Like I need a reason to paint my face

Way to go Huskers. Nebraska routed Arizona in the first Holiday Bowl shut out.

Well worth painting my face for.

I'm here

Anybody else feeling the magic?

After seeing the Alice in Wonderland trailer, my sister showed me this video:

Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear from Gabe Askew on Vimeo.

This video reminds me of a Thomas Demand exhibit I saw at the Museum of Modern Art in New York a few years ago. I remember having the same feeling then as I do watching this video: I have got to make something.

Anybody else itching?

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I can't be happier when mine starts with my sister and my daughter and an "A Christmas Story" marathon:

My Secret Santa adventures

Not only do I enjoy having a Secret Santa, I LOVE being one. The only downside this year was I had so little time and my execution wasn't as clear as I'd preferred. The theme I did for my recipient was "Believe". He is a big Angels fan so I put up red and silver tinsel as well as pictures of key players and the manager advising him to believe in Secret Santa. Unfortunately my big decoration became sort of this hot mess of a collage of giant peppermint candy and Japanese cartoons. One of my friends said it reminded her of the prop in "Saw":

Day 1

The second day I fulfilled my recipient's wish for Stephen King books ("The Shining" and "Different Seasons" paperbacks) with a bonus steak and hash brown breakfast burrito from Del Taco.

Day 2

My recipient said he was a rap fan so the third day was a mix CD of old school stuff--"White Lines" holla!--and new non-rap songs like Phoenix's "1901". He also said he liked food so I tossed in some crazy snacks (like Octopus crackers) from the Korean grocer including one featuring a hip-hop mascot who was down with the honey-dipped crackers. And I "capped" it off with a Kangol baseball hat. Does anyone remember when Kangol was the big label in rap?

Day 3

My recipient had wished for a dashboard hula girl but I couldn't find one locally and at this point it was too late to order one so I did one of my favorite things--made a t-shirt:

Day 4

As luck would have it, I offered another Secret Santa my services and made his recipient (obviously a Glee fan) this shirt:

Day 4 Bonus!

And on the final day, I had planned on getting the specific CD my recipient had on his wish list. I had reserved it at the local Borders but I got an e-mail on Wednesday telling me that they had sold it as an online order! I tried a bunch of local stores--even my friends tried to help me out when they were near some specialty stores--but to no avail. So I ended up giving him an errand for his final gift:

Day 5--the final day

My recipient was a good sport and still enjoyed it--hooray!

Can't wait until March

What is it about Tim Burton and Johnny Depp:



that wants me to make something magical?

Wagon wheels

Instead of bagels, I shared "wagon wheels" from a local bakery to celebrate my ill-gotten Survivor gains:

Sweet, sweet victory.

I Survived

My name is CraftyMama.


and I won this year's Survivor Pool. Thank you Oakland for overcoming a 12 point spread over Denver.

Final gift from my Secret Santa

It was a thrilling ride to the end. I was thrilled when I discovered my Secret Santa was someone that I was a Secret Santa to a few years ago. Here was the grand finale:

Solar-powered kitty bobbleheads!

Sigh. Sad that Secret Santa has come to a close. I loved it--thanks to my Secret Santa!

Thursday's gifts from my Secret Santa

What can I say, I love getting e-mails from my Secret Santa:


As promised, a delivery came:

And inside? Christmas melodies from Chris Isaak, a very cool votive holder and candle, a small flask of Orange Blossom perfume, and two chocolate Santas (I already ate one by the time I took the picture):

Can't wait to see who my Secret Santa is!

The Wednesday Visit from Secret Santa

Hopefully I mastered the screen capture because I've got to share this awesome e-mail from my Secret Santa this morning:


The attachment was a picture of a friend at work named Erika. Given the ransom note style, it begged the interpretation that my assignment was to off Erika--but my Secret Santa set me straight:


Turns out, I simply had to see Erika who had a note for me. Inside was a picture of a file cabinet and instructions to look in the second drawer, where I found this:

And inside the clever wrapping paper (Baseball Furies, holla!) was this:

Sigh. Kind of starting to get bummed that Secret Santa is almost over!

