Creative Juices

And You Look Like One Too

This past weekend, my favorite aunt, Aunt Debbie came to visit. Aunt Debbie and I are kindred spirits. Out of all the members of my family, including my parents, I feel most connected to her. In fact at one point, growing up, I was convinced that I was her daughter, but she was too young when she had me, and too focused on her career, that she gave me to my parents to adopt. Yep. I'm crazy.
But Aunt Debbie is also my favorite aunt because she buys me things. And we know I love presents! Aunt Debbie, may have out done herself, though. Because now, I am the proud owner of Sylvester. Dont we look happy together? My very own iPod mini. So happy.
To add to that happiness. Steve got me this. A purple! peep! pillow! Dont you just want to hug it and love it and maybe even take a bite of it? Its not edible though. But its still very very cute!!
Yay for gifts!

Hallelujah

Do you hear it? The sound of angels singing their praises? Why are they singing, you ask? Because of this.
Now you hear the angels, dont you?
I dont normally shop at Food Lion, but now maybe I should. Cheerwine sherbet? Someone's a genius for thinking that up.
Yummy yum.
Belle likes it too.

I Wanna Stop, And Thank You, Baby

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. It turned out to be a pretty good day. It started off with The Steve's alarm going off before mine. In the dark, he handed me a small stack of unwrapped presents. I turned on the tv for a little light so that I could wake up and see my gifts. I got The Mad About You Collection DVD and Romeo and Juliet (Special Edition) as well as the very important Michael Buble's new CD He also obtained a copy of MacMame, a ROM emulator that will emulate my all time favorite video game, BurgerTime.
Before I was off to work, both my dad and my mom called. My dad to remind me that soon I'll be older than him, and my mom to make sure she was first to wish me a Happy Birthday (besides Steve). She wasnt first, my dad was... but I let her think she was anyway. No reason to ruin the day of the woman that gave me life.
When I got to work, there were brownies waiting for me and a card signed by all my co-workers. Anne had gotten me a lovely silver picture frame and Kristen got me a cute block with my initial on it.
Then, Nick and Kelli got me www.purplesabrina.com. That's right, they bought me a url. How awesome is that? It'll be a little bit before I launch it, but eventually you wont have to visit blogspot anymore... all you have to do is remember purplesabrina.com.
I had Chickfila for lunch. Nothing like some birthday chicken strips.
When I got home from work, Steve had another unwrapped gift for me. This was a memory card for my digital camera. Prior to this, I could only take 8 pictures on my camera. Now I can take 160! I'm a picture taking machine! See! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
While I was running around taking pictures all night, Steve fixed me dinner. I also did some laundry (hence the bleach pen and the white shirt with the mysterious stain (it didnt work, I mourn)). Then we caught up on some TV. At some point my brother called to wish me a Happy Birthday, that was very sweet.
All in all, a lovely day.

You Smell Like A Monkey

Happy Birthday to Me!

I wont be giving an account of the day until tomorrow, so hold your horses.
Today, I will give you a step by step, how to install your own padded headboard. You know you want to.

Step 1: If you are a girl, find boys to do the manual labor for you. If you are a boy, step up. Be a man.
Step 2: If you dont have power tools. Find a friend that does.
Step 3: Go to Lowe's or Home Depot and buy your materials. Materials for this project include wood, wood screws, wood glue and... I think thats it.
Step 4: Make your headboard. Sounds easy, doesnt it?
Step 5: Measure on the wall and try not to drill any holes in electrical wiring. But if you do...
Step 6: Take another trip to Home Depot for the supplies you'll need to patch the wire and the wall.
Step 7: While waiting for the wall to dry, start upholstering your headboard. (Picture time)
Step 8: On a nice sized table, lay out your fabric and layers of batting. lay the headboard face down. Begin stapling the batting to the back of the headboard. Like this.
Step 9: Next staple your fabric down. This was kind of tricky, trying to prevent the fabric from bunching or being pulled or being too tight or too loose. Luckily, staples can come out easily if you mess up. Here's what it will look like.
Step 10: After the wall is dry, mount the supports to the wall. The important part of the supports is that they have a angle cut into them on the top, and the supports on the headboard itself have an angle cut the opposite way, so that they'll fit into each other. Supports and patched wall.
Step 11: Get boys to carry the headboard up three floors while you take pictures. Like so.
Step 12: Stand back and admire from afar. Pretty Headboard.

