Happy Thursday, everyone! This may be the last Happy Thursday post. I am going ice fishing for the first time this weekend and although I've been assured it's safe I am POSITIVE I am going to fall into the hole, or the lake is going to spontaneously melt all at once, or that a shark or whale is going to pop up and bite me (I will be fishing on Lake Huron. I know in my mind that there are no sharks or whales in Lake Huron. But in my heart...). So, should the ice fishing turn out to be less icey or more sharky than I've been promised it will be, I leave you with something to make you laugh every day (albeit in an inappropriate, highly irreverent way. Which I think we can all agree is the best way.)
Happy Valentines day, everyone. I know some people are SUPER into Valentines day and some people are almost equally AGAINST Valentines day. As for me, I am neutral. I like holidays of all types, I like telling the people I love that I love them, I like the pop of red in February, and I love candy. (Dear Candy, I love you. Love, Sam) But I don't like it if people feel bad about not being in love on Valentines day, I don't like that there are a billion e-harmony (and similar companies) commercials trying to capitalize on people feeling bad, and I don't like sappy songs/cards/sentiment/shows/movies/stuffed animals/etc.
This is where I stand on Valentines day, I suppose
Love is lovely and expressing your love is a brave and wonderful thing to do. But after a day full of too much chocolate and too many sappy sentiments, we all need Cher to slap our faces and tell us to snap out of it.
So I hope you have a lovely day, whether you are full on hearts/flowers/chocolates-ing it up or whether you are dressed in black all anti-Valentines, or whether you, like me, fall somewhere in the non-committal middle. And I encourage you to celebrate all the loves in your life. In that spirit here are:
The Ten Things I Love Most Right Now: (obvious things like, boyfriend, family, friends, wine, and whiskey not included on account of obviousness)
1) Downton Abbey
2) The color red.
3) Butternut Squash anything
4) Under the Banner of Heaven
5) Pinterest
6) Finally having some snow this winter.
7) Chamomile Tea
8) Making my bed in the morning (more accurately- getting into a made bed at night)
9) Liz Lemon
Happy Thursday one and all! Here's another yoga cat. This one seems to have more yoga skills than other cats I've seen videos of. Although, he or she must either not have have claws or be very, very zen because if my cats slid down my back like that during down dog it would turn yoga into a blood sport.
Now, I believe that every person has a few phrases they say frequently that define something about them. Like, the fact that I say, "Seriously, you can't talk to me about John and Kate Plus 8 or Toddlers in Tiaras because I will get so angry blood will shoot out of my eyes while I strangle you." or "I could be wrong...but I know I'm right." demonstrates my distaste for treating child abuse as television and my fairness of mind. Or something. Annnnyway, another phrase I use a lot is, "Correlation does not equal causation." That shows you that I have an undergraduate degree in social sciences that I am not currently using. But here's this!
I love a graph that proves my point and makes me laugh while insinuating that mountain ranges cause murders in New York. That is a good time for everyone.
One of the truly lovely things about a job in a academic setting is the holiday break. You see, my friends, in two weeks I will be on vacation for two weeks. If it helps to calm your jealousy at all, please know that for the majority of my working life this has not been the case. When I was in college, I worked at the public library and a bakery. Because I went to college in my hometown which meant to travel home for the holidays I had to drive all of, oh, five minutes, I usually volunteered to work Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas so that people with further to go could head home earlier. The bakery was a great place to work around the holidays. It was bursting with activity and pies and dinner rolls and my sister and I used to con people into buying extra pies by mentioning (maybe with tears in our eyes) that we could go home to our family as soon as all the pies were sold.
Anyway, now I have a vacation. There is no downside to this, but there is the practical concern that I live alone and most of my friends will still be working. My sister is a stay at home mom, so I plan on spending some time with her and the baby, but other than that I am free as a bird. And I don't have cable. And I'm sick of all the movies and books I own. But never fear, I work in the Interlibrary Loan department meaning all of the books and movies owned by libraries are right at my finger tips!
Here's a sample of what I've ordered so far:
Holiday Themed Books:
Movies I've been meaning to watch:
Books to keep me busy:
And, for the record, something I will not be ordering because I haven't gone completely cat-lady-insane:
Happy Thursday everyone! I used to watch the Sonny and Cher show every evening in high school. Because of this bit I've always had a desire to sit on top of a piano and sing in a red dress. I even do a pretty good Cher impression when I'm a couple of drinks in. That is, I think it's pretty good and people are usually too busy snorting their drinks through their noses and laughing to tell me otherwise and that is the kind of feedback I like: too debilitated to critisize.
I hope you have a lot of delightful weekend plans. I will be watching the first season of Remington Steele and knitting Christmas presents.
As you know, I like to keep seasonal things seasonal. I don't like to get ahead of myself; I want to enjoy November for its blustery in-between-ness, transforming from fall to winter and I love Thanksgiving and want to give it its due between Halloween and Christmas. So I do not watch any Christmas movies or listen to any Christmas music or read any Christmas books until after Thanksgiving. But I do tend to get a little excited to get excited for Christmas. Some Christmas things I can't help but think of before Thanksgiving. I make two lists every November: a list of things I'm going to give or make for people at Christmas and my Christmas list. My parents ask for my Christmas list every Thanksgiving and I'm a big dork about it. I play with fonts and colors and strategize about which category (yes, category: books, dvds, gift cards and miscellaneous) should go where.
Speaking of Christmas lists, one of the items at the very top of mine is non-stick frying pans because I only have two frying pans which are more of the everything-sticks variety and one is teeny weeny and the other is HUGE! Does anyone have a preferred brand? Something middle-of -the-road in expense and quality?
I'm a sucker for British TV. Especially anything with Maggie Smith in it.
She is so joyfully bitchy. Her scenes are absolutely the best. I've only seen the first two episodes, but the other discs should be coming in through Interlibrary Loan any day now and I can't wait to sit down with a cup of tea and knit and enjoy the (polite, British) drama.
3) The word "gormless"
I love that word. Gormless. Although now I've thought it to much and it's lost all meaning and sounds totally weird. I wonder if you can be gormful? Or what a gorm is? Apparently and a lot of different things, it seems.
