Yesterday was a very exciting day. I grew up going to Broadway shows all the time. I used to see at least one show every 2 months or so. Since leaving New Jersey, my Broadway trips have been few and far between, so when I do come back home I always make a point of going to see a show in New York City.
A little over a year ago (or maybe more) I heard that Daniel Radcliffe, aka Harry Potter, was starring in the London revival of Equus. Equus is a strange play. I encourage you to click on the link to find out more about it, but in short, the play is about a disturbed 17 year old boy, who has sexual fantasies about horses (and acts some of them out), which leads him to blind 7 horses with a pick, which causes him to end up in a mental hospital. Disturbing? Yes. Good? Amazing! I took a Contemporary Theatre class during my first year of college and we had read Equus in the class. So I was pretty darn excited when I found out over the summer that Equus would be leaving London, and opening on Broadway here in New York. Daniel Radcliffe would be coming here with the production to continue his role as Alan Strang.
When Mr. V and I heard that Daniel Radcliffe would be on Broadway in New York, we decided to see the show if we had a chance to. So yesterday we headed off to NYC, stopped at the TKTS booth where we bought half price tickets to the show, then sat in the 10th row (amazing seats!) and watched the play.
Both of us are huge Harry Potter fans, and while I understand that Daniel was preforming in this role to show that he can be someone other than Harry Potter, it still excited me to see "Harry Potter" live on stage. He is an amazing actor and even though I love the way he acts in the Harry Potter movies, I was still surprised to see how well he portrayed this disturbed young man in the play. The show has gotten very good reviews in both London and New York, and I have to agree with those reviews.
This play is definitely NOT for people looking to see Harry Potter. There is nothing cute about the play. Its a deeply disturbing story, which ends with a 10 minute scene of a naked Daniel Radcliffe. And yes, I have to admit I was very excited to see that part of the play. I realize I'm 27 years old and he is 19 (or is he 20 now?), but I still think he's pretty hot, so disturbing or not, seeing "Harry Potter" naked on stage was something not many people can say they have seen :-).
After the show we went outside to see if we could get an autograph and a picture. Thankfully, I insisted on racing out of the theatre to be at the stage door before the large crowd appeared. I have never in my life seen so much security for an actor on Broadway. I've stood at many stage doors and gotten many autographs and nothing even comes close to the security for the young Harry Potter star. A security guard outside checked ticket stubs to make sure we had seen the play on that very day and time. Then he checked off the stubs, and ushered us into a small barricaded area. Unfortunately, the area was small, so not everyone was able to get into it, and a small force of security guards and police officers ordered everyone else off of the street. We managed to get into the barricaded area, so we were there when he came outside to sign autographs. We got a few decent pictures of him, but were unable to get an autograph. He was ushered through the crowd into a car that was conveniently blocking any access to the stage door within minutes. He did sign autographs for the people he could reach, before his security team whisked him away.If we had been standing at the front of the barricade we would have easily gotten an autograph but we were blocked by a few people and couldn't reach through. However, the pictures we got make up for that. (Don't even get me started on the people who came to watch the play, then had Harry Potter books and pictures for him to sign. I personally found that rude since he was trying to break out of the Harry Potter role. I know a lot of people saw him because of Harry Potter, but to me it seemed insulting to have him autograph something for a show that he wasn't currently in. I would think he would want praise and excitement about Equus right now, not Harry Potter.)
Since I am clearly a pathetic obsessed fan, Mr. V and I are going to go back to New York tomorrow to buy cheap tickets for the show again. Now that we know how the barricade/autograph session works, we are convinced that we can get outside in time to get to the front of the barricade, and I think the price is worth it.
I am currently at my dad's house in New Jersey and his computer doesn't have a spot where I can plug in my camera's memory card, and we didn't bring the connection wire with us to do it, so pictures are going to have to wait until we get back to Washington in a little over a week.
Meanwhile, I keep getting emails and phone calls from friends that are still in Washington about all the snow that is there! I can't believe I'm home in a state where it does snow, and all I am seeing is rain. Yet in Oak Harbor, where it rarely snows, the street leading to my house is closed off, 8 inches of snow is in the yard and my petsitter took a bus to my house, then got stranded at my house overnight when the Whidbey busses stopped running.
I have to admit that I am pretty disappointed that I'm missing all of that snow. Mr. V is even more upset and has been following the Oak Harbor news since we've left. He's pretty upset to know that even more snow is supposed to be coming in the next few days, but by the time we get back it should all be melted.
In my opinion, seeing Daniel Radcliffe naked is 10 times better than seeing snow, but I do hope that some people who are still in Oak Harbor are taking pictures so I can see what it looks like! Apparently, the small amount of snow that I was excited about a few days before we left is nothing compared to whats there now.
On a completely random side note, while watching Equus last night it occurred to me that Mr. V will be deployed when the new Harry Potter movie comes out. Anyone feel like seeing it with me? :-)
Friday, December 19, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
A Big Kid's Christmas Party
Yesterday was the Wing Children's Christmas party on base. Since we have no children, I guess this technically wasn't for us, but we checked it out anyway. Each year at the party, games, food and activities are set up for the children. Then Santa arrives on a P3! The fact that Santa comes to the party on a plane, not a sleigh, was really intriguing to me because I'd really like to know how many children go through life arguing with non military children about what type of aircraft Santa flies. I can see it now "No silly. Santa does NOT fly in a sleigh with reindeer. He flies a P3."
I wanted to see this tradition of Santa in the P3 so Mr. V and I went off to the children's party. Before we left, he read the schedule for his squadron and saw that one of our friends was scheduled to fly Santa in. We got in touch with his fiance to see if she wanted to join us, and she did, so the 3 of us set out to go be big kids at a little kid's party.
