Martha From A to Z

accent: Mid-western Wisconsinite with a touch of nasally Sheboyganese still lingering.

booze: I really don’t drink much anymore. When I do, usually strawberry margaritas or Miller Lite

chore I hate: vacuuming and cleaning the shower

dogs/cats: I like them both. If I had to choose, cats, because their poo is smaller.

essential electronics: Adam’s iPod is cool. It keeps me entertained at work

favorite perfume/cologne: I wear Vanilla Fields. Adam has some Mary Kay thing that smells good.

gold/silver: gold (white)

hometown: Sheboygan, WI

insomnia: not much anymore now that I’m not in college

job title: Staff Accountant

kids: nope

living arrangements: With Adam in a two bedroom apartment

most admired trait: My admired trait? I don’t know. My organizational skills?

number of sexual partners: pleading the 5th on this one. Remember – family blog!

overnight hospital stays: none that I can think of. Well, maybe when I was born. I don’t know if that counts.

phobia: I dislike bugs. Especially the big ones with lots of legs.

quote: I don’t really have one. I think my quote on my yahoo profile might still be the Homer Simpson quote, “If I could just say a few words… I’d be a better public speaker.” That still cracks me up.

religion: none. But I’m Catholic by association. :)

siblings: Older brother, younger sister. Yes, that makes me the tortured middle child. Very tortured.

time I usually wake up: On days when Adam works his normal hours, 6 or 6:30. On days he flexes time, 5:45. Weekends, 7.

unusual talent: All my talents are un-unusual.

vegetable I refuse to eat: brussell sprouts. Lima beans. Mushrooms (wait, that’s a fungus…)

worst habit: I bite my nails. Still.

x-rays: none that I can remember

yummy foods I make: everything I make is yummy!

zodiac sign: Aquarius

December is coming...

This is shaping up to be a busy week. Well, comparatively at least. Tonight I have handbells. Tomorrow we have tickets for the Christmas Extravaganza with Lorie Line and her orchestra at the PAC. Thursday is our engagement photo. And then Friday it’s DECEMBER. Crazy.

I haven’t yet got my secret Santa gifts squared away. I went to Kohl’s yesterday after church but I couldn’t find anything I liked. Ok, so I bought myself some fuzzy socks (and they’re really comfy.) But secret Santa-wise, I got nothing. I guess I just don’t know what they really are looking for. I might have to make a phone call. *sigh*

Speaking of Christmas items, Adam and I are toying with the idea of having a “Holiday Open House” of sorts sometime during the month. His aunt and uncle will be in the area for awhile along with Tony, the groomsman in our wedding. He says we’ll talk about it on Thursday but I think the most difficult aspect will be finding a day that he is free. Christmas is always crazy in retail. Add to that the fact that he’s hopping a plane to California for five days next week. Hopefully things will work out. It could be fun. And it would give me an excuse to get those cute reindeer and snowman dishes. :)

Our Christmas Tree

Barry's New House

While looking for bedding Adam found this new house for Barry. He had been chewing through his house and it was ready to cave in on him any day. So what could be better than a house that is MEANT to be eaten? And it looks pretty snazzy as well.



And while we were cleaning out cages, Gus started running in his wheel (which was on its side) and each time he ran, he'd fly backwards when he got too high up. It was hilarious. (Ok, so maybe I was the only one who thought so. Still...)

I'm a joiner

I went to my first handbell rehearsal this past Monday. I had missed the one the previous week due to a terrible headache which induced sleep at like 5:30.

Anyway, I got there totally early, went in the wrong door, and spent about 20 minutes chatting with Nancy, the director. I indicated that I had rung before and could read handbell music. I was unsure how quickly it would all come back to me so I was hesitant to take the C & D(6) right off the bat. I agreed to take the next octave up and do the C and D in songs where fewer octaves were used. As fate would have it, the first piece they did was Carol of the Bells. It didn't use the higher octave so I got the lower C & D which are heavily used in the piece. I guess I did fine and they moved me to that position permanently.

The group is made up of 6 other ladies and Nancy. They are all pretty good and most have been with the group for a while. It was nice to be able to jump in and go through songs with people who can actually play through a whole piece. And read music. Although I admit one of the sheets I had was totally marked up and highlighted and it threw me off a bit (since the notes marked weren't mine!)

