Yummies

I've had a crazy whirlwind day today, including a visit to the Kinko's to fax a form to my loan peeps so I don't have to pay my student loans for awhile and a couple games of knock-off Settlers of Catan (called Xplorers) which a FB friend introduced me to. Now I'm at the Extracto coffeehouse on Killingsworth finishing up a pro bono project I started on Friday (yes, Agrado has a heart of gold y'all). But I had to stop and tell my 3 readers that they must get here to try the marionberry cheesecake bar post haste! That + an IZZE drink (which I've never had before but now I'm a convert) has been the perfect mid-day snack.



After I'm done with this, I think I'll get back to my hectic schedule of


and maybe a little of



Oh! And I'm going to play Bingo with Kathryn and Kerry and a bunch of other people tonight! I'm hoping there will be plenty of hipster old ladies there. I never win at games of chance but at least it requires leaving the house.

Christmas Awesomeness

I'm back in cold rainy Portland after a wonderful week down in Alabama visiting the fam. My sister and my parents live there, as well as my sister's two dogs, Simba and Lil' Bear. They have now officially become the grandkids of the family. It's a bit ridiculous but they are truly great dogs. They may be spoiled with affection but they aren't aggressive or possessive. My parents are huge Cesar Millan fans and try to follow the Dog Whisperer way. I also got them hooked on It's Me or the Dog (I have a huge girl crush on Victoria Stillwell) so they are pretty good at controlling the puppies (which is good cause Lil' Bear is not so little).


Here's Lil' Bear doing some pre-washing of our dishes after our Christmas Eve dinner. 2 seconds after I took this picture, he bit that wooden spoon and cracked it. Oops! I had one of my best girlfriends from high school and her parents over for brunch on Christmas (we've known their family for about 14 years now). LB fell asleep under the table and snored so loud we had to yell over him. Yea he's kind of awesome. Simba is great too, best dog ever. All he wants in the world is for you to pet him and occasionally slip him some bacon.


These two brothers from another mother (and father) are awesome. The rest of my trip was great as well. I love my family. As crazy as they can be, they are endlessly hilarious, awesome, and entertaining.

I met up with most of the Girls Club, my group of girlfriends from high school. We all keep in touch pretty regularly and they are all just really awesome ladies. We had a few members missing but it was the biggest GC reunion we've had in awhile. My friend Susie has the coolest job ever. She works at Chicago Public Radio as a producer for "All Things Considered." You should listen to her stories and leave her comments about how awesome her reporting is! She says she doesn't see Ira Glass though (supposedly he's out in NYC most of the time) so no need to ask for an autograph or if he'll marry you or anything.

What else...oh! I went to a lesbian bar with my sis and saw possibly the gayest thing ever. A table decoupaged with pictures of Melissa Ethridge. Seriously. Melissa Ethridge fuckin decoupage.

Awesome! We had a great time watching the drag show and drinking cheap booze and chatting. I maybe drank a bit too much and felt it on the plane ride the next day but it was worth it.

Finally, I came home to this, my Christmas present to myself:

I cannot tell you how excited I am to carry around my new Golden Girls tote bag. I got it at this Etsy store. Afuckingmazing. So that's all for my now. I have no plans for New Year's Eve whatsoever. This is my first one actually in Portland and it's not looking like it'll shape up to be a good one, but if y'all hear of anything fun going on, let me know! I'd love to ring in 2009 in style.