holy twenty twelve.

oh my poor blog. malnourished, neglected, and feeling abandoned. i have not yet given up on posting...it just seems that since i returned to work, my blogging time is gone. literally. quantity of time and quality of time. a) there are not enough minutes in the day and b) my favorite time to write (3am) is no longer available, because i have to be sleeping in preparation for working the next day. the good news is that little pringle is suffering from none of the aforementioned neglect. on the contrary, he is thriving...well fed, adorably clothed (thanks in large part to hand-me-downs from his cousin), and infinitely loved.

pringle at the park...back when miami was still warm.

you are probably wondering how i found this time to write this post...i thought you would never ask!!! let's see, it is 4am, so the writing juices are flowing. i should be sleeping, but 45 minutes ago, a car parked almost directly below our bedroom window suddenly started honking. woke up the entire family, including the baby who had to be coaxed back to sleep. thanks to the mister for taking care of that. anyhow, being the wildly imaginative person that i am, i immediately assumed that someone had a heart attack and was face first in their steering wheel, so i called 911. of course, i am the world's most curious creature, so i stood on the balcony and waited. speaking of outside, it is 47° out there. why didn't anyone send me the memo that we would be experiencing a 40 degree temperature drop overnight?!? i have to know these things...i can't wear sandals when it is 47° outside!!! okay, back to the night's craziness. eventually a police cruiser rolled in, stopped next to the car, got out, shined his flashlight around, and apparently found nothing. after watching this mind-numbingly boring scene unfold with excruciating slowness, i finally wandered back to bed. and then my brain started writing this post. so here i am at 4 in the morning, tucked in bed and typing a post on my phone, because otherwise i will forget it. that said, my brain just turned into instant mush...like instant pudding, only without the milk..so i am abruptly going to sleep. i guess i will finish this post tonight. 

ringing in the new year...party animal.

[14 hours later]. i was a wreck today. first day back at work after the long winter recess and i was running on empty. most folks arrived at work looking refreshed from their vacation. and then there was me. rolling in at the last minute with bloodshot eyes and no tea in hand. thank goodness i teach art...otherwise spending the day with boatloads of other people's children might have been tantamount to torture. this whole, skip the caffeine for the baby's sake is starting to wear on me. seriously people, i want a gigantic cup of caffeinated coffee. alas, pringle is already a bundle of energy and i am not going to up the ante by adding caffeine into the mix. okay, so i think it is safe to say that we have a reached a point where continuing this post will take us on a long, slow, ride through my completely exhausted brain. i will spare you. you are welcome. 

and happy new year. for reals. happy new year.

eggnog heaven.

many of you are probably aware that starbucks features a few special drinks during the holiday season. although you might not realize that in december i have virtually no ability to resist the impulse to steer my way towards the nearest starbucks location to procure a delectable eggnog latte. this year i avoided the beverage for a significantly longer time than i ever have in the past, not succumbing to the temptation until the second week of december. however, despite my late entry into drinking the holiday concoctions, i nonetheless outdid any of my previous performances. in the short amount of time i had to gulp my way through these ridiculously expensive renditions of coffee, i put a shameful dent in my bank account. as if i am the queen of sheba, in a mere 2.5 weeks of drinking these delights, i spent $68.18. gasp! me thinks that a libation made of gold would not cost more. the mister and i are thankful that these delights are only on offer a few months out of the year. if this was a year-round beverage, i am quite certain i would slurp us out of house and home.

coffee and cardboard.

i arose to the scent of a coffee-free house. what a nightmare. it all started yesterday when my motivation to visit home depot erased all of my survival needs, including drinking coffee and eating breakfast. you see, every morning my husband makes himself coffee and leaves a half a pot for me. when i decide to rouse my sleepy self there is a half pot of cold coffee waiting to be transformed into an icy coffee delight. however yesterday, in my haste to visit home depot, i neglected to drink the cold coffee. now in my coffee-snob world, when the coffee doesn't make it down the gullet, it goes down the drain. drinking day-old coffee is a sign of sheer desperation.

this morning i was left in a coffee-free zone, when rather than make a fresh pot of coffee, my husband drank the day-old coffee. aaaaaack!

knowing that my husband isn't desperate, i can only conclude that he's apparently not a coffee connoisseur. i guess i should have figured this out when his recent visit to starbucks was a shambles. he doesn't generally visit this froofery coffee house without me, and i always perform the tongue-twister orders. poor guy couldn't remember the name of his favorite drink, so he went with what sounded properly confusing, and ordered a cappuccino. he wanted a frappuccino. umm...so close in name, but sooooo different in reality. needless to say he whined about it later.

speaking of whining...my fingers hurt. i spent the day doing a little bit of classwork and a whole lot of storage bin construction. six hours of slicing, scoring, folding, and gluing boxes. one blister and three cardboard cuts later, we have twelve boxes ready for decoration. my brain is happy, but my fingers hurt. but you know what they say...no pain, no gain.