Obsessed!!

You may be wondering, dear reader, where I have been. The truth is...I've been obsessed. With what? With this:


This is something I found in a closet I was cleaning out. And now I realize that organization can backfire. Ha!!! I started on this counted cross-stitch project about ... oh, I don't know ... 15 years ago!!??!! And now that it's been uncovered, I've been obsessed about completing the project. I know. It really doesn't make sense. I'm not even going to attempt to explain it. I'm just going to say that I've spent a fair amount of time in the last 3 weeks working on this. The good news is that I'm almost done!! I'll be sure and post a picture of the finished project.

Would you like to know what's even sadder (is that a word)? This project is one of a four-part "series" of cross-stitch pictures. This will be the 2nd one that I've finished. That leaves 2 more to REALLY complete the project. Sigh.

If only I were so obsessed with catching up my scrapbook!!

My Favorite Project

This is my current favorite project:



Earlier this year we started picking out one favorite picture from each of our trips and the result is this collage. I've even stamped the location and the month and year we visited on the mat. So far, we only have through the first half of 2004 on the wall so it's a work in progress. But we picked out a few more over the weekend, so I look for it to be expanding again soon.

Movies

It hasn't been that long ago that I went through a closet and took all of our old VHS movies to Half Price Books and sold them for approximately $1.00. HA - well, at least they aren't taking up space in my closet anymore and seeing as how we don't even own a working VCR anymore, it was a steal! Before turning them in for our mad money, Joe and I dutifully made a list of our favorites so we could replace them with DVD's (awww, yes, another list!).

But then something strange happened. We no sooner began replacing our VHS tapes with DVD's than I realized the next best thing is already out there - Blu Ray. So why are we buying DVD's? And then, what's after Blu Ray? Obviously there will be something! I came to a conclusion...no more buying movies. I mean - it's not like we watch them over and over and over. I bet we haven't watched any one of those movies more than a couple of times. So as a part of my goal of organization, I went through our movies. Anything that hasn't been opened is going to be returned. Anything we have opened, but won't watch again, is going to Half Price Books. And now if we want to re-watch a movie, it can go back on the Netflix list!



UPDATE: I didn't end up returning any of the unopened movies, but I did take a few to Half Price Books. We haven't bought too many movies, but we did buy a Blu-Ray player and we have received a few movies as gifts. :-)

The Big One!

You know what the #1 New Year's Resolution made is? Yep - losing weight. Sadly, that's been my resolution every year for more years than I'm willing to admit. I just watched the season premier of the latest Biggest Loser (and it's the BIGGEST Biggest Loser), so while I know it could be worse...well, I know it could be better.



Jillian (on the Biggest Loser) claims that behind every fat person is some suppressed feeling and that the person is eating to avoid it. For example, some feeling that you're not good enough or you have some repressed childhood memory. Now, I suppose that if I have a repressed memory, I don't know it, but I really don't think so. I think my problem is that losing weight is hard. I have enough friends with weight problems to know that the way I think and how I act is typical. We all complain about our weight. We all claim we're going to try harder. We all start again next week. We all weigh the same or more than we did at this time last year.

I used to tell everyone that I was dieting in hopes that I would be humiliated into sticking to it. Then I switched theories and told no one when I was dieting in an effort to cover up failure if it happened. I've tried to think of it as a "lifestyle change" instead of a diet. The problem with all those theories is they don't matter. It's what you do (or don't do) that matters and I haven't done anything consistently enough to make a difference.

So...here I go again. I hope I can succeed, but I make no promises. I know I would feel better and I would feel better about myself. I know it CAN be done. I guess we'll see!

C'tesowt'iown Vahik

I'm going to take a few moments to get away from my silly New Year's resolutions. Sadly, today I said goodbye to one of the sweetest men I've ever known - Vahik Khachatourian. Now, I know you must wonder how I could even know someone named Vahik Khachatourian and the answer to that is that I work with his wife, Artemis. I met Artie about 8 or 9 years ago when I went to work on the Canadian Cargo project. When I moved to Coppell to my own apartment, Artie was so excited because she lived in Coppell, too. She and Vic (as I knew him) took me under their wing. They had me over on several occasions for dinner and / or drinks. In those days, Vic worked in the restaurant business and there were several times that I and Artie would visit him while he was at work and have dinner at the restaurant where he was working.

The restaurant business is really tough. They are bought and sold a lot and it's really hard work. Vic would eventually give that up. Even though he loved it dearly, he followed a relative into the car business. In fact, I bought Daisy from Vic on Memorial Day weekend in 2006. It was just a couple of months later that Vic found out he had colon cancer.

Vic fought a hard battle against the disease. He never gave up. When a doctor told him that there was nothing else they could do for him, he would find another doctor. For over 2 years, he battled but in the end, on December 31st, the cancer won.

Vic and Artie are Armenian. I'd never even heard of Armenia before I met them. I thought (until about 15 seconds ago) that Armenia was part of Iran, but Wikipedia indicates that it is actually part of the former Soviet Union that borders Iran. I know that Vic and Artie moved from Armenia to Tehran, so perhaps my confusion began there. Regardless, it has been more than 25 years ago since they immigrated to the U.S. with their daughter, Nina. They lived in Iowa and California before they settled in DFW. I don't remember how they met, but I truly believe that they are one of the happiest couples I've ever known. They absolutely adored each other and it was obvious to anyone who spent any time with them.

