Happy Christmas to You
Hope you had a great holiday! We are in Ireland, Be back soon.
Add comment December 27th, 2008
Archive for December, 2008
I just can’t get enough
Things I Am Completely Obsessed With - December 08 Edition
White Grape Crystal Light - My love for this stuff is obscene. I know it sounds gross but I dilute it about 3x the amount you are supposed to and drink a couple of huge 32oz waters with it a day. I ran out and went to 6 stores looking for it. When we found it Matthew bought 5 boxes. Can’t wait till i find out that its poisonous!
Whatever, Martha! - I think this might be the funniest show ever, after Chelsea Handler. Alexis Stewart and her friend Jennifer watch clips of old Martha shows and rag on her the whole time. It is hilarious.
Candied Ginger - I’ve always liked this but ever since I found the kind at Economy Candy its like a whole new world of ginger candy opened up to me.
Fal-la-la-la Lifetime - Yeah. I dunno. Something about the combination of freezing, snowy weather and the 24 hr running of crappy (Christmas) movies is just perfection. On for tonight - “A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride” with LUKE PERRY.
McGarrigle Christmas Hour - The CD is from 2005 but we go see them live every year. I just love the whole bunch of them so much and its so much fun. With Matthew listening to ONLY Christmas music for the past 3 weeks I started making him listen to this one if I’m around, I don’t even mind it on repeat.
Add comment December 21st, 2008
A Christmas Letter
The Christmas cards have been coming in, we get a few every day. It really makes me wish people still sent letters more often, its so exciting to check the mail these days. Although I love all holiday cards, I do enjoy some more than others, I can’t help it! I thought I’d share my thoughts with you in case you haven’t sent me one yet - maybe this will sway you to give the people what they want!
#1 Favorite-THE PHOTO CARD: No question, I absolutely adore anything with a picture. I LOVE pictures. I don’t care if its your kids/grandma/cat with a santa hat. Please include a picture with your holiday wishes. Pretty please. It will make me go back and look at them again and again.
#2 Favorite-THE CHRISTMAS LETTER: I love reading letters! I wish I was interesting enough to write a whole letter about myself for all my friends and family to read by the fire. Sadly our letter would read something like this…
Dear Friends and Loved Ones,
This year was very busy and not that exciting. We went lots and lots of places, but mostly for work. Matthew was in Minnesota for 4 weeks and I did a bunch important stuff while he was gone, like face masks and watching the olympics in my PJs.
Feeling extremely productive we cleaned out the home office that one time, then it got messy so we did it again. Same thing with the hallway closet.
We’re so proud that Matthew finally finished Grand Theft Auto 4, and our make-believe band is doing most excellently on our fake rock tour!
Kitty is as sweet as always. Too bad she spent the entire month of April, and every tuesday for the rest of the year hiding in her litter box.
As the year comes to a close, and we reflect on days gone by we wonder…What DID we do all year?
Love,
Bari, Matthew and Katherine K. Kitty
PS - Don’t forget the consumption of cupcakes, lots and lots of cupcakes.
#3 Favorite-ANYTHING ELSE: I just love getting mail! Thank you for sending something to me!! I will display it on a shelf in my dining room for all the world to see. But only until January 1st, after that its dead to me.
#4 Favorite-THE EXCEPTION: Hi, I am still Jewish, and so are lots and lots of other people. If you are sending me a card you probably know that. Is it so hard to buy a box of ‘Happy Holidays” cards for the chosen people? That’s all I’m saying.
All this talk has reminded me that we haven’t sent ours out yet - I better get going!
Add comment December 19th, 2008
Flashback Post: Thanksgiving #2
Thursday morning we woke up too late to see the parade…LIVE! But we Tivo’d it. We made some coffee and started watching, quickly becoming obsessed with its history. People started asking me all kinds of questions I didn’t know the answer to but thanks to the internet we now know just about everything to know about the parade. So happy that’s taking up precious room in my brain!
Guest List: Us, Houseguests Shel and Jaime, My brother Danny, and Jaime’s friend Stephanie from Vancouver who is a freshman at NYU. That brings the Canadian count to 4 and the American count to…3. The irony of that was not lost on me.
