Wednesday, January 28, 2009

My 25

25. I eat cookies for breakfast when no one is around to see me do it.
24. I am crazy about decorating my home.
23. Our dog is my #1 obsession in life.
22. Claymation freaks me out and I've never been able to sit though Nightmare Before Christmas.
21. I don't spend enough time doing the things I love.
20. I love anything with polka dots on it.
19. Coffee is my biggest vice.
18. I want to learn French but doubt I have the ability to learn a foreign language.
17. I want to save enough money to travel outside the US.
16. I absolutely cannot stand having someone touch my toenails.
15. I love green veggies.
14. My nieces and nephews make me happy.
13. I think high heeled shoes are art.
12. I wish I could live in 1968 but with today's modern medicine and air conditioning.
11. I want to start a photography career in the next 12-18 months.
10. I need to start working on number 11.
09. I like making lists and spreadsheets.
08. My favorite channels are the educational ones, and Bravo.
07. I want to go back to NOLA for a day so I can eat chicken lula and creole.
06. I would like to get a tattoo but don't want to make the commitment.
05. I'm pretty good at figuring out percentages in my head.
04. I like reading blogs.
03. I love Omaha but would live in Nashville or San Francisco if given the opportunity.
02. I believe in karma and the Earth's collective energy. It makes perfect sense.
01. I love my man and can't wait to see what happens in this life.

A New Chapter

It's titled: Layoffs

It is not a fun story to tell and I didn't want to tell it until it had a happy ending... Everyone can feel the economy chomp, chomp, chomping away at our lives. It sucks. Hubs came back from South Bend basically unemployed. The restaurant wasn't doing well and his salary was cut from the budget while he was gone. They offered him part-time at an insulting pay if he wanted to stay. Sweeeet...

No one is having any luck it seems in finding a job or even staying employed at the job they have. Between the two of us we have enough money to live off of for a couple of months, but I'm a freak about the budget and my savings account and the thought of spending our savings made my stomach turn. After a week of worrying constantly about it, he is once again employed! The sun is certainly shining out his ass today because he was offered a full-time job at a guitar center this morning.

Call it luck or karma or an answered prayer, but fate was definitely in our corner this time around. There are so many people out there struggling to pay bills and put food on the table. The fact that he was able to find such an incredible job, so fast, just amazes me.

*sigh*

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Nice Little Wedding

Back to that creepy TLC mega family...

The oldest son got married and while I don't really agree with their "courtship" and bizarro engagement**, I thought their approach to the wedding was so sweet and practical. The bride made the dresses for the wedding party, the church provided the decorations, people in the congregation baked cakes and made all the reception food. It was so refreshing to see a wedding on TV (yes, I'm pointing my finger at you TLC) that doesn't propagate some ridiculous "greedy bride" stereotype. Everyone was happy, smiling, laughing and had a wonderful time.

I wanted to punch the TV though when the father of the bride said that control of his daughter was going to pass on to her husband because that's the way God designed marriage.

**Seriously, it was weird. They held hands like two rabid, repressed teenagers. Oh wait...

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Say whaaaaat?

That TLC show about the creepy family with 19 children is playing in the bedroom. I'm listening to it and I overheard one of the creepy older kids proposing to his creepy girlfriend and he actually says that they're saving their first kiss for their wedding day because it will make it that much more special.

Ya, you read that right. Their first kiss.

I didn't realize is was 1740 again already.

Those two crazy kids consummated their engagement by holding hands. But only after asking if it would be appropriate. They then went on a date and stood looking at each other holding hands. It was seriously a montage of long denim skirts and hand holding.

I really need to go change the channel. It's grossing me out listening to it.

Clint Eastwood Movies = Emotional Cutting

I saw two movies this weekend.

Or is it watched?

"Saw" implies that I went to the movies. "Watched" implies that I stayed home.

I guess I saw a movie and watched a movie this weekend then.

On Friday, I watched In the Valley of Elah. The acting in it was fantastic. Even the small roles were filled with big name actors. It was a fantastic movie, but overall it was horribly depressing. And gut-wrenching. And made me want to hug Tommy Lee Jones.