My Secret Santa's Tuesday visit

I wish I could figure out my print Screen issues because the e-mails I receive from my Secret Santa before each gift so far have been priceless and I'd love to share them. Anyhoo, this was in my mailbox:

It's an awesome keychain in the "Ugly Doll" vein and a scratcher (unfortunately I didn't win):

But is it really losing when I've got RDJ's handsome mug to console me? Cat sound!

Secret Santa has started!

I got my first day's gifts from my Secret Santa--but first I received this e-mail. Unfortunately I couldn't capture the pictures (can someone tell me how to do that? I used Print Screen and it didn't do it) so I put a brief description in parentheses:

From: santa claus
Sent: Monday, December 14, 2009 10:42 AM
To: Frances Lee
Subject: It's a Dirty, Dirty World

Good Morning, Frances.

Please consider the following:

There's...

(Picture of Tiger Wooods)


and ...

(Picture of Lindsay Lohan after a night of partying)


and ...

(Picture of factory spewing pollution from its stacks)


and of course there's ....

(Picture of befuddled George W. Bush)

and (ewww)...

(Picture of Mickey Rourke)


A Girl Needs Some Refreshment!

Please proceed to your mailbox to receive
some relief from this dirty, dirty world ......

"Guarateed to engender epiphanies and other related phenomena!"


From Secret Santa of course!

-----------------------------------

So I looked in my mailbox and found these!

Thank goodness the soap was labeled--I might have eaten it--it looked like a solid block of delicious white chocolate or Parmesan Cheese at first glance to me!

Thanks Secret Santa!

How Psyched am I for Secret Santa?

How awesome is getting an e-mail like this? I can't wait for tomorrow!

From: santa claus
Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 11:57 AM
To: Frances Lee
Subject: A Picture of Your (Secret) Santa

 

 
HO-HO-HO, Frances! The fun begins on Monday!!!!
 
Love, (Secret) Santa

To do this weekend, for sure

I have GOT to take down this bad boy:

Oh, and what's that on the table behind him? Why it's this--a fresh Christmas wreath!

Anybody else behind in their holiday decorating and shopping? Thankfully I think we're doing a clean and lean Christmas so I'm pretty sure I can wrap up the shopping in one day. Besides the wreath, I also have to assemble the Christmas tree--wow, Christmas will be here in two weeks and one day--I better hustle...

Playing with Photoshop

With a little guidance from my blogging mentor, I was introduced to the world of Actions in Photoshop. I am still a complete novice when it comes to Photoshop but with the help of Actions, I kind of look like I know what I'm doing. Actions are like little programs that goes through a series processes to get a certain look, like this fun vintage look of my friend's two adorable boys:



Here's nice one that turned a color picture of my friend's son into a beautiful black and white:



And here's one of my friend's oldest (I can't believe how fast time is flying!)--this Action is more of antiqued version of black and white:



There are a lot of Actions for sale out there but this awesome set is available for free at The Pioneer Woman's website. Thank you Pioneer Woman--these are totally cool. And of course, thanks to my friend's beautiful boys--they make handsome photo subjects!

That time of the year

And I haven't even started! The girl gave me her wish list today:

What the heck is an Acekard? I'm sure she'd prefer a good book, like a biography of Madame Curie, right?

Is it just me?

Or does this Kay Jewelers commercial really miss the mark?



Where to begin? How about the setup? The commercial opens up on a crack of lightning as it reveals a lonely abode in the middle of the woods. Sound familiar? Maybe because it's reminiscent of the opening of Scream. Anyone else smelling the burning Jiffy Pop on the stove? Anyone else yelling Run, girl, run! at the screen? It doesn't help that the man's low vocal tones read more creepy crank caller than soothing sweetheart.

The kicker of course is, after another crack of lightning, the frightened female reactively clings to the man. He slyly chuckles, I'm right here. And on a dime, he drops his smile and tone, and channeling a voice better suited for a character dubbed "The Collector" or "The Obsessed One", menacingly murmurs, And I always will be.

OMG! Girl, why aren't you running? Grab a flaming log, throw it behind you and run down those stairs and into the woods!

