Shock me like an electric eel.

These are the days of our lives.

I know, I know. I suck at this game.

I used to be so good, I don't know what happened.

I have a lot to cover so I'm debating on how to do this. I could do it chronologically, which would make the most sense, OR I could do good, bad, other/interesting, OR I could do big highlight, little highlight, rinse and repeat.

Or by group. Hm. Let's try that.

Family:

We celebrated Mom's birthday back in March. She turned 70 and all she wanted was a weekend with her kids (and grandkids) at a nice hotel. But of course we got her presents anyway. They had booked a whole corner of the main floor and we had pizza and free drinks and all that. It was fun. Eventually the kids went swimming - the boyfriend is gonna be favorite uncle, I'm telling you, they kept flocking to him so he would throw them in, it was adorable - while the rest of us played Cards Against Humanity which - if you weren't aware - is like the mature version of Apples to Apples.

Here are a couple that I won with, though actually in the end myself and Oldest Sister tied. I think.

After everyone else went to bed the boyfriend and I walked to the train station at around 1AM. This is what happens when you date someone with vampiristic tendencies - since he works nights he doesn't sleep at night so we walked around downtown for a while then watched some TV - Leverage, Forensic Files, etc. Fell asleep after a while but were actually coherent enough to beat most people down for breakfast in the morning. Huge buffet - omelets, french toast, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, potatoes, all that - it was fabulous.

The birthday celebration wasn't the only family party since my last post. We actually had something even bigger - my parents 50th wedding anniversary. I think around 250 invitations went out and we probably got around 300 people that showed up, it was crazy. My siblings and I got everything set up beforehand - which was an adventure in itself. Tables, tablecloths, pictures on all the tables, other various decorations, setting up my computer with the slideshow and projector. Plus then we took some family photos. By the time we got done with all that there were people already filing in. Thankfully between the decorations and the pictures we were able to get ready ourselves. Unfortunately, the light in the women's restroom was out - well, the one by the mirror was out - so all us girls ended up putting our makeup on in the men's restroom. Another adventure. The party itself was great. Both of my parents gave speeches. Dad's was hilarious. I shouldn't have been surprised since he is very clever. And mom bought flowers for all of her attendants so during her speech I was running all over the place attempting to deliver them. Apparently having a 27-year-old daughter is a good thing when you are 70. The only downfall to being 27 to parents that are older is that everyone at the party knew me as a kid and I hadn't seen them in years so remembering all their names was a bit complicated. Actually at one point I had to go and get Mom cause I was just drawing a complete blank and she was so smooth, she was like ___ and ___ it's so nice to see you! A-hah! Yes. Now I know you. Anyway, the food was great, the people were excited to be there, the slideshow went over well, and my parents had a really good time so I'm calling it a victory.

Between both of those parties was Easter. We did church and lunch with the boyfriend's family and then afternoon and supper with mine. Huge egg hunt in the afternoon which of course I always get stuck being the one in charge of. Even though I wasn't even there 'til after lunch. So much stuff this year that we were basically just running around and dropping stuff as we went. The boyfriend was no help whatsoever. He and my brother have apparently bonded cause while the other adults were hiding eggs, I look back and they are picking up the stuff that we just hid and stealing all the good candy out of them. Cheaters. Though there was plenty of candy for the kids. I even ended up taking home more than I should. More on that later.

Another fun family thing was going to the Red/White game with the Cool Aunt. Ever since I was put in charge of volunteers I haven't been able to go because the banquet for them is always the same day and time as the game. This year we changed it and I'm loving that, I hope it stays that way. You know me and my Husker football, I would go to all the games if I could. Anyway, this year was a big year because of the new coaching staff and quarterback drama. Tommy will probably start but he has some competition. The game was awesome and I taped it so I get to re-watch it whenever I want. The Cool Aunt and I got there super early so we could get our food, seats, and all that. The game was awesome, lots of people there and we even did the wave and all the chants and all that. I'm super stoked to see how this season turns out. Clearly there are things we need to work on. Passing probably being the biggest. But it should be a good year.


Boyfriend:

The boyfriend and I have been up to a lot as well. Within the past few weeks we've went on two different motorcar trips - one in Kansas, the other in Iowa. Kansas was fun because I had never been on that ride before. We also stopped to look at a railroad signal at this guy's house and the dude was on American Pickers so you can just imagine everything that was all over his yard. He gave us a tour of his house which was very much the same. Antiques everywhere, even hanging from the ceiling. The motorcar ride itself was a lot of fun. The boyfriend surprised me by spending the week before the trip fixing up the motorcar that I had bought him for Christmas. I didn't realize that's the one we would be riding until he unloaded it. It actually ran really well so we also took it to Iowa and...well...that was a different story. Died out within the first few miles. So, more work to be done on that, along with his 80 million other projects. Luckily, Popper Boy doesn't bring spare parts, he brings spare cars so we had a different one to ride. Long story, don't even ask. This year was a bit different than previous years though because we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast instead of a regular hotel. It was really neat. Though without TV or Wifi we did end up going to see The Woman In Gold the night we got there. Scroll down for the review of that. His buddy and the buddy's girlfriend stayed with us at the B&B so that was a lot of fun.

