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December 31, 2006
2006 Uncensored
Isn't that an MTV show or something? Uncensored? I don't know, anyway, it's time for the "year in pictures" entry. I'm so over 2006 and can't wait to be in '07 which will most certainly be the best year yet!
I take a lot of pictures, so I'll try to cut down a lot, but here comes 2006!
JANUARY
Happy New Year!
Cathy's cousin Jensen:
James turns 21:
Woodstock, VT:
Visiting Brent:
Moving back into school:
FEBRUARY
Golf Pros and Tennis Hoes:
Superbowl Party in Christie's and My Room:
Snowed in:
Valentine's Day:
MARCH
Heart Ball with Brent's Family:
Ritz Carlton Naples, FL:
APRIL
Easter:
Toga Party:
Webshots uses Brent and Me in their advertisement:
Spring Weekend:
MAY
Moving back home:
My 20th birthday:
JUNE
Vanessa's Birthday:
Alberto's Birthday:
Cathy's new apartment:
Red Sox Game:
Madonna Concert:
Late Night Uproar Concert:
JULY
Fireworks:
Camping:
Drinking hobo whiskey:
Family get-together in Marblehead, MA:
Bon Jovi Concert:
Coney Island with Jocelyn:
Geoff's Birthday:
AUGUST
Brent's birthday:
Sandcastle Contest:
Daytona Beach, FL:
Animal Kingdom:
MGM:
Epcot:
SEPTEMBER
Welcome Back Party at Trinity:
Brady's 1st birthday:
Brent's and My 2nd Anniversary:
Hiking:
Cathy and Pat's visit:
Fall Concert:
Big E Fair:
Tropical:
OCTOBER
80s Party:
Halloween:
NOVEMBER
Salem, MA:
Thanksgiving and Jocelyn's Birthday:
DECEMBER
Brent's and My Christmas:
Christmas:
Happy New Year Everyone!
Posted by lauren at 12:04 PM | Comments (2)
December 30, 2006
Ghetto Translator
I don't know if you've all see this already, but I was checking my Site Meter which tells me where I'm getting my viewers from, and in the past few days I've had a number of hits from Ghetto Translator. What it does, is it takes whatever text is in your website and puts it into ghetto terms. I read The Blonde Excuse in the ghetto translator and it's pretty hilarious. Try it out!
Click here to read the 2006 State of the Union Address in ghetto-talk!
Whoever has been using the ghetto translator to read my blog, comment and let me know so that I can give you credit for this great discovery!
Posted by lauren at 05:16 PM | Comments (0)
Christmas
I missed it by one day! Not Christmas, but the one year anniversary of The Blonde Excuse. I started The Blonde Excuse on December 29th of 2005 with And So It Begins... if you want to go back and start from the beginning. It's been a long year and I'm definitely ready to start 2007, but before that, here are all of my Christmas pictures!
On Christmas Eve, my mom and I baked these chocolate lava cakes:
They were absolutely delicious:
After cake, we all sat around the TV room reading Christmas Poems. My dad tells me this is the 99th year that my family has read them. While I sometimes make fun of them (One of them goes "What did you get grown up brother? Why don't you check your own little mother!" or something to that effect), I do enjoy the tradition of reading the Christmas poems on Christmas Eve.
Here's one of the worst pictures ever, me reading the poems:
Mom reading:
Jocelyn reading:
Dad reading:
Christmas Poems:
Christmas morning, we all woke up early and headed downstairs to see what Santa brought us. I decided not to take any pre-shower pictures of anyone this year because I was being nice. There were lots of presents for everyone and I was considering going around and taking pictures of them, but decided that it would be too time consuming and figured I'd just say that everyone was very happy. I did take a few random pictures of things that were around though.
Jocelyn and I both got Cargo Lip Glosses in this cute little travel box:
They're really cool, you just have to push the top down and the gloss starts coming out:
Sugar bowl and creamer that I got my mom:
After opening presents at my house, we went over to Grandma and Poppy's for Christmas morning over there! I made a family photo album for my grandparents and here's Poppy looking through it:
A couple pages from the album:
At some point I might put up a bunch of these cute old pictures on The Blonde Excuse.
Dad:
Birds outside Grandma and Poppy's house:
Andy and Me back at our house Christmas afternoon:
Renwick and Mom:
Jocelyn and Andy:
Dad:
The fireplace:
Mom and Dad cooking Christmas dinner:
Asparagus with prosciutto and cheese before the oven:
And after:
Jocelyn, Poppy, and Me (in my new sweater):
Mom:
Dad and Me:
Jocelyn and Grandma:
Jocelyn's new sneakers she got for Christmas:
My stocking!
Champagne:
Hors D'oeuvres (shrimp, cheese, and meatballs):
The table:
The sideboard that I decorated:
The wine:
My dad's really cool pepper grinder:
My parents' new silver water pitcher from my grandparents:
Multi-colored tomato salad:
My dad with the filet:
My new Etienne Aigner shoes:
The ornament I gave my mom with an old picture of Geoff, Jennifer, and Me in it:
Scalloped potatoes:
Christmas flowers on the table:
Asparagus again:
The table with all the food on it:
Christmas cake:
My dad's one job was to go out and get a non-mocha cake. He gets mocha for every event... this Christmas included. He said it was okay though, because it was a "Christmas mocha" which is different.
