Julie & Scott welcomed little Ms. Samantha yesterday afternoon. She arrived about 3:45 PM and was a healthy 6 lbs 11 oz (I think that is right) and 20" long.
Mom and Dad are awesome. Grandparents haven't come down off cloud 9 yet.... expecting that to take some time.
I am eagerly awaiting more pictures.
Best part is, now I get to plan a trip east to go visit.

I can't believe they have a daughter. Too crazy.

Happy Festivus

A day late, but it is the thought that counts.
I have been down in KC since Friday night. Ended up heading down a little early to avoid the snow that was predicted for Saturday. And for once, I think only once, it did in fact snow. A lot. Like 6" on Saturday.
Of course, once I made it home, I realized that minus a few little trinkets here and there, no Christmas decorating had been done. Tree was in the living room, but that was it. No lights, no decorations --- nada.
So, off I went in search of decorations. And commenced one of my two breakdowns over the weekend. I am still amazed how the littlest thing will send me off the deep end. In this case, tags. You know the ones that you put on presents -- To so and so, From you know who -- that sort of thing. Well, went looking for some as I was wrapping the only 2 gifts I had managed to buy and in my search came across tags -- all the ones my mom had always kept. All filled out - To Meghan, Love Mom, and viola, floodgates open. The other came the next day as I was looking for all the freakin' Christmas decorations. There are many -- so many that I was in my 3rd closet of the morning and found a box, full of other boxes, with nothing in them. Round II.
All said and done, it was a nice holiday. Got a new iPod -- whee. Been steadily downloading music at an alarming pace. And some other goodies -- new Uggs. Big shout out to the sisters on that one.
Bittersweet, would be the best word.

And today -- I am strapped to my phone as Julie and Scott are having their baby today, at least for her sake I hope its today. She headed to the hospital at 6:30 AM this morning to be induced as little munchkin had decided that he/she was quite comfortable in there -- thank you very much. Super excited for them!!
Stay tuned for more details.

Alrighty then -- I am out.
Now Listening: Graduation by Kanye West

The Reality of the Fairytale

I was perusing through some of my older posts recently, and stumbled across this little gem of an entry. Your Friday Fairy Tale
And I realized, almost exactly a year later that there is a reason they are called fairy tales -- because the reality goes something like this....
Our young heroine is still pretty hot, witty, intelligent, maybe a few pounds heavier, couple more gray hairs and has had a helluva a year. Her woodland friends have moved to new parts of the woods, started having mini-woodland creatures and she doesn't see them nearly enough. She no longer toils at the fortress -- although she does routinely drink the nectar of the gods there. And she has a new boss to replace her old cruel boss but, she still works too much.
As for the dating ritual, well, that has taken on a whole new life of its own.

As for our hero ---
Well.
Yeah.
Here is the reality of the hero. The hero is a lazy, scared and yes, YOUNG man who can't admit to how he feels, uses text messaging as a primary means of communication, drinks too much and can't decide what he wants in life. And just when he thinks it is time to cut things off with our heroine, decides to pop back in her life. Took a new job not doing what he loves, and then wonders why he doesn't like his job any more.
And he snores.
Loudly.

His family, still lovely. At least the last time I saw them.
The Electric Blue Carriage has a few more miles, and more than a few trips to the shop to keep it in fine fairy tale condition.

As a post script to the fairy tale, my fairy godmother needs to check out of rehab or where ever she has been hiding for the last 8 months, get her ass in gear and find me a new hero.
Stat.
Oh - and bring a new carriage. The mileage on the old one is getting too high.
And some new shoes. Preferably glass slippers that can support my weight.
And a new gown.
You get the picture.

I guess it comes down to this. We can now show without question -- because its on my blog and if you read it on the Internet it must be true -- that my life is NOT in fact a fairy tale and more like an entry in Bridget Jones's diary.

Now Listening: The Best of Otis Redding by --- Otis Redding

Welcome

My cousin Dan and his wife, Beth welcomed their first child into the family last night.
Little Maggie made her grand arrival around 10:45 PM at a fighting weight of 7 lbs. 4 oz.
Congrats to the whole family.

Still waiting for Julie and Scott - due any day now.
Round II of the baby boom will be coming late Feb/early March from my other cousin, Chris and his wife, Kara (Feb) and Nate and Martine (March)

Babies everywhere!!!


Now Listening: The Reminder by Feist

Walking in a winter wonderland....

I would like to say, sleigh bells ring, etc.... but it is more like the spinning of tires trying to gain traction on ice, the scraping of shovels against driveways and the constant sounds of sirens as they race to get the next car out of the ditch.
Let's hear it for winter. Although, I shouldn't be too loud in my complaints. I still have power (meaning heat) and only lost the cable for a little bit. All in all, I have fared pretty well in the last round of Mother Nature vs. the Midwest.
Mother Nature won in a unanimous decision.
Few pictures on the Flickr site to show off some of the winter fun.

