It's Like Having a New Husband!

Matt's hair has been thinning since I've known him, really, but he's still worn it long (quite long for a guy, at least) despite that. It's very fine, and the bald spot on the back of his head has, unfortunately, been getting more noticable in the last couple of years. For the past six months or so, I've bugged him now and then about just shaving it all off like a lot of younger balding guys do, so the baldness isn't as noticable, but he alwas cringed and grabbed ahold of his hair saying he liked his long hair. "Whatever," I'd say, "but when you are fully bald in the back, you are not having a ponytail like some icky old biker dude."

Well, as of last night, my husband has no hair on his head.



(Here's what it looked like about a month ago.)

It's... really odd to get used to. I like it, don't get me wrong! It's just very very different. I've known Matt almost 8 years, and he's had long hair (at least to his collar) all that time except once when he got it cut "short," which was like a normal guy haircut but a little shaggier. So this... this is weird. I keep looking at him and saying, "You have no hair! You have... you have no hair!"

He says it feels weird to lie on his pillow, to put on his shirt, things like that, since there's no hair to block contact with things. Apparently his head is cold (although I think it's just that he can feel the air on it), but he's a lucky man who married a knitter, and he has three beanies I made him, plus a couple that are store-bought. He'll survive. It'll just take some adjustment.

(I can't wait to hear about the reactions of the guys at work tomorrow!)

I'm blogging about my husband's new hairstyle (or lack thereof). Don't I lead an exciting life?

Big News

I'm sure it's not as exciting as some of you were perhaps thinking, but here it is nonetheless: Instead of moving this summer, we're staying here for at least another year. (Again.)

I just found out (by accident, really; someone in the teaching program at the college here came through my checkout line at work and I talked to him) that our college here in town DOES INDEED offer the degree I need! That is, the post-baccalaureate teaching license for secondary education. Previously, they've only offered the post-bach (adding just the teaching stuff onto the degree you already have) for elementary ed, which I don't want to do. That's most of the reason we were going to move to The Big City in the first place: so I could get that degree.

BUT! Now it's offered here. And we were nervous about moving in the first place because we weren't sure we could transfer within the companies we're already working for. If we did, we would probably lose our full-time status, since everyone has all the help they need right now, and won't start holiday hiring til August/September-ish. If we couldn't even transfer, we didn't have a guarantee of getting a job elsewhere! Also, the cost of living is just higher on the other side of the mountains, not to mention how it takes 45 minutes to drive anywhere--so you're using more gas which is more expensive to begin with.

So here we are, at the very least until I finish my teaching certification next year. Matt is pretty sure he's also going back to school this fall, probably to finish the psych degree he stopped a few years ago. That would be at least another four semesters for him (so he'd finish--fingers crossed--Spring of 2011). I suppose at the point when he's done with school, we'll see where we're at, if we still want to move, where we can both get jobs, etc. etc.

I suppose it was "Big" news in that NOT moving six hours away is kind of a big deal. Also, there will be BIG savings, because our little state college is a lot cheaper than any of the universities we were looking at going to!

I feel really good about it, and I'm glad we'll have numerous things to not worry about, at least for a couple more years. To anyone near where we were going to move, I'm sorry I won't be close to you! :( To my friends here, I'm glad we can still hang out for a while yet! :) I think this is where we are supposed to be.

8 Things Friday

1. I am currently knitting a pink baby hat. (Very currently; it's in my lap right now.) There are three pregnant girls at work, all due within about a month of each other. One is having twins. I figure at LEAST one of these four babies has to be a girl, right? And this was the yarn that was on top of the pile I could get to. Yay baby stuff! I'll be visiting Michael's soon for some more baby-appropriate yarn. Khristine will know her baby's gender next week, so that will narrow down at least one colour choice.

2. I probably have Big News, but I think I'll save that til I'm a little more sure, and have more time to post. I'm actually writing this Thursday night late since we'll be in the car tomorrow morning, and with friends all afternoon and evening.

