let the games begin....

here comes santa claus, here comes santa claus.... Today marks the official kick-off of the Christmas season! I am very excited, although I can't believe that it is here again already. I'm pretty much done with my shopping, with only a few presents left to buy. I know I'm anal, but I don't like fighting crowds, so I start shopping about September 1. 

We had a nice Thanksgiving yesterday....very low key. It was nice to just stay around town and not have to drive anywhere this year. Granted, my family doesn't live that far away, but 30 minutes, late at night, when you are tired from eating all of the turkey n stuff, it's nice to be only about 5 minutes away.  We went to Sean's mom's house this year.  It was so funny!  His Aunt was trying to have a memorable little toast where everyone said what they were thankful for...however, I had the giggles yesterday, and Sean's sister kept making me laugh.  Everyone was making up funny things they were thankful for...thus making me laugh even more.  It was great!  

So, off we go tomorrow to shop for our tree.  I'm excited about decorating my house this year! I have quite a few new decorations that I got last year on sale, and using them in my new house will be fun!

Kendra just got back today from Illinois, visiting Gary's family.  I watched Kalvin for the week and he discovered that he can get up on the chair and reach my cereal...and eat it....twice.  So, he was in his crate several times this week.  pill.  

flamage

Last weekend it was chilly enough to try out my new fireplace in my condo. Now, I have never used gas before, just a regular fireplace...and boy can I make a mean fire from wood. So, I asked Sean if he would light it, but he was engrossed in a game of poker on the computer with Gary, and Kendra had her nose buried in her computer watching some new movie she had downloaded. And, I don't know if you know these people when they are engrossed in something, but they rarely look up, much less acknowledge you when you address them. So, here I am, standing in the middle of the living room with 3 people staring at their computers when I ask Sean if he would do it. Without looking up, he said, "Nah, you go ahead and try it." I reminded him I had no idea what to do, so his brief explanation of "just turn on the gas and light it," followed. OOookay... So i turned in on...high. And, I didn't know how much gas would escape as I turned it on...high. And, unfortunately for me, the lighter wouldn't light right away. Do you see where this is going?

Well, so I am sitting there clicking the lighter as gas is spewing into the living room and I think to myself, "I wonder how much gas has come out?" But, decide to forge ahead. I click again a couple more times and then WHOOOOSH! Flames fly out of the fireplace and up the wall, burning off some of my hair in the process. I look up to see everyone staring at me with their mouths hanging open and Gary says, "those were really big flames..." Then, Sean sticks his little nose in the air and takes a few whiffs in the air. "It smells like burnt hair in here." My hand flies to my forehead to feel crispy hair. Do you think they are paying attention to me now? Kendra looks back at her movie and mumbles something a about flamage and burned hair and calmly goes back to watching her movie.

Do these people realize I almost killed myself!??! I run to the bathroom and see that my little hairs on the front of my hair are completely singed off and all that remains are little stubs of burnt hair. ew. I come back in the room to see Sean demonstrating to everyone how big the flames were, pointing at the wall where they rose to.

He looks over at me in disbelief and I remind him that maybe next time he should just take over for me and trust me when I say I have no idea what I am doing.

**yaaaawwn**

What a lazy day. the weather was overcast for most of the day, and it really didn't get that warm. it's definitely turning into winter, well at least as much winter as we get here in these parts.

we have a resident on this property that we just took over that has not paid rent in a year. IN A YEAR PEOPLE! she owes over $10,000 in back rent, AND has the gaul to tell us that she is thinking about staying. uh. no you're not. you're moving.

not once has this woman even attempted to pay rent, just lie and cover it up. so amazing. it's one thing if you make an attempt to pay your rent and can prove that you are working to try to resolve the problem, but it's another to continually tell someone that the check is in the mail. she can't possibly think that we believe that now can she? i guess it's worked in the past with the old property management company...but really! i hate liars.

on another note, let's give it up for my new favorite marketing website for apartments....vflyers.com. You can make a flyer for just about anything and it will post it on several different websites for you or you can take the html code and use it on the sites of your choice! whee! i know everyone is as thrilled as i am.

On top of 'ol smokey....

and covered with aaaaash....

I finally had time to clean, i mean really clean my condo this weekend. i even had kendra here cleaning while gary was in vegas. such a sense of satisfaction. i think we swept out a pile of ash from the garage large enough to fill a paint can, and add in the leaves and you got yourself a party! the house was not as bad since we had it closed up during the fires, but the garage was another story. next up, carpet cleaning.

What a bummer the charger and indy games were today... although i'm sure jeremy is happy. i did pick the pats in my football pool though, but was rooting for the colts. i'm not really a fan of tome brady...kinda seems like a chump.

the time change didn't seem to affect me all that much, nor did it seem to help with my sleepiness. i just basically woke up earlier. i did buy bently a santa suit this weekend..SO funny! kalvin pretty much just grabs the hood and pulls bently around the house with it. need to ensure that it lasts until christmas without them tearing it up.