Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Happy birthday to me! What was the best birthday gift I received, you ask? Why, this little beauty waiting in my mailbox:

Last time I got jury duty I was psyched because A) my employer paid for jury duty service and B) I hated my job, so it was a great excuse to play hooky. Now that I love my job and don't get paid for jury duty, I am significantly less excited about the prospect of spending all day in the courthouse.

Also, I erased my contact info on the jury duty form so you can't read it in the picture, but this summons is actually addressed to Elizabeth LaBam. Yes, I commit voter fraud every single election, and no, the government doesn't care. I used to spend a lot of energy trying to get my name corrected, including sending in signed affidavits and copies of my ID. I finally talked to some clerk who assured me that it's fine that I'm voting under a different name. Swell! The system works!

And now for something completely different:

I really want them to change the text on the bottom to "Ho-Ho-Hope."

And finally: I don't have any firsthand information about starving orphans (sorry!) but we did see Slumdog Millionaire recently and LOVED it. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. Beautiful, thought-provoking, tragic, inspiring, magical...seriously. Go.

Postscript: Merry Christmas!

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Thursday, December 11, 2008

A very Merry Christmas indeed

Lately, work and life craziness have squashed all non-essential blogging; however, the newest addition to the LaBau household has inspired me to put on my blogging pants once more.

For Christmas this year, Jason & I decided to get ourselves a new TV/entertainment system. If you have had the "pleasure" of watching TV at our house, you will know that this investment is SORELY needed. Allow me to introduce our old TV:




That's right. An analog TV. Straight antenna system, no cable to be had. A sad off-brand DVD/VCR player that barely plays VHS tapes and is currently holding a DVD hostage and won't open at all. (We have vowed to attack it with a screwdriver once we get the new system fully functioning.)

But now...drumroll please...

A shiny new plasma TV! Not pictured: the new DVD/VHS player, and the DirecTV DVR system we're getting set up early next week.

"Teacher, mother, secret lover..." -Homer Simpson

People, this is going to be good. If we drop off the face of the earth, rest assured that we are probably 72 hours into a week-long Law & Order marathon, our pajamas glued to the couch with a mixture of popcorn butter and drool, our bleary faces basking in the sweet glow of a fully-functioning television.

[P.S. Apologies for the blatant consumerist nonsense. I promise to blog about needy orphans for the rest of the month.]

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