We were having a very casual day watching TV, reading, and doing the odd dinner duty as needed. Matthew got a bunch of cooking done Wednesday but still had a bit to do. At about 3:30 we realized we were starving and he went out to get us some lunch and came home with all kinds of cheeses and charcuterie from the store down the street. We were all sitting around enjoying ourselves when the doorbell rang - it was my brother. He told me they were coming at 4:30 but I didn’t think they’d actually be on time! I was still in my PJs.
We sort of kicked it into gear at that point. Matthew and his dad got the potatoes peeled and I set the table.
By the time Steph came at 6:30 we were ready to eat.
We plated the salad before people sat down - and yes it was THE SALAD. Just like I promised.The rest was a buffet.
Turkey: Kosher. Best kind of turkey ever.
Stuffing: Mah Favorite
Roasted Brussels Sprouts: Trying to make Jaime a fellow sprout lover. FAIL. (kid is loco)
Cauliflower Au Gratin: Via Smitten Kitchen. Didn’t try it, not my thing.
Broiled Sweet Potatoes: My mother always makes this so my brother brought them. There is not a marshmallow to be found. Delish.
Matthew’s plate.
Beverages on hand were some kind of wine for the Piercy men (natch) , Dr. Browns Black Cherry for the Jews (NATCH!) and Sparkling Apple and Cranberry juices for the under 21 set.
For dessert Shel made an apple pie and Matthew made sticky toffee pudding.
Jaime and Steph
I’m so glad we kept it casual, it was so much fun. It was Matthew’s first ever turkey and it came out great!!
2 comments December 17th, 2008
Merry Christmas to Me
After my disaster of a time at the post office I ordered these babies up for our trip to Ireland next week.
Waterproof - CHECK
Shearling lined - CHECK
Free overnight shipping - CHECK
OOH, SHINY - CHECKITY, CHECK!!
Whoo-Hoo!!!
Get em here
Add comment December 15th, 2008
Bah Humbug to you Post Office
Alternate title: A Timeline of Crazy!
Today started out nicely, its a beautiful day, I didn’t need to wear a coat, let alone gloves/hat/scarf. I had to go mail our international gifts to Canada for Matthew’s family because in all honesty, they are probably already late and we couldn’t wait another day. I tra la la’d all the way to the car skipping along humming a happy tune.
I had 3 fairly large packages and thought it would be cheaper at the post office so off I went…
11:15 Get a cup of coffee and head to post office
11:20 Drive around post office 4 times and do not find a spot, hydrant, bus stop or driveway to stop in.
11:25 Decide to drive over to UPS and just send the packages from there.
11:40 Drive around UPS 3 times and then doublepark right out front
11:42 Stand in line at UPS
11:46 Notice someone pulled out of spot so ran to car and legally park it
11:48 Back in line
12:03 UPS guy gives me 6 forms to fill out for my 3 international packages. Normally I would have just done all this at home but since I didn’t plan on going to UPS I didn’t bother.
12:12 Finally finish filling out forms and head to front.
UPS Guy: “You should just take these home and get a UPS pickup there because we have a lot of trouble with international shipments, UPS calls us and we can’t help them”
ME, kind of snotty and frustrated: “Then why did you make me fill out all these forms? Why didn’t you tell me this before! Why would they call you if I have an account and my phone number is all over the forms!”
UPS Guy: “I don’t know” turns back to other customer
ME (Inner dialogue): ” F that! I’m not paying overpriced shipping if I have to schlep these all home” gather large packages as gracefully as possible and storm out.
12:19 Pull up to post office and park in the bus stop. Put on hazards and hope I don’t get a ticket
12:22 Line out the door, filing out additional customs forms (!!!) using my palm as the hard surface because there is a crazy lady using up the entire table. Post office smells like wet stinky dog.
12:25 Nice lady behind me with friendly toddler points out I may need a different form if my (humongous) packages are over 4 lbs. We look around but there are no other forms. I shrug and kick my pile forward.
12:35 Second crazy lady yells at postal service worker to open another window. He says “Lady, you do not want to start this with me right now”
12:38 Crazy lady #1 is still doing her thing at the table, I am standing next to it and can smell her breath. It is foul and I get a bit nauseated.
12:45 I step up to counter, package 1 is no problem, Packages 2 and 3 need illustrious “other form”. She rings me up for all packages, then I step aside to go fill out my new forms.
