The Aftermath

Wrapping paper is still strewn about.  Empty boxes are stacked around the living room.  And new merchandise is laid upon every surface.  It looks like a department store threw up on our house.  We had a great Christmas and thoroughly enjoyed the last few days of lazy fun with awesome family.  Lazy, but tiring!  I'm sore from head to toe from playing video games!

Brent got me my much-anticipated Wii.  I've wanted one for some time and had been patient about getting one.  I love it!  I feel like a kid again.  It's hard for me to mindlessly waste time.  I'm a busy body and am constantly trying to "be productive."  Life often moves slower than I'd like.  I'm thinking the Wii will help me slow down a bit too.  It should make it easy for me to stay home and relax rather than heading off to a store and spend money.

This week between holidays is one of my favorites.  It's one last chance to be lazy before the reality of a new year sets in.  I have big plans for next year.  Big, but simple.  I'll be fine tuning my "resolutions" over the next few days.  It will give my mind plenty to think about while driving mile upon mile around Ft. Fun.  I'll be sure to share my resolutions once the new year arrives.  I've heard that study about how writing down goals will make you more likely to reach them is a farce.  I think that having some level of public accountability for my word certainly helps to motivate me.

Oh, and in other news.  My dad's puppy has a name!  Her name is Dixie!

Merry Christmas!

David v Goliath

Yesterday was a day.  It was tiring, stressful, and just plain grinchy.  I blame my bank.  One of my banks, anyways.  Me and banks just don't get along.  I've ranted previously about banks and yesterday just made me hate them more.  I was scheduled to close on the refinancing for my condo at 10am.  I started this process three months ago.  So finally, FINALLY, I was scheduled to close.  At 9am, I get a call from my loan facilitator who explains to me that she will email me the HUD for me to look over, which showed that I needed to bring $1,340 to closing.  My blood immediately began to boil.  One hour before someone is supposed to knock on my door for closing is when they tell me this. 

NEVER was there mention of me needing money at closing.  Every single time I talked to my loan facilitator or anyway at this bank regarding my refinancing, they said I would only have to pay $400 out of pocket for the application and any other fees and what have you would be wrapped into the loan amount.  The $400 was forked over when I started the process.  The $1340 they wanted from me yesterday could not be covered by the loan because my loan was capped at a certain amount.  This was all news to me and I was furious.  My complaints about them not informing me sooner and of the ridiculousness of a such a large loan not being able to cover $1340 was passed upwards to a manager.  In the end, I was victorious.  I was David.  The bank ate their own fees because the newbie who was my loan facilitator screwed up.  The fact the bank considers $1340 no big deal and can disregard it only proves to me just how greedy the bastards are - I wish I could consider money like that easily disposable. 

I was relieved but still furious.  I hate that anything related to banking has to be so damn complicated.  Two pages of fees, clarifications, and disclaimers and none of is written so a normal human being can understand it.  Yes, I realize I'm using their money, but they don't have be such a-holes about it and squeeze every possible penny out the situation.  I'm glad my lines of credit are few and far between.  I hate being beholden to anyone, especially big corporations.  If I have it my way, it will be cash for everything from here on out.  And I'll be paying my loan off early so the rat bastards get less of their expected interest.  Schmucks.

I'm glad I stood up for myself and complained.  I saved myself $1340.  I'm mad at myself because I expected it all to go so swiftly.  I had faith they meant what they said and I was a fool for doing so.  I should have known better and expected to be swindled.

I did close yesterday.  I was late for work, but it's all done and finalized.  I save some money each month, and more importantly, the loan type has changed.  My principal should start going down considerably now.  Thank goodness!  I look forward to the day I'm completely done with Goliath!!

Mission Santa's Secret Helper is Complete!

Many weeks ago my mom and I were exchanging emails about some random topic I can't even remember.  Then she sends me this message...

"Strangest thing ............ and don't you tell ANYONE!
I was thinking of getting dad a puppy for Christmas."

