If I had a million dollars...

For all you Secret Santas and Sandy Claus out there, I wanted you to know that I updated my amazon.com wishlist.

My 15 Minutes

I'm famous! The knitting class I take was featured in a magazine article and I'm mentioned by name!

"I'm in print!"

Here's the link to the online version of the magazine. I am mentioned very briefly as is my mother-in-law. Hee hee. Luckily I didn't say anything bad.

I was fairly excited to find out that my name was in the article but when I saw it my first reaction was, "Oh hell, she put my age in there!"

Confession -

Ok. I have to confess to something that I'm sort of embarrassed about. I love that "Celebrity Paranormal" show on VH1. I've always sensed that this was something that would invite ridicule if I mentioned it out loud. I mean, Mike makes fun of me about it but that's nothing new. He often makes fun of my viewing choices. I'm always dragging Mike on these ghost tours and whatnot when we go on vacation. I've never seen a ghost nor do I feel like I'm somehow 'sensitive' to paranormal activity or anything (I hate when we get a "medium" on the tour with us who swears she feels something everywhere we go)...I just like having the heebie jeebies scared out of me. I like ghost stories and that's basically what ghost tours are all about. They take you to different places and tell you the ghost stories that go along with the area.

But anyway, I'm rambing again. Celebrity Paranormal reminds me of that MTV show "Fear" back in the 90's where they'd send college kids to haunted places and have them do scary crap - if they could stay the whole night they won $5000. Remember that show? I was only in high school myself and I loved that show. I was crushed when they took it off the air. I continued to tivo and watch Celebrity Paranormal despite my inclination to believe that this is something I should be embarrassed about. Today though, in a moment of boredom, I happened upon the vh1 website dedicated to the show and saw the snippet of the message board it includes. This is where you can discuss the "scary moments" or the caliber of the C List celebrities on that week's episode. Everyone on that message board was clearly about 14 years old. I am most likely the only CP fan over the age of 15.

Now that's embarrassing.

The Official Word...

The City of Chicago called me today with good news. I officially have the job and my start date is scheduled to be December 16th. The 16th is a Saturday so I'm not sure if that was a mistake or not. The official letter should be coming in the mail soon.

Places I didn't even know about...

That's how badly I hurt right now. I hurt in places I didn't even know I had. Mike and I have started "gung ho" mode on the old work-out regime. I was like, "Let's WALK to the Y." Yeah. Brilliant idea. It's about a 2 mile walk roundtrip which seemed like an adventure at the time. Now it just seems like a mistake. Plus we didn't eat before we went and on the way home, I nearly tackled the neighbor's yappy, fluffy dog and chewed on it.

On the plus side, I got a good laugh from Mike's antics today. He was trying on a new workout outfit he'd bought at Kohl's awhile back and asked me if his shirt was too tight because it felt really constrictive. The shirt was made of that form fitting, spandexy material and I told him that it was supposed to look like that and hug his body. He had to go upstairs to look for himself because, like always, we can't just take my word on anything. He came back down and said, "I really like this. I feel like Superman." It's still funny to me - I snorted just now when I typed it.

If you need me tomorrow, I'll be the one in bed with the covers over my head - covered in heating pads.

This year, I am thankful for:

Spending Thanksgiving with my dad.
My big brother almost remembering my birthday.
Having great nephews - Caleb and Dex aka "Frank".
In-laws, niece-pugs and nephew-cats.
Fat cats and kittens that jump.
New apartments.
Friends.
Having 29 years with my mom.
Mike falling asleep spooning me and snoring a little in my ear.
Knitting classes.
Drs. Carlson and Lazar.
Ex-landlords who help you paint your new place.
Blue Cheese.
Evites.
Rugrat rootbeer.
Sisters - biological and otherwise.
Vitka's jokes.
Mike's sweetness.
Chocolate chip shakes.
Memories.
Captain Underpants in the Thanksgiving parade.
God.
Every hug I ever got from my mom.
Being able to say, "I'm in my 20's."
Mike's laughter.
Mike.
Mike.
Mike.
Did I mention Mike?
Funnel cake.
Dachshunds.
Democrats controlling Congress.
Cat snuggles.
Puppy kisses.
Family.
Life.
Love in all its forms.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Oops...

