Friends in low places

Leave it to my dear, darling friend Canada to remind me of the Golden Clipboard. I didn't really believe it-it was all Christi!!!!!!! Let me tell you the story (Canada, not sure I remember it clearly, you may have to clarify).

Canada someone managed to convince Christi (not me, I swear) that George Brett (of Royal's fame, don't you know) had once won the Golden Clipboard award. Now, of course there is no such thing, but Christi also thought those little green things on the ground were apples, when they were, in fact, walnuts. God love her.

Canada-do you remember all the horrible things you used to do our stuffed animals? Once, I found my stuffed frog named Herman hanging from a rope in Canada's room. Another time, he put my stuffed dolphin in a plastic bad and tried to flush him down the toilet. He did some other vile things, I just can't remember them right now........Canada, you're lucky you're cute mister, or I may have had to kill ya!

P.S. Don't forget STEAMROLLER. My sister still talks about that....

moving in the snow

I'm not sure how fun moving in the snow is gonna be...unfortuntely we have no choice but to find out. I took more things over today, trying to get as much of the little stuff into my Crapalier as I can. I stocked the kitchen with goodies for my "movers", plenty of soda, water and snacks for everyone. I am so excited to be back to living by myself. Not that I haven't loved living with my sister (and Jon!), but it is time. I can't wait to decorate the place with my own, um....unique style!

Today, I threw up my lunch. Oh yea, this is a good story...Chloe decided it would be fun to both crap and pee in the basement-AGAIN! Well, someone had to clean the shit up. I was that someone. I went down, pooper scooper in hand, and stood over the pile of dog crap. I was holding my nose, thinking that as long as I didn't have to smell it, I would be ok. Wrong. The dog crap smeared all over the floor and, well, I lost it. Thank God I had a Schnucks shopping bag with me because I had to throw up in it. At least now I have room for dinner.......

Woo hoo! Weezer scored a Grammy nomination!

About damn time the general public realized what a great band Weezer is! They have been nominated for Best Rock Song for "Beverly Hills" (in my opinion the worst song on the CD, but still a good song, and clearly a commercial hit). I'm sure Rivers is out meditating right now and probably could care less that they were nominated, but I still think its awesome! They are up against Foo Fighters, U2, Coldplay and.....Bruce Springsteen? Did he have an album out? Isn't he like 107 years old? The Foo Fighters song "Best of You" was certainly fabulous and will be some stiff competition, and everyone who thinks they are cool loves Coldplay (for the life of me, I cannot figure out why). U2 is a perrenial favorite just because, they too, are nearly 107 years old and never seem to go away. I don't know if the super rock nerds Weezer will pull it off, but they surely have my vote! RWA!

Chloe likes snow......a lot.

Ok, so,I awoke to a couple of inches of snow today (guess Kansas City wasn't making it up after all-so sorry I doubted the Community Mental Health Center that closed at like 3:30 and sent us their phone lines yesterday). My first thought? This will be interesting, taking Chloe out to go potty in the snow. Chloe has never seen snow. We estimate she was born around April, so, this should be fun. So, I got all bundled up first and got Chloe's leash on her. As soon as I opened the front door, she stopped and stared. What is that stuff on the ground? Once she put her paws on the ground, she was hooked, like a crack whore in a crack house. We walked to her usual potty place on the side of the condo, I typically will let her leash go because she likes to trot around there and pick up sticks and dig in the dirt, I figured, no biggie. Wrong. As soon as I dropped her leash, she took off like a bullet. She ran huge circles around the yard, stopping at times to stick her nose in the snow. I would call her and she would bullet straight towards me, then dart off at the last minute. I do believe she loved the snow. She even wiped out a couple of times. In fact, it was hard for me to get her to go back in the house (she also ran down the street and put her little paw prints in people's yards-sorry neighbors). Once inside, I tried to dry off her little paws, but she kept a'runnin. So much so, in fact, that she did a header into the dining room wall. It really was her own fault, if she'd only let me dry her paws....now she's mad at me because I took a tube of lip gloss away from her. That's the third tube she's gotten to. She is now downstairs sulking. Better go make sure she hasn't "punished" me any further......Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

