12/16/09 Meez, Myself and I

You may have noticed my new little animated avatar over there on the sidebar. I added it (her?) on a whim one day because I thought it might be fun to play with for a few minutes. Now I have to admit it...I'm totally hooked on my little meez. It's like having a little personalized paper doll or Barbie or Sim character all rolled into one.

She's supposed to look like me, but I think the nose is still a little off. And of course, my eyes aren't that big. And the beauty mark needs to be a little higher on the cheek. But other than that? Pretty close to the actual me. Or as close as I can get anyway with the choices they offer. (I even gave her the J-Lo butt like the real version...just because she's digital doesn't mean that she can escape the junk in her trunk).

So far I've changed her outfit and activity every day. (My view towards my own clothes? Eh. Her clothes? So much fun!). She put on her workout stuff when I went to the gym. She worked on her computer when I blogged. She read a book while I read. She even wore a santa outfit for the Christmas tour of homes this weekend. I think the draw is that her "closet" has more (and cuter) outfits than my real closet. Sometimes I'll put outfits together for her and think, "Hmmm. That looks fabulous. I should see if I can find a similar thing for the real me". (Yes, I'm now taking my fashion cues from a pixilated image. I'm not proud). I spent the last week saving up my little pretend coins to buy her a Blackhawks hockey jersey to wear in honor of tonight's game (Hawks vs Blues, 7:30 in case you were interested). Those jeans and black ballet flats? Authentic replicas of my real clothes. (Although I have to admit that she looks better in her jersey than I do in mine).

I'm working on the alter ego version now. So far she has spiky blue hair and a motorcycle. And black boots. And maybe some tattoos if I can gather more pretend coins. (She's tougher than both the real and avatar me. I like her). She'll represent every crazy thing I've ever wanted to try by was too rational to actually do. Once I get the alter ego finished, I'll unleash her on the blog too.

I've lost almost two full days to playing with my little digital me. It's the complete freedom to reinvent yourself, but without any consequences. Dress up for the digital world, I suppose. I can totally see how people get sucked into spending all their times playing games with these online versions of themselves. It's addicting, and so far all mine really does is just hang out on the blog and blink.

Which, come to think of it, isn't that far off from what the real me does, but she does it in better outfits.

12/14/09 2009 Christmas Tour of Homes

Hi there, and welcome to my part on Hooked on Houses and The Nester's Christmas Tour of Homes! If you're a first time caller, this is where I live with my husband Tony and our Siamese cats. So come in! Come in! Make yourself at home. Let me show you around.

Thrifty Decor Chick is hosting a Christmas Tree party, so here’s our Christmas tree! It’s a tradition for us to go pick out a live tree each year. We always get the Douglas fir, because it’s Tony’s favorite (and I love the smell). Our ornaments are a hodge-podge collection from our lives, from my Baby’s First Christmas and the teddy bear shapes that used to hang on my crib mobile, to the ornaments we picked out each year as kids, to the University of Tennessee balls, to our first Christmas together. It’s a sentimental journey to hang each one on the tree, and it will be fun to continue to add to them each upcoming year.

Here are all the stockings hung by the chimney with care. (Well, almost with care. You may notice that Sebastian's stocking is hanging by a silver ribbon instead of the traditional red loop...that's because someone pulled it down in the middle of the night and ate the loop part. I know, I know, Bad Tony!)

This is something neat. Every year my grandmother gives everyone in the family a gold ornament from the Danburry mint. I used to hang them in the tree with the rest of the ornaments, but I think this ornament holder displays them better. I just love the detail on each ornament!

Here's my nativity scene, waaaaay up on top of the entertainment center and safely out of reach of all the pilfering kitty paws. (This is a trick I learned the first year after a certain wise man kept being kidnapped and hidden under the bed). You can get a really good view of it as you come down the stairs, and I figure that the heat from the DVD player makes the scene feel more like an authentic desert).

These are just regular ornaments that I tied with silver ribbon and hung from the chandelier. I think it gives the kitchen a funky, festive touch, don't you?

Merry Fishmas! Window decals are fabulous for decorating the fish tank, and of course they have their own little stocking!