My Easy Bake Oven (won't this be great for college?):
The mixes for it:
I made these heart cookies that were delicious:
Christmas night, Jocelyn, Mom, and I played Pop Culture Trivial Pursuit (another Christmas present) and somehow Mom won! How did that happen?
After Christmas, I went to Brent's house to join his family for their annual "24" marathon. If you don't watch "24" you definitely should, and this past season was particularly good. Brent and I also saw The Good Shepherd while I was visiting, and while it is very long, it's definitely a really good movie about the start of the CIA.
When I got back home today, Jocelyn was here for 2nd Christmas (she had been in the hospital for a couple weeks before Christmas) and she gave me these awesome Prada sunglasses!
Aren't they amazing? I'm going to wear them every day:
Anyway, that's all for now. I hope everyone had a great Christmas!
Posted by lauren at 03:26 PM | Comments (4)
December 25, 2006
A Very Merry Un-Birthday to Jesus!
Yes, that's right, your parents lied to you. Jesus was actually born on April 5th, but I guess we celebrate today because of all the presents Santa brings. It actually has something to do with the pagan sun god, but he doesn't bring me presents so I don't care. I have plenty to say about Christmas morning, presents, etc. but for now, here are a couple pictures that I took yesterday.
Jocelyn's friends came to visit her on her first day out of the hospital, so we had cheese, crackers, and cookies. My dad got in a lot of trouble because he took a big chunk out of the cheese before anyone got here:
Jocelyn with her friends:
Darren and Alice:
I'm sure Jocelyn will have more pictures up on her blog soon, I know I saw her taking them.
In other news, now that Jocelyn is out of the hospital, she is back to blogging on the Rock Star Diary!
After having lost 14lbs in the hospital (so jealous):
I took some more pictures of the beautiful tulips from Brent (more on the way too):
Aren't they just the most gorgeous flowers you've ever seen?
After talking with Jocelyn and her friends for a while, I went to Greenwich Ave. to do a little last minute shopping. I know that Christmas Eve is really last minute, but I was actually done shopping and just wanted to go out and get everyone a little something extra, partly just because I wanted to get out of the house for a little while on the beautiful, 65 degree day we had yesterday. 65 degrees is definitely warmer than any Christmas Eve I can remember.
At Greenwich Avenue, I saw the new Rugby store and the Rolex town clock I mentioned in There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays:
Lastly, I took a few random pictures of store windows all decked out for Christmas:
That brings us to the end of this entry. I'll be back soon with pictures from last night and this morning. Merry Christmas everyone!
Posted by lauren at 01:12 PM | Comments (1)
December 24, 2006
She'd Been Drinking Too Much Eggnog
I couldn't go through my Christmas lyric titles without something from "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer," even though it really has nothing to do with this post. Anyway....
We broke Jocelyn out of the hospital today! We're so glad she'll be home with us for Christmas Eve, it wouldn't be the same without her. I think my next diet will be a hospital stay at the Greenwich Hospital Resort and Spa with morphine every day.
In other news, Brent and I are on the cover of People:
Yes, I'm a huge dork, but I'm bored and if you want to try it, go to Making the Cover.
Jocelyn and four or five of her friends are over right now visiting, so I have to go but check back later for more pictures!
Posted by lauren at 02:06 PM | Comments (1)
You Mean You Forgot Cranberries Too?
Yesterday, Brent sent me these gorgeous pink tulips to wish me a Merry Christmas!
Aww:
I took this picture of the inside of one of the flowers and discovered that it's blue in there! Isn't this gorgeous?
Other than admiring my beautiful flowers, I spent the day running a few last minute Christmas-related errands and visiting my sister, Jocelyn, in the hospital (luckily she's getting out in a few hours!) Time has been going by way too fast for me lately, I can't believe it's Christmas Eve! Well, I don't really consider it to be Christmas Eve quite yet since I haven't gone to bed, but same thing.
In other news, a tank exploded at the VW dealership in Greenwich! I had been driving past the VW dealership on the way to something... now that I think of it, I can't imagine what I was doing on that side of town and this is going to bother me for a while... but anyway, I saw a bunch of firemen and firetrucks and wondered what was going on. I guess they were having a catered Christmas party and one of the grill tanks or something blew up with a 6-foot ball of fire! That's as tall as my boyfriend! If Brent were made of fire, I don't know what I woud do! Why did I just say that? That doesn't even make sense. I think I need some sleep....
Goodnight everyone and Merry Christmas Eve!
Posted by lauren at 01:49 AM | Comments (2)
December 23, 2006
There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays
I think this is Christmas lyric title number 8! Only a few days left until I have to start being original again... or boring, either one.
Tonight, a bunch of my friends and I went to Vanessa's house to watch TV and catch up. It's so nice to be home again with all my high school friends. I have to give a special thanks to Molly's sister, Sara, who provided us with "death by chocolate" for dessert:
It was absolutely deliciuos. We all took up our little semi-circle around the TV in Vanessa's basement and relaxed, ate more chocolate (Kristina brought us M&Ms!), and did a lot of gossiping... I mean, "catching up." I wish I had taken more pictures, but all of my gorgeous friends were doing the "Don't take my picture, I look awful" thing... ugh.
