As Promised...

Pier One's Christmas stuff all went to 90% off yesterday morning.

Ornaments are now all under a dollar, and a giant ornament covered gold star measuring about 4 feet across is now $12.98. It was originally $129.

An older woman came in and bought LOADS of stuff for her church decorating committee and it all came up to $69. When I say loads, I mean around 35 ornaments, 40 small potted plants, an ornament covered tree, 8 sets of boxed ornaments (which each had 12 or 16 inside) and a bunch of stuff I can't even remember now.


This set of four dessert plates is now under $2.

Oh, the insanity.

All Caught Up

I do sincerely apologize to my mass legion of adoring fans.

I've been actually WORKING this week - lots of hours at Pier One and striving to impress the right people there in the hopes of at least becoming a full-time employee.

Our house is a wreck, although it's a lovely Christmas wreck... Here's some shots from LAST Friday when I put up the tree and hung the stockings...


And I must put forth an apology. I didn't intend to make Carrie T. look like a crazy vacuuming freak show... even if she is one! She just "really appreciates a clean floor." Having animals, I suppose I have become somewhat immune to layers of fur beneath my socks.

Carrie, you are welcome to vacuum at my house any time you want! I promise to do it myself during the three weeks you are gone...

Movin' On Up

I was initially hired on at Pier One as a seasonal "limited" time employee - meaning that I'm not supposed to work more than 20 hours a week.

When I spoke to my Manager on the phone before my interview she said that she was only hiring for temporary seasonal employees but that it didn't mean I couldn't stay on after the holidays. I told her that I "fully intend to kick ass" which she liked.

I have worked five or six shifts in the last ten days and a couple of days ago the regional manager was in the store to check things out. Apparently I made a good impression on her and she and my direct manager both are interested in training me to be a sales leader and in charge of the logistics of unloading the truck deliveries. They also have given me more than 20 hours this week, one shift is part of a display/visuals seminar tonight from 6pm to midnight.

I am REALLY excited about this, for several reasons. As the GM at the pet store I feel like the things I excelled at most were cleaning up the displays and general appearance of the store - in an organized way AND organizing projects.

Logistics, organization and visual style are things I am pretty natural at, so it's actually fun for me to "have to" reorganize an entire display.

Our Pier One store apparently was pretty disorganized before my manager arrived and she has been having to clean up in many ways. It's exciting and fun for me to be in on this level of turning things around. I feel like I always do better in a situation where there is a goal and a significant amount of pressure to succeed.

All of this can only benefit me in our dream to eventually own and run our own pet store.

As for working during the holiday season? I love it. The one exception is that the muzak loop at the store has what I believe is a Miley Cyrus rendition of "Holly Jolly Christmas", and it's HORRENDOUS.

Life Grinds Slowly Back Into Gear

I started orientation at Pier One today.

I was scheduled to have an interview there at 2pm on Friday. Yesterday at about 4pm I realized that it WAS FRIDAY.

I should have deduced that it was Friday because I watched CSI the night before, wished a friend happy birthday only to have him tell me "thanks, but it was yesterday", but it took looking at the TV Guide website telling me it was Friday to figure it out.

Fortunately my interviewer was understanding and when I called to assure her that I am NOT a total flake, she told me to come in for the interview right away.

It's nice to be working again, although it makes me very store-sick for the pet store in Key West.

This afternoon Scott and I planned out our Thanksgiving Day meal and then went to the grocery store to stock up, first having dinner at a Thai restaurant next door to Publix.

During dinner we talked about ideas for a poor-economy Christmas and came up with some rather good ones, I think.

I got started tonight on one of the major projects, I would say I'm about one-fifth of the way done with it and haven't spent a dime. I'm hoping that the recipient thinks it's as kickass as I do... if someone made this present for ME I would LOVE it.

The other highlight of the evening was when Scott discovered that it's a bad idea to feed The Stink from the couch. This results in her constantly wanting up to see if there's more and then wanting down to look for it herself.

A Little bit of Martha...

This is the Martha Stewart version:


It is done with weatherproof paper and tape and hung on an outside door.

