Up to no good

School-shmool

No school today cuz we'd rather be in Bako. My mom's been there for a
few weeks taking care of my grandma Bailey, and her birthday was
yesterday, so we thought we'd go for a visit. Plus, it's been 28 days
since I've seen Memzy, so...

We got a really late start on the road. So frustrating. Tony ran to
walmart real quick to get a car adapter spliter thingy so we could
plug in all our electronical stuff at the same time. Now, if you
noticed, I used the words "real quick" in reference to Tony, which
doesn't even make sense, cuz Tony doesn't do "real quick" stuff. He
was at walmart for almost two hours, while the kids and I sat on the
staircase with our suitcases and iPods and lap tops, drumming our
fingers, pulling our hair out, gnashing our teeth, murmuring, etc.
Then Tony walks back through the door, completely oblivious to my
seething anger, and he has extra stuff with him, like a Legend of
Zelda tshirt.<--dead srs. I told him he did not have permission to
wear that in my presence, but he was like "wha?" and went right
upstairs to change while I packed up the car like a man.

(You gize, on his shirt, Link is holding a giant yellow shield, and I
think it's fuzzy. I haven't looked too closely at it, just out of the
corner of my eye, cuz I'm still mad at him. Probably forgive him by
Barstow, though, and then I'll feel it and let you know.)

Anyway, at least we have several electronical devises to intertain*
ourselves during the drive. I hope I get to see all the Bako folks
while I'm there. Peace.

*means entertain I think (def. by E-Mat)

Topic So Hot...

...you'll forget all about that miserably cold weather you're having (CA, AZ, and LV residents excluded), as well as the economy.

So, my friend Amanda Crazier Olsen, whom I have dubbed Queen of Facebook by authority of the British Crown, hosts a Q&A Monday on her Facebook, which is the only thing that keeps me from officially declaring Facebook a gigantic snooze-fest. She graciously agreed to give me a super scolding hot topic to discuss on my blog, and here it is...

::medieval trumpets::

Name something your spouse does that really bugs you.

K, I'll go first.
Anthony is super nice (eBay whore) and considers lean cuisines home-cooked meals.

Now it's your gizes turn. Nothing is more therapeutic than complaining about your significant other, but remember to sandwich your critique between two things you like about your spouse. Softens the blow.

PS. If you are an ID resident, or plan to visit ID in the near future, you should check out Amanda's blog entitled Don't Get Bored In Idaho, cuz lets face it, ID is frickin boring.

PPS. Happy Birthday Marmzy!

How's it going?

I don't know if you gize have been counting, but we are 27 days into 2009. How's your year going so far? I know some of you are in the depths of despair on account of the economy or the glum weather (CA, LV, and AZ residents excluded), but what about those super high/unrealistic goals you set for yourself way back 27 days ago? Are you accomplishing them? Me neither. I mean, I'm totally excelling at the easy ones, like spelling more wyrds rong, eating more cheese like a total turophile*, and night-running at night with my old-school iPod, but my more challenging goals are kicking my A**.

So, why can't I accomplish the S*** I wanna accomplish? I'm not feeling desperate or anything, I'm just whelmed****. But I should be feeling nice and gruntled***** by now. I mean, 27 days? Plenty of time to become Master of My Own Universe.

Anyway, one day at a time, so maybe tomorrow will be productive for me.
How 'bout you gize?

*cheese pervert (def. by Memzy)
**ace
***stuff
****not overwhelmed, not underwhelmed, just whelmed (def. by Memzy)
*****opposite of disgruntled

Life=Right on Track

Proof:

While I'm running at night, I sometimes think about how if a bad guy started chasing me, there is no way I could outrun him, on account of me being freakishly slow (see above picture if you're wondering why), and I'd subsequently be raped/killed. But it's not all bad news you gize. We have had some loverly nights here in Las Vegas, weather-wise, especially for January. If you'll recall, that's my favorite thing about Las Vegas. Perfect for night running.

I still use to my old-school iPod when I run. I'm super loyal to it. You should see how my eyes light up when I see it. I like to add new songs to my running playlist daily, so feel free to offer recommendations. I have joined the Pandora fanwagon since getting my new celly-which-shall-not-be-named-so-as-not-to-make-you-jealous. I love how Pandora apologizes to me if it plays a song I don't like.

As you probably know, my SIL Katie made a last-minute trip to Las Vegas last weekend, mainly to see me, and a little bit to see Tom. Love her cuz she's hilarious/super easy personality. The world needs more people like her. I know you gize don't like her, but I'm telling you, at the very least she would make a good sister-wife. Just think about it, OK?

