we're not liars

The bathroom reno officially began this morning.

Never mind how well Ted is containing his terror excitement. He's thrilled to pieces. As of now that whole wall is completely gone. The door-frame is gone, and the mirror is gone. Tomorrow we are either removing the vanity or taking out the floor, or both. Probably both.

it's seriously happening (maybe, who knows)

We are seriously starting the reno of our bathroom this weekend. (I should be hearing a collective: EEEEEEK!!!!! right now) I say we are seriously doing it, but you have to remember we have been "seriously" about to start it about 10 times now, and have big fat FAILED each time... obviously. We're chickens. See we're doing all the work ourselves, which is exhilarating, liberating, and scary as hell. Luckily Ted is really handy & knows a lot about... a lot, and his dad is the same way. So if we run into a problem then I'm sure his dad can help.

Hopefully we (1) actually follow through so we are no longer chickeny liars, & (2) remember to document with pictures! :)

I hope everyone has a great long weekend ahead. I'll be in the shitter all weekend. (that was classy)

funny, funny

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=winnebago+man+&aq=f

Click on that link. Click the top video. You have to be 18 or older to watch it. No, it's not porn. It's just very heavy in profanity. If you are really sensitive to or just dislike profanity - you may not like that video. I found that video to be just... just hilarious. Tears running down my face funny. Gasping for breath funny. This poor man is just having an absolute meltdown. Funniest part? When he starts going off on the flies. Part of me wonders if this is even REAL. How can this amount of awesome be real? Or... how could it be scripted?

I'm not posting the direct link to the video due to the off chance that some 12 y/o stumbles upon my blog and sees that video. I'm sure they can figure it out all on their own, but I don't need to directly contribute to their witnessing of a middle aged man completely losing his shit poo.

......

Oh... and I did it again. I read an entire book in one day. No, it's not that I had nothing to do. My house can attest to the fact that I have stuff to do. I just could not put it down. The 9th Judgement. SO GOOD. I don't know how biased I am since I really like the whole series, but I really liked this book. The twists! The ENDING. Wow. Loved it! Now I'm pissed because I can't/don't want to wait for the 10th book!

life of leisure?

Sooo... yesterday I started & finished The 8th Confession. This is both a testament to how much I liked the book, and the fact that I had absolutely nothing to do yesterday*. Clearly, I liked it - a lot. I mean... I read it in one day. I honestly don't know what else I can say to convey the fact that I really enjoyed it.



*except for cleaning the kitchen, living room, bathroom, loading & unloading of the dishwasher, & laundry - which still all need to be done.

newest member of our furniture family

Courtesy of Ikea (& Ted's magical ability to understand Ikea picture directions) :

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60185576

She's gorgeous! I'll try to post a picture of it in our house later.

i want

baby piggies

 

Which means I will need lots of this:

Not open road, but land. I want a farm. A farm of adorbs, cuddly, baby animals. In my fantasy land my farm will always be green, love is plentiful, and animals stay babies forever. I don't know what Freud would say about that, but who cares. It's my fantasy land.

& no, Ted, no you can not kill our animals and eat them. NO. They're my pets. You don't eat pets. So there.

another one bites the dust

Last night I finally finished A Dirty Job: A Novel and I just can't say enough about this book. I loved it. I thought it was hilarious, sad, touching, & a little mysterious. I really did laugh out loud many,  many times while reading it. I can't wait to read the next Christopher Moore book on my reading list. Before I do that I'm going to read the 8th book in the Women's Murder Club series. I can honestly say that while I loved A Dirty Job: A Novel I did not love the ending. The ending actually felt somewhat rushed to me, but I think that's also because I was enjoying the story so much, I guess I didn't want it to end. I would definitely recommend this book! It was great.

By the way, I'm loving my nook. Especially after I found out it reads pdf's, so if my library lends out books in pdf form online then I can load it on my nook & read for free. Woo! That made my day.

havasu weekend

As I mentioned last week, we spent the weekend in Lake Havasu this past weekend. It was so fun, so relaxing, so needed. Our friends/neighbors ended up coming with us, and it was really fun having them there. I mentioned to them that I really appreciate and value these short trips now that we're married, on our own, & own a house. The time & money to do things like this just isn't there all the time, or even half the time we would like it to be. The weather was GREAT. It felt like the temperature only hit about 90, which is awesome. Not too windy at all. If anything, the water was a little chilly still since it's only May. Regardless of that chilly water, we all had a great time hanging out in the water, relaxing, enjoying a beer (or two, or three, or...). I got one of our neighbors to go tubing with me. She didn't like it that much, but she tried! Her husband also went tubing & he seemed really like it. It all depends on what you want - a smooth ride, or a crazy ride.

There was some delicious food had for... everyone.

