doom's day

It's December 19th and it's 73 degrees outside. I'm fairly certain the world is collapsing. It snowed in New Orleans a week ago. It snowed in Nashville a week ago (proof below). Actually, I don't remember it ever being as cold as it's been this year. And now today. We're doomed.

Thanks to Brent and Brock, I'm learning German. I've only learned about 30 words so far, but my favorite is sieben (seven), and my least favorite is pferd (horse), primarily because I can't say it correctly and I don't ever, ever see the need to know that noun in German. So far I can string together only a couple of useless sentences (The boy is under/in/on the table/airplane/boat), but I have high hopes.


I thought about talking about how my nail polish looks like a 2-year-old's, but then I thought, "Nah, too much excitement for one blog."
Or did I?

I heart puppies.

PUPPY!!!!

Meet Bela. She's a Lab/Beagle mix. She's 9 weeks old, and adorable. Look at those ears!!




We're sold. Now we only have to get our two cats to love and accept her as one of their own. I'll keep you posted.

halloween!

I am apparently terrible at carving pumpkins - something I was oblivious to since the last time I carved a pumpkin I was a Girl Scout.
First, I did a ghost.... then it just fell apart. So then I made a face, but it has a hole through the back of its head from the failed ghost.
Lee's is cute though.

Cake

Some things should not be eaten after one year of sitting in a freezer, then being thrown into a cooler for 5 hours, then sitting in the freezer again for a couple of weeks.


This is all we could manage to eat. That one bite.

I really hope the wedding cake was better a year ago.

"One can survive everything nowadays, except death" -Oscar Wilde

The past five days have consisted of:
sitting on my grandmother's white couch
eating constantly
crying
sleeping

over and over and over.

It's been one of the longest weeks of my life. Thankfully my family is pretty awesome, so it wasn't as sucky as it could have been. Also, my grandmother was hilarious in general, so there were a lot of good stories to tell and funny old pictures to look at.

I am going to miss her terribly. She was one unique lady: Mrs. Manners, yet bossy & opinionated as hell. Republican, yet secretly liberal. All about appearances, but always allowed you to be yourself. I loved her: I loved visiting her, I loved talking on the phone to her, I even loved talking about her. She was one of my favorites and I am thankful I have a ton of wonderful memories of time spent with her.

When we buried her this morning, we all tossed in things in her grave. The items thrown in included: rocks from our family trip to Lake Michigan, shells from the beach, playing cards (she was a bridge fanatic), a love letter written from her to my grandfather while she was in college (most adorable letter ever), mardi gras beads, and a fancy wine glass. No other items could have as accurately described her personality.

Here are two of my favorite photographs of me & her:


This was taken in my Grandmother's kitchen, when we taught Mary and I how to make her secret, awesome, chocolate silk pie.



This was taken at the end of our wedding reception. I don't know what we're laughing at, but I adore adore adore this photo.

These past two weeks have been crappy for some of my friends as well, and my heart & thoughts go out to Adam & Jason Dane, Brian Branam, and Kendell Moore who all lost their mothers, as well as Rachel Donaldson, whose grandmother passed away.

laughter + tears

My grandmother is dying. I'm really, terribly sad about it. But I'm currently trying to push back my tears and make jokes, something my grandmother is also good at doing. For instance, yesterday, after she told me "goodbye", she said she was practicing the death scene from Camille.

The rain couldn't keep me

from voting the hell out of this election.

October is the month.

Things that have been awesome about the last two days:
1. hair is black again, without roots
2. my hair is/was straight, with positive reactions
3. a massage
4. not going to work on a Tuesday
5. shoes shopping with my hilarious husband
6. lunch with heather and kerry
7. beer at work
8. Best of Nashville party.

above: Me + Mike, our publisher and my boss
below: Me + Brent, my awesome friend and coworker



above: Me, Tracy, + Patrick
below: Me, Alyson (coworker who put on the awesome party), + Derek (one of our new designers)

one year down.

I married a cutie.

kobe&miso

Hopefully one day we will have a dog, so I can name him "Bento."

Letters

Dear Watermelon,
Why are you only around in the summer? Why haven't I given you more notice before this year? Had I known that I could eat bowls and bowls of you, yet not consume a million calories, I would have started long before June 2008. It's sad, because now your color is getting paler and it's getting harder for me to justify buying an expensive fruit that isn't ripe. Your loss.
Until next year,
e

Dear Neighbor,
Why are you such a jerk? I know that you have previously been nice to me (by jump-starting my car - thank you), but your recent action discounts your kind gesture. Unlike you, we cannot afford to pay someone to mow our lawn, so Lee (that's my husband - I doubt you caught his name) has to do it on his own. He did not purposefully get a couple of pieces of grass on your clean driveway. In fact, he had plans of using our new leaf blower to clean them up. However, because of your snotty attitude, I am tempted to place leaves and pieces of grass in strategic places in your driveway. I hope they will serve as a banana peel to your car tires.
Cookies,
Mrs. Jones

Dear You,
I will pay you $50 plus apple pie (I'm making my first one now) to clean my house. Fair?
Begging,
Elizabeth

sunset on the Caribbean

suckers.

another day finished at the office

my loves love each other

alabama summer

(click to enlarge)

my Susan leaves the Scene....

tear.



a wine flyte to dull the pain.

new direction

I am changing this blog into a photo blog. Hopefully I can get it to work through my cell phone - if not, the posts will be rare, but bright and lively because it will be photos instead of words.

First entry:
We painted the kitchen. It practically glows in the dark.

poignant Buffy review

Lee and I just watched the entire Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. We started in September, so it took us about 6 months to watch 145 episodes, which is a bit much of tv. And I love tv.
Anyway, throughout the seasons I had love affairs with three different characters.

Xander. Always Xander.


Spike.


Giles.

(Interestingly, Anthony Head also appears in “Little Britain,” which is a ridiculous and hilarious sketch comedy show.)

I never had an interest in Buffy before, but my friend Lee (not my husband Lee) owned all the seasons and raved about it. Since she likes awesome things like Freaks and Geeks and LOST, I took her word on it and was pleasantly surprised. I think I liked Buffy so much because there was an over-arching story throughout the entire series. So, in conclusion, I totally recommend it. But only if you're seriously going to watch all of it. Which is a commitment, for sure. But um, I really like tv. So it wasn't too hard.

politics and dining room upgrades.

Just so you know...


In other news, I re-covered our dining room chairs so they no longer look like a 70's grandmother's furniture. It was my first attempt at doing anything Martha Stewart-like, and I was impressed with the outcome. Below is a picture (fugly plaid pillow in background).




Also, I painted my office.


By the way, speaking of Martha Stewart, my friend Emily is going to be on her show on March 11th. Tivo it.