so not dog people

I forgot to mention in my post yesterday that we house- and dog-sat for my co worker this weekend. Dogs are kind of a pain in the ass. This one is, anyway. He needs to be walked all the time and he poops all over the place as he walks. Like, he just squats in the middle of the road, then takes a few steps and goes some more, than walks 10 more feet and goes some more. It's unnecessarily gross. It makes me not want a dog.

Luckily, there are 2 new dogs around that are much cuter, and that we don't have to take care of (ie pick up after). One I mentioned here a couple of months ago, Alfred's parents' new dog, whose name is now Turk (I think they were still deciding on a name last time I mentioned him). He's getting big, but is still cute. He likes to climb in your lap when you sit on the floor. Well, he did last time I saw him, which was like 3 weeks ago, so who knows by now.

The other new dog is Ilya and Mercedes' puppy, Mister. He's a Shih Tzu, and is so, co cute. Partially because he's so tiny, but also just because he's adorable. He gets so excited when anyone pays attention to him. You can just pick him up and he just loves you. You can probably drop kick him pretty far too, not that I've tried, of course.

Actually, the biggest problem I have with dogs is not all the work, but the smells. I hate, and I mean hate, the smell of pet food. And dogs tend to smell. Maybe if you bathe them like all the damn time they're ok, but generally they start to smell. And that grosses me out. It's a good thing Alfred has no great desire to get a dog, either. We'll probably end up with one at some point of our lives, but I'm perfectly happy without one of our own for now.

unexpected hiatus

And suddenly, it's been a week since my last post. Not the best week of my life, though I suppose it could have been worse. Monday I had to work late, and then of course there was an issue with the register so I didn't get home until 10:00. Alfred made me a grilled cheese sandwich and chocolate milk for dinner though, so that was nice. He made me his famous homemade Caesar salad dressing for dinner on Tuesday, which was also very nice, and extremely delicious. We made the croutons with different bread though, and they weren't quite as good as usual. Ah well, live and learn.

Thursday we had some really nasty weather while I was at work. More specifically, we had severe thunderstorms and tornado warning sirens while we had 150+ kids in various parts of the museum. It was a little stressful. We got everyone into the most secure building (about 75 in one section and maybe 90 in another) and locked all the doors and all just hung out for about half an hour until the worst of it passed. Apparently one of the tour guides that was there with one of the groups saw a cloud drop down and start to spin about a block north of us. Luckily it lifted back up before it turned into a tornado. It's times like those that being in charge is kind of scary.

Friday was sunny and gorgeous, until about 1:45. At that point the temperature dropped about 15-20 degrees and thick fog rolled in. Not dangerous, just cold and kind of crappy. Just as I was about to go eat my lunch outside and enjoy the sunshine, too.

Oh, and we did get some good news this week: a signed lease and deposit from the people renting our house! So it's official, we'll be moving by March 1. I'll write about and try to post some pictures of the new house soon.

A note about the picture: it's from White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. We were watching the movie Year One this week; there's a scene where they're in the desert, and at the end of the scene the camera pulls back and you can see mountains in the background. I said it looked just like White Sands. So we watched the credits at the end, and what do you know, filmed partially in New Mexico. It was kind of exciting.

Another weekend (nearly) gone. It's been a fairly productive one, which is sort of nice. Last week we had our first school groups since winter break, which was good, I needed something to do at work again. Not that I have nothing to do when there are no groups, there's just nothing I want to do. I made brown velvet cupcakes Thursday evening and took them in on Friday. They were brown instead of red due to the lack of food coloring. They tasted good. I had a few interviews too, with varying results.

Friday night we went to Ilya and Mercedes' house for dinner. They had a bunch of really good sushi grade tuna, so it was pretty yummy. Then we watched The Men Who Stare At Goats, which Mercedes and I slept through. Apparently it wasn't as good as Alfred and I had hoped. Saturday we spent far longer than anticipated cleaning the new house. The tile floors, specifically. But they are now clean(er) and sanitized and ready for things to be placed on top of them. The last big cleaning thing we have to do is the blinds, but someone didn't think we needed to bring the vacuum cleaner with us for that this weekend so they'll have to wait.

Today Alfred did a little bit of cleaning and organizing in the garage, while I mostly sat around and was useless. I did exercise and go grocery shopping, so at least I left the house. We also watched the G.I. Joe movie, which probably would have been better if I was a 13 year old boy, but at least the line "knowing is half the battle" was included, which got me pretty fired up (I am a child of the 80s, after all). And "yo Joe." But not "got to get tough," or "real American heroes," but hey, I'm not complaining. Maybe they'll be in the sequel that is so clearly going to be made.

a little something for the ladies

I wrote an open letter to the young gentlemen of the world awhile back. I'd find that post and link to it here, but the keyboard and mouse I'm using suck far too much to go through that much effort. I'm using the internet on our tv! It's rad. Anyway, here's a little message to the young ladies so that they don't feel left out.

