A new family member?

I'm pleased to introduce to you....

Maggy! Maggy is obviously an English Bulldog that Bill and I are adopting. We're going to try and give Louie a buddy. Maggy is about a year and a half old and all white, except for her black body spots that show through on her ears. She's even more piggy than our current piglet and comes in about 20lbs heavier than Louie!!! She likes her food!! We're excited for the new

addition to the family and hope that Louie eventually is just as excited as well.

P.S. No worries, we're not packing her up and shipping her in that wooden crate! That's kind of what it looks like :o)

My Meez

I'm all about creating custom characters. I've ordered stationary with little "Staceys" in the corner, customized an M&M and now there is Meez. Meez is a fun little website that you can create a custom character on and then use this character to post on blog, myspace...or whatever else you would like to do with it! Here is my character:

Aside from the figure, it looks like me somewhat. Funny how you can give it a round face, but your body will forever be slim. Wish that was true in the REAL WORLD!!

The Best Part

This had to be the best part of the Oscars last night. Well, it was actually the only part I watched but AWESOME all the same. I just love Will Farrell, especially with the fro!

Pup Tent

Bill and I were having some fun with Louie and built him a tent using two thermarests and a blanket. He was ecstatic! He loves being under cover and took one of his toys inside and chewed away. At first he was a little hesitant and only put his head in, but eventually he got confidant and went all in!

Saturday Work

Sometimes I have to work on Saturdays....and it SUCKS! It makes for a very long week and makes the weekend seem non-existent. I had to work today, luckily the class was good so the time went by quickly. Even luckier was what I saw on my drive home.....

The Spam Mobile!!! It was getting on the freeway and unfortunately my reflexes weren't fast enough to get a picture of it. It was fantastic and made having to go to work worth wild. I actually don't think I've ever even eaten Spam, but this slick ride would definitely make me try it!

Thrifty Find

I took a little thrift store jaunt today and found a bag of goods I just had to have. What was in this bag? A whole bunch of boyscout stuff! I know, saying that sounds a little creepy (Chris thinks I'm a step away from "To Catch a Predator") but I thought it was kind of cool. There are a whole bunch of patches, awards and the sash. I want to use some of the patches on a pair of pants or something. Or, I'll tuck it away for Halloween when I want to dress up as a boyscout. Keep your mind out of the gutter Chris!

Happy National Margarita Day!

My new favorite....

I've always been a big fan of the diet soda. Not that I drink alot, but I just really don't like regular soda. I've been an even bigger fan of Diet Dr.Pepper. It's my favorite drink and I just find it extremely delicious with or without vanilla rum!

Now, there's a new player in town. Coke just released Cherry Coke Zero and it is fandiddly tastic! I highly recommend that everyone, non-diet and diet drinkers alike, go out and pick themselves up some!!!

National Pancake Day

Today was National Pancake Day. IHOP was celebrating by giving away a free stack of pancakes from the hours of 9am to 11am. I couldn't find anyone to join me for a short stack and thus...no free pancakes for Stacey.

Damn you non pancake eating people!!

Bill's Dills

Each year Bill and I grow cucumbers in the garden and then make pickles with them. Last year the pickle crop crapped out, so we were very happy that we got a bunch of pickles in 06. We made the batches and they have been sitting and stewing in their jars for a couple months now. I finally put the labels on them!! Should have done this by Christmas 06, but oh well. People will get pickles in February instead!

Louie thinks they're delicious!

I'm In The Lead!!

The race was today and oh what a race it was! Even those of you out there that aren't that into racing would appreciate the final laps. I mean, someone crossed the finish line sliding on the roof of the car in flames....and then walked right out of the car! Amazing.

Some guys at work started a fantasy racing league and I was the one girl that got to participate. Probably because I'm the one girl that watches races. After race one, I'm proud to say, that I'm in the lead!! There's a million races to go and I could lose position at any second, but I have to brag for the time being.

Nascar Dog

Tomorrow will be our Daytona 500 party. Think Superbowl party but instead we are watching cars going around the track. Louie all is ready with his Kasey Kahne jersey shirt. He will wait patiently by the door until all the guests have arrived!

Year of the Pig

This Sunday, February 18th is Chinese New Year and the Year of the Pig. Hopefully everyone has their party plans on. I'm not sure how one goes about celebrating this, aside from those wonderful parades. I'm thinking I'll eat some pork product and call it good!

Cozy Warm Vest

Bill and I had a good Valentine's Day overall. We had dinner at Dos Coyotes...delicious, except my black beans tasted like dirt! Bill really liked his gift. I got him a subscription to Sirius radio so he can listen to all his Nascar stuff....I'm sure I'll regret it later! Bill got me a nice vest from REI. I've been wanting one for a while, and it's super warm and cozy!! Much nicer than over-priced flowers that will die I say!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I do alot of Google image searches. When you "try" to post a blog everyday, sometimes you need to go to the WWW (world wide web) for pictures to use. Sometimes these pictures make me laugh, but none made me laugh more than the one I saw today! When I searched Valentine's Day this was the third image:

Hope you and yours have a good one!!! Apparently someone out there is!

Salt and Pepper Shakers

So I have a bunch of new salt and pepper shakers since the holidays. I seem to get at least one pair for every occasion. This is one of my favorites. They came from my Aunt and when you shake them they sneeze and say bless you. It gets Louie excited when he hears them.