So there you go! That's the grand Christmas tour! Thanks for stopping by to visit, and feel free to come back anytime. We're a little quirky here, but we think that's a good thing. And if you're new here, be sure to leave a comment and let me know where you're from so I can return the favor and come see your decorations also.

12/12/09 Coming to a Blog Near You!

Just to tempt your taste buds, this is some of the upcoming awesomeness you can expect on Quirky is a Compliment:

Has your interest been peaked yet? It should, my friend, it should.

12/11/09 Christmas Card Photos That Didn't Make the Cut

Every year, we take our own family photo for the annual Christmas cards. It usually involves me setting the camera on the self-timer and racing back to be in the frame while Tony tries to hold on to struggling cats who would rather be anywhere else at that moment. To say we do several takes is an understatement, and some years are more trying than others (difficulty of picture is exponentially proportional to the number of cats involved), but eventually we get a halfway decent family photo to send out to loved ones near and far. Recently however, I was flipping through my album of Misfit Christmas Card Photos, and I thought I'd share some of the ones that didn't quite make the cut.

How Tony really feels about Christmas card photos.


Because nothing brings the Christmas spirit like being able to see right up my nostrils. (Plus Tony is deliberately slouching because I asked him to sit up straight. If anyone deserves coal this year, it's him).

Notice anyone missing here? (this was a case of "Okay, I set the timer...Wait, did that just flash?")

Dixon makes a break for it. Everyone else tries to follow suit. (I'm laughing because the claws have severed an artery and the resulting blood loss has made me delirious)

Dixon sneaks back into the picture. Unfortunately, he and I are the only ones looking at the camera.

All the cats run away. Tony is resigned. I fall off the back of the chair seconds after the flash goes off.

This year, I had the bright idea of taking a separate picture of the cats. Ever try to get five cats to look at the camera at once?

"I'll give them a cat treat and you take the picture as soon as I'm out of the shot, okay?"

Somewhere around take 756, we get a usable picture. (Or to be more accurate, somewhere around take 755 my standards for what makes a successful picture drops dramatically). And then we end up with this:
Ya'll have a Merry Christmas, and may your family photos be just as much fun!

12/9/09 Meme Time!

I was looking over ye old blog here, and I said to myself, "You know what we need around here? More meaningless question memes." And so I set out to hunt for one, and I came across Sunday Stealing. It seems that they steal memes from all over the Internet. And they encourage further stealing of those memes.

So I did.

They stole this particular one back in November, but I liked it, so I took it anyway. They appear to do a new one every Sunday, and they don't really require me to think about what I'm blogging, (Dedicated to my craft, that's me) so get ready for more of these to show up.

From Sunday Stealing: The Strange Question Meme, Part 1

1. What is the color of your toothbrush? Hmmm. Blue? Purple? (checking) Yep. Blue and purple

2. Name one person who made you smile today. Tony-come to think of it, he's been the only person I've talked to so far today. I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was funny.

3. What were you doing at 8 am this morning? Sleeping, of course! Repeat after me: NOT A MORNING PERSON!

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago? Catching up on all my favorite blogs.

5. What is your favorite candy bar? Symphony with almonds. Luvs me the chocolate!

6. Have you ever been to a strip club? Thinking, thinking...no. I don't think so. My initial reaction to those places is to bathe in hand sanitizer. Kinda like hanging out in a gas station bathroom if you ask me.

7. What is the last thing you said aloud? "Mason! Leave your sister alone!" The children are restless today.

8. What is your favorite ice cream? How to choose? Cookies and creme. I'm pretty boring when it comes to ice cream flavors. I just stick pretty much to my one favorite.

9. What was the last thing you had to drink? water. I try to make water my first drink choice when I can. Be kind to the one kidney and all that.

10. Do you like your wallet? Only when it has money in it! Heehee!

11. What was the last thing you ate? Nothing yet today. So I guess that would be last night's handful of chocolate chips (dark) for dessert. I can do that because the anti-oxidants are good for me, right? And it was just a small handful. (Okay, okay, it was two small handfuls. Shut up).

12. Have you bought any new clothing items this week? I bought Tony a t-shirt and a new pair of yoga pants for myself. The shirt was white. The yoga pants are a bright glow-in-the-dark, make-your-eyes-bleed teal. I was feeling adventurous. No word yet on if I'll actually wear them out of the house.

