a ball of yarn and a remote control

Adios, 2009...

On this very day last year, I wrote a post that gave a pretty vivid snapshot of that year.  

I decided to dust off the blog and do that for 2009. 

Presenting... 2009 in a nutshell.

Rang in the year with Cristi and Cameron, at a party hosted by my now former boss. Took a road trip and got to know our hosts, who have become really good friends. Met Adam at a speed dating event and started dating a few weeks later. Had an amazing Valentine's Day, courtesy of Adam, Cristi and Cameron. Got an IPhone and found that it changed my life. Went to my first Stitches event, which was held in Atlanta, and had a blast! Went to Washington, DC to sing with my choir and was surprised by Adam, who didn't let me know he was coming. Made some good friends with the guys in the choir that hosted us before coming down here to visit and sing with us. Conquered my fear of a particular roller coaster at Carowinds, which is the amusement park 10 minutes from my house. Really got into LOST by watching with Adam every week. Started a new job that I have come to adore. Took pictures of Cristi's knitting that were published in an online knitting magazine. Fell asleep during the new Star Trek movie. Lost the mother of a really good friend and went home for the funeral.  Found a snake on my windshield on a random Wednesday morning (I still get shivery over this). Gave the parentals some goodies that I had knit for them. Broke up with Adam, which was the first time I have ever broken up with somebody.  Yes.. it was traumatic. Finished a scarf, which was my one and only big knit of the year. Started Weight Watchers again and lost 12 pounds that I have continued to keep off. Kinneared one of my favorite soap stars while having a bite to eat at Panera Bread. Became obsessed with reading again. Got closer with the members of my small group at church. Saw some of North Carolina that I had not seen on a road trip with my parents. Fell in love with several of the fall's new television shows including The Vampire Diaries, Melrose Place, Flash Forward and most especially Glee. Bought a sewing machine. Took a class that taught me how to use it and made some really good friends in the process. Went on several dates, some good ones and a few awful ones. Started reading tons of books about teenage vampires and it led to a bad obsession. Got to be really close to a few of my choir brothers and realized just how much of a family I have with them. Enjoyed my second year of SAFF and saw tons of people and bought a little bit of yarn. Had a very interesting birthday, complete with good friends and tons of boobies. Got more into Alabama football than ever and am just praying that we will become the National Champions. Realized that it was ten years ago that Tapestry of Nations, a parade that I opened at Epcot, started. There was a reunion planned to celebrate that milestone, but I sadly had to miss it. Started doing the Couch to 5k program and working on trying to run. Had my first solo with the choir, singing a tiny bit while dressed as John Denver. Enjoyed a nice Christmas holiday with my parents in town.

It was not my best year ever and it had some very dark moments that I do not want to relive, but it was fun to reminisce on the cusp of a bright and shiny new one.

Stay tuned...

Cue the banjos..

A few months ago, I found a blogger that I really like.  He grew up in my hometown and was a few years behind me in school.  He lives in Seattle now, but likes to put things about our area into his blog. I don't actually know him, but I feel like I do.

(If you like Mad Men, Friday Night Lights or The Office, check out his Halloween costumes.. they are awesome!)

There is a small town called Cullman that is about 45 minutes from our hometown.  It is a nice place and they have a couple of really good places to eat.  My parents and I have been known to drive the time to go eat, but we have always be goofy like that.  They have a good Cracker Barrel.  Just sayin'.

Landon had this video featuring Cullman on his blog a few weeks ago and I thought I would share it over here.

I am not sure if it is serious or not, but it just struck me as funny.  And a bit sad.

(And yes, I am posting this in fun..  I am not meaning to offend anybody.)

Stay tuned...

Happy Birthday to..

..Sesame Street.

That great show turn 40 today.  Can you believe it?

It's just weird to think that it was in it's 7th season when I was born. 

I was a big fan, too!  The muppets and other creatures inhabiting the street helped me to learn my letters and numbers from a very early age.  I must have been in the right demograhic because I had character toys and books all over my room.

