Happy New Year!

Happy new year, everyone! Oh, what a year it has been.
I hope you're all bringing in 2012 with people you love and cherish!



Shawn and I have had the whole day off together, so we took a walk down to the liquor store and followed it up with some cocktails and candy. We've also got some friends heading up here tonight for some more celebration... not too much celebration though; we both have work in the morning!

Much love and happiness to all!

Favorite Interweb findings of 2011!

I wanted to share my favorite photos that I found on the internet this year!This is a small collection of things that I save to a folder called "internet findings." 

Gay Mexican Unicorn??
This photo was paid for.
This guy actually went to a studio and said I wanna be photographed as a unicorn.  

My most favorite photo of the year!
Mr. Fox looks so happy!

Classic Comedy. 

I love me some santa and machine guns on holiday photos.

My favorite from the Deadspin series "Unintentional Dongs"

This dude got the friggin sweetest shot ever! That is a once in 5 life times shot!
unbelievable moment caught!

Ice T Bitches! 

I have a huge love of the anime series NARUTO.
This is a painting of a tailed fox beast!

Really! Who made this and placed it on the internet! come on!

Paula Dean Riding Things was hot for a minute.

That's right men. Keep your grip while doing your shit.
This add screams masturbation all over it.
Which makes it hilarious.

Thank you Old Spice for providing such overtly obvious Penis References.
To the point where Colbert had to comment on it.

So that concludes my favorite findings of the year.I hope next year is even sillier!

A Very Merry Jolly Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend! We drove to my parents' house late Saturday night and had a delicious breakfast and lunch with my family before heading over to Shawn's mom's place for even more food and family time. The only thing that would have made the weekend better would have been a little bit of snow!

I only took a few pictures; family time takes precedence over immense documentation! Here's a taste of our weekend:



So many presents under the pretty tree! I think we all spoiled each other this year.




It's always a good day when you're greeted by this big fuzzball. I just want to fluff him up and curl up in a ball next to him.




Speaking of Kusko, look at him stealthily checking out the ham action going on. It's not the best photo of the ham, but I totally caught those hungry eyes without even meaning to.




Breakfast was croissants and jam, with freshly squeezed orange juice. Lunch was champagne and wine with a plate full of baked ham, mashed potatoes, spinach and sweet potato salad, and green beans. Dessert consisted of a pear and chocolate tart, key lime pie, and a buttermilk pear pie. We definitely did not go home hungry (especially since Shawn's mom made a whole Thanksgiving dinner too!)




I also wasn't kidding about the gifts; this year's bounty put smiles on our faces. A good mix of things we needed (gloves, wooden spoons, a quality chefs knife), things we wanted (all sorts of books, a video game, old navy gift cards, dinosaur related things), and things we never expected (a roku player, a quality chefs knife, and a mini cast-iron brownie pan) - yay!




My new iPhone cover didn't make it into the group picture. It's too cute not to share though!




We also did a gift exchange at work this year. My co-workers must know me well because I got some cashmere pocket hand warmers (perfect for our walks!), a book by one of my favorite authors, a recipe book for cat treats, a recipe box full of recipe cards, and this gnome statue (it even has a squirrel!!). Unfortunately it arrived with one broken bench leg, so we need to glue it back together before he can hang out with the other gnomies.




I'll leave you with a gratuitous 'stache shot. Shawn says I look like Frank Zappa, ha!

Fun Finds Friday

I have Five (ok, six) Fun Things for you this Friday! I'd love to make this a staple on the blog, maybe every few Fridays or so, but lets see how long I can keep this up first.



1. Dream Big - a mosaic of Martin Luther King Jr. created entirely out of Rubik's Cubes!
(via)



2. The greatest website ever created! Ok, maybe that's a stretch, but not really.
PrintFriendly.com



3. This custom Guess Who? game board featuring US Presidents is pretty awesome.
(via)



4. Who doesn't love The Count? ...ten apples... eleven apples... hahaha!
(via)



5. I've seen so many different takes on the "Keep Calm and Carry On" posters... this is one of my favorites.
(via)


I thought I'd throw this in too: I've been loving these yoga sequences by Bridget Lyons. I've been doing the 30-minutes sequences and they're just enough to get you heated and revitalized; she also has enough on there for variety throughout the week.

Happy holidays, everyone! Have a wonderful weekend!

i've smelt some things...

This is a rather short note of a post.
It smells like somebody in our apartment complex is washing shit stained underpants or diapers in the community washing machine. 
it is smells so bad some times that even I gag.(like today)
Dear Dumb Ass Shit Crappers,Rinse your shit stained crap bags before you put them in a machine that other people use!
 Are you just washing a load of shit??
Here let me take a shit in all my pants and wash them.Who the fuck does that!
WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THE PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD!!!
I guess my mother actually taught me wrong and right?Or how not to be a fuck hole?
COME ON PEOPLE!!!!!!!
GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Also there is a new bunny comic up!www.idrawbunnies.com
(it seems that I rant a bunch.)

New Bunnies Comic...

New drawing is up! it's not of bunnies. It's of rocks. I like drawing rocks.

www.idrawbunnies.com

Two Squirrels For Your Sunday

I bought us an advent calendar from Trader Joe's this year, since it was only 99 cents. Every day there's a tiny piece of milk chocolate molded into something winter/holiday related. Of course there was a squirrel.



Last year we had a couple of different squirrel visitors at our sunny kitchen window. This year, we haven't had quite so many, and they're not as eager for close human interaction. Usually they stick to the branches of the tree right outside the window. Shawn caught this guy sunbathing on our windowsill this morning though!