I just published a post I wrote a few days ago but hit "save as draft" instead of "publish." Check it out for a story about a trip I took with my dad a couple of weeks ago.

Outrageous!

This made me feel sick to my stomach.

Bobbi and her "freedom march"

I was looking through my emails today and found this one. It's from my mom describing an experience she had with her hamster and it makes me laugh. She could never go into a pet store without buying something and then she'd be mad because it was such a pain to take care of. She always took really good care of her animals...she just hated having to do it sometimes. Bobbi is a black dwarf hamster who still resides with my dad...miraculously still alive as we'd forgotten about her for at least a week after my mom died. Polly refers to "Neopolitan," a guinea pig who left this Earth some months before my mom. We had Boris and Polly and for awhile we would occasionally have baby guinea pigs to give away. After Boris died, my mom would refer to her as "The widow Polly." But I'm getting off track. Anyways, this is an email I got from my mom right before Mike and I got married. It's very typical "mom" humor and I thought I'd share.


Subject: Bobbi and her "freedom march"
From: Linda H. to me, Jeffrey, Robin, JOHN
Date: Apr 13 (2006)

Bobbi the hamster and I have had quite an afternoon.
I asked your Dad(Charles) to change Polly's cage
several days ago. but he hadn't had time time or
inclination to do it. Soo... I decided to do it.
Bobbi's cage in on top of Polly's. So I looked for
Bobbi and nowhere did I see her. I moved bedding,etc
and still didn't see her. Any way I foung her wedged
in the tube between the upper floor and the lower
level wedged with bedding. So I think she has
smothered herself. She was on the wheel last night so
this is not a event of long duration. I took the cage
and emptied it but the tube was still plugged. So I
banged the tube on the side of the trash several times
and finally all fell out. Bobbi perks right up and
starts running around the trash can. I pick her up
and put her back in her cage and put bedding etc. in
to get her fixed up....silently cursing my luck that
she is still breathing. I sat and watched her for a
minute because she is very happy to be "free at last,
thank God, I'm free at last." I had put the top back
on the cage and she is briskly. or confused like as it
turns out, climbing up and down the tube. I think it
is because she is remembering her horrible experience.
Then she goes up the tube and falls out into the
cage. I had put the top on backwards and the upper
level is on the wrong side. So we are now straighened
up and all is well. I have sat here and giggled at
our little problem and just wanted to share with
someone. P.S. Bobbi did not appear amused. But she is
happy to be "free".

Three posts in one day...this is INSANE!!!

I know! What the heck, right? But I'm bored. BOOOOOOOOOOORED. Mike went over to our former upstairs neighbor's house...or the FUN house, if you will. I wasn't feeling like sitting around watching them drink beer and watch the Michigan-Ohio State game, so I stayed behind.

I thought I'd give you a run down of the trip I took with my dad last week. It was lots of fun. Mike and I rolled into Iowa late and Dad and I were up and going early because we had to make the bus at 9 AM. The trip was something his company does every year. The have a "Silver Circle" club consisting of anyone who's worked for them for 25 years or more. My dad will have 31 years in February...on the day he officially retires. (My dad also refers to this as "The Old Farts" club.) But don't tell, ok? Shhhhhh! Aaaaaaanyway, every year, the company pays for a trip for the group. This year they took them up to Dubuque, IA for gambling, drinking and other debauchery. Ok, I made the debauchery part up. But there was gambling and drinking.

We drove up to Dubuque on two big charter buses. Believe me, I was relieved it wasn't a school bus. I had nightmares about all the trips we took when I was in school. On the ride up, they played games. Since part of the trip was at a casino, they were giving away cash prizes. I won all three of the real games. They had a word scramble, a trivia game and a find-a-word puzzle. The word scamble was up first and it had words that were found in a casino. Please. I'm married to Mike "Blackjack" Kurczewski and I've spent enough time with Fred (his dad) to know my way around the lingo, ok? This is an example of actual conversations we've had at my house:

Mike: Guess where my parents are going for their vacation this year!

Cindi: Somewhere with a casino?

Mike: Besides that.