My favorite book was this one:

 

I remember that it had a mirror at the very end of the book.  My parents say that I used to just laugh and laugh.  It's funny because I tend to give it if I have to put together a present for a child's birthday.  Nothing like giving the toys and things that you liked as a kid..

It is so weird and great how many kids have been affected by such a great show.  I know that there are different versions of this show all around the world.  It would be fun to watch some of these shows and see how they are different, but also very much alike..

Have you noticed the salute that Google has been doing?  For the last few days, there has been a character or two inhabiting the title of the site.  I love when they do it during the holidays, so it has been fun to wonder who was going to be next.  Today's featured all of the main characters and looked great.

Big Bird, Grover, the Count and Cookie Monster were my absolute favorite characters back then.  Now, I am sorta partial to Bert and Ernie, but I think that is for different reasons than them helping me learn important things! 

A post about Sesame Street would not be complete without sharing a song, now would it?  I looked all over the internets for a video of the theme song from the era that I was watching, but apparently there are none available.  I found lots of newer openings, but none from my era.

So...  here is most likely my favorite Sesame Street song... 

And no, you don't have to thank me for the ear worm!

Happy 40th, Sesame Street.

Thank you for teaching me all that you did!

Stay tuned...

33...

On Saturday, I turned 33.

I worked that day, but it was a fairly calm.  I tried to rest as much as possible because I had no clue what was to happen later in the evening.

Cristi had asked me what I wanted to do earlier in the week.  I thought that a nice dinner with friends would be fun.   She asked for a list of potential places to eat, along with potential people to invite.  She got in touch with everybody and arranged the specifics.

Four of my good friends met up and we had a nice dinner at Sticky Fingers, which is my favorite bbq restaurant in Charlotte.  (Their sauce is divine.. look for it in your grocery store!)

Here is a rundown of the guest list:  Corey is in black, Jonathan is above her, Jeanmarie has her hands on me and then Cristi is to my left.

As we were finishing our dinner, we were trying to figure out what to do afterward.  We decided to visit one of my favorite bars to have an adult beverage or two.  My friends Davey and John were going to be there, so it was a perfect place to hang for a while.

Petra's is essentially a piano bar, but they do a lot of varied things.  I go there on Tuesday nights for Trivia (my team generally wins.. I like to think that my TV knowledge helps!), plus they have lots of other things throughout the week.  When originally thinking of going, I was assuming that it would be a normal night with the piano going and the drinks flowing.

Oh.. how I was wrong.

Very wrong.

For that one night, Petra's was home to Big Momma's House of Burlesque.

Yes, kids, I saw boobies on my birthday.

Plus, there was alcohol.  I do not drink often, so it was a rare treat to be given a few shots and drinks to enjoy.  I did not really get a buzz per se, but it was enough to loosen me up a bit.  

Big Momma, our mistress of ceremonies, came out in this red sequin number and belted out a song of welcome.  It was.. interesting.  Then, the gals started coming out one by one to do their numbers.  They would start taking off layers of clothes piece by piece and eventually slip off their tops.

Then, we saw the pasties.   I was secretly hoping for some pasties with tassles, but I guess Big Momma's is too classy for that.

Oh well.

The girls were okay, I guess.  My only issue with them is that they did not do anything when their tops came off.  They just showed us their pasties and then quickly dashed offstage. 

There was no jiggling, shaking, pushing up, gyrating or anything.  It was sad. 

If I am going to see boobies, I want to see boobies.   (This is obviously not a normal occurence in my life.)

We sat through half of the show, but decided to leave before the second half started.

As Cristi (my driver for the evening) and I made our way to her car, it started to rain.  The downpour was really hard and we were soaked by the time we got into her little orange car.  We were laughing the whole way because it was so funny.

Turning 33 was not so bad, after all.  I really enjoyed spending the evening with friends and I thank everybody for making it such a great evening.

I could have done with a little more gyrating boobies, though.

Sigh.

Maybe next year.