We saw 2 P3s flying around when we got there and of course assumed that one of them had Santa in it, so we were trying to watch it land. We even took pictures of both planes, so that my friend could say that she saw her fiance actually flying (we planned to ask him which of the 2 planes he was flying). So after spending 15 minutes watching the planes fly around, we went inside to watch Santa arrive. It was really a neat tradition. The hanger doors open, and a P3 slowly drives up to the hanger, and Santa gets out, greeted by a crowd of cheering children. When my friend's fiance got out of the plane, we asked which plane he had been flying (the first one we saw land, or the second one) and we found out that we had been watching 2 planes, neither of which he had been in. I was somewhat disappointed to know that Santa is not actually flown around in the P3. He was just driven around for a while, but they never actually flew in the air. (so unfortunately, we had pictures of planes flying and landing, and my friend can't say that either of the planes was flown by her fiance.) Considering how often P3s break, I guess this actually makes sense though. I had been wondering what would happen if the plane was broken and Santa couldn't fly in ("Sorry kids, Santa won't be bringing presents this year. His plane broke."). I guess nothing much can go wrong driving around on the ground, which is why the plane never actually flew.
After watching Santa arrive, we got a tour of another P3. A plane was in the hanger for the kids to go into, so while they were busy waiting in line for Santa, my friend and I were given a tour of the plane our significant others fly. This was the first time I ever saw the inside of the plane Mr. V flies, and it was....interesting. I knew the planes were old, but they really LOOK old on the inside, so that was a little shocking. Interesting, but shocking. We took some pictures of us in the plane, then headed off to a quick lunch, then back home. (I'll post the pictures when I can figure out where Mr. V hid the camera.)
We had one last meeting with our petsitter yesterday afternoon, so we are all set to go on vacation in 2 days (if you can call going home a "vacation").
Then last night we had dinner at our friend's house, learned how to play Spades, and spent a few hours over there last night playing cards.
I am happy to report that while we were over there last night, snow started falling! I have been living in hot southern states for way too long because this is the first time in a long time that I have seen snow! In the time that we left out house, ate dinner, and played cards, at least a half an inch had fallen! Mr. V was beside himself with excitement and kept leaping up to look out the window every 5 minutes. It was a slippery drive home, and this morning we woke up to an inch of snow on the ground! I never thought I'd see the day when an inch of snow would excite me this much, but it looks so pretty outside, I can't help but be excited. Mr. V has been taking pictures of the snow since last night, so when I locate the camera I'll post again with those pictures!
I wanted to see this tradition of Santa in the P3 so Mr. V and I went off to the children's party. Before we left, he read the schedule for his squadron and saw that one of our friends was scheduled to fly Santa in. We got in touch with his fiance to see if she wanted to join us, and she did, so the 3 of us set out to go be big kids at a little kid's party.
We saw 2 P3s flying around when we got there and of course assumed that one of them had Santa in it, so we were trying to watch it land. We even took pictures of both planes, so that my friend could say that she saw her fiance actually flying (we planned to ask him which of the 2 planes he was flying). So after spending 15 minutes watching the planes fly around, we went inside to watch Santa arrive. It was really a neat tradition. The hanger doors open, and a P3 slowly drives up to the hanger, and Santa gets out, greeted by a crowd of cheering children. When my friend's fiance got out of the plane, we asked which plane he had been flying (the first one we saw land, or the second one) and we found out that we had been watching 2 planes, neither of which he had been in. I was somewhat disappointed to know that Santa is not actually flown around in the P3. He was just driven around for a while, but they never actually flew in the air. (so unfortunately, we had pictures of planes flying and landing, and my friend can't say that either of the planes was flown by her fiance.) Considering how often P3s break, I guess this actually makes sense though. I had been wondering what would happen if the plane was broken and Santa couldn't fly in ("Sorry kids, Santa won't be bringing presents this year. His plane broke."). I guess nothing much can go wrong driving around on the ground, which is why the plane never actually flew.
After watching Santa arrive, we got a tour of another P3. A plane was in the hanger for the kids to go into, so while they were busy waiting in line for Santa, my friend and I were given a tour of the plane our significant others fly. This was the first time I ever saw the inside of the plane Mr. V flies, and it was....interesting. I knew the planes were old, but they really LOOK old on the inside, so that was a little shocking. Interesting, but shocking. We took some pictures of us in the plane, then headed off to a quick lunch, then back home. (I'll post the pictures when I can figure out where Mr. V hid the camera.)
We had one last meeting with our petsitter yesterday afternoon, so we are all set to go on vacation in 2 days (if you can call going home a "vacation").
Then last night we had dinner at our friend's house, learned how to play Spades, and spent a few hours over there last night playing cards.
I am happy to report that while we were over there last night, snow started falling! I have been living in hot southern states for way too long because this is the first time in a long time that I have seen snow! In the time that we left out house, ate dinner, and played cards, at least a half an inch had fallen! Mr. V was beside himself with excitement and kept leaping up to look out the window every 5 minutes. It was a slippery drive home, and this morning we woke up to an inch of snow on the ground! I never thought I'd see the day when an inch of snow would excite me this much, but it looks so pretty outside, I can't help but be excited. Mr. V has been taking pictures of the snow since last night, so when I locate the camera I'll post again with those pictures!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Twilight
This will be a short post, but I felt like I needed to tell people that I have joined the Twilight insanity. Today was Mr. V's birthday so we went to dinner and then to the wonderful, beautiful, small and run down Oak Harbor movie theatre and saw Twilight. I didn't know what to expect. The trailers looked good, but I haven't read the books so I didn't know if I would be into the movie or not. I like science fiction to a point. I loved the X-Files (I have every single episode taped from TV AND on DVD), but there are other random science fiction shows that I just can't get into. I'm also a huge Harry Potter fan which I guess can also be called science fiction, although it seems more like fantasy to me. Soooo I didn't know what to think of Twilight. I know people are obsessed with the books. I know that people lined up in droves for the premiere of the movie. I know that certain movie theatres around the country had Twilight playing on every single screen when it opened. Beyond that, I had no idea what the big deal about it was.
