Ooh, people!

# What time do you usually wake up on weekdays?
Well, on most weekdays I actually go to bed in the morning around 8-9am, and I wake up 3-4pm.

# What about weekends?
On weekends when I'm a normal girl I wake up about 9am, unless Ganon wakes up earlier & comes and pounces on us.

# What do you eat for breakfast?
Whatever I have in the house. I always have coffee. I really like challah bread with peanut butter for breakfast, and I've also been known to eat a Clif Bar. If I have time I like to do pancakes or french toast and bacon.

# Do you take a shower at night or in the morning?
I take it before I go to bed, whichever time that is. I'm a nurse so when I get off work I feel like I am covered in infectious diseases. So I shower.

# How long does it take you to get ready?
If I start from the shower, it takes an hour. If I have already taken a shower & just have to wet my hair, it's more like 30-45 minutes, depending on how complicated I want to wear my makeup that day.

Current Location: Sunroom in the Creeches' house
Current Mood: relaxed
Current Music: A Christmas clock that goes off every hour

It does not have a camera so that counts against it, but it does have Sesame Street and games so I keep it around.

Posted via email from Things I Will Someday Rule

Her hair is orange and she is cute.

Posted via email from Things I Will Someday Rule

Ladies & gentlemen, the Mo's Bacon Bar by Vosges chocolate comes in dark chocolate! 62% to be exact. My little heart sings! THANKS, Vosges!

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

Little dude & I took a trip to Whole Foods this morning. It was pretty early & they were just finishing up most of their roasting. The Plano store has a really impressive BBQ section, this being Texas and all, and I can't begin to express how awesome it smelled in that store. Unless you're vegan, maybe. Sometimes I think I could go vegetarian, and I do go without meat for pretty long periods of time, but several things would always get me back: chicken salad, bacon, and the smell of roasting meat. Fish? No. I could never even give up fish in the first place. <3

Ganon has been watching a lot of Sesame Street, and it's led to a huge explosion in his vocabulary. This morning he was begging me for an apple, but the only ones we had in the house were granny smiths, meant for a pie. I told him they were not sweet apples, and then he insisted that we go find some. "Red with stripes," he insisted, meaning either Gala or Honeycrisp, my faves. I went out intending to go to Target (there's a great Super Target here with an awesome produce section), but then I remembered he'd probably want peanut butter on apple slices, so that's when we changed route & went to Whole Foods. He told everyone in the store how he came to get apples because "They are crunchy & sweet". Then when the bread lady asked if he liked them, he told her "Yes! They're a healthy snack!" On the way home he ate a whole apple & then handed me the core. "I'm finished with my healthy snack, Mama!" GOOD GRIEF, KID. HOW SO CUTE?!

So just after I did my whole "people I like, places I go" post, I find a new one! This one is mostly an iPhone thing, though it does have a website. Gowalla is...wow. What is it? Well here, have a look at my user page and see if that explains a little. Every public place I go, I can "check in" and tell my friends I've been there. I can connect it to Facebook & Twitter to shout out there, as well. The cool part about it is being able to see who else has checked in at each place. The COOLEST part about it is the "items". When you join you're given a handful of items. When you check in at a place you can find items that other people have left, or sometimes bonus items (where you are the first owner) just randomly appear. Yesterday at Memphis I picked up a luggage tag & dropped some cut-off jeans. In Kolache Heaven this morning I found a bonus item (festive Americano) and swapped out a bratwurst for a soundboard. Then at Whole Foods I dropped my luggage tag & found a "bag of swag" bonus item. The item thing is fun on its own but you can also see where each item has been & who's had them. I can see how this could be an interesting way to meet people locally, as well; if you keep seeing the same people checking in at your local spots, there's a chance you might like to know them IRL, or at least as a Gowalla friend. Bonus points that I can stalk my online friends, too. When I see that my Twitter friends are checking in at different places, it makes me more aware of them as PEOPLE & not just vague, ephemeral internet personalities.

Now, Vague Ephemeral Internet Peeps, I'm going to go for a walk outside on the golf course. It's way gorgeous outside, there are ducks on the pond, and my outfit today is too cute to keep inside. :D

Current Location: United States, Texas, Frisco
Current Mood: jubilant

One photo I took of Ganon & one he took himself. The instant iPod touches upgrade to have cameras, we're upgrading him. He's careful enough with his things and it's so INTERESTING watching him take photos! He frames his shots very carefully & if he moves & it doesn't look like what he wanted, he goes "Oh, shoot!" and tries again.

Ganon & I are now in Frisco, TX. we're about to take a trip to Target for "red apples". Mr. Picky Produce Eater insists.

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

Your nurse this evening is Hillary. She is wearing crazy bright blue & yellow eyeshadow, having a good hair day, & feeling much better. Also she'd like to point out her earrings, handmade by her good friend Alice!

