"Cuh-Ray-Zee" and a long post of random-ness

That's a great adjective for me lately.  Not just crazy, but CUH-RAY-ZEE.
And it's not the kind of crazy where you're like "Wow!  We've got so many Christmas parties to go to that life is just so crazy!"  That's a fun kind of crazy.  That's the kind of crazy where you have to figure out how to get to all of those fun parties and deciding what awesome glittery outfits will best accentuate your holiday spirit is the biggest stress factor. 
Nope.  The kind of crazy I'm talking about is the type where, at the end of it all, there's nothing productive to show for it.  It's the kind of crazy where your normally super-predictable and planned out life is completely up in the air and you feel like you're in the front car of the anxiety-thrill-ride-of-doom.  That's probably a little dramatic, but we do kind of feel emotionally drained.  I'm sure Gumshoe would totally think that the phrase "emotionally drained" is completely wussy.  So he is not emotionally drained.  He is a zombie of emotions because that sounds cooler.   
It's the kind of crazy that, at breakfast the other day, Gumshoe made a silly joke and I wasn't in the mood so I gave him a thoughtful sneer (is that an oxymoron?) to which he said very sweetly: "You're absolutely glowing today!"
Then we both laughed.  Because we are laughing at the crazy.  It's the best way to deal with crazy.

Is all that ambiguous enough for you?  Anywho...let's play a little catch-up, mmmmmkay?

*Home Improvement
The week of Thanksgiving, Gumshoe and I finished painting the main part of the house as well as the kitchen.  We also finished the upstairs hallway, which leaves the upstairs bathroom and the master bedroom and bathroom.  Then...we're DONE!!  Totally done painting every square inch of our home and updating along the way. 
Here are some highlights:

Goodbye hideous brass fan, hello new fan with a light (what a novel idea):

Welcome to the chaotic mess that is/was our house:

And here we are, watching paint dry.  This moment was such a long time coming that we literally watched the paint dry.  No joke:

Neither Gumshoe or I are what you would call "photogenic"...it takes a few pics to get a good one of the two of us.  And then it just starts to get depressing because you're like "is that what we really look like?" when you actually had a vision in your mind of the two of you as this amazingly hot couple.

And then you give up and just start to laugh because you're noticing all of the different things you have to do in order to take a decent picture...suck that in, tilt the chin this way, adjust my arms so they don't look too fat, etc. etc.  It really is a production.

Enough gawking at the hot couple...here's a little sneaker peaker of the house.  It's hard to see the difference in paint color in these pics, but trust me...yellow to grey is a good change.  I'll take better "after" pics once the Christmas decor is down:

*Popcorn for Fatties
If you want to ensure you gain those 10 extra holiday lbs...white chocolate peppermint popcorn is a surefire way to do it.  Trust me, I tested it out last night!  Get the recipe here.

*Festive Christmas Wreath
My mom made this Christmas wreath for me and I LOVE it.  Foam wreath, cute ribbon, pretty wrapping paper and a hot glue gun.  You are smart and you can figure out how to recreate it, I'm sure:

*Food Poisoning/Bad Santa
I was lucky enough to get food poisoning on two separate occasions this past week.  The second time around, both my friend and I got sick, so Gumshoe and I decided to call this particular restaurant so that we could inform them in case there were any special precautions they wanted to take or whatever.  The manager was less than nice and implied that I was actually lying about being sick, which would be silly b/c we weren't looking to get anything out of this situation.  It was so annoying that we took it up with her district manager.  Long story short, here's an excerpt from the e-mail I wrote the district manager to give you an idea of how comical our dinner really was:

"On a side note (and in the interest of valuable customer feedback): the restaurant had hired a Santa Claus to greet the tables and entertain children.  Upon approaching the table that my friend and I were sitting at-and it was just she and I, there were no children to entertain-he told us that he had heard we were the "naughty" table and further questioned us as to whether we had been up to anything "naughty" that night.  It was a little creepy.  I am aware that Santa was probably hired out by a third party and has no affiliation with Salty Iguana, but they may want to hire a different Santa next time." 

*Spaghetti Squash
To ensure this post is as random as it can be...I think my new favorite vegetable is spaghetti squash:

It's fun.  It's versatile.  It's healthy.  It's simple.  Fix it up with butter, parmesan, spaghetti sauce...whatever!  Yum!  Try it!

*Climber
And now I leave you with my child perched safely on top of the table...rolling his beloved cars off the edge and denting our wood floors:

And yes, our Christmas tree is in the kitchen.  We like the Christmas spirit to permeate every corner of the house.  I keep the Salty Iguana Santa in the bathroom.