The Holiday Season.

That's right, I said it. I know you didn't want me too but I did it any way. But it's true it is! And this is how I know how...

Outside my own front door the town of Ipswich (which has connections to Santa Claus himself) hung these beautiful holiday signs. And if I were Martha Stewart you would also see this outside my front door:

It would probably have a red ribbon though... Happy Holidays!

The Backstreet Boys.

OhMG! My heart is beating so fast! Call me a freak but the Backstreet Boys are singing on Oprah. AAaaaanndd I'm flipping out. I wish I still had proof of my pre-teen love - a mass collection of TeenBeat magazine and collages hanging in my locker.


Brian Littrell was the first person I ever had feelings for. Closely followed by Andrew Keegan from 7th Heaven and 10 Things I Hate About You. And who didn't love JTT?! Okay I wasn't that crazy, I promise. Plus you can't make fun - we all had teenage celebrity crushes right? Right?! Who was yours?

PS - Isn't he dreamy!?

The Good Stuff

Doesn't the sun shine just a little brighter on some days than others? It's not that nothing could go wrong, but rather that the good things just seem a little better. So here's the good stuff:

When I was working at my previous job, I drove to infinity and beyond. Okay, maybe not infinity but at least the "north shore" and beyond the North Shore being from Salisbury to Beverly to Westford. I seriously filled my gas tank once every 5 to 6 days. Ready for the good news? The last time that I fill my tank was Wednesday October 20th. 12 days later I still have a half a tank left. This is glorious! I do not live at the gas station anymore.

While Big was removing a tree stand used for hunting from the woods, a branch attacked his eye and scratched his cornea. This is not the good news. In fact this story doesn't contain any good news besides for the fact that the eye is healing quite nicely. Anyway, the scratched cornea meant that I got to play nurse all weekend. It made me feel really good to take care of my hubby :) Vomit if you want but I loved the feeling of looking after him and making sure that he had everything he needed to feel better as fast as possible.

There is one thing better than a Mounds bar which is an Almond Joy. Just add an almond and it changes the entire flavor. Not to mention it has the word joy in its name. Thank goodness for bingeing on leftover Halloween candy.

A clean living room is maybe the best feeling ever. (Okay, second to bingeing on Almond Joy in a clean living room). I love Big so much that he shall have a spotless living room by the time he gets home from his rehearsal. I would say that I am lazy 90% of the time but I simply thrive for that 10% where I want to nothing but clean clean clean.

I figured it out, this is the good stuff: Bingeing on almond joys and drinking white zinfandel in a clean living room while watching The Real Housewives. Thank you blog, I figured out the key to happiness.

The @#$%#.

Okay - ready for this? I hope so because I'm about to vent hardcore. That is right - did say hardcore. I used to work for a company that offered like the crappiest healthcare plan ever, okay it's not that it was crappy it's just that you had to pay for like 90% of it by yourself. So Big & I didn't do that. We opted for the cheaper Commonwealth Choice plan. And while it sucked really badly paying out of pocket, it was somewhat better saving money. Anyway I have a new job! I'm a public school employee with BlueCross/BlueShield health insurance. YAY! But that also meant that I had to cancel our old insurance this afternoon. So I called and sat on hold for maybe 30 minutes and then I got a hold of Omar. I do not lie, and he is certainly not important enough for an alias. His name was Omar. I gave Omar my information and he was like "Uhhhh are you calling for Commonwealth Choice or Commonwealth Care?"

Okay Omar I don't know the difference! Okay no don't say that... oh there it is! My bill says Commonwealth Choice. "I'm calling for Commonwealth Choice" I reply.

"Well you called Commonwealth Care"

No I F-ing did not Omar! I called 1-877-MA-ENROLL. "Oh, than could you connect me to the right department?"

"Uh yeah... you need to talk to Commonwealth Care?"

Uuuuuhhhh...... yeah!??!?! "Yes, I do"

"Okay Please hold"

Okay Omar! Not like I have a choice! Sooooo 10 minutes later a nice little woman gets on the phone. She doesn't have a name, but she asks me like 4 times for my pin number. So I gave her my account number since I didn't have a pin number. But that didn't work so she responds:

"Are you calling for a conference call?"

Nooooo... how many people do I have to talk to cancel this freaking thing?! I mean:
"No. Look I've been on the phone for 45 minutes now just trying to cancel my health care subscription so if you can't help me than please connect me to the right person to talk too."

"I'm sorry ma'am. I can't help you, I am a Verizon representative."

What the hell Omar! You connected me to Verizon when I'm trying to cancel my health insurance. If I felt like being annoyed, frustrated and spending my afternoon on hold, I could have called Verizon myself.

That's all. I'm not over it yet.... in fact this is making me more angry. Trivia night... maybe I'll take it out there...

The Revision.

Pardon me. I was slightly intoxicated last post and this is what it should really look like.

When you google image kikikins, this is what you get:



But this is what kikikins means to me:

The Kikikins.

When you google image kikikins, this is what you get:



But this is what kikikins means to me:

The Apple and Cranberry Crisp.

Look what I just made!!!

Apple & Cranberry Crisp! I haven't tried it yet, but doesn't it just look delectable!? It's super easy, check out the recipe here. Although if you try it yourself, the recipe is in two pieces so make sure you click the link for "crisp topping" under the ingredients.

As a side note, I was just told that it smells like God in my apartment. Don't you want to try it now?