13. The last sporting event you watched? On tv? Hockey. Hawks vs. Nashville. In person? Also hockey. Tony vs. the wolves, I think. It's that most wonderful time of the year.

14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn? Kettle corn. But the real kind, like you get at the fair. Not the microwave version. Must actually be made in an actual kettle to count. Then I can wolf down one of the giant bags all by myself.

15. Who is the last person you sent a text message to? Probably Mom. She loves those things. I find the tiny keys annoying.

16. Ever go camping? I wish! I think I would like camping, but Tony doesn't. He thinks that once the excitement wore off, I'd freak out because you can't really lock a tent and I dislike being unsecured while sleeping. Which means that I would keep him up all night listening for every rustle and snap of twigs and imagining serial killers lurking right outside. Which he's right...I totally would. But I think I'd like it up until that point.

17. Do you take vitamins daily? Not at the moment. I used to be really good about it, but now I've slacked off. Lack of a routine schedule and all that.

18. Do you go to church every Sunday? Mostly. Occasionally we'll miss one (usually due to hockey), but we try to get there on a regular basis. Enough that they know who we are.

19. Do you have a tan? A little bit. Most of it has faded by now though. Stupid winter.

20. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza? Depends on the mood. Sometimes I'm feeling beef and broccoli, sometimes it's meat lovers thin crust.

21. Do you drink your soda with a straw? I don't drink sodas. Haven't touched anything carbonated for about 20 years. I find them rot-your-teeth sugary and I hate the feel of the bubbles. But when offered a straw in a restaurant, I usually use one with my water.

22. What did your last text message say? I have no idea. I'm not much of a texty person. Probably responding to one of Mom's.

23. What are you doing tomorrow? Lunch with Mom. Other than that, maybe a little reading...a little web surfing...it's a hard life.

24. Favorite color? blue. Have you seen my house?

25. Look to your left; what do you see? My long-term to-do list regarding upkeep on the house. It's long but uninspiring. I shall ignore it. Recaulking the tub can wait for another day.

12/7/09 Bella's First Christmas

Bella is very frustrated.

First her people brought in a tasty and delicious tree with fabulous smells all over it and put it in the middle of the living room. (Not only is it tasty, but it is tall and provides the perfect cover for ambushing her brothers). Then her people put a little bird-person with ribbons all over it and real feather wings at the very top as a primo kitty prize for climbing said tree. Then they covered the entire tree with kitty toys and shiny kitty balls, just perfect for batting and chasing.

But can Bella play with the shiny kitty balls or the hanging cat toys or the little bird-person perched on top of the delicious tree? NOOOOO!

Bella is not allowed near the tree. In fact, the Kitty Deterrent 3000 is guarding the tree, and Bella has been sprayed several times in her attempts to sneak in the tiniest swat or nibble.

Her people are so mean! Why bring in such a wonderful snack covered in toys if they do not want her to play with it?!? Why let the little bird-person sit way up there and mock her when Bella knows full well just how tasty those white feathery wings would be? Why is it automatically Bella's fault when her people come home and the bottom three feet of the tree have been de-ornamented? Have you ever heard of anything so unfair?!?

Poor Bella. So mistreated. So unloved. Such a frustrating time of year to be a cat.

12/4/09 Invasion of the Quirky-Snatchers

You may have noticed that the site has been down for a few days. The sad truth is that while I was passing the gravy with my family on Thanksgiving day, some evil hacker broke into my site (well, actually the site of my web counter service) and spewed malware all over it. Then, while I was stuffing myself with stuffing, the Blogger robots that roam the cyberterrain looking for spam blog latched onto my lovely little site and completely locked it down. And THEN, if that wasn't horrible enough, while I was doing the dance of "Oh no, I couldn't possibly...okay maybe one more piece of pie", Google robots zeroed in and slammed it with a "this site will kill your computer" tag. So in short, they completely quarantined my poor little blog, and not even I could get in to do anything about it.