Stay tuned..

A funny..

Several people on Facebook have posted this video on their pages.  I had been avoiding watching it for a while, but finally broke down and watched. 

For some odd reason, I found it to be the funniest thing ever. 

It could possibly say something about my current state of mind,  but I have watched this more times that I care to admit and laugh loudly each time.

If you need a Thursday pick-me-up, enjoy.

Now, if I could only get Christopher to do something as amusing as this!

Stay tuned...

Dating: A Cautionary Tale

Well... I went on a date Saturday night.

It has taken me a few days to write this out because I was still processing the events.  It was that much.. er.. fun.

It was my first date since breaking up with Adam three months ago. 

This guy and I have been talking online a bit.  We talked on the phone the night before and decided to go have dinner and see what happened.  He seemed like a nice enough guy. He had just moved from a small town in Tennessee and did not know anybody in town.

What could it hurt, right?

Since he is new to town, so he asked me to pick a dining spot where he has never been.  I thought and thought and came up with a few possibilities. 

I decided to drive, in case we ended up riding around or looking at parts of Charlotte that he had not yet seen.  Somebody did that for me right after I moved, so I thought it would be fun to return the favor.

When he hopped into my car after we met, the first thing I noticed was the odor.  I seriously think that he had taken a bath in his cologne.  It was a cloud.  That would be okay if it was something nice, but I honestly believe that he was wearing Brut or some other cologne that I have given as a Father's Day present in years past. 

I generally do not wear cologne and am kinda picky about the smells, so this was a bad thing.  Thankfully, my windows were already down or else I would probably have suffocated shortly after meeting him.

The first order of business was trying to figure out where to dine.  I had come up with a fairly impressive list of places to go.  I was trying to show him Charlotte and what it had to offer.  Every suggestion that I threw out was met by some kind of objection.  It was weird.

While I was hoping to go somewhere nice or whatever, we ended up at Applebee's.  We were gonna be eatin' good in the neighborhood.

The conversation was fairly easygoing on the drive to the restaurant.  When we got seated and after we had ordered, that stream dried up in a big way.  I used every topic from my vast repertoire within the first few minutes. 

Then, the massive cricket choir joined me and chirped their little hearts out.

It was sad.  I was asking all kinds of questions and basically receiving yes or no responses, which is not the way to get to know somebody.  Those questions were never asked back to me, so he still knows virtually nothing about me.

We finally got on the topic of housing.  He had moved into a weird Craigslist living situation like I had when I first moved here.  He was in a bad situation with scary roommates and a nasty house.

That day, he had started moving out and into a new place.  He had taken several pics of the old and new places and started showing me.  The pics were cool and he is definitely in a better living situation than before.

Then, he decided to text some of the pictures to his brother.

It took him fifteen to twenty minutes to do this.

During that time, I was not being talked to and not talking to him.  It was awful.  I have a strict no texting or doing anything with the phone on dates rule and I broke that.  I was texting everybody, hoping that somebody was having an emergency or needing me for something.

The cricket choir was certainly earning their tips that night, let me tell you.

When he had gotten all the pictures sent, the server brought our check.  It was one of those times where I am sure that she could read my expression and was hoping to bail me out. 

I pulled out my credit card.  When he saw me do this, he said that he would get his part.  I was sitting there thinking "yes, you will". 

I am on the broke side right now, so I had water with my dinner in an effort to keep it cheap.  The bill was under $10, so all was well.

He hemmed and hawed, but never put his money into the bill envelope thingy.   He went to the bathroom and told me to let her take my portion and he would get his in a second.  She did and I was cashed out and (very) ready to go.

When he got back, he realized that he did not have his card on him.  He thought that it might still be in the shorts he had worn when visiting the grocery store earlier in the day. 

He pulled out a check and wrote it out, which I knew was not going to be taken.  It wasn't.  Who takes checks these days, anyway?  I used to write tons of checks to restaurants... back in 1995!

(You can see where this is going, right?)

