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Nothing says sleep like paying off your credit card in full before you go to bed. Sheep, come to mama.

Here's to being 1/3 of the way to debt free. Salut!

Today was busy. We managed to do laundry, clean, hang up clothes, go to the bank, play a couple rounds of Ba-DEEEEE!, hit Target for hoho stuff, and of course, set up the Christmas tree and stockings. Of course, Gatts got one of her own. I even found a kitty one! The whole Christmas decor really does look beautiful. It makes the apartment feel so cozy, even moreso since you can see the tree outside while walking into our building. Just think! As you walk briskly from your car to the building, bitter wind chilling you to the bone, nearly taking your breath away, you can look up to the second story and see the warm glow from our cozy apartment. The tree is in our living room window, the silver star quietly welcoming you to join her in a nice 70 degree apartment! Twinkle Twinkle, little lights!

Putting the crackpipe down now.

Gatts, on the other hand, has already discovered the silver ball ornaments dangling from the branches. We didn't get tinsel, in fear we'd find kitty puke adorned with tinsel all over the apartment. Already, though, I saw her sitting under the tree happily, quietly getting up on her back legs. She was batting at the red and silver ornaments, excitedly watching them sway, threatening to fall off the branch. They, of course, are her new prey. All I can say is.. Goodie.

So, we just got back from Thanksgiving spent with the fam. It was great to see everyone again. Hung out with dad a little bit, before he begins his jaunt around the US, hung out with the sister and her husband, before they move to Oregon, and I got to see my dad's family, who, as always, are awesome. As a kid, I didn't get to see them all that much, and I'd like to change that. Now, they only live four hours away, so it's much easier to make the jaunt. The turkey was good, the company was great, and the three days spent in Iowa were relaxing. The best part of my Thanksgiving though, had to have been my two boxes of memories I received from my sister. Before selling the house, my dad packed two boxes full of three photo albums, a bag of miscellaneous photos, some framed photo albums of my dad and I when I was young, a couple video tapes filled with family vacations to Colorado, a white alphabet blanket, and the most important thing; the thing I'd forgotten about because I figured it was probably tossed - My soft.

My soft was buried at the bottom of the first box. Folded neatly, I stared at it in amazement. Pulling it out carefully, it was a bit tattered in an area or two, and some colours faded, but all in all, it was in great condition. Okay, so the story behind my soft: My soft is a blanket with a felt type material on the bottom side, and patchwork on the top. When I was five or six, dad used to sit me and Les down on the blanket. He'd get down on the floor with us, and he'd point out a patch. He'd say, “Fiiiiiiiiind meeeeeeeee… the *insert description of patch here*! And we'd scramble, trying to find its match. It was a fun game, and it was time spent with dad and my sister. I loved the Fiiiiiiind Meeeeeee… game. So, there it was. Great condition. I held it in my hands. Smelled it. And, probably because aunt flo' is due to visit this week, I bawled. I'm bawling now, as I'm writing this damn thing. Couldn't tell you why. Maybe because those two boxes of things were of things past. A lot of it I haven't even thought of since it happened. I had a fire that destroyed everything I had. Or so I thought. All these things changed, and I thought all these things were tossed out with a lot of other things, but I was wrong. Here they were, years later, in front of me, in two tattered brown boxes waiting for me to discover them. Twenty years of memories I am able to touch, smell, see. It's such a wonderful feeling that's almost a bit too much right now. I also found a beautiful picture of my late grandfather. He's sitting on the top of a mountain in Hawaii, above the clouds. He looks genuinely happy. It couldn't have been a better picture. My grandmother also gave me one of his hats he liked to wear in the summertime. There's even sweatstains on the brim. The hat smells like him. God, I miss him.

I did have a great Thanksgiving, though. I have a lot to be thankful for. I have an incredible sister, who I've grown closer to these last few years than we ever were all the years growing up. I have an amazing boyfriend who treats me like a princess and makes me feel like I'm the best thing that's ever happened to him. I have great true friends who've offered me so much, should I need it. You know who you are. My family is excellent, lots of fun, and real supportive. Okay, so enough of this mushy stuff. I'm going to wipe my pre-Flo'Flo' emotional tears, take a long hot shower, shave these beastly five-day-old-hairy legs, cuddle on the couch with my man, and try not to think of all the cleaning/crap we have to do tomorrow. I've been lax with the whole recipe thing. I'm going to make something yummy tomorrow, so you'll get that, complete with picture, as promised. How was your turkey day? Lemme know.

P.S. - Congrats to Tim and Sara on their engagement!