I took a lot of pictures for both rides. Here are some of my favorites.













Another adventure with the boyfriend that will blend in nicely with my next category is hockey season. It is now officially over, which I'm totally bummed about yet at the same time, it's probably a good thing. Our team this year was not fantastic. That's kind of an understatement, we got last in the division. Granted we did have a brand new coach and manager and all that, but still, it was rather pathetic toward the end. While the season itself took a downward spiral after our coach suddenly started trading off a bunch of our best players, it did have its moments. Some unexpected victories, big fights, and enough walking tacos to make me think it is definitely time to get to the gym. After the last home game they had a player meet-and-greet out on the ice. Myself, the boyfriend, and the Archaeologist went around taking pictures and getting stuff signed.

Okay, they walked around with me while I got my picture taken and stuff signed. Though she did get her picture taken with a few times. And the boyfriend went along with all of it. He even suggested we take a picture together in the penalty box which made me almost forgive him for calling me a "jersey chaser" five minutes earlier. But I got to meet my favorite player along with others I like and when I tweeted the pictures both he (and a woman who I assume is his mother) retweeted the one of me and him labeled as my favorite.

Jersey chaser. Thanks babe. He's like 17. That's just gross.


Friends:

My Archaeologist ditched me for greener pastures. Literally. But she'll be back. Eventually. This is the one who sits behind us at the hockey games. It's nice to have someone here with similar interests/problems that we can get like lunch or supper or see movies or whatever. Though now that she's gone I'm eating shawarma all alone.

Cue the sad girl music.

Allll byyyy myyyyyself....don't wanna be....okay that's creepy. I'm stopping now.

Anyway, she house-sat for a couple of people before leaving so we did a lot of movie-watching and burger eating. Plus trips to Cabelas, Canes, and Culvers. All in one day. We call them Capers. Cause our names start with C's and for some reason we go to a lot of C-named places. Crave. Cherry-in-Top. Etc.

These are the days of our lives.

And speaking of friends I got to see an old one a few weeks ago as Homey G Wigger made a reappearance in Nebraska. She was in-state for a confirmation so we got supper and jammed out for a while. Was good to catch up. Really should work on that whole pen-pal thing. I'm awful at correspondence. Ipso-facto, this blog's sudden downturn. Honestly I don't know how I did this every day for so long. Pretty sure it helped that I had no life, now it's like I barely have time to sit still, let alone post for hours on end.

One of the reasons I get to be so busy for the next few months - and notice that was a "get to be" not "have to be" - is Camp J season has officially started. We had our first meeting and the site went live on May 1st. And yes I've already gotten more than 10 applications in less than a week so, good to know kids are excited about camp this year. Even though I'm hesitant of the date change. Long story. But I need to get my act together with spreadsheets and planning. My inbox and voicemail will be flooded 'til August.

I'm more nervous for this year than I ever was before. That includes the year that Jim and I took over registrations and knew absolutely nothing about how to do it. This year will be the first year without an integral member of our team and I'm not sure how to handle things without her. Last year was redemption year, this year will be remembrance year. I need to get back to working on the guitar. She wrote so many songs over so many years, I'm hoping to work with my fellow music leaders on how to incorporate some of them into this year's camp. I'll keep you posted on that one.



Work:

Ah work. We're at an interesting juncture in my worklife experience. We're venturing into a new ILS system. This will be my third. First was Horizon, then Koha, now it's Symphony. Well, Sirsi-Dynex, but they call their product Symphony. This week and last have been kind of like attempting to control chaos. The fun part about training for a new system? You get to practice for hours on end. Part of practice is creating new library cards for fake patrons. My fake patrons of choice? Myka Bering and Calamity Jane. While both technically reside (or resided) in South Dakota, I moved them to Lincoln. One on Warehouse Avenue and the other on Deadwood Road. Of course they both disappeared when we went live. Boo.

Luckily for stressful times as these there is Staff Association, of which I am a member and somehow got to be in charge of this huge Mini-Golf event thing that took place. I think it's because I had my phone at the meeting and was able to look up prices and times and all that. Whatever, it was fun. A bit of stress in the planning, but worth it in the long run. We opened it up to all the staff and everyone picked teams and dressed up (if they wanted). The best dressed and most spirited won prizes along with best/worst scores, most holes-in-one, and most wet balls. Yeah, guess who won that one. To be fair I only lost 2 and was able to retrieve them.

That's not the only fun thing from work lately - we also just had some big volunteer events over the past few weeks. First was the Volunteer Banquet where we invite all the volunteers from all the branches to this big shindig and the mayor comes and gives a speech and we give them fancy snacks. The fun part about all that is jamming out with the other volunteer supervisors before and after the shindig. This year we joked about my mayor's award and how I need a traveling case so I can whip it out when needed. Basically a fancy fanny pack. So of course when I went to talk to the Mayor and he had no recollection of me whatsoever - to be fair he does that like once a month and he's been in office for like ever - I debated on purchasing one. But then I remembered that this isn't the 90s and they're still tacky. Quote of the day: "It's not like you saved someone's life or anything." Haha.

