Merry Christmas

It's that time of year when my family gathers together to eat way too much and drive each other crazy.  It's nearly Christmas and I still have a few last-minute gifts to buy, grocery shopping to do, presents to wrap and sedatives to take.  I'll be much to busy for the next few days to stop by here and ramble about television, movies, and celebrities who won't be doing anything worth talking about anyway. 

I'll try to watch a bunch of things over the weekend so that I have plenty to talk about next week.  Even if I don't manage that, I have some things I've been meaning to post here that I'll finally have time to put up.  Plus, I'll probably still say random things on Twitter throughout the weekend. 

In the mean time, Tibby and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas (or a happy Christmukkah, Kwanza, Festivus, agnostic chilly holiday, bonus Jewish vacation day, etc.). 

In Otter News

Tibby loves to swim. LOVES it. And yesterday, she spent a good portion of the afternoon swimming her little heart out at Jay and Mike's.

It was noted more than once during her many trips around the pool that when she gets wet, she looks like an otter. I can not disagree.

I'm not sure if it's 'cause I'm a proud mama or not but I really think my dog is the cutest thing in the whole world. But, you know, feel free to let me know if you disagree.

Random Proud Mama Moment

Just thought I'd take a moment to mention how freaking cute my little Tibby is.

Miss Me?

Ok, I really thought I'd post at least a LITTLE during my vacation but it turns out I only turned the computer on twice and didn't have a lot of time or patience for blogging either time. So I'm back to work and to blogging now.

Up All Night

I have always been a little contrary when it comes to weather - I like rain and snow and clouds and all the things that people complain make them feel gloomy. They make me feel exhilarated and happy. And living in Arizona for the last 23 years has made my love of gloomy weather grow exponentially because absense makes the heart grow fonder. Stupid desert!

Then I got a dog that I love to death but who completely refuses to pee if the ground is wet. Like, if her little paw touches even the tiniest bit of moisture, forget it! The inconvenience of trying to coax "peepee" out of a dog in the middle of the night in the rain for extended periods of time has put a real damper on my love affair with inclement weather. (Pun 100% intended.)

The love part of my love-hate relationship with rain was still winning out even though I spent way too much time hoping that the rain would stop by 8:00pm to allow the ground dry out before I Tibby's bed-time potty.

But after last night, I may have become indifferent bordering on unhappy with rain. Actually, that's not fair. It isn't the rain that ruined my night so much as the thunder. The incredibly loud, wake the dead, shake the walls thunder.

It started at about 2:00am waking Tibby up. I was still kind of asleep, but I was aware that she was up and moving around all nervous-like. Then came the crack that sounded like it may have struck my neighbors house. It was so loud my ears rang for a second after it was over. That sent poor little Tibby into an apoplectic fit of fear which resulted in her pouncing on top of me, digging her claws into my arms, chest and neck for dear life, and then burying her head into my clavicle while she shook uncontrollably for nearly an hour, whimpering in terror the entire time.

I've never seen any one or any thing so frightened in my entire life, as my sweet little pup was of the storm last night. And there was no way I was getting back to sleep so long as she was laying on top of me, claws out, shaking like a paint mixer with the sound of total universe destruction going on outside my window. So today, with very little sleep in my recent past, I'm like Zombie Melissa. You'll be lucky if anything I post today makes any damn sense at all.

Miss me?

Whew! I'm back from Michigan and ready to resume snarking and barking and posting...oh my!

Well, my baby sister isn't a baby anymore folks! She went from this:

to this:

Practically overnight! She's a high school graduate now and bound for the University of Michigan's pre-med program. I'm very proud of the little squirt.

But visiting family is exhausting so I got home last night and, after loving up Tibby for an hour straight, we both collapsed for some R&R.

It's good to be home!

Holiday Hangover

There are two main problems with working the day after Christmas:

1) My office is a ghost town. When I pulled into the parking lot at 7:45 this morning, there were roughly 40 cars here. The building has over 600 residents on a normal day so that's pretty sparse. No one calls, no e-mails come in. It's so quiet in here right now that I think I can hear the sound of my eyelids closing.

2) Holidays are like taking vacations to visit family - as soon as they're over, you need some time to lay low and recover! Don't get me wrong, I like Christmas and all, but it's exhausting and I really could have stayed in bed for about 4 additional hours this morning before getting up, making myself some pancakes, and then taking a nap.

Oh well, what's done is done. Christmas is over and I'm back in the office for a day of doing nothing.

As usual my family way over did the gifts and for some reason we were trying to be really courteous and make sure that we took turns opening everything this year so the gift portion of the day took FOREVER. I got most of the stuff on my list and some lovely things that weren't on my list. Everyone seemed to like what I gave them which is always a relief.

It was the puppies first Christmas and they seemed a bit overwhelmed. I wish I'd gotten some good pictures of them in their cute Christmas t-shirts but unfortunately ever picture I tried to take ended up with little blurs where the puppies had been because at that stage of the game they were too excited to sit still. Then they ran around outside in the mud and rain for about an hour and when they came in their cute t-shirts were covered in mud. That's when they were finally ready to join us for the unwrapping festivities.

Bailey decided right off the bat that he really liked one of my gifts (the incredibly nice cast iron skillet Jay and Mike got me) very much and staked his claim on it.

I wasn't sure I was ever going to be able to open it because he just couldn't stay off of it.

