unseasonal pleasantries

last night, after a fabulous dinner with friends, i got to drive home with my sun roof open to enjoy the 50 degree weather.

this morning i was woken up by a serious thunderstorm.

not too shabby for the end of december. not too shabby at all.

christmas gaming

i mentioned that my family plays games, right? tonight i won a game of Axis & Allies, re-writing history to win WWII for the Axis forces. last night i came in second in a rather long game of Split, and i place somewhere in the middle in two games of Uno prior to that. the first of the Uno games was my niece's first game with real Uno cards. she did quite well. :) the night before i absolutely trounced my parents (especially my dad) in a game of Split. earlier in the week my mom and i split winning at Bohnanza, i came in second at a game of Phase 10 and i won a smashing game of Blokus (after a stunning defeat on my first attempt). i think it was yesterday that i came in second at Pirates Cove, too. and i won a game of Martian Fluxx somewhere in there, too. now to get in games of Sorry Revenge and Five Crowns before the trip home is over ...

favorite nouns

tartlet. gesticulation. prose. velociraptor. ambiguity. sleep.
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rhyming poem

go to bed
my body said.
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favorite game to play

hard to get. ha! kidding. :)

i love games. playing games is what my family does. we may not be great thinkers or world leaders or run very fast, but ... wait. sorry. that's the tribbiani family. we hittles are great thinkers AND game players. card games. board games. computer games. video games. word games. car games. we're gamers at heart. so to pick a favorite is a little tricky.

i really enjoy the game Fluxx. i've played a couple of different versions, and i appreciate it's ever-changing rules and quick game play. it doesn't take itself too seriously, and that's a good thing. plus, the artwork is good and the background story is humorous.

i also really enjoy Phase 10. and Killer Uno. and Unexploded Cow. and Spoons. and Taboo. and Snorta. have you ever played Snorta? you will laugh a lot. and having fun is the whole point.

well, that and trouncing on the competition.
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if you could choose your name, what would you pick?

for quite some time, i've thought about adding Josephina to the front of my name. i'd be Josephina Rebecca Renee. i really like my name, so i don't want to get rid of it, but i think i could pull off the nickname Jo, too.
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favorite adjectives

stellar. superb. fabulous. amazing. ridiculous. clear. sunny. hawaiian.
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who knows me best, part 2

i believe marlana and erin are quite correct. it is, undoubtedly, my mother who knows me best. i love her more than words could ever express, and i'm pretty sure she actually knows me better than she lets on. she's just smart that way. i'm blessed beyond description with her friendship and love.
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who knows you best?

i don't know.
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reality show choice

i haven't had tv service for several years, so i'm sure there are all sorts of reality shows out there that i don't know about. but of the ones i'm familiar with ... i'd choose What Not To Wear. or perhaps The Amazing Race. yeah, The Amazing Race! not Survivor ... i like to watch it, but i wouldn't want to live outside with a bunch of strangers. and i don't always appreciate teamwork even with people i know. ;)
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what's your sign?

i'm an aquarian. according to the first hit on google, that means i'm friendly and humanitarian, honest and loyal, original and inventive, independent and intellectual. it also means i'm intractable and contrary, perverse and unpredictable, unemotional and detached. yeah, i had to look up intractable. it means i'm not easily controlled or directed. i'm not going to claim or deny any of that. and you can't make me. ;)

according to wikipedia, i'm most compatible with folks born under the signs of gemini, libra, aries, leo and sagittarius. i don't know about all that. but my brother's dog is named gemini, and i'm allergic to her.

famous aquarians include: buzz aldrin, geena davis, edouard manet, john belushi, paul newman, eartha kitt, lewis carroll, ALAN ALDA!, tom selleck, oprah winfrey, fdr, carol channing, farrah fawcett, alice cooper, babe ruth, ronald reagan, rip torn, abraham lincoln and charles schwab.

