Lately I have just had no desire to write here. Usually it is just laziness and deciding to watch TV or go to bed at an obscenely early time that leads to no posts. But for the last few weeks, I’ve had thoughts and post ideas and have written these down! I’ve even started like three or four posts only to give up halfway through and then just shut the computer down. The desire, I no has it.*

I think that’s normal. It’s life. It all ebbs and flows. And as much as the whole NaBloPoMo thing helped me kind of get back in the habit, sometimes there is just nothing to write about. I swear, I can talk for days, but lately I’ve had nothing remotely interesting or funny or exciting to talk about.

Plus, even the thought of opening the laptop at home lately has made me stabby with rage. I just don’t want to do it. I’m on the computer all day and on my phone when I’m not, so when I get home, I just want to relax and watch crappy television.

I’ve hardly been on Twitter, in fact I usually ignore it for a majority of the day, unless I’m bored on the bus or train on my commute. I don’t go on Facebook, but that isn’t really any different since I never go on FB. Only to wish people a happy birthday.

I still will play my Words with Friends games and IM with people on gchat, but that has been about it. I’ve been technologied out. And that’s fine. Because I’m a bit too dependent on it as it is.

So, all that to say, I’m feeling less ragey about actually blogging this week. And I might even finish those posts I have recently started. And that I just wrote a whole post about not wanting to blog nor be on the computer, just to…post on my blog from my computer. /meta

And I’ll leave you with a question – where do I find some cheap t-shirts to work out in? I haven’t bought a t-shirt since college, I think. All of my current shirts are from previous jobs and I got them all for free. So needless to say, they are starting to show quite a bit of wear and tear. And I don’t appreciate paying for shirts, especially more than a couple of bucks, so I need your help. Kthanxbai.**

*I like to put in lolcats speak because she loves it so, so much!

**Hi Ali!

See, I went to my mom’s for Thanksgiving. And since I started the new tradition of mimosas on Thanksgiving, I brought the champagne and orange juice. And since my mom needed help, I got there before noon and started drinking then. No one else arrived until close to three. So I drank a lot by myself. (We went through four bottles easily, so everyone enjoyed them!)

Then there was dinner and wine with dinner and more wine and then some beer and then I just passed out on the couch at my mom’s, without posting anything. (I actually tried the WordPress app, but it wouldn’t work. And at that point it wouldn’t have been more than jibberish after all that hooch.)

I just gave up then. There wasn’t any reason to post on Friday or Saturday then, since no one reads on the weekends.

I’m disappointed, but I had a lot of fun on Turkey Day, so I am not too sad. I posted every day for 23 days, and that’s nothing to shake a stick at. And I think I’m back in the habit of posting regularly, so mission accomplished.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Tomorrow I’ll tell you all about how after just posting THIS, my dentist called me a wuss! GAH!

I’m not sure when it happened. I mean, I grew up recycling, for the most part. We always separated trash and recycling, for as long as I can remember. I am thankful I had a mom who made us do it, or otherwise I probably never would have.

But my adult years have taken this to a new level. I recycle. I conserve. I take public transit. I use natural cleansers. I worry about my carbon footprint. I am green!

I came to this realization while my sister was living with me. See, for a 22 year old, she is not green. I realized this when I noticed many things in the trash that were recyclable. So I would then go through the trash and pull out anything that was recyclable. (Oh, yes. Yes I did.) (I mean, the girl uses more toilet paper than I’ve ever seen! That’s a lot of empty cardboard rolls!)

I had no shame in picking out empty rolls of toilet paper or empty plastic bottles of the trash and putting them in the recycling bin. My trash and recyclables are all in the same place anyway, so it isn’t like it’s more effort.

And then on Monday I went to the grocery store after work. And I didn’t have any of my reusable grocery bags in the car. I figured it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to use plastic this one time. It won’t kill the Earth. I re-use those bags to empty the catbox.

But as I approached the check out, I was overcome with this guilt about using plastic. It irritated me! Especially since I know that there were plenty of bags in my house!

So what did I do? I bought 2 new reusable bags at the checkout. And that was enough for my groceries, to show you just how little I bought.

I began to think of other things:

I use one of these at work and it hurts every time I have to buy a bottle of water. (I used to get hives when I went to visit Ali in Atlanta and there were so many bottles and they didn’t recycle!)

This is my lunch bag. Before I bought this, it was a reusable grocery bag.

I used to bring my lunch in Tupperware containers instead of plastic baggies.

Now I have reusable plastic baggies that I use for lunch.

I’ve tried to switch to mostly natural cleansers.

I feel like such a grown up! I know for a fact, 23 year old me did not care this much about conserving the planet. She just drank beer from the bottle and only worried about where the next beer was coming from, not how she was going to recycle said bottle. (In all honesty, I still probably think this way when I’m drinking.)