(Thanks for hanging out with us Vegasians last weekend, Tomkat, but I noticed you gize didn't call us to hang out on Sunday. What were you gize doing? That's gross.)

One more thing. I loverz this picture of France Beck pre-pavement fight. She missed a few days of school after her little accident, and spent one of those days at my house, playing with Homer. She is one of Homer's #1-favorite people, and I love when she comes over to play. Makes my day a little easier.

Jespy played the Ocarina for you

Sara's Thumb

This is a picture of my thumb, but I wanted to let you gize know, my
sister Sara cut off the top of her thumb. Sadly, doctors can't
reattach it bc she threw it away.

Bye, bye front teeth

Erin just emailed me these pictures of France. She got in a fight with the pavement. The pavement knocked out her two front permanent teeth, but she left a nasty blood stain on the pavement, so...

So sad.

I'm no liar

Memzy sent me this brago email, telling me she beat "Klondike deal 1" on solitaire in less than 4 minutes.

So I played a few times, and then emailed her back that I beat it in 2:33.

She was like, "cha-right."

And I was like, "you calling me a liar?"

And she was like, "yes."

So here's a picture of my stats, you gize. Proof of my superiority/humble honesty.

(notice the shortest win time at the bottom. I had even rounded up the last second to 3, so she wouldn't feel so bad.)

While we're at it, she sent me another email, telling me she scored 100,130 on Sweet Thing playing Tap Tap Revenge, and I emailed her back that I scored 300,870 on my first try.
Just in case she didn't believe me...

Not to brag or anything, but I'm super honest, and excell at everything I do. I'm more than just a pretty face with a stunning figure you gize.

Sorry, can't blog right now...

...I'm watching the Bachelor. Such an inappropriate program you gize.
Love judging those gize on the show, though.

Sweet new library

Can I get an appraisal?

Landee, this isn't a one-up or a braggy braggerson or anything, but could you have Gty appraise these baseball cards for me thanks.



**Edit: Tony saw this post and got all paranoid, thinking it might attract home invaders, so, even though we have a hard-core home security system (thanks Tom) that we alarm every night and sometimes during the day, Tony asked me to add this clarification: These extremely valuable baseball cards are not on display in our home; they are on display (in this dumb frame) at The Met. (Meaning, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC). If you thought otherwise, sorry for the, er, misunderstanding. And lollerz.

If you wanna see other pictures we took of valuable baseball cards during our visit to the Met and mistake them for a picture of baseball cards hanging in our house, click here.

Up Yours, PCGS

If you didn't already know, Tony is a hard-core numismatic. His coin obsession started when he was about 8 or 9, after reading an article about a 1972 doubled-die penny in Boy's Life magazine.

This is a 1972 doubled-die:

(notice the slight double impression on "Liberty"?)

The article said that some of these messed-up 1972 double-die pennies were accidentally released into circulation, and if you happened to find one, a coin collector would gladly take it off your hands for at least few hundred dollars.

Tony was determined to find one, and long story short, he eventually did. It was a crazy-lucky find, like winning the lottery. A coin magazine (yes, they have those) even published his story.

So, that's how he got hooked. And after almost 26 years of obsessing over coins, he has this wealth of "valuable" coin knowledge. He knows every US coin ever minted, what years they were minted, how much each date is worth at what grades... and that's the other thing: although his specialties are buffalo nickles and wheat pennies, he can grade any US coin at a glance, and tell you what it's worth.

You know what this means? He could work for Antiques Roadshow you gize. Do you have an old silver dollar that your grandpa left to you when he passed away? Tony can tell you exactly what it's worth ("a few dollars, if you're lucky").

Now, the leading US coin grading company is called PCGS. If a person thinks they have a valuable coin, they'll send it off to PCGS to be offically graded and recorded. Once PCGS grades the coin, they seal it in a plastic holder, give it a serial #, and its value is no longer arguable. The coin can be auctioned off, and the buyer can rest assured that the grade of the coin is fixed and they paid a fair price for it.

Why am I telling you this? Because Tony likes to search for PCGS graded coins on eBay, find ones that he thinks were graded too low, buy the coin at the current price, crack open the sealed plastic PCGS case, and send it back to PCGS to be "officially" graded. He's never been wrong, they always come back at a higher grade. Then he resales them on eBay at the higher price, and we're living on easy street, you gize. Eazzzzzzzz E street.

Does it still fit?

H yeah it still fits.

And I look super romantic in it, like I just fell out of some fairytale. I would not be surprised if mice sneak into my closet while I'm asleep tonight and press it for me.

And I told Anthony all your gizes husbands (specifically, Dwight) were getting in their tuxes, too, so mums the word.

Your turn. Go put on your wedding dress.