3. It's killing me that I'll miss doing Wii Fit this weekend!!! I've done 22 days in a row, and to see a blank spot on the little calendar... Augh! I'll still do some of the stretches and such that I can technically do without a Wii Fit board or a virtual trainer, so I'll be working out a little this weekend while I'm away from my Wii. Probably walking and maybe some swimming. But still. I'm OCD enough and competitive enough that it's going to bother me, seeing three blank days after 22 full ones. *Sigh*

4. Jen and I (Jen from work--good grief I know a lot of Jennifers!) might be starting a knitting club. I taught her to knit a couple weeks ago and she's doing really well and wants to learn more, but I work all the time and she's at school or doing homework, plus working part time and taking care of her three kids. (She's also the one having twins in June-ish.) So I don't have time to show her new stuff, or how to fix things she's messed up, unless we meet in the evening. Why not make a Thing of it, right? So I'm gonna try and get some posters printed up that she can put up at the college (and maybe elsewhere....?) and see what happens. I don't want to put a lot of effort into it. Or any effort, really. I have enough on my plate as it is. But it'd be nice to hang out with other people that knit, and I'd be happy to teach beginners if they want to show up with some sticks and string.

5. I just made banana bread to take with us! :) Liz and Jamie will be feeding us most of the weekend, so I thought the least I could do was bring breakfast. I don't really care for cooking, but I do rather like baking. Except for all the dishes at the end, but I suppose that can't really be helped. The whole house smells like banana bread, and I can't eat any of it til tomorrow! :(

5a. Every time I spell "banana" I sing the Gwen Stefani song in my head.

6. I'm staying the night with Megan Saturday night after supper, then going back to Liz and Jamie's early Sunday morning. Megan has to work ridiculously early, like 5 or 6, so I'll probably get up with her and drive back. Sunday afternoon, we're having lunch at Matt's older sister's house. We haven't seen them since last April, I think. His little sister is coming, too, as well as his grandma. It'll be nice to see everyone.

7. Sorry for the lack of pictures lately. I've taken some pictures, but the more I think about it, the more I think no one would care to see them. Matt sitting in the huge bean bag playing XBox. Me doing Wii Fit. Me with curly hair. Meh. So... sorry. I'll try and find something dynamic to photograph this weekend, then come back with exciting things to show you! Or at least mildly interesting things, hopefully.

8. With my lovely work discount, I got two new DS games: Cake Mania and TouchMaster 2. I'm not sure what Cake Mania will be like, but it looked cute and entertaining and easy, my three requirements for video games, so we'll see. And TouchMaster has all kinds of games on it: solitaire, pool, I Spy, etc. etc. Good car trip stuff. I'll let you know how I like them, or if I do. I'm not really a video game person, but the My Word Coach I have on the DS (Matt's that he got used from a friend--it's the older model) is only good for about 30 minutes a day because (they say) your brain stops retaining all the new words it's learned after that. Also, sometimes I just don't want to use my brain! At least not as much as that requires. So I'm trying to branch out a bit to actual games, not just educational stuff. Although I might eventually get My Spanish Coach (or who knows, maybe another language!) for the fun of it.

Have a lovely weekend! I know I will!

8 Things Friday - 100th post!

1. The problem is that it's January. Stay with me, I have a theory. I've noticed I've been cranky more often, and it's easier for me to become cranky, lately. I haven't felt like blogging, I haven't felt like writing, I haven't felt like being crafty. I just want to sit on the sofa with my laptop and a movie and brood. And it's not just me. There seem to be fewer updates on my RSS feed every day. Stress levels seem higher in people around me. What I think happens is, after Christmas, people go into a slump. (And the economy's not helping, of course.) After Christmas, there's no reason for snow or cold (i.e. "Yay winter!" or a white Christmas). People are sick of winter. February has Valentine's Day, which is nice and cute, but March, when the calendar says the season changes into spring and there seems to be hope, is miles and miles away. The snow we thought was lovely in December is now crusted over and dirty. The ice in the parking lot won't melt because the sun sets at freakin' four-thirty in the afternoon. People have made New Year's Resolutions, and are either mad that they've already broken them, or hungry and tired from their diets and workouts. Cute summer clothes and bathing suits in shops seem to taunt us. The next holiday to look forward to brings chocolate (which is bad for our diets) and makes us spend money on cards and flowers and such. January... is just a bummer!

2. What do I propose? Get out of the slump! Make yourself do stuff, even if you don't feel like it! (As my dad would say, it builds character.) Write a blog entry; you'll get into it after a while. Go make something, whether it's cookies, a new purse, or a page in your scrapbook. Take a walk to get your blood going. Invite a friend over or out to coffee. We can do this! We can survive the last 15 days of this month!

3. Moving on:



I did my hair up in rag curlers the other night, slept on them, and woke up to



THIS! (Sorry for the scary flash. The lighting in my bathroom is not the best.)

