Romantic Plans

I have big plans for tomorrow. Well, at least tomorrow evening. I’ll be cooking a Valentine’s Day feast. When this day falls mid-week it doesn’t really make sense to go out and cooking for yourself is generally cheaper, healthier, and more satisfying. Plus, at home we can eat in our pajamas. What beats that?

Anyway, the menu as it stands right now is this:

Pineapple and steak kabobs
Glazed baby carrots with tarragon (which will probably get magically swapped with dill since tarragon=ew)
Rolls
Strawberry angel food cake with whipped cream frosting
sparkling, bubbly drink of some kind (not sure what we’ve got sitting at home)

Adam works until 6ish so I should have plenty of time to get this all done before he comes home. But don’t worry – it’s not a secret. I ran this menu past him this weekend so I don’t mind if he reads this post before tomorrow. Of course when I asked him what he wanted he said something like, “you, dipped in chocolate” so he wasn’t really much help in the planning process. :)

I expect it will turn out to be a delicious meal and I plan to take pictures of it all. I’ve been slacking on my cooking website lately mostly because I’ve been slacking on my cooking. I lack motivation to cook things just for myself. Usually what I end up doing is making a big pot of pasta one day and then eating the leftovers for the next week. That’s not very picture-worthy. There are some good recipes in the latest issue of the Rachael Ray magazine though so perhaps I’ll try out a few of those. I’ve got plenty of food in the house to work with. I just seem to be falling back on microwave popcorn a lot lately. Adam recently changed his schedule at Walmart and will have Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday off so perhaps that will help too.

Adam gave me a big box of meltaways last night. He tells me he had to give them to me early because he bought them that afternoon and didn’t want to risk eating them all before tomorrow. It also came with a big meltaway heart that I’m embarrassed to admit I ate last night in one sitting. But I haven’t eaten any of the boxed chocolates yet. I’m trying to resist them, but they’re so good. Adam also informed me that since he couldn’t find one he liked, I will not be getting a Valentine’s Day card. Pfft. I’ve never been this “holiday”’s biggest cheerleader so it’s not a big deal to me. The fact that he has off from work and can spend the evening with me is good enough. Let’s just hope that we don’t annoy each other too much.

As for what I got him – that IS a secret I can’t reveal yet. :)

Busy Birthday Weekend

I think the birthday weekend was successful. As mentioned previously, after work we went to the bowling alley. It was an experience being required to score your own game. I’m so used to the electronic scoring I had to flex my brain muscles to do the calculations. I usually got frustrated and made Adam do it though. Heh. It wasn’t a particularly good day for either of us. I almost broke 100 in the first game. I even got a strike on my very first frame. It all went downhill from there. There was a girl and her parents bowling two lanes down from us. She was probably 8 or 9 and she was kicking my butt. When we were overrun by a family with (too many) children, we called it quits after two games rather than our normal three.

After a short discussion we went downtown to The Bar for the free beer and good food. We happened to arrive while it was still Happy Hour so not only did I drink for free but Adam got to enjoy the 2 for 1 deals and the free subs. We ordered food anyway and played a few games of darts while we waited and ate. Adam tried their suck and blow jello shot as well. When they dimmed the lights and cranked up the music (around 7) we packed up the rest of my food and headed to the martini bar. Well, we stopped at the tobacco store so Adam could get some cigars first. Then we went to the martini lounge. It was fairly empty and no one was smoking, which was nice. We hung at the bar for a little bit until the corner couches opened up. We grabbed them and remained there until we left. We then headed home for the night.

On Saturday, we woke up relatively early (I think Adam had taken over my side of the bed when I got up to go to the bathroom around 6:15 and we didn’t go back to sleep after that struggle.) We left around 9, making a Starbucks run on the way. We went first to our favorite West Allis Marshalls. Then we stopped at Sprecher to pick up some root beer and ask about volume discounts. We stopped for lunch at Culvers on the way down to Waunakee where we picked up Jess and headed to Madison to shop for a cell phone. We went to a mall and then to a Walmart. We stopped at our second Marshalls of the day in Madison. After some communication problems with Jill (the GPS) we found a US Cellular store where everything fell into place. We stopped for food on the way back to her apartment and then headed to our final Marshalls stop in Middleton. Then we started the long ride home. I’m not sure what we did when we got home. Probably sleep, but I really don’t remember.

Sunday morning Adam worked at 8 so we got up relatively early. While he was at work I did laundry, changed sheets, made beds, cleaned, cuddled with guinea pigs, watched the second Presidents DVD, and lots of other stuff. He got home around 5:30 and after an unplanned meltdown (mind) we watched some tv and ate dinner.

Today Adam got sent home from work again because he’s supposed to be grieving still. Apparently Cisco has a mandatory three day bereavement policy or something. Seems dumb to me but it’s a paid day off so I suppose he shouldn’t complain too much. I have a normal day. Actually I have a lot of normal days coming up. Nothing really out of the ordinary until probably May. *sigh*

Anyway, plans for this week so far are pretty minimal. Hopefully I can find some motivation somewhere and get up to Kaukauna. I’ve been saying this for about a month though so I don’t know if anything will change for this week. I’ve got handbells tonight and of course Wednesday is Valentine’s Day. Adam has the night off from Walmart and I’ll be making dinner.

I suck at bowling

... and here's the proof:




Oh yeah, and here's my The Bar flashy button:

The Big 2-5

(note: I wrote this at work this afternoon)

So far, so good on the birthday front. Adam decided not to go to Minnesota for the funeral. I suppose it makes me happy that he chose me. He says his parents understand and they don’t hate me, but I still feel guilty about it. In any case, he’s here and has off from work today and tomorrow.

This morning I awoke to a card on the table. It’s a card that talks when you open. It cracked me up, but it’s not really appropriate to write what it said to me on here. I left for work early so I could stop at Big Apple Bagels on the way to pick up some treats for the co-workers. It still doesn’t make sense to me that the person with the birthday brings the treat, but whatever. I’ll go along with it. They were a hit. As of now only ½ a bagel and one muffin remain. Not bad considering 3 or 4 people were off today. Much better than last year when no one was interested in my cheese and sausage plates and they ended up sitting in the fridge for a month. Heh. Guess I know which way to go for next time.

Adam sent me flowers like he did last year (although he keeps threatening me with a gorilla-gram) – the really fresh kind that ship overnight and actually bloom after you get them. Being the plant-killer that I am, I wasn’t too excited about being required to set them all up but I think they’ll be ok. We’ll see tomorrow if they bloom or keel over. He also came down and took me to Red Robin for lunch. I hadn’t been there for awhile and we discovered (after he had paid the bill) that you get a free burger on your birthday. Whoops. Another thing we’ll know for next time.

After I’m done at work tonight we plan to head up to The 10th Frame (a bowling alley) in Appleton. They have a special unlimited bowling deal after 5pm and they also have a coupon for a free meal for your birthday in the Valpak. We also haven’t gone bowling for a while either. After that it’s kind of up in the air. Depending on what time it is we might try and catch a movie. Most likely we’ll miss the 7-7:30 showtimes and end up renting one instead. We haven’t even discussed going to a bar. I’m not sure that’ll happen although this would be the first time I’d go to one on my birthday and get one of those flashing mugs to drink for free. I don’t know. We’ll see what happens.

This afternoon Adam is going to sell his Bowflex. He’s also going to go grocery shopping. This makes me a little nervous because he’s never done the shopping by himself. He’s also the worst impulse buyer I know. He has the list (with plenty of details) and I have no doubt he’ll do spectacularly. I just hope he doesn’t come home with 4 bags of stuff when what’s on the list should take 2. I suppose I should have confidence in his ability to resist temptation. I’ve been known to throw random items in the cart too.