Completely unrelated to any of this, a Ralph Lauren Rugby Store has opened up on Greenwich Avenue! Brent told me he had heard about a new Ralph Lauren store that didn't have catalogs or an online store so you had to go to one of their very few locations, but that he had heard it was worth the trip. We went to Boston last September and trudged through the rain until we found the Newbury St. location. Rugby sells rugby shirts (obviously) along with cute skirts, dresses, sweaters, jackets... anything you can think of. Brent especially likes the store because he loves pirates and one of the logos Rugby uses is a skull and crossbones. One of the cool things about Rugby is that you can customize your own rugby shirt with different logo patches, or you can choose from a lot of different ones that they've pre-made. Wow, shouldn't they be paying me for this or something?
Anyway, I strongly urge you to check it out. The locations are here on the Ralph Lauren website.
As you can see, the newest location is lovely Greenwich, CT which opened its store this month on Greenwich Ave. Greenwich Avenue has been changing, has anyone else noticed? Definitely for the better, in my opinion. I think our latest additions have been Lucky Jeans, Rugby, Lilly Pullitzer, and Vineyard Vines (which started here in Greenwich, not Martha's Vineyard-- as a quick sidenote, Shep and Ian apparently go to my yacht club and one of them is a neighbor of ours!) Of course we still have some old favorites like Saks and Richards along with all the couture boutiques. Greenwich Avenue has been referred to as the "Rodeo Drive of the East" but I don't buy it. Beverly Hills may have a "Greenwich Avenue of the West," but certainly not the other way around, that's just absurd. Is their town clock a Rolex? In the words of Michelle Tanner, "Oh puhleeeease!" I do hope people know when I'm kidding... or am I? Anyway....
If you're interested in shopping on Greenwich Avenue, check out this cool website I just found today, Shop Greenwich Avenue.
And finally, for those of you who miss the Tanner family as much as I do...
Here's a Tanner Family Christmas Video!
I think we all wish Uncle Jesse hadn't left the band to become an ER doctor, but maybe there will be a Tanner family reunion sometime soon.
Posted by lauren at 01:04 AM | Comments (1)
December 21, 2006
Faithful Friends Who Are Dear To Us
Gather near to us once more!
Before I get to that, I have a couple pictures from the last few days of school.
For finals, my parents sent me this Christmas snack tin:
Yummm:
The rest of the make-your-own marshmallow snowmen that Brent and I made:
Anyway, tonight my family went over to Cathy and Mike's house for sub sandwiches and cake. Cathy, Mike, and I went to Subway to pick up the sandwiches where the man there threatened to kill Cathy by putting her in the toaster.
After Subway, Cathy, Mike, and I went next door to Carvel to pick up an ice cream cake to have as dessert. We picked out something really special for our dads, Tommie and Davey... Forever:
Anyway, we had a really nice night and I know this is sort of a lazy blog entry but I'm watching The Real World on Tivo and I'm about to go to bed anyway. Goodnight everyone!
Posted by lauren at 11:09 PM | Comments (0)
December 18, 2006
But Have A Cup of Cheer
Friday night, Brent and I went out to dinner with Brent's parents and their friends and neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. C. I know it's annoying that I only do the first letter of last names, but I don't know who does and doesn't want to have their full name posted on the internet. Anyway, before dinner, Brent and I went out to run a quick errand and saw yet another beautiful Hartford sky. I hate how gorgeous the sky is in Hartford because I personally think Hartford is an utterly deplorable city. Anyway, Brent took all of these pictures so I want to make sure to give him credit. They'll probably appear on his blog soon once he starts posting agian!
Beautiful:
I love how different these next two pictures are even though they were taken in the exact same place, only minutes apart:
I know I've mentioned how much I hate Hartford, but I do have to give it a little credit. Brent and I drove out of the neighborhood immediately surrounding our school to get to Peppercorns, got a little lost, and discovered a really nice area of the city that we may venture into sometime soon. That said... we came back to school to get ready for dinner while watching an episode of "24," one of the best shows ever.
Me getting ready (picture also taken by Brent):
All gussied up:
We met Brent's family and Mr. and Mrs. C at Peppercorns Grill here in Hartford. I had met the C's once before very briefly, but it was really nice to get to know them over a delicious dinner. Mr. and Mrs. C showed us a picture of their adorable baby girl, just a month younger than my nephew, Brady. I think they would get along famously!
The C's are regulars at Peppercorns so we got special treatment there and even got to order things not on the menu. Needless to say, we had a fantastic meal and a wonderful night with lots of funny stories, laughing, and many a cup of cheer. Yes, I'm really lame, but it adds to my tally of Christmas lyric titles (this is number five).
That's all for now. Brent and I have spent the weekend "studying" for our exam on Wednesday. Wish us luck!
Posted by lauren at 01:56 AM | Comments (5)
December 17, 2006
Right Down Santa Claus Lane
Well, not actually Santa Claus Lane, but somewhere in that neighborhood.