The other volunteer event was the Paperback Processing Party for my teens. Remember how every year we go to Barnes and Noble to pick out paperbacks for the library to purchase? Well, they came in and then we got to process them. It's fun for them because it's all the TAB groups - well, minus one this year - but they get to talk to people and they get first dibs on the material.

Other various work excursions since my last post have been Inservice - of which I only attended the morning session since we went to Kansas that afternoon. The speaker was good - it was mostly about safety in libraries...which doesn't make you paranoid at all... - plus NLA, that's our big annual conference for librarians across Nebraska. I was asked to be on the committee to put the whole thing together so that's gonna be a new and exciting adventure. We had our first meeting and it's a fun group of people - Library Goddess aka my former boss being one of them. Looking forward to it.

Somewhere in the midst of all this Queen of the Known Universe and I went to see Info-Man's play. They did "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Death Star" and it was fabulous. It's set up like it's a convention and the actors are reading the script to their upcoming movie however not all the actors could make it to the reading so the actors are playing like 3 characters each. For example, Darth Vader was also Han Solo. Yoda was also a Storm Trooper. And Info-Man played the bus driver, emperor, George Lucas, and a cantina bar singer. Highly entertaining, I bought the soundtrack, we loved it.

And what list of stories about work would be complete without including a strange patron interaction? I'm at the desk, right, and this lady comes up to check out some books. She starts handing me her card and then suddenly pulls it away and the conversation goes something like this:
"You are fragrant and I don't want it on my card, can I just scan it by myself?"
"What?"
"You smell like vanilla and I don't want it on my card, can I scan the card by myself?"
"Um, sure?"

So she scans the cards and the books and leaves. My coworker comes over and goes "That was rude." Me, not exactly sure what just happened or how to respond said something like "well, there are worse things to smell like, but I'm not wearing vanilla so I don't know what she was talking about." I was confused for the next few seconds but then I went over to the bookdrop and it was like WahBam! Vanilla! So, someone on the self-check must have been the one drenched in it, not me. Perhaps she had allergies and it just came off as awkward. I'm sure she's a nice person, but it was still weird.



Scale of Awesome's for you.

Interstellar


Scale of Awesome says 9/10. This movie - while long - was worth every minute. I will admit it started off slow and I was a little confused, but once the mission officially started I was hooked.


Woman in Gold


Scale of Awesome says 9/10. Really liked this one as well. Based on a true story and both leads - Ryan Reynolds and Helen Mirren - were fabulous. Really interesting to learn about art recovery and that specific case.


Predestination


Scale of Awesome says 5/10. So confused. So much shorter than necessary. Need an epilogue. What happens now?


Get Hard


Scale of Awesome says 5/10. I loved Will Ferrell on SNL but for some reason I just do not like his movies. I gave this one a chance cause I like Kevin Hart. It was alright, not wonderful, not awful, but alright.


The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies


Scale of Awesome says 7/10. Watched this one with the Archaeologist. The problem with this movie is that there is no like "previously on the Hobbit..." It just starts from where it left off and if you haven't seen the previous one in like months then you're screwed. Or at least we were. Thankfully I had grabbed the second one as well and we ended up putting that one in and then skipping around so we could remember why the one guy was in jail, why the other guy was wounded, which dwarf the chick was in love with, the difference between the Bowman and Thorin and also what the hell happened to Gandalf. Then we attempted the new one again successfully. Was pretty good in it's own right, but you really can't compare this trilogy to the original trilogy because it would just fail completely.


Nightcrawler


Scale of Awesome says 5/10. Dude, this dude was messed up man. Anything for a good shot. Kind of made me want to smack him, but made for an interesting movie.


Maze Runner


Scale of Awesome says 5/10. One of my TAB kids is obsessed with this movie. I feel like I would get more out of it if either 1. I was a teenage girl, or 2. I had read the book. Neither of those will be happening anytime soon.


Horrible Bosses


Scale of Awesome says 7/10. This is like the anti-Jennifer Aniston role, seriously. Nothing like her whatsoever and she pulled it off! Actually it was very funny.


Horrible Bosses 2


Scale of Awesome says 6/10. The first one was probably better, though this one did have its moments. I love Chris Pine.


Ridiculousness


Scale of Awesome says 9/10. Mindless humor, and I love Rob Dyrdek. It's highly entertaining and reminds me a bit of World's Dumbest.


Dances With Wolves


Scale of Awesome says 8/10. Sharon Rayder! I totally screamed and he was like what the hell? So, the boyfriend made me watch this one cause he was horrified that I hadn't seen it yet. Apparently it's a classic. I can see why. Even though it was like 3 hours long - which I was not expecting - it was really entertaining. I liked the storyline a lot.



