Friday Frivolity

New year, new planner that I won't use. I have eternal optimism that I'll get my act together and actually use a planner for more than a week.

This year I went with the blogger-endorsed Erin Condren planner.

Look how cute it is!

Do y'all have the ION Television channel? It's my late-at-night-can't-sleep-due-to-snoring-husband-and/or-crowding-cats channel. They show reruns of some of my favorite crime dramas and they just started Cold Case from the beginning. I loved Lilly Rush and her band of homicide detectives solving open cases - some as old as 1919, some more recent. I miss that show.

I didn't share this next bit of news in my year-end post because I wasn't sure if it was public yet, but now it is and I can announce that our niece Jackie got engaged on Christmas! For those who aren't on my personal Facebook page, here's the family photo, including her fiancé Dameon (far left).

I haven't posted a karaoke playlist in a while, but rest assured, I'm still singing! Here's what I sang Tuesday night.






Finally, Happy Birthday to my friend Amy. Aaron has three best friends from high school and fortunately all the wives are friends as well. I'm so happy that Amy and Mike now live here in Columbus (a mere 10-minute walk away)!

Have a great weekend and stay warm!

I'm the kind of girl who...

My fellow Columbus blogger Holly is hosting a link up today, and I thought it was time to throw out a few facts about me, especially for any newbies out there.

I’m the kind of girl who…

• loves my hair. After years of perms I finally discovered my natural curl. Now the color is a different story. Premature grey runs in my dad's family and as soon as I saw my first grey hairs (at age 23) I called my stylist.

• enjoys spicy food and prefers salty over sweet but if it's sweet, vanilla/caramel over chocolate.

• has a steel trap memory for a lot of weird things. I remember what our phone number was when I was little, even though I haven't had that phone number for 36 years. (It was 864-7637.)

• has no problem doing nothing, yet it's hard for me to totally relax my body. I'm hoping that won't be an issue this weekend when I'm in Jamaica!

My motto

• is a girly-girl when it comes to shopping, hair, jewelry, makeup and fashion (although I don't like pink) BUT I also like violent movies and sports, especially football.

• will stay quiet while I'm forming the words I want to say, but once I start talking, look out! I'll be honest and tell it like it is, while still being sympathetic and listening to YOU... unless of course you're being an idiot. ;)

• loves to read, watch TV and movies, and sing. If you're new around here, I sing karaoke on Tuesday nights and on Gwensdays (which I like so much more than "hump day" but I realize that Gwensday doesn't mean as much to people who aren't me) I often share a playlist of what I sang the night before. Time After Time and I Want You to Want Me were duets with my karaoke partner in crime, Kat. Quote of the night from Amy to me: "Killing Me Softly and a fake ID will be your ticket to American Idol." Hahaha! That would have to be one hell of a fake ID.

There's still time to enter my giveaway! You have until midnight tonight (Eastern Time).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

We've Got a Groovy Kind of Love

Thanks for all the Bella love yesterday! Of course, now her ego is bigger than ever and she'll be impossible to live with but that's OK.

Aaron and I don't do Valentine's Day. We don't even get each other cards, but we always receive a card from Wittenberg University, where we met oh-so-many years ago. Last year's card is here, and here's the one we got this year.

Way back when we were still in college and did pay attention to VDay, I made a mix tape for Aaron (yes, as in cassette tape). These aren't quite all the songs but they all have meaning to us. So here's a 25-year-old Valentine from me to Aaron:

An extremely unflattering picture of us from college.

For those who don't know, Aaron's business is audio/video/home automation. This week they mailed out candy bars to their customers as a Valentine. They also launched a new website and they have brand new Twitter and Instagram accounts. Check them out!

Have a great weekend and Happy Valentine's Day! I love you guys!

Ramblin' Woman

Commence brain dump.

• I don't think I'm changing the world, but I do enjoy this little corner of mine out there on the world wide web, and I so appreciate when people let me know that they enjoy it, too. Thanks, friends.

• Aaron has had a couple crazy busy work days, including getting his car stuck twice in the snow and helping a coworker get his car un-stuck. Last night I said I'd take care of dinner. The plan was to have pork tinga tacos. Aaron had taken the meat out of the freezer so all I had to do was warm it up and get the toppings and tortillas ready. I decided to do a Mexican rice side dish that we've had many times before, but I didn't check the rice supply in time. I ended up using half basmati and half brown basmati and, yes, I knew that they had two different cooking times but foolishly I thought if I just cooked it longer it would work out. We had to throw out the whole thing. This is why I stay out of the kitchen, people. At least the tacos were edible.