For whatever reason, I followed that up by seeing Gran Torino. Wow. Seriously Clint? Just, wow. You know a movie is good when watching it completely changes your mood.

Clint Eastwood was pretty much the only good actor in the film, but it didn't matter. He single handedly made that movie. Directed, produced, starred, sang. He probably built the sets with his bare hands.

As anyone who has seen a movie directed by Clint Eastwood knows, he isn't known for making feel-goods. His movies are so bittersweet. And this one is just that. Think "Million Dollar Baby" bittersweet. You can see it coming a mile away but there's nothing you can do to stop it. You just have to watch it and take it and process it on the ride home. (Or eight hours later sitting at the computer wondering if you're going to be able to stop thinking about it long enough to fall asleep.) It was really a good one.

Friday, January 23, 2009

It's Friday. Now what?

Ahhh, Friday.



A couple girlfriends left their lady beers at my house last weekend. That right there is a Michelob Ultra Pomegranate Raspberry beer mixed with orange juice. It's yummy and loaded with vitamin C! It's getting me buzzed and fighting off cold germs at the same time! What more can you ask for in a cocktail?

I was tempted to come home and put on sweatpants but that sort of seemed like admitting defeat against the evening. Putting sweats on immediately after getting home is like saying to myself, "No, I do not in fact plan on going out tonight. I found an Oscar nominated movie on HBO inDemand and a pizza in the freezer. I'll be lucky to make it past 11:00."

Not that that's the plan or anything.

Beware of the Google

So, I was checking my web stats for my blog last night because yes, I reverse e-stalk my readers, and I noticed that someone found my blog by googling my name. I found that very surprising. My stats tracker is free so it's not very informative but more sophisticated trackers can, in one way or another, tell you where you were googled from. For instance, trackers that come along with hosting software. Software that design agencies use. Design agencies like the one I used to work for.

Then I about crapped my pants because I realized something...

I googled (maybe twice) an ex-boyfriend a while back and looked at the site of the company he works for. It may be one of the types of companies I mentioned above. Just maybe. So, if they check their stats they can see that I found their site by googling him. Well, if I'm not mistaken I googled him from work. And my work IP shows up in stats with the company's name. Meaning, if they check their stats not only can they see that someone googled him, but in big plain crazy-ex-girlfriend letters it will tell them that the google search originated within my company. Where I told him I work.

If they don't happen to look at every stat then no one probably noticed. I worked for a place for two years and looked at the stats maybe half a dozen times. But if they did look and saw it, I totally feel a fool right now. Let this be a lesson to everyone. Take caution when googling tech savvy exs. Do it from someone else's computer just to be safe. Maybe the library. Hotel business centers. But not your work computer.

Bad. Idea.

And if he googled me back and is reading this right now, I guess that makes us both losers now, doesn't it?

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

It Was Me Against the Baby and I Won

Alternate post title: Crisis Call #2 For The Day - Surprisingly I Did Not Make It

The "Help I Need You" door swings both ways! My mom called me tonight to tell me that the rent's washing machine blew up mid-load (that's what she said) and they need some assistance with the pile of soapy clothes they now have on their hands. The choices for backup laundry facilities were between:

Me - Sad and lonely without Matty at home, could use some company, lives close to mom and dad, owes mom for emergency trip to the house this morning, owes dad for 7 billion phone calls in the last ten months, used parent's laundry room for four years after moving out, never paid for detergent, attributed to the ultimate demise of the washing machine

or

Cat - Keeper of their grandchild

Surprisingly, they picked me. I think it's out of sheer pity, cause that baby is cute. Even after what adds up to 24 years of laundry service on their dime, my mom still offered to buy me dinner and bring over her own Tide so she didn't use up mine.

January 21st - Crisis Call #3

I was a little stressed this morning while leaving the house for work, and I did something really stupid. I was carrying gloves, my lunch, a coffee mug, my purse. I turned the door lock from the inside and just as I shut it, realized that the one thing I was not carrying was my keys. My keys were on the table just inside the door. I locked myself out.

