I'm back from Vegas.  Not married, but very broke.  $160 broker to be exact.  Stay tuned for more details with pictures next week. 

In the meantime...

Ella's new favorite things to do:
--Chew on electrical cords
--Attack fortune cookies
--Attack my (obviously dangerous) makeup bag
--Walk across the computer keyboard

Stephanie took excellent care of her while I was gone. She grew so much in a week :( It seems that my kitty is growing into a rather prissy and slightly demanding young lady. As that is also a rather apt description of me, I suppose I can't complain! :)

My dad sent me this.  It rather reminded me of my little Ella Belle.

And Perry sent me this, suggesting I could have bed-wetting Ella forever--for a little less than twice my annual salary! Hmm, still cheaper than children though, as my dad will be happy to tell you ;)

As holiday madness approaches, I probably won't be posting until after the first of the year.  I'll be in Vegas next week, so let's all hope that I don't come back broke and/or married (because we know Britney is my hero!), lol.

I have to say I'm really amazed by the amount of conversation on this blog.  It's mostly fueled by chitty and my dad trying to outwit each other (and arranging to sell me off to the highest bidder), but I really am glad there are people amused by the free-flowing randomess from my semi-synapse-challenged brain--Though I would claim that my synapses are firing exactly as they should :)

However, Perry never reads it.  Maybe because he's subjected to my quirkiness on a daily basis and feels he's already paid his dues, but I think we need to band together and bug him about this.  Especially since my dad and chitty have now formed an alliance, I think we need to get the boyfriend involved :)   

What did the best boyfriend ever get me for Christmas?  A digital camera!!  He even gave it to me early so I can take pictures at all the parties, in Vegas, etc.  So you know what that means....soon there will be pictures of the SHOES :)

There's also now pictures of Ella Belle. Disclaimer: I transferred the pictures from the camera to my computer at home, then emailed to myself at work. However, I couldn't get them to save in any format readable by any computer program known to mankind, so I had to print them out (on regular paper on a non-photo printer), scan them, and THEN post them on the blog. So that explains the not so great quality--but imagine how great they looked in their original digital format!

Thought for the day:  I like Britney Spears.  I'm not ashamed to admit this.  However, I freely admit she should be strictly forbidden from singing any ballad type songs that rely on voice quality to sound good.  But when you're hot, rich, and famous, I guess you get to do whatever you want, and that led to the tragedy that is "I'm not a girl, not yet a woman."  As she warbles the title phrase, there's a huge space between the the two phrases: "I'm not a girl, (silence) (silence) not yet a woman."  And as I'm singing along, not sounding much better than her, what does my brain automatically want to put in the silence?  "I'm not a girl, (I'm actually a man), not yet a woman."  Britney, as transvestite.  Why, Britney, why?

It seems my tiny precious Ella has a gas problem.  However, litter box aim is improving!

Oddest juxtaposition of the day:
Bumper sticker on the left: Jak se mas.
Bumper sticker on the right: My roots are in Czechoslovakia.
(What does Jak Se Mas mean?? This has bugged me for years.)

I bought a DVD/VCR combo.  DVD works fine, but with the VCR I only get audio, no video.  Any suggestions?  I've never had a separate VCR before, only a TV/VCR combo, so I don't really understand this concept of having to have the TV and the VCR on certain channels for it to work...HELP!

I thought that noone had worse customer service than AT&T Wireless.  But now the world has the Cingular/AT&T  merger.  Press 1 if you'd like to see all customer service agents subjected to their own "customer service".   

Chitty finally has a face!

Perry made this sadly accurate painting of my kitten, due to her litter box training troubles. She did finally learn that she was supposed to go in the box, but she doesn't have great aim. And for some odd reason (I think she gets mad at me when I leave her alone) she likes to occasionally bat her "leavings" out of the box onto the floor.

On another note, the "Artpad" at Art.com looks like it could be all sorts of fun!

I got a kitten Friday   I am continually amazed by everything she does, as if cats haven’t been doing this stuff for a few thousand years.  I’ve also turned into a parent-like person in that I’ve spent the last 3 days mostly talking about poop and toilet-training.  Her name is Ella Belle and so far her favorite things to do are:

• Pee in my bed
• Poop behind the dresser
• Eat
• Purr
• Attack obviously dangerous objects like shoes and venetian blinds
• Chase her own tail
• Pounce dramatically on imaginary spots on the carpet
• Sleep with her butt in my face

I’m dealing with a non-digital camera, but as soon as I’ve used the roll, I’ll post pictures.  Of course, I started this roll last December, so it might be a while.

How many of you can say you’ve changed clothes on the side of the road in Austin, Texas in the middle of winter?

I can.

Last night vanquished any desire I might have ever had to be, say, a model or movie star.  You know how they always claim that, “People don’t understand that it’s not all glamour; it’s hard work.”  And then we laugh at them, and joke about how silly they are, and say that we’d take that “hard” job any day.  But last night, I stood in the middle of a cold dark field for 2 hours coughing my lungs clear out of my body.  It was not fun.  It was not glamourous.  Then, I had to cower behind a van and change clothes amid incompetent photographers, who, instead of being ready to start at 7:45, didn’t start setting up their freaking equipment until 7:45.

Bah.

My throat hurts.

Here's mine (which looks more like I wish I looked than the way I actually look, but hey, it's my blog! :)

My best friend, Sara (in Paris, bien sur!)

And....chitty.