Good thing babies don't hold grudges

It's been a blood bath around here lately. Ok, blood bath may be a bit strong, but I have managed to make our child bleed twice in the past week. A few days ago I noticed a dark speck at the corner of Tabby's eye. In her bath that evening I wiped and wiped at it with the washcloth. Turns out it was a tiny scratch, which I rescratched with my rubbing, thus making blood run out and almost into her eye. Then yesterday I was cutting her nails and accidentally cut one of her fingers instead when she moved. Apparently that one hurt, she started screaming right away. She was smiling and playing on her changing table again within about 5 minutes, so no permanent damage there. Her onesie might not be so lucky though, there are little specks of blood all over it.

Just for the record, I'm not the only one around here making babies bleed. Tabitha has discovered how to get her right hand up to her mouth to suck on it. Unfortunately, she misses quite a bit, and will end up poking herself in the eye or rubbing her nose instead. And when she does get her hand to her mouth, she often ends up sucking on her wrist with her fingers in her eye/nose. So she's now started scratching herself in the face and occasionally drawing blood, hence the nail clipping attempt. Too bad I only got 2 of her nails cut yesterday. She might be channeling Michael Jackson and rocking one mitten for a few days.

In other news, happy first birthday to Louisa, Tabitha's future Cornell classmate! I can't believe she's 1 already!

birthday party!

I've decided to keep blogging, at least now and then. It probably won't be so often, but check back every couple of weeks, I'll try to post at least that often. And so, my birthday party!

There was lots and lots of chocolate. I mean, lots and lots of chocolate. We still haven't finished all of the dessert we had for that night.

Katie, Ellie, and Rowdy all became pretty good friends. I don't know if you can see the glow bracelets and glow necklaces, but there's lots of them around.

Mike stopped by for a bit to say hello.

As did a whole bunch of other friends. I think we figured we had about 16 people there that night.

We ate lots of delicious bad things, drank lots of wine (LOTS of wine), played some games (this is a few people playing a new version of Drunk Driver, adapted to be played by several people at once). We also had a hell of a dance party in the living room. I danced as hard as I could for hours.

And my cake! It was made by the same woman who made our wedding cake, so we knew it would be fantastic. She even remembered me when I went to go pick it up.

All in all, a great birthday. It ended up being almost a week-long celebration, just what I was hoping for. I need to have birthday parties more often!

my birthday surprise!

So far this has been a really great birthday week. Alfred and I went out for dinner last Friday; I enjoyed a spa day on Sunday; we put up our Christmas lights and bought a Christmas tree; yesterday I had a birthday lunch with one of my friends at work and then a dual birthday dinner with Gara and Kevin (her birthday is tomorrow, happy early birthday Gara!) and then today came a bunch of surprises: first the flowers that Alfred sent (which I had told him to send), then another bouquet and a sister!


Yes, Katie flew down to surprise me for my birthday! I'm so excited, it's such a fun surprise. I walked into my office after a lunch meeting and there she was just sitting there. I was so shocked, she and Alfred and everyone else who knew have kept this a complete surprise. It's awesome. What I was afraid was going to be a hard/stressful/unfun birthday is turning out to be so, so great so far. I'm feeling very loved and mushy and sappy now. :)

6 days

Thanksgiving was fun; we drove a long way, had a blast hanging out with the family (lots of food, drinking, and Mario Kart on the wii), and then drove a long way again. My mom got us some 4 loko (3 cases, actually), so we've got those to enjoy now. We've got enough to last the rest of our lives, probably. Though I've heard that kids have been selling them at parties for $5 a can, so I'm thinking about selling them to the kids in the neighborhood behind the museum. No one would believe the lady in the historical costume was selling booze to underage kids. It's the perfect crime.