Well, after tonight, I am officially a Twilight fan. The movie was wonderful, and now my next step is to read the books. I usually read the book before seeing the movie, but this time around I'll have to do it backwards. The good news is that I wondered what was going to become of my life now that the Harry Potter books are finished and now I have a new series to read :-).
The only sad thing about tonight is that we made it to the movie theatre right as the movie was starting. Which means we missed some previews. Which would have been fine. Except that we walked in RIGHT as the preview for the new Harry Potter movie was ending. I could have cried. I've seen the trailer on the internet, but I haven't seen it on the big screen yet. I'm a Harry Potter nutcase, so seeing the trailers in the movie theatre always excites me and I can't believe I walked into the theatre 2 minutes too late :-(.
Anyway, thats my news for tonight. Nothing too exciting, but I have to admit that it would be pretty cool to have a hot vampire fall in love with me and protect me for the rest of my life (sorry Mr. V :-*), I mean who wouldn't want that?
Well, after tonight, I am officially a Twilight fan. The movie was wonderful, and now my next step is to read the books. I usually read the book before seeing the movie, but this time around I'll have to do it backwards. The good news is that I wondered what was going to become of my life now that the Harry Potter books are finished and now I have a new series to read :-).
The only sad thing about tonight is that we made it to the movie theatre right as the movie was starting. Which means we missed some previews. Which would have been fine. Except that we walked in RIGHT as the preview for the new Harry Potter movie was ending. I could have cried. I've seen the trailer on the internet, but I haven't seen it on the big screen yet. I'm a Harry Potter nutcase, so seeing the trailers in the movie theatre always excites me and I can't believe I walked into the theatre 2 minutes too late :-(.
Anyway, thats my news for tonight. Nothing too exciting, but I have to admit that it would be pretty cool to have a hot vampire fall in love with me and protect me for the rest of my life (sorry Mr. V :-*), I mean who wouldn't want that?
Monday, December 8, 2008
Weekend Fun
Now for the rest of my weekend:
I left you reading about the Oak Harbor tree lighting and the annual Holiday Stroll. Our stroll began at 4:00pm and the first place we went to was Paint Your World pottery shop, which has become my newest addiction. After 2 ladies nights at this store, I have decided that I love it, and love painting pottery, and I had a mission this time to paint something in remembrance of a special animal in my life.
Last Christmas, I was traumatized by the death of my beautiful, 8 month old kitten. Cledus had feline leukemia, which he had previously tested negative for, so we didn't know that he was sick. 5 days after Christmas, we were in the emergency vet's office, crying hysterically, and saying goodbye to the greatest pet that I have ever known. I still don't know what it was about Cledus, but he was truly a light in my life, and meant more to me than any of my other pets ever have. Its amazing how a tiny, sick little kitten had the ability to effect my life so much, but he did. Its because of Cledus that we have gone into our own version of animal rescue. I often find myself wondering if he was meant to come into our lives for a reason, and only for a short time period of 7 months. The cats we have now, wouldn't be in our lives if it wasn't for him, and for that I am grateful to him. When he died, Mr. V and I educated ourselves on feline leukemia, and began trapping and spaying/neutering outdoor feral cats. Cats that are spayed/neutered are not as likely to contract FeLv, so in the aftermath of Cledus' death, I set out on a "Save the cats of the world from feline leukemia" mission. We currently have another 8 month old kitten in our lives. He was born to a feral mother who tried to abandon him the moment he was born. I look back and realize that if Cledus hadn't died, we never would have trapped Velvet (who has been rehomed into another loving home.). Velvet would have given birth to Meepers outside in the swamps of Florida, and Meepers would have died within days, if not hours, of his birth. Instead, Meepers was born in our bathtub, and we bottle fed him to supplement the feedings that his mother wasn't giving him. Now we have a healthy, vibrant kitten living in our house, and I often think about the fact that he wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Cledus. Thoughts like that are what prevent me from crying, when I look back and think about Cledus and the shock of his death.
So back to pottery...
I had painted a cat ornament of my kitten Meepers, a few weeks ago. I wanted to go back and paint an ornament to remember Cledus by, especially now, when remembering his death has been taking its toll on me again. I remember his death being so close to Christmas, so it has been on my mind a lot in recent days. I ended up not painting an ornament of him, but a small bank instead. The bank is a small kitten, that I painted to resemble him in the best way that I could. It won't hold a lot of money, but we decided to put spare change into the bank, and when the bank is full, count the change and add it to an emergency animal fund, for future use. Mr. V wasn't going to sit there and just watch me paint my kitten bank, so he found himself a large moose holding a "welcome" sign and set out to paint that. The moose is so big, that it is still at the pottery shop, waiting for him to come back and finish painting it. I laughed at him for painting it, but I think it will be a nice addition to our home, especially here in the Northwest!