This is going to be a quick entry because I'm in the middle of a TV on DVD marathon with Brent (we're OBSESSED!) but a few days ago Brent and I went down to Greenwich to have yet another TV marathon, but this one was TV on Tivo so it's a little different. My parents Tivo-ed the whole season of "Heroes" for Brent and me, so we had to get caught up! It's an amazing show, by the way, so check it out if you haven't already.
So for a break from the endless hours of television, my parents took Brent and me to see the Christmas light show at a house in Greenwich that's definitely worth the trip. This guy hired Macy's to come decorate his house and even has his own radio station so that you can tune into his Christmas music while driving past (yes, the music coordinates with the light show, obviously). Anyway, it was amazing and I managed to video tape the whole thing despite cameras not being allowed. The best part of the video is the cop saying "No pictures!" at the very end of the show after I had, of course, gotten the whole thing on tape. Oh well!
The best Christmas light show you will ever see, right here in lovely Greenwich, CT!
We took my dad's new Lexus RX350 which I've been meaning to blog about for a while now. It's a really cool car with a video screen that lets you see where you're going when you back up. It also has a GPS, side mirrors that adjust automatically to look at the ground when you're backing up, a steering wheel that moves when you open the door, headlights that turn when you turn the steering wheel, and voice activated controls. I think my favorite part of the new car experience is watching my dad shout the commands into the steering wheel. Oh parents and this crazy new technology....
Davey's new car:
Video screen to show what's behind the car:
My dad drove me around in his car a little bit to let me see how it worked and we ended up driving past the Giffords' house. Molly had asked me to take a picture of Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford's house because it happens to be really close to where I live. They were going to use it for the Greenwich Post (Molly's sister Sara works there) but ended up not being able to since the Giffords live on a private road so somehow it's not legal to post the pictures. Well, I'm going to invoke The Blonde Excuse and say I have no idea what anyone is talking about because I'm just a girl and here are the pictures!
And completely randomly... here are a couple pictures of the really cool bookcase with old books in my house (obviously from the grandparents):
Obviously this entry has no concept of chronological order, so just to clarify, this visit home happened before the "Heroes" visit home with Brent and before Brent's and my Christmas.
The day before Brent's and my Christmas (the day after the visit to Greenwich I just posted), Brent and I spent the entire day at Gallows Hill, the student lounge slash coffee place on campus. Brent had to write a really long paper for his English class and I just hung around playing his video games (I'm so not cool). To get us through the day (mostly Brent, I had nothing to be motivated for) we got bagels and a box of coffee from Dunkin Donuts:
The next day, after our Christmas, Brent and I went out to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. On the way, we took these pictures!
Hartford has some of the most beautiful skies... despite it being Hartford:
Brent wearing his new scarf (a gift from me!):
Back in my room later that day, Brent played endless hours of video games on the Nintendo DS Lite I got him for our Anniversary in September (aren't I the best girlfriend ever?):
A note of advice to anyone who wants a social life-- don't buy your boyfriend video games. I cannot stress this enough.
On Wednesday (the day after our Christmas, the day before the "Heroes" marathon), Brent and I went to his parents' house to have pizza for dinner. This is a picture of Brent and me right before leaving:
We got to have some of the best pizza EVER from a place called Naples in Farmington, CT (worth the drive from Avon where Brent's family lives). Yummmmmm.... way better than campus "food."
After having pizza followed by ice cream at Cold Stone in Simsbury (yes, that means we went to three separate towns just to eat off campus), Brent and I came back to Trinity where we made the make-your-own Peeps my mom got us. Aren't they cute? Some are missing for obvious reasons (Brent eats really fast):
See?
Later that night, Brent and I went outside to watch the meteor shower. Despite the brief period of clear sky we were lucky enough to get, the lights of Hartford made it impossible to see anything of any significance. We saw a few stars and think we may have seen a couple meteors (there were supposedly 2 every second, so it shouldn't have been too hard...) I didn't get anything interesting on film... stupid light pollution. For those of you who care about science, there has to be a one sixtieth of brightness difference for the eye to be able to see light, so that's why the light pollution got in our way. Sorry for totally nerding you all out....
While we were outside, we did get a picture of my room. I was very pleased to see that it glows pink!
The next day, Brent and I came home for the "Heroes" marathon. When we got to my house, the first thing we did was took Princess (my pink Robo-Raptor) and chased Chloe and Frisky around the house with it. Chloe was terrified and even gave up her bed to it, but Frisky was ready for a showdown (pictures taken by Brent):
After a day full of pizza and Chinese take-out (so delicious) my parents, Brent, and I drove to the house with the Christmas light show (in the video at the beginning of this entry). On the way, we drove down Greenwich Ave. to see the lit up trees lining the street. This is a terribly blurry picture, but I still like it:
I apologize for how out-of-order this entry has been, but I'm disorganized, what can I say. Last but not least, before Brent and I drove back to school, my mom felt the need to give the fruit in our fruit bowl faces:
Well, that certainly made it friendlier, yet less edible. Anyway, before I go, Brent wants me to let you all know that he will be blogging soon, he has just been consumed with lots of "work." Actually, he's been trying (and succeeding!) to beat New Super Mario Brothers DS. Check out his blog sometime soon for more pictures!
