Resolutionizing the world....mine, at least

New Year’s Resolutions are interesting things to me.
I’ve always made them. My whole life is filled with New Year’s resolutions that haven’t been kept. Just TONS of them. I once made the resolution not to swear. That was a complete wash. I should probably work on it more and do it less, but it’s still a resolution that didn’t get kept. I’ve made resolutions to write more, stay in touch with friends better and all sorts of other lofty goals.

Recently though, in the past 4 or 5 years, resolutions have been much easier to keep. Last year, Todd and I resolved to minimize…and we’ve kept to that pretty well. We have newer “stuff”, but we downsize regularly and donate all the time. It feels good to do “spring cleaning” a couple times a year. And it just makes sense. We have so much crap we don’t use. I don’t even know why we have some of the stuff we have. Yesterday alone I threw away a box and a half worth of crap. It was amazing…to think I’d been holding on to some of that junk since I was 20 or 21. Sheesh.

The year before that, we resolved not to spend any of our “date nights” at chain restaurants. We really only eat a local places or local chains (Yak & Yeti, Thai Basil, that sort of thing). It’s the very rare occasion that we eat at a chain place. We love trying new and interesting food and love even more supporting local businesses. There are just too many amazing restaurants near us to waste a date night at Applebee’s. In the last two years, I can think of maybe a handful of times that we’ve eaten “chain” and that’s either because we have a gift card or were invited by someone. It’s been pretty awesome.

And the year before that was the resolution to not eat fast food. That one has stuck really well. It’s just better for us, nutritionally. I think the only times we’ve eaten fast food have been on our way to/from SLC. Other than that, it’s not really something we do. It’s been nice.

This year, we’re to pick five things we’ve never done but always wanted to do and do them.
Mine include:
1. Running the Bolder Boulder (if my knees will allow for that).
2. Seeing a Broadway show (we’re going to see Phantom of the Opera in February)
3. Learn to shoot a gun.
4. Learn to golf.
5. Ski at Park City.
Runners-up are:
1. Run the Republic (doing that in February).
2. Seeing a Britney Spears concert (doing that in April…in Vegas)
3. Learn to crack a whip.

We’ll continue the tradition of picking 5 things from here on out. It’s what we tend to do with our resolutions…as I think is the point, actually. Make one and stick to it. One of these years, I’m going to make a resolution to travel somewhere once a month. That would be amazing!

So what are YOU up to in ’09?

I will NOT play the "poor poor pitiful me" game....

My car broke down yesterday.

This, after having spent nearly $600 getting new tires, rotors and brakes. Sigh.

Oh and paying off Todd's car with a final payment of over $4000. Sigh.

My dad, who usually fixes whatever is wrong with my car, is out of town and as it is going to be friggin' COLD this weekend, I had the car towed down to their house this morning. Another $150 or so. But at least it's out of my company's parking lot.

This all started around 7:15am yesterday when I was heading up the hill to work. Just as I passed under C-470, the wind picked up wildly and my check-engine light flashed a time or two and then turned off. Then it happened again another 10mins later or so. The wind was INSANE so I figured it was just that my car was having to work so bloody hard against a head wind. It's not a totally unreasonable thing to think...you don't know how bad the wind was.

Well, when I went to leave the office to head to class (20mins late, mind you...I got my days mixed up in my head), I jumped in the car and....

Nothing.

Kate, she was trying so hard to start. She knows I'm good to her and I could tell she really wanted to start, but it just wasn't in her.

So I hopped back out of the car, slammed the door shut and ran back into the office to see if Chandra could take me to the Mills where Todd would eventually pick me up.

As I was on the phone with Todd explaining all the drama, I realized that in my haste, I had locked my keys in my car.

Awesome.

So Todd wound up coming all the way up to my office to get me and instead of going to class, took me shopping for a new party dress for the Christmas season, which I needed anyway. I got this super hot "Samantha from SATC" style dress which will look great with my new silver heels and Todd was so excited that he bought me yet another dress and some long silver gloves to wear to his company party with the SATC dress and silver heels. Woot!

So this morning, my co-worker BJ hears that my car is busted and offers to check it out for me to see if he can try to diagnose the problem prior to having my pops fix it.

Turns out, I have a cylinder misfiring, which has happened before. On top of that, when he looked at the engine, he discovered that a vacuum hose was disconnected and one of my spark plugs was just hangin' out in the engine, not really attached to anything. Bah. He thinks I might also need a new ignition module.

All of these things I've had to deal with in all my years of owning vehicles and three of those four things have happened with Kate, the current car.

So, two weeks before Christmas and $4700 down, this is probably the best thing that could have possibly happened to me.

But I suppose there is a bright side to it all.

