Thursday, December 28, 2006

Back... Kind of

Sorry I've been quiet - we've been home since Sunday, but I have a horrific head cold and haven't even begun to catch up with my internet playing yet. No blog surfing, no bulletin boards, no nothing but cold-induced haze and work.

Vacation was great - I'll tell you all about it next week. In the meantime, have a great New Year!

Posted by Honey :: 9:55 AM :: 5 Comments:

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Sunday, December 17, 2006

While Honey's Away...

Psst... Saffron and Jinx here. Or you can call us the Ninja Kitties. It doesn't meow-tter to us at all.

Since Honey and Mr. Honey left us all alone while they went on vacation, we hopped onto the internet and found out we can track Santa on Christmas Eve! We're hoping he brings us a couple new fishing pole toys, and maybe some more balls, or mouse heads to play with. And some catnip, but don't tell Mr. Honey we want catnip - he thinks it's drugs. *meow* We wouldn't do drugs. We'd just do catnip.

Anyway, Click Here and Track Santa! Tell him we've been good kitties, too, will you?

Posted by Honey :: 3:37 PM :: 1 Comments:

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Friday, December 15, 2006

The Last Working Day...

...before my holiday is ending in 2 hours. :)

Mr. Honey and I leave our ninja kittens tomorrow morning for our drive to the port. Sunday we board our holiday cruise ship. We'll be back Christmas Eve.


So if you don't see me for a while, you'll know where we are. We're soaking up some serious Caribbean rays, snorkling, and consuming beer (Mr. Honey) and BBC's (me). (That's Bananas, Bailey's, and Colada mix - learned about that on our vacation last year!)

May you all have a wonderful holiday season, and I'll see you just before next year.

Posted by Honey :: 3:04 PM :: 4 Comments:

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Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Can't... Sit... Still... Again!

Mr. Honey and I leave in less than 3 days for our holiday vacation. Woo-hoo! Caribbean, here we come! We started our packing last night, and I discovered my summer clothes still (mostly) fit, as well as my swim suits. Tonight I've got a hair trim and a manicure. Can it be Saturday yet? Please?

On another note, my strange dreams are back. This morning I was an active participant in a video game about smuggling. I think it has something to do with the book I just read - A Gentleman by Any Other Name by Kasey Michaels. (Great book, BTW.) In my dream, I was on a team and we were trying to sneak past all these electric-holographic dragons, but I discovered if I jumped on them, I became holographic and could enter "invisible flying mode" where I could also see more things at once. Then the effects wore off, Mr. Honey and I were suddenly on a cruise ship getting lectured and hiding from big waves, and then my alarm went off and I flung kittens across the room because I hadn't realized they were laying on my arm. I thought they were Mr. Honey snuggling with me. Really I didn't fling them, but I did startle them into jumping up and meowing at me a bit.

How's your morning shaping up? Got any big plans for the weekend or the holiday?

Posted by Honey :: 9:09 AM :: 4 Comments:

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Tuesday, December 12, 2006

How'd they figure that out??

As most of my friends know, I have this minor hiccup problem. Hiccups, for me, are like Pringles. Once I pop, I can't stop. However, I don't find hiccups nearly as pleasurable as Pringles, so when I get the hiccups, I reach for the nearest hiccup cure. Usually a spoonful of peanut butter will do it. A spoonful of sugar works in a pinch, such as when out at a restaurant, because apparently good restaurants don't stock peanut butter, but do stock sugar. As such, Reese's peanut butter cups will also work in a pinch, should you find yourself in a convenience store or gas station that doesn't sell peanut butter or sugar by the spoonful, but does sell candy.

*Phew*

Back to my point.

Driving to a holiday party the other night, Mr. Honey randomly started cackling. (He does that more often the longer we've been married. I think my randomness is finally rubbing off on him.) So I asked him what was so funny. And he tells me he was listening to a podcast that discussed the definitive work of modern times which details the best cures for hiccups.

I got all excited. Finally, my peanut butter would get the recognition it deserved. "It's not sugar," Mr. Honey said. "It's not peanut butter either."

"So what is it?" I asked. Silently, I'm praying he doesn't tell me it's drinking water while upside down - while entertaining to watch someone else do it, I've never personally found it all that attractive.

Mr. Honey snorted. "Guess."

"I'm not going to guess," I scoffed. "What is it?"

Mr. Honey cackles. "Well, see," he starts, snickering some more, "they did this study and found that most people's hiccups were cured when they, ah, stick their finger up their *location deleted for the sake of children who may stumble onto this blog, but you can use your imagination*."

"EEEEeeeeeewwwwww!!!!!!!!" I said.

Mr. Honey snorts. "Google it," he said. He then told me four words, "hiccup," "cure," "finger," and *noun deleted for the sake of children who may stumble onto this blog, but you can use your imagination*, and insisted that the actual document could be found this way.

I'm much too dignified to actually google those four words together (okay, really, I just don't want my work internet account to track that I've searched for them, so maybe I'll check from home later and update this with a link to the article, or maybe not...), so I'll let you do the work. Here, even: Use this link to get to Google.

