fyi - Change your links to http://www.yanowhatimean.com Join the party. Have some fun! - Yano, 11:28 PM |

Tuesday, December 31 Tuesday, December 31

Happy New Year's Eve! Happy New Year's Eve! Happy New Year's Eve! Well, it's the holiday that bears my name. New Year's! What? Happy Year. Feliz año. My last name would be too long if they translated the whole thing to 'Feliz año nuevo'. The Feliciano's will be partying it up tonight! Like we do every year, I'm heading out to my cousin's place, where we eat, eat, and eat. 2002 has been a good year to me. Sure, it's had its ups and downs, but a lot of great things have happened this year. I got engaged. Claudine got into med school. Fatima learned she would graduate (finally). Maui and Jane had a baby, the start of the next generation of cousins. I've met a ton of new and interesting people thanks to this lil' blog here. There were a lot of bright spots in my life this year. So I wish you all a wonderful and prosperous 2003. Be safe today! This could very well be the last post before I bring over the new format. Hopefully it will be tomorrow, but chances are, it will be the day after. - Yano, 6:57 PM |

Monday, December 30 Monday, December 30

Whew! The Season is Over Whew! The Season is Over Whew! The Season is Over Whew! The Bears were shut out yesterday in an embarrassing game. Urlacher did what he could, but without offense doingtheir job (which is to score, in case they forgot), you're not gonna win the game. You'd think that after the first two interceptions that Burris would try passing to someone in a Bears uniform. Well, to his credit, I did see him throw one SWEET pass. But still. I'm so happy that this season is over. Let's use this time to reflect and look to next year. And heal, boys, heal. Hope that next year we don't have as many injuries. And since I'm complaining about the Bears, let me show you a picture of lovely Soldier Field before it was gutted and torn up: Ahh, so pretty. So nice. Historical. A place where a lot of magic happened. Sweetness. Gale Sayers. Iron Mike. Dick Butkus. A beautiful stadium. Which will be transformed to this monstrosity: Ack! Ugly! A spaceship has landed in Soldier Field! Who gave the OK for this design, anyway? I find it really sad. They could have at least stayed with the classic design of the stadium. I can't handle the two architectural styles. BAH!!!! On other sporting fronts, watch out for the latest Michael Jordan Gatorade commercial. Can't find a link to it, but let me tell ya, it's pretty badass! Michael Jordan of the present faces off against young Michael of the Bulls (complete with hair!). I love the trash talking in the spot. And the end gives me a little giggle, too. Since the new year is coming up, I decided to give you all a little preview of the new site. Actually, the site looks exactly the same, I'm just changing around some of the formatting and fixing up the content. Just click on the 'pics' link up on top (or just click on the word pics) to check out the newly formatted picture pages. Sorry for you dialup people. Sucks to be you, I've got thumbnails! Someday, when I win the lottery, I'll get you all DSL connections. I'm feeling really sick right now, and I've taken a couple DayQuils. I've got to cancel my blood donation. And I was kinda looking forward to losing a couple ounces before the new year. And the free cookies. And juice. Oh, and saving a life, too *wink*. Will have to do it in 2003. - Yano, 12:58 PM |

Sunday, December 29 Sunday, December 29

Harry Potter is Catholic Harry Potter is Catholic Harry Potter is Catholic So I'm at church this morning, and I look up at the altar servers, and who do I see? None other than our favorite scarred wizard in training, Harry Potter. It was him. I swear. He had the glasses and everything. I always thought that he would be Anglican. But he's Catholic! Who would have thought? Me and my family went out to eat at the banquet hall where I'm having my reception. They seemed to like the place. The food was OK. The chicken was really good, but the meatballs were so-so. Oh, by the way, there's a big update on my wedding blog. You'll be able to check out my hall and the church where I'm getting married. Ohh..I'm watching the Bears right now, and URLACHER IS KICKING SOME BOOTAY! Whoo hoo! How awesome is he? Awesome enough to be the number one selling jersey in the NFL! He's just broken Dick Buttkis' record of tackles in a season (is that it?). I love this game. Did anyone see the MudBowl yesterday? It must have been really fun for the Chiefs and Raiders to play on a muddy field, in the pouring rain yesterday. It was cool to watch them schloshing around. Every time they ran, a big *splash* would happen. Good times! Good times! Since the New Year is coming up, I thought I post up my multiple resolutions...I like to have a lot, because I never stick with 'em anyway... 1) Exercise at least 2 times a week (right now I'm at 0 times) 2) No more snacking after 9pm 3) I will not renew any more of my magazines. I never read them anyway. 4) I will not buy any more magazines at the airport. 5) I will take more pictures with my camera. There's a lot of times that I really wish that I had taken some pictures. 6) I will be better with returning voicemails and replying to emails. 7) I will submit my consultant reports and my expense reports right after I return from a trip. 8) I will try and get at least 4 hours of sleep each night 9) I will get a new membership card to Bally's 10) I will put gas in my car BEFORE the gas light turns on 11) I will watch my posture. I'm a big sloucher. 12) I will try and schedule my time more efficiently at work. Um, I think that's all for now... - Yano, 8:34 PM |