We ate dinner that night at a really good Thai restaurant in town and then came back home. Since I have been taking a quilting class I've become obsessed with fabric and quilts and now I want to make a quilt for every season and every event. Quilt making is very time consuming though, since many, many small pieces have to be sewn together to fit perfectly. On Black Friday, we went shopping at Joann's and I found this REALLY cute Christmas cats fabric. Its a very busy fabric, filled with several different cats. Since I decided that several of the cats on the fabric look similar to my own, I bought 7 1/2 yards of the fabric and decided to make a blanket, not a quilt with it. I thought I would just sew the 3 large pieces of fabric together, then add the batting and a backing fabric and I would have a blanket. Apparently, that is easier said than done. I mistakenly assumed that sewing 3 pieces of fabric together would be much easier and faster than sewing a bunch of small pieces of fabric together. However, I accounted for the fact that I would have to line up the design perfectly in order for the blanket to look good. What I didn't account for is the fact that that is easier said than done. After over an hour of pinning and re-pinning the fabric, I set out to sew it together. I made it about 1/4 of the way down the fabric before everything went wrong. Somehow I managed to keep the fabric lined up for the beginning of the sewing, but I managed to pull the fabric in several different random directions, leaving me with 2 pieces of fabric sewed partially correct, and the rest sewn like I just threw some fabric into the sewing machine and just stitched it up wherever I felt like it. Right now, the 2 rectangular pieces of fabric don't even resemble a rectangle or a square right now. Obviously this is going to be a much harder project than I thought it would be.
On Sunday, I woke up feeling pretty sick, which is when I realized that I must have been getting sick for a few days. I still managed to drag myself out of bed and get ready for our anual cat pictures with Santa!! Yes. I take the cats for pictures with Santa every year. Petsmart takes $5 of every picture purchased and donates it to local animal shelters, so my argument for harassing the cats is that its for a good cause. We packed up 8 of the 9 cats (cat #9 still won't come near us voluntarily), and headed off to Burlington. Usually, we just let Santa hold a cat and we stay out of the picture, but since we have aquired many more cats this year, Mr. V and I got in the picture with them, in an attempt to take only 3 pictures instead of 8, and save some money. Here is a link to my google picture site with a scanned version of the Santa pictures: (they are grainy but its the best I could do with low quality pictures and a scanner)
Petsmart Christmas 2008
And that brings me to the end of my weekend :-).
I left you reading about the Oak Harbor tree lighting and the annual Holiday Stroll. Our stroll began at 4:00pm and the first place we went to was Paint Your World pottery shop, which has become my newest addiction. After 2 ladies nights at this store, I have decided that I love it, and love painting pottery, and I had a mission this time to paint something in remembrance of a special animal in my life.
Last Christmas, I was traumatized by the death of my beautiful, 8 month old kitten. Cledus had feline leukemia, which he had previously tested negative for, so we didn't know that he was sick. 5 days after Christmas, we were in the emergency vet's office, crying hysterically, and saying goodbye to the greatest pet that I have ever known. I still don't know what it was about Cledus, but he was truly a light in my life, and meant more to me than any of my other pets ever have. Its amazing how a tiny, sick little kitten had the ability to effect my life so much, but he did. Its because of Cledus that we have gone into our own version of animal rescue. I often find myself wondering if he was meant to come into our lives for a reason, and only for a short time period of 7 months. The cats we have now, wouldn't be in our lives if it wasn't for him, and for that I am grateful to him. When he died, Mr. V and I educated ourselves on feline leukemia, and began trapping and spaying/neutering outdoor feral cats. Cats that are spayed/neutered are not as likely to contract FeLv, so in the aftermath of Cledus' death, I set out on a "Save the cats of the world from feline leukemia" mission. We currently have another 8 month old kitten in our lives. He was born to a feral mother who tried to abandon him the moment he was born. I look back and realize that if Cledus hadn't died, we never would have trapped Velvet (who has been rehomed into another loving home.). Velvet would have given birth to Meepers outside in the swamps of Florida, and Meepers would have died within days, if not hours, of his birth. Instead, Meepers was born in our bathtub, and we bottle fed him to supplement the feedings that his mother wasn't giving him. Now we have a healthy, vibrant kitten living in our house, and I often think about the fact that he wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Cledus. Thoughts like that are what prevent me from crying, when I look back and think about Cledus and the shock of his death.
So back to pottery...
I had painted a cat ornament of my kitten Meepers, a few weeks ago. I wanted to go back and paint an ornament to remember Cledus by, especially now, when remembering his death has been taking its toll on me again. I remember his death being so close to Christmas, so it has been on my mind a lot in recent days. I ended up not painting an ornament of him, but a small bank instead. The bank is a small kitten, that I painted to resemble him in the best way that I could. It won't hold a lot of money, but we decided to put spare change into the bank, and when the bank is full, count the change and add it to an emergency animal fund, for future use. Mr. V wasn't going to sit there and just watch me paint my kitten bank, so he found himself a large moose holding a "welcome" sign and set out to paint that. The moose is so big, that it is still at the pottery shop, waiting for him to come back and finish painting it. I laughed at him for painting it, but I think it will be a nice addition to our home, especially here in the Northwest!
We ate dinner that night at a really good Thai restaurant in town and then came back home. Since I have been taking a quilting class I've become obsessed with fabric and quilts and now I want to make a quilt for every season and every event. Quilt making is very time consuming though, since many, many small pieces have to be sewn together to fit perfectly. On Black Friday, we went shopping at Joann's and I found this REALLY cute Christmas cats fabric. Its a very busy fabric, filled with several different cats. Since I decided that several of the cats on the fabric look similar to my own, I bought 7 1/2 yards of the fabric and decided to make a blanket, not a quilt with it. I thought I would just sew the 3 large pieces of fabric together, then add the batting and a backing fabric and I would have a blanket. Apparently, that is easier said than done. I mistakenly assumed that sewing 3 pieces of fabric together would be much easier and faster than sewing a bunch of small pieces of fabric together. However, I accounted for the fact that I would have to line up the design perfectly in order for the blanket to look good. What I didn't account for is the fact that that is easier said than done. After over an hour of pinning and re-pinning the fabric, I set out to sew it together. I made it about 1/4 of the way down the fabric before everything went wrong. Somehow I managed to keep the fabric lined up for the beginning of the sewing, but I managed to pull the fabric in several different random directions, leaving me with 2 pieces of fabric sewed partially correct, and the rest sewn like I just threw some fabric into the sewing machine and just stitched it up wherever I felt like it. Right now, the 2 rectangular pieces of fabric don't even resemble a rectangle or a square right now. Obviously this is going to be a much harder project than I thought it would be.
