my date for new years

Good riddance to 2013.

I'm happily ringing in the new year with my main squeeze.

guess who spent the night outside?

I thought he was just sleeping under my bed and being antisocial.  Apparently he had escaped at some point andI didn't notice.  I had no idea until I was leaving for work and discovered him here, standing in front of my old apartment, howling mournfully.  When he saw me he was so confused and relieved, he acted like he had been wandering in the desert for years.  It seriously couldn't have been longer than 8 hours that he was outside.

I feel really bad for the girl that lives in my old apartment too.  Who knows when the wailing started but I'm sure it was loud and consistent.

this is Ft. Lauderdale Beach

Toby, who I haven't seen in like two years, came down to escape the cold in Boston.  I finally got to see him last night.  He of course got a camaro convertible so we of course had to go for a cruise down A1A.

Since it was Friday night at like 1 in the morning the beach was full of all kinds of crazy, but my favorite was obviously the three drunk girls posing on the Fort Lauderdale Beach sign.  I can't believe I managed to snag such a great pic as we cruised by.

evil apples

Jon got me to play this new app game yesterday on my break.  My only complaint was that I didn't realize it required you to be very present and focused to play.  I ended up having to go to work before I could finish but I got a few gems.  You get the idea, it's basically like cards against humanity.

And I think changing it to "In Britney Spears We Trust" would do a lot for this country.

I feel like the raining snow and stars are intentional to make it harder to take screengrabs so I'll offer captions.

"homophobic gay porn relaxes me"

"Get a noteworthy bowel movement or die tryin'"

"My best memory can be described in one statement: mouthfuls of semen"

miller

Haha, : (

He's so nice, I love him.

Getting to spend some time with Miller was all I wanted for Christmas.

this is what they do

I was just telling my brother and sister about how whenever Jon and I FaceTime he spends the entire time looking at the video of himself.  Weirdly I checked my phone to find a missed FaceTime from him.

This is what the session devolved in to.

Haha SO GROSS.  His explanation was, "some day Zeus won't be around anymore and then I'll miss this so I just let him do it whenever he wants"

I guess I don't blame him.

merry christmas

I was going to do a random post and then I remembered what day it is.  Tis Christmas day!

If ever there was an excuse to post this it was today.

Oh to be in that audience.

I hope you're all enjoying the day.  I made my way up to Sarasota after work so I'll be spending the day with my family.

wtf is this?

He was traveling with traffic too, as if he wasn't riding on a glorified skateboard.

I love Florida.

boat show detour

Darkness and distance, the iphone cameras greatest foe.

I feel like it's a boat show every other week down here, but I guess last night was the holiday boat show maybe?  Basically everyone decorated their yachts with lights and drove them down the intra-coastal blasting classics like, "Pour Some Sugar On Me" and "Rockin' Robin".

As for me, I had to completely re-strategize my after work run.  I opted for the "go where the streets take me" approach which left me running in the dark through unfamiliar neighborhoods.  It was fun to see the houses that were decorated, but unsettling to feel so completely lost in suburbia.

Reminded me of the old neighborhood game of our youth.

visiting the dogs

I love yeti.

When I first got to Petropolis Park it was so quiet and peaceful inside that I didn't want to ring the bells and get all the dogs riled up.  I went around to the fence in the back to see if Daniel was back there and sure enough he was lounging in the back yard with yeti.  Her first reaction was total guard dog mode when I first saw her over the edge of the fence but one she realized it was me she got SO excited.  : (((

Daniel rudely wouldn't come and open the side gate to just let me in the back to I had to go all the way around and through the front and pass everyone else just so I could see yeti.  I wish I could capture her better on film but it's always either far away super zoomed in shots of her just standing and being nice, or close ups of her coming at you because she absolutely needs to heavily sniff your ears:

After I spent some time with yeti I got to see the greyhounds for a little bit.  It was kind of sad as I don't know if I will get to see them again before they head to their new homes.