• It's tax time, as I'm sure you know. As a former tax accountant I have a nerdy pet peeve and I know that some of my friends do this but I even heard it on a radio commercial this morning and I may have yelled at the radio. Here it is: if you overpaid your taxes and you get money back it's called a tax refund. A tax return is the actual form you submit to the IRS to determine whether or not you get a refund. Thus ends my PSA of the day.

• Last night was karaoke night. Here's my playlist (minus songs that have been on previous playlists):

• My friend Liz posted this on Facebook today and it struck me. It's not an easy thing to remember but it's certainly true:

People can’t drive you crazy if you don’t give them the keys.

• Tomorrow I'll have a special guest blogger and you won't want to miss it. Hint: she's white and black and very fluffy.

A Bunch of Thursday Randomness

Let's talk snow. Yes, it's winter. Yes, it snows in winter. But we rarely get THAT much snow at one time here in Columbus. The official snowfall for Tuesday night/Gwensday morning was 10.7 inches. We didn't have quite that much in the city but it was more than six inches for sure and on top of that we got freezing rain. Aaron shoveled for two hours before caving and borrowing a friend's snowblower.

Here's the thing, don't be a damn hero. If you don't have to go anywhere, stay home. Simple as that. I'm telling you, the roads are shitastic and while I'm missing my 4WD vehicle right about now, even that doesn't guarantee you won't go slip sliding away. And I get it, the schools have been closed a lot this winter and that's a bitch for parents who have to scramble to find childcare for the younger kids, but I think it's hilarious when parents who have no problem taking their kids out of school for a vacation complain that snow days are hindering their children's education.

No you did not. Shut up.

Do you watch The Biggest Loser? I don't, but I've seen a lot about the controversy surrounding the latest winner and "did she go too far?" I'll admit that she looks quite thin and apparently her BMI is slightly below "healthy," but I have two problems here. 1) I wonder if people would be as up in arms had it been a man in the same set of facts. 2) People, please. There is nothing healthy about the format of this show. I saw a tweet from someone who said she watched the finale with her teenage daughters and she was disgusted. Sorry, but why are you watching with your teenage daughters at all? This extreme weight loss is unrealistic and can be dangerous, whether or not the winner appears "emaciated."


I didn't manage to post yesterday but I do have Tuesday's karaoke playlist. We had a great time watching the snow and even Aaron sang.

In that picture he's singing Harry Connick, Jr.'s "Where or When." He also sang Van Halen's "Ice Cream Man" and Snoop Dogg's "Gin and Juice." Here's mine:




On "If I Had You," Aaron played air piano. Haha!

No video today

And no pictures either. Sad, I know. But there was singing last night, and here's the playlist.



Kat and I sang "The Sign" together. Oh, how I wish we had done the Pitch Perfect movements as well.

Worlds collided when I walked in the bar and saw one of our regular bartenders from Buffalo Wild Wings (I know, I preach against chains, but Aaron needs his weekly fix of B-Dubs so we know a lot of the servers there).

I just about fell off my bar stool when Aaron actually showed up, way past his normal bedtime. He put in "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" but then went home before his turn. So I sang it.

When I was a kid, we had the "Bridge Over Troubled Water" album (that's vinyl, my young friends). My brother and I would sing "Cecilia" over and over, not having a clue as to its meaning. Kat and I finished out the night with that one.

There was also a rendition of "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" but I'm not including that in the playlist, because frankly, that's eight minutes that last night's patrons will never get back and I won't subject you to it.

Happy Gwensday!

I Can't Believe I'm Doing This

I've mentioned before that I've become a regular at the corner bar (Little Rock), particularly on Tuesdays when they have karaoke. My partner in crime Kat and I had decided on Sunday that we weren't going to go this week due to the way-below-zero wind chill that was on the way. Then last night she sent a text saying she'd changed her mind so off we went. There weren't a lot of people there, but it was a fun group.

Kat singing "Landslide"

This is Kevin, who runs karaoke. We love him.

When Kevin arrived, the only people there were Jessica the bartender and Greg, also a regular who happens to live even closer to the bar than I do. They weren't sure if anyone would show up so they created Karaoke Bingo. By the end of the night, we helped him get a Bingo.

...and a couple of these got circled after I took this picture...

