Vacation Day Six. Finally.

Tuesday morning we were up bright and early. We had free passes to their breakfast buffet but we were worried with all the conference people at the hotel it might be swamped if we went too late. We got there a little after 7 and had no problem with crowds. We didn't eat much - didn't want trouble on the road - and then we went back, packed, checked out, headed out. The trip back was pretty uneventful. We hit Chicago around the same time as on our way out. It was a breeze again, little traffic, minimal stopping. We stopped at the same truck stop by Mars. We stopped to pick up lunch at Wendy's and were home just after noon.

The kitties were...indifferent. JC was kind of crazy, Carly couldn't stop whining, but Connor and Ted didn't seem to notice. Eh. I unpacked, started laundry. Cleaned up and re-arranged the cat rooms back to their normal configuration. We went grocery shopping.

Today was back to normal. Whatever that is.

To end this summation, the stupid souvenir I couldn't resist from this trip:



And now it's fudge time.

Vacation Day Five

Monday morning (our anniversary!) we had ordered breakfast from the hotel's menu. It was a bit pricey, but once we saw how much food came, we were ok with it.



The falls were lovely in the morning as well.



But we had places to go... So after we ate we packed up, checked out, headed down the road. We drove across Ontario, coming back into the US at Sarnia. Once again, a little bit of a back-up at the border. Not quite as long in this direction. The customs officer was not too hostile. He was a little suspicious of why we would be going to Kalamazoo, but he let us go without a problem.

Somewhere along the line on our trip out I'd seen a sign for Frankenmuth. I'd remembered they have this awesome fudge so we decided to make a side trip to "Little Bavaria" before heading to Kalamazoo and our hotel. We parked behind the fudge kitchen (yum) and went to the Bavarian Inn for lunch. I had chicken, Adam had sausage. Once again we were a little wary of the price until we saw how much food we got. Bread, soup, pasta salad, cucumber salad, coleslaw, cranberry sauce, and ice cream. Wow. I took some of mine to eat for lunch the next day (but then forgot it in the car so I had to throw it out. Boo.) After lunch we stopped at a few shops on the way to the fudge place. Did I mention we got fudge? It was buy three, get one free. So we got four. I haven't eaten any of it yet, but I'm going to cut some off when I'm done with all these recap posts.

After we got our fudge we left Frankenmuth and drove another two plus hours to our hotel in Kalamazoo. After sunny, hot weather for our entire trip it started to rain about ten minutes before we got to the hotel. The parking ramp was across the street and we walked over via a skywalk. We checked in and unloaded. We had a jacuzzi suite with a kitchenette (we decided to splurge for one night.)

We originally made reservations at the steakhouse in the hotel, but when we got there and found there was pretty much nothing on the menu I'd want, we cancelled those and went to the bar & grill downstairs instead. I had chicken chili (spicy!) and a baked potato. Adam had prime rib. Yes, prime rib at a bar. And I'm told it was pretty good. A large group of loud youngins was seated next to us partway through our meal. They were semi-obnoxious. Luckily we finished soon after they ordered their food. We stopped at the coffee shop on the way back up to our room for a smoothie and shot glass.

We put the smoothies on ice and filled up the jacuzzi, ready to relax. But when we pushed the button nothing happened. Adam called down to the front desk and they said they'd send engineering up. Luckily there was enough time between the call and the guy showing up that neither of us were caught...uhm...unclothed. The maintenance guy was very nice. He tried the breaker, took the circuit board out, replaced it, but no luck. It was broken. And due to a conference (AMEC? Some relgious group) they were totally booked up. So, no jacuzzi, but we got a credit on our account that pretty much covered our dinner. They handled the problem very well, I think. So, with the relaxing soak cancelled, we watched some tv and called it a night.

Vacation Day Four

On Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel (which also had a fridge) and headed over to my mom's before she went to church. We finally got a call back from Adam's co-worked Ed about lunch while we were there saying good-bye. We packed the rest of the cake and some blueberry muffins for the road. We were back in the car around 10. We headed up to Buffalo. We met Ed and his wife at The Anchor Bar.



They all had wings. I had pasta. And salad. What can I say - I'm a misfit. I prefer food that's "prete a manger" (imagine there are accents there.) We had some good conversation although I think the two guys talked about work too much which, in turn, led us two girls to talk about how the guys talked about work too much. Heh. After we parted ways we headed up to Canada. We hit some traffic at the border. It took maybe half an hour to get through. The customs officer (or whatever) was pretty nice, didn't hassle us too much. We had planned to stop at Marineland for a few hours but when we drove past it looked way too busy to mess with. We instead went to our hotel - another Radisson, in the Fallsview area.

We were too early to check in, so we took a map and headed down to the more touristy areas in search of souvenirs and cigars. We parked and walked down by The Secret Garden area (where we had lunch with the family last time we were here.) It was so hot. I think the temp I saw was 93. With very little breeze to help out I was dying almost immediately. Adam wanted his cubans, so we made the trek up a hill to find the store. The first one we spotted didn't take credit cards. Before we tried to find another one I demanded we stop at Smoothie Planet. Strawberry smoothie in hand, we found a second store that sold cubans and took credit cards. After that transaction was complete we waved "hello" to the falls and went back to the car. I managed to use profanity in front of a young girl when I saw the line for the elevator in the parking garage. Whoops. A ridiculous parking fee and a wrong turn later, we found our way back to the hotel and checked in. We opened the door to this view:



Amazing view, since we thought we had booked a cityview room. We had dinner at the Tony Roma's in the hotel. Yes, I know, there's a Tony Roma's in Green Bay, but people. It was hot. We were tired. And grumpy. And it was late. So Tony Roma's it was. The service was pretty horrible, but I had a honey mustard chicken sandwich (well, actually just the chicken) and a baked potato. Adam had a brisket sandwich. Pretty good, but nothing spectacular. After dinner we called it a night. I couldn't get any decent pictures of the falls lit up at night. Boo.

Vacation Day Three

Saturday morning we were up before the alarm went off. The hotel didn't include breakfast and their in-room options were ridiculously expensive so we skipped those. We packed up and headed out around 7:30. It was very foggy. We ate our leftover sandwiches for breakfast as we wound up and down and around the hills and curves of Pennsylvania's roads. We were annoyed by some State College yahoos for quite a bit of the morning (hello - it's called "cruise control") but managed to make pretty good time up to Jamestown. We made a stop at a convenience store just before the state line and we both commented on the strangeness of tanning beds at a gas station.

We arrived at my mom's house with no problem. Although we did drive past it the first time. We checked the place out and then headed to The Home Depot for faucet parts. When we returned my mom made lunch for me and herself while Adam went to work. Then the day turned into somewhat of a comedy of errors.

First, Adam's pipe cutter broke. So we went to a nearby (although not the closest) True Value to replace it. When he got the pipes cut he realized the compression fittings and flexible tubes he bought were different sizes. We had originally been trying to get shut-offs but couldn't find the right size. Somewhere along the line we switched hoses and forgot to switch them back after abandoning the shut-off idea. Whoops. So Adam ran back to the True Value to get the right size hoses. He got back and then realized he had gotten FIP to FIP instead of compression to FIP. So my mom and I went back to the True Value again to get the right ones. But they didn't have the right ones. So we got some different compression fittings instead hoping that they'd fit with the hoses we already had. When we returned we found that the pipe end of the new compression fittings were too big even though I had questioned the guy at True Value and he assured me they were ok. *deep breath* So Adam and I went back to The Home Depot to return the wrong hoses and get the right ones. Finally Adam was able to get everything hooked up. We turned the water back on and immediately water began spraying all over underneath the sink. In addition, water had been leaking into the basement this whole time. After some tinkering he discovered the sprayer was loose and once that was fixed everything was as it should be.

So, it took a whole lot longer than it should have, but eventually the leaky faucet was replaced. Whew.