So, Matt and I are playing the millionth game of Age of Empires, Matt once again, kicking my ass. Admittedly, I'm not very good at the “Play God” type of games, but I think they're fun. And I've been improving. Tonight's round, though, didn't reflect it at all. You see, different civilizations allow you to do different things. One of my favourite ways of gathering food is to make about eight hundred gardens. Of course, you have to gather food and keep up on it in order to advance your civilization. I decided to try something new tonight, and go for a civilization I've never used: The Mongols. My conclusion? They blow. Very early on, I realized I didn't have the option to create gardens. This became a problem. It went from having twenty people raiding a stupid berry bush to about fifty of them out fishing in some little pond. Once that dried up, I had a ton of Mongolian guys and gals standing around with thumbs up their asses. So, long story short, I put them to work and had them put up a ghetto wall around my not-so booming town. Oh yes. I had enough stone and wood for that, go fig. Once the wall was up, I split up various tasks. Had a few go out in BFE, find a little lamb astray, chop 'er up, and bring 'er back to mama. Swear to god, the following happened. I had just created my first lone cavalier dude, when BA-DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Flash flash flash of blue. YOU ARE BEING ATTACKED BY MATT!!! I quickly whip my mouse to see the action. I literally see about five million of his guys going to town on the only thing I got to - my wall. I knew this thing would be over in about two minutes, literally. So, I gathered all my folks, which about this time, was maybe seventy, and I had them - yes, man, woman, and child, truck over and make one last stand. Of course, I was obliterated in five seconds, but hey. I sure as hell wouldn't stand there and pick berries when I knew shit was going up in flames all around me by some stinky Titan, would you? No! No, I don't think you would! You'd be like, “Dude! I realize you have a Ginsu knife-like sword, but here, I shall jab you with my stick and I shall win this mat-!”*squish*. Yes. It was lovely. So lovely I'm going to go shave my pits.

It is currently 25F in Chicagoland, and I am curled up in a down comforter on a red couch, multi-tasking between you and Alias. Totally off topic, but the chick that plays Sidney? Totally hot.

My mini vacation was so much fun. I swear, there's nothing better than spending four days with your best friend you haven't seen in three years. We did a lot of shopping, and I discovered much love for The Body Shop. I purchased this yummy mango sugar scrub for dry skin. I was hooked after the Body Shop lady gave me a sample! I'm such a sucker for new skin products. Oh, and I bought a cutie tan sweater that's oh-so comfortable. We ate out way more than we should, had delicious carrot cake, hung out downtown, went and saw two movies, watched a DVD, and talked. Reminisced.

I had such a great birthday! Charity made me this beautiful necklace and she somehow, with her talented powers, managed to find me a red and white checkered apron from the 1940s! It's the cutest thing ever, complete with pockets for all my cooking stuff! Matt got me this incredible courier bag from http://www.sfbags.com. It was even made for my iBook! I got a hysterical card from dad, complete with $20 and a plastic roach, a beautiful card from mom, and Age of Empires plus a String Theory book from Cam! A funny e-card from Paul also brightened my day. I couldn't have had a better birthday. Thanks, guys.

Ooo. Gotta run. The Practice is on, and I'm totally addicted. I'll chat with you soon.

I am pleased to announce that today, I am officially more 30 than 25. Well, I'm 26, to be exact. I realize this is still fairly young, but 25 was still YOUNG, you know? You were 25, you were on the brink! Now I'm 26, so I think that's pushed me over the edge into the 30 category. Is 30 nice? Is it old? I think 40's older. But 30 isn't so bad. 30 is will be hot, right?

So far, Charity's trip out here has been so much fun! We've shopped till we dropped, she was introduced to sushi (unfortunately, she only took to the California rolls. I thought she was going to vom with the other stuff. I don't know why. Spicy tuna rolls are yum! Silly girl.) Today we may see that horror flick, Gothika. I'll letcha know how it is. I've gotten some wonderful presents and birthday wishes from you guys. Thanks so much! For now, there's really not much else to say. It's fairly early, and I woke suddenly thinking Matt was late to work, which, he will be, kind of. He's having to catch a later train since he must've turned the alarm off when it initially went off. Heh. Needless to say, I'm not really awake yet. There will be pictures to come of my adventures, though, so don't wig!

Check out the new section, Recipe of the Week! I'll be featuring a new recipe every Sunday.

Wow. I just woke up. I haven't slept in this long in.. years. I'm more coherent now, so I can tell you more about my night downtown! We met up with Gabe and some other folk and headed downtown to the House of Blues to check out The Shins. I'd never really heard their stuff before, but Matt seems to be into them, so I thought I'd give 'em a try. I loved it! Their stuff is incredible. They're not real real popular yet, as they only have a couple of albums, but they will be. There were two other bands that opened for them - The Aislers Set and Broadcast Oblivion. We didn't hear much of the first band, but Aisler Set was something I really liked. Might pick them up at Tower. We'll see.

After the show, we headed to Rock Bottom, where I had italian chicken quesadillas. (Don't ask.) Afterward, Gabe and a couple others decided to meet Gabe's cousin somewhere else downtown, and we decided to go home, since it was late, and well. I'm an old fogue and can't really handle late nights anymore. =P We rode the El back to a northern suburb and drove the rest of the way home. It was an awesome night! We had such a great time, and the Shins? Definitely worth the $16 ticket. They'll make your night!

Just got back from seeing The Shins at the House of Blues downtown. Fucking incredible show! Bo, they're going to be in your neck of the woods in the next week or so! You'd better go see them! More tomorrow, when I'm coherent….