Tomorrow is still up for discussion. He has the whole day off and the hand bells ringing at the 4:30 mass was cancelled because we didn’t have a practice this week. So we have the whole day. Right now it sounds as though we’ll head to Milwaukee, Chicago, or Madison. Or maybe all 3. We’d stop at 1 or more of the three Marshalls in the Miwaukee area. We’d stop in at the Sprecher Brewery to see how their gift bag development is coming. In Chicago we’d stop at the Kohl’s Children Museum to get some Kim and Scotts pretzels directly from the source. For Madison, we’d actually be stopping in Waunakee to visit with my friend Jessica. I haven’t contacted her yet so this is the most unconfirmed. So who knows what we’ll actually end up doing. Knowing me and my lazy indecision, we’ll probably end up sitting in bed all day watching movies.

Completely off topic, Adam went to the Neenah library for me yesterday and got volumes 1 and 2 of the History Channel’s Presidents DVDs (Volume 3 was checked out.) I watched the first one yesterday: Washington through Lincoln. I was falling asleep during Lincoln’s (not out of boredom – I was tired and it was getting late) but I found it interesting for the most part. I’m undecided about whether I want to own the set. I guess I’ll delay that decision until I watch the other 2 discs.

Update: We did indeed go bowling and I totally sucked. (The place we went has old school scoring so I'll scan the scorecard in later.) We also went to The Bar for dinner where I got my flashy button and free beer. We then stopped at the cigar store so Adam could pick up a few before heading to the martini bar for a little while. Right now he's in the shower. He hates the smell of smoke. Ironically, he was the only one in the whole place smoking...so it's his own damn fault.

Another Political Post

I found it interesting that Ted Haggard has announced he’s 100% heterosexual after completing some therapy. I personally believe that no one is 100% either way. Everyone has a little gay in them and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. I find it preposterous that this guy brashly states he’s totally straight. I’M more straight than he is. He had sex with a man for goodness sake! That’s totally the opposite of straight. I don’t care if he had some kind of electroshock therapy or had some Men in Black-esque memory erasing deal. His past is still a part of him and that part of him is gay. There’s no way he’s 100% straight. You can’t just discount something you’re ashamed of.

The hypocrisy that runs rampant in so many religious/moral circles is depressing. I’d wager that a good percentage of the loudest pro-lifers have had an abortion themselves. The loudest opponents of gay marriage are closeted bi-or homosexuals in sham marriages. It’s like they believe they can make up for the choices they regret making by degrading others who make the same choice. People are ridiculous. Why can’t we all just get along?

Then there’s this thing with phallic symbols in Price’s half-time show. I admit, I didn’t watch it. There are stills posted online, but I’m not really seeing the problem. For one thing, It’s PRINCE. Have you seen his videos? Listened to the lyrics of his songs? Pretty much every song he ever put out (ha) is a thinly veiled reference to sex. And now some uptight parents are upset because he allegedly made his guitar look like a penis? Come on. Be glad he left “Pussy Control” off the play list and go back to watching your secret porn stash.

Why must we be so repressed? There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging that women have breasts and people have sex. It’s not a big secret. I long for the freedom found in Europe where their soap commercials feature naked people lounging in bathtubs. We need to work with nature, not try to suppress it. And I’ll just mention that I’m still loving the abstinence-only sex ed idea. I’m sure it’s working out splendidly for repressed Republicans everywhere. Too bad it’s the smart people who won’t accidentally procreate because they know better. But perhaps that’s their plan… Hmmm… Conspiracy theory anyone?

A Difficult Decision

Adam's father is adopted. As an adult, he found out who his birth mother was and they met.

She died on Monday morning.

Now Adam has to decide if he will be going to her funeral. He has been asked to be a pallbearer. The funeral is Friday afternoon in Minnesota.

Friday is my birthday.

How does one choose between things like this? There's no obvious answer. No matter what you choose, someone will be hurt/disappointed/mad.

Now, he tells me he only met her twice so it's not like they were thisclose. But it's still a family thing. Both of his sister plan on making the 5+ hour drive on Friday morning. His parents have already booked hotel rooms for Friday night.

What would you do?

Weekend Fun

It was a busy weekend. Even though the temperatures steadily dropped to below 0, we still accomplished quite a bit.

On Friday, Adam came and picked me up and we went to his team’s quarter-end celebration at The Wave. I had met some of the people at the going away party for someone a while back but I met others as well. We had dinner at the bar, and played some bowling. It’s similar to the golf games with the ball thing you use to throw the ball. I totally sucked. I didn’t even get a strike or spare so I could put my initials there. I was PLR2 the whole time. *sigh*

Adam was supposed to work at Walmart on both Saturday and Sunday but on both days he was told to not come in because they were so slow. On Saturday we stopped by Hobby Lobby and got matting and a frame for the picture we’ll have at the cake table at the reception. It looks awesome. We also got a frame for the comic strip one of Adam’s co-workers did for me for my birthday. We headed to Simon’s for some cheese and I got some goods ideas for things for the out-of-towners’ bags. Then it was on to the casino. I had my $10 birthday credit to cash in and it had been awhile since we’d been there. I proceeded to lose the $10 (plus $5 of my own money) to Monopoly in about 3 minutes. Adam also didn’t do so well although he spread his around a little more. Oh well. He somehow ended up with $.01 in The Terminator slot machine so he cashed it out and I scanned and posted it because I thought it was funny. We stopped and paid a visit to his grandma and cousin before heading back home to chill. Or warm up as the case may be.

On Sunday we headed to the mall where I found the rest of the jewelry I needed. I also found a couple good shoe styles although I’m not set on anything yet. We stopped a few more places (Sam’s, Blockbuster, Walmart) and then headed home for the Big Game. I didn’t watch it. Not even for the commercials (although I’ve been told there was a very cute guinea pig one.) When it started I headed to the bedroom and watched The Little Mermaid and then finished up the rest of the Girls Next Door episodes from Season One.

On Monday I got ready to go to work and about 5 minutes before I was to be out the door my breakfast came back to say “hey.” I planned to just go in a little late, but I ended up staying home all day with various issues. I don’t know if it’s the weather, a cold, or something hormone related (I just switched from generic to brand-name BCPs again), but it sucked. I feel better today although the headache is lingering. In any case, I spent the day trying to keep warm in our artic bedroom. It was made additionally cold by the fact that the outdoor temperature was -15 with windchills ranging from -20 to -35. Brr. I love our heated mattress pad. Adam came home around 5 because Convergys decided to shut down for the day (yes, they decided to shut down at 5. Don’t ask…) Because Walmart told him not to come in and hand bells was canceled, we ran up to the pet store to get some bedding so I could clean out Mo and Einstein’s cages. We also got a new log for Howie and some new orange slice treats. We spoil our pets… Anyway, we came home, I cleaned, Adam watched wrestling, all was right with the world.

This morning went smoother than yesterday did. At least I made it to work so that’s a good sign. Not sure what else the week has in store. Things might get complicated with Adam’s Dad’s birth mother passing away yesterday. We’ll see what happens.

We won!

Bwahahahahaha

Stuff

The week of evil badness is upon us once again and this doesn’t bode well for getting things accomplished tomorrow and Thursday. I’d been hoping to get up to Bridal Staircase again tomorrow to look at headpieces and pay my dress a visit. Between me being wiped out and the continual dustings of snow I don’t know how likely that is to actually happen. It totally sucks.

Anyway, that’s not what I mean for this blog entry to be about. I’ve ranted about it before…

Things have been pretty low key lately. Just some random shopping and a lot of scraping off my car windows. It’s been a little chilly lately and I just noticed this morning that my gas tank is down to ¼. Whoops. I haven’t had any problems with the car not starting (good car…) but I should probably stop on my way home tonight anyway. The forecast this morning said the high on Sunday is supposed to be 0. Yes, the HIGH. 0, as in 32 degrees below freezing (and that’s without the wind chill.) *sigh* So far my hands and face are holding up pretty well. My hands tend to suffer during the winter and get dry and cracked. I use lotion at work daily because I’m always working with paper. It’s nothing like it could be.

