Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Have you seen....?

My new look???

It's been this way for a while, though, so sorry I didn't tell you!  I got it cut way back at the end of July, but the lady screwed it up.  So I went to this really great guy in August to fix it, and he did AMAZING!  BUT.  I had all this left over weight that I didn't exactly like.  Plus the stress and drama of what is the much hated month of August happened.  So I waited.  And waited. 

The weight is still there, but... oh well, what the heck.



This is the ideal haircut- when I was about twenty pounds lighter, 3 years younger, and not wearing glasses.  Isn't it gorgeous???

And THIS is the new haircut- it's a little longer because it's grown for a month.  And styled very differently for fun.  It's supposed to look like Sharon Osborne's cut, one of my mom's faves.



Like???  Don't Like???  This pic is also without glasses because I hate those suckers.  Maybe someday I can afford contacts.  :)

Wedded Wednesday- Dates on a Budget

This is more of a fail, than a how-to.  FYI. 

My hubby and I love each other very much.  :)  But he works a TON right now, and opposite my work hours.  Plus, we don't really like the same things that much, so we don't spend a lot of time together. 

So we have begun to have weekly date night.  Every Saturday night.  The problem is we always end up spending all of the cash budgeted for the week on that one night.  NOT GOOD!!!

So how do we fix this??  Does anyone have any great date night ideas that are low budget?  We usually do dinner.  It's easiest.  But with wine and dessert it always costs a fortune.  Plus it gets boring.

So here are my ideas for the upcoming weeks- this week we have plans with friends to go to Shadowbox Cabaret.  Next week I'm thinking bowling?  Or maybe putt-putt?  I know... cliche, right?

Maybe we should do a picnic in the park one week while it's still nice enough to do that.  And we could take Romeo.  Not so romantic with the dog, but lots of fun.

UGH.  I wish we were rich.  That would just solve all most of our problems.

Also- Happy 50th post.  WOOPIE

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Happy Oktoberfest!!!!

So last weekend was Oktoberfest here in Zinzinnati!  It's one of the biggest in the country (supposedly) with the world's largest chicken dance (not the record I would prefer, but... to each his own).  One of the other things we have going on???  THE RUNNING OF THE WIENERS!!!!


We have 8 heats of 10 wiener dogs each- that's EIGHTY WIENER DOGS, folks!


At the end of the preliminaries, they held a final race of the winners from each heat.


This is why I love Zinzinnati!  Where else can you catch a glimpse of eighty dachsunds in hot dog costumes???


Finalist got an interview- Bark bark!


These owners were pretty intense, actually.


Lots used props to get the doggies to run!


I love this picture.  He's off the ground!


Some were in no hurry.  This poor feller was dead last.


That's Charlie- he was the winner 2 years in a row.  He set a record, I think.


Cookie here was another finalist.  He did NOT like the police officer on a horse.


AND the grand wiener is Gretta.  With the mustard costume.


Didn't matter to all- this guy was permitted to play with the forbidden toy- Tigger, there.

The Taming of the Office

So we've been living in our house for just over 9 months now, but we've failed to even hang most of our decorations and artwork, let alone decorate the house in general!  It's sad, I know... But we want to fix that!

So we started with the most daunting rooms- the office.  That miserable room has been the graveyard for all things unknown.  It's where we have the litter box, the bean bag chair, the desk that's covered in all the papers that need to be sorted and taken care of.  It's an unholy mess.  The window isn't even intact!



So we started decided on design ideas.  Since it's mostly Mike's office, I went with some pretty masculine and modern ideas.  I decided everything months ago, fyi.  I even bought the paint and the window treatment things! 

AND then months later I finally decide to just grit my teeth and bear it.


And this?  That's a scratching pad.  For my declawed cat.  What, you say?  I know.  He's weird.  It belonged to a female kitty who lived with us for a few months.  He was in love with her.  Apparently he still is.  I wasn't allowed to touch it.  I kid you not.

So we emptied the room first.  THAT'S a chore.  And to be honest, the papers that need to be gone through are now sitting in the living room waiting to be gone through (haha!).  BUT we got it emptied.  Into our guest room.