The group is playing this Sunday and again the second Saturday in December. And get this (mom, you're going to love this): They are going to play a Christmas concert for a local Red Hatters group as well. They do an hour-long concert at the church on Christmas Eve before the (10 o'clock) midnight mass. It was fun and I'm glad I went and joined in. Don't hold your breath on the choir though. One thing at a time...

Flowers

Since we both had the day off and found ourselves in the general vicinity of the place Adam wants to go for flowers we decided to stop by and see what kinds of things they had to offer. Their "wedding consultant" was going to be gone "for a long time" so we just browsed through the books they had. We got a pretty good idea about what we want for most of the parties involved. I'm still working on my bouquets and the Catherine's flowers. It looks like most of the flowers will be carnations, calla lillies, and hyacinths with some green and smaller stuff thrown in to make it pretty. I dislike roses so I'm trying to avoid them. It's really hard though. Most bouquets are roses of some kind. We'll make an appointment to actually talk to the pro whenever Adam has some time off. In the meantime, I have to keep my eyes open and see if I can find some kind of bouquet I like.

I'm not a flower person.

Thanksgiving

This year I got a turkey and a pie free through work. Instead of attempting to cook the bird myself, I pawned it off on Adam's mom. We got the whole family together for a more traditional version of the holiday than last year. (Last year we had lasagna because his mom had just had shoulder surgery.) Everyone brought something and it was a good time. We arrived a little early and I sat and watched football with his dad and sister while Adam installed their new all-in-one printer. The dinner was great with lots of good food. I think everyone ate way too much. Adam disappeared again for a while to mess with another computer issue, taking Chris along with him for a bit. I stayed mostly in the living room with everyone else. We left along with Terry and Katie and Chris and after a quick stop at Walmart (for pet bedding so we could clean out the cages - turns out they didn't have it anyway) we headed home to recover from the turkey shock.

I've never been very big on holidays. In fact, I generally loathed them. But in this past couple years, things have changed. Well, ok, MANY things have changed. But get this: when we got home last night we hauled out the tree and it's up and decorated already. Presents are wrapped and under it. The garland and lights went outside this afternoon. And I'm ok with it. I even bought a Santa hat. I suppose there's nothing wrong with being enthusiastic about holidays. It's just so out of character. I enjoy spending time with Adam's family. We did a secret Santa thing again this year. I think it's so great that I can hang out with his parents and sisters and feel so welcomed and part of things.

Anyway, yesterday was fun. We didn't go shopping this morning. We're the sane kind of people. We did head out around noon to go get pet bedding and it didn't seem too busy at the places we went. I'll be heading back to pick Adam up at 11 and we'll be investigating some kind of snowman or reindeer to put on our balcony. It looks naked. Then the only thing missing will be the snow. (Which can stay away for as long as it wants in my opinion. It was 50+ today. In November. Crazy.)

Wedding Website

Ok, hopefully this will be the last time I have to build our website. I got totally frustrated with godaddy and just gave up on that site. Forget about that one. I got a new one with Lycos. The new site is linked on the right or you can click here to view it. It's not totally done yet but it's decent.

Film Confusion

So I'm a member of the Columbia House DVD club. At least until I muster the motivation to call them and cancel. This month's director's selection card came with a big booklet of gift ideas. In the "romance" great gift makers section it says "Love conquers all in these odd-couple romances." The romances shown are Prime, Sleepless in Seattle, and The Way We Were. Am I missing something here? The couple ends up together in only one of these films. How is that conquering all? True, I particularly liked Prime because it bucked happy-ending tradition and kept them apart. And The Way We Were, that's just a classic. It just struck me as odd that this is the way Columbia House chose to categorize and promote these films. Maybe it's just me...

Random Wedding Post

So we’re at the 9 month mark. 270 days until THE day. We’re in good shape.

We’re trying to find a time to go talk with the flower people but their hours of operation aren’t very compatible with our work schedules. We’ll get to it. We still have to talk with Adam’s parents about their budget anyway.

I don’t think I ever mentioned it, but I ordered my dress a week and a half ago. So now I have the swatches I need to get moving on the candles. I ordered my first attempt at my shoes and they should arrive sometime soon. They’re 4” heels so we’ll see if that pumps me up enough. I haven’t ordered the Catherines’ dresses yet because I’m still waiting on measurements. Perhaps I should have given a due date… I’ve investigated the veil/tiara options and know pretty much what I want but I haven’t narrowed it down to a specific one.