Eccentric Collections

I have a lot of little collections. I'm not really quite sure how they all started, but I'm pretty sure when other people in your life start buying you things because you "have a few similar ones already", that's considered having a collection...

What do I collect? Clocks, salt & pepper shakers, elephants, and gnomes. That's what I can think of off the top of my head, but I wouldn't be surprised if I'm forgetting something.


Clocks! Lots of clocks. There are also a few small tabletop ones around the apartment, but I just photographed the wall clocks in the kitchen. I think I have 10 clocks in total!


This is my newest clock! I hadn't bought one in years so when I came across this one at Home Goods, it just had to come home with me. Unfortunately, it's too heavy to hang on the hooks we have (since our walls are impenetrable we've resorted to using dual-sided sticky tabs and hooks), so it's camping out on the living room floor until I can figure out what to do with it.


I spotted the frogs and the kissing fish shakers online around the same time - they're both vintage. Then for Christmas two years ago, Shawn got me the kissing hippie shakers. (Well, they're supposed to be kissing; I need to re-glue the magnet onto the hippie guy.) The hugging dog shakers are from my mom; she brought them all the way back from Thailand! I hope to one day have corner cabinet shelves in my kitchen so that I can display all of these properly!


Just like all of my collections, the elephants started randomly too. I have an elephant from Peru, one from Amsterdam, and one from France, the others were all acquired just as randomly. I suppose I like traveling elephants. The tray is from ikea; we put it to use as our 'catch-all' tray by the front door. I couldn't resist the pretty colors and patterns!

And like a jerk, I completely forgot to photograph the gnomes. But they've actually graced the blog with their presence before! Now I don't feel quite as bad.

There you have it! I'm now an eighth of the way to becoming a hoarder ;) What do you collect?

Neighborly Advice

We have a new neighbor again. The nice quiet couple across the hall moved out several months ago. Now we have an Egyptian / Jewish looking guy.
He likes to talk really loudly on the phone in the hallway and slam doors.
He has yet to put his name on his mailbox.Which I guess means he doesn't intend to receive mail.
Including all the junk mail that came to his mailbox.He took it upon himself  to sort out mail not addressed to HIS NAME,So he started throwing it on the floor.
At first it was a few Bed Bath and Beyond coupons. About a week ago Marine had noticed a Bed Bath and Beyond Coupon outside on the steps.She placed it back inside.It was not addressed to us. Yet we did not want trash blowing around our lovely courtyard.
Then it was the weekly coupons and junk being piled up underneath the mailbox.
After a small pile had compiled. (hahah pile joke)This guy placed the pile outside on the front steps!He continued to do such sucky things.
Marine came home yesterday and exclaimed,"I'm going to go ahead and assume our new neighbor is an asshole."
So she told me about the pile that had been growing.I looked and it was like a grocery bag full of papers and ads.
Later in the evening as we were trying to nap. We heard the Maintenance Man (hereby referred to as MM) knocking on his door.
MM told him to stop putting his mail on the stoop outside.
The guy had the nerve to tell MM that it was NOT HIS MAIL.MM basically laughed and said, "Don't lie to me."
I am fairly certain that new guy even tried to blame it on me!Which MM nicely defended with, "He wouldn't do that. Look, I know the address. It says it on the mail.Just knock it off."
The new guy defeated, apologized and offered to clean it up.
WHO THE FUCK IS THIS GUY!
You DO NOT  put junk mail on the floor underneath the mailbox in the common area.You DO NOT place pile of junk outside in the elements when it becomes to large!
Obviously this guys parents didn't teach him common sense things.
THIS IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH AMERICA.
Some body else isn't gonna deal with it man!
YOU GOTTA DEAL WITH IT YOURSELF!
How hard is it to take the junk mail and place it in recycling?
What a fucking ass nut. 
 

Here we go again... (Recap!)

I can't believe it's already December... where did the last month go?! November was a blur.
I'll just use these handy Instagram photos to recap!


1. Our Thanksgiving dinner (chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, and beers). I also had the good fortune of eating Thanksgiving dinner with my family the day prior... lots to be thankful for this year!
2. An awesome thrifted Anthropologie sweater I found for a whopping $6!
3. Sugar cookies/failed snickerdoodles... I realized halfway through the recipe that I had no cinnamon.
4. Seven! One of our local friend's cat. We've known him since he was a wee little kitten.
5. Luna being a cutie on Thanksgiving at my family's house.
6. Chicken orzo soup we made back when the weather wasn't so unseasonably warm.

Other note-worthy things:


The biggest lemon I have ever seen. (shown with other lemons for comparison)


I twisted apart a Trader Joe's oreo and found a sweet looking Meatwad!


Oh, and I made a bunch of pies. Fourteen pies, to be exact. And six dozen cookies. All for holiday orders at the shop! And the feedback was delicious :)

And that about sums up November!
I have a few more posts up my sleeve for December, don't you worry.

WTF

So apparently NPR reported a couple weeks ago about how our water levels around here contained extreme amounts of contaminants and such of things like fluoride and so on.
Not only was NPR asked to take down the article from online. But the government apparently changed the law to allow .1 parts per million, compared to the .01 part per million or what ever it was beforehand.
So Kilian was right. We shouldn't be drinking the water.  

Thanks to Marine's doctor for the heads up.
It's time to start my Awesome Water Bottling Company.


PS. A good source to check out is the EPA's website... they tell you why unnecessary things like Fluoride are added to our drinking water. Some of their water treatment standards haven't been changed since the 90s!