Presumed to be awesome.

I spent most of Saturday and Sunday selling all the extraneous stuff in my life to strangers, otherwise known as a garage sale. And, the lesson learned, from that experience? It's a hell of a lot of work to sell your crap to strangers, so next time I'm donating it all and saving myself the complete exhaustion and regaining those 2 days of my life! But, on the bright side, I did get rid of a whole hell of a lot stuff. So there's that.

This weekend I also managed to get caught up with some of my shows. Hawaii Five-O is still ridiculously happy-making. Talk about eye-candy, man. Everything and everyone on that show is just so damn pretty! I'm still loving Steve and Danny's chemistry and I love that the show is giving us more layers to Kono's and Chin Ho's characters. And I mentioned the pretty, right? Yeah, just a lot of pretty happening there.

The A-List New York continues to be my guilty pleasure, only, you know, really without the guilt. These boys are ridiculous and fabulous and such bitchy drama queens! They are HIGHLY entertaining! And I recently heard that LOGO was going to start casting for an A-List L.A.!!! How fabulous would that be? And how much would I love to see Cheeks in something like that?!!! Please, Universe, make that happen! *prays*

And, seriously, I have no words for how much Sons of Anarchy continues to just blow me away! That show!!! *loves and loves*

Other than selling my stuff to strangers and catching up on my DVR'd shows, I also spent a good part of yesterday watching football, and cringing at the complete mess that is the Cardinals football team, and just shaking my head at that crazy finish in the Jags/Texans game, and staring at Mike Tomlin being all intense and hot on the Steelers' sideline, and thoroughly enjoying Tom Brady's ridiculously long hair and scruffy look, and thinking that he should really get pissed and yell more often because goddamn his already high quotient of hotness increases exponentially when that happens.

So, now that the weekend is over and we're doing this whole Monday thing again, how 'bout a happy list to start this week off right? Yeah, that sounds like the thing.

♥ wendy has put together a thoroughly awesome mix of self-empowerment songs, songs of the "I am amazing just the way I am variety." Good music, great message!

♥ In about an hour and a half, I get to have lunch with the lovely llandaffaz before she flies off to far away corners of the world again. Tacos! And tequila! And awesome friends! \o/

♥ There is some fantastic live music and time with awesome friends to look forward to this week with Bruno Mars on Saturday with zoniduck and Jerrod Niemann on Sunday with ladymairwen! Both are sure to be good times!

Ok, now it's your turn! What's happy-making in your world today? *chin hands*

ETA: OMG!!! How did I forget to mention this! Sutan Amrul, Adam's insanely talented make-up artist, has been cast as a contestant in season 3 of RuPual's Drag Race!!!!!!!!!!!!! RAJA IS FABULOSITY PERSONIFIED!!!!! January 24th! *marks calendar*

Yesterday was another Not Good Day in a week full of Not Good Days. But at least now I don't have to manage the family drama in any official capacity. Doesn't make it any less heart-breaking or rage-inducing, or any number of emotions in between, but at least I don't have to be all lawyerly while still trying to keep a grip on my own emotional roller coaster. /cryptic venting

Thankfully there was Girls' Night last night with zoniduck and V. It was perfectly lovely and distracting and exactly what I needed. Finally watched Inception and it completely blew my mind. I need to go back and read reactions and discussions on my flist now that I've watched it. And I really need to watch it another 2 or 3 or half a dozen times to try to wrap my brain around it. But, mind-blowingness aside, that was a hell of a lot of pretty on that screen! Good gods. *bites lip* Yeah, totally and beautifully distracting.

After the flick we went to Zinburger for some yummy food and milkshakes and girl talk and it was awesome.

And today, there's football on my t.v.!!! I wish I'd had the Saints/Falcons geme, and, sorry azewewish, but I wish the Saints could have pulled off the W in overtime, but at least it was a good game. And now I've got the Cardinals keeping it hot against the Raiders. It's damn good to see Beanie Wells back on the field, even though he's obviously still favoring the knee. But, damn, this QB situation is not good. Anderson has zero finesse on his pass, his pass selection is crap, he panics under pressure, and he's found no rhythm with Larry who's really the only one that's going to save his sorry ass. Ugh. Somehow the Cards are still up, but seriously man, why the hell did anyone ever think that Anderson was a good idea???

See, though? Even when I'm bitching about it, football is still wonderfully distracting! *g*

So, whatcha all doing on this Sunday? Come on. Distract me with your awesome Sunday-ness!

Happy Monday, everyone! It's a new week. A clean slate. What are we gonna do with it??? I say let's rock the hell outa it! *beams*

Before I get to this week's plans, though, let me tell y'all about my awesome weekend. I spent Saturday with The Nieces, teaching them the finer points of power shopping! It's never too early to develop the skills necessary for effective retail therapy. *g* I managed to get Rhyan's Halloween costume (she's going to be the most adorable Tinkerbell ever!) and to find all of the accessories I needed for my vintage get up. Yay! Lots of shoe, clothes and toy purchases later, we dragged ourselves home and put two very exhausted girls to bed. It was a good day!

On Sunday I got to have brunch with one of my oldest friends on the planet! I hadn't seen Sara in over five years and yet we picked back up as if we had just seen each other last week! We talked and laughed and talked some more -- it was SO good to reconnect.

And, as a nice bonus, I found a great new (or new to me) place for brunch -- The Farmhouse in Gilbert. The food was so yummy! Plus Mimosas made with fresh squeezed OJ! Delish!

