Hilarious, Aunt Julie!

Go read the first few paragraphs of my Aunt Julie's blog post about wrapping paper. You won't be sorry!

I remembered some!

Last night's dream was rather interesting. I don't remember enough of it to write a story or anything, but I do remember some fun details.

I was back in that place that looks suspiciously like Scottsdale, only there were hills and bunches of staircases, and I think I was there for some sort of convention or something. I was in my roller skates, just going around the neighborhood with someone who I think was actually my Grandpa S, and someone else--I can't remember who, but they were around my age, I think.

We got to this place where three staircases met--or maybe it was two staircases, and the hill I'd just gone up--and one of the staircases was so steep, I couldn't even see half of each riser from the top. So I turned to the other staircase, which wasn't much better, and walked my skates down.

We finally found someone else from the convention thing, and he said that it was time for whatever meeting we were going to (we'd been out and about just to kill time until it started), so I asked "Grandpa" to have someone bring me my shoes, since I was kind of leery about going all the way back the way we'd come in my skates.

When I got to the place for the meeting, the other two were already there, so I just sat down in the back with them to listen. Shortly after that, I woke up.

I keep thinking . . .

. . . that my dreams would make great stories--if I could remember more than a few interesting details, that is. Especially the last few nights, since I'm pretty sure that at least last night's dream had *shock* a plot! If only I could remember a whole dream long enough to write it down, or at least jot a few notes for an outline. Then maybe I'd have a bestseller--or at least a published novel or something.

Yoinked from Aunt Julie's Blog (I'm waaaaaaaaaaay behind.)

Happy Birthday, Heather! (And various wedding-like details.)

Today is Heather's birthday! Yay, Heather!

Now, on to our not-so-regularly scheduled blog entry:

Sunday, Anna, Kimba and I went to David's Bridal so that Kimba and I (and Liz F.) could try on bridesmaid dresses. We decided on this dress, with a bolero jacket, in apple for me and Liz and black for Kimba (since she's the maid of honor, and Anna wanted different colors--her bridal colors are black and apple). The jacket only comes in white, since that style's technically a bridal style, but we liked it, since it's an outdoor winter wedding anyway.

Luckily, we were able to pay for and order the dresses in our sizes on Sunday, because the lady who helped us said that delivery time was looking like the end of January. Considering the wedding is February 16th, we'd've been cutting it kinda close if we hadn't bought them there and then. We'll have to go back for first and second fittings--one to have the alterations lady pin them and such, and one to make sure the altered gowns actually fit right.

As an aside, I never really understood the need for more than one bridesmaid--I mean, all the extra ones do is just stand there in their dresses and look pretty, right? The maid of honor at least has some sort of "job" to do during the ceremony. I can understand wanting to appease certain female family members and/or friends, but it's not their wedding anyway.

If/when I ever get married, I'm going to have one bridesmaid, my groom will have one best man, and we will invite our immediate family, specific family members who we are closest to, and our bestest best friends. Everyone else will get announcements only, and possibly invitations to the reception. I'm talking super-duper-small wedding.

Anyway, back on course.

We also got to see Anna in her wedding dress while we were in the shop, since she had just made her final payment on it and had to get the alterations pinned. I'm not going to link to a picture of the dress today, since there's no telling who actually reads this blog, and it's "bad" for certain people to see the dress before the wedding, after all.

Pay day (and the company Christmas party) is tomorrow. Yay! I can finish my Christmas shopping! And start paying off my Discover card (which is how I paid for that gown).

Christmas Questions (Yoinked from Heather's LJ)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper--gift bags are just lazy (unless you don't have an appropriate sized box to put a gift in, then a bag is okay), and the holidays are about taking the effort and time to show a person you care.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Ours is artificial, but we've had a real one before--I get headaches if a real tree is in a small, enclosed house though.
3. When do you put up the tree? Usually Thanksgiving day, either during or after the Macy's parade.
4. Do you like eggnog? Yup, but recently I haven't been able to drink it without it cut in half with milk.
5. Favorite gift received as a child? Of the few I can remember, I'd have to say my favorite was the journal my grandma gave me when I was five--it was the first of many.
6. Hardest person to buy for? My dad--he tells us some things that he wants, but we can't always afford them even if we really want to get them for him, so I usually end up getting him things that aren't really what I want to get for him.
7. Easiest person to buy for? Anna--all I have to do is walk in the mall, or look in a catalogue, and I see so many things that are just "Totally Anna."
8. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. My mom made one out of plastic canvas years ago, and I got a glass one for Christmas a few years back myself.
9. Mail or email Christmas cards? Neither--I've never been a Christmas card sender. But if I was, I'd mail them.
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Don't remember.
11. Favorite Christmas Movie? The Patrick Stewart version of A Christmas Carol
12. When do you start shopping? As soon as I can. I even bought a gift for Anna way back in September once. But I usually keep it to the last 2-3 paychecks before the actual holiday--around Thanksgiving.
13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Not that I remember.
14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Dinner in general--Gourmette (cook stuff on the table, bite by bite) specifically.
15. Lights on the tree? Of course, no lights on the tree is just stupid--you can't see the ornaments well without them.
16. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night
17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home, since my immediate family is all in the area anyway.
18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph.
19. Angel on the tree top or a star? Neither--we have a spire-type thing.
20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning usually, unless someone's bought us pajamas and wants us to wear them to bed on Christmas Eve, or there's a gift that's specifically meant to be opened on Christmas Eve.
21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The commercialism--I especially hate the song "Santa Baby."
22. Favorite ornament theme or color? Silver and blue bulbs and beads, white lights, and the tree topper spire thing.
23. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Gourmette.
24. What do you want for Christmas this year? A few For Dummies books, some wide-staff musical manuscript paper, and a new laptop.
25. Who do I tag? Anyone who feels like filling this out!