Ted smoked up a pork shoulder so we could have pulled pork sandwiches (SO GOOD). We ended up making way too much pulled pork, so the neighboring campers had pulled pork sandwiches with the rest of us. I wish I had gotten a picture of it all! It was a nice spread. Homemade barbeque sauce & homemade coleslaw to go with it all. That's always what I envision camping to be like - relaxing, and sharing with those around you. Getting to know your "neighbors" if you will. Great times had by ALL.

Now it's back to reality time. I was actually really happy to be back in my own bed (always the thing I miss the most) and see the puppies. Those dogs were so happy to see us! It makes their annoying moments worth it.

I'll finish this one off with a picture of Ted manning the grill. This time with carne asada. Mmmm... those carne asada burritos were delicious. One of Ted's goals is to own a big truck with a big trailer to haul around a big grill & smoker to camping trips like this. The man has a dream... :) I can back it up, he does know his way around a grill. So much so that I would be willing to give him all the cooking responsibilities at home. What can I say? I'm a giver.

wordless wednesday

I love.... Mondays??

You read that right! I love Mondays. Or, Monday - as in today. Why? Because today is one day closer to a weekend in Havasu. My family is into boating (brother wakeboards, dad ski's, I spectate) & this will be our first boating trip of the "season". It will probably be the only one Ted & I can go to, and given the shit state of the economy it may be the only one of the season anyways. And just to make this trip even better, our fun/awesome neighbors are coming, along with one of Ted's coworkers & her boyfriend. So it should be really fun! I haven't met this coworker of Ted's, but from what he's told me about her she sounds really awesome, so I'm stoked for some R&R.

The only thing I don't really like about going to the river is that I am so obscenely and ghostly white I actually reflect light. It's pretty bad. I can tan, but I don't. Dad's had two melanomas so I don't mess around with tanning anymore. It's just not worth it to me after seeing what he's gone through. I know many people are like "Yeah, skin cancer is no big deal." But it is a big deal. It's a BIG, SCARY deal. Aren't ya'll glad you jumped into the Debbie Downer post today? Enough on that. The point is I am ghostly white and people look at me as such.

I am really looking forward to Friday rolling around and getting out of town! I just can't believe how quickly the year is flying by. It's already May. The problem is that once I realize it's May, it's almost June, and so on. Speaking of June... I have to brainstorm a good birthday present for my brother who will be turning 24. Twenty-four. When the hell did that happen? I'm pretty sure last year he was 12 & annoying.

Come on Week, go by faster!

not too late

It's 8:20pm here so I still have time to wish all the mama's a Happy Mother's Day! You mothers are amazing people.

Me & my mama... I was about 9 months old in this picture. I love this picture for the following reason: my mom wasn't suppose to be in this picture, but I wouldn't stop fussing and crying so she just stepped in to hold me so I would calm down and hopefully take some solo pictures. You can see the joy and love I felt from being near her. I'm lucky to say I feel the same way almost 27 years later. Grown up life can be scary, and it's nice to know that in good times & bad times my mom is always there to show me love and comfort.

desks & clothes & candy, oh my!

Today I went to The Wonderful Land of Endless Design Possibilities... aka Ikea. I love that place. My mind starts to go into overload as soon as I hit the entrance. I got a new desk. That was the super exciting thing I went there for. It was honestly a deflating trip because I had to turn a blind eye to the sleeper sofa I really want to put  in our office for any overnight guests, the new bed frame I really want*, the super cuteness chair I want in our living room, and other miscellaneous cute things.

After Ikea I had some returns to take to Old Navy and let me just tell you... they had some Big Wig Corporates from Old Navy in the store, and I have never gotten such great service as I did today. That place is full of bright, fun, Summery things right now. Makes me wish I loved Summer.

Then I went to See's Candy to get the last part of my mom's Mother's Day present. I was lectured by the See's lady about how if I get the peppermint patty's I can't put them in the same box with everything else, they'll make everything else taste like peppermint. Let me preface by saying that by this point it was 4:00pm, HOT outside, I was tired & thirsty, and had been waiting in line for about 10 minutes to order. So this old See's lady is lecturing me about how I'm going to ruin my mom's Mother's Day if I mix the candies (ok it may not have been that dramatic... but close!). I'm standing there with a line of very grumpy people behind me, and I'm about the cry because this See's lady hates me and all I can think is "I don't have time to come back before Sunday! I'm working all day Saturday! Please stop making me feel like the worst daughter ever and just package my mother's half pound of hip-lovin'!" Then she handed me something dark chocolate & delicious and I proclaimed my love for her. The End.


*Dear Husband, if Ikea had that bed frame in an espresso finish it would have made it into our house. xoxo - Wife.

thankful for bananas

I think I'll jump on the Thankful on Thursday bandwagon...

 Right now I am so Thankful for:

- a husband that loves me
- over-ripe bananas that can be made into yumminess
- waking up to sunshine in the morning! because is anything worse than waking up when it's still dark outside?
- my The Office desk calendar. This thing is so worth the $$. I have a nice little chuckle most days before I start working.
- Gold Bond Ultimate Hand Sanitizer Moisturizer. I work in an office, not with with the public or kids, but germs are always a concern. Between bathrooms, keyboards, shared copy/fax machines, office refrigerator door handles, microwave, etc. it's nice to have a hand sanitizer that's also a lotion. I guess some people complained that it smells like oatmeal. I don't have a problem with that, it's not like I'm trying to seduce anyone at work.
- Laser printers
- my mama  Awww...