What is it with this commercial? Does our obsessed kidnapper need to shave? Or is it the tight angle that does him no favors? I guess the angle is meant to capture her reaction but of course, coupled with his dark tone, her face reads as nervous trepidation. And I know it's not just me because even the guy who posted the commercial dubs it "Every Kiss Begins with...STAB!"

The only thing that briefly relieves us is the canned footage of the Kay jewelers store in some milquetoast mall coupled with the catalog page of the featured necklace, somewhat ironically entitled "Love's Embrace". Why don't they just ice this cake and call it "Love's Lock" or "Love's Grip" at this point? When she responds, Don't let go...ever, is anyone else thinking Stockholm syndrome?

Run, girl, run.

Ech. Good luck with the sales on this one, Kay.

Precious

To be honest, I was somewhat dreading seeing Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire, a movie that every in-the-know filmgoer with street cred "must see" because it's such a "crushingly real" piece of filmwork. The description alone is overwhelming: an illiterate, friendless, obese 16-year-old girl named Precious lives in Harlem with a mother subsisting on welfare. Wait, there's more! Her mother is abusive in pretty much every way possible and Precious is pregnant with her second child. Oh, one more detail. Both pregnancies were conceived in rape...by her father. Umm...you think you'd rather catch Old Dogs instead? I get it--not exactly the nachos-and-Milk Duds storyline one usually looks forward to. I went somewhat pulling myself by my hair ready to sop up my hope and humanity off the floor with soggy tissues after watching it, armed with DVR'd episodes of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" as a chaser if necessary.

Wow. All I can say, if you were pushing off seeing it like me, I advise you step up to the mic and order yourself a ticket. This film is so well-crafted, well-performed, well-written--I give it an A.

It's not a stretch to believe that all the characters exist in reality, including Precious (whether as two or three girls or a composite) as well as her mother, teachers, fellow classmates, etc. The performances of all the actors are outstanding. Sad to say, the most fantastical element is probably the alternative school she attends where the class size is less than 10 students. When the reviewers say this movie is inspiring, don't expect that Precious wins the Nobel prize or loses all that weight and gets discovered as a supermodel. The movie remains grounded in reality when it reminds us that rewards and goals in life aren't always fabulous wealth, fame, glamour, etc., but are often realistically much simpler.

Not to say I didn't cry watching this movie (holy cow, there were points I wanted to sob out loud) but I also laughed. The movie gives us bites of levity and hope to prevent it from becoming the totally despairing picture it could be. This movie, coupled with Mo' Nique's outstanding (yes, Oscar-worthy) performance, should also be credited with allowing us insight of, and even sympathy for, Precious's abusive mother--a character that is often and easily written off as simply villainous.

The tag line for this movie is "Life is hard. Life is short. Life is painful. Life is rich. Life is....Precious." This slogan is apt--this movie brings it. See it. And be sure to bring tissues.

Hang Tough, it's Monday

Obviously, having money riding on the pro games is the number one reason for increasing my interest in Monday Night Football exponentially. But I have to say the hilarious Monday Night Football commercials like this one, are a close second.

Though I have to wonder...am I the "guy" or the laughing co-worker? Paul says I have that laugh down.

Unfortunately this week, I managed to get the dead last score but will still be rooting for the underdog, the Patriots, against New Orleans tonight with my brother-in-law.

Wish me luck next week...

Drafted

By the KISS Army!

Through a connection with CHOC, over a dozen tickets were offered at the office for the KISS show at the Anaheim Honda Center last Tuesday, as a thank you for our fundraising efforts for CHOC. Our WalkTeam raised over $6200--thank you all for supporting us. And thanks C! The seats were awesome:

Unbelievably, there wasn't a mad rush for tickets and there were even enough tickets for the kids. Of course, I was psyched that I was able to convince my co-workers to let me paint our faces (don't judge my skills!):

I loved that the girls wanted the Catman's makeup. Adult KISS fans only opt for the Demon or Starchild so you never see the Catman on display--but the girls made it work:


This was the girls' first arena show and they enjoyed the opening band, Buckcherry:

As the main show started and KISS brought every one on their feet, Velina whispered, when do we get to sit down? The show was a blast...from the past! All the pyrotechnical glory, Paul Stanley screaming "Anaheim!" and yes, even that old chestnut--Gene Simmons spitting out blood--brought back the blaring grandeur of yesteryear. It was an exhaustingly fun night:

The next morning I told Velina about the tradition of wearing the concert shirt the next day at school:

She wasn't as excited by the idea as I hoped. I told her that she had seen an iconic rock band and could now cross it off the bucket list. Of course, her response was what's a bucket list? Pfft. Kids. Anyhoo, she was game with a bit of liquid courage:

Hope everyone had a rockin' Thanksgiving week!

