2009 Year in Review

OK - like most years prior - a LOT of shit happened this year. Some of it heavy which took up most of my thoughts that I haven't shared much on this blog. I've been struggling with how much of myself I want to put out here on the interwebs.
I think 2010 is going to be the year where I throw that shit aside and just do it. Throw it all out there (well, maybe not ALL...but most) - who the fuck cares, right? I only have 5 subscribers anyway. And I dearly love all 5 of You.

So here we go. Starting it all off with 2009 in Review.

January - Kicked things off with another kick ass PJ party at the top of the Crowne Plaza over in tourist town. Then flew up to my favorite, NYC for a 4 day weekend of city stomping. That trip was so great - it snowed even. We got a new Prez. I completed 2 paintings and have one still in progress.

February - I went meatless for a month - just to see if I could do it. I noticed nothing different, but I have a healthy respect for veggies and love them now more than I ever have before. The boys cooked us girls a FAB V-Day dinner. That was super nice. Went to Universal with my aunt, uncle & cousins.

March - Watchmen came out and we got into a sneak preview. My father also came out and announced his gayness. Went to Universal again (rollercoasters always help when dealing with emotional rollercoasters). My grandmother had a stroke and went into the hospital. We had a big Baby shower for our 3 friends who were pregnant at the same time. The day of the shower, one of them went into labor. Painted one of the other preggers baby's room in a Batman/Gotham cityscape. Got a new badass camera.

April - My buddy, Jimmie, came for a visit from CO. I visited my Gram at her room at the assisted living place she was in at the time. She passed away a week later and a memorial service was held. Matt & I went to see Flight of the Conchords at the UCF Arena and Denis Leary at the Bob Carr. Both shows were awesome. Went to an art show at Uberbot before it closed to set up shop somewhere else but has yet to reopen. Also finished the Shat painting for another show that was supposed to be held there but didn't due to the closing. Matt and I also tried to grow tomatoes. They died a couple of months later after we had about 7 fruits that got bug eaten. Matt got to eat one of them - said he ate around the worms and it was good.

May - Got new tats behind my ears. Celebrated a birthday at Hardknocks (badass) and did a lot of swimming in our community pool after they finished resurfacing the deck. Had a tarot card reading party. Bought a new dress that made me look like Ursula the Seawitch. Cooked and ate a ton of seafood. Took my mom to see Star Trek. The two other preggers had their chillens.

June - Crab boil at Anna's - YUM!! Saw Terminator (sucked) and Drag Me to Hell (awesome). Saw Stomp at the Bob Carr - that was a really great show. My parents' divorce finalized. Went to a few BBQ's.

July - Mondo Annual 4th of July party on the lake. Went to Alaska!! That was an awesome 2 weeks. I've never felt so small being up in that big massive country. When we got back I made meatcakes for a friend's birthday (cupcakes made of meat). Also started with Brian, my trainer, to make me less fat.

August - Went to Willow Tree. Threw an engagement party. Threw the summer bomb - Redneck bomb this year. I don't think I've ever eaten so many ribs in my entire life. Went to a shrimp boil. (crab boils are better)

September - Went to a jazz night at a dive bar. We ate an awesome floppy grilled cheese. It was like $1.50 and they were out of everything else. Busted a coworker playing guitar there. Saw Thirst and It Might Get Loud at the Enzian - both of which were awesome.

October - Started off with a camping trip over to Tomoka State Park. Celebrated my mother's birthday by going out and taking her to see It Might Get Loud and Zombieland. Movie double-headers rule. Went to Halloween Horror Nights twice - super fun. Saw The Bravery at HOB. They kicked ass. While there, we also discovered how great the Crash Kings are. Saw The Exorcist and Night of the Living Dead at the Enzian. Went to a bachelorette party. Participated in a haunted house and then went to another. Matt & I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.

November - Went to see Dethklok at HardRock. Missed them because Mastadon opened for them and played for 2 hrs and I got bored (and superdrunk). Went to a wedding. Had an unintentional blowout of a party for Matt's birthday. Went to see New Moon. Headed out to Arizona for our annual Thanksgiving trip.