What a way to start the morning. I luckily caught my mom before she left for work and she agreed to bring me my spare keys. I happened to wear a skirt today for the first time in months, so that was a nice little bonus as I stood on the front porch waiting for Mom to come save me. Thank goodness for 20° weather today.

It was embarrassing. But, not nearly as embarrassing as the time I locked my keys in the car at work. I called campus security to come help me. They sent a police officer. And the police officer thought I was a high school student!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

6% More Effort, 60% More Awesome

My hair is longer now than it has been in probably the last two years. I'm really bad (i.e. lazy) at styling it so most days involve a five minute blow-dry and a ponytail. During the summer I air-dry in the car on the way to work. The days I do blow-dry it to completion it just kind of hangs there all flat and pathetic. It's the Debby Downer of hair.

Start to finish, my morning routine takes forty-five minutes and I'm not too keen on extending it with hair time. But, the prospect of having sort of nice hair was tempting me so I went to the beauty store and bought a bunch of hair junk yesterday. I got another thing of dry shampoo (for those exceptionally lazy mornings), a bottle of spray root lifter and some velcro rollers.

This morning I root lifted before blow-drying. Then I velcro rolled after blow drying. I let the rollers stay in for about ten minutes and bam! I had some volume! It was well worth the extra three minutes I spent on my hair this morning. Velcro rollers are crazy easy to use and actually work. Why didn't someone tell me this before? I was marveled by them.

Definitely worth the $2.98 investment I made in them.

Movie Night, Every Night

I think I'm going to make a pact with myself to watch more movies this year. I just read an article on cnn.com about Sundance and it was full of all these movies that I have never seen but have always wanted to.

And yes, on this the 20th of January, 2008, there are articles on cnn.com that do not include the words, "Barak Obama." Although, I read all those too.

I'm considering rejoining one of those by mail DVD rental programs. I had one a few years ago and I really loved it at first. But then movie watching conflicted with me going out and getting wasted every night, so I cancelled the service and spent that extra $19 a month on beer. Since I am now older, wiser and a lot more boring, I think it would be fun to have a new good movie to watch every night.

Since Matt's been gone I've watched at least eight movies. I've exhausted my HBO InDemand options. Last night I actually watched Charlie's Angels.

Monday, January 19, 2009

One Week!

Today was G-Man's one week anniversary of being introduced into this world. He's changed so much in seven days. It's unbelievable.







Water. Movie. Cook.

I had really good intentions of being productive yesterday. A little water main break altered my plans slightly... There were some weird sounds coming from the plumbing when I woke up. I of course called my dad. (Crisis call number two this month. Number one was because of weird sounds coming from the heater.) This is what I learned from my dad yesterday:

There was air in my pipes. This happens when the water source is cut off either from within the house, or outside of it. Since I definitely didn't turn my water off, the water company must have shut off service to the house from somewhere outside. (i.e., it's not my problem to fix.) I went around the house and turned the faucets on one at a time to flush out the air. Problem solved.

I went to the grocery store and came home to find that MUD had torn a giant hole in the ground at the bottom of my street and there was no water at all. Soooo... the cooking extravaganza I had planned was put on hold. It's hard to boil potatoes and I don't know, wash your hands, without water. I occupied myself instead by watching The Matrix. I love that movie, but the special effects definitely have not withstood the test of time. I remember that it was mind blowing to see it for the first time ten years ago!

Now I feel old...

The water did come back and I got to cookin. Oh, how I cooked. I made a bunch of meals to take to my sis. She's busy keeping a teeny tiny human fed and happy and probably doesn't have time to shower, let alone cook. I made spaghetti with meatballs, a giant pot of chili and some freaking awesome cheesy mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes aren't technically a meal, but what evs. They're tasty. It was a lot of work, but it was also a huge time saver for the rest of the week. I froze small portions of everything for my dinners this week, and then froze the large portions to take to her and her hubs.



My new plan is to cook a bunch of freezable meals on the weekend so Matt and I have no excuse to eat out during the week when we're tired and lazy.

