Who Steals Shoes?

One of my neighbors, that's who.

So I ran the Ho Ho 5K the other day and was partially on a trail by a wetlands area so needless to say it was a muddy, mucky mess for a bit.  My shoes were a little worse for the wear, so when I got home I put them on the back porch so the mud would dry up and I could flake most of it off and then take them in to properly wash them. The problem is that it's been raining cats and dogs here so on Monday I checked on my shoes and they were still wet and gross so I decided to leave them out a bit longer to dry.  Tuesday morning as I left my house for work they were still sitting by my sliding glass door in all of their muddy glory.  Tuesday afternoon when I got home they were noticeably absent.

I say it was noticeable not because I check on my shoes that much, but these babies were BRIGHT HIGHLIGHTER GREEN and very hard to miss, even with the mud.  So I asked BF if he had moved my shoes somewhere.  He said no.  So I started looking around the back porch thinking I had maybe moved them and not remembered, but then I realized that I hadn't.  So then it occurred to me that someone came up to my back porch, ingnored everything else there and took my muddy gross shoes. 

Here's the thing.  Those shoes are Nike ID shoes...which means they were a customized one of a kind pair with unique colors and a PERSONAL LOGO EMBROIDERED ON THE BACK. 

Way to go idiot thief neighbor... now when I see you wearing my running shoes I can PROVE that you stole them because they had a personal slogan embroidered ONTO THE SHOE. How are you going to hide that? 

My plan is to keep an eye out for them and jump the jerk who stole them.  I know I should be all "Turn the other cheek" on this, but you know what, I liked those dang shoes and you deserve a black eye and a bloody nose for stealing... ESPECIALLY around the holidays. 

Now I'm super bummed because I feel unsafe like ANYTHING I leave out on the porch (chairs, etc) will be taken and that someone might be lurking around trying to break into houses!  We live in a pretty safe and friendly area, but now I'm worried.  And pissed.  Mostly pissed because my comfy shoes are gone.

I'll find you, Thief, where ever you may be, and when you least expect it, BAM, I'm getting my shoes back.


Two days until Disneyland and boy do I need that vacation.

Hilarious...

A friend of mine's sister did this with her comedy group- Divine Comedy- and posted in on YouTube.  It's gotten some good and bad press, but I think it's the funniest thing.  I can laugh at it because I know the culture all too well :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84u5k4bboU4 or watch it below...

11 Days...

... until BF and I are here:

DISNEYLAND!

I'm SO EXCITED!

I've never been to Disneyland in California so this is the best Christmas vacation ever.  Also, I'm hoping it will actually be sunny and warm (warmer than Oregon, anyway) because I'm so done with the dark, wet, cold days. 

I've been spending my extra time researching what I want to do on my Disney vacation and I've got the park map saved on my computer so I can peruse it at work during breaks.  I cannot wait to see the holiday parades and fireworks, and I'm completely freaking out about some of the rides.  Pirates of the Carribean? YES!

Besides the rides, what do I need to do there?  What should I look out for?  These next 11 days are going to go by SO SLOWLY.

I'm So Tired I Could Fall Asleep Any Minute

I remember when the holidays used to be so lazy and awesome when I was younger- mostly because school let our for a few weeks and I got to stay home and do whatever I wanted to do and enjoy all of the awesome holiday parties and events.  Now I'm an adult with a job and I make all of those awesome holiday things happen for people which makes me a very busy lady this time of year, but I still really like it.  Add that to the sneaky Christmas shopping, getting our Christmas cards out in the mail, work, work events I am involved in, fun holiday activities not of my organizing and daily life and you get one busy, tired girl. 


Yesterday I worked a 15 hour day because we had organized a special event at work.  It was awesome and everyone had a great time, but today I just did not want to get out of bed and do it all over again.  If I didn't have any pressing work things to do today I would not be here. 


I cannot believe how quickly the holidays came this year.  It seems like it was just September!


On the agenda... Christmas Cookies!

Thankful, Busy Times

Happy late Thanksgiving everyone!  I want to pause for a moment and list a few things that I am so grateful for (as I did not have a chance to do this last week).  Don't worry, I'll keep it brief.


1. For BF, who is a constant riot and whom I love with all my heart.
2. For my crazy parents and sister who love and support me and are always making me laugh (even when they aren't trying).
3.  My job; for obvious reasons (like a paycheck) but also because I work with some truly awesome people that inspire me to work harder and become a better person.
4.  My Country, because I have the freedom to be who I want to be and live how I want to live without oppression.