So the weekend with the EX came and went. I can say this, by Saturday around noon, I was ready to go postal. I have no issue with trying to find a rental place for six months. Makes sense. Get to know the city and whatnot before you commit to a place. That being said, if you are looking at a place as 1) a rental and 2) short term -- then the condition of the driveway shouldn't be a deciding factor in renting it. Nor should the fact that the appliances are slightly out-of-date. Yes, those were the things I was listening to as we drove around town looking for someplace that wasn't 2 blocks from me.
And of course, we -- and by we, I mean him -- had to bring up the whole relationship conversation again. Like that horse isn't dead enough?!?!?
I explained to him --- again -- that I don't want to date him. I don't want to be his girlfriend. I don't want to be in a relationship with him. And, I don't want to date him.
Jury is still out on whether or not it actually sunk in.
But, he found a place. Not 2 blocks from me. But not 30 either. About 10-ish. And he won't be back in town until he moves here. And that is a whole other post, but we are not going to think about that until we actually HAVE to think about that.
Weekend was good. Happy 30th to Carissa -- she joined the club. I **think** we managed to surprise her a little bit. I hope so, because I had to park a block away from her house and walking that block in heels in the snow was NOT fun. How I suffer for fashion and my friends.
Also managed to hit a Christmas party and met a Rockette. Sorta cool. Especially for Iowa. Also saw Oprah & Barak Obama together on Saturday. Equally cool. Also managed to find a spot to stand at the rally of 18,500 people about 2.5 feet from 2/3' s of Joe's family. How is that for odds? I suppose the family that caucuses together, stays together. So they were getting their rally on as were the rest of us. Like I told Julie -- I want to want to believe this guy. We shall see. No official endorsement from the Smith camp has been issued. Still have a few other candidates to chase down.
Ah, caucus season in Iowa. Tis' a thing of beauty. Only this time of year can I say that I got a text from a friend who just found out that one of her friends heckled Mitt Romney in the skywalk downtown.
woo hoo. Mitt needs some heckling.

So pictures of the rally and the b-day are posted as well.

In random news....
Came home from work yesterday about noon due to the aforementioned weather fiasco and not wanting to chance the bug being one of the ditch-dug cars. Came in, dropped my bags, set down the sammy and soup I had picked up for lunch and was about to get started on some eatin' when I noticed an odd thing on my carpet out of the corner of my eye. I thought that it was one of the cat toys. I have a few of these little felt balls with feathers coming out of them that the cats will chase for ever. Upon closer inspection, and by closer I mean actually looking at what it was, I discovered it was not in fact a cat toy. It was cat prey.
Yes, my fat, lazy, fat cats had managed to snag a mouse. Not only had they snagged a mouse, but it was sorta missing its head.
My first thought, was "Wow, who would have thought MY cats would kill a mouse"
My second thought was "Holy shit, where is the head?? Please, please don't let them have left me a "gift" in my bed"
They didn't
My third thought was "Gross, I have mice in the house"
And for those of you that don't know my reference in thought #2, cats, domestic cats anyway, are known to bring their owners a "gift" of their kill to show how good they are. Mine apparently don't like me enough to do that or in 3 months, I am going to be cleaning my house and stumble upon a mouse skull in the oddest place.
Moving on.
I am praying that this was an isolated incident and that the poor, unfortunate mouse was just looking for a warm place. And that it was a single mouse. Not a family mouse that left behind 4 starving children and a wife/husband. That would be bad. Very, very bad. Although, not that bad as my great white hunters aka my cats seem to have the problem well in hand.

I think that about wraps up the last few days -- at least what I can recall anyway. Bowling last Thursday was abysmal. I am chalking that up to the work holiday party that I was attending in the 4 hours prior to bowling. Translation: I started drinking at 5:45 and didn't bowl until 9:15. Therefore I sucked.
Stay tuned for more.

Now Listening: Do or Die by Dropkick Murphys

Catch up

I have been bad. I know. But this week has been in a word chaos.

So a few things this AM and then I am off to another whirl wind day of meetings. Woot.

Snow. I like it this time of year. As of January 1, it can all melt. But I drive a bug -- lets just say that I am getting really good at that rocking move where you pop between reverse and first gear to get moving off a bank of snow that the snow removal peeps pushed right up against the back of your car.

On that note, Gary is here. Good times. I came home last night and he had shoveled my driveway. All of it. All, like 75 feet of it. Since that wasn't enough and I had to go to a work party, he also picked up my grocery list for me.

Seems slightly cruel, but hey - its my style.

I need to enter the political fray and decide who I am going to caucus for. So with that in mind, I have tickets to an Obama (with Oprah!!) rally tomorrow. My mom would be jealous. She would hate the Obama part, totally love the Oprah part. Trying to find a Hillary rally I can check out between now and January 3rd. Cause' in Iowa, we like to rock out with our caucus out!! And yes, I stole that line and Scott -- you can parade it all over D.C., as I am told you do :)

And last but not least, this little nugget of good corporate behavior. Found on a series of stalls in the womens room on a floor I don't normally spend time on -----

Yep - a sign asking for a courtesy flush. Will wonders never cease.

Now Listening: Under the Pink by Tori Amos

Flyover no more....

I had two people forward me this article from the NY Times today. It made me happy that FINALLY the things I have been saying about Des Moines (for the most part) are being recognized.
Now, I am not expecting the glitterati to start descending on DSM tomorrow. Or next week for that matter, but it does let people know that we are not hicks, I don't have a cow in my front yard and in fact, I do have an appreciation for the world outside of the city limits.
Moving on.

Interesting weekend. I THINK -- operative word: think-- that the message has finally sunk in with Lincoln boy. The message that I have been saying for the last 2.5 months. The one that goes roughly like this: no, I don't want to date you now, next week or next year. If you can handle a friendship, then great, otherwise -- well, yeah.
In saying this last night on the phone (for the 513th time, or so it seems) I was told that I am still a bad communicator and that I had probably reached this conclusion based on our history, not what was in front of us. My response was simple -- I don't have those feelings for you. Nothing to do with past, present or future. And both of us deserve to have someone in their life that can reciprocate those feelings.
And he is coming to town this weekend to look at places to live. One of which is two (yes, 2) blocks from me.
That should be comfortable.
Alrighty, tons of work to do, just was taking a little mental break.

Now Listening: The B-Sides by Damien Rice