After that downer...

Okay, here's something a little more upbeat... check out my holiday photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/suelolabamba/
I'm feeling rather crappy today as I have had the same sore throat for 5 days. I had no voice yesterday so I'm not sure if it's laryngitis or something more. Who knows. I guess it's time to find a doctor in this city. Some things I've been putting off...
a) finding doctors
b) registering to vote (I'll do that quickly!)
c) switching over all auto tags & licenses
I guess you can't do it all at once now can you? Most importantly I found a vet that I like which was most important...and somewhere to clip Radar's nails. We take a monthly trip to the Bark Bark Club to get his "nails did".

A Jolly Old Elf... yeah right

I have to say that the holiday made me the jolly old elf... at least for a few days.
I had a wonderful time with my sister and her family. It was a nice getaway from my crazy life in Chi-town.
What crazy life you might say??? Well, as the months are rolling around I'm finding that I'm trying to settle into this move and what it's meant to me. I think the "new" has worn off and now trying to find myself has been a little harder than I thought....I guess you could say I'm still lost.
As I'm going through this process one thing I'm realizing is who my tried and true friends are and I thank you again for being there.
Life is funny...you think you have all the answers to make things good & happy, then you move on them and BAM! Slap in da face. Fast forward to present times, not quite as happy as I'd planned to be. Quite low I might add... but then sometimes being really low is quite an eye-opening experience.
Low has lots of misery, low has lots of tears, low has no appetite, low doesn't want to cook, low has the shakes, low has little energy and low actually gets lots of sleep.
You come across people in life that are/have experienced "low" but you don't really understand it unless you're there... Just a news bulletin, low exists and low is real and I didn't understand it until I was there... I now get it & I don't wish it upon anyone I know.... low sucks....
Okay enough about low & his friends, I'm beginning to finally start on the uphill swing from low...it's just taken many weeks to get here.
I have good feelings about the new year coming upon us. I have great plans for both New Year's Eve AND New Year's Day and I'm psyched about both... and speaking of psyched, Cassidy & I went downtown today & stumbled upon a psychic... I got my palm read... Oh baby, 2008 is going to be a rockin' year!!!!!!

You know Dasher, and Dancer, and Prancer....

Here it is Christmas Eve. I'm in Michigan with my sister and her family which is a far cry from how I spent Thanksgiving!
The drive was 5 hours of no weather which was perfect. I arrived on Friday & leave on Wednesday morning. 5 days away from normalcy has been a nice break.
Tonight we went to Renee's sisters house for Christmas Eve dinner. I can't remember the last time I saw a bunch of little kids (if ever) opening gifts. There were 4 boys ages (I'm guessing) 4-6 with serious short attention span!
As one gift was opened, someone would yell, "oh cool, look mom what I got!". It would take about 3.5 seconds before the next gift was noticed and ripped into, leaving mom holding PILES of unwrapped gifts. The entire process was sweet, sweet chaos & made me realize that as commercialized as this holiday is, the gift giving part of it really is about the kids... and I loved watching every second of it.
Gotta run now...Santa will be arriving soon.....nighty night.

Moisturizer anyone??

I can name at least a dozen girlfriends who thought that Eddie Van Halen was hot back in the 80's....far more than David Lee Roth.

So weren't we all sad when Eddie married Valerie Bertenelli? ...and did we wonder why they eventually got divorced some double-digit years later?

This obsession of mine sparked from a Yahoo story last week about Eddie's house getting flooded. The article wasn't so interesting but wow.... the photographic evidence was. This isn't the pic that was posted but one that's even better....dearest Lord I hope and pray my rum & cokes never make me end up looking like either one of these fine men...or women...or skeletons...or skeletons knocking on deaths door....jeez.

I hate to say it but it's making me want to go to the reunion tour...before rigamortis sets in..

Can't keep 'em down

So we had about 3-6 inches of snow last night but that didn't keep anyone away from the party!
Only 2 people who RSVP'd didn't come...one I have no clue about and the other is without car & didn't want to walk in the downfall.
At my last party everyone kind of hit all at once. Last night the earlier part of the evening held about 6 people, but by midnight there were 12! Nice!
Lots of good food & booze to be had....and to be had leftover. Wow, I have TONS of beer & liquor leftover again...so if anyone is interested in stopping by for a cocktail...
As usual, Radar was the hit of the party...those who've met him before still love him and those who met him for the first time fell in love with him....he is by far, the perfect party accessory :)
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!! XOXOXOXOXOXXOOXO!

