Happy New Year's

This year on New Year's our friend Charlie invited us to a party at his fiance Karen's house. This was a very special party that you had to RSVP for two weeks in advance. That's because it was a Beer Tasting party. I like to think I'm pretty diverse in the beer tasting category but I was schooled by my friends. I got 4 out of 10 the first round and 4 out of 10 the second round. I won no money, but I was not in last place! And plus the second round the beers that were chosen were tasting like feet. I was booed for dumping in to the spit bucket but I'm not one for drinking something that tastes like the way feet smell. After the party at Charlie's we went out to a street in Buffalo called Hertel Ave, which has a lot of restaurants/clubs. It had snowed 10 inches that day so heels weren't a good choice. We made it out with out anyone falling to the ground. We got to celebrate New Year's with many of our friends!

For some reason WWE fighting broke out.

Brooke, Kristin and Corinne, BFF's

'09 is the year of Jim's....

Happy New Year!

Corinne and Brooke

Christmas Utah Style

This year I went back to Utah for Christmas. I left on the Sunday before Christmas and came back the Sunday after Christmas. I had some trouble at the airport (I always do, it's like I'm cursed). It was a blizzard Sunday morning in Buffalo and a few flights were cancelled before mine, but they said we were still going to leave. I was supposed to have a 2 1/2 hour layover in Chicago but it ended up to be no layover, me running to my gate, and the pilot holding the plane for me and about 9 other people. I got into Utah about a half hour late, which it is amazing that I even got there the same day. But my bags did not make the flight with me. They were stuck in Chitown. This happens to me all the time so I've been smart enough to pack in my carry on some undies, my face wash, make-up, my hair essentials and my pills. The bags came on the next flight which came in at midnight so Jaime had to drive me to the airport the next morning to pick them up. During the week I was lucky enough to have lunch with Ash because she was in SLC that day and Leslie and Tya came along. We had Cafe Rio which is probably one of the greatest places ever. I also had lunch with my boys Blake, Brian and Eric. It was fun and Good Wood was awesome food. Eric was kind enough to help me finish my sandwich and fries. For those of you that don't know, Blake, Brian and Eric were some of my BFF's from Payson Hike Skool and I love them. Plus Andrew (I don't know where you were that day Andrew!) I also got to hang with the fam at the Foulger Family Xmas party. I got to celebrate my Uncle Kim's birthday at the Macaroni Grill with everyone on the Vincent side. Christmas was good. I got a C Note (always nice), a gift card to the Depot for a new oven, a gift card to my favorite store Banana Republic, a blank scrapbook, a "Mini Van Fun" t-shirt (which Hank chewed on), cutting boards, sweaters, some earings, football socks, and shampoo and conditioner (from Jaime of course). On Christmas I made the rounds to everyone's house and when Jaime and Pete got back we played the original Dr Mario on something called the Yobo. I became obsessed with it because Jaime kicked my ass every time and I didn't want her to keep beating me. So every chance we got the rest of the week we played Dr Mario. Friday I went down to pick Jaime up from work but she was not ready so I went to Nordstroms, Gap and Banana and spent my C Note and gift card. Later that night I went to the Jazz game with my dad where I got to watch Dirk get tossed and the Jazz got it done Jerry Sloan style (as my friend Jimmy C would say). Saturday morning I went to breakfast with my dad and some of the guys that play basketball with him Saturday mornings. This also included my uncle, his kids Charlie and Luci, and Jaime and Pete. Luci liked to eat jam from the packets with a knife for her breakfast. Saturday afternoon I went to Linner with my dad, some of his friends, and Jaime and Pete to Iggy's. We went back to the house to play Dr Mario but Pete got called into work and Jaime continued to beat me the rest of the night. Sunday was a good flight, no delays and I made it back to the B-Lo by 10pm. I was also disappointed that I did not get to do any snowboarding because I have a sinus infection and my Dr said it wouldn't be good. Booooo. When I got back to the B-Lo, James and I exchanged gifts. I said we would do it when I got back since he needed some more time. I gave him Mario Party for the Wii, some Wii controller attachments, a seafood cooking pot, a car organizer and a Utah shirt. He gave me a knife set, some shelving for my craft area (he says I need to stop being so messy). And from his mom and dad I got a new toaster, and from his brother and sister-in-law I got some more cutting boards, a scarf and some circumcised gloves. You can't have too many circumcised gloves.

The BIG 27

James turned 27 on December 2nd and I thought what better to give him than a slinky. That wasn't the only thing I got him but it was the present he had the most fun with. Good thing we have stairs otherwise I don't know what he would have done. I also purchased him a belt with the buckle made out of a golf club head. I got the idea for it when I saw Justin Timberlake wearing it on the cover of Golf Digest. He likes JT and golf so it was a perfect present. Although, I think he liked the slinky more. And who wouldn't? For his birthday dinner I took him to the classy Empire Grill, and it was delicious.

The slinky

The belt. I was more excited for the belt than he was.

Bills Game 11/30/08

We went to the Bills game a couple weeks ago. They played a horrible game against the 49ers. I have now vowed not to go back to a game until two conditions are met: girly girl JP Losman is no longer on our team and we are at least winning games. Those things have not happened and I will not return to the Ralph until they do. But we had a good time tailgating in the 28 degree weather...

Ah, a nice 28 degrees.

It was dip day. I made my specialty 7 layer bean dip.

Look at those layers! Perfect.

Yep, that's me. Don't worry, I had on some thermals, a pair of sweatpants, a pair of waterproof pants, another shirt, a turtle neck, a long sleeve shirt, my down feather coat, a scarf, a hat, gloves, three pairs of socks and some waterproof boots. I was sweating!

