just so this is out of the way, i am fully aware that i am the worst blogger ever and should not be allowed to have a blog, because i have lapsed into quarterly updates at best, which is fairly pointless.

anyhow, it's monday night and today was my last day of work for the next two weeks, which is frickin' fabulous. tomorrow is our arizona christmas (which means sipping hot chocolate while walking around zoo lights, takeout from p.f. chang's, and opening most of our presents from one another (oh, and i got some good ones for dana...:D). wednesday i fly out to connecticut, and don't come back until new year's eve. so on the off chance that anyone actually still reads this blog (which, you know, thanks), i'll be in the middlebury area and the uconn/storrs area intermittently over the next two weeks. let's go to the bidwell!

i am so excited for christmas...there's actually going to be snow in connecticut this year, i'm hoping to see lots and lots of my friends (i miss you guys so much!), and also some babies that i have not yet had the pleasure of squeezing and smooching on (hailey! mila! a bigger tristan who will not remember me!). i was lucky to see a lot of my family this year, considering they're 2600 miles away, and christmas with them is always the best (ain't no christmas like an osterberg christmas!). it's sort of been christmas for a couple of weeks now (basically, i'm sold once the tree goes up), but this past week has really gotten me in the spirit. i baked lots of cookies on saturday and made glug, and then we had a little christmas get-together saturday evening in which all (ALL) of the glug (THREE BATCHES) was consumed, causing many hangovers on sunday. but you loved it, all of you. you know you did. and now tomorrow, i will pack my suitcase, and celebrate my little arizona christmas with the love of my life, and then i will get on a plane and see family and friends and SNOW and not work for two weeks, and really, what's better than that? nothing.

happy holidays everyone, and a wonderful new year! and merry christmas to you, jeff--you will be missed.

first and foremost:
happy birthday erika!!

and then:
it is GORGEOUS outside!

today is my day off, and i am enjoying my morning for several reasons:

~the sun is shining, but there is a wonderful breeze (which we don't get often here) keeping me cool and making my wind chime make lovely bright happy jingly noises.
~i am sitting on my new patio furniture, which happily redd did not consume while i was at work yesterday (he did nibble on one corner, but you can barely see it and he appears to be sorry).
~the internet! she is working! this is sort of like an endangered animal sighting.
~did i mention my happy wind chime?
~i'm going to ph!lly for EPA training at the end of the month, and while i am sad that i will not be able to spend halloween with dana, i am psyched that i may be able to spend it with the lovely nieci!
~we had our first group training run last night, and it was super-motivating to run in that large of a group of people. we have another one on saturday morning, and i'm excited to push myself to run the whole thing.
~i've already got $325 $350 (just saw a new one! thanks jared!) in donations to the leukemia and lymphoma society for my 1/2 marathon run. it's a far cry from the $2200 that i need, but i only started fundraising a few days ago!

so, lots of things to be happy about. including my awesome boyfriend, totally not at all cute pets (ha!), and great friends and family. life is good.

on january 13th, dana and i will be participating in the p.f. chang's rock 'n' roll arizona half marathon here in tempe. we're doing it as part of team in training with the leukemia and lymphoma society. those of you who know me know that i normally participate in the american cancer society's relay for life; this year i'm mixing it up a bit. don't worry--i'll still be hitting you all up for donations for this incredibly worthwhile cause...details to follow!

last week i went rafting down the grand canyon with some co-workers (we did the "diamond down" trip, where you go in at diamond creek, and raft all the way out to south cove at lake mead). it's about 60 river miles, of which becky and i jumped off the boat and swam about a half-mile (swimming! in the colorado river! in the grand canyon!). what a blast...since redd ate my camera a while back, i don't have any pictures of my own from the trip, but i'll post links to some photos once i get 'em.

the big news this week is that brooke is getting married on saturday!!!!. brooke and i have known each other since daisy scouts, and i am so, so, SO excited to be a part of this. yay brooke and dave! whooooo!

anywho...that's all for now, more to come. look for marathon and donation updates in the next week or so...

i! love! my! new! bike! thank you, dana! you're the best!!!

