Amazing Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mine was fantastic-filled with food, family, fun and one annoying dog named Jim Bob (more on that in a minute). I'm home now after nearly a week in my home town of Salem, Mo. The week went by in a blur, but I'll try to capture some of the highlights.

On Tuesday night, we decided to have family movie night. To preface this story, I must tell you that Salem does not have a movie theater (it's THAT small). So, in order to have said family movie night, we had to drive to the next town over, Rolla (about 30 miles away). My parents never go to the movies, so it was a nice treat to have them come along. The plan was for my brother and I to see New Moon and my parents were going to see The Blind Side. Well, turns out, there was only 1 ticket for New Moon left, so all four of us saw The Blind Side. Let me just say, I pretty much cried the whole time. I'm a sucker for a feel good movie. It actually was really good, I recommend it! I ended up seeing New Moon later in the week and liked it too....although I feel dirty thinking that 17 year old werewolf is hot...........

On Wednesday, we waited anxiously all day for my sis, brother-in-law and niece to arrive...they got in around 10pm, baby Kendall was fast asleep, but just seeing her was enough. My brother, who hadn't seen her since her baptism in July said "she's huge!". :)

Thanksgiving Day started early. We were all up early to see the baby and play with her (even my brother who is never up before 11am if he can at all help it). She is SO freakin cute it's almost unfair to other babies out there. Coupled with a sweet personality and other kids just don't have a chance. We left Grandma and Grandpa Davidson to babysit, and my brother, sister, brother-in-law and myself went to town to.......run a 5k. Yes, sounds insane, I know. My parents church hosted the 1st Annual Turkey Trot, so knowing running 3.12 miles would ease our guilt from stuffing our faces, we decided to go. Now, I do a 5k on the treadmill 3-4 days a week, so endurance-wise, this thing should have been no problem, right? Wrong. This 5k SUCKED. It was freezing for one thing. And very windy. And mostly uphill. I think at one point I threatened to cry. My amazing brother, however, wouldn't let me quit and even though we came in dead last, we finished it. After that, the eating began.

We mostly spent time with Kendall (pics below), and soaked up the time we had with her and my sis and bro-in-law. On Friday, my sis, bro-in-law and Kendall had to leave, but as they were leaving, my Aunt Mary and cousin Rachel arrived. Sad to see the first three go, we were also happy to see my aunt and cousin. Yesterday, my Aunt Paula also came down. We hung out with the dogs a lot, who LOVED the attention. Although we had a somewhat unwelcome guest for most of the week....the neighbor's dog Jim Bob. Seems Jim Bob likes my parents house, I'm guessing so he can play with my parents dogs, Stubby and Hank, although I don't know why. Stubby hates him and pretty much ignores him and Hank, well, Hank likes him a little too much.....uhm, yea, seems Hank the Tank thinks humping poor Jim Bob is an acceptable thing to do...over, and over, and over again. I'm not sure what the doggie child rape laws are, but Jim Bob is just a puppy........ewwwwww. We went "shopping"...(in Salem, "shopping" means these weird little craft-like stores "downtown" and....Wal-Mart), and then just kinda hung out talking and laughing. I can be doing absolutely nothing at all, but as long as it's with my family, I don't mind. I love them all so much!

Oh, oh, OH! I almost forgot to tell you about the part where my brother nearly got stampeded by a herd of cows! True story. So, all of us decided to take a walk (down the county road and back is two miles...gotta work off all the crap we'd eaten!), and by all of us, I mean my family and the dogs (including the neighbor dog, Jim Bob and my Aunt Mary's dog, Sophia). The dogs (particularly my parents two morons) like to run off in the fields, chasing things and whatnot, and little miss Stubby ran into a giant brush pile and didn't come out. Thinking she may be stuck or hurt, my brother hopped the barbed wire fence and went to check on her. Several minutes went by, we stood on the road waiting to see if her dumb ass was gonna appear. When suddenly we all begin yelling at once "Tim, the cows are coming!". Seems the cows did not like this human stranger being in their field and they were coming after my brother! Once he figured out what we were yelling (and saw the cows for himself), he began running toward the fence. In his rush for safety, he apparently got his shirt stuck on the fence, and also got stabbed by the barbed wire, leaving quite the gash in his leg (complete with a blood soaked sock...awesome). We got him home, and debated going to the ER for a tetanus shot, but then decided that if his leg was still attached in the morning, then he'd probably be fine (and he is). This only happens in the country, folks.

