Faythe's Christmas present

It's the 8th of January and I'm finally blogging Faythe's present to me. I'm a bad friend. However, I'm lucky in that I have Faythe who always forgives me and continues to give me my presents each year on time.

Faythe had been crocheting since...well, a long time. She can whip up an afghan in a matter of days! Or at least, that's what it seems like to me. She can also make doilies like there's no tomorrow; I have to give her props for that. There's no way I can commit to something that tiny.

For more of Faythe's crochet projects, check this out. She used to have more on there, maybe we can bug her into including a few of her finished crochet projects on her blog? I haven't seen any in a while. I only see rants about Sandra Lee on her blog nowadays. Maybe I can start a petition here more crafty pics. Have you done any embroidery lately Faythe? Come on, where's your old lady sense!!

OK so I finally got batteries and took pictures of the shawl Faythe crocheted me. I have to admit, it looks much better in person. The close up pictures look great, but I had a really hard time taking a photo of the entire finished product. I'm including one anyway.

ARGH! I hate that this is such a low quality photo, but I wanted to show it to you in its entirety.

And now, because I'm so disgusted I couldn't get a good shot of the entire thing, I'm going for sensory overload with close ups of the shawl. Check out how she mixed the gold with the cream. The pattern sort of looks like flowers or leaves.

Nice edging too. Faythe mentioned that she had considered adding fringe. While I think fringe would have looked nice on it too, Faythe and I both acknowledged that I have this "thing" against fringe. But, I'm learning to like it. As long as it doesn't get in my eyes, I'll be ok. Meanwhile, I like this without fringe. I think it could go either way though.

I tried to figure out how it was pieced together but I couldn't. The mixing of gold and cream seems random, but I know it isnt.

And lastly, the bottom of the V. Pretty, huh? Thanks Faythe!

This just in!

Pictures of the 2007 Toyota Camry started popping up online in December of '05. This is of great interest to me because, well, I just bought a Camry. I'm also very interested in hybrids (something better than the Prius please! Toyota take note: make room for big butts! hehe)

I was bummed that I missed the auto show in SD last week, so I'm pretty excited to have found these photos. And because there are so many of them, I loaded them as small as possible. To view them larger, click directly on the image.

The Toyota Hybrid site is also worth taking a look at. They've recently done some redesigning and it looks great. Expect pop-ups.

Nice front. This must be the SE, it has that sporty grill.

It makes me want to drive fast just looking at it. I hope they have some better colors though. Though I like gray or silver cars, there's too many of them out there.

Is this one of those glow-in-the-dark panels? I noticed there's more buttons on the steering wheel. I love buttons.

Not sure how I feel about the blue.

Ooohh, shiftronic! At least, that's what Hyundai calls it.

These door handles look interesting. They're a combinatin of The Jetson's meets meat-locker metal.

Notice that big grill in the front...maybe an LE or other model. I've noticed that a lot of these big grills are popular in the new cars.

Boring shot of the back-end that reminds me of the Nissan Altima.
Another grill shot. Again, the front looks big and blunt. Or to quote Shawn, "burly." OK OK so he's describing his Infinity, but I like it.

I really want to drive the '07 hybrid Camry. I can't wait!

Bruxism

What is Bruxism?

Do you have Bruxism?

Did you know Bruxism is the third most common sleep disorder, behind sleep talking and snoring?

Is it bad for you?

More next time after some research...

It appears we're in for a little bit of precipitation

I have a new enemy...

...and it's name is Bird Poo.

Today after church, I discovered HUGE splats of bird poo on my car. HUGE I SAY!! I looked up and saw the pigeons sitting on the power line, laughing at me with their soft little coo's and fluffing of feathers. What jerks! The car had been parked there for about an hour and a half, so who knows exactly how long the excrement was sitting there. I stopped to get coffee and then went home immediately to wash off the poo. (Good thing I got coffee too because I ended up getting really wound up about the poo and the caffeine boosted my energy level.)

