Cheers to me and to you but not to my asshole neighbor downstairs. No cheers for him.

So I guess I'm being a lame duck this New Years. I'm ok with that though. There are 365 more days in 2016 to paint the town red.

The docket for the night is takeout from Golden Temple and drinking some bubbly. Bring on the egg rolls!

All I wish for in 2016 is for my idiot downstairs neighbor to stop blast his music all the time. I'm a simple woman who appreciates the simple things like being able to sleep.

Have a good one ladies and gents.

Glad I could be your elementary crush

Christmas is done. Faces were stuffed and drinks were drank. Derek and I had a nice hotel stay at the Omni Parker following Christmas. I'm just glad to be done trying to figure out what to buy everyone. Derek and I stay a night at the Omni Parker rather than exchange gifts. If we want or need something we just buy it for ourselves. I did get him a new winter hat but that's because he needed one when his other hat mysteriously disappeared. 

I wish Christmas was "magical" still. As a kid it was the most exciting time of the year. School vacation! Cookies! And of course PRESENTS. I despise Christmas music but I do appreciate a good Christmas tree and I'm not going to say no to Christmas ham and cookies. So I guess I'm not a total Grinch.

A funny thing happened on Christmas night. A guy I went to elementary school with facebook chatted me that I was his elementary school crush. I was home at this point, just relaxing on the couch and certainly not expecting anything like this. I had a good laugh about it. A) I had no idea and B) I was so awkward in elementary school. I mean does anyone think they're weren't awkward in sixth grade? I thanked him for letting me know. What else can I say really? He then told me he had been drinking.

I literally have never talked to this guy on Facebook despite being Facebook friends. I guess he got the old liquid courage.

Sorry my elementary school friend by I'm a taken woman.

Don't give me a pen when I've had a few drinks....

How bazaar

I don't have much to report for the blog this week so let me tell you about the Etsy bazaar my mother and I tried to attend.

I saw on Facebook that there would be an Etsy bazaar at a local mall featuring many local Etsy sellers. I told my mother about it and we thought it would be a fun mother daughter thing to do. When we got to the mall we stopped in a few stores on our way to where we thought the bazaar was. While in line to purchase a pair of shoes the woman in front of us tell us the wait is two hours to get in and there are only a few tables, definitely not worth the wait. I check on the event page on Facebook and people are complaining about how poorly the event was planned and that the wait was so long and not even worth it once you got in. Some people had come from out of state to attend and were pretty angry that they couldn't get in.

My mother and I decided that we weren't going to wait in line for two hours for that. We walked by just to see what was going on. The bazaar was in a small empty store space and they were letting in 5 people at a time. They were also charging a dollar to get in which is fine but wasn't mentioned on the event page. The line was going all the way back through the mall. I think we made the right decision by not going.

We did get a nice holiday photo and got a little shopping done. I bought a pair of comfortable heels for work. That was my shopping triumph of the day. Comfortable heels are not easy to find. I'm still on the hunt for new boots.

After shopping we got some lunch and visited my grandmother. A successful mother daughter day.

Christmas is happening

This blogpost is brought to you by sugar in the form of Snickerdoodle cookies.

I can't believe Christmas is next week! I keep telling myself I have plenty of time to do my shopping since Christmas is in two weeks. It most definitely is not in two weeks and I better get to shopping like right now.

Yesterday was our office holiday party at the Capital Grille. Somehow I ended up eating three different types of potatoes.

The fries and the mashed potatoes came for the whole table while the chips came with my meal. I sampled all but tried not to go overboard. Potatoes are my weakness. 

My secret santa got me wine and a cat coaster. Well done secret santa.

New Years Eve plans are being thrown around but nothing is firmed up yet. I have a feeling we'll end up out somewhere but I'm fine with staying home too. Not having to bundle up to head out and deal with crowded bars is certainly appealing. Although with the way our weather has been so far this winter it could be 60 degrees. There is the possibility of attending a Star Wars themed New Years party at a bar in Boston. Admission includes a lightsaber!

Speaking of Star Wars, I do plan on seeing Episode VII but I'm going to wait for the initial frenzy to die down. I can only imagine how crazy opening night will be. The critics have been reviewing the movie very favorably and I'm a big J.J. Abrams fan so I'm pretty excited to see it. 

Check out this Star Wars duel at the Fencing Senior World Championships. Impressive and fun to watch.