So clever

Take fun size packets of M&Ms and Reese's Pieces, eat them together and it's like mini candy-coated Reese's peanut butter cups!

Anybody else have any good post-Halloween "recipes"?

The Beauty of Leftovers

...from the company Thanksgiving potluck is a breakfast of champions:

Believe

Wow, I didn't expect it to go like THIS.

Congrats Detroit. And major, major kudos to the Chiefs--the other underdog I've been putting my picks on the line with. Even with my internal underdog cheerleader set to 11, I did not see them beating the Steelers, at all.

Keeps you on your toes that anything can happen, right?

Do I believe?

Besides the general football pool where we bet against a point spread, we have a Survivor pool where we all bet on who is going to plain win that week. If your team wins, you're remain in the pool, if your team loses, you're out. Whoever remains at the end of the season wins the Survivor pool. Out of 19, there are 8 of us left. The challenge is you can only use each team once. I've already used a lot of the big teams like New Orleans and Minnesota, but for some reason, I've been feeling the call to put down the Detroit Lions for this week. Yes the Lions: the first team, last year, to have a winless season in decades and have only won one game so far this season. Besides that, the team they're playing (the Browns) are also 1-8. So to a degree, it's an even matchup and can go either way, though the point spread is currently favoring the Lions by 2.5.

Now those who know me, know I tend to root for the underdog, and every week I've been saying "I really think the (insert "Lions" or "Chiefs", etc.) can pull it out this weekend". And those who know me and are in the football pool with me also know that this faith in the underdog, more often than not, does not pan out. Yet for some reason, I'm feeling the call to put down the Lions this week. Anybody else hearing this?

Potluck potatoes

Making "dirty" mashed potatoes (which is just potatoes mashed with the skin on--yes, aka lazy mashed potatoes) for our company Thanksgiving potluck today. I even invested in a Crock Pot to keep it warm:

Here's the cooked 5 pound bag of potatoes, stick of butter, pint of sour cream, and a generous sprinkling of sea salt, pre-mash:

And ta-da! Ready for the potluck!

Now that I've got this Crock Pot, I'm itching to bring mashed potatoes to another potluck...

This much I know is true

I plan to see the following movies in the theaters in November:

- Precious
- New Moon
- Ninja Assassin

Don't judge.

Go Browns

Magically, I have floated to the top of the this week's football pool with tomorrow's game deciding if I get to make it rain bagels at work on Tuesday morning. The only catch is I need Baltimore NOT to win by more than 10 points over the Browns. I would also regain a spot in the top 3 in the overall season's pool.

Keeping my fingers crossed...

Lost and Found

Apparently, a consequence of killing a dance floor like crazed fans at a Bon Jovi concert was losing my license in the kerfuffle. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until I tried to pay for something at South Coast for work. They asked for photo ID with my credit card and I couldn't find it.

Worst. So mortifying. Am I the only one who feels like the sales clerk thinks I'm trying to scam a purchase with a fake or stolen credit card when this happens? I offered all my other cards (credit, insurance, etc.) to prove this was my card, but only proved further embarrassment. The clerk sniffed dismissively, no, no, I'm required to see photo ID, as if to say, yeah lady, I've seen this part of the scam too, as he busied himself with reversing the sale so he could ignore me. I walked away totally embarrassed but grateful there wasn't someone behind me to witness it.

I called the lounge where I lost my card (which happens to serve lunch during the day--who knew?) and they had it. When I went to pick it up, the hostess ironically asked for other identification. The smart aleck in me wanted to point out she could verify by the photo, but she, unlike South Coast, accepted my other credit cards as proof so I happily didn't bother.

