For the sake of egg nog...

I freakin' love egg nog. Every October, whenever it appears in the dairy section of the grocery store, I always buy a carton of it. I make sure I always have some in the fridge until January when the store stops carrying it. And the cool part of it is that Brett doesn't really like egg nog, so I get it all to my self all Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! Woohoo!

Hmmm... let's see, what else can I ramble on about tonight... Oh! I know! In the year since I last posted, like REALLY posted, a few things have happened to us and for us. This spring, Brett got promoted to General Manager of the Islands here in Monterey! That was pretty awesome. He got that promotion pretty fast, considering he's only been a manager for less than three years now. He's doing so well at it! I'm so proud of him.

Also, my brother, Harrison, left for his mission this last March. He is serving in Uruguay, Montevideo West. He seems to be having a blast down there, and appears to have adjusted pretty well. (Eek, I need to write to him!) I can't wait to hear him speak spanish when he comes back! I just can't imagine my big, football jock little brother speaking another language fluently. It's so funny to see all the pictures of big, white Harrison with all the little, brown Uruguayans. He towers over all of them - even his American companions! He said that when he first got there, the locals thought he was a body builder, because they'd never seen such a big guy before. If you haven't seen Harrison in a while, he's 6'5", a gargantuan. He's got less than 500 days left. No, no, we're not counting down or anything.

Last year, Brett's mom, Judy, taught me how to knit, so I've been having a lot of fun with that. I need to take some pictures of my projects to show you! Right now, my biggest project is a huge, cable-knit blanket. I've been working on it since this summer, and I vowed to finish it by Christmas. I think I can, but it's just so big that I get bored with it easily and start on smaller projects, like baby beanies and scarves and stuff. I have a list as long as my arm of small projects that I want to try. I'll post some pictures of my blanket soon!

Ok, more later... maybe...

For the sake of newness...

Wow. It's been a year since I last posted. I am sooooo lame. I have to finish cleaning the house now, but I'll write more later. I promise. Maybe.

Help a sista out!

We are getting our pictures done soon. We'll definitely get some beach pictures but I'm hoping to also go to Carmel Mission. What should we wear? Here are my ideas for our outfits. Please leave me some comments and tell me what you think we should wear! Most of you probably know that I am very indecisive. I need some help! I think I want to wear olive green accented by some jewel tones. I'll probably wear my dark-wash botcut jeans from VS Pink. I tried to find you a picture of those online but they don't have a picture of that exact wash.

Top #1: Here's a top at Target that I like {BTW, I've seen this top in Target and it's greener than this picture, more like the color of the shirt below}:

Top #2: Another Target find:


Top #3: Cute! But it doesn't go with my color scheme {Besides, if I wore this shirt, people would probably get our Christmas cards and think I'm pregnant. I'd have to save it for a maternity shirt.}:


Top #4: Me likey!


Top #5: HOW FREAKING CUTE! Although I couldn't wear it with jeans. I'd have to wear it with some khakis or something: American Eagle:



Ok, now I need a jacket or sweater or something... I think I want a khaki or brown safari type jacket. Anybody have any ideas? I just don't know where to look. For this, I am calling on all of you to help me find something!

Accessories:

Gloriousness! But not really the style I have in mind for these pictures. Maybe to go with my Elizabeth Swann dress:


Ok, so I can't find any pictures of what I have in mind. But basically, I want a chunky necklace of colorful beads in jewel tones and browns. Possibly earings to match. I'm going to look around at Target and Claires and see if I can find anything there. I wouldn't mind a scarf and/or beanie to wear too. I have a whole skein of brown wool yarn. Perhaps I'll make myself a set really fast. I have at least five days. I can make a scarf with big needles so that it'll come out holey.

Now on to Brett's outfit.

I think I want him in a dark, cranberry red and/or brown.

Shirt #1: This could work if I accented it with a colored undershirt. I REALLY like this style. They also have it in tan. (But, good grief, $40 on CLEARANCE? What do they think I am? Made of money?) Do you think the gray or tan would look better with a cranberry undershirt?


