Christmas Ninja Toast and The Phantom of The Trash Can

I've got tons to say and no time to say it. How sad is that?

I guess I should start with Christmas. We spent it in Houston which was nice but weird. It's always been weird the few times we've spent Christmas away from our extended family.  I don't particularly like it.

Late in the afternoon on Christmas Eve we decided we could no longer live without wifi so Taylor and I grabbed the Garmin and headed for the nearest Best Buy. We got there 5 minutes before it closed but fortunately we are geeky enough to know what kind of router we needed so we grabbed it and left just in time for it to start pouring down rain. I was afraid it might rain on Christmas Day and I didn't much like the idea of the three of us staring at our laptops all day so we found a really nice Barnes & Noble and ran in to get a couple of board games.

On the way home I heard a loud popping sound and saw flashes of light in my peripheral vision. As I slammed on the brakes and began checking Taylor and myself for the holes I was certain the drive-by shooter gave us, I noticed the transformer on a nearby light pole was still sparking and the whole block lost power. Glad to be alive, we headed back to the house and played games all night. 

Christmas Ninja Toast

We had a nice breakfast on Christmas morning where Jayson accidentally turned his bagel into a ninja star. The rest of the day was quiet, we played more board games, then went to see Little Fockers at the Studio Movie Grill. It's one of those theaters where they serve you dinner while you watch the movie. The food wasn't bad and the experience was kinda fun. Jayson sat next to a woman who was obviously there for the first time and very excited about it. She ordered one of everything on the menu and talked to Jayson through the whole movie. The gal next to me was apparently on her first date with the guy she was with. Listening to their awkward getting-to-know-each-other conversation was almost as entertaining as the movie.

There's several of these kinds of theaters in the area but I picked this one because 1) the menu looked good and 2) they have regular screenings for kids with special needs. During these screenings, they show a family movie where the children get in free, the lights are turned up a little brighter and the volume is turned down some. The families can relax because it's okay for the kids to be themselves and no one gets upset if they get a little disruptive. YAY Studio Movie Grill!!

My good slippers

Jayson did a little yard work yesterday, trimming some of the bushes along the front of the house. I was allowed to trim only the 3 azalea bushes by the front door. My hedge trimming must be carefully monitored because I turn everything I touch into a tiny little bonsai which is cute, but then it ceases to be shrubbery. Since I really hadn't planned to work in the yard on this trip, I was wearing my regular clothes and just happened to have my slippers on. Taylor was mortified by the thought of someone seeing me wearing them. Just for that, I think I'll wear them on my next trip to Kroger.

Yesterday afternoon we went to a furniture store called The Dump to look for some area rugs.  They're a big warehouse type store that buys overstock and discontinued stuff and sells it at a discount. Their prices were good and they had some really nice stuff. They were having a sale and we got a great deal on 2 huge rugs.

Archie Bunker

Jayson spotted a recliner that he thought he had to have. We've been going round and round about this for the past 22 years. A recliner is the one piece of furniture that he really wants and it's the one piece of furniture that I really can't stand. I've never met a recliner that I liked. I keep telling him that we will have recliners some day but we shouldn't rush it. A day will come when we can no longer climb the stairs to the bedroom. We will fall asleep in our matching recliners while watching Wheel of Fortune and our grandchildren will laugh at us as our false teeth lose their grip and start to fall out with each progressively louder snore. As special as that moment sounds, I'm in no hurry for it.

I had several errands to run today, including my continuing quest for the perfect shelf liner. Thanks to a friend's recommendation, I ended up using a paintable wallpaper in a pressed tin ceiling tile design. I think it goes very well with my urban shabby cottage modern vintage chic decor.

Since my Garmin has never heard of The Container Store, she treated me to a scenic tour of the Cypress area. I ended up in the parking lot of some little strip mall thingie and saw Shannon's Street Waves, which I think is some kind of skateboarding store. The detour wasn't a complete waste of time since my skateboarding store happens to be right next to the Lifeway Christian Store which I do sometimes have a need to visit when I need some Christian stuff. That reminds me...the mall by my house is called Willowbrook Mall but I'm having a hard time remembering the name. Every time I think about it I call it Willow Creek Mall because of Willow Creek church. When my brain thinks "willow" it automatically wants to add "creek" instead of "brook" which really sort of makes sense because they're practically the same thing. Plus, Willowbrook Mall is about the same size as Willow Creek Church and you can buy stuff at both places so I think they're practically interchangeable.

Tomorrow should be an adventure because we have a cleaning crew coming in to clean the house from top to bottom. I'm okay wallowing in my own yuck, but I can't stand coming into contact with other people's yuck. It's gotta go. We hired a service to do a detailed cleaning of every square inch of the house...including windows, inside and out. I'm hoping they'll get the kitchen cabinets scrubbed out first so that I can work on the shelf paper while they're doing other stuff. Otherwise I'll be awkwardly trying to find a place to plant myself that's out of their way but close enough to let them know when they've missed a spot.

I also need to work on finding a place to put the kitchen trash can. It shouldn't be a big issue, right? Wrong. Right now it is next to the island in the middle of the kitchen which is a good central location but it isn't working out. I bought one of those touchless automatic ones where it senses when your hand is near it and it opens the lid for you. Then when you move away from it, the lid automatically closes. It's actually pretty cool but there is one minor flaw in the concept: it will open for more than just your hand.

For instance, I was standing at the kitchen sink while loading the dishwasher and I dropped the dish brush on the floor. When I bent over to pick up the brush, I heard the familiar whoosh sound and turned around to see that my ample caboose had opened the trash can. Jayson was walking through the kitchen and opened the can with an unruly elbow gesture. Taylor, bless her heart, could throw her whole little body over the sensor and roll around on it while waving her arms wildly and it still wouldn't be able to detect her tinyness if it wasn't for one thing. Her hair. One flick of her head and she can open the can from a yard away. As cool as it is I may have to trade it in for a step can, especially if the dog figures out that she's been opening it with her tail.