That's right people! Mother's Day is in just a few days. Have you all ordered flowers for The One That Gave You Life? Get on it! What are you waiting for? I really love my mom, she's one of my best friends, & yet every year I think "Why do I only take one day a year to let her know how special she is?" That's something I really need to work on.

I don't know how many of you shop at Costco or Sam's Club... we shop at Sam's Club almost exclusively. Seriously - ever since The Heaven's opened up and Sam's started selling gallons of milk individually - I haven't been to the regular grocery store in a month at least. So we shop in bulk & bargains. One of those bargains are the bananas. It's like $1.32 for a bunch of bananas, and I think the one we picked up had about 10 giant bananas on there. It's like a too good to pass up deal right there. Unfortunately neither one of us loves bananas that much, so now we have 6 super over ripened bananas on our counter. I've been searching for banana recipes so I can use them up, and I wanted something other than banana bread of muffins.

So I came across this recipe and decided to make them. I liked this recipe because it didn't call for shortening... I loathe shortening. Anyways... so I make these cookies. And they're pretty darn tasty - but they are not cookies. Don't be fooled. These are delicious little "banana cakes" if you will. They are sort of flat (although they do puff up when baking) and small like cookies, but they have the consistency of cake. I'm not complaining - I'm just saying. They were good. Really quite good. If you make them just make sure your bananas are good & ripe so the natural banana flavor shines through the cinnamon.

Oh, and... you should have seen the look of horror when I told Ted I was going to make banana cookies. It was pretty funny & even he said they were good after he tried one. Or he was being nice. Whatever, I liked them.

Does anyone have an actual cookie recipe that includes bananas? I still have 4 more sitting there in need of a high calorie home.

I have goals

I don't know why I never started watching Glee. I love musicals. I love dancing. I love musicals with dancing, and I love tv. So Glee seems like it would be right up my proverbial alley. So I am now adding "watching Glee for free on hulu" to my list of things to accomplish in life 2010. To be honest, the list is short.

chocolate chip cookies

The best chocolate chip cookie recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookies 

The best for the following reasons:
- they taste delish - everytime
- they are so simple & quick to whip up - thanks largely to the melting of the butter (read: not having to wait for the butter to be room temp. & the beating and the creaming)
- I made them on Friday and used M&M's because I had no chocolate chips in the house, and they were perfect

In my experience these need 1/4 - 1/2 cup less flour than called for, and they only need to bake for 9 minutes. I like a firm, but slightly under-baked cookie so they are soft & chewy. Yummmm. For the flour, it just depends on how the batter is looking, so I would strongly suggest not dumping the whole amount called for into the mix. I usually pour in 1 cup, then 1/2, then a little more until the desired consistency is reached. I go for a not-too-dry, still sticky, looking batter. Official terminology here people!

So bake, enjoy, share! (or don't, I won't tell.)

wordless Tuesday because words suck today

I name my plants

To start off May properly - I think my cactus is dying :( I have one of those really adorbs orange & pink cacti that are all small & cute in their little pots. I keep mine on my desk at work, and I think the utter lack of natural light has begun the slow death of my poor cactus. It's no longer vibrant oranges & pinks, it's kind of a pale/sad yellow color and some of the little nubs are soft. ::sigh:: Lets hope our house plant, Harriet, doesn't see a similar fate. (yes I did name my house plant, so? what of it?) Maybe my cactus is dying because I don't affectionately refer to it by name.

I always take great consideration & put a lot of thought into the kind of wall calendar I hang in my office. It's the bright, shiny thing that brings joy to my office. This year I chose an African Safari calendar because it was on sale I've always wanted to go to Africa. So each month has totally rocked - up until May. WTF. I want to look at wild zebras or majestic elephants - not some mangy coyote. Lame. So now it's May and I have a dying cactus and ugly coyote staring at me until the sweet bliss of June arrives.

On a happier note, have I mentioned how much I am loving A Dirty Job: A Novel by Christopher Moore?? I haven't? Ok let me go on then. I LOVE IT! I'm not even close to half way through it, but so far it's just so good. It's weird because for those of you who have read it - you know the premise is pretty sad - but the story telling is just so funny. I have, several times, found myself literally LOL-ing at this book (my husband can vouch). Now that I'm really in my groove with this book I can't wait to finish it so I can see if Christopher Moore's other books are as good.

new everything!

Thanks so much to Jocelyn @ http://blogsbyjocelyn.blogspot.com/ for my new EVERYTHING on my blog!!! :) She was fabulous to work with and I'm tickled as peach pie with the new look.

What a wonderful way to start off May.