I'm back at home in the STL now which sucks, but I looked at the calendar and it's only 20 more days until I see my family again. That's what will give me the energy to get up tomorrow and face another day at work. Enjoy the pics below, you know I can't help but brag on that niece of mine!

Look how big she's gotten! She is such a big girl now. She hasn't started crawling yet, but she can roll around the room like no one's business. While in Salem, she learned how to wave, and particularly liked to wave at her Grandpa Davidson. I think her First Thanksgiving was a good one, and I'm so happy we could be there to share it with her.Here's Kendall doing what naughty babies do best, messing with the Christmas tree.......and playing with her toys.This is my dad, Kendall's grandpa, teaching her how to do sit ups. I've never seen my father be so sappy before. But if Kendall's around, forget about it. He's a sucker for that baby girl!Here's my beautiful sis and her beautiful baby.

Aunt Kerri with the munchkin. My head looks weird, but the kid looks cute...Love this pic of Kendall and her daddy and Uncle Tim. She's got them wrapped around her chubby little fingers.Kendall playing with the stuffed moose I gave her. We named him Marty.

Family pic time! This is me, my sister Kristy and my mom with baby Kendall.

The boys turn! Here's my brother Tim, brother-in-law Jon and my daddy with Miss Kendall.The WAY adorable Baumgart family.She loves to stand and is really strong! We think she may just skip crawling and go right on into walking....PARTY PIC! Never mind that this was taken first thing in the morning and Aunt Kerri looks like a hot mess.....Look at those stunning blue eyes!Kendall LOVED watching the dogs. She would belly laugh at their antics. They are pretty funny...........

Happy 59th Birthday to my Daddy!

Just wanted to make sure to publicly wish my dad a happy birthday today (although he didn't want to acknowledge it). I love my dad soooo much. Even though I'm 33 years old, I still believe my daddy knows everything, can do anything and could protect me from anything. I guess he's sorta my hero. I don't know if he knows how much I love and appreciate him....but I do.

So, hope your day was a good one dad. You got to see me, so that must have been awesome for you. ;) I'll see you again soon.


Love,

Kerri

KD's Annual Thanksgiving Message

2009. Where did the year go? I mean, seriously? It's true what they say, the older you get, the faster time goes by. Make it stop.


2009 has been an interesting year. Full of highs, had some lows, but mostly I can chalk it up to a year that's not too bad.


The highest of highs was the birth of my sweet little niece Kendall in April. That child has been such an amazing gift-I'm truly grateful every single day that she's in our lives. I can't imagine life without her. Yes, it's safe to say I'm one proud auntie. It doesn't hurt that she's absolutely gorgeous as well. ;) Just thinking about her makes me tear up...I'm not sure I've ever loved something so much.


This may seem like a surprise but I'm thankful for the "friend" who betrayed me a few months ago-Im sure y'all remember, I was quite upset about it and wrote an anger-filled post regarding the situation. The reason I want to thank her for is ths-after I got over the hurt and the anger (and the urge to bitch slap her in the face), I started evaluating my own behavior, and how I am to others. And since then, I have made a conscious effort to be a nicer person, I think about the things I say before I say them and in the end, I've become a much happier person. I'm proud to say I was able to take something negative and make it into a positive. So, to You Know Who You Are (and probably still stalk my blog), thanks for being such a bitch, because now I'm less of one. Oh and one more thing....I don't miss you.

I'm thankful for my REAL friends, my amazing family-especially my parents. I often feel I don't deserve them. They are amazing and I have no idea what I'd do without them. I'm thankful that I have such a good relationship with my siblings (including my awesome brother-in-law) and I'm thankful that God has given me another year with my Grandpa (and hopefully many more).

I am a very lucky girl. I love you all. Happy Thanksgiving!

