Doggie Flannel Sheets?

Yes or No

Flannel sheets with dogs on them? Too kiddie for an adult bed, or possibly cute? I was looking at winter bedding on The Company Store online and I really, really like the "woof woof flannel sheets"

They're kind of cute aren't they? Especially with that quilt, the whole bed looks so comfy and cozy and I kind of like how different they are. BUT, doggie sheets. Too much? Too childish? Let me know what you think!

Sticker Shock for Christmas this year

So I guess the "it" toy for the holiday season this year is a baby DINOSAUR you can RIDE!!!! And retails for about $300. Take a look:

It's by Hasbro, called the Kota the Triceratops and MSNBC has this whole article on equally insane toys. A Wall-E toy that responds to voice commands, Lego's Mobile Command Center, and okay - this sounds cool to me. A Jakks Pacific Inc.'s Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker that makes cupcakes in the microwave and FROSTS them. I am a little icked out by the idea of baking in the microwave, but since I lusted after an Easy Bake Oven when I was little and NEVER GOT ONE, I have a soft spot for anything similar.

Now when I was young, and does anything make you feel older than THAT phrase? The "it" toy was Cabbage Patch Dolls. My very good friend, Sage, had OODLES of Cabbage Patch kids. She had the Preemie versions, a boy and a girl, I think she even had a KOOSA which was like a weird animal Cabbage Patch Doll. If I remember correctly.. she had like 10 of these toys and I was so jealous I could hardly stand it. I did get a Cabbage Patch girl for Christmas and LOVED her. She had blue eyes and red hair just like me, and her name was awful. Emmanuelle Geneva. Horrible name. Like the people at the Cabbage Patch had some sort of random name generator and that came out. But I did love that doll, and I suspect that she didn't cost ANYWHERE near $300!

Cold House

It's getting cold out. We haven't turned the heat on yet because its not even NOVEMBER! What happened with Fall?? It's crazy that it's this cold! I know its winter though because Jeff and I had our standard argument over Monty. Is he cold, or is he fine? Monty has an array of clothing options, and his fleece jacket is his primary piece of clothing when its cold out. Last night the poor dog was curled into a little ball on his bed as Jeff and I dove under our thick down blankets. Looking at him I decided he was cold. Downstairs I went to get his fleecy jacket where I put it on him. Jeff thinks I'm insane and its not cold enough out for this step. He also mentioned that if we have kids I'll have them bundled up in helmets, pads and other methods of protection like the overzealous, worry wart I am.

BUT this morning.... I was right. It's COLD in here. Not only is Monty still swaddled in his fleecy jacket, but I am as well! And a down blanket here on the sofa. Now if I could only get that heat seeking missile called Princess Lily to come sit on my lap all would be right with the world!

Meanwhile.. Brrrr..... I'm going to shop online for some more down blankets!!!!!!

attempt at losing weight

I've been tracking my daily food count via http://www.sparkpeople.com/ and am distressed to find out that a normal days worth of food is like WAY over 2,000 calories for me. Since my idea of working out is a "Walk Away the Pounds" DVD, clearly I am not doing heavy weight lifting or training for a marathon that would justify this level of food consumption.

Sigh.

Choices need to be made. As of right now I am hungry. Very hungry. But I've already reached my 1550 calories for the day and have no room left for even a snack. So I'm sitting here. Hungry. Daydreaming of a small chicken Parmesan sub with extra cheese. And not the chicken Parmesan sub where the chicken isn't breaded... that's crap and not a REAL chicken Parmesan sub. I want the true thing, the breaded chicken, the marinara sauce, the mozzarella cheese.. the toasted bun. I want it all. God I want it.

Damn diet. Damn it. So I'm sitting here having food porn fantasies that largely consist of mozzarella sticks and chocolate fudge cake. It's a sad day when you realize that your deepest and darkest fantasies consist of forbidden, deep friend, chocolaty food.

Update: a friend of mine just reminded me how yummy a Thanksgiving sub would be! There's one by my old work which is turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and GRAVY on the side. God I'm actually DROOLING into my keyboard now! I may cry.

Saturday Night and the World's Worst Movie

Jeff and I went to his cousin's last night for a smorgasborg of food, wine and laughter. The laughter? Watching the absolute world's worst movie, "Undead". I would like everyone to know I did not pick this gem of a movie. Oh no, it was Jeff and David's choice, and here's a look at the website:
http://www.undeadthemovie.com/

You can even watch the trailer and fully understand my pain. It's just awful. Awful, awful, way beyond B movie awful so that it crosses into painfully horrible awful. In a nutshell, the tagline for the movie is "Crazy has come to town for a visit". And yes, the movie DOES live up to its tagline, but oh dear God is it awful to watch. David and Jeff laughed and laughed during the movie, and I watched in disbelief as Judith slept. It was THAT good. All I have to say is that MY choice of movie would have been much better. I wanted to watch "The Nun"...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371853/

See, isn't that better??

Lack of discipline as a Dog owner

Apparently I am the sucker of the family, and the animals know it. I was not here this morning and Jeff told me that Monty heard the alarm go off, got up, looked at Jeff, and went downstairs. He did NOT do any of the following:

• 1. Shove his nose in Jeff's face until Jeff opened his eyes
• 2. Run back and forth from the bed to the stairs and back again
• 3. Shove his whole head into the bed, tail wagging like a helicopter
• 4. Sit and stare at Jeff until Jeff couldn't stand it any longer and got up

Monty did NONE of those things. None. Nada. Instead he saw that Jeff was the only person there and went DOWNSTAIRS AND WAITED. Patiently. Let me emphasize that Monty does NOT do that for me. Instead he pokes his head in at me and does not leave me alone until I get up and take him out. So the animals know I am a sucker and are using it to their advantage. Apparently if we ever do have kids I should leave the discipline to Jeff!

Fascination with financial books

I've been slowly trying to get out of debt and the process has been long, long, long. Basically it's just a long time of paying it down and not using credit cards. During the process I've read tons of financial and get out of debt books and I've discovered that there's really only one way to get out. Are you ready? Because I'm saving you a lot of money by telling you the secret.

• Don't buy what you can't afford.
• If you have to use a credit card to buy something you probably can't afford it - thus you should not be buying it.
• To get rid of debt you need to pay more than the minimum, and pay as much as you can towards your debt. Concentrate on one debt, pay it off, than take that money and apply it to the next debt.
• Oh, and don't break out that credit card to charge again.

That's it. Those are the tips in a nutshell. It's been working for me, so far and I've made some great progress, and I never carry a credit card since I am a credit card companies wild dream come true. I would charge, charge, charge until I had carpal tunnel syndrome. So if you have credit card debt like I do, just follow those steps and you'll get out! You're welcome!