Stats

I "ran" 3 miles last night in 33.12 minutes, so my pace was 11.04 minutes per mile.

At first, I was like "sweetness!" But then Tony goes, "Oh, that's not fast or anything. You were actually setting a faster pace back in November."

(See, I totally slacked off, and basically stopped running in November.)

I never even paid attention to my pace before, I guess cuz my goal wasn't to be fast, only to get out of the house for a while and listen to my iPod. But how disconerting is it that my body is all weak and fragile again after a 4-5 week running break? Flickle, flickle muscles and lungs.

Refocusing

During my nightly (er, from now) run last night, a few of my most happiest moments from 2008 popped into my head.

Not to go all Pollyanna on you, but every so often, I'll get this overwhelming feeling of happiness (as we all do, hopefully), and when that happens, I bookmark it in my mind (or "add it to my favorites" if you still use Explorer). I bookmark it by taking note of everything around me, like where I am, what I'm doing, smells, sounds, tastes, etc, etc. My happiest moments aren't necessarily sparked by particular events, in fact, my happiest moment in 2007 happened while sitting on my couch in my family room, watching TV. I wasn't overwhelmingly happy because I was sitting on the couch watching Ugly Betty. I don't even know, exactly, why I was so stinkin' happy. Spiritually speaking, my life was probably going in the right direction at that moment (::buffing my halo::) and scientifically speaking, my body might have reacted by releasing positive neutrons in my brain (::adjusting my thick smarty-pants glasses::).

Of course, overwhelming happiness is fleeting, and it can even be replaced by overwhelming sadness. BUT, if I bookmark those moments of overwhelming happiness in my mind, then I can recall the feeling whenever I want (::attaching a giant Pollyanna bow to the ponytail at the nape of my neck::).

Crazy people call this "going to their happy place," BTW.

So, back to my point. When I was running last night, and I recalled that brief moment in Sept 2008--sitting on my balcony, cross-legged, striped PJ bottoms, notebook, iPod, Diet Coke, spider web, cockroach--I was suddenly determined to refocus my life in the direction I was going at that one overwhelmingly happy moment. Determined.

This is deep S, you gize. (and when I say S, I don't mean the S word, I mean "stuff") Anyway, deep S.

Picnic at the park

Doritos = bliss

iPhones: bringing families together

Homer wanted to make cookies, so tony looked up a recipe for oatmeal
chocolate chip cookies on his iPhone and I took a picture of them
cooking with my iPhone and then I went "beep bop boop bap beep beep
boop" and BAM... The whole thing posted to my blog.

W8, come back...

I first wanted to document that I made my bed the other few dayz...



And, look, no papers scattered all over my office...



OK, onto the subject of this post...
The ESPs had a loverly visit from the Shedertons over New Year's Eve/Day. We spent the days hanging out at few LV parks, and the nights at the ESPy's house--a magical combination, I'm convinced.

On New Year's Eve, Erin and Corey and their kids came over and we had this wild part-tay. We had a boy v. girl 90s trivia smack down with a high-stakes prize (winner gets a girl's vacay backpacking through Europe). We were all shocked when the gize won. Huh? Later on, I gave Tony a back rub for his part in winning (cuz he can't go on a girl's vacay cuz he's not a girl) with that Chinese chopstick move until he asked me to please stop. Bummer that things didn't go as planned.

Anyway, maybe it had something to do with the excitement of the new year, but all night, Shed and Memzy couldn't keep their hands off each other...



Super romantic.

And same with me and Anthony...

We had pizza...



...hung out...

...and conversated...



...sorta.

New Year's day was a repeat of New Year's eve, except by New Years day I had a freaking iPhone, so I was in a whole new dimension.

See, Memzy and Shed told us we should get iPhones, and I was like, "Really? Should we? That's a novel idea. But what about the economy and alright we'll get iPhones. EEEEeeeeekkkk!"

I am telling you, since I got mine, I suddenly realized that we exist in this freaky futuristic world. Amazing. It's my goal to talk as many people as I can into getting and iPhone and have them name me as their referral so I can collect the $25 referral reward. I have $50 and it's day two. But more on my sweet iPhone later.

Did you gize notice that the Shedertons and the ESPs both have 3 boys who are pretty much the same ages? We planned that. Ovulation kit. It was perfect cuz everyone had someone to play with. The boys got along great and had all kinds of fun together...

(FYI, Cord is a few months older than Brains, but notice the difference in height.)

It all came to an end on Friday, when they headed off to spend time with Memzy's brother (who lives in the area).

Here we are, texting goodbye...


My kids were so sad when the Shedertons left, especially Gus, who moped around the house all day in despair, just like I did.

iphone