I'm not sure if she needed convincing at that point or not but I did my dog-loving best to convince her it was a great idea.  I didn't have to ask what kind of puppy.  See, my dad, big teddy bear of a guy that he is, melts when it comes to puppies, especially black labs.  They're HIS thing.  For as long I can remember, black labs were his favorite.  I will never, ever, ever forget the day he got our first black lab, Kodiak.  I vividly remember my brothers and I sitting on the floor around my dad while he had the puppy on his lap.  He said his name would be Kodiak.  I'm pretty sure I asked a dumb question like, "Why are you naming our dog after film?"  Of course, it was Kodiak, as in the type of bear.  He was a sweet dog, but left to the responsibility of three kids, he didn't fare as well as he should have.  He should have been treated like a KING, but took the quiet brunt of many, many daycare kids.  He got a horrible case of cataracts and then had some type of cancer.  After we put him down, it was a while before my dad was open to the idea of another lab.

  

Enter Pebbles.  Pebbles came from the po-dunk mountain town of Walden, Colorado.  Dad said he wanted the fattest female of the litter.  And he got her.  I first met Pebbles when I hopped into the passenger side of my dad's truck after a day of junior high school.  She was as dark as a moonless night and was sporting a hot pink collar.  She became my shadow.  My mom stopped doing daycare while I was in junior high, so I was the first one home in the afternoons and the only one home during the day in the summer.  Pebs and I were buddies.  I taught her a few tricks, but mostly she was just my company.  Even when I started driving, she got to tag along.  We'd go on our car rides up to check the mail in Bellvue.  Me and her.  She loved those short car rides.  I hated going away to college.  It must have crushed her to wonder where I disappeared to for so long at time.  She was always right there to greet me when I came home!  Pebbies got cataracts and her hips got bad, then her kidneys.  Losing Pebbies was tough.  Unbearably rough.  My dad said never again.  He hated to see dogs he loved so much suffer the way old dogs, especially old labs, do.

So when my mom said she was thinking about getting my dad a puppy, I was thrilled.  A new puppy never erases the old.  No dog can ever replace Kodiak or Pebbles, or our other dogs Buttons and Shelby.  But a new dog, at Christmas time, is a new start, a new leaf.  Puppies are hilarious, heart-warming, and more understanding and forgiving than any person you'll ever meet.   So we started keeping our ears and eyes open for available litters.  Then we started looking with a bit more intent.  We had no luck.  I even called around to local vets offices to see if any of them had been seeing and litters.  Nothing.  With a week to spare, my mom checked the Denver paper and the Christmas present started to wrap itself.

Way down in southern Colorado, outside of LaJunta, a man with the last name of Crane had 13 puppies ready for the taking.  A phone call, an email, and a coincidence made today the day for Mission: Santa's Secret Helpers.  

At zero-dark-thirty, Brent woke me up.  I grumbled and tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn't.  It was puppy day!  I bid Brinkley Miles a good day and told him Grandma would be by to check on him and hit the highway for Denver.  I picked up my partner in crime and headed towards Denver West.  We met our awesome Bryn for brunch at Einstein's bagel.  She was awesome to switch her schedule to meet us for brunch instead of lunch which was the original plan.  After bagels, coffee, and hugs, Heidi and I hit the road again.  We along the foothills, by-passing the chaos that is Denver, and reached our not so clandestine meeting spot.  It was here, on E. Arapahoe Rd in the shadows of an ugly brown office building where the drop-off happened...an hour later than planned.  

The man named Crane wouldn't make a good operative.  Heidi and I waited for an hour and half before he arrived.  We watched dozens of cars enter the parking lot and drive by.  With our eagle eyes we watched.  And waited.  And laughed.  We thought of how funny it would be to have a sign on the car that read "Wanted: Old Man with Puppies."  Shortly after that thought, an older man in a red sedan drove slowly past us.  He gave us the creeps.  And both of us let a sigh of relief that wasn't our guy.  Heidi said he looked like a pedophile.  I agreed.  Then another SUV pulled into the parking lot down a slight hill and diagonal from us.  He got out and went around to his side passenger door.  The anticipation built and Heidi said, "Oh, he's got something in his, it looks heavy..."  As he cleared the rear of his car walking in front of us, he swung the rest of his man purse over his shoulder and headed towards the office building.  

With each car that passed we scrutinized it.  Was that a dog?  Did that guy look old? That doesn't look like a farm truck.  We laughed at the thought of a farmer pulling up in a clown car with 13 puppies filing out after him one by one.  But finally, FINALLY, a tan suburban pulled up.  And before we knew another family hopped out to meet the same puppies we were there to meet.  Black and blonde labs crawled all over the grass.  The man named Crane handed me the fattest black female of the litter.