Mr. President

Yesterday was a pretty eventful day.
After church, we returned home so that The Steve and Neighbor Steve could finish up their project from Saturday. On Saturday, they had started building a headboard for our bedroom. The headboard is just a simple piece of wood that will be covered with batting and material to make me a very nice padded headboard. The part that made the project difficult is that I requested the headboard be mounted to the wall, rather than your standard headboard with leg supports. And since the headboard is padded, it cant just be screwed into the wall. Sounds fun, doesnt it? Luckily, Neighbor Steve went to MIT, so he has the smarts for such things. And he also has all the tools for such things. The project was mostly finished on Saturday, all that needed to be done on Sunday was nailing the supports to the wall. The Steve measured, we picked an arbitrary height for it to sit and found the studs.
The Steve started drilling, feeling some resistance. So, he asked Neighbor Steve to give it a try. Neighbor Steve decided that it was his drill, so they used The Steve's fancy DeWalt (courtesy of Time Warner Cable). Fancy drill got it in no problem. On the second hole, drilled by Neighbor Steve, all the lights in the room went out. Uh oh. Not good. What are the odds that on a 10x12 wall, we would pick the exact height that an electric cable runs through the studs? And that resistance? A metal plate that covers the spot where the wire is run so that occurances such as these do not occur. What else can you do in a moment like that but laugh? I mean really?
They cut out a small chunk of drywall to confirm their suspicions. Yes, they had indeed drilled through an electrical wire.
And since I'm not content knowing an open wire with a current running through it regularly is in my wall (above my head while I'm sleeping, no less) patching of the wire (preferably to code) must occur.
So, thats how The Steve is spending his day off (instead of playing computer games) and that's how Neighbor Steve is spending his birthday/day off (how sad!). Hopefully the project will be completed today. And nothing else will go wrong.
After all that happened, The Steve and I went to meet my great friends for a lovely dinner at Firebirds. Angela's birthday was on Saturday, and mine is only 1 day away. So, we combined forces and decided steak was in order. Along with JJ (Angela's JJ) and The Steve, we invited Curtis and Rachel. We had a lovely dinner. Have a look Mmmmm steak. Now thats some beautiful angus beef. Cooked on a wood fire grill. Ohhh yeah. And that baked potato? Look at that baby. You see that, its salted. With cheeese and baaacon and butta. Yes, as I celebrate turning 26, I took a year off my life. But thats okay, cause it was super tasty and I love me some meat and potatoes.
Have a look at the happy couples.
JJ and Angela
The Steve and Curtis
Me and Rachel
Sorry for the blurryness of some of the pics. I'm still trying to figure out my digital camera. I think, by the end of the night, I got it.
After dinner, we went back to Curtis & Rachel's for some yummy ice cream cake and the enchanging of presents. Angela got me a lovely set of beautiful martini glasses. Take note of the purple glass, that one's mine. Isnt it beautiful? The other three are for my guests. You're all welcome to join me for a cosmo sometime. Except Angela, she's allergic. (To my house, not cosmos. Well, sort of cosmos too. Miss Enzyme Lacker. But thats okay, I love you anyway and when it gets warmer, you can come over and I'll light some citronella candles outside and you can sip a very diluted cosmo from my beautiful glasses).
I got Angela some earrings, per her request for silver sparkly posts. I think I did a good job.
Here's me and The Steve, relaxing after too much food.
It was a very nice day.

Friday Never Hesitates

I've said it once and I'll say it again, the main reason I have cats is for the entertainment value.
Yesterday, a package from my mom arrives. It was filled with lots of things I'll never use, some things that will hide in a closet until she comes to visit again, and a few neat things. The coolest part of the package (a Valentines/Birthdays/Easter package) was the Pepsi cap with a free song. Woo hoo! What shall I buy?
Included in the package were two cute froo froo pens. One with Winnie the Pooh sitting on top of it and one with Piglet. The pen also had a pile of feathery stuff for the character to sit on.
Well, Cooper has quite the infactuation with feathery stuff. He gets way possessive about it (much more than any other toy he has). So, I should have not been so surprised when Cooper found the pen and made off with it.
Exibit A
Of course, I jump up and squeal "Cooper! No! That's my pen!" and start laughing. But instead of grabbing it from him right away, I run upstairs to get the camera so you can see what I mean.
The best part about it is that he growls. This low rumble as he clenches his teeth and shows them to you.
I chased him upstairs, he tried to hide behind the afgan. I finally got a hold of the pen and tugged.
Exhibit B
I got the cap of the pen and he made off with the rest still in his mouth.
This was not a one man job. I called in back-up. Finally, we cornered him in the kitchen.
Exhibit C
The piglet pen is there for reference. Now you can see how fluffy the feathers were before being in Cooper's mouth for five minutes.
Ahh, Pets.

Sweet Comic Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day to you all. The Steve and I no longer celebrate the holiday... partly because I think Valentine's Day is for suckers (no offense) and partly because I would much rather have all The Steve's efforts focused on the day that is all about me and only me (and George Washington and Drew Barrymore, and now my friend Lindsay)(I can share a little). We all know The Steve couldnt handle two holidays in one month.
However, we once did celebrate. So, here's a story from the past.
Lets bring it way back to Valentine's Day, 1997.
It was our first Valentine's Day. We had been dating for less than four months. Being that we were long distance (me on the east coast of Florida and him on the west coast) my mom drove me over for a visit. I dont remember if we went out for dinner or anything. The only important part of that day was the card. There were probably even gifts involved, but I dont remember them.
The card. Which I still have in a scrapbook. I opened mine first. Turns out that I had gotten him the same exact card. 200 miles apart, two different card stores, and we pick the same exact card for each other.
Guess after that, why even bother trying to top it?
Now, lets get past this lovey dovey holiday and move on to the real stuff. Myyyyy birthday is only eight days away. :)