On to the music:

Loving my new iPod. It fits all my music whereas my old one severely limited my music selections. Being able to listen to all my music has brought forth many songs that I forgot I knew.

Like these classics:

Gonna Get a Life - Mark Chestnutt



All 'Er Nothing - Oklahoma


used to sing this one a lot when i was little. is funnier now.

foot.

Electric Feel - MGMT


okay this one i've sang a lot lately and the irony of that being that someone actually checked out the MGMT CD like 2 minutes after i had gone around the building singing it in my head. i freaked, it was awesome.

and moving on to some new stuff

Budapest - George Ezra


love this one, give it a chance.



Alright, and that's all I got. Hope you had an awesome couple a months. I'll attempt to post sooner than months later next time...

Cause I really don't care where you are, I just wanna be there where you are

I know, I know. It's been like a month in a half. My bad.

Lots of little stuff and some big stuff. I'll attempt to go in order.

1. Mayor's Award
:: So I received the Mayor's Award last month and it was a whole production. A bunch of my family, coworkers and bosses were in attendance. It all took place during a City Council meeting. We went in, the mayor made a speech, two of my bosses made speeches and then I said a bunch of stuff. Was a nervous wreck, but I didn't pass out so I'm calling it a victory. After that we took a TON of pictures with the mayor which was pretty cool. If you want to see the pictures or the video - yes, city council meetings are recorded - it's all on Facebook. I was super nervous but it felt like it was over in a flash. Glad I did have something prepared to say in advance, otherwise I probably would have passed out.

2. Library Life
:: Things at work are good. I've been pretty busy lately with TAB stuff. We did a movie day where we watched HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Jurassic Park and Sherlock Holmes - the Robert Downey Jr. version. A bunch of teens showed up which is good. We had Jimmy John's sandwiches and basically jammed out the whole day. Was nice. We also went to Barnes and Noble and picked out a bunch of paperbacks for the library to buy which is always fun. Now I'm in like total Summer Reading mode where basically all I do during my off desk time is plan for upcoming events - submitting proposals, ordering supplies, and all that. Is stressful but usually is worth it in the end.

3. Apocalypse Now
:: Not the only stressful thing at work - I had a patron come up to the desk and she was like "there's a leak in your bathroom." I'm thinking she meant a small leak so I went and got the guard and we meandered over there, opened the door and it was freaking Apocalypse Now baby! Water coming out of the ceiling, down the walls, in the light fixtures...I've never seen the guard run so fast. There was a plumber upstairs who burst a pipe and she ran to get him to shut off the water. For a while there were huge chunks missing out of the ceiling but it's all fixed up now.



Still gross.

4. Trivia Night
:: And speaking of running we had Trivia Night and I was the runner again running our answers to the judges before the clock expired. This year our table's theme was Huskers so I wore a jersey and obnoxious Husker hat. Second Sister went all out, turning herself into a corn cob which was highly entertaining. My brother-in-law was Faux Pelini - cat included. This year we actually did pretty well. Finished in about the middle of the pack but got a higher score than anticipated. I was pretty proud cause I got a bunch of the media stuff. Two of the questions were actually about The Voice - who's the host? Carson Daly - and who won in May of 2014? Josh Kaufman. This year's costume winners were Sound of Music people which just happened to contain my RA from back in college. Though our table voted for the Red Green table. Yes, a Red Green table. Please tell me you've seen that show.

Duct tape?

Possum Lodge?

Ranger Gord?

Keep your stick on the ice?

Think it was mainstream TV in Canada.

Anyway, I didn't know the people that won the actual trivia contest. We're not really there to win, just to have fun.

5. The Archaeologist 
:: Other fun stuff is I've been jamming more with the archaeologist. The one that also has season tickets for hockey. Think I mentioned something about it last post. Went out for some lunches, talked about hockey and life and all that. She's cool, it's good to have someone with similar interests here close by. Plus now I have someone to high five every time we score.

As often as that happens.

That was sarcasm, we average like 1 goal per game...But if we score goals in two consecutive periods we get free chicken from Canes and for the first time in months it actually happened so we totally went to Canes the other night too. Was fun.

6. Library Goddess
:: She's not the only one I've been having lunch with - I actually met up with the Library Goddess for lunch a few weeks ago. Was nice to catch up. So weird going from seeing her every week to like once every 6 months. We got fancy salads and soups. And I swear that woman knows everyone on earth. Knew the owner and his mother. Anywhere I go with her everyone knows her. You can only imagine what the library conferences were like, everyone was chasing her down giving her hugs. Was hilarious. I love that woman, she was so great to me and really got me through the whole library school thing.

I blame my current job completely on her.

And now....she just happens to retire from that particular part of the program? She totally waited until I was done, I'm telling you. Probably not actually, but I'm sticking with it cause it makes me feel special.

