All posts in trials & tribulations

Ugh. Sick again.

by Erin on March 14, 2010 in holidays, trials & tribulations with 2 Comments

Figures. I’ve been sick since January 3rd. Medical issues that I’ve been seeing doctor after doctor for. No answers. Just more testing. But now on top of that, I’ve come down with the cold that both the husband and the kiddo had. Le Sigh.

I can feel that tell-tale drip at the back top of my throat. And I’ve now sneezed about 10 times within a five minute span. Grumble.

What ticks me off even more is that St. Patrick’s Day is this week and I really enjoy making a big deal out of it. I’ve got gold coins for the kiddo, green hot chocolate to drink, and recipes for Irish soda bread and Irish Beef Stew. And now I’ve got a cold so I don’t feel like making any of it or making a big deal about it. Grrr.

It’s nearing the birthmonth time…

by Erin on January 13, 2010 in food, geekness, trials & tribulations with 2 Comments

I love my birthday. There really isn’t much more I can say about it other than, I LOVE IT. I’m sure as I get older and older, I won’t as much, but as it stands, I love it right this moment.

Of course, I seem to be the only one enthusiastic about MY day. But that’s ok. I have enough enthusiasm to go around.

The husband has already bought me my bday present—the Barnes & Noble nook. We pre-ordered back in November, but it was suppose to arrive in January, so we trashed it as a Christmas present and made it a birthday present. It arrived on the 30th.

I cannot wait to get my hands on it. But I’m waiting. And patiently. I’m reading a book right now anyway, so I’m good. I did just order a cover for it though. I went with the Jonathan Adler Punctuation Cover. I love the whole punctuation look (although it would have been awesome had it been a & z instead) plus the inside is one of the nicer ones I’ve seen.

So now that my presents are all settled, it’s party planning time. I’m going with the normal birthday girl theme, however, I’m adding a vampire twist (since we all know how much I love vampires!).

For the invitation, I used the doodle’s from Lauren Grier’s At the Bus Stop kit and the pieces from SuzyQ’s And Many More … {Bold} kit. With the addition of some fangs and drops of blood, we have a sweet little vampire party invite:

{*Please forgve the larger invite image. I’m testing out a new auto-resizer and obviously, it doesn’t work too well}

So far I’ve got some cute labels for soda bottles (à la True Blood) and am going to make bloody mary cocktails. I’ve also decided on a red velvet cake, however I’m going to do a cherry filling and cream cheese frosting. I’m using Martha Stewart’s Red Velvet recipe and Paula Deen’s Cream Cheese Frosting recipe. Now to hunt out more vampire-ish goodies. :)

We’re sick again

by Erin on October 22, 2009 in trials & tribulations with Comments Off

Ugh. The kiddo stayed home again today. It started yesterday afternoon—sneezing. Then later in the night he said his throat started to hurt. :( He was up all night, and then finally fell back asleep at 7am. Obviously I can’t send him to school at 8:30 then. So, he stayed home. Going to have the husband take him to the doctor later.

I love the fall and this kills me that he’s been so sick throughout most of it. All my fall plans down the drain. I wanted to go to the local nursery to check out the big corn stalk maze, along with their pumpkin bowling. Now we’re stuck inside. Bleh. And of course this means he’s going to get me sick, and I always end up worse than him and I also just got over being sick. It’s like the flu shot mocks me:

Flu Shot: Ha ha ha. You’re protected from the flu—but not from the cold!
Me: I know.
Flu Shot: So now you’ll suffer a cold every other week for blocking the flu!
Me: I know.

On a positive note, when the kiddo gets sick, he’s not one to be mopey. So he’ll act all normal, just be coughing and sneezing all over the place. Wait, that shouldn’t be positive should it?

Sigh. Time for more coffee.

TwiCon Was a Nightmare

by Erin on September 5, 2009 in trials & tribulations with 1 Comment

TwiCon Banner at Vendor Hall

Boy oh boy. I don’t know where to even begin. Oh, I know:

$255 registration fee.
$350 plane ticket.
$139 a night (3 nights) room.
$20 100 Monkeys concert ticket.
$46 taxi ride to/from airport.

Biggest cluster fuck I’ve ever seen.

Now, first let me say, the celebrities that were there were awesome. Completely and utterly awesome. I got to meet Peter Facinelli, Kellan Lutz and Alex Meraz. I also got an autograph from Peter. (Who, is unbelievably nice!)

That said, the whole event was disastrous. My sister and I arrived in Dallas on Thursday, the 30th. We got to the hotel (which, was like the best pick of the crop considering they were under construction so all their food places were closed, with the exception of the crappy, overly expensive hotel restaurant) at 12ish? We got settled, yadda yadda, went over to what was the first disaster of many: registration. We got there a few minutes after 3pm (when registration opened). Got on a line. It was the wrong line. But who would know that since there were NO staff/volunteers (which were called “Volturi” like in Twilight/New Moon/Eclipse/Breaking Dawn). So we get into our correct line. However, since up until this point, everything was done under the main registree (my sister since she paid her half first), we got in line together. Wrong. I should have been on a separate line. Why they broke us up like that was beyond me. Groups were registered under one person, but when you got to TwiCon, they broke you out individual. Ok, so they send someone over to get my badge. Phew… all my tickets that should be there are there.

All my TwiCon tix

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Let the countdown begin!

by Erin on July 27, 2009 in pure prattle, trials & tribulations with Comments Off

In 3 days and 23 minutes or so, the plane will be taking off and I’ll be on my way to TwiCon 2009. *Ü* I can’t wait. Of course I’m anxious over the flight, but still.

I’ve got my clothes all ready to pack, picked out my autograph item, and have written down instructions for the husband for the kiddo (who is home today due to a horrible cough). Last minute measuring has revealed that my carry-on bag is two inches too deep for Continental. Crud. I’m not buying a $100 bag so I can pack LESS. So we’ll be checking. Yes, it will cost me $15 each way, however, I’ll be able to fit what I need. I did see a neat bag at Costco yesterday… it allowed you to decrease the size of the bag to 9″, which would be good, but again, it was $113. AND my current bag (Costco, lol) was much better made. The wheels on mine are rollerblade wheels, where the ones on the changeable one I saw were just that hard plastic.

This is only my third time traveling a distance and going somewhere that I’d get souvenirs. Any thoughts on what to bring back? I don’t want to get stuck with truly useless tchotchkes.