Girls. I know you're only trying to help. I'm sure there's no other reason for your behavior in public restrooms. I know that you're trying to save the environment by not flushing the toilets, saving water and whatnot. Or maybe it's because you've been trained not to touch public restrooms and don't want to touch the flush lever either. Well, I'm here to tell you that neither you nor the whales will die because of flushing the toilet. It's ok, trust me. I do it all the time. Hell, I apparently do it more often than you do, because I'm constantly having to flush after people.

There's also that minor issue with the toilet paper. In the toilet works best, ladies. And I know it's super fun to spin the dispenser to get to the next roll, but it's best if you wait until the current roll is actually gone before you spin it. Otherwise you end up with three little mini rolls that run out too soon. That's no help to anyone.

Then we have the sink area. I'm sure you're just trying to keep things clean by pouring soap and water all over the floor, counter, and sink, but we have these things called "old ladies" who like to slip and fall. Oh, and that round thing under the paper towel dispenser? That's where the used paper towels go. It's called a trash can. It's where all the happy used paper towels go. Send them home, girls. Send them home.

In closing, people of all ages and sexes are disgusting. The End.

Heat wave!

It was over 50 degrees yesterday! It felt downright balmy. Tomorrow's supposed to get to 60, and 70 by the weekend! It's amazing! I actually took my coat off at work for half of the day yesterday. It was like I was in Florida or something.

Other big news: we may have actually found people to rent our house. They've come to look at it twice, we've agreed on rent and lease details, they love the house, Alfred checked them out and everything looks ok. All we have to do is actually sign the lease and get their deposit. They wouldn't move in until March 1, so we don't have to rush and move in the next 2 weeks, so that's good. Of course, now that I've written this I've probably jinxed it and it will fall through. Damn.

This is just the first step in our master plan. First, rent out our house. Next, move to the house that Alfred bought through work that we now own, which we owe an investor some money for but don't actually have a mortgage on. At that point our renters will be covering most of the mortgage on our old house, so we'll be paying a very minimal amount towards housing every month. Lower monthly costs brings me that much closer to being able to quit my job and be a lady of leisure! It's all coming together finally...

lazy Saturday

Our first non-working (for me) weekend at home in quite awhile. It's been great so far! I didn't get out of my pajamas until about 6:30pm, and then it was to exercise, shower, and put on new pajamas. So, pretty fly. We've done a whole lot of not much today, which has included watching a movie (Julie and Julia, which we both enjoyed), doing some organizing and cleaning in the office, and grocery shopping (for Alfred). Sometimes, it's just really nice to sit around and relax. It didn't help that it's been cold and dreary all day, which really doesn't inspire outside activity. Right now Alfred's making me hamburgers for dinner. We forgot to put Heinz 57 on the list, so I have none. Yes Michael, I could go up on piggy back and cruise the store in my socks, then sprint back home carrying a case of beer which I could then drop in the middle of the road, causing half the bottles to shatter. Ah, memories. Our lives have been severely power hour deficient since you moved.

Also, I have a few more quick movie reviews to add, in addition to Julie and Julia. Zombieland was really funny, especially the Ghostbuster-related parts in the middle. Whip It was good too, though Alfred didn't like it as much as I did. That seems to be a theme with our movie reviews in general, no?

One last note: I apologize for the lack of interesting pictures to go along with these posts lately. Alfred moved all of our pictures to an external hard drive awhile back, so in order to use any old pictures I have to hook that up and I really am not entirely clear on how to do it. Or where that hard drive is kept. Also, we haven't been taking pictures lately. Mainly because we haven't been doing many photo worthy activities. We'll work on that, maybe. Time for dinner!

movie reviews

For some reason (probably the new TV) we've been watching a bunch of movies lately. So here are my oh-so-fascinating thoughts on some recent ones, beginning with:

1. Avatar. I liked it, although I agree with Katherine that the story was less than enthralling. It was so fun to look at though that I seriously could have just watched the blue things running around their forest for 2 hours. Like, they could have just made it as a documentary and I may have liked that better. I feel like James Cameron made up this whole unique world and we only got to see a fraction of what he must have imagined. I like imaginary things, so I would have liked seeing more of that. Plus, 2 hours would have made it shorter. It was a bit long. Alfred thought the length and storyline were both fine, for those who did not see his comment. Also, it's fun hissing at people like the blue things do. I think I'd like to be a blue thing.

2. The Invention of Lying. This has Ricky Gervais, who I love, and Jennifer Garner, who I don't feel very strongly either way about. It was a decent movie, amusing, interesting idea, but 3 days after we watched it neither of us could remember a thing about it. We had to look it up on the computer to see what we had watched. So, probably doesn't speak very highly of it.