having doubts that aquarians are the epitome of awesomeness? talk to chuck.
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verbs, part 3

did you see the photo april posted with her verbs? it made me say waddle. and that's a pretty great verb. go on. say it. out loud. waddle. waddle. waddle. and that makes me think of yoink, which fred introduced me to last month. yoink. yoink. waddle. yoink. words are funny.

yoink.
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verbs, part 2

as marlana pointed out, i am a big fan of the verb gesticulate. it's just so much fun to say.

what i've been learning recently is that i'm pretty much done with focusing on specific topics. if i was having a conversation and a great verb came up naturally, i'd undoubtedly point out that i love that verb. and then probably go on to point out three others that i'm fond of. but to just sit and think about verbs? my mind isn't currently working that way.

instead, i'm focused on buying fleece remnants at work today. did you know our fleece is currently 50% off? and the remnants are another 75% off of that price? that's right. it's ridiculous. i mean, it's practically 90% off the original price. yup. i'm hoping to find a couple of pieces. to make things. you know.
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my favorite verbs

my favorite verbs are easily those that aren't intended to be verbs, such as photoshop (e.g. sure, i can photoshop those wrinkles right off your face.) and metal (e.g. where have you been? we have been metaling for hours.)
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television-show home i want to live in

so my box of topics is in the office. i'm on the sofa in the living room. today was a long day at work, and i'm feeling lazy. that's right, too lazy to go get the box of topics. so, instead, i asked marlana what she wanted to talk about. she found some listing of topics online and started reading them off. the first was "model organisms" or something like that. and then she went on to find the one asking in which television-show home would you want to live. so that's what we picked as the topic. but, as soon as she said model, i wanted to post the clip from Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip's premiere episode. i'm sure it loses some of its greatness if you don't know the background story. but you can fix that by just watching the entire episode. it's on netflix for streaming ... look it up. ;) but for now, watch this clip:



oh, and apparently i'm supposed to "actually answer the question" today. you people are so demanding. stop trying to box me in.

unless you're boxing me into charlie's house on Two and a Half Men. without charlie, please. i just want the house.
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pick your alias

this is my topic. marlana and i have been watching Undercover Boss, and i started wondering how the boss chooses his alias. does he choose it himself? does someone else choose it for him? and if someone else chooses it ... what's the process there? if the boss is aliased as Danny, is that because the boss had a best friend named Danny as a child?

i should say that i love this show. the big guy at the big company is taking entry-level jobs to get a real feel for his employees. he learns how his policies trickle down through the ranks, how his employees are being supported (or not) and how the company can make positive changes to benefit the workplace. it's great. and at the end, he brings the employees he's interacted with to corporate headquarters, lets them know he's really the boss and enlists their help to better the work environment. i've seen employees get sent on extended vacations because they need a break from the stress of their jobs, get promotions because they're awesome at their jobs ... last night the guy from 7-Eleven gave one of his delivery truck drivers his own franchise.

so now that you know WHY i picked the topic, i'll admit that i have no idea what my alias would be. :)
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first holiday baking

i've got cookie dough chilling in the fridge for marlana's cookie exchange tomorrow. even though i have to work during the exchange, i'm going to leave cookies so i can have a big plateful of baked goodness when i get home. and i kinda want to call off and bake all day. :)

speaking of cookie goodness, i got a tin of home-baked yumminess in the mail yesterday. thank you, patti! so tasty!

what are you reading now?

i'm still not reading anything. i wasn't reading anything when fred asked last month, and i'm not reading anything now.

i shoveled the driveway this morning, though. and i made good use of the little photo boxes facebook has added to our profiles. it took some trial & error, but becky's page now reads "wish me a happy birthday" across the top. or, at least, it does until someone else tags her in a photo. :)

so now i have about 2.5 hours before i need to leave for work, and i haven't started the productivity i got up early to accomplish. we'll see how it goes. first, breakfast.
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favorite tv personalities

bobby goren from law & order: criminal intent, hawkeye pierce from M*A*S*H and phoebe buffay from FRIENDS.