I tried to get a nice together picture of each of them.  I like this one of sergeant and sapper and I always look good together:

But when it came to hero it was more of a challenge:

He suffers from the same compulsion as yeti.  Must sniff everything.

Cadence wasn't around for me to take a selfie with but maybe she will come visit me one day on my break at work before she goes to her home.

Since I can't have a greyhound right now I've been thinking about compensating with a friend for the detective.  I actually went to see him this afternoon.  He still needs to be fixed and vaccinated and whatnot so I have a few more days to discuss with the detective.  We'll see what happens, but it may be time for the detective to have a partner in crime...

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I came home the other day to find that my downstairs neighbor had "decorated" for Christmas.  It does light up at night which Gala said made it cute.

I don't know if I agree.

I am amazed that our super hasn't forced her to move it yet.  I guess he probably doesn't think she's eccentric so he doesn't really care what she does.

I know if I tried a stunt like this I'd get a strongly worded text within a few days.

But whatever, merry Christmas.

Bah humbug.

charming

Found this note on the floor of the mail room when I got home just now.

Part of me wonders what the story is, another part of me feels it's better left just the way it is.

so good

rabbit rabbit rabbit

Amazingly I actually dreamed last night that I was driving through Charleston and there was a street sign on the side of the road that said "Happy December 1st, Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit".  Usually my dreams are never that topical.  The last vivid dream I had started out that I was in an episode of the Nanny and ended in Jurassic Park.

Still, even with my dream reminder I still woke up to texts from both Meghan and my sister getting me with their rabbits.

December 1st is always a bittersweet day now as it marks the final calendar page for the month.  Fat cats leaves us with a good one to remember it by:

I'm excited for Jon to come and visit at the end of the week, hopefully he can help me pick out my 2014 calendar.

not that I'm complaining

This diner I pass on my way to work has some exquisite taste in art.  I don't know how many times I passed by it and never noticed the picture of Farah Fawcett but now that I know it's there I look forward to it every day.

If their goal was to grab the attention of passerby's then consider it mission accomplished.  If that wasn't their goal then I'm not really sure what's going on but still, I have no argument with their choices.

Florida

Where the bird responsible for pooping on your windshield looks like this.

all I want for Christmas

Is it so much to ask for a teal Ferrari with red interior and black rims?

Maybe I'll do a kickstarter so everyone can chip in a couple thousand dollars.

killing time

The new store's opening keeps getting pushed back, leaving me with some time on my hands.

This is how I choose to spend that time.

it's still beach weather

It's almost Thanksgiving and I'm still going swimming at the beach.

How's the weather up there?

The sisterhood of the traveling plants

As you may or may not recall I have a special affinity for spider plants.  I got my sister one several years ago when she first moved in to her house as a housewarming present.  When I moved back to NYC she gave me a little baby to take with me that I nurtured in to a my own giant beast of a plant.  Over the course of my time in NYC I gave babies to several different people, explaining to them the history behind them.  When I left to move back down to Florida I gave my spider plant to Dan and started over with a new baby from my sister.  As of maybe 6 months ago it's finally grown big enough to have babies of its own so I took my first cutting and started this little darling.

I brought it to work with me on Friday to give to my favorite customer as a housewarming present.  When I told her the story behind it she said, "It's like the sisterhood of the traveling plants!"

Paris and Mia

While Heather is on the other side of the planet I get the honor and privilege of looking after her two precious angels.  I even wrote a song that I sing to them when I check on them.

"Paris is nice,
Mia is nice,
Two nice ladies,
Nice nice nice"

They seem to enjoy it.

somebody lost their lunch

When I got to work today this was waiting by the employee entrance.  I'm guessing somebody stopped to fix their shoe or something and then forgot they set down their banana.  For some reason it struck me as particularly hilarious.

There's a part of me that's going to miss this place.

I can't believe I missed it

I didn't realize 11am was my ONLY opportunity to hear her new single!!!  Ugggghhhhh.  The worst part is that Laura even offered to let me switch my shifts today but I figured I would rather open and then be able to listen to it all night long.  I WAS A FOOL.

