GSP vs. Penn

Those of you who don't know me, you may be surprised to find I am a UFC fan. Or maybe not so surprised. I was never into watching athletic sports on TV. I had heard of ultimate fighting, but that had to be just as boring as boxing or wrestling, right? WWE? Screw that.
But some years ago, shortly after meeting Red, he dragged me along to a fight night. He said that if I didn't end up liking it that I could huddle in the kitchen with the rest of the girls and talk girl stuff. Girl stuff? I know I'm a girl and all, but I still dont know what girls talk about. I've never been one of 'those' girls.
I was preparing myself for a night in the kitchen when one of my favorite songs comes on the TV. I peered out into the living room where everybody was gathered around the TV. This guy comes strutting down towards the Octegon to this song, in the zone. This was my first vision of Matt Hughes.
The fights engaged when I first started watching were when UFC were still back into the 40's. (UFC 45, UFC 46, etc) This weekends fight will be UFC 94. And I have seen near every one in between.
I remember also fighting that first night was Ken Shamrock, Tim Sylvia, I think Matt Serra was in there... This was also the first time I saw GSP fight. Georges St. Pierre.
GSP and Matt Hughes have been my favorites from the very beginning. Probably because I watched them both kick ass this first evening of the UFC for me.
Matt Hughes has since semi retired. He's vowed that he has one single fight left in him, against the prick Matt Serra. (I dont like Serra)
But GSP... He is still going strong. And he fights this weekend. Against another fighter that I truely despise. BJ Penn.
I will be rooting for the handsome Canadian. I plan on marrying GSP one day. Red already knows. :o) And he's okay with it.
Tune in on PPV this January 31st for the fight of the year.


Photos courtesy of UFC.com

GSP vs Penn

'Angel' Food Cake

It's a decieving name for such an evil dessert. And I'm not talking about fat content or how amazingly devine the finished product is. Sure, angel food cake itself it a fluffy, tasty sponge of sheer joyous bliss. But have you ever attempted to make an angel food cake? Like from the box? By yourself?

Here is what I learned about 'Angel' food cake mix.

I learned that angel food cake mix could very possibly be used as the stuff they use to hold bricks together to make a wall.

I learned that angel food cake mix does not appreciate it when you try and remove it from a surface with which it has clung itself to.

I learned that when you accidentally spill angel food cake mix from the bowl in which you are mixing it, that you must whipe it up immediately. Or you will lose a very important window of opportunity to do so.

I learned that angel food cake mix will rise at an alarmingly fast rate. Think that just because the mix and the water fit into the bowl with some extra room that you're fine? Well think again, sistah, because angel food cake will expand itself by at least 5x once you start beating it with that mixer.

Oh oh oh... You better prepare yourself properly if you are a virgin angel food cake maker. Because it's not pretty in it's liquid form.

Cheezburgah Friday

It's Friday. We can always use a laugh on a Friday morning workday.
And thanks to DK's posting of the MN Chi, we're going to follow in her footsteps.

These photos are compliments of icanhascheezburger.

I pulled only the ones that got a real gut busting laugh out of me.

Enjoy.

Wedding Cake

Alright. For those of you who aren't aware, Red and I have been engaged to be married since May 12th, 2006. Yes, I said 2006. That is 2 years and 8 months and a handful of days. And we still are not married.
And it's not that we don't want to be married by now. It's just that Red is just as bad of a procrastinator as I am. And while two procrastinators don't necessarily make a wrong, they certainly don't make for a fast wedding.

So, when I discovered that Josh's cousin Matt finally proposed to his beautiful girlfriend, Diana, I decided that it was the perfect time to jump on the wagon. Diana is very organized and she knows what she wants for her perfect day. Plus, she's super sweet and is as addicted to FRIENDS as I am. Diana is going to get me married!

Yesterday, Diana invited me to a wedding expo. And I went. And I was thrown aback by all of the estrogen. And then I slipped and landed on my knee. I was off to a great start.

We're getting married this year, dammit. Watch me! So I wish I could be cool and have a page dedicated soley to wedding stuff so those of you who don't care about it can skip it. But unfortunately, I'm not that cool. So read it anyways!

We'll start with wedding cakes.



I discovered yesterday that the sky is truely the limit when it comes to wedding cakes. Flavors, colors, shapes...



