Well, okay, then...

I suppose since my partner in crime posted, I might as well contribute, too.

I have a wonderful job as an administrative assistant for a non-profit childcare resource and referral. I'm learning the ins and outs of working for a government-funded organization that is greatly affected by who is in charge politically.

Besides that I've been writing a collection of steampunk short stories set in an alternative history Victorian England. They're the prelude to a trilogy I've mapped out, which makes it even more exciting since I know what happens next. For the first time in my life I'm actually acting like a writer. Every night I sit down with my mint tea and attempt to write 1,000 words, and at this point I've gotten 20,000 words down. Of course it isn't completely publishable, but I'm working on it, which is really what counts.

I've also decided to try to get my previous short story collection "A Part" published, though I haven't decided whether I'll self-publish through Amazon or if I'll try my luck with The Writer's Market. We'll see what happens!

Now let's see how the kiddos are doing....

Here is Odin holding onto Thor's favorite toy, Sparkle. He likes to taunt his brother.

Thor doing is best impression of a pirate.

The boys being adorable little cuddle-buddies. Immediately afterward they had wrestling match on the floor complete with fur flying. Ah, kids.

In other news, I have amazingly awesome parents. For Valentine's day they sent us both bouquets:

Gorgeous!

The parentals lounging in a Madison art museum. They came up for a lovely weekend.

THE TRIUMPHANT RETURN???

So I have failed miserably with keeping up with the blog.  I suppose I cannot just blame myself since I write half of this and Caro is supposed to write the other half, but I have missed telling everyone about my adventures. 

Since I last posted a blog, the following has happened:

- I started work as a receptionist at a technical college.  I work five evenings a week and then Saturday mornings.  This is a great place for me to get things done as most evenings are slow.  I can read and write and surf the internet.
- I still work at the coffee shop and actually became half-way decent at making drinks for people.  It's a fun fast atmosphere and I am so lucky to have awesome coworkers who keep me laughing and smiling through my shifts.
- I had my free time seriously diminished. 
- I had a wonderful holiday season with all the people I love.
- I became seriously addicted to the BBC's Sherlock.  If you aren't watching, then you should be.
- See also: Downton Abbey.  An excellent period television show that is wonderfully done and 100% enjoyable.
- Community got put on hiatus and this made me very sad.  But it will be back in March.  For those of you who have no idea what I just said, it's an excellent TV show and hands down my favorite on television.
- I did not sleep a lot.
- I bought a Kindle and reread a bunch of books.  I have also discovered that I enjoy memoirs. 
- Odin and Thor decided that they like to chew things and that is annoying.
- I have been to Ikea once, which is noteworthy.  Because I love Ikea.
- I plotted out a book.  I'm going to leave it there, because I don't like to talk about projects I'm working on until I know that they are worked out.  But so far I have written 6K words for it and that is awesome.
- I read the book that my BFF Trish has started and it's wonderful.  I can't wait for her to finish it.
- I wrote this blog post instead of working on my novel.
- The Colts had a miserable season that I'm still not over.

The great cheese-venture!

The Aunties went on another leg of our fantastic cheese tour of Wisconsin this weekend, hitting up three different shops and gathering a drawer-full of cheeses.

Yes, taste why we moved to Wisconsin...it has a slightly sharp flavor.

And milk, that's the other secret ingredient.

So, the first cheese shop we went to was in Arena, Wisconsin, where we found a special friend...

The "famous 7 foot mouse," who was kind enough to pose with us.

He was a nice-enough chap.

Then we wandered further west and found this quaint little shop.

The coolest thing about this place is that they buffalo cheese. Cheese, made from buffalo milk. We bought some buffalo mozzarella and it was delicious.

And onward to our last shop, this one was in Mount Horeb, the self-described troll capitol of the world.

It was a cute place...yeah, the buffalo cheese won.

Caro's New Job!

That's right, kids, Auntie Caro has a job! I started at the end of September as a temp through an agency, and they decided to keep me! My official start date was Oct 31st, quite an auspicious day.

See? I'm official!

Here is my awesome desk of wonders!

I am an Administrative Assistant for the Professional Development department of a non-profit called 4-C (Community Coordinated Childcare), which helps childcare providers and people seeking childcare. Fun stuff, huh? I mainly sign providers up for trainings (CPR, etc), put people into our databases, and process the paperwork generated by the seven other people in the department. I work from 8am to 4pm, Monday through Friday and I get paid! I'm pretty excited to have a real job that doesn't require me to live in a foreign country.

The guy from the temp agency who helped me find a job brought me a plant! For my window! I am also pretty impressed that the agency has their logo embossed into the pot.

The Table of Terror

So, our cats have a problem. Actually, we have a problem, our cats are just fine with what they're doing; jumping on our table. Now, we try to be rational about it, but there's something about little kitty paws trampling all over the place we eat that just puts us on edge. This is how we responded.



We're nice ladies, really.

If you can't see what that is, we put packing tape, sticky side up, on our table to deter them from walking on it. Hope it works!

Happy Birthday Auntie Heather!

Happy birthday to Auntie Heather! We celebrated by doing what we always do, we went to Red Lobster and ate crab legs!

And then we ate cake!

And a lava cookie thing with ice cream!

And then she opened presents! (notice Thor helping her)

Thor vs. The Tube