House Party!

A week before Christmas, I decided to spend some time with people I really like so I called over some of my close friends! I still live in a crap-shack, but it is good enough for my friends, who probably already have a set opinion of me when in a drunken stupor, I slipped on a packet of Cheddar Wurst into an open fire.

We were going to go out and booze it up at a bar, but Kassie had a friend in town from another country and she was only 20. I told Mike he had to bring a 93 pack of beer to make it up. I was actually cool because I didn't have to put on normal-people pants or a bra. But it meant that I actually had to clean. It was like a bad 80's fix-up montages of Holly and I drinking beer and cleaning. Oh, the girl in the parka is from Croatia. Me and my geographic knowledge thougth it was cold there. Obviously it is not because she asked for slippers.

One thing I love about Michael is his story telling. When ever I am down, I call upon a night with Mike and Kari because I know it will cheer me up. This is a picture of Michael telling a story when his grandfather was lost at the airport. I guess Mike and Kari went to pick him up and could not find him. He has Parkinson's and often gets lost a lot. Michael is very close to his grandfather and they have breakfast together every Saturday. He was pissed. However, when Michael is pissed, it is super funny.

This is Kassie, she is part of the reason I am working so hard. I want to use her has a model. I don't know why she is making this face. Oh, there are so many wrong jokes I could do with this picture. Insert your own here. Oh, that was really lame.

Not a good idea

I have been super over-worked because of work. I am planning Second Runway and it takes up a bunch of time. That and everyone wants to quit, putting more work on me. Blar...

Last year I spent all my time working on the actual event so I didn't design anything. This year, I thought since I have less going on in my life I would. Last year I was taking two classes, this year I am only taking one. I forgot to mention that I now have a house and the development team lost two key players. Oh yes, I have time to design. Plus, I am such a great sewer. I did take one semester of clothing design in college. That makes me an expert, right?

Oh, and to make things better, I couldn't decide on a model. I knew I wanted to use Holly, but I also wanted to use Andrea and Kassie, so why not use them all! I am so fucked.

The last couple weeks I have been coming home and sewing. I can't find the cord for my new sewing machine so I have been doing everything by hand or using my mom's machine...the one she bought before I was born.

I love to sew, but I also love to sleep and drink beer. Oh, and my ass has grown so I am at the gym more. Here are the before and kinda after pictures of the dress for Holly. It is actually turning out super cute - but I am still fucked!

Tim the toolman

When I was younger, I would come home after sports practice (yes, back in the day I actually played sports) and sit in front of the tv. I loved Home Improvement. Now it is starting to make since with the house. I never thought I would actually ever use anything I learned from the show, but fast-forward to 2008.

I am standing in my kitchen doing dishes. I turn on the light and it burnt out. I have this weird fear of changing light bulbs. Basically I hate all the dead buggies that live in the cover thingy. However, it was the only light in the kitchen and Holly was at work. Plus I am no longer renting the buggies, I own them now.

There was a problem. There was something blocking the light blub place. It was the old twisty thing from the last light bulb. I tried twisting it out with my fingers, but it didn't work. Then I remember what Tim Allen did on the show. He was showing Allen that when this happends, you can use a sliced potato to get it loose. I also remembered to turn the light off because Tim didn't and he got shocked. It worked!

"I bet you are going to put this in your blog!"

Yes, Holly, I will.

I always make fun of Holly because she has monster feet. I wear a size 8 and I hate that I can't wear her shoes. Some of them are really cute! However, she wears a size 9.5-10.

The last couple week she has been complaining that she always gets holes in her socks. I kept telling her that she should buy larger socks...well because she has monster feet.

Holly - "I can't believe it! I just bought new socks and I have a hole."

I was sitting in the sewing room and came out with my camera. "Maybe you should buy bigger socks." I snapped the picture.

Holly - "You are probably going to put this in your blog."

Yes, Holly, I am going to exploit your big feet. To be honest, I am surprised that foot didn't go up my ass.

"I didn't bring enough to share"

Holly and I were at the liqoure store - because we like booze. She was trying to pick out a bottle to bring to a party she was going to that night. When we asked where the wine was, they said it was by the Port wine. I had Port in Ireland, so I thought it was something good. However, they brought us over to the jug and boxed wine.

Holly picked out the biggest bottle of wine and I thought that was funny. I started picturing her arriving with the large bottle and saying, "Sorry, I didn't bring enough to share."