Only 6 more days till my birthday! It's a big one this year, I'm turning 30. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. Sometimes I'm super pumped and look forward to my new decade, but other times it freaks me out to be leaving my 20s behind. I'm trying to be positive about it. Alfred and I went out for my birthday dinner on Friday, and I'm having a party next Saturday. We're doing a dessert buffet, so I'm pretty excited. I haven't really had a big birthday party in a long time. I kind of invited a mix of people, from Alfred's family to our friends to friends from work, so it will be an interesting bunch. As long as there's lots of chocolate (which there will be), plenty of booze is flowing (which there will also be), and there's good music for me to dance to in the living room (which I expect there to be), it will be all good. I'm going to hit up the dollar store for some fun decorations and party favors this week. Think glow in the dark necklaces for the living room dance party. It's been stressing Alfred out, trying to get the house done in time to have all these people over. We've made really great progress though, it's really almost done! And just now we put up our Christmas lights outside.

This afternoon I got a massage at Lucy's birthday spa day (happy birthday, Lucy!) My shoulders and back had lots of knots, I was getting pretty sore from all the work we've been doing around the house, so it felt so good to have those worked out. I'm actually a bit sore now, which he said would probably happen. It just means I need another massage!

In other news, I was looking through my blog last week, trying to find a picture, and I realized that this blog used to be way better. I used to post so much more often, I used to have lots more fun pictures. For awhile now it's just not been as much fun, I guess. I don't have as much time to do it, it's become more of a chore. So I'm thinking about stopping. We'll see. Right now I have 10 minutes to get ready to go to dinner, so I'd better get moving!

happy birthday, Louisa!

Exciting news for a Monday morning - Katie and Ingo's baby girl has arrived! Head over to Mein deutsches Leben to meet little Louisa and congratulate the new parents! (There's no baby post yet, but you can go congratulate them anyway!)

Guess what's got 2 thumbs and had the day off today? That's right, this girl! It was great, because I got to a) sleep in ( I got almost 10 hours of sleep last night, which I badly needed, having gotten less than 10 hours of sleep the past 2 nights combined), and b) work on cleaning and unpacking the new house. Our bathroom, the upstairs bathroom, and the living room are almost done, the kitchen and our bedroom are maybe 2/3 done, and the dining room actually has no boxes left in it. One of the upstairs bedrooms is pretty much set up too, actually, the one that Mike's currently staying in. (Oh, by the way, Mike's here. More on that later.) The office is a complete disaster, it's where we kept putting all the random stuff we had nowhere else to put as we were moving in. At least some of it's going to end up in the attic, but I probably won't be tackling it for another week or so. Anyway, we're much more settled in after today, which is nice. Hell, we're probably almost as moved in as we ever were at our last house.

So, Mike's here! He got in late Monday night (technically Tuesday morning, it was around 12:45am I think). He and Alfred have been palling around, as usual, though today I got to play a bit as well. Right now we're doing a power hour. It's our first, actually, which is kind of weird. Since it's been like 2 days. We were supposed to do one earlier but Alfred had a bunch of errands to run, so he was being all responsible and stuff. Lame. Last night Ilya, Mercedes, Kevin, and Gara came over for dinner. And Mister. He didn't eat, though.

On Saturday we went to Mercedes' and Mister's birthday party, which was fun. They had a barbecue party. It was all delicious. And an ice cream cake. And a dog food cake for Mister, which Ilya tasted. Apparently he tastes all of Mister's treats, too. Full disclosure: I tried one of Mister's treats once, it was peanut buttery, it was actually pretty good.

We're talking about Mike's trip to DC. Alfred and I almost lived in DC. True story. I sort of wish we lived there now. I'm going to go ahead and post this now, because I've been working on this post for approximately 40 minutes.

awesome things

Today was one of my days off of work for this week. My work schedule has been so screwy, with working some weekends and taking random days off during the week, that I have very little idea what day of the week it is lately. We spent a good chunk of the day hanging out at Lucy's parents' house, in and around their pool. I drank a bottle of wine. I was hungover by 6pm. It was awesome.

I'm sure I'm the last person on earth to discover this website, but it's funny. I like this article in particular.

Also, happy birthday to Mike and Ellery. We had dinner with Ellery last night, he lit his birthday candles with a blowtorch. It was awesome.

energizer bunnies!