The best part of all this? The big relief that I don't have to go to the DMV for a replacement. Now that's the way to start a weekend.

Not sure if I'm going in the right direction

I've done pretty much nothing to control my eating. In fact, I managed to eat this entire bag of Thai Vegetable Gyozas last night. After dinner. To be fair there are probably only about 15 dumplings in this bag. So that's like what, a couple of appetizer portions? I just had them after dinner rather than before.

Yes, I'm listening to myself. And yes, I know I MUST get a handle on my eating. Unfortunately it seems I've rationalized myself into the "saturation" method: eating so much of something until I get tired of it. There are 3 more bags of these dumplings in the freezer. Let's hope this method works.

Success

Per the suggestions, I went ahead and FreeCycled the turntable. It was my first time posting on FreeCycle and it was easier and smoother than I imagined. It felt great to have it out my house and put to use (instead of the landfill). Win-win.

I guess I can stop running

The good news is that my friend transferred out of the hospital to a nursing center for rehab/physical therapy and per my impulsive vow, I don't have to run every day. I'm proud to say that I managed to keep up with the daily running for the most part and on the days when I missed a mile (working late, other exercise, etc.), I made it up the next day so that I maintained an average of at least a mile a day. On some days, I would actually run an extra mile on my own volition.

Sigh. I can't fathom that right now. I've pretty much discovered that running isn't my calling. Believe me, I want to love running--it's the cheapest exercise out there and one can do it pretty much anywhere--and I'd fantasize that I was a gazelle running the plains. But the reality is I'm more like Clydesdale trying to gallop with cinderblocks tied to my hooves. Plus I never got the breathing thing down--from the get go, I'm gasping with my mouth hanging open trying to catch any available oxygen floating in my direction.

The bad news is (despite how horrible at running as I was), that this was probably the only thing keeping my weight from ballooning completely out of control. My eating habits have not been good since my friend went into the hospital over 3 months ago. Last night I cooked half a box of spaghetti and pretty much ate it all by myself. The topper was the two snack bags of chips and handful of Halloween candy I ate right before bed.

Of course, my mind goes to how much weight I could have lost if I actually had controlled my eating while doing the running thing. Argh. I really wish I could get back on track with WW but with the holidays coming, I really don't feel like it. My motivation is sorely lacking.

Okay. Enough talk. Today I start with at least one healthy habit--drinking at least 6 glasses of water a day.

Baby steps.

Did it get loud?

Or did I get old? I went out to celebrate a good friend's birthday last night. Needless to say, I can't even remember the last time I went out for Happy Hour and had even anticipated going to a movie afterward with a friend. I took a Pepcid AC to prevent Asian Glow (people told me it worked, I hope they weren't lying to my big red face) as well as a Five Hour Energy Drink. Yes I realize that it's highly embarrassing to admit that I had an energy drink, not to work out or have a killer work day after an all-nighter of partying, but to stay awake through Happy Hour.

Anyhoo, the night was somewhat a blur as I consumed more Jack&Cokes and Rum&Cokes than I anticipated. I do remember it was a good time with my friends from work: laughing, joking, and even dancing at the club across the parking lot. I will confess that my dancing style has evolved somewhat clearly from my days as a single girl shaking her much-more-lithe-booty on the dance floor to a working mom that clearly does not get out much. But at least I can tell you that I still put 100% out on the dance floor and I am having a blast, my friend, and you are welcome to join in the fun.

The only downside is that all those mixed drinks and bringing it on the dance floor made for a nauseating combination and the music suddenly felt super loud in my brain. I left shortly afterward and took some downtime in my car only to have a security guard wave a flashlight at me, ten minutes later. When I popped my head out, he recognized me from the first bar and seemed apologetic that I was by myself (apparently there are some territorial issues regarding parking among the venues there).

I got home around midnight and unfortunately, the nausea had not abated. I ended up falling asleep sitting upright on the couch and woke up around 5am. I ate some ramen and fell back asleep horizontally. When I woke up, I managed to get to the gym and run a couple of miles. The toxins just poured out of me--sweet, sweaty relief.