On December 18th, Vic and Artie became grandparents for the first time, but Vic never got to meet his granddaughter. He was already in the hospital by the time she was born. I think it is so sad that baby Nyrie will not know her grandfather. But I know that Nina and Artie will make sure that she knows how special her grandfather was and how much he loved her without even the chance to meet her in person.

There will always be a special place in my heart for Vic (and Artie, too). I will remember the wonderful Aremenian dishes he prepared and shared with me. I will remember the glasses of wine and the fun of sitting around and listening to their stories of immigration and their jokes. As mentioned in the eulogy today, it's hard to find words to express how special Vic was (and Artie still is) or even exactly what makes them so. I think you have to have been priveleged enough to be in their lives to truly understand and I will be forever grateful that I was.

Vahik brought light and love to a world in short supply of both. Laughter came as easily and naturally as breath to him. On his lips a joke was always ready (more often than not, a dirty one), and in his eyes an unwavering delight in life and the people who filled it. Vahik knew what the world was made of, and he still loved all of it.

C'tesowt'iown Vahik - Goodbye Vic. You will be missed.

Books, books, books

Another love - reading! This is not a new hobby, this is something I've been doing for years and years and years. When I was a kid, I would spend hours at the library picking out books to read. Nancy Drew was a favorite, as was Beverly Cleary. Ha!!!

The other day I counted and I have 42 books in my "queue" for reading. Here's a peek at my nightstand:



I'm lucky that I have lots of friends who also like to read, so many of the books in my queue are books that friends have loaned me. I have a few books in the queue that Joe found in the airport. But I have to be honest. I have a little problem. It's called "Barnes and Noble." I go crazy in that store. I walk in and just the smell of all those brand new books is like an aphrodisiac. That might be a slight exageration, but you get the idea, right?

I can't possibly make a New Year's Resolution to NOT buy books - that would kill me. But I will make this one: #4 - Read the books in my current queue. My boss says that's not a real resolution because I read a lot anyway, but since these are my resolutions, I make my own rules. I'm 134 pages away from finishing John Grisham's, The Last Juror, one of the better Grisham's I've read.

And once I'm done, it'll be 41 to go...

Organize!!

I LOVE organization. I think that may be one of the reasons I hate my current job - I feel so unorganized. I'm drowning in work. I'm so busy trying to keep my head above water, that organizing is way down on the priority list.

But I digress...

Resolution #3 - ORGANIZE our house!!! I started yesterday with this closet (this picture actually taken AFTER I worked on it for an hour or so!):



One thing I discovered - that whole 2nd shelf is full of candles. My mom doesn't burn a lot of candles, so she gives me ones she doesn't want. I got a ton of candles when I had a "At Home America" party several years ago as hostess gifts. And, I've bought a few candles, too. I do LOVE candles - almost as much as organization. But I realize that over the past few years I have been buying and burning specific brands and scents. As a result, I have this shelf-full of candles that has been growing for years. So...yesterday and today I have been burning candles. One in almost every room. All day. In the name of organization.

Texas Blasphemy

On January 2nd, Joe and I accompanied my parents to a restaurant that they had seen on their new favorite show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives that they watch on the Food Network. The restaurant was Tip Top Diner in San Antonio and is claimed to have the best chicken-fried steak anywhere. So, we had CFS all-around.

What I am about to say could be considered treason in the Great State of Texas, but during that meal I realized something. I don't like chicken fried steak. GASP!!! I know how shocking it seems, but I voiced my opinion to Joe on the way home and he agreed. Of course, he's from Illinois, so he doesn't have to worry. As a Yankee, he's allowed not to like chicken-fried steak. What's more shocking about this discovery is that aside from the fatty, grisly meat that I don't like, they use too much breading. I KNOW - I'm the biggest bread lover in the world!!! How can it be that something has too much breading? Baffling.

So...this discovery has led me to my next resolution for the year. No more chicken-fried steak. EXCEPT at Babe's, which I do like because they don't overbread and they have the best gravy I've ever tasted and, frankly, anything smothered in that probably tastes good.

Lazy Dayz...

First of all...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I love New Year's. I spend lots of time every year making resolutions and thinking about how the new year might be better than the last. It's an opportunity for change and it fills me with hope every year. But then, February rolls around and I'm back to same 'ole me. I LOVE my life, but, it's the little things I'd like to change. Things like getting birthday presents to people on time and watching less TV and reading one night a week. And, of course, being healthier and losing weight. But, let's not go there just yet.

Here I am today...



I would bet that most of my friends would give anything to have a day like this - laying on the couch under my favorite blanket, reading a book. Sometimes I even take a little nap. It's blissful, but I think I do this too often. So, besides buying a NEW couch, one of my resolutions is to get off this couch!

I took the long road through college - working full-time and going to school part-time. Toward the end, when I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, I really started kicking it in high gear, taking 3 classes and working full-time. It was busy!!! I never had time to lay on the couch and do nothing. Then, there was the CPA exam. For years after that schedule, I could never just do nothing. I always had to be doing something. But, somehow I guess I learned and now I'd like to find a happy medium. So...there's resolution #1.

For the record, we did get out of the house today. Today, we went to see Valkyrie at the movie theatre close to our house. It was pretty good. The review on the radio said that Tom Cruise is a bad actor surrounded by good actors in this film. I used to love Tom Cruise, but now I don't really care for him that much. Mostly this pertains to some choices he's made in his personal life and also for some of his personal values and opinions. Oddly, I realize that a lot of people would feel the same way about me, but fortunately, I don't live my life in the public eye. At any rate, the movie was good - and interesting if you like history. And it got me off the couch!