The uber-ringlets calmed down pretty soon, but were still fairly ringlet-y for the rest of the day. I brushed them out when I got home from work that night, and it made nice waves, but it was more frizzy than wavy the next day, so now I know not to do that. I did the rag curlers again last night, and will not be brushing them out tonight, as much as it kills me to not brush my hair before bed aughhhhhh! But I was in a "I'm sick of my hair" phase, and this has cured it, at least for now. Something easy, cute, non-damaging to my hair, and not anything drastic (irreversable) like a cut or colour. Huzzah!

4. I did indeed make scones, but have taken no pictures of them. Alas. They were delicious, though! Cranberry orange yumminess, and even though I thought I might have kneaded the dough a little too much, they were still the right balance of dense and light (does that even make sense? like... substantial, but not seeming heavy). I also made awesome Devonshire cream to go with them, and it was all a success at the breakfast with friends this morning. Although it ended up being breakfast with friend, singular; the other one couldn't make it. :( Next time, Jeana!

5. Matt and I watched Get Smart tonight, which was very silly, yet entertaining. Thanks for the loan, Megan! I have inherited my dad's strange sense of humor, and I think he would really like this movie. Mom, if you're reading this, you guys need to rent it if you haven't already. I could just see Dad chuckling through various parts (if he doesn't fall asleep, of course).

6. Ugh, my brain has not been working lately! I can't type, I can't speak, I can't think of the right words... And I know why it is! It's because I'm not writing (creatively, not blog-ially or email-ially)! I promise Bernice's show is going to get back on the road again soon. There will be an update post tomorrow letting all twelve of my readers know what's going on. :P I miss it, I do! I just need to take a little time to plan.

7. I think several people who read my blog will find this comic amusing. (I would've put the comic itself on here, but my layout isn't wide enough to support it full-size.) If you are of the nerdy persuasion, I highly recommend xkcd. Some of the more math- or science-y ones are a little over my head, but usually I at least get the gist of them. And then there are the general nerdy comics about, oh... cats, and dating, and DnD and the like.

8. Jen showed me this blog, A Year of CrockPotting (that is totally a verb) and I think it's an excellent idea. It's finished now, as the blogger made something in her crockpot every day of 2008, but all the 365 recipes are there to use in 2009! So far I've only really looked at the soups, but there's everything from desserts to casseroles to pasta! And! BONUS: all or almost all of the recipes are gluten-free or have gluten-free options! Good news, Carrie and Noelle! I'm making the broccoli-cheese soup sometime soon, and I'll let you all know (if I remember) how it turns out.

Oh hello, it's me!

I feel like such a bad blogger! I've missed the first two "8 things Friday"s of the year. *Sigh* I've even taken pictures thinking "I'm going to blog this," but I haven't. Yet if I'm going to make 100 blog posts by the end of this year, I'd better get to it. So here's a little update.

With Christmas money, we ordered a SumoSac, and got it a few days ago. It's fantastic. Huuuuuge. (I think we got this one, but I'm not sure since Matt did the actual ordering.) Apparently, Matt says, it's the ultimate gamer's chair, and he's thoroughly tested that out by spending most of his day off today in it. I need to get a picture of this thing with a person in it for scale. When it's not parked in front of the tv (which means it's right in front of the sofa) it lives in the corner of the living room. This will be easier to manage once the Christmas tree is out of that corner.

Yeah, the tree's still up. (It's fake, remember? So don't worry about it being a fire hazzard.) I did, however, get all the decorations off it yesterday. Matt has tomorrow off, too, so I think he should take it apart and pack it back in the box. And then I can supervise the loading of the tree box and the big plastic tub with all the decorations back into our little storage unit.

I haven't missed a single day on the Wii Fit so far, though I did 25 minutes today instead of 30 minutes. (I woke up, did Wii Fit while eating toast for breakfast, went to church, came home and ate lunch, changed, went to work, came home and made and ate dinner, then went back to work for an all-store meeting.) Oh well. Matt didn't do any Wii Fit today because he's got a cold. I WIN! :P I did Wii Fit when I was getting a cold last weekend, though I just did the gentler balance games and yoga poses. I wonder how long I can actually go without missing a day all together?