So yeah, another busy weekend and week. Last Saturday was Ellie's first birthday party, as you may have guessed by the picture. They had a keg of beer and a bunch of Easter eggs hidden around the yard with lots of candy inside. So yeah, a good party. Sunday we spent most of the day with Alfred's family. Robyn wasn't feeling well, so we got to learn how to make their traditional Easter ham loaf and tomato pudding. It came out ok. Not quite as good as when she makes it, but ok.

Every night this week has been full, too. Monday night we went over to Lucy and Phil's for leftover beer and barbecue from their party. Tuesday and Wednesday we scrambled to get various chores and cleaning done for this weekend. We did laundry, ironed, loaded and unloaded the dishwasher, washed dishes, and cleaned the whole house. We have a big weekend coming up: Mike's on leave, so we're having a big get together! He, Maureene, and Katie are coming for a long weekend, and Tony and Cathy are meeting us in Orlando for the weekend. It's going to be quite a boozy weekend. Expect some drunk posts. We'll be in Epcot for Around the World on Saturday, then a Case Day on Monday, and who knows what else. My liver is trembling in fear!

time flies

I didn't realize just how long it had been since I posted last. This week was the official start of our busy season at work. I worked 58.75 hours, if you pretend that I took half an hour for lunch every day, which I certainly did not. I spent one night at one of my employee's houses, just to save the almost 2 hours of driving. Wednesday we actually set a record in the store, which is pretty neat. But, in case you couldn't tell, it also means I have a lot less time for posting. So, sorry about that.

This weekend we've done a whole lot of not much. Well, Alfred did a bunch of stuff for work yesterday, but I did not. I did a load of laundry, cleaned the bathroom, and we hung up some pictures. Other than that, I've been sitting on the couch, watching TV. And I slept in both mornings. It's been fantastic.

Last of all, this past Thursday was a really big day: it was Katie's 21st birthday! Happy birthday, Katie!

Milestones

Lots of landmarks this week! First, a couple of days ago (not sure exactly what day to be honest) marked my second anniversary of blogging. Thanks to all of you crazy people who keep coming here to read this insanity. Second, yesterday was our fifth wedding anniversary. It makes me feel old. Yesterday we had exactly the kind of weather I was afraid of for our wedding: cold, windy, generally miserable for Florida in March. Alfred and I went out to dinner. Pizza and beer, nothing fancy, but it was somewhere I had been wanting to go and it was really good so that's all that matters. Third, today is Ella's seventh birthday! Talk about feeling old! We sent her a couple of sundresses for her gift. She's definitely old enough now to have her own opinions on clothing and stuff, so I hope she likes them. Happy birthday Ella!

We've been house/dog sitting for Max and Robyn the past couple of days. They're in Milan for about 5 days, Max went with a friend of theirs for work and invited Robyn to come. Lucky stiffs. Really, we're just keeping Ellery company while he takes care of everything. Although I have walked the dog a couple times, so I've been mildly useful. It's a whole different traffic situation going to work from here, but at least I had to go to work really early yesterday (yeah, that's really a great thing) so I beat most of the traffic. I get to go in today too, but the weekend should be fine traffic wise too. Oh, and speaking of traffic, I thought of something yesterday that I definitely do not miss about our old house: all the motorcycle traffic from Bike Week! They're loud and go too slow and band together so you can't pass them. But I don't have to deal with them this year!

non-moving news

Actually, a tiny moving note first. My mom correctly guessed that we had 7 expired phone books in the old house. However, we have already arranged the furniture in our living room, so that prize is no longer an option. You can arrange the kitchen instead. Congratulations!

Last Thursday was Tony's birthday - happy belated birthday! I actually managed to call him on his birthday, and was even the first of his siblings to do so. Technically, Mike did email him before I talked to him, but he didn't call. Granted, he's in Iraq, but that shouldn't really be an excuse. This picture is from when we went to visit in 2008. He was a tiny bit drunk. I'm sure we'll get some new entertaining pictures when everyone comes to visit later this spring. Anyway, happy birthday!

