Happy Birthday, Dub!

My adorable nephew, Dub, was 2 on the 23rd. I didn't get here to blog his day, so I'm back dating this. :)

Hey, it's my blog... I can do what I want.

Look at my baby boy. He's not a baby anymore!

I remember very distinctly the night he was born. My sis-in-law (whom I adore) went into labor around 11 AM and as directed, called me at school. I flew (needlessly, LOL) up to the hospital where I proceeded to sit until 9:30 pm w/ Mom, Dad, in-laws, etc., when Dub arrived. (Side note: I was also reading New Moon at the time, and I nearly died when Dub was born b/c I was at a SUPER good part, LOL again.) What a blessing he has been to all of us.

January 20, 2009

As I said on my Facebook... regardless of whether you are "red" or "blue", this is an historic day for our country. I have never seen anything like the sea of people standing on the Mall in DC. Perhaps it's b/c I have been there several times... and I've walked the Mall before... and I have a sense of how freaking GIGANTIC it is... but I am IN AWE of this moment...

I love this photo... b/c at the end of the day, either 4 or 8 years from now... all of the insanity will be gone and it'll be just the 2 of them again. I truly hope this man and his family are ready for the difficulties of the next 4 years. I wish him the best.

p.s. I don't hate the outfit... she is tall and can carry a color like this... but I don't get the shoes... however, what other color would she have worn? Not sure...

p.p.s. got the images off Yahoo slide show... they belong to AP and Reuters, just so ya know.

Starting the year with a bang... or rather, a Malibu!

I just bought a new car! :)

I have driven a wonderful Chevrolet Trailblazer for the past 3 1/2 years, and I have loved that car... however, several things in the past couple of months have started me down the road to the "this car is no longer fun" attitude. The biggest issues are that it's been having engine troubles which have been pricey, and I was going to need new tires pretty soon. In addition, I was a long way from paying off that car.

Sooooooooooooooooooooooo.... what new kind of car did I want, and how could I capitalize on the current auto crisis?

I guess it wasn't practical to get a Silver Volvo... but I really wanted one... but no, definitely not an option since I wanted my monthly payment to go DOWN.

I thought about lots of cars, and for practical and economical purposes, ended up back at Chevrolet, for the 3rd time in my car purchasing life. I went over on Sunday so no one would be there when I looked... I built my own online... I read research... I crunched numbers... I made lists of "must haves" and "can't stands"... I printed out online inventory at my Chevy dealership of choice.

I went over there and promptly overwhelmed my salesman with all of my lists, requirements, desires, wants, and don't likes... and once he was properly overwhelmed and beginning to glaze over, I proceeded to discuss the merits of my payments and where I wanted them to be and how I wanted them to take my Trailblazer and I wanted to never have any obligation to that car again (see, it was a lease, and I wasn't out of the lease for 4 more payments). After a relatively short time period for car dealerships, along with my repeated requests for the following: "black or dark grey, payment under $____, no obligation (in writing) to the leased vehicle"... I called my Dad and had him come to see the deal.

And now, I'm the proud owner (NOT LEASING) of a brand new 2009 Chevrolet Malibu, Black Granite color.

It's got every bell and whistle I wanted except leather (including remote car start which I have used for the past 2 days and is super cool).

The best thing about it?

In the sunlight, it sparkles... LOL.

come on now... you didn't think I'd make it through a whole post w/o a reference, did ya? If so, you don't know me so well!

Now all she needs is a name.

Midnight Sun

I have several things to blog about, not the least including that my car's "check engine" light is on again for the 3rd time since Thanksgiving. I have spent nearly $600 on this car since Halloween. Methinks I'm on the car search. I'll keep you updated. I'll now move to the most fun, though not necessarily the most important news in my world.

I have started reading Midnight Sun. You know... the Stephenie Meyer manuscript that is exactly Twilight, only written from Edward's Point of View. It is AWESOME!!! I started it after the encouragement of a friend and fellow Twilight fan, E. She tempted me too much and I could no longer resist.

Why were you resisting in the first place, LG?... you ask...

Well, Midnight Sun is surrounded by controversy. Long story short (never, with me), Midnight Sun was supposed to be Stephenie Meyer's next project. However, shortly after the release of Breaking Dawn in August, Stephenie's partially-written manuscript of Midnight Sun was leaked all over the Internet. How, you say? No clue, except that I personally think it happened on the movie set.

ANYWAY, Stephenie released the partial draft on her website in an attempt to keep people from going to look for her copyrighted and illegally posted material. In the statement, she also said that Midnight Sun was (gasp!) "on hold, indefinitely", and those of us waiting for this book died a slow and painful death.

However, in recent months, I have seen her comment on Midnight Sun and I believe her "on hold, indefinitely" quote may change... I am truly hoping that she'll finish it, and armed with a few quotes from a few magazine articles which give me a glimmer of hope, I decided to read Midnight Sun, hoping that someday, I'll get to read it in its entirety.

I have read 5 1/2 chapters of the 12 that are posted, and it's INCREDIBLE. I swear, it's better than Twilight. Even with typos and editing flaws, it's still amazing. I think it's some of her best writing to date, and it's compelling, frightening, and completely addicting to read this book as if we were Edward, instead of Bella. There is SO MUCH we don't know about Edward and the Cullens, and seriously it's just... I can't find a word.

I am desperately on the edge of falling into full-on Twilight Obsession like I did a couple of years ago when I read it for the first time. Definitely important to take all offers of human contact right now. :)

I have decided to limit myself to 1 chapter per day so that I can make it last. It's nearly impossible, but I will die yet another slow and painful death when I finish, not knowing if it'll ever be published.

aaahhhhh, will I ever get over this? (Don't answer that, readers, and if you do, be kind.)

Winter Weather

By The Way...

It is TOTALLY FORKS-Y outside today!!!!!

... I'm just sayin'....





Edward? Edward?

;)

2009, here I come!

Happy New Year!!!

It has been an interesting start to the year so far... only 2 days and I already have highlights...

* I just got off the phone for the 5th time with a credit card company. I lost the card months ago and they sent me to a new one. B/c I am an idiot, I have been auto-paying the OLD CARD for the last 2 months and the payments haven't transferred. They can't seem to get the payments moved even though I have been told 4 different times that it has been done and that w/in 2-3 days, I should see it posted on my account. ARGH! I hate things that are out of my control.

* I got new house phones for Christmas (Thanks, Mom and Dad!), and the base has an answering machine, so I called ATT today and cut off my "CallNotes", which saved me 5 bucks a month! Now I have an old school answering machine, which is hilarious! I can still call from anywhere to get the messages, but no one ever leaves me any messages on that # except for my Mother, so it doesn't matter anyway!

* How is it possible that I have to go back to work in 3 days. I love my job, but this week FLEW by and now it's gone. :(

* I have, in my hot little hands, a copy of the Twilight Movie Companion that was released along w/ the movie a few months ago. I have been waiting for it to come in at the Bookstore for over a MONTH! Demand was so high that they had to do a reprint! (Granted, I could have gotten it off amazon.com, but I wouldn't dare!) Of course, I adore it and I can't WAIT to pour over all the pics of my E&B. Hee Hee, the best $11 guilty pleasure of 2009 so far. ;)

* Saw Benjamin Button and Valkyrie this week... both good, but Benjamin Button blew the roof off pretty much any other movie I saw in 2008 (not including Twilight... it's in its own category). Seriously, it was wonderful, and beautiful, and exquisitely crafted, and it made me cry, and it was a great reminder to live each day to the fullest. Cliche, I know, but that doesn't mean it's not true. You won't regret seeing this film.