My favorite part of this clip is, "It's about not stopping until you get the song of the decade...twice.  Or once, it depends."

brother sister beach day

Just like that I'm back home and my west coast vacation is over.

I'm glad I made the trip, I got to spend some quality time with my sister and of course saw my grandfather for his birthday.

And I got to sink my toes in the powder sand of Siesta while I was in town.

Now unbelievably I am preparing myself for my final week at work in Boca before it's back to Aventura for a new adventure.

Time flies.

road trip

I happened to have the weekend off of work which is perfect as it's my grandfather's 93rd birthday and also Veteran's Day weekend.  I packed my bags and headed to the west coast yesterday afternoon.  It was a fairly uneventful drive, I was in traffic with this guy for a while though.

I don't know if you can see or not but his license plate was from Alaska.  I wonder if he just got that shipped down or if he actually drove it the whole way and was starting his return journey.  I wouldn't mind traveling across these great United States in a corvette though.

Last night I just hung out with my sister, we took a walk around her neighborhood and saw the sights:

We had dinner and played Scrabble before bed.  Nothing too outrageous.  Now this morning I'm hanging out with that nice guy Miller before we head out for the day.

Apparently my Grandfather had plans with his friends for his actual birthday so the family birthday celebration was postponed until tonight.  In the meantime my sister and I are headed to the beach for a walk, and then going to help my dad pick out a new sofa.  Fun fun.  Will update later.

terror

This is what I wake up to.  The worst part is that he is usually aggressively purring, adding a maniacal edge to his demeanor.

Why can't he be normal?

the greatest gift of all

As you may or may not recall, I gave Jenny this nickname at work a few months ago.  You can refresh your memory here.

Well it was her birthday a few days ago so I decided to make her a customized jacket with our double sided sequins.  I thought she'd really like it but she did not.  Instead I ended up getting her some boring nail polish from Sephora.

So much less exciting.

And the worst part is that Laura erased my handy work altogether.  Those jackets woulda sold like hotcakes if she'd left it.  What a shame.

how is this comfortable?

I assume he's pretending to be superkitty.  Patrolling the city looking for evildoers, prepared to fight them the only way he knows how.  By sticking his butt in their face and/or screaming at them.

Nothing gets past him.

pretty badass ride Chase

The Ranger had to stay in the shop overnight for some maintenance so they gave me a Focus as a rental car.  I have no idea what the artists palate button does.  I pressed it several times but nothing seemed to change.  And it was up there with the sunroof controls, I can't imagine what it would have been for.

It was kind of fun though, I don't know that I've ever been in a Focus before.  Maybe I've been overlooking something great that's been right in front of my face all along.  Could I be the type of person that drives a Focus?

totally worth it

They had their annual one day home sale at work and I felt like I needed to take advantage of it as it was also the last sale I would get to take advantage of with my employee discount.  Of the many many things that I could use and wanted to get at the crazy discount they were offering I had to narrow it down to the necessities as I don't want to go in to debt over a set of pots and pans or amber colored glassware.  Although the amber colored glassware was really nice!

I ended up getting some new pillows and some fancy ceramic knives.  I had never heard of ceramic knives but apparently they are the newest coolest things.  I haven't gotten the chance to try them out yet but I'm very excited.  I'm not sure if I should try cutting something tough like a butternut squash or go for the delicate tomato.  Both have their appeal, and either way these knives should cut through them like butter.

The only thing I got that was completely unnecessary was my crystal skull votive holder.  But I mean, can you blame me?  The hardest part of that decision was wether to get clear, red, or green.  Once I realized the clear was significantly less expensive I decided that I should just stick with it.  It's got kind of an Indiana Jones appeal to it in clear, although the red and green were like beautiful pirate booty.  I also asked Jonathan if he needed the purple one and he said he didn't know.  If you don't know wether or not you need a purple skull votive holder you are obviously not ready for the power that comes along with it.

I mean seriously, it's pretty heavy.  You could totally kill somebody with it.  I do not have murderous intents for it though.  I just like having it on my counter top, watching over my apt.