So for the last several days, I've just been stuck. I emailed Blogger and requested a review, and an appeal, and peppered the help forum with pleas. And then I waited. All in all, it took exactly one week to get it back. And despite what you read on a lot of the help forums, the Blogger/Google people were really helpful during that time (special thanks to nitecruzer, who must have been going insane from the 16 forum messages that I sent going helphelphelphelpHELP!). Anyway, they were able to track the problem back to my web counter and remove the code for me. Then I checked everything else to make sure I was okay and requested a review so that Google would pronounce me safe once again. And now we're back in business (albeit with a few changes...you'll notice that we're now employing the hateful squiggly word verification for comments. I know, I know, I hate it too, but it cuts down on a lot of spam robots leaving potentially harmful messages, so it is the price that we must pay for cyber safety).

And because I can now attest first hand at how scary and frustrating and annoying it is to have your blog hacked, (I swear, dear hacker, that if we ever meet in a dark alley, I will cheerfully peel the flesh from your bones and then dance on your bloody carcass while I laugh) I am providing a quick overview of things that I found helpful. This, of course, only applies to Blogger blogs since that I what I run, but I'm sure there's a similar process for Wordpress.

If the Blogger Spambots shut you down:
1) Request a review from the link on your dashboard.
2) Sign up for the appeal websheet
3) Give them two business days from when you signed up on the appeal sheet, and then post a concise and polite post in the "Something's Broken" help forum, stating the problem and when you requested a review and appeal.

If Google tags you with a "visit and die!" warning (thus scaring away all of your faithful readers, to boot):
1) Check to see what Google found on Webmaster Tools
2) Fix the problem by having your site checked at Norton Safe Web, StopBadWare Clearinghouse, Unmask Parasites, and Dasient.
3) Search your source code for hidden nasties. The step-by-step instructions at How to remove "This site may harm your computer" are fabulous.
4) Request Google to review your site again to make sure you got everything.

Anyway, long story short: We're all clean and back in business. I'm safe, you're safe, and all the quirkilicious content is safe. Thanks for sticking with me while I was down.

11/24/09 Smile for the Christmas-Themed Birdie!

Oh ya'll, you would be so proud of me! I have officially (and before Thanksgiving too!) ordered my Christmas cards. Eat your heart out, Martha Stewart!

Each year, we do the photo cards of us and the cats (quit rolling your eyes...lots of perfectly sane people send out Christmas cards of themselves surrounded by cats. Shut up! They do!) and each year it sneaks up on me and suddenly it's the second week of December and I'm snapping pictures like mad in an attempt to get something halfway decent to send out to friends and relatives (who no doubt receive these lovely tokens of holiday cheer and go, "Good Lord, look at all the cats. We need to have an intervention") but between all the shopping and the decorating and the Charlie Brown Christmas Specials on TV, the whole thing gets all frenzied and all the cards end up arriving two days before Christmas and I swear that next year, I'm going to get them out earlier.

Well, this year I have finally done it! (Okay maybe not totally since they aren't technically in the mail yet, but I have the pictures snapped and the prints ordered and I'll go pick them up tomorrow and as God as my witness, those cards will be in the mail before the first day of December!)

I credit my success this year on some essential changes in strategy. First of all, instead of trying to get the two of us and five cats all sitting in the same place at the same time and looking in the same direction without anyone making a weird face or getting clawed to little tiny bits like we've done in photos past, this year I went with the much simpler two photo option. One of us, one of the cats. Period. (Of course, that's not to say that it was a cake walk to get Tony smiling at the same time he was sitting up straight at the same time at I wasn't caught by surprise with the self-timer going off, or equally easy to get five cats who can either be best friends or despise each other depending on what day of the week it is to stand still for a picture, but I managed it). Then, instead of taking them in to Walgreens or CVS to fight with the little Kodak machine to edit and get copies made, I just did my editing at home and emailed them to the photo department. And finally, instead of just doing photos and then painstaking stuffing each one into a Christmas card and writing some note on the inside, I've upgraded to the all-in-one 4x8 photo card with Christmas message already included. Now all I have to do is pick them up from the photo place, address the envelopes and toss them in the mailbox for pickup! Viola! Instant Christmas cheer!

So bring it on, Christmas. I am so ready for you!

And by getting the cards out right at the beginning of December, friends and family will have an entire month to make crazy cat lady jokes.