I mean, I’ve been really lax with studying for my Spanish final on my own and I’ve been given some “forced” study time over the next couple days, which will be nice. It’ll also allow me to really enjoy the Christmas party tonight (Alice 105.9s “holiday hootenanny”) and Todd’s company party tomorrow night (it’s a 20s speakeasy style party, which I’m crazy excited about) without freaking out that I haven’t studied or need to study more. All-in-all, it’s okay.

It’s also kind of a slap in the face from the universe to remind me not to be so flippant with my/our money right now. We’ve been a little frivolous and this is kind of just a reminder that I’m not yet made of money so maybe it’s time to tighten the purse-strings ever so slightly until this economy of ours gets back on track…whenever that decides to happen.

Regardless, this whole car-breaking-down thing isn’t the WORST thing that could happen to us right now. It’s certainly not the most ideal thing, but way worse things could happen so I’m going to focus on the silver linings and not let it get me too down…

Ella subrevivio su final oral en espanol...y es muy cansada y queria desayunar con sus amigas

I am absolutely exhausted. I'm in the middle of my last week of this semester and just finished my oral final in Spanish. I thought I was going to die.

Okay, not actually die, but it was incredibly difficult and I completely forgot how to use tenses and may have really effed that entire thing up. It's frustrating because I really enjoy Spanish and while it's no longer my minor (I don't have any minor...just a major), I do want to continue to learn and use the language. I think it's incredibly important for everyone to know a language other than their own (though for some, even native English is apparently a challenge). So many problems and issues could be avoided if we just knew how to communicate with each other better. Sigh.

I have one more final, next Saturday. A written final. I'm sure it's going to be difficult, but like I've always said, it's much easier for me to write and hear Spanish than to actually speak it. I really need to get better about *speaking* the language. I suck at it.

Myriad of other things on my mind right now.
I have a new hat, so that's fun.
The new Britney album continues to be ever-so-enjoyable.
I'm getting new brakes on Kate today courtesy of supremely-awesome boyfriend de Laura.
Christmas may have lost a bit of its luster for me this year (very unfortunate).
Bleh.

What makes me...me.

Per instructions from my husband's blog, here are a few things that make me unique (read: random

I'm incredibly selective about the music that I listen to because of the pretty drastic effects that it can have on me. I have (had?) CDs that I've actually tossed because one song on the disc brings back certain memories that I'm not okay with. So my personal taste in music is pretty quirky and well....juvenile. Britney and Christina are at the very top of my list. Every one of their albums has had zero adverse effect on me. I also love oldies more than a person my age should. I was born approximately four DECADES too early. Really. I was. Maybe even five. And my list of favorite songs changes quite rapidly, though there are two that will forever remain as the Top 2…

I have a knack for throwing a killer party…and LOVE doing it! Most people enjoy the actual “having” of the party whereas I definitely prefer the planning stages to just about anything else. Small or large, formal or casual, I love throwing parties. I’ve thrown … well… several in the years that I’ve known Todd. And I intend to thrown hundreds more. I like to make a big deal out of things. Birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, promotions, Saturdays, football games, Todd publishing his first book (that party yet to come, but definitely in the works), elections & inaugurations, you name it, I’ll find a theme and a place!

I also really hate wet paper. It makes me physically ill. I don’t like to talk about it.

I firmly believe that cars and computers should never break and should work all the time. Except for the standard maintenance required (changing the oil, rotating tires, etc.), I don’t believe that I should ever have to do anything to my car and get extremely upset (read: hysterical) when something goes wrong (timing belts snapping, clutch pedal coming loose, heads cracking, just to name a few…all of which have happened while the car is in motion at a fairly high rate of speed). When computers go bing-bong-boing on me, it’s not pretty either.

I live for holidays. Especially Christmas. There is nothing more exciting to me than the Christmas season. Holidays are second only to my husband and family in my heart. Truly. I love listening to Christmas music and indeed have a full CD collection that continues to grow (but will NOT listen to Christmas music prior to the day after Thanksgiving because each holiday deserves it’s own time). I like the twinkling lights and the smells. I love driving down I-70 between Denver West Blvd and Youngfield and enjoying the lights in the trees that line the highway. Even traffic doesn’t bother me…one direction is red (brake) lights and the other is white (head) lights. I love to bake all of my favorite Christmas cookies and learn how to make my grandmothers’ (plural) delicious cookies. I love decorating the house and going to holiday parties and generally relishing in the warmth and deliciousness. And I really love wrapping gifts…it’s a craft I learned from my mother and is famous in my family…my family can always expect to be “wowed” by the wrapping on their gifts from me. Anyone can expect that really. I was even designated the office gift wrapper last year J I also really love watching the holiday movies….Elf, A Christmas Carol (with George C. Scott), The Grinch (original and Jim Carrey), the Charlie Brown movies (because that scene with Linus telling the Christmas story will make me cry every time), all the weird quasi-claymation movies, the Muppet Christmas Carol, Scrooged, Love Actually, The Holiday, Miracle on 34th Street (the original with Maureen O’Hara), White Christmas, Holiday Inn…

Yeah, I love Christmas.