You Are 44% Girly

You're a little girly, a little boyish, and probably a whole lot indie. You have your own unique style, and it pretty much defies gender lines.

How Girly Are You?

This is actually a bit girlier than I was expecting...

oh...uh, hi there.

so. you may have noticed that it's been three months since i've posted. and that my other website is gone. or, you may not have...but there it is. i let my old domain expire because 1) i hadn't updated anything on the page in a year, 2) between blogger and flickr, i just didn't really need it anymore, and c) if i do decide to start up a web page again, it will probably be because i want to sell crafty things from it, which you're not supposed to do from a .org anyway. as for not posting here in three months, i have no excuse. i suck.

in the three months since we last saw our fearless heroine, she has changed jobs (still working for the grant program, but now instead of being a project manager, i'm the program coordinator! and my cube is bigger!), cut her hair (not too short, but much shorter than it's been), decided to do a half-marathon in january, partied in vegas, and hung out by the pool. the dogs have gotten bigger (well, at least redd has), dana and i have started to look into home-buying, i got a kick-ass new phone...and life is good.

i'm hoping to get back in the swing of posting here and updating more...there are some exciting things coming up in the next few months (rafting down the grand canyon! brooke's wedding! philadelphia! erika and rich visiting for thanksgiving! and more!), so i'll have lots of stories to tell. and hopefully there's still someone skulking around here to tell them to...

so i've actually been crafting quite a bit lately...i've got this idea in my head that if i can come up with a good range of different things to make, and sit down and make at least one of each thing and take pictures, that maybe i could get some kind of on-the-side "hey, buy my stuff!" thing going. this isn't a new idea, but one integral part of it is dropping a decent chunk of change on materials so that i've got something to work with. i've been so budget crazed lately, what with my student loan payments starting up and trying to develop some savings and still going on fun weekend trips...and i'm thrilled that in the next month or so, we're going to be hitting a nice financial groove (which will allow me to finally drop aforementioned decent chunk of change).

anywho, probably later this summer i might start up a new blog (or revamp the old website, which i'm feeling has been rendered fairly obsolete between this blog and flickr) soley for displaying crafty goodness. in the meantime, save your shiny pennies so you can buy yourself something pretty ;).

i've been tagged by sonia! here are the rules:

"Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs the 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag 7 others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog."

i feel like the only people that read this blog are already going to know all of the random things that i can think up, so excuse me if you've heard this one before...

1. i love corny jokes. like, really bad, probably-people-are-just-laughing-when-i-tell-them-to-humor-me corny jokes.

2. i cannot watch movies and tv shows that put people in uncomfortable situations and are supposed to be "funny". i get all anxious and squirmy on behalf of the character, and end up vaguely irritated. examples: seinfeld, meet the parents, and i'm sure borat, which is why i haven't seen it yet.

3. an oldie but goodie: i can sing the quadratic equation to the tune of 'pop goes the weasel.' i think that this should be taught in all algebra classes.

4. i am ridiculously hard on myself. this makes me, i think, a not very fun person to teach things to, because i get frustrated with myself when i don't pick things up right away. one might think that recognizing that fact would be a good first step to rectifying the problem, but one would be wrong.

5. i was a full-on tomboy until roughly the age of 21, when i got a wild hair across my ass and decided to start baking and cooking. after that came random craftiness, which then led to sewing, crocheting, beading, and knitting--listed in order of mastery level ;).

6. despite my love of crafting, i have an aversion to patterns and instructions. that is not to say that i refuse to use them, but if i think that i can figure it out on my own, i'm going that route first.

