Prepping for the Evening Festivities

The leg and I are preparing accordingly for this evenings festivities. I'm cleaning, doing laundry and exercising.....YES....you read correctly, I EXERCISED TODAY! It was fun too! I'm not going to publicize exactly what I was doing but if you're that curious you can ask me in person.

Mike went for a ride and made it back just before the major sleetage came pouring down and covered the ground with tiny little white ice balls. He's relaxing now, gearing up to kick the Kessel's asses at some beer pong after dinner tonight.

We're heading to Zia's over in the burg to meet up with Steve, Steph, Erin & Don for dinner around 7. Then back to the humble abode for some gaming/drinks/grub. We may even see some fire works out fron tonight, one never knows what could happen in this neighborhood.

I got to talk to a lot of my favorite peeps today........Pam, Wendy, Roxanne, Kristen. All are well and looking forward to New Years with their respective loved ones.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Rippin and Tearin

Ahh...the day has come and gone. Ripping and tearing open Christmas presents! What fun!
Santa was great to both of us!

Me and the 'legend' got up and opened our gifts here in the morning. Mr. Legend got a Park Tool bike stand to so he can work on his bikes without hanging them from the basement ceiling. He also got new riding shoes, pants and a winter jersey. Then there's the obligatory ties, gift certificates and other stuff.

Santa brought me accessories for my laptop, an ipod nano- yep-holds 1,000 songs in something similar to the size of a matchbook. Love it! Gift cards, clothes, 2 purses......great stuff!

We traveled over to my brothers around 10am and got to see the nieces open stuff. They were having a great time. They especially loved the Bella Danceralla thing.They were dancing when we left. Dad and Susan were there as well and they did GREAT with the shopping! We got gift certificates, hand made potterey from a local vendor and goodies from their trip to Germany. Awesome!

Then back home around noon to shower and get ready for Frank, Jackie, Eric & Julie (Mike's dad, girlfriend, Mike's brother and his wife). They hung out here for a few hours then into the car and over to Carolyns (mother-in-law) we went. We ate and ate and ate......as we always do at Carolyns because she's the best cook in the state! We opened gifts there, got to visit with Mike's grandparents, then home to the couch we came.

We watched The Interpreter.......great flick. I had to keep changing positions on the couch to stay awake because of all the food I ate. Maybe I should exercise.........nah. Didn't get to see Scott and Wendy on Christmas because we were all out and about visiting our peeps. We will see them tonight.

Today we're off to Maryland for the "Parker Family Christmas Party"....Mike's mom's side of the family. Always a great time! (more on this later because the Chinese christmas thing is always hilarious and definitely worth it's own post!) We're heading to Mike's cousin Chrissy's house around 1ish for lunch and gift exchange. Luckly the Ravens played yesterday so they won't be wearing those nasty purple & black camo's they all had on at the Christmas party last year!

Have a great day!

"Joy to the World"

Merry Christmas everyone! Yep- it's Christmas and I'm sayin' it! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I must relay this story because I have not laughed this hard since the 'incident' in Las Vegas a year ago.

Friends and I went to Tokyo Diner for lunch today (YES we were back within the allotted 1 hour time frame too). Me, Kristen, Cindy and Roxanne met Kristen & Cindy's hubs there for lunch. After lunch, the girls and I get into Rox's car to head back to work. We are all wound up, laughing, having fun, sitting in traffic on Simpson Ferry Road. There was a guy walking in the snow by the side of the road, trapsing through knee deep snow to get to a clearing to cross the street. Me......being in the Christmas spirit and acting like a total nut........puts the window down in the car, sticks my head out and started singing "Joy to the World" as loud as possible. By this time the girls were hysterical so I only got 4 words out and busted out laughing. Traffic started to move slowly so we inched up and i looked in the rear view mirror at the guy (thinking he'd be laughing) and I catch him giving me the universal hand jesture for "go jack off". I WAS PISSED! I mean livid. How dare? Does he know who he's dealing with? 4 chicks in a car! He's crazy. So of course i'm putting the windows down yelling (we are far enough away that he couldn't hear by this point) "Merry F'ing Christmas to you too you LOSER"....."Didn't you ever hear of holiday cheer??" I couldn't believe it. As we inched up the street, we saw him go into a check cashing joint. I wanted Rox to pull in but there was so much mayhem (laughing, tears all over the place, screaming) in the car that we didn't make the turn.

