Awwww....sweet

Here's how I found my pseudo-Crocs this morning.....



Mine are the dainty, sky-blue size 9 ones on the left. Just to clear up any confusion.

Notice anything missing?

No posts about SAD for TWO MONTHS!

It was definitely a "white-knuckle" kinda winter. Even ONO had a hard time.

Here's a little somethin-somethin for him:

I just might change teams

If you know me at all, you know I'm a long-time member of Team Coffee! And if you have ever lived with me (or been around me in the morning), you know I'm pretty much like this:



But look at what ONO gave me for Valentine's Day:



Not only is this beautiful, it's amazingly functional. It's made of cast iron with a ceramic lining and a stainless infuser. It's actually gotten me drinking the green tea that Bethany brought back for me from Japan. I guess being brewed in a lovely vessel makes it taste better.

I'm pretty excited to explore the world of loose tea where I'm quickly discovering how many choices there are. A local magazine turned me on to The SimpleLeaf where one can purchase teas named "Honeybee Mild Oolong," and Pure Decadence Delicate White." Very intriguing...and probably enough to get me to play for Team Tea!

On second thought, I'll stick with Team Coffee! for the morning, when I can go through the motions of making a cup while still half asleep, and play for Team Tea! during the afternoon when I'm starting to drag and am Jonesin' for something sweet. This should work!

Just a little taste can keep you hanging on

Thank you, ONO

Thank You, Nicolas Cage!

Seven years ago The Family Man became my favorite Christmas movie. I have had a lot of favorite Christmas movies -- White Christmas, A Christmas Carol -- including some that I'm a little ashamed to admit: Home Alone (the first, NOT the sequel) and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation....it's SO stupid and yet I laugh!

At first glance, The Family Man doesn't seem like a Christmas movie in the traditional sense. Aside from the story beginning on Christmas Eve, there's not a whole lot of "festive" going on. But it has many of the plot characteristics of A Christmas Carol. The main character, played by Nicolas Cage, makes a wonderful modern-day Scrooge. He is slightly less Scrooge-y in the financial sense, but every bit as Scrooge-y in the emotional and relationship sense. The story, in a nutshell, is that he finds out what his life would be like if he had put a relationship as a priority instead of his career development. He comes to realize that his life would have been so much better, so much more satisfying if he had.

Ok, so why does this movie beat out the amazingly wonderful George C. Scott Christmas Carol? It was released at a time in my life when I was very unhappy in my relationship. I hadn't been able to quite put a finger on exactly what was bothering me -- there were lots of little things but none of them were really IT. After watching this movie, I knew with certainty that the person I was with was actually quite scrooge-y when it came to the emotional and relationship world (ours, specifically), and that I would not, repeat NOT, have the kind of emotional union, nor the life partnership, not to mention the basic, everyday collaboration, that I longed for and believe I was designed for.

It's amazing to me that a movie could bring such focus and clarity, but it did. Six months later, after clearly communicating my goals and needs for our relationship (something I had previously been unable to do) and getting rebuffed, I was single again. It wasn't long after that that I meant DH, my ONO, and my life has been so much better, so much more satisfying. I don't know about the other guy.

After watching videos of the muffins as newborns

Me: "Ohhh, they were so sweet."

Him: "Does it make you want more?"

Me: "Ummm, not really. Does it make you want more?"

Him: "Not really. Are you sure it doesn't make you want more?"

Me: "Yup, pretty sure."

Him: "Are you sure?"

Me: "YES!!"

Him: "I sense some waffling."

Me: "Waffle this!"

Mood Lighting

When George and I got married in Santa Fe, we saw this really cool lamp in one of the stores on the Plaza. It gave off a soft, golden glow and revolved so that shadows of images were enlarged on the wall. That particular lamp was WAY expensive, as things in Santa Fe are, and not quite right for our personal decorative tastes -- if I remember right, the images were of cowboys and cacti.

Since then (about 5 1/2 years) we've been looking for a lamp for our bedroom that would give a similar feel. We've found various lamps along the way but nothing that really "WOWed" us in a joint way. We try really hard to get stuff that we both really, really like and we keep looking until we find it.

Before Bethany left for the year she gifted us with a special date. We went to Allerton Park during the day to walk around the grounds and try to get a feel for the 5.5 mile trail that I'm planning to run later this month. Then we strolled around downtown Monticello before we had dinner at Montgomery's on the Square. Sadly, most of the stores were closed except for a new toy store and a specialty shop with blown glass items. The doors were open even though the hours indicated the store should be closed. Music and the beautiful items pulled us to the shop windows. We could see a man towards the back of the store blowing glass. Turns out he was the owner/artist of this gallery. He was gracious enough to educate us about glass blowing and to help us put together a lamp for our bedroom.

You can see it's pretty stunning on it's own:

The blue, green, yellow swirls sort of remind me of the Van Gogh Starry Night. Very, very beautiful and unique.

But look what happens when the lamp is turned on.....

This definitely "WOWed" us and as you can see, it has taken a place of honor in what I call the "George and Lisa shrine." It's where we keep everything with special meaning to us: a kaliedescope I bought when we were on our second date, our wedding photo, our traditional Native American wedding pot, a picture of us on our honeymoon, a crystal heart given as an anniversary present, and a picture of us right before we found out we were pregnant with Brennan. Oh! and the big box George bought for me to keep all the cards, notes, letters, etc. that we have given each other. It's practically full.

I could see why some of you might feel nauseated by this post. Well I'm sorry, I'm just not going to apologize! Ain't love grand!

How much do you love me?

I've done a lot of stupid things, but what I did last night earns me the Idiot of the Year award.

There's a gravel road (actually more like a trail) near our house that runs between two corn fields. It's part of one of my favorite running routes and looks like this:


I've been running this about once a week because I love watching how the fields change with each season and I love scaring up flocks of birds, grasshoppers and an occasional bunny as I go by (probably from my loud, heavy breathing). The only problem is that I don't know how far it is. You might think it doesn't matter but most runners are a little nutty and we want to know exactly how far we've gone each time we go out.

Well, I was driving home from seeing clients last night and had the "bright" idea of driving around those barricades and up the gravel road and back so I could find out it's distance. You non-idiots probably see the problem with this idea immediately, but I thought it could work. I've seen other vehicles go around those barricades and drive down the road. OK, they were large-ish work trucks and not a Toyota Corolla. Oh, and also? It was about 8:30 pm -- pretty dark, even with the high beams on.

So I start in, cautiously (I'm not THAT nutty), but pretty soon find myself stuck in a lot of mud. I don't panic yet because I'm a seasoned winter driver and I know that you just have to sort of "rock" the car back and forth, find the tiniest bit of traction and you can get out. I guess that only works with snow. I get out and look for something in the trunk to put under the tires to give it traction. Ah! a towel! That will work! Nope.

I finally realize I'm going to have to call George. Ohhhhhh this wasn't going to be good. You see, the car I was driving was his car (yeah, yeah, yeah, it's "our" car, but it's really his car). And if you know George, you know that he is......how does one say.....fastidious. He's understandably upset, but comes to my rescue and gets the car out of the hole. I didn't realize how bad it was until I went back to the scene of the stupidity:


See that concrete barricade right there? The cute little gray Corolla was about 6 inches from it. George only groused a little bit....I expected a lot more, because what I did (or tried to do) was really, really stupid. Later, when I came home from washing his car and filling it up with gas, I apologized again. He said, "Well, sh#t happens, you weren't thinking, and besides, one of the things that made me fall in love with you is your sense of adventure."

For this, and many, many, many other reasons, George is my ONO (One 'N Only).