Posted by lauren at 12:39 AM | Comments (1)
December 12, 2006
Me, I Want a Hula Hoop!
That's Christmas lyric title number four for those of you keeping track. And if you were wondering, it's the Alvin & The Chipmunks version, not the real one, that I had in mind. I was going to simply have it say "Christmas, Christmas Time is Here" but this one is more fun. By the way, I don't actually want a hula hoop. I want an Easy Bake Oven.
Anyway, today Brent and I celebrated our Christmas. I know it's a couple weeks early, but we don't get to see each other on the 25th so we have our own little Christmas earlier in December each year. We chose today for two reasons. 1- Brent got his English paper out of the way so there's nothing due this week for either of us and 2- Our Greek History final isn't until the 20th so this gives us plenty of time to enjoy our Christmas without worrying about studying or any other school nonsense.
In preparation for today's Christmas, Brent and I have been decorating my room with all sorts of Christmasey things. My mom got me a fiber optic Christmas tree and a string of Christmas lights pictured here:
Some of the little ornaments for the tree:
Brent and I made a "no bags" rule for Christmas this year. No matter what shape our presents for each other were, we had to find a way to wrap them with wrapping paper. This proved to be a little more difficult for Brent than for myself.... As I'm sure you could have guessed, all of Brent's presents for me are pink and all of mine for him are green (our favorite colors!):
I liked this picture because it somehow looks like the tree is on fire:
Presents!
There's nothing more exciting than stacks of presents under the Christmas tree. Last night, being our Christmas Eve, Brent and I played some Christmas music on iTunes while sitting in the living room (my carpet). I guess that's how college kids do Christmas.
Before calling it a night, I set up all of Brent's and my stuffed animals by the tree so that they could enjoy it too (all of them are mine except the black lab, and all of them are gifts from each other):
I woke Brent up bright and early this morning (around 10ish) for present opening!
The first gift opened was a book from Brent called The Art of Winnie the Pooh. I had wanted an art book because dorm rooms are boring and stupid and I thought it would be fun to have a book of something nice to look at and Brent had the brilliant idea of Winnie the Pooh! It has illustrations of Pooh and friends along with little quotes from the Disney shows and movies which definitely brought me back to a time when Winnie the Pooh was a major influence in my life... I guess he still is. I'll be posting pictures from the book soon.
Silly, Willy, Nilly, Old Bear
The first present Brent opened was a Ralph Lauren Rugby scarf from me! Brent loves the RL Rugby store but there are only a few spread out across the country and you can't get their stuff online or in a catalog, so when I was home at some point I stopped in the store and picked out a really cool or "badass," as Brent would put it, skull and crossbones scarf. I think he likes it!
I got to open the very oddly shaped gift under the tree, a Robo-Raptor! I know I'm a huge dork, but I wanted a Robo-Raptor sooo badly and my wonderful boyfriend got me one and painted it pink and purple! He knows me so well (refer to the baby carriage with a lace-wrapped bat story in O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree).
My pink and purple Robo-Raptor:
I love it!
How awesome is this:
Perhaps one of the best parts of my Robo-Raptor is the card Brent wrote me:
He's such a dork, but I love him.
Brent then opened his "24" DVD board game. Brent and his family have "24" marathons every year and this game lets you try to solve a case of your own, searching for clues around Los Angeles with the rest of the CTU team, given only 24 hours to find and stop the terrorists. And you thought Monopoly was a long game!
Brent doing the Jack Bauer face:
Last, but not least, Brent opened the homemade-ish mug and hot chocolate from me. Brent had told me a few weeks ago that he lost his favorite mug, so I had a new one made for him at Cafe Press.
Mug, hot chocolate, and marshmallows on a stick:
Aww...
All the presents under the tree again:
It has been a fantastic Christmas and I'm sure Brent will be blogging about it soon, so make sure you check out yes, considerably! A lot of these pictures were taken by Brent so expect some duplicates.
Posted by lauren at 07:10 PM | Comments (4)
December 10, 2006
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree
I'm seeing how many blog entries this month can be titled with a line from a Christmas song. This makes three.
Speaking of the number three, I've been sneezing in threes lately. Anyone who knows me knows that I always sneeze in twos, or at least multiples of two, but NEVER odd numbers. It has really been throwing my life off balance lately and has been causing me a lot of stress.
But that's not the point of this entry (do they ever really have a point, though?).
So anyway, yesterday (I'm speaking in actual yesterdays now-- refer to Naughty or Nice if you don't know what I'm talking about) my parents and I went out to get our Christmas tree. For a number of years now, we've gotten our Christmas tree at Jones Tree Farm (the same place Brent and I got our pumpkins this October). At Jones Tree Farm you can cut down your own tree, but somehow trees always look smaller in the woods so we end up coming home with something enormous. There have been a number of years when access to our living room has been limited due to uninhibited branches reaching across the entryway. This year, "we" decided to get our tree at the church. Church trees are actually really nice, so I don't want it to sound like I was actually disappointed not to chop down my own tree the old fashioned way. It's quite a hike up the mountain at Jones Tree Farm and while I am a proponent of deforestation (less trees, more cell towers, better service!), I think Jesus and his churchly followers did a fine job of it themselves.