On Sunday, I woke up feeling pretty sick, which is when I realized that I must have been getting sick for a few days. I still managed to drag myself out of bed and get ready for our anual cat pictures with Santa!! Yes. I take the cats for pictures with Santa every year. Petsmart takes $5 of every picture purchased and donates it to local animal shelters, so my argument for harassing the cats is that its for a good cause. We packed up 8 of the 9 cats (cat #9 still won't come near us voluntarily), and headed off to Burlington. Usually, we just let Santa hold a cat and we stay out of the picture, but since we have aquired many more cats this year, Mr. V and I got in the picture with them, in an attempt to take only 3 pictures instead of 8, and save some money. Here is a link to my google picture site with a scanned version of the Santa pictures: (they are grainy but its the best I could do with low quality pictures and a scanner)
Petsmart Christmas 2008
And that brings me to the end of my weekend :-).
A Week of Updates
I definitely need to find more time....or motivation....to sit down and update this blog more often. So here's what life was like for Brooklet this past week :-).
The last time I posted was on December 2nd, which was the morning I woke up to pine needles and ornaments all over the floor. I've been battling it out with the cats all week and so far the score is Cats: 7, Brooklet: 0
We spent about 2 days ignoring the mess on the floor. In our logic we saw no need to clean anything up because the mess would just reappear almost instantly. Instead, we got a floor full of pine needles and Christmas ornaments, random Christmas ornaments all over the house, and a small branch from the Christmas tree in our bedroom. See, the part we didn't account for was the fact that once the ornaments were on the floor, they would become movable cat toys, and therefore end up all over the house. I can't remember which day Mr. V replaced all of the ornaments and vacuumed up the pine needles, but the serene beauty of our tree lasted only a few hours (the ornaments were replaced during daily cat nap time). Later on in the day we started to find a few ornaments on the ground, and Mr. V replaced those again. The battle of hanging ornaments up and knocking them down began again....
We did mange to capture a few more pictures of the cats hanging out under the tree:
Image #1: This is Moses. Note the pine needles ALL over the floor around him, the piece of my red and green garland and the random ornament in front of the camera.
Image #2: Meepers by the fireplace (the ash on the fireplace was a result of Mr. V cleaning out the fireplace just moments before this picture was taken). Note the random ornament that is sitting in front of Meepers.
Image#3: This one is dark, but this is Oreo taking his turn at napping under the tree.
Image #4: Sheena taking a cat nap under the tree.
Then in non-feline news, I had an eventful rest of the week.
On Wednesday I went to my friend Mugs house in Anacortes to try out her Cricut machine. I've been dying to get one of these wonderful machines for quite some time now, but I had never tried one out. She showed me how to use the machine and I am officially in love, and need one of my own. I made 2 small paper ornaments, and she created a gift tag out of a Christmas tree that I cut. She also made a small Christmas card that I took home with the rest of my items to attempt to convince Mr. V that I need a Cricut machine ASAP. The good news is that he was impressed by the items, and even humored me by looking on ebay for inexpensive machines with me. (We did manage to find one that was brand new, $450, and comes with 1 additional cartridge that you don't get to choose, and 2 more cartridges that you can choose, along with the 2 that come with the machine automatically. I'm currently watching this item, trying to convince Mr. V that we need to do more than just look, and actually buy it, since that seems to be the best deal that I can find.)
Image #1: This is the back of the 2 ornaments I made and the back of the gift tag that my friend made.
Image #2: This is the front of the ornaments and the gift tag.
Thursday afternoon was spent at the quilt shop working on my starter quilt for the class I have been taking, and waiting for the quilt lady (aka Debra - the shop owner) to alter my Christmas dress. Mr. V's squadron Christmas party is tonight, and I had bought a cute festive dress, that was too big on me. The quilt lady had told us that she can do simple dress alterations, so I took it to her. I expected to pay a small amount of money to have it altered, since it would have cost $25 or more had I taken it to an actual alteration place, but she ended up doing it entirely for free! I was a little surprised by that, but very greatful. I also discovered that she will sew on new Navy ranks for free, but not many people know this. She doesn't advertise it, but she and the lady that owns the yarn store across from her will sew ranks on for free so that these Navy boys won't have to pay to have them sewn on by the tailor on base. I'm sure some people are perfectly capable of sewing their new ranks on by themselves, but Mr. V doesn't trust me to do it, and since he loves saving money in any way possible, I'm going to have him take his uniforms to her when he gets promoted in May.
Thursday night was spent going out to dinner to a Mexican restaurant with one of my new friends and her husband. We went to El Cazador here in Oak Harbor and I was very impressed with their tacos. All I ever eat at Mexican restaurants is a plate of tacos, so they had to pass the Brooklet test of satisfaction, which they did. The Spanish rice was also very good, and I ate more food off of my plate than I usually do at a Mexican restaurant.
Friday I woke up feeling kind of weird. I chalked it up to allergies and went about my day. Nothing exciting happened during my day - just more cleaning and organizing and fighting with the cats about the Christmas tree.