All in all, a good night with not too painful repercussions. Perhaps I should get out more?

Who knew that your thumb did so much?

Those who know me well know that I am not gifted at softball--definitely the weakest link on my company team, but fortunately they're good sports about it. Especially when I manage to get the amazingly stupidest injuries. Once, I managed to give myself a black eye by batting a ball into my own face. Nothing like stumbling back to a dugout full of concerned yet bewildered faces trying to grasp how it was even possible to injure myself like that.

Last night when I was up at bat, I managed to hit the ball so far down the stick that I crushed my thumb into the pitched ball. It bled a lot at the cuticle seam--someone thought I might have damaged the nail bed and I might lose my nail--ugh. But it was the swelling that got the better of me. It was like my thumb was trying on my skin and said, hmmm, this is a bit snug, can I try on a Large?

The worst part was the harsh reality of how much I use my thumb for like, everything. When I was pulling out of the parking lot after the game, I had to use two hands to release my parking brake and put my car in Drive. I iced it when I got home, but I didn't have any Advil or Tylenol except for my daughter's Junior Rapid Tabs. I chewed down 4 and hoped it was close to an adult dose because I didn't feel like driving again.

This morning was marginally better but still things like opening a ziploc bag proved difficult. Kind of surprising how much your thumb braces the activities of the other fingers, but now I know.

So of course my mind starts to theorize, if I had to choose which finger I'd rather have injured, which would it be? Obviously, not my thumb. And the other glaring non-choice would be my pointer. The obnoxious immature version of myself thinks it would be hilarious for my middle finger to be swollen up, but that joke would run its course pretty quickly. So I'm thinking pinky. Anybody else have a better theory?

Tell me what to do

The belt on my turntable snapped, thus rendering it unplayable.

A friend at work said I could probably get another belt at a Guitar Center or place that still might sell turntables. Of course, it's been on my to do list for a couple of months now. But as luck would have it, my neighbor was giving away her old turntable and now I have a working turntable. Hooray for me--I have had a serious yen to hear Prince's "Under a Cherry Moon" for weeks and I only have it on vinyl.

So here is my dilemma--what to do with the old turntable? My first instinct was Yay, I get to toss it! But now another voice is saying, yeesh, it's perfectly good--it just needs a new belt. Keep it on hand, and if this one breaks, you'll just need a new belt for it. Maybe I could even harvest this one for parts! Obviously it's a fight between the purger in me and the greener non-waster (and don't say pack rat, 'cause I'm not, dang it!).

What should I do? Bear in mind that I'm pretty lazy as I hadn't gotten the simple belt that would have fixed the original turntable in the first place.

I await guidance.

SpongeBob Glee

With a lot of down time and Laffy Taffy, the girl has made a SpongeBob version of Glee's Brittany--though you can't quite make out the WMHS shirt:

Perhaps you can appreciate Brittany's hair better from the side:

Yeah, I think she's just about over the flu and needs to go back to school too.

In Threes

So sure, celebrity deaths come in threes, but apparently so does my down luck. First, my NFL picks on Sunday were awful, just awful. I only got 4 right out of 13 and I dropped down to 4th place in the overall. Worse, I'm sharing it with someone who rose up to my cumulative score. Second, my girl comes down with a major fever and after testing positive for Type A flu, the doctor on Monday tells me that by default, she has H1N1. (Fortunately, my girl was prescribed TamiFlu and she is having quite a comfortable recovery.) And third, as I was trying to lower my window while driving, the glass become dislodged and stuck like this:

I guess I'm lucky that stuff doesn't come in Fours.

Good mix wasted!

I know you're dazzled by my carefully mixed selection of chocolate vs. sugar, classic vs. modern, chewy vs. crunchy, melty vs. hard, etc. I had enough for a couple hundred kids.

I ended up getting less than fifty trick-or-treaters. Around 7pm I was telling kids to take handfuls--just big claw it, sweetie--but I still had enough for next Halloween if I had the fortitude to bag up and freeze it all

Sigh. We ate half a bowl for breakfast and I'm feeling gross.