I’ve yet to pull out my winter coat. I’ve just been wearing the surprisingly warm Cisco fleece along with my hat, gloves, and awesome purple boots. Sometimes I’ll put a sweatshirt underneath, but so far it’s been sufficient for the short treks I make outdoors. This I probably a good thing since my winter coat was getting to be past its prime and I didn’t want to go out and buy a new one yet. Next year maybe… Then again, if this global warming thing takes off…

Nothing much has been going on around here lately either. We replaced Howie’s wheel with a bigger one (he got too big for his first one and was getting out of shape) and now he seems to be back to his normal self. He had gotten sluggish and unenthusiastic about anything except for his food bowl. Now, while still enamored of food, he is back to his OCD circuit-running manic self. He goes for it on his wheel and then dives around his cage, tunneling into his house. It would be cute if it weren’t so crazy-like. He’s still the survivor out of the bunch. He was critter #3 or 4 (I lose track,) I should figure out their “birthdays” and keep track better. Gus and Barry are… well, Gus and Barry. Neither particularly likes to be picked up (at least by me) and I don’t really see them unless I’m putting food in their cage or I happen to catch them running in the evening. They seem content. Mo and Einstein seem to have recovered from their bout of mites. Hair has regrown and only Mo still has a tender spot on his back. Mo has become quite the biter. It started out as chewing on buttons on my shirt, progressed to chewing on the shirt itself, and lately has become chewing on my neck. It’s kind of annoying. It doesn’t really hurt, but it surprises me. Maybe he’s part vampire… Thankfully Einstein hasn’t picked up on this bad habit yet. He’s still content to lie on my stomach and hang out for awhile. Yay for cuddly animals.

Nothing exciting planned for the future right now. The calendar is kind of bare until June. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose. Just leaves me with not much to write about unless I want to talk about the wedding all the time. Which I don’t.

Engagement Announcement

(Cross posted on the wedding site)

Oscars 2007

Since the nominations came out this week, it's time once again to attempt to view all the films nominated. Like last year I've excluded documentaries, shorts, and international films. Films I've already seen are italicized.

Apocolypto (I can tell you right now I won't be seeing this one)
Babel
Black Dahlia, The
Blood Diamond
Borat
Cars
Children of Men
Click
Curse of the Golden Flower
Departed, The
Devil Wears Prada, The
Dreamgirls
Flags of Our Fathers
Good German, The
Good Shepard, The
Half Nelson
Happy Feet
Illusionist, The
Last King of Scotland, The
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Children
Little Miss Sunshine
Marie Antoinette
Monster House
Notes on a Scandal
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Poseidon
Prestige, The
Pursuit of Happyness, The
Queen, The
Superman Returns
United 93
Venus
Volver

Random Statements

After almost 2 years of ownership, my car’s average mpg is sitting pretty at 30.6. Much more importantly, the number of mechanical difficulties I’ve had remains at a big fat zero. Woo!


Completely random comment: the stack of scrap paper (rough drafts of papers, a ton of leftover French club surveys, etc.) I had from college has been used up. The end of an era…

Meeting with the priest

We had our meeting with Father Mike last night. We got a ceremony planning worksheet and book and can now decide all kinds of fun things like how to stand at the front of the church and if we’re going to have all kinds of optional stuff or not. I think we worked most of it out last night at dinner but I don’t know. There were a few things that we hadn’t talked about previously. Right now I think the only thing really up in the air is how the mothers will enter (whether they’ll be part of the processional or not.) He says no, I’m not sure.

We have a lot of choices to make: readings, prayers, responses. In general I told Adam that kind of thing would be up to him because I don’t really care too much. I looked over the suggested bible readings and prayers with him last night though and I suppose I gave some opinions. I think I’m ok with the ones he’s considering. I’m all for letting Father Mike have free rein with all the prayers and stuff but we’ll see how it ends up.

We meet with the musicians next week. Should be a good time.

Diet Update

I’m completely failing at my attempt to drink 5 bottles of water each day. I haven’t made it even close to that target. I’m getting about 1 ½ to 2. I suck. But at least I’m not drinking coffee or soda. Adam did point out that I got a sugary raspberry lemonade when he was craving Culver’s this past weekend. True, but I only drank about 3 sips so I don’t think it negated all the good things I’ve been trying to do.

In other dieting news, yesterday we went to the grocery store together for the first time in quite a while and I picked up some haddock and some pollock. Both are apparently non-fishy white fish. I’m going to find recipes that I can deal with - preferably something that has an interesting sauce that will mask the fish taste. I’m trying to like fish. It’s just not working too well.

I also took all the massive chicken breasts that come in a big bag at the store and weighed them all out on the scale to be appx 4oz each since that’s the recommended serving size. There was one breast in there that weighed over a pound. It was huge!

I’ve decided to continue making my own pasta sauce and stop buying the Prego stuff. Not only does it make the house smell yummy as it cooks all day, but it tastes good too. And hopefully contains less salt and preservative type stuff than the jarred sauce does. And it’s probably cheaper to make. I think I still have one jar up in the cupboard so I’ll either use that or give it to a food pantry. Speaking of which, I should really go through our cupboards to see what all is in there. I’m afraid to look at some of the expiration dates!

We’ve been going crazy with the Lean Cuisine sales lately. I keep getting coupons and different groups have been on sale since the year began. I take one for lunch everyday and generally Adam takes one for lunch and one for dinner (if he works both jobs.) He’s getting tired of it though so I’ve instructed him to find something he’d like to eat and I’ll make it for him. I like to be accommodating. He’s not completely on board with my diet plan so I figure I can make him what he likes and then do my own thing separately. That’s usually what happens anyway since we hardly ever have dinner together anymore (and he likes icky foods.)

I’ve been consciously trying to choose my food carefully, avoiding fried foods and other “red light” foods. In addition to trying to eat better I’m trying to be aware of portion sizes. Both Adam and I agree this is probably our biggest downfall. I read the Low GI diet book a few weeks ago and found it interesting. I think it’s something I could do since rice, pasta, and most potatoes are green light foods. I’d die on a low carb diet, so this might work for me. One oddity I found was the whole open-face sandwich thing. They have a list of fast food restaurants and what things are acceptable at each. They tell you to eat all sandwiches without the top piece of bread. That seems like it would be kind of difficult. Or maybe I’m just a messy eater and need the other piece of bread to keep all the insides, well, inside. I don’t know. I’m kind of doing a half-assed version of it right now, continuing to eat “bad” foods we already have at home.

I’ve gotten on a Special K kick lately too. In reality it’s not that great for you, but I figure it’s better than Cocoa Pebbles. They also came out with snack bars that I take with me to work. Snacking is really big with the GI diet so I try and stick with that.

Anyway, enough of that. I’m doing what I can. In any case, I think there’s no danger of not fitting into my dress. I lack the enormous amount of motivation it would take to accomplish that.

My Political Post of the Year

I don’t watch the State of the Union address. Why would I waste an hour (or more) of my time watching it when I can just go online the next day and read the transcript in about 10 minutes? Granted, I miss the mispronunciations and the awful Texan accent that undoubtedly plagues the presentation of the speech, but I consider that to be a benefit. I also get to miss all the unnecessary clapping and shouts of (dis)approval.

So anyway, that’s what I did this morning. I’m generally a non-political person. I don’t really care enough to make a big deal out of most things. I only vote in presidential elections (with an exception made for the recent one that had the “gay marriage” referendum.) That said, here are my impressions:

There were some things that made me roll my eyes. There were others that made me wonder if Dubya has taken up the weed again. Overall, it wasn’t as preposterous as some of his others have been, but I was generally unimpressed.

I was slightly surprised that there was no mention of Saddam at all. I would think he’d want to use that as an example of his success. Maybe I’m wrong.

I was miffed by how he said he wants to balance the budget and eliminate the deficit and then he launched into numerous things he wants to increase spending on. Where are the cuts going to be made in order for this screwball plan to work since heaven forbid he raise taxes? I can guarantee you it won’t be on defense.