Right now we’re having a debate about the wording on our “save the date” cards. I can’t wait until invitation and program time. :)

We have our engagement photo session next week at which point we can send out Christmas cards and think about putting announcements in the paper(s).

We haven’t heard back from our prospective vocalist. I also haven’t made up my mind about what I want to do organist-wise. I got a few names from my mom but I think I’ll do some more reconnaissance before I make a decision one way or another.

As mentioned in a previous post, we made some progress on gifts. We plan to check back with Sprecher in a few months to see how their development of gift bags is going.

That’s about all for wedding updates for now. I plan to revamp the website before I send the link to 100+ people so keep an eye out for that.

Beer... and an Opera

Yesterday was a busy day. We had opera tickets for Don Giovanni down in Milwaukee and decided to make a day of it.

We had caught part of an episode of Road Tasted featuring 3 Wisconsin places: Beechwood Cheese Factory, Sprecher Brewery, and Bendsten's Bakery. We decided that since the first two were (kind of) on the way to Milwaukee we stop by and take a gander. With the help of Jill we wound through some rustic country roads avoiding being shot by hunters to the Beechwood Cheese Factory. We couldn't take a tour but we could buy some of their famous chicken soup cheese. From the store we could see into the production facilities. It's a cute little place and Adam tells me the cheese curds were excellent.

Then we headed to Glendale where we had reservations for a brewery tour at Sprecher. The tour itself was relatively short since it's a small microbrewery with only one brew kettle. After the tour we got to the fun: the tasting. With our $3 tour admission came a complementary 8 or 10 oz beer glass and coupons for 4 samples. Between Adam and I, we tasted 6. Neither of us could manage to get through all four samples. It's not that the beer wasn't good - it was great - it's just that it was a lot of beer to be drinking before eating lunch. In any case, we stopped by the gift shop on the way out and bought some of their beer bread mix, beer cheese soup mix, and enough root beer to last Adam well into the new year.

After imbibing a little too much alcohol on an empty stomach we decided we should go get some food. We tried stopping at Kopps but I wasn't really in a greasy food mood so after a random stop at Casual Male we ended up at McDonald's for salads. (Applebee's and Red Robin were too busy. McDonald's was practically deserted. Go figure.)

After lunch we went to two of the three local Marshall's stores. I found a pair of jeans I liked and managed to get a great dress coat for 50% off. Go me! We didn't need to get to the Marcus Center until 6:30 so we had some time to kill. We first stopped at Target for a lint roller. I still needed to get changed though so we attempted to find a Walmart since the bathroom at Target was "closed for cleaning." After two false Walmarts from Jill (the first was a Sam's club, the second a Bally Fitness club and CBS office building...) we ended up at a Walmart in Mexico. Ok, so it was in Milwaukee but you could have fooled me. After fighting through a crowd of unruly children up in the bathrooms in the front of the store I opted for the layaway bathrooms. I had to wait a few minutes for an obnoxious little girl to get out of the handicapped stall and then she yelled and screamed in Spanish the entire time I was getting changed. Then I discovered my chosen outfit had become a tad too small in the last year or so. That was depressing. So I was kind of crabby when I emerged from the bathroom.

We headed to the Marcus Center and got there in plenty of time. After some confusion about where the men's bathroom was, we settled in to listen to the pre-performance lecture for a few minutes. We got seated as soon as the doors opened. I must say that even though the price of the tickets seemed steep, it was well worth the money. They were great seats. We had the last two seats of a row right by a railing so no one sat in front of us. Legroom is good. We were also almost straight on to the stage, relatively close, with a good view of the supertitles. I don't think we could have gotten better seats without going for a box. There was some unpleasantness with our neighboring opera goers crinkling candy wrappers and drying to discreetly open a contraband soda. And then there was the guy hacking up a lung behind us. And the people who were late, tried to sit in the wrong row and had to walk all the way back out again. But, after all that stuff was settled we were free to enjoy the show.

All in all, it was a good performance. All of the singers sang in tune and none of them had particularly grating voices. Donna Anna in specifc had a nice, clear voice that I enjoyed. There were some interesting stage things and during the epilogue they had a smoking suitcase thrown onto stage and Don Giovanni emerged wearing a white suit, looking kind of like George Michael. As the other characters sang about the lesson to be learned, Don Giovanni drank champagne with some blondes in slinky dresses. It was a cute way to end the classic opera with a modern touch.

