Losing my mind.

I mean I lost my keys. I got home from work Thursday, and now I can't find my freakin' car keys. I was ready to go to work Friday morning, got in my car and couldn't find my keys in my purse. Ran inside franticely throwing things around on the countertops, tabletops and dresser. Still nothing. Look on floor. Freak out. I'm going to be late for work if I don't leave NOW. Luckly I had a spare set stashed that I could grab and figured I deal with it when I got home. Matt and I have looked everywhere. Can't find them. Very frusterating. I don't know where else to look. I guess I'll just use my spare set until they show themselves, if they ever do.

Cats are Great

A Few Highlights

A few pictures from our party last Saturday.

Ted and JD always do something odd.

Tom doesn't want me to steal his soul. (take his picture)

Yes, JD is sleeping.

Ted singing on Rockband and Dave on Guitar. Isn't Dave looking good?

What was so funny?


It was a really fun party and we had alot of people actually show up this year. I'd say 20+ people. The meatballs were the big hit this year. I'll have to make even more next year. And not let Sarah knock over the slowcooker! Good thing all the meatballs were gone and just the messy sauce left to spread all over the carpet. It's mostly cleaned out, but I still want new floors so maybe I'll leave the rest. :)

Sidenote: I booked our tickets for Tucson. AZ here we come!

Mason's 1st B-day

I was surprised to see that Nisi had not posted pictures of Mason's Birthday party, even though she forgot her own camera. I'm sure once she gets pictures from friends and family, she do a birthday post for him. But anyway, here are pictures of Matt and mine's gift to Mason. The cake.

Updates?

Hmmm. I noticed I have not given any real updated since May or so. Not that I'm the only one slacking in blogger world. They cut down all our pine trees in front. A few weeks ago 4 of the 6 were gone, and when I came home today the last two were gone. It's sad really. I really loved those trees.

Matt and I did go to Wizard World in June again. It was nice to have a hotel connected to the convention center. Lots less stressful for transportation. Matt got to the finals in the Heroclix competition, but was out in the first round. So we got to wander around Chicago a little before heading back. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory twice and the Gibson's twice too. Biggest lobster tail I have ever seen at the Gibson's. We got the smaller one that was only 14oz. And the desserts! OMG!! They serve things family style there and a piece of cake is approx. a quarter of a 18" cake with 4 layers! Holy freaking cow! OH, and the martini's are great too. I think I found my new favorite restaurant.

We are leaving for Silver Lake Sunday for two nights. Which will be nice. Matt's dad rents a cottage up there and we all pop up for visits. It's nice and laid back. Very relaxing. Should be fun. And we have small wine opener in our car now, so hopefully this won't happen this year. (Opening wine bottle with screw and pliers)


Also Matt made the GenCon finals for HeroClix too and we will be heading to GenCon in Indianapolis this August. Just the weekend for me though. I can't take any vacation days at that point because other people in my department at work already have time off and two people aren't suppose to be gone at the same time. The cool thing about GenCon as compared to Wizard World is that there are events for the "gamer widows". Some pretty cool classes are being offered, though it looks like the pole dancing classes are full already. I'm thinking I'll just see what is still open when I get there and then plan better if we go next year.

Oh, and our yearly summer party is coming up August 2nd.

Motivational Poster 5

Motivational Poster 4

Ha! That's Great!

Katy Perry Myspace Page

Ur So Gay

Wii Fit?

So Matt and I had actually picked up the Wii Fit last week sometime and I finally got around to hooking it up tonight and giving it a whirl. Pretty neat. My biggest problem is that with my height and weight I am classified as "Obese", so my poor Mii gets to be fat! She is really round from some angles. Poor thing. Anyway the Hula Hoop aerobic challenge and Super Hula Hoop Challenge have been my favorite so far, but I didn't try out everything available yet and I need to unlock a bunch of stuff. Tight-rope walking sucks.

Death Machines

Matt and I completed our Motorcycle Safety Class yesterday. It was two days of classroom work and then two 5 hour days of field work. It was really nerve wracking to start. Though I think I was more nervous the second day than the first. I kept popping the clutch, which is not a good thing to do. I just let it go completely all the time. Stalling out a lot. Two people failed by falling on the final evaluation, but Matt and I passed. All we need to do now is go to the Secretary of State and take the written test and we will be legal to drive motorcycles. Yeah! We just need to buy one now. Probably a street bike.

