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Tuesday, December 30, 2003 - 4:14 PM

Kind of a funky day. I got up early to drive out to Little Elm to pick up a cel from a friend who works in the post office out there. I drive all the way out there, she's already left for her route, and the woman up front said she didn't leave a package for me. I really wanted to scream. Turns out that she did leave the cel for me, and the woman was too lazy to look around or ask. Then the mood crept in. Since the Christmas high is over, reality took over. I really got bummed today about where things are for me. Primarily that I don't have a job, I don't have any bright prospects for one, and I really don't have any friends that live near me. Closest one is thirty minutes away. It gets very lonely and boring at the house. Pity party central. But then I found a quick fix in shoe shopping. Ah, new shoes. And new books. Almost got a new purse. And then I found out that our cell phones have a recall on them, so we're getting the next version that corrects all of the bugs for free. New technology also makes things better.

I read David's site the other day, and I'm going to copy him and post my New Year's resolutions here. 2003 really sucked royally for me and Shawn, and I'm ready to resolve some (realistic) things for 2004 to help make the next year better. So here they are, in no particular order.

1. Get a job (first and foremost)
2. Walk the dogs at least twice a week
3. Learn how to speak Japanese
4. Shoot arrows at least once a week
5. Control my cel spending a little, ie, create a cel budget
6. Start writing my fantasy novel (why not? I have the entire outline)
~~7. Watch fewer cartoons~~
7. Ace first semester of law school
8. Be better at keeping in touch with my Baylor buddies
9. Finish my video games, no matter how much they infuriate me, before I buy new ones
10. Train to be a pirate

posted by Keri
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Sunday, December 28, 2003 - 5:50 PM

And weeee're baaaack! Man, what a ride, folks. The festivities started last weekend when we had Christmas with the Honeas, and Christmas with the Hoyles just wrapped up. I don't think I have ever eaten or drank as much in one week of my entire life as I did this past week. Can we say mimosas starting at eleven on Christmas day? I don't remember when we stopped drinking that day. I'm going to ride my bike for 20 miles tomorrow to lose the 10 pounds I know I gained, and I'm going to have to dry my liver out. So much family in a week's time. The weekend before we spent it with Shawn's parents, grandparents, and uncle. Then we traveled down to Houston, hung out with my family, spent Christmas day with Nannah and Magic and her family, and then Granny, Aunt Kay and Byron came down to Houston the following Friday. I ended up going with Aunt Kay and Byron to the Museum of Fine Arts to see the Museum of Modern Art collection from New York, which chose Houston as its only U.S. stop for this collection. So yeah, it was packed. I got to see some really, really neat pieces of art from Picasso, Dali, Van Gogh, and Rousseau. But I saw way too much crap from the modern artists. I'm sorry...is putting fur on a cup and saucer really art? What about one red line in the center of a canvas? Whatever.

As far as the gift giving goes, Shawn and I got everything we asked for from our folks. And I got a pantload of Barnes and Noble gift certificates...about $200 total including the one I received from Matt weeks ago. Everyone seemed to like what they received (thank you, Crate and Barrel!), which made me extremely happy. I stress each year about the perfect gift for my family members. I got two fantabulous games to add to future game nights: Trivial Pursuit 20th Anniversary and Lord of the Rings edition of Risk. We played Trivial Pursuit last night. That game is so freaking hard but it is a lot of fun. Of course, my team won (the women). Unless you know all the major congressmen and cabinet members since 1982, one section will stump you to no end. But it has a lot of cartoons and comics questions, which of course I rocked.

This next week should be a nice and relaxing one before I can get serious about the job hunt again. I have plenty of new DVDs to watch, some new anime, but can't get to that until I clean the house and do the laundry from our vacation. Speaking of which, I should go and unpack or something. Oh yeah, and by the way, Tanooki's name did get changed. When Byron said that Tanooki sounded like something dirty you do in the bedroom, the name was gone. I did refuse Baylor and I went back to what I originally wanted to call him: Mufasa. If you don't get that one, well, I don't feel like explaining it.

