Nothing says Christmas cheer like...

...a circa 1997 prom dress as a white elephant gift. Awesome.

Thanks to everyone who showed up at the party, you made it a great time.

Reason #42 To Get Married In December...

...you'll already have some sweet decorations when the next Christmas rolls around.

it's about time

i finally explored the richness of what is "MySpace", and promptly joined the fun. YOu can see my page at myspace,com/emigrethedog. Joanna introduced me to it, before which i was always sceptical as to what the big deal is. She showed me how to search for your high school classmates, which was awesome. All sorts of fun little surprises awaited me at every turn of that search. I can SEE how it could be a little addictive catching up with what people are up to, but _I_, ofcourse, am not at all affected by this magical power myspace seems to wield. BUt,.. i could SEE how it could happen, to SOME one...

"trick-or-treat" or birth control?

I think that any young couple considering bringing a child into the world, should be required to attend a children's party on trick-or-treat night. This event seems to drive children to funny, but sometimes scary extremes. We were at a party on trick-or-treat night last week, and there were several kids there. First of all, there's something a little strange about seeing a bunch of small, 3-foot tall people walking around dressed as things like: bees, superheroes wielding plastic swords as long as their body, vegetables, etc.. As cute as they are, let's be honest and admit that there is an element of strangeness to it. Add to that the fact that this is the one night that kids can go buckwild and eat as much candy in one night, as they might normally eat in a month.. and you have my reason for feeling that young couples ought to experience the other side of "cute babies" before committing to it. I means, seriously people. I saw one kid so hopped up on sugar that he found a dog cage, figured out how to unlock it, crawled into it, and rel-locked it, and then just sat in it, staring out at us like "what am i doing?"...
if you go to the armstrongs' blog link on our page, they have one of the funniest photos i've ever seen in my life. Another trick-or-treat tradgedy. oh, Hudson... that is the saddest/best picture I have seen of you yet. I'm not sure what's better: the forlorn look on your face, smeared with chocolate-while wearing a lion suit, OR the diaper clinging to your tiny ankle.. while in a lion suit. I mean.. the diaper-around-the-ankle thing is humiliating enough, without the lion suit on top of it. And then i thought of the irony of the situation. Seeing as you are so sensitive towards animals, you cried when i put my doggy in her cage, and you creid when the toy monkey hit the wall at your house... I wonder if some animal somewhere felt a tinge of sympathy for you that night,... while you were dressed as an animal...
trick-or-treat night can be like taking a very cold shower.

I'm Ready For My Closeup...Again

Here's the new Halloween promo for the Maury/Mathis block. Enjoy.

Addendum

In the wake of the recent list of things that are "Grace-Approved" I felt it necessary to add a shout out of my own. This one goes out to "Lil' Sparky," the extension cord that has been in the middle of I-471 South for the past two weeks and still going strong. At first it looked like he was making his way to the shoulder, but then decided to just save the effort and stay put in the middle. That's my kind of extension cord.

grace approved

I (grace) was scrolling through our friends' blog and they had an extensive listing of their "Ratings" of different products related to baby kuhn... i guess they've found a few duds and a few winners. Anyway.. that got me thinking.. and I came up with some "ratings" of my own on the kinds of things that _I_ know about:

TRAVEL COFFEE MUGS
if you're like me and you need a jolt to kick-start your brain in the morning, i've found the perfect travel mug. I've been through a lot of them. It's made by Contigo, and this thing has what I like to call "premium heating ENDURANCE". usually i pick mugs because they look cool (a job hazard as a designer) but they only keep things piping hot for approximately 10 minutes, and i hate lukewarm coffee. This one keeps it hot for well over an hour and a half. PLUS, for the "young-and-on-the-go" folks it's got a carribeaner-esque clip on the handle to attach to your bag.

TOYOTA COROLLA SPORT
we recently replaced my older honda accord with a slightly newer toyota corolla. it ROCKS. mainly becauase it doesn't leak directly onto my forehead everytime it rains. that's a definite plus. but it also has A.C. which is great in Muggy Cincy. Plus, it gets good mileage and all those sorts of things.

VOICE-DIAL
on your cell phone. This is a great invention. I never took the time to use it before, but seeing as most of us call the same 4-5 people the most often on our phones.. it is... AWESOME. i don't have to scroll through the whole alphabet, since that takes too long, and i haven't bothered to set up those "speed dial" settings, also becuase it takes too long. and who needs to when all you have to do is say the name of who you want to call...

that's it for now.

Ouch

I'm not sure which is worse, the fact that I agreed to do this or that this is actually being broadcast multiple times a day. Enjoy.