I also saw on another lady's blog that her and her friends will cook seven of the same meal, like lasagna, and then get together one day a week and swap dinners. They keep one of their own and then swap the other six for different meals. One day of cooking, one week of food. It probably saves money too. Instead of buying seven meal's worth of ingredients, just buy one meal's worth in bulk.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Domesticated Ladies

I got the urge to bake cookies last night, but I was halted by the thought of, "I don't want to go to the store to buy the ingredients. It's cold outside." Then I went back to watching DVR... then I thought about cookies some more... then I checked the kitchen. Sure enough, all the delicious items required to bake cookies were stocked in the pantry.

And I realized: I have become one of those women. I became a woman who always makes sure there's brown sugar and crisco in the pantry in the event of emergency baking. I am officially domesticated!

But I'm still a woman who keeps a bottle of Jack in the freezer. Some things never change.

Addictions

2008 was officially the year that I kicked my clothing addiction. The success of my sartorial rehab was the result of growing older and wiser and not getting the same thrill out of shopping anymore.

Okay, that's completely untrue.

What really ended up happening was that I bought a house and I longed to fill it up with stuff. (Dear Ford, please do not let them open an Ikea in Omaha. Amen.) So, my clothing addition was parlayed into a home decorating addiction. I'd like to think that buying furniture is less selfish than buying shoes since I'm sharing everything in the house with Matt. And I don't have to worry about my butt getting too fat to enjoy an end table for the next ten years.

For instance, it's absolutely fine that I bought this lamp yesterday because we are both going to enjoy the light it will bring our living room.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Eight Days a Week

You know what I think we should do? I think we should implement standard three day weekends for everyone. Since the economy (I accidentally spelled it ecomoney the first time) is hurtin, let's keep the five day workweek and add an extra day onto the weekend.

Basically what I'm suggesting is a reworking of the concept of what a "week is." Not that big of a deal, right?

Time is manmade anyways. It's not like a week, or even a month, really means anything in our modern world. Days and years, yes. Those make sense. But weeks? Why not make it eight days? I think we could all use that extra little bit of weekend. And, total bonus that we get an extra day of television programming. Maybe network TV will stop canceling all the good shows and just throw them on that extra day.

Let's all start the revolution by skipping work on Monday.

Case of the Mondays on a Thursday

I almost blinded myself this morning. Have you ever wondered what it would feel like if you scraped your eyeball with a wool coat? Nope, me neither. But I was unlucky enough to find out this morning on my way out the door.

Then, with my one good eye, I noticed that the down spout I replaced is missing. I think it blew away, possibly into the neighbor's yard. This explains where the first one went. There's no chance of finding it at the moment since the piece is white and everything is covered in snow.

Note to self: Glue the next one on.

So, that's what I will be re-repairing this weekend. I'm also going to see if some of the paint in the garage is salvageable. I got some google info about latex paint and it should be okay as long as it hasn't thawed and refrozen multiple times. If it has, I'm screwed. I'll have to buy new paint. And really, I spent enough money on it the first time to not want to buy it a second time.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Baby Grant

Everyone, this is Grant. Grant, this is everyone. I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot of each other in the coming months.

Cat, I hate to say it but he looks exactly like you when he pouts.





Mentally Spending More Money

I was looking at some Jonathan Adler home crap and I came across this really nice bedding. I'm not interested in the bedding though, just the bed in the picture.



I am very much in love with it. It's a little on the "welcome to my sleeping chambers" side but it's still very pretty. I have owned a queen size mattress for nearly five years and never got around to making a proper bed out of it. For three years I just ignored the fact that I was sleeping on a mattress set on the floor. At least I lived in a loft so it looked a little "bohemian" instead of just "hard up for cash." When I moved in with Matt I upgraded and went from sleeping on mattresses on the floor to sleeping on mattresses on top of a $35 metal frame. Score!

Since this bed is being used in Jonathan Adler's catalog shots, I'm going to assume that it's beyond my affordability range. So even if I knew where to find this, there's no chance of me ever buying it. I can always count on Target though for offering cheap alternatives to all of life's pricey problems.