Motivational Poster 3

Motivational Poster 2

Motivational Poster 1

So Tired...

Look here.

Shoes

I had a half day at work today and stopped at DSW, after lunch with a very busy Matt, to pick up some new shoes with some b-day money I gots. After Matt and I got home from dinner at San Chez, I took the shoes out of the boxes to show Matt what I got. We than put the shoe boxes on the floor for the cats to enjoy. This is what happened next.

Murdock insisted that he could fit him self in a shoebox that was too small for him.



Greta decides she LOVES my shoe pile and rubs herself all over my shoes.



All the kitties decide to come and check out the shoes and shoeboxes.

It's About Time for A Funny Cat Video

NC

I've been busy, that's why I haven't posted since we got back. It was a long drive and I did do 90% or so of the driving. Good thing the Honda is more comfortable than the Grand Am was or I'd still be walking weird. The house was great. Everything I expected. We had our room on the 1st floor which was separated from everyone else. It was nice to be apart from the rest of the crazy's :)

The whole trip was relaxing and fun, except a little family drama, but that is what happens when people are in close quarters for a whole week. Only one trip to the Urgent Care Center for the newest member of the family. Babies need supervision.

Had good food at a Steamers Shellfish to Go. Very Good, in fact. If I am ever in the Outer Banks again I will seek this place out. We also had a themed picture, dressed as pirates. Everyone looks great but me. Sigh

I'd do it again.

It's Here!

Scott and his brother were over playing it together earlier, but I went to the gym and didn't get a picture of all of them playing together. I hear they beat it, and than switched to the new Super Smash Brothers Brawl for the Wii, which is what they were playing when I got home.

A Whole Bunch of..

Not much. Life is still not very exciting around the Cherry household. Matt's got lots of neat stuff goings on, but he is not very good at posting about it. Next week we have a really cool thing arriving that some of you may have heard rumor about, but we will wait and post pictures when it arrives.

We are both super excited about our upcoming trip to NC. I really need some time away from work. I haven't have a vacation in a really long time. At least 8 months. Which is forever. The 14 hour drive should be interesting. My control issues mean that I will try and drive the whole way, but we will have to wait and see how things go. Cramming all 4 of us, and all our junk for a week, in my Honda should be interesting too. There is a washer and dryer at the house, so packing light is an option. Doubtful, but still an option.

In the Year 2010

Matt and I were watching TV the other night and flipped to the Girls Next Door on E!. They were at Sandals Resort in Jamaica. I say: I want to go to a Sandals resort. (pout) Matt: Sure, we can go...(dramatic pause) in 2010! haha! Me: You do realize you just gave me permission to book a trip to a Sandals resort, don't you? Matt: In like 2 whole years! That's forever away. Me: 2 years really isn't that far away. Yeah!! We're going to the Caribbean! Super exciting! (Matt rolls eyes)

So, we get to get passports and I get to decide what island we go to, I am thinking Jamaica, but I may change my mind. I need to look and see what is offered and what the rooms look like. Might be fun if others wanted to come along. Any takers?

Spending Money

So before Matt went on his little jaunt South to see Ted, I dragged him to Sprint to buy new phones. I am super excited over this because I got a smartphone. A Palm Centro and Matt got a Katana II. I love having the little keyboard and I can manage my calendar online and sync them with push of a button. Still getting use to the touchscreen, but still really cool.

I also booked our room for Wizard World Chicago, June 26-29. There already were hotels not available to rent for those days and we want to stay right next to the convention center this time, we also got a really good deal for booking early and it's a really nice hotel. So when I get bored I can just head back to the room. Yeah!

I also am sending out the last check to cover the family vacation to NC this spring. I am really looking forward to this trip, though not the 12-14 hour drive. Here is the house that we are renting with Matt's family and the Markanovich's. Soon I will start over planning for this trip. I bought some travel books on Amazon.com. (Yet another addictive website to spend money) Matt says we may actually get to do some of the things I want. I can only hope.

Stupid Clearance

Kohl's has the 80-90% off clearance going on right now. Very dangerous. I walked out with a very large bag of stuff. Too bad they don't print how much you saved on the receipt. I'm too lazy to do the real math. Also I sense a theme. Must be the time of year to get great deals.

