Top Gear Contest: My First Car

TopGear is hosting a contest! The winner of which will receive a trip for two to London AND tickets to a TopGear Event! Could this get any better?? My two favorite things mixed into one fantabulous prize!! The contest? To write up to a thousand words about your first car!

(** To clear up any confusion this IS the long version of the story! The story I submitted on the topgear website has been condensed down to the required 1000 characters. **)

I didn’t start driving until I was almost 18. I didn’t start having car accidents until I was almost 18. Coincidence? I think not. “Accidents” may be too strong a word. I liked to call them “Incidents”. My parents liked to call them “Reasons we can’t have you on our insurance policy any more...”

I think back on this year as my “Blue Phase”, as I routinely left samples of my 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera’s powder blue paint job on other cars, lamp posts, garage doors, and the occasional pedestrian. My neighbors think back on this year fondly as “Leslie’s Reign of Terror”. You say tomato, I say WATCH OUT I’M ABOUT TO RUN OVER YOUR MAILBOX!

It didn't help that my poor Cutlass had a blind spot the entire length of the passenger side of the car, since that’s the only side that I ever did damage to. I guess I was a really great judge of distance when turning left, but terribly bad at it when turning right. Hmmm.... I might have done well in NASCAR. Isn’t that really just a organization of guys who turn left really well? I digress.

If I pulled up to a car on my left, they’d look over to their right and see a pretty girl driving a sensible blue car. But, if I pulled up to a car on my right, they’d look over to their left and see a pretty girl driving a chewed up, battle worn, how-is-that-possibly-running, Mad Max inspired vehicle of destruction.

Her Majesty (yes, that’s what I called her) kept me safe for four years. Eventually, as life moved on, I had to leave Her Majesty behind. I’d just gotten engaged, and in the spirit of compromise, I agreed to give her up in favor of a car that featured two undamaged sides.

I'm older now, drive a nicer car and by all accounts have stopped running into things, but there isn’t a day that goes by, (especially when I’m turning to the right), that I don’t still miss her.

I wish I had a better picture than this, but you'll notice it IS taken from the driver side. In fact, I can't actually remember taking ANY pictures of her intentionally. The less evidence the better I thought! (I didn't even take this one...that's me asleep behind the wheel!)

It's A Fact

A list of things I've learned today:

1. Snow makes everything more beautiful.


2. I = Principle x Rate x Time. I know this. Brooke knows this, heck maybe even Dom and Di KNOW THIS. After 2 hours of having this equation shoved down my throat, it has been forever scorched into my soul. Happy to Report though, that Brooke scored an 80% on her first of two quizzes on the subject!

3. Trying to explain communative property to a 7 year old is hard. Saying 12x2=24 is the same as 2x12=24 is much easier. He got a 100% on his quiz!

4. I love snow, hate driving on ice.

5. I suck at building fires.

Awesomeness... by: Brooke

Kudos to Brooke for snapping what might be my most favorite picture of all time!

I'm showcasing this here, before I make it my Facebook profile picture.

Our Private Winter Wonderland

If ever there comes a time when new fallen snow doesn't excite
every fiber of my being, I'll eat my hat!

As we'd expected, a storm blew through last night laying down
a nice soft blanket of our favorite white stuff.

Dominick was the first one up and out this morning,

After running some errands with me, Diana joined her brother...

We even managed to lure Brooke out for a little while:

I took the littles sledding:

and then they took ME sledding

Even Code-O enjoyed the fine weather

Later in the day, Diana had a meltdown

But recovered quickly

Dominick taught himself to snowboard... kind of.

And we ALL acted like snowy little goofballs!

I don't know what I'm doing here, but it's hysterical!

As the sun went down, we all limped back to the house.
Exhausted, but thoroughly entertained!

BEEP:

Hello, you've reached the Fiore family, we can't get to the blog right now.
but if you leave your name and number, we'll be sure to wonder why you did so.

It's a New Year and I want to give the blog a new look and a little more TLC.
Unfortunately, over the past year, Facebook has stolen more of my time than I'd care to admit to, but I have plans to correct the error of my ways and come home to blogger like the prodigal daughter.

Give me a week and I'll have this old girl back on her feet!

New Years Resolution

res·o·lu·tion   /ˌrɛzəˈluʃən/
[rez-uh-loo-shuhn]

–noun
1. a formal expression of opinion or intention made, usually after voting, by a formal organization, a legislature, a club, or other group. Compare concurrent resolution, joint resolution.
2. a resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something.
3. the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc.
4. the mental state or quality of being resolved or resolute; firmness of purpose.
5. the act or process of resolving or separating into constituent or elementary parts.
6. the resulting state.


