Weekends should come on Thursday

Arrive home from work to a sweet boyfriend waiting with wine and good music. Talk about the past 12 hours spent apart, then crawl into bed.


Wake up in the morning, run into a warm shower and walk back into the bedroom to be greeted by the happiest, most comfortable dog in the world.


Resist urge to immediately get back into bed.

Hot Fuzz

Because he turns 30 this year, SK thought it was time to make some big changes. In related news, he trusts me with clippers near his head.

Of course it is...

I have recently become pretty obsessed with DIY projects and redecorating our house. Yeah, I know that the combination of "DIY" and "home redecoration" might inspire feelings of vomitous horror in some. For me, though, I think handmade stuff adds character and can really warm up a house. Also, I like for people to have interesting and unique stuff to look at and play with when they come over for dinner and a night of Wii.

I saw an ad somewhere for this book and immediately went out and bought it and spent a solid 3 hours at home that same night, curled up on the couch with it, planning design schemes for the rooms we didn't touch when we moved into the house in May.

Did I mention that? We moved into the house in May, repainted the whole (almost) inside of the thing, and have decorated our rooms according to the original color pallettes we chose. Now I am itching to get the untouched rooms done. And possibly redo some of the finished ones. I know, I know - SK agrees with you - I AM SO WEIRD.

Along with the book came a free subscription to the magazine and I sent the voucher in the very next day, super stoked and feeling like I was getting such a great deal. I have been anxiously awaiting my first issue.

Today, I read this:

On the heels of House & Garden and Blueprint, Domino is folding, according to today's WWD. The March issue will be the last.

OF FREAKING COURSE IT WOULD BE FOLDING NOW!!

via A Cup of Jo

Banished

Last night Deborah and I went out.  We wanted to get out of our houses for the evening and we haven't actually had a legit Girl's Night since before she had Queen Ryan.  We wanted to go to a bar and gossip and drink and have a good time.

And have a good time, we did.  We went to a friend's house for a while and then went to a little dive bar near Deborah's house.  We ran into a few of she and SK's friends from high school and drank a lot of beer and made fun of other people in the bar, as per usual when she and I get together.  We talked and caught up and really, it was so nice to be out with her.

I got home about 2am, not drunk, but ready to crawl into bed next to SK.  He has been coaching a soccer tournament and had another game early this morning, so I knew he had gone to bed long before I got home.  I walked in, took off my heels so as not to make a ton of noise walking through the house, grabbed a glass of water, some Advil, and headed to our bedroom.  I turned the doorknob, already imagining how wonderful it was going to be to get into the warm bed and fall asleep.

What the hell?

The door was locked.

WHAT THE HELL??

SK has a habit of locking the bedroom door when we go to bed.  Not sure why, considering we lock the front and backdoor and activate the alarm before we go to sleep, but he does.  It's a habit I have learned to live with, but it's a little annoying.

Especially when I am unable to get into my bed because of it.

Luckily, there was some clean laundry in the dryer, which meant I was able to change out of my smokey bar clothes and into some pajamas before laying down on the COUCH and falling asleep to Planet Earth on the TV.

Really?  The couch?  In my own house??

Thankfully, SK woke up about 3:30am and realized I wasn't in bed.  He got up to look for me, to make sure I had actually made it home, and found me asleep in the living room.  He woke me up and apologized profusely for locking me out.  

The walk to the bedroom is a bit hazy, and I vaguely remember him climbing into bed next to me, still apologizing for locking the the door.  I do, however, strongly remember rolling over, looking right at him, and telling him to SUCK IT.

TV Nights

I like to say that I'm not a big TV person. I like to say that "I don't watch too many TV shows because I have so many other things going on and don't have time." Clearly, I also like to lie a lot. It's not that I don't watch TV often, because I do. I watch TV at the gym when I am working out. If we don't have music playing in the house while we're cooking or cleaning or just hanging out, we have the TV on. We fall asleep regularly to sounds of John Stewart or Stephen Colbert or more recently, the high-pitched chatter of Drinky Crow, of The Drinky Crow Show fame. I say we don't watch much TV because we don't just sit and zone out and go potato on the couch - we multitask while programs are on.

SK and I are loyal to a few shows. We ty to catch our favorites real-time, but pretty much everything else, we just DVR. God Bless DVR. I haven't watched a commercial for Viagra or Cialis in I don't know how long and really, I don't know how I lived without this modern marvel.

One of our favorite shows is LOST (and yes, it deserves all caps, shut up). Have you seen it? If not, then where the hell have you been for the last 4 years?? Seriously, this show is phenomenal. It's successfully both very entertaining and ridiculously frustrating all at the same time, and the episodes feel like puzzles you have to try and solve. Everyone who I talk to about it who has never seen it is like, "isn't it about a magic island that has polar bears and a monster made of smoke and a button?" And to those hilariously stupid sounding questions I say, YES, yes it is. Have any of my questions been answered? Um...not all, but some. And by some I mean like, 2. But I know the writers plan to wrap it all up neatly by the end of the series, which will last 2 more seasons, meaning they have approximately 24-48 (those would be awesomely long seasons) hours to sort all this stuff out. I don't know if i will be able to stand it. It's coming back tonight and I. Am. Stoked.

