Getting Lost

I have an addiction, and I will freely admit it. I am crazy about TV. And poor Brian has to endure my crazy fascination with all things Primetime. But the one show he will watch every week without complaint is Lost.

We started at the very beginning, and now... it's back! Lost fans, this is what we've all been waiting for. It's supposed to be a cold and windy day here in Big-D, so Brian and I are going to hunker down, eat some soup and get Lost!

Last we left our fearsome friends they were ripe with the prospect of rescue, but we now know, from a few strategic fast-forwards, that getting off the island may not be all it's cracked up to be.

I'm sure the Lost season premier won't be nearly as thrilling as the Republican presidential debate we watched last night in this writer-free TV season, but somehow we'll muster through. :)

What Could Have Been

Last night we decided that what we needed was some bowling. There's a semi-new 300 in Addison, so we picked up Matt and Kelsey and headed north. But everyone knows you can't bowl well until you've had some Mexican food and a margarita so we stopped at Cantina Laredo on the way to the lanes.

Dinner was festive with the mariachi band in the background and other people's birthdays all around. When we were sufficiently full of chips and salsa, we continued on to the bowling alley. The place was packed! We had to wait for a parking space before we could head in to the see the fancy lit lanes in all their glory.

I guess lots of people think that the best way to spend a Saturday night is in a smoke-free, martini serving bowling establishment because when we finally made it to the front of the check-in line they informed us that the wait would be THREE HOURS! It was already almost 9:00 so we wouldn't have been able to throw our first gutter ball until midnight. We're all for adventure, but that was just too late for us.

The nice man did let us know that if we wanted to bowl without the wait that it's usually pretty empty at 2:00 in the afternoon on the weekdays. So the next time we have a free workday we know where we'll be!

We had to admit defeat and drive back to Dallas. But Kelsey had the brilliant idea to go home and watch the Tivo'd Miss America pageant. The boys weren't all that excited about the pageant (They did come in to watch the bathing suit portion.) but managed to suffer through a few hours of Guitar Hero, our new favorite past time.

I was really looking forward to bowling. It's been years since I last donned a bowling shoe. I'm thinking we'll have to have Brian's birthday get-together at 300 since they'll take reservations if you throw a party. I just know that's what Brian wants to do for his 28th birthday! :)

The Sweater Was a Hit

My sister gave me this fabulous sweater for my birthday a few weeks ago. I wore it to work yesterday and received 3 complements on it! That's 50% of my workforce, y'all. I think it was a hit!

Free Time and Loss

You'll be happy to know I'm making great progress on my puzzle. I think I should finish this weekend if I can find a few hours of uninterrupted puzzle time.

There's no football this weekend which should make it easier for me to find those few hours. We've had a football game to watch every weekend since August, but not this one. I'll be a little sad, and then I'll watch some basketball, baseball, golf and tennis to get though the long football-less spring and summer.

My family loves football. So much so that my mom actually watched the Pilgram's Pride Bowl Classic game between Georgia Military and Navarro College. And, yes, it was on TV. Who knew?

I was so sad to hear about Heath Ledger yesterday. An email popped into my inbox with BREAKING NEWS and there it was: Actor Heath Ledger found dead in his New York apartment.

It hit me hard, probably because I wasn't expecting it. When I hear that an old actor with years and experiences under his belt has died I think, "Oh, that's sad for his family" and move on. Not really giving it much thought. But Heath was young; He was my age. He had a two year old daughter who won't get to grow up knowing and loving her dad. His death just seems so tragic and wrong, and avoidable.

Puzzle Happy

I'm the biggest nerd, ever. But I'm happy so it's okay, right? Actually I don't think I'm all that nerdy, maybe just a little mature beyond my years? :)

Guess what I did Saturday night? That's right: the hardest puzzle in the history of puzzles. It's a beautiful Thomas Kincaid scene, Blessings at Christmas. Unfortunately I bought it for myself so I can't even blame anyone else for inflicting this on me and my free time.

But see how pretty it is? It's just going to be beautiful when it's finished. And the coolest thing is that since I'm listening to Outlander on my iPod I was able to listen to Outlander while doing the puzzle! Well, maybe I really am the biggest nerd ever.

To make up for my nerdy-ness we had six people over intermittently yesterday to watch the playoff games. Brian wanted to make a smoked pork shoulder on his fancy ceramic green egg. I read the recipe after he put the meat on at 2pm. It was supposed to cook for 8-9 HOURS! Luckily, we had fajita meat to feed our guests instead since he finally took the pork off the smoker at 10 o'clock last night. I'm looking forward to having it for dinner this week!

Outlander: MP3 Edition

I spent the summer after my freshman year in college back home in Tulsa. I was going through that ugly phase where I thought I was all grown up, but I wasn't, and I had to live at home, with my parents. Oh, the injustice! I was also doing the Atkins Diet which I don't suggest if you want your friends and family to love you. My brain needs carbs, people!

The bright spot of that summer was taking walks most evenings with my friend Ally (also home from college) and my mom. We'd chat and walk and just have a grand time. Mom suggested we read the book, Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon to help us through the summer. So Ally, Mom and I all read it (and the followups, that aren't nearly as good) and discussed it on our walks. We had such a blast chatting about Jamie and Claire out there in the Scottish Highlands.