Wedding Website

So I've created a website for the wedding. It's still a work in progress, but I like how it's coming along. You can check it out at

www.billandstacey.info

If you have any recommendations, let me know!

Yet another collection....

I have another secret collection that is slowly starting to grow. I have developed an obsession with the garden gnome. I just got a new one at Target and I think that puts me at 5 total in the front yard. There is a story behind the garden gnome though that I think explains why it is important to me.

Before my senior year of highschool I went on a trip to Australia and my mom was throwing me a going away party of sorts. My friend Megan and I decided that our party needed flowers, but it was well after midnight and no stores would be open. So, we decided the next best thing was to steal flowers. Our plan was to drive around in the local neighborhoods and cut flowers out of yards, being sure not to take so many from any one yard that the owner would even notice. It was quite successful really! During this trip we ran across this yard that was COMPLETELY covered with ceramic figurines and rock. There wasn't a piece of grass or plant in sight, and literally over 200 ceramic figures. Being the thieves we were, we decide to steal one. Trying to make ourselves feel better about the theft, we decided to gift it to someone. So, we drove over to our friend Kim's house and put it on the porch. Turned out her mom, the cop ironically, LOVED it.

The next year, we got her another one and put it on the porch. She knew what we were doing but apparently liked the figures so much she turned a blind eye to our clepto obsession. The third year I went back again and every figure in the yard was bolted or chained down. They were keeping a close eye on their figures and didn't like the missing pieces.

Is my payback to now become one of those ceramic figure collectors myself?! By the way, I promise that all of the figures on my lawn were purchased and my days of stealing are over.

Threadbared

One of the other blogs that I frequent is www.threadbared.com. This site is run by Kimberly and Mary. They post old patterns (crafts, sewing, knitting, etc.) and make fun of the said patterns using their incredible humor and sarcasm. They issued a book called Threadbared and I finally purchased it from Amazon.

I finished reading it in two days and it's hilarious! A perfect coffee table book that should be owned by all.

It's Orbtastic!

What will they think of next? Arrowhead released a line of water called the Aquapod. It's not really a different water, just a different container. I'm thinking it's highly marked to kids based on the website www.aquapod.com. I must admit I was drawn to the cute little water bottles and had to buy a pack myself! Just wish it wasn't finished in 5 sips!!

Favorite Shoe

I may have brought these up before, but I just can't bring them up enough. Rocket Dog Joint series are my most favorite shoes in the whole world. I've always really hated tennis shoes type shoes, but since the ankle sprain I can't wear anything else. The catch is they have to be COMPLETELY flat as well or my ankle hurts really bad. (I'm going back in to have it checked out in a week as I'm thinking it wasn't just a sprain after all)

Anyway, thankfully I found Rocket Dogs. Now I don't know about any of their other shoes but these Joint series are the best. I think I have 7 pairs now. They are only about $20 a pair and since their all I can wear, I need variety. All my other shoes are sitting sad in the closet. I found this new style online with little skulls and I'd love to add them to my collection but they are $49! It's so much cheaper to buy them at Off Broadway Shoes so I'll have to wait to see if they come there.

The popcorn is in jars!

Finally, after many months, the popcorn has finally been placed in jars. I found some really cute jars at Ikea. It filled exactly 10 jars and weighed out to a total of 13 pounds of corn. That's a whole lot of popping!!

Cow Creamer Part 2

All you loyal pillsplace readers out there, I hope all three of you are paying attention, may have remembered a posting a while back about a little yellow cow creamer that I picked up at a thrift store. I made a little joke about now collecting cow creamers and at the time I was totally kidding. Then, I went into a thrift store and low and behold...another cow creamer. This one was white and slightly larger. Of course I had to get it! My other creamer was lonely. Now I have two. Will there be a third? If I find another color there sure will!!!

Reception

I think if Bill had his way this is EXACTLY how our ceremony would go!!

Three Sheets

There's this channel on Comcast called INHD (channel 919). Basically all the shows are in HD tv... I couldn't care less really. There is a show though called "Three Sheets" and I love this show! It's a guy named Zane Lamprey and he basically gets sent all over the world to drink. Yep, you read that right, drink.

I'm wondering how one gets a job where they are paid to travel and drink?! Not that I'm a big drinker, but I'm thinking this is a whole lot easier than my job. Sometimes though I wonder what kind of hangovers this guy has on a daily basis. I imagine it can't be pretty!

Bathroom

When we were at the cabin last weekend they had an amazing bathroom. Never thought I would post on a bathroom! It was painted this incredible vibrant red with dark wood borders and a pale baby blue lower wall. It was very striking! The floor and show was a really dark slate tile, almost looked like chalkboard.

I think it made us all want to go to the bathroom!

I got addicted.

One lovely day while flying Jet Blue I started watching "Top Chef." I'm not sure why I hadn't watched this before as I really do love cooking. All it took was one episode and I was HOOKED! Could it be the delicious food they cook? Could it be the drama and disagreements between the chefs? Or could it be Sam....

Sam was definitely the male eye candy of the show. Good looking guy that knows how to work a kitchen and seems like a charmer....every show has one! Unfortunately for me, Sam was kicked off the show on Monday. He made it to the final four luckily. Overall, Ilan won the show. It was between he and Marcel. I'm very glad to see that Marcel didn't win...and Sam may a bonus guest appearance on the last episode!