And I'm Weakened By The Force Of Your Eyes

If you've been sitting there wondering why Sabrina is so very special (because you already know I'm special, you just maybe havent figured out why yet...). Well, I think I have the reason.
This afternoon, while I was Krogering, I came across one of those little dishes, with samples, in the bakery. You know, the little sample cup, with whatever they fancy (or need to get rid of) inside. Today, it was chocolate cherry cake. Yummy looking chocolate cake with beautiful pink (cherry flavored, I'm assuming) frosting. Sounds good, doesnt it? So, I took a sample. But I did not eat it.
I hadnt had lunch yet. And I wasnt about to spoil my appetite. I would save the cake for later. Even when saving my cup o' cake proved to be a terrible inconvenience.
On my way back into the office, I had, in my hands, a happy meal bag (I got Butterscotch MyLittlePony with my lunch, what did you get with youuurs?), a happy meal drink, a Kroger bag with margarine and low fat buttermilk (which I'm trying not to be grossed out by), a card to mail to my Aunt Debbie (because she was sweet enough to mail me a valentine's day card) and my sampling of cake.
When I walked into the front office with my hands full, Anne said "What's that?"
"Chocolate Cherry Cake, from Kroger."
"Aren't you going to eat it?"
"No, I'm saving it for later."
She gave me a look that said "You're weird."
I gave her a look that said "No, I'm not."

Love You, Love You, Love You Madly

Look at that piece of cake over there. -----> Loook. Do you see that big blob of red frosting? Someone out there was clever enough to make birthday balloons out of frosting. Whereas sugar doesnt normally affect my energy level... I have a feeling this red blob of sugar high might do the trick. Then again, when my energy deflates like the very birthday balloon I ate, I could always just have another slice...
I think that may be the best part of working with 20 women. It's always someone's birthday (in fact, mine is 12 days away!) and there's always some delightful, incredibly fattening, dessert in the front office. Snacks I dont have to pay for are the best!
Mmmm cake.

But If I Had Your Faith

Tomorrow, there is a "threat" for some "winter weather" in my area. However, for the past two weekends, the weatherpeople have been "warning" that we'd have some "snow" and "ice", and for the past two weekends, there's been "nothing." A little ice on the trees that was very pretty, but nothing on the roads. I dont know if someone's trying to capitalize on me staying in all day on Saturday or what... but its not gonna work anymore. No-ho-ho, you've cried wolf one too many times Jess Torpey and I dont think I can trust your "meteorology" anymore.
That's how I feel.
The people around me, notsomuch. They seem to be dieing for snow. They've got hope, faith, that we wont have to come into work tomorrow. But how many times in the past month have I laid my cute little head down to sleep expecting to wake up, look out my window, and see a wonderful blanket of snow in my 4x6 backyard? Too many times. No more, I say, no more!
"Tomorrow's weather will be more complex..." says Jess Torpey this morning. If you'd like that translated out of meteorology speak into plain English, it means "I have no idea whats going on with the weather and the snow and the crazy stuff. I'm clueless. I have all these funky computers and even the little things with the coke can wings that go up in the tornados and nothing, nothing is telling me anything."
Jess Torpey, for those of you wondering, is the weatherman for News Channel 14. As a human being, I love Jess Torpey. As a meteorologist... well.... Actually, I shouldnt blame it all on him... I'm sure he's just going by what National Weather Service says. "Chance" of precipitation. Whatever.

Can't Buy Me Love

The countdown begins!
21 days till my birthday! Yay!
I'll be turning the big two six.
The exciting thing about 26 is that its my favorite number. So, for a whole year, I get to be my favorite number. But at this point, getting older just doesnt seem as cool. Last year, I could finally rent a car. That was cool. This year, well, I'm just one more year closer to 30. And people seem to dread turning 30. A good friend of mine will be turning 30 at the end of this year. Already she's dreading it. She's even set some goals for herself, things she wants to do before she turns 30. Some of which she probably should have started on years ago.
I thought about setting goals. But goals are stupid. So, I wont.
However, I can give you some goals. In the form of presents to buy me. Cause presents are so not stupid. Presents are cooool. Way cool, even.
There are a lot of things on my Christmas list that I did not receive. I wont hold it against you, though. If you want to be extra thoughtful, you could get me something off my list. This would require reading at least two previous blog entries (which is how the gift becomes thoughtful).
If you're too damn lazy (you know who you are). You can buy me one of these things.
Garden State DVD
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind DVD Collector's Edition, please (I am nothing if not a collector).
Michael Buble's new CD It's Time Special Edition, please (I am nothing, if not special, heh).
Well, sorry, thats all I can think of. Yummy treats, jewelery, flowers, and an iPod are always welcome.