Thanksgiving Tree

I am so in the mood for twinkly lights this season that I couldn't wait to put up our Christmas tree!! It is artificial, so I really wanted to get some extra use out of it rather than it sadly sitting in the garage storage closet. I started rambling to my coworkers (I'm sure they love my ramblings) about my extreme need to get those twinkly lights plugged in. I said something strange like, "Hmm, I would love to have a Thanksgiving tree..." From there, things really took off. My fabulous coworker, Connie, let me borrow some wooden harvest-themed decor and I found the scarecrows and stuffed pumpkins at Hobby Lobby 50% off. Connie also made me a bow, and voila.



I am LOVING the Thanksgiving Tree.

Steak Out Shenanigans

Pixie and I grabbed a quick dinner tailgate style at Steak Out tonight after work. Our offices are located conveniently about a mile away from each other. We couldn't decide what to get for dinner ... it had to be quick ... because the Pix had choir practice. Most of the other places around only have sandwiches and I wasn't in the mood for such. Steak Out was the only good choice.



First of all, I ran into a former co-worker I hadn't seen in over 3 years. Her legend is my best wedding shower gift. At my office recipe shower, everyone wrote their favorite recipe and their gift to me was supposed to "match" the recipe. Then, they took all the handwritten index cards and put them in a cute little binder. I use it regularly. I reminded Sheena about her recipe and how much I love coming across it in my cooking escapades. It goes like this:

Her gift: A sonic gift card
Contents of Recipe card: Forget cooking tonight, just go by Sonic and grab a cheeseburger. Make sure to pick up a cherry limeade. Add grey goose. Enjoy.

LOVE! We had a great laugh about this while the line of hungry patrons piled up behind us.

Pixie and I then made our way to the car and realized we really didn't have time to go find a place to sit and enjoy our salads. So, we popped the hatch and had a tailgate. Amongst a few odd looks and scoffs, one fabulous lady was all over the set up. On her way in she commented, "Now that is the way to eat your salads." She had some time to mull over the scene we were making while she was inside. By the time she passed by again with her food, she said "they should come out here and film y'all for a commercial! Bahahaha."



Photo Disclaimer: Pix got 5 mouth shots earlier today as part of her seemingly never ending dental work. If you can tell that her smile is crooked/puffy, please disregard :) We thank you.

Blog Disclaimer: I did not proofread this post. It is past my bedtime and there is no telling if my grammar is up to par...

Los Mariachis

Richard and I discovered a new to us restaurant for dinner a couple of nights ago. We were very excited to learn that the mariachi band was in full force. They played some crowd-pleasers. Here they are covering CCR's "Have You Ever Seen the Rain."



Some of the wall decor was very entertaining as well.



Richard said that this is a main lunch buffet for the hospital crowd and they sometimes struggle to get dinner business. The perfect weather a couple of nights ago drew in a big outdoor seating crowd on the porch. Even this sun was chillin just smokin on a cig ;)



Addendum to earlier post...

I was so excited about posting pictures from my iPhone for the first time, I forgot about the best parts of our dinner. The mariachi band came over to our table to get our request and asked us if we wanted to hear something romantic. Hahaha! Richard was like, "uh, no, she's my sister." Hilarious!

When we were ready for our check, the waiter came over and we thought he asked if we would like the check. But, he came back with another beer for Richard. Just a slight communication malfunction that made our night out last a bit longer :)

Totally random

Pixie stories seem to be a big hit on the blog, so here's one for the fans:

I got a phone call on the way home from work today and mom informed me that she had to have a root canal (this is her 4th ... yikes). Judging by her last two, she likes to get spontaneous root canals. She figures, "Well, I'm already comfy in the chair ... I may as well go for it." So the Pix doesn't know her dentists' age, but let's just say he's her Doogie Howser. She likes to joke around with him and she is high on the nose gas during the majority of their time together. Mom doesn't drink or do anything else to alter her state of consciousness as a recreational activity. She prefers to be "high on life."

Apparently mom always has something sassy to say when she gets her diagnosis and finds out she needs to spend more money on dental work. When the dentist came in to share the root canal news, he asked (with sarcasm), "So, what do you have to say today?"

Mom replied, "How about a 4 letter word?"

Dentist's quick witted response: "Which one?"

Mom: "Take your pick."

