Gettin' my kicks lookin' back at '06

What better time than at the end of December to look back on the past year and think of the highlights. Here are some of my favorites from 2006.

Favorite websites: 1) GoFugYourself: Hilarious and pointed commentary on celebrity fashion. Always an enjoyable site to visit, and it doesn't count as celebrity gossip as it is fashion gossip. 2) Da Breakup Song: Great way to break up with your significant other. Just kidding. But truly hilarious. Thanks to Jenn for hounding me until I went there. You can choose a name (my fave is Henry) and then choose reasons to break up with him (bad breath, ugly, blogged too much, smells, etc.) and it'll create a song for you. Try different combinations for the humorous effect. "...like a chicken ate your face..." 3) Google. You can find anything via Google. I'm their number one fan, even if they're not my number one fan. ha! 4) Wikipedia. The Google of information. Enough said.

Weirdest ailment: I never have normal injuries/maladies; I should probably be in a medical journal. This year's winner: A cyst on my lower lip that I had to have removed. Got a big numbing injection that made my lip about the size of an orange. After it had taken effect, the doctor came back in and joked that I was lookin' good and I told him: "Celebrities pay a lot of money for lips like this."

Favorite trips in no particular order:
San Francisco: Got to see where we'll be moving, navigate with my mom, eat at In-N-Out burger for the first time and see the Stanford campus.
Branson: Got to hang with the family, go to Silver Dollar City and relax.
Chicago: Visted Alan several times in his "hometown." Went to Six Flags, Botanic Gardens, museums, and got to navigate into the city by myself one day.
Colorado: Ski trip in February. Took another lesson and improved immensely. I'm apparently, what's the word? Oh yes, a "natural." Skiied confidently on blues and got tricked onto a black. Didn't break any limbs though, so I considered it a success.

Worst fast food idea: KFC's mashed potato bowls. Reminds me of Joey on the Thanksgiving Friends episode where he eats Rachel's "traditional" trifle, but she accidentally puts beef in it. "Potatoes, good. Cheese, good. Chicken, good." But not together.

Best fast-food commercials: Sonic still takes the cake on these. The humor is unstoppable. Spangles, of course, is a close runner up, if only based purely on the fact that they make such an effort even if the commercials a) don't even make sense and b) are rife with speech impediments. They are amusing to say the least.

Color: Green, specifically if it falls into the sage green category. Good thing I don't have a house or it would be uni-color.

Favorite month: October. The best month of the year usually, my birthday and anniversary both fall in this golden block of weeks. This year, it was made even better because I got to go to Chicago and bring Alan back from his internship in the North. It took awhile for his "accent" to fade, but he's finally back to normal.

Favorite nephew: Kenny. Ok, so he's my only nephew, but he is my absolute favorite! You can practically see him learning, even if he hasn't quite learned to say my name yet....and can already say Alan's...and Marti's....but whatever, he's the cutest little bugger around and I love him.

Favorite game to hate: Sudoku. At first I was loving it, trucking along on all of the easy puzzles. As they got progressively harder, I got progressively more angry. I've "quit" several times, but always go back for more abuse.

Worst TV show that I watch: The Bachelor. Someone needs to have a Bachelor intervention, tie me down, and not allow me to watch.

Best TV shows: Grey's Anatomy; Project Runway. Make it work.

Favorite workout: The Biggest Loser workout DVD. The real BL people from Season 2 make you think "I can do it!" and Bob is a great motivator. It'll kick your rear into gear.

Proudest achievement: Running a 4-mile race; reading Anna Karenina.

Worst habit broken: Eating fast food. Alan and I have a pact and we've each only eaten fast food once since our drive back from Chicago mid-October.

Best purchase: Paper, Denim & Cloth jeans. Worth every penny!

Worst purchase: $5 sunglasses at Target. They smash my face and fog up when it's hot.

Best news story: Man bites panda. How much better does it get?

Worst dream: That I was working in a Dairy Queen in California. Actually, I wasn't even hired; I was just hanging out in the back hoping that they would get busy enough to need me and pull me onto the register. Horrifying.

Most predictable celebrity news: The Britney and K-Fed breakup.

Worst library foul: Falling asleep with a library book and waking up to it being chewed to pieces by Marti.

Best husband: Alan. We made it through a year of marriage and had a lot of fun in the meantime. It was rough being apart, but I think it only reminded us of how much we love to be together and how much fun we have. He's a great husband and a great puppy-daddy.

Best pug: Marti, Martikins, Little Grizby, Sister Rita, Gracious B, B Wiggly, whatever you want to call her, she's the best. And here is her countdown....

Marti's favorite things in nature: Pinecones, rabbits


Marti's favorite toy: a stuffed Santa Claus

Number of operations to Santa: At least four

Limbs remaining on Santa: 2. One arm, one leg.

Rolls of toilet paper eaten, total: At least 3

Marti's biggest accomplisment: Roaming free during the day without causing total destruction.

Marti's most amazing talent: Finding chewing gum each time we go for a walk.


Merry Christmas to all! Stay tuned to my next post: resolutions for the coming year!