7. Birthday
:: Then of course it was my birthday and food day at work - woohoo! The birthday thing meant multiple celebrations cause no one is ever free at the same time...First was Mexican food with the boyfriend's family. They really didn't have to take me out, it was very nice. I even avoided wearing the sombrero and being pied in the face. Don't ask. After that it was Applebees with my parents and Second Sister's family. Her youngest is adorable and wouldn't let me eat. She always had to be on my lap. Made me feel special. I didn't avoid the singing there - in fact I got sang to twice there. Once by the staff and another time by my family. Then third was the Cool Aunt, Cool Cousin, and the Library Goddess - I know, twice in a month, totally weird. Was cool, we went for sushi and they send me home with all the leftovers.

Sushi is awesome at like 3AM. I don't know if you're aware of that or not, but you should try it cause it's just fabulous.

Then fourth was on my actual birthday at Lazlo's. I met up with some of my siblings. Got my awesome rainbow chicken and fries with honey mustard. It was fabulous. Except that was the boyfriend was missing. He was sick for like a week, it was madness.

8. Valentine's Day
:: And speaking of the boyfriend, look at these beautiful flowers he got me for Valentine's Day.



Such a nice guy. The beer in the background was his. I decided that was the guy equivalent of flowers.

9. Hockey
:: But since he was sick I ended up taking the Queen of the Known Universe to one of the hockey games. She loved it. There were lots of fights and we actually won this time which is new for her. In a shootout no less, to the number one team in the league.



Have I mentioned we're last in the league? Yeah, it's not pretty. But we are only losing two players next year due to age and then we have a crapton of draft picks that we traded for.

Yeah, they basically traded a bunch of our good ones once we got out of playoff contention so that we could have draft picks for next year. Which sucks for this season, but probably is smart for next season.

Anyway, it was an excellent game but my favorite player got majorly injured. Or my "infatuation" as the boyfriend likes to call him. It's not like I think he's cute or something I just think he's a really good yet underrated player. Plus he's a teenager so that would be gross. But he got smashed into the wall and got a concussion. So, poor guy. Hopefully he'll be okay to play again soon.

I still haven't emailed them about my sign.

So, I made a sign that says "I wish I only got 2 minutes for hooking"

Here, think I have a picture of it somewhere.

Yeah, here:



But I'm hesitant to take it to the games because they're super picky about what stuff they let people bring in. Like horns and bells and all that.

And I don't want to get like a black mark on my record or something, so I was gonna email them. But I'm pretty sure they'll be like...um, no. So I'm putting it off. Maybe I'll just hang it on my wall. I still have to hang up that signed flag and posters anyway. I'll just make the whole wall behind my couch a hockey collage of sorts. No one will see it anyway, except the boyfriend. My sister. Mother. Eh, whatever. Guess I know what I'm doing tonight.


10. Second Sister got a new puppy.
::I'm sorry I have no transition from hockey to dogs.

But she got a new puppy and it's adorable.

Look.



The first time I saw him he sat on my lap for like an hour. Super cute. Then the next time he was climbing all over my back.





I want one, but Carter would not go for that. Or my apartment complex. Maybe later on.

What else?

11. Oh, yeah, the Voice is back. 
:: I know, you're so excited to hear that. Cause I don't ramble about it at all....For the first season ever I'm having trouble picking out 20 people that I actually like. Maybe I'm growing out of the show or something, but the artists this year are really not all that impressive. I have about 10 that I think are pretty good but that's it. Maybe I'll just do a top ten instead. I guess we do have 1 more night of Blind Auditions left. Tonight. Maybe they're saving the best for last. Let's hope so. I'll post my top whatever list after tonight's episode.


12. Scale of Awesome's for you.
:: Have quite a few lined up. Wow, it really has been a while.


Birdman


Scale of Awesome says 4/10. I know everyone loved it but I did not. The ending just confused me and I'm still frustrated about it. Is he magic or is he insane? I thought it was one way but then the end confused me.

Focus


Scale of Awesome says 6/10. Was okay. Better than Birdman but nothing special.

Whiplash


Scale of Awesome says 5/10. Another out of the box type, I loved the kid in this, he is crazy talented and of course there is JK Simmons who I loved from the Closer but it wasn't all that great either.

St. Vincent


Scale of Awesome says 7/10. See, the preview makes this look like a comedy but there's a lot more serious to it. I actually liked this one a lot.

Grand Budapest Hotel


Scale of Awesome says 7/10. This movie was hilarious. Total Wes Anderson style the whole way through. Loved it.

TMNT


Scale of Awesome says 3/10. This movie was god-awful. Totally killed the whole thing. Makes me want to watch the original again just to fix it all.

American Sniper


Scale of Awesome says 9/10. Best movie I've seen in a long time. Super long but you didn't even notice because it was that good.

Taken 3


Scale of Awesome says 5/10. Not as good as the original.

Way Way Back


Scale of Awesome says 7/10. SAM ROCKWELL!!! I love him. This movie was great. Funny and emotional, I liked it a lot. Plus it had Allison Janney and you can never go wrong with her.