She was reserved, half asleep, and gorgeous.  Absolutely precious.  My dad's heart was going to melt at the thought that this fat little black lab was his.  My mom rocks as SANTA.  And I was more than willing to play Santa's Secret Helper.  I snapped a photo of girl puppy and sent it off to my mom at work.  Girl puppy slept in Heidi's lap all the way back to Heidi's house.  And then she curled up on a blanket in a laundry blasket all the way back to my house.  She's a sweet little thing!!  Her puppy smile is fantastic!!  As soon as my mom saw her, the plans changed.  

I was going to have puppy duty for a day or more.  Not any more.  Another meet up, this time in the dark.  We met a block away from where my dad works and walked into meet him.  I carried the camera.  Mom carried the box...

My dad was surprised.  Probably more surprised than ever before.  It was awesome.  And he's working on naming Girl Puppy.  He's taking suggestions....???

Building a bear and a Christmas card

Last week my mom and I got to have a Moxon day.  We picked up my nephew from preschool and had lunch with my dad at Perkins.  Kids eat free on Tuesday!  From there, our evil plan worked.  Moxon zonked out in the car for an afternoon nap.  After a stop at Auntie Worm's, it was off to the "surprise."  Moxon knew he had a surprise coming and he was ready to find out what it was.  We went to Build-A-Bear Workshop!  I was glad to find out he had never been there before!

Mox decided to build an Abominable Snowman.  He warmed up it's heart and pumped up with strong heart beats.  He was a little unsure at first, but by the time his little guy was stuff and zipped up, he had caught on. 

He loved the washing station.  He grabbed the little brush and went to down washing Bombitable.  Then he learned to push the peddle and air dry his guy off.  From there it was off to the dressing room.  He picked out a Christmas tshirt, jeans, and boots for Bombitable.

Once his guy was all dolled up, he helped me and Grandma stuff, wash, and dress our guys.  He did a great job!  Check him out working the peddle, and don't forget the tongue action while washing!

It was so much fun!  And he just lit up like a Christmas tree and starting talking fast than his tongue could keep up once he caught on to everything!  Auntie Worm and Grandma may have had more fun than Moxon.

After an exciting new adventure, Auntie Worm got to put Moxon to bed in his own bed.  An hour of reading didn't tire his will to go back downstairs to play.  He finally crashed with Bombitable by his side.  It was a wonderful day and I can't wait for the next time I get a Moxon day!

In addition to building a Rudolph last week, I always started building our Christmas card.  This involved a photo shoot with Mr. Brinkley Miles!  He wasn't nearly as amused as I was to be creating our holiday masterpiece.  Here are some snippets...

I LOVE MY DOG!! Only seven days until Christmas!!!!

I need snow.

One week to go before the jolly old guy in the red suit comes down the chimney.  I don't have a chimney.  Do you think a have time to build one?  I guess he'll just pop out of a vent or something like he does in The Santa Clause.   I'm sooooo very close to being done with my shopping.  I'll be out with the crazies on Sunday finishing up all of my shopping...not looking forward to that part of my weekend.

I have no wrapping done either.  Not sure why.  Laziness, I suppose.  The tree looks kind of silly without any gifts underneath it.  Maybe I'll work on that this morning before I start getting ready for work.  Today's a real Friday for me.  I won't be working on the street tomorrow!!  I will be taking a First Aid and CPR class and that's my work day!  I get to start my weekend early and actually have a Saturday night off!  

As much as I'm willing the snow to come, I don't think it will be a white Christmas around these parts.  I checked the extended forecast and it's likely to be in the high 40s.  That's sad.  I want snow for Christmas!! I have a feeling we are going to get buried by snow before this winter is over - something along the lines of the 2003 blizzard would be fine by me.  As long as I'm stocked cat food and baking supplies, I'd be perfectly content being "stuck" in my home for a few days.

I don't feel like I've had to hunker down at all for winter, which just doesn't feel quite right.  I like the thought of it being cold and snowy outside.  I like staring out the window at the blowing snow and watching the world slow down for Mother Nature.  While I hate being OUT in the bitter cold, shoveling the walk and scraping windows, I love being stuck inside.  It's like hibernation - a perfect time for resting for the wonders of spring.  Winter is that moment where I slow down and contemplate where I've been through the year and where I want to go next year.  I've had no major revelations yet.  I need snow.

