Jennifer's Joyous Journal

Bad and Wurst

The Bad On Friday, Stepan and I went to see The Gospel of John. I was sucked in by the hype for The Passion which will be coming out next year. I thought the controversy and press generated by one mainstream, bible-related movie would tend to make all mainstream, bible-related movies worth seeing. The Austin Chronicle also gave The Gospel three stars so I wasn’t expecting it be too bad. Apparently, I was wrong. Please don’t get me wrong, I enjoy reading the Bible and have enjoyed movies, plays, and pageants based on or excerpted from the Bible, but sitting through a three hour, word-for-word retelling of an entire book was just too much for anybody to ask. (Tongue in cheek -->) It was kinda preachy! It had the potential to be a good movie, but this adaptation was entirely too long and repetitively redundant (yeah, I know...but it's exactly what I meant). Jesus begins most of his soliloquies saying, “I am telling you the truth…” and he says it 2-3 times in every conversation…I almost started wondering if he was trying to convince himself as well as the disciples, Pharisees, and gentiles. In conclusion, it’s a good concept for a film, but a poor execution (no pun was intended). If you see 10-15 movies this month, don’t go see The Gospel of John. Many abject apologies to my loving husband for dragging him to this movie.

The Wurst Our weekend was redeemed on Sunday. After church (where the gospel reading was from John), we had pineapple pancakes, home fries, and bacon for breakfast at a neighbor’s house. Afterwards we drove to New Braunfels for Wurstfest – a premier German festival celebrating sausage, beer, and the polka band. There, we met up with one of Step’s co-workers and his family. We heard some great music and danced a bit. Despite the cool weather, I got all hot and sweaty doing a polka with 4-year-old Henry. Sadly we were still fairly full from breakfast so we didn’t get to sample all the great food that we usually do though it didn’t stop us from sharing a plate of homemade potato chips and a funnel cake :-). We finished up the trip at the outlet malls in San Marcos where Stepan purchased a number of nice shirts and I drank a coke.

It's My Birthday

In Bejing...I think I'll start celebrating now, and not stop until the 13th day of November has passed all over the world. I like looking at it this way 'cause it means that my dad and I actually share a birthday (his is technically the 12th).

Happy 35th Birthday, Dad. In a couple of years, I'm going to be older than you ;-)

Birthday Past

Here are my sibs and me blowing out the candles of our joint birthday cake with a little help from Uncle Tim. It's always a Birthday Extravaganze in early November with four people in my immediate family celebrating birthdays within the first two weeks...not to mention my numerous Scorpio aunts, uncles, and friends who celebrate throughout the month.

So Happy Birthday to Us...but to me especially since today is MY day :-)

Birthday Present(s)

It's been a great day so far. Meredith called me just after midnight (Eastern time). Technically, her's wasn't the first bday call. Kathleen called me last night, but she thought my bday was the 12th. Meredith says that doesn't count! Kathleen also sent me an egreeting*

I did get up before Stepan, but he made me get back in bed so he could bring me a small candy bar with candle in it, sing my bday song, and give my bday goods. So far, I've scored a purse, Finding Nemo, new trash can, and trash bags. It's just what I always wanted!

*I think the link is only good for 90 days.

Birthday Finale

Stepan makes fun of me for dedicating whole journal entries to what I've eaten in any given day...I think he'll really enjoy this entry.

We celebrate birthdays at WHM with a midday, sweet snack. Usually it's some kind of cake (mostly chocolate, the occassional cheesecake, or ice cream cake). I decided we should celebrate my birthday with warm cookies and milk...Yummy! We used the company that I mentioned last month and they were just as good today as they were then.

After work, I went to visit Jonathan and share a tiny chocolate cake with him, Elizabeth, Joy, and Brian. He pronounced it a good cake and proceeded to get it all over his face. Brian and Joy got me a fantastic pair of warm, red, house slippers; I told Joy that I loved having them visit in November. Jonathan got me an adorable little music box that plays "Happy Birthday" when you crank the handle. And Elizabeth and Dale got me a granite cheese board that I can write on with chalk so I can display a menu at my next gathering...it will also give me a great excuse to start working on my chalk art! Most of the gifts came from Restoration Hardware...I just love that store.

Finally, I met up with Stepan at home, we took Homer for a walk, then went out for dinner. I really wanted to use one of the coupons from my passbook, so we tried to go to the Iron Cactus, but there was a concert going on in their bar and there was no where to park. We tried Manny Hattan's next. It was good food, but I still didn't get to use one of my coupons since their November special is 2 for 1 throughout the month of November.

Birthday messages from Kathleen, Daniel, and Meredith O. nearly wrapped up the day. Mom did call around 10pm. She was disappointed that she wasn't the first to call me so she was determined to be the last...though according to my crude calculations anyone who wants to claim that honor still has approximately 6 hours to reach me before the 13th is over worldwide.

It Just Keeps Coming

Today at work I recieved a "birthday in a box" from Mom. For one thing I love getting packages in the mail. For another, I especially like them when the are filled with lots of shiny, wrapped gifts all for me! It was so much fun to get it/open them, even my co-worker who was eating lunch with me had fun while I opened them. She sent some Fossil purse accessories, a red scarf with the letter "J" embroidered on it, a Givenchy Ysatis gift set (which I may exchange for Bulgari), some underwear, and a sparkly desk frame with a picture of me and my honey. Yep. No doubt about it. My mom is cool.

