Weekend Recap.

So. I still feel like ass. I'm starting to feel like I'm never going to get over this sinus crap. Even though I'm still a walking petri dish, I rallied and went out of town yesterday. But let's back up a smidge...

Friday, my Ikea cherry was popped. And yes, I was overwhelmed. And yes, I didn't walk out of there empty handed. I bought wrapping paper. And picked out 5 different beds I want in our guest room. And found 17 pieces of furniture for the same tiny ass guest room.

Having worked at a fairly upscale furniture store in college, Ikea was a new and foreign world for me. I never knew furniture could be so cheap. But it did seem that the quality matched the price. However, for a guest room that will average one person sleeping in it per year, I think we're safe with cheap and cheaper.

Tangent time- Bob refuses to have anything smaller than a king size bed in this closet sized guest room. I have the most fabulous antique iron bed frame that I'm dying to set up in the room. Issue is... it's a double. And Bob says we should have a "grown up bed" in that room for our "adult" guests (read... potentially one parent at time OR drunk friends who stay over after parties). So the way this will play out... I will let him win and keep a king size bed in there, but I will buy super cute furniture and make it a bright girly room. He's not going to like this compromise. Oh well. That's how marriage works. Right?

Friday I also found some pretty fabulous wine, made from North Carolina blackberries. I'm all for shopping local and I was very pleased when it turned out pretty freaking fantastic.

Yesterday, some friends and I took a road trip up to Virginia to watch the Louisiana Tech/UVa football game. We (LaTech) won. Woo hoo! 4-0 baby. It was fun, but ridiculously stressful. Those Wahoo's sure made us work for it. After the game, we found a Raising Canes in Charlottesville. If you've never eaten there before, find a Southern college town and get after it. And make sure you order an extra Canes sauce. The extra $.79 is worth it. And yes, it's just chicken fingers, but still. It's effing amazing.

Aaaaand that about sums up the weekend. Tonight, I'm dvr'ing 5 different shows, but trying to decide which to watch when and if I'll even watch them real time or continue with my Netflix'd Felicity, season 2, which is one of my all-time favorite shows, with Everwood coming in at a close second.

SJ Thursday.

This sweet little thing went to San Antonio last weekend. Think she loves Cookie Monster much?

Manic Monday.

So. Ready for a schizo post? Here goes.

-I spent a majority of yesterday playing the new Tetris app I downloaded on my itelephone. The last thing I watched on television last night (this morning) before going to sleep (taking a nap) was All American Handyman. So guess what my short dream was about? Yep. The stars of All American Handyman were INSIDE the Tetris game on my itelephone, placing the blocks where I wanted them. By using mini cranes. Yeah...

-I'm allergic to toothpaste. I've never quite figured out what ingredient it is specifically, but regular ol' toothpaste makes me break out like a 14 year old boy. Seriously. Huge, massive ass things on my face and around my mouth. So. I avoid puberty (again), by using Toms of Maine. I typically order it online from the Toms store and buy 3-4 tubes at a time. Which comes to a whopping $20-$30 dollars per order. Sometimes I hate the fact that I spend that much on freaking toothpaste, but then I remember the potholes on my face if I choose to be cheap. Gah. I'm typically so low maintenance.

-Tomorrow our countertop people are coming to measure! Squee! So we're looking at two-ish weeks and then WE GET OUR KITCHEN BACK! I mean, after what will be (by that point) 12 weeks without one, you can imagine my excitement.

-I lose earring backs as often as most people change underwear. I wear the same studs every day of life, with exceptions like my wedding and the wedding we went to last weekend. Other than those days, I wear the same exact ones. And I play with the backs. I twist them. I pull them off and on. I lose them... So I go to Target and buy the little card of cheapo earrings and use the backs. Because of this, I have an abundance of random tacky little earrings in my nightstand.

Weekend Recap.

I have done very little this weekend. Definitely not enough for a recap.

Yesterday, I continued to be sickly and basically did nothing. I ventured out last night to go over to a friends house to watch some football. And drink a bottle of wine. And guess who paid for that this morning? Yeah. Me. Not cool. In fact, I may be sicker now that I was yesterday. Way much fun.

Today wasn't much better. I ate as much grease as I could get my hands on in an effort to feel better. It didn't work. Then I got bored.

So I've been eyeing the bottom/underneath of our front door. It's nasty looking and needed to be painted. So. I painted it and touched up other areas that are painted white in our house. And then I vacuumed. And then cleaned out the dvr. And then took out the garbage. See, I can be productive when I need to be.

And late this afternoon, I downloaded some new itelephone games, including Tetris. Sweet lord. It's like junior high all over again. I'm officially readdicted to Tetris. Crap. There goes all my free time...

Sick and sappy.