After all of this we were all hot and sweaty. In an effort to find some place cool to hang out (for free) we went to the Ice Arena across the street from our hotel (a Best Western this time. We were originally going to stay with my mom, but the area was having a heat wave and she doesn't have A/C.) There were figure skaters competing or qualifying for something. We watched a few and then Adam got bored. We walked over to the Cherry Lounge for dinner. I had some chicken noodle soup and a chicken salad pita and Adam had a gyro sandwich. Once again we managed to be in the area when the Bills had a pre-season game. After dinner we went back to my mom's house, picked up the stuff we had left there before, had some cake



and called it a night. We watched some football and then went to bed.

Vacation Day Two

We were up at 7 on Friday morning. This was the only day we actually slept until the alarm went off. We showered and went down to breakfast. Like most places these days there were the waffle machines. They also had eggs and sausage. I opted for a bowl of frosted flakes. The apple juice was gross so I threw most of it out. While we packed things back up we kicked around some ideas as to what we should do for the morning. We weren't due at my aunt's house until lunch. We decided to go to the Pittsburgh Zoo for a few hours. I found it on Jill, our GPS, and we headed to the car.

When we hooked Jill back into her mount in the car she died. Again. We'd previously had some trouble with her, but last time we could just hit the "reset" button and she'd recover. This time I held the "reset" button and tried to turn it back on a dozen times while Adam got gas. No beans. So, change of plans. Instead of lions and tigers and bears, we'd have Walmart and Target and Best Buy. (Oh my.) We found a new unit at Best Buy and bit the bullet. It's a widescreen model with traffic updates. Yeah, whatever. This one's named "Samantha" and she sounds kind of uptight. I know, I know, it's a voice on the GPS, but we talk to her. A lot. It's only natural to project human characteristics on her.

Anywho, after all that hullabalu we headed over to see my grandma and grandpa. We arrived just before my aunt Marilyn departed in a flurry of "I'm so late and will see you later." We chatted with my grandparents until Marilyn returned with my cousin Lori and her daughter Harley. My uncle Paul showed up a little while later. We had a nice lunch, caught up a bit. I neglected to take any pictures though. Bad Martha.

After lunch we headed back on the road - destination: Hershey. It was more than a hop, skip, and a jump - about 3 1/2 hours. We stopped by the hotel we were staying in in Camp Hill (ie Harrisburg) first. We hit a little traffic and then a lot of waiting to check in at the Radisson. Apparently there was a math teacher conference at the hotel over the weekend. We got checked in, unloaded some stuff to the room and headed to Hershey.

We got to Chocolate World, parked, and headed inside. It was busy. The tours and tasting were so crowded we decided to skip them. We wandered around the souvenir/chocolate area for a bit, picked up some t-shirts, chocolate and the like and high-tailed it out of there.





Too many people, not enough A/C. We were there for less than an hour. So parking was free! Yay. Then it was back to the hotel. We had no idea what to do for dinner so we played some GPS roulette. I told it to find restaurants along our route and I randomly picked one. It was the West Shore Plaza Restaurant. It's a diner in a strip mall. With outstanding food. I had a Sicilian panini (turkey, provolone, tomato) and chicken orzo soup. Adam had a crab-stuffed flounder and some clam chowder. Excellent little place with a staggeringly huge menu.

After dinner we went back to the hotel (which DIDN'T have a fridge) and unwound. I think we managed to stay up a little later, but I wouldn't swear on it.

Vacation Day One

We left home around 6:30 on Thursday morning. We decided to skip Starbucks and ate breakfast at home before we left (I am never going to get to use that giftcard!) Adam also brought along a 6-pack of 5 Hour Energy shots to substitute for coffee. I did a final cleaning in the cat rooms, we made sandwiches for lunch, made sure the oven wasn't on, and took off.

We made our usual stop at the truck stop by Mars Cheese Castle. We hit Chicago around 9:30. It was a bit slow for a little while, but pretty much no big deal. There wasn't really any construction delays this time at all. Amazing. We hit the Indiana State line around 10. The EZ Pass transponder was a good investment. It worked at all the tollways except for those in Ohio (although it looked like they were in the process of installing the equipment so perhaps that will change soon.) Indiana and Ohio are so boring, with not much in terms of scenery. We stopped at a travel plaza to get gas and answer nature's call. We ate lunch in the car so we didn't have to stop for that. I did give into an urge and buy a chocolate chip bagel from Panera at one stop in Ohio. It was good.

We got to our hotel in Mars (ie Cranberry) in good time. We stayed at the Super 8, which was surprisingly nice. It had recently been renovated (as evidenced by the "wet paint" sign on our door as the varnish was still a little tacky.) It had a fridge in the room so we could empty the cooler for the night to keep things fresh. We unloaded and then walked across the street for dinner. It was a goal of mine on this trip to eat at places we can't eat at locally, and definitely no fast food. Tuesday night we went to Lone Star. We used to have one in Appleton but it closed a while back. I had their soup (chicken pot pie), salad (wow, tons of dressing. Left most of it uneaten), & potato combo and Adam had a steak & shrimp combo. The Steelers happened to have a pre-season game that night so after we returned to the hotel we watched a little bit of that. But the combination of getting up at 5am and losing an hour along the way ended up with us going to sleep at like 7. Sad.

Snap Back to Reality

We're back from our trip. I'm working on a more decent write-up, but for now you can find the few pictures we took here.

(PS. Identify that song!)

Photographic Memory #4 - In Which I'm Sneezing

By a bus:



In South Carolina:



I guess I don't have the best timing... but we all knew that, right?

Duh.



What did you think of that, Catherine?



Ooh. Nevermind.

I should probably tread lightly here. I think she still has that very unflattering picture of me in a swimsuit. (Not that there would ever be a FLATTERING picture involving me and a swimsuit, but this one is especially hideous...)

Have a Nice Trip

Last night was our last summer IMA board meeting. We’ve got pretty much everything confirmed for the year. A little shuffling with the last two meetings, but they’re far enough away it’s ok if they’re not in stone. It looks like it will be an interesting year. We’ve got someone from the Timber Rattlers coming in to talk about franchise accounting, someone from the Packers coming in to talk about how they counsel new players about their finances. We’ve got someone from Goodwill coming to talk about their fraud fiasco a few years back. (Ironically(?) enough the person who stole the money was a member of our chapter. You know, before she got sent to jail.) Some Information security, some Lean, and we hope to get someone from the state in to talk about where Wisconsin’s part of the stimulus is ending up. We’ve got our usual suspects as well – tax updates, ethics. Nice variety. Hopefully we can get people to show up at the meetings.

Today I had (yet another) doctor appointment. I’ll be so glad when I can go back to yearly rather than six monthly. Cross your fingers for good results… Anywho, when I called at 8:30 (appointment was for 9) I was told the doctor had induced someone earlier this morning and was still doing rounds at the hospital. They told me to come in for 9:45. Whatever. So I show up at 9:40 and sit in the waiting room (being stared at creepily by some old guy) until 10:15. I get taken back, weighed, blood pressured, etc. When the nurse told me the doctor would be right in I was hardly optimistic. I thought ahead this time and brought a magazine with me up onto the exam table. I made it all the way through the February issue of Self before the doctor showed up. Although I admit I did skip the article on the new incarnations of denim… I give her props though – once again it was a lightning-fast procedure. If only they could get the wait time down to, well, less than an hour. I left around 11:20, picked up some lunch, and went back to work. As usual, my blood pressure was a little high so she gave me this card and I need to periodically test it myself to see what’s normal for me. Fun stuff.

Tonight we prep for our time away from home. I’ve got some cleaning, some packing. We’ll be leaving bright and early tomorrow morning so hopefully the cats behave themselves better tonight than they have the past few nights. Here’s our itinerary:

Thursday: Neenah to Cranberry.
Friday: Visit with grandparents and Aunt Marilyn. Cranberry to Hershey. Eat chocolate. Yum.
Saturday: Hershey to Jamestown. Visit with Mom. Adam to tinker with tools.
Sunday: Jamestown to Buffalo. Lunch with Adam’s co-worker (apparently we’re going to the Anchor Bar.) Buffalo to Niagara Falls. Marineland.
Monday: Niagara Falls to Kalamazoo. Fancy-Schmancy hotel for our anniversary. In Kalamazoo. Yeah. I know.
Tuesday: Kalamazoo to Neenah. Decompress. Hug kitties.
Wednesday: Back to work, and apparently everyone else in the department will be on vacation so I’ll be stuck catching up and covering all at the same time. Welcome home!