The bottle she had was not enough so I had her hold up a giant jug of wine. Caption: I brought some wine, but I didn't bring enough to share."

Reason I started a 401K

My Father, he is kind of my best friend. It is hard for me to admit, but if I have a problem or a success, my dad is the one I first call. He is kind of awesome.

He recently was laid off from his job so he told me on Thanksgiving that he went in to retirement. I was surprised, but knowing my dad, he worked for retirement. He is only 57. When we had dinner on Friday I asked him what he was going to do now that he was not working, he fully explained it.

A little back story: my father bought his first violin from a garage sale when I was about 5 (it is now on the wall in my craft room). He would play that thing night and day. His practice room was next to my bedroom so I sleep best if there is a foot heavily keeping time. Recently I started noticing that he was buying a lot of instruments that he never played before. I knew that he played the violin, trumpet and piano (my great aunt said he had great talent). But he started buying strange things like a banjo, cello and a slide guitar. At Thanksgiving he showed me his new keyboard. However, anytime I asked him about it, he would say he got a good deal from ebay.

Me - What are you going to do with your days?

Dad - I have started studying music theory.

Me - What? Music theory?

Dad - Why do you think I bought all those instruments. I was stocking up for this day.

Me - Well...why didn't you study that in college?

Dad - You could never make money at it.

Me - Your aunt did. She is a professor in college.

Dad - she is a nun, they wouldn't let me in.

Me - You are a dude. So you spend your days playing music.

Dad - Yeah, they just fly by.

Me - You suck.

So that is why I started a 401K. Yeah, I know the market is bad, but I do put $50 away a month for retirement. My plan is to retire to spend my dad like my father.

It's not hot in there

When I first moved in, the stove looked like it was far too old to actually work. Only three of the four burners actually worked. So when I tried the stove and it did not work, I was surprised. Then when Holly moved in, she also tried and found it did not work.

As I mentioned before, my dad is an electrician and I have an electric stove - alas, he could fix it! Little did I know that my dad worked at Warner-Stallion for 8 years and had experience working on stoves.

On Friday my dad agreed to come and fix the stove. After lunch we went back to the house so he could fix the stove and sink, which I guess I did a great job for my first try.

Five minutes later my dad says, 'Hey Annie, come here.' He was standing by the stove. 'I have something to show you.' Curious I approached. 'See this dial', he was pointing at the temperature. 'Now set that', he sets it. Intrigued, he then points at another dial, 'This is the one that says bake, broil or clean. When you turn that, the little light comes on and the oven warms up.'

Who-da-thunk! There was a second dial! All this time I was not using the oven because of a second dial. I was laughing so hard that I nearly fell to the floor. Of course, my dad never broke character, and was like, 'due to my 30+ years as an electric an, I was able to fix the problem.'

After thinking about how much a dumbass I am, I started thinking about how great it was to tell Holly. The next morning I saw her and I was all like, 'Holly, my dad fixed the stove.' She was super excited. 'Yeah, he spent hours on it. He said it was one of the most difficult things he has had to do...Do you want to see what he did?'

Eager Holly pranced to the stove. I opened the oven and showed her the coils. The I said showed her the first dial. Then I pointed to the second one. The look on her face demonstrated she did not believe that dial made a difference. I turned it and the oven light went in and, unlike my dad that never breaks character, I lost it.

It was at that point Holly realized we both were bamboozeled by the second dial. She was more pissed because she did not think she was that stupid. I told her I knew I was that stupid.

For the next two days I made Holly breakfast. It was good.

Dirty old neigbor

One of the first people I met was my neighbor on the left. He is a 65 year-old artist and has social issues. I made the mistake of telling him I do some website stuff. He asked me to create a site for him and promised me a painting. He is actually a talented artists so I bit. Soon after I moved in, my neighbor started coming over and asking me all sorts of tech questions.

The final straw was a couple weeks ago when he came over and said he couldn't get on line. I went over there and figured out the problem. An anti-virus message kept coming up and he asked be about it:

Neighbor, "why does that keep coming up?"

Me, "Well, if you do Internet searching you should use it. But you only visit a couple sites."

Neighbor, "Well what sites are you thinking of?"

Me, "Be creative, just don't visit bad sites."

Neighbor, "Porn?"

Me, "yes"

Neighbor, "Well I have to admit I do watch porn."

That is when my hands left the computer and I ran out of there.