December - Watched the Gators lose to Alabama. Went to a Mighty Boosh party where I played with a rat and ate lots of pie. Picked up my Gram's dining room furniture from her house and set it up in ours. Its all growed up furniture and stuff. Proper like. Caught up with my old roomie, Jen and ate Vietnamese. Went to a Christmas dinner with my mom and her office folk. Tried to go see Avatar 3 times but it was sold out each time. Spent Xmas Eve with my mom and family. Spent Xmas day home with Matt playing video games and cooking stuff. Visited more friends and exchanged dumb presents (one of those regift the crap you don't want parties). Saw Sherlock Holmes last night....

GOODBYE 2009!!! I'm glad you were. You gave me interesting experiences - ups and downs - and I learned a lot this year. But I'm very glad to see you go.

BRING ON 2010!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!
all 5 of you!! Cheers!

Cardinal

He was hangin' out in one of the azalea bushes out back the other morning.

And we're leaving to go to Arizona to watch the Arizona Cardinals play the Green Bay Packers this weekend.
Coincidence?? Hmmmmm?

Yeah, more than likely.

HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Plain old Fun with Fruit (not phallic this time)

Can't recall ever seeing a striped apple before.

Meat is Murder

Tasty, tasty murder.

Before.

After, but before consumption.

2009 Resolutions Reviewed

Back in January, I posted this.
Here's what was accomplished from this list:

1. Create - I'm happy with this one. I've created at least 4 paintings, 2 of which are still in progress and probably will be for a while.
Did a kickass wall mural for a baby's room at my friends' house. (pictured below)
Sadly, the lovely new sewing machine was only used once to make a pillow that I didn't have enough pillow fill for (it's HUGE), that the cat has claimed as his sleeping place.
There are 7?, (I think) videos that I put together and threw out on YouTube.
I made a cool Zombie Head around Halloween.
And got organized on the Dollhouse of Horrors.
Plus, I've been blogging my ass off and taking/toying with photos. I'll count that stuff as well.

Status: Goal Attained. SUCCESS!!
To Be Continued in 2010.

2. Gym Trips - I'm ok with this one. Not overly happy with it, but it's a work in progress. Back in August, I bought a personal trainer. He's been kicking my ass for the past 5 months and I'm stronger - but not smaller. Which is ok - I'm glad to be able to do things like leg press 395lbs and do planks for 45 seconds/set and my guts feel good. This year I'll focus more on cardio (everyday) and diet (which is normally satisfactory until the holiday sugar comes to town) and making sure all the crap in my closet fits again. Also, I gave up caloriecount for dailyplate.com. Dailyplate.com is super nice but still work to keep up with. Gave that up too. Maybe I'll pick it back up - they have cool charts.

Status: Goal in progress.
To Be Continued in 2010.

3. Set Aside Money - I completely forgot about this one.

Status: Fail.
To Be Attempted again in 2010.

4. Travel More - we had a fabulous trip to NYC. We didn't go to Chicago in May. We did go to Alaska which kicked so much ass. And we went to Arizona for our annual Thanksgiving trip. That's about it, I think. Since I forgot about #3, we didn't get to too many other places.

Status: Fail.
To Be Attempted again in 2010.

5. Go To the Beach More Often - I don't even know why I put this one on here. My skin HATES the sun. It was nice to go last Xmas to Siesta Key - I must've still been on that high when I wrote out my resolutions. Went to the beach none times. Didn't even think about going to the beach. Oh wait, that's not true - Matt & I were trying to plan out a weekend trip but went camping instead.....About 3 miles away from the beach.

Status: Fail. But I don't care.
To Be Replaced for 2010.

Balloon Knot or Butthole?

New Hat Day

Thanks, Matt!!

Culinary Robot

You gotta love anything that has "robot" as it's description.
How come France gets to call it a "Culinary Robot" but we get stuck with boring old "food processor"??

Processor: a person or thing that processes.
*yawn*

Robot: any machine or mechanical device that operates automatically with humanlike skill.
*awesome*

Seriously

This and the Valentine's Day card aisle were what greeted me when I stopped into Walgreen's a few minutes ago.
Apparently, New Year's suffers the same as Thanksgiving. But with fireworks....and a song at least.
Oh, and the front aisle was stocked full of weight loss supplements. That's New Year's-ish, right?

Christmas Day

Gift bag I did for Matt.

My Christmas booty.

Our Christmas Hibiscus - freshly extracted cranberry juice (courtesy of my new juicer) and champagne.

Christmas belly scratchin'.

Christmas smoked turkey.