I was intrigued by his proposal for a new tax deduction for people with health insurance. Although I thought he was for simplifying the tax code, apparently it’s ok to make it more convoluted if it makes you look good?

I was generally uninterested in most of the rest of the speech. Energy, terrorism, war, it’s always the same thing year after year. Although I did laugh when he mentioned that he wanted Congress to approve a massive increase in the number of people in the Army and Marines. Aren’t they already having problems meeting their enlistment goals? What difference will it make if Congress allows more if they can’t get people to agree to enlist? Will they resort to bringing back the draft? *shudder*

Anyway, thus ends my one political post for the year. Although with all the presidential hoopla going on I might have to make an exception about that later on.

A Sense of Accomplishment

I think we accomplished a lot this weekend. It probably helped that we got dumped on on Sunday so Adam didn’t have to go to work. In any case, we can check a few things off the list:

We booked the hotel for the night in Seattle before the cruise. I think we went with a Holiday Inn since Adam has an incentive points card for that.

We also booked our shore excursions. The site finally recognized my confirmation number and allowed me to reserve our spots online. Now I wait for the confirmation e-mail. I think we did this far enough in advance that there should be no problem with the tours we chose being filled. In Juneau we chose the Mendenhall Glacier tour and Wildlife Quest. I had wanted to do whale watching, but time-wise it didn’t work out. The Wildlife Quest is on a boat so there’s always a possibility that we’ll catch a glimpse of one there. In Ketchikan we chose the Lighthouse, Eagles, and Totems tour. We’ll also watch the Great Lumberjack Show. In Skagway we’ll do the Ultimate Yukon Railroad tour. This will take us on a White Pass Railway, we’ll pan for gold, meeting sled dogs and a whole bunch of other things. In Victoria we’re doing the Pub and Ale Trail tour. It should be a good time. We planned an excursion for each port, but there should still be time to check things out individually as well.

Adam ordered his attendants’ gifts online yesterday as well. We had a coupon that we wanted to use. I’m still waiting on mine. I haven’t found quite what I want yet. Then we have to tackle the parents. We have a pretty good idea about his, but we’re still pondering mine.

I checked out a different wedding store in Appleton on Saturday and found a treasure trove of stuff. We should be able to get the rest of the accessories there: guestbook, pen, cake server set, and probably some other fun stuff. I’m not sure when we’ll get back there together, but I’m glad I have a source for those things now.

I’ll be making another trip up to Kaukauna in the near future to take care of the rest of my stuff.

I confirmed our newspaper announcement this morning and it will run this Sunday.

Other than that, we’re kind of in a holding pattern for favors and other gifts until we know how many people plan on showing up in August. I’ve started the program and plan to start on the invitations this week. We don’t have to send them out for quite a while (like, June), but with all the licking of envelopes I did for Christmas, I think I want to get a head start and space it out a little more this time. :)

First Book Review of 2007

I don’t think I’m going to attempt the 50 book challenge this year as I failed miserably at it last year and I had a lot more time then than I do now. Instead, I’ll copy my brother and just mention books I read on the blog. I recently finished To the Best of My Ability, edited by James McPherson. It’s a compilation of short essays by different people about each of the presidents from George Washington up through GWB’s first term. Each president gets his turn to shine with random facts, insights into his personality and backstory, and an analysis of how he did in the big picture. I learned about this book when I was channel surfing one day and stopped on The History Channel. They were running the video series that is based on this book.

As you may remember (or not) was rather obsessed with our noble leaders for a while in middle and high school. I had a whole wall of my bedroom plastered with “Presidential Paraphernalia.” I was less interested in their political leanings and bills they passed than in how many of them were from Virginia or how many of their wives were named Martha (two Marthas, by the way.) In my typical OCD categorizing way I had lists of all kinds of random rankings (youngest elected, youngest to die, etc.) Nevertheless I managed to learn a thing or two in the process. And when I saw part of the series on tv, I knew I should buy this book.

So I did. It’s a honking big book and weighs probably 9 pounds. Each president gets his pages with plenty of pictures and interesting information. At the rear of the book is a section detailing the results of each election. Also included are transcripts of all the inaugurational addresses. There are lots of things that I found interesting while reading this book. Firstly, I was amazed by how many presidents we’ve had that were only nominated because their party was deadlocked between two guys they actually wanted. These men were a “suitable compromise” for the nomination and were pretty much nominated just because the delegates at the meeting wanted to go home. Secondly, so many of these men seemed to marry the first woman they met, after a ridiculously short period of time. At least three of the wives said they thought their husband was nuts when he proposed on their first or second date. Thirdly, it was interesting to see how the present looks back at the past. I’ve only been around for a few presidents (Reagan, Bush, Clinton, GW Bush) and I can’t really say too much about any of them. Public opinion of some of the former presidents changed so much over time. Some of the guys who are fondly remembered today were despised in their own time (Coolidge and Hoover anyone?) And some of them who are revered don’t really deserve it (hello JFK!)

Even some scathing commentary couldn’t dissuade me from continuing my love affair with FDR. He’s been my favorite for years and looking at the upcoming election, I’d say he’s not in any danger of being displaced any time soon. And I’d also say the nation could use some fireside chats these days.

I’m debating with myself whether I want to go ahead and buy the videos as well. I know (from the two or three parts I saw) that there is a lot more information in the tv series than in the book. I might just have to spring for it (it’s not expensive) just to satisfy my curiosity. Or maybe the library has it… Didn’t even think about that.

Dilbert and Taxes

The Dilbert on my page-a-day calendar made me laugh all day long.



Tasteless, but hilarious...

In completely unrelated news, I did my taxes tonight. Ok, so I already had them done on paper and all I did was freefile them. I love that I can file my taxes online for free and get my refund direct deposited in like a week. Totally awesome. Anyway, total refund from both entities is just over $800. Not bad, considering last year I got back $294. I guess I'm looking at that the wrong way... oh well. I'll be using the money for wedding stuff no doubt. Maybe I'll pay the photographer bill down a bit.

Adam and I are going to do a little experiment. He filed on Thursday so now we're going to fake file again like we were married and see how that affects the refund amounts. Should be interesting.

My head is swimming with wedding thoughts

We have set up a meeting with Father Mike for next week to work out the details of the ceremony. I don’t really have a lot of opinions about it. I saw Katie’s format and that general outline is fine for me. I’ve left the readings up to Adam and with the addition of a vocalist, I expect our service will be very similar. And that’s fine with me. This might sound all wrong, but the wedding ceremony itself is not that important to me. I know that’s where we take our vows, but everything else around that is just not interesting to me. I’m aiming for about a 15 minute ceremony. More than that and I think we’ll just be depending on filler. What else is there to do but 3 readings, vows, rings, unity candle, ta-da we’re married? I guess we’ll see what happens when we talk with Father Mike.

We also got a hold of Alice (the vocalist) and she’ll be coming to the meeting with have with Tom (the organist) on the 30th. It sounds as though she has a lot of songs in her repertoire and will be singing some she particularly likes. I’m kind of set in my choices for the important parts, but I’m more than willing to let them go nuts with the pre- and post-wedding music. I’m still debating if I want a stand-alone song during the ceremony. On the one hand I’m thinking it might be nice to just stand there for a few minutes and listen to her. Kind of a moment to breath between things. On the other hand, I might get antsy standing there feeling stupid in front of everyone. Katie had a poem read at her wedding so I suppose it’s kind of the same concept. I guess I’ll see if something she sings catches my attention and make my decision from there.

There are lots of other things to do too. As soon as I get my act together I’ll be submitting our engagement announcement to the local paper. When it runs I’ll be sure to scan it and post it on the wedding site. I also just made a list of the things we still need to get before the wedding. It’s not really too long. We’ve done a good job so far. Of course, my list is much longer than Adam’s. How unfair is that? I’ve still got to get my veil and headpiece and other accessories along with gifts for various people. Together we still need tapers for the church and some random things like a guestbook, favors for the reception. We also still need to book our hotel in Seattle for the night before our cruise. And shore excursions – I’ve had problems with NCL’s website so I might have to give in and call someone about it.