Saturday night was date night for Mr. V and me. I woke up feeling tired, and just assumed that I was tired, nothing more. Mr. V slept in really late that morning, which was wonderful because he needed to catch up on sleep. (However a 5am flight this morning probably just erased all of the catching up he did over the weekend.) We spent the day lounging around, hanging Christmas ornaments back up, and then at night we went to the Oak Harbor Christmas tree lighting and the 4th annual Holiday Stroll. The tree was lit at 6:00 in a cute little ceremony. It was NOT the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree by any means, but it was a cute ceremony, which began when Santa Claus arrived on a pirate ship, then went on to the tree to light it. A large, scrawny tree with plain white lights on it was lit and then we continued the Holiday Stroll. Every year for Christmas, the local businesses in the area try to encourage buying from local people, and host this stroll. The stroll took place from 10am to 8pm. Every person was given a card to collect initials from 10 of the local businesses, then the card was entered into a drawing for $500. It was a great way for people to check out local shops that they never would have looked at otherwise.
We started our stroll at 4pm, but you are going to have to check back later to read about it and about the rest of my weekend :-). For now I am going to go be productive, and I will continue this in another post later on today.
The last time I posted was on December 2nd, which was the morning I woke up to pine needles and ornaments all over the floor. I've been battling it out with the cats all week and so far the score is Cats: 7, Brooklet: 0
We spent about 2 days ignoring the mess on the floor. In our logic we saw no need to clean anything up because the mess would just reappear almost instantly. Instead, we got a floor full of pine needles and Christmas ornaments, random Christmas ornaments all over the house, and a small branch from the Christmas tree in our bedroom. See, the part we didn't account for was the fact that once the ornaments were on the floor, they would become movable cat toys, and therefore end up all over the house. I can't remember which day Mr. V replaced all of the ornaments and vacuumed up the pine needles, but the serene beauty of our tree lasted only a few hours (the ornaments were replaced during daily cat nap time). Later on in the day we started to find a few ornaments on the ground, and Mr. V replaced those again. The battle of hanging ornaments up and knocking them down began again....
We did mange to capture a few more pictures of the cats hanging out under the tree:
Image #1: This is Moses. Note the pine needles ALL over the floor around him, the piece of my red and green garland and the random ornament in front of the camera.
Image #2: Meepers by the fireplace (the ash on the fireplace was a result of Mr. V cleaning out the fireplace just moments before this picture was taken). Note the random ornament that is sitting in front of Meepers.
Image#3: This one is dark, but this is Oreo taking his turn at napping under the tree.
Image #4: Sheena taking a cat nap under the tree.
Then in non-feline news, I had an eventful rest of the week.
On Wednesday I went to my friend Mugs house in Anacortes to try out her Cricut machine. I've been dying to get one of these wonderful machines for quite some time now, but I had never tried one out. She showed me how to use the machine and I am officially in love, and need one of my own. I made 2 small paper ornaments, and she created a gift tag out of a Christmas tree that I cut. She also made a small Christmas card that I took home with the rest of my items to attempt to convince Mr. V that I need a Cricut machine ASAP. The good news is that he was impressed by the items, and even humored me by looking on ebay for inexpensive machines with me. (We did manage to find one that was brand new, $450, and comes with 1 additional cartridge that you don't get to choose, and 2 more cartridges that you can choose, along with the 2 that come with the machine automatically. I'm currently watching this item, trying to convince Mr. V that we need to do more than just look, and actually buy it, since that seems to be the best deal that I can find.)
Image #1: This is the back of the 2 ornaments I made and the back of the gift tag that my friend made.
Image #2: This is the front of the ornaments and the gift tag.
Thursday afternoon was spent at the quilt shop working on my starter quilt for the class I have been taking, and waiting for the quilt lady (aka Debra - the shop owner) to alter my Christmas dress. Mr. V's squadron Christmas party is tonight, and I had bought a cute festive dress, that was too big on me. The quilt lady had told us that she can do simple dress alterations, so I took it to her. I expected to pay a small amount of money to have it altered, since it would have cost $25 or more had I taken it to an actual alteration place, but she ended up doing it entirely for free! I was a little surprised by that, but very greatful. I also discovered that she will sew on new Navy ranks for free, but not many people know this. She doesn't advertise it, but she and the lady that owns the yarn store across from her will sew ranks on for free so that these Navy boys won't have to pay to have them sewn on by the tailor on base. I'm sure some people are perfectly capable of sewing their new ranks on by themselves, but Mr. V doesn't trust me to do it, and since he loves saving money in any way possible, I'm going to have him take his uniforms to her when he gets promoted in May.
Thursday night was spent going out to dinner to a Mexican restaurant with one of my new friends and her husband. We went to El Cazador here in Oak Harbor and I was very impressed with their tacos. All I ever eat at Mexican restaurants is a plate of tacos, so they had to pass the Brooklet test of satisfaction, which they did. The Spanish rice was also very good, and I ate more food off of my plate than I usually do at a Mexican restaurant.
Friday I woke up feeling kind of weird. I chalked it up to allergies and went about my day. Nothing exciting happened during my day - just more cleaning and organizing and fighting with the cats about the Christmas tree.
Saturday night was date night for Mr. V and me. I woke up feeling tired, and just assumed that I was tired, nothing more. Mr. V slept in really late that morning, which was wonderful because he needed to catch up on sleep. (However a 5am flight this morning probably just erased all of the catching up he did over the weekend.) We spent the day lounging around, hanging Christmas ornaments back up, and then at night we went to the Oak Harbor Christmas tree lighting and the 4th annual Holiday Stroll. The tree was lit at 6:00 in a cute little ceremony. It was NOT the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree by any means, but it was a cute ceremony, which began when Santa Claus arrived on a pirate ship, then went on to the tree to light it. A large, scrawny tree with plain white lights on it was lit and then we continued the Holiday Stroll. Every year for Christmas, the local businesses in the area try to encourage buying from local people, and host this stroll. The stroll took place from 10am to 8pm. Every person was given a card to collect initials from 10 of the local businesses, then the card was entered into a drawing for $500. It was a great way for people to check out local shops that they never would have looked at otherwise.