Vaca update

Hmmm, let's see, what have I done since I last went to work? Well, last Friday I slept in, stayed in my pajamas all day and didn't leave the house. On Saturday I felt a bit guilty about my laziness, so I went to the park and ran four miles. After that, I decided to be social and, since I had double booked myself, made appearances at two separate events (it's really hard being this popular). The second event was meeting for drinks and watching the Blues game (they won, yay!) and then going to OB Clark's to stalk Blues players, which is quickly becoming our Saturday night past time. Sadly, it was a bit of a blah night as far as seeing current players goes, BUT, we did see Kelly Chase (again) and Bob Plager, who is really old.

On Sunday, I went to church, hung out with Grandpa (who was in a sappy mood for some reason), went to Job #1 to survey the moving damage and to set up my cubicle (I didn't want to come back to a mess next week when I eventually return to work), went to Job #2 for a whopping two hours (I'm a giver, what can I say?) and then home.

Today so far, I endured the dentist. He and I had a frank discussion about my dislike for him and his entire profession-I asked that he not take it personally. He assured me he doesn't. Then we agreed that for all parties involved it would be best if I come high on Ativan next time I am a guest at his office. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

I'm now in Salem, my hometown, thus far I've had lunch with my mom and helped my dad hang the outside Christmas lights on the house. I also fed the dogs and took care of my farm on Farmville. I'm a busy girl. I'm meeting my mom up at the high school track around five and I'm making her run with me-that should be fun. :)

I get to see my precious niece in TWO days!

More updates to follow....

LMAO

Tim Lincecum won the NL Cy Young award for this year-congrats to him, he's awesome and deserves it----even if he does smoke a doobie every now and then...


What's funny is that, around here in the STL, the buzz has been about whether or not the winner would be Chris Carpenter or Adam Wainwright. No other person was even considered for the award-at least not here in St. Louis. Nope, it was pretty clear it was either gonna be Carp or Wainwright.....so, imagine my level of entertainment when I read today that it was neither of them.

Tee hee hee. ;)

Old men in long underwear

It's Old Newsboys Day today. Don't know what that is? Well, basically, people stand out on a street corner in freezing November and sell special editions of the Suburban Journal and the money goes to benefit underprivileged kids. I know this because my nearly 82 year old grandpa is one of those people that stands outside every year (catch him near the intersection of Hwy 270 and the Washington/Elizabeth exit!). So, since this is something that is important to Gramps, I decided to go ahead and give a couple bucks (generous, I know) to this little old guy standing on my street. He was, at a minimum, 90 years old and cute as a button! Before I drove away, thinking I was being polite, I said "stay warm!" and this little old guys says "Oh, I will, I've got my long underwear on". Uhm....TMI old guy. TMI. I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that, so I just wished him a good day and drove off. Wow.

So, tomorrow is Moving Day at work. You should see this office right now. Two words-Hot Mess. The beauty of Moving Day being tomorrow is that I don't have to deal with it. Yes, friends, after tonight at 8:30pm this girl is ON VACATION. Hot damn, it couldn't come a moment too soon. I don't have to be back at work until November 30. Yay for me! You may be asking yourself what I'm gonna be doing on my extended vaca. Well, I'll tell you, some VERY exciting stuff. Tomorrow I will be sleeping in and playing Farmville on Facebook all day. Possibly seeing New Moon that night. Saturday, probably some more sleeping in, then doing some Blues stalking later in the night. Sunday, church followed by a short shift at the crisis line. Monday, I get to go to my favoritest place on Earth...it's better than Disneyland....and that place is...THE DENTIST. Valium please. After my trip to hell, er, um, I mean the dentist, I am off to Salem where I will remain until the following Sunday. God bless my parents for putting up with me for that long. I'm sure my mom will put me to work and on Wednesday, I'll have to supervise my dad and brother putting up the Christmas tree (family tradition). I plan to see some old friends while down there as well. I can't wait.