Y?

We joined the Y. I have officially exercised two days in a row. Fun though. Yesterday was yoga and today was Zumba. The yoga teacher was a touch odd, but that is stereotypically normal for yoga teachers. By the end of the class I liked her. Matt came with me today, but didn't join the class with me. He hit the treadmill. They have personal TVs for every cardio station. It's pretty cool, you just need to bring your own headphones to plug into the player. Side note: Cool diet/healthy living site. It's free.

We also spent more money and increased our nerd/geek rating. We bought Matt a laptop so that we can play WoW together. Ironically, we had unknowingly signed up for auto-pay for WoW and we were recently billed for bulk months that I noticed while checking the credit card statement. So we decided to keep it active and make new characters on a 'Normal' server where upper level jerks can't come around and kill low level characters for no reason other than to be total jerks. I am also hoping that having a laptop will increase Matt's book writing. I signed him up for National Novel Writing Month, which sounds really cool to me. And may help? By November he'll be sick of WoW again anyway. :P

New Year

Oh my. 2007 wasn't a particularly great year for us, so lets hope for better in 2008. I am not a big fan of lists. Never have been. The idea is good, but I don't like the sense of failure if/when I fail to complete all the things I was hoping to achive. I seem to be a 'list half failed' as compared to a 'list half finished' type of person. I'll try it this year, but only a couple things...

1. Learn basic French - My Christmas present "from" Matt this year was the software to learn french. I have always had the desire and wished it had been offered in school, but it wasn't. This way when I drag Matt to France with me some time (or go without him) I'll understand what is going on. I have always wanted to learn multiple launguages and I feel it's time to start trying.

2. Lose Weight - Hoping for 40 pounds, would love to lose 50, and will be happy with 30+. Looking for the right classes that are not located to far from home. Or I won't go because I am lazy.

3. Start taking buisness classes at GRCC.

Thats good enough for me.

Merry Christmas

I gave my mother the new Josh Groban Christmas CD for Christmas and was suprised to hear that Nisi didn't know who he was. So here is a small sampling of his work.

Holiday Baking 2007

My cookie baking is done for Christmas. Yeah! I picked 9 recipes and made 8 of them. I have time to make the last one but my feet hurt and I am losing my ambition to do more. All I need to do now is plate them up. Of the 8 recipes I had only made one of them previously. I really enjoy trying new recipes. Not a big fan of the same thing all the time. Variety is the spice of life, they say. Don't know who they are....

Here's pictures for all of you who care...

Dice are cool

We were at Barnes and Nobles tonight and I saw this game. Anything with that many dice has to be super cool. I tried to talk Matt into buying it...but he didn't want to.

Also we discovered this weekend that Murdock is scared of the stove. If we bring him anywhere near it he cries and tries to run away. So funny to watch. We're so mean. :)

I Know Who I Am Voting For!

Bah

If the holiday season keeps up like this week at work was, I will soon be swearing off Christmas like Matt does. Thank goodness for a three day work week or I might have done something drastic, like calling-in when I am not really sick. I try so hard and get no where. Very frustrating. Now off to the bar for drinking. Biggest bar night of the year. Woo-Hoo!

Interesting...

Amazing what happens in the blogs when one doesn't check them for 2 whole days. What angry people we know. So I guess I better blog something or all out war will break out. Though my life is quite boring. Really. No Joke. Especially since I have been sick with a stupid cold for the last 3 weeks. Ever since the big family Christmas. I am actually still coughing as I write this. Phlegm and everything. It had even settled in my neck, this cold. I woke up one Monday morning and couldn't move my neck without sever pain. Which really sucks when you have a cough. Do you realize how much you move your neck when you cough? Alot. I actually went to the doctor and got muscle relaxers, which didn't help much, and perscription strength Ibuprophen. That Saturday was my Celtic Women Concert, which was fun, even with the sore neck and cough. My only complaint is that they didn't talk. Only sang their songs. No history no backstories, only thanks for coming. That was it. But I am finally starting to feel normal again. We might even head out to the bar tonight for some drinking and karaoke. If Matt feels up to it. He has been at a HeroClix thing all day in Ann Arbor.

