Happy New Year!

Funk and Quigs rang in the new year in style. :o) I guess Robert's and my hard-partying night of fondue and movies just wore these guys out!

Our Christmases

Remember when Robert bought me a super awesome camera for my birthday? Me, too. Unfortunately, the box didn't come with an improved desire or ability to take photos so I have no photos of either the Kimball or McCauley Christmas celebrations. (The post's title is a bit of a misnomer... Sorry.) I'm pretty much just SOL on the McCauley photos but Melanie took oodles of photos on Christmas Eve so once I get those bad boys from her I'll put'em up. In the meantime, peruse the few photos I did take. (Apparently, something about dogs triggers my very weak photo-taking gene!)

Robert did a beautiful job wrapping my gifts:


I sported some nifty holiday footwear:


My mom worked VERY hard to get Quigley interested in his bully stick gift:


It didn't take as much to get the dogs interested in the Skineez skunk:


Quigley went crazy on that skunk's ass!


All that playing tuckered the pups out pretty quickly:


Quigley eventually retired to his new Snoopy bed. You know I'm a sucker for Snoopy!


To be continued...

Our Christmas Card to You

This year, Robert and I opted not to mail out a Christmas card. Of course, once all of your beautiful cards started arriving I felt like a huge ass. So, in the spirit of card giving, I whipped up a little holiday message for you all:

Love,
Lauren, Robert, Garfunkel (and Quigley!)

O Tannenbaum: The Older Years

I'm sure most of you will recall the Open Letter to Future Lauren that I penned last year, urging myself to consider forgoing a real tree and all its associated ills for a fake tree. Well, it is with some-but-not-as-much-as-I-thought* sadness that I report that I have finally bitten the bullet and purchased a fake tree. I haven't really been truly sick since I started school (*knocks wood*) and I really wanted to keep it that way. Plus, even though I haven't been "sick," my sinuses have been unhappy with me to varying degrees ever since I started school, which I attribute to all of my time spent around various hairs, fur and hay. I definitely cannot afford to be felled by my annual January sinus infection so I asked Robert to do a little research into what kinds of fake trees are out there. Ultimately, though, we were limited by time and money so we hit the pavement one weekend and found ourselves a pretty darn decent tree at a reasonable price. The selection of faux trees is sort of annoying because for some reason manufacturers think that people who want fake trees also want pine cones or glitter on their tree. Maybe some people do but I certainly don't. I also don't want fake snow, a combination of fabric and plastic branches or a tree pre-lit with both big and little bulbs. I just want(ed) a plain tree, damn it! But they were few and far between. We did wind up having to buy a tree that was pre-lit with white bulbs (not my fave - they look too sterile to me) so I made Robert promise either take the white lights off or add colored lights to the white lights when we got home. He did (of course) so we grabbed the box and made for the checkout line.

Here's how the tree looked fresh out of the box:


And here's the finished product!


Let's take a little closer look, shall we? First, with flash:


Now, flash-free:


Up close!

In all honesty, the tree looks just fine and I have enjoyed not being sick. I haven't gotten to enjoy any hot chocolate in my phlegm-free state but I have indulged in some caramel apple cider and it was GOOD. :o) And even just walking past tree lots while going into stores made me realize the fake tree was a good move - I could feel my nose and eyes start freaking out as people were shaking their trees to get'em on their cars. It's not necessarily a tree we'll have forever but it was a good decision for this year and even if it only lasts a few more Christmases we'll have gotten our money's worth. And Christmas just isn't Christmas without a tree! I just hope someone out there buys what would have been my Charlie Brown tree...

* Aside from a fake tree just being a general bummer, we bought that super awesome tree stand last year and now we can't use it! Suckballs.

Videos Me Likes

I have finally been able to enjoy a little catch-up time with my favorite entertainment sites and TV shows; as such, I've gathered up a handful of videos that I feel compelled to share. Yes, they're sort of old and you may have seen them already but c'mon! They're good. You can see them again. Please?