Also, dear faithful readers, be on the lookout for my annual KD's Thanksgiving Message. This years edition is gonna be a good one, already working on the rough draft. ;)

Boom de ah da

Ok, I admit it looks a little suspicious, but I swear, everything is on the up and up. I mean sure, I have a baggie full of white pills on my desk, but as far as you know they are nothing more than ibuprofen. Got it? That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Dancing With The Stars update-so glad that personality-less Playboy model Joanna Krupa got the boot last night. No, I'm not ragging on her because she's a supermodel, I'm ragging on her because she had no personality and was kinda hateful. I mean, I'm kinda hateful too, but you don't see me on national television, now do you? So, so, SO happy Kelly Osbourne made it to the finals! I gotta say, before DWTS, I wasn't a Kelly Osbourne fan per se, I mean, I didn't dislike her or anything but I wasn't really a fan either. Since DWTS, I have fallen in love with Kelly Osbourne. She's just so darn cute and I'm telling you, she made me cry EVERY.SINGLE.EPISODE. It seems the world has embraced her, myself included. Maybe it was seeing Ozzy crying in the audience that did it for me, I don't know. Her competition is Donny Osmond (someone I didn't want to like but now I kinda do, even if he is freakishly happy ALL.THE.TIME) and Mya.

This day has driven me to eat M&M's, thought you should know. Uhm, and you know I work in MENTAL HEALTH, right? So, why did this reviewer from a PSYCH hospital ask me to authorize another inpatient mental health day because the doctor had decreased the patient's zithromax? Last time I checked, zithromax was a mother effin ANTIBIOTIC. Really? Did you really just ask me to authorize that? Does she not know my tolerance for stupid is low? Is she getting the day? Hell to the no Bobby Brown, she is not. My boss gave me permission to drive to Nashville and smack her. And to send the case for a peer review. Done and done.

Oh, and DJT is THE DEVIL. And he knows why. ;)

Practice Thanksgiving

OMG, we are having food day at work today and it's a Thanksgiving theme. I think I've already eaten my weight in green bean casserole. Ugh, I feel the bloat already. This is gonna cost me double time in the gym tonight. I figure this is just a trial run for next week.

I mean seriously, we have potato casserole, mac and cheese, two kinds of green bean casserole (my boss and I are having a green bean casserole face off. I'm fairly certain I won. It's the extra crunchy onions that did it), breads, turkey, chili, stuffing, and like 5 different desserts. Oh, and egg nog-but not the good kind, you know, with alcohol. We scoffed at the lady that brought the fresh fruit and veggies-healthy crap? Get that stuff outta here! This is Thanksgiving dammit! There's no room for healthy here (I say this as my pants are getting tighter and tighter by the minute).

So, as you've heard me bitch about before, I sit right next to the doctors at work (only two more days of that nonsense then we move buildings where I don't have to sit by them anymore!). Well, I put my plate down on my desk and went to get a napkin. My plate was gone when I came back and all four docs were standing around. My first response? "Which one of you guys did it?". I then blamed Dr. B who sits right by me and is typically a little ornery. He faked shock at me accusing him first then said typically I'd be right, but not this time. Turns out, our frickin Medical Director, Dr. V (who I like to call Dr. Annoying) was the culprit, which meant, not only did I have to talk to him (I try to avoid that at all costs unless I want a diatribe about his son's soccer games for the next hour-no thank you), but that he had come into close contact with my food. Not sure how I feel about that. Although it did not stop me from eating it.

I am in carb heaven right now. It may be hell later after it digests, but for now? Heaven.

There is nothing creepy about stalking professional athletes....

Did everyone have a good weekend? Mine was splendid, thanks for asking. I was actually quite busy and left the house a lot-a far departure from my typical sleep-in-stay-in-my-jammies-all-day-and-not-wear-makeup-for-48-hours weekend.

On Friday, I worked at my part-time job until 8:30 and then met up with my friends Val and Robin and..........my precious Mikey Poo!!!! I haven't seen him since he left UBH to go to that other company. Oh how I've missed my boo. We had a fun night, pics are up on Facebook, no need to put pics of drag queens on my blog-right? This is a family show. Anyhoo, got home around 2-ish and had to be at Dobbs by 7-ish to get new tires. Needless to say, I was quite sleepy and looked like a hot mess, so, of course, I would run into someone I know, right? Right. I ran into a co-worker, I chatted with him but didn't make eye contact. I'm ok with strangers seeing me look rough, but not people I know. Yikes. Anyway, so now I have two new tires-amazing how well your car stops and starts when your tires have tread on them. Go figure.

