Show Ready

Just picked up the dogs from the groomers, and thought they looked so cute with their little bandannas.

That's all.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I had some bad experiences with my birthday parties in high school. Like, hardly anyone showing up. More than one year. So I kinda avoid having birthday parties for myself. Out of fear that I'll repeat it.

Well, Camille was super awesome and threw a birthday party for me last year. It was really nice of her. The colors were black, pink, and white and she made my favorite cake--chocolate chip poundcake.

Thanks Camille for being so awesome and thanks everyone for coming and helping me feel loved. :)

And thanks baby Dean for letting me hold you during the birthday song.

A Tucson Kind of Day

This year for Thanksgiving we drove to Tucson to visit with Kurt's dad. We left the day before Thanksgiving, which happened to be my birthday. Yep, I spent my birthday 15 hours in the car, with a car sick Swift on my lap. We discovered he gets car not long after leaving the house. He was panting, and swallowing, and drooling, and eventually shaking. We stopped in Monument and grabbed some dramamine after reading online it was safe to give to dogs. Every website we read said you could give two milligrams per pound of weight, which would be around 40 mgs for each dog, but we played it safe and just gave them 25 mgs. Then we left Ruby in the crate in the back, because she's a champion traveler and just slept the whole time, and kept Swift on my lap. It wasn't ideal, but we made it. And as part of my birthday present, Kurt drove the whole way. Fifteen hours is a long way to drive without a break!

Also, part of my birthday celebration was the stop in Albuquerque at our favorite dive, Frontier Restaurant!

 Delicious green chile breakfast burrito and sweet roll. I snagged tables while Kurt ordered and he got me a real, non-diet Coke. Awww. 

Kurt decided it was time to represent. 

Thanksgiving Day was the weirdest I've ever experienced. Okay, that was actually two years ago, when we drove all day to Tucson to check on the house (back when Steve was still in the middle east) and ate at some fancy restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner dressed in scrubs. But this one was close.

Steve made it easy on us and ordered a ready-to-go meal from the local grocery store, so when I woke up, I threw on some clothes (probably from the day before) and we went to the grocery store. Then we came back and washed the dogs. Then I took a nap. I planned to shower and get dressed after my nap. (In my family, we always dress kinda nice for holiday meals; nice jeans, nice top.) Well, Kurt woke me up at 2 from my nap and we ate dinner. In my scrubby clothes! It felt sacreligious, lol. Dinner was delicious, and we followed it with movie watching. And, some picture taking.

 No Thanksgiving is complete without your redneck family photo.

The rest of the trip was spent trying to get Swift and Ruby to use the restroom outside (no one has grass in Tucson (weird) and they didn't like going to the bathroom on dirt), trying to get them to sleep at night (I slept in the bathtub one night so they would be quiet. When I woke up, I was very confused about why I was in the bathtub with a blanket and thought it was the zombie apocalypse), and visiting friends having a good time. One day we drove to the top of Mt. Lemmon. I'd never been and wanting to see the view. And we hit a crazy blizzard! In the town on the top of the mountain, we stopped into a shop for hot chocolate and a ginormous cookie.

It's as big as my face!

 

Then they chased everyone out because they were going to close the roads soon, it was so bad.

In other happenings, we spent a lot of time at our friend, James's parents house, because James and Camille were in town. And James's younger sister Hilary (who is awesome) took me to see our mutual friend, Punkin! Okay, I call her Punkin, Hilary doesn't. I hadn't seen Punkin (aka Megan) in like ... 6 years. Craziness.

 And James and his brothers and dad took Kurt mountain biking, so Kurt was happy. 

James rode home with us, so we stopped in Hatch, NM, to introduce him to our second favorite restaurant in the Land of Enchantment.

 This looks to me like an album cover.

Mmm.... delish.

And I, in the back, annoyed Swift. That sock is probably dirty.

On second thought, he probably enjoyed being able to smell it so well. Weird dog.

Movember the Third

Last November was Kurt's third year participating in Movember. And possibly the last! Because he no longer works in public accounting. On February 14th, he started a new job in the tax department for an industry company (aka, not public account firm). As far as he knows, his new office does not do Movember. But he threatens/aspires to implement it. Here's hoping he forgets/it's harder than he thinks/there's no interest at his office, because I'd be happy to never have to go through a month of this again:

*Shudder*

Flowers Power

For Kurt's Christmas present, I bought tickets to see Brandon Flowers in concert on November 18th. He released a solo album earlier in the year which is AWESOME (he's the lead singer of the Killers). We were so excited to see him. The concert was at this smaller, intimate venue. We kept freaking out. We were about 20 feet away from a major superstar. We'll never get that chance again. And he was SO good. Whenever I remember the concert, I remember him being 10 feet tall. He just has this amazing stage presence. 