I had been a little concerned since this was completely my idea and I kind of had to drag Adam to come. He enjoyed it though and thanked me for making him come. He even asked if we were going to go to the other operas being performed this year (MacBeth and The Barber of Seville.) I had originally told him no. We had a conversation about the famous "Figaro" aria though (he thought it was from "The Marriage of Figaro" and I was pretty sure it was from "The Barber of Seville.") Turns out I was right so perhaps he'll want to go see that one as well. We'll see I guess. It makes me happy that he can appreciate some of the stuff I introduce to him.

Anyway, after fighting with massive traffic and road construction we got back on the highway and headed home. I changed in the car and I think I gave a guy quite the show at a red light. Heh. We got home and pretty much crashed.

I made some of the beer bread this afternoon. It's a bit salty at first but it's pretty good. I've got two more batches to do though - we're trying to figure out which beer tastes the best. (The beer bread mix and a bottle of a local beer are going to be part of the giftbags for out-of-towners at our wedding.) I'll be making the beer cheese soup in about an hour so it's fresh when he gets home from work.

Words of Wisdom from the December Issue of Cosmo

So, I stopped subscribing to Cosmo earlier this year, but when Adam needed to use up some points for some survey club he's in he re-subscribed me. So now I am the recipient of many, many hot and naughty tips on various subjects. Woo.

In the December issue I got yesterday, there were a few things that attracted my attention. Firstly, apparently I'm not the only one hooked on the food channel. Cosmo tells me "these days, lots of women are clicking on the Food Network to relax." "Viewing someone prepare a meal..comforts us." Good to know I'm semi-normal on that one.

Secondly, there is a whole article entitled "What Smart Girlfriends Never Do." Dr. Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist and talk show host, shares his seven biggest no-no's for couples who are too comfortable around each other. Hmm. Let's just say that according to this guy, I'm a really dumb girlfriend.

#1: Giving Gifts his Mom Would Buy: Gist: Don't buy him clothes. Honestly, I've never bought him underwear. But most of the gifts I do get him are of the clothing sort. He always needs clothes and he almost always asks me to come along when he buys them for himself. What's so wrong with buying clothing for your SO?
#2: Flossing Together: Gist: Don't let your SO see you do personal maintenance. Let him believe you look the way you do with no effort whatsoever. And never, NEVER, go to the bathroom with the door open. *sigh* So I'm a total loser on this one. I've sat around on the couch with the scary green face mask and the biore pore-cleaning strips on. I pee in front of him all the time (and he returns the favor.) What's wrong with that? I think it's a good thing when two people are that comfortable with each other. Sure, it removes some "mystery" but come on, everyone pees. Or is that everyone poops. I forget.
#3: Drifting into a Sex Rut: No comment. This is a family blog. Bwahahahaha.
#4: Baring All, All the Time: Gist: Don't walk around the house naked. This doctor even says he'd go as far as to say that you should never see your SO getting dressed. Undressing only. Pfft. Sometimes being naked is just more comfortable. But I'm less of an offender on this one than Adam is.
#5: Flaunting your Flaws: Gist: You are perfect. Don't let them see you're not. What a bunch of hooey. Everyone has issues. Eventually they're going to see them. Why try and hide what's obvious anyway?
#6: Dressing Down, Down, Down: Gist: Don't fall into a flannel nightgown rut. And don't put your sexy undies in the laundry basket where he can see them. Pfft. I've got nothing to say about this one. I like my SpongeBob pjs. So there.
#7: Spending Every Night Together: Gist: Too much togetherness=bad. Since we live together we kind of have to see each other every day. And there's nothing wrong with that. With Adam working and my IMA stuff, there are times we don't spend time together. Whew, at least I got one right!

Yeah, so obviously this Dr. Ablow is an idiot who probably isn't married. Who would want to be with a guy who only wants to see the perfect you and only wants you naked if you're going to have sex with him. What an ass.

Thank you Cosmo for these wonderful bits of information. :)

Commentaire Musicale

Ok, so I'm at peace with the fact that every hunting season (which is now) I'll be subjected to at least 5 rounds with "da Thirty Point Buck" song (which I actually heard on the way home this evening.) It comes with the territory.

The new Justin Timberlake song would be ok if it weren't for the fact that he always sounds like he was kicked in the balls one time too many.

I don't give a crap why honey is calling you so late. Shut up already. I hate that song.

