Lazy Sunday

I woke up pretty early this morning, considering I ended up drunk off of Hoegaarden last night. You have to watch it with the Belgium beers apparently. They sneak up on you.

Two pints of Hoegaarden = Hello You're Drizzunk.

Matt's band played at a neighborhood block party type thing in Dundee last night. It was supposed to be the "Spring Fling" but it was like 40%deg; and everyone was wearing coats last night.

I got up this morning and repainted my office. I'll go ahead and admit that I'm really bad at picking out paint colors. The last color was dark gray, the current one is sea foam. The sea foam is a huge improvement. It's still questionable, but undeniably better.

I'm so proud of myself for beginning and finishing a project in one day. I rewarded myself for the accomplishment by ignoring some freelance work and watching TV in bed this evening. Ringo joined me. He was more interested in watching the neighbors than watching TV though.

Ringo

Little Ringo misplaced his blue squeaky stuffed bone a couple weeks ago. Everyday when I came home from work he would tear around the house looking for it. He temporarily made due with a rawhide bone we gave him. This dog doesn't chew on rawhides, he just carries them around like a prize. He sleeps with them too.

I finally gave up hope that we would ever find the squeaky bone. I'd looked all over the house for it. So, last night while I was at Target I bought him a new squeaky bone. It's exactly the same as the last one, except the new one is green. I gave it to him when I got home and he went crazy. He ran laps around the kitchen squeaking the hell out of that bone.

I was laying in bed later on watching TV when Ringo ran into the room, launched onto the bed and dropped a squeaky bone by my feet. Not a new, clean, green one. A dirty, smelly, blue one. He somehow found the old one no less than three hours after I replaced it.

That dog is a jerk.

Ringo the Dingo

Just because I love him and this picture perfectly captures his sweet little personality:

I Don't Need No Wah-Wah

Our watermelons are starting to grow!



This is actually the second one to start growing. The first one was tragically run over with the lawn mower. While Matt is the one who did the actual slasher job on the melon, it was essentially my fault for having a wild jungle of a garden. He just didn't see it. It jumped over the teensy little plastic fence that was supposed to contain the vine. The fence failed, obviously, and the melon wound up in lawn territory. What can you do?

Ringo came outside with me while I inspected the garden. And when I say "garden" I obviously mean "pit of crab grass."



He's so happy because he just got his ears cleaned. I'm not sure why, but that dog has the grossest ears ever. He's lucky he's so cute and I'm willing to put up with it. Really though, anyone who knows me knows I'm completely obsessed and in love with him.

It's almost the weekend, which means it's almost time for me to start feeling guilty for not doing housework.

Circus Dog

Ringo is grounded. Last night, Matt and I went to Kay and Ryan's again to play Wii. When we came home, the house had been trashed by our dear little Ringo. Once again, he got into the trash cupboard. Even though the trash can was empty he still pulled it out and dragged it to the living room. Since he didn't find what he was looking for in the trash, he continued to tear apart the kitchen. Now, we think Ringo had a past life as a circus dog because what he did next seems impossible to me. He somehow opened the oven, then with the oven door down, he jumped up on it and opened the drawer next to it. He pulled out all the hot pads and brought them to the living room, where I assume he attempted to eat the dried cheese off of the oven mitt because it was all wet. He also pulled everything he could reach off of the counter tops. He got just about everything except for a bag of cookies on top of the coffee maker. That must have pissed him off because he then went and opened another cupboard full of utensils and bakeware. There were spoons, spatulas and pizza cutters strewn all over the house. He also brought three spring-form pans and a jumbo muffin pan to the living room.

I applaud Ringo for his ability to open cupboards, ovens and even the fridge once. But the dog obviously isn't that smart because he skipped over the pantry full of food. I would have been a lot madder at him last night if it wasn't so funny. I mean, come on! Spoons? Muffin pans? That dog was desperate to let us know he was mad at us for leaving him. He couldn't find anything good though, so he just threw a temper tantrum. We threatened to trade him with the neighbors dog and now he's back on lock down when we leave the house.

Things You Don't Want to See Before 7am

The dog eating a live opossum on the back patio.