3. Surrogates. The one with Bruce Willis where all people have robots to go out and live their lives for them. This one wasn't very good. The main thing that pissed me off was that apparently these robots basically made crime obsolete, which I totally don't get. If I had a robot to go out and live for me, I'd be knocking over 7-11s and busting caps in people's asses all day long. After all, I'd be robbing and shooting robots, so no harm no foul, right?

4. 500 Days of Summer. Felt very indie-movie-ish, has Zoey Deschanel (is this how you spell it? can't be bothered to look it up) and Joseph Gordon Levitt. I liked this, Alfred did not. He thought it was going to be a comedy. It was not, really. It was very nice though, if you're into this sort of movie. I think Zoey Deschanel should try playing a totally different character some day.

5. Henry Poole is Here. Supposedly a dark comedy, though I didn't see much comedy in it. I guess it had a couple of moments. Stars Luke Wilson, who has evidently since become pretty hard up to be starring in those cell phone commercials. I liked this one too, again Alfred did not. It made me cry a bunch. In my defense, I was pretty over tired that night. And it has some really sad parts, dammit! Fun fact, the female lead in this was also in Surrogates. I forget her name. Radha Mitchell I think? Dang, I'm good. If I'm right. Whatever.

Another fun fact: Alfred's been busy emptying the dishwasher and making dinner while I've sat here typing this extremely captivating post. To be fair, I was at work all day and he was at home, so he offered. He just discovered we have no cheese to add to our egg scramble dinner. The horrors!

Cold

It's been really, really cold here the past several days. It's not so bad in normal everyday life, but I happen to work in a building with no central heat, and where we prop the doors open to the outside to show that we're open. And so, I basically sit outside all day long. It's pretty terrible. The only heat, before the owners brought a space heater by today, was the heat generated by the computers in the office. So I sit in the office and keep the door closed to keep that little bit of warmth inside.

The worst part is that I had to work all weekend. Ugh. Instead I had today off, so that was good, I guess. Alfred even stayed home with me, since he had an eye appointment this morning. Just now we went out for an early dinner with Ellery, and are now sitting in the movie theater waiting to see Avatar. We're fired up!

catching up

Still working on the last week's worth of activities. I had to work on Wednesday, and Alfred stayed home to unpack and take care of some laundry and other chores. When I got home, I was greeted by a new little friend: Mr. Squeakerson. He's a squirrel. Alfred caught him when he ran into the garage earlier in the afternoon. He lived in a laundry basket over night. He was really cute. After some internet research though, we decided he was better off out in the wilderness, so we let him go Thursday morning.

We both worked on Thursday, then went out for a lovely sushi dinner for New Year's Eve. Just the two of us. Aw, romantic. Actually we stuffed ourselves so much I kind of wanted to puke. Then we went over to Ilya to Mercedes' house for New Year's Eve. We ate some more, drank, exchanged gifts, and generally had a rip-roaring good time. We even made it past 1:00! Well, I fell asleep on the couch for a few minutes, but other than that we did well. We made a huge delicious breakfast this morning, too. God, this blog is all about food. Well, you've all met me. Shouldn't be too surprising.

On New Year's Day we hung out with Alfred's family and celebrated Christmas with them. Again, lots of awesome food, nice gifts, the works. We also helped Emily with a project for her dorm (she's an R.A.) It was fun spreading out Christmas this year, it made the holidays last much longer. Then we made some soup to continue our long-standing New Year's Day tradition. This year we tried some dessert fruit soups: strawberry kiwi and blueberry peach. Interesting idea, but they left something to be desired. Too bad.

back in the dirty south

Ah, the warm, non-snowy, dirty south. Actually right now it's much cleaner than the north with all its salt and crap all over the roads. Alfred's car needed a bath when we got back, it was pretty disgusting. We got back Tuesday night just before midnight, it took us exactly 18 hours. That included stops for gas/food/restrooms, traffic in Charlotte and Jacksonville, an attempted beer run at 5:45am, and horrible weather in Pennsylvania. That's what this picture is from. This was a major highway, it hadn't been plowed at all so we couldn't see the road, and snow was blowing everywhere. Traffic was going about 30 mph. It was ridiculous.

Our trip was nice, except for the 3 cats that now live in my parents' house. Our allergies just love going there more and more every year. The new cat is cute, my nose and lungs just hate it. We saw lots of family, got some great gifts (including a bound book of our road trip blog, which includes all of our posts, pictures, and comments, it's really nice.) Most importantly, we played the new Mario Brothers game for the Wii. Alfred, Katie and I were the main players, though Dad and Uncle Ken helped out at times as well. We basically played for 4 days straight. And we beat the game! It was awesome. It's fun to play because when you play with multiple players you're all on the screen at once, so you can be nice and use teamwork or shove each other into pits and stuff. We also ate a lot of food. Like, a lot of food. But what else is new.