11/18/09 Hair Today...Gone Tomorrow! Okay, Still Hair Today

For all one of you who was curious about how things turned out with the haircut yesterday:

• No bangs, faux or otherwise.
• Long layers (apparently these control volume...who knew?) I did ask her to keep them long enough to ensure proper hair behavior during ponytail time.
• Shorter pieces in the front to frame my face.
• A tiny trim to shape up the ends.

She did take the time to blow it dry and flat iron it straight, which, considering the hour it took her, I will not be doing on a regular basis Thankyouverymuch.

(Although I do like how it looks when it's straight).

(Not to mention really shiny).

She did a pretty passive-aggressive sell for buying some salon shampoo and conditioner and straighter and smoother and shine serum, but I ignored it. (For $85 a bottle, that shampoo better be solving world hunger or something). Pet Peeve Time: It annoys me to death to be trapped in a chair while a woman with sharp scissors tries to do a hard sell on me for hair products. If I want them, I'll ask for them. Used car salesmen and timeshare pushers could learn a thing or two from this woman. The classier the salon, the worse they are about it too.

Anyway, fancy products or not, she gave me a great cut. I was really pleased with the result.

What do you think? My hair looks pretty good if I do say so myself. You should feel free to say so also.

11/17/09 Layers and Teasings and Bangs, Oh My!

Ya'll bear with me today. I have a cold.

Now, I know what you're saying. You're out there screeching "H1N1 flu!" and making the sign of the cross while wiping down the computer screen with Lysol. And if I had the flu, I totally wouldn't blame you.

But it isn't. It's just your average run-of-the-mill cold. Which on the up side, probably won't really kill me, but on the down side, it's all of the crappy cold symptoms and none of the sympathy.

(Moment of silence for my poor nose, which will probably never be the same again after this).

Anyway, as much as I know you're looking forward to a minute-by-minute description of all the sneezing and sniffling and OH MY WORD THE PRESSURE IN MY EARS, I'm not going to do it. Ya'll have all had colds...just remember back to how it was and pity me.

Instead, we're going to talk about a serious issue of national importance, and by that I mean my hair.

(Yes, again. Shut up).

I'm in serious need of guidance. I have a haircut scheduled in exactly 2 hours, and I don't know what I want. I'd like something different and, you know, stunning, but I have no idea what that looks like. I do know I don't want to go shorter...I'm just getting it back out to a length that I like after the last haircut's misunderstanding (I was gesturing at chin level for the length that I wanted the front and she thought I meant that I wanted all of it that length. And once you take that first hearty snip, there's no going back). So not shorter.

And I guess I could tell her to put layers in it again, but to be honest, I don't really see how they help. Mostly they just succeed in sneaking out of my ponytail holder halfway though my cardio so that by the time I've finished it looks like I went 15 rounds with my head in a blender. So no layers (or at least, not short ones).

And do I dare even think about getting...bangs? Normally, I wouldn't so much as consider such a ridiculous suggestion because I have a round face and a small forehead (two major bang no-nos), but the Seester (who also shares the genetic tiny forehead) recently cut her hair and the stylist gave her "faux bangs" which are really more side wisps than actual bangs but still have the totally enviable effect of looking AWESOME. And I am really really jealous. Of course, it's entirely possible that the faux bangs work on the Seester because she has straight hair, whereas if I tried to get faux bangs, they would scrunch and curl and poof and despite my best efforts end up looking like Sally from Peanuts.

Which looks lovely on her but is not so good when you aren't a little girl.

Or, you know, a cartoon character.

So maybe not with the bangs. Although that basically leaves me with just walking in and being like, "Well, I guess you could wash it, even though I did that this morning. But no cutting!" Which kind of misses the whole point of a haircut.

Not to mention I had to schedule this haircut two months ago because the holidays are quickly approaching and everybody is getting their Christmas photo hair styles, so if I canceled the appointment today I wouldn't be able to get another one until roughly 2012. (Which may or may not be the Apocalypse, in which case a snazzy 'do probably wouldn't matter all that much anyway). So, haircut good. Just as soon as I figure out what the heck I'm doing.

So any suggestions, oh wise Internet? Any advice you can give a round faced, no forehead girl with natural curl and a need to stay shoulder length or longer? I don't know what to do and I need ya'll to talk me down from the edge, because I'm beginning to see the wisdom behind Tony just shaving his head.