I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!


Now on to the business.  Last week was crazy, mostly because I work for a retail company so things are always crazy around the holidays.  We have so many great things going on, but it takes people working hard to pull it all off so that is what I was doing last week, with some minor kinks in the chain.  The weather at the beginning of the week sort of put things a little behind, but I caught back up quickly. 


Thursday we went to BF's family's house for our first half of our Thanksgiving celebration.  We had a lovely late lunch with BF's parents, sister and grandparents (who were a laugh and a half) with all of my favorite Thanksgiving meal items.  After we sufficiently stuffed ourselved we headed to my parents' house to have an early dinner.  I was pretty comatose from the food so after a quick rest we played Seinfeld Monopoly with my parents for a couple hours and then headed home, car loaded with leftovers from both meals. 


We've been eating Thanksgiving leftovers all weekend and I think I've had my fill of turkey.   

It was hard to adjust to going back to work this week after a nice long weekend, but I'm sort of happy to be back.  There's only so much you can do at home, and when I sit in my house without anything to do I start buying stuff for my house... which isn't what I want to do right now since I need to be saving for a car. 

Also, at various times this past week, we've been decorating the place for the holidays.  I put some little holiday trinket things out a few days before Thanksgiving and hung our stockings, and then the day after Thanksgiving we put the tree up and decorated our little hearts out. Now the house is very festive and cozy, but we need to get rid of the old TV that is sitting in the living room floor (want a tv?).  The only store we ventured to on Black Friday was Best Buy to see if we could score a new Samsung LCD flat screen tv and a Wii for my mom's Christmas present.  They had a cool package deal going on where you get the TV AND the Wii for $399 (FAR less than you would pay for both) so we figured we would jump on it and came home the proud owners of a new tv.  It doesn't detract much from the Christmas decorations. 

I LOVE this time of year and am so happy that BF and I can share it and create new traditions and fun memories!

Decisions, Decisions... Also, SNOW DAY!

I went to bed late last night knowing that I would get to sleep in because it snowed.  Whenever it snows here in the Portland metro-area people freak out and everything shuts down... because our city (and our drivers) aren't equipped to handle that sort of thing.  I don't know why.  It happens every year.  I digress...





Anyhow, I awoke this morning and turned on the news and peered outside and sure enough the snow was still there and the roads were icy so I decided to work from home for a bit.  I checked my email and what did I find?  THIS!!!



The Mini Countryman



 Why is this so awesome?...



Because it's a Mini; but also because I've been planning on buying a new car within the next 8 months or so and my dreams of owning a Mini were growing dim.  But now it's back because this awesome little Countryman is all-wheel drive. 

Before I found this little gem I was looking into buying one of these:



The Nissan Juke



It's a Nissan Juke.  I hate the name, I think it's totally lame, but the car itself is pretty awesome. 

Both the Nissan and the Mini are crossover vehicles with all-wheel drive and plenty of room.  I don't necessarily whave to have these things, but BF has a small car and we need to have a vehicle that has all-wheel drive to get us up the mountain and through the snowy roads... and the space for our camping and adventure needs in the summer.

I will be spending the rest of my day comparing and staying warm.

Weezer, How I Love Thee... Again.

It hasn't been super publicized, but Weezer came out with a couple new albums recently.  Before I left on my work travels I picked them both up as I figured if they sucked it would be mildly entertaining and if they were good then I scored some good new music.


Well guess what. 


Weezer, you have won me back.  After your tragic "Raditude" release (I'm not saying it was complete garbage, but I can only listen to 2 songs on that album) I was a little hesitant to even give you another chance but I'm sure glad I did. 

Death to False Metal was quietly released earlier this year without much notice by anyone really.  I LOVE this one.  Ripe with catchy beats and humorus lyrics that evoke bands of the nineties I feel like this album was a fun tribute to some token groups that are no longer making music... or have evolved far off from where they started.  As always, there are a couple of off the wall tunes that I skip over, but the album as a whole is pretty enjoyable.

Hurley, recorded in part at the Hurley offices in Costa Mesa, CA but named after the Lost character, is as enjoyable, but not as fun in my opinion.  There are a couple of heavier songs that aren't outright sad, but aren't the normal style of melancholy nerd-rock I'm used to.  Still, it's a big step up from the aforementioned 2009 flop that is now on my cd rotation (yes, I still actually use my cds... odd isn't it?).

At any rate, I'm glad Weezer is back (somwhat) and this is enough to tide me over for a bit.