I liked the look of the idea, and goodness knows I love to be crafty, so I started digging through my Christmas bins to see what I could come up with.

While in Key West, the only store that had reasonably priced Christmas decorations was K-Mart, and so I chose items in the silver and purple vein both years.

Since I can't afford to buy all new Christmas decorations this year, I'm going to go with what I collected in Key West, so I figured a silver and purple wreath would coordinate nicely.

I had plenty of silver stuff, but not as much purple. Carrie and I ended up taking a trip to Dollar General, Target and Michaels looking for purple wrapping paper, which apparently is so Last Year.

I made do with some pieces of purple scrapbooking paper instead and then came home and wrapped a bunch of small boxes - some from Michaels but most were either empty gum display boxes I got at Food Lion or cream cheese boxes from my fridge.

Carrie helped by wrapping the base in silver paper and putting in her two cents about which boxes should be where.

We were very pleased with the final product...

And Just Like That, It's Over.

Christmas came and went far too quickly. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that I worked on the 24th and the 26th, in addition to feeding and watering everything at the store on Christmas Day.

As a result of forgetting to water our tree a few days in a row, it has dried up pretty quickly and is shedding needles at a great rate. That, combined with one of the cats insisting that the tree-skirt is a good place to pee, has convinced me not to leave the tree up for all 12 days of Christmas as is usually my tradition.

Christmas Eve dinner was pierogies and apples with carmel and peanut butter for dipping (the apples, not the pierogies). After dinner we opened one present together, a coffee table book called SNOG: A Puppy's Guide to Love from my cousin Carrie. We read through it together and then Scott ushered me off to bed so Santa could come down our non-existent chimney.

Christmas morning we awoke fairly early to the sound of the Chihuahua barking in his kennel. We took a family walk with Buster and Cocoa Puff, (or McLovin, depending on the day) and the puppy pottied outside for the first time ever. I was very proud.

We brewed a batch of coffee and opened our gifts, beginning with the stockings for the animals. My stocking was filled with all kinds of goodies, the most popular being the yogurt covered pretzels that were gone by the end of the day.

Since I was on duty to take care of the animals at the store, I headed over around 10am and Ricky met me there. We managed to feed and water everything in about a half hour and then headed back to the house. I had invited Ricky, Debbie and Toni for brunch, which was a huge amount of scrambled eggs, sauteed veggies, and toaster waffles.

After brunch we watched "A Christmas Story" and then I took about a two and a half hour nap. Once I woke up we gathered the chihuahua and drove up to Cudjoe Key to my bosses' house, where we enjoyed their various animals and spent a couple of hours competing on an X-Box Karaoke game. We made it home at about 2am and I went to bed.

We miss the chihuahua. We're considering buying him. We're nuts.

Merry Christmas From Our Zoo

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house all the creatures were stirring and hoping for snacks.

Since there are three puppies not yet sold and the store is closed Christmas day, each of the three remaining went home with someone for two nights. I got to bring home the afore-mentioned Chocolate Chihuahua.

He has settled in just fine, decided his bed is a folded wool blanket beneath the coffee table, and already made the skunk jealous.

Stinkerbell has spent the majority of the evening pouting in her bed (in her cage by choice) and had to be bribed out once the puppy went to sleep.

The cats are pretty accustomed to new animals being brought into their lives now, Buster was the first major interruption in their cat-centric lives, followed by a Betta (a relatively mild distraction), Hamster and then of course, the skunk. When they saw the Chihuahua they just sniffed him and then retreated to a position with a good vantage point.

Buster immediately understood that it is a dog, very small, and fragile. He sniffed it and then wanted to play. He has been very careful not to step on the Chihuahua and was happy to share his toys and bed.

Since it is Christmas Eve, I decided they should all be festive. I know better than to try and put anything on Minx, as I'd like to keep my face intact, but I put a lovely velvet bell collar on Maui and then on Chou.

Maui was fairly tolerant, but very happy when Scott rescued him. Chou is reasonably used to being subjected to embarrassing fashion attempts. He sits calmly and only shows his displeasure by glaring at me.