At the time of our conversation, she didn't have a clear memory of what else she said, but it involved something about her love for the inventor of novocaine. It is entirely possible that she said an actual 4 letter word at some point... Wouldn't it be hilarious to have a job involving a large number of folks being anesthetized. Ahhh, the stories you could tell. ***of course you wouldn't tell them because of health privacy laws, always there to ruin storytelling from the medical workplace***

In sewing news, I added a lining to a cheap skirt I got at Marshall's. Due to a problem with spatial orientation and not placing the right sides together, I cut the lining material so the slit is in the front rather than the back where it is supposed to be. I admit I was too lazy to start over with the project, so now I have a random lining slit in the front of the skirt. Since it is hidden, I'm not sure if I will even notice the mistake. The good news is that I have another couple of skirts to line and I will learn by experience. I'm certainly a fan of purchasing a $10 skirt, adding 50 cents worth of lining, and feeling like I bought something fancy/expensive that no longer creeps up the legs when I wear tights.

Does anyone else watch American Idol? True to my love for R&B and gospel, my favs are Stefano and Jacob. I'm afraid they're both in danger in weeks to come because I am WAY above the average voting age and may have different taste than all the 13 year old girls out there. My next favorite genre of music is country and I do not understand what people like about Scotty. He looks SO weird when he sings and he holds the microphone like it's a sandwich.

Laptop retirement, madness, and an iPhone anniversary

My car had to go to the shop today. The brakes were making a funny sound, but it turns out there was nothing wrong. This gave hubby and I occasion to commute to and from work together. I'm pretty sure we've never done this before and it was a lovely experience, however fleeting. Fact: he will not be getting up early to carpool to work with me any time soon.

I bought my new, cute little laptop last November because when I changed jobs, I did not get a computer. It quickly became apparent that I might not actually be provided with a work computer and my beloved Mac was on its last leg, so I took the plunge. In a glorious turn of events, I did get a work computer all set up TODAY. So, I now have a stay-at-home laptop and my nerdy-portable-office-rolly-thing lost about 4 pounds. I must blog regularly so that the laptop will have a purpose since it is retired from Audiology.

Hubby is today's blog content advisor. So, his topic of choice is March Madness brackets. He entered two pools and due to the strangest final four seeding I can remember, he has already secured first place in one pool and he will end up in second or third place in the other. I, on the other hand, am just glad not to finish in last place... I have had a dismal couple of years in bracketology. Here's to Madness 2012!

My 1 week iPhone anniversary is tomorrow. I am slowly learning the world of smartphones. So far, other people have made my phone do really cool things, such as add apps and sync with google. I did figure out how to download the weather channel app. Now I consult it every morning as soon as I open my eyes. It not only helps me dress appropriately, but the screen brightness shining in our cave bedroom shocks me into wakefulness. My fav iPhone game apps are scramble and words with friends. Well, I guess mine should be called words with friend because I am only playing with one other person. Is there anyone else out there playing this game and needing a friendly adversary?? I'm not even sure how to start a game with someone. The only person I'm playing now invited herself from my phone and started the game. So, just let me know if you play and I'll figure it out :)

I'm off to watch American Idol. I don't have a favorite this season, but there are a couple I wouldn't miss if they get voted off this week...

Fun with Phones and Pixie

Way back last fall, the Ivey clan started discussions about merging into a happy, glorious, family phone plan. After much research, copious amounts of email chains, and waiting for this phone and then that phone to "release," we finally had the launch party this past week. My dad ordered the phones through a rep at his work so he could get a fancy corporate discount. This means that all the phones were delivered by Fed Ex and we had to activate them. This is all very new to me as I have been in the stone ages with the same "dumb phone" for the past 3 years and I thought you always had to go into a store, look as if you have no clue what's going on, pay a lot of money, and walk away hoping you know how to answer a call.

Clearly things have changed ...

Before we even got started, mom remembered that she has been meaning to ask me something about her iPod shuffle. Stuart gifted it to her as a birthday present a couple of years ago, but he didn't load any songs on it. Once she realized what it was about a year ago, she gave me some CDs to put on it and I also threw in some songs from my iTunes - mostly rap :) It turns out she is a fan. Anyway, she's been happily listening for months and all of a sudden last week, her songs stopped abruptly. No matter what she did, they wouldn't play. So, her question for me was...