The rest of Sunday was all about sports. It was nice to see the Cardinals play the way I know they can. And having Matt Hasselbeck on my t.v. screen was not bad either. Especially as he was pissed off through most of the game and that boy just gets exponentially hotter when he's angry. *g* Matt Leinart took a few snaps and he's looking damn fine too. And how awesome was it to see the Phillies hand the Dodgers their collective asses? Very awesome, I tell you! Shane Victorino you continue to be made of awesome -- you, your HRs, and your adorable dimples can definitely stay!

Anyway. As I was saying, I'm planning on rocking the hell outa this week. Or, at a minimum, not allow myself to be pwned by it, like I have been lately. Baby steps, and all. Work is likely to be busy, as I've got depositions and deadlines and all manner of things on my to do list. But! On the bright side, it'll only be a four day week for me as I jet off to L.A. on Friday for what is sure to be a fantabulous weekend with my girls! *bounces* So, whatcha say? Shall we make it a good one? :)

- Even though the day was a typical December Sunday full of laziness and football, I did manage to get quite a bit accomplished, including conquering a mountain of laundry, finally getting my holiday cards written out and ready for mailing, and cooking up a delicious pot of Chicken Tortilla Soup.

- We shall not speak of the Cardinals, but it was good to see the Steelers pull out today's win and Matt Cassell take the Patriots to a win after the personally tragic week he's had.

- This has cracked my shit up all day:



*laughs and laughs* He threw a SHOE at him! Twice! I think that journalist pretty adequately expressed the WORLD'S sentiments about Shrub. *laughs more*

- A certain Texas Boy is still making me ridiculously gleeful. I don't even KNOW. *shakes head* But, yes, happeh-making.

Mmmm. Soup. As soon as the heat breaks and it starts feeling like fall something less hot than hell, I start craving soup. Last week I made two batches of Caldo the Queso, which is Spanish for cheese soup, but in actuality it's more like potato and cheese soup. Yummy! And today I made a huge batch of Chicken Tortilla Soup. Oh, man, this stuff is DELICIOUS! They are both super easy to make, chalk full of good-for-you veggies, and absolutely yummy!

Other moments of brilliance uncharacteristic productivity this weekend have included grocery shopping yesterday and today feeling the undeniable need to organize my books. Yeah, I don't even know. But it was driving me crazy that my books were in such disarray, on various bookshelves and assorted piles throughout the house, and in no particular order. It was seriously offending my inner anal-retentive crazy person Virgo. So I spent several hours this afternoon organizing my books, by genre and then alphabetically by author, cleaning off shelves, setting aside bags full of paperbacks for trade/giveaway. I'm not quite done, but I have made huge amounts of progress and I feel very accomplished. And happier about my world now that my books are in order! (I did mention that inner crazy person, right?) The next step will be to catalog them so that I know what I have, but I like to break my insanity down into manageable parts. *g*

I've also watched some baseball this weekend. I'm sure no one is surprised. After this weekend, though, I'm no longer speaking to the Cubs. *glares in the general direction of Chicago* I am, however, expecting the Phillies to do right by me next week and take care of the Dodgers. *crosses fingers* Speaking of disappointing sports news, though, what the hell, Seahawks??? You boys planning on, you know, actually playing football any time this season? Sheesh. It was good to see both the Cardinals and the Pats get wins today though. And Ben on my screen is always nice. :)

And you? How was your weekend? *is curious*

I had such a fantastic weekend in L.A. with my girls!!! The drive home, though, was the complete opposite of fantastic. OMG traffic sucked so hard!!! It was a snarly, barely moving mess until I was nearly in Palm Springs and it added over two hours to my drive time. Grrr.

Now that I am finally home though, I'm completely hyped on all the caffeine I drank to keep myself awake thought that mess and I can't sleep! *bounces* So, instead of getting any much needed sleep before work starts kicking me in the ass very early in the morning, I'm going to tell you all about my AWESOME weekend and make y'all insanely jealous of the fact that I got to spend four and a half days with some of the most fabulous women on the planet! \o/

( Is it any wonder I want to move to L.A.??? )

I've been a good girl this year. Mostly. (Shut up. There's absolutely NO evidence to the contrary.) And, apparently, there is a Santa Claus and the big man in red has taken note of my good behavior, because today's Patriots/Dolphins game featured several instances of Jason Taylor getting up on Tom Brady. *sigh* So much pretty. technosage, idiosyncratic and I watched the game at sports bar, and I think that the guys in the table in front of us probably wondered why, while we were obviously cheering the Pats on, we'd erupt in loud cheers of unadulterated GLEE whenever Jason would get a hand on Tom. *g*

(Does it actually need to be said that, yes, the Pats did indeed win. Which, you know, YAY!)

The day of football also included Matt Hasselbeck being all scruffy and hot (and winning, which, you know, is also important *g*), and several shots of Matt Leinart looking like an adorable goofball on the Cardinal's sideline. Yes, Christmas did in fact come early and Santa delivered a lot of HOT men on the football field.

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Also, a bit late but, blessings of the returning Light to all those who mark the Solstice. Mine was quiet, but good. I'm looking forward to the longer days and the "fresh start" feel of the seasons moving from dark to light.

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In other good holiday news, I've got all my shopping and wrapping done. \o/ I've gone grocery shopping and the only thing left to do is bake a few batches of cookies, which I'll do tomorrow morning. After that, it's nothin' but holiday movies, spiked egg nog, yummy tamales, and, of course, my crazy family. Good times!