Buster is very happy to wear his Christmas sweater, much to Scott's chagrin. Scott only allows the wearing of the sweater because Buster is visibly proud to have it on. When I bring it out of the cupboard he immediately comes over and sits at my feet, ready to be festooned.

Being in Key West, we are running our AC even on Christmas Eve and the Chihuahua got a little chill. I transformed an old sock into a sweater with a matching toque.

Deck the Halls

With something Furry...
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

This is a silver Chinchilla. He is one of two we have left at the store.

If you have ever felt a fur coat made of Chinchillas, you know how soft their fur is. According to Wikipedia,

"The international trade in chinchilla fur goes back to the 16th century. The fur from chinchillas is popular in the fur trade due to its extremely soft feel, because they have about 60 hair sprouting from each hair follicle. The color is usually very even which makes it ideal for small garments or lining of large garments, though some large garments can be made entirely from the fur. The pelt of a chinchilla is relatively small, so many animals must be killed to make a single coat. This fact led to the extinction of one species, and put serious pressure on the other two."

Fortunately we bring them into our store as pets, and we have the fun of getting to play with them ourselves. They are very curious, and like to nibble gently on things as they explore. This can include the tip of your finger if you are holding one, but it doesn't hurt.

Chinchillas are very clean, not requiring a water bath. A Bath House is placed in their living area and holds a small amount of Bath Dust. The Chinchillas get in the bath house and roll around until they feel they are appropriately clean.

I have to say, it's pretty darn cute.

Christmas is a time for Reminiscing.

(there used to be a video here of The Swing Sisters...I think it expired.)

That's me in the middle. I miss this.

'Tis The Season...

To Piss. Me. Off.

Why would someone steal in the first place. Especially when they are GIVEN things to begin with? I do not understand this.

Perhaps the guilty party is a kleptomaniac. Whatever the reason, it puts a dent in my Christmas Spirit.

I wish that people that feel the need to steal would just admit it and avoid the situation that they steal from entirely.

Grr. And a tiny bit of Bah Humbug.

Christmas is going to the dogs.

I don't usually go in for the small yappy dogs, but this chocolate chihuahua just cracks me up. He's in our "puppy window" with a jack russell, a papillon and a rat terrier. He is easily the smallest. The other day I saw the jack with a chihuahua front leg in her mouth, the rat terrier had a back leg, and they were dragging him across the floor of the window. He got up and ran right back for more.

Couldn't you just eat him? With whipped cream maybe?

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas...

...Let your heart be light!

Lights are still $2.50 for a box of 100 at the craft store, so I picked up two more in hopes that they will be enough to light the bottom 1/4 of my tree.

I wasn't off today, but I worked from 9am to 4:15pm and then came home and took a little nap on the couch and ottoman with Stinkerbell while Scott made dinner (YUMMY).

Then the spirit of Martha Stewart possessed me again and I went to three different stores, picking up pictures and supplies.

Once back at the house I put Mixed Nuts into the DVD player (it's one of my three* Christmas movies that I must see every year) and started cooking.

I made a gigantic batch of peanut butter cookies and a pan of "double-layer confetti brownies" with m&m's in them, wrapped some more presents, and did another load of dishes.

I don't know what's gotten in to me.

*The other two are White Christmas and Love Actually.

Here Comes Santa Claus...

Today was my day. I was off of work today and decided to make full use of it.

I planned to get up in time to have a shower and look presentable on meeting my bestie Steph for breakfast at IHOP. Scott set my alarm for 10 PM and I woke up much too well-rested at 10:59 with one minute to get to IHOP. I phoned Steph and made sure she was going to be late, then took the dog for a quick jog around the condos. I stuck a headband in my bed-hair (not the good kind of bed-hair, either) and jumped in my car to race to the restaurant.

Our house is on large concrete stilts, as we live in hurricane country. This is great if there's flooding, but not so great if you are backing out of the carport between the stilts and not very awake.

I shaved off my driver's side mirror. Didn't even leave it hanging. It lay pitifully in the driveway waiting for me to rescue it. After much swearing I collected the poor thing and headed off to pancake-land.

The night before last Steph helped me haul a Fraser Fir through the bushes between Home Depot and our house. Last night I bought some lights at K-Mart (the only lights that were left) and put them on the tree. I bought 8 strands of 35 lights each. They don't plug into each other and they only covered about the top third of the tree.