7. i can drive long distances without getting lost (like, all the way across the country, for example), but i will probably get you lost if i try to give you directions across town.

i don't think i know 7 people with blogs who haven't done this yet, but i tag
april
laura
and
jenn

happy birthday rob! and happy birthday to dana, who's birthday was exactly one week ago! :)

we spent the weekend in mexico at rocky point, and brought rob as his birthday present. aside from one member of our party running off with the mexican guy that sold us fireworks on the beach (uh, no, i'm not kidding), it was a great trip...really, even that had its drama value. jet skiing on the sea of cortez, playing in the tide pools, walking on the beach, setting off a huge fireworks display...good times :).

not much else goin' on here. i'll post a link to mexico pictures as soon as i get them uploaded...

an update, for the brave few that have the perserverance to check this blog (because i do always update eventually...sometimes it just takes a while...):

-redd is getting huge. he's learning how to sit and stay and all kinds of good things. i think we might be taking him on his first camping trip this weekend!
-gearing up to go rafting down the colorado river again in a few weeks. site visits must be done, and who am i to shirk my duties?
-also gearing up to go on my first trip to mexico, which will also be rob's first trip to mexico, because we're flying him out here for his birthday! i fully intend to make him ride the mechanical bull, because that's what a good big sister does. for sure.
-while going over my site statistics, i saw that not one but two people stumbled upon this web site by searching for images of stone cold steve austin. which now makes my second reference ever to stone cold steve austin on this blog (the first of which being a mention of the not-quite-life-size cardboard cut out of said wrestler that resided in my grad school office, which was in a post roughly two years ago).
-i also noticed that people from work have stumbled across my blog. hello, mystery co-worker(s)!
-uh...yeah. not much else. see, you should thank me for not posting when i don't have anything to say! then you don't have to read really boring pointless posts like this one.

adios, muchachos!

it's a shame they don't like each other. really.

first and foremost, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROOKE!! :)



life around here has been pretty puppy-centric lately. redd is doing very well, learning the ropes from big brother lukin and giving the cat grief whenever possible. chester is pretending to hate the puppy, but for the most part he's very tolerant (he'll make "I hate you" noises, but won't actually make any great effort to get away from redd unless he's really, really pesty). lukin loves having a play buddy, and he lets Redd chew on his ears and use him as a jungle gym--i'm very impressed with how good he's been (props to kate's mom for breeding such wonderful dogs!).

mom and dad are coming out for a visit this week, so dana and i are doing some house cleaning this weekend. we're going to take them up to the grand canyon next weekend, which will be very exciting b/c they haven't been before. speaking of the grand canyon, i may have another trip down the river for work coming up in late april. not definite yet, but i'm keeping my fingers crossed...hey, i need to visit my project sites and make sure everything is going well!

i'm going to go outside and play with lukin and redd. later gators! :)

more puppy pictures up over at my flickr site :)

this picture pretty much sums up how i felt throughout much of my college physics experience:

(click to see it bigger)

holy puppy breath, batman.

today is day six of Operation Puppysit. we have the entire litter of golden retriever puppies introduced in the previous post (12 puppies!), plus their mommy (gidget!), and for a few days, their daddy (bear). plus lukin, of course. for those counting along at home, that's 15 dogs. 15. dogs. yup. they are friggin' adorable and it's been a lot of fun having them here, but i must admit that i am looking forward to the restoration of order when they go home tomorrow. but damn are they cute. lukin has been phenomenally good with them--herding them around the yard, checking on them while they sleep, investigating when they make funny noises--i think he'll be very, very sad when they go. chester, however, will do a little kitty dance of joy. gidget and bear kind of want to eat chester, so he's been hiding in our bedroom. he will be very, very happy when they go. then we've got just enough time to wash the sheets on the guest bed before dana's dad gets here on thursday afternoon. hopefully. (kidding--we'll wash the sheets! jeez!). which will be cool, because i haven't met dana's dad yet.

in other news, there isn't much other news. isn't 15 dogs enough for you people?

meet the newest member of the family! dana's friend greg bred his golden retriever bear (to the lovely ms. gidget), and we're taking this little guy once he's old enough (early march). all twelve of the puppies (plus mom) are actually going to be staying with us thursday through wednesday of next week while gidget's owners are on vacation. puppy doesn't have a name yet; he's going to be dana's, so dana gets to name him. for now, you can check out my puppies photo set over at flickr to bask in the cuteness that is puppy. enjoy--more photos to come ;).

this french commercial based on march of the penguins had me laughing so hard i was crying.