Around mid-day on Saturday I met my Aunt Jan, Aunt Cheryl, Aunt Mary and cousin Rachel for brunch at First Watch (breakfast all day-yum!) and ran into my friends Freida and Judy there (I was still looking rough, but a little less so). Good times were had by all. The afternoon was spent running errands, taking a nap and then getting ready to head out to the hockey game.

So, I went to the Blues game with my friends Tanya and Allison (T&A for short).....and Allison's dad. OMG, he is awesome. It was like hanging out with my Grandpa-Allison's dad is not that much younger than gramps. I'm sure he thought he was cool hanging out with us three ladies. Tanya scored us awesome seats, not far from the ice, and almost within spitting distance of Blues goalie Chris Mason (I heart him). The first period was awesome-lots of fights and the Blues actually scored. The game pretty much went downhill from there, but we still had fun. Afterwards, us girls went to the hockey hangout, OB Clarks and prepared ourselves to run into some Blues. The night did not disappoint. We first saw former Blue Kelly Chase (who now does radio), and some Blues player with a broken arm that we didn't recognize (turns out it was Alexander Steen-who knew. According to Allison he "looks Russian...or Slavic". No stereotyping there.). ;) Later we got to see the creme de la creme, TJ Oshie, who, along with Chris Mason, is my favorite Blue. I'll post pics when I get home tonight-yes, we were those people that took pics of them. Hey, at least I didn't ask any of them to sign my boobs with a sharpie. Just sayin.

So, this Canadian I know suggested I start a tally sheet of all the Blues players I encounter out in public (the goal is to see all of them at least once). I may do that, but for now, here's the list of players I've seen there:

Chris Mason (HOT in person)
Ty Conklin (also HOT in person)
BJ Crombeen (sorta HOT in person)
Alexander Steen (not HOT in person)
Kelly Chase (never was HOT)
TJ Oshie (looks 12 so gets to be adorable, not HOT)

And from last season:
Keith Tkachuk (only hot when he has his teeth in)
Erik Johnson (so not hot)

The list is growing my friends. Growing indeed. Oh, and it should be noted that Kelly Chase stepped on Tanya's foot, so we'll be preparing the lawsuit any day now.

KD strikes again

Breaking news: I just accidentally hit myself in the eye with my headset at work. The same eye I had an infection in a couple of weeks ago. More to come on this late breaking story......

Happy Veteran's Day!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Veteran's Day-to all military personnel past and present. In particular, I want to honor my Grandpa-who served in the Army and the Korean War, my daddy who also served in the Army and the Vietnam War, and to my cousins Clint and Ben, who are currently in the Marines and Air Force, respectively. I'm very proud of them, and any vet who has served our country......so I don't have to. :)

Uhm.....what?

On the left, what Sammy Sosa used to look like. On the right? What he looks like today. Seems good ol Sammy "Corked Bat" Sosa claims he's been using a facial cream from Europe (but of course! Aren't they always from "Europe"?) that subsequently lightened his skin. He claims it was an accident. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't his eyes lighter too? Whatever the case, he looks freaky weird now and I'm pretty sure I may have nightmares about that tonight. Yikes.

Happy 7 month birthday, Kendall Alyson!

My sweet, beautiful niece is 7 months old today! I can't believe it. Next thing you know we'll be planning our trip to Texas for her first birthday. I love watching her learn new things but I hate that she's getting big so fast! I can't wait to see her Thanksgiving week....only about 2.5 more weeks!

Aunt Kerri loves you bunches Kendall!

I ran five miles today, just wanted to let you know.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go pass out now.

Have a holly jolly Christmas?

The local lite rock radio station here in the STL, 102.5 KEZK, has started playing Christmas music.......24/7. Uhm, really? It's the first week of November. Are you sure Christmas music 24/7 is necessary at this point in time? Thanks to KEZK, I now have "Please Come Home for Christmas" by Don Henley in my head. Awesome. And while I'm on the subject, don't you think "Frosty the Snowman" is a bit too traumatic for children? I mean, he MELTS for God's sake. Remember on the cartoon when he keeps saying "Happy Birthday"? I know know why, but that keeps running through my head (along with Don Henley).

TGIF and all, but seriously, I do believe EVERYONE in the state of Tennessee with United Healthcare insurance was hospitalized either on a psych unit or detox unit last night because my caseload is OUT OF CONTROL today. Yikes. So, while I'm glad it's Friday, I must first get through this crazy busy day at Job #1 and then work 4.5 hours at Job #2. My life is awesome.