i doubt that you find any of those surprising. runners up would include dharma montgomery, liz lemon, olivia benson and, of course, officer tom hanson.
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honesty

you know how i have the list of blogs at the bottom of every Daily Topic post? yeah, i know most of those bloggers aren't posting. i don't even take the time to check anymore. if you want to read someone else's ramblings for the day - click through to the blog of april, erin or marlana. the others abandoned us long ago.
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talents and skills i wish i had

- tempering chocolate
- playing the fiddle
- playing the banjo
- fixing snowblowers
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snow & wind

jobs i'm glad i don't have on days like today:
- pizza delivery person
- chinese food delivery person
- jimmy john's delivery person
- flower delivery person
- grave digger
- utility pole fixer
- taxi driver
- truck driver
- fast food drive-thru window operator
- pharmacy drive-thru window operator
- toll booth worker

time-warped perspective

so i've been posting daily since the beginning of october. i'm actually a little impressed with myself. but today, my heart skipped a beat when i realized i didn't post yesterday. i mean, this far in & i forget to post? really?

nope, not really. i posted early yesterday morning before i'd gone to bed. so i've slept twice since then, and so it seems like a really long time ago. surely more than one day. only it wasn't.

yeah. aren't you glad i shared that?

google your first name & post the first photo

so i decided to search out all of my first-name options. so when i'm formal, i get to be an actress and fashion model.



















and when i'm around my family (and a few friends), i'm a japanese television star. personally, if i had to choose one of these photos to be me - i'd choose this one.


















and during my normal day-to-day life, i'm a girl who attended a conference about stereotyping. and apparently google ignores apostrophes because i get this photo regardless of whether i use one or not.

















and during the weeks leading up to st. patrick's day, i'm a girl at her junior prom. i look like i'm having a good time, don't i? ;)











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the calendar says what?

have you noticed that christmas is only two weeks away? how did that happen? i need to make a list ...

without the letter p

so fred sloshed water all over her keyboard, and no longer has use of the letter that follows O. since she hadn't offered any blog suggestions for the month, i took the liberty of suggesting this one for her. so i can't use the letter that comes after O. the question becomes, do i use words that don't include that letter? or do i use words that use the letter, and simly tye them without it? the first is easier to read, no doubt. but the second is kinda funny.

either way, it's time for breakfast. and then maybe i'll go ee.
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christmas in the mountains

this past weekend was christmas with my mom's family. we rented a cabin in the smoky mountains and filled it with 20 people.

the lower level had two big bedrooms, each with a private bath.

and a theater room (note the large white screen on the wall) with a very comfortable sofa that i claimed as my bed.

the upper level had two bedrooms, a sitting area with a tv and multiple game tables.

the main level also had two bedrooms with private baths. it also had the dining room, kitchen and a sitting area with a tv and electric fireplace.

with the coffee table out of the way, the sitting area had plenty of room for playing railroad tycoon.

and with railroad tycoon out of the way, there was plenty of room for the kids to open their gifts.

the dining room table sat 10, and was plenty big to spread out a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.

and plenty of room for the kids to do crafts.

the three balconies afforded some gorgeous views of the mountains.

and a great backdrop for family photos.

you'll get to see the opposite view of this one at a later date. ;)

and it snowed! this was my first trip there when it snowed. doesn't it look so pretty here?

yeah ... not so pretty here. the snow was only about an inch thick on the roads, but the layer of ice underneath is what stranded us on the side of the mountain.

this was the last of the inclines we needed to climb, but we just couldn't do it. and turning around to go back to the cabin wasn't an option because we'd come down inclines just as steep.