But I cannot deal with Christmas music yet. I heard the most awful song ever (I think I've mentioned it before. Has that obnoxious children's choir singing about "so this is Christmas. Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhh") today at lunch and I yelled "nooooo!!!" at the radio and hit another preset button.

And so it begins

Pictures

Tonight I get to have my picture taken. In 7 different poses, I’m told. Ugh. This one is definitely my mom’s fault. She wants a professionally taken picture for Christmas so tonight I get to head to the portrait studio and display my un-photogenic-ness. I hope it doesn’t take too long. I also hope the crop of bad skin that has popped up over the past few days isn’t too distracting. *sigh* The things you do in the name of “family.” (Just kidding…)

I also get to have more pictures taken in about two weeks. On a whim, we decided to set up our free engagement photo appointment in time to make holiday picture cards to send with our Christmas card/letter. It will do double duty as our “Save the Date” notice as well. Not particularly looking forward to that either, but the photographer is a nice guy and having Adam in the picture will take some of the attention away from me. I hope it doesn’t become some clichéd tradition though. I don’t want to be one of those people who send a picture of their family every year.

Did I mention that I hate having my picture taken?

Isn't he Handsome?

This Sucks

Literally.

Bwahahahahaha

So, before my mom came to visit a week or so ago Adam broke our vacuum cleaner. He was vacuuming (duh) and all of the sudden it apparently sputtered to a stop. Permanently. (He also knocked over a lamp which put it out of commission as well.)

Anywho, since our vacuum was broken we had to go get a new one. Adam was elated when he found this one since it has an adjustable handle so he doesn't have to stoop like the Hunchback of Notre Dame while vacuuming.

Oh, the joys of household appliances.

But you'll remember how excited I was when I first got the other vacuum cleaner. I posted a picture of it back then too...



Rest in Peace, Dirt Devil.

The Nativity Story

So there’s this new film coming out in time for Christmas. It’s called The Nativity Story. The plot might be familiar and I’m guessing the ending isn’t particularly surprising. Does anyone else have a problem with the fact that the actress who plays Mary (Keisha Castle-Hughes) is 16 years old and is pregnant by her 19-year-old boyfriend? Seems to kind of go against the whole “holy virgin mother” persona. True, she’s just an actress portraying a character in a film, but don’t you think the producers of the film would have chosen someone who was a little more on their side? Take “7th Heaven”, for example. When Jessica Biel started acting out and doing things that the producers of the show didn’t like, they wrote her out of the show. The whole thing just seems a little odd to me.

Oh No...

I just noticed that I am someone who says "eee!"

Moving On...

So I’ve really accomplished nothing this week. I don’t know where the time went. Adam was home on Tuesday night so we went to see a movie (The Prestige – it’s pretty good.) Wednesday he had off from Walmart but ended up having a dinner with some Cisco people so he was gone all night. I did laundry and I’m not sure what else to pass the time. Yesterday he worked so I was on my own. I cooked some food to create leftovers and then cleaned up the mess I made. After that, I’m not sure what I did. I didn’t even torture the furry guys. I think I probably fell asleep pretty early. Tonight he has off. Yes, on a Friday. This is rare so hopefully we can live it up a little. Unfortunately it’s been snowing for most of the afternoon and it’s supposed to continue doing so for a while. Right now plans are to go to a movie (probably Stranger Than Fiction.) Not sure what else is in the works.

Anywho, this next week will be the week of dropping more money on clothing than I’ve ever done before in my life. The kicker is it’s for something I’ll only wear once. Kind of ridiculous. So it goes I guess. I’ve gotta have the big white dress. I’ll probably head up to Kaukauna again on Wednesday to order the dress. How exciting. (No, seriously.) The dress is pretty much the defining characteristic of the bride so by (finally) ordering the dress I can kick into “Eeee, I’m getting married!!!” mode.

Now if any of you found that last sentence as preposterous as I did, you know me pretty well.

Yes, I’m a control freak and I’m over-planning and over-analyzing every aspect of this wedding. I’m probably driving Adam crazy. And if not, don’t worry, I will soon enough. I just want to get as many things squared away in advance so when August 17th comes, I can sit back and enjoy it rather than obsess over whether the decorations got to the reception hall or what have you. I admired the fact that Katie seemed so relaxed and calm on her wedding day. That’s how I’d like to be. Even so, I highly doubt I’ll turn into some kind of “Bridezilla” or the kind of person who says “eeee!!!”