This morning after breakfast I went to the local craft store and discovered that they still have lights (lots and lots and lots) AND they are on sale! I got boxes of 100 light strands for $2.50 each! I then went to Ross and bought an ottoman. Not a Christmas thing, I know, but it's a very lovely ottoman. The cats especially are enjoying it.

Once I got home I lugged the ottoman out of my trunk and all the way up the outside stairs. I hit "shuffle" on my i-pod Christmas playlist then cleaned the kitchen and living room, did a load of dishes, three loads of laundry, put the couch-cover back on the couch, wrapped some presents, washed the tree skirt (a cat had peed on it), clipped some cat claws, set the table with a lovely silver table cloth and 4 place settings, took the dog for another walk, downloaded pictures from my camera and then uploaded them to Walgreens to pick up later, put two strands of lights on the tree (STILL not enough) and three strands on the exterior of the house.

And THEN, I made macaroni and cheese.

Countdown to Christmas...

Working retail during the holidays is crazy. I did it ten years ago at the GAP in downtown Portland, and our pet store on our tiny island is nearly as busy as the holidays approach!

Today we are getting baby ferrets and chinchillas (for those who've never met a chinchilla, I'll be posting pics soon. They're AWESOME.) and next week another round of puppies.

I've put together some gift baskets that will give customers the opportunity to save 20% on everything in the basket if they buy it as a whole, and we've decorated the store with lights, tinsel and so far, two trees.

I am sending out the first of my wave of Christmas cards today, and hoping we will procure a tree from somewhere soon. Scott's not interested in the fake ones, however practical they may be, so we'll see if we're going to get an actual fir tree or go with our potted palm like last year.

The chaos begins.

Return to Paradise

I have come back to Key West an engaged woman.

Our trip to the west coast was very eventful, exciting, and busy! We packed a lot of visits with friends and family into 9 days.

We began our adventure on Friday, December 22 after work. We managed to finish packing and prepare the animals for our absence and get to the airport on time thanks to a ride from Brandon. We checked in and found our flight was overbooked and they were in need of people to fly the next day. Fortunately enough people jumped at the chance to stay in paradise for another day that we were able to leave on our scheduled Delta flight to Atlanta.

The planes that come in and out of Key West are of the smaller variety, and altitude and turbulence are felt stronger than on a bigger jet. By the time our two-hour flight landed at Hartsfield-Jackson International airport I was feeling a little more than quesy. We had about a two hour layover before our flight out, so we rested and I took a dramamine to face the next leg.
We arrived into San Fransisco around 12:30am and Gary and Carla picked us up at baggage claim. Once at the Cumpston house, I stayed up for about 20 minutes, long enough to discover that the box of presents I had shipped by UPS 3 day a week previous had not arrived yet. I went to bed and we agreed to try and track down the package in Menlo Park the next morning.

I woke up on Saturday when Kevin and Katie arrived from their flight in. Carla and Scott were out "shopping for dad" and trying to track down the UPS package. I heard a doorbell and found the missing package on the doorstep. Scott and Carla arrived back at the house about an hour later and we all drove together to Fogarty Winery up in the hills.

We did some wine tasting and took a couple of fun pictures on the hillside overlooking the valley.

We made our way back down to Woodside and stopped at the Woodside Bakery for lunch, enjoying fresh baked bread and wood-fired pizza with leftovers to take home.

After a nap, Gary, Carla, Katie, Kevin, Scott and myself got in the car and drove to Gary's cousin Doug's house. Doug's wife Liz and kids Ray, Cate and Jane also joined us and after homemade hors d'oeuvres we all went into downtown Palo Alto and sat down to dinner at Spago.

After ordering, Scott wanted to take a walk outside for some fresh air, so we crossed the street to a small park. It was quite cold out and Scott had not brought his jacket out of the restaurant, so we walked at a decent pace to stay warm. After making a few laps around the park we stopped next to a park bench, and after he got out of my grip, went down on one knee on the sidewalk and proposed. I must not have answered and he said "Please say yes!"