Do you notice any of these kinds of things that you do now that your younger self wouldn’t even think twice about?

SO. I’m writing this post on my stepmom’s laptop because I am a NaBloPoMo purist and need to blog before midnight.

And now…I’m going to turn it over to my sister Taylor.

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This is now Taylor. Kristin is a hoot. She is one hilarious lady, and anyone who says otherwise has clearly tried to make a joke. However, upon the making of this joke, this joke-maker will realize that no one is, in fact, laughing. They are probably wondering why this person has tried to tell a lie and may offer condolence laughter much in the way that one does to a comedic act that is respected, yet not funny. Otherwise known as Carrot Top. Carrot Top has clearly relied purely on name for the deliverance of his “jokes”. No one can take Carrot Top seriously with a name like that. His jokes are not funny. The only reason he has gained fame or familiarity is through supposed hilarity, which has been promoted through the media. This is just another example of how we have let the media shape our minds and our wallets. Carrot Top is like the ugly, fat, unfunny guy that somehow has happened to be in the “cool” clique. He is only there because people have vouched for him. No one actually likes him. He kindof smells and if you brought your grandpa to a party, your grandpa would be able to pick up chicks way better than this guy. Reputation is what keeps this guy in business. Reputation is what keeps the liars of the world in business. Reputation, and a supposed one at best, is what keeps unfunny, untalented, and uninteresting people in your pockets stealing your money and your dignity.

Taylor B. Johnson.

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That is way more deep than we ever get on this site. But awesome. My sister is super talented and a genius and majoring in Philosophy. So be nice.

But the good part is that it kick starts your creativity, which is exactly what I need when it comes to this here site. I need to start writing more and posting here more. So while there will be many posts that are utter crap, be thankful I’m getting it out of my system and hopefully then they’ll be few and far between.

Plus, I know it takes 21 days to make a habit. So I’m hoping that 30 days straight means I will get back in the habit of writing in the evenings, as opposed to stuffing my face full of cheese and ice cream. (I can hear my pants breathing a sigh of relief already.)

Do you have anything you’d like to see me write about? Of course, Bacon will be back in the mix. As will my cats. And I’m going to try showing some old photos of myself, if I remember to get them from my mother.

Until then, don’t forget to enter my Shutterfly giveaway for free photo cards! It ends this weekend, so don’t delay.

One day down, 29 to go…

So when Shutterfly approached me and asked if I wanted to give away some free cards to some of my readers, I jumped at the chance! Because you all should be able to send out holiday cards as awesome as this:

I’m still holding out hope that I run into Rahm in the next few weeks to make this year’s holiday card EPIC! He’s on my list, along with John Paxson and Jim McMahon. They are the holiday card Mecca for me!

And Shutterfly has some great new designs for your holiday cards. Check out some of them from their photo Christmas cards:

Or some from their collection of holiday cards:

And you can even select some thank you cards to send out after you receive many lavish gifts!

I have codes for 25 free cards to give to three of you (THREE!)! All you have to do is leave a comment and tell me what card you like best from the Shutterfly collection, or if you’re planning on sending holiday cards this year to family and friends.

The contest will run for one week and comments will close at 11:59 PM (Central) on Saturday, November 5, 2011. I will pick three winners at random from the commenters and send them their code for free cards!

Easy as holiday pie!

Good luck!

I have partnered with Shutterfly to help promote Shutterfly’s 2011 holiday cards. I have not been compensated for my time, but I was given product to facilitate my review. My opinions are entirely my own and I am not paid to publish positive comments.

WOOO HOOOO!

Yep, last Friday my friend Kelley and I headed out to the Chicago Theatre to see Duran Duran live and in person. I was super excited because I had never seen Duran Duran live and I had also never seen the inside of the Chicago Theatre! Win win!

After a very teeny tiny issue at will call with the tickets, which caused me to call Sarah in DC, which was interesting since I don’t think I’ve ever talked to her on the phone. We’re bloggers, we just text. It also caused the guys at will call to give me the stink eye because they were probably thinking I was a Simon Le Bon groupie and not a blogger, waiting for my tickets.

Not that I wouldn’t mind rolling over next to that. But he’s apparently a very happily married man. Sad panda.

Our seats were awesome! I can’t even tell you the last concert I went to. (I’m not much of a concert goer, oddly enough, but I love them when I do go!)

The show was amazing. Duran Duran has a new album out, so they played some new stuff. But they also played all their hits and sounded amazing! Simon was getting a little hoarse (we are getting towards the end of the U.S. tour) but he rocked it out like only he can!

Speaking of Simon, he’s oddly political, which I did not know. He made quite a few political jokes, including one about Gaddafi and how George W. Bush and Tony Blair were the next war criminals that needed to be captured. It was met with a smattering of boos, which I was surprised about since Chicago is a blue city. Must have been the suburbanites.