John Wick


Scale of Awesome says 4/10. Kind of like Red but really not funny. Not that it was supposed to be. It was alright, but not fantastic.

Stonehearst Asylum


Scale of Awesome says 3/10. This movie was just plain weird.

Dear White People


Scale of Awesome says 5/10. It started out so good!! But then it turned into not so good.

Zodiac


Scale of Awesome says 7/10. Very good.



Alright, on to the music.

Xtina on Jimmy Fallon


Her Britney is dead on. Dude.

Clint Eastwood


Very catchy, I dig it.

Sugar - Maroon 5


Did it again. Love these guys. My favorites. Cool video.



Alright, will try not to wait so long in between in the future...

Special Occasion Foundation

So....it was the boyfriend's birthday a few weeks ago and now I can finally ramble to you about what I got him.

Let me start from the beginning.

The boyfriend is a train nut, and a few years ago he started collecting motorcars. I've posted a few entries about them already, you can find them here: Nothing says romance quite like riding motorcars in Iowa, We ain't got no room for boring, and Some people bring spare parts, Popper Boy brings spare cars.

Or just Google "Fairmont Motorcar" - there are plenty of images online.

He not only collects them but he goes on organized runs with them all over the country. That's where those posts have come from as I went with him on a few in Iowa.

He's not the only one that collects them, in fact he's got a buddy who lives here who also has quite the selection.

So one day earlier this year his buddy decided he was going to sell a few to make some money. The first one that sold was the boyfriend's favorite. Apparently it's rare and has Nebraska history since it was delivered here originally. He also helped him rebuild it so when it sold he was heartbroken.

And bitter.

So bitter in fact that that's all I heard about for 6 months straight.

His buddy sold it to a guy in Oklahoma. The only problem is that the Oklahoman didn't have a trailer or a way to transport it. After a few unsuccessful attempts to come and get it he gave up and put it up for sale.

Keep in mind that this whole time it's still sitting in the boyfriend's buddy's garage.

The day that it went back onto the market the boyfriend mentioned it was for sale again and how much he still wanted it but didn't have the money for it at that time. I asked him if it was worth what he was selling it for and he said it was to him.

So, while he was on the phone with someone else, I Googled his buddy's number, called him and told him I was interested. He then put me in touch with the Oklahoman. The next day we worked out a deal and he said to send him a cashier's check.

Here's where all the work began.

I don't know about you all, but I've never dealt with cashier's checks at all so I had no idea what I was doing.

And what do you do when you have no idea what you're doing? You go to your mother cause she seems to know all.

Or at least that's what I did and luckily she did know what to do. We went to the bank, told the clerk the story, and she hooked me up with a cashier's check which I mailed to the Oklahoman.

After which I called the boyfriend's buddy and he said he would store it for me until December. A few days later I got a confirmation call from the Oklahoman saying he had received the check and it was officially mine.

Now the question was how do we keep this a secret? When I contacted the Oklahoman I told him who I was buying it for. He said that if anyone by that name called he would play dumb. Then I talked to the boyfriend's buddy who said that he would "let it slip" that the Oklahoman decided to sell it to a friend of his who would be out to pick it up in the spring. That way if the boyfriend saw that it was still in his garage he would have an excuse.

This is all fine and dandy but you have to remember that he was very passionate about this car AND it was only October with his birthday not 'til December.

When he learned it was sold he was heartbroken yet again, fearing someone would tear it apart, paint it the wrong color and all that. He was so passionate about it that he got mad at the Oklahoman who was (unbeknownst to me) supposed to call him if someone attempted to buy it. So that was kind of my fault. And since he was so passionate I got to hear all about it. Which was fun, as long as I could keep a straight face.

Two and a half months of straight faces - do you know how hard that is when you're this excited about something?

So fast forward a bit to the beginning of December. After playing phone tag for a few days I finally went over to the buddy's house to see the motorcar. He told me a bit of the history of it and asked if I wanted the key. Me, being the idiot that I am, assumed it would be you know like a normal key. No.

See that big black thing?


























That's the key. Well, safety starter.

He also gave me the paperwork to wrap up. Just by the way, paperwork is a lot easier to wrap than a giant key. That took three of us. I should have taken pictures, it was hilarious.

Meanwhile the boyfriend is trying to figure out what to get me for Christmas and wants to know how much I spent on his gift. (This was his birthday/Christmas gift since they're so close together.) As it was a very specific number I couldn't tell him cause he'd know so I became quite secretive. That made him more curious and he started constantly guessing what it was. Luckily he was always way off...until the morning of his birthday.

Up until then I had him convinced it was a trip cause every time he would ask if it was one I would change the subject. I got some family to help out too - at Thanksgiving Oldest Sister said something to the effect of "shouldn't you have asked him about vacation time before planning something like that?" Thanks for that by the way.

But, for some reason, the morning of his birthday he guessed it. So I lied. Cause I wanted it to be a surprise.

Though, as his mother pointed out, he lied last year about Vegas so I don't feel so bad.

