Does This Picture Give it Away??

If you guessed Chris and I went to Las Vegas and eloped, give yourself a gold star!!

And, if you guessed that the super secret knitting project was my WEDDING DRESS, double gold stars for you my friend!

This picture is of us at the Bellagio in front of their water fountains, but we actually got married at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. It was short and cute (just like me!) and we had a great time. More details to follow, but it has been a super hectic few weeks around here with lots of exciting developments (one of which is not that I am pregnant, just in case anyone was wondering). Also, I only took two days off work to go do this whole wedding thing and , lets say re-entry into normal life has not been super easy on me.

I plan to get detailed shots of the dress up to the blog and the wedding website as soon as I can, but it probably wont be until this weekend. Hope none of you are too shocked - so far everyone has taken it well and that makes us eternally happy.

That's it for now, hope you are having a lovely week, and wait until you hear the story about the dress. It definitely means the capital "K" in my new last name stands for Knitter (with a capital "K")!

Guess Where We Went This Weekend!!

Extra points if you can guess what we did! Also, the super secret knitting project will be revealed here tomorrow...and here's a hint: He loved it!

Official Upstate New York Temperature Conversion Chart

I am too tired to write anything this morning, so all you get is this little ditty that my future sister in law Patricia (aka PJ) emailed me over the weekend. We New Yorkers are a tough bunch, lol! I didn't see an author's name listed on the email, so if you wrote this and I didn't credit you, please don't sue me, just let me know your name and I'll update the post. Thanks ; )

Official Upstate New York Temperature Conversion Chart

60 above

New Jersey tries to turn on the heat.

People in Upstate New York plant gardens.

50 above

Californians shiver uncontrollably.

People in Upstate New York sunbathe.

40 above

Italian & English cars won't start.

People in Upstate New York drive with the windows down.

32 above

Distilled water freezes.

Sacandaga Lake gets thicker.

20 above

Floridians put on coats, thermal underwear, gloves and woolly hats.

People in Upstate New York throw on a flannel shirt.

15 above

Pittsburgh landlords finally turn up the heat.

People in Upstate New York have the last cookout before it gets cold.

0

People in Miami all die.

Upstaters lick the flagpole.

20 below

Californians fly away to Mexico.

People in Upstate New York get out their winter coats.

40 below

Hollywood disintegrates.

The Girl Scouts in Upstate NY are selling cookies door to door.

60 below

Polar bears begin to evacuate the Arctic.

Upstate Boy Scouts postpone "Winter Survival" classes until it gets cold enough.

80 below

Mt. St. Helen's freezes.

People in Upstate NY rent some videos.

100 below

Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.

Upstaters get frustrated because they can't thaw the keg.

297 below

Microbial life no longer survives on dairy products.

Cows in Upstate NY complain about farmers with cold hands.

460 below

ALL atomic motion stops (absolute zero on the Kelvin scale).

People in Upstate NY start saying...."Cold 'nuff for ya?"

500 below

Hell freezes over.

The Buffalo Bills win the Super Bowl.

Happy Monday everyone!

Stone Cold Killer

I ask you, ladies and gentlemen, is this the face of a cold, hard, killer?

The answer my friends, is yes.

Apparently, in addition to killing several small deer on a semi-annual basis, and frequently depriving countless bottles and cans of various beer of their "joi de vive," my fiance also has pretty nice mouse killing skills.

I first noticed the mousy evidence in the garage where, quite a bit of recycling sat for quite a period of time. I was putting the Christmas decorations away on Saturday, and saw what looked like egg shells and coffee grounds on the floor of the garage. Suspicious, I took care when emptying the Christmas storage containers, and there I found the turds.

Well, this prompted an expedited return of said recyclables, followed by a plan of action that brought all our books and pictures back into the house (they have been in the garage since we moved in since we didn't bring any bookcases with us from NY and had no place for them). This all required moving the living room furniture around and "making creative use of space."

Then, my sweet little muffin of a man and I went shopping and got some mouse traps, hair color and roast beef. We had sandwiches, I got rid of the gray, and he set the traps (he didn't bait them, this caused some debate, but I figured this was his party, he knew how to invite people to it).

When we came out into the garage to leave for work yesterday, he said "Get in the car and I'll be there in a minute."

So of course my response was "Don't tell me what to do, I'll get in the car when I am good and ready - you are not the boss of me! I choose NOT to get in the car right now just to spite you!!"

To which he replied "I think I caught some mice and I didn't think you would want to see it."

My response "OOH, dead mice...I TOTALLY want to see that!"

Yup - he got two of them. They were tiny little field mice, very thoroughly dead and he handled the traps and got rid of them like a good little boy. It can be so nice having a guy around the house - not that I couldn't have done all this myself, but it was really nice that I didn't have to.

The point of this, besides don't leave your recycling in the garage for three months, is that you had better watch out. The man I am going to marry is dangerous - you never know when he might go off and break your neck and not even leave you a little peanut butter or cheese to entice you with.

Mice of Boise beware, Chris K has your number, and your number is up!

An Open Letter to the City of Boise

Dear Boise,

Hi. Its me, Karen. We've been together for a while now, almost eight months, and there is something we need to talk about.

No, no, it isn't that - I like you a lot more now that I have a job I enjoy and get paid well for. No, I have gotten used to all your overtly religious people telling me about their personal views all the time. Yeah, I even got used to the fact that I am surrounded by Republicans (Chris is really happy about that one!). No, those things are all fine. I've adapted.

What we need to talk about, is the snow.

"What?" you say, "The snow? What is wrong with the snow?? There is a lot less than you had to deal with back in NY. The snow in Idaho is pretty. You are a whack job."

Well, Idaho, City of Boise in particular, I don't have a problem with the snow, per se, my problem is your residents do not know how to drive in it. Now, before you say anything, you know its true baby. I understand that not everyone drives like they have some place to go around here, if you know what I am saying. Its like a Sunday drive with the AARP club every day under good conditions. What I am talking about is the fact that you only have five plows, FIVE PLOWS, to work a 130 mile stretch of interstate and and entire City. Also, not to bring up a sore issue, but one of your plows caught fire recently so now we are down to four plows. Sigh...

This just brings me to the fact that you are not doing your part to help out with the snowy problem, which, mainly is the fact that no one in this frickin' city seems to know how to drive in the snow.

There, I said it.

People will go 30 miles per hour on the highway (speed limit 75), 20 miles per hour while in a 45 zone. Now, when conditions warrant this type of lame-ass winter driving, I am all for taking it slow and getting where I need to be safely. The previous examples were not actually noted while it was actively snowing...this was just when there was snow on the side of the road and people could see it. No snow on the roads; the roads had been chemically treated and sanded (they don't use salt around here because all the runoff ends up in the river and then we have dead fishies). They were clear. Fine. Safe. Imagine how bad it is when there is, GASP!, snow falling form the sky!!!!!

Now, I hear a lot of people talking about back ice - and I understand it is a problem as well. I had an uncle die in an accident because of that and it is something I take seriously, so I feel it fair to mention that the above examples were when the temperature was well into the high thirties.

All I know is it is going to take Chris probably close to an hour today to drive 30 miles - if he is lucky. There is 1" of snow on the ground. That math don't add up.

So, City of Boise, in closing, I love you baby - don't doubt that. Maybe some winter driving classes for your citizens would be an idea, perhaps you could work out an arrangement with one of the local news programs to have it broad casted for all to see (theres not much else going on around here). Maybe another plow or two would help. Or we could just keep the snow up in the mountains where it belongs...Christmas is over, I don't need no frickin' snow now.

Love,

Karen

PS - happy new year and happy monday : )