So I'm still sick. And when I'm sick, I always think about my Mamaw. I'm not sure why, but she always comes to mind when I'm sickly. In all my snottiness, I got out a box of some of her old pictures. But I found something more instead...

So back in college, Bob and I were really good friends. Best friends. And being best friends, we made each other our back up marriage plan (mainly because my original back up plan came out of the closet our sophomore year of college, and I'm happy to report he's been practically married to Dennis for the last few years). So if neither Bob or I were married by ages 26 and 28, we'd marry each other.

Well, as things happen, Bob and I did NOT marry each other at 26 and 28. It ended up being 31 and 33 instead. While looking at Mamaw pics, I found this card. It's my college graduation card from Bob. He'd also put one of his business cards in there, good for one free meal at one of two of our favorite places, as long as I went with him.

I love this boy! And for some reason, he loves me. Even with all my snot and sappiness.

 

SJ Thursday- Birthday Edition

 Happy 30th Birthday to SJ's mom, Carly! 

We love and miss you!

Fetal position shaped pillow for one.

The total number of shits that Jack gives that I'm sick... Zero.

When he wants a pillow, he gets a pillow, damn it.

Who doesn't love puppies?

All the travel, alcohol, and time zone changing have caught up with me. Instead of an actual post, go look at some cute puppies (scroll to bottom for livestream).

Weekend Recap.

So we went to Lake Tahoe this weekend. We had amazing luck the whole time. We made flights that were overbooked, we took the last rental car available in all of Reno (an SUV for under $100 the whole weekend), and we scored an upgraded room at our hotel. With luck like this, we should have spent our time more wisely and hung out at the casinos in Reno instead of going to Tahoe.

We stayed at the Village at Squaw Valley, which was the Olympic Village for the 1960 Winter Games, on the northwest side of the lake. We just hung out Friday and walked around the village, checking out the shops and restaurants.

Saturday morning we woke up early (unintentionally) and went back to Reno for the Air Races. I loved the drive back and forth between Reno and Lake Tahoe. It was so gorgeous. Coming from Louisiana where our highest point is 535 feet (shout out to Mt. Driskill... woo hoo!), I was in awe. I think I took more pictures on the road than anywhere else (I won't bore you with the pictures... you're welcome).

After the races, we went down to take an obligatory picture in front of the lake and then headed back to our resort. Connected to the Village, is an aerial tram that takes you up to the High Camp at 8200 feet. It was super cool. An 8 minute gondola ride gets you to a pool with a cafe, an ice/roller skating rink, a paintball and disk golf course, and amazing views from the top of the mountain and some pretty tasty fish tacos.

To finish our day, we went to the wedding of Chris and Jess at the Plumpjack Valley Inn. It was a beautiful outdoor ceremony with perfect weather. The bride and wedding were absolutely gorgeous.

If you'd like to take a nap, you can see our pictures here and put yourself right to sleep. I know there's nothing more boring than someone else's vacation pictures. But, there are some peeps (Ashley) who want to see these in preparation for their future trips. The pics are captioned for my grandmother, so please excuse the detailed descriptions on some of them.

Flops = love.

A few years ago, I bought some Havaianas. And I adore them. I wear them almost daily. It's either these shimmery brown ones, or my black J. Crew flops (which broke this past summer and it was too late in the year to reorder new ones... so sad). I have other sandals and wedges, but you know. Flops are my besties.

During the year, I either wear flops or riding boots daily. Rarely an in between. I don't give a shit what society (or my grandparents) feel is appropriate for the season. I wear flops year round. Every year. In any weather. I mean, I have other shoes. Cute camel peep toes I got from BR this year? I wear them for special occasions (like the wedding we're going to this weekend). Black heels? Funerals. Sperry's? To accompany Bob to the golf course. Toms? For work. Born and Patagonia slides? I own them. I don't wear them. Oh. By the way, my feet HATE socks.

So you can see from the following pictures, a) my reluctance to purchase new flops once mine are worn in and b) how my foot "wears" flops. Side by side. Brand new never worn beside 4 year olds worn (almost) every day. And also you get to see a kitty ass. He said he needed to be in the pic.

God only knows what my knee, foot, and back docs would say if they saw this pic. I'd be in an operating room stat. Having something fixed.

Can you see the wall?

So. Bob has deployed a lot in the last two years. And when I say a lot, I mean he's practically been deployed for the entire last two years. Off and on. A couple or six months at a time. While he's there, he usually stimulates our economy here, one Amazon and/or Apple purchase at a time.

This past deployment, he reigned in his spending while he was in 'istan (citing our upcoming wedding as the reason). However, when he got home, his intentions were a little less charitable... toward our wedding anyway. A couple of months ago, I explained we hung our wedding "guest book" in the (now yellow) powder room downstairs. The reason: our ridiculously large television.