Rock the house

So my big Christmas party is tomorrow night. I should be cleaning my ass off tonight but my nose is plugged again & I've decided to sit here and surf and blog instead.
I did hit the booze store on the way home so that's off of my list for tomorrow.
My parents sent a box o' gifts for myself and Radar and we can't wait to dig in. They also sent us each our stockings....that made me quite sad as I enjoy getting the stockings at their house. Christmas is going to be very weird this year.
I think all of my "firsts" are weird this year. Thanksgiving was a travelling bust so I spent it alone, and Christmas is not as jolly as I was hoping it would be. I'm trying to adapt to everything as best I can but I guess since the "new" is wearing off and my honeymoon is ending, reality is setting in and kicking my ass a bit.
It's funny, right now everyone I speak to asks me, "how much snow do you have now??". It's only snowed once and a lot of it has melted. It's supposed to snow again this weekend so we'll get prepared. At least we're not on the east coast where they're buried alive....yet that is....
As the holiday is closing in fast I want to say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my friends and family. I know a few of you are celebrating this weekend and over the next week so enjoy the season, remember what it's really about (you know, the commercialism!), and cherish those who are closest to you.
Happy Holidays from Suelo & Radar :) xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Can it get any better than this?

Okay, so I finally decided to trek to the basement & get the Christmas stuff out. I have found that while decorating your Christmas tree alone is pretty depressing, but there's nothing that tops it off like listening to the random holiday playlist on your Ipod and hearing Robert Goulet singing Christmas carols. Now you may wonder, "why the hell do you have that on your Ipod?". Well it was purchased some years ago for the kitch factor & it's always one that has made me laugh & gag at the same time... Today I realized how damn depressing his voice really is. Here is some holiday cheer... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66R0uy7grY0
Wow, the holiday season is hitting an all time low...I think I'll go cheer myself up with a Cape Cod....it's red and holiday festive right????

I can tell the difference

When you live in Texas, you get used to the heat. You can tell a distinct difference between 105 and 95. 95 feels cool after it's been 105 for a while.

I used to think that the 40's was fairly cold. Now I think differently...

Today I went to Christkindlmarket...a German holiday festival in Daley Plaza. Giant tree, manger (which desperately needed to get the snow off of baby Jesus), lots of German crafts & wares, and tons of German food...

Now this whole scene was outdoors. The high today was 24. Not that that was so cold, but I now know for sure, I've GOT to get heavier gloves and thicker socks. My hands and feet were freezing. I'm usually not a weather puss but after a few hours I was DONE....Christine looked at her twin 8 yr. olds & said, "Kristen is from a much warmer state, lets wrap it up so we can find somewhere to go sit inside"...two 8 years olds put me to shame...they only had a leg up on me because they were wearing snow pants....

I got my boots, now Radar on the other paw...

...holy moley...
Okay so we got about 6" of snow last night. Awesome. I took the train to work because my car was in the shop & bundled up enough for the walk in...coming home was a bit colder. To say the least...
I've been surfing the web for dog boots. I guess I didn't realize how fast I'd need them. Poor little dog....when I took him for his walk tonight, I didn't realize how quickly his little paws would get cold. It took all of about 5 minutes for him to start limping...I feel like the most horrible mom. Plus, everywhere he would do "number 2" is covered with 2 feet of snow! There's no bare grass anywhere! So as it stands now, he's not interested so he's inside again for the night...I guess we'll try again in the morning. Right now we have to have a damp washcloth ready when we come in to wipe the salt off of his paws...if you didn't know, Radar H-A-T-E-S having his paws touched. I'm hoping to leave work early enough tomorrow so I can go to the pet store around the corner with him so he can try on some Muttluks boots....he'll be more stylin' than me...but then again what's new?
...it's going to be a low temp of 9 degrees tonight....now THAT would be new to me.

Sass, snow boots & falling ice

Well I finally bought a cheap pair of boots...just in time to use them!

We had a small "storm" if you will...which was worse in the burbs than in the city.

I went to the Crate party last night and in order to do the whole, driving, parking hustle, Christine & I decided to take public transport. So we had to walk in our sassy skirts to the El, then walk a country mile when we got off of the El.

First of all, my thigh high socks saved me. That layered with hose made an amazingly warm, yet sexy combination. Lucky no one was to see....

My cheap little boots worked nicely, and looked great as we entered and exited the party. Funny how we definitely weren't the only one's to check shoes along with our coats at the coat check.

Party was okay...ran into a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while. The band was B-A-D. Quite the huge production but very party predictable.... It ain't a party unless someone plays "Shout". Of course a little Morris Day and The Time didn't' hurt either.

The food was everywhere. Didn't eat much but then I wasn't too interested in the tator tot bar. Christine on the other hand....

Afterwards a few of us went to a bar around the corner until the wee hours. The drinking laws here are quite different. The time you can serve until depends on what liquor license you have. Some bars serve until 2, some until 3, etc...

All I know is that I went to bed at 3:40 this morning & woke up stupid early this morning with a headache that 2 cups of coffee cured.

Good times, good times.