Christmas Dinner. Craisin/goat cheese/walnut salad with rasp. vin. dressing. Banana walnut fritters, twice baked potatoes full of onions, bacon, and cheese. And smoked turkey with cranberry salsa.
Served on top of gram's old doilies.

M@ of Xmas Eve Eve

This is what Matt looks like as a hummingbird.

This is Matt looking up lovingly at Black Santa.

This is Matt shredding on RockBand 2.

Finally Finished!!!

So glad this is done.
It didn't go exactly how I'd hoped, but...whatevs.

Hope everyone had a VERY Merry Christmas!!
Will post a few pictures soon.

Favorite Christmas Movies

Sitting here watching White Christmas and started thinking about my favorite Christmas movies and am in the mood to make another list, besides the one for Costco here on my desk.

(in no particular order)

White Christmas. duh. I'm watching it right now. Classic. and in VISTAVISION!! I want to give Vera-Ellen a sammich every time I see it.
Thinking that very thought very recently, my curiosity sparked, and I looked up her bio. She did battle with anorexia and had a pretty shitty time of things. So now I kinda feel bad for thinking
that. Hm....
No, I still want to give her a sammich. And maybe a cupcake or 6.

Nightmare Before Christmas. Cuz nothin' says Christmas like kidnapping Santa, having your own twisted version of the tradition, fucking it up, and then saving the day.
When this movie came out, I was 15 and my parents took my brother and I to see it. I absolutely LOVED it. They didn't care for it so much because it had music in it and they didn't care for musicals.**
Then, when the movie came out on VHS, I watched it and had the surround sound turned up and sat close to the stereo system to hit the REC/PLAY buttons when they broke out in song. This was the soundtrack I'd play in in my walkman endlessly and then in my car a couple of years later.
Yes, I sing out loud when I watch it (although, I also sing out loud randomly not watching it). And the really cool thing is, you can watch it repeatedly for 3 months since it covers both Halloween and Christmas (no one cares about Thanksgiving***).

Love Actually. There are 6 or 8 story lines that sort of wrap around each other and are connected in various ways all leading up to Christmas. I love everyone in this movie. Mostly because they're British. Loads of warm fuzzies - one of my favorite scenes is when Hugh Grant is out looking for Natalie and knocks on one door and 3 or 4 little girls answer and get him to sing for them and Hugh's driver shows him up and the girls dance.
OH! and my other favorite is when Ginger Colin is off to a "wonderful land called Wisconsin" to score some hot American chicks for Christmas. His buddy drops him off at the airport and Colin says, "Look out Wisconsin. Here comes The Colin! And he's got a big knoooooooooob!!" The way he sing yells it cracks me up. I can't find any good clips for it, so just watch it.
OH! The other bonus - it's a Christmas movie that's rated R. They say "fuck" a couple of times and there's a BOOB!!

Those are the Big 3 that I watch over and over again.
There are a few other movies that make me happy around Christmas, too, like:
Elf has my favorite burp scene.
Scrooged always cracks me up and my husband quotes it all the time.
Jim Carrey's The Grinch is another good one - but the makeup is so distracting, I tend to not watch it as often as the others. The little nose pieces kinda weird me out a little bit. Just a little bit.
And Edward Scissorhands is sweet & Christmassy. Until those neighborhood bitches use him and the high school assholes chase him through the hood terrorizing him. That movie made me cry when I saw it in theaters. Shut up. I was 12.

Up there I had a ** and a ***.
Reckon I should explain them now.

**This is complete bullshit. Everyone says this but I guarantee you that they ALL know at least one song from 5 separate "Musicals" they don't care for because they're musicals. Especially when you stop and consider that pretty much all Disney movies are musicals. Why can't you all just admit it? You like music. You like movies. What the hell's wrong with having music submerged in a movie??

***Why isn't Thanksgiving marketed as much as Halloween and Christmas? How come there are no Thanksgiving songs to sing around the dinner table? That would go way better with family drinking than trying to carry on conversations. How come there are no Thanksgiving movies? There's one on my Netflix list that I found just before Thanksgiving but haven't watched yet. Its called Thankskilling. While you're on IMDB - go ahead and type "Thanksgiving" in the search.
I challenge you to either write a Thanksgiving song or a Thanksgiving inspired script/story or whatever. I DARE YOU!!
Maybe I'll put that on my list for 2010.

Marina Lights

Christmas lights at the Mt. Dora Marina.

*giggle* It Tickles

this makes my guts feel all warm and tingly.