Now I have to go take the cheescake out of the oven. Boring post finished.

Wake Up

Weather the Weather

Weather is turning again today. I am so sick of 80+ degrees out with tons of humidity. Ugh! Tomorrow is only supposed to have a high in the 50's. I can't hardly wait. This is October. It should start acting like it. I have started fall baking and everything. Matt and I bought a half a bushel of apples this last weekend and I intend to use every one in different things. I have already made Apple Harvest Cake. Which did make me nervous. In the oven for a whole hour! Tasty though. Kinda like a bread more than a cake. Tonight I am going to make a Bavarian Apple Torte which is pictured. I hope it tastes good too.

You all will probably hate me but...I think I am going to see Celtic Women when they come to VanAndel. I like them. They have great harmonies and cool looking sets, at least from the TV broadcast on public television that was taped at a castle in Europe somewhere. They have some songs up on myspace if you want to hear them. It's OK if you want to make fun of me for liking them. We all have our secret bands that we like.

The Wheels of Time Turn

I had very much hoped the my parents were wrong this morning when I was told that Robert Jordan had died. The Wheel of Time series has very much so been my favorite series of all time. So when I got home I checked his blog. There is was. Robert Jordan died Sept. 16. I may sound bad but I had really hoped he would have finished the last book for the Wheel of Time. He knew he was dying but was very tired from his illness and the treatments that he had pushed it back and could only write on certain days when he felt good. One of his blogs says he intended on staying alive until all his book idea's were written and he had 20 years worth of writing to do so he wasn't planning on dying until that was done. But is wasn't to be. They say he had enough written notes and audio notes on what was to happen in the final book and his wife/editior and publisher will finish the book, but it won't be the same.

“He came like the wind, like the wind touched everything, and like the wind was gone.”

"The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose.... The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of time.
But it was a beginning"

Ugh, Clutter.

Recently I have felt like getting rid of all the clutter in my life. It has really been bothering me having all this useless stuff just cluttering up everything. I don't know if it is the fact that we may or may not be moving at some point in the next 6 months to 5 years. And that move may be far, far away. (Colorado would be nice but so would Maine, Washington, Oregon, or Hawaii) Or I am just sick of picking it up and cleaning in general. But I put 30 things up on ebay this last week and Matt put up 2 and we put up one for our friend Ken, for a total of 33 items. I also have a whole trash bag full of clothes to donate that I will never wear again for one reason or other. I think if I had a big dumpster I may just throw everything away, but that feels so wasteful.



In other news we just signed away our land and trees today for the road "improvements". We decided just to have all 6 pine trees taken out and we will replant when the construction is done. I am pretty sure I will cry when they cut down those trees. I love having them there and I have alot of childhood memories tied in with them. Change can be hard sometimes. Makes me sad just thinking about it.

Impatient kitty

impatient kitty

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Hey! Ikea!

Last weekend was very fun for me and quite possible a little for Matt too. I had taken Friday off from work to use my last vacation day and to go to the dentist (boo), so the Wednesday night before, it was decided that we would finally go to Ikea. Yeah! I booked a really cool room for a really great price at Fairfield Inn, which is next to Ikea, and once Matt got out of work and came home around 3pm we left for Canton. While at the dentist I had talked to the hygientist and she recommended that we try to shop Friday evening because weekends are so packed, especially with screaming children. So we got to Canton right at rush hour and finally made it to the hotel to check in and immediately went to Ikea. So Cool! We grabbed a snack at the cafe and started looking at the showrooms. Really made me want a new kitchen. Matt wants a bookcase with a ladder. We were hoping for a new coffee table, but they didn't have one that we liked that fit the style of our house. I bought some kitchen stuff and a duvet and we got a really cool print for the bedroom wall and some other random stuff. Then we went out for dinner at Chili's, bought some liquor to drink in the room and jumped into the super deep jacuzzi tub in our suite. Slept great. I want that tub.

We stopped at a neat comic book store in Canton and than headed back, stopping at the Tanger outlet mall in Howell and bought more random stuff, a shirt, some toys and books, ect.. Than the antique store that is right behind the outlet mall, where we got ornery at each other because we had spent to much time together and our feet hurt. :) Headed home, took naps and headed out for a really great night at karaoke with lots of friends. Super weekend that was super busy.