Our bedroom walls are powder blue on three sides and chocolate brown on the fourth. We have a smattering of blue, brown, polka dot and striped bedding. None of it actually matches but it all coordinates. Much like this headboard. I think it's a tacky enough and funky enough to sort of blend in.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Weekend Recap - Not a Whole Lot to Tell

How was everyone's weekend? For me, Saturday was punctuated with small moments of domestic accomplishment. Sunday was spent in bed. Not all day, but a good 80% of it.

On Saturday I went downtown and picked up our poor ottoman that we ordered about three months ago. It was supposed to be a set when we bought the orange chair but they were out of stock. I grabbed the ottoman, went to the hardware store, maybe went and bought myself something purdy to wear to the gay bar that night, then went home and started my January to-do list. I fixed a missing piece of down spout (Note to self: Check the pile of junk in the garage next time before going to the hardware store. You probably already have what you're looking for.) and patched a crap ton of nail holes in the living room. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to painting over the patches. The can of paint was frozen from sitting in the garage, so I was going to paint on Sunday. But instead I just sat in bed all day watching movies and reading magazines.

I watched Music and Lyrics and Because I Said So yesterday. Music and Lyrics is an alright movie. It's nothing special but Drew Barrymore is adorable so I will forgive the movie for being predictable. Because I Said So though had no redeeming qualities. None. Not even for a minute. The dialog sucked, the characters didn't make any sense, the boyfriends were tools, that hot old guy from 7th Heaven was boring. Poor, poor Diane Keaton was a complete joke in that movie. What was she thinking? I wanted to turn it off and watch Something's Got to Give to wash my brain of the memory. I couldn't even watch the whole thing. I only made it through 45 minutes. It made it's way onto my "Worst Movies Ever" list. It's in good company with Across the Universe and Norbit.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Dad Manifesto

Today is my dad's birthday. It's also the start of birthday mania in our family. His birthday is today, my uncle's is Monday, by aunt's would have been on Wednesday. My Grandmother was pretty spot-on when it came to giving birth. All three kids with birthdays in the same week? That takes some planning.

Did I also mention there's going to be another birthday on Monday. Like a real and legitimate birth day. I can't wait!

Cat's and my dad is pretty rockin. There was a five year period circa 1995-2000 that we thought he was "the worst parent ever, like totally." Two teenage daughters can wreak major havoc on a man, but we grew out of it and now we appreciate every minute he ever spent with us. Among some of my favorite memories of my dad are:

-Playing "Zombie Dad." We had a little red ray gun that would make zapping noises and light up when you pulled the trigger. We would chase him around the house and shoot at him until he died a dramatic death. He would then rise from the dead and chase us around trying to eat our brains.

-Dad and I had a game where he would hide a penny in one hand and make me guess which hand it was in - by smelling it out. It was a talent I had, smelling pennies. I always guessed right.

-Whenever we were sick the following conversation would transpire. It always made us laugh and feel better.
Him: Does your stomach hurt?
Us: No
Him: Do your arms hurt?
Us: No
Him: Does your head hurt?
Us: No
Him: Does your face hurt?
Us: What? No!
Him: Well, It's killing me.

-One time him and I were at Burger King before a band practice. I was going to be late and he still had almost an entire sandwich to eat. I said, "I have to go, but you don't have to rush." He stopped chewing and looked at me. I knew what he was thinking. I yelled, "No, don't do it!" ...He shoved the entire sandwich in his mouth. We were both laughing so hard he couldn't chew.

-Edgar. Dad's evil twin. It was a very weird game but it was hilarious. He would pretend to fall asleep and then wake up his evil twin. I don't remember Edgar ever doing anything evil, but we would ask him questions and he would answer them in an evil voice. So, I guess it was more like "The Exorcist" than "evil twin."

Obviously, Dad is kind of a goofball. It made for a very entertaining upbringing. He's more than just a funny guy though. There were times we'd cry and he'd make us feel better. We'd have a disagreement with a teacher over an assignment and he would physically threaten Mr. Chemistry or Mr. History and defend our honor at parent-teacher conferences. (He only did that twice.) We'd get flat tires and he'd come change them. Hell, I just did that a couple weeks ago. I call him no less than three times a month with some sort of home owner's crisis. I call and ask whether or not he can install drywall. Install a water softener? Install a gate? I call and ask how to negotiate the price of a car. I call and ask what size my windshield wipers are. I call for free lunches on Saturdays. I am 25 and married and I still call a lot. And he still answers.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Kitchen Victory

Guess what I just did?