On to the next order of business. We had to say goodbye to a dear member of the family last Friday: Copper the Dog. He turned 15 in December, and has sort of been hurting for the past few years, so it's not like it was totally unexpected. This picture is probably kind of mean, considering he was just put to sleep less than a week ago, but it looks like he's trying to put himself out of his own misery, and it makes me laugh. Poor little guy. Now Munsen is the lone dog on campus, although there are still plenty of cats milling around. Why couldn't one of the animals I'm terribly allergic to have kicked the bucket? Farewell, Copper. Enjoy lying on all the couches you want in Doggy Heaven.

birthdays!

We've had a couple of birthdays lately: Rosemary and Ilya. Rosemary's birthday was on Thursday. This picture is from our road trip, when we visited her and Greg in LA. It's from the night we practically destroyed her brother-in-law's house. It was great fun! I've actually seen Rosemary 3 times in the past 6 months, which is pretty impressive. Once in LA, again in Ithaca a few weeks later, then last month in Boston. That's more than we've seen each other since I graduated, probably. Miss you, Rose!

Next up: Ilya. His birthday was yesterday. We celebrated with him and his family last night. Alfred helped drink an entire liter bottle of tequila. The food was good, as usual (Ilya's mom is a really good cook), Mister the dog performed some tricks for us, and fun was had by all. This picture is from when we went camping this past summer. Ilya was quite a fan of his gas lantern. The two of us got trashed off of vodka and Kahlua based drinks that night. Pretty sure he's drunk in this picture.

Tomorrow, one of my employees has a birthday. Not too exciting, because I don't have a picture of him, and even if I did I probably wouldn't bother posting it because no one who reads this knows him. Neato!

birthday weekend!

Huzzah! Still thinking about my birthday! I love it!

On Saturday morning we headed over to Ben and Jerry's and were standing at the door, ready to go, the minute they opened. We had big plans to tackle the Vermonster, which is a massive sundae consisting of 20 scoops of ice cream and tons of toppings. There were 13 of us total, including Ellie (who didn't get to eat any ice cream) and Robyn, who is not in this picture. We made very, very short work of the Vermonster this time. It was delicious.

After ice cream some of us headed to lunch, because somehow we weren't too full, and filled ourselves up with pizza, wings, beer, and other goodies. We lost some more at this point (Kevin and Gara had to get ready for a wedding, and Ilya and Mercedes left to go visit a puppy!), but the last few of us rallied and moved on to another bar. Ellie enjoyed a deliciously buttery dinner of mixed veggies while we (mostly) stuck to beer (my stomach wasn't too happy with me). From the bar we went back to Lucy and Phil's house, then joined back up with Kevin, Gara, and Bill for a rousing evening of drinking and speed Uno. Gosh, it wears me out just typing it all out!

We ended up spending the night on Saturday, and went out to brunch the next morning to an awesome little diner. I went to town on some pancakes, bacon, eggs, and home fries, since it was the last day of my birthday weekend and my last chance to eat like a pig. After brunch we headed home for the first time in days. Laundry needed to be done, bathrooms needed to be cleaned, and then some TV needed to be watched. It went by so fast, but it was such a fun weekend!

week in review

Let's recap!

Monday: still in Boston and returning home, please see previous post

Tuesday: alas, back to work. I was a little surprised to find that we had a school group that morning, but luckily I had a costume in my car from Friday so I just got changed there. Better than the other girl, who was late and forgot a costume. That night we had a couch surfer arrive to spend a couple of nights with us. He's been traveling for 4 years so far. Yeah, 4 years. And we thought we had a long trip. We were up until after midnight looking at pictures. I sort of dozed off a bit during the slide show, although I really tried hard to stay awake..

Wednesday: Work again, although I got to meet our couch surfer for lunch, so that mixed things up a little. We managed to go to bed a little earlier this night.

Thursday: Gara's birthday! After work we joined her and Kevin at Peterbrooke for a chocolate dipping birthday party! They showed us how they temper and prepare the chocolate for dipping, then showed us how they make their chocolate covered popcorn and other goodies, then let us loose to try it out ourselves. Then we each got a big gift bag full of our finished products to take home! It was awesome! And delicious! After chocolate making we went to the local brewery that Alfred and Kevin go to (almost) every Friday for some pork sandwiches and beers. Good stuff.

