Comments (26)

By kilax, December 31, 2010 5:40 am

When you buy/receive new clothes, do you wash them before wearing them?

Weird question, right? Well, I don’t wash my new clothes. I just wear them. Steven washes his new clothes. I am in the minority on this one, right?

A few things I won’t be washing before wearing:

We returned that orange vest after everyone said it made me look puffy.

Did you get any new clothing items for the holidays?

Happy New Year everyone!!!

I don’t have New Year’s Eve plans, and I don’t make resolutions, but I would love to hear yours, if you have either!

Comments (22)

By kilax, December 30, 2010 10:40 am

It was 6°F when I went running on Monday (in Iowa).

I had to up the contrast on this photo – check out how it was before.

And 60°F when I went running today (in Missouri).

I can not describe in words how happy I was to arrive in Missouri and see that there was NO SNOW. I do not mind running in the cold, but on the snow? No thanks.

Is it too early to be sick of the snow?!

Comments (15)

By kilax, December 25, 2010 8:06 am

Our Christmas Cactus was beautiful…

… but not so smart. It bloomed in the end of November!

So I saved these pictures to share with you, closer to Christmas.

Happy Holidays Everyone!!!

Comments (17)

By kilax, December 24, 2010 5:42 am

Do you send out a holiday card? What kind of card do you send out?

We (being me and Steven) actually haven’t sent out a holiday card at all the three years we have been married. I would love to do one of those photo cards someday. We’ll see.

We still do a holiday card with my family though. We (my family) have been doing one every year, since I was born (and I am sure since before) and you can see almost all of them here. I love the one where we’re all in a tree and my dad is cutting the tree down with a chainsaw.

This year’s card went back to our photo style roots – something ridiculous involving a car (look at the link and you’ll understand what I mean).

A young kid driving a car, in fact.

The photo above is the scan I did of the card that arrived in the mail, but here is the clean version I sent my dad to use:

Obviously, there has been some photoshopping done to this card, and not just to make it look like it was moving.

We took the truck picture against a blank brick background:

Notice my sister and her boyfriend are missing, the kids are missing, and Courtney and Nick have different faces in the photo above than in the final photo. Yeah, I added all of those things in. Fun Times.

Comments (20)

By kilax, December 23, 2010 7:45 am

(Data doesn’t know how to play nicely)

You can watch this video to see how he feels about the monkey.

What does your pet destroy?

Data has a tendency to destroy stuffed animals, anything made of felt, anything made of fleece, couch pillows, most of his toys, Steven’s expensive shoes, the Garmin watch… Okay, he didn’t destroy all of those things, but the Garmin watch does have bite marks in the band. And some of our couch pillows are missing their corners because he chewed them off.

Data is not the only one who had fun yesterday. Steven also had a fun time destroying things – cake:

Barney:

and a Red Robin burger (although that’s a pic of my burger):

And I can FINALLY tell you what I got Steven for his birthday – an Intro to Road-Racing Class through the DriveTech Racing School. It’s actually a groupon that Erin pointed out to me, because she bought it for her husband too! They take a class, then get to drive a Porsche Boxster, Corvette, or Formula car on the track for 15 minutes.

I also bought Steven a fleece jacket and a sweater, but that is not very exciting!

Thanks for all of your comments yesterday, wishing Steven a happy birthday! He felt really honored that so many people left him birthday wishes, and he left a thank you comment in there.

The winner of the Live, Laugh, Love Necklace is #20 – Stephany! Stephany, please email me your mailing address and I will send the necklace your way!

Comments (38)

By kilax, December 22, 2010 6:43 am

Do you know what December 22nd is?

It’s three days until Christmas Steven’s Birthday!

And this year, it’s his 30th Birthday!!!

I have a fun day planned for us (after I get off work at noon), including the shooting range*:

dinner (Red Robin is just a suggestion):

cake (better pictures to come later):

awesome gifts ( I wish I could tell you what they are), and the option for bowling or a movie. Or whatever!

Happy Birthday Steven!

Oh, Data wanted to say something too…

*I guess you can do your Dirty Harry impression Steven, since it is your birthday, after all!

Comments (19)

By kilax, December 21, 2010 6:30 am

Whoa, blog post overload! Ha. Sometimes I have nothing to say… sometimes, I have a lot to say.

Need assistance wrapping gifts? Just call “Helper Cat” to the rescue!”

Helper Cat specializes in eating ribbon,

Mom, please excuse the cat slobber on your gift!

and generally looking clueless. Um… that is all.

Helper Cat is not ever supposed to get on the dining room table, but if that is where the presents are, that is where Helper Cat has to be. It’s a rule Helper Cat is willing to break.