I made peanut sauce! And it was good!

I decided to try something new with my... leftovers. I put it on some pork tenderloin that was in the fridge. It wasn't the most sophisticated meal but that's not the point. I mixed:

1 glob of chunky peanut butter (2 tablespoons?)
1 tablespoon of Dale's Sauce (essentially soy sauce with some spices thrown in)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
a bunch of garlic
1/4 cup of water

Put everything together in a sauce pan and let it cook until the peanut butter melts completely and the sauce smooths out.

I couldn't believe it was actually good. The last time I attempted something blindly like that was when I tried to make enchilada sauce. It was a complete disaster. I want to make the peanut sauce again and put it on a noodle and cabbage bowl, sort of like pseudo Vietnamese food. Mmmm. Chicken and rice too.

I've sort of picked up this habit lately of only eating meat once a day, if that. Today I had a bean taco bowl for lunch so I was excused to eat pork tenderloin for dinner. I don't plan on becoming a vegetarian, or telling people I'm a vegetarian, because I don't have the discipline to take it that far. Unless there's a type of vegetarian that eats chicken fingers and bacon. I've just really started to think about the food I put in my body (mainly meat) and where it came from and what it went through to get to my plate and I'm not really comfortable with it.

I've thought about it too much lately. I've read too much about meat processing. I've listened to too many new-agey people talk about how bad meat is for your bodily energy. Frankly, meat sort of grosses me out now. I'm mostly talking about beef, pork, miscellaneous land mammal. (Bacon is of course excluded. Sometimes it's better not to think, just chew.) Chicken I'm still okay with for some reason. They're devilish little birds and they deserve to be eaten. Fish and seafood I'm still cool with too. I've caught and gutted fish before (I was five. Thanks, Gramps.) so I can without a doubt say that it does not bother me to kill and eat a fish. But cows? Pigs? I don't know. It just seems different. It's just gross.

I still eat meat when presented to me and I still buy leather products, so it's not like I have some moral or ethical reason not to eat meat anymore. And like I said, I do still love chicken and seafood. But I haven't eaten a cheeseburger in a couple of weeks and the last one I ate gave me some mental indigestion. Will I eat a burger again in the future? Probably. Okay, yes. It's not like I'm going to turn down a burger if I'm over at Jen's and she offers me what I'm told is the best burger ever. But I don't think beef is going to be a staple in my diet anymore.

Or maybe I'm wrong. It's probably just some weird phase and I'll grow out of it.

I'm still torn on sausage though. I really like sausage. And of course the bacon. Maybe I just have a problem eating meat that is still identifiable as an animal's body part. Chicken fingers don't look like meat. Sausage doesn't look like meat.

Who knows.

The Emperor's New Table

I've been thinking a lot lately about our "next" home and what I want to look for in it. Five bedrooms for all of our kids, a mudroom, a green kitchen (the color not the buzzword). What the eff am I doing? We just bought a house in March 2008 and last time I checked we didn't have any kids. I think we as a society in general spend way too much time wanting for the future and not enough time loving what we have.

That being said, let's talk about all this stuff I want.

Yay, consumerism!!!

I love our house but I'm still working on loving what we put in it. The inside of our house is very nice but we're not great decorators so the style of it is still striking me as bland. Since my husband is gone and I'm not allowed to watch Planet Earth without him, I occupied an embarrassing amount of time last night updating my little living room want/have board and searching for new crap to waste our hard earned money on. Blame it on the new CB2 catalog. There is some goooood stuff in there.

Here's what we're working with. We have about half of this stuff. The rug, blue chair and orange lamp are off CB2. That lamp is as good as bought. The rug is beautiful in the catalog. The picture below doesn't do it justice.