"How do you change the BATTERIES in this tiny thing???"

Apparenly she doesn't listen to the iPod all that much because, I mean, what is the length of a charge on these things?? She amazingly remembered where she put the box it came in, and even more amazingly, hadn't thrown it away. There, all packaged nicely in the bottom, was a charger.

And moving on to her phone ... in addition to an iPhone, mom got a gmail account and iTunes for activation purposes. She was getting a lot of new information and technology in her life in one evening. Richard was doing a mini tutorial for her because he is cool and has already had a iPhone for a couple of years. He got to the part about how she can now listen to music on her phone. Hold on a minute, she had a question...

Mom: "So, when I want to listen to my music, where do I plug my iPod into the phone?"
Richard: "Ok, that is a good question. Also, it's a funny one."
All participants in party: goofy laughter

Different Ears

I spend my work days looking into, testing, and fitting hearing aids on human ears. For a change, we spent our vacation concentrating on Mouse Ears and all the Disney Magic we could find. Hubby has been to Disney twice and I have only been once way back when I was 8 years old. All I could remember was that Stuart was deathly afraid of the characters, I was very brave because I rode the train roller coaster, and Grandmom videotaped the sidewalk for the entire length of a VHS tape.



This is what we looked like after 8 hours at Epcot. HOT! We walked, walked, and then walked a bit more while fitting a couple of rides in between. The fireworks show was fab.



The cold weather caught us by surprise. Good thing I grabbed a hoodie at the last minute ...



We made it to our first ever spring training game. It was crazy crowded - probably because we picked a Braves v. Yankees game. They packed a LOT of people into a tiny stadium.



We also made it to Magic Kingdom, Hollywood studios, and the outlet malls.



The Muppets in 3D were fantastic. I love muppets in any form. Good times.

The ABCs of Allison

A. Age: 29

B. Bed size: King.

C. Chore you dislike: Cleaning bathrooms. Also, I don't mind doing laundry, but I have a big problem remembering to move loads from the washer to the dryer and to unload the dryer.

D. Dogs: No, thanks.

E. Essential start to your day: On work days, getting into the shower. On non-work days, randomness. At least 2 hours can time warp on Friday and Saturday mornings and I have no idea what I have done. Probably the most common essential start to one of those days is watching teen mom. It's one of my must see shows that David won't watch and he sleeps later than me.

F. Favorite color: Blue.

G. Gold or silver: Both.

H. Height: 5 foot, 8 inches.

I. Instruments you play(ed): Piano for 10 years. I learned by ear (suzuki), so I'm not very good at sight reading and can't play much at all anymore. I want to learn how to play guitar.

J. Job title: Audiologist.

K. Kids: Nope.

L. Live: In Huntsville, AL.

M. Mom’s name: Karen, a.k.a. Pixie

N. Nicknames: Al, Allie, Birdie, Legs Ivey, Adit, Adittee

O. Overnight hospital stays: I had pneumonia when I was very little; there are pictures of me leaving the hospital so I bet I had to stay overnight. Nose surgery.

P. Pet peeves: Tiny drink glasses/ not enough refills at restaurants.

Q. Quote from a movie: From Rounders: "If you had it to do all over again, knowing what would happen, would you make the same choice?" (Mike) "What choice?" (Professor)

R. Righty or lefty: Righty.

S. Siblings: Richard (27) and Stuart (24)

T. Time you wake up: Alarm goes off at 6:45, I get out of bed by 7:15. I'm usually up by 8 on the weekends.

U. Underwear: Hmmm, always. And I have a variety.

V. Vegetables you don't like: Beets.

W. What makes you run late: Being scatterbrained. I am much better about being on time since I met hubby.

X. X-rays you’ve had: Right hand when I broke it the day before 7th grade, jaw in college, both of my knees since they started being weird last year.

Y. Yummy food you make: Let's see, pico & guacamole is the most requested yummy food I make. My favorite recipes in the famous binder are lasagna, coconut cake, and rosemary potatoes.

Z. Zoo animal favorites: I'm into most zoo animals, but I will stay far away from the spiders & snakes. They're usually in the same little building and I won't go near it. David is all about penguins, and this has caused me to realize that they are amazing. Sadly, the penguin exhibit was closed at the Atlanta aquarium when we were there...