We don’t have a lot of time constraints for this trip. Most of it is a “we get there when we get there” thing. We’ve got Adam’s sister to take care of the furry ones, and one of our neighbors to mow the lawn if it gets out of control. Hopefully it all works out.

I’ve got a random day off next month, a morning off for IMA in October, and then a few days off before Christmas and that’s my vacation for the year.

Photographic Memory #3 - My Sister's Cat

This is my sister's cat - the orange dude on the bed, that is. (By the way, I wasn't really that messy. That's some of the crap I brought back with me from my trip in France in 1998. I must have been unpacking when I took this picture.) I think his official name was "Pumpkin" but we all just called him "Kitten."

He never liked me much. I don't know why not...





Oh.

I guessing he also didn't like it when I watched The Lion King and lifted him up like Simba. My bad.

Healthy Choices

In an effort to eat better, I’m trying to branch out. Tuesday night I tried out turkey bacon for the first time. I’m not jumping for joy about it, but it wasn’t totally horrible. Adam ate all the leftovers so apparently he was ok with it too. It definitely isn’t a dead-ringer for the real stuff, but perhaps an occasional swap out would do some good. I also picked up a couple Larabars last week. I got the peanut butter cookie and apple pie flavors. The peanut butter one, not so great. But the apple pie one is mighty tasty. It says it has raisins, but I didn’t notice them at all. I’ve had the Soy Joy bars before and if you can get past their dense and dry texture they’re not bad. The Larabars are much more moist to begin with and, though they’re also kind of dense, I found them much easier to deal with. Lastly, I finally got around to trying the free Kashi frozen dinner I got a while back. I got the sweet and sour chicken. It wasn’t bad at all. If they weren’t so outrageously expensive I might swap Lean Cuisine for Kashi. It had their 7 whole grain pilaf, chicken, beans, peppers, and edamame. I’ve been wanting to get on the edamame train for a while. They look kind of like lima beans but don’t really taste like much of anything. I could probably sneak them in somewhere (like my hiding lentils in sloppy joes) but Adam seems to resist a lot of things. He says he doesn’t like them, but he eats them anyway. I’d welcome any other ideas anyone might have.

Is it Friday yet?

In all honesty, I don’t really remember too much about what we did last weekend. I know we went shopping at Younkers and got a new waffle maker and a Panini press. I know there was the everyday shopping for the week. We stopped at the Oakridge Farm stand and got a bunch of fresh veggies. Other than that… I think I spent a lot of time reading or napping. I did make the dessert that Adam wanted though. And I fixed the rip in his dress pants. So, a success on some fronts.

This week has been a long one. Late day on Monday (I left around 5:45), early day on Tuesday (was at work before 6:30). Month-end is relatively under control so things are back to semi-normal. In addition to closing out the month, I’ve also got to keep in the back of my mind that I’ll be out of the office for almost a week pretty soon. Perhaps I should start to scale back on the “tornado hit my desk” look. *sigh*

Speaking of our vacation, perhaps we’ve chosen the wrong direction to go. I mean, there seems to be an awful lot of violence right in the areas we plan to be. Hopefully this isn’t an omen for things to come. Then again, our area isn’t getting a lot of good press these days either. (Very classy, ladies.)

Photographic Memory #2 - My Gay Prom Date

Ok, so I admit that title is kind of misleading...

Confession #1 - He wasn't REALLY my prom date. He only agreed to come if we went as a big group.

Confession #2 - He hadn't yet realized/admitted he was of a homosexual persuasion. That wouldn't come for a good three plus years after this picture was taken.

Confession #3 - I'm totally not wearing a bra. (Ok, so that really didn't need to be said, but you'll see why I got that out there in just a minute.)

So, welcome to junior prom, April 1999. That's me there in the purple dress and my gentleman friend is Joel.

We started the evening out with some snacks at (I hope I'm right! I can't remember!) Alicia's house (??) (PS - I love that cat blanket!)



Had a wild and crazy time at the dance (OMG Robert, can't you take a picture without freaking out?)





And then came back to my house to hang out (some of us quite literally) and sample some of the wine my underage self had smuggled back from France the summer before. Who's bad? (Hi mom!)



But let's get back to the more interesting part of this whole thing. I met Joel at church, where I had decided to join the youth group in order to, well, meet boys. I'm shameless. It's a long and winding road, the whole Joel, Martha, Sara thing, so I'm not going to get into it. Suffice it to say that being a teenager is sometimes unnecessarily dramatic. I wish I could go back in time and tell myself that so much stuff JUST DOESN'T MATTER. But I can't, so here I am.

Anywho, after I stopped going to church, Joel and I still kept in touch. In the fall of my sophomore year at UWO I got a phone call from him. In a not-at-all direct way he let me know that he had broken off his engagement (to a girl I went to elementary school with and could not stand) because he had fallen in love with her best friend's (now ex-)fiance - a man. Juicy! What drama!

I was not at all suprised by this revelation. I had questioned him about it previously and had managed to offend him so thoroughly he stopped talking to me for a few months. I'm not sure what set my gay-dar off, but perhaps it was his appreciation of my kick-ass white Spice Girl platform shoes and his endorsement of "girl power"



He came up to visit me a little while later and we went to sing karaoke at Park Central. Coming out was definitely good for him - he looked healthier and was a snazzy dresser. Unfortunately I couldn't find any pictures of that...

We've kind of lost touch at this point. Last I heard he was raising dogs in Elkart Lake or something.

For me, he'll always be the first guy I turned gay. And a excellent quasi prom date - what a dancer!

Stuff

Sunday afternoon after Adam got home from golfing and took a shower so he smelled less…manly, we did some shopping before heading to dinner. We stopped at Menards for a water heater blanket. We stopped at Bed, Bath, and Beyond for some ramekins (look for a recipe on the cooking blog this coming weekend) and some other kitchen accessories. Not able to find everything I was looking for (and still having some time to kill) we also stopped by Wire Whisk. They were out of the flat whisk I was looking for, but I did manage to find rubber-tipped tongs and an industrial grade rubber spatula. I also browsed around in DSW for a little while.

We still ended up at The Melting Pot about 10 minutes before they opened. We had a wonderful dinner – our usual Big Night Out with extra lobster for Adam. We were seated right next to the bar/wine room, which was a little distracting, and right by the kitchen so we were hearing “corner” and “door” throughout our meal. Aah, the memories of working in food service. *shudder* We were in and out in record time. We got home, I fed the starving cats, and we went to work putting the water heater insulator on. Man, fiberglass makes me itchy.

On Monday I threw a chicken in the crockpot for dinner, always a good plan in my opinion. Adam was home a little later than usual because his car stereo had been recalled and he had to have it replaced.

Tuesday night he had his first of three golf lessons (taught by a professional) at Golf Galaxy. They’re my anniversary present for him this year. When he got home we went to dinner – my night for the month. I was waffling between Hu-Hot and Outback Steakhouse and by the time I got home from work the last thing I wanted to do was have to walk around and get food. So Outback won this time. I tried their special Honey Dijon chicken. It was good – not spicy at all, which is a valid concern considering everything else that’s on their menu. After dinner we went to Younkers, where Adam had found a skillet online he thought might work. It took a little while to find it (it was in an aisle display) but we eventually located it and it will work for me. I’ve been looking to replace my 12” covered saute pan for a while now – the bottom is scratched (hence the rubber-tipped tongs) and it doesn’t cook evenly. We’ll see how this new one works out for me.

