It's official:

BH and I are engaged!

He surprised me with a beautiful ring and a sweet proposal on Friday evening, and I am happy beyond belief. He is truly the man I was meant to be with. Somehow, he knows me completely, and STILL loves me.

We told The Geej, and she seems to approve, even if the concept of it all is a bit confusing for her. She did tell me she wants to marry Daschel, however.

Have no idea when the wedding will be. We've narrowed it down to "sometime in 2008."

More fun than a barrel of monkeys?

Today, Mr. Wonderful (who I shall henceforth refer to as BH, which are his initials) and I bravely accompanied The Geej and her entire class to The Austin Zoo for a field trip.

Let me start out by telling you that I am pretty creeped out and depressed by zoos in general. I know the keepers and zoologists do admirable work, but seeing animals in cages does not make me happy. I'd never been to the Austin Zoo due to this fact about myself, even though I know it's an "all rescue" zoo. So this was a first for both me and BH. However, The Geej had been there before with Dah.

Anyway, enough background.

I'd volunteered to drive myself and at least 2 young ones (in addition to the Geej), but instead I ended up actually riding in the passenger seat of another mom's car while Geej and this gal's son rode in the back.Poor BH had to ride with a father of one of Geej's classmates, this guy's son and two other four year-old boys. Yeah...I'm not sure he realized what he was getting himself into. (Apparently this dad was something of a douchebag, but I won't go into that right now.)

The weather was overcast and coolish, but not the least bit cold. We basically strolled the grounds of the zoo and checked out the animals at our own pace. My favorites? The marmosets and the tigers. BH also liked the marmosets. Geej? She was all about the cats, as in the two felis domesticus who roamed the grounds of the zoo. In fact, she declared most of the animals "Yuck" and proclaimed that "It's stinky" several times during our time a the zoo. What a diva. Her least favorite? The bears. She and Stephen Colbert would have a lot to talk about...

We took the train ride around the zoo, and she seemed to like that just fine.

Afterward, we had a picnic among the peacocks and...of course...the friendly zoo cats.

I think after this trip to the zoo, I finally deeply understand what the term, "Stoned as a goat" means. Seriously: Look at this dude's eyes. He's TOTALLY baked.

On the way back to school, Geej's back seat partner declared that he didn't want to play with her anymore when they got back to school because she's "so boring." Oh, okay, Mr. Excitement. Whatever you say. God. Kids can be such jerks.

Got back to school, and it was nap time, so BH and I made our exit.

All in all, a pretty fun time.

Overheard at our house last night:

I was putting The Geej's pajamas on her, and this is what went down:

Geej: Can I have a bunny?

Karla May: Lord no, honey. Bunnies are cute, but they're a pain. They chew on everything and they're really, really loud. They howl all night long. And you know what they eat? Baby dolls! (To which her eyes widened in disbelief.) No really: they do! Besides, we've already got a cat, a dog and a gecko. We really don't need a noisy, babydoll-eating bunny.

Geej: Well then, can I have a rabbit?

What we did on our Thanksgiving vacation.

That's right, fools. The Tree is UP! I'm pretty sure this is the first time in my life EVER that I put the tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving. And somehow, this year's tree looks a lot better than last year's tree (even though it's ostensibly the same tree, plus a couple of boxes of ornaments from Super Target).

Of course the Geej was all up in the tree decorating hizzee. She actually did a fairly good job even if it was highly-concentrated in the lower left quadrant of the tree.

My goal is to actually have some presents under the tree this year BEFORE Christmas morning. I've already purchased two presents (I know...unimpressive), so I'm ahead of where I usually am this time of year.

In other news: Yay! The sun is out after a gloomy-as-hell weekend. That means the lovely moon is going to be bright and clear tonight. It also means it's going to get down into the (upper) 30s. SNUGGLE WEATHER!! If only I could sleep in until 10:00am every morning... Sigh.

Hunka Munka went back to Geej's school today. I think I may have been the only one who was sad to see her go. Mr. W. never warmed up to her, the Geej was only half-way interested, and Earl really didn't give a crap about Hunka Munka's presence. (I swear that cat has ZERO predatory instinct inside his nicely insulated frame. He's a lover, not a fighter.) My mom and friends who came for Thanksgiving were fairly grossed out about the fact that I was willingly harboring vermin in my house. But I got rather Willard-like and would pulled Hunka Munka out each night to give her a thorough petting and scratching. And you know what? She LOVED it. She totally chilled out and relaxed and let her little, beady eyes go half-mast. It was pretty endearing. I haven't even seen Ratatouille, but I'm totally buying it.

Got this book today for work. I'm actually looking forward to reading it. Am I a dork? Why yes I am...

Finally, I'd like to say a fond farewell to Mr. Kevin DuBrow, recently-departed lead singer of 80s pseudo metal outfit "Quiet Riot." Two of the comments I read regarding a posting about his death were "Wait...who?" and "Now it truly is a quiet riot." Sad and funny. Sort of like that wig he used to wear.

Cum on...feel the noize.

Baby, it's cold outside.

Granted, it's not FREEZING, but it's cold for us. Would you please look at this boy: he's TOTALLY gettin his snuggle on. Yes, he put himself inside the blanket. I wouldn't have even known he was in there if not for the deafening purring going on. I just pulled it up so I could see his face and, of course, I had to take a picture.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuurp!

Thanksgiving has got to be my most favoritest holiday. It's about food and friends and family, and what could be better than that?

I hosted a low-key potluck Thanksgiving for a few friends. Tuesday night Mr. W and I did all our shopping. Wednesday night, we prepped and cut and mixed, getting everything ready to cook. Thursday morning we put the squash in the slow cooker and went and picked up our smoked turkey at Hoover's. The friends started showing up around 2:30. I pulled out all of the appetizers--including the tomatoes rockafeller and the sundried tomato mozzarella skewers. We sat down to eat around 4:45. We went around the table and all said what we are thankful for. Geej said she's thankful for candy. What a surprise, no?I hadn't really eaten anything all day (except for a plate of appetizers), so about 15 minutes after we sat down to eat, my plate looked like this.

It was fun, and the food (except for the roasted potatoes I made, which were undercooked) was AMAZING.

Appetizers:

Marinated mushrooms

Celery/Carrots with veggie dip and hummus

Mozzarella skewers

Tomatoes rockafeller

Citrus stuffed olives

Cream cheese with Pick-a-pepper sauce

Dried cranberries and cherries

Manchego, Goat blue cheese, and White cheddar with cranberries

Assorted crackers

Dinner:

Smoked turkey

Chipotle sweet potatoes

Vegan veggie tart

Cornbread dressing

Artichoke spinach casserole

Mac and cheese

Dijon roasted potatoes

Braised acorn squash

Whole wheat rolls

Cranberry sauce

Mushroom gravy

Dessert:

Pumpkin pie

Rhubarb pie (First time I've ever had rhubarb...OMFG YUM!!)

Taaaaaaaaaaaaasty!

Sent everyone home with leftovers and still had plenty left for ourselves.

Man, I love Thanksgiving.