By the time we were done opening gifts and we'd eaten brunch and we'd done stockings, Tibby and Bailey were wiped out!

Fortunately, Tom snapped a couple of good pictures of me and my baby before she went home to sleep in peace for the rest of the day.

I can't wait until quitting time today when I get to go home and do the same thing!

Tibby Deserves Better Than This

Did I already mention why I named my puppy Tibby? Because I'm way too lazy to go back through my posts and look. Well, if not, here it is: I am a very big fan of the Traveling Pants book series and my favorite member of the sisterhood is Tibby. Riveting story, no?

In the movies that are based on the books (which I'm probably going to rant about here in the nearish future because I can feel my Irish getting up a bit just thinking about them, sorry in advance), Tibby is played by Amber Tamblyn which is just fine by me because I adore Amber. Joan of Arcadia was a fantastic series that I was sad to see end and I thought Amber did a stellar job in it. Yay Amber Tamblyn! Now, I get that Amber is not actually Tibby because, you know, Tibby is not really a person, she's a fictional character, but even still, I think Tibby deserves better than to have her portrayer prance around town in the service of promoting the second movie wearing this:

She's a really pretty girl and I'm not just saying that because she and I are wearing our hair nearly identically at this precise moment or because her makeup is gorgeous (though both are true). If this picture were a head shot, this would be a very different post. But this picture is not a head shot, it clearly showcases her entire outfit which is very, very bad.

Her shorts are too short and pulled up WAY too far, the skinny belt is really just calling attention to the way the pants are making her look thick around the middle, the cardigan is droopy and a rather strange accessory to wear with short-shorts anyway because if you're cold, maybe wear PANTS! The see-through shirt is a pretty poor choice on it's own, but tucking it in so very tightly isn't doing her figure (which is NOTHING to be ashamed of by the way) any favors. As a side note to that last point - the tight-tuck seems to be a new trend and I'm really, really not on board with it. Stop doing that people! It's not flattering on any figure. Seriously. I feel like she got dressed in a room with no mirrors and not a speck of light.

Great shoes though.

Miss me?

I'm back from my vacation, and tired as all hell. Someday I'm going to take a vacation where I spend an entire week laying around, doing absolutely nothing - possibly at a mountain lodge in the cold, snowy winter. That way I come back rested and refreshed instead of exhausted and in need of a recovery vacation.

Anyway, I spent a week in California with my little sister, Megan. We had tons of fun and have only one regret which is that we had not one celebrity sighting. You know, even when I lived in LA for over a year, I hardly ever saw famous people. Maybe the problem is that I'm just not good at spotting them or something?

We went to Universal Studios...

Disneyland...

Santa Monica Pier (that's Meg and my cousin Chase in the back row of the second car)...



Venice Beach...


and Malibu (Meg, Chase and Chase's brother Tyler are the three to the right here, playing in the ocean at Zuma Beach)...

So, my sister is gorgeous right? The more time I spend with her, the more I love her and the older and fatter I feel. Last night while I was in the shower, she took some really adorable pictures of herself and Tibby:

Let's see, what else did we do? Oh I know, we got tattoos. We each got the same tattoo but we got them in different places - hers is on the top of her left foot (picture below) and mine is on the back of my neck. Mine is scabbed up pretty bad right now so I'll wait to post a picture of that until it's healed. I didn't actually want to get a tattoo but Meg kept saying that it was sisterly bonding and it symbolized our connection to each other no matter how far apart we are in physically...or something. Anyway, that's how much I love my sister.

Cute Pictures of My Puppy

I don't have kids which is why I get to post pictures of Tibby instead.

This is her sunning herself after a dip in the pool:

This is her sleeping...in my bed:

And all tucked in:

And this is her brother, Bailey, wiggling around on his back like the crazy little dog he is because, unlike his sister, he HATES being wet:

Tids and Bits

Tibby was spayed this morning so I'm going to try to get a picture of her in her little cone collar up this weekend but until then, here's the little cutie just being cute:

I'd like to request that Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise use some of their zillions of dollars to have someone trim Suri's bangs because this poor child is very cute but you almost can't tell with all that hair covering her face.

I saw the first 5 minutes of The Dark Knight this morning and holy smokes am I anxious to see that movie! I kind of hope William Fichtner was just making a cameo and is only in that one scene because somehow that would make the movie even more awesome than it is obviously going to be.

There is a poll over at TVGuide.com (about 1/2 way down the page on the right) asking people to vote for the "coolest TV star" and the choices are seriously lame. I love both of the boys from Supernatural but they are not even close to as cool as Chuck Bass or Blair Waldorf and how is Jamie Lynn Spears even in the same poll with either one of them? (Also, wasn't her show cancelled when she got knocked up?)

That's all I've got for today. Happy Fourth of July!

Proud Mommy

Little Tibby is growing up fast.

This morning my little girl lost her first puppy tooth. She was really, REALLY bothered by having a loose tooth and spent much of the morning grinding it against her other teeth and chewing gently on my finger trying to wiggle it free. She finally got it out with the aid of a stick in the yard.

Incidentally, here's a picture of Tibby and her brother Bailey at their absolute sweetest:

That's Tibby with her nose buried under Bailey's chin. She LOVES to snuggle and is always happiest when her nose is nuzzled somewhere.

This is Tibby

She's my new puppy. Isn't she the cutest thing EVER?