I don't want to give the impression that they're gambling addicts, though. They're very responsible...they just love the casino. I don't get it, myself. My mom got it. All you had to do was suggest a trip down to "the boat" and her eyes'd light up. She got Mike hooked on those stupid scratch off tickets! She'd spend $10 on scratchers and be all excited because she won $2. I'd be like, "But you paid $10 to get $2 back! You lost $8!" and she'd say, "Well, I coulda lost $10." It's hard to argue with that...but it never quite made sense to me.

Back to my story...I was easily the winner of the casino word scramble game. I let my dad pick an envelope for me and I got $10. There was one $20 bill, several $10s and several $5s...so I was happy with $10. Then they played a "game" where they called out an every day item you'd have in your pocket, purse or wallet and then give a prize to whoever showed it first. I did not participate in this game. First of all, I thought it was dumb. Not my kind of thing at all. Secondly, my bag was put away in the overhead compartment and I was too lazy to get up and get it down. Then they played Turkey Trivia with all sorts of Thanksgiving facts. I won this game but they wouldn't let me get another envelope. The lady said, "You already won!" and I was like, "And?" I had the most answers correct with 14 - so I still won...prize or no prize. :D Then they played more of the "show me the item - win a prize" game. Again...I did not participate. This time I refused to participate not only for the above reasons but also because I was boycotting the "can't win twice" rule. The last game of the night was the Thanksgiving 'find a word' puzzle. I considered refraining from this game also but the lady was like, "And for this game, the prize will be an umbrella so anyone can win, even if you've won before." My competitive nature wouldn't allow me to not play then. There were 39 words to find on the puzzle. I have adopted a strategic search and destroy strategy and managed to find all the words quickly. To avoid any further complications, I gave the paper to my dad and told him to put his hand up. I knew she'd said anybody could win but I wasn't taking any chances. The lady was mildly surprised that anyone had found all the words and said she was giving prizes to first and second place. With all the words, my partner in crime and I easily took first place. The closest runner up was a lady in the back who had 22 words. I was absurdly proud of how badly I'd kicked ass...then I thought about it and realized that my big accomplishment was beating a bunch of sexagenarians who probably need bifocals to see the words on the page. I felt a little foolish for a minute...but then I thought about how it was raining outside and _I_ had won an umbrella for first place and I leaned back and smirked at them all. Ha! Losahs! As a friend of mine used to say (in junior high) '|_osah |_osah, \/\/anna be a \/\/innah.' There are hand gestures that go with that but I'll have to demonstrate those at a later date.

After arrival, we unloaded at a casino and ate at their buffet. It was adequate and I had a great discussion with one of the ladies about how Mike is going to step aside when Johnny Depp leaves the supermodel he's got two kids with and realizes we're meant to be together.

Then it was off to the Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. Three words. Cool. as. Hell. It was! Truly. They had huge catfish and other weird looking critters, a lot of great stuff about the boats that used to travel down the river, an exhibit where you simulate driving a barge and a pretty decent gift shop! I took pictures for Mike and bought him a shirt that says, "What happens on the river, stays on the river" with a skull and cross-rowboat oars. He likes it.

Then we went back to the casino to wait for about an hour until it was time to head to the dinner theater where we were scheduled to eat and see a play that night. I decided to take $30 into the casino and play some blackjack to kill the time. I figured it would take me 10 minutes to lose it but I thought, "what the heck...it's only $30." 40 minutes later, I walked out with $60. Not a big win but still cool. I got to say "I doubled my money." for the rest of the night.

The play that night was a comedy called "The Regifters" about three couples who 'regift' a present and then find out that it was worth a lot of money. One gives it to another and so on down the line. It was quite witty with an often wicked bent. It was weird listening to sexual innuendos from onstage while sitting next to my dad, though. Kinda creepy. I will give you a recap of my father's favorite part. One of the couples are onstage when the wife sneezes. They've been fighting and don't appear to get along that well on an every day basis either. Anyway, the husband says, "God bless you." and the wife starts to tell him off because saying "God bless you" is an old and stupid custom with no basis in society today (basically). She tells him not to say it any more. A few minutes later, she sneezes again and her husband says, "God damn you to Hell" in place of "God Bless You." Probably much funnier when you're in the moment.