I said yes (of course!) and we went back to dinner and celebrated with the family.

We were treated to a chocolate lava cake with ice cream and whipped cream and champagne.

Sunday morning we went back to the jeweler to pick the final setting for the diamond Scott had picked out (astounding in it's own right) and did a little last minute shopping while waiting for it to be ready to pick up.

Pizza for lunch again but this time at "Pizza My Heart" in downtown Palo Alto, where we bought t-shirts for $5 each and got a free piece of pizza.

Christmas Eve dinner was Potato Cheese soup, salad and paninis. We watched The Devil Wears Prada and then went to bed around 1am.

Christmas morning Scott's sister Katie and her husband Kevin ran yelling "Santa was here! Santa was here!" through the house at about 7am. There was a beautiful sunrise through the trees as we opened our stockings and gifts.

There was a little time for naps before Doug and his family came over for hors d'oeuvres, and then a quick dinner before Gary delivered Katie and Kevin to the airport for a flight back to Portland.

Scott and I stayed up for a little while and then went to bed, only to be woken up at about 12:30 to pile into the car and leave for our drive north. We hit rain going through San Fransisco and it didn't let up until it turned to snow just south of Weed. The snowflakes were about 3 inches in diameter and blowing sideways. We braved the blizzard and it got better by the time we reached Yreka, coinciding with daylight.

We finally pulled up to my mom's house in Clackamas right after noon on the 26th. The first visit was to Monica and John Paul's house, where we watched the kids open their presents. Mom had asked that we be back to her house by 5pm to begin preparations for our pseudo Christmas Eve traditional evening. Our evening began with dinner and the traditional lighting of the advent wreath candles, and ended with opening yet more presents and crashing into bed around 10:30pm.

Morning of the 27th we drove across town to the home of Keith and Julie Thomson, parents of Scott's brother-in-law. After opening gifts and enjoying homemade shortbread, we proceeded to Scott's Grandma Virginia's house minutes away and opened MORE gifts.

Once we said goodbye to Virginia, we drove back across town and stopped at the Ouchida house for about a half hour, where we discovered that Britt and Dan got engaged about two hours after we did.

We dashed out to the Oregon City McMenamins to have lunch with Tiffany at about 3pm, and then made our way back to Mom's house to nap.

Applebees off 112th in Vancouver was our destination for dinner with Andy, Adam, Kelli and Sarah Rodriguez. They enjoyed their "Chou-lendars" and we shared engagement stories.

Thursday morning we met Britt and Dan for breakfast at Jam On Hawthorne and then enjoyed a couple of hours with TJ, Michelle and Taylor at their home in Milwaukie. We had just enough time to drive to Mom's to change and then head to The Ram in Lake Oswego for lunch with Carla, Grandma Eloise and Scott's other cousin Jane.

In the short amount of time between lunch and dinner, I had the opportunity to spend my Target gift card and a little time at Bridal Exclusives in Clackamas Promenade and may have found THE dress.

7pm found Lou, Mom, Scott and myself parking in the lot at Riverplace, and braving the very cold wind to walk down the plank to the Marina Fish House (previously Newport Bay). Gary and Carla joined us shortly after and we enjoyed a fantastic meal capped off with Gary and Lou sharing a berry cobbler.

Friday morning we woke early and drove to Monica and John Paul's house, visited for a few minutes and then delivered Sammey to Brusett's house for a birthday party. Kevin agreed to perform our ceremony, whenever it ends up being.

It was great to see the girls at my old office for a few minutes before heading south into Portland.

Scott dropped me off at my hair appointment and then we grabbed lunch on the way to visit Julie and Ella. Ella is 4 1/2 and very smart. It was great to catch up with them and we were sorry Keith wasn't able to be there.

I dropped Scott off with Andy and spent the afternoon at the downtown Clark County Title branch saying "hi."

I met Roxy and her family and Tony at the Spaghetti Factory in Vancouver for dinner, and then sped to Tualatin to meet the gang at Hayden's Lakefront Grill.