Turns out, this monster sized television served as his post-deployment prize (his previous purchases include a Corvette and crotch rocket, so a television didn't seem too bad). Prior to this tv, he had a modestly sized 50ish something inch above the mantle. But omg. He could see a lot of wall on either side of it. Solution... a bigger television that covers more of the wall. Yep.

This past Sunday, we were fighting over whether to watch the Saints game or the Braves game. We both wanted to be downstairs to watch our games, so we finally discovered the Picture in Picture feature. Turns out, programming doesn't allow for a television as large as ours. PIP is supposed to be in the bottom-ish corner. Ours was more in the middle.

So what did Bob do? He took a page out of my book and took to facebook to bitch about it. Me and the boy couldn't be more perfect for each other if we tried. However, a few weeks ago when he mentioned that he could still see a little bit of wall on either side of the television, I almost punched him. Okay. Not almost. I did.

The attention level of boys = 0.

So. For the 20 or so hours Bob was home this weekend, he liked my home improvements. Once he noticed them. Good thing, for his sake.

Poor guy. He drove in from Atlanta last night, walked in the house, and went straight to the powder room (too many Diet Dr. Peppers on the road). He came out and DIDN'T SAY A WORD about the paint. He went right back outside to gather all his crap to bring in from his car and then plopped down to watch the LSU game.

After a few minutes, I kinda started quizzing him on new things around the house. Curtains? Looked great. However, he did NOT notice the painted bathroom. Goober. He knew something in there was different, but he thought I'd reframed/rematted the "guest book." When my line of questioning finally prompted him to return to the room, he noticed the paint. Then I showed him my "office" and he was pleased. Mainly because I hung the shelves without him, which meant he didn't have to mess with them.

So this morning, we had quite possibly the worst breakfast in Charlotte and then drove to Greensboro. He was supposed to fly to Chicago to start work, only then to be a passenger on a flight back to GSO so he could pick up the plane and start his actual work day by flying passengers back to Chicago. Instead of all that nonsense, I just drove him to GSO so he could bypass Chicago (the first time), therefore spending more quality time with me (eating a crappy breakfast and riding in the car together for 2 hours).

Yeah. This schedule of his is no fun. However, he works until Wednesday and then he's off for a few days, during which we will go watch some friends of ours get hitched. Woo hoo!

Operation Complete.

Things I've done since Wednesday to complete Operation Surprise Bob:

Hung curtains. The picture came out dark and crappy, so you don't get to see. I know. I've ordered two more panels to add some thickness. They just seem too skimpy. This is what they look like in real life.

Painted. The pain in the ass downstairs powder room is now Homestead Resort Tea Room. Ridic.

Installed the shelves from hell. OMG. Those things are bitches. Pure and simple. But me and the super sweet Elizabeth (with some help from baby Ben) got them up. And they're somewhat level. Not too strong, but level none the less. They'll hold the things I had planned for them. Maybe.

Spackled. I had 6 holes in the wall from when I attempted to hang the shelves without assistance. So I spackled and painted over the patches. Now this is where I do good work, peeps... I picked out a totally random color at Lowes hoping it was close to my builder beige. It's an exact freaking match.

Now. If Bob isn't pleased AND impressed, I may kill him. Well, I would. But I'm too damn sore from doing all this manual labor.

Operation: Surprise Bob.

Since Bob doesn't read this blog, I can tell you what I did yesterday. I painted our downstairs powder room. As a surprise for Bob. (Our kitchen/dining room will also be a surprise. The contractors finished painting it after he left on Wednesday. Yay!)

Do any of you know how freaking hard it is to paint a small room? Omg. Silly me. I thought it would be easier. Smaller walls. Smaller amount of work. WRONG. It's incredibly difficult to paint behind a pedestal sink. And dumb ass me thought I needed to paint BEHIND the toilet tank as well, you know, since people look back there and everything. And paint it I did. Let's just hope no one ever has to see the back of the toilet tank. Because it's yellow. The same yellow as the walls. Homestead Resort Tea Room, in fact. I just rolled the roller right up the back. This project took approximately 4 hours. I also had grand plans to paint our master bathroom. But after the bitch the downstairs one has been, uh, screw that. I'll either live with builder beige in that room or hire what my contractors call "amigos" to do the work for me.

In addition to painting, I hung our living room curtains on Wednesday. Great little things from Pottery Barn. I hung them. Alone. With no assistance. I had to use the following: a ladder, a drill, a stud finder, a laser leveler, a measuring tape, and a pencil. And the pencil was the only thing I was comfortable handling. Yet, I got those gd curtains and rods on the gd walls. It took approximately 3 hours.