The Latest, but Not Leastest

I can hardly wait for next tri season to start! For my birthday, my sister sent me a transition bag from triathlonbag.com. It's a perfect backpack for me which I'll also be able to use when I bike to work (my old backpack was leather and very old and is now very icky). It's got mesh compartments on the outside for wet stuff or dirty shoes or a couple of water bottles. It open flat with several mesh pockets on the inside as well as a removable seat cushion I can sit on to put my shoes on during transition. It's very much the perfect gift for me and even better than that it is something that I didn't even know I wanted. Thanks Sis!

Cheeky Me

Yesterday afternoon, I called up Kathy H, one of my former co-workers, to see how she was doing. She gave birth to her 2nd child about 3-weeks ago. I ended up inviting me and Stepan over for dinner. We had a great time. The new baby is precious, big feet and a big nose and nearly invisible eyebrows and so soft and warm. His five-year-old sister, Hannah, loves him dearly and is very sweet with him. She and Stepan had a good time after dinner playing a "what am I game" that they made up together. She's a little chatterbox - just like her mother!

This worked out so well, I think I'll invade the homes of other friends for dinner on a regular basis.

Oh yeah. I should probably mention that I provided dinner...even I know that the last thing a mother with a 3-week-old baby wants to do is feed two additional mouths. Kathy really enjoyed her Chipotl burrito. It's one of her favorite fast food restraunts and she hadn't gotten a chance to eat there in a while.

Surprise Birthday Dinner (sort of )

Last night we were invited to Elizabeth's for dinner with her mom, who was visiting from Kansas. She had also mentioned that she was going to invite Archie and Jessica, but I didn't remember hearing that they were going to be able to make it. With Dale's parent's there, we had a wonderful cowd. I had told her that we would bring dessert. Stepan wanted to make me a birthday cake and I didn't want the cake to hang around in the fridge all week...cause it would be inevitable that we would eat the whole thing.

The meal was delicious (as always) and the company was lively (as ever). The big surprise came when I got additional birthday gifts! Archie and Jessica got me a game called imaginiff... and a Hit Clips player with two micro music clips (the Tiger Elecrtonics site is down, so I can't supply any links...sorry). And Cynthia got me a Stovetop Simmer Pot Set with some wonderful fragrances...as always, my favorite is the Christmas Memories which smells like cinnamon.

I love celebrations that last days and days :-)

I like Dean

Without any issues research whatsoever, I've decided that I like Howard Dean for President, simply because he doesn't make me cringe when I listen to him talk on the radio, so different from the current Pres or even Clinton, whose world view is closer to my own.

Great Turkey Day

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving meal at Mom's this year. I'm not sure why it was different, but the turkey was more succulent than I remember from years past. Maybe that was due to having no one around to distract her while she was cooking. As per usual, Step and I hit the road about 2 hours after my targeted time...though that was partly due to my unrealistic 7am goal. As a result we made it to Mom's way too late to be of much help. Good food, plenty of wine, and loving company...it's just what Thanksgiving should be all about.

On Friday, Mom and I hit the shops before 8am to get started on our Christmas shopping. I was astounded to see a sea of cars already overflowing the parking lots by the time we got to the mall. It's fun to shop with Mom; she always knows where the bargains are...indeed, she had made a list of all the early bird specials she was hoping to hit before noon. Despite the detailed Christmas list I made, I think I managed to spend more money on new clothes for me than on gifts for other people.

After shopping, we took Homer over to Dad's and managed to convince Dad, Diana, Jason, and Johnna to join us at the Imax in Dallas for the latest Matrix movie. Most everybody panned the movie, but it wasn't any worse than what I was expecting so I wasn't at all disappointed. Dad et. al. spent most of the rest of the day getting started on decorating the house for Christmas. He has really gotten into the spirit since he bought his house a couple of years ago. I think it all started with hanging icicle lights one season and progressed over the next few years to buying net lights for his bushes, lining the front porch with colored lights, setting up a colorful luminaria around the yard, stringing a light tree from their lamp-post, and setting up a lighted Santa, sleigh, and reindeer display. This year he added a 5' singing Santa to his porch. It's activated with a motion sensor and has a four song repertoire. You can also plug a microphone into its base and sing along. He has a great time with it and loves to tell one and all about the cars that stop to watch it before continuing down the road. All this has certainly put me in the Christmas mood. I'm eager to start decorating my own house, though we won't be doing anything nearly as elaborate since we won't be around to enjoy it over Christmas.

Smells o' Christmas

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas. Last night, Step prepared the dough for our gingerbread cookies and tonight we're baking them. The cookie smells are blending nicely with the wreath we brought home today. Most of my home time today has been spent with laundry and general tidying the messes we are excel at creating so I wasn't able to pull any decorations down from the attic. We're hoping to have company sometime this week to help decorate over 100 gingerbread cookies, so hopefully I'll have time to decorate tomorrow. Now I must finish the laundry and make some decisions on Christmas gifts...