A true treasure for all cat lovers

The weekend has blown by and now it's Sunday night and I'm bored. I'm waiting for my kindle to charge so I can read the new book I downloaded. I did laundry and cleaned the bathroom and walked to the supermarket and bought groceries. Boredom makes me productive at least.

Friday night I had dinner with friends at Live Noodles.They are known for their hand pulled noodles.

Lanzhou beef lamian, or Lanzhou beef hand-pulled noodle, is a type of Chinese noodle dish originated in Lanzhou, China, and generally popular in China. It is referred to as "beef noodle" or "beef big bowl” in Lanzhou. It is sometimes simply called lamian , which means hand-pulled noodle in Chinese, or "beef lamian" elsewhere in China.

Kit ordered for everyone and it was delicious.

Mmmm now I'm hungry for noodles and scallion pancakes. I ended up not making it to a friend's birthday party after dinner. Just too tired. Friday's are rough I tell ya.

Saturday I traveled to the far away land of Chelsea for an ugly sweater party. I mean you have to drive over the Tobin bridge which costs a small fortune in tolls. My co-worker Dana picked out this sweater for me because cats. I should also point out that my sweater is not ugly. It's beautiful, a true treasure for all cat lovers.

Target was out of adult sizes so this is actually from the kids section. I definitely am not kids sized so I really have no idea how this fits. My red hair has faded so much and I didn't blow dry my hair so it looks like utter crap in these pics. I'm still posting them though to show off the sweater.

Why you live so far Lilly? Thank you for hosting. I better win the guess how much candy is in the jar contest. I can't eat the candy but I'll take the money thanks.

Besides the excitement of cat sweaters and cleaning my bathroom I watched a lot of Psych. I've seen episodes here and there but now I'm watching it from the beginning. The show speaks my language which is sarcasm and witty retorts.

I have to actually do some Christmas shopping this week. Everyone's getting bacon, how about that. Easy and delicious. I have no clue what to get for my boss. Suggestions welcomed.

There's whales! There's burning islands! There's cannibalism and urine drinking! Why you should read (and possibly watch) in the Heart of the Sea

I used to be part of a book club. It was pretty fun but it ended up turning into a drink wine and eat cheese club. Also fun but we slowly stopped reading books.

One of my favorite books we read was In the Heart of the Sea. It's the true story of the Whaleship Essex. This story is what inspired Herman Melville to write Moby Dick.

It's been a while since I've read the book but let me tell you what I remember.

The ship was a whaling ship (obviously) from Nantucket. Whale blubber and oil was big business back in the early 1800s. The book gives you some history about the whaling industry and also very vividly describes what it's like harvesting whale blubber. It's smelly and disgusting and do not read this book while eating.

While out looking for whales the ship is attacked by a giant white whale. This whale was pissed. I mean he didn't just run into it like oops, sorry about that. This was premeditated boat destroying. He hit the boat once and then swam back a bit so he could come at it again at full speed.

Pissed off whale vs. boat. Guess who won.

The ship is destroyed. The whale swims off like "my work here is done boys". The crew had to abandon the ship and try to survive in three small whale boats.

There's storms, there's urine drinking, cannibalism and an island gets burned down by mistake because of a prank. OOPS. Not all in that order but it all happens. I don't think I'm ruining anything by telling you not everyone dies. I mean the story couldn't have been told if everyone just disappeared at sea.

If you're into history and/or really interesting survival stories I highly recommend the book. I have not seen the movie yet but it stars Chris Hemsworth as first mate Owen Chase so at least there's eye candy. There's also whales if they're more you thing thing.

Totally looks just like the real Owen Chase!

The resemblance is uncanny.

Can you drop 10lbs and lower your cholesterol in two days? Please advise.

Apparently I hate myself. There's one Ginny that does something and the other that's like woah Ginny, why the hell did you go and do that? So what did other Ginny do this time? Other Ginny scheduled her physical for the Thursday after Thanksgiving. GOOD ONE. I swear I'm like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde minus the being a doctor and beating someone to death with a cane. I did look like this when I made the appointment though.

Can you drop 10lbs and lower your cholesterol in two days? I'm eating Jesus bread for breakfast. Sprouted grains! have you heard of those? They're supposed to be good for you. I'm doing this so I can tell my doctor that I'm trying. I'm eating semi bland bread that has no flour in it for the love of God that has to count for something.

I'm going to take a guess this will not end well but I'm totally blaming other Ginny who ate a double cheese burger and fries last night. How dare she!