Fell Off the Q-Tip Wagon...

Back in March, you may remember my little q-tip post, where I was making good on my promise to Jonny of not buying any more ear-cleaning q-tips.


9 months later... and I cannot take it anymore.

This has been unbelievably hard.

Harder than giving up Diet Coke (which I kind of drink again, whoops).

I'm not kidding. It has driven me absolutely CRAZY to feel like I have dirty ears and can't clean them. I never get that satisfying out-of-the-shower-clean-ears feeling anymore.

So today, I decided to just buy some.

Enough is enough. I'm an adult, blah blah blah. Right?

So, I texted Jonny:

me: "I got q tips. I can't take it anymore, sorry."

Jonny: "You might as well start smoking, too."


I'll be very careful.

Holiday To-Do List Extravaganza

I'm not the biggest listmaker...


[hot buttered rum waiting for me when I came home from working a catering event last night. YUM! seriously. delicious. I knew those Irish coffee mugs would come in handy sometime.]

...But if more than 3-ish tasks crowd my little brain, I need one. There's just something about taking a pen to paper and writing down what one needs to do. [And then comes the best part: crossing them off.]

I've done exactly 3 things for Christmas so far. This week just got away from me holiday-wise, but Jonathan has been very busy around the house doing some improvement projects (blinds, plumbing, cable--thanks Grant--touch-up painting, etc) so we should have the all-clear to get more done this weekend.

Hence The To-Do List. But we'll get there in a sec.

List of things done so far:

1. Got out the Spode.

One of the Jerkins Family traditions that we started our first year of marriage was to pull out the Spode Christmas Tree dinnerware we received for wedding gifts and use it the entire month of December. That way, we won't have to wait for any Christmas hosting events (which would be few, most likely) to use the festive dishes!


[that's a "Christmas Tree Garland" bowl on top of the regular dinner plate]

2. Got out the records.

Last year's addition to our traditions list was listening to vinyl Christmas records. While cooking dinner the other night, this guy accompanied:


[this one may or may not count since they're already sitting on the record shelf. so by "get out" i mean, get it off the shelf and play it.]

3. Procured a cute and cheesy Christmas doormat.


.................................................................

Things I For Sure Must Do / Want to Do / WILL Do:

1. Make this pinecone garland. (already have all of the materials in-hand.)


Directions and more photos found here, via Twig & Thistle. Cute, right? Something to keep.

2. Make this advent calendar. I'm so in love with this concept.


[directions here, via here] never had an advent calendar before...

3. Procure Christmas tree. Yes, we go live. Also doing a live wreath this year. Stay tuned.

4. Bake cookies for the annual Sunday School Class Wives' Christmas Cookie Exchange (could that description be any longer?).

I'm not sharing any plans publicly yet...people like to talk to trash to me because I may or may not have won in the past. But we'll see. I don't go in with any expectations. It's safer that way.

5. Pumpkin Butter. Why the heck not?


[photo & inspiration here, via fly through our window] Hopefully post + pics to follow.

6. Christmas cards. duh.

7. Have a good attitude about all of the above (because these are all things I really enjoy and want to do!), and be nice. (It's always safe to put that on a list.)

So, tomorrow (Saturday) has lot in store for it. Here's hoping I don't camp out in my Red Chair "relaxing."

We have tried to be fairly intentional about making Christmas traditions early in our marriage. This way, I won't try to force a million things and will already have several traditions in place when we (one day) have a tiny offspring.

For now, my stoic little kitty cat:


Happy Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Grown-Up Email Addresses

you know who you are. it's time.


If you are out of college, it may be wise to consider some sort of non-nickname, non-numeric (if possible), non-team/school/sports/birthday-affiliated email address.

I realize this is just my opinion.

But it never fails to surprise me when, at work, a customer may tell me in all seriousness that her email address is something like, "dixiemama289@suchandsuch.com" ....what? That's your business email address?

I was LApril88@aol.com with the best of 'em...but the ship has sailed.

Maybe i'm a snob? I just can't take these jokester/cutesy email addresses seriously anymore.

a word on percentages

[image found here]

Brandishing my English degree proudly, I do not mind telling you that I have not taken a math class since my senior year of high school, which was in 2002. eeesh! I am no math wiz, but I am not a complete dummy either.

Stay with me here.

If there's one concept I really "get"-- it's percentages.

I didn't realize until last night that I love to think in percentages. I was sitting in an assembly, listening to a speaker, when my eye wandered over to the Christmas trees and poinsettias flanking the stage.

I thought, "It's November 30th and perfectly acceptable to decorate for Christmas now that Thanksgiving has passed (see previous rant here).... But this auditorium will most likely be decorated for Christmas for an entire month of the year. What percentage of the year is that?"

As I worked 1 divided by 12 in my head [which is 8.3% btw], I realized GEEZ I like percentages.

One of my favorite metrics while working at Banana Republic was "conversion." Conversion is calculated by counting the number of people that come into the store, and dividing that number by the number of transactions, for a certain period of time. So, say in one hour you get one person come in the store, but you also get one transaction: that puts your conversion at 100%. That means all the factors of the store were working together and did everything they could to "convert" the customer's presence into a transaction.

I just LOVED conversion. If we got over what was considered a "good" conversion, I would just be giddy. "50% of the people who came in the last hour bought something! tee hee hee!"

Another perecentage doozie I've long contemplated is what I call the "Friday Phenomenon."

Get this: people freak out when it's Friday. You may even be one of them... I have been before.

"Tomorrow is Friday!"
or
"TGIF!"
or
"Gimme a break, it's Friday."

Like people want some sort of special pass because it's the last day of the work-week.

Here's the killer to me: Friday comprises 20% of the work-week.

20% of our weeks are largely spent talking about how we need to relax, it's Friday, or expect less of me, it's Friday! I'm not saying it should stop, I'm just saying that it is extremely silly, once the actual percentage is considered.

Any percentages in life you've considered?

Thanksgiving

...was SWELL!

Made this:


Lattice-Top Spiced Pumpkin Pie, from here (Better Homes & Gardens)

[Thank goodness we've instituted the post-Thanksgiving dinner walk with both sides of our family, to make room for the other.]

And babysat my nephew dog, Gibson:


what a sweetie!

When shall you get your Tannenbaum/Christmas tree?