"sometimes they slide on their bellies, to go faster"

"there are some really tender moments, too, like when they pass their eggs to one another"

ahahahaha! very, very funny.

...in which krista pimps out a craft site with its very own magazine to which she would very much like to subscribe:



this is from the makers of make magazine, if you're familiar. brilliant stuff.

...in which krista does some housekeeping. or blogkeeping. whatever.

i've edited my links over on the left hand side (no more dead ones!), taken out the "currently reading/recently read" on the right hand side (just don't have the time to read as voraciously as i once did...), and am absolutely flummoxed as to where my archives have gone to. not a clue.

in other news, i'm thinking about putting up some sort of web-based "store front" to sell some of my crafts...more on that as it develops...

[edited 1/28 to add that thanks to a helpful tip from jane, the archives are back. big, cumbersome, and dating back to 2002, but back. lucky you.]

some randomness...

*i am in love with this response (found by the lovely ms. jinxie) to this series of asinine articles claiming that the ingestion of soy is perilous and induces homosexuality.

*dana and i have been running together, and i love it. he's very motivating to run with.

*i am sorry, new england, that it is negative 150 degrees there today.

*this woman drives me batsh!t crazy. seriously.

*i want really, really good soup. who wants to make me soup?

i am baking today. scratch that, i am attempting to bake today. i'm making sourdough bread (from scratch! i even made the starter for the dough, which is a long, drawn out, slightly smelly, bacteria-involving process), but my dough is not rising. pf. i did the damage control mom phone call (which, may i say, i pretty much never have to do when baking--cooking, occasionally, but baking? not so much), and have amended the situation by dampening the towel laying over the bowl with warm water, and turning on the oven (which the dough is in a bowl on top of) so that the heat emanates upward. now i am waiting patiently to see if that does anything. i have also instructed the dog and cat to be very very quiet, and have turned down the volume on the tv very very low, because i specifically remember my mother telling us when we were little that if we made a lot of noise, the dough wouldn't rise. it may have just been a (very effective) way to shut us up, but i'm not taking any chances. i shall report back later with results.

ETA: i am the goddess of sourdough bread. holy yum, batman.

behold, the crackberry. i broke my cell phone in half last week, and was told by ver!zon that the cheapest phone i could get to replace it would run me $150 since my contract isn't up yet. but the guy that does the cell phones for dana's work was able to hook me up with a crackberry for much, much cheaper--it's used, but barely, and it's all wiped clean and looks brandy spankin' new. i've been spending my morning re-entering phone numbers into it, and basically trying to figure out how it works.

dana left at 3:30 this morning to go on a fishing trip in NM, so i am on my own until monday (which is our 2 year anniversary, btw...). my general plan is cleaning today, girl-time tomorrow, and brunch with some friends on sunday. other than that, i'm just enjoying the first day of my 4 day weekend, and my new go go gadget technology. whoot!

yay hooray! we've finally got dependable internet at home! this means i can check my email on a regular basis, which i am very excited about, and that i can update my blog more than once a month. yipee skippee! i'm also pretty psyched because i am (hopefully) getting a new cell phone today. i broke mine (as in, dropped-it-on-the-floor-and-watched-in-horror-as-it-broke-in-half kind of broke) last week, and have been phoneless. dana managed to get a deal through the guy who does the phones for his work so that i can get a phone for $50 versus paying $150 through veriz0n (my contract isn't up until april, so they'd make me pay retail).

also: the new pasttime du jour at the parmelee-osterberg household is guitar hero II. feel free to come over and get your butts whupped*. that's right, i'm talking smack. uh huh. so go on and bring your feeble guitar attempts, because we're punk rock over here**. that's how we roll.

*by dana. i pretty much suck at guitar hero, but dana will whup your butt.
**if by punk rock, you mean pretending to play guitar on a little piece of plastic. in which case, we are very punk rock.

well chickadees, that's all for now. happy 2007! :)