Why I have such high expectations of the Men I date

I almost forgot to mention one of the sweetest things that happened over the break. As previously mentioned, Tree day is a big deal in my family. My mom goes to great lengths to make is special for everyone. Usually my dad just tries to stay out of our way.

This year he went to the hardware store for an hour or so. When he came back he pulled my mom aside for a minute and gave her a beautiful poinsetta. He said it was her Tree Day present. She works so hard to make it special for everyone else, and this was his gift to make it special for her.

Pretty thoughtful, huh!

Two of my favorite people

The ear doctor came up to be with me at the wedding.

Aren't they great?

Tree Day

My mom is very clever. In the spirit of Tom Sawyer she has devised a way to trick our entire family into happily helping her put up all of her many, MANY Christmas decorations in one day.

It is called "Tree Day" and it is almost as highly anticipated as Thanksgiving itself. The day after Thanksgiving everyone comes over to my mom's house and participates in decorating the tree, and house. You can almost feel the house throbbing to the rhythm of the most wonderful time of the year. My sister works on the gingerbread houses and I put the lights on the tree. Presents are handed out hourly. This year they culminated for me in an at home soft serve ice cream maker.

Anyway, this year to add to the festivities, my two little nieces put on hourly shows for the family. Every hour or so they made us all take a break, drink a diet coke, and watch their shows. Really, it was the same show over and over, but it was so cute it really didn't matter. My little niece, Kathryn:

would hold two big red bows on strings, one in each hand. Then, while Lexi switched on the musical carousel playing Jingle Bells, Kathryn would jump up and down and swing the red bows around, num-chuck style. After the aerobatics were over, she would serenade us with her own rendition of the classic jingle bells that went a little something like this:

Dashing tha-woo the snow...in um um um open um....oh the fiewds we go....laughing all the way, HA HA HA (at ear splitting volume)....bews on bum bum bum....making spiwits bwight....oh em fun ........OH

Jingo Bews, Jingo Bews, Jingo all the way.....OH McFun it is to wide in a one hose open slay. HEY! Jingo Bews, Jingo Bews, Jingo all the way.....OH McFun it is to wide in a one hose open slay

I called it the McDonald's version and am currently looking into a deal with the server of 99 billion hambugers for a holiday endorsement.

Tis the Season....well, almost

I know, I know, it isn't officially Christmas season until after Thanksgiving, but I've had my Christmas template made for about 2 weeks now and I am so excited to put it up. It is my first decoration for the season.

Plus, I'm going home tomorrow and won't have access to the template there, so really the options were put the Christmas template up today, or next Monday.

And by next Monday I would have wasted 3 good days of Christmas celebrating, so this really is the only option.

If you're one of those people who are like, "Jeez, I can't believe they are already setting out Christmas gifts at the Mall" or "Hello, shouldn't Christmas come only a week before the big day" then you can just turn around and leave because from now until the end of December this is an official holiday stop.

My coworkers

So, it had to come out some day.

I knew they would put the pieces together, they're smart guys.

Yes, I have been discovered.

My two coworkers have unearthed the truth....I am a BLOGGER.

The great thing is that they, too, blog.

I've never felt closer to them now. All this time we've been sharing offices and copiers and white boards and I never knew that we could form a friendship via satellite trasmition.

Thank you, technology, for bringing me closer to the person I share a 10 x 15 foot area with.

Check out their blogs:

Derrick

Litespeed

Grin and Bear It

After 6 hours of having your photo taken, this happens to even the most patient bride:

The reunion

So, I know it is lame to get caught up in TV so much, but I just don't care.

Last night I both loved and hated the show.

And by "the show" I of course mean Gilmore Girls.

I loved that Lor and Rory made up. That was so perfect. I really felt Lor's excitement when she told Luke they could finally set a date.

But,

I have to admit that I think the whole "Luke has an illegitimate 12 year-old daughter" is just a little bit retarded, and over dramatic for the tone of the story. Seriously, it is supposed to be about ordinary people and this step just seemed too day-time drama for me. What next, Sukie's twins were switched at birth? Or maybe Emily will be possessed by the devil?

Seriously, writers, what were you thinking?

Pretty Girl

This photo features my beautiful baby sister in her stunning wedding dress in our back yard between the ceremony and the reception.

New theme

Because there has been such great demand, and to show off my skillz as a photographer, I am going to post one photo a day from my sister's wedding back in July. Here is the first one.

I call it "FORBIDDEN SECRET"

A few nice things

Dear Southwest airlines,

Thank you SO much for finally deciding to pick up Denver as one of your destinations in January. You really have no idea how much it means to be to be able to get a cheap flight to anywhere your friendly airline flies. When I moved to Denver, and learned that you did not fly here, I deemed it as the single fly in the ointment of Colorado. Thank you for restoring my belief that this is the ideal place to live.