Adam got me an “obsessive-compulsive” action figure a few weeks ago. On the back of the box it has this little quiz you can take to see how OCD you are. One of the symptoms was “you make lists of your lists.” I’ve been so bad about this lately. I’m a total list nut. I always have a little notebook in my purse and I write down everything. At home I have various spreadsheets about different things. Right now I’m trying to decide where I want to get my hair done so I have a spreadsheet of all the local salons so I can compare pricing. He thinks it’s odd. I think it’s organized. Anyway, I’ve got lots of lists about wedding stuff. The overall list of things we need to get done isn’t too bad. I plan to look everything over in the next couple days though and see what we can do sooner rather than later.

Marriage Prep: Act Three

Apologies for the lack of post-age lately. Between the cold that won’t quit and stress at work, I’ve been highly unmotivated to do much of anything when I get home at night.

We had the final part of the marriage prep at St. Mary’s this past weekend, the Engaged Couples Retreat. This was the retreat where we were supposed to pretend we don’t live together. I think I kind of blew our cover though because we overslept because the alarm didn’t go off and I mentioned that in a conversation to one of the couples. Oops.

We spent all day Saturday with 10 other engaged couples and 6 or 7 married couples learning all about what happens when “two become one.” (Anyone else have a Spice Girls song in their head now? Just me? Ok then.) The day was split into sections and each subject was covered by a different couple. The time went by quickly and with the exception of the final section, none of them were overly difficult to sit through. And I’m happy to say that none of them were overly “Catholic” even though one of the ladies came up to me afterwards to make sure it wasn’t too Catholic. LoL. I think she was joking… Most of the things discussed were universal and not specific to a certain faith. Most of the things weren’t even really faith-based. They were common sense based.

There were five sections: Friendship and Love, Communication, Finances, Intimacy, and Spirituality. Summary from all sections would go something like this: you need to be friends before you can be lovers, you need to talk to each other, you need to talk about money, intimacy is great, relationships are stronger if there are shared spiritual rituals and beliefs.

I was kind of surprised at how they skimmed over the intimacy section. Not a peep about NFP (although there was a pamphlet about it in the folder we got.) Perhaps this particular parish realizes they can talk about abstinence and birth control all they want but people are going to do what they want anyway? I don’t know. It just surprised me a bit. Other than that, everything was good advice and some things sparked some discussion later that evening.

We stayed for mass and were introduced and blessed by the congregation. We then made plans to meet with Tom, the organist, in a couple weeks to go over music selections. After going home and eating dinner we headed out to the martini bar where we sat and talked for a few hours. We got there early enough we could snag the comfy couches in the corner and talk undisturbed. We then came back home and apparently fell asleep pretty early. It was a good day.

The Water Struggle, Day 2

So today is going a little better in the bathroom arena. I’ve only gone once and I’m halfway into bottle #2. I’ve gone to the bathroom a lot more to blow my nose than to use the facilities. I finally gave in and took some DayQuil with my lunch. While it has cleared the pipes a little, it has also made my vision kind of psychedelic. Groovy. I’m on day 412 of my cold now with no hope of it going away any time soon. Stupid weather. At least there’s no snow yet. I’m crossing my fingers that it remains that way until, say, 2025. (Just watch, we’ll get dumped on tonight…)

Me & My teeny bladder

So I’m trying to make an effort to drink more water since it’s suppose to jumpstart your metabolism and generally do good things to your body. I’ve never been much of a drinker of anything. I’d say on an average day I have some milk with my cereal, a bottle (1/2 liter) of water throughout the day at work and then maybe another ½ bottle during the evening and at night. When I go out to eat I rarely finish my drink.

My goal now is to drink 5 (1/2 liter) bottles of water each day. This amounts to 84.5 ounces of water. This is still below that whole 8-10 glasses mark, but it’s a vast increase from my normal drinking habits. Yesterday I got to almost 4. Today I’ve just started #2 and it’s 3pm. Not looking good for today. I’ve got these little Crystal Light flavor packets that mix into the water to make it more interesting. It’s not the water itself that bothers me. It’s the incessant peeing that follows. I have gone to the bathroom at least 9 times already today. No joke. I may have to find an alternative route so the marketing department doesn’t start talking about me. I know I can’t really say I have a small bladder. Mine is just more sensitive than others. It’s just so annoying though. Hopefully if I keep upping the amount of water I ingest my body will adjust and I can stop hiking to the can every 15 minutes.

A Struggle

I have a problem that I’m not sure how to handle.

I haven’t stepped on a scale in months so I don’t really know how much I weigh. All I know is it’s too much. My best guess puts me about 70 pounds over what I’d like to weigh. Perhaps I’ll go home tonight and get the real number for clarity. I should mention that even my goal weight is over what “They” recommend for my height, but I think there’s a limit as to how low I can go. I’m just aiming to get back to where I was about 5 years ago. I know that’s realistic since I’ve been there before. Granted, this was during my Ramen Noodles college days where I worked 16 hours a day so there have definitely been some lifestyle changes.

Here’s the problem. I want to lose the weight. But I don’t want to lose so much weight that I have to buy a new wedding dress. I don’t want to look like I do now in my wedding pictures. But I don’t want to have to spend hundreds more on a dress that will fit. What am I supposed to do? They say a dress can be taken in two sizes with no problems. My goal weight would drop me 5 sizes from what the dress I have is. Although in reality it is probably less than that since wedding dresses tend to run small.

I know I should have thought about this before I ordered the dress. I’ve had months to change my habits and get moving on the weight loss thing. Maybe it’s the whole New Year thing, maybe it’s some of the blogs I’ve been reading. Maybe it’s discussions that Adam and I have had recently. I don’t know. I just know I need to do something. Fortunately Adam seems to be on board with the idea. We’ve already resolved to quit eating out so much. This should hopefully save both money and calories. I do the grocery shopping so it will be up to me to buy better food.

Maybe I’ll start a separate blog for this, maybe not. I just hope I don’t lose motivation and I work the dress situation out.

The Blender Massacre of 2006

Small appliances that enter our apartment be warned: there’s a good chance you won’t make it out alive.

If you recall, Adam recently managed to break the vacuum cleaner, prompting a quick shopping trip to buy a new one. Then on New Year’s Eve, I got home from Sheboygan and started packing up the leftover food from our party to take up to Green Bay for the Packer Game. I also tried to pack the blender for margaritas. Unfortunately I was unsuccessful and managed to drop it and the pitcher shattered. So we had to stop and get a new one on the way up.

I guess we’re even now. But the toaster better watch its back. It could be next.

Christmas, etc.

Another Christmas has come and gone. This was probably one of the best ones for me.

Last Saturday was the Van Rooy family get-together up at Adam’s uncle’s house in Green Bay. The house was full of relatives and sugar-shocked children. At times the chaos was deafening - but in a good way. I got to meet some of the people I’d heard about but had never seen. Adam did his Santa Claus bit for his younger cousins and apparently even some of the adults had no idea it was him until we told them later! While at first I kind of felt out of place, I entertained myself by discussing wedding stuff with Adam’s mom and sister, talking a bit with his aunt, and then having a conversation about forensic accounting with his uncle, the detective. Many people were taking pictures the whole time. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get my hands on any, but I’ll try and get the one of me sitting on “Santa’s” lap. :)

Sunday was Christmas Eve and the handbells were playing before the 10pm mass in a concert with the adult choir. It was packed up in the choir loft and Adam ended up sitting directly behind me for a while. That was kind of disconcerting, but I can adjust. The program went well. I was having temperature issues though. Playing bells is relatively physical and you can elevate your body temp just doing that. But when you have a break for a bit and the windows are open it can get cold pretty quickly. I was pretty wiped out and had a big headache by the time we left. We got home around 11:30 and headed directly to bed. Yay for drugs.