So....we turn the corner, I pull out my phone and leave a message for the hub. (in 10 seconds i blurted out the whole story then told him to have a good day) The girls were hysterical. Then there was the burp and one of the girls bladder leaked..OOPS! Well I look over at our esteemed driver and there's NO WAY she could see. There were tears of laughter rolling down the cheeks, onto the shirt. Hilarious. Then it got quiet for about 4 seconds then we errupted into laugher all over again. The whole way back to work. When we got out of the car, I looked at everyone and seriously it looked like we just came from a funeral. Red Eyes. Wet faces. What a hoot.

This was definitely one of the most hilarious lunches I've ever had. After the week we all had, this was a welcome surprise. I'm not even sure we knew what we were laughing about but it sure was funny!

Take care everyone! I hope you soon find yourselves laughing until you cry!

Ahhh......The Holidays are Here

What a great day. Mike and I actually went Christmas shopping together! We cleaned up too.
First stop...Holmes (because Mike doesn't go ANYWHERE without stopping at the shop first). Mike browed some book, wrote down some things he wants while I talked with Erin, Don & Steve. Then Mike went off to Cornerstone for Frappucino's so I could secretly buy some things for him and give his catalog order to Steve.

Off to the Capital City Mall we went. It was pretty crowded but nothing too crazy. We shopped for a while, ate some fantastic teryaki chicken at a Japanese place, shopped some more then escaped without injury. I only had to express my displeasure with one person today. I was in line (at the Koffee Grinder in the mall) behind 1 other person in a tiny store with 20 other people crowding around and it had to be 85 degrees in there. The bozo working in the store overlooks me waiting in line and waits on some guy just walking through the door. I know i'm 'vertically challenged', but come on, I had my "big girl" boots on and was standing there quietly for 10 minutes! So......after a different worker finished up with his customer he looks at me and says "ma'am is he helping you?" (pointing to the bozo who overlooked me) and I semi-nicely said "No, he's helping the guy who JUST walked in the door". It felt good to say that!

After the mall we made a trip to the Earth Craft Barn in Rossville, then home to primp for the Christmas parties we attended.

First party stop was Uncle John & Aunt Sandy's in New Cumberland. The house was decorated beautifully! They had a fire pit going out on the patio, hot cider, tons of food....it was nice. Got to see the nieces, Cal, Amy, Dad, Susan, John, Erin, Gus.....the whole family was there.

Mike and I took off around 7:15 or so to head over to Steph & Steves in Susquehanna Township. We hooked up with Royalty on the way in! Yep- Sir Daniel Bacon and his wonderful wife "Elizabeth" were pulling up just as we got out of the car. What a spread of food they had. It was awesome. Mike and I were in our glory! We visited with Steve & Steph and hung out with Scott & Allan who I work with. A few of Steve's friends were also brave enough to join us in the kitchen for a while. What a nice crowd of people. Steph has a huge family so she was pretty busy running around making everyone comfortable. It was a great time. I love the holidays!

Now it's back to 'business as usual' - me on my laptop in front of the Christmas tree, Mike up on the computer in the office and on the phone regarding a bike race for NEXT FALL! (I'm not even going to elaborate on that because it's completely INSANE that people are calling our house tonight about bike races that will be taking place 9 months from now!!!) Enough Said.

Adventures In Babysitting.....

My two nieces, Maggie (two and a half) and Riley (four) came over for a slumber party. This was the first time they've slept at my house. Mike's away so it's just us girls.

Maggie did a lot of talking about the 'stinkers' she was leaving. I don't know what she ate before she got here but she was leavin 'em like crazy! Of course, both of them go into mass hysteria every time she left one of these 'stinkers'. And they had to come running to me screaming "Aunt Amy, I left a stinker!!" like they just won the lottery or something!