Huge thanks to all who are helping me move

I wanna give a public shout out to all the wonderful people who are helping me move this weekend. I truly appreciate the help and hope I can return the favor sometime. Thanks to my wonderful future brother-in-law Jon for planning the "logistics" (I am so glad he's a "planner"!) and to my sister who may be a bit sad that day (as will I, its the end of an era. The Davidson Sisters rule!), thanks for putting up with me all this time! Huge thanks to the Stockmann's-Maggie and Matt-they are both coming out to help on Saturday. Hopefully this move will be a quick one! I can't wait to have people over! Give me time to organize and I will be the hostess with the mostest....back in the day when I lived by myself (1998-2002), I used to host some fabulous parties and drinking gatherings. I miss that. I love to entertain (I know some of you are surprised by that). Sister, Chloe can come and see her Aunt Kerri any time she wants to. We'll go to the park across the street, she'll love it.

Thanks again to everyone. I have some good people in my life. I'll try to not ever forget that!

P.S. I made the text blue on purpose because I know Stephen loves it so much. Stephen-can you read it??????

The Cubs land Juan Pierre!

It's about time one of their deals went through! And they only had to lose Sergio Mitre and some other dudes? Sounds like a good deal to me! Now they can unload Corey Patterson.....any takers? Pierre takes care of both the center fielder problem as well as the leadoff man problem. Not saying this will ensure the Cubs will win or anything, but it's gotta help! Now, who they gonna get for right field......Only 3.5 more months till baseball season!

Nine hour work days

I was like a panicked mother hen tonight. Our overnight person was 20 minutes late, very unlike her. She hadn't called in to say she'd be late, so by 11:20 I was a bit concerned. I didn't at all care that I would have to stay until she arrived. I was worried that something happened to her. That got the rest of the ladies worked up. I thought either something has happened or she has the night off and there has been some schedule confusion. I then began to prepare myself for the possibility of working the overnight shift, thus completing a 16 hour shift. I first tried to call her on her cell and had to leave a msg. She finally called back a short time later, apparently my call had awakened her. She apparently wasn't feeling well earlier in the day so she took some Benadryl and proceeded to sleep nearly 12 hours and had overslept. I was just so relieved that she was alive that I didn't care what time she made it in. She ended up only being an hour late, so I only had to stay an extra hour. I figured I had nothing to lose since I am on call anyway, so I stayed and got some more work done.

Now I'm hoping and praying for no calls tonight given last nights wake up call and Chloe waking me at 8:00am. If they do call though, its fine. It's my job. And its only for a week. I'll get a blessed six week reprieve before I have to be on call again....

Vegas and the VFW hall are neck and neck

I think perhaps we have landed ourselves a band for the big birthday celebration. You CMSU alums know them well. Yes, thats right, Spooge has a gig at Kerri's 30th Birthday Celebration! They sure are moving up in the world, aren't they? The only thing that could make it better would be to have Buffalo Road along as well. That's probably not a good idea though, considering I wouldn't be able to control myself around their drummer Dave. Oh, I loved him so back in the day. Memories.......I'm thinking the VFW hall is going to be a more viable option than Vegas. Expenses play a factor in this decision. While both options offer the tacky factor that I appreciate, I think the VFW is more my speed. I am envisioning a keg, Spooge playing me some Weezer covers, and my infamous mixed CD's playing in between sets. We get some subs or order pizza and we got ourselves a GOOD TIME!!!! I'm inviting everyone I know. It's gonna rule. Mark February 11, 2006 down on your calendars now. DO IT!!!!

sleep deprivation could kill a man (or woman)

Ugh. Today is gonna be a six-pack of Diet Coke/big bag of Skittles day. I was blessed with a call from work at 2:30 this morning. Normally, this is fine with me. I am a very light sleeper and most nights I am still awake at 2:30 anyway. Not last night-I think I fell asleep sometime between 1:45-2:30. For some reason, I was out like a light. Totally in deep sleep, something brought me back to near consciousness. I soon figured out that it was my work cell ringing (when did I change the ring tone?), I quickly sat up (after orienting myself to where the phone was) and answered it in my most professional voice. Aisha, the CIC who called me asks "did I wake you up?". My reply? "Oh yea". I vaguely remember the question presented to me, I'm hoping I told her the right thing to do, guess I'll find that out when I get to work this afternoon. Once that was over the challenge of falling back asleep was presented to me. I'm not one of those people that can just go back to sleep. No, I laid there for about an hour before drifting off to la-la land (keep up-it's now 3:30am). Life is good (although this sleep was not nearly as deep and I tossed and turned a lot) until 8:00am. This is when Chloe decided it is time for her to start barking and whining from the basement. Now, most days she doesn't wake me until at least 10:00am. I thought we had an understood agreement on this. Apparently I was wrong. You know how irrational you can get when sleep deprived? Well, I dragged my sleepy ass downstairs, unchained Chloe, brought her upstairs to my room and tried to go back to sleep. Miss Chloe wanted to play, however, and I soon burst into tears, saying "I just want some f***ing sleep"....I told you I was irrational. Apparently my taking her outside at midnight to poop wasn't good enough for her. Chloe did manage to calm herself and laid down in the floor allowing me a bit more sleep (when she wasn't jumping on my bed and licking me).