James was dancing to stay warm. Stupid him only wore jeans, a shirt, a jacket and a coat.

My friend Rick, he claimed these were keeping his nose warm. And that porn-stache was for the disco the night before.

Little James was so tired when we got home.

Matches

Here is a little story about what you should do with matches after they are lit. A little background to this story is that I gave James "special" fart matches for Christmas as a joke.

Last night when James came home from work he needed to "sit in his office" as he calls it. He gets his new, special matches out of his stocking and goes into the bathroom. I go upstairs to put on some sweatpants to get ready for our Wii party. When I come back downstairs, James had finished in his office and I smelled something burning. Here is the rest of our conversation:

Brooke: What's burning?

James: I lit a match out here to burn a candle.

Brooke: Oh, ok. It smells funny, not like a candle.

James: It might be my fart matches, maybe they have a special scent to cover my stench.

Brooke: It's probably toxic and we will die from the fumes.

(About 2-3 minutes pass by)

Brooke: Do you smell something burning? It smells funny.

James: My matches smell like inscents.

Brooke: Hmm, I don't think so.

(As I'm walking to the bathroom, smoke is filling the kitchen and it's coming from underneath the bathroom door. I open the bathroom door and smoke is every where. There is a small flame in the garbage can.)

Brooke: Holy shit! The garbage can is on fire!

(I grab the garbage to run outside with it. James comes running and takes the garbage can outside and puts snow in it. I start fanning the kitchen so the obnoxious, industrial strength smoke alarm doesn't go off. James comes back in.)

Brooke: What the F**k is wrong with you?! Who puts matches in the garbage can?! Why did you not put it in the toilet stupid?!

James: I always do that.

Brooke: And what matches smell like inscents, dummy?

James: Ones that cover farts.

Brooke: I'm going to kill you.

(I open the sliding glass door and the front door to let the house air out.)

James: It's cold in here.

Brooke: No shit. I'm going to make you go stand outside in it. And you always put the matches in the garbage can?

James: Yeah.

Brooke: It's probably best that you don't do that anymore.

James: I agree.

Hap, Happy, Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year's everyone!! In the new year I hope for world peace, the end of snow, a good trip to the Dominican, a win for UB and a win for the Utes. Let's go Bulls, Let's go Utes!

This sucks.

So there is a "Winter Storm Warning" out there right now. We are supposed to get 6-12" in the next 6 hours. My office is closing at 1pm which is awesome. And all my friends are teachers and they got a snow day, awesome again. But no one wants to drive anywhere to hang out since it's so crappy out. That's why this sucks. Now I have to go home and actually do laundry and clean. Or I might just sit on my fat ass and watch Christmas movies. We'll see how this pans out when I get home. Let's all hope that this storm has passed through Buffalo and Chicago by Sunday which is when I am scheduled to fly to Utah. And by the time I get home, my snowplow man better have plowed my driveway because there is no way in hell I am going outside to shovel.

This is the view outside my window at work.

Read 'em and weep

I just got my grades back for this past semester. As you can see below I got straight A's or what some people like to call a 4.0 GPA. It was only three classes, but so what, an A is an A. Plus Corporate Finance was not the easiest class, but I maybe a genius compared to the rest of the population at my ghetto school. Boo Yeah Bitches!

What I've learned

While living here in the Northeast during winter, I've learned a few things. I will share:

1: The weather man is never right, always look outside before going anywhere.

2: Buy a car starter. When it's 2 degrees you won't want to go outside to start your car.

3: Remember to set your heater to on and to the vents that will defrost your window, otherwise your car starter is useless.

4: Have a good pair of winter boots. Not ones with heels or anything like that. Ones that are water proof and you can get dirty. Wear them to work and bring shoes to change. Otherwise you will fall on your ass walking into work in your heels.

5: Always layer your clothing. The cold air goes through your clothes. If you layer enough, the air won't feel like it's freezing you to the bone and you feel like you want to die.

6: Wear a scarf. It helps so the cold air doesn't hit where your clothes and coat don't cover and then you feel like you want to die.

7: Have gloves. Your hands will be so cold that you can't open doors or you feel like they are going to fall off.

8: During the winter you need to wake up earlier than usual because you will need to clean the snow off your car. Don't be that asshole that drives down the road with snow still on their car that's flying onto other cars.

9: If it's snowing or there is snow on the ground, I will be driving slow, don't ride my ass.

10: It is possible for it to snow 6" in 8 hours.

11: Don't put your coffee mug on top of your car when there is ice up there. It will fall off and spill all over your black pants and new red coat.

12: Buy a long coat. It will help with the layering on your legs. That way you won't feel all warm up top with all the layers and your bottom half feels like you are frozen.

13: Always wear a hat. When that wind blows your head and your ears you will feel like you want to die.

14: Buy gloves that are half glove, half mitten. And have the fingers in the glove cut off so that you can still do stuff without taking your gloves off. I call these circumcised gloves.

15: Always buy a coat with a hood. Why would you not have a hood? It protects the back of your neck from the death cold.

Needless to say, winter makes me feel like I want to die. The air here is so humid that it chills you to the bone when it is cold. The wind will go right through your clothes.

My new favorite website

So I don't know where I found this website, but it is amazing. It's called Graph Jam. You can look at other people's graphs or you can make your own. I've made a few graphs in my day but here are some of my favs.

This one is self explanatoryLori is my co-worker who likes to talk about her kids' poop

Hank is my sister's dog. He's kind of a jerk.

Jane is my other co-worker who annoys the piss out of me.