starting the year off right...

hardly.
frozen pipes. blech!
dragged my lazy self out of bed this morning... 6:30-ish. no water to the shower or sink. in either bathrooms upstairs. wha?! wake nick up with this oh so fabulous news. thankfully, some of the downstairs plumbing works. can you say bird bath in the kitchen sink? and yay for the one working toilet!
so i'm home today. sweating my ass off. have the heat cranked up to 70 something, the fireplace on with the blower going full force, two space heaters in each of the bathrooms upstairs, and can't forget the heating pad wrapped around one of the pipes in the basement. classy, right?
the toilet in the master bath did this just about one year ago. now we know that wind and dropping temps are not our friends. and i don't think that we can do much about it, since all of the pipes are behind the walls. unless something horrific happens, i don't see ourselves tearing out the walls to put some heating mechanisms back there. will just have to be more vigilant when it comes to letting the sinks drip on cold nights.
fingers and toes crossed it is unfrozen by tonight. tomorrow morning at the latest... i don't do bird baths well. ;o)

well...

i'm glad my resolution wasn't to blog more often.
cuz, i'm just suckin at that.
was going to update with pics and everything yesterday. instead i slept for all but 3 hours of the day. partying + cold = naptime. ah, the joys of being old.

remembering to breathe....

yeah, i know that's last year's word. but i'm still gonna need it.
lots going on.
nick and i took friday and today off. woot! had a blast and drove up to michigan. hit a few wineries. cannot wait to do it again. he was drunk after the second one and was absolutely hilarious. and had to pee so bad he tried to go in an empty mcdonald's cup. seriously, funny shit. told him i would divorce him if he actually did it! ;oP
saturday was a party for him with his mom's side of the family. went well. guinness was super good with all the guests. only had a problem when noah, our nephew, cried continuously. freaked him out. can't blame him. bothered me a bit too! unfortunately, he wouldn't stop so mom had to take him home.
should have pictures of both friday and saturday on flickr soon. wasn't a complete camera monger saturday. friday was another story!
sunday was lazy, recouperate day. loved watching football in front of the fireplace while dozing on and off.
today, the bubble gut resumes. remember a few posts ago when i mentioned guinness hurting himself? well, it's confirmed. he's torn his cruciate ligaments in both of his hind legs. i'm heartbroken. feel so bad for the lil g man. christy mentioned rest, aspirin, and conservative treatment. so not wanting surgery to be an option. so not wanting to think of what might happen if surgery is ridiculously expensive and not an option if he doesn't heal on his own. ;(
so any happy pup thoughts are appreciated.

deep thoughts. #9586723

smart ass or dumb ass?
so the other day my patient is walking around and asks to go to the bathroom. the one closest to him is full, so i show him to the other one. he asks me, 'now how am i supposed to know how to get back to my chair?' and what do i say, 'i'll leave you a trail of pretzels.' hmm. maybe not the best answer. just being silly. he replies, 'well, aren't you a smart ass!' yeah, sure am. i don't think anyone would argue that!
as i retelling the stories to all the girls at work one replied, 'well, it's better than being a dumbass...'
true dat.

names.

seriously. what is wrong with people...
i'm fascinated with names. like did you know jason lee named his kid pilot inspecktor? i think that is how it's spelled. i also once worked with a mary christmas.
so this weekend, i'm browsing through the announcement section of my newspaper and see a familiar name and read the little blurb. it started, 'mr. and mrs. kats are pleased to announce the engagment of their daughter kit.'
dude. this chick's name is kit kats.
how freaking mean. you know everyone picked on her when she was little. i'm really hoping it's a nickname but who knows.
i'm talking with the girls at work about this and they tell me about someone who had the last name of leer. the parents thought it wise to name their kid crystal chanda leer.
come on!
have any fun ones to share!?

so far...