Friday: My birthday! Somehow no one at work knew it was my birthday for the first hour or so which is odd because I know I mentioned it at least 2 or 3 times in the last week. Weird. Anyway, one of the girls at our downtown office made me an ice cream cake, and the day went by quickly because we were busy. After work Alfred and I went out to dinner at an Italian place that I've been wanting to try for awhile, then headed over to his parents' house for cake (made with Kahlua!) and presents. Overall, an excellent birthday. I think 29's going to be a good year. Stay tuned tomorrow (or maybe Tuesday) for our weekend update!

boston!

It's been a busy week, to say the least! But finally, a Boston post!

I left work a little early on Friday and met up with my girls at a bar after a mostly uneventful journey. They had already had a few drinks, so they ordered me a cocktail to help me catch up. We stayed out for a few more hours, catching up, then eventually made our way back to our respective hotels and homes and crashed for the evening.

Saturday started out pretty cold. Katie was busy with her conference, and Steph had to take care of her dog, so Katherine, Rosemary and I headed out for breakfast. We ate, wandered around Beacon Hill for a bit, and then ended up going back to the hotel for awhile. Some of us had been bitten pretty hard by a rattlesnake the night before, so we needed a little rest to gather our strength for another evening of excitement. Katie and Steph joined us in time to walk through a snowstorm for dinner.

We went to an Italian place, which was good but not fantastic. Then we walked back to the hotel, through the same snowstorm (it was snowing and blowing and wet and cold and gross) and were greeted by this:

They had gotten cake and champagne for Katherine and my birthday! We all got decked out in some robes and slippers (lovingly provided by the housekeeping staff) and ate and drank our little hearts out. At some point Rosemary and Steph decided we needed more booze, so they braved the storm again for some more wine and champagne. We played some speed Uno (because of course I always carry our Uno cards in my purse) and polished off a few more bottles. Katherine and I decided we wanted a snack, so we headed out in the snow to find the CVS that was apparently a block away. We walked in various directions for awhile, then gave up. By the time we got back to the hotel, the other girls had decided to go meet Ingo (Katie's husband) at a bar nearby. On our way, we walked right past the CVS that had eluded us moments before. Curses! But we got some appetizers, and a couple more drinks, so it was all good.

Sunday was still cold, but dry, so it was a good day for walking. We wandered around Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall, then went over to the Paul Revere House, then hit up Mike's Pastry for some cannolis!

They were just as good as I remembered. After a pretty full day of walking and sightseeing, Rosemary had to leave to catch her flight, and Katie and Ingo had to spend some time at their conference. Katherine and I headed out to Steph's current home, where Katie joined us later for some homemade soup for dinner. We turned in relatively early (by midnight!) since Steph had to work the next day.

Katherine left for the airport after a last breakfast with me and Katie on Monday morning, then I wandered around for awhile by myself. I wandered over to where Steph works and had lunch with her, then had to head for the airport myself. I ate dinner at the Five Guys that was in my other post, and got in about 15 minutes early. And then I had to go back to real life. It was a great weekend!

paying our debts

To the couch surfing society, that is. We hosted couch surfers the other night! A couple from Germany, actually. They're traveling around the eastern US for 4 weeks. They started in the Bahamas, then flew to Miami, and are driving up and around and ending up in Atlanta. They only spent one night here, so we didn't spend a whole lot of time with them, but it was still fun. It was interesting being in the opposite position from what we were in all summer. It's hard to come up with something interesting to do so your guests aren't bored, which is especially difficult because we don't exactly live in the most exciting area. Luckily they kept themselves busy (and even had dinner) and didn't even get to our house until about 8:00. And I left for work at 7 the next morning. Alfred did stay home and make them breakfast, so that was nice. It was fun hearing about their trip, and they both spoke excellent English.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm all sorts of party-rific this weekend! Yesterday evening I went to a birthday party for a co-worker. There were s'mores and many rounds of pictionary. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it ended up being really fun. Tomorrow I have a baby shower for another co-worker. I found out about it on Thursday, so I haven't bought a gift yet. I better get on that. And last but certainly not least, yesterday was my dad's birthday! Happy birthday Dad!

long time, no blog

I know that people aren't checking this as often, most likely because I'm not writing as much. Sorry, it's just tough to find the time right now. Mainly because we still have the internet card that we used on our trip, which Alfred takes to work every day, so I don't have internet access when I get home from work, which is when I generally used to at least start writing my posts. It just seems harder to write now, too. Ah well. Excuses, excuses. Anyway! On with the news of the week!