It's that time of year again. The time of year when people all over the world decide to improve upon themselves. I'm amongst the group of people who've singled out a particular part of my life that I'd like to improve upon. For the past few years, I've chosen the same resolution each year: Lose Weight. IF by February I'd lost 2 or 3 pounds, I considered it a job well done and moved on.

This year, I'm doing things different. COMPLETELY different. Losing weight is a thing of the past! This year I've decided that we're going to bulk up! Our savings account that is!
Bargain shopping is already an activity I enjoy, but I want to push the envelope even harder! I have a number in my head, and I won't rest until I get a statement from our bank showing THAT number (plus a penny) in our savings account.

I'll also be blogging about our frugalesque adventure, so stay tuned!

Holiday Projects

As Eloise would say:
"I'm Rawther Proud of Myself!"

I've been cross-stitching the better part of 20 years, but I've never
actually finished an entire project. I have box full of projects
I've started but never finished for one reason or another.

In November, I found a sampler I really liked and started
working on it in hopes that I could gift it to my older
sister, Allison, for Christmas. If truth to be told, I never
actually thought I'd finish. I kept waiting for my trusty old ADD to
kick in and lure me away to some other 1/2 finished project. But eachnight I put away the project just a little nearer to completion.

And then, to my (and everyone's) surprise,
all I had left were the french knots.
Ah, French knots, my old nemesis.
Many, many projects have been abandoned over french knots.

Thank Aida for Youtube!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uUjGJvVx2I

As I sat watching Poor Little Rich Girl on TCM I tied off another knot
and sat scanning the pattern trying to figure out what needed to be
done next when it occured to me that I was done!
An entire pattern, finished, with the right colors, the right stitches
and even the right name!

Betsy Ross, I ain't!
But I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I
was prouder than a peacock at a pagaent!

The finished product:

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS from our family to yours.

Every holiday season, about a week before Christmas,
I sit down and decide how I can better avoid the Christmas
Eve all-nighter I'd pulled the year before.
I resolve myself to have as many gifts as I can
manage wrapped ahead of time, have the stocking
stuffers seperated and organized ready to be dropped
at a moments notice. And I remind myself to buy extra tape
(as not to have to relive the duct tape disaster of '04)!
But most importantly, I want to be in bed at a relatively decent hour.

Yeah, it's never happened. Ever.

Every single year I am up until at least 4am, scrambling around
the house hunting down hidden gifts, more tape, more bows and generally
chugging enough coffee to keep Folgers in business for a good 6 months.

But the outcome is always worth the effort!
Watching the kids faces as they descend the stairs
and make their way to their stockings is as exciting
for me as I'm sure it is for them. And unlike christmas
mornings past, the kids did me a generous favor by staying
in bed until 8am. (I think Ed might have bribed
them in order to give me a few more zzz's,) Even more
surprising than being able to sleep in a bit, was the fact that
they made Christmas morning last into the afternoon.
There was no crazy sprint style gift opening,
but they kept a nice, slow pace which allowed them to
actually SEE what they were getting and from whom before
moving on. (I suppose this is one of the perks as the kids get older!)

Here are some pictures from our Christmas morning:
Enjoy!

Diana's excited expression after opening Dominick's gift to her: A Salon Stylin' chair

Brooke opening her gift from Ed and I: A purple silk Kimono


Dominick opening his gift from Brooke:
The Fast Lane Parking Garage (for matchbox cars)


Diana using her new Karaoke microphone


Brookie on Christmas morning!


Dominick taking his gift from Santa for it's first spin!

The tree be trimmed...

The tree is trimmed!
As much as I gripe about having to decorate the tree,
I really do love the finished product.

There is something so magical about a Christmas tree.
The way the lights twinkle...
The ornaments that remind you of Christmases past....
The gold and the glitter...

It really is a testimament that this is the most wonderful time of the year!

How to decorate a 10ft tree in 50 seconds....

OK, not really.

This bad boy took me about 3 hours!
And I'm not bragging ... I wish it had taken 50 seconds, or even 50 minutes!
But, apparently, I have ornament OCD and constantly placed, removed, replaced, stepped-back, removed, replaced, and approved each and every item...multiple times!!!

I like to think the finished product is worth it though!