The first one is a clip from the Anne Hathaway-hosted episode of Saturday Night Live. SNL is very hit-or-miss in my opinion but I thought Anne did a fantabulous job channeling Katie Holmes in this skit. Plus, the chick playing Miley Cyrus is PERFECT! So, so spot on. And the song is super catchy. (Or should I say "it's pretty cool?") Robert and I have been singing it for days now. We're very well-matched dorks, what can I say?

This next clip is from the 12/06 episode of The Daily Show. The clip is about Fox News' continued coverage of their perceived 'war on Christmas' and while the entire thing is excellent, the best (most pointed) bit starts @ the 5:05 mark.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Gretch Who Saved the War on Christmas
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show clip was funny but this one from The Colbert Report had me in a fit of giggles. It's about Days of Our Lives using product placement to help fund (or, rather, save) the show and the BEST part is @ 3:35 (though all of the toaster strudel stuff is golden).

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Soap Opera Product Placement
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog March to Keep Fear Alive

And, finally, because vet tech students are as dorky as you think, here's a video that someone in my class shared. I'm not really a cutesy cat video person but this one is actually pretty humorous. Good voice over work.

Movie Morsels 64: Bad News for Iron Man

The first Iron Man I liked, very much. The second one? Eh. Not my favorite. Not even close. So, the news that Jon Favreau has left the third film distresses me a bit. Sure, he helmed the second movie and I didn't like it but it's pretty well known on the gossip circuit that he was creatively castrated by Marvel and the studio. In that sense, then, I guess it doesn't really matter that Jon's not directing the third one - he probably wouldn't have the same thing happen all over again. But on the flip side, someone with less vested interest in the series than Jon might just make things 10 times worse. It's hard to know. Annoying! Why do studios always have to muck up the works? Ugh.

via The Superficial:

Great. Now who’s going to needlessly insert themselves into the movie?

While Iron Man 2 was less a movie and more a painful clusterfuck advertising Marvel’s upcoming films, the blame for that rested squarely on Marvel who, instead of letting director Jon Favreau continue to build a successful franchise after taking a genius gamble on Robert Downey Jr., thought it’d be best to make him essentially act like a toy-hawking George Lucas, which miraculously didn’t end in suicide. However, it has brought us to today where Vulture reports Favreau has walked from the third film:

It’s unclear whether the impasse was financial or creative or both. One informed source hears that he was frustrated with Marvel’s urge to stuff more of their in-house heroes into the next film in the wake of The Avengers. In a recent interview with MTV News, Favreau explained that based on his conversations with Marvel Studios executives, he had no clarity as to what a third Iron Man film would even be about. “In theory, Iron Man 3 is going to be a sequel or continuation of Thor, Hulk, Captain America and Avengers,” said Favreau at the time, “This whole world … I have no idea what it is. I don’t think they do either, from conversations I’ve had with those guys.”
… Regardless of why, we’re told that Marvel quietly began the process of finding a director to replace Favreau last night. But Marvel’s task is complicated by the fact that Downey Jr. has both contractually negotiated director approval and is currently the hottest leading man in Hollywood with first pick of dozens of “go” movies around town.

Wait. Everybody just saw that, right? Robert Downey Jr. has director approval. HELL. YES. Finally, my dream of seeing Mel Gibson direct an Iron Man movie has come to pass.

ROBERT: Hey, Mel, got a sec? Was looking over the script and apparently 80% of the scenes are nothing but Iron Man being nailed to a cross by a Russian supervillain named “Record-o-Bitch.” Am I reading this right?
MEL: It’s actually more like 90, but listen, be honest: Do ya think Gwyneth will blow me?
ROBERT: …. God, I made the right choice here. ACTION, PEOPLE!