Monday morning we got up and had our Christmas at home before heading to Adam’s parents’ house. Adam was inspired to make waffles even though I told him there was only one egg left and waffles take two. In any case, they were still edible, if not aesthetically pleasing. We arrived at his parents’ right on time only to find out his sisters were at the hospital. His younger sister had apparently hurt her foot getting out of bed that morning but hadn’t gone to the doctor until his older sister looked at it. We watched Ice Age to kill time until they got back. We had a light dinner of sandwiches and cranberry fluff. When his sisters returned we exchanged gifts. Adam took pictures of this all and they’re posted on my photobucket site. His aunt and uncle showed up later on and we did some more gift exchanges. After that I was getting a headache again (I haven’t been sleeping very well lately and I tend to get headaches when I’m tired) so we left early. We took some cheesecake home with us though. :)

Tuesday was a holiday for me but Adam had to go back to work. I went grocery shopping early in the morning. Our little $20 weekly trips for the last month and a half caught up with us. I spent enough to get 4 scratch-off cards. And I didn’t even get everything I needed. They were in the process of restocking the shelves and I couldn’t find some things I needed. I ran a bunch of errands later in the day including Sam’s club, Wal-mart, the library, the bank, and Bed, Bath, & Beyond (thanks Evan & Jodi!) I made a slow-cooked spaghetti sauce that simmered in the crockpot all day. I also cleaned the house a lot in preparation for dinner with his aunt, uncle, grandma, and cousin. It was a busy day. I was in the middle of making dinner when Adam came home. The rest of the crew arrived a little early so I was kind of frazzled trying to finish everything while his aunt and uncle and grandma poked around the house. Everything worked out and the meal went ok. I made turkey meatballs and mashed potatoes (made from real potatoes.) (The spaghetti sauce I mentioned before was a backup in case what I intended to make didn’t work out.) We have lots of leftovers so I no longer trust Rachael Ray’s serving sizes. After dinner and dessert I banished myself to the kitchen to clean up the gigantic mess I’d made. His aunt kept me company while his grandma relaxed in the arm chair and his uncle and cousin discussed wireless internet and laptops and then set to critique our movie collection. They then began to watch a not-so-family-friendly movie. Thank goodness Grandma has bad eyesight! And his uncle is hard of hearing so he cranked that baby up. I took refuge in our bedroom with a book until they decided it was getting late and they should be heading home. The kitchen is still a mess, waiting for me to be motivated tonight after work.

The rest of the week should be relatively low-key. I mean, as low-key as year-end prep can be. We have a ton of file shredding tomorrow and then year-end inventory on Friday. Monday’s a holiday and then the fun begins. Yet another year-end in a different position. One of these years I’ll keep my job for more than a year!

Our open house in Saturday and while I don’t doubt people will come, I do doubt that Adam has informed them all about it. And given them the right times. He seems set on 1-5 when it’s really 11-4. But whatever. We’ll be there all day anyway. I’ve got one more shopping trip to make to get fresh veggies but other than that I’m pretty much prepared. I’ll be cooking Saturday morning. We’re trying to have a variety of things for people to eat. We baked and frosted cutout cookies on Monday morning and I plan to bake a few more kinds tonight and tomorrow. I got a box of different cheeses from work (that I’ve had to keep swatting Adam away from) that we’ll put out with crackers and summer sausage. I’ll be making the yummy spinach artichoke dip, Adam is making mini pigs-in-a-blanket, and I’m planning a little chicken appetizer, assuming I can find the wonton wrappers by Saturday. Some fresh veggies and lots of sparkling grape and apple juice should give everyone something to love. And if not, too bad. :) I don’t want to make all kinds of things I don’t like because I’m the one stuck with leftovers the next day. I’m stuck going to Dad and Cheryl’s open house alone since Adam works all day on New Year’s Eve. I still don’t know what we’re going to be doing at midnight. Knowing me, probably sleeping. I’m so pathetic.

After the new year, I should have my yearly review at work and then I can submit my vacation requests for the wedding/honeymoon and our two camping trips. I’ll also be able to revamp my 401(k) distributions. We just got moved over to JP Morgan so there are new funds to choose from. Adam looked at them last week and I’ll be moving my contributions around a little from where they mapped them. We’ll see how much I can accumulate this year. I really like the company match though. Free money rocks.

An IMA Xmas

Last Tuesday’s IMA Christmas party was… interesting.

I got to El Azteca around 5. I was the first person there and was led to the back area of the restaurant where our shindig was to take place. I sat around for about 20 minutes, bus boys leering at me and probably talking about me in Spanish. Finally some other people arrived and things got interesting.

I had set my stuff up on a big round table which I was later informed was supposed to be where they put the buffet. Oops. Then when I leaned down to pick up my plastic box that I carry everything in, my pants split down the back. So I spent the rest of the evening wearing the fashionable “coat around the waist” look.

Our speaker had cancelled because he had the flu. This frazzled Sheri (the president) a little, but everyone seemed ok with just doing the raffles, having some margaritas, and participating in some quick holiday trivia. Three people showed up without an RSVP (and it’s always the same rude guys who do this…I so want to not let them eat) but two people who HAD RSVP’d didn’t show so I guess it worked out. Adam made a killing on his raffle ticket sales (while wearing a nametag that said “Raffle ticket guy”) and we came out WAY ahead for the first time in my tenure as moneygirl. I suppose it helped that it was a relatively cheap dinner.

Raffle-wise, Adam got a box of pretty nice Christmas cards (too late for this year, but perhaps we can use them next year.) I got a frilly pink photo book (which was re-gifted to Adam’s cousin) and we also got a talking dictionary that Adam was pretty excited about.

Overall things went well.

The End of a Computer Era

So last week the computer saga came to its highpoint. The desktop Adam built me almost 2 years ago flaked out one time too many so I kicked it (literally) and went and bought a laptop.

Adam pulled the computer out from its lair underneath the desk to take a look at it earlier this week. Turns out it was so dusty the motor couldn’t work, causing it to short out all the time (or something like that.) This is what I get for having it up against the wall and ignoring it I guess. He spent some time this afternoon clearing out the dust and it appears to function when clean. Since I had already bought the laptop and transferred all my stuff I wasn’t interested in battling with the computer anymore. So he took the hard drive out and sold it (plus the keyboard) to a friend on eBay for $50. Better than nothing I suppose. We’re keeping the flat-screen monitor for now.

I’m enjoying the laptop thus far. I rejected the idea of buying a separate keyboard and opted instead for a number pad. I am using my optical mouse still since I despise the stupid pad things that laptops come with. I also had to get a USB hub since the laptop only came with 3 and I need many more (printer, mouse, number pad, iPod charger, digital camera, scanner, etc.) I also hooked up the new speakers to the laptop. They’re pretty awesome but I’ve tried to limit my booty-shaking bass so I don’t annoy the neighbors. I’m toying with the idea of transferring my IMA stuff to the new computer so I can take it to meetings with me but I’m not sure about that one yet.

I (heart) my Crock Pot

During a recent phone conversation with Adam he asked me why I hadn’t gotten a crock pot sooner. I said it just hadn’t occurred to me. But now that I have one, I wonder the same thing. It’s so useful. I’ve already used it for pot roast, hobo meatball stew, a chicken and tomato dish, and right now it’s working away on a whole chicken with veggies. I like that I can take some time in the morning, hit a few buttons, and dinner is done (and the house smells wonderful) when I get home after work. This is so convenient since lately I’ve been coming home with a complete lack of motivation. This takes the work out of preparing dinner. Or, I suppose, transfers the work to the morning when I am apparently more motivated. In any case, everyone should own a slow cooker. There are tons and tons of great recipes out there and they’re all pretty much a “cut up things, thrown them in the pot, add broth/water, cook for X hours” deal. The one I got is a "smartpot" or something and has an internal timer. It switches to warm mode after the time expires. It's difficult to screw it up. So easy, a caveman could do it. (Bwahahahaha.)