The only thing that I didn’t like was all the flashing lights in the background on stage. As my friend Kelley said “I’m either going to have a seizure or wake up knowing the cure for AIDS.” I should send her an email to make sure she’s alive.

Also, these creepy faces. They would show video through them of the boys singing and talking and well, it gave me nightmares. Granted there are worse nightmares to have then a giant Simon Le Bon head.

It was so much fun! I’m so glad I got the opportunity to go! If you’re an 80s music fan (because let’s be honest, Duran Duran IS the 80s), go see them live. You will NOT regret it!

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Disclaimer: I was given two free tickets to the show in exchange for sharing my thoughts about the concert. My thoughts and opinions are all my own and were not swayed by the free tickets. Although they may have been swayed my Mr. Le Bon’s hip shaking. Swoon!

As I mentioned in my last post, Twitter has been my downfall when it comes to blogging. Because I share so much there, I tend not to share here because then it is old news.

But apparently Twitter is also good because it can get you free pie. FREE. PIE. The two greatest words in the English language.

I should back up. So on Friday night, I met some friends out for dinner and drinks at Lux Bar in Chicago. I got there early because I just came from work and it wasn’t worth it, nor did I have the time, to go all the way home. So I did what I always do – I went to the bar and ordered a drink.

I ordered a Goose Island 312, which is an excellent local brew, which probably isn’t so local anymore since Anheuser-Busch bought them out. I was only about 15 minutes early, so I told the bartender to close my tab. He asked if I knew about the October special. I did not.

Apparently all 312 beers were being sold for $3.12 and all proceeds from sales were going to a charity to support breast cancer research and awareness. For the whole month of October. So naturally, since I was sitting at a bar alone and drinking, I had to tell someone. And that someone was Twitter.

Once we got seated at dinner, I told everyone the special. And made them all order 312. Most of them did at some point in the evening. I personally contributed a lot to breast cancer research that night, let me tell you.

Just after we ordered, I was approached by some dude in a suit. He asked if I was Kristin. I said yes and was convinced that I was going to get kicked out. I mean, I didn’t think I had been to Lux Bar before, but maybe I had and I was no longer welcome there. No one is perfect, you know.

But no, this guy was the GM and he wanted to know if I tweeted about their 312 special. I said that yes, indeed, I did. It’s a great thing they are doing. He gave me his card, told me to call if I ever needed reservations, and thanked me for spreading the word. They had done it last year and raised over $15,000 for breast cancer awareness. That’s a lot of thirsty people and a lot of money out of their pocket. It is really a great thing they are doing! And hey! I really won’t object to getting drunk for charity.

Then he told me he ordered some desserts for me and my guests to enjoy and to thank me. And hey, I’m also never going to turn down free dessert.

Obviously this caused quite the conversation at the table. As most of the people weren’t even on Twitter and didn’t get it, they were all amped to join once they thought they could get free food out of it! And then they expected free drinks at the next bar we went to, which didn’t happen even though they sponsored my dodge ball team.

But my thing is, how did he find me in a crowded restaurant? I mean, this is me right now:

This is my Twitter photo:

This is my foursquare photo:

And this is my Facebook photo:

That’s some pretty good detective work.

I just have literally run out of ideas. I am not longer able to come up with ideas for posts.

Next month is November. And it’s that whole NaBloPoMo, which is National Blog Posting Month. I’m going to force myself to do it. Because I miss writing. And I think all the TV I watch and booze I drink INSTEAD of writing is killing off the small number of brain cells I currently have left. I’m one Real Housewives episode away from drooling.

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I’m still writing over at Food Lush and Draft Day Suit. In fact, this week on Food Lush I talked about grilling my cats not once, but twice! I’m sure I’m the only one who found it hilarious. I hope no one reports me to the authorities.

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My niece Skyler turned six on Wednesday. SIX! I cannot believe it! She’s in Kindergarten and loving it and is such a big girl! She asked for a password-protected diary for her birthday (and of course I got it). I mean, what on earth do you have to divulge when you’re six???

All I know is it will drive her brother Noah NUTS knowing he can’t get in it. He will find a way, I’m sure.

Oh, siblings.

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Speaking of siblings, Noah and Skyler now act like normal brothers and sisters, in that they bicker and fight and generally don’t always love the other one. Typical stuff.

It drives my brother CRAZY to see his son pick on his sister. It’s effing hilarious because my brother was the same damn way. He still is! If he can find a way to pick on me, he will! He’s 37 years old!

I just love pointing this out to him as well.

I hope Skyler and Noah will be as close as my brother and I are, though, when they are older.