Posted via email from What I Need is All Around Me

You know how people do a Follow Friday over on Twitter? I've been thinking that I ought to do it on Livejournal. I have several people I think would really get along & enjoy each other's comments & company. In the spirit of Follow Friday...I started this on Friday. But I've felt crappy all week (even with no fever, coughing for 9 days solid is exhausting, you guys), and I just didn't have the energy+time this weekend to finish this.

trolliepop is a delightful girl who is very into fandoms & coincidentally attends the first university from which I graduated. Battlestar Galactica, Pushing Daisies, Dr. Who, Harry Potter, LotR, etc. She has one of the prettiest Starbuck icons I've ever seen. Her journal is not all fandom, however; it's a really good mix of that & real life. It's friends' locked, so you'll need to comment. Tell her I sent you. I'll vouch for you. Most of you. :D

greeneyes73180 is another friend who attends aforementioned university. She and I have a great deal in common, including very liberal political leanings though we come from conservative backgrounds/families. She's quite funny and one of those people with whom it's fun to have bouncing-back-&-forth comment conversations. Also friends' locked. I see you getting along really well with jorajo, actually, which is what prompted me to write this whole entry.

thejessone! She attends parties at my house, as she lives in Little Rock with her husband, eldridge. Just in case you needed more medical expertise on your flist, she's also an RN! She went through her senior year of nursing school (again, at the university from which I got my communication degree) in the same year I went through the 1-year BSN. She works in an extended care facility with acutely ill patients who poop a lot. Hey, that's just what she'd tell you. She has WICKED dry humor, which is like the perfect counterpoint to Mr. Jess One, who has a slightly less subtle style. Since I've known her, this delightful woman has become one of the major pillars of my support system. As she said on the phone tonight, not only are we both nurses but we're both brand new nurses. We're figuring the same stuff out at the same time, navigating very similar waters. It's pretty awesome to have someone who groks it on a level like that.

Yeah well of course you know I always recommend asqmh. She's recently switched jobs (to a MUCH better one!) & I can't wait for a blog post about it. BUT I don't wanna post about it before she does any sort of intro post. Other than the world's greatest stapler.

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Music: "Love Hurts"++Incubus++Light Grenades

Ganon's new favorite hobby requires us to open TextEdit, crank the font up to about 72, & call out letters & numbers for him to type. He's trying to get a jump on this literacy thing because he hears it's helpful in world domination plans.

Posted via email from Wondering If You'd Come Along

Because no one ever takes you seriously when you're wearing a sparkly hat, & that's when you sneak up & take 'em by surprise.

Posted via email from Wondering If You'd Come Along

Yes. Yes, this is definitely the child of his parents, no question about it.

Posted via email from Wondering If You'd Come Along

I worked Monday & Tuesday nights so I haven't had a chance to blog about our Branson trip yet!

We woke up early on Friday morning to drive to Branson. Well, we could've woken up later & still gotten there in plenty of time, but we wanted to eat Giant Pancakes at the cafe in Hardy. We did, except for the giant pancake part; Bryan had french toast & I had the Saltiest Ham in the World with redeye gravy. Redeye gravy is essentially grease+coffee. :D

We drove. La la la la, driving. Very boring. I plugged my head into my phone & listened to a lot of Jeff Coffin, DMB, and Christmas music. Bryan sat behind me (I was in the front seat); at one point he shook my shoulder urgently & pointed out the window. That's when I snapped the "Tom Riddle Trucking" picture. :) We all got lottery scratch cards when we stopped somewhere at a gas station. Nobody won. But I had also gotten dark Reese's Cups so I wasn't too disappointed.

Our condo was quite awesome. We had neighboring condominiums looking out across Lake Tannecomo (don't know if I spelled that right), complete with giant hot tub-style bath. I was disappointed; if I'd known we were going to have a giant, amazing bathtub, I would have brought something to put in it. Oh well. Then we went off to Branson Landing, which is apparently a large outdoor mall.

I have to say, Branson Landing was pretty cool. The whole mall is done in a "port" theme, and it has all the same junk you'd find in a regular shopping mall, except it's outdoors. For those of you who've seen the "Crossings" type malls (there's in in Memphis called Carriage Crossing), it was a lot like that. Best of all, there was a Bath Junkie in it! Our Bath Junkie in Jonesboro closed this year, much to mine & Q's disappointment. I bought a bottle of Olive Me skin oil in "Ice Storm" (herb, hyacinth, citrus/snowstorm) and an oatmeal/honey/milk bath bomb for the condo! YAAAAAAAAAY! I asked about the Jonesboro store, and the gentleman was the man who'd actually owned it. Evidently the folks he'd had running it just weren't ready to run their own business (they were quite young) and it didn't work out. Quite a shame, BUT he told me that I could always email or call him and he'd ship me my favorite stuff. Also snagged at the mall: a very cute pair of Sketchers mary janes in brown with a slight wedge shape to them.

That night I broke my bath bomb in half & sat in near-boiling, delightfully oatmeal-milk-honey scented water until I literally fell asleep. BLISS, I TELL YOU. And if you've got super-dry skin that only gets worse in the winter, might I recommend this skin oil? It's olive oil based, absorbs quickly & doesn't feel nasty, but when lotion isn't cutting it, this stuff is the BEST.