On the way home, they put on "The Rookie" - our bus had a dvd player and small tvs every few seats coming down from the ceiling. "The Rookie" is that Dennis Quaid movie about the chemistry teacher who promises his team if they win their division he'll try out for the major leagues again. At the beginning, I was like, "Kill me now." Buuuut, it was too dark to read or knit and I ended up watching the tv rather than staring out the window into the Iowa darkness. By the end, I'm having a conversation in my head with myself,:

"Oh, I hope they let him play in the big leagues."

"You are such a sap."

"This is a movie - it's Disney, they've got to let him play in the majors, right?"

"Shut up! You're making me sick!"

"Look! He's gonna play! He's gonna play!"

"Ugh."

Anyway, the trip all in all was a big success. I had a good time, ate good food, took pictures, bought presents for my husband and actually came home with a few dollars more than I'd left with!

Joy.

Mike's Big Announcement!

Drumroll please...ehem...ehem...

My big announcement is that last week I was contacted by the City of Chicago for a position with their Health Department. I'm still waiting for my mountain of paperwork to go through and be processed but I hope to hear something definite very soon. I was also told that my probable start date would be December 1st.

Lazy days

Well, it's 11 in the morning and Mike and I just managed to wake up and get ourselves out of our toasty bed. Mike is currently in the kitchen making breakfast like a good wif...err...husband. ;) I've been the one who cooks a majority of the time but here lately Mike has been exploring his culinary side and I'm here to say, I LIKE it! Ok, mostly I like not having to cook all the time - it's fun for awhile but then it gets old. I still cook dinner most nights - the long drive from Indiana puts him home around 6pm lately and if he cooks after he gets home it's really late before he eats. I don't mind. I've been having fun broadening my own cooking horizons lately. I used to never do meat - other than loose ground beef or bacon. I didn't eat other kinds of meat and I didn't know how to cook it. Plus the thought of touching raw meat just kinda grossed me out. The either the death of my mom or my approaching birthday (I'll be 25 again, btw) - made me stop and think, "Hey, you're an adult now! Get over it!" I still have not been able to stick my hand under the skin of a roasting chicken to season it...I know it's dead and can't feel it but I watched one of the cooking shows do it and it made me want to gag. BUUUUUUUT, I have been buying meat in bulk and putting it into baggies to freeze for later use. Am I rambling? I think I'm rambling...what was I talking about? Oh, yeah. Mike cooking.

The other night, Mike and I tag teamed to cook up a delish Chicken Caesar salad...after which he told his mom that, "Cindi helped me make it." I cut the lettuce, I covered it in dressing, garlic and parmesan cheese and I seasoned the chicken and started grilling it. Mike took over once it had started cooking and then I chopped up the grilled chicken and added it to my be-ee-ay-uuutiful salad creation. Yes, I know...my life is boring. Get over it. ;)

What else is new...well, there's still Mike's news which he has yet to announce. He's going to have to blog about it sometime - I just can't get him to do it.

The other day Mike made fun of me for printing out a poem called "as freedom is a breakfastfood" by e.e. cummings but I still hold that it is a great poem. It's one I like a lot. I've decided to "decorate" the bedroom with poetry. It's such an odd shape with a low ceiling, so it's hard to find things to put on the walls. I'm going to print out poems on different colored paper and put them up around the room to brighten it up a little bit. Maybe print out some pictures - I'm fairly excited about it. The best part being that if it looks bad, I can always just take it off! Low cost, low maintenance - no worries.

Anywho, must dash! My hashbrowns, bacon and toast smell done!

Catching up with Earl

I've been watching the episodes of My Name is Earl that I tivo'd and I swear, when Earl, Randy and Joy started sing 'Convoy' through their walky-talkies and then made their mean neighbor do the hokey-pokey when she thought that they were God speaking to her through her hearing aid...I nearly wet my pants.

"Puteth thy left foot in....Puteth thy left foot out...Puteth thy left foot in and shaketh it all about..."

How can you not love this show?

