be careful

So I know this isn't supposed to be funny. But it makes me giggle.

holiday shopping opportunity and there will be a very large penguin

The Library Shop on Main is located in Main Library
in downtown Akron at 60 S. High Street.

back to work tomorrow

It has been a very nice and relaxing five days off from work. I could get used to having time off. Today, I made a tasty turkey alfredo pizza from the latest edition of Cooking Light magazine. Greg and I both agreed that it was quite good. I'll definitely be making that again. We also watched the latest season of Entourage on DVD this weekend. I like the short seasons of HBO shows. It's fun to get through an entire season, 8-10 episodes, in a short amount of time. I loaded all of our holiday tunes back on itunes and the ipods. So fair warning, if you are in the car with me in the next month or so, you will be subjected to Carnie and Wendy Wilson (of Wilson Phillips fame) singing Hey Santa! I like to divvy up the vocal parts among all the car's occupants. There's also choreography, or should it be called car-eography? Whatever you call it, it's good times.

rant of the day, part 2

Today's rant deals with tacky inflatable holiday decorations. On the way home, Thanksgiving evening, we passed a house not too far from our home. In the front yard was an inflatable nativity scene, like the one pictured. Ok, Jesus is the reason for the season, but should he really be blown up? To be honest, I despise all inflatable decorations, and they seem to be getting larger every year. At Lowe's I saw a Santa in a plane with actually moving inflatable propellers. I'm sure as the season moves forward, the nativity scene will be joined by an inflatable snowman, pengiun, and Mickey Mouse with santa cap. Perhaps they will be playing the parts of the three wise men. Happy holidays everyone!

a new look

Changed the look of my blog today. It was time for a bit of a change. Still working at adding some of the html widgets back to the sidebar.

it's in the mail

I got all of my Christmas cards signed, addressed and mailed today. I think that this is the earliest that I've had this task completed. Well that's one item off the holiday "must do" list. If only postage was only still 13 cents... We recieved our first card of the season on Wednesday. It was from our neighbors across the street. Jeff and MJ are always the first card we recieve every year.

the holidays have begun

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Greg's family. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous meeting many of them for the first time all in one place. They could not have been more welcoming and wonderful. I had a great time getting to know them. I hope that we get to spend more time together as a family in the years to come.
Friday night Greg and I went downtown for the kick off of Akron's Holiday Fest. We went last year and had a good time, so we've decided to make it our day after Thanksgiving tradition. It was quite cold, for those not from the area, we had our first accumulation of snowfall of the year this morning. It was actually very pretty. Back to Holiday Fest... the stage show was kinda hokey this year. But I suppose, if you can't be hokey around the holidays, then when can you?
The short fireworks display was pretty good again this year. They shoot them off the art deco styled YMCA. About half way through the show Greg suggested I use the video function on my camera. So for your enjoyment, here are a few clips of the fireworks. In the background you can hear the annoying woman who exclaimed, "wow" through most of the show. It may have been her first time seeing fireworks. Who knows?

happy thanksgiving

We're off in about an hour. We will be swinging by Greg's Mom's house before we head to his sister's for Thanksgiving Dinner with her family and Greg's brother's family. It's a day chock full of Sterlings.

almost thanks time

Today was my "work" Thursday. Tomorrow is my Friday, then five sweet days off. We're celebrating Thanksgiving at Greg's sister's place. It was wonderful that she invited us down. I'm bringing a couple of pies which I plan to bake on my day off Wednesday.
In other news, we saw the movie Dan in Real Life last week. It was really good. I nice family comedy.
My Dad's coming up from Florida the first weekend in December. My niece Rebecca is having her first piano recital. My dad hates the cold, so this is a big deal that he's coming up. We'll be celebrating Christmas a bit early on that weekend.
Greg's still looking for a job. If you know of any area transportation logistics openings, give us a holler.

a break from it all

Today marks my first full day off work in some time. I'm taking the next two days off, using some of the comp time I have amassed over the last several weeks. I'm having some "Mike Time" this morning. Greg has gone up to the employment assistance program with a few of his former co-workers. I slept in a little this morning and then walked Tucker. Went to Target and Border's to pick up a few things. Took a few photos of the beautiful maple tree in our back yard. Now I'm updating the blog and downloading some new tunes from The Killer's, Keane, and the Spice Girls. Hey, don't judge me! Gonna run to the grocery and then bake some garlic and sun-dried tomato corn muffins.

week from hell

So the first full week of November has sucked big time. Greg lost his job on Monday as a result of the assholes that he worked for before taking his new job. His whole department was let go. I hope that his previous employer's armpits become infested with the fleas of 1000 camels.
Meanwhile, in my work world, it was really busy. Still haven't had a full day off in about three weeks. I may need to schedule one day off next week for my sanity.
The few pluses of the week included Greg's car being under warranty and not having to spend hundreds of dollars on repairs. And getting to have breakfast with Greg at Fluries Cafe on Wednesday morning.
Oh yeah, someone stole money from car's change cup last Saturday. I guess I forgot to lock the doors. At least they couldn't figure out how to steal my Sirius satellite radio. And I backed into a tree yesterday. It's amazing what a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser can buff out...
Here's hoping for a much better week.

seven

Today is day number seven in a row for me at work, with no day off in sight. Joy.

grrrrrr

I am so not in the mood to deal with people, most of them idiots, today.

happy birthday dad

He's the distinguished gentleman in the center between our nieces. Happy Birthday Dad. We love you.

rant of the day

Here are a few things that are irritating me lately...

People who make deposits at drive-thru ATMs. They take for flippin' ever. First, they usually don't have their card ready when they pull up. Second, they take their sweet old time filling out the deposit envelope. Third, once they have made the deposit, it takes them another five minutes to get their wallet or purse in order before they pull away from the machine.

People who wear their Bluetooth headsets in public. You know who you are. You look like morons. So stop it. Particularly you soccer moms at the grocery store in your "juicy" sweat suits. You look ridiculous.