Saturday, December 28 Saturday, December 28

OK....been on and off cleaning my room. Here's a little thing I found on a message board...Feel free to answer 'em if you want. I think that they're pretty interesting questions... 1. If someone tripped over chairs in a public place staring at you, what would be your first assumption for the reason for their actions? They tripped because they were staring at me. Do I have a booger? 2. If you got clothes you hated for Christmas, do you ask where they got them so you can exchange or ask for a receipt or throw it in the back of a drawer or wear them cause you don't care what you look like? No, there's many occasions that I don't really care about where heinous clothes are OK to wear. 3. What do you think of that West Virginia guy that just won 314.9 million? Man! When's it my turn!? Too bad after taking the lump sum it's only 100 million something...;) 4. If a picture of you wearing nothing but a red sheet was up in a public place and you had to be there one evening and people stared at you: how would you handle the admiration/fame? I would avoid the location where the poster is, and if anyone mentioned it, I would just smile and say 'Thank You' 5. If you had a mother-in-law and you hated her, but she bought you a ton of great Christmas presents: would you try to like her or is it that you cannot be bought? I always try to like people, but if I didn't like her already, good presents aren't going to do anything for her. Oh, but I'm not giving back the presents! 6. If you had to take care of someone's house and pets while they were gone and you couldn't get a door open, would you try to kick it in? I'd look for a window first. Trying to kick in doors hurts. 7. Does it bug you that people stare at you in public while you're eating? No. It would bother me if they were counting my chews, though. 8. If you had to take care of someone's house, and they left you more than a page of things to do while they are gone for TWO full DAYS, like water their plants that look like they haven't been watered in a month...etc. Would you do it? (Hypothethically, they are really nice people) Yeah. I'm a sucker for that stuff. That's a good idea, though, I'm thinking of maybe going on a trip and finding some sucker to clean my room while I'm gone. 9. How long could you work at a high paying job that you were totally bored with? Forever. You can find many things to do when you're bored at work. 10. How many days late did you return your last video rental or library book? What's your personal record for late returns? 4 days. Luckily, Blockbuster doesn't charge per day. It just renews the rental. My personal record is 25 days. I was away on Christmas break and I forgot about the movie. 11. If a belly-dancer was scheduled to be at your work for a birthday surprise, would you react? I'd make sure I had batteries in my camera. And a notebook to take notes. That could be a good skill to have. - Yano, 6:09 PM |

Must....Clean....Room Must....Clean....Room Must....Clean....Room It seems that I have lost the floor of my room. Have you seen it? I think it's come to the point where I really must tidy up around here. It's getting even a little too messy for me! And I like having a clean room for the new year. You know, starting the new year right. Yesterday, I totally fell asleep. I was supposed to go out and hang out with 'Alki-Man' and his amazing friends, but I put my head down for a little nap at 9 and have a fuzzy recollection of Fatima trying to wake me up at 11, and then next thing I know, its 3 in the morning. Sorry guys, I'll have to come out and play next time. So today, I'm on a mission. Find the floor of my room. Wish me luck! BTW - Bought Christina Aguilera's latest CD, Stripped. As much as I don't like her new image, the latest CD is REALLY good. I thought the whole thing might be Christina trying too had to be a ghetto RNB queen, but she touches on a lot of genres of music. I'm liking it. Especially track 12. Very Monkees/James Bond/Sheryl Crow-esque. - Yano, 11:53 AM |

Friday, December 27 Friday, December 27

Going to My Happy Place Going to My Happy Place Going to My Happy Place Hmm, you would have thought that I would have posted something since I called in sick yesterday. But I was really busy, last minute Christmas shopping and catching up on everyone else's blogs. I was also working a bit on the 'New Improved Yano What I Mean dot com' site. It's looking good. Well, it's actually looking rather plain, but it'll change. So anyway, I'm back at work today, and since everyone else in the universe is on vacation, it's pretty slow today. So we took liberties with our lunch time. It was an excellent lunch today at Su Casa, with good conversation, good people, and best of all, good margaritas. So right now, my senses are a bit, um, enhanced. I kinda feel like I'm typing super fast, and I'm laughing at everything. Yes, the stupid buzzed smile. Oh, there's nothing better than having a couple drinks during your lunch break. And why not!?!? I've been given a second lease on life. I'm going to enjoy it! Well, I'm going to enjoy drinking. Just kidding. - Yano, 1:13 PM |