12:52 Get handed back 2 out of the 3 form receipts and my actual receipt. Leave post office with empty wallet and sigh of relief.
12:55 Back in car, headed to cafe for soup. Eat some of my soup, drive back to the house and find a spot
1:21 Look at receipt before exiting car. It says I shipped 2 packages to Canada and 1 to Afghanistan. Hmm. That seems wrong.
1:22 Debate whether it is worth $17 to go back to post office. Decide yes on the off chance my mother-in-law’s present is on the way to Afghanistan
1:24 FInd a spot up the street, put enough money in the meter for 50 minutes
1:30 Line out the door. Crazy lady is STILL at the table with her bad breath and her crap all over the place. I get back in line.
1:42 Step up to counter. Explain my situtation
ME: Hi, I was just here, I sent 3 packages to canada but 1 is listed as Afghanistan when the customs form is clearly marked Canada. I want to make sure my package gets to the right place and get my money back
HIM: How long ago were you here, an hour (shakes head all dissaponted in me) I can’t do anything about this.
ME: What do you mean you can’t, I want the money back. You overcharged me.
HIM: Well I can’t refund you the money without the package and it’s already gone. Why didn’t you notice that $40 is way too much to send something to Canada?
ME: Are you kidding me?!! How dare you blame ME for something that is YOUR fault. How was I supposed to know what it costs to send something to Canada!!! I walked out of here a half an hour ago, not a week ago!
Argue back and forth a bit, me not letting up because come on, what assholes! - long line getting longer, etc etc.
HIM: I guess I can go see if its on the truck, You’re lucky it hasn’t left yet. (disappears for 10 minutes)
Truck driver comes in and asks the girl who checked me out in the first place where the package is cause its not on the truck. She points to hamper 2 feet from me. I lift the top package and there it is.
2:06 They refund my money to a money order that I need to step aside and fill out. Crazy lady has finally gotten on line so the table is free. I also have to fill out a form explaining why I am getting a refund. Refrain from writing “Cause you are stupid”
2:08 Step back up to counter, give her my money order, get my $40 back. She then has to call the other guy over to see what to do next. I explain to her all she needs to do now is charge me for the package. He agrees.
2:13 I pay and leave.
2:15 Walk back to the car and the meter was out but did not get a ticket.
1 comment December 15th, 2008
Flashback Post: Thanksgiving Weekend
Matthew’s dad and his little sister Jaime came to visit for Thanksgiving. Since they have been here so many times before we didn’t feel the need to do too many touristy things, which was nice. It probably would have been smart to plan SOMETHING though because we ended up staying up too late every night and then not getting going till about noon every day. Whatevs, we were on West Coast time.
We knew there was no way that we were going to the parade but thought it would be kind of fun to watch them blow up the balloons the night before. Matthew and I went years ago, before it was a “thing” but now its definitely a THING.
Yeah there were signs. Lots and lots of them. It was totally insane. Adam met us there and we really couldn’t stop obsessing over the fact that there were still thousands of people there when we rolled through the barricades at 9:47pm. I think they estimated 350,000 people came.
It was still pretty cool.
We couldn’t help but notice that the balloons were placed Head to Toe (Head to Butt) and the banter became a bit less family-friendly. It was so obvious it would have been more uncomfortable NOT to mention that Ronald McDonald wasn’t sniffing someone’s tush.
Slightly more well behaved balloons included Buzz
and Dora
The real reason why its fun to go is to see how big these things actually are, and how they get them in the air.
Obligatory “We were really there” shot of the night:
Add comment December 14th, 2008
I’m Back!
I’d like to say that the reason I haven’t blogged in an entire month is because we’ve been so busy the last few weeks but that’s not really true. We’ve been SORT of busy/out of town/houseguests/etc but nothing too out of the ordinary for us.
I take millions of photos and say “oooh that’ll be good for my blog” then do nothing with it.
I’m going to try and catch up some this week and get back into the swing of things in time to disappear again over the holidays. Kidding!
I thought a nice way to ease back into it would be to share the pics I took of my friend Maddie a couple weeks ago.
Here are some of my faves. I hope they make the Christmas card!
please note: funky lighting on some photos is due to the fact that the photographer got impatient when the lighting designer was being too slow on the light pointing and wanted to get going already. also - photographer too lazy to do any touchups at this time.
1 comment December 8th, 2008
