An Important life change

It has been a while since I posted... a little over a month. Do you know why it has been so long?

Because I have been putting off announcing a really important life change. There has only been one thing I have wanted to post about, and I couldn't bring myself to fess up to it until now.

I have officially become a Cat Lady.*

Proof of Cat Lady-ness

Everywhere I go I am covered in cat hair. I have majorly upped my daily consumption of LolCats. I pick up my Myao Ming every day after work, put him over my shoulders and nuzzle this furry creature until I am suffocating myself in cat hair.

Myao Ming is snuggle bug.  He has truly become a part of our daily lives, and is such a joy. He cuddles in our laps and watches movies with us, hangs with John during piano lessons (see photo marquee below), eats his dinner when we eat ours, and even (perhaps somewhat annoyingly to our non-cat loving guests**) is the center of the room when anyone comes over.



The point is, we love our snuggly Myao Myao. He brings us a lot of joy, and makes sad days happier with his adorable cuddly-ness.

 


Who couldn't adore that face?

*Were you expecting something more life momentous? Babies, Moving, something like that?  Well sorry to disappoint!!! ;)
**Apparently we have alienated some friends by adopting a cat. They have "Cat allergies" or something like that. LOL.

Only in Texas

Over break John and I drove around 2600 miles. We had a great time visiting friends and family all over. On the road one day I saw this gem and just had to share. Only in Texas!

How To Tell You Are a Winner on a Monday

Your colleague says hello to you as he walks to his desk. Then turns back and says..."Gosh, you look really tired for a Monday."

Later that morning, you walk back to your desk after talking to your boss. You start to sit in your roll-y chair and it actually tips over. You try to act totally cool and hope no one realized what the big sound was. But if they do, hopefully they realize how much serious skill it takes to tip a roll-y chair.

This is the same boss who saw you fall down a flight of stairs about a year ago. And the same team that had to catch you as you did a home base like slide on a puddle of water at a restaurant.

Yep. I'm a winner.
Happy Monday All.

The Turkey Dance - A Family Tradition Continues

My family has an awesome tradition for thanksgiving-- each year the turkey is featured in a song a dance. My dad has done this my entire life... as this is our first thanksgiving away from family and John is now the turkey man, he of course had to continue in the legacy. For your viewing pleasure, the respective turkey dances were captured this year.

Here is my dad's turkey dance:



Here is the inaugural McElderry turkey dance:



What fun traditions did you participate in this Thanksgiving?

Cancun - Day 1: The Grocery Dilemma

So remember back in April when I said I was going to Cancun? Well I never told you how it went. For all you know I was swept away in a tropical storm, survived on a island with only coconuts for a week and somehow made my flight back (you know I survived per my existent albeit sparse blog posts). Well we didnt just survive on coconuts. But there is a fun story around how we got our food for the week.
1. We ate out our first night there Quickly we realized why our plan was to rent a condo and buy groceries rather than eat our every day-- those were some expensive nachos!

Condo in Cancun. Was really nice, made the trip a lot more affordable than a resort.
2. Sunday AM we get up for mass, after mass we jumped on a public bus and headed for wally- world (i.e. walmart). We get off at the wrong stop so have to walk a ways, but finally make and spend approximately 1.5 hours picking up groceries for the week. Insert foods that are packaged different than in the U.S., debating the merit of different juices to make tropical drinks and lots and lots of mexican pastry samples.

Beautiful Church we went to mass at. My parents also had their vows renewed here. It was an open church so you felt the breeze.

Panaderia in Wally World. Since this was a 4-5 hour ordeal, the snack was great.

3. We finally prepare to leave Wally-World, and realize we have to be able to CARRY all our groceries back as we did not have a car. WOOPS. Commence get rid of most of your tropical juices.

4. We make it through check out, and head out each heavy laden with numerous bags of food. Dad does not let us take a cab (those nachos were expensive!) so we get on the bus again.