Last night we had free tickets to the Comedy Quarter since my name was drawn after I filled out a comment card the last time we were there. We had invited his parents and Mike and Donna to come along. We met his parents at Gullivers for dinner. This time I tried the chicken wrap – it was huge. After dinner we went outside to wait for Mike and Donna to arrive. They showed up a little after 7 and we went inside. We sat on the other side of the stage this time – by the exit. I’m not sure which side I prefer yet. I’ll have to go back a few more times I think. The emcee was not good. Even worse than last time. Every time he got up on the stage the atmosphere in the room evaporated. Just not funny at all. We had a special guest comic in addition to the feature and headliner so the show ran a little longer than the previous one had. All three were quite good, but the headliner was great. Kind of like the Untamed Shrews, but less offensive. Still a little uncomfortable to be sitting next to your in-laws while some lady is up on the stage making vagina jokes. Eh, what can you do?

That’s pretty much all the excitement for the week. I’m trying to see if anyone down in Sheboygan wants to do anything Brat Days related with me (since Adam’s probably going to be gone golfing again) but so far I haven’t heard back from anyone. Aside from my baking project, not much else planned for the weekend. I managed to burn myself quite nicely last weekend when making the (oh so yummy) chocolate mint bars, and again tonight while making dinner so hopefully I can avoid making this a regular occurance.

We're Important

I forgot to mention this before – we were chosen as a Nielson ratings household for this week. They sent us these “TV diaries” and we’ve been writing down what we watch every day. It’s kind of a bummer since this week was pretty atypical. We’ve been busy and out for more evenings that not. Oh well, that’s the way it rolls I guess.

A few weeks back I got this feeling that I was watching entirely too much TV. It felt like every evening was spent trying to catch up on recorded programs on the DVR. This was not helped by the fact that Adam was annoyed when anything sat on there for more than a few days. In any case, I decided that I needed to scale back. So I stopped recording everything except for 18 Kids and Counting and Hannah Montana. (I wonder what that says about me…) We also record Conan, Law & Order, and Raising the Bar that I watch with Adam. But no more Rachael Ray (although she’s on re-runs anyway since she had vocal cord surgery), Kathy Griffin, Kendra, Denise Richards. There’s still pressure to watch Conan, but it’s not as overwhelming. I’ve taken up reading again. And I still mindlessly watch FoodNetwork more than I’d like to admit. But I’m working on it.

Everybody Poops

It’s a morning ritual, as I’m sure it is in most households. You get up, take care of your “morning business”. Today was no exception. Even the cats joined in on the fun. Well, except for that whole “they pooped on the floor instead of in their litterboxes” thing.

I got out of bed and was overwhelmed by the poo smell in the hallway. I figured Ted had taken a nasty dump and perhaps I’d have to spray some febreeze. In the office (where there are temporarily two litterboxes while Carly continues to prefer spending her nights in the cat room rather than in our bed) I was met by the thing I least like to see in the morning. Or any time, really. A big, nasty, smelly pile of cat poo. On the floor. Near the litterbox, but obviously with no attempt made to get it IN the litterbox. *Head in hands*

What’s worse is that it was made up of two distinctively different poo types. Adam says he saw Ted and JC running out of the room when he was on the way into his bathroom. I’m can only guess that one cat did his business outside the box and the other felt the need to embellish. So, I was left with one gargantuan pile of crap to clean up. Good thing it was garbage day. I got everything scooped up and Nature’s Miracle-ized. I took the trash out to the garage. I came back in and it still smelled totally noxious. Then I looked inside the first box – hey, what do you know? They actually got some of it in the box. So I dragged the box to the back door, scooped out the nasty lump, and returned the box to the office. It still smelled gross so I peeked into the other box. Of course, there was more there. *grumble, grumble, stupid !8#&$^ cats* so I dragged that one and scooped again.

At this point I was completely fed up with poop and litterboxes. I sprayed some glade and called it good. Fortunately Adam’s the one who went to retrieve Carly only to discover that she’d also decided to poop en dehors du litterbox. I probably would have blown a gasket and thrown stuff if I had to clean up anymore shit that wasn’t mine. Grrrr. I asked Connor to let me know when he decided to poop some place random so I could mentally prepare myself.

It was a rough morning.

Photographic Blast from the Past

So, in an attempt to liven this place up (because I'm certain my "we went here, we did that" blog entries are deathly boring) I'm going to pick random photos from my various photo albums and see what I can find to talk about. Here goes...


So, this series of photos is from 1994.

I'm minding my own business, drawing a flag on the sidewalk with chalk. Notice how there are actually 13 stripes. What attention to detail! I doubt I could fit all 50 stars though...


Along comes Catherine, blowing bubbles. They float onto the sidewalk and pop right on top of my masterpiece. (No joke, the back of the first photo says "My Masterpiece" and the back of the second says "Ah Catherine, did you have to?")


But it's ok. I join in on the bubble blowing. (Apparently we were the "Bubble Queens?") And now there are clouds (??) by the flag. Must be a pretty high flagpole. I guess I took some creative liberties.


Apparently I didn't hold a grudge for too long. (Although now that I look at it, perhaps I was trying to strangle her...)(On a side note, what the heck am I wearing?) (On another side note - look! I'm taller than she is!)

A post about Carly

Last Sunday night I took Carly to the cat room for her constitutional before bed. She complained heartily when I picked her up off the window seat and took her to the bedroom. I had barely laid down before she started jumping all over me, doing laps around my head, being generally disruptive. I took her back to the cat room, figuring perhaps she hadn’t done her business. She did a lap around the food bowl, glanced at the litterboxes, and then jumped back up onto the window seat. I picked her back up and put her back on my pillow. She laid down by my head for about a minute, but the second I moved, she was up again. She walked down to the end of the bed and stared out the window. I thought perhaps that would solve things until she got kicked by Adam when he rolled. She leapt back up by my head and starting parading up and down me again.

This was definitely not going to work all night, so I moved two litterboxes, food, and water into the office, opened the window in the pet room from the bottom, and stuck Carly in there for the night. I don’t know what she was doing all night, but when I went in there this morning, she was sitting by the window, watching birds play in the yard. Making all kinds of kitty noises. Now that she’s discovered nature, she wants to be in the window 24/7. I picked her up to take her to her spot in the kitchen. She complained. When I walked by on my way back to take a shower, she freaked out, jumped onto my shoulders. I took her back to the cat room and she beelined for the window. I left her there and Adam took her back out when he was done getting dressed. She still looked unhappy about being on top of the fridge when I left for work Monday morning. The same thing has happened every night since.

Last weekend marked a huge leap in progress for the kitty side of Carly. She explored extensively on Friday and Saturday while the other guys were confined to their rooms to eat. On Saturday afternoon she discovered everyone else naps in the office so she had the run of the house for a few hours. She sat by the window in the living room. Found the cat tree and the teepee (which she napped in after dinner until Ted stumbled upon her and a growling match ensued - see previous post pictures.) She even sat in front of the patio door for a little while on Sunday night.

None of these things have ever happened before.

She would occasionally crane her neck from the shelf by the fireplace to see out the door. Sometimes she’d stop by the windows in the kitchen. A couple weeks ago I started taking her with me into the office for a little bit, opening the window so she could see and hear all the stuff going on in the backyard. At first she wasn’t too interesting – she’d usually end up laying on the desk next to the scanner in about two minutes. But after a couple days she stayed by the window, watching, listening.

I don’t necessarily want to shut her in the pet room every night, but she doesn’t seem to mind and I get to sleep for a night without kitty interruptions. Plus, she’ll be put in that room for the entire time we’re gone next month so it’s good to know it doesn’t bother her too much. Now if only we could get her to explore and be a cat when the other guys are around…

And to stop glaring at me...

A bunch of boring crap, I'm sure.

Last Friday night we watched My Best Friend’s Girl. Second viewing for me, first for Adam. He had told me to get something funny when I went to exchange Australia. This is what I brought home. I think for being such a stupid movie, it’s hilarious. I didn’t fall off the couch this time, but I still laughed. Ridonkulous… Anywho.