We are FINALLY done wrapping gifts.

Oh wait. I still have to wrap Steven’s. And he has to wrap mine. Wah!

Are you done wrapping gifts? Shopping?

Have I already asked those questions? Am I losing my mind?

Comments (24)

By kilax, December 21, 2010 5:22 am

Have you been to the Animal Rescue Site Store? My sister pointed it out to me, and I bought a few gifts from there this year. They have cute animal related gifts, and the proceeds help pay for food and care for needy animals!

I bought one of my girlfriends this “Live, Laugh, Love” hoop necklace and they sent me two for the price of one!

You know what that means – it’s Giveaway Time!

The necklace is super cute in person. I have one that my sister got me that is very similar. Only it says “Sisters, Before, Misters.” HA! Just kidding. That would be funny though, right?

It says, “Love Me, Love My Cat” and then the third hoop has paw prints on it. Here I am wearing it, along with my live fur wrap:

The only downside to the necklace is that I play with it all day long. Ha.

Live, Laugh, Love Necklace Giveaway Rules

1. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment telling me about your favorite piece of jewelry.
2. This giveaway is open until 5:00 PM CST on Wednesday December 22. I will use random.org to select the winner. I will announce the winner on Thursday December 23.
3. This giveaway is open to all readers.

Comments (11)

By kilax, December 20, 2010 10:05 pm

J (Morning Runner) tagged me for a fun running/holiday meme. Fill free to respond in your blog or in the comments. Here are the questions:

1. What are you most proud of accomplishing in 2010?
2. What are your running goals for 2011?
3. What is your favorite race?
4. What is your favorite holiday guilty pleasure?
5. What is your most embarrassing running moment?

What are you most proud of accomplishing in 2010?

Coming back from three stress fractures to run a marathon. So, not the marathon itself, but the recovery and fact that I had to start over with running in July and get up to 26.2 miles in October. Fun, fun times.

What are your running goals for 2011?

I have a few:

1. To be injury-free so that I can
2. Run at least one race a month (for fun)
3. Meet new friends in the Grayslake Running Club
4. Run with my existing running friends!
5. And… PR in the half marathon (a long shot I had to throw in)
6. Okay, and to run 1000 miles (another long shot)

What is your favorite race?

Really, any race run with friends (or family!), especially if it has a goofy theme, like Rotary Santa Run or Corn Maze 5K.

I do have to say, I like the Round Lake Frosty Footrace (5K), because it’s a small event, and I’ve placed in my age group the last two years running it! Yeah, fake self-esteem booster!

That’s my serious face, folks.

What is your favorite holiday guilty pleasure?

Being lazy. Just hanging out with family/friends and being indulgent. Also – eating a meal made by someone else and NOT having to clean it up. Yeah, that makes me sound like a brat since a) Steven always cooks for me and b) jeez, couldn’t I help clean up? But, it’s nice when someone else does it. There, I said it.

What is your most embarrassing running moment?

This is really hard to answer, because I am not easily embarrassed. I have been the only one to run in costume, accidentally pooped myself, peed on myself (also accidentally), and taken a wrong turn in a half that I was walking… and none of these things embarrassed me.

One time I was running with a friend and accidentally let out a small fart (it was right after lunch) and said “excuse me.” I felt kind of embarrassed, but not really.

Oh wait, I just asked Steven and he remembered something I was embarrassed about – that time I accidentally pooped myself, I went inside to use the bathroom at my aunt’s house and knocked a porcelain decorative sandal off her toilet and broke the sandal. I felt bad*. But she was really cool about it.

What are your answers? Respond in the comments or on your blog!

*Hmm, I still wasn’t embarrassed, I just felt bad/guilty! Whatever.

Comments (15)

By kilax, December 20, 2010 11:54 am

I’m always talking about how I like to follow* (well, “like”) businesses on Facebook because they share sales, special events, do contests and so on – it’s useful information that I might not otherwise know about! Do you “like” (follow) your favorite business on Facebook?

Today, I am especially happy that I follow “like” Running Away Multisport, a local running/tri store. I happened to log in to Facebook and notice they posted a contest – if you were the first person to identify the item in the image below, you would win it:

Can you tell what it is?

…

…

…

It’s a Nike+ Sportband!

I was the first person to guess it right and won it! Yay! Thanks Running Away Multisport (RAM)!

If you’re local, check out RAM’s Racing page – they host a lot of fun running events. Last year I walked their North Shore Half Marathon and had a lot of fun. Maybe I can run it this year! *Fingers crossed*

*It’s not Twitter, I realize. I am kind of off Twitter for awhile. It was too much for me.