Now, I gotta admit, discussing the pros and cons of different wedding cakes is a real struggle for the tomboy in me. I always figured I would be like those couples on My Big Redneck Wedding who stack up a bunch of Krispy Kreams and call it a day.



But then I visited Hy-Vee's cake booth and thought, maybe I could stack these cupcakes and call it a day. Add some of these pretty sugar flowers to them and call it a day. Serve cupcakes instead of doughnuts and call it a day.

Than I shook myself out of the sugar trance and backed away in horror. I needed to stop myself before I started admiring the pink flowers. Yikes.



But in all reality... I truely can admire the handiwork of these cake bakers. These particular cakes are creations by Sugar Chic Cakes. They were quite reasonable and offered just about any customization your little mind could create.

Are you a Disney Fairytale fan and have a thing for pretty castles?



Then let Sugar Chic make you a castle cake.



The tomboy in me decided that it would allow me to adore this cake, but only because it was brown. It has nothing to do with the bows and the pretty flowers. Absolutely nothing.

You can't prove a thing otherwise!

Then, I saw it. My cake. This has to be my cake. HAS TO BE!



I decided I won't get married without it.

One of Those Days...

Did you ever have one of those days where you wake up, thinking its going to be a great day because it's Friday and it's the end of the week, only to get out of bed, stretch, and then catch your left foot in the right foot opening of your pajama pants and go tumbling to the floor?

Yeah. Me too.

I Love When They Sleep...

I LOVE

WHEN

THEY

SLEEP.

Until you either own multiple dogs or foster multiple dogs for a rescue or shelter, then you can't understand the relief that can be felt when they all sleep. At the same time. When all of them stop the mayham and lay down together and sleep.



The chaos that prevails when all of these large dogs are up and at 'em is extreme. Do you see that toy thats is laying across the photo in 5 seperate pieces? That was done in about 3.2 seconds. By only one of them dogs. That leaves the other 3 do to the same thing to everything else within canine tooth range. It can be scary.

Ahhh yes, I love it when they sleep.
It's such a peaceful time that you don't dare shift in your chair. You don't dare change the channel. No no. You don't dare cough or sneeze. Nope because if you do, they wake up. Not just one, but all of them. And then the chaos starts over again. And then you can't watch that show that you changed the channel to and woke them up anyways.

Oh crap, I've said too much... Go back to sleep!!





Don't make eye contact! Maybe he won't see me...

Funeral

I just returned from my Grandpa's funeral.

Of course funerals are always a sad time. But this one will stand out in my mind as a happy time. I got to catch up with people I haven't seen in some time, I got to be with my family through an emotional event, we laughed and cried and talked about old times. I adore my family and we were together, and that's what Grandpa would have wanted.

I'm not generally an emotional person on the outside. I hold my emotions in at my core and prefer to deal with them on my own. That's just how I've always been. But over the course of yesterday and today, its funny how little moments shocked my emotions. Seeing the military line up for my grandpa. Listening to the pastor talk about him. The lining up of cars behind the hurce. The police SUV blocking off a busy road. I still hadn't cried openly through all of this, but felt the little jolts. It was when the military stepped up to my Grandma and gave her that folded flag at the cemetery and spoke of their fallen comrade that I cried.

They were married 60 years. I can't even imagine how much time that is.
He's in such a better place now.

Randomness

I dont know what it is, but of late I've been kind of lazy with the blog. And I do apologize. I havent had much to share with you all. And I dont know, maybe I would rather not post anything at all as opposed to posting something so boring it would drive you away forever.

I told you I picked up my new foster dogs on Saturday. It never ceases to amaze me how different all of these dogs look upon arrival from the photos that I pulled them from. The photo of Bert in my last post is the photo that was sent to me by the shelter.
Here is what Bert actually looks like.

Just as handsome if not more, but definately not the purebred-ish lab I thought I was getting. Its always funny to me how they are never quite what you expect. But that's okay. If I hadnt adopted Frankie already, I would be in some serious trouble, because I dont think I could let Bert go. He's that cool of a dog. What do YOU think he is mixed with? Based on this photo, I would anticipate a lot of 'bully' answers. But hes definately not. Hes long and tall and lanky and with the exception of his ears, he has no other bully traits. If anything, hes build more like a Grayhound or something.

