Big Shoes To Fill

This year posed a certain kind of problem for me.

You see, each year at thanksgiving our family hosts a friend named Lois and a couple of years ago she told us that she always keeps the place card put on her plate. Every year Katy has had the burden of making the place cards. Katy isn't dining with us this year seeing as how she moved to Arizona.

The lot then fell on me.

I debated on sending Katy our guest-list and having her make some and mail them to me. Then I decided I'd just look at Wal-Mart in the Thanksgiving section to see if they had place cards.

What was I thinking?

You can't find Thanksgiving things at Wal-Mart after halloween! All I could find were some scrapbooking supplies in the clearance isle.

Pictured above is what I came up with.

Katy can be quite fastidious when it comes to things like this.

I hope she approves.

I Must Be Bored

I can tell I've been away from single attractive males for a long time. As soon as I see a good looking guy on TV or a movie I stare and smile. I hardly ever buy magazines but I bought the People 'Sexiest Man Alive' issue because I feel deprived of attractive men (plus Katy shared with me that there is a scratch and sniff sexy men section!! page 82). Not that there aren't plenty of attractive men around here but oogling over someone who is happily married is/should be looked down upon.
Also it has become very evident to me the fact that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I don't think Leonardo DiCaprio is attractive at all. Or Michael Phelps, or Patrick Dempsey, or Seal (I'm flipping through my magazine, that is how I came up with the names) or any of the Jonas brothers.
PLUS, I'm sure I'll get over this very quickly, but it freaks me out when I see someone and think "Wow that guy is sexy!" and he ends up being younger than me. I know sexiness doens't depend on age and as I get older I might even be more attracted to people younger than me but at this moment it freaks me out.
Oh-I forgot to mention why this all came about. The guy pictured above is Jeremy Sisto from Law and Order. I walked in on my mom watching Law and Order (that makes it seem like I caught her doing something she wasn't supposed to) and his voice and his suit and his hair and everything about him made me stare. I think he is SO fine.

You Know You Live In A Small Town If...

The post mistress around here is pretty stanch. If a piece of mail came to PO box 412 to Tracy Nelson it would be returned to sender because there isn't a Tracy Nelson who lives there. The bank where I got my car loan from has been trying to send me my loan payment book for about a month but because it had my physical address not my PO box on it it was returned.
I for a while have suspected her of picking favorites and only picking on the people she doesn't like.
I think I have some pretty good evidence towards that.
I was cleaning off my counters when I found a piece of mail addressed to
Durell Nelson
Nauvoo, IL
No PO box, no street address, no zip code, nothing. But somehow it ended up in our PO box.
Maybe the key to the postal system is to not write the wrong address but just not put one at all.

Applebees Schmapplebees

Who wants to know about my Applebee's experience?

Tonight my mom and dad and I went to Applebee's for dinner and it was less than exciting.
Firstly it was FREEZING! Now I know that restaurants are usually on the chili side (who wants to eat when they are hot?) but I was FROZEN! I had to wear my coat and that is so annoying.
Secondly my mom ordered a Diet Pepsi and they were all out of Diet Pepsi. Weird? Yes, but sometimes your beverage machine runs out... I guess.
Thirdly our food came out (a million years after we ordered it) and my "well done" steak was in a pool of "medium" steak juices.
Then the waitress asks what kind of sauce I want and I say A1 (of course) but guess what, they were out of A1 so she brought me Heinz 57 sauce. Some people love Heinz 57 sauce but it is NOT a substitute for A1.
I went to dive into my mashed potatoes and they weren't really mashed. They were more like cubed potatoes smothered in sour cream. My vegetables were more mashed than my potatoes.
My mom went to take a big bite of her Bruschetta Burger and it was extremely dry and cold. Almost as cold as her french fries.
My dad's food was ok but he spilled it on himself so I'm going to go ahead and blame that on the restaurant too.
When we were leaving we heard a waitress tell someone their meal was going to be a little longer to prepare because all of the chicken they had was frozen.
Crazy!

But good news. I have been on a 3 year quest for a good pair of brown dress shoes. I have searched for a pair that fits me just right and finding a 9.5 seems like an impossible quest all together but tonight I found a pair.
I'm pretty excited. Now I can wear my brown outfits.

: (

You know what is just as sad as being picked last?
Voting for someone who doesn't get picked.
Sad Day

The Pink Panther...err...Pekingese

I know everyone's pet has little quarks that make it loveable.  My dog is obsessed with the color pink.  He LOVES pink. My mom had a pair of pink slippers (not the ones pictures above) that were pink that nubbins basically claimed as his.  Whenever she had them on he would attack her feet.  The same goes for Jessie's pink piglet slippers and my mom's pink nightgown.  My mom since bought a new pair of slippers that are black and nubbins hasn't touched them.

For christmas last year I bought nubbins a pink teddy bear that he has ripped to shreds, he LOVES it!

This morning nubbins was in my bed trying to wake me up and get me to play with him. I finally sat up and he jumped out of my bed and dug around in my closet. He emerged a little while later with the pink slipper shown above. He literally had to dig for it because just last night I cleaned my room and i matched up all my shoes in my closet and I found that match to that pink slipper under two other pair of shoes.

What a dork!!