When Hot Men Aren't Hot

I don't know how many of you saw the Yahoo! story about Christian Bale that was featured on yesterday's home page but I, of course, checked it out. It was... not really so great, to be honest. Now, you know I loves me my Hot Men and Christian in particular but this particular feature is a fantastic example of why I would much rather admire from afar than actually date or be married to a Hot Man. (Besides the fact that Robert is perfect for me, of course. That goes without saying.) Many of my Hot Men are actors and, as such, change their looks with each new role. Would I like to ogle Christian as Bruce Wayne? Absolutely. As Trevor Reznick? Not so much. And as what I can only imagine to be a starring role in a never-to-be-announced George Harrison biopic? Definitely not.

<-- George or Christian? Only Ravi Shankar knows for sure...

Thanksgiving @ the Kidders'

SO! It is Friday the 17th and I have officially been done with my first quarter of the vet tech program for 8 days. And it's. been. fantastic! Soooooooooooooooo, so nice. I have loved having the time off just in and of itself but especially because it's before Christmas and has allotted me time to decorate at my leisure. I put off anything and everything holiday-related until finals were over and once they were I felt pressure to get goin' on all my stuff. (So much so that at 8:30 in the morning following my last final my eyes popped open and my brain started whirring. So, when I say "at my leisure" I mean it more in the sense that I had time to relax and do nothing after frantically rushing to put everything up all at once instead of my usual weekend of frantic decorating followed by going to work.) But I have finished the decorating and so now have time - and a bit more of an inclination - to post a few things that have been piling up in my queue. First up: Thanksgiving!

I actually don't have any photos of Robert and I at either of our parents' celebrations but, y'know, it was all the usual stuff. The next day, though, we were invited to a soiree at the Kidders' house that was a Thanksgiving/Christmas party/baby shower because Christina won't be able to fly out to CA for Christmas this year. (Boo.) As always, it was so much fun and Robert and I were happy to once again be included in the festivities. The best part was the 'tacky sweater' competition; the sweaters and decorative goodies were provided and all we had to do was gaudy up our sweaters as best we could. I definitely don't have a problem with, ahem, loud holiday wear (Christmas is a time for sequins and sparkle, damn it!) so that aspect of the design wasn't a problem for me. I am, however, super anal and in love with symmetry so it WAS very hard for me to just grab a bunch of stuff and slap it on my sweater haphazardly. Plus, my sweater had a design on it already and I just could not add things to the sweater that didn't go with the established motif! Needless to say, I didn't win. But I did get to keep my sweater so in a way I did. :o)

Here we are in our Christmas finery:

Robert just loved his doofy armband - he was convinced it made his sweater "couture."

And here I am with Chrissie and Emily. (Yes, I was the only one who kept their sweater on after the contest was over. I'm nothing if not festive!)

The little fluffball in my arms is Oliver, Emily and Paul's 5-month-old Maltese/Shih Tzu puppy. He was a big hit all night, as you can imagine... Though he was a big difficult to photograph!

Cranberry Bread

'nough said.

You know who you are.

A Couple Photos with the Furries

Well, it's 1:45 on the Friday before my week of 3 finals begins on Tuesday. Should I be: (a) studying; (b) working on my Nerd book; (c) a and/or b; or (d) typing up a blog post while still wearing my pajamas. I think you all know the answer to that one.

So! Without further ado, here are a few photos my friend* Kristine snapped of me yesterday between classes:

Me & Charcey

Me & Frankie

Frankie in Santa's lap

The program had a fundraiser a few weekends back where you could get a photo of your pet with Santa for the low, low price of just $40! To which I said no. But they decided to bring Frankie down at one point and he was totally game to sit in Santa's lap for a photo. He's just the cutest!! Had people known they could have their picture taken with Frankie and Santa, I think a few more people would've shown up. ;o)

* Yes, I actually have friends now. It's pretty nice. :o) After all my loser-y ness and worrying I have managed to make a fairly good circle of friends/acquaintances in the program and it's made me a much happier person. I have been to a couple more Happy Hours, several study groups and have even gone to the movies with two of my new school peeps. Having a better footing on the social front has really improved my outlook on school, I must admit, and that makes both me and Robert very relieved. :o) Whew!