Then he thought it was something from the model train shop and I just let him think he was right. Cause I wanted it to be a surprise.

Flash forward to after work, he and his family were coming up to eat out for his birthday. With the key and paperwork in my car, I was driving around to find parking when I got a call saying to park in a specific parking garage. He was already there so he got to carry the key in - of course to him it was just a giant box. Not really heavy, just awkward to transport.

After the meal - Cajun food, I had catfish - he got to open his presents. We saved mine for last. Here's his reaction. Sorry it's sideways.

The answer to her question is ME! He sold it to me!

Glad I taped it. I've watched it quite a few times.

He was very excited about it and immediately went into total sweetheart mode, taking me out for lunch the next day, then a movie that weekend, then coming up to visit me on a Sunday even though he had like 4 hours of sleep in 48 hours.

His response was to get me an ipod for Christmas. And not just an iPod, a 64 gig iPod cause my 32 gig is out of space. And old. And skips. And doesn't work with most apps. For those of you that know me you know how excited I was about the 64 since I have my iPod on me at all times. Also with the iPod he got me a bluetooth hookup for my car so that I can listen to it and also make handsfree calls. I was stoked. No more wires to mess with and all that. He even said he'd install it. So lucky to have a mechanic for a boyfriend. Changes my oil, fixes broken things and installs new fancy stuff. Very exciting.

He gave me that on Christmas Eve - that's when their family does Christmas. I had to work until 1 but went out there in the afternoon. They were playing Star Wars Monopoly by the time I got there and were getting pretty into it. It was entertaining to watch.

Christmas Eve is pretty relaxed with their family. They hang out all day, go to church, then eat supper and open presents. I got some other cool stuff from his family. They know how much I love Star Wars so I got a giant Yoda stuffed animal, an R2D2 candy jar, and then also some Husker stuff and a Fitbit which I'm wearing right now. Loving it. For those of you who don't know a Fitbit is something you wear around your wrist and it keeps track of how much you walk, how much you sleep, and the app helps you keep track of calories and all that.

Which is helpful because I'm about to make an even bigger lifestyle change.

Every year I say that one of my resolutions is to be healthier and then a week in I give up on it. This year is different. I have a game plan and support to go with it (see previous entries about our Hot Babes Getting Hotter weight loss plan). This week I cleaned out my fridge and cupboards getting rid of all the junk and filled it with newer and healthier options. Similar to how I gave up pop - I just took it away and didn't make it an option which made it much easier. I've also started packing my lunch with this new food. Gives me a chance to use my Slytherin lunch box from Christmas like 5 years ago.

Lost two pounds already. May not seem like a lot but it's only been a few days.

This lifestyle change is coming quickly after yet another one from about a month ago.

The boyfriend mentioned something about how I look nice in makeup and how maybe I should do that more often. When I mentioned it to my sisters the oldest responded with "if the guy that has to stare at you for the rest of your life says put on some makeup then put on some damn makeup" or something to that effect. Though she's been on me about it for years so I'm sure she was delighted.

So makeup wearing led to new clothes shopping which both of my sisters were happy to take part in. We hit up the Buckle, Dress Barn, and Famous Footwear for clothes and shoes. I came out with some new jeans, shirts, and two pairs of boots.

The people at work of course noticed right away, and ever since I've had many makeup/clothing conversations with my female coworkers. My favorite was with the New Girl and one of my new trainees. They were talking about foundation and one of them says she has some fancy stuff that she only pulls out on special occasions so we started calling it her Special Occasion Foundation. It was highly entertaining.


Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself, let's back up a bit back to Christmas. So Christmas morning I did with my parents. I got them a lot of stuff this year - especially Mom - cause they always give a lot of stuff. But they only got half of the stuff cause we saved most of our stuff for our family Christmas on New Years. After Christmas morning with them I went to the boyfriend's extended family Christmas where we ate, watched TV and played Rummy. First time for everything, and it was actually quite fun. Then that night the boyfriend and I went out to my parents and ate supper with them. Then we watched some holiday movies like Home Alone and Christmas with the Kranks.

Along with the original/animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas I think Home Alone is probably my favorite holiday movie. It's a classic, both funny and entertaining. When I was young and would watch it my dad would make me pause it and come get him when it came to the breaking in/pranks scene toward the end. That's probably the best part.

So that was Christmas, let's skip to New Years Eve. I don't know about you but to me New Years Eve seemed a lot more exciting when I was younger compared to now. Every year for like 15 years I would do the same thing. Hang out with P Squared watching all the countdown music shows, playing Dance Dance Revolution and cards, running around the house at midnight while drinking sparkling cider and then watching movies before crashing on the floor. Now it's like I feel so old because I don't know half of the bands that are playing.

Or I don't like half the bands that are playing.

For the past couple years the boyfriend and I have done the same thing. Stayed at home and were disappointed by the music - although this year we did watch The Lego Movie which was highly entertaining.

Gonna have to come up with a different game plan for next year cause I'm doubtful the music thing is gonna change.