The award for best airport shuttle goes to...

Dayton International Airport. Probably not the answer that you were expecting, but they have service that is completely unmatched. Every other airport parking lot has little bus stops. While searching for a parking spot at 7:30 am last Friday I noticed a conspicuous lack of shuttle stops. No sooner had I voiced my concern than I realized that we were being followed by, you guessed it, a shuttle bus. It followed through a turn or two until we found a spot and then waited for us no more than 15 feet from our car. Impressive.

We were at the airport on our way to Boston for Rachel's wedding-which we'll post pictures of as soon as we get our camera.

Also on the way-completely humiliating video of me. And it gets better-its the kind of humiliating video that gets broadcast to the greater Cincinnati area at least 5 times a day.

the 3-day war

with a light fixture.
Now that we're officially homeowners, we get ot take care of all the fun stuff that we used to just call our landlord for. Not that we were pesky renters, mind you, but.. we enjoyed not having to do things ourselves. So, we entered into what we thought would be a simple, beginner-homeowner job. Putting in an overhead light. It seemed simple enough, the wires were all there, just no light. Boy, were we wrong. But, 3 trips to the mall, 2 trips to Lowes and a lot of sweat and internet research later... we finally have a light in our bedroom. Hoo-ray!! I think Ben earned about 227 hubby points for not giving up.
We also found out that we hope never to hire an electrician. Apparently the first 15 minutes costs you $50 smackers!!! hello do-it-yourself section at the library!!!!!

hair emergencies

Apparently a hair emergency has the potential to be much more serious than i ever imagined. I received a call from my favorite hair stylist extraordinaire today, to inform me that he has moved to another salon. He also proceeded to give me his cell phone number which i am permitted to use "anytime, day or night", if i ever need to get ahold of him. Now, hair is important, I'm not denying that, and the man is a genius in the hair department. but.. if i ever feel the urge, due to a hair emergency, to need to dial up my stylist (who i can't even afford except for maybe once a year anyway) in the middle of the night... someone please slap me.

does this make me old?

I've recently started an herb garden. just a small one. but it makes me so excited. We have a few plants in window boxes off the side of our balcony. I keep finding myself peeking out the window at them because I think they're so cute. I'm afraid I may be one of those mothers who smothers, because even with plants, I think I've been OVER-watering them, to the point of some leaves turning yellow and falling off. I'll have to watch that with any kids we someday have... wouldn't want any limbs falling off due to "mother-smothering".. I guess I need to toughen up a little bit.

But, seriously. the joy that comes from concocting something culinary that involves some herbs from our own tiny garden. I can't explain it, If you're a gardener (or a mother) you understand. Ha ha..

Official Camp Rudy 2006 Trailer

Not Good...

Considering the fact that we were going about 65 m.p.h. when this blew its pretty amazing that we were able to stop without incident.

Masterful Maddux sinks streaking Reds

You're welcome.

Cubbies!

The cubs are in town playing the reds. Grace and I are going to try to cheer them on to victory, and they need it. Last time we saw them play (in Chicago) they snapped a 7 game losing streak, so lets hope we're the lucky charm they need.

Allegra D:1 Me:0

So I've been sick for a little while. Ok, 4 weeks. My congestion and I have developed a symbiotic relationship, not unlike the Goby fish. I finally caved however, and went to see the doctor yesterday. Got 2 prescriptions. I took them right before bed fully expecting to wake up feeling better. 3 hours later I woke up feeling sweaty and much, much worse. I was initially afraid it was an allergic reaction to the medicine. Turns out it was just a strong side effect. So, 24 hours later I still have my congestion, but gained 3 prescriptions and the dull remnants of a killer headache. Sweet.

One more thing...

Did we forget to mention that the restaurant mentioned below is quickly becoming one of Grace's favorites?

beef brains anyone?

We found a new dining spot near here that is quickly becoming one of my favorites. A little hole-in-the-wall mexican place, it's seriously the most authentic mexican food i've had outside of mexico. period. we took some friends there last night, and our buddy ordered a "beef brains burrito". there aren't many occassions in life when one can utter that string of words and it's actually granted. Even our waitress raised an eyebrow. Apparently brains taste like overcooked noodles.

Fore (con't)

A couple more pics from our adventures in putt-putt.

Fore

The last time we were in Columbus visiting Grace's parents we hit the links. And by links I mean the local putt-putt golf course. Grace's dad managed to hit his ball into both a lake (picture attached) and the woods. Nevertheless, it was a close round.

Us.

And the award goes to...

The votes are in and Emigre has been selected as the official Dog of the Week.