a whole new respect for justin timberlake

pretty damn funny.

more photos, more fun!

our dog is comfortable in the backseat of our car. no, we didn't take her to ND with us, but seeing how well she did on the way home from the dogsitter's place, we could have.

this is joe. i've known joe for many a year. and i don't know why i'm smiling so hard it looks as though my skin may break.

oh derek! derek smith! why must you and the wife live so far?

my mother knits socks with this, or so she says. i think it looks like voodoo.

there was all sorts of manly cigar smoking during our evening at the lucky strike lounge.
see? manliness all over the place.

this is what the kiddo did while all that manly smoking happened... relaxed at grandma's house.

this is a bell that came with a bunco game. a game that, if you play with a mere few people and not a room full of tables with many games going, is not exciting.

see?

THIS RULES

start 'em young!

photo update!

i miss the stacey. get your ass to minneapolis, stacey!

me and my pa. (i'm the one on the right with the beady eyes.)


me and the husband. and yes, everywhere we go, there is an angel above us.

ahh, christmas.

where the hell was i???

i just found out that peter boyle died. on the damn 12th. where was i when this happened? how was this not brought to my attention sooner???
so sad.

shouldn't i be sleeping in?

5 a.m. is a rough time to wake up. i didn't do it on purpose. genetically i'm predisposed to waking up and sitting in a chair, drinking coffee and doing crossword puzzles. but i'm a modern gal, so i'm in a rocking chair, drinking soda and blogging (but only b/c my puzzle book is in the car and i'll be DAMNED if i'm going outside at this hour).

left minneapolis around 6:45 yesterday morning. made it to bismarck in good time and am enjoying the fact that between the hours of 8 and 4:30, i'm being paid to be off from work. paid vacation is the BEST. so no, i'm not being paid to blog right now, however when i'm very very tired at 8:30 a.m. because my internal alarm clock keeps going off before 6 a.m., i'll be earning my usual wages.

today brings with it a drive from bismarck to minot with a possibility of a stop at the mall to pick up those little things that we either forgot or didn't have time to wash before leaving town (socks, i think).

maybe i'll try to sleep now. damn it. i need to sleep.

damn it.

yay! yay! yay! yay! *thwack*

it's friday for me! it's friday for me! tomorrow begins a SIX DAY WEEKEND!!!!! SIX DAYS! Three of which are PAID! woot! and in the event i don't have a chance to log in before the extravaganza begins, HAPPY HOLIDAYS! (that's right, my bill o' reilly patented war on christmas begins NOW!)

i slept how long???

after work today i was tired. really tired. more tired than i've been after a work day in a long time. so i thought i'd take a mid-afternoon nap around 5 p.m. the alarm kept going off, the phone kept ringing, but i thought "no, it's not THAT late."

10 p.m. happens, and i'm still asleep. holy crap. my elaborate plan of "no laundry left behind" won't happen tonight. all that i've accomplished is to eat two cheese sandwiches. that's it. and it was cheese that comes wrapped individually in plastic, so it's not even like fancy, good cheese.

now i worry: will i be able to sleep at all tonight, when i actually NEED to sleep? will i have to find a bottle of nyquil and a straw to get my before work slumber? crap.

wait. i can ALWAYS sleep. it's what i do.

this friday will kick off what i like to think of as "operation a whole lotta driving." friday=bismarck (six hours from here). saturday through wednesday=minot (two more hours from here). a big highlight of my christmas in ND will include a viewing of Black Christmas on christmas day! hurrah!

xmas shopping is done. i think. yeah, i'm almost 90% certain that all the gifts have been purchased. *pausing to think* yeah. so that's something.

i've been faithfully taking my happy lil' thyroid pill -- ahh, one more medication i will enjoy for the REST OF MY LIFE. side effects thus far include decreased appetite, noticably higher energy level (a metabolism emerges!)... so far, the BEST DIET EVER. (it's right up there with the plague and mono.)

crap. need to sleep in order to make my morning bus ride. is tequila considered a sleep aid? let's see, and i'll let you know.

yay, trent!

hurrah!

double hurrah!

my first thyroid condition, from MATTELL!

to further prove how lazy i really am, my thyroid has joined the ranks and it’s now become necessary for me to take a pill for it every day. luckily it was discovered before i developed a creepy goiter or anything like that, and it’s explaining why i’ve been putting weight back on after kicking such weight loss ass this past year. so i’ve already noticed that my appetite has decreased and i’ve experience a (somewhat frightening) surge in energy. so much energy that i actually CONSIDERED jogging. (instead i scrubbed my bathtub. more strenuous, actually.)
the holidays are nearing (all of them, as i’m not waging a war on christmas or anything) and we’re preparing for our trek back to north dakota. just the thought of minot makes me want to develop a goiter. (i don’t really know what that means, but i wrote it anyhow.) but days off from work are much welcome and i’m excited to sleep. a lot. seriously. unless, of course, my nearly-flatlined metabolism continues it’s surge, in which case i’ll probably be busy hauling things to expel some of this energy.

 

coffee and arthritis

nothing else. just that. coffee and arthritis. trying to quit my habit of coca-cola (it’s bad to say i have a coke habit... social services is funny about that) and replace it with $1 a day w/free refills coffee. to hell with my stomach’s health, i’m drinking too much soda and weight is piling on like... like... something that piles on.

arthritis. it’s cold out, therefore my right ring finger and pinkie are afflicted. it hurts. maybe coffee will help! is there anything coffee can’t help? (besides a bleeding ulcer?)

 

today's song on repeat

“teardrop” by massive attack.

listen to it and you’ll understand. (or, you can just watch the opening to “house” repeatedly as well.)

 

"you've got some serious ass post-mortem hair growth controlling problems"

a step toward better health or a nervous breakdown?

i don’t think i’ve had an actual physical at a doctor’s office for years. seriously. i am very on schedule with my other appointments, but never being on a team meant never having the full-on physical.

 

well today i’m having a physical. the larson girls are learning that there really is no lifeguard at the gene pool, which means, among other things, it’s time to pay attention to our cholesterol, as my sister’s all have high cholesterol. and i’m sure i do as well. truth be told, i’m horrified to go to the doctor today. i have a mole that needs looking at. i have questionable gland issues (is it a gland on my neck? a lump? an implant from aliens?).

 

and what if the mole is just a mole? i’ll feel better knowing this. however if the mole is not just a mole,  i will, in my “ignorance is bliss” way, wish to many gods to have a  rewind button on my day.

is it better to know the miserable, horrible parts of life? or is it better to float along, hoping every single day that the puffy little cloud on which i float never falls?

milan kundera touches on this idea in the first few chapters of “unbearable lightness of being.” not regarding moles, of course, but he offers up the idea of meaning (without judging one or the other as better) --- is it better to be untouched by pain and misery while being essentially a shell of a person, or to experience being to the fullest, even if it means feeling that misery, that horror, that sadness.

so today i shall step into the realm of being. it’s might just be a mole on my leg. it might not. i guess knowing and feeling that weight is better than the alternative of...well, my leg mysteriously rotting off.