But the question still remains: How did anyone ever decide to try this method in the first place? No, on second thought, I don't want to know. And I'll settle for being grateful that I wasn't a participant in this study.

Posted by Honey :: 6:02 AM :: 5 Comments:

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Monday, December 11, 2006

Snow Angels!!!!!

My very good friend Ellen has just had a short story published by The Wild Rose Press!! I bought my copy and read it over the weekend, and I thought it was fantastic! It's a short, sweet read that's put me into the Christmas spirit. Congratulations, Ellen!!!

Ava Carrolton has decided to make her own fate this holiday season. Tired of being alone and hoping to find love, she finally agrees to date the dashing and persistent owner of the department store where she works. Who wouldn’t enjoy spending time with a man who looks like a GQ model? But, she has one misgiving. She doesn’t feel The Spark with Mr. Debonair, so how is she to know if he’s The One?

When Ava literally bumps into Noah Shepard, every girl’s definition of The Boy Next Door, they form an unlikely friendship. As they bond, Noah seems to transform through Ava’s eyes. His thick frame glasses and shy stutters fade away, while a knight in shining armor emerges. Will Ava choose excitement and security with the handsome store owner, or a lifetime of making snow angels with a man who’s anything but ordinary?

Click on the picture to go directly to The Wild Rose Press to snag your copy of this delightful story.

Posted by Honey :: 10:11 AM :: 5 Comments:

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Friday, December 08, 2006

Leaf Grinch

Tis the season for leaves to fall in my neck of the woods. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate leaves? We've got 5 trees in our yard, all huge, and all drop leaves continuously from mid-November through the first of February. And because of the neighborhood rules, not raking/mowing-and-bagging isn't an option. Argh.

Two years ago, this little girl came around and offered to rake our entire yard for $5. We knew her dad, so we hired her (and paid her more than she asked every time, because we acknowledge that raking our yard is more than a $5 job). Then she moved away. Last year Mr. Honey and I had to rake our own leaves, though once or twice we borrowed a neighbor's leaf vacuum. (What a fantastic invention - if only they didn't cost an arm and a leg.)

So this past Sunday, another little neighbor kid knocked on the door, rake in hand, and asked if we needed our leaves picked up. I said, "Absolutely. What do you charge?"

So he told me to name my price. I told him I'd give him $20 to do the job, and he agreed. Mr. Honey stepped outside a short while later, and the kid and his partner asked how much of the yard was ours. Mr. Honey showed them the boundaries and told him to do what he thought was $20 worth of work. The kid and his partner looked around and said, "We'll do the entire yard for $30," and Mr. Honey and I agreed. In retrospect, I realize I should've defined the job in the first place, and never agreed to raise the price. After all, I knew what the job was when I hired them. But I really didn't want to have to rake leaves myself.

Half an hour later, the kid comes back and says he and his partner will be back to finish the job Monday night, because it's getting dark. As we hadn't paid them yet, we agreed that was a good plan.

So Monday, they came back and told Mr. Honey they'd like $20 apiece to finish the job, making it a total of $40. Mr. Honey came in to run it by me, and when he'd finished explaining, I stared at him like he'd grown a second head. "Absolutely not," I declared. They'd already raised the price once after telling me I could set the price, and I wasn't going to play games with kids. I can get a professional (with a partner) to do the job for $50 - why would I pay two kids, who aren't edging, sweeping the sidewalk and driveway, and doing all those other little extra things, near professional rates?

So Mr. Honey relates that the wife has put her foot down, and the kids will have to finish the job for the price we'd already agreed on. They worked for another half hour, then quit because it was getting dark.

(BTW, when I say "work" I mean "standing in the yard, sometimes raking, sometimes playing with the rakes and talking on cell phones.)

Tuesday came and went; no rakers.

Wednesday came and went; no rakers.

Thursday morning, I called the professional.

Late Thursday afternoon, just before I left work to head home, Mr. Honey called to report the neighbor kids had come back and were raking again. And we had the pro on the way to give us an estimate on the yard. So when I got home, we paid the kids $20 to go away. Since the time they'd started, more leaves had fallen, and the wind was preparing to blow all the leaves back into the yard. I wasn't going to wait a whole month for my yard to get done. Though it might've been cheaper, since we only would've had to pay then $30 for 3 weeks worth of raking.

Maybe I'm just a leaf grinch. But I think I've learned my lesson. First, the price of kiddie labor has gone up. Second, I won't hire kids again unless I know their parents. And third, sometimes it's easier to just pay the professional in the first place.

Posted by Honey :: 8:45 AM :: 5 Comments:

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Thursday, December 07, 2006

Still More Kitty Pics

I've been lax in updating this lately, so I decided to play with Photobucket and make a slideshow of my kittens as a reward for my sweet friends who drop by to see what's new.

Happy Thursday!