Roxi is a very different looking dog as well. Shes got a super long, akward looking face. And I keep forgetting that shes only 6 months old, because every time I see her giant paws I get a little freaked out.
Anybody want to take a crack at guessing her breed mix? There is no right or wrong answer. I dont even know. Just looking for a little insight.



She's not the most photogenic dog on the block. But she's quite beautiful in person.

Its minus 25 degrees here today, not including the windchill. Its going to remain freezing all through the week. I have heard through the grapevine that we havent had a day this cold since 2004. My hope is that this will be the coldest week of the year so that things can start warming back up again. But that is truely just wishful thinking. I have lived here long enough now to know that I am in for at least another 2 months of this. And you know what? I'm okay with that. I will be okay with that anyways...

I discovered that there is a perk to living a half an hour away from work. I get snow days. I was off by 11am yesterday so I could get home and beat the blizzard that never even hit. It was wonderful. I took a nap. I drank hot tea. I curled up under a blanket and watched The Devil Wears Prada. I didnt really get the movie... But it was a free movie.

I have nothing else for now. I have candy on my desk here if anybody wants any.

New Rescue Dogs!

I picked up new rescue dogs today!
Bert is a 1yo Black Lab mix. Hes quite the personality. Nothing seems to phase him.
He had the audacity to lick my cat, and not the cat's not speaking to him.

Meet Bert!

Roxi is a 6 month old Black Lab mix. She is very sweet and can easily be described as a velcro dog. She never leaves my side.

Meet Roxi!

They are great dogs who unfortunately lost their owners at a very early age for a variety of reasons. Its too bad, too, because those people have no idea what they are missing.

Bye Grandpa...

My Grandpa Roger passed away today.
He has been in hospice for a few days now.
I am grateful that we were able to spend another Thanksgiving and Christmas with him.
I love you Grandpa
Rest In Peace

Sevens

7 Things I plan to do before I die:
~Get married
~Have a couple of babies
~Show my dog
~Visit Ireland
~Live in the country
~Drive across the country with Red
~Get on an airplane

7 Things I do now:
~Spend way too much money on my dogs
~Drive carefully
~Miss my mom
~Love tea
~Blog
~Dream Big
~Photograph the random

7 Things I won't do:
~Skydive
~Swim with Sharks
~Enjoy Seafood
~Drink Whiskey
~Watch the movie before reading the book
~Answer an unknown phone number
~Own a Chevy

7 Things that attract me in the opposite sex
~Taller than me
~Red hair
~Smiling eyes
~Softness for animals
~A Gentle Hand
~A love of the outdoors
~Honesty

7 Celebrities that I admire:
~Mother Teresa
~Gwyneth Paltrow
~Kate Winslet
~Wallace the Pitbull
~Georges St. Pierre
~Victoria Stillwell
~Will Smith

7 Favorite foods:
~Pasta
~Potatos
~Cheese
~Chocolate
~Green Beans
~Eggs
~Chili

Ya know, that was harder than I'd anticipated.

Welcome 2009

My first post of 2009!!

We didn't whoop it up this New Year's Eve. Red and I just stayed in and had a few beers and played some Monopoly.

I am totally going into real estate. Check out my properties. I even got Boardwalk and Park Place this time around. $500 and $600 rent for anybody daring to land on those badboys with the 2 houses on them! Yeah!

Yeah, no, I'm not really going into real estate. In this market? Never.

When the ball was dropping, we popped some champagne and toasted the new year.

Did you know that I always, without fail, drink champagne out of wine glasses, and wine out of champagne flutes? That's just the way it is. Don't judge me.

I spent my day off of work doing a whole lot of nothing. I took down the Christmas stuff. Did a little cleaning. But mostly, I watched my dogs from my chair.



Frankie got sick of watching me watching her watching her toys, so she started bringing me her toys in an effort to get some movement out of me. It didnt work. I was happy to sit in my chair and wait for my dogs to do something photo worthy.

And Jake did.



Now if that isn't the doofiest picture of a dog you have seen all day, than show me a doofier one.

Frankie tried saying 'cheese wizz' before I snapped this photo, but it was too much and she blinked. Or maybe she is just trying to get a laugh out of you!

I hope the new year has started out well for ya'll!

Happy 2009 everybody!