Top #2: Here's a jacket version of that style. How rugged would Brett look in this? Too bad it's 99 bizzles:


Top #3: Now this is what I'm talking about. Perfect color and style for my hunk!But, it's like $50. I might have to splurge. It's just too good. {EDIT: I have since shown this sweater to B and he has pooh-poohed it. He says it's gay. This makes me unhappy. Someday he'll be my dressable Ken-doll. He'll see!}


I don't know what pants I would want him to wear. He has some chocolate brown, flat-front Dockers-style pants. But I don't think those would look that great with a red sweater. I think he needs to wear jeans, too. I need to find him some cool, distressed jeans. {What about some olive green cargo pants? I must find some.}

Found some! But what's goin' on with the bottom parts of the legs? Are they just a tad tapered? I think so. I'm not a fan. And would I be able to iron out those weird factory-made wrinkles in them?:



Oh my goodness! I cannot forget about shoes! Oh dear, what shall I wear?

Shoes #1: I've been checking these out for a while:


Shoes #2: Or, how about these cuties?:


Shoes for Brett:

Shoes #1: Love these. Once again, the rugged thing. These would look great on him, but OUCH - $90!:


So, where do all of you shop for your husbands? Does anybody have any ideas for either of our outfits? Please, Help A Sista Out.

Glorious to behold! (Brett says I'm gay.)

Actually, Brett only thinks I'm gay for posting about this. He actually thinks these things I'm about to tell you about are pretty cool.

I am in love. True love. LOOK at these diaper bags. (NO I'm not pregnant. Don't get excited.) I served a table today of two moms and their kids. One mom had a really darling purse up on the ledge, out of the way, and I had to comment on it. She said, "It's not a purse. It's a diaper bag." I said, "No way!" She told me it was by Petunia Pickle Bottom. (So I wrote it down, because I knew I wouldn't remember that name if my life depended on it.) I looked it up tonight, what what did I find on their website? That's right. Millions of AWESOME diaper bags. I told Brett that we needed to have a kid so that I could accessorize it with these awesome bags. Check it out:

(Well, I tried to post pictures but it won't let me upload the pictures from the website and it won't let me right-click and save the pictures, so you'll just have to click on the links.)

Super Cute

Also Super Cute

HELLO! I almost can't handle it!

You guys, they have diaper bags for MEN! Masculine diaper bags for when Daddy has to take the kid somewhere and doesn't want to carry around a chick bag. (Brett didn't think this was gay. He thought it was cool. We shall purchase one for him someday.) Look here.

How cool is this stuff? Freakin' expensive, but totally worth it, right? I'll need a pair of high heels to go with it, you know. Oh yeah, and a baby too.

Sadness.

My computer is in the shop til who knows when. I miss it so much. No yahoomail, no photo editing, no advertising (!), no Facebook chat and Gmail beesnis meetings. Our Playstation 3 hooks up to the internet so we found a keyboard and mouse to use, and now we can get online minimally. But, not all websites work on this "browser." I can check my Gmail but my Yahoomail doesn't work, and when I get the computer back I'll probably have 5 million emails at Yahoo. I just miss my lappy-top so bad. It's been gone for almost two weeks now, and they quoted me up to 3 weeks til it comes back. I have three sessions to edit and I can't look at them on anything bigger than my camera screen. Well, I guess I could hook the camera up to the TV or stick the memory cards in the PS3 and look at the pictures on the TV screen, but that would just depress me since I can't edit or crop where necessary. I definitely can't blog any of them.

Gayness. Pure gayness.

HAHA

Updated

My brothers. Click on Harrison.

Ladies and Gentleman

Please tip your servers 15% at the VERY minimum. If you get a discount of some sort on your meal, it is proper to tip based on the original total, not on the discounted total. If you get 50% off of your meal, does that mean that your server worked 50% less? No, they worked the same amount. Servers earn their money through tips, not the minimum wage that they are paid by the restaurant and is depleted by taxes paid on the tips. And, at the end of the night, they have to share a portion of their tips with the busser, bartender, and hostess.