Posted by Honey :: 4:14 PM :: 8 Comments:

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Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

There's a whirlwind going on in my head right now. It might not calm down for another 6-8 months, but I'm hoping it does, because I'm 3/4 of the way through a first draft of a story with a hot guy and a girl-next-door and I want to finish the draft so I remember how it ends when I re-write it to fix the discrepancies that inevitably happen when you write a 90,000-word novel and change who plays what role halfway through as the characters reveal their true nature. (Jeez, was that all one sentence?)

Anyway, Mr. Honey got word that we're moving Up Nort (that's "up north" in non-Minnesota speak) this summer. Nope, not Minnesota, but since we've lived there before, it's still fun to call it "up nort". (You can quit rolling your eyes, Mr. Honey. You knew I was like this when you married me.)

Anyway, there's a possibility my job will transfer me so I won't be a housewife downing gin and indulging in bon-bons. Truth be told, I'm not a gin girl, and I'm not sure I've ever had a real bon-bon, so I can't even say that I'd like them. I'd rather have hot cocoa and those rip-off Mrs. Fields cookies. (Come on, admit it - you've seen that recipe come around your inbox where someone claims she was charged $250 for the Mrs. Fields recipe, so she's sharing it with everyone she knows to get her money's worth. Well, guess what? They're really good, even if they aren't really the Mrs. Fields recipe.)

But there's no sense dwelling on the future that far off just yet. As Mr. Honey called to remind me earlier this morning, in 11 days we're leaving for vacation. Yay! Tropical weather, here we come! (And not a moment too soon. It's gotten cold for Georgia in the last couple days.)

Have a great Tuesday! (Comments in parenthesis brought to you by the parenthesis sidenote fairy.)

Posted by Honey :: 10:54 AM :: 4 Comments:

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Sunday, December 03, 2006

This is Mr. Honey. I'm posting through Honey's account to keep Honey's identity a continued secret from those whom she hasn't told yet.

Thanks to Ellen for letting me know I was tagged.

Thanks to Lucy for tagging me.

Without further ado... Here's the list:

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Egg Nog. Homemade. The version I found on the web. It may knock you out, but it's delicious! (I figure I should share the recipe, especially since I didn't make it up on my own.)

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? When I grew up, he did the same as for Lucy - my sister had them in one part of the room, mine in the other. Today, he doesn't bring material gifts, but rather the Spirit of Christmas.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Colored.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Honey does, but I like it.

5. When do you put your decorations up? When Honey tells me to. This year, not so much, but this weekend. I've developed a "Bah, humbug" attitude due to the over-commercialization of the holiday. Combined with a desire to travel away from home (and family) at Christmas, I have less desire to put up decorations.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Hmm... tough call. I like to eat, and I like to cook. I think my favorite must be whatever is being shared by good friends/family in the holiday spirit. If I had to choose, it'd probably be egg nog.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? I'm not really sure. I don't want to choose, but rather enjoy all I can recall.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't remember. Really, I don't care either.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? When I grew up, yes. Pretty much all the gifts (except those from Santa.) Now, it depends. Honey and I aren't doing gifts (as far as I know) for each other this year, so I guess not.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Special ornaments, gained over time from friends and family.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I've been in the South for too long, so I miss it.

12. Can you ice skate? It's not pretty, but it'd probably come back quickly... not that I was ever good.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? No.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Can I go back to, "Bah, Humbug"?

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Egg nog.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? It's a new one. Travel with Honey.

17. What tops your tree? Air.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? I'm with Honey. I used to like receiving, but now it's giving.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? I don't know.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? I'm not a big sweets fan.

There you have it. So, I'll tag... um... well, here's the deal. If you're reading this and you haven't been tagged yet, guess what, you are now! If you're reading this, and you have been tagged, feel free to tag another person again; you can be my proxy tagger.

Happy holidays!

Posted by Honey :: 7:52 PM :: 6 Comments:

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Friday, December 01, 2006

Weird Dreams Again

Last night I had one of those underwear dreams. I had to go get my hair cut, but I wasn't wearing pants. I figured since I had on a shirt and underwear that I'd be okay going to get my hair cut, but then on the way there, I was intercepted by a friend who wanted to do dinner in Hawaii. And we had to leave right away, even though I was in a t-shirt and underwear and nothing else. So Mr. Honey put a coat over me, or maybe it was a blanket, and we went off to dinner.

When we got there, we saw a friend we haven't seen in a long time because he's been deployed, but all he could do was smile. And he smiled and smiled at all of us, but he wouldn't say a word. His wife talked for him.
And then I turned around and saw that all the big-wigs from my day job were sitting at a table right behind us, in Hawaii, where I was at dinner with friends without any pants on. Then my steak and potatoes and something else arrived, and I started eating. And then... my alarm woke me up. I distinctly remember thinking, "Gee, I go from eating a steak dinner in Hawaii to it being morning here just because the alarm went off. At least I can wear pants to work today."

With my work Christmas party right around the corner, I'm afraid this dream is telling me if I drink too much, I'll expose myself to my coworkers. Maybe I shouldn't drink at all. Damn it. :)

Happy Friday! Anybody got any good weekend plans?

Posted by Honey :: 8:59 AM :: 4 Comments:

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