Here's a sampling of some of what we sang. Kat and I sang together on "Baby It's Cold Outside" (hilarious), "Linger" and "Hold On." Kat sang "Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps," which has become her signature song. "I'm on a Boat" was sung by a girl we just met last night, and she was awesome. I did "Breathe" and "Feeling Good," among others.





Last week, Steph's friend Laura celebrated her birthday and also gave some life lessons on Steph's blog, one of which was "Costumes make everything better. So does dancing and Air Supply." So I said that I'd sing some Air Supply in Laura's honor. And I did. And I have video. You'll also catch a glimpse of Kevin. This is my first video upload so take pity on me for the quality because it took me way too long just to figure out how to even get it in this post.

Laura (and Steph), here's your long distance dedication:

A Few of My Favorite Things - 2013

If my friend Steph is hosting a linkup, I'm in (unless it's about cleaning and organizing...or recipes). But today is all about favorite things of 2013. And -- how convenient! -- Helene is doing a linkup of best songs of 2013 so I can kill two birds with one stone.

Television

(These are only new or new-to-me shows.)

• The Blacklist (NBC)
• The Newsroom (HBO)
• Homeland (Showtime)
• The Americans (FX)
• Witches of East End (Lifetime) - this one is a total guilty pleasure!

Movies

(I haven't seen many movies lately; I usually wait until January to do a lot of that.)

• Argo
• Lincoln
• 42
• Girl Rising
• Enough Said

Books

(This is pathetic. I was a bad book reader this year, and it's funny that two of the three are non-fiction, which I rarely read. I'm not a resolution makER but I think I'll have to resolve to read more.)

• Recipe for Joy - by my friend Robin Davis
• Reconstructing Amelia - by Kimberly McCreight
• I Am Malala - by Malala Yousafszai

Music

(Again, some of these aren't new to 2013, but that's when I became obsessed with them.)

• "Same Love" - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
• "Brave" - Sara Bareilles
• "Bottom of the River" - Delta Rae
• "Wings" - Little Mix
• "Sure on This Shining Night" - Conspirare 
• "Next to Me" - Emeli Sande
• "Some Nights" - Fun
• Wake Me Up" - Avicii
• "This Kind of Love" - Sister Hazel
• "It's Time" - Imagine Dragons
• "No Day But Today" - Idina Menzel 

Personal

• I started my new job after working at my previous job for 16 years.
• We welcomed some brand new framily members: Rylie, Cooper and Lauren!
• This was the year that I put more into my blog, which allowed me to meet new friends. And I even got to meet two in person when I visited Steph in November!

Steph, Brie, Me, Marla

• We went to Europe on a choir tour with some of our best friends, and I gained a new close friend, Kat.

A lot of people close to me had some shitty things happen this year, so I'm grateful to look at the positives of 2013. I hope you all had some favorite things during the year. Happy Gwensday!

The Best Gwensday of the Year

Happy Thanksgiving Eve a/k/a my favorite Gwensday! I'm sure you're all sick of me referencing my birthday, but too bad because I'm going to do it again. A couple years ago my birthday was on Thanksgiving Eve and I posted about it here, along with some stories of birthdays and Thanksgivings past. (Don't dump all the potato water! Or, if you're me, do it and just don't care.)

Last night I walked a block to Little Rock Bar for karaoke night. Kat couldn't go but I decided to go by myself, and while the place was busy, none of the usual Tuesday night regulars were there. But I hung out for a while and sang and met some new people. It helps that I go there often enough that the karaoke dude and the bartenders and the owner all know me.

This must have been there Saturday too, but I didn't see it until last night.

Here's a playlist of the songs I did last night. "Glitter in the Air" and "Killing Me Softly" are favorites of mine, but the other two I had never sung before. What the hell, I didn't know most of the people there anyway!




We had snow yesterday and I couldn't resist taking this picture of our poor grasses in front of the house on my way home:

Aaron was fast asleep when I got home and the cats were pretty settled in, although I didn't see Bella at first. But then I found her snuggled in a pile of laundry:

She really got herself in there! 

And maybe she's not as airheaded as we thought - this morning Aaron realized that our heat wasn't on and it was only 58 degrees in the house!

And so as I write this, I'm in front of the fire and here's my view outside:

In case you can't tell, it's snowing. Sideways.

I hope everyone celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow has a wonderful holiday. Safe travels to all! We're hosting and the house already smells so good (no thanks to me - Aaron does almost all of the cooking).