We started our stroll at 4pm, but you are going to have to check back later to read about it and about the rest of my weekend :-). For now I am going to go be productive, and I will continue this in another post later on today.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Holiday Advice: Update
For those of you who never reread posts, I added a few pictures to my previous posting so check them out :-).
I thought I'd use this post to post some other pictures that are the result of my Christmas decoarting:
Image #1: This is what I woke up to this morning. A tree that was missing everything that had been on the bottom of it the night before. After today, I have decided that I just need to accept the fact that the bottom half of my tree will be empty :-(. The cats seem to prefer the ornaments on the floor, which clearly means, I have to prefer that too. Note the small pieces of red and green garland on the floor too. That was a bargain find after Christmas a few years ago - 50 cents for a large container of it. Now that its in 30 pieces on my floor I guess I have to bite the bullet and accept the fact that my bargain shopping WAS a bargain - for the cats (they got a new toy), not for me.
Image #2: Note the number of needles on the floor and the strand of lights that has fallen to the floor. All the result of cats that spent the entire night playing with the Christmas tree.
Image #3: Sheena thought she was being sneaky, but I caught her tail in the picture as she tried to escape. Note the ornaments on the floor, the pine needles and the strand of lights on the floor. I suspect this damage was caused by the furry thing that is connected to the tail in this picture.
Image #4: "What Mom? I'm just sitting over here, not looking for trouble, just sitting here. Why are you looking at me like I did something wrong?"
Image #5: In my previous post I mentioned that my Christmas village had turned into a cat bed, and I added a picture. However, when I took that particular picture, Meepers decided to stand up and pretend that he wasn't sleeping in my Christmas village snow. I caught him this time though. Note how the "snow" is all bunched up. I watched him "nest" into this right before I took the picture. He seemed annoyed that I didn't make his bed adequate for him, so he had to do a little rearranging before settling down.
More pictures and updates will be coming in the next few days...
I thought I'd use this post to post some other pictures that are the result of my Christmas decoarting:
Image #1: This is what I woke up to this morning. A tree that was missing everything that had been on the bottom of it the night before. After today, I have decided that I just need to accept the fact that the bottom half of my tree will be empty :-(. The cats seem to prefer the ornaments on the floor, which clearly means, I have to prefer that too. Note the small pieces of red and green garland on the floor too. That was a bargain find after Christmas a few years ago - 50 cents for a large container of it. Now that its in 30 pieces on my floor I guess I have to bite the bullet and accept the fact that my bargain shopping WAS a bargain - for the cats (they got a new toy), not for me.
Image #2: Note the number of needles on the floor and the strand of lights that has fallen to the floor. All the result of cats that spent the entire night playing with the Christmas tree.
Image #3: Sheena thought she was being sneaky, but I caught her tail in the picture as she tried to escape. Note the ornaments on the floor, the pine needles and the strand of lights on the floor. I suspect this damage was caused by the furry thing that is connected to the tail in this picture.
Image #4: "What Mom? I'm just sitting over here, not looking for trouble, just sitting here. Why are you looking at me like I did something wrong?"
Image #5: In my previous post I mentioned that my Christmas village had turned into a cat bed, and I added a picture. However, when I took that particular picture, Meepers decided to stand up and pretend that he wasn't sleeping in my Christmas village snow. I caught him this time though. Note how the "snow" is all bunched up. I watched him "nest" into this right before I took the picture. He seemed annoyed that I didn't make his bed adequate for him, so he had to do a little rearranging before settling down.
More pictures and updates will be coming in the next few days...
Monday, December 1, 2008
Advice for the Holiday Season
With Thanksgiving winding down and Christmas around the corner, this household has been quite busy with holiday hosting, decorating, planning and packing. Instead of a long rambling post, I thought I'd post some advice about what I've learned over the past few days...(I've also decided that I need a name for my husband other than "Husband" so from here on out he will be known as Mr. V.)
1. Plan Thanksgiving dinner ahead of time. Learn how to cook a turkey BEFORE Thanksgiving morning. (Mr. V took control of Thanksgiving day cooking which made me very happy since I am NOT the cook in this family. He printed out recipes and had all the ingredients necessary. He was well prepared until Thanksgiving morning when he realized that he had no idea how to cook a turkey. There were a few moments of slight panic, but he figured it all out and I am happy to say that we had a very tasty turkey dinner!)
2. Invite friends over for Thanksgiving dinner. Mr. V and I were alone for the holiday, and so were several of our friends. We had a great dinner with 2 other couples and one new guy from the squadron. I personally loved sharing the day with friends because being alone would have made me incredibly homesick.
3. Get the recipe for warm spiced wine from my friend Ms. M. One of our friends made this incredible wine mixture that Mr. V and I loved. It consisted of a sweet wine, cloves, oranges and other things that I am forgetting right now. Hence, the reason I need to get the recipe from her for future dinner parties :-).
4. Practice Grandma's creampuff recipe before Thanksgiving so there won't be a moment of panic when the first batch turned out very un-puffy. The second batch was a success, but it delayed the start of turkey baking.
5. When the guests leave, tear down any and all Thanksgiving and Fall decorations, as soon as possible. Replace them with as many wintery, Christmas decorations as possible, since Christmas is my all time favorite part of the year.
6. Check out Whidbey Island's Woodbee Christmas Tree Farm on the outskirts of Oak Harbor. My family always had real Christmas trees but this was the first time I went to a cut your own tree farm. We drank hot apple cider and searched for a tree. Then I posed for pictures of me pretending to cut the tree, then took control of the camera while Mr. V laid on the wet, muddy ground and actually cut the tree down.
7. Decorate the tree ASAP. Pay close attention to which ornaments are breakable and hang them far away from where the cats can get to them. Hang non-breakable ornaments on the bottom of the tree so the cats can't break them.