i think the word of the year is going well. is it too soon to jinx it? who knows, but glad i have figured a way to balance things out.
have been way tired. last week was the first full week of work in like two weeks. wednesday i went to bed at 6pm. not intentional. fell asleep watching a movie! oops.
nick's birthday festivities have started. had his dad's family over last night. watched some football, ate some yummy food, and had a nice time just kinda hanging out. pup did pretty good with little mr. noah, our nephew. wasn't too crazy all over him, just kinda curious as to what this little thing was that wouldn't stop crying!
woke up this morning with major pup issues. growling constantly. it was kinda bad. think he hurt himself yesterday with all the excitement. he was jumping and playing something fierce. gave him some aspirin and has been better. hoping everything is okay and we don't have to take him to the vet. was kinda funny because we called our girlfriend the vet about it and she was really helpful. then we get a phone call because her daughter ate some paper. ha. love that we have a lot of our bases covered with friends! what is up with our 'children' today?!
looking forward to two short weeks. nick and i took friday and monday off for his birthday. were originally going to go out of town for his birthday, but have no one to watch pup. his dad and his girlfriend just got a new puppy. they need time to adjust and not worry about guinnea pig. think we could have asked his uncle, but it just might be easier this way.
thinking we are going to do birthday festivities with his mom's side of the family saturday, so it works. less to cram in during the week.
have been way scrappy this week. will be able to share when the next issue of rsc comes out. speaking of... there's a ct search going on over there. kinda late notice. entries have to be in by the 15th. but if you are interested, check it out.
edited to add. the four letter b word = baby. ;o)

heatwave

loving this heatwave. totally breaking records. almost said, 'i love spring' today and then i realized it's freaking winter.
snow is looming. maybe late this week. sigh. i'll enjoy the 60s while i can!

so i've been trying to take more pics. nick is joining in too which is way cool. think between the two of us we have managed at least one per day! the above kinda represents our weekend: laundry, bills, library, barnes and noble and borders, planning.
had a nice dinner at applebee's yesterday to discuss 2008. {yay giftcards, since we're trying to nip some of our spending in the bud} seems we have lots we want to do. have decided to sell the lot. have plans to remodel this house a bit and maybe even finish the basement {that could happen in '09 too}. want to change around the finances a bit. and have a list of little home improvements we want to accomplish as well. buy mr. nicholas a new car. and maybe one more big vacation before the four letter 'b' word comes up. hope we can keep up the excitement and focus we have over the plans right now.

finding balance in 2008.

my new word of the year... balance.
breathe did me a bit of good last year. thinking that balance might be a key one this year. not that i'm ditching breathe... still need to work on that, just added one more word to the mix.

our new year's festivities were insane. a giant snowstorm, open toed shoes, and a night of drinking = not so good. sorta!
got to dinner late. blame bleeping snow storm. seriously, out of no where. it could have waited a day! had a change of transportation plans. the third couple that we were meeting up with, was to pick us up... we have never met them! don't tell mom i just climbed into a truck and assumed the people were 'stacy and phil' ha!
the crowd was a bit older. nick and i walked into the bar and some kids our age were like, 'hey!' um, do we know you. come to find out that they were excited there were some youngins in the crowd!
had a martini bar. my selection was not so good. see above picture. but they did pour it through some crazy ice sculpture!
wanted to brave the snow for firework pictures, but i chickened out. went inside after like one minute. i'm a wimp who apparently did not have enough tequilla shots!
came home to a knee height snow drift right where i got out of the truck. again, open toed shoes!! brrrrrr! made a mad dash for the front door. the next day i was looking for my house keys. yup. they were still in the front door. nice shannon. i think i was in a hurry! ;o)
recouperated all day yesterday. slept through a few phones calls. it was serious. nick couldn't even go out to snowblow until like 5pm!

a recap in pics....
nick and his uber manly midori sours. i guess it's okay... george was drinking cosmos and tobbi and i were doing tequilla shots... so there was some sort of manly/girly drink balance.


first tequilla shots of the night... i think i was around 7-ish... lost track between those and the panty droppers {yes, a killer shot name!} and kool aid shots.


me imitating this lame-o dude on the dance floor. seriously. mr. steroids actually motor-boated on the freaking dance floor. classy, i know...


a normal dance shot. you can see mr. steroid in the far left corner of the picture. the rest of those fantastic ladies were partying with us!


dueling cameras with mr. george.


the people set up the little hats backwards. just thought it was a nice shot with all those shot glasses in there too. ;o)


toasting the new year...

k. have to give the laptop back to hubby. he's decided he is going to be in charge of bills from now on... so mr. smarty has to balance the checkbook. from april.
hoping to share some resolutions in an upcoming post. and just a disclaimer... they're going to be more like guidelines. ;o)