The inevitable question of "can you get this for me" came out then.

I must say that I did get a little bit of enjoyment over the idea of him scrubbing at dishes in the back with rubber gloves.  However, I figured I had to pay it if for no other reason than to get me the heck out of there.  

I paid for his dinner and his three beers, which was well over double what my bill had been.  When we were settled up and ready to go, I just about hit a sprint to get outside the doors to the restaurant.

When we arrived back at his car, he would not get out.  I wanted to push him out the door, but tried to remember my good Southern upbringing.  Finally, he was gone after about 10 minutes of stupid chatter.

He ended by saying "I guess I owe you dinner.  We should do this again."

Um.  No.

Is this what I have to look forward to in the dating world?

Grrrrr.

Stay tuned...

Smile of the Week..

I have kinda been a bit down lately. 

There is no real reason why and nothing is wrong.. just kinda blah.  It has been coming and going a lot lately, but thankfully never staying long.

For some reason, the blues hit me last night and held for a while.

During that little spell, I broke out my IPod and listened to a wonderful band.

Nickel Creek and a few of their songs really hit me the right way and cleared up a bit of my funk.  Isn't it amazing how music can really help with our moods?

Here is one of the songs that I enjoyed last night.  (This is a live performance because I could not embed anything else, so it is not perfect and the quality is not wonderful.  Here is the studio version, if you want to hear it.)

And yes, I am feeling much better today.

So what made YOU smile this week?

Stay tuned...

Something New..

A few weeks ago, I bought myself an early birthday present.

It's a Brother Innov-ís 40 and it is my first sewing machine.

Before this, I had never even touched a sewing machine.  My mom used to sew, but I was never interested.  She made tons and tons of "country curtains" for our house and many friends' homes.  I have also been around friends who were sewing bags and stuff, but never actually used one.

I did make some cat toys the other day.  Christopher seems to like his.  They must have been either too much fun or not sturdy enough because either Calvin or Ripple devoured the ones they were given.  Either way, I caught the sewing bug while making them.    

Since I know absolutely nothing about sewing or how to use the machine, I signed up for a basic sewing class.  We met for the first time last night and I truly enjoyed myself.

There are six of us in the class and it kinda reminds me of the Friday Night Knitting Club books or something.  I am the only guy and the five gals are a lot of fun.     Nobody else in the class has sewing experience, so we are a good group.  Together, I think we are going to have a blast!

We started our first project last night after talking about notions and getting to know our machines.  We are making a paperback book holder, which is a fairly simple project.  Part of it was finished last night, part will be done for homework and we will finish the rest during the next class.

Some of our other projects include a pillowcase, a pair of jammy pants and a bag.  She also mentioned doing another bag if we had time.  

This class is going to be so much fun! 

I am so excited to be learning a new skill!

Stay tuned...

Confession..

I watch entirely too much tv. 

If you know me at all or read this blog, you are well aware of this.

For the last few weeks, I have been practically drooling over the idea of all the new and old shows starting again.

I decided to really put myself out there and admit to my problem. 

I am going to share my fall viewing schedule.  Or DVRing and hanging onto until I can find the time to watch it schedule.

It might be painful or scary, but I am going to do it.

Here goes:

Sunday
The Amazing Race
Brothers & Sisters
Desperate Housewives

Monday
Gossip Girl
Greek
One Tree Hill

Tuesday
90210
Melrose Place

Wednesday
Glee
The New Adventures of Old Christine

Thursday
Flash Forward
Grey's Anatomy
Private Practice
Survivor
Vampire Diaries

Friday
Ugly Betty

Saturday
day of rest

I think my DVR is going to hate me.

Stay tuned..

Smile of the Week..

The biggest thing that has made me happy this week is easy.

The weather is finally starting to get cool.  It is no longer like the ninth ring of Hades around here. 

You can walk outside and get something out of the car without looking as if you have been swimming.  It is nice enough to sit on the porch and read for hours now, too.

I love this time of year.

What made you smile this week?

Stay tuned...