Also, I watch Grey's Anatomy. I've watched it for 3 (?) years - no clue what season we're in here (what is WITH the time line on that show, by the way??) - and have always been pretty happy with the story lines and characters, until this season. Seriously? Dead Denny ghost sex? I loved Denny, but this season is really ruining that for me. GO AWAY AND BE DEAD.

Since we live so close to a lot of our friends now, we started doing Thursday TV nights. We rotate houses each week and cook dinner and the girls watch Grey's while the guys watch The Office and 30 Rock. How very suburbanite of us, I know. But it's fun and I love spending a weeknight curled up next to my best girlfriends, passing a bottle of wine back and forth while getting totally into a girly TV drama. Thursday nights are easily my favorite night of the work week.

(No?) Thanks to some prodding by Mama Kat, I have also started watching The Bachelor. I have been proud to boast that before last week, I had never seen an episode of the Bachelor or the Bachelorette, and really, I never understood the appeal. 25 girls/guys vying for the love of one sad soul who had to whore themselves out on national television to score dates and "true love?" That actually sounds like it would be pretty entertaining, but I have heard that the perspective suitors are not actually allowed to fight to the death, so boo on that. Grudgingly, I sat down and watched Jason, the decently cute-faced yet TOTALLY HOT-BODIED single dad get down to business with a bunch of ladies that all wanted him to be their future baby-daddy.

Oh. My. God. The show is terrible in ways I had never imagined, but much like a car wreck, I just can't look away. Aside from all the catty bitching and shit-talking, there are some serious head-cases and weirdos.

First, there is Stalker Shannon:

She knows EVERYTHING about Jason, which immediately creeped me out and now I find myself cringing when I see them alone together because I know she is going to spout off some random factoid about him like how she knows what his mom's sister's husband's brother's name is or how she knows Jason flosses his teeth with organically manufactured string from the depths of Brazil and wouldn't you know? She has some right here for him and actually had 7 cases of the stuff delivered to his house, waiting for him when he gets home and she'll totally help him use it and doesn't this prove she loves him? Because SHE SO LOVES HIM. Um...right. She loves him like serial killers love their victims right before they cut out their heart to carry around in a little box with them forever and ever. Gross and scary? Yeah, so is Shannon. Also, her teeth? HUGE.

Meet Sharon:


Sharon, being the responsible adult that she is, gave up "everything" to be here on this show. She quit her job and left her family to come meet a guy she doesn't know in the hopes that he falls desperately in love with her. I don't know about Jason (well, actually I do, because her broke-ass got axed on the first or second show), but to me, especially in today's economy, a person who voluntarily quits a stable job to risk it all on a stranger with no actual back-up plan should said stranger not return the feelings, just SCREAMS mature and solid marriage-material to me. Also, homegirl looked kind of busted the night they all met. Just sayin'.

Oh, Megan:


I cannot WAIT for someone to beat this bitch down. Really, this show would be so much more interesting if they could fight and not be sent home for whoopin' someone's butt.

There was also a girl with vision boards who was like, 47, and some chick that got so wasted on the first night she admitted to being engaged 13 times previous to this experience. Too-tan Natalie went home this week (I love that she got so pissed about it she seriously told Jason to fuck off and then got all huffy that he didn't find her interesting because to reject her is like rejecting your sexuality and you'd totally have to be GOD to do that), as did Sweet Jesus, Don't Hug Me with Your Man-Arms Erica.

I already have favorites (Melissa, Lauren, and possibly Jillian, but I am still undecided about her), which obviously means I will be watching the rest of the season. Sigh. I don't know who Deanna is, but apparently I am supposed to be excited/nervous that she is coming (back?) to "shake things up." Really, I just hope she is scrappy enough to knock Shannon and Megan out of the house forever.

Bachelor, I think I love you, and that's what I was afraid of.

And finally, doesn't Lisa look just like a Who?


I thought so.

2009 - Year of the Photo

For Christmas in 2006 (I think...? Might have been my bday in '07...) SK bought me a fancy digital camera that was super cute and took great pictures and was small enough to fit nicely in whatever purse or clutch I chose to use for the night.

It also was small enough to fall out of my purse, unnoticed, while on the flight from Houston to Las Vegas in February of '08.

Cute Camera was never recovered. Sad for me, but likely happy for Cute Camera as I would imagine it is now a possession of some bubbly flight attendant who takes it on all her international adventures, so Cute Camera is hopefully seeing way more cool shit with Bubbly Flight Attendant that it would have if it had lived a long and not as exciting life with me.

Don't cry for me, though, dear Internet. While much of 2008 went undocumented (save for pictures taken via camera-phone) for SK and I, we have now rectified the issue and bought ourselves a fancy-schmancy new DSLR that I am so in love with, it's a little ridiculous. I am learning to use all the different features and my passion for photography has been revived.

I took a photojournalism class in high school, and then a few more photo classes in college, but the hobby died out when I graduated and started working full-time. I am working to make time for it again and am trying to get better at looking at things creatively - I am back into photography, and I am super stoked.