So You Think You Can - DAMN!!!

In case you missed it last night on the finale of So You Think You Can Dance - Russell won.
He did shit like this and this (skip ahead to 2:08) and this and this and yeah, this, too.

At the end of his "Thank You, God" speech, he pointed towards his family in the crowd and mentioned his parents, his li'l brother, and girlfriend and the camera pans over and we see this:

And Matt and I were both like, "DAMN!!" and so I rewind and put it in slow-mo and then we see this:

awesome.
I wish I had an afro too.

Creepy Midwestern Serial Killer?...or...My Husband?

You decide.

For the person who has everything...but can't breed.

Caught part of this the other night.

Is this what happens when a Real Doll gets knocked up?

Adding to the Xmas Wish List

Must have.

5mins worth of Sound

I was laying across the bed staring out the window and started thinking about all the sounds I could hear and I thought, "Man, there's a lot of shit going on...all the time...." and then wondered how many layers there were.
Inside of 5 mins, I heard all of the following:

Squirrels
Airplane Traffic
Road Traffic
A motorcycle down the street
Birds
My cat beside me making lickin', hollerin', and purrin' noises
Matt in his office singing and then coming in to ask me what I was doing.
The hum of the aquarium bubbler.
The t.v. downstairs
Matt back in his office typing, playing music clips and crap on his computer
My toe cracking

And now, as I type this, I can hear my neighbors talking (about diarrhea?), someone banging on something, and a vacuum or leaf blower running somewhere...

Can you think of a time when you heard absolutely nothing?

Stuff I Saw Through My Window Today

Turkish B. Nugget

Current Addiction

During ketchup, I went through all the Lunch Bag Arts that were waiting and when Nov. 28th's post came up, there was a link with it for Pomplamoose.
Since that day, I've watched almost everything that took me to that link and was related to that link.
I forwarded'em over to Willie and he wrote about it, too.
And yes, I've downloaded all their free covers and even PAID for them on iTunes.
The first couple days, I had "Hail Mary" stuck in my head.
The past couple, "Centrifuge".
And now, "Beat The Horse".

Pomplamoose junkie. for realz.

Lizard

We had this decorative flower arrangement (courtesy of my very talented aunt) in our bathroom and I heard this rustling sound coming from it the other day as I was.....
.......reading.

My Christmas Wish List

Remember when you were a kid and all the mall dept stores and Toys R Us would send out those huge Christmas Wish List catalogs full of magical wonder and delight (usually in the form of brightly colored Chinese plastics and electronics)?
Do they still do that anymore? I remember the smell of those things. It was almost as cool as the actual presents on Xmas morning.
My parents also used to take us out to ToysRUs to play in the store and get ideas to make our wish lists - but it was really more about what playthings we could ride around the store and what video games we could play in 5min increments.
Being kids - we already knew what was on our list. Didn't need no stinking ideas because we couldn't think of anything. Now that I'm typing this, I'm realizing that my parents took us there so they could price everything out in order to figure how much they'd end up spending on Teddy Ruxpin and a Nintendo.
Meanwhile, my brother and I were running rampant on pogoballs & bigwheels.

Anyway, here's my list for Christmas 2009.

1. Food Processor - >3cups
2. Juicer
3. Phantom of the Opera tickets for Jan 2010
4. MONEY!!! which will go towards The Dollhouse of Horrors
5. sweaterboots
6. chuck taylors - any color, any style
   
7. House cleaning - maid service for 3 months
8. Li’l Abner - dvd
9. Teeter HangUp
10. Left4Dead 2
    
11. Brutal Legend
12. Sims 3 World Adventures ExpPk
13. Socks
14. Underwear
15. New toothbrush

piXmas

What I did today

I'm so tired of looking at Thanksgiving.

PSA

MattiePunkinHead

and

Another KookiefaceKaren

both brought to you by

Piknic!!

Knowledge is power and knowing is half the battle and all that crap.

Another KookiefaceKaren

because Willie would want me to.

KookiefaceKaren

For those of you with a Wii

You totally need this.

More Phallic Phun with Phruit

MattiePunkinHead

Turk In A Jacket

Here's what Turk looks like in his jacket.

He kept skulkin' around - with a slight limp....

Until he slid in between a table and the sliding glass door....

Like a damn snake....molting out of his skin - he left that pet jacket behind....

And then he ran over to the food bowl to chow.
No jacketlove at all.