It's 11:15am and I am just about done with my first Diet Coke. Good thing I have reinforcements in the fridge. Too bad my big bag of Skittles is at work.

P.S. Chloe is now sleeping peacefully in the hallway. I'm gonna go bark in her ear.

Fat day

Ever have one of those days? I have been having one of those days since Thanksgiving. I can't seem to shake it. My pants still fit, doesn't change my perception however. Can I just wear sweatpants to work and be done with it? Seriously.

A week of being on call

Ick. I am on call for work this week, beginning today and going through next Monday morning at 8am. I was lucky enough to find someone to cover Saturday for me so I don't have to cancel my plans-our VP of Operations agreed to switch Saturdays with me. Thanks Al! I really don't mind being on call and getting calls at 3:00 in the morning. The only issue I have with on call week is the anxiety associated with waiting for the phone to ring. I don't sleep well because I am afraid I will miss a call, and I always have that worry that they are gonna call me about something and I won't know what to do. That part hasn't happened yet (knock on wood), still it is a lot of pressure to be the one person that staff expects to be able to answer anything and everything. I'm amazed they let me be on call for this at all (well let is the wrong word, it's really not so much an option). All I can hope is that I don't screw things up too badly.

So, I was thinking I may need to start Christmas shopping. I usually wait till about the week before Christmas. I shop better under pressure. I'll do it once I'm moved and settled. Moving is stressful enough, no need to compound that with going to the mall.

Is it April yet?

Of course I'd like it to be April so my sister's wedding would be here, but also I want it to be April because of baseball season. I miss it. The Blues are the worst team in hockey (literally) and the Rams are nearly the worst team in the NFL (in my opinion, another loss today-way to go boys!). I want baseball. Now. My Cubs missed out on Rafael Furcal-we didn't want you anyway you DWI/AA/money hungry SOB (such anger!)! The Cubs are looking at Juan Pierre. I am confident their GM is gonna spend some money and get someone good. Or it will be another pitiful season. But thats just another day in the life of a Cubs fan.

Ok, it's 1:47am, Monday morning. Guess I should think about going to bed. Must finish uploading some more CD's first. I'm up to over 850 now. I didn't realize I knew so many songs, but I'd say I know all the words to at least 700 of them. My life is sad, isn't it?

I love my new apartment!

No, I haven't officially moved yet, but I got the keys yesterday and began taking what I could fit into the Crapalier over. I even hung Christmas lights. I'm a dork, I know. I am just so excited! I think we officially have three studly/strong men to move heavy stuff now. My friend Maggie's darling hubby Matt offered his services along with Jon (did I mention you are the BEST future brother-in-law in all the world?) and Robert (I think, come on Robert...you'll be my favorite best man of my future brother-in-law ever, huh???). Hopefully it will be quick and painless. I'm afraid getting the washer and dryer down into the basement is gonna be a pain in the ass. Sorry in advance, boys! Did I mention the apartment is totally cute?

I must go finish packing. No wait, I'm gonna burn some CD's first. I'm on Jon's computer going through over 10, 000 songs (courtesy of Robert) and burning everything I don't already have. It's good times. Later dudes.

I'm a sap

My sister and I saw Rent tonight, cried like babies. It is just so good and you get caught up in the story. The music is fantastic, and Taye Diggs is hot. What more could you ask for? If you dig musicals, you must go see it. I LOVED IT!!!!!!

Cleaning up dog poop...

is not fun. Nor is packing. I forgot how much moving sucks. Yes, I am excited about my new apartment, but wish I could snap my fingers and everything would move itself.