December randomness

    

I'm breezing through books these days.  A couple hours of reading every night and a little here and there in the morning and I've knocked off four more books and a third of another.  I told you to check out Joanne Fluke.  Considering I've read four of her books in the last two weeks, I'd consider that a hearty recommendation.  I also tried one of the recipes listed in her books.  I can't remember which book but it was for Minty Melts.  Brent thinks they tasted like fortune cookies.  The flavor was a bit bland and they weren't as red as I think they should have been.  Next time, I'll add more food coloring, peppermint extract, and flour so they are not so flat.  They were more of Dunkers than soft minty melts like I expected.  It's definitely a recipe to tinker with!  And tinker, I shall!

I'm gearing up for another day of baking today.  I'm going to try my hand at chocolate fudge and pumpkin bread.  I'm thinking I'll take treats into work this week rather than next week when the sugar/treat overload of Christmas really happens.  One more week and I'll be ready for snow!  It doesn't quite feel like Christmastime around these parts without snow.  Or even frost on the windows...although, I'm sure there has been frost on the windows, I've just sleep right through that part of the day!

I'll be doing some random photography this month.  I unofficially signed up for a December photo scavenger hunt via a blog I follow.  Throughout December, I'll be hunting for photos to take for each of the items/ideas on the list.

The List: 

1.  Water

2. Angel

3. Architectural Detail

4. Shoes

5. Something yellow

6. Your favorite beverage

7. Something taller than you

8. Bokeh with Christmas lights

9. Bubble

10. Pickle

11. Heirloom

12. Your refrigerator

13. Chocolate

14. Candid

15. Music

16. Produce

17. Key

18. Board Game

19. Candle

20. Fuzzy

This is my first scavenger hunt.  They are designed to make amateur photographers seek out things they don't normally look for and try out new skills and improve overall.  In January, I'll post one photo for each thing on the list.  So you better stay tuned if you want to know what Bokeh with Christmas Lights means!

It should be a great day in my little neighborhood.  Me, Brink, and Milo will make the most of it, I'm sure!  

A little dessert with your murder mystery?

I've discovered a new genre of fiction.  It's been labelled many things but culinary mystery is the one I like the most.  In one book, you get a mystery with a strong undercurrent of food.  The build-up of the mystery, the investigating and unraveling, and the final solution all are done in the presence of food...the cooking and baking of it, the eating of it, and the serving of it.  Sounds odd, right?  It is.  But don't knock a culinary mystery until you try one.

I just finished reading Cherry Cheesecake Murder by Joanne Fluke and I loved it!  LOVED it!!  I can't wait to read all of her other books and bake some of the recipes from the book.  General plot...Hannah owns The Cookie Jar, which is (duh!) a cookie shop in a Lake Eden, Minnesota.  She's also an amateur sleuth when murders happen in and around Lake Eden.  The murder mystery unravels through her daily life, which includes baking cookies!  And she describes what goodies she's baking or catering while each piece of puzzle unravels.  For example, in Cherry Cheesecake Murder Hannah is tasked with making cheery cheesecake for a movie director who is in town using Lake Eden as the backdrop for his movie.  Hannah describes cheesecakes and varieties and gets down to the bottom of what the director's favorite type of cheesecake is.  Between chapters is Hannah's recipe...for the reader to make along with her!  Later in the story, she's then tasked with making mini cherry cheesecakes for the movie premiere, and the recipe follows.

The cast and crew use The Cookie Jar as a gathering place.  Hannah tries out different cookie recipes on them and of course, tests them herself.  She's as much of a coffee addict as I am.  She calls it Swedish plasma...that makes me smile.  Anywho, enough rambling...my point, this genre is awesome.  A great story intermixed with baking tips and recipes.  Both leave your mouth watering for more!  I'm not returning the books until I get the recipes written down.

I started another Fluke novel last night.  Cream Puff Murder has quickly captured my attention and I've already added Pistachio Winks to my list of recipes to try.  I spent some time online browsing other authors who have taken on the culinary mystery genre and was surprised to find a lot of other series.  I've seen deli, donut shop, and coffee shop series.  I even saw a flower shop series... Mum's the Word, Snipped in the Bud.  HA!

I feel like a whole new world has opened up to me!  I highly recommend giving Fluke a try.  Or a taste!  I'm sure this won't be the last you hear of her and others on this blog!

Oh, and Happy December!