We made pizza for dinner. They loved it. We put pepperoni on it and when Riley saw it she said she didn't like pepperoni, until she saw maggie eating them, then she was pulling them off of every piece and eating them.

After dinner we broke out the Karaoke Machine and sang. They love to hear themselves. They were singing "Olive the Other Reindeer"...yep, that's what they were calling it. They sang Jingle Bells a million times, then decided it was more fun to just cream each other's name in the microphones. Very cute!

We watched The Little Mermaid, then up to bed they went. No muss, no fuss. (They were asking me at 6 o'clock, 'Can we go to bed soon Aunt Amy??" They layed in bed and watched The Grinch, now they are watching Frosty and calling me to come up every 10 minutes for one thing or another- at least I'm getting some exercise! Riley keeps coming to the top of the steps and yelling down to me to tell me what's going on in the movie. Very funny!

Hopefully they will fall asleep soon so I can get some sleep too. I know they are going to be up early tomorrow, they have Breakfast With Santa in the morning.

Well......it's Sunday and they didn't fall alseep soon (see above). After laying in bed watching Frosty and The Grinch, it was the old "i don't fell good"...."nothings going to make me feel better unless I can come where you are" so of course I let them. We made a bed downstairs in front of the TV and they watched The Little Mermaid. Riley fell asleep around 10:45 and at 11 Maggie told me she was ready to go to bed. I carried them up, layed them down and they were once again wide awake. I layed in the bed with them for a little while and they finally fell asleep.
Then......2:45am came. Riley ran down the hall saying Maggie doesn't feel good. I went to see Maggie (who has a cold) and the poor little thing had 'green stuff' all over (snot!). I cleaned her up and layed with them for AN HOUR until they fell asleep.
Then.....6:30am came. Riley again ran down the hall and said "Aunt Amy is it time to get up and have french toast?" I looked at the clock and said "NO, come in here with me". She jumped in with me and we slept till 8.

I think I need a 5 hour nap.

For Those of You Who Say I'm Not Wired Right....

It's official.........I'm not wired AT ALL!

I finally got my wireless connection set up and I'm now a couch potato in training. Sitting in front of the TV watching Runaway Jury on HBO-HD, just waiting for the first snowflake to drop!

Speaking of snow, I hope we get a foot or two! Wouldn't that be great! Although I may be stuck inside for a day since Mike's in RI and I have no idea how to use a snowblower. Gus- pedal over here and plow me out!

That's it for tonight.......more tomorrow after the storm!

The Great Toilet Paper Caper.......

The gang went out to happy hour at the Mechanicsburg G-Man last night to celebrate some birthdays and the end of yet another insane work week.

I must admit, I had a great time. It was nice to see all of the people that came out. A special thanks to my husband and Russel for picking up the tab! You guys are the best!

As far as the toilet paper thing goes.......here's the story. At work on Friday there was a co-worker who had "something trailing behind her that she may not want trailing her" (I think is how it was put). After an hour of mass hysteria, some nice person quitely told her about the toilet paper hanging out of the back of her pants. This is the same 'nice person' who decided I was intoxicated enough that he would do it to me at the bar last night. Well he was right because apparently I didn't notice it for quite some time. I believe Wendy has a picture or two which I can add to this when she sends it to me. Ahhh......you gotta love your friends!

So I ended up coming home wearing someone's undershirt. After my 2 large shots of Jaegermeister it was quite warm in there! Once I put the t-shirt on, people felt the desire to write sayings on it such as "Hebe, you're out of control!"......"I kissed a girl"........and "Get me a pole". I should have that shirt framed.

Wendy and I ended up leaving at 10 and were home safe and sound by 10:30. I do remember Scott calling on our way home and at some point I said "I'm too tired to talk anymore, call Wendy". I'll have to call him today and find out what we talked about.

Well, I need to call Wendy or Rox to take me into work to pick up the Jeep.