Christmas Wish List.

Merry Christmas! My laptop hard drive crashed. Bah humbug. But really, all my favorite pictures are on this blog anyway. So it's okay. Anyway, feel free to send me these gifts directly. My safety/internet time/consumption of plastic water bottles depends on it!

1. Grab Bag TYR Swim suit, size 36 $29.99

2. Night Time Reflective Running Vest $13.99

3. SIGG Water Bottle $19.99

4. Cookie Dough Baller $13.99

5. 13” Apple iBook with Apple Care $1482

Best "missed connections" title EVER.

My friend Shannon recently told me that she enjoys reading the "Missed Connections" section of craigslist. Well, I have a bunch of work to do, so of course i start procrastinating. And then I found this little nugget of fun:


Nov 16 - ups man buying bootleg dvd's on reading rd. - w4m - 33 (bondhill)

Laugh out loud funny.

Thanksgiving 2008.

Mmm. Thanksgiving in Madison was relaxing and oh so enjoyable. Tim stayed in Cincinnati, missing out on this delicious turkey.

Step 1: At about 11 a.m., Gwen, Linda, Liz and I started fluttering around Liz's kitchen and making the stuffing/dressing so we could stuff the turkey. Thanks to Liz's internet connection, only a few phone calls were placed to the Thanksgiving guru, Claudia Meberg. Linda picked out the bird: a Kosher grain-fed turkey from Trader Joe's. We all agreed later that this was the best $22.18 spent EVER.



Step 2: Bird has been in the oven, and YESSSS! the australia shepherd(working dog group winner) won best of show for 2008! Which she deserved really, way more than the pom. Duh. We pulled out the turkey, ate some more snacks, and, really, I had probably only eaten about .33 pounds of milk chocolate at this point.


Step 3: Bird relaxes after a 3.5 hour sauna. Gwen makes her curried sweet potatos (amazing), I made some crappy creamed peas and onions (too bitter), Linda made some wunderbar lumpy mashed potatos, and Liz looked hot and was a great delegator.


Step 4: EAT TURKEY! This was such a delicious meal! We had such a relaxing day after eating the turkey and complaining about how self-centered Meredith Grey is. Oh, your co-workers are dying and their wives are there to see it? But how does that make YOU feel? Whatev, we're still going watch it again next week anyway. At least Ugly Betty still cracks me up on a daily basis. Or makes me bawl like a chubby baby. What am I talking about? Oh yeah, the meal. Delicious!!!


Happy Thanksgiving to my favorite Madisonites!

Just Another Day.

Class. Swim. More class. Work on presentation. Eat. Class. Present. Home.


Tim makes me feel happy at the end of a long day.

Snippets and Additions to My Nearly-Daily Email for Kate:

okay. i've been at work since 9 (it is 6) because i skipped out on work yesterday morning. i was feeling lazy. but i kept my head down and worked, worked, worked. perhaps i'll take a picture of my to-do list and post it. it's pretty incredible. i love list! i love lamp.

okay. so you can also tell that i sit at my computer in a corner instead of sharing a lovely open space with two other funny girls my age. sad. as i said before, we moved out of our lovely home/office and into a classroom converted into an office. cubicles. music on headphones only. i usually listen to NPR anyway. but we did decorate our tiny white office christmas tree today. sigh. CHRISTMAS! i have to buy $35 worth of secret gifts for Betty (substituting name to savor secret santa mystery). Oh, I'm giggling just thinking about it. Everyone has to sign up and say their favorite things and foods, scents, whatev so their secret santa knows what to buy. Here are hers:

Betty:
Favorite things: Cats, vanilla/chocolate, candles, collectible salt and pepper shakers (for $35?! come ON), and precious moments. (funny co-worker scribbled in "fanny packs" cause Betty wanted to order some promotional fanny packs for the university! and she was all "But i LIKE fanny packs!" ahhhh hhaa! so cute!)

Favorite Foods/Scents, etc.: Ribs--vanilla-cinnamon--snowmen

Is snowmen a knew glad candle scent that i have not heard of yet? hmmmm. wow. that is too funny. i might have to post that on the blog later. out of love.


ummm. also. seriously, need some help coming up with funny cat/human christmas card pictures. Maybe we'll just take a picture of us with the cats and print on the bottom :"Cats and Humans Wish You Happy Holidays. - Mimi, Bird, Ruth and Tim," but mix of the names around so it looks like the CATS are named ruth and tim and the humans are named Mimi and Bird! OOOHHH! hilarious.

wow. my lack of human interaction is realling waving it's red flag right now.

Running has caused this.

BLAMMO! Check out those legs. My calves are large and in charge. Tomorrow, Shannon and I are going on our first long run together----maybe 7 miles? Fun. Super super fun.



Also, when I get done running, my bangs look like this:

The weather outside is frightful.

Johnny Cake.
Originally uploaded by Ms. Ruth Meberg Stine

Okay, really, it's just getting cool out. But nothing makes me feel warm and fuzzy like the old go-to for DJ Meberg: Johnny Cake. Also known as cornbread to anyone that did not grow up in our house. It's Friday night, and I'm staying in and searching for more work to do.

I'm bored. Pass the syrup.

Seeing the Signs.

I was walking to schools with my friend Annie. Because we were not in a hurry, we walked on the far side of the street, which I RARELY do. I looked over and noticed the inspirational shrub message and help felt like I was getting a little nudge from fate: hey, um, live.

So then I kept my eyes open. When I walked up to explore the optimistic hedges, I noticed this tiny placque under a tree:


I really love these placques; I think it reminds me that every one of us wants to leave a legacy, and sometimes we have to depend on other people to help us do that.

On the way home, I saw my favorite sign and wanted to make sure I always had a copy of it:


And then closer to home, but on the same block, I noticed this sidewalk etching:


For a bit I thought, no, ignore it. And then I thought, maybe this is not an angry phrase, but really a reminder. The first time I read Catcher in the Rye, I read it in from about 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. cuddled in my bed in Hebron, ND, not able to put it down. So many things connected to my own observations or expectations at age 14. One thing that I always think of when I see "naughty" words slapped on public property is that moment when Holden Caufield is waiting for his little sister Pheobe at her school and sees the F-word written with pencil on a brick by a staricase. It's dissapointing, and at the same time, a reminder that your world is not your world, your time is not your time. Holden gets upset because someone is willfully exposing young children to words and meanings that their childhoold does not yet need. A reminder. We don't have a choice---every moment we enjoy is passed on to those around us.

So anyway...I picture someone, probably a girl, age 13 or 14, who spies some wet cement while waiting for a bus. Maybe she has a few friends around her. They search of a stick or a pencil and finally she stoops down to write something...anything. But what? Oh, how about 'bitch'? That's cool, yeah...b...i...t...c...h. done. yeah. that looks cool. Let's go.

So maybe when I walk over that word, ride past it on my bike or step on it, instead of a feeling of disgust because people want to ruin someone else's fine cement smoothing job, they're reminding me not to bitch so much. Hey you, are you looking at the ground because you're feeling sorry for yourself? Imitating Charlie Brown? Keeping your face out of the wind?

Yeah, well, stop bitchin. Bitch.