Probably until we go out of town the weekend after this coming weekend (the 23rd through the 25th). We're driving a few hours away to the other side of the Colorado Rockies to stay with some geek friends. Matt's GMing a Star Wars campaign (like Dungeons and Dragons, but set in the Star Wars universe), so he and the friends we're staying with, as well as a couple other friends, will be doing that literally all weekend. I'll hang with them some, and probably bring movies and knitting, but I'm excited for a sleepover Saturday night with my dear friend Megan! I'll finally get to see her cute little house, and we'll do... something! Then on Sunday, we're going to visit Matt's older sister and her family who live near-ish to where we'll be staying. (Nearer than to where we live, anyway!) And then home and back to the usual.

Work is fine. The house is fine. Writing's... making me a little angsty, but you can read my whining over at Bernice's blog. I'm pondering, and will make another Author Post pretty soon to lay out my plan for the future of the story.

If I don't see you before then, be on the lookout for an 8 Things Friday post, hopefully actually ON Friday! I have the day off, and while I'm having breakfast with friends in the morning, and working on laundry and cleaning and such during the day, I WILL make time to blog then. With pictures of delicious, delicious scones! :)

Geeks Galore!

I hosted a "Geek Party" at my house yesterday afternoon. It was basically an excuse to dress up however we pleased and watch Lord of the Rings (Return of the King, since it was the only one Andrea had on DVD; I can't believe Matt and I don't own them, as geeky as we are--yet!). We talked about such geeky things as LotR, of course, Harry Potter, really snazzy cameras, internet memes, stuff on YouTube, and fanfic. The costumes, such as they were, were swell. I wish I had a better picture of Carrington and S. in their nerd costumes (S. was in a white shirt with a flowered tie and a calculator in the pocket, as well as thick glasses and an oldschool walkman--the kind that played TAPES!--on his belt; Carrington wore her hair in pigtails with a headband, pj-type pants tucked into socks, and her old retainer, as well as a plastic duck call on a necklace), but this one will have to do:



I think Carrington has fallen asleep through every movie I've ever watched with her. At least she wasn't asleep the whole time.

I'm so grateful my friend Noelle got to come, and I met her new squeeze. No pictures of them, unfortunately.



Me (steampunk airship pirate navigator), Philip (quasi steampunk/post-apocolyptic), and Andrea (post-apoc). Phil dresses like this every day. He was going to wear a wicked post-apocolyptic kind of jacket, but couldn't get it to look how he wanted it. I know Andrea wears this cap around school, but I'm not sure about the rest, i.e. the jacket and handwarmers. (She crocheted those, and used handstitching!!! to mod the jacket, which started its life with her as a really ugly dress from Goodwill.) I... would probably wear this out and about, sans head scarf and goggles, and without all the doo-dads hanging from my belt.



And a better look (sort of) at the makeup and accessories. My husband is not a photographer. Clearly he needs more practice! ;) Carrington, think S. could give him some pointers? Heehee.



All in all, it was a successful geek party. We were left with a LOT of cookies, so we sent some home with Phil and Andrea. Ditto for the chipotle-cream-cheese-smeared bagel bites. And we still have lots of the queso dip I made!

I think we should make this a monthly thing, to dress up and watch a geeky movie and talk about geeky things without fear of being mocked for our nerdiness! Anyone want to volunteer their house for a few hours in February? :D

I Like My Pastor and An Update

Today, he invented a word, and ended the sermon with a bang.

"Squirmish": a brief scuffle that makes one uncomfortable

(All he really did was mispronounce "skirmish," but I thought it was funny, being the word-nerd that I am.)

Throughout the sermon, he'd been talking about letting Jesus be your "rudder," the thing that steers the "boat" you're on in your life's journey. To end the sermon, he said, "So, friends, let Jesus be the udder of your life." Dead-silent pause. "RUDDER! I mean rudder!" And then he cracked up with his hilarious high-pitched laugh, and everyone else laughed as he gestured to the music leader, saying "Save me, Ronnie! Save me!"

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I'm making it my goal to publish at least 100 posts on this blog in the year 2009. That's just under 2 per week which shouldn't be a problem, but I didn't want to overextend myself in case moving and starting school get to be too much at times. Wish me luck!

The other thing I'd like to do this year (I won't call it a resolution because something about the officiality of the word automatically makes me NOT want to do it) is work out at least 15 minutes a day on the Wii Fit we got for Christmas. Ideally I'd like to do 30 minutes each day, but I know myself and I know my life, and I know that's just not going to happen every single day. Fifteen minutes seems reasonable, no? Wish me luck on that, too!

What do you want to accomplish in 2009?

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(Shameless plug: The Grand Adventures of Miss Bernice Sophronia Philomena Greenwater are still going strong! Go on over and give it a read if you'd like!)