A few years later Ally and I were able to take a backpack tour through the Highlands. One of the stops on our trip was the battlefield at Culloden. We shed a few tears thinking of Jamie and the stubborn Scots fighting the British to the death out there on that field. We do know Jamie and his pals weren't really there fighting for their freedom, but there were thousands of real-life Scots who had done just that. It was a truly touching scene.

I've read and re-read Outlander a few times since that summer at home. I'm enjoying it again now only I'm not reading. I'm listening to it on my iPod in my car and at the gym. It's so fun to hear those amazing stories told in Scottish and English accents! I'm just loving it. And it makes my runs so much fun. And I have 32 hours of Jamie and Claire just waiting for me every time I get in the car!

Blue Monday

• Damn my Dallas Cowboys. They were thisclose to making it to the NFC Championship. I wouldn't mind a bit if Patrick Crayton and Roy Williams became Oakland Raiders over the summer.

• My mouse is very twitchy and all over the place today. I've already changed the batteries and pushed the green buttons on both the mouse and its receiver to no avail. Do wireless mouses just wear out eventually?

• Speaking of rodents, my co-worker's wife called today. She'd been rabbit sitting for her neighbors' 15(!) year old rabbit while they were away. She went to check on him this morning, and the poor thing had passed on to rabbit heaven. On her watch, no less. She thought it was a very lousy way to start the week.

• On a brighter note, American Idol starts tomorrow. They say it's bigger and better than ever. We shall see, but I'm ready for something new on TV. I'm also very grateful for my X-Files DVDs. There is a limit to how many hours of American Idol and Project Runway you can watch before your husband threatens to run away from home.

Guitar Hero: New Appearances

I'm waiting for Outlander (Unabridged - All 32 hours!) to download on my iPod so that I can go for a run. So I thought I'd give you a few pictures to laugh at enjoy while I pass the time.


Kelsey takes Guitar Hero very seriously.

Of course, so does Matt.

I was just a little overdressed for the occasion, but the headband really completed the outfit out for me.

Brian can get 300 notes in a row, or so he says. I haven't seen it yet, but he is very good at it. Trust me. It's harder than it looks.

I Did It!!

Winner's Bracket:
First Place - $300 (McLovin)
Second Place - $150 (Meagan)
Third Place - $100 (Bad Newz Kennels)

That's me - in second place! I didn't have a funny name or a fancy picture for my team, but I still won second place out of twelve teams. I was one of two girls with her own team in our league. I'm so proud!

Some might say it was only because I had the forethought to draft Tom Brady, but I can't give him all the credit. I had lots of players that were able to pick up the slack and score the points when I needed them. I have to give a shout out to Dallas' own Marion Barber. He might not be the smartest guy on the block, but he could score touchdowns when I needed him. And who could forget the aging Joey Galloway? He, too, once wore a Cowboys jersey and was able to run all over a defense when Miami could give him a decent quarterback to look to for the pass.

So a big thank you to all my players, young and old, cute and not-so-cute, it was a good year for Team Meagan. I'll miss you all. (But I've already started some scouting for next year.)

Christmas Decoration Rewind

Oh the joys of putting away the Christmas decorations! Why is it so much fun to put them up, but so awful to take them down? I got my hair done on Saturday morning (No, I didn't do anything crazy. Just my normal hair.) and promptly ran home to start ripping the house apart.

I, of course, wanted the whole house to look like Christmas had never happened by the time I went to bed on Saturday night. It's not that I don't love my Christmas decorations, but I was ready to move on. January gives us a new start, a clean slate. I always feel I should start the New Year with a clean house, too. But I didn't think about the fact that we still had all our Christmas presents to put away, suitcases to unpack, and baskets of laundry to do, too.

We didn't make as much progress as I'd hoped we would, but we had nice clean clothes to wear today, which is an improvement over last week. All the boxes with our Christmas stuff are just chillin' in the upstairs guestroom. They're not quite ready to be put away yet, so for now I will just keep that bedroom door closed and pretend it's not there. At least the tree is in the attic, snugly put away in its nice little green bag ready to go next year.

I'll look at some New Years Goals (rather than resolutions, that just seems so formal, don't you think?) later this week, but one that keeps popping in my head is to try to be a little less regulated; I need to work on going with the flow a little more often. While I want to be as organized I can be, it's okay if the upstairs guestroom is a mess, and we still have presents to put away. This is me...going with the flow.

Happy Birthday to Me!

It's my Birthday and I'm not ashamed to tell you about it! :)

We made it home safely from Colorado last night. The roads back to Colorado Springs airport weren't a problem at all, and I was never worried about avalanches even though they'd been blasting for them just the day before. Nope, not worried at all.

Brian's taking me to dinner for my birthday tonight. I'm not sure where we'll go, but I'm sure it'll be fun. Mom and Dad and Matt and Kels are taking us to dinner at Truluck's tomorrow night. Yum! I'm excited already.

Our house is a total disaster. We've been home three nights out of the last 14 and the house is feelin' it. We decided to go ahead and go to the Mavs game last night as soon as we got back in town. We ran to the house to quickly drop off our luggage and pick up the game tickets. I shouldn't have even gone inside! It completely stressed me out. I still had Christmas wrapping paper out on the kitchen table! But I think it was worth it to see the Mavs spank the Warriors!

Fenway is back home with us safe and sound. He had a great time with Mom and Dad this week, but I think he was excited to be home with us again. He was so excited he tinkled on the floor when he saw me! Such a funny dog.

Happy 2008 everyone!