Please tell this to your foreign friends, as they are some of the worst offenders.

Oh, and a lame tip cannot be justified with compliments about how great your server was. You can't pay bills with compliments.

That's all for now.

I like this

This came in a forwarded email from my Aunt:

American Citizens

April 17, 2009

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Mr. Obama:

I have had it with you and your administration, sir. Your conduct on your recent trip overseas has convinced me that you are not an adequate representative of the United States of America collectively or of me personally.

You are so obsessed with appeasing the European and the Muslim world that you have abdicated the responsibilities of the President of the United States of America. You are responsible to the citizens of the United States. You are not responsible to the peoples of any other country on earth.

I personally resent that you go around the world apologizing for the United States telling Europeans that we are arrogant and do not care about their status in the world. Sir, what do you think the First World War and the Second World War were all about if not the consideration of the peoples of Europe? Are you brain dead? What do you think the Marshall Plan was all about? Do you not understand or know the history of the 20th century?

Where do you get off telling a Muslim country that the United States does not consider itself a Christian country? Have you not read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States? This country was founded on Judeo-Christian ethics and the principles governing this country, at least until you came along, come directly from this heritage. Do you not understand this?

Your bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia is an affront to all Americans. Our President does not bow down to anyone, let alone the king of Saudi Arabia. You don’t show Great Britain, our best and one of our oldest allies, the respect they deserve yet you bow down to the king of Saudi Arabia. How dare you, sir! How dare you!

You can’t find the time to visit the graves of our greatest generation because you don’t want to offend the Germans but make time to visit a mosque in Turkey. You offended our dead and every veteran when you give the Germans more respect than the people who saved the German people from themselves. What’s the matter with you?

I am convinced that you and the members of your administration have the historical and intellectual depth of a mud puddle and should be ashamed of yourselves, all of you.

You are so self-righteously offended by the big bankers and the American automobile manufacturers yet do nothing about the real thieves in this situation, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Frank, Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelic, the Fannie Mae bonuses, and the Freddie Mac bonuses. What do you intend to do about them? Anything? I seriously doubt it.

What about the U.S. House members passing out $9.1 million in bonuses to their staff members – on top of the $2.5 million in automatic pay raises that lawmakers gave themselves? I understand the average House aide got a 17% bonus. I took a 5% cut in my pay to save jobs with my employer. You haven’t said anything about that. Who authorized that? I surely didn’t! Executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be receiving $210 million in bonuses over an eighteen-month period, that's $45 million more than the AIG bonuses. In fact, Fannie and Freddie executives have already been awarded $51 million – not a bad take. Who authorized that and why haven’t you expressed your outrage at this group who are largely responsible for the economic mess we have right now.

I resent that you take me and my fellow citizens as brain-dead and not caring about what you idiots do. We are watching what you are doing and we are getting increasingly fed up with all of you. I also want you to know that I personally find just about everything you do and say to be offensive to every one of my sensibilities. I promise you that I will work tirelessly to see that you do not get a chance to spend two terms destroying my beautiful country.

Sincerely,



Any American or should I say True American

Come see! Come See!

Click this:

I want these things so bad!

I have always SUCKED at doing my hair. I've always wondered how all the cute girls with cute hairstyles got their hair to do certain things, including being big and volumous. These fabulous little contraptions have given me an answer. I think I'll add these to my little list of things I'm going to do soon as part of my self-makeover. Oh, I don't think I told you - I'm getting a haircut in a couple of weeks! Woohoo!

And yes, I like the "Utah bump." I think it looks cute.

I am sick.

Sicker than I've been in years. Yesterday I had my fair share of barfing. Ten times. That's right, I barfed my guts out TEN TIMES yesterday. It was unbelievable. Poor Brett, is all I can say. Oh, and the cats kept sniffing my face. Freaks. I've been extremely dizzy. My equilibrium is all out of whack - just standing up or turning my head causes me to loose my balance. We think it's either just the flu or some knarly food poisoning, although I don't know what I could have eaten that was bad for me. Today I'm much better. My stomach is tollerating crackers and juice and tea. I'm pretty hungry but I don't know if I could/should eat anything substantial yet. Oh man, a Greek salad from Islands with extra feta and calamatas sounds soooooo good right now. Maybe by the time Brett's done with work today I'll be able to eat something. I'll have him bring me a Greek.