In Michigan news, fall is coming. Nights are a cool 40-50 degrees, the leaves are starting to turn, I turned the air conditioning off, and I want to bake. I love fall. The colors are great. The whole season is great in general.

Revolutionary

Myspace Drama

You know those 'friends' that you had in high school that you lost touch with and stumble across in myspace and decide to be myspace friends with, just for the hell of it though you know they aren't the greatest person? Yeah well that has come back to bite me. Real hard. She had been sending out all sorts of stupid bulletins, and I never responded, until...she sent the stupid "if your my real friend you'll respond to this bulletin" bulletin. I don't know if any of you have seen this one yet, but I don't like it. It is really stupid. Anyway, I decide to respond, mildly, at least in my mind, that I never respond because almost everything she sends is spam or chainmail, though I do check everything to see if it is important. She has taken this very, very, very personally. She wrote me a very pissed off e-mail calling me hypocritical and 'high school'. Among other things. I responded apologizing for upsetting her and that it wasn't meant to be personal or an attack on her in any way and that she can send them all she wants, but they are not my style. Among other things. :) She is still enraged (myspace emotioncon tells all) and posts a bulletin saying that she had been verbally attacked about her bulletins, calling me a bitch and alot of other things. Without naming me specifically though, of course. I sent a private e-mail asking her what issues she had with me that she is blowing this misunderstanding so out of proportion with what was actually going on. *sigh* I may have one less myspace friend in a day or two. Oh well. Less stress for me if she doesn't get alittle more mature real quick.

Chicago

I thought I would take a moment and share about our trip to Chicago. I did actually get my car back on that Thursday morning, a few hours before we left, so that was great! Transmission was totally replaced and is running much better. Driving to Chicago was a good test for that repair. Traffic wasn't to bad until we crossed the bridge into town. Holy Cow, they have lots of traffic there. We checked in to our hotel at a super great rate thanks to Matt's friend Leif. And immediatly left for the convention center which was about 15 miles about. Took FOREVER. Damn traffic.

Lots of cool stuff. Forgot to take pictures of all the crazies like I intended. We got Matt's Fing Fang Foom's and hauled them back to the car. They are quite large and cool looking. Friday and Saturday we got up early (for me at least), got breakfast and went back to the convention center to wait in line for the Heroclix events.
These lasted most of the day for both days. After losing we wandered and looked at all the booths and bought stuff. I got a great shirt from the Oblongs TV show. The creator was there and was cool to meet. Matt didn't do as well as we hoped at Clix, so he didn't make it to the finals on Sunday. So we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo instead. It was "free". There was lots of monkeys and the meerkats were really cute.

Parking was rather expensive. As is most parking in Chicago. I had wanted to stop at Ikea on the way home but hadn't mapquested it before we left so we will go some other weekend. Instead we stopped at some winerys as we traveled up Michigan's west coast and tried and bought some great wine. The round barn has vodka that they make too. For samples they make it into a martini of the day.

A very tiring, but fun trip.

Wands are cool

Your Score: 9 3/4", Oak, Phoenix

You scored 36 wisdom, 27 bravery, 21 emotional, and 27 martyrdom!

Oak signifies wisdom, endurance, protection, and authority. The phoenix tail feather as your core means that you have the capability to be an extremely powerful wizard or witch and that you will defend those you love at all costs.

Link: The Harry Potter Wand Test written by sputnik845 on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Issues.

Life is a rollercoaster ride. Ups and downs all over the place. We are so excited to go to Chicago, but things aren't going so well. On our way back from visiting Nisi in the hospital (whole other story there), the transmission in my car died. We barely made it home. Then had to have it towed. Bad. But the extended warranty will cover most of it. Good. No car till Saturday. Bad. Rental coverage included in extended warranty. Good. Out of town until Sunday so we will have to pay for rental car for 1 1/2 days. Bad. It's a Chevy Aveo. Neutral. I also learned the since I have full coverage on my car I don't need to pay for extra coverage on the rental car, since full coverage will cover me driving another car. Which means that we didn't need to pay for it for the rental car that we have in Vegas either. And that was alot of money.

Oh well, can't wait to go to Chicago. Even if it will be in a Aveo. At least it should get good gas mileage.