This was the guest room.


And Orion is STILL guarding his post.

I then spent 90% of my Saturday scrubbing, taping, and then painting.  I was so sore by the end of the day!  But I finished, with only a minimal amount of paint on the ceiling and trim.  :)


See my lovely paint job???

And then Sunday I touched it up because it apparently needed a second coat (after the guy at home depot swore it wouldn't) and I didn't quite have enough paint to do a whole second coat.  I was rather upset.

And Orion was SO worried about his scratching post.



But it worked out nicely, and we actually got a lot of the stuff moved back into the room that evening.  The desk moved to the other side of the room to make it look bigger.  I now have a desk where the closet was.  I organized his bins and files and now everything has a home.  :)  It looks fabulous!  And it's not even done yet.


Orion is still only worried about his scratching post.  You do notice it's still there.  Normally I would not be ok with this, but I'm so upset that I broke my cat's heart that I can't bear to get rid of it.

Tonight I still have to hang everything on the walls, including- 2 cd racks, 1 large shelf (in the closet), 5 degree frames (2 degrees, 3 certs), a shelf for a trophy, a plaque, 4 paddles, two dry erase boards, and 3 beautiful pieces of artwork.  Maybe someday I'll figure out how to design a movie reel piece of art for the wall as well.  I also have to make the cornice and hang it.  I might hang the curtain rod back up as well and hang a nice sheer there, but there are so many trees outside it's honestly not necessary at all.  Oh, and I have one more trip to Ikea before I'm finished.

And I'm sure the scratching post will STILL be there when I'm done.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Tis the Season....

FOR FOOTBALL!!!!! 




And when I say football, I clearly mean MARCHING BAND!!!




And by that I am dead serious, because, folks, this house is chuck full of band nerds.  I mean it, 100% of the three adults living under our roof are born and bred true band geeks.  History lesson?  Michael plays sax- alto sax, bari sax, and even tenor sax on occasion.  In high school he was drum major for 3 years (although they were called field commanders.  To me this is just weird).  He lived for his KK Psi brothers (the band honorary fraternity) at UC.  He worked hard with equipment crews and band room duties and fundraising activities.  We were at every event from dawn til dusk (exaggeration, but seriously- we were usually one of the first there and last to leave).




Me?  I was a pianist before I could say my name.  I later learned flute and piccolo, and then joined the colorguard.  I wasn't quite as devoted as Michael, but I still worked hard.  I was section leader.  I was voted best musician.  I played a solo at state merely days after knee surgery while I was hyped up on vicadin and STILL was only 1 point away from an excellent rating!




Ahem... Anyways.  Yes, even now, years after graduating and leaving the college world for adulthood, we are still band geeks at heart.  We show up 2 hours before the game (usually earlier).  We haul equipment, wear uniforms and bright shiny field passes, push prod and haul band kids into formation, and then watch a football game from the sideline (where you can see approximately nothing).  We listen to really loud music right next to us while shouting at refs and cheering with the squads.  At half time Michael takes his camera to record while I haul equipment.  We watch the band do their thing while most are getting pizza.  We haul everything back and then feed them all like toddlers, because they always need a sugar rush to survive the third quarter lull.  We lose our voices.  At the end we haul everything back, shake hands, watch the band kids dance, comment on the game, then go grab a beer with the other alumni (who are incidentally doing the same thing as you are).  However, before we can leave the field we always pay tribute to the Alma Mater- heads held high, arms linked together.  




This is our football season.  We root our BEARCATS on every game.  We're there in the rain, or with serious colds (possibly the flu).  Sometimes both (see: this weekend).  We love our team, even when they lose (or lose their coach- see: Notre Dame lost and I want to gloat).  Hell, we even make our holiday plans around our team's schedule.  Last year Mike and I celebrated 4 years in New Orleans, band style, cuz that's just how we roll.  This is what we do.