Ending Thought:"Whose life is better because you woke up today?" Dunno.

Random Stuff

Not much to tell--life's going on as usual here in good ol' Fredneck, USA.

Last Friday, one of the guys at the Haven showed me the player's handbook for an RPG called Paranoia. It's really kooky, and looks totally interesting. I'll probably play once they get a game going, since he said that they're most likely going to be playing on Tuesday evenings and I've got those free.

I've done most of my Christmas shopping as of Saturday. Just have to get a gift for Dad, which will have to wait until next Friday, as I am out of money again.

I had an interesting dream last night, which was actually interrupted by the alarm clock--that hasn't happened in a while, since I usually end up trying to stay asleep for at least an hour before the alarm goes off. I don't remember most of the dream, but I know it was set somewhere which looked suspiciously like Scottsdale, AZ.

Four-Day Weekend

I started my Christmas shopping on either Tuesday or Wednesday evening. I'm not typing what I got in here though, since I know at least one person whose gift I bought actually reads this blog.

Thursday was okay. Dinner preparation was mostly hitch-less. I had to get Anna to help me slice the cabbage, because there's no way I would have been able to get it that thin--I'm more of a thick-slice gal.

Grandma, Aunt Tammy, Aunt Peggy, Uncle Dan, Michael and Katrina came over for dinner. We were supposed to have missionaries over too (we were the ones who'd actually signed up on their dinner calendar for Thanksgiving dinner), but apparently they had three other invitations not on the calendar. They didn't show up at all--not even for dessert.

I was feeling kind of ill during dinner, which was kind of aggravated by not having any real support for my upper back/head while I sat at the table (I had a folding chair). The result was not fun, or pretty. But at least it didn't get on the floor. I was not allowed to have pie until Friday. :(

After dinner, Aunt Barbara dropped off C.J. and Danielle, and we watched Get Smart, then when the younger kids went to bed (and Kimba left) the rest of us watched Wall-E. Both were good movies.

Friday was pretty much a lazy day all around.

Saturday, I alternated reading with updating my iPod with new music. My current iTunes library has 2,536 audio files on it, and my external hard drive (and some other CDs) has even more files which I haven't transferred over because I'm not going to be listening to them anytime really soon. I just barely got started with the updating on Saturday before I decided to let it go for the night.

Sunday, I finished the iPod update, including three songs which I bought from iTunes because Kayla hadn't downloaded them when she used my iTunes and I wanted them. I got "Truly Madly Deeply" by Savage Garden, "Rev 22:20" by Puscifier, and "Not Ready to Make Nice" by the Dixie Chicks. Including those three songs, I have over 1,000 audio files (I'd say "songs," but I've also got Dutch language stuff) on my iPod.

It took the better part of the day (at least eight hours) to pick out the songs I wanted on the iPod, but I managed to fill all but about twelve megabites of my 4-gig iPod Nano. A lot of the songs on there were old when I was in school, so they're practically ancient songs now (like the Beach Boys songs). Some are relatively new, like the Hannah Montana stuff.

Just Catching Up

Not too much interesting stuff has happened since my last post, but I figured it would be a good idea so that I don't forget the few things that really are interesting.

Last Friday marked the last session of the Changeling game I was playing in. Gene tried to stretch it as long as he could, but it got to the point where our characters would just be "bean counting" after last week's session. That day was also Steve's birthday. I have no idea how old he is, but we had cake. David's D&D 2.0 game was cancelled that night, due to the fact that I was the only player other than Steve who was actually there.

We're having Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house this year, since Mom had surgery last week. We planned the menu, and I'm making brussels sprouts. I've got to stop at the grocery store tonight and get them, plus the ingredients to make them "less boring." I found a recipe on the Food Network website for Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Red Cabbage. Yum.

Due to Mom's health issues, she's lost a lot of weight. In fact, she's lost so much that we now both wear the same size jeans! No lie; I actually had her put on the pair I was wearing yesterday, and she fit them better than I do!

This morning, I packed two sandwiches to take to work for lunch--one was pastrami and the other was salami. I then went upstairs to eat my breakfast before I had to leave for work, and when I came downstairs, I found Tabby (Tim's cat) "chasing" one of the sandwiches off the dining room table! I found the other one on the kitchen floor. Grrrr.

I didn't have time to pack more sandwiches before I had to leave, so I got Five Guys for lunch today.

A Dream or Two

I had a couple of interesting dreams last night.

The first part I remember is, I was living in this town, in this neighborhood that looked kind of like down near the McCain Drive/Orchard Way area, like when my family lived on Danielle Drive.

Each "morning," in my dream, I would get up and go to this one house, where--get this--Bob Saget had a local morning-type thing. Whether it was a show or not, I have no idea; all I know was that he had this little picture-drawing contest for the few people who found their way there and explained the inspiration for their drawings and had really good "reasons" for wanting to win the contest. I don't even remember what the prize was for winning.

Then, there was a bit of a segue that I don't remember, and all of a sudden, I was at the Phoenix airport, getting ready to go home from my vacation again.

Somehow, I'd gotten on the plane before the previous passengers had disembarked, and I had to get off before I could re-board. So I got off, and then when they called boarding again I went through the tunnel thing, and there was this van there. I got in the van (the inside of which looked like the plane, but without the bathrooms or cockpit--instead just a driver's seat and windshield), and we went on the highway.

Apparently, it was a shuttle to take us to another airport somewhere nearby for our flight. Don't ask me about the logic of that, 'cause I don't know. Anyway, just as the other airport was coming into view, my alarm clock rang and I woke up.