Today, I *attempted* to hang metal shelves in our closet under the stairs, which also doubles as my "office." Yeah. Do you know how effing hard it is to hang those metal shelves? Alone. With studs everywhere, which is really handy when the stud finder doesn't find them. I've recruited help to come over tomorrow to see if WE can hang them. And not put more holes in the wall. Before Bob gets home tomorrow night. I spent approximately 1 hour today, and who knows how long it will take tomorrow. Stand by for pictures. Of either TONS of holes in the walls... or shelves.

SJ Thursday.

 

How sweet is this little thing?!

Confusion. Pure and simple.

This was posted today, Monday, September 3. Read this and see how many errors you can find. Spelling, date, whatever. It's fun. Like those Highlights magazines from childhood where you have to find the things that don't belong or aren't like the other. Have fun!


First Lady, Pelosi the highlights of day 1 at TWC Arena

by NewsChannel 36 Staff

Posted on September 3, 2012 at 10:08 PM

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The North Carolina delegation is only feet away from the action starting Tuesday night.

The First Lady Michelle Obama made a surprise visit on the stage late Tuesday afternoon, scoping out the podium and her teleprompter ahead of her big speech.

Her crowd today, though, was mainly members of the press.

Delegate Romaine Thomas was one of the few who got to see her today in the arena.

“Impressed,” Thomas said.  “I think she's absolutely smart and charming and dedicated.”

Moments earlier, the First Lady was up in the suites high above the convention floor doing interviews with entertainment shows, including Ross Matthews of E! News.

“I just inteviewed the first lady, and now I'm worried about my breath,” Matthews joked.

Matthews was made famous by his longtime stint as Ross The Intern on the ‘Tonight Show’ and now reports for E! News.

“I talked to her about her husband, the campaign, about why they keep doing it,” he added.

Early Tuesday night, leading Democrat in the house Nancy Pelosi also tested out the stage and the podium with a few others.

Part was what it takes to get ready for the first night of convention...and to get ready for the first lady.

“I've seen her many times and everytime, and I'm always impressed,” added volunteer Deborah Kilpatrick Bird about the First Lady.

Michelle Obama was loose while on stage Tuesday, joking with those in attendence, "The key is to not fall of the stage."

In case of emergency: eat Peanut M&M's.

So I went to the gym this morning without eating beforehand. Not smart, I know. Somehow I was so motivated to get there, that I forgot to eat anything before I left. That's rare. In fact, this may have been the first time I've ever forgotten to eat. Period.

So anyway. I left the gym and grabbed Subway. As I was leaving with my sandwich, I walked out their door, unlocked my car, and climbed in. The passenger side. I drove up there alone and left alone. Yep.

I'm blaming it on the lack of carbs in my system. And now, that's been remedied. And to make sure, I had some peanut M&M's too. Just in case. You can never be too careful.

Passive aggressive... protesting.

So. The DNC is in Charlotte this week. I am not happy about it. And lucky for us, White House staffers are staying down in our section of town. Know what that means? Pure and utter chaos. Road closures. Increased traffic. Ridiculousness.

The protesting also started today. These peeps walked all over Uptown Charlotte, with it hot as balls outside, to protest Bank of America. On a Sunday. The one day banks are closed. Why? I don't get it. I totally support their right to protest, their right to free speech, and their right to whatever else they have the right to do. But seriously. Protesting a bank on a Sunday? That's just a smidge passive aggressive in my book. Why not do it on a day... when they're OPEN? Isn't the entire purpose of protesting to get them to understand your point of view? How can they do that when they're not working? On a holiday weekend at that?

So. To everyone else not using their Sunday to protest, happy weekend!

Drywall and football.

This, my dear friends, is called PROGRESS!

It's taken 5 full weeks, but we have removed screws from water pipes, removed mold (everywhere), removed and refloated drywall, lowered the bar and cut off the end so it's countertop level, and come Wednesday, we'll have new paint on the walls. And Bob and I scored a pretty sweet canvas yesterday at World Market. It'll look amazing on those new Pale Butter walls, with our red/multi striped chair cushions (which I purchased, because Bob purchased the most uncomfortable dining room chairs known to man).

We're just waiting for the cabinets and countertops to come in and we'll have a kitchen. Omg. Last week, they moved the stove and fridge back into the room. It's weird now. Having to walk all the way into the kitchen to get to the fridge. And having access to the laundry room. I'm going to miss hauling multiple loads of laundry next door. Not.

On another note, tonight we had our fantasy football draft, which I did basically unassisted. The Fighting Snuffleupagii, the reigning 2011-12 champs with a record of 16-1, are back again. And we mean business. No worries, friends. Just as I've kept you in the kitchen loop, I'll bombard you with updates about my awesomeness in fantasy football. Unless I'm losing. Then you won't hear a peep.