Must just come with getting older, most of the bands are aimed at teens not adults.

So that was New Years Eve, after midnight I headed out to the farmhouse and stayed over so I was there for our family Christmas the next day.

Christmas was fun. The family got there around 12:30ish. We ate prime rib, potatoes, desert and all that then opened presents. I got some cool stuff - Firefly Clue (i love that show, now have to find other fans to play with me), a couple of Husker hats, some new dishes, pajamas and of course a straightener from my sister. Remember the lifestyle change mentioned above? Apparently a straightener is necessary to complete it. We'll see about that.

The boyfriend got a lot of tools plus a signed hockey jersey courtesy of my parents (via me).

After food and presents there was a lot of football. Then napping and more food. Then more napping. Then more football. The boyfriend slept for a bit cause he was going into work that night.

All-in-all it was a good holiday season.


Immediately after the holiday season is our anniversary on the 2nd. 3 years. Doesn't feel like it was that long ago, but apparently it was. To celebrate we went to a hockey game where we won 3-2, then we watched some Forensic Files which has become our go-to show. Have you seen it? It's addicting. The hockey game was exciting enough, I don't think I've seen that many brawls in a single game ever. Tons of fighting and lots of penalties. It's like they knew it was a special occasion.

Or it's cause we were suppose to "turn a corner" after the holiday break and start winning games.

And speaking of winning games we played a hell of a game last night against our rivals and won it in overtime! It was huge game - not only because of they're our rivals but also because they were on a 9 game win streak. This was another one filled with brawls and by the end there were a lot of guys sidelined either in the penalty box or thrown out. Luckily a lot were able to come back for overtime. It was tied 2-2 for a while but then they went up 4-2. I thought we were toast but we scored and then we scored again with 2 minutes remaining. The guy that scored that one was playing his first game with us - he also had an assist - so pretty good for a new guy. Glad we acquired him.

Then for overtime we put in who I like to call either the 3 Musketeers or the 3 Amigos - Hoff, Gillespie, and Jozefek (who's my favorite). These guys can score when they're put together, honestly it's crazy how many times the three of them work together for goals. Hoff was able to shoot one passed the goalie and we took the victory. It was epic. I tweeted about it and it got favorited by all 3 Musketeers/Amigos and the general manager.

I love hockey, you meet the most interesting people while watching it. On one side you've got the drunken frat boys, on the other a redneck and behind us we have some awesome commentators and an archaeologist.

In Nebraska.

I made a friend. Ran into her in Walgreens and we started talking. Mostly about hockey. We ended up moving and sitting next to her during the game because it was packed and behind us it was empty. After the game we talked some more and now we're gonna do lunch. Turns out she works just a block over. Should be fun.


And last but not least....remember that whole patron having a stroke in the library thing? If not go here: I would shoulder a 12-year-old for you, that's love.

And then after that how Superwoman nominated me for a Customer Service Award? Go here: Hot babes getting hotter: You'll see less of us soon.

Well, turns out she nominated me for something else. A Mayor's Award of Excellence. And I got it.

Just have to meet the mayor and city council and not make a fool out of myself - no pressure.

Plus I'm horrified of public speaking and I guess I'm supposed to possibly say something in front of them. I think I have an idea of what to say, now it's just memorizing it and running through it over and over so I don't completely freeze and make a fool out of myself.

No pressure.



On to a Scale of Awesome's:

Serial

That's right, my first Scale of Awesome for a podcast. I actually learned about this from the parody skit on SNL. So I listened to all 12 episodes over the New Year's weekend (aka our family Christmas). It worked well because I did a crapton of driving so there was plenty of time to listen. I got so caught up in it that I was listening to it before I went to bed at night and then again in the morning when I woke up. My only thing against it was that it didn't really have the ending that I was looking for. I wanted to know if he was guilty or innocent and she didn't have an answer to that. Maybe they'll cover it in the second season which starts up soon. Scale of Awesome says 8/10.


Night at the Museum 3

Scale of Awesome says 8/10. I thought it was pretty good - very funny and since I'm an ancient Egypt nut I loved that aspect. Sad to see Robin Williams in it though knowing he's not around anymore.


Unbroken

Good movie but super long. Or at least it felt that way. Scale of Awesome says 7/10.


Tropic Thunder

If it wasn't for Robert Downey Jr. this movie would be awful. Fortunately he was in it and was fantastic so I'm giving it a 7/10.


The Departed


I think I watched this one a while ago with Mom back when we had Netflix but I don't remember anything about it. The one thing I will say about it now is it's long. Like you think it's about to be over and then it's not. And then it's still not. And then it's 2 hours later and he has to go to work so we have to finish it next time. It was okay I guess. I mean I like the people in it - Leo, Matt Damon, Marky Mark and Jack of course. I'd say 5/10 maybe?



And on to the music.

Dedication To My Ex - Lloyd


loving this song, very catchy. yes that's wayne brady.


Wasted Love - Matt McAndrew


was very surprised he didn't pull off the win, but craig was good too.