Holiday Schedule at a glance

Thursday 12/21 – Holiday Dinner at Milprint. They’re serving spaghetti, which doesn’t really seem very “Christmas-y” to me, but whatever.

Friday 12/22 – Both Adam and I are on vacation. We have a flower consultation appointment in the morning. Afternoon plans are undecided, but Adam works at Wal-mart in the evening.

Saturday 12/23 – Adam’s family’s annual Christmas party up in Green Bay. Adam will be doing his Santa gig for his younger cousins. We missed this last year because he had to work.

Sunday 12/24 – Handbells play at a concert with the adult choir before the 10pm mass. Adam plans on coming with me.

Monday 12/25 – Christmas hoopla over at Adam’s parents’ house in the early afternoon. Secret Santa exchange, etc.

Tuesday 12/26 – I have vacation again. Not sure about Adam, but his aunt and uncle from Florida are coming over for dinner.

Wednesday 12/27-Friday 12/29 – Normal workdays. Boo.

Saturday 12/30 – We’re having our little holiday open house for a few hours.

Sunday 12/31 – Dad and Cheryl are having their open house. Not sure what we’re going to do in the evening. Last year we went up to GB and I sat around while Adam played Madden with his cousin and his friends. We’ll see I guess.

Driving is Dangerous

In a matter of about 15 seconds on my way back from lunch this afternoon I had 3 near-accidents:

#1 – ballsy PT Cruiser turned left directly in front of me. Had to slam on brakes to avoid collision. Proper horn and “wave” followed.

#2 – moronic pickup truck “went left to turn right” (damn, I hate people who do that) and almost side-swiped me. Luckily I was going pretty slow (see #1) so I just swerved a little into the turn lane to avoid him.

#3 – A completely psychotic, perhaps mentally impaired old man on a bike rode leisurely across the street AGAINST THE LIGHT AS THERE WERE CARS COMING. Luckily I was turning left and was going slow enough (see #1 and #2) that I hadn’t pulled out into the intersection yet. He barely missed getting smooshed by an oncoming car though (they got to do the brake slam and gestures this time.)

Idiots.

My Housewares Addiction

So today I was on a mission to find a ginormous martini glass. I went to Wire Whisk. I went to Home Goods. I went to Pier 1 (which, by the way, I've never done before. I should probably never go again. It could be dangerous.) I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond (which is always dangerous.) No luck with the martini glass, but I did buy this



at Pier 1 and this



at BBB.

These damn kitchen supply stores! They lure me in with their sexy spatulas and I'm defenseless against their shiny kitchen appliances and nifty gadgets. It's an illness I tell you!

In any case, if anyone knows where I can get a huge martini glass (30oz+) let me know!

My Purse is a Curse

So, this is my purse:



It keeps getting me in trouble.

When I go to the grocery store, one of the baggers always seems to feel the need to comment on it. "Do you REALLY like nerds? I mean, REALLY? Do you mean nerds, the people, or Nerds, the candy?"

The cart pusher at Walmart has said "nice purse" about 5 times now.

But Friday's episode took the cake. I had a grand time running some errands on my lunch hour. I went to the post office and there was no line! I went to the bank and there was no line there either! Then I stopped by Burger King to pick up some food before heading back to work. Not only were there a lot more people there than usual, but there also happened to be not one, but two screaming children. One of whom's parents didn't have the common sense to remove them from the restaurant for a good 10 minutes. Anyway, I sat down at a table near a couple and their grandchild. The only way I can describe them is "white trash." And considering I'm apparently a "hick" because I like my Spongebob pjs (which Adam picked out, by the way), you can only imagine what these people were like. Anyway, their grandson, who was named Dante (I kid you not) ran around the restaurant with abandon while his grandparents ignored him. As they were leaving, the man came over to me and tapped my shoulder.

"It is true?" he asked me.
"What?"
"Do you really love nerds?"
"Uh, yes?"
"I should introduce you to my son. He's a nerd. He works at McDonald's."
(trying not to laugh in his face) "No thanks (shameless flash of the ring), I'm taken."

*sigh*

The (Controversial) Christmas Letter

I read this article about Christmas letters over on MSNBC.com the other day. I found it interesting. I certainly hope my letters aren't full of bragging and I hope those who receive it aren't offended that I sent it so impersonally.

For my part, I look forward to getting Christmas cards and the potential update letters. We don't keep in touch much throughout the year, being so far away, each so busy with our own life. I enjoy reading a (usually very brief) synopsis of the past year. Some people are apparently uninterested in this. I hope if someone gets a letter from me and they hate it they just throw it out.

I also took a peek at the related message board. Some people are way to sensative about this kind of thing...

So far this year I've received 2 letters. And I happened to be mentioned in both of them. Score! :)

Sunday, Lively Sunday

It wasn’t a busy weekend, but it was a good one. Adam returned from California late Saturday night. Even though we didn’t get home until around 11:30 and didn’t get to sleep until much later (for some reason he wanted to unpack and show me everything he had bought) we still got up when the alarm went off at 7. Kind of.

We had some shopping to do so we headed first to Menards to find our yearly ornament. We didn’t find exactly what we wanted but we did find an ornament. We chose a gas camping grill to commemorate our camping experiences this summer. After some other random stops (like Office Max and a scrapbooking store) we headed back to the highway. As we were waiting to turn onto College Ave, Adam spotted a big cloud of smoke. He deduced that since there was smoke, there was probably fire, and who doesn’t like to see things burn? So instead of turning left, he went straight and parked the car in the parking lot of the bank across the street from the burning building. The firemen and all the necessary public workers were already on site hooking up their hoses so we just watched the flames shoot out of the roof until it collapsed. It was fun. I eventually convinced him we needed to get going so we could stop at Walmart on the way home. We did just that but discovered he had failed to edit the engagement picture he had sent to be printed online so they were junk. After spending a mere $68 of the $216 I have left in flex spending, we headed home so I could get dinner started in the crockpot.

While at Walmart we had also picked up some new speakers for my computer. I have the same dinky ones Evan gave me back when he sent me the original computer. Not that there’s anything wrong with dinky speakers…we were just looking for something with a bit more oomph so we could properly blast our Christmas carols. When Adam plugged them in, my computer (once again) freaked out and crashed. He thinks there’s something loose in the wiring or something like that. This is (at least) the third time that this kind of thing has happened. Every time I buy some new thing for the computer it dies. That ungrateful piece of crap…Fortunately this time my hard drive wasn’t erased (yet, at least.) But I had the chance to move my money files and the all important wedding stuff over to his laptop. I’ll try to get the rest of my stuff off before it self-destructs but I have a feeling that might be difficult. Anyway, this whole thing will result in me buying a new computer. Most likely tonight.

Anyway, I got dinner all ready and we decided to tempt fate and try and run back up to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to get some big bowls before my dad and Cheryl showed up. Luckily, they called as we got off the highway to tell us they were running late. Score. We got the bowls (and, through Adam’s impulse buying, some really yummy candy-covered pretzels) and made it back home with plenty of time to finish vacuuming before everyone showed up.

When Dad and Cheryl got to our apartment we headed up to Kaukauna. We actually passed Adam’s parents on the way and they followed us the rest of the way there. I had this bad feeling that we were going to get to the store and they were going to be closed. I thought perhaps I should have called them to let them know we were going to be coming up. Luckily we got there right as they were going to close up shop. They are open 12-4 on Sundays but apparently no one had come at all until we showed up around 3 and the salespeople were getting restless. Whew! What luck. So we all swarmed into the store. I believe I referred to the crowd as “my entourage.” I took Cheryl and Adam’s mom with me back to the dressing area where I showed off my dress. It really is a beautiful dress. While Adam was busy picking out tuxes we stole my dad and his dad away for a minute so they could peek at it as well. I don’t have to do any alterations or anything until about June so the dress will be hanging out in their vault until then. Adam decided what color and style all the tuxes will be so his job is pretty much done. (heh) I also placed the order for the Catherines’ dresses. I have no idea how long they’ll take to come back but I highly doubt they’ll be as quick as mine was.

