It's almost 2010! I'm not a big new years resolution type. But, in 2008 my brother and I attempted an art challenge resolution that we're going to revive this year in hopes that we stick with it more than 3 months. The details aren't hashed out yet. In 2008, the basic plan was one art theme each month (we took turns choosing a theme) and one completed piece was due at the end of the month, style, materials, and such were all left up to us to determine. Both of us have always secretly dreamed of being very prolific (is saying 'very' and 'prolific' next to each other redundant? idk), but sadly we're just not. We are, however, great at projects people ask us to do: paintings; tattoos; logos; posters; Halloween costumes. Projects with a few parameters, a deadline, a starting concept. We're also good at starting projects without finishing them and looking at someone else's work and saying, "well I would have done that completely different, and maybe it would have actually turned out."

So with those things in mind, I'll be coming up with the 2010 brother/sister art challenge that should cater a little bit better towards what we already do well. Maybe we could start projects for each other to improve on and finish, or have art assignments with more guides for us to work off of and deadlines for finishing that the 2008 plan lacked. I've got two more days left until the New Year, so I'll come up with a more concrete idea by then, hopefully.

On another note, I learned that I can successfully hide turkey left-overs in mac-n-cheese and the toddler loves it! Also, when napping on the couch during yet another viewing of Finding Nemo, there is a risk of getting sippy cup milk dumped on your head.

Derby news: The next two home Bouts will be on March 20th and May 1st. I really really need to try and get on the roster for one of them. And I better see my friends and family there to see me obliterate some skinny bitches at my first bout. I don't know if I'll be more nervous about it if I knew who was watching me though, but there isn't room for trepidation in derby.

I've been excitedly looking at taking one course this next semester at the college I work at. I filled out my non-degree seeking application today (since it'd just be easier for the one class), and went to talk to a business office buddy to find out how much I'd have to fork over for it, and was appalled. For one course? I'm not going to get in the details, but I'm not eligible for student loans with one course. I'm going to get talk to the financial aid office to get the exact amount, and as an employee there are some perks, so I'm not giving up all hope. I need the husband to get a job like every other Dad I know, that's at home everyday so I can actually devote time to going back to school full time. I can't even pick a program I'd want to work towards anyhow. The accelerated degree night program doesn't offer anything I'm remotely interested in, so that's disheartening too.

My boss is taking me out to lunch today for Christmas. It'll be nice, I haven't been out to eat without a 2-year-old in tow for weeks, and even at that, it was McDonalds. As a Mom of a toddler I thoroughly appreciate the McDonalds atmosphere. Here's why: If the baby decides to throw a big fit, chuck his McNuggets at the people across the room or blow milk out his nose onto the cashier, who really cares? If you thought that you were going to have a peaceful, quiet, enjoyable dinner - YOU SHOULD HAVE GONE SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN MCDONALDS. Q hasn't thrown any giant public tantrums yet (and I know it's coming), but he's into protesting because it's fun to put up a stink and piss off your Mom.

I'm extremely proud of one of my best friends, Erica. With a full course load at nursing school working on her RN, 3 kids (one of which just turned 1) and a night job as a Nurse's Assistant (glorified ass-wiper) at the local hospital, and she managed to pull of a 4.0 semester. AWEsome, simply awesome. She needs a beer!

As the semester is ending today here on campus and starting next month I'm eligible for reimbursement help due to my employment status, I've decided to start one course in January here at CSS. I'm about to head to the registrar's office to start the process. One good thing to help motivate me is the assistant across the hall from my office, we're going to do the course together. We've been busy debating which class to take, and since my heart is set on science, maybe biology, I hope she agrees. We'll do a morning course so that I'll have no trouble with daycare. Exciting!

I'm excited for this weekend, so amped that I'm not sleepy yet, and I should be. The Bob-o-nator is coming up to visit and the Bout is on Saturday!!! Mississippi Valley Mayhem is coming to roller derby my Harbor City Roller Dames. I'm not skating, but I'll be there shouting my ass off for the girls. I think maybe this spring I'll be bout ready? Who knows. Even just skating my ass off in practice has been awesome. I need to get some skates!

I've got this slow burn blister coming in on my right foot from last night's practice. I don't know what it was, a combo of the killer fishnets I was wearing or the sole of the loaner rink skates was messed up. But it'll be nasty and I'll make sure to show it off whenever I can. lol.

Our jerseys with the team logo I created will be ready for Saturday night, and I'm excited to see how they turned out. And I'll get to wear mine, Bluntcakes - 420. Yes, I went with 420 as my number, hehe. And why not?

Ben-jam-in: I finished WWZ. I read it really slow so that I didn't waste it, because I think I'm in love with that book and I wished there was a second one. I don't know about the ending section. The reflection of 'how I made it through with whatever shreds of a healthly pschological outlook remaining' wasn't really my favorite part. But, I'll go tell it to the whales...

Ooh, I purchased something insanely cute from etsy tonight. The cute factor of a life sized Hello Kitty hair bow barrette might be over the top for my cuteness level, but I'm going to rock it anyhow.

Apparently we're having turkey for thanksgiving thank's to Clay's boss. I need to pick it up tomorrow. My surprise that they're doing anything for their drivers will most likely be squashed when I see how small the turkey is, but I can keep my hopes up.

I went to the DMV today to renew the Aveo plates. It was like an alternate universe in there. I was the only customer and the DMV chick said I could come right to the counter and didn't have to grab a stupid card to fill out, she did it all for me. 2 minutes later I had my new sticker and was off to work. It was like Bizarro-DMV. Speaking of Clay, I need to figure out a Christmas present for him. We're just doing small gifts for eachother this year. And then maybe we'll buy something bigger to share. He suggested a microwave (ours is like 10 years old now and makes sounds like Gremlins having a party) or a snowblower. Both sound so responsible and lame, plus our Gremlin microwave still works, it just sounds like crap. I don't really see the problem.