And no, I'm not pregnant.

Anyway, I really like me new background. It reminds me of this game that we downloaded onto the PS3.

I love spring. It's practically here. I even spent some time on the beach a few days ago with my friend Ivy and got a little burnt. Winter didn't seem that long this year, and that's fine with me. I only like winter at Christmastime, and after that, I have no other use for it. Hopefully, this spring will bring some opportunities for me businesswise. Maddy and I have a HUGE project coming up and we're having a lot of fun planning it. Keep an eye out on my photography blog for bits and pieces of it. (And, those of you reading this blog who are part of the project, please stay mum on the subject for now. We want to come out with it as a huge suprise. )

Maddy and I REALLY want to go to the NorCal Pirate Festival this year. We are even planning on dressing up. We went to a lot of renaissance and celtic fairs and Scottish Rites festivals growing up. We've always made fun of the people who dress up for them, but at the same time have always wanted to wear cool costumes for them. So, this year, its happening. We are going to make some awesome costumes, try to drag B along with us as well as a few friends and family, and have fun being the nerds that we have been denying all these years. My costume will be reminiscent of an 18th century English lady (think Elizabeth Swann). I tried to convince Maddy to have a similar costume, but NOOOOOOOO, she wants to be a wench. Whatever. She's a freak, I know. We'll blog the progress of our costumes as we make them. For starters, this is the pattern I will be using and altering a bit, just for the corset part. For the dress, I'll use this pattern. And this is my ultimate goal. What do you think? Can I pull it off?

I am trying really hard to pump myself up to work hard with all three jobs during the next few months. I'm just going to look down and not even look up until my bank account is overflowing with money. I want the bank people to call me and say, "Morgan, we need you to open another account because your old checking account isn't big enough for your $900,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000." I want to actually be able to use my discount here because they have soooooooo many cute clothes right now!!! Agh. It pains me. I miss shopping so bad. And I'm tired of renting.

And I need to spend some money on my appearance, because boy oh boy, I am blah lately!
(The new contact lens sauciness only lasted for a couple days.) I need a makeover! And a diet. Today, I downed one of these all by me self while waiting for Brett to get done with work. It was delicious, and worth it, but by the time you all read this post, I will have done at LEAST 100 crunchies. And tomorrow, I will run. I'll run like a mile. I'm telling you all this because I want you to hold me to it. I want you all to leave harrassing comments if I don't go running and do like a million crunchies - EVERY DAY! (haha, yeah right.) By summertime, I plan on looking like THIS. Yeah yeah yeah, unrealistic, I know. But a girl's gotta dream, right? I gotta have a goal, yes?

Blah blah blah.

No news, really. Well, actually, I'm starting a new job at California Pizza Kitchen. I know, I know, I swore I would never go back to the restaurant biz, and I forsake my Shoes for Crews and order pad. But then, January hit. Well, actually, my stupidity hit. I don't know what I was thinking, thinking that two stupid, minimum wage retail jobs would cut it. I guess I thought that I would instantly create a huge network of clientelle and have weddings to shoot every weekend and never have to fill out another job application again. Not so. So anyway, I was working what felt like a ton, especially in December. Victoria's Secret and Williams-Sonoma were both really busy, and I never wanted for hours. However, the paychecks were still less-than-satisfactory, since I was just making minimum wage plus some change.

Then comes January.

As soon as Christmas was over, business dropped - big time - in the retail industry. I haven't been scheduled to work at WS in about a month. They do these things called "on-calls," where you have to call two hours before the start of that shift and see if they need you or not. Technically, my position at WS is called a "casual associate," so they can schedule me as little or as much as they want to. Well, all I've gotten is on-calls, and they haven't had me come in for about a month now. VS still scheduled me here and there each week, but they didn't have the hours to give to us, so I was lucky that I got any at all.

