the owner of a classic iPod, an iPhone, an iPod shuffle, and an iPod Nano!

Guess how often I listen to any of them.

Yup.


Never.


I would if I had an input in my car to listen to such a device, but apparently they weren't considering iPods in 2003 when my little car was manufactured. I am able to rock out to tapes though, because apparently people still needed tape decks in 2003. That one gets a big DER to Toyota!

And the Nano has a video camera in it, which my iPhone does not - I have a really old iPhone. So I'm pretty excited about that. Because I'm hopeful that I will not only keep my nano charged, but also have it with me and at the ready when Baby Girl does something cute.

HA!

Thanksgiving

mashed potatoes and gravy in approximately 32 hours!!

So what are you thankful for this year? Here's a partial list:

My Baby Girl

my husband, even if he was being annoying this morning. He did bring home Chinese food last night, so I guess it evens out.

My Keurig. Seriously. Not only has it saved me an incredible amount of money by not going to DD every day, but it brews one cup at a time. That's awesome.

Though I truly despise my condo and resent the fact we can't move for a few years, I'm still really thankful we didn't lose our house, didn't destroy our credit, didn't have to go into foreclosure, and can still make our mortgage payments.

Andrew's car lasted another year. Yes, his awful 2003 Sentra is still running 7.5 years later. That's really REALLY good. It's an awful car - I'm not talking about the newer redesigned Sentras. This thing is tiny, unsafe, and ugly. But it's paid for. And still runs. And if we can get another winter out of that thing. I may even stop hating all Nissans just on principle.

Also, I'm really thankful that I get mashed potatoes tomorrow.

10 on Tuesday

1. Abby's Flying School freaks me out. But I kind of wish that Mrs. Sparklenose was my teacher. And that I had a gerbilcorn for my class pet.


2. Thanksgiving is in two days!!! MASHED POTATOES!!!!!!!!!!!!

3. I am making the Pioneer Woman's green bean casserole for thanksgiving. Say a little prayer for me. And everyone who is going to be at Thanksgiving! I've realized that Thanksgiving is probably not the best time to try out a new recipe, especially a green bean casserole that is made from scratch. As in no Cream of Mushroom Soup and no French's Onions on top. I may have realized this too late.

4. MASHED POTATOES!!!!!! GRAVY!!!!!!!! WOOOOOO!!!!

5. My co-worker is young, cute, and reminds me way too much of me circa 5 years ago. I want to tell her that in 5 years she will be me. Married, never lost all the baby weight, may or may not have baby snot on her sweater, and constantly fighting a losing battle to remain a superstar at work. But I won't. I'll let her realize that on her own. My hope for the young Padawan is that she doesn't have sit next to a younger version of herself in 5 years. Also, if she could stop trying to take my job, that'd be cool. Not that I didn't usurp the job I currently have from someone else....

6. My toddler thinks she can climb stairs one at a time, like a grown-up. It's cute. Futile, but cute.

7. I have a TODDLER. WTF. I've given some serious thought to the fact that she is Baby Girl on this here website. She's not a baby anymore. I can't call her Toddler Girl, that's just lame. So I think she will remain Baby Girl until she gets married. (ew! I will be old when she gets married! OLD!!!)

8. I'm beyond bummed out that Grey's Anatomy isn't on till January. I heart Grey's. Even though it's not as good as it once was (side note - does anyone else think Private Practice is getting better this season?)

9. I'm officially declaring my girl crush on Jennifer Aniston over. It was a long run - probably 15 years. But I think we're over. I don't have another one lined up though. I guess you just can't replace Rachel Greene.

10. Baby Girl has 9 cousins, none of which she will see on Thanksgiving. Wierd, huh? I don't want to think about how the day will go without her running after "MOMMY!!!". She loves her big cousin. However, I'm pretty sure "MOMMY" will enjoy her day without a 17 month old being her shadow!

11. Because I cheated with #4, I'll do a # 11: MASHED POTATOES, GRAVY, STUFFING!!!!!!!!! AND CHEESECAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wow

November? what?

Dear My Life,

Please stop flying by. Thanks.

Love,
MKO

Yeah. November. Almost Thanksgiving. In the past few years I have grown to LOVE Thanksgiving week, mostly because my company which is notoriously awful at recognizing federal holidays, does in fact give us the day after Thanksgiving as a holiday. And Wednesday happens to be my regular day to work from home. So I only have to go into the office two days that week of Thanksgiving. Therefore: Thanksgiving = possibly the best week of the year.

We do the every other year thing with Thanksgiving, mainly because we couldn't figure out what else to do. This year is Kwinzee for Thanksgiving.

