Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Feliz Navidad, mis amigos.

I hope everyone had a great time celebrating Baby Jesus' b-day. I had a super Christmas, hanging with the Vickster and running around like an idiot. I'm cat-sitting for two different households right now, one of which has an extremely old, frail cat (Rita) who is sick and refusing to eat or... move, really. I feel so unbelievable stressed out about this cat, I'm almost embarrassed. Honestly, for days, I've been preparing myself to come home, or get out of bed, and find a dead cat. Sigh.

Ok, enough of that, it's stressing me out just thinking about it. Back to my super Christmas. It was really different this year, the first without my great-granny. Quiet. And more than a little sad. The Vickster and I had a really nice time though. We ate tons of food, drank wine & champagne and opened presents... just like always, only different.

Every year, Nanny would act very surprised that she had so many presents under the tree. Even though it really was the same thing every year, she never ceased to show (I think legitimate) surprise and to say "you guys, you did too much." And she was right, we always did too much. All she truly ever wanted was her Tabu perfume and a box of Turtles. Yet we always showered her with sparkely blouses, nightgowns, bejewelled boxes that would just clutter up her room, singing Dean Martin dolls... you get my drift. I love how the joy of christmas gifts is often more for the giver than the receiver. Whether to follow traditions, show off, or whole-heartedly attempt to show someone how much you love and appreciate them... whatever the motivation, it's fun.

Not that I didn't love all my presents - thanks, mom! My favorite, because I'm a big fat dork, is my new Lost board game! I can't wait to get home from all this catsitting and play the thing. Lookout roommates of Stryker.... it's on. I call Sawyer.

I do have plans to do some of that end-of-the-year recap, best of, type stuff. I LOVE that shit.

Ciao, buddies.
-Nina

P.S.



















Meow.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

are you emotional? Kauai, 2004



Happy Holidays, sugar plum fairies.
Guess what? We got an early Christmas present and the Vickster got to bring Wendi home last week!

Yup, she's home and doing very well. And we're already planning our next trip to Kauai. YAY.

Happy Holidays, lovelies!

Ciao, buddies.
-Nina

Monday, December 18, 2006

Ho(s) For the Holidays: Just a Peek

Another crazy-fun Stryker ladies holiday party is in the books. Fun. Done. Sad. It's hard to believe this was already the fourth year of the fantastic ladyfun, fancy food, mututal adoration, creative gifts, and 'special guests.' I'm already looking forward to next year! And so should you, my little elves...

Just a quick recap, for those who may have missed it for whatever reason (like having a penis):

Nothing says Happy Birthday Baby Jesus like a giant pile of girly goodness.

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me... two nerds in feathers,


...and Tawny in a sparkly sweater dress.


P.S. Congratulations to Tawny on her exciting and well-deserved win in the hotly contested, first (and only) annual holiday sweater contest. I'm betting she is enjoying her pirate pinata right now. I didn't really mean to make that sound so dirrty, but whatever - it's Christmas.

Caution: Irreverence & Blasphemy Ahead.

What do you get when Andrew Dice Clay, Dave Navarro and the Christchild have a three-way?

The best special guest EVER.


'Sup, sugartits. You can call me Baby Jesus...


No caption required, methinks.

Really though, what are the chances that we would find someone who already had a "Bethlahem" tattoo? Amazing. It must be the season of miracles.

I have plenty more photos, but can't seem to get any more to load. Yes, I agree, that is probably for the best. Thanks ya'll for attending, participating, and being pretty. Happy Holidays, suckas!

Ciao, buddies.
-Nina

Thursday, December 07, 2006

peace, love and gap

Yo, amigos.

First, allow me to apologize. I've been falling behind lately on Cabaret updates & I'm sorry about that, love doves.

It's actually a good thing though because if I'm not blogging (or watching dumb TV or "reading" Okay! magazine or whatever comes up to distract me) then I'm writing. I've kicked it down pretty hard these days in the thesis-writing race and I'm putting a lot of concerted effort into staying focused... ya know - final laps, finish line looming and and all such racecar metaphors.
















Lots of this around Stryker these days.
















Sometimes some of this too.

By the way, congrats to Girl Hog for completing her second disgusting CPA test. I am very proud of my smartie-pants roomie these days. I've never seen anyone study so hard for anything as Amy does for these exams. Nice job, GH, you've earned that nap.

I'm not sure what (slim) Jim did to earn that nap, but whatever. It's probably exhausting to be so damn awesome all the time.

Okay, so I told Jim that these pictures were just between us and would never go public, but... well, there is nothing to be ashamed of. I think the world needs to see this.















Maybe, though, if you see Jim sometime soon, don't say anything. I don't think he is ready to come out of the kitty-closet yet. That is really his decision.

___________________________________________________________________

Apropos of nothing, here is a small pictorial exhibit of a goofy Sunday at Stryker a few weeks ago...

Tawny, Joelle, Girl Hog and I met up at Whole Foods one chilly Sunday morning and armed ourselves with a ridiculously expensive cart full of fruits, veggies, seeds and supplements. We'd all been reading bits of this change-your-life/raw-foods-can-reverse-global-warming-and-cure-terminal-illness book & decided to try the recommended one-day fast.




















We started strong: washing, slicing, chopping, juicing, boiling. It was actually really fun. I guess it was less of a fast and more of a detox diet thing. I mean, we were allowed to eat stuff, but it was just the stuff that was the problem and led to our eventual failure.

The first item was a fruit smoothie and was just fine, almost good. And then we had some cucumber mint cold soup thing that ended up tasting like grass water and was... foamy. We tried to improve it by warming it up... not improved. It still wasn't the worst thing in the world and I think we each choked down most of it.
















I'm just shaking my head right now at the thought of it.

The next item was a carrot/parsley/lime/litterbox juice thing. Good lord, it was disgusting. We tried to slam it... nope. I'd rather have taken a shot of Karkov than one more sip of that mess. It went down the sink. But, we still hadn't given up. We munched on pumpkin seeds, drank our lemon water, talked endlessly about how it sucked and how much we wanted to beat up the author, and put the rest of our waning hope in the concoction on the stove.

A crapload of veggies, including leeks and turnips, had been simmering all day and now, lucky us, we would get to eat the broth. At first, with the first tentative spoonful, it seemed like it was going to be okay. But then I got the taste of that leek juice down the back of my throat and just threw the spoon down in surrender.

So we gave up.















And then we made a pizza and ordered takeout.

And that, blessed children, was the story of the failed one-day fast. Merry Christmas.

Ciao, buddies.
-Nina

P.S. Guess who's not the blondest blondie in town anymore...
















Moi. I know it's not that different, but to me, it seems like I have hair black as the darkest night. Next time you see me, tell me how freaking hot I am and make me feel better. And then I'll make out with you.