How do you like THEM apples? Is that how that saying goes? I think I got it wrong, but you know what I mean. Whipped this baby up for the bout in a couple weeks against the Mississippi Valley Mayhem league that's coming up on the 19th!

I got a call on Tuesday, it was Red Malicious, she was asking if I could whip something up by Thursday because who knows what happened to the dude who said he would design posters...I need me some photoshop and next time I'll just demand to know what needs to be on them to get it done myself. :)

I'm off to bed early tonight, before midnight, in hopes I'm not dragging my feet tomorrow.

Last night's practice went well although it seemed a little relaxed, but that was probably because our main practice leader Red was off somewhere for the night. I wasn't sweating like a dog (wait, dogs don't sweat) until a couple scrimages into the evening! Good nights I'm a mess even by the time we get through warm up and stretches!

Oh Buspirone, my new friend...

This is pure blather; just to fore-warn you.

Things you didn't know:
Chopsticks the cat has a shark tooth shaped white spot of fur on his nose. Awesome cat, awesome.
I not only check my straws before I drink out of them to check for bugs, but will rinse brand new straws out in case there WERE bugs and they left bug germs or bug poo.
Quincy tonight was an angel getting to bed. We read The Night Before Christmas because he loves to point out Santa on every page. Then I tucked him in and laid down by his bed and sang him some Christmas songs. Between some lines he would say, "Mama kissy" so that I'd take a time out to give him a kiss and then continue. How fucking sweet is that?
I have the world's best friends. Namely, Rodney, Bob, Jason, my brother Tyler and yes, even Chumpy-Chump Erica. I live a spoiled life.
I'm excited for the Thanks-Christmas-Vaca in the Dells with my Mom, siblings, their families and mine in December. I don't give a crap how fat my gut looks in my swimsuit, I'm going to let it all hang out to party down with them at the waterpark.

In derby news:
Sunday night's practice was BRUTAL, I thought I might seriously have a heart attack. We did a half hour practice bout. 7 girls on a team, 4 on the track for the up to 2 minute each bout with a 30 second break between rounds. So that meant we did about 2 bouts and took one off for a break. Plus, we had to rotate so everyone eventually played all positions. I did jammer twice. Let's face it, I'm not even close to being a jammer. I'm not super fast yet, I fell three times in one round, but the cheers when you work your ass to get up as fast as possible to catch up were worth it. I'm a pack skater. When the jammer goes through and I give her a hefty push to send her flying ahead that's awesome. Skating next to someone to team up to build a good wall is tits. But I have a hard time remembering all I need to keep in mind, plus monitor what the rest of my team was doing, and then throw in the other team! AND we were doing positional blocking only, no real rough stuff as there were a handful of newbie girls in the mix. I kept cutting the track and Jeffy was yelling at me for it, but jeez, I've got enough on my plate to worry about the damn line. I'm looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow night! Just try and take me out!

The birthday:
Had an awesome time. Took the weekend off from Mommy duties and lounged in the cities, ate awesome food, I didn't stick with dieting, but just made sure not to over-eat. Rodney made carrot cake cupcakes just for me with made-from-scratch frosting. Saturday evening when I'd had enough wine to drown a large raccoon I ate one in two bites. Jason totally made fun at me that he's never seen my mouth open that wide. Did some shopping, had a personal chauffeur, Bob, to the MoA, to hit up Torrid to find a trashy derby skirt, and got the perfect 'boutfit'. Even found some decent thrift stores, hung out at Toys R Us and goofed off. Played WoW and partied with some awesome people.

I have to go to bed!

This is the new Harbor City Roller Dames logo that I did the redesign on. Can't wait to see how it looks on the new jerseys!

Below is the logo I've been playing with for GiGi SpoT.

My derby logo? Needs a little work with the lettering, and maybe the cupcake needs some evil eyebrows, he's not evil enough.

I just spit out this tree shape last night.

I <3 new cray pas and crisp beautiful flair felt tipped pens.

Hello November!

Welcome to my favorite month! I think the only thing I don't like about November is that the heating bill starts to crank up. I found that double rainbow while looking out my kitchen window doing dishes. It stayed for about 10 minutes and was gone.

Halloween weekend was nice. Quincy thoroughly enjoyed himself and I was amazed how quickly he caught on to the concept of trick or treating. We went to all the houses that were handing out candy on both sides of the street of our block. After two houses he was knocking on the doors himself and holding his orange pumpkin bucket out. Although he often tried to give candy back to people and wanted into their houses, he did great. A couple times he dropped the bucket and we had to stop and wait for him to pick all the candy up. My Dad hung out on Halloween and we ordered VIP pizza, watched Land of the Lost and I whipped up some homemade caramel corn that was fantastic! We couldn't stop eating it! It was really that good.

I forgot to take pictures of Quincy in his costume, but he'll be dressing up one more time for 'Grandma Airplane' this week, so I'll get another chance.

Demolition was on the agenda yesterday. The wall and ceiling in Q's closet that had the roof leak needed to be torn out. Gross! I swear the old insulation looked like bloated mummies. Two layers of lath board and plaster later we hit the outside wall. The wood under the slanted ceiling needs to be replaced from the outside next weekend when the roofers come. You could seriously punch a hole with your fist right out onto the roof it's that rotten in that spot. Oh god I miss renting sometimes, but watching the roofers next weekend is going to be fun!