This year, I have already taken something like 500 pictures, which is awesome, but since I am so busy snapping away, I haven't had time to get them organized on the computer, or up here on The Blog. THAT, I fear, will take much more time and discipline than I care to think about right now. I have gotten a few loaded on, though, so here you go - enjoy!

Grandpa and The Queen. We had a bbq at our house the day after Christmas so that GiGi (SK's g-ma), who was visiting from St. Louis, could see our house. This is my favorite picture of the day.

Me, Keith and Chandra on New Year's Eve. Again, party at our house. This is before things started to get really wild. And, yes, I know that if I am IN the picture it is highly unlikely that I TOOK the picture, but this was a product of the new camera, so shut up.

Uncle SK and Queenie. She came by to say hello on NYE, too. I bought her that outfit, ps.

Keith and SK, in our living room. This was just a random night over the holiday break. Keith looks drunk. SK looks smug. Both everyday looks for them.

And again, here is Miss Bella. As if you haven't seen enough of her already. Just a warning - lots more of The Dog to come in 2009.

I mean, who DOESN'T want to get married in the sun?

This is quite possibly the cutest thing I have ever read in my whole life.

That type of announcement is even better than getting your engagement picture published in Page Six.

via BBC News

Just one more thing to help my battery die

I just got Twitter to update from my phone.

!!!

I understand that being this excited about this development is totally nerdy, but really? Do you know me? If so, you understand.

I still have pictures to post from Christmas and NYE and apparently sometime over the holidays I became obsessed with taking photos of our niece, so there is a nice slideshow coming up on her too, but right now I am totally content to Twitter my heart out from my Crackberry.

You wish you were cool like me.

Rethinking this year's plans

Photos of the New Year's Eve party coming this weekend. I actually remembered to pull out the camera and take pictures, although since I was the one documenting the process I am in few of the actual shots until AFTER midnight, by which point I was just tipsy enough to not care about the annoyed eye-rolls my friends gave when I thrust my camera at them and demanded, "take a picture of me and (insert name here)!"

Happy 2009, Internet.

We kicked it off by throwing a big party at our house, which drew about 40 people throughout the night. We had a ton of food, since apparently I have inherited the No-One-Must-Ever-Leave-My-House-Hungry gene from my mother, and I felt bad tossing some of the leftovers out yesterday morning, but no one likes ham and turkey tortilla rolls or artichoke jalapeno dip that has sat out overnight. We had a great time with good friends and toasted the beginning of 2009 with champagne from little plastic cups. Also, when Bella wasn't busy hiding from all the guests, she ventured into the kitchen and hung out under the table where people would occasionally toss her a cube of cheese or a chip so all in all, everyone won that night.

My parents left for a cruise yesterday. My aunt and uncle went along with them and since Little Brother is away at boot camp, SK and I have been tasked with dog-sitting for my mom and dad. Mica is almost 4 years-old and is a Labrador/Corgi mix (yeah, imagine THAT). She's pretty chill and she is spoiled out of her mind by my mother, but I figured that she'd be a piece of cake to bring into our house for a few days. She gets along with Bella, although really Mica just tolerates her and then walks away into a corner to hide when Bella becomes too much for her to handle, and yesterday afternoon was a breeze.

And then we went to bed. She sleeps in a kennel so we brought her kennel into our room and put it on the other side, away from Bella's, so they wouldn't whisper to each other all night about boys. Almost immediately, Mica started to whine. Not the continuous, high-pitched wails of a puppy with separation anxiety, but the occasional, sad moans of an adult dog not happy about deviating from her normal routine. She settled down after a while, but was clamoring to get out of her kennel as soon as my alarm went off this morning. Bella sleeps as long as we sleep. Actually, she sleeps as long as SK sleeps, so I never have to mess with her in the morning. She stays in her kennel, spread out and comfortable, until SK wakes her up. Mica is quite the opposite and was ready to PLAY when I tried to hit snooze for the second time.

I got ready with her walking around our room, nails click-clacking on the wood floor, waking SK up every few minutes. Bella occasionally lifted her head up, snorting her disdain for that much noise that early in the morning and turned her back on us. Mica trotted around happily behind me, and when I left the house, I told SK I would leave her in the living room - her normal hang-out in my parent's house.

Apparently, she wasn't havin' it. SK called a few hours later to report that promptly after I left and she realized she had no one to talk to in the living room and that there were playmates in the bedroom, she sat at the bedroom door and HOWLED. SK let her back in and tucked her up on the bed with him where she calmed down and fell asleep again for a while. I was laughing on the phone while he was telling me this, but as soon as I hung up a wave of stress and sadness washed over me - this is what life would be like if we got another dog, which is something we've been seriously considering. Unless we could clone Bella's personality (minus the remote-eating and the major anxiety she experiences when lots of people are around), we might end up with a dog that wants to get up early on Saturday morning, and a dog that isn't content to hang out in her kennel with a toy while we're watching TV in bed.

And this, my friends, is why I claim I will never have kids. I can't even DOG-SIT without freaking the hell out.