Pros: No driving the day before Thanksgiving, no pork hidden in the stuffing (BLEH), and Baby Girl isn't going to freak the eff out because there are 18 million people around. Cons: no appetizers (for reals. I know. awful.), I am at my mother's beck and call (what? ungrateful spoiled child?), there are 3 sets of stairs that Baby Girl will try to be climbing ALL DAY and no way to block them off.

I was pregnant and threw up a lot the last time I was at my parent's house for Thanksgiving. I am neither pregnant nor throw uppy this year, so let the festivities begin!

Tis the Season!

Well Thanksgiving has come and gone. We had a good Thanksgiving this year. But, yes, the pork stuffing was on the table. I will NEVER understand that. My in-laws make a really good Thanksgiving dinner, despite the pork stuffing, so all is forgiven. And my mother saved me some REAL stuffing.

Baby girl was better than we expected her to be. She really doesn't like her routine to be changed and the poor kid has had no semblance of routine since last Tuesday. She's a trouper though, and made it through with an acceptable amount of fussing. She's teething now, so she's been a grumpalump for a few days. I don't understand why evolution has not taken care of the ridiculous way humans get teeth.

I didn't get to Friday confessions this week, but it was a holiday week. I'm busy!

I'm really proud of myself with Christmas shopping this year. I have my niece, sister-in-law, and father done. Well, I haven't purchased my father's gift yet, but we know exactly what it is going to be. Santa Claus has finished putting together Baby Girl's presents too. So we have a few more people to buy for, but we're doing well for November 29th!

Speaking of November 29th, today is my half birthday. Just so you know.

My 10 year reunion was last night. It was.... interesting. No one has changed. And talking to people that I haven't talked to in 10 years was strange because I really felt like I haven't left high school. We'll see how the 20 year one is.

Thanksgiving!!!

So I don't really like turkey. But as you now know from my Haiku - I LURVE ME SOME MASHED POTATOES! And gravy. And stuffing. But this is a Keene year for Thanksgiving, and I kid you not - the last time we did Thanksgiving in Keene, I found PORK IN THE STUFFING. I know. Makes no sense to me either. Apparently its some French Canadian thing. BRING THIS IRISH GIRL MORE MASHED POTATOES!!! Pork is not invited to my Thanksgiving. Pork is never invited to any party I'm hosting, but especially Thanksgiving.

Okay, lots of capital letters.... maybe the 3 cups of coffee I have had this morning was too much.

updates

Baby Girl had her Christmas pictures taken on Saturday. My smiley happy baby decided to be a grumpalump for her pictures. Not a single smile. Why do babies do that?

We bought New Super Mario Brothers Wii. It's very fun. But very hard. I had to have a conversation with Andrew before we played it - reminding him not to get frustrated with me, because I am not good at these new fangled games. Yet he still did. Anyway, it's a fun game and we are enjoying it. Though we won't really dig our teeth into it until later tonight when the babe is asleep.

I am so so so so so so excited for a 3 day work week. This week is better than Christmas week. And I get to work from home on Wednesday. I LOVE THANKSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The holiday season is upon us, and I just saw Santa in the Macy's Day parade... it's officially Thanksgiving!

Lots of mashed potatoes, stuffing, pies, and ice cream today! I actually don't eat turkey on Thanksgiving. I know it's crazy, but I really don't like it. However, there is always MORE than enough food to keep me full. We are in Quincy this year and my family eats dinner late, so things are kind of quiet around here right now. Give it a few hours and it will be loud and crazy and I'll be wishing for the peace and quiet again!

Have a happy holiday!

5 dollar footlong

I don't like how the numbers on the field are outlined in orange at Dolphin Stadium. If someone could do something about that for me, that'd be fantastic.

It's been pretty cold this weekend, especially in Keene. Windchills have been in the single digits. Luckily the cold snap is going to end tomorrow and it's going back up to 40º. Which is where it is supposed to be in the middle of November!

I'm pretty excited that this is Thanksgiving week. My company gives the day after Thanksgiving as a holiday (we gave up Columbus Day or Veteran's Day - don't know which one- for it). So it's an automatic 4 day weekend/ 3 day work week. That's more exciting than Christmas week. Last year we had to work December 24th and 26th. Lame. This year our CEO gave us Dec 26th. Wasn't that nice of him.... I'm willing to bet that he didn't work the 26th last year, but the rest us had to. So yeah, Thanksgiving week is cool. Even if I have to write a paper this weekend. It's the last Thanksgiving at school.... I have to keep telling myself that.

How annoying is that 5 dollar foot long commercial?

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