I've decided to expand the funkification into the dining room now too. Partly because it makes sense (the rooms run together) and partly because I bought that awesome birch wood hanging lamp before realizing that the living room isn't wired for it. So, I made the executive decision that it's going over the dining room table. And that means that I need to head over to Velocity Art and Design and buy a bunch of crap for the dining room too now. And this too I would imagine. $350 isn't too much for an invisible table, is it?

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Something Funny for Today

This blog post by Miss Out Of Character is ridiculously funny. And relatable.

And Some Donuts.

Leaving on a jet plane.

I feel a little bit out of it today. All the Starbucks in the world couldn't make me alert at this point. My morning has gone something like this:

3:00am - Matt's alarm goes off
4:15am - Matt's ride to the airport is honking in the driveway, dog is barking
5:30am - Matt calls looking for his iPod which is missing
6:45am - My alarm goes off

Obviously, Matt left this morning. He went to South Bend, Indiana. (AKA, home of the Fighting Irish.) He will be there until Monday. Then he'll be home until Thursday, and then he goes back for two more weeks.

His day hasn't started out much better. His iPod got swiped at the airport security checkpoint. His brother knows the pain of having your beloved iPod (along with $20,000 worth of musical equipment) stolen so he offered to replace it when they get to Indiana. Cat pointed out the fact that some punk kid is going to be disappointed when he turns it on and sees that he just scored 60G of Beatles music. I think there might be some jazz on their too if he's lucky. I think there's a way to track a stolen iPod when it's synced to a computer... but you have to install software on it before it's stolen. I think we're a little late for that.

Today is a day of lost sleep, lost iPods, and MIA husbands. Can't it be 5:00 yet?

Monday, January 5, 2009

Very Organized Start to 2009

I am kind of a nerd. No secret there. Last night I made a spreadsheet planning out all the minor and major home repairs we would like to take care of in 2009. They range from patching nail holes we punched in the walls to carpeting bedrooms. I listed everything and then broke it down by month based on our budget and estimated costs.

GEEK!!!

It was so satisfying to see everything listed there. It seemed overwhelming when everything was just floating around in my head, but down on paper it was perfectly manageable. Everything is spaced out over the next year and we know how much money we need to have on hand every month to take care of this stuff.

For the month of January I have planned to patch nail holes, paint patches and scuffs throughout the house, and paint the bathroom. I figured I'd start off small. And cheap since we sort of lost our minds this Christmas. Plus it means that I get to go buy Paint Buddies which I'm really excited about.

I just realized that I forgot to put "install water softener" on the spreadsheet. Damn! That's a pricey one too. We were told that our water heater stopped working because it had huge deposits of calcium in it. The repair guy's jaw dropped when we told him that the water heater was less than a year old. He strongly suggested we get a water softener if we don't want to have our water heater breakdown every six months.

Oh yeah, I also forgot "get new thermostat" since ours only goes down, not up. The temperature in our house drops to 62 every night and we have no way of turning it up. (I would advice everyone not to buy a digital thermostat.) It sucks when I'm freezing at 2am, but I guess it's sort of nice when we get the gas bill during these winter months.

Isn't owning a house awesome?

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Ice. Whatever.

So much for date night. We got iced-in tonight. We were planning on eating a nice dinner at home and then going out to a movie. I've been dying to see Benjamin Button and we got a gift card to a movie theater for Christmas... Since this was Matt's first weekend off from shows in the last month, and we had a free pass to the movies, I was making him take me out on a date whether or not he wanted to see the movie. But that bitch, Mother Nature, had other plans for us. We got hit with an ice storm and had to stay home.

So, instead of date night at the movies, we ate a nice dinner of spaghetti and then Matt watched football and I had myself a SATC mini marathon. Eric came over (since he was without power due to the ice) and he hooked us up. Literally. He bought us a Time Capsule for the Mac and some Apple TV thing that turns your TV into a computer though the Time Capsule's wifi. They were wedding/Christmas presents. He works at Apple so we essentially got a professional install. Now not only do we have lotsa wifi action all over the house, but I now officially have a backup system for my computer. My hard drive corrupted about a year ago and I didn't learn my lesson about backing up. I'm in the clear now!