Today I was bored and decided to walk up to Roscoe St. and go to a thrift shop we visited a couple of week's ago when Mike's sister and brother-in-law were visiting. I showered and got all "de-stink"-afied and then realized I couldn't leave the house today until Mike got home because we have only one set of door keys. Yes, I know we moved in a month ago - but for some reason, we have the "KEY THAT CAN NOT BE SUCCESSFULLY DUPLICATED." (cue fanfare) We have had this key cut at Home Depot three times, only to come home and find that the new key won't turn the front door lock. Finally Mike went to Menard's and they successfully made a copy - but that key is with my friend Leigh who comes over and checks on the cats while we're out of town visiting the fam. Soooooo...the first order of business today when Mike got home was to head to Menard's and have a key cut for me so that Mike is no longer the Keymaster...which I guess would make me the Gate Keeper? Well, whoever I am, I have keys now! Huzzah!

We're still waiting for Mike to break his big news online but if you're too antsy to wait for the lazy slug to blog, you can find a hint on Dec. 1 of our Google Calendar.

Did you know #2 - Mike (from Kelly)

This did you know has been submitted by Kelly - (see comments on Did you know #1)

Did you know that mike used to use a turkey baster as a microphone (i think that's the utensil it was) and he called it his "do da"?

**Update**

Mike has added that the song he used to sing into his "do da" was 'Macho Man' by the Village People.

Did you know #1 - Cindi

Did you know that when I was about four, my Granny inadvertently terrorized me for over a month? My mom had just had my little brother, Matt and I was really curious about babies. I'm sure I was asking her some questions that I wasn't old enough to have answered about where babies come from. So, to answer me, she simply said that God knows when you're ready to have a baby and gives the mommy one in her belly. This is actually probably a fairly decent answer for a four year old but (to me anyway) she made it sound like it just happened to people indiscriminately. One day, you woke up pregnant! I was terrified! Every night for at least a month when I prayed, I would say, "And God, please don't give me a baby. I'm just a little girl." Then finally, I decided I'd made my point and I could let down my guard.

So, just a note - if you're going to try a similar approach someday, you might want to be just a bit more specific.

A new addition

If you're looking, you'll see that we've added a link to our Google calendar on the sidebar. I just got started, so it only has about 2 things on it, but I've decided to get a family calendar going to try and keep us up to date organizational wise and hopefully it'll help everyone keep up with us. Not that we're all that exciting or anything...you know, whatever. :D

I'm also instituting a two new features of this blog called, "Remember that time when..." and/or "Did you know...?" If you have a story to contribute or a request for a story that you want us to tell, just drop us an email.

Mike has news but I don't want to steal his thunder. I'm trying to get him to blog about it himself. C'mon, Mike! Get it together, man!

Another good quote - (while you wait)

Grief. The pain now is part of the happiness then. That's the deal. -C.S. Lewis

Dammit!

I just wrote a post only to have my computer "tewt" and lose it. I am too irritated to recreate it at this time. Stay tuned for more info.

I love Shakespeare

Sonnet 1

From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty's rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel:
Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament,
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
And, tender churl, mak'st waste in niggarding:
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.

Why get out of bed in the morning?

My mom's big sister, my aunt Kathryn, found out yesterday that she has lung cancer. I know no further information and am praying for an early detection etc. Apparently our family has not suffered enough.

Words to live by

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. ~Gilda Radner

A terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

My aunt Kathryn is in the hospital. I'm still not exactly sure what's up on that front - something about walking pneumonia, I believe. I'm hoping for good results because when my dad called to tell me, they had moved her out of the ICU and into a regular hospital bed.

My dad's good friend from his Vietnam days, Marvin, was sent home from the hospital today. When he first said this I thought it was good news but it turns out that he is dying and he wanted to die at home, so they released him. Dad said that they told them he only had another 24 hours or so left. I didn't ever meet Marvin but I have heard stories about him since I was little and I know that my dad is probably feeling pretty down, so send warm fuzzies his way, will ya?

I got an email today that a friend of a friend lost his dad on Halloween. I don't really know the friend of a friend and I don't know his dad at all but the news hit close to home and I really feel bad for the family.

Just a weird thing I found out today - that quote that I found on my mom's locker. My personal mantra, if you will..."Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." I always knew she didn't think it up herself and that it came from somewhere...but today I found out who said it. Dr. Seuss. Who knew?

Peace!