We spot washed the car (various neighbors came out to lend their advice) and noticed that the poo left behind funny colored potentially permanent splotches in the paint. In the paint of my new car!! After using a couple different cleansers, we were able to remove the splotches. GAH!

I never thought I would be one of those people that obsessed over their car. I also didn't know why people hated bird poo so much. I thought it was because it was ugly and...well...poo. Not because it has acid and grit in it. That's right! Acid! Grit! Rocks! Sand! First, the acid (uric acid) eats the paint. Then when you try to clean it, you rub the grit, rocks and sand into the paint, scratching it! ARGH!

So far, I've read a lot of different opinions online about what to do about the evil poo. By far, the first recommendation is to quickly remove the offensive bird acid by-product. Some suggest doing this with water. AskMen.com recommends using salt-free seltzer water. Whatever you do, be careful not to scrub it...the grit and other crunchies will scratch your paint.

I've also read that if you let the poo sit too long, you may get etchings in your car and will have to polish and/or wet sand it and then buff it to restore it to its previous shine. What a pain!

Next, you should neutralize the acid. A contributer on a BMW forum, bimmerfest.com, found that Dawn dish soap or rubbing alcohol neutralizes the acids and stops the corrosion of your paint. Note - do so at your own risk. I don't know if this is a good idea but will get back to you when I find additional information. Upon further research, these guys swear that rubbing alcohol is the best thing to neutralize the acid.

After removing and neutralizing the acid, let it sit for a few days and then wax your car. Apparently, waxing your car may help to prevent future bird poo problems by providing an extra layer of protection. There are also some sealants out there that claim to protect your car from bird poo and other car enemies. I'll let you know if I find any sealants that really do protect paint from the evil's of poo.

I think I may have a solution to this poo problem. It appears people eat pigeons. If more people ate pigeons, then suffice to say, there'd be less poo, right?

Either way, I have learned a few things today:

• Bird poo is a biohazard that should be disposed of immediately and properly.
• It EATS YOUR CAR PAINT!
• There is a right way and a wrong way to remove the poo and acid.
• We have confirmation that I like to ramble on and on.

Okay, I guess I'm done. The caffeine is wearing off.

New Years Resolutions

Do I even make a list? Who am I kidding?? I'm still trying to finish some knit Christmas projects!! I still have all my Christmas cards sitting here! ARGHHHH!!

2006

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

It's gonna be a good year!!

Janet

My good friend Janet had surgery on the 29th. I talked to her Mom and husband, Paul and they say she is doing pretty well and is in good spirits. Of course, when I called she was napping.

She has a bit of a complicated past when it comes to healing from surgery. Please pray for Janet, that she have a speedy and complicated free recovery.

Secret Pal Six

Who are you? :)

More Disneyland pics

Okay, so...I think this is Main Street. Not sure. Some horses pulled various modes of transportation down the road. Way down at the end behind the horse thingy (LOL) you can see a castle! I was hoping to get a good picture at night but missed out this time.

Inside the Tiki Room, 225 performers including birds, flowers and sang to us. The cool thing about this particular attraction is it was created in June 1963 and in my opinion, the animatronics are still pretty cool. Sure, it's not perfect but HEY, the room is over 40 years old!

This set of birds was lowered down from the ceiling into the middle of the room. A fountain flowed below them as they sat on their perches and crooned away. (flash free)

Of course, as the show started, we were warned not to use flash photography. Unfortunately, my camera innocently went off with the flash and got this excellent shot of Laura, Mom, Apollo and Aimee all doing some sort hand wave (clapping also accompanied the improv) - their contribution to the show's theme song, "In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room."

Oh no!! The camera went off again at the end of the show as we were filing out of the Tiki Room! Check out that little kid being held by his Dad. It's good to see he's not afraid of the birds. Hey, there's Aimee's hat! ARGH!

Apollo decided to try his aim at the shooting range. He kept mumbling something about it being rigged.

That's Mom in the middle. Yes, she's the very serious looking person...probably wishing she had a silencer. I'm sure she was a bit disappointed that there wasn't any sort of reward such as dead game to be stuffed later.