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Since Skyler is six, it means my blog is about to turn five. Five years old! I’m afraid to go back and read any of the earlier stuff because I’m sure it was just crap. I shouldn’t have wasted all the good material back then.

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Twitter has ruined me. I can’t even write one whole post about one topic. It gets too boring after a few sentences. I have gotten way too used to sharing everything in my life in 140 characters or less. I actually hate it when I go over the limit and have to change an “and” to a “&” or use one less exclamation point.

This is actually very surprising because I’m really a wordy motherfucker. I am unable to stop talking, ever, in person. Even more surprising is I’m a pretty good listener. It’s the remembering part of listening that I have more trouble with. See note above re: reality TV and booze.

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And here is where I write something witty and smart to end this post on a good note.

Whoops. Too late.

So on Wednesday night, since I got in so late, I decided to make my friend Sharon let me sleep on her couch. Thankfully, she’s a good friend and let me do so. We got to catch up for like an hour before we both passed out and her little puppy wondered why the party stopped.

Isn’t he so cute??

I had to rent a car since I was flying into SFO, staying in Novato, which is just north of San Francisco, and attending a wedding in Sonoma, which is about 30 miles east of Novato. I always opt for the economy car since I’m one person, not driving that much and really don’t care.

This is what they gave me.

The Kia HAMSTER CAR! I was kind of embarrassed. And by kind of, I mean a lot.

But then I drove it. And you guys, it’s a really nice little compact car. It is roomy, higher off the ground than a sedan and a pretty fun little car. I’m kind of sad to admit that I’m seriously considering it for my next car. For reals.

Thursday was spent doing a lot of nothing. I had breakfast and coffee in the City since I wanted to wait out the traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge before heading to my hotel. Once I got to my hotel, I checked in, grabbed some water and snacks (and wine) at the nearby Safeway and changed into my bathing suit and headed down to the pool.

It was so warm out! I even went in the water! I only lasted about 30-40 minutes because I was exhausted and wanted to nap. So nap I did! Because I could! I was on VACATION!

(Also, what is up with getting older and getting jet lag? I’ve never really experienced it before, mostly because I can sleep whenever. But this trip I was wide awake every morning at 6 AM.)

Thursday night I spent in my room. I ordered food from the bistro café in the hotel and paired that with my bottle of screw-top wine and hunkered in for some good TV. (Jersey Shore, Vampire Diaries and Grey’s, OH MY!)

Friday I was lucky enough to sucker Jennster into being my designated driver for some wine tasting. She doesn’t really drink, which worked out well for me. It also worked out well for her because she had never really even been to like half of the wine country in Napa. She’s all “Silverado Trail, what the hell is that?” So I took her to Mumm and ZD, among others, and then she made me go to Sutter Home. Where the wino in me was embarrassed. And also glad their tasting was free, seeing as it was White Zin, “sweet red” and moscato.

(My palate is way too refined for sweet wine. But I’m OK with cheap.)

On Friday night I was invited by my bride friend to a gathering after the rehearsal dinner. Sadly, I did not make it to that. I decided I needed a short nap after wine tasting and…….fell asleep until 11:30 PM. Sorry Tina!

Saturday was wedding day! The wedding was in the evening so I spent the morning relaxing and getting a pedicure. I was meeting my friends Kirk and Teri at a winery prior to the wedding for a private tasting. (It’s good to know the people who know people.) It was amazing and if you ever get a chance, do the Moone-Tsai tasting at Luna Vineyards. Our tasting came with a food pairing and I even ate pate for the first time in my life! AND LIKED IT! (My mom just fainted.)

I had so much fun catching up with Kirk and Teri. Kirk was my boss at the 49ers. I still refer to him as “my old boss” even though I haven’t worked for him for almost 7 years and now we’re just friends. But I miss living near them and I’m so glad we hung out before the wedding and got to catch up and laugh and talk really, really loud, like Teri and I are wont to do.

The wedding was perfect. My friend was beautiful and just GLOWING with happiness. I’ve know Kristina since 2001, I think. And she’s one of my closest friends. We’ve been through a lot. And I cannot be happier for her. Her new hubby is great and they are just perfect for each other and GAH! My heart swells seeing her that happy! She deserves it!

Congrats Brandon and Kristina!

Then Sunday, I stupidly booked a flight at 5:45 PM, which meant I got home after midnight. But at least I got to spend some more time back in SF and have lunch with Betsey and Hoddy and their son Max. We all met in SF and they now live in Minneapolis and I miss not living near them.

After lunch, I found a bar showing the Bears game, had 2 beers, almost got tackled by a drunk dude and then headed to the airport.

It was really a great trip. It was the perfect mix of relaxing and busy. I like having things to do, especially when I travel by myself, but I also love being able to sit around and do nothing. And not have to make my bed.

Although my bank account isn’t too happy with the amount of fine wine I purchased.