‘Tis the season for Christmas music. Normally I say “Bah humbug” to boring old holiday tunes, but I’m really interested in the She and Him Christmas album. Take a listen!
Speaking of festive, my friend Kelly is having an ugly sweater contest in which Mr. Barnabus Stinson, II is participating. Vote for Barney here! He is damn cute in his sweater. Check it out.
Yesterday was a fun day, filled with lots of exciting things.
First, we took Mark’s NEW CAR for a long drive to Eastern Iowa.
[brand new mazda 3 hatch in graphite]
He got a new car last week after his poor Rav4 blew a tire. It was on it’s last leg and he was pretty much ready to get a new car, so he went for it. And he is REALLY happy about it.
[it's a manual, of course]
Its got bluetooth, which is really cool because not only can he have handsfree phone convos, but we can hook up my iPod without physically plugging it into anything. This makes ME happy because my iPod Touch is having issues with the headphone jack, and the less i plug things into it, the better off it seems.
Our first stop was in Cedar Rapids to get my hair colored. I’m growing it back out (for now) and it’s starting to look entirely too much like my mom’s hair at this length with my natural color … so time for an unnatural color.
It’s supposed to be the dark brown color that I had a couple years back, but we added a bit of red to it … and my hair sucked up ALL the red. So it’s a dark red/brown. I LOVE being a redhead, so I’m cool with it.
Next, we stopped at my Grandpa’s house in Anamosa. He sent us on our merry way with a BUNCH of tomatoes. I wish I took a photo of his bounty of tomatoes. It covered an entire dining room table. He said he was giving all his visitors a bag of tomatoes because he’s not going to eat them all.
Not sure what we’re going to do with the tomatoes … salsa? marinara? Either way, they are getting eaten!
We headed further north and went to the Shot Tower Inn in Dubuque and met my friend Seth (aka @nerdboner) for some late lunch/early dinner. Got some amazing taco and BLT pizza (super naughty! But way delicious). He had just gotten back from Wizard World in Chicago and apparently had picked me up some pretty sweet swag. He totally underestimated my idea of “sweet swag”.
[all the doctors and the tardis — print by kurt wood]
[limited edition #1 of 25 print of Buffy by kurt wood]
… and the icing on the cake? The heavy metal pixie <======== that’s me.
[check it out on kurt's blog with all the other superhero sketchies]
AND he got me the hardcover collection of the Metalocalypse comic … which will be my nightly read this week.
After a few hours of pure nerd bonding between Seth and Mark (Seth now swears they were separated at birth), we headed back to my hometown of Monticello to pick up Mr. Barnabus Stinson, II and bring him to his new (and hopefully final for a while) home.
And Mr. Barney acclimated quickly and is now enjoying spending every minute with his best friend Mark.
We were pretty exhausted after a long day of driving and our adventures in Eastern Iowa. All in all, a pretty good day!
Last month was crazy. Here is a sneak peek at things that happened before I get to blogging about them …
… Mark’s brother Nick’s birthday in Stillwater …
… Mark’s 25th birthday in Chicago …
… awesome new fabric …
… moving …
… a really awesome project for Drake …
... and LOTS and lots of food.
(asian lettuce wraps)
(chicken strips with honey mustard and sweet corn)
(kung pao chicken)
(stovetop creamy mac and cheese made with REAL cheese)
(chicken, broccoli and mushroom alfredo with pappardelle’s tomato cracked pepper pasta)
(tomato, basil and chevré pizza)
so hopefully I will have some time to share these experiences with you! And of course all the recipes. I will also try to start sharing points plus numbers with you at the suggestion of Kelly.
Happy birthday, USA! I’m using my national holiday today to enjoy some cancer-inducing sunshine while blogging.
I also decided to do something funky with my nails. I had a gift card for Target from work from our “appreciation day” a couple weeks back. So I spent about a half hour in the fingernail polish section picking out something fun that I could use on my nails. I ended up getting a black nail art pen from Sally Hansen. LOVE. Why? It’s like drawing on ceramics but on my fingers!
I used OPI fireflies as a base coat and went to town. But quickly remembered I’m right-handed … So photos are all of my left hand. 
Oh and Mr. Barnabus Stinson was visiting this weekend. My parents wanted to do a weekend vacay, so we took him for a couple of days. Less than 30 days until we move somewhere pet friendly so we can have him FULLtime. 
He loves noming ice cream.
My mom posted a bunch of pictures of my niece on Facebook today, and as usual, they were frighteningly cute. I had to share this one with you — it’s Emee reading to my dog, Barney. He intently listened apparently for quite a while.
I don’t think I’m going to get my dog back. Mom said that Emee said, “Calee just visit. Barney stay here.”
Barney went home with my parents a couple weeks ago when I moved into Mark’s non-dog-friendly place.
I miss the little bastard and his cute fluffy fur coat, which was especially fluffy after a bath.
Did I mention he doesn’t like the blow dryer? His coat got so long that I started to have to blow dry his hair. He hides out in his kennel to avoid it.
I must admit. I’ve been entirely too busy watching Seasons 1-2 of Buffy to blog.
I kid. I kid. But seriously. I may have been doing that.
Regardless, I have been extremely busy making everybody’s Christmas gifts. I will blog about all of them after I’ve gifted them (obviously — don’t want to spoil the surprise!). I made the vow to make everybody’s gifts this year. And I have. Except for a couple for hard-to-craft-for people.
I’ve also been really busy at work with all our last-minute preparations to take SEVEN WHOLE WORK DAYS off. Yes. That’s right. The university is closed for SEVEN DAYS. Not seven regular days. But SEVEN BUSINESS DAYS. Rock. On. And for once, I had all my ducks in a row and didn’t have to bring anything home over break. And by that I mean that all of my amazing clients were more than amazing this year and got us everything we needed in time for us to get things done.
Anyway, I did take the time to dress up my doggie in his holiday sweater in front of the tree. So Merry Christmas from a very annoyed little dachshund. (who is extremely cute in his sweater).
It’s another weiner-free weeeeeeeeeekend. I shouldn’t be this excited, but my lil dog is kind of like having a misbehaving 3-year-old. If you’re reading this, that means I’m in Minnesota and Barnabus is at Steph‘s place for the weekend.
Why, do you ask? Because I’m going to see SLAYER. MEGADETH. AND TESTAMENT.
Yes. Almost the big 4, but not quite. Good enough for me — good riddance to Metallica anyway. Dave Mustaine is where it’s at, as you can tell by my fabulous kitchen decor.
(a super old pic … but seriously. this guy is badass).
Anyway, I so can’t wait to see Megadeth and Slayer again … and I’m excited about Testament. I’m kind of disappointed that we’ve got nose-bleeds because last time I saw Megadeth I was close enough to touch Dave. On the railing. Man, you MN peeps are wimps. I got more beat up at the Jimmy Eat World show in Iowa than I did at Gigantour that year!
Wow. I’m rambling. Sorry — I get excited about these things then go into douchey metal dude speak.
Anyway, I’m going to have a great time and maybe get some decent photos. Regardless, I’m so going to H&M when I’m in Minnesota … seriously.
Gotta love how I’m going to a thrash show and all I can think about is shopping …
I’m going to leave you with one of my favorite Megadeth songs. I say one of them because they’re all pretty much amazing. Enjoy!
Not to mention — this one is a gem from ’91 — Dave Ellefson on bass … drool (not because I think he’s hot, but because he’s amazing!) … it’s almost a shame I don’t have the same hair as these guys anymore.