If I do, punch me in the arm. Thanks.

A Visit from Mom

I think my mom’s visit was a rather successful one. We picked her up at 3:30am on Sunday down in Milwaukee. We were almost on time except the exit Jill told us to take didn’t exist (stupid Marquette construction…) so we had to overshoot and come back to the Greyhound station. We then drove back home and got in a few more hours of sleep. We went to the 9:30 mass, which was a huge mistake. It’s the “family mass” and there were entirely too many people there. And definitely too many people in the kid category. We had to sit way in the back but at least I didn’t have to let people climb over me to go take communion. This gave my mom an opportunity to see the church but unfortunately the service was accompanied by the piano rather than the organ so she didn’t get to hear that.

After church we stopped for a donut and then went back home. Having had part of her luggage stolen in Las Vegas, my mom and I went shopping to pick up some of the stuff she lost. I also found some new sweaters and a new bed-in-a-bag. (That’s another story that perhaps I’ll get to later.) While Adam watched the Packers get their butts kicked, I took a short nap and my mom surfed the net. We headed up to Appleton to have dinner at Good Company with Adam’s parents. This gave my mom the opportunity to see where the rehearsal dinner will be held and get a sampling of the food at our favorite restaurant in the area. I think things went well. Everyone seemed to get along and the topics that may have caused problems didn’t come up. After fighting over the bill we headed back to Adam’s parents’ house for awhile. He disappeared into the basement for quite some time while the rest of us chatted by the fire. After a few loud bangs he reappeared and joined in. We headed home early since we were all tired due to the disruption in our sleep that morning.

On Monday morning we got to sleep later than usual since I was on vacation and it was a normal day for Adam. I actually got up at 7 and watched my episode of 7th Heaven that I had DVR-d the night before. Then I went back to wake Adam up. After he left for work my mom and I sat around talking for awhile and then I finally got moving, took a shower, and we left to do some heavy-duty wedding shopping. I took her to all the stores I had investigated. Originally I had only planned to go to two of them but somehow we ended up at 4 (plus 2 shoe stores…) I guess we got caught up in the moment or something. We started downtown at The Brides. I tried on two dresses there, both of which were good choices. We browsed the veils and the mother-of-the-bride selections and I also showed her the bridesmaid dress I had chosen. We then headed out to Kaukauna to Bridal Staircase. I tried on a dress there and once again looked at the head accoutrements. We peeked in at the tuxes only to find that the area was overtaken by costumes left from Halloween. After that we drove back to Appleton and stopped for lunch at Mary’s. Since we were so close, we stopped in at Bridal Event after lunch (they’re right across the street from each other.) We got some good tips for the salesperson there about veils and what kind of veil would look good with the dress I’d chosen. Then we went across town to David’s to satisfy my curiosity as to whether the first dress I had tried on back in May was still there. It wasn’t. That didn’t surprise me, but they sure did try to find something else that I might like. The salesperson even ran out the door as we were leaving to tell me that Green Bay might have it. And the tux lady accosted me for the third time. We checked out the various MOTB dresses and veils and all that jazz at David’s just for fun. I also showed her the original inspiration for the bridesmaid dress I chose. She agreed that they were quite similar. To use up the rest of her film we headed to DSW so I could show her the shoes I was considering. After dropping her film at the one hour lab in Walmart (yes, she went to Walmart. She wouldn’t let me take her picture in it for proof though) we went over to the mall for a little to kill time. After an hour and a half we got her pictures back and went back home so she could pack her things. We watched a little Rachael Ray before setting off to Kohler. It was horrible driving weather – dark and foggy – and I always seemed to have some annoying truck tailgating me. But we made it pretty much on time to Mary Ann’s place. I stayed for dinner. We walked over to Quizno’s. I had never been to a Quizno’s before but I was very unimpressed. I ordered a chicken Caesar flatbread salad thing which was romaine, chicken, a three cheese blend, tomatoes, and red onions with a peppercorn dressing. I asked for it without the cheese or onions. What I got was romaine, chicken and bacon. There is not bacon on a Caesar salad. And I didn’t get tomatoes. And they tried to give me honey mustard dressing. *sigh* Not good. Anyway, I headed home around 9:30 and the drive back was a lot easier than the drive there had been. The fog must have burned off in those two hours. It was nice.