Saturday morning I left to do this week’s shopping and Adam left for a day of golf with his uncle Rich and some of his friends. I got back home, unpacked stuff, made lunch, did some reading, went back out to run a few more errands (I mean, really, why isn’t everything open at 8am?) and then came back home. I made some mini-cheesecakes for dessert, read a little more, and discovered it was already 5pm. Time flies.

Sunday morning Adam decided he wanted to touch up the trim around the house. He went outside to scrape the window by the garage and discovered it was completed rotted out. So, as usual, a small, simple, inexpensive home repair turns into a large, expensive ordeal.

I fear the weekends where Adam has free time and wants to do stuff around the house. I know eventually these things would have to be done anyway, but it seems like every time he tries to do something seemingly harmless and cheap, it turns into some big, expensive situation.

Anyway, so he replaced the window in the garage yesterday afternoon with my help initially and then his dad’s assistance later on (I went and took an “accidental nap” with Connor.) We then headed up to have dinner with his grandma and aunt and uncle who are up visiting from Florida. We came back home, watched a couple Conan’s, and finished up the weekend.

Monday night Adam made the chicken he had originally planned for Sunday night. The rest of the week was pretty boring.

I had my annual biometric testing Friday morning. My blood pressure was high again (as it is EVERY SINGLE TIME!) and this time they made me sign something acknowledging that I knew it was high. Hmmm. At least this year I didn't gush blood after they drew their vial's worth. Whew. I hate giving blood.

We went to the drive-in last night and saw G-Force (cute) and The Proposal (not as good as I thought it would be.) It was crowded again and it started to rain a little during the second movie. This might be the last trip up there for the season. We'll see what movies they get for the end of August and how long they stay open.

Today I slept in kind of late and Adam was up earlier to do some work. We went grocery shopping. I vaccuumed, did some other shopping. Adam got some golf GPS thing. Had dinner. And now I'm sitting here.

Tomorrow Adam's going golfing in the morning. I plan to make some Chocolate Mint Bars and catch up on some reading. We've got reservations at The Melting Pot for dinner and we also have some shopping to get done at Menards and Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Fun stuff.

This week starts another month-end cycle. They seem to creep up on my faster and faster. But soon it will be time for our vacation, so that's something to look forward to - we can relax like Ted here:

Has Hell frozen over?

Well, folks, there you have it - Carly might actually be... a cat.

Back from the Land of Unreliable Bloggers

*sigh* That's my excuse.

Adam worked Saturday morning so we did our grocery shopping on Friday after work. After Adam left on Saturday I did the rest of the week’s errands. There were quite a few. Walmart (augh! Cat food week!), Walgreens, Petco, Sam’s Club, Piggly Wiggly. I was only out for about two hours, but I was tired by the time I got back home.

I also stopped at Barnes and Noble while I was in the area. I’d been kicking around the idea of buying Kristin Chenoweth’s book, seeing as how I figured it would take about a year to get to the top of the wait list at the library. I went in to see how much it would cost me and I couldn’t resist. After I got home and put away all the other stuff I had bought I settled into the sofa and started to read it. I couldn’t put it down. Adam got home a little after one and aside from some short breaks to help him take measurements downstairs for pipe insulation (and then later install said insulation), I read the whole book in one afternoon. It’s that good. Seriously, go read it right now. It’s written in much the same way she speaks – kind of stream of consciousness, but not so jumbled that it’s obnoxious. And it’s hilarious. Laugh out loud funny. She’s such an adorable lady, it was great to hear more from her. There are rumors there will be a movie version of "Wicked" and she’ll take her Galinda role back. That would be awesome (assuming it’s done better than that calamity of a Phantom of the Opera film. Bleck!)

On Sunday Adam decided we needed to replace the insulation/weather-stripping around the garage door. I once again played the role of tool-girl to help with measurements. He went to Menards and then came home with his dad in tow. I did some cleaning and then sat down to watch Australia, which had been festering on the end table for about a week. I was avoiding it. I was bored within the first two minutes. I was bothered by the Baz Luhrman-ness. Nicole Kidman was annoying. I lasted an hour. I then decided my time was worth more than that and flipped to the Food Network. It was only nominated for best costumes, so I don’t feel too bad about not watching it all. Although, speaking of costumes, I thought Nicole Kidman’s skinny, high-waisted skirt thing got old really fast. *sigh*

Anyway.

Three left: Defiance, Frozen River, Gran Torino

Adam made steak for dinner, I read some more Sebold, watched "Law & Order" from last night, went to bed. A pretty boring weekend.

This week was…different. Tuesday evening was the third of four IMA board meetings. Unlike the previous meeting, I didn’t monopolize too much of the discussion. I did somehow get volunteered to arrange catering for a meeting. I’m still not sure how that happened. Eh. We had a few tentative ideas fall through but I think we’ll be in good shape. Some interesting topics.

Wednesday I stayed home from work – a combination of cat-induced sleep deprivation, unexplained rib-area pain, lasting effects from an ill advised bowl of Ben & Jerry’s, and, honestly, a need for a mental vacation. I slept until a car alarm went off for five minutes outside and Ted starting yowling (in the hallway – he gets the best accoustics there.) I gave up and got up and made lunch. I caught up on some Money things I’d been procrastinating on, did laundry, watched Danika (which I had previously started watched last week when Adam was off golfing but it got scary and it was dark and I was alone and I'm a big baby), and napped to old Food Network shows. They were showing re-runs from the 2004-05 time frame. And wow, Ina looks a lot younger then!

Adam got home and after the cats were fed we went to dinner – his choice for the month. He opted for Old Bavarian – a German restaurant up in Appleton. Seeing as how I don’t like pork, my choices were limited. He got schnitzel that had eggs on top of it. I got pasta and proceeded to make a mess of my shirt. Grrr. Story of my life.

Thursday started off badly when I slammed my knee into my sink while toweling off after my shower. Later in the day I got gashed in the neck by Carly again. Seriously, I can’t pick that cat up without her scratching me. We decided to go try the new comedy club in Neenah that’s in the building that used to house The Meadows – where we had our wedding reception. They certainly revamped it! It’s divided into a bar/grill – Gilligan’s – and the comedy club. We got there a bit early so we sat in the bar area until they started seating. The nice thing about this place is you can order real food in the club. Unlike Skyline, where your meal options are limited to nachos and pretzel bites. They still have the fruity drinks topped with whipped cream and umbrellas though, so it’s like the best of both worlds. (Uh oh, "Hannah Montana" reference. Why did I think of that just now? I’m so lame.)

Anyway.

The emcee was not so great, but the featured comedian and the headliner were both very good. Laughter is good for you. And we learned that Mitch Fatel will be there in December. Very excited about that! It’s not too often that we get people like him in the area.

It was another long night last night. After kind of catching up on my sleep on Wednesday I pretty much immediately went back in the hole. Carly’s back to her “must eat every hour and a half” thing again. She’s not a baby, so I’m not sure what’s up with this “sleep regression” thing. It’s obnoxious. Adam tells me to ignore her, but he’s not the one being jumped on or bopped in the face with a kitty paw. I told him last night that if I had to get up more than three times I was going to wake him up and make him take her. So at about 5:30, when she woke me up for the fourth time, I shook him awake. He complained – why should both of us be made grumpy by the cat? It’s not his fault he sleeps so deeply he never hears the commotion. Nice. Yet another reason we’re not going to have kids.

This weekend doesn’t look too busy. I think Adam’s going to try and go golfing tomorrow. We’ve got a movie sitting at home to watch (not an Oscar one though.) I’ve got some catch-up cleaning to take care of. I went to the library tonight so I have a new batch of books to get through - some Rand, some Weiner, some Nabokov. Quite the variety there...

And now, because this post isn't already long enough, and it's been too long since our last installment of cute kitty pictures:

It's Nature, Carly Brown!



Kitties In a Line


Carly's not the only one who is environmentally concerned...


Cuddle Muffins


See - even being covered in cats couldn't get me to put that book down.

Fireworks and Quarter-End

I've been much better about keeping up with my cooking blog than this one lately. I guess it's because that blog is so structured: I post the menu, then post the pictures and recipes after I cook new dishes. Doesn't take a lot of time or brain power.