Merry late Christmas and Happy New Year!

posted by Keri
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Tuesday, December 23, 2003 - 11:51 AM

Greetings from Houston! I'm getting a big push down here to change Tanooki's name. No one likes it because it's hard to pronounce and it sounds like nookie. I'm leaning back towards Koga, but I'm getting a push towards Baylor. Yes, he does look like a bear, he poops in my yard, and he costs a lot of money but I'm not sure if I can yell, "Come here, Baylor!" That and Baylor was my rugby nickname.... Any thoughts?

posted by Keri
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Thursday, December 18, 2003 - 4:53 PM

Well, I got another acceptance letter today: Texas Wesleyan University. Not only that, but they offered me a $15,000 scholarship. The downside? I have to let them know by January 15 in order to receive the scholarship, and I may not hear from the rest of the schools by then.

posted by Keri
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Wednesday, December 17, 2003 - 3:58 AM

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! LOTR RULES!!!

and if you haven't read the books, GO AND READ THEM!!!

posted by Keri
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Tuesday, December 16, 2003 - 3:02 PM

We kicked off Christmas a little early this weekend. Christi and Matt came over for a nice Christmas dinner and we all exchanged gifts. We got Matt a game for his GBA and a Game Boy Player for his GameCube. Soon he will see how nice it is to play GBA games on the big screen. We gave Christi the first season of Friends and Final Fantasy X-2. Matt gave Shawn a really nice atomic clock which tells the outside and inside temperatures! No more Weatherbug! Christi gave Shawn a gift certificate to Lowes...he went to Lowes the next morning and spent it. Christi got me a book on how to be evil and a collection of Onion articles. Both hilarious reads. Matt contributed to my addiction and gave me a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble. Thank God I'm broke or I'd be tempted to spend over the certificate! Shawn passed out around 10 (ten hour days at the base will do that to a person) and the other employed types left at midnight. Which points out another reason why I wish I lived closer to my friends. I was wound up and hyper, so I played Budokai 2 (gift from Shawn) until about 2 in the morning. I played it Saturday night until 2 a.m. too. This game is going to take forever for me to unlock all the characters. The system is the same as the first Budokai (except that you don't have to win the tournament), where you unlock characters by fighting them. But at least with the first game they selected the characters for you to fight with, and in Budokai 2, you have to guess which characters in a fight will unlock other characters. This one makes you think! How dare it! Needless to say I'm going to be replaying the story mode a few times to figure out all the combinations. Thank God the graphics make it all worth it.

Shawn's parents came in town on Sunday, and they were supposed to stay the night at our place. But they brought their dog, Nicki, and Nicki recently had surgery and cannot play. If anyone knows my dog, Bond, you know that "not playing" is impossible. They ended up heading down to Red Oak to stay with Shawn's grandparents.

Monday was a lot of fun. Shawn took me to a shooting range in Plano and I got to fire a gun for the first time in my life (not counting BB or waterguns). He borrowed a 40 cal Glock from a friend to play around with. He originally wanted to start me with a 9mm, but the Glock it was! It's amazing how fun and relaxing it is to shoot a gun at a target for a couple of hours. On the way home we stopped at Academy, and Shawn bought me the rest of my Christmas present: a beginner's archery kit. I now have a beginner's long bow, two arrows, a wrist guard, and a target to play with. Now I have to reteach myself how to shoot an arrow well. I used to be halfway decent when I was younger. I've always wanted to get back into archery (not for hunting by any means!) and now I can play around and decide if I really like it enough to invest in the sport.

Oh yeah, and I got my first rejection from law school. Feh. So I won't be going to Baylor's spring quarter, no big deal. I probably couldn't go even if I had been accepted. That would mean selling the house, packing everything up, finding a place to live, and starting school by the beginning of February. No thanks. I have enough stress in my life, thank you.