Definitely not something I'm prepared to see at 6:45 in the morning.

Dresses and Dogs

Project Runway was a good one last night. Suede won with his crazy pink and beige cocktail dress, which in retrospect was pretty freakin incredible considering the materials he had to work with. My favorite dress of the season is still Keith's checked tablecloth dress. I would wear that damn thing day in and day out if I owned it. It's adorable!



The interview yesterday went well. I have another one with another manager on Friday. Eric and Matt really did all the work for me, talking me up to the folks at Apple. All I really had to do was show up as scheduled and show the woman that I was in fact who they said I was. I think I did alright in that sense.

I have a little habit of visiting the Humane Society's website and then taking pictures of the cute dogs and pixing them to Matt while he's working. I always say something like, "Ringo knows this dog. He wants us to go say hi and maybe bring him home." Usually, Matt doesn't think it's cute. But today I did it and he said we could go look at the dog! YAY! She's super cute! She's a lab/aussie mix and has the cutest face in the world. She's seven years old! No seven year old dog deserves to be in the pound! We picked up Ringo in there when he was six-ish and I felt absolutely terrible for him. He is the sweetest dog I've ever met and I can't think of one single thing that would warrant him being given up for adoption. Not one thing. Not opening the trash cupboard and eating garbage. Not opening the fridge and eating a pizza and soda. Not coughing up hair-balls in the middle of the night. Not a single thing! (Seriously though, that dog is a freak for pizza. I can't even tell you how many pizzas he's eaten.)

I'm aware of the risks that go along with adopting a second dog. We finally just got Ringo to the point where he can be left to roam the house while were gone and not completely destroy the place. The new dog might disrupt that. There's also the risk that they won't get along. Cat had a really awful experience with adopting two dogs at different times and they didn't get along. It was heartbreaking for her to have to give up one of her dogs. She went to a close friend who loves her dearly, so it wasn't a completely unhappy ending... but still. No one wants to go through that. And then there's twice the food, twice the vet bills, twice the muddy paws, twice the hair on the floor. But twice the love!

The chance that we'll actually bring the dog home is about 1/1000. So, I shouldn't fret over it too much.

What the Heck Is This Thing All About?

Here I am, on the cusp of mid-20s, on the cusp of marriage, and on the cusp of being gainfully unemployed (potentially and intentionally). So much is happening right now that I feel the need to put it all down in one spot and maybe find some clarity in all of it. And since blog sites have become my new internet addiction (so long Myspace) here I am!

Let's begin with the wedding. This is easy stuff. I am beyond elated to be marrying Matthew, the man of my dreams. Our relationship is so sweet and lovely it makes me want to puke sometimes. It's not all cuteness and nausea though, we both have terrible tempers. Our lives are enhanced by the wonderful Ringo. Not that Ringo, although he's nice too. I'm talking about this Ringo:



And on to the not-so-easy stuff... I'm talking career here. I will be turning 25 shortly and have been working in an office since the age of 20. I've known the entire time that I am not cut out for office longevity. It's painfully boring and quiet and stuffy and lots of other bad things. I've been presented with lots of crazy opportunities lately and I'm thinking about embarking on some of them. I really want to regain some of the creativity I've lost over the last five years. (You want to kill a creative graphic design graduate hungry to make it in the world? Give her a job.) This however would mean that I would need to quit my job and depend entirely on freelance work and hourly wages. It's something I have to consider sooner or later if I want to finish school. It's kind of hard to take an 8 hour cooking lab on a Monday when you're supposed to be at the office.

Did I not mention that I am also a culinary student? Well, there you go. I am currently taking classes for a culinary degree in bakery/pastries. Matt and I want to open a diner in the semi near future. Everything in the restaurant will be made fresh on the premises. You want some hash-browns? Not a problem, just let me chop up this potato real quick. My specialty will be the baked goods and being mistress of interior decoration and all things fun and pretty. Every roll, every pie, every slice of bread will be made fresh and from scratch, not pulled out of a plastic bag from the freezer. My dream in life is to wake up every morning and bake delicious food that people love to eat. That seems simple enough, right? It's the getting there that's not so simple I've found.