Laura and Aimee hanging out. Aimee bought a new Jolly Roger flag. Apparently she wore out her other one. How does one wear out a flag? A Jolly Roger flag, I might add! Just what does she do on her weekends?

I think I posted a cropped version of this photo, but I just love it so much I decided to post it again but this time in original format. Mom, Aimee Laura are in the teal colored cup. See that dark spot on Mom's face? That's The Burnett Curse.

The front of the attraction that holds the "It's a Small World" ride with over 300 Audio-Animatronic dolls. "It's a Small World After All...." Behind me Apollo shakes hand of yet another person he knows confirming that yes, it is a small world after all. Because we were riding through during Christmas, the original song alternated with Christmas melodies.

Cool looking horse lit up with lights. I like their creativity with the mane.

Look at them, all so happy. The worlds most repetitive song is yet to be engraved on their minds. Of course, it doesn't help when someone sings the song at the top of their lungs, intentionally off-key.

One of the displays inside. I've decided to leave off any pictures of dolls. For some reason, they looked creepy in the pictures. You should see them in person instead. Go now. Go.

Why does it look like my eyes are crossed? Why do I not look happy? Why ...oh never mind.

This is what the world looks like for a short person. Yes, even when you hold your camera on your head, using your body as a tripod, even then all the tall people in the world get in the way.

Back! All of you!! Can't you see that a SHORT person is behind you?? I can't see the fireworks! And please, wear deodorant!

Somehow, the irony of using ones body as a tripod and then complaining about all the tall people has just now struck me as...funny.

More Disneyland pics II

And more fireworks.

After the fireworks, it began to "snow." This foamy stuff that looked just like snow started falling from the buildings around us. It was so cool!

Mom and Aimee waiting patiently for me to take the photo while "snow" melted around us. Mom is doing her best impression of "deer in headlights."

Aimee - she's one happy chick. :)

I was hoping to show the movement of the "snow" around Laura, so I had to take this one without a flash. And if you squint, you can see Laura's smiling face.

I'm sure Apollo was thinking, "Hey, I know that guy!" Yes, it's true. You see, everywhere we go he knows someone. We can be in the ghetto, a doctors office, North County...it doesn't matter. He will know someone there. We saw one person that he can definitely say he knew who just happened to be our neighbor. There were several other people that he thinks he knew and of course plenty of people that he befriended. He's a friendly, talkative guy.

Mom, Aimee, Laura and Apollo...is that a foam-flake I see just above Aimee?

Dang, Laura is ALWAYS smiling!! The group was trying to decide what we should do next. I remember what Mom was saying. Something to do with shopping! (My aching feet!!)

Me, Apollo, Mom, Laura and Aimee in front of the Christmas tree just before we left.

Suddenly, it got cold. Very cold. Poor little Aimee was freezing her ears off. Laura wasn't so cold with her...um, I don't know what kind of ears those are.

Finally, they huddled together for warmth as we were driven to our car.

Thank you Laura for making our trip to the Happiest Place on Earth so enjoyable!

Some Christmas gifts

I wanted to wait until I had batteries and could take pictures to post, but for now I'll just talk about my gifts or get some photos off the internet.

Jen gave me a cute Hello Kitty clock (argh, no camera!!) for my desk, along with a cute cat/mouse container that I'm going to use for storing coins on my desk. She also gave me a cute Christmas purse and an Asian influenced coin purse. Oh, and a container that has a really pretty picture of an old painting on it. It's one of those Renoir or similarly aged type paintings. I love it! I'm thinking of using it in the bathroom for my jewelry but after an incident this weekend where I somehow managed to break a bottle of red fingernail polish, splattering it all over everything, including the mirrors, walls, floor, counter, sink. The disaster was made worse when I tried to gently wipe the polish off the walls, thereby smearing it even further. So, I'm unsure if I can trust myself to have anything nice in the bathroom now. *sigh*

Mom gave me a painting. But not just any painting. On the way to Florence on highway 126 is this old house that sits across the Siuslaw river. As little kids, we always looked for it when we were traveling to Grandma's, our home, the store, etc. You know how it was when you were a kid, certain little things gave you pleasure. But the thing about this house is it had a special magical quality. You see, we always saw birds flying around it. Great bunches of sparrows or swallows. They would fly in and out the abandoned house where they had made their nests. Since then, tree's have grown up around the house and appear to be providing it with support in its old age. It's really sad too because I know someday soon that house is going to fall down and then a piece of my childhood will forever disappear.