Tonight we're going to the midnight showing of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. We didn't realize it was going to be a 3 and a half hour movie until after we bought the tickets. I'm glad I don't have to be at a job tomorrow...wish I could say the same for Shawn.

posted by Keri
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Thursday, December 11, 2003 - 9:55 PM

Look at how big this cutie has gotten!

Not much to say on the update front. I think I may have a job, but I don't want to jinx it by saying anymore. I haven't heard anything further about the unemployment deal, but I think no news is good news. My Zelda Collector's Edition came yesterday, so I've been playing the original Legend of Zelda most of the day (when I wasn't sculpting my disaster of a lion that Shawn thought was a skull). I've learned that it takes some readjusting to the simple play of the old school game and I've also learned that I'm really, really bad at it. Stupid darknuts.

Tanooki has developed a serious attitude over the past month. My vet even noticed it. He told me that Chows and Rotties are the most stubborn and domineering dogs, and Tanooki's age is the perfect age to break them. He told me to hold his mouth shut and pin him on his side until he stops struggling. I've done it a few times, but I feel awful doing it. He cries and kicks like crazy. However, in just a few days, I've noticed a difference in him. He's not so aloof. He has to be near me at all times, and he likes to be held. He's even more obedient. I'm taking him to Houston in a couple of weeks for the holidays, so it's probably best that he has good behavior when meeting the family for the first time.

Okay, it's close to 10 p.m., and I'm really really hyper. Do I play more Zelda and get my ass kicked or read? If only I had some drinking buddies up here. And I had money.

posted by Keri
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Saturday, December 06, 2003 - 9:02 PM

This is so freaking hilarious!

The End of the World

And while you're at it, check this one out too:

The Funky Chicken

posted by Keri
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Thursday, December 04, 2003 - 8:13 PM

I can definitely say I did something new today. I sculpted! I did something arts and craftsy! ME! I told Christi that I had been thinking of painting ceramics, just to do something different than I always do. Something that will make me think more than a video game or reading. She handed me a bunch of her sculpting clay and told me to sculpt something and then paint that. Okay, I've sculpted one thing in my entire life, and I was six years old. What I made today was no big deal, it's far from perfect, but I think it turned out neat and I can't wait to paint it. I had a lot fun doing it. It forced me to call on areas of my brain that I turned off years ago. Now I have to think of something fun to sculpt tomorrow. Unless my Zelda Collector's Edition comes in, and then I'll be saving Zelda from Ganon all day long.

posted by Keri
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Tuesday, December 02, 2003 - 9:12 PM

Whoo hoooo! One set of the DVDs arrived today, so I have 60 episodes of brand spanking new anime to watch these next few weeks. When the next set arrives, I'll have 64 more episodes. And some more Christmas presents arrived so I have gifts to wrap! In the meantime I still have to finish watching Naruto, since I'm borrowing it and I think I have 24 more episodes to watch on that. Then someone else is loaning me 87 episodes of Inuyasha, which has yet to arrive. After all this, I'm going to be anime'd out! I'll be drawing my own characters in my sleep!

None of this interests you? You want real updates? Fine. I've updated my photo gallery, my cel gallery, and the Quote Wall. Go amuse yourself over there.

posted by Keri
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- 1:51 PM

I've developed a really, really sad routine for my unemployed days. I wake up between 9 and 10. Usually closer to 10. I make all of my job-related phone calls and apply for new jobs. I walk the dogs. I find something to clean. After I shower, I run all of my errands at once to save gas. I come home and watch DVDs until it is time to cook dinner. After Shawn goes to bed, I usually stay up late watching Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. Sigh. I did find something interesting during the routine, though. While rearranging the spare closets, I found a formal that I wore my freshman year of high school. Ummm, why did I keep this? Even if I could fit into it, (remember, I was 4'10" my freshman year) why would I ever wear it again? Why did I wear it in the first place? It has a tulle petticoat and rose bows on it. Rose bows. It's going in the donation pile. And it's time to run errands. Sayounara.

posted by Keri
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