Merry Christmas. And Happy Birthday.

New Kendall pics! Nearly 7 months old!

Who's the cutest little penguin ever? Kendall B. is! This was her WAY too cute Halloween costume for this year. Love it. Look, you can see her two little teeth on the bottom!


A great pic of the Baumgart fam. I love those people.

SO cute. A little punkin sitting amongst the other punkins. And the baby jeans, how cute are the baby jeans?????

Kendall getting ready for her 6 month portraits.

Kendall's pensive look........

Kendall started swimming lessons when she turned 6 months old. She LOVES it, gonna be a water baby like her daddy!

Just doing a little light reading before bed....

Blah, blah, the Yankees won the World Series, blabity, blah, blah, blah......

I'm only gonna address this once and then we're moving on, k? The mo fo New York Yankees won the World Series last night. For the 27th effing time. Ya-freakin-hoo. I hate them all except for Joe Girardi (and is it just me, or is he starting to look like Skeletor?). I particularly hate Kate Hudson. Now, I realize she is not technically on the Yankees, but she's dating A-Rod (have you heard???) and for every effing game, they showed her in the crowd at least 27 times. QUITE annoying. Hey, remember when the Cubs passed over Joe Girardi to hire Lou Piniella instead? Guess who just won the World Series??? Just sayin. So, here we sit, baseball is officially over for 2009. We must sit through the "other" sports until our boys of summer come back next spring. I can't even watch Blues hockey because every effing game is blacked out (GFY Dish Network). But I'm not bitter. Speaking of hockey, going to the game next Saturday....14 rows off the ice. Nice. Now, before you say, how can she afford that, let me tell you how-StubHub. GREAT deals on tickets, just sayin.

Now on to random things, last night as I was driving home from work, I saw a bumper sticker that said "I'm only speeding because I really have to poop". Nice, huh? Even better? It was on a mini-van. Wow.

I think I have my first real workout injury. I was running on the treadmill last night and I periodically kept having a cramp-like pain shooting up my left leg. I tried to ignore it (no pain, no gain, right?) but the more I ran the more it hurt. I hopped off the treadmill and tried to stretch it out but it was still a'hurtin. It's ok to walk on this morning, but I'm thinking I should probably take a day off from running. I love old age.

So, I did end up getting my hair chopped off. Six inches, gone. Love it. It's now shoulder length-ish. I have had SO many compliments on it and one of the docs at work told me it made me look younger (a girl ALWAYS likes that compliment). He is also kinda a creepy pervy perverson, so I'm not sure how I feel about his compliments (we call him Dr. Pimp behind his back. For good reason.).

I am soooooooooooo ready for Thanksgiving. Not only is it my favorite holiday because it's the only one we spend in Salem, but I also have the Friday before and the entire week of Thanksgiving off. Yesssssssssss! On top of that, I'll get to see my precious baby girl! I haven't seen her since the end of September and she has changed so much since then! I also can't wait to see my sis and brother-in-law.

After having listened to the new Weezer CD several times now, I can tell you I like it more and more each time. I can do without the weird slow song with the sitar and the lady singing in the background, but other than that, the songs are pretty good. Now, if they would just go on tour again, complete with a stop in the STL............

KD's review of the new Weezer CD "Raditude"

The album cover alone should entice you to listen to this CD....

Everyone who knows anything about me knows I'm a HUGE Weezer fan. I have been ever since "Buddy Holly" and the Blue Album came out in 1994 (that's 15 years for anyone who's counting). I've even seen them perform in another country, for God's sake (I've seen them live five times total). I have very fond memories of the first two albums (for any Weezer purist, you will agree that Pinkerton is their greatest CD. Maybe one of the greatest CD's EVER by ANYONE, but I digress....), they came out during my college years, and most of my friends dug them too. Those two albums were in constant play. They took a bit of a hiatus after 1996 so that lead singer Rivers Cuomo could finish his degree at Harvard, but came back 2001-ish and have been around ever since.