(That's the thing about aging. It's so in your face!)

Anyway, Mom asked someone to paint The House of Birds. Except, the artist didn't paint the birds and she painted it as she remembered it as a child. Mom was pretty disappointed with that. However, it's still really cool. It took a little while for it to grow on me, but I really do like this painting. When I look at it, it brings back distant memories of The House of Birds and a bit of childhood innocence. *sigh* Where has all the time gone?

Mom also gave me a few other items such as a calendar, a nearly completed quarter collection, some earrings and ....well, maybe something else. I can't remember right now. :) The painting is what sticks out most in my mind. What a unique gift! Thanks Mom! I love it!

Aimee got me some perfume I had been obsessing over. The day before Mom got here we went to Robinsons May and narrowed our choices down to two perfumes each; one for each arm. Even though it was very commercial and had a celebrity name on it, I decided I liked JLo's Live.


Aimee liked DKNY's Delicious which has a light scent. To be honest, I don't remember exactly what it smelled like. I just know she likes light, grassy type scents.

Aimee is getting pretty sneaky. We went to the mall and while I was in one store, she ran down to a different store and bought Live for me. So, I got a really nice bottle of perfume that I love! I don't have to fake it, I really do like it!

Speaking of perfume, Tee also got me a perfume set! The funny thing is, it's also a celebrity perfume! You won't believe it...he got me Britney Spears Curious! LOL Me! Britney Spears!!

I admit, at first I was a little...well, suspicious. But really, it's not that bad! I'm not sure if I would have bought it, but I've been wearing it for a couple days and I think I'm starting to like it. :) Oh, and the pink lipgloss that comes with it is really nice too. It smells good.

And last on my celebrity list of gifts, Tee's girlfriend Jackie got me some Jessica Simpson Dessert! HAHAHA! I just think that's SO funny! This has definitely been the Christmas of celebrity gifts! The bottle on the left is bath bubbles called deliciously kissable bath bubbles - creamy and other is lotion, labeled as deliciously kissable body shake - creamy. And the scent? "A fresh-baked vanilla and caramel indulgence." I'd have to agree, this is some nice smelling stuff. Usually vanilla scented lotions, etc, tend to have a heavy smell but this...I dig this.

Faythe got me some tea (surprisingly tea in TEA BAGS) and (I saved the best for last) a crocheted by Faythe shawl! It's really pretty and has an antique feel and look about it. It's a mix of gold and cream yarn that has a nice sort of sponginess to it. That's the only way I can describe it. How about...squishy? It's really nice though, I've been sporting it around the house with totally inappropriate clothing. I mean, it really doesn't go with my San Diego Zoo t-shirt, but I don't care. I like it! Faythe was worried that it isn't blocked but does it need to be blocked? It looks great as-is! Thank you Faythe, I love it!

We started a tradition a few years ago where we make each other gifts each year. Unfortunately, I've been really bad at following through on my end. This is what happens when you move away!! I'll hopefully be sending her gifts to her shortly. Sorry about the delay!

The Rat and Jojo gave Simba and Zoe mice. I'm sure they'll write about it on their blog soon. They've been pretty irritated with my lack of interest in updating their blog. There have been some accusations...something like how I'm lazy or I don't care, blah blah blah. Of course, the accusations are quickly buried in the litterbox when I bring out a can of cat food.

Thank you everyone for your gifts! They are appreciated and will definitely be enjoyed!

Apollo and I will be exchanging gifts in January, since we've been delayed by the purchase of The Car.

And lastly, a special message from The Scrotal Safety Commission for people obsessed with balls. Merry Christmas!