project!

emily feels as though I should take up creative grooming. and has suggested my first project be to turn this fluffball known affectionately as baby cat into a ferocious lion


I can see it now...

why some people shouldnt be allowed near animals

when I am bored I spend too much time looking and clicking on things on facebook. sometimes you come across things like this.


what is this if not a prime reason why some people should not be allowed near animals.

Granted claires and I talked of giving baby cat a poodle inspired hair cut when she first moved to chicago and the fluff ball wasn't handling the heat so well. but the important difference remains. we never did it. nor did we ever even consider turning her into a a poodle ninja turtle-leonardoodle. (or even a kitten ninja turtle-leonardacat)

christmas baking extravaganza 2008

I like to bake a christmas. well I actually like to bake all the time, but christmas gives me an excuse to do it in extremes. and yes I am a little protective of my christmas baking. christmas being an imperative word. like the year when I accidently confused my gingerbread cookies with my molasses cookie dough and ended up with gingerbread circles instead of gingerbread men. and I made a new batch.

or this year when emily made chrismtas pocahontas shapes and christmas barnyard animals instead of christmas sugar cookies. last time I let anyone else near the cookie cutters. at least nick now knows only to use sanctioned cookie cutters.

I like large amounts of things and keep baking and baking and baking. here is this year's load.


this led nick to claim "she must have some ulterier motive, like fatening the family up so she can eat them"

last time I make him a christmas dinosaur.

merry christmas, welcome to the real world.

new favorite thing about the real world. christmas bonus.

turns out my catering office job never had such perks. though the last year we did finally get sweatshirts.

AND a cute little ornament.

apple sauce on mars

I do a lot of things to avoid having to get up in the morning. 5 more minutes of sleep. 1 more snooze. deciding what to wear when i finally get up. this morning it was a conversation.

me: guess what
nick: I hate these games
me: come on guess.
nick: umm apple sauce on mars

then later

nick: guess what
me: give me a hint
nick: it has to do with apples
me: umm apple sauce on mars?
nick: NO apple cider on jupiter. duh.

BEAUTIFUL bookshelf

Nick told me I could buy a new DVD shelf or I could only buy DVDs. well now I still cant bring myself to spend $20 to buy the movie on blu-ray when I can spend $5 to buy it on DVD. yes I am missing out on the crisp HD brilliance that comes along with blu-ray. but really if the DVD costs $5 is there much HD brilliance am I missing out on much?

needless to say if Im too cheap to buy movies on blu-ray I'm certainly too cheap to pay $159 for a DVD shelf capable of holding our expanding collection. and thus construction was underway. a trip to the local crafty bever along with our with our sketch in hand we managed to sweet talk our way into preimum pine for the price of common pine. (our little secret with the wood guy)

some sanding (ok a lot of sanding and all done by nick) some staining (again done by nick) and some drilling and hammering. and here we have it our furniture building careers have begun.

christmas in room 201 take 2

so I got crafty and I made my kids stockings. what can I say, i love christmas even when my students are lumps.