I wouldn't change it for all the money in the world.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Getting Away is not the same as Running Away

Hi, everyone!  I'm back, and hopefully starting fresh.  I honestly wanted to "start fresh" on Monday, but I was on a plane, and then I was reunited with my hubby and my puppy and that da** cat.  It just didn't happen.  And then catching up Tues and Wed because I was gone all weekend meant that it didn't happen then, either.  OH WELL!  Here I am.

I went away.  No, literally.  I got up Friday morning nice and early and caught a small little plane to Philadelphia, PA.  I spent about 30 minutes trying to locate my aunt.  Apparently you arrive at the departure entrance to terminal F and then you must take the escalater up to the skywalk, then the skywalk over to the escalator, then the escalator down to the ground again to be at the arrivals exit.  Weird, since no signs told me to do so.  Anywho, I arrived in sunshiny Philadelphia and spent a blissful long weekend with my aunt, uncle, twin cousins, and grandma.  It was heaven.




I mean really... That cup of ice cream?  Divine.  Heaven!  It was chocolate ice cream with reese pieces, cups, and peanut butter in it.  Scrumptious!


The twins ride horses.  They are obsessed with horses, actually.  They're 8.  So Friday I had the liberty of watching their lesson, where they proceeded to jump.  Which I think is scary and I ride horses!  At one point the li'l pony literally RACED to the jump.  I seriously thought Sydney would scream and fall, but no.  She did tremendous!  They both did.


Meanwhile I babysat their puppies.  This pic was NOT taken during the time of my babysitting.  This was the next day, after receiving 3 vaccinations.  They are shepherd mixes.  Beautiful, fun, and intelligent.  I was only slightly jealous.  So was someone else.


I love this guy.  Who incidentally missed me lots.

Anywho, PA.  Right.  We also went riding as a group, and I was reminded of just how much I miss my farm, riding, my own horse, who is now fatter than fat normally allows, and riding in general.  They gave me the fiesty "Sarge".  He was a fat stock horse.  He had an attitude, something about thinking he's the boss?  Guess we know where he gets his name!  He promptly attempted to shove me into every fence we walked past, ate an entire buffet's worth of corn, alfalfa, and just any sort of grass in general, and pretty much refused any suggestion or more of going faster than a walk.  It was a blast!  I loved Sarge.  I was rather jealous of my uncle, though.  They gave him Marshal, a former race horse.  I would have LOVED to get him on the barrel course they had set up!  Or the pole bending.  Oooooooh how awesome that would have been!


Speaking of my awesome uncle, you wouldn't believe what he's found!  




That, my friends, is the original deed or rather a digital copy of the original deed to the farm I grew up on.  Apparently it was originally bought by my seven-times-great-grandfather in 1825.  That there document?  Signed or stamped, it might not actually be his signature by Mr. John Quincy Adams!  How freakin' awesome is that?  I've got to figure out where it is.  I want to see the actual thing!

We also spent the weekend setting up their new classroom.  The girls will be home-schooled this year.  I used to think that was a bad idea.  Until I left Indiana and saw that some parents are intelligent enough to do it correctly.  It looks exciting, and I'm insanely jealous of the girls and coincidentally their mom.  She'll love it too.

And by the end of the 4th day, when I was flying home, I realized I hadn't thought of something for 90% of the trip.  This is probably the exact opposite of what it was like at home.  And while I still think of it quite a bit now that I'm back, it's not so bad or as often.  I'm not as sad, now.  That weekend away really really really ten times over helped me let go.  And while it'll probably always hurt, I was totally ok when my grandmother told me that I don't need to get pregnant.  I was shocked.  and it came out of the blue with a rather negative tone.  I think I even laughed!  Had that happened day one of the trip it happened on the last day I would have burst into tears.

So let's raise our glasses to getting away!  Vacations are just sometimes necessary.  Especially when life gets to be overwhelming.  Now if I could just lose that extra weight... But that's another story in and of itself!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Married Mannerisms II

"Your notebook says hot chocolate on the front?"

- "Yes"

"Am I your hot chocolate?"

- "Hahaha.  Yes.  Yes you are."