JVA rocked the place out and I even got to play a little cowbell before TJ took over. It turned out to be a bit of an un-official engagement party, attended by Monica & John Paul, TJ, Andy, Travis, Pete, Jen, Chad, Bill, Bob & Chelsea, and Matt and Tiffany. We stayed until the very end and finally got to sleep around 1am.

Saturday morning I got up at 7am and went to Bridge City for rehearsal before singing and playing keyboard for worship during church. Mom and Lou brought Scott for the service and I got to hold Connor for about 1/2 of the message.

Scott and Sindos' wedding started just after 2pm a few miles away and then we had a small window of time to pre-pack for our flight out. The wedding reception was at the Oswego Lake Country Club and we bailed after dinner was served.

Packing up and loading out managed to only take us about a half hour, helped by the fact that we decided to ship a lot of stuff from Portland to Key West so we didn't have to cram it into our luggage.

We arrived at Bob's house around 9pm and had an hour to hang out with Rachel & Gary, Mike & Erin, Monica & John Paul, Brooke & Nate, Andy, Bob & Chelsea, Chris and show pics of Chou to Jeff.

After a round of goodbyes, Bob dropped us at the airport and we checked in for our flight back to Atlanta.

Scott gave up some toothpaste and lotion at security, and we were able to board our plane without having to wait too long.

The three hour layover in Atlanta was taken up by napping, especially after I took a dramamine, which knocked me out hard.

The flight to Key West went quickly and smooth, considering I was sleeping.

Shaunta picked us up and we were happy to get home and greet the kitties right around 1pm.

Countdown to Christmas - 6 days

We are leaving Key West for California in just 3 days. All that remains to be done at home is pack and clean, as we are having guests over New Year's Weekend.

We'll put our Christmas tree out on the back porch before we leave so it can have some sun.

I found this festive fellow enjoying his holidays on our front porch last night. I googled him and he's quite common to the area - a Spiny Orb Weaver. Not harmful, good with bug catching.

Anyone want one for Christmas? He's about the size of a dime.

Countdown to Christmas - 10 days

One week until we depart for California. We've been notified of a little added time to our layover in Atlanta, but the rest of the plans are still looking good.

We finally got a new key to our mailbox and were able to receive the mass buildup of Christmas cards (and bills) that were waiting.

The last two UPS shipments of presents are going out today, and my company Christmas Party is tonight.

We are enjoying near 80 degree weather every day, and only a little rain. I recieved a text message from one of the tenants in my Vancouver house "you have a tree in your driveway" but I verified with my co-owner that everything is ok, and they only lost power for about 5 minutes.

The picture is from Scott's Christmas Party last weekend.

Countdown to Christmas - 12 Days

I have 2 Christmas presents left to buy or make, 3 boxes of presents to ship out to their destinations.

We attended Scott's company Christmas party on Saturday night, and my company Christmas party will be this Friday evening.

I've been decorating at work since the first week of December, and it's looking very festive, if just a little hodge-podge.

The stockings are laying under the counter with care... or in the case of the dog - hung on the cupboard handle, and in the case of the cats, hung on the wine rack above their dishes.

Chou still sits under the table, even though the fort of presents has been dismantled.

Scott and I are each working just 7 more days and then we depart for San Fransisco.

Countdown to Christmas - 21 Days

The tree is up and decorated, 90% of the presents are made or purchased.

I watched one of my two yearly Christmas required movies on Saturday night: Mixed Nuts. It's a Nora Ephron film with a ridiculous plot and great cast. Steve Martin, Rita Wilson, Madeline Kahn, Adam Sandler, Juliette Lewis, Anthony LaPaglia and Liev Schreiber. I believe the movie was in theatres the Christmas season of 1994.

My other favorite is White Christmas (not Holiday Inn) with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney.

Countdown to Christmas - 25 Days

3 weeks from tomorrow we will fly to San Fransisco to spend Christmas with Scott's parents.

We're looking forward to spending the holiday in parts of the country where you can tell a little easier that it's winter.

We purchased our Christmas tree Tuesday night and will hopefully get it inside and decorated this weekend. From the picture, it looks like we are giving lots of flip flops as presents this year.

In actuality, all the presents that are already wrapped are sitting under the kitchen table, and Chou likes to hide behind them.