so we sat and waited for four hours, along with a handful of other cars who couldn't make it up the hill either. thankfully, there was a gravel driveway we could back into to get out of the way. see where the people are standing? in the last photo, my car was parked right about there. not a good location if someone decided to come down the mountain and couldn't control his slide. the white car to their right is a good example. i'm not exactly sure what he was trying to do (because he was already off the road ... maybe turn around?), but he couldn't stop sliding backwards and he crumpled up the fence at the intersection. it was a slow, gentle crumple ... no injuries to the driver and the car probably didn't get worse than a small scratch from the wood.

after the sun melted through the ice, we were on our way. we hit snow a couple of times, and had a near white out for about a quarter mile ... but after that it was smooth sailing. once we lowered our elevation, the weather was good and we made it home without further incident.

if we go back next year, i'll be investing in a set of chains for my tires. :)

resolutions i'll never keep

stop eating fast food after 10pm. i told myself that last summer when liz & i stopped at wendy's after railcats games two or three times a week. but since i stopped at wendy's last night after work, obviously i'm not concerned enough to stop.

stop eating a giant bag of doritos in a mere two sittings. the truth is, i could eat the whole bag in one sitting, but as i get towards the bottom i realize i've eaten almost the entire bag ... so i stop & finish it off the next day. i should probably be able to get at least 4 servings out of it, right?

dust & vacuum on a regular basis. yeah, unless i start having friends over on a regular basis, i don't see this one ever happening. so if you stop by to see me unannounced (ha!), expect to see a house that needs to be dusted and vacuumed.

stop working FRIENDS quotes into my every day conversation. nah, let's not be ridiculous.
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most embarrassing moment

junior high. it was just a really long moment.
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the last dream i remember

so i'm hanging out with a friend from high school for the first time in years. and we're at a school (perhaps the one where she works now?), and i'm showing her something on the computer. searching for something? or researching something? or ... something?

yeah, i didn't say it was a good dream. or even a complete one. ;)
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facebook friends

the question for today was how many of my facebook friends would i delete if i wasn't worried about their feelings. and, honestly, i don't know that i would delete any of them. i have deleted people - generally folks i knew in high school who in some way or another started bugging me with their posts - and i'm willing to delete more if needed. but currently, my friends list is treating me well.

now if the question was how many friend requests have i accepted because i was worried about the requesters feelings, that would be different. there's a good chunk of requests that i accept just because "well, it'd be rude to say no. i can always delete them later if they bug me." but most of them i don't de-friend later. as it turns out, a lot of my fb friends are pretty quiet. and if they don't raise a red flag, they remain on the list.

but like i said, i'm quite willing to delete them if needed. :)
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the drive

road trips with small children do take more time. we made it safely, though. the cabin is full and almost overwhelming. (sometimes i wonder if i have a bit of an anxiety issue with large groups of people.) the view from the balconies is clear; the air is crisp. it's never a bad thing when the biggest decision to make is whether or not to leave the curtains open on the wall of windows before finally going to bed.
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christmas cards

generally i enjoy sending out christmas cards. or, at least, i enjoy the idea of sending out christmas cards. there have been a few times where it feels like a chore to actually get them in the mail. but i'm always glad when i get it accomplished. and i really enjoy receiving christmas cards and lining them up along my book shelves. december is my favorite postal month. :)
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text test

i'm testing my abilities to blog by text messages. Because i just might need to do that this weekend.

favorite comfort food

doritos. although pizza is a very close second place.
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first snow

it's not much, but at least it's sticking! the forecast calls for it to stop within the next two hours, so i don't suppose we'll get anything too impressive out of it. but i am quite certain that my trees are quietly cursing me for not having their sweaters finished.

can you believe november is over? NaBloPoMo seems to have passed by very quickly. we had 15 folks blogging on the specific topics. three of made it through with complete success - gold stars to april, marlana and myself. that's right, i gave myself a gold star. because i can. ;) a smaller group is going to continue with daily topics through december. so while i've added back my entire link list on the right, my topical posts will have a footer with links to the other topical bloggers. today's a free day as we finish getting all the topics gathered up. the ones i've seen so far are good, so visit often. :)
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