8. Rehang the non-breakable ornaments after the cats pull them off the tree.
9. Figure out why the lights went out when cat #8 chewed on the light cord, even though we can't find noticeable teeth marks.
10. Rehang the non-breakable ornaments after the cats pull them off the tree.
11. Go to sleep listening to sounds that don't sound quite right, then wake up in the morning and straighten the tree that the cats have managed to knock halfway over. Tie a wire around the tree trunk and attach it to a very secure hook in the ceiling.
12. Rehang the non-breakable ornaments after the cats pull them off the tree.
13. Set up Christmas village on the long table by the front door. Secure the buildings in place so the cats can't swat them off the table. Then take a picture when cat #6 decides to take a nap in the fake snow lining the table. (of course he moved when I went to take a picture of him sleeping so this is what I got instead)
14. Rehang the non-breakable ornaments after the cats pull them off the tree.
15. Give Mr. V the job of decorating the outside of the house, while you rehang the non-breakable ornaments after the cats pull them off the tree.
16. Go to bed. Wake up happy to see that the tree is still standing straight thanks to the secure wire tied around it. Wonder why there are thousands of needles underneath the tree (more than could possibly fall off naturally in that short amount of time). Ponder the fact that the cats have managed to turn the tree skirt around in an almost full circle. Then rehang the non-breakable ornaments that the cats have pulled off the tree.
17. Finish decorating the inside of the house with insane amounts of candles, snowmen, stockings, and any other festive Christmas season decorations you can find. (Did I mention this is my favorite time of year?)
18. Interview the petsitter and plan trip home for the holidays.
19. Accept the fact that there will be no ornaments on the bottom of the tree and leave the non-breakable ones scattered randomly below the tree.
20. Ponder how one non-breakable ornament has made it all the way into the kitchen.
21. Give in to the cats, and take cute pictures of them underneath the tree :-).
And that my friends, is how the holiday season in this house has been going.
1. Plan Thanksgiving dinner ahead of time. Learn how to cook a turkey BEFORE Thanksgiving morning. (Mr. V took control of Thanksgiving day cooking which made me very happy since I am NOT the cook in this family. He printed out recipes and had all the ingredients necessary. He was well prepared until Thanksgiving morning when he realized that he had no idea how to cook a turkey. There were a few moments of slight panic, but he figured it all out and I am happy to say that we had a very tasty turkey dinner!)
2. Invite friends over for Thanksgiving dinner. Mr. V and I were alone for the holiday, and so were several of our friends. We had a great dinner with 2 other couples and one new guy from the squadron. I personally loved sharing the day with friends because being alone would have made me incredibly homesick.
3. Get the recipe for warm spiced wine from my friend Ms. M. One of our friends made this incredible wine mixture that Mr. V and I loved. It consisted of a sweet wine, cloves, oranges and other things that I am forgetting right now. Hence, the reason I need to get the recipe from her for future dinner parties :-).
4. Practice Grandma's creampuff recipe before Thanksgiving so there won't be a moment of panic when the first batch turned out very un-puffy. The second batch was a success, but it delayed the start of turkey baking.
5. When the guests leave, tear down any and all Thanksgiving and Fall decorations, as soon as possible. Replace them with as many wintery, Christmas decorations as possible, since Christmas is my all time favorite part of the year.
6. Check out Whidbey Island's Woodbee Christmas Tree Farm on the outskirts of Oak Harbor. My family always had real Christmas trees but this was the first time I went to a cut your own tree farm. We drank hot apple cider and searched for a tree. Then I posed for pictures of me pretending to cut the tree, then took control of the camera while Mr. V laid on the wet, muddy ground and actually cut the tree down.
7. Decorate the tree ASAP. Pay close attention to which ornaments are breakable and hang them far away from where the cats can get to them. Hang non-breakable ornaments on the bottom of the tree so the cats can't break them.
8. Rehang the non-breakable ornaments after the cats pull them off the tree.
9. Figure out why the lights went out when cat #8 chewed on the light cord, even though we can't find noticeable teeth marks.
10. Rehang the non-breakable ornaments after the cats pull them off the tree.
11. Go to sleep listening to sounds that don't sound quite right, then wake up in the morning and straighten the tree that the cats have managed to knock halfway over. Tie a wire around the tree trunk and attach it to a very secure hook in the ceiling.
12. Rehang the non-breakable ornaments after the cats pull them off the tree.
13. Set up Christmas village on the long table by the front door. Secure the buildings in place so the cats can't swat them off the table. Then take a picture when cat #6 decides to take a nap in the fake snow lining the table. (of course he moved when I went to take a picture of him sleeping so this is what I got instead)
14. Rehang the non-breakable ornaments after the cats pull them off the tree.
15. Give Mr. V the job of decorating the outside of the house, while you rehang the non-breakable ornaments after the cats pull them off the tree.
16. Go to bed. Wake up happy to see that the tree is still standing straight thanks to the secure wire tied around it. Wonder why there are thousands of needles underneath the tree (more than could possibly fall off naturally in that short amount of time). Ponder the fact that the cats have managed to turn the tree skirt around in an almost full circle. Then rehang the non-breakable ornaments that the cats have pulled off the tree.
17. Finish decorating the inside of the house with insane amounts of candles, snowmen, stockings, and any other festive Christmas season decorations you can find. (Did I mention this is my favorite time of year?)
18. Interview the petsitter and plan trip home for the holidays.
19. Accept the fact that there will be no ornaments on the bottom of the tree and leave the non-breakable ones scattered randomly below the tree.
20. Ponder how one non-breakable ornament has made it all the way into the kitchen.
21. Give in to the cats, and take cute pictures of them underneath the tree :-).
And that my friends, is how the holiday season in this house has been going.
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