This month-end has been rough. We counted a day early since the plant was shut-down all week. This gave me a head start, which is nice since Corporate decided to bump our close up two days. I worked Friday (which was technically a holiday) to get inventory done and I finished up the statements at 4:50 this afternoon. *sigh* Everyone's out again this week doing dry runs for SAP. It's only day three and we're already done. Well, kind of. Things were pretty much thrown together to get some numbers quick so tomorrow I get to start to back-track and clean things up. It's also quarter-end so that throws all kinds of other wrenches into things. But it's ok. I like deadlines and I seem to work better when I brush up against them. Maybe I'm a closet adrenaline junky.

Since I worked (most of the day) on Friday, we didn't really have anything special planned. Adam went golfing all day with Mark and some other people. He came home sunburned. Semi-raccoon-ish. Saturday we did our shopping (somehow avoided mad rushes of holiday shopppers), then I read for a while, took a nap (somewhat accidentally), and then headed down to Sheboygan for dinner and fireworks.

Somewhere along the line I got to thinking about how long it had been since I last saw the fireworks. I determined it had been five years. In 2002, through the strange circumstances of which my life has been made, I was in Neenah, just a block from where we live now. I'm almost certain I worked the holiday. I always volunteered since I had nothing better to do and I knew other people were less of a loser than I was. In 2003 I was on an airplane on my way to France on July 4th. I thought it was funny that I was leaving the country on our national holiday, going to the country everyone seemed to hate the most (aside from Iraq, of course.) The last time I recall watching fireworks was with Jess and Dakota back in 2004 when he was barely a month old. It was cold, and thankfully we had the good sense to back up to the Younkers parking lot to watch them so it wasn't too loud. I don't know what I was doing 2005-2008, but we didn't go to any fireworks. I'm guessing either I was working, Adam was working, or we were sleeping. We're so lame. But fortunately our neighbors love setting fireworks off. They go for about a week and a half prior to the actually holiday and really go crazy on the 4th. This year they were still setting them off after midnight. Adam gets jealous because I don't want him setting anything off by our house.

Anywho. Strange tangent. We met Dad, Cheryl, her parents, Brooke, and Tom at the Highland House. We had dinner out on the patio and watched the fireworks over the bridge. I could have sat closer, but it was still nice. They had heaters so it wasn't too cold. There was an obnoxious man who complained throughout almost the entire display, but what can you do? It's a public place. We zipped out of the parking lot pretty quickly, and aside from an unexpected detour on 14th Street, we got home pretty easily.

We slept in on Sunday morning since we didn't get home until around 11:30 and the neighbors kept us up long after that. When we got up we had breakfast and Adam did some yard work. I cleaned, baked some cookies, read, did dishes. It was a pretty boring day. Adam made ribs again for dinner.

This week will hopefully be less stressful than last week was. Adam is going to a Brewer's game with Dave on Wednesday so I'll be on my own for the evening. Nothing else really going on.

Happy 4th of July - Muppet Style...

A Week in the Life...

Monday: Back to work after a nice 4-day weekend. (Boo.) Went to dinner at Marty’s Boston Crab in Green Bay. Adam’s idea, obviously. He’d been wanting to go for awhile. Invited his parents to come along. Forgot that Monday Night Raw was being taped live at the Resch Center right down the street. (And Donald Trump was in town.) Thankfully traffic wasn’t too bad. The food was alright (aside from my burger, but, really, when you order meat at a seafood restaurant you can’t expect greatness) but the service was awful.

Tuesday: More work. Month-end has been bumped forward a day so that means one less day to prep. Got home to a 77 degree house. Guess the A/C stopped working. 24/7 service line called, came to look at it, couldn’t find anything wrong. Told us to not use the programmable part of the thermostat when it was so hot and humid out. It appears to work when on “temperature hold.” Discovered my AT&T phone order had been cancelled because they no longer had the phone I wanted. (I had to go ahead with getting the pre-paid plan a little earlier than anticipated since Adam was antsy to get the iPhone and thereby cancelled his Alltel plan - to which I was an add-on.) Adam made a late-night Walmart run to get a phone there and transfer my number over. If we had known we could do that we wouldn't have bothered with the online thing in the first place but all the AT&T stores told us they couldn't transfer a number from another carrier onto a pre-paid phone. Idiots.

Wednesday: Up early to make strudel for Adam’s breakfast party at work. It apparently went over well. Consequently tired all day. Got a call from a salesperson at 2:25 needing profit margins for a meeting that started at 3. *sigh* Way to think ahead. Who cares what else I might have been doing? Thankfully they were pretty basic and I was able to get them to him by 3:10. Go me. Got home to start laundry, found dryer with an inch of water in the bottom. So humid it was “sweating.” Awesome.

Thursday: Boring day. Caught up on some DVR shows.

Friday: Had a haircut appointment after work. Since we planned to go to the drive-in Adam came along with me. Spent his time in the guy room, drinking beer and watching TV. Movies were Night at the Muesum 2 and 17 Again. It was a great evening - not too hot, not too cold. It was PACKED. Thank goodness they have their second building completed so the bathroom lines were ridiculous.

Saturday: Did some morning shopping, bailed on Chicken Fest due to rain and tiredness. Met Trisha, Amber, Rachael at Friar Tuck's for dinner, then somehow ended up at the Monkey Bar in Appleton. Drinking ensued. Still got home at a reasonable hour. But then was stomped on every hour by Carly.

Sunday: Brunch in Elkhardt Lake with Dad, Cheryl, Catherine. Followed by some graduation planning for next May and some MindTrap. Returned home to do laundry and try to get through Benjamin Button.

Random Updates

The party yesterday was a success - we had more than ten people show up! So yay.





Not too many leftovers, mostly because we gave lots of people bags full of meat on their way out. We've got brats and one piece of chicken. And vegetables.

I finally got to the library on Friday. Checked out one Margaret Atwood, one Alice Sebold, and one John Irving (to re-read.)

I had vacation on Thursday and Friday (for absolutely no good reason - just needed a break) and it was wonderful. I didn't really accomplish much, but it was nice to be away from work.

We went to Menasha Grill last Wednesday as Adam's first choice in our monthly meal experiment. Review is here.

This next week is not too exciting. Country USA starts and we might try to meet up with some friends who will be in the area for that. We hope to get to the drive-in again next weekend. It's Chickenfest in Darboy. We'll be heading to Sheboygan on Sunday for brunch with my dad, Cheryl, and a visiting sister Catherine.

I got a new deep fryer. I've been hating the fry daddy I had for a while now (it's hard to clean, bulky.)So hopefully this one will not annoy me so much.



Marion, the French girl I stayed with for a week back in 1998 while I was over there with my high school, just added me as a friend on Facebook. We haven't spoken in 10 years. How neat is that?

That's about it.

It's a Conspiracy

I think the world is trying to prevent me from going to the library.

Last weekend I headed down on Saturday, completely forgetting it was the weekend of Neenah Streetball. Roads all blocked off, traffic everywhere. Darn. Turned around and came back home.

Now today I head downtown, get to the library, wonder why there are absolutely no parking spots within a five-block radius. Darn it. It's Thursday - Out to Lunch day.

I have no luck. Guess I'm stuck re-reading my own books for another day.

Speaking of which, did you know John Irving's new book comes out in October? Hello, early Christmas present!