Chloe decided it would be fun to poop in the basement today. Fun for her, not so much for me. I let the basement air out first before tackling the excretement with the pooper scooper. I also didn't want to touch it when it was so, um.....fresh. She's an a-hole.

All that talk about dog crap has made me hungry. I'm off to eat lunch now. And pack. And pack some more. And then pack some more. Then I'm gonna buy a shower curtain.

664 and counting....

I have 664 songs downloaded/uploaded on my computer. I am currently uploading my hundreds of CD's onto my computer in anticipation of receiving an iPod for my birthday (just two very short months away-ugh!). I am too cheap to purchase a $300 toy for myself, but will graciously accept it as a gift. This uploading job has been weeks in the making. You see, my computer runs mind numbingly slow, so to upload one, 10-song CD takes about 30 minutes. I have about 200 CD's. You do the math. Currently, the Pure Country soundtrack is being uploaded. Full of George Strait tunes from when he played "Dusty", a character, that, oddly enough, was much like George himself in real life.

Big plans this weekend! Not really. My main task will be to begin packing for next weekends big move. Packing my room shouldn't be that painful. What I dread is opening up my storage unit. I remember back in July, filling that thing up with most of my crap, by the end, we were just kinda throwing things in there. I'm afraid to see what it looks like now. I think my sis and I are going to see "Rent" tomorrow night and go to dinner. Saturday, I will be travelling to Valmeyer, IL for the Annual Shelley Family Christmas Party. A good time will be had by all. My friend Shannon's dear husband Bruce does all the cooking (and it's fab-u-lous!), the fridge is stocked with tasty adult beverages. Last year we played board games and just had a great time. I can't wait! Let me know if you want to carpool.

Next weekend, aside from moving, is another Ivory Tiger weekend. This time, we are following the band to Granite City, IL. I know what you're thinking, and YES, I am going over there to see cute boys (or just a cute boy). I also very much look forward to a night w/my peeps Karen and Mark and Amy and Shannon. Anyone else that would like to make the trek over to Illinois is more than welcome to come with. We are thinking a stop at Fast Eddie's may be in order. Get us all nice and ready to tackle Granite City. Good times. Illinois can't handle this.

A reason to be......a Yankees fan?

Never thought I'd say the above, but mlb. com reports that super hottie Kyle Farnsworth is going to the Yankees. He is a former Cubbie. Some of my best baseball memories involve Mr. Farnsworth. Several times each season I would get to yell "Dammit Farnsworth" at the TV because, inevitably, he would come into the game and blow any lead the Cubs may have had. You could bet on it. And, inevitably, he would throw some sort of temper tantrum and, say, kick a fan (not a human fan, the kind that blows air) and injure himself enough to get put on the DL. Those were some good times. I'm sure he'll look hot in pinstripes, between him and A-Rod, perhaps I may take in a Yankees game....or two.

Dave and Busters......really?

Ok people, if I must go to Dave and Busters, then so be it. Actually, I really don't care where we go as long as all my peeps are with me......and are willing to buy me beer.....and let me be the center of attention. Amen.

New poll-muy importante

It is imperative that you vote on the new poll question. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Hair prescription

I wrote the below entry in response to my cousin Mike's wife Kim, and her agonizing detail of being harrassed by the "makeup experts" at the Clinique counter. All women have experienced this before, the pressure to purchase all of the recommended products, because, if you don't, your skin/hair will shrivel up and fall off. All details of the event are true, some names have been changed to protect anonymity.

Kim,

I have a similar story, only this one involves the hair salon. I was actually written a HAIR PRESCRIPTION. This sounds pretty serious. A summary of my hair needs is as follows: I need hair tonic as my foundation, a silicone based straightening agent, a thickening spray, grooming creme, sumotech wax (which, by the way costs $21 for a little tiny pot of it), a Chi straightener ($130 on sale)and Loreal Professional Absolute Repair shampoo and conditioner. I had no idea my hair was in such danger by using Suave products and the $30 straightener by Conair. I am so glad that "Marissa" was tending to my hair needs. We need more Marissa's around. The world would be a much better place if we would all just follow the recommendations of our hair stylists and/or make up experts. So, go ahead, spend $500 on your head/face/hands/whatever. Do it for your fellow man (or woman). A wise man once said "tis better to spend all your money on beauty products rather than rent". I don't remember the wise man's name, but I'm sure he knew what he was talking about....

Kerri