5. We get off at the wrong bus stop again and have to walk another mile or so to the condo. Did I mention it was like 90 degrees? Oh! And 90% of our bags broke on the way. Imagine juggling, barely able to walk and cursing the tropical juices that made the cut on our list.

6. FINALLY! One by one we slowly stagger up to the condo. Completely exhausted, we decide to take the elevator up. Preface: this is a small elevator, 4 of us took it, and we had approximately 1 ton of groceries.

7. Just as the elevator starts moving it stops mid floor. We are stuck in elevator. And VERY sweaty from aforementioned grocery trek. Commence Panic.

8. Fast forward to Dad is hogging the air from the vent, Sisters are wondering if we will die in the elevator. I am praying to get out.

9. Mom finally hears our shouts (she was the only one not in the elevator)and "panic button". Miraculously Dad finds a button and we all crawl out of the elevator with our groceries in tote.

We got back and we laughed... and boy did those groceries taste good.

Everyone is glowing from the grocery excursion.

Weekend Plans (or Planning)

John and I are trying to figure out what to do this weekend as we planned to camp and it won't stop raining. Options we have discussed:


1. Niagara Falls (my vote, can't convince John to drive all night when we have to be back pretty early on Sunday... )


2. Bavarian Festivals, complete with Polka Riots, lots of german food and maypole dancing. Not too bad -- but polka riot videos on Youtube make it look less exciting than it sounds.

3. Asparagus Festival. John is majorly trying to sell me on this. "We don't have to be excited about asparagus, we get to see people who are!!" At least this one is on lake Michigan. (He has been working on convincing me for about 20 min now!)


What's everyone else up to this weekend?


btw-- we have been talking about what to do for about an hour and a half now. Other discussions included Michigan Adventure Theme Park and Cedar Point. Will keep everyone posted with the final decision... assuming it is not sitting in our apt all weekend...

Twilight Fever

When Eclipse premiered John and I quickly made plans to see it (sadly not opening night, seeing as how I am a grownup now and all...).

Then I get this IM at work on the day we were planning to see it:



Wow. I think this is a case of Twilight Fever.



"American teens are coming down with a serious case of Twilight fever, transforming normal children to vampires obsessed with the occult!"
--Principal Figgins from Glee

mysterious underwear

public service announcement in case you needed a reminder.
(this poster hangs outside my workspace). Yup.

Bubbles: A myth from my childhood

This past weekend I went home for Thanksgiving to spend it with my family. In a sad sequence of events, I got really sick on Sunday night and was pretty much glued to the bucket beside my bed. Needless to say, I was in no state to take my 7 am flight (considering my last bucket adventure was at 6am). As much as it was awful being sick, I spent the rest of the day just me and my mom laying around and relaxing (well I laid around, she was productive). It felt amazing actually, and my mom and I had some great conversations. She suggested to relax a little bit (and get all squeaky clean) that I take a bubble bath complete with candles and calming music in her world pool tub (the great kind that has jets). This was relaxing to say the least, and herein is my discovery of a childhood myth.



Myth: You can NEVER have enough bubbles.
Reality: The bubbles will attack and consume your bath time.

Maybe my parents were just kind of scanty on how much bubble mix I could use... but I was sure that there was no end to the need for more bubbles. So upon my adult bubble bath experience, I read the directions and it said to "pour generously" from the bubble bath mix. Needless to say, with the jets on and enough hot water I was drowning in bubbles - like 6 or more inches of bubbles.

I still enjoyed my bath, gosh I can't remember the last time I had taken a bath. But, be warned! Those bubbles will get you! (or at least prepare to shower to rinse off the bubbles!)

Take care, hopefully you survived (and enjoyed) my silly bubble post!

Kristin

cats!

Pretty much, I could look at this website all day long. It is one of my favorite stops. Plus, I deactivated facebook so it is my main web surfing/wasting time tool. I just think this kitty (or kitteh) is adorable. Anyway, that is all for now!

Kristin

moar humorous pics