These Are Old Pictures

These pictures are from Christmas 2009, so they're really old. But I just stumbled across them. Here I am, conked out, and my faithful Zumi is by my side.

With his eyes aglow like that, he looks like he's saying, "Wake her and I kill you."

I miss my Zoomers!

Remember, Remember, The 5th of November

Ever since I first saw Monty Python and the Holy Grail I've been in love with British humor. Which led me to read many British books, my favorite being the Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging YA book and series. I read the first 5 or 6 while I worked at the local independent bookstore on James Island my senior year of high school. They're not literature. They won't teach you anything (except lots of cool British terms/sayings!). But, my golly, they are hilarious. I often literally laughed out loud while reading those books. I suggest checking them out, but ONLY if you like quirky, off-beat, British humor. Otherwise, you'll just think they're stupid.

Anyhow. Those books often mentioned Guy Fawkes Day, or Bonfire Night. They would mention the bonfires and the effigy burning, and I was like, WHAT KIND OF HOLIDAY IS THIS? Then I saw V For Vendetta, which is an awesome movie but left me even more confused/intrigued about the 5th of November. "If Guy Fawkes was a hero, why do they burn his effigy in celebration?" I wondered to myself. I was left to wonder this to myself, aloud and in silence, for many years.

Until we met the Carney's! Jessica is British! And every year they have a Guy Fawkes celebration! And this year, we were invited! What luck! Not the least of which being we have awesome new friends. So, we gathered with the Carney's and a slew of their friends back in the mountains for a bonfire.

Kurt got a hot dog!

 I got to wear my hat! I love winter hats but don't wear them unless I'm going to be outside for a long time because my hair goes all whacko from them.

Then we played a few Minute-To-Win-It games. We did the oreo one (which Kurt did on the cruise).

I won my heat! Woohoo! 

Then, this one where you have to use only your nose and vaseline to get 4 cotton balls into a dixie cup. 

I did not win. But I did have cotton ball tufts on my eyelashes all night. 

The Winfield's were even able to make it towards the end. That green bundle is their baby Jacob. (We know the Carney's through the Winfield's and Bergam's.)

Not only did we have fun, but I also finally got to learn what the hoo-hey Guy Fawkes Day is all about. Yay!

What I Love...

Amen, Tad.

Amen.

Da qui.

Hide and Seek

We Have A New Receptionist At Work

He has some grooming problems.

And he doesn't speak very good English.

Or any language, for that matter.

I don't think it's going to work out.

WOW

Anyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE Charleston.

Like, words can't express my feelings for that city.

But, say what you will, we just don't have sunsets like this in the Southeast!

To be honest, not sure which is the right color depiction.

I was playing with the settings on my camera.

But I like the differences in color, with the same sunset!

Anyhow, these were taken from my back yard.

One day I'll live in a neighborhood without power lines.

One day...

Not Quite Private, But ...

I've decided to change the address of my blog. I'm not completely comfortable with so much personal information about me on this blog: city where I live, college info, places I used to live, AND my last name. I've already deleted direct references to my or Kurt's employer names. So, as of tonight at some point, I'm going to change that! My new blog address will be KSuchGreatHeights.blogspot.com. So you'll need to update your links, readers, etc. I'll keep this old address for a while as a redirect.
That is all.

The Great Kitchen Caper!

Finally going to post pics of our kitchen reno.

(Now that it's almost done.)

Better late than never, eh?

So check it out, yo!

The Great Kitchen Caper

And let me know what you think about the design, please! :)

Note: pics are up!

Tighten Up

Love this video.
Love this song.

Love this band.

They've got my vote on Sunday night

(all 6 of them!)

Warning: the proverbial bird is flipped twice in this video. Just a heads up, if you're sensitive to that kind of stuff.

I love Kurt.

Yesterday was a kinda rough day. I started out pretty even, but late in the morning crashed into a moderate depression. When I got home from work, I just kinda sat on the couch in a stupor until it was time for kickboxing. I'm not quite sure how I made it to the gym. I knew it would make me feel better, but the effort it took to change and drive to the gym was stupendous. As I knew would happen, I felt much better afterwards. Not great, but a marked improvement.
[Kurt and I are sitting on the couch after my kickboxing class, between tv shows (catching up from our shows last week).]
Me: How do you put up with me?
Kurt: Huh?
Me: I was so mopey this evening.
Kurt: It's okay. Tomarlo por aqui.
Me: What does that mean? [Thinking it's some sort of Spanish/Latin American proverb he's managed to pick up somewhere (since he doesn't speak Spanish).]
Kurt: I think it means, "Popcorn for you." [Points to the popcorn bag on the coffee table where "Tomarlo por aqui" is written."]

Turns out that means, "Grab here."