Church parking lot:
This is not our church, of course. Our church apparently only had midget trees... I'm sorry, "little people trees." "Little People, Big World" is one of my favorite TV shows, by the way. I'm getting off topic.
I think I picked out a nice, plump, sturdy Christmas tree, but no one else liked it. They thought it would be reminiscent of the year the Christmas tree took over the living room and vetoed my giant tree again. I guess it's for the best... a couple years ago, when the tree was way too big-- my fault of course, I ended up trying to chop it down to size with my mom's electric turkey carving knife. It actually works quite well!
The next tree we came across had a perfect Christmas tree shape, but really flimsy branches. We bought it:
For $80:
We managed to make it all the way home with only one "Dad, is there supposed to be a broken string flapping around?" emergencies. It ended up not being an emergency, and we got home and immediately put the tree in the living room where it fit quite nicely. My dad put the lights up and it's Christmas! Not really, but close:
This morning, my dad woke my mom and me up with breakfast in bed! We had bacon and cheese omlettes and toast, yum! He asked me if I could please be ready to decorate the tree early enough to give us enough time to finish by 1pm when the Patriots game came on. I managed to get my butt downstairs and in tree-decorating order by precisely 12:59pm. Best daughter ever.
We decorated the tree during commercials (just like in the days of yore!) and here's our beautiful, fully saturated Christmas tree!
We have a very... uh... "eclectic" set of ornaments that we put on our tree each year. We have homemade ones from my great grandmother, homemade ones from pre-school (A quick note to Mom-- where are the hand-painted cookie-men I made when I was 4? If they're lost, I might not come home for Christmas this year), and... I lost track of what I was saying, but in conclusion, we have a lot of crazy/awesome ornaments.
This mouse has been impaled through the neck with a ladder. We don't know how but, needless to say, it's on the back of the tree:
Ursula from The Little Mermaid after she retired from her life of zany deep-sea shenanigans to live out her golden years in a retirement community in Florida. Or at least that's what I heard:
Angel Kitty (one of my favorites):
This next picture is of another of my favorite ornaments, the golden spiderweb. As a little kid I liked creepy things... but in a girly cute way. This would probably explain my beautiful little baby-carriage I pushed around the neighborhood with little pink and white lace blankets all wrapped up around my very favorite... rubber bat. My mom recalls a certain neighbor's shock and horror when she asked to see my baby doll. Think again! Another of my favorite tricks was to leave toy rats around the house for the maids to find. Who didn't love a sweet little angel like me? But I digress... The spiderweb ornament belonged to my grandma and I was sooooo jealous. A spiderweb Christmas ornament? Who wouldn't want one of those?! I very generously told my grandma that if she didn't want such an ugly old ornament junking up her beautiful Christmas tree that I would kindly take it back to my house with me. She was delighted, and here is my spiderweb!
Despite the donkey in front of the American flag, this is not a political statement:
Another pretty fairy/angel/girl with wings:
Balloon boat:
This is a high quality ornament I made for my mom at an undisclosed age, certainly long after this kind of thing was "cute":
Yes, that was felt wrapped around a soda can.
I actually don't remember ever seeing this ornament before... but I imagine it's connected to some story about a ship, or something in a glass ball, or a ship in a glass ball that someone saw one time and bought a commemorative ornament of. Or maybe it's just decorative:
A pre-school expression of glitter, glue, and paper plate magic:
One of the many pixies around the Christmas tree. As a little kid, I was led to believe that they were magical and mischievous and would roam around the Christmas tree knocking things over and creating a general nuissance in Christmas tree land:
A very special ornament with all the names of the Spooners (the name we came up for Cathy & Mike's family and my family combined):
A squirrel in the tree (no, it's not Wooly):
Pretty:
A pegasus apparently sodomizing poor Santa with its horn:
This is my dad's bulldog ornament, it sort of reminds me of him:
The angel with her head jammed into the ceiling in an attempt to break free from the tree up her butt and float up into heaven! Just kidding, that would be ridiculous:
And finally, a very out-of-tune singing Santa (Apparently Brent has the very same one! I think we lived parallel childhoods):
Merry Christmas everyone! Feel free to share your own special Christmas anecdotes in the comments section!
Posted by lauren at 11:39 PM | Comments (2)
December 09, 2006
Christmas Baking / "We Don't Put Hiroshima on Christmas Cookies"
So we have an annual tradition with our good friends (Cathy, Mike, & their parents) that we make Christmas cookies together at some point in December. Tonight we all got together for pizza and then a lot of baking. Our dads (Mr. F and Davey) don't really participate in the cookie making so they watched TV the whole time. My mom and Mrs. F baked the cookies and Cathy, Mike, and I decorated.
Cathy and Mike:
Cathy, Mike, and Me:
My mom and Mrs. F:
The dads being really helpful:
Cathy's Christmas Cookies:
Pirate:
The back of a snowman:
Bikini snowman:
My Christmas Cookies:
The tray I got lazy with:
A sunburned beach-goer:
A germ:
A happy heart:
Mike decided to make "historical event" themed Christmas cookies. Just a warning, if you're easily offended by political incorrectness, click out of my blog now. If you're not really lame, keep reading:
The Black Plague:
The Civil War (Union vs. Confederates):
The Liberty Bell:
The Holocaust:
Hiroshima (the quote in the title was Mrs. F to Michael):
Global Warming:
Paul Revere shouting "One if by land, two if by sea!":
Gay Marriage:
JFK:
Wow, that was horrible... and delicious!