The next morning we went outlet mall shopping. It's the thing to do in Branson, evidently, because HOLY CRAP THE CROWDS. I'm just as extroverted as the next person...actually, I'm far & away more extroverted than the vast majority of the next people. BUT THIS WAS TOO MANY PEOPLE. You couldn't move without someone being in your face. It was suffocating. There was no Lane Bryant at this outlet mall, and I was disappointed. However, there as a Le Gourmet Chef outlet, and I got a large coffee press in red & black. There was also an Old Navy. Bryan almost didn't want to go in (it was crowded like you wouldn't believe) but I talked him into it. I thought we'd just look for HIM some stuff, but I ended up aimlessly wandering to the women's section. There are NEVER size XXL things left in outlets, but evidently I had perfect timing. There was a whole ton of graphic t-shirts on sale for $3 each...and there was an XXL in every single design. o_O Whaaaaaaat? So I bought one in each design I liked. They still don't carry plus sizes in stores, so we will never be BFFs, but I suppose I don't have to hate Old Navy as much as I have. I've about decided against my boycott anyway; it's so hard to find clothes that I like that also fit me--I don't need to limit my options voluntarily.

We were supposed to go to Silver Dollar City in the afternoon. We had to drive past it to get to our condo, and as we did we noticed the parking lot. Guys, you couldn't even imagine. "Crowded" is not the word for this. I don't even HAVE a word for this. Bryan & I talked it over back at the condo and offered to keep Molly & Jagger while everyone else checked out Silver Dollar City. We were people'd out. Between the giant ordeal that is moving my family from place to place (please recall there were SEVENTEEN of us on this vacation together, in 3 cars, and 3 of those people were under the age of 4) and the crowds at the outlet mall that morning, Bryan & I were not keen on wading into another massive crowd. So we stayed at the apartment, played with the nephew & niece, and watched Star Trek. YAY!

Olive Garden for supper that night. Have you guys had the shrimp manicotti? TRY IT.

The next day was off to Springfield to go to the Bass Pro Shop. My whole family loves it, of course, but neither Bryan & I have any fondness for hunting, fishing, or any outdoor sport that involves the death of anything else. Not judging you if you are; just not into it ourselves. So once I'd photographed most of the interior and all the live critters, it was quite boring for us. We parked our butts in chairs near the fireplace, me with an eggnog latte. Yes indeed, now I feel there is a Starbucks EVERYWHERE, since there's one in the Bass Pro Shop. Still no free-standing ones in Jonesboro, though. We sat there discussing how Bass Pro Shop is sort of a giant monument to violence & commercialism. I'm sure anyone wandering by wondered what 2 raging liberals were doing in Bass Pro Shop. In true moderate style, however, we did come to the conclusion that hunting organizations like Ducks Unlimited have been very valuable to the ecology/conservation movement because of their emphasis on habitat preservation & reconstruction.

Harley Shop afterward. I have been bitten by the Harley bug, honestly. There's nothing I can do about it right now, because I have a 3-year-old and there's no room for a car seat on a motorcycle. :) But seriously. I want an electric orange Road King with matching saddlebags, and I want the pinstripe to be an EKG. Uncle Aaron suggested I go all out & have a red+white one with the EKG pinstripe & a red cross on it somewhere so it's a special edition nurse's bike. :D

Then we came home. I have been coughing like a madwoman ever since Saturday, and I think it has finally caught up with me. My throat is raging sore and I feel crappy. Time to sleep all day to wake up tonight and figure out if I feel okay enough to go to work.

Current Mood: tired & sick
Current Music: "Bubble Up"++Jeff Coffin Mu'tet++Mutopia

Well THIS pissed me off. From this article, "6 absurd gadget gifts your girlfriend will dump you over":

Bad idea: Ostensibly for Her but Really for You. Just as buying her Giants tickets ("One for each of us!") is usually a non-gift gift, so, too, is that souped-up VooDoo laptop, slightly updated Onkyo receiver, Sony five-disc changer and digital-camera-binoculars you saw at Sharper Image. Of course, gals can be into tech and gaming (and sports) the same as us guys, but you'll know if she is — and you'll know who that new surround sound system is really for.

When it's okay: Stick to a slick netbook, an HTiB you can set up, or a point-and-shoot digital camera, and she'll love you for it.

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Music: "Something Quick"++Jeff Coffin++Commonality

Posted via email from Wondering If You'd Come Along

So this one time I went to Branson on a trip with my family and my iPhone died! It got so low on battery that it would not charge with the truck charger, and I freaked out a bit. was too much trouble to use Bryan's because the Edge network in Branson sucks poop (it's a town of about 7,000 with the infrastructure of a town of about 10,000 and a tourist population of umpty-hojillion), so I just went without internet.

Current Music: "Turiya"++Jeff Coffin Mu'tet++Mutopia