Me from A to Z

A – Age: 27
B – Bed size: Queen. It’s not big enough.
C – Chore you hate: vacuuming, dusting, anything outdoors
D – Dog’s names: We have cats - Ted, Connor, JC, and Carly
E – Essential start your day item: Varies depending on my mood. Cocoa Pebbles are good…
F – Favorite color: purple
G – Gold or Silver: silver (or white gold?)
H – Height: 5′3″ (well, almost)
I – Instruments you play: currently? Hand bells. In the past? Piano, Cello
J – Job title: Cost Accountant
K – Kid(s): nope. Just the cats
L – Living arrangements: single-family ranch in Neenah
M – Mom’s name: Ruth
N – Nicknames: I was “Marty” for awhile in high school. Also “La rouge” (which is totally incorrect French, by the way…)
O – Overnight hospital stay other than birth: None
P – Pet Peeve: Bad drivers
Q – Quote from a movie: “Had my dream again where I'm making love, and the Olympic judges are watching. I'd nailed the compulsories, so this is it, the finals. I got a 9.8 from the Canadians, a perfect 10 from the Americans, and my mother, disguised as an East German judge, gave me a 5.6. Must have been the dismount.” from the best movie ever - When Harry Met Sally...
R – Right or left handed: right
S – Siblings: Older brother Evan and younger sister Catherine
T – Time you wake up: Weekdays 5:45, weekends 7
U - First word that comes to your mind for “U”: Umbrella. Yeah, it’s been raining a lot lately.
V – Vegetable you dislike: Cabbage is kind of gross.
W – Ways you run late: I’m usually early.
X – X-rays you’ve had: None that I can remember
Y – Yummy food you make: all of them.
Z – Zoo favorite: Elephant. Or maybe the koalas.

My brain has holes...

Geesh, let’s hope I’m better at remembering my wedding anniversary than I am remembering our house-iversary. I totally forgot again this year!

This second year of home-ownership was expensive. We replaced the water heater, furnace, and air conditioning units within months of each other. We also replaced both toilets, the instant hot water in the kitchen, built a shed, planted trees, removed trees, painted. And many other things that I’m sure I’ve forgotten about (or repressed.) But things generally seem to be going well. No big plans for this next year. The hope is to pay off the furnace and then start planning the deck/siding/grading project. Fun, fun.

In other news, we’re almost out from under the cloud of negative equity!

My Thoughts Exactly

From She Likes Purple

You know what's hard for me, what's nearly impossible to come to terms with even after twenty-six years of being beat in the face with it: some people aren't going to like me. NO MATTER WHAT I DO.

Some people will always think I'm too ugly or too fat or too insecure or too liberal or too open-minded or too close-minded or too messy (which, well, they've got a point) or too happy or too depressed or too awkward or too wound up. They'll think my nose is too big or I'm too short or I don't listen to good enough music or I eat at Chili's too often or I make my dog talk or I watch too much reality television and not enough educational programming even though educational programming makes me more bored out of mind than more knowledgeable. Some people will think a million things of me, and they may dislike me for each one, and, regardless, I'd still be breathing in and out, and it would all be okay. It's even slightly self-absorbed to worry about all the ones who don't like me, isn't it? Why would I expect every breathing human to find me witty and likable?

But it's still tough, and it's something I haven't quite hurdled over yet. How to easily be myself while letting everyone else's opinions of me roll right off my back.

What's more, some of my own friends aren't going to like me sometimes. There are so few people in your life who will be with you through everything. Who will support you when you're wrong, who will comfort you when you're whiny and lame, who will defend you to other people, who will fight for you and stand up for you and will like you when you're at your worst and who will never---not for a single moment---have a hidden agenda. When they get annoyed with you, they'll tell you, and when they think you're wrong they'll say, "Hey, I love you, but that skirt is not your best look."

Of all the countless people we come in contact with in our life and the hundreds more we form real relationships with, there are maybe five people who you will ever be able to truly trust to hold your friendship in the palm of their hands without ever crushing it or letting it slip through the cracks in their fingers.

And, that's how it should be, I think. If the miracle was handed out to us all willy-nilly---at the grocery store, the movie theater, while sitting in traffic---it wouldn't be quite so beautiful. We would inevitably take those incredible friendships for granted if our life was chalk full of them.

Some friends are going to talk about you behind your back and some friends are going to let you down. And, funny enough, you'll do all of these things to friends of your own. We're all just as guilty as the next.

And it really is all okay, that some people will never like you, some people will only tell other people that they don't like you and very, very few people will ever tell you to your face when you're bugging them. And, let me tell you, those last ones are the ones you want to drink with because there will be no surprises after that last tequila shot. Well, there may be some surprises but of a completely different variety.

But, still, it doesn't make it easy just because it's okay, does it?
I was talking to Jonna yesterday---who I kind of want to visit and drink strong margaritas with; she just oozes cool and awesome energy---and she referenced this quote from Rocky:

"It doesn't matter how your life looks to other people, it matters how it looks to you."

I've been repeating that to myself since yesterday, and I even repeated it to a few other people, and I kind of want to print it out and frame it in my "writing room" and perhaps put it on shirts and hats because it's just so damn true. No, it's not easy to wrap our heads around, and it doesn't take away the sting completely when we know people are judging us, but our life is our own. And we're the only ones who have to live it.

We may as well enjoy the view even if our neighbors hate what we're doing with the place.

Amen.

Movie Update

I watched Last Chance Harvey yesterday and I liked it. It's kind of a combination of Rear Window, Seredipity, and The Graduate. That makes it sound kind of weird. But really, not too far into the movie I wondered if I had thought the film was about something else. Perhaps it wasn't a romantic comedy, but actually some psycho thriller horror thing. Luckily I was not mistaken and it turned out well. But really, Dustin Hoffman's character was totally stalking the woman again. Anyway, cute, sad, but happy.

I hope to go exchange it for Revolutionary Road this afternoon since Adam's going golfing. Almost through my Oscar list!

I think we could use some cute animals around here...

(Once again, click to view full-size versions)

Let's move on, shall we?

Perhaps a less, hmm, controversial topic?

We finally watched Frost/Nixon this weekend. It had been sitting on the end table for a week (or more). We just kept doing other things instead. We actually watched it in two chunks. We started it on Saturday night and, when Adam started nodding off on the couch, postponed the ending until Sunday morning. I am ambivalent. (Aah, random Threesome quotes pop into my head at the strangest times… seriously – it’s a great movie. It was on one of the movie channels last week. I can quote most of it word for word.) It was not snoringly boring (I’m sure Adam was snoring because he was tired, not because the movie sucked) but it wasn’t riveting either. Not being very interested in the subject couldn’t have helped. Eh, one more down. We swapped it out for Sex Drive, which Adam watched Sunday afternoon while I was working my way through my to-do list. I caught bits and pieces of it (bwahahaha, pun intended) while he watched part of the un-edited version - random naked girls would walk into frame, pose, and then walk back off. Odd.

In an effort to not be totally boring, this month we’ve enacted a new “night out” plan. Each month both of us will choose a day and we’ll go out to wherever we want for a meal. This way we can try new restaurants out that we might not try otherwise if we’re choosing together. Our first one for June was last night. It was my pick and I chose Uno Chicago Grill. They were surprisingly un-busy, which was just fine. We sat down and perused the mega drink menu. I ended up getting raspberry lemonade while Adam ordered an Iguana martini. (Despite what he’ll tell you, it does NOT have iguana parts in it.) My drink was pretty good – a little sweet for being lemonade. Adam’s drink was terrible. I mean really bad. He downed it as fast as possible and then was fighting to get the taste out of his mouth for the rest of the night. I told him he should have just had them take it back, but he didn’t listen to me. He then got a mango lemonade, which, while also a little sweet, was still better than the awful Iguana. We ordered the pizza skins as an appetizer. It’s a neat concept – a deep-dish pizza crust with mashed potatoes and baked potato toppings on it. I think we both liked it. For main courses Adam had the steak and shrimp. I had a personal sized deep-dish Chicago Classic pizza (meaning sausage and cheese.) After the appetizer, neither of us finished our meals. I had some leftover pizza for lunch today and there’s still more in the fridge. We also skipped dessert. All in all, a nice place. Their crust is great - not too crunch and thin, but not greasy like a pan pizza. I don’t know that we’d go there again, but I’m glad we tried it. Adam’s night is next week. He says he doesn’t know where we’re going yet.

*sigh* I hate annonymous commenters

Luckily I have the power of DELETE! (see the Strongbad reference there? Ha!)