Snowman outline (we used spray-on frosting coloring):
More appropriate cookies:
Peanut butter cookies in the making:
Chloe stealing dishes from the dishwasher:
Chloe eating a peanut butter jar (yes, she's fat):
I hope everyone makes their own cookies this year because I'm not sharing! Just kidding... maybe.
Posted by lauren at 10:35 PM | Comments (3)
Naughty or Nice
The Christmas season is here and I'm finally done with all my work! Well, I guess that's not entirely true. I still have class on Monday (didn't realize that until yesterday...) and I have an exam on the 20th but the majority of my work is behind me now. A lot of my professors scheduled exams and final papers to be due this past week which was really annoying because I didn't have the exam review period to study, but at least it's over with. To celebrate, Brent took me out to see Blood Diamond and then for ice cream.
Naughty or Nice?
We chose Naughty:
Anyway, I got a little bit ahead of myself because I wanted to make sense of the title. Yesterday, Brent and I were at the mall doing some Christmas shopping and it snowed again! By "yesterday" I mean any day within the past 1 to 5 days, I've completely lost track at this point. Finals will do that to you. Here are a few random pictures.
Christmas decorations at the mall:
Moon behind the clouds that gave us our snow!
On Thursday night (I think) Brent and I had a final paper due for our political philosophy class that we're in together and it counted for 30% of our final grade. We ended up staying up until 6 something in the morning trying to get it done. The fact that I wrote the bulk of my paper between 4am and 6am leaves me less than confident about that 30% of my final grade.
Here's part of the reason why I didn't start until 4am...
I found this website online where you "elf yourself." It's completely ridiculous, but really entertaining. This isn't the actual reason why I didn't get started right away, the real reason was just that I was doing the research, but this definitely contributed to the problem...
Brent as an elf:
Me as an elf:
Getting back to my room at 6am when the sun was starting to come up behind the ugliest building on campus:
My fiber optic Christmas tree in front of the window:
Actual yesterday, when Brent and I went to the movies, it was freezing outside so we had to get all bundled up for the cold:
Brent discovered that his hat makes his hair stick straight up with static electricity... so yes, I watched him play with his hat for at least 20 minutes:
This looked familiar to me, so I did a little research and found Brent's look-alike:
Amazing, isn't it?
If you get a chance this weekend, go see Blood Diamond, it's a really good movie. I think the point of it is to get Americans to stop buying diamonds or something, but I think I can speak for every female in the audience that a more accurate reaction was "oooh...pretty."
Posted by lauren at 05:09 PM | Comments (3)
December 08, 2006
BanJo the Woodpile Possum
For those of you who read Brent's blog today, you might have already seen this story. It was brought about by a possum that Brent and I saw last night and Brent making a reference to BanJo Possum from Tiny Toons. I left a very lengthy comment on Brent's blog so bear with me if you've already read this. Anyway, here's why Brent and I are together:
At the very beginning of Freshman year, Brent was teaching me how to do laundry (weird, right?) and I think it was right before we started officially dating and I couldn't get this image out of my head of a possum wearing a straw hat and playing a banjo. It comes from some random episode of Tiny Toons or something from back in the 90s at some point and that image always just stuck in my head in reference to bayous (the possum was playing his banjo by the bayou). Out of nowhere, while thinking of this image, having never mentioned it to anyone other than maybe my mom who had no idea what I was talking about, I said to Brent "What's the first image that comes to mind when you think of bayous?" To which Brent immediately replied "A possum wearing a straw hat and playing the banjo." I was left speechless and knew I had found someone who would finally understand me...
Anyway, I found a video clip of BanJo the Woodpile Possum and thought I'd share it with all of you:
Posted by lauren at 12:18 AM | Comments (1)
December 07, 2006
Finals Week
This week, in fact, is not finals week, but you'd never know it based on the fact that all but one of my finals are happening as we speak (hence me procrastinating at 3:09 in the morning). I think my favorite final is probably the one I have in a few hours that was just announced a few days ago. Yes, it's always fair to reschedule the final exam for BEFORE the review period to make sure no one has any time to study.
In other news, Brent and I had a final exam paper due tonight at midnight which we turned in promptly at 11:56pm, we're that good.
I'm in a terrible mood and I hate college.
If you're lucky, maybe I'll make my next post a video of Brent and Me getting shot 350 feet into the air in a slingshot.
Until then, distract yourselves:
Posted by lauren at 03:08 AM | Comments (3)
December 05, 2006
Fuzzworks
Fuzzworks. It's a blog filled with pictures of adorable animals. Has there ever been a better idea?
Posted by lauren at 12:02 PM | Comments (0)
December 04, 2006
Crash
So Brent and I have been leading our usual pre-finals boring lives, studying and drinking coffee by the gallon. We're still reading that book for our Global Politics class and I hate it more and more every day. Anyway, here's a picture of Brent and me before we left to get more coffee (I take WAY too many useless pictures, I know):
Brent driving:
Flock of birds:
Brent's Yankee Candle air freshener:
What a fantastic product, I can't imagine anything more olifactorily pleasing.