So, the conclusion to this long entry about the past couple days is this: I’ve chosen my dress and will be ordering it in the next week. I have to double check which measurements the store wants so I can get the Catherines’ dresses ordered as well. (Heads up, guys.) After which I can get color swatches and move on with the next set of tasks, including the flowers. I will also be ordering a pair of shoes soon so I can check them out. I can’t find them in any store so I decided to risk buying them on the internet in the hopes that they’re what I want. I’ll need to have the shoes and all the undergarment type things before the dress comes back so the alterations are accurate. Granted, the dress won’t be in until March or April, but I might as well get a head start since I’m the master of procrastination. I’m thinking I’ll wait for the veil and headpiece until after the dress is in but I have a pretty good idea of what I want already and I just need to find the right one in a brand the store carries.

Whew.

Bumper Stickers

Saw this one on my way back to work at lunch this afternoon:

I’m so glad Mary & Joseph weren’t pro-choice

Now, I have a problem with this for many reasons. I’ll try not to go off on some kind of political/moral diatribe here, but I did have that gay marriage rant awhile back (and let me say, I will be soooo glad when this election is over with!)

First I must state that I am pro-choice. This should come as no surprise to anyone who has any idea about my political leanings. While I am pro-choice, I myself would never practice that freedom. If I had gotten pregnant at any time in the past, I’d have a child with me right now. (Luckily, that is a bullet I successfully dodged.) That said, I have no problem with other people making the decision they feel is right, no matter what their situation is. In fact, I think there are situations that would have been much better had the woman taken that path. Some people should not have children. Enough said.

Secondly, I hate that people are using some fictional bible characters to support their side of the argument. Mary and Joseph aren’t exactly Jane and Joe Smith of the everyday person. If you believe the story, they didn’t even have sex and she got knocked up! I’m willing to bet that if every woman who found herself in that situation got a house call from God, they’d keep their baby too. Thing is, the average woman doesn’t have a choir of angels hovering over her while she’s giving birth. They don’t have rich kings giving them priceless treasures. Chances are most of them wouldn’t even have Joseph anymore by the time the baby came. It’s just so unrealistic to compare these situations.

We could sit and argue when life begins forever and no one would be satisfied. I think abortion is one of those issues that no matter what the law is, someone is unhappy. I also think I’ll stop now before I get off on some tangent and digress into something less friendly.

Cooking for Adam (and other things)

This past Sunday Adam started this new “Eat Healthy for a Week” meal plan thing. He found it on MSN.com and sent it to me last week, requesting that I cook the stuff for him to take along to work. I started on Sunday afternoon and cooked all the meals through Wednesday night. I planned to make Thursday through Saturday tonight. Last night he came home from work and crashed. When I woke him up for dinner he took one look at it and made this “how gross” look. It was fettuccine with peppers, asparagus, onions, and chicken. He told me that everything was starting to taste the same. And his pee was stinky from all the asparagus. He then gave up on the eating healthy plan and dug into the spinach-artichoke dip I had made.

We became obsessed with this particular dish when we went to Applebee’s a little while ago. It was so good we decided we needed to find a recipe so we could have it every day. I got a fairly simple recipe from FoodNetwork.com and tried it out for the first time last night. Aside from the problems I had keeping the spinach and artichokes in the pot as I stirred them and the cream cheese explosion in the microwave, it turned out great. Adventures with food are fun.

Tonight I get to foray into the world of stuffed pork chops. This pork was originally to be cooked as part of his healthy week, but with that out the window I have two huge, thick pork chops to do something with. I found a simple recipe without a lot of obscure, expensive ingredients. I’ll still have to stop at the grocery store, but since I wanted to go get some more cream cheese to make more spinach-artichoke dip anyway, that’s fine with me. I’m also tempted to make some more bacon fried rice. That’s vying for my favorite recipe spot right now.

Not a lot else is going on around here right now. We’ve got a whole lotta cleaning to do before my mom shows up on Sunday. I expect that to take up pretty much my whole day Saturday. Our big plans for the weekend include, uhm, cleaning. Then we’ll be going to Milwaukee at 3am on Sunday to pick my mom up from the Greyhound station. She says we can come get her whenever we want, but I don’t really want to leave her sitting in Milwaukee in the middle of the night. Then we have church and dinner with Adam’s parents. Woo! As for the rest of this week, nothing interesting will happen. Adam has tomorrow night off and he plans to get the insulation up for the remaining windows in the house and vacuum the stairs. We party hard, I tell ya.