After thanking the ladies for sticking around for us, we all headed back to our apartment. Dinner still had about 45 minutes left to go so we just settled in to watch the Packer game for a while. Dinner went well. I was kind of nervous since this is the first time I cooked for 6 people. It worked out though. The Hobo Meatball Stew was yummy and Adam’s choice of cheesecake was a hit as well. After dinner we watched the rest of the game, opened some gifts from Dad and Cheryl, and then everyone went home. And I left the mess in the kitchen until last night.

We went to bed totally early. I think we fell asleep during Family Guy even. Kind of sad, but it was a long day.

Guinea Pig Crisis

I kind of completely forgot to mention something important last week.

Last weekend (or, I suppose, two weekends ago now) I finally got around to doing some online research about our two guinea pigs. Mo had developed some nasty scabs and Einstein started to lose his hair. From a few different resources I determined it was probably mites. The only thing we could do was take the boys to the vet. Unfortunately, the closest exotic pet vet is in Hortonville. So on Monday both Adam and I took off from work early and we loaded the guys into carrying boxes and headed to the vet. The doctor examined them both and did skin grafts to see if she could see any mites. She found them. The treatment for mites is in shot form since the mites burrow underneath the skin. So both Mo and Einstein got a shot. Einstein was really good about it but you could hear Mo scream throughout the clinic. Poor guy.

I had to get to handbell practice so Adam dropped me off at the church and he went home and cleaned out their cages. Fortunately they don’t seem to have a very good long-term memory and they don’t hate me. I only cuddled with them once since then though since I don’t want to spread anything around. Einstein is definitely looking better and Mo seems to be improving as well. On the downside – the treatment is a series of 3 shots, each a week apart. So tonight Adam will be taking them in for shot #2. Hopefully it will all be taken care of after the third shot. Otherwise we’ll have to decide if we want to do a round of antibiotics. There comes a point where you have to do a cost analysis but hopefully we won’t have to get to that point. They both seem happy enough. They’re definitely eating and playing around.

Earning Interest

Savings Accounts earn 4.5% APY @ INGDirect.com and 5.05% APY @ EmigrantDirect.com

How is it that I was completely unaware of these banks? It’s kind of annoying to think of how much more I could have earned if I had put all my individual and joint savings into one of these accounts rather than let it all sit at Capital earning a measly 1% APY. Grrr. Live and learn I guess. At least I still have 8 good months to let it make a little more for me.

Reading various personal finance blogs has educated me.

Xmas Overachiever

I am SO on top of things this year. Right now all my Christmas cards (including tons of Save-the-Date cards too) are sitting on the ledge, waiting to be taken to the post office tomorrow. Yes, my tongue is totally dry and tastes like nasty minty stuff, but it's done and I can let the papercuts heal. Ok, so there weren't really that many. We are sending out a little more than 50 cards. Even so, it was a good two or three hour job to get them all assembled.

So glad it's done. I can't wait for invitation time!

The 12-1-06 Post That Was Forgotten

Here is the long-awaited post mentioned here

It’s pretty cool how quickly time goes when you’re actually doing stuff.

As expected, this week was pretty eventful. So much so that I only got to torture Mo once. And not for very long (although that was more because he peed on me than because I didn’t have time for him…)

On Monday I had handbells and I was no longer the newest member. That didn’t last long. :) Another woman showed up at the practice. She apparently had been a member previously and had been part of other groups as well. But she hadn’t rung in something like 10 years. But she wanted everyone to know that she had done some shelly-ringing (where you ring two bells per hand – it’s complicated and requires much more coordination than I possess.) That said, (and with no snooty overtones at all) she kind of sucked. With all her experience, I had high expectations. And she had the teeny bells I originally was going to take. The ones that play like 5 times each song. Or not at all. Anywho, I don’t know when I last played handbells (in high school sometime… probably at least 6 years…) but I seemed to be able to pick up and go. Maybe I’m just packed with musical talent. Woo. Uh oh, I’m getting snooty. Better move on. In addition to the previously mentioned Red Hatters concert we’re also doing a program for Landmark Staffing in mid-December as well. Luckily this bumped a Saturday night mass that was on the schedule for the same night as my next UWO Accounting get-together so now I don’t have some major moral dilemma to struggle with. (Oh, come on, of course I’d choose the handbells.)

On Tuesday we got in the Christmas spirit along with Tina and Jeff (my co-worker and her husband). We went to dinner at (where else) Good Company and then headed to the PAC to see Lorie Line. We had good seats. Box seats - meaning my butt could fit in them and I didn’t have “obnoxious drunk lady” elbowing me the whole time. I wasn’t sure what to expect since I had never heard of Lorie Line until Tina mentioned her. Apparently she’s really big in the Twin Cities (where Tina’s from.) Anyway, I’d describe it as Manheim Steamroller-ish. Ms. Line plays her amped-up piano in conjuction with her mini-orchestra and occasionally a vocalist. Each year there’s a theme and this year was the Traditions of Christmas. Meaning, the story of Christ’s birth. Yay. But there were some funny moments. Mr. Line (that is, Lorie’s husband) played all the narrative characters ranging from St. Nick to Charles Dickens to King Herod. Either it was completely improvised or he was having a really hard time remembering his lines. In any case, he was hilarious. I think my favorite part was when the children in the audience were herded out and then herded onstage in costumes. The camel cracked me up.



Tina says this was one of the worst years she’s seen (and she’s seen many) but it was still enjoyable. We even got a bell ornament and 3 fake candles in the deal.

I don’t even remember what I did on Wednesday. I know I went shopping and did some cleaning. Other than that I must have zoned out in front of the tv. This is when the aforementioned guinea pig peeing happened. I had him on my stomach on the couch and all of the sudden I got really warm. I almost dropped him while running him back to his cage. And I had just put the last load of laundry in the washer. Little bastard. LoL. I don’t think he did it on purpose. I had him with Einstein in their play pen and he tends to relieve himself in there all the time. I guess I took him out too soon. Oh well.

Yesterday we had our engagement photo session. We had fun contorting ourselves into strange positions to get good poses. At the end of the day we had about 70 pictures to choose from. We’ll be sending out Christmas cards next week sometime with our favorite. I’ll also be posting some of my favorite outtakes on the wedding website. There are so many of me looking stoned or with my tongue out. I’m so not photogenic. Also, Adam’s mom has printed and cut all our save-the-date cards so those will be sent out soon as well. It looks like we’ve adopted a “build-a-bear” bride and groom theme. It’s somewhat appropriate since we own so many of their products and have bride and groom bears for the reception.

This weekend will be pretty low-key. I don’t have anything planned (that I can remember anyway) and Adam will mostly be working. His stint as Santa Claus will begin soon. Then next week he’s in California for 5 days, leaving me to my own devices. Muahahahaha. (Yeah, right. We all know I’ll sit around doing nothing all week. Or maybe I’ll go on a list-making frenzy. That sounds fun.)

So, I’ll be updating the wedding website soon. I’m considering adding a blog there. I’m not completely sure yet but it’s a distinct possibility. Other than that I’ll be sitting at home with hot chocolate, mourning the end of the warm fall days.

Wedding Weirdness

I’m a little bit in shock. I got a call today from Bridal Staircase, the place where we’re getting all our wedding apparel. Apparently Alfred Angelo had the dress I ordered in stock in the proper size so today, a mere 23 days after I ordered it, I got a call telling me my dress has arrived at the store and I can come try it on and ogle it whenever I’d like. What happened to the “you must order 7 months in advance or else you’ll be walking down the aisle naked” thing? Strange…

Wedding Blog

Since I moved to Tripod and they have a blog function on their website I have started a special blog over there. URL is http://marthaandadam.tripod.com/blog/

I just posted our Engagement photos over there so check it out.

Also, I wrote a totally long and developed entry while at work today and forgot to email it to myself so I could add the pictures. I'll post it on Monday. If I remember.

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. :)