Anyway, we went to Barnes & Noble where we got coffee and a delicious four cheese and tomato sandwich that we split:
Here's a random picture of the full moon:
I know I said it was a full moon yesterday too, but I think I was wrong.
On the way home from Barnes & Noble, Brent and I got to a red light right before turning into our college. There was a car behind us and the man driving was honking frantically because Brent chose not to drive through the red light and make a left turn into oncoming traffic. Once the green arrow came on, Brent and I took our left, drove to the parking lot (on our left), turned the left blinker on to turn into the parking lot, slowed down, and got side-swiped as we were turning into the lot by the crazy car behind us that had had been tailgaiting all the way. It gets WAY more annoying and horrible, but Brent has the exclusive on his blog, so check it out ASAP. If it's not up yet, it's because he actually hasn't written it as of right now, but is about to.
The accident scene:
Yeah, so I'm not going to get into it but check out Brent's blog. To make the evening a little bit better, though, it snowed! I finally got the snow I've been waiting for and no matter how short-lived our snowstorm was, it was beautiful and perfect:
And lastly, I was really entertained by the car in front of Brent and me with the license plate: 666 ESQ which is hilarious for obvious reasons. We were driving so the picture is really really blurry, but I managed to make it legible by kicking up the contrast on Photoshop:
Ok, that's all. Goodnight everyone and Happy First Snow Connecticut!
Posted by lauren at 10:34 PM | Comments (1)
'Tis the Season...
... to be jolly! Or to avoid studying for finals in any way possible. Brent's and my latest distraction tactic is reading Christopher Moore's The Stupidest Angel. It's an absolutely hilarious Christmas story and I definitely recommend getting it to get you into the holiday season. Anyway, Brent and I are reading it together so here's Brent reading out loud:
He probably didn't think I'd be putting these pictures of him up in his elf hat...
Or this picture of him in his "retiree" outfit (or his squash outfit, as he calls it):
Today, Brent and I spent a really long time at Starbucks drinking coffee and doing a lot of reading for a final paper for our Global Politics class. We're reading My Own Country which has absolutely nothing to do with the course, so we're really happy our professor is having us compare it to two other books from class... fantastic.
Anyway, while at Starbucks, Brent and I saw the most adorable little dog wearing Christmas reindeer antlers:
I also snapped a couple shots of some Christmas decorations in West Hartford:
I said some, not a lot. Here's a picture of the church I really like that you can see through the alley across from Starbucks:
Who knew Starbucks would be a hang-out spot for old biker dudes?
I agree with this couple's decision not to attempt attaching reindeer antlers to these gigantic dogs:
Clouds and the full moon:
The beginning of the sunset:
Trinity's chapel and Jarvis dorm (as seen from the highway):
The Capitol building (a bunch of these pictures are drive-bys--Brent was driving, don't worry--so please excuse the blurriness):
More cool clouds and early sunset pictures:
Brent and I stopped at Toys R Us to play... I mean to look for a Christmas gift for my nephew Brady. I can't tell you what it is because he might be reading! Just kidding... he's 1, but I'm still not telling.
Before heading back towards school, Brent and I stopped by Barnes & Noble to pick up some delicious hot chocolate:
Later, we saw this cool red tree:
A halo around the moon:
And once again, the capitol building:
We might have our first snow tomorrow and I'm very excited, so I'm going to get to sleep and hope for snow in the morning!
Posted by lauren at 01:49 AM | Comments (3)
December 01, 2006
Happy December!
Where's the snow? Today was pretty disgusting, we had lots of rain and wind. Actually, apparently we had a tornado watch which was pretty exciting. Anyway, Brent and I went to Starbucks this afternoon and read for a little while. I know, we're huge losers for reading on a Friday, but apparently ALL our professors have decided to give us finals and essays this coming week rather than during the exam period. What a wonderful weekend this will be...
Starbucks:
The most delicious molasses cookie ever:
Poinsettia:
Every time I look at this picture I think Brent has one finger too many... but I guess not:
Believe it or not, Brent has never had one of those chocolate-behind-the-door advent calendars! I fixed the problem today with a $1.99 CVS chocolate-behind-the-door advent calendar as a Happy December present for Brent:
Happy December everyone! Let's all hope for some snow soon!
Posted by lauren at 11:21 PM | Comments (4)
Brent's New Blog
Brent made a new blog! His old blog, Swashbuckling Ruffian, which consisted of one or two entries with not a whole lot of content other than some horribly unflattering pictures of me, is gone. His new blog is self-described as "reflections and ramblings and rants and reviews of things and stuff and some pictures and stories about life and not about life, but about things like werewolves and secret agents and maybe some secret agents who are werewolves." Sounds like a good time to me.
With no further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I proudly present..... (drumroll)...... yes, considerably! I strongly urge you to check it out immediately and link it everywhere.
For those of you who don't follow Bond films as closely as some people (Brent) I think the title is some sort of Bond quote, who knows. Anyway, go! Now!
Posted by lauren at 10:52 PM | Comments (0)