Celebrations: it was a big week for events. Katie and Ingo kicked it off last Saturday with their wedding, then Katie continued the fun with her birthday on Tuesday. Tony and Cathy were also celebrating their anniversary on Tuesday. Wednesday was both Egee and Max's birthday, which we were able to celebrate with him. Then yesterday we went to Mercedes' birthday party; her birthday is this coming Tuesday. Lots going on.

Work: we're having a Halloween festival, so the other girl I work with has been stressing herself out over that for the past couple of weeks. She's the type to plan things out way in advance and then worry about it for as long as possible. Pretty much the opposite of me in that way. But there's a scarecrow riding a bone motorcycle on display out front now, so that's neat. We have rats living in our ceiling, we put out some poison, and I found a dead rat in our break room on Friday. There's lots of construction going on, so we have lots of shirtless men roaming around, none of whom are worth looking at shirtless. It's a shame.

Weather: suddenly, it's fall. Today's high is only in the 60s, although it's supposed to be back in the 80s later this week. It's a nice change. It makes me want to bake some brownies or something.

I don't think our break in guy was ever arrested. There was an article about the guys who beat him up being arrested, so I have his name, but google doesn't tell me anything about him being arrested.

bonus birthday pics

Alfred's back home tonight, with both the internet card and pictures. So here are a few more photos from his birthday weekend. First up: Wilbur! This was taken about 2/3 of the way through the smoking process. His head is on the left. Note the arm bone poking through his skin.

Then, Bessie's head. This is just after it was taken out of the smoker. Its teeth are towards the right, that big black hole towards the left is the eyeball.

Another shot of the cow's head, this time with its mouth open, meat being torn off.

The birthday boy, happily loading his plate.

A shot of some of the non-meat based food.

And, for good measure, an upside down baby!

happy birthday Alfred!

And just like that, he's 30. Our feast yesterday went off without a hitch. The meat was all smokey and delicious, the rest of the sides were awesome (the beans especially), and the pies turned out great. We ate some cow brain. I think about 20 people ended up coming, so it was a good turnout. Good thing, since there was so much food. We're hanging out at Alfred's parents' house for a bit today, recovering from our food comas, then back home since our house sitting gig is over. Back to real life...

preparation

Alfred's birthday is on Sunday, but since everyone we know is too busy to celebrate on his actual birthday, we're doing it up tomorrow. We're smoking an entire pig, a couple of pork shoulders, a couple of chickens, and a cow's head. Yeah, not sure whose idea the head was, but we'll see how it goes. They just cut the tongue out and are prepping the rest of the head. It's huge! (That's what she said!)

Alfred and I are house sitting this weekend still, so we're over at his parents' house tonight to help get things ready for tomorrow. Mercedes and Ilya came over too, and we've been working (more or less) for the past few hours. I made 4 (yup, 4) pecan pies, Mercedes tackled the fudge, Robyn and Alfred collaborated on the cole slaw, Robyn's been making some secret sauces, and Alfred and Max have been seasoning meat. There's a massive pot of boiled peanuts cooling on the stove. The gigantic smoker that we're borrowing is heating up outside. We're putting the meat on tonight and smoking it all night long so it's done in time for lunch tomorrow. It's going to be a heck of a Cracker (Florida pioneer) feast!

We've also been doing a bit of eating and drinking tonight. Alfred has discovered the wonders of Bold City brewery and bought a growler today for us to all sample. He also got to open his gift from Ilya and Mercedes: 27 pounds of peanuts! The boy's a peanut eating fool.

Tomorrow should be pretty exciting. We're going to have enough food to feed an army. Good blog fodder!