Raditude is Album #7 and in all fairness, really can't be compared to the previous six. And I'll tell you why. Raditude is a POP album. I'm not saying that's bad, just different. Truth is, after a couple times listening to it all the way through I must say, for the most part, I totally dig it. Sure, there are a couple of songs I could do without, but most of them are fun, catchy and will most certainly get stuck in your head (much like Ricky Martin's "Shake Your Bon Bon"...right Rob???). The first single "If You're Wondering If I Want You To (I Want You To)" is, in a word, FANTASTIC. And if you haven't seen the video, I demand you go to YouTube right this minute and watch it-it is HILARIOUS (in true Weezer fashion).

Many die-hard Weezer fans will probably hate this album. I am not one of them. What you need to remember is, if you know anything about this band, you will know that many of their songs are silly and sarcastic. They don't take themselves too seriously, and you shouldn't either. I mean, on Raditude, they collaborate with Jermaine Dupre and Lil Wayne for God's sake, and that, my friends, is good times right there.

I feel like I am best friends with them because I met them at Sea-Tac airport in Seattle last year-true story. Ok, well, I met half of them-Pat, the drummer and Scott, the bassist. Couldn't have been nicer guys, and were also quite funny. I didn't get a pic to document this momentous occasion of me meeting half of my favoritest band ever (I didn't want to be THAT fan, ya know?), but I will never forget it as long as I live. And, as long as I live, I will most likely love every CD they make, no matter how cheezy.

Confessions of an idiot

I need help.

I recently developed an obsession with red grapefruit (????). There's only one problem----I don't know how to eat it. I know, I know, those that know me well are currently shaking their heads and wondering when my room at the group home will be ready, but I really don't know how to eat it.

I bought some fresh red grapefruit at the grocery store last night and brought one in to work today to eat. I cut it in half as I've seen other people do and brought it back to my desk. Now, let me provide you with a visual-my desk currently looks like I'm about to do surgery. I have a bowl, a plastic fork, a real fork and a real spoon, several paper towels and, of course, the grapefruit. Here is what has happened so far-I have grapefruit juice all over me and all over my desk. Digging the grapefruit out with a fork doesn't seem to be working, nor does the spoon option help.

So, I ask you, how in the HELL does one eat fresh grapefruit????? Do I need to peel the outside off? Do I need someone to do it for me? What????

I need rehab....STAT

I can't stop. I can't stop eating the caramel apple candy corn. I'm pretty sure it has crack cocaine in it. I have a bag of it sitting on my desk right in front of me, taunting me, daring me to eat the rest of it. Even though I have a tummy ache now, I still can't stop. I am powerless against it. I'm gonna need to get a hold of a Where and When and find out where the closest CA (Candy Anonymous) is located. I can't stop on my own and I fear I'll have withdrawal symptoms if I stop cold turkey.

Halloween Fun!

my brother being freaky weird
the back of my mom's car for Trunk or Treat
me being the candy gobblin....

me and my brother
my brother and mom
John and Linda Maledy's car
some folks went all out with their decorations

lovely halloween scene....on a church parking lot
the thing in yellow next to my brother is NOT a real person. Looks like it though, doesn't it? It was freaking me out.

My parents church hosted Trunk or Treat on Halloween night. The premise is that you decorate the "trunk" of your cars and give out candy. Supposed to be a safer alternative than letting your little ghosts and goblins walk the streets. Especially the mean streets of Salem, Mo. It was actually a lot of fun-approximately 2,300 people were there. That's a lot of frickin candy to hand out, but it was really fun-the kids were so cute. My brother and I, and his friend Travis helped my mom out. Tim and Travis entertained us all night-who knew they were so funny?

The one thing I will point out (God don't hate me for being judgemental) is that, I swear to you, I have never seen more people with missing teeth in my life, and no, it was not part of any costume. I mean, I realize Dent County isn't the richest of areas, but come on!

Missing teeth and all, it was still a fun night....I'll probably do it again next year. The kids were just too cute-even the little monster that sassed me. He was probably 7 or 8 and was wearing an Incredible Hulk costume. Me, thinking I was being funny (my first mistake) asked him if the muscles built into the costume were real. This kid looked at me like I was the biggest retard and said "it's just a costume, it's not real". I half expected him to say "DUH", but he didn't. The rest of the kids were polite, but I tell ya, if I ever see that little hellion again...........