But really, if you're going to criticize and insult me, at least have the balls to sign your name. That way I know if it's just a drive-by (on a related note, have you ever clicked on "next blog" up at the top there? It's fascinating. Usually Asian porn, but fascinating...) or if it's from someone whose opinion matters to me. I'm quite sure that no one I know would be leaving comments at 1:30 in the morning on a weeknight (because, remember, I have a dull life - oh, and no friends), but you never know.

And by the way, that wedding thing? From the wise one herself, Dear Abby

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I have attended several weddings lately where we have waited up to an hour and a half for the bride and groom to arrive at their own reception. Can you enlighten me because, frankly, I am ... ONE CONFUSED GUEST, LEWIS CENTER, OHIO

DEAR CONFUSED: Sometimes there is a delay between the wedding ceremony and the reception so the wedding party can be photographed. Rather than being confused, use your imagination. These days there could be many reasons for a delay -- the limo ran out of gas, someone's zipper stuck, the bride went into labor....

According to Emily Post: "Any delay longer than 30 to 45 minutes becomes excessive, unless (the) invitation included a starting time for the reception. ... If there is likely to be a considerable delay, be sure that guests will be served beverages and hors d'oeuvres while they await your arrival."

Invite stated the reception started at 4:30. No hors d'oeuvres were served. I don't think my reaction is an unreasonable one. So there. :)

A Wedding, a Boat, and a Cat

Mega blog slackerage. Anywho, what's been going on lately?

We went to Catherine and Tony's wedding last weekend down in Delafield. We got there a little early so we stopped at Hobbytown USA, which just happened to be right by our hotel. We grabbed a quick lunch at DQ before heading to check in and change for the ceremony. (As an aside, I hate pantyhose. I haven't worn it since Katie's wedding back in October of '06. Such a pain.) We arrived at the church in plenty of time since it was much closer than we thought it was. It was a nice church. Looked pretty new. Lots of stained-glass windows and Adam especially liked the exposed ceiling beams. They had a holy water fountain which I found kind of distracting since it ran the whole time. I hope no one had to pee... The ceremony was a full mass. Although it was never really anything we had considered, I'm certain we made the right choice in not doing that for our ceremony. It was long. It was boring. Although they did get to sit down for most of it, so that had to be nice. The priest was...eccentric. I told Adam if we weren't in a Catholic church, I'd be tempted to think he was gay. (Not that being in a Catholic church necessarily rules that out, but you know what I mean.) Anyway, strange ceremony. But it gets the job done so it's all good.

After the ceremony was over we headed back to the hotel to kill some time since the reception didn't start until 4:30. When we got to the restaurant (which we realized was the same place we went to dinner with Catherine and Tony after we saw a movie a few years ago) we were the first ones there. Most people didn't show up until around 5. Dinner didn't start until after 6. It was odd. We sat at the table right in front of the head table (seating wasn't assigned) and no one else sat with us. The photographer dropped her stuff there since it was close to where the action would be. Finally two other girls joined us. It would have been totally embarrassing to be all alone at the table. I guess maybe we smelled? Anywho, when the wedding party finally showed up there were some toasts and then dinner. Decent buffet - good potatoes. Then some more downtime while the wedding party went upstairs to take more pictures. Cake. First dance then father-daughter then mother-son (after which I joked it was time for the sister-brother dance and the other girls at our table commented that we weren't in Arkansas... They were fun ladies. We spent a good deal of the downtime going through all the little bags of Hershey kisses and picking out the cookies and cream flavored ones. We're a menace to weddings every time...) Our plan was to stay for the first slow song and dance and then head out and hit the Marshalls near the restaurant before going back to our hotel. It took over an hour for a slow song. And they played every bad remix/medley song ever made in the interim. We finally got a slow song, danced, caught up with Catherine and Tony on the way out, and made our way back to the hotel.

Now, it's human nature that you'll always compare other peoples' weddings to your own. Everyone has their own preferences, but I thought it was almost rude the way their reception was done. The invitation said dinner and dancing beginning at 4:30. So we got there at 4:30. And sat alone at a table for almost an hour before the wedding party even got there. After dinner we sat, doing nothing, for another 45 minutes to an hour while the wedding party disappeared. It was just very weird. I hope people weren't that bored at our reception...

But overall, a lovely day. Seeing as how we both started dating around the same time, it's about time that they got married! I always thought Tony was a little tightly wound, but after meeting his mother I can see why. Catherine drew the short straw on the Mother-in-law pick...that lady is a control freak.

I did managed to cause a stir on Facebook though. I posted that I was going to a wedding and it was raining, but I thought that was supposed to be good luck. I said "Catherine" but didn't specify. So my cousin, Joanie, freaked out and ranted that she just found out her cousin was getting married and she found out about it on Facebook and why does no one ever tell her anything? Whoops. We worked it out. :)

This past week was month-end at work again. We have an intern helping fill in for a maternity leave, summer classes, and a summer internship with a different department. Some of the items on his "do-to" list were to help me out, but really it's usually just easier for me to do them myself than try to explain how to do them. There were quite a few things during close that I probably could have passed on to him, but at this point, having done this for almost two years, I've kind of got a rhythm to my first five days. I did give him resin counts to key in and he "couldn't find" almost half of them on the spreadsheet. *sigh* Anyway. The rest of the month should be interesting - all the key users are gone for SAP stuff. Hopefully I'll be able to get caught up on some stuff that I've been putting off for months since there will be no one around to give me special projects. We'll see.

This weekend was kind of a bummer. We rented a boat out in Fremont and invited Adam's parents, my dad and Cheryl, and Mark and his son, Sam, to come along with us. It was cold on Saturday morning and it was supposed to rain a little, but we toughed it out and decided to go out anyway. We stopped to fish after a little while but no one had any luck. Then we got onto Lake Poygan and it started to rain. And it was windy. Miserable. But we made it to our lunch destination in Winneconne. Where I told everyone I was not going back on the boat. I'd wait here and they could come pick me up. Fortunately, the idea wasn't as crazy as I thought it was and everyone but Adam and his dad ended up staying at the restaurant. Luckily they weren't busy at all. Two and a half hours later Adam and his dad came and picked us all up. Unfortunately (as it seems to go when we do things like this) the boat people allege that we must have hit something and damaged the propeller. They're getting an estimate, but apparently we'll be lucky if it's under $400. Just another notch in the "we get shit on when we try to have fun" board.

The rest of the month has a few bright spots: We have our party on the 20th, the second IMA planning meeting is the 16th, Adam's helping Mark move next weekend. Hopefully the weather will get the stick out of its butt and be decent soon. This cold, rainy stuff is getting old.

Ok, enough of that. Lately Carly has been more explorative. Not necessarily a good thing since she has a tendency to wander and then pee in random places. Got to watch her like a hawk. Anyway, sometimes she'll squeeze herself into places and it takes a little while to find her. This is one of her favorites:



Crazy eyes! Another is on the other side of the sink between the deep fryer and the blender. Apparently she thinks she's a small appliance...

A Photographic Journey into the Past

So, I went to get passport pictures taken today. Yes, I'm finally getting around to getting a passport with my married name on it. It's only taken about two years. *sigh* But I figure since we plan to go into Canada in August and there are those new rules...

This is my third passport. The first one was procured at age 16 from the post office. (This is actually from my Carte Orange (a public transportation pass for Paris) but it's the same as my passport picture.)



It allowed me to spend three weeks traveling around France with my high school French teacher and a group of students from Fargo, ND. It was a crazy trip, and one of my best memories from that time of my life.

My second was five years later, since at 16 the life of your passport is only 5 years. (Holy cow, that's a huge zit!)



I needed it for yet another foray into international travel with France as the destination. This time it was six weeks with a group from New Orleans. Most definitely NOT the best memories from this trip.

And today, a third try, and a nice, new, hideous photo that will grace yet another legal form of identification. (Yes, my shirt is totally crooked.)



And while we're on the subject of horrible identification pictures, let's not forget the horrible driver's license photo (AAAAAAAAHHHHHH):



Oh, and the college ID picture that I had taken at 7 AM after driving up from Sheboygan (Urkel glasses!):



So horribly unphotogenic!