Ideally, I'd work at Islands, since I know the menu and everything. But, since Brett's a manager there, and corporate policy says a manager cannot date or be married to an employee, I can't work there. Lame. And since we're sharing a car right now, it makes things a lot easier that we both already work at the mall. Luckily, there are other restaurants at the Del Monte Center. One of Brett's bartenders also works at CPK, and he got me the job. They say that the servers there are making decent money. So yeah. I'm a waitress again. Yippy skippy.

Meg, I loved that post about Britney Spears! May I suggest a replacement? This one dances WAY better, she doesn't embarrass herself publicly, and she actually writes her own music! She is a little liberal politically, but hey, we can't all be perfect, right? haha... Oh yeah, and she can actually sing, and doesn't just breathe and hiccup into the mic. And I love her. And I love this song. It's probably one of the prettiest songs I've ever heard. I like to sing it. Singing along with her songs helps my spanish accent, too. Her hips just don't lie! They never do! Ever! What more of an example could you want than a high-profile girl who is proud of her non-washboard stomach and small boobs? I really just got in the mood for this music video and wanted an excuse to blog about it. Thanks Meg, thanks! Sample this:

Check 'em out!

Morgan Werner Photography

Forget my last post!

I got it! I love it! Thanks, Jenn!

Attention Cute Bloggers!

I need your help.

You all keep switchin' up your blog layouts/backgrounds, and they look darling! I REALLY want to change mine, but I'm scared. Last time I tried to change it, MONTHS ago, it erased everything from my blog - all my posts, all my link lists, everything - and I had to start over. I've been scared to try again, now that there is so much stuff on my blog and and I don't want to lose any of it.

How do you girls keep that from happening to your blog when you change your backgrounds?

I can see!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Long story short, I lost my glasses. I'm blind. Can't see without lenses of some sort. Some of you know about the mishap inwhich I lost my glasses. I will not elaborate here. I don't want to think about it. Just know that it was traumatic.

Anyway, in order for me to drive, I need to see. Since our life sucked without me doing some driving sometimes, we looked into replacing my specs. I fell in love with some darling, black-rimmed Ralph Lauren frames that cost around $300. We geared up to save up. But then, it occurred to us (him). Contacts are actually cheaper!

So, I got some.

At first, it took me at least 20 minutes to get them in, and I was still pretty conscious of them throughout the day. That was two weeks ago. Now, I can get them in in about 5 minutes, and I forget that I even have them on. I even fell asleep in them one night because I couldn't feel them and forgot about them.

Wearing contacts is just what I needed. I used to not even bother putting on makeup since it couldn't even be seen behind my glasses, but then I felt frumpy all the time. I didn't even do anything with my hair, because it's a waste to flat iron one's hair without a matching face of makeup. Then, if I was ugly above the neck, what was the point in grooming anything below? What was the point in shaving anything? Why should I put the effort into a pedicure or manicure? If I hadn't maintained my pedicure, then there was NO way that I was wearing heels, which therefore means no skirts. Thus began my downward spiral of frumpiness.

So, I am hereby thankful for contacts, for I have gotten my groove back. Watch out, Brett! I'm feeling saucy!

Come see! Come See!

Morgan Werner Photography

Major holidays stress me out.

I'm just gonna skip over Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. I'm just gonna pretend they didn't happen. I'm working two retail jobs and they both worked wonders at squashing my Christmas spirit into the ground. Next year will be different. And we definitely won't be going to bed at 8 or 9 on New Years Eve, either. Enough of this workaholic crap. I've had enough.

Anyway, moving on.

So I really want a change with my hair. I'll be getting contacts soon, and since I won't be wearing glasses every waking hour anymore, I want to do something else with my hair, like bangs, perhaps. I'm thinking something like.......... this:

or this:

ooooooooor this:

But I think this is my favorite style (just the bangs, not the rest of the haircut):

What y'all think?