Sincerely,

Katie

PS Do'nt tell anyone but I think this will be the last nail in the coffin for United. He He He

Dear People in my Spanish class,

I am a little dissapointed that only two of you showed up to our Spanish only dinner last night. I thought we had all made a lasting friendship and I was sorely dissapointed that only two of you felt like it was "cool enough" for you to attend. Shame, shame on you.

Sincerely,

Katie

Dear Student that I TA,

Still, two days later, I am a little disgrunteled with your treatment of me, your TA. When you confronted me in a very combattive matter, I responded equally combattively and now I feel there is a rift between us. Please know that if you had treated me with the respect I deserve as your evaluator, this whole situation could have been avoided, and we both would have been satisfied. The way things stand now, we are both just annoyed.

Sincerely,

Katie

Dear Ear Doctor,

I know right now you are stressed and worried about the conference, but just know that I think you are so accomplished and so well prepared that you will do an amazing job. Say hi to Shamu for me.

Sincerely,

Katie

Dear Makers of the Williams and Sonomoa 2003 Christmas CD,

You have no idea how much joy your product has been giving me the last week. I have been letting the happy, hopeful songs on your recording drift through the air of my car and it has made this incredably difficult and long week bareable.

Sincerely,

Katie

Dear Person who brings the doughnuts to work on Fridays,

Really, my appreciate for you has no limit. I have been looking forward to this moment all morning. The first, glorious, sugar filled and chocolate covered bite brings me close to nirvana.

Sincerely,

Katie

This is totally for reals

Very like the last installment of "I just realized what I said was really really dumb," my Spanish class today had a little gem of a moment.

We have finally got to my favorite section of learning another language...LA COMIDA!

I just love learning how to say food in other languages becuase I feel like it will be really useful to me.

Anyway, today we were learning how to say apple in Spanish. One of the exercises was, given a description of the food in Spanish, we had to determine the right vocab word.

Anyway, the description in the book was:

"Una fruta roja o verde" (A red or green fruit)

The answer, of course, was "Una manzana" (apple)

This girl, I'm sure before thinking, piped up and said, "So, I didn't know until a year ago that the red and green apples were different types of apples. I always thought that the yellow ones were the least ripe, the green ones were a little riper and the red were ready to eat. I totally didn't ever eat the green ones."

Yeah, and she is a SENIOR!

The whole class just tried to laugh along with her, but I was shocked and it was all I could do to wipe the, "where did you come from" slack-jawwed expression off my face.

525600

Today is a very important day.

Not because it is Monday, the start of a new week.

Not because today is the day I register for my classes next semester.

Not because my bangs look particularly slammin today.

Exactly one year ago today the ear doctor and I decided we would be exclusive.

Yep, today is our one year dating anniversary.

And since it has been a while since I've listed his amazing attributes in this forum, I've decided like today would be the most fitting of days to do so.

Reasons why the ear doctor is awesome:

• He is really smart. I mean really smart. The kid is getting his PhD for goodness sakes.
  
  

• He is so good looking, and not in that skinny, gross, MTv way. He is strong and big and I love that his shoulders are so broad that I can barely get my arms around them.
• He is so thoughtful.
• Always (or nearly) patient with my rudeness or general disregard for everyone around me.
• he can really see people. What the need and want and then tries to help whenever he can.
• He loves taking me out to dinner.
• He loves going to the movies.
• He thinks I'm funny.
• He loves Lucille Ball.

• Clearly has a thing for red heads.
• He makes me laugh SO hard.
• He likes my little sister.

• He planned the perfect 1 year anniversary night out.
• Complete with chocolate fountain fond when we got home.
  
  
  
• He likes quality in things and doesn't mind paying for it.
• He cannot find a new pair of shoes that he really likes.
• He owns the coolest new Nixon watch they make.
  
  
  
• He's one of the best dancers this side of the Mississippi, and doesn't mind that I'm not that great.
  
  
• He doesn't think it is that weird that I have a strange love for the Christmas season.
• He always wants to get people the perfect gift.
• He is always on time.
• He is very responsible.

There are more, but I should get some work done today.

Mental Prostitution

So I've been banging my head against my keyboard for the last 4 hours trying to figure out how to program.

This really nice guy I met yesterday asked how it was coming and I went off with my frustrations.

He sat down and helped me for an hour try to get this together.

And now it works like a dream.

My gratitude to him was thoroughly effusive. I seriously could not have done it without him.

After we were done we were chatting and he admitted that he doesn't have a lot of friends in the program and he was happy that he'd now made a friend.

It was so cute I almost wanted to reach over and give him a hug.

It was just like the scene at the end of Can't buy me Love when Kenneth is helping the cheerleader girl with her math so he could sit at the popular table at lunch.

Except, I am nowhere near as cool as that girl is,

Nor is my hair as big as hers,

but you get the picture.

Good News

Don't worry, the doughnuts were here this morning.

I know you were all concerned.

You may now resume your normal lives.

My boyfriend RULES

Just in case you were wondering how the ear doctor's costume turned out this year, you should all wander over to Genius's site and check him out.

Mi Amor