The Friday Five! 1. What was your biggest accomplishment this year? Getting engaged and picking a date and reception hall without killing anyone. 2. What was your biggest disappointment? Realizing that I haven't been saving money like I should have been. SAVE YOUR MONEY PEOPLE! WEDDINGS ARE EXPENSIVE! 3. Will you be making any New Year's resolutions? I always do, and I never stick to them. 4. Where will you be at midnight? Do you wish you could be somewhere else? Probably at my family party. We celebrate New Year's every year together. I'll wish I was in a million other places, but a part of me will be happy where I am - with family 5. Aside from (possibly) staying up late, do you have any other New Year's traditions? We always take a cousin picture before midnight, then at midnight, an aunt or uncle always throws a bunch of change into the air that we scramble to catch to get good luck for the next year. Then again, maybe they just find it funny that we're crawling around on the floor looking for change... - Yano, 1:11 PM |

Wednesday, December 25 Wednesday, December 25

Miracles Happen On Christmas Miracles Happen On Christmas Miracles Happen On Christmas a.k.a. The Christmas that I Almost Died The Christmas that I Almost Died The Christmas that I Almost Died Well, it was a pretty eventful Christmas this year....so much had happened! To start it off, Christmas Eve, my family headed out to Dave's home to spend dinner with his family. Our families get along really well, which is great. Our parents enjoy each other's company, and Fatima and Justin were already friends from U of I. Dinner was awesome. There were a lot of great meat products to choose from. Then we took a million and one pictures by the Christmas tree. Those pics are in my Dad's camera, but one he gets those developed, I'll post them here. After taking pictures, we headed out to the evening mass. Normally, we're at our other family party and we go to midnight mass with all the cousins (which I mentioned in my previous post). But this time it was just our familes that went to Dave's church (the church that we're going to get married in) for Christmas mass. It was nice and everything, but a little part of my really missed going to mass with my other cousins. I'm a sucker for sentimentality, and midnight mass is one of my favorite traditions. But it was a nice mass, and it was great to share it with Dave's family. Maybe next year we can con them into coming to our midnight mass. Anothing thing I'd love to mention was the snow. The weathercasters had been commenting all week about the fact that we weren't going to have a white Christmas. There's something about snow on Christmas that just makes the whole thing complete, so I was a little bummed that was no expectation of snow. However, lo and behold, it snowed on Christmas Eve, leaving us with 3 inches of snow, enough to stick on the ground to have a true White Christmas. YAY! My dream of a white Christmas came true. *wink* After Dave's, we headed to my aunt's place where the rest of my family was at. We took more family pictures, then the presents were passed out. There weren't as many presents this year for us since we chose to just do a grab bag between the cousins. But I did get a nice amount of presents, so I'm not complaining. Click here to see us open presents I got my little flower girl a really cute Stitch doll (you can see it in an earlier post - it's the one that's in the tree) and I knew it was going to be a hit or miss as to if she would actually like it. She's 2, and she's a shy little thing. As you can see from this video, she was a BIT scared of it. Ahh....once she watches the movie, she'll learn to love him. She better! Watch Nina Run Away from My Present After opening presents, we spent the rest of the night playing Cranium and Trivial Pursuit. I ended up going to sleep at around 6:30am. There was a lot of laughing, shouting and eating taking place before I went to sleep! I eventually ended up waking at around 12 on Christmas day. We ate some more and just hung out talking. So we're talking about funny things that happened the night before, and I'm eating Claudine's cookies. Maui brings up this funny story about me sitting on Melanie's head, and we all bust out laughing. But unfortunately for me, I was swallowing a cookie at the time. So I started coughing, thinking it would come out. And this whole time I'm still laughing. But then I realize that the cookie isn't coming out. By now, my cousin Marian's like 'Christine, are you serious?' and I start nodding my head, and the realize that although I'm making a coughing action, there's no noise, and I'm starting to turn beet red. Maui, who's a nurse, comes around and does the Heimlich on me. This dislodges the offending cookie (and I actually end up puking) and in all actuality, saves my life. But then again, he was the one that told the joke that got me gagging in the first place! So after a lot of coughing after that, we had a good laugh over my near death experience. So Maui gave me three things for Christmas - Near-Death, Life, and a cute sweater. The 'Didja hear? Christine almost died!' story must have been told 30 times today. Miracles DO happen on Christmas! - Yano, 11:57 PM |