So there’s a quick smattering of my quirks. Now you go.

The Material Girl reigns supreme....

4:00pm - Sitting at the office, anxiously awaiting my departure from work to go home and quickly throw on my 80s garb and head down to Brooklyn's to grab a drink and wait for Laura to arrive.

5:15pm - FINALLY get to leave the office, sassy boots in hand (they've been at the office since October 30th when I brought them in as a potential pair for Nikki to borrow for Halloween). Hauled significant amounts of ass home and then ran into the house and just about jumped out of my work clothes and into my concert clothes. Outfit consisted of black leggings, grey tulle skirt and a purple sparkly 80s shirt. Topped off with aforementioned sassy black boots, giant hot pink beads, coral scarf and about 20 pink and silver bangles. Mmm....fantastic!

6:00pm - Make my way down to the Pepsi Center by way of Wadsworth to I-70 to I-25 to Speer to Auraria Parkway. I love that I can play that "Umm...I'm actually here for class" card and get to park on campus for $3.50 rather than $10...woot! Flash a smile and lie to the parking attendant and make my way rather effortlessly to Brooklyns at the Pepsi Center.

6:30pm - Inside Brooklyn's is an absolute madhouse. Alice 105.9 is there hosting a crazy Madonna pre-show party or whatever. I've never seen a DJ in real life, so it was kind of cool to see BJ and Howie + Mikey at the bar...BJ plowed into me at one point, but was apologetic and it was really no one's fault in particular...the place was packed, I was apparently standing in a major thoroughfare and he got bashed into by someone else, thereby bashing into me. Whatever. I had a double cape cod and was jamming to "Papa Don't Preach"...I really couldn't care less. Spent about a half hour dancing by myself waiting for Laura to make her arrival.

7:00pm - Laura arrives. Long Island Iced Teas all around, thank you! We head to the upper level of the bar and chatty-chat-chat for about 45mins before slamming the remainder of our drinks and heading downstairs to close out and go to the show. Closing out proved challenging so we just left. Meh, we were going to be coming back after the show anyway so it didn't really make any sense to close out only to open up again in 3 hours.

7:45pm - Leave Brooklyn's and make our way to the Pepsi Center. Once inside, the following occurs:
Receive drawing tickets for a new Blackberry (of which neither of us needs)
Don't get a free Blackberry, so receive a light up blue necklace thingy as consolation
Have our photo taken by a Blackberry rep which will be on their website later on
Take 6 ridiculous photos in the free photo booth
Go a little bonkers that we're ACTUALLY at the Madonna show
Laura loses her ticket. Thank GOD she was already in the venue.

8:00pm - Get to our seats and are actually astounded that a) the staging is so massive and b) there are so many empty seats still! Ah whatever. Our seats were perfection! Section 318, Row 12, Seats 13&14....smack in front of the stage and way at the top so we could see EVERYTHING. The only better seats I could imagine would be right against the stage. As it were, our seats were fantastic...and there were people who didn't show up next to us so we had tons of room to dance...yay!

9:00pm - Show has still not started even though our tickets definitely say that the show time is 8pm. But I guess when you're MADONNA, you get to do whatever you want to and everyone just kind of sits back and takes it. Oh to have that kind of power haha! At this point, Laura and I are jamming to some wacky mix of current pop nonsense when I stop and say, "Who the hell is smoking?!" and then immediately realize what I've just said and Laura and I both say "Um this is a non-smoking venue!" We turn around and see two girls right behind us lighting up. Laura immediately transistions into "No Bullshit" Laura and informs them that the Pepsi Center is indeed a non-smoking venue. They don't really care and continue to smoke. Then two girls behind the smokers start to get fiesty about it and eventually two security guards come up and inform Smoky McIdiot that they cannot in fact smoke and must stop immediately.

9:30pm - Lights go down and on with the show!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have never been so excited about a show in all my life. It's friggin' MADONNA!!!!!!! Live and for real for the first time EVER in Denver. It was unbelievable. There is really no way for me to explain how fantastic the staging and lights and sound board and TWENTY dancers and clothes and lasers and everything actually was. Just imagine the most amazing thing you've ever seen...this was w-a-y better.

About four songs in, Smoky McIdiot lights up again and much to my own chagrin, I actually leave the concert to find another security guard. I hate people like that girl. HATE THEM. Once at the security guard, there is already someone there with the same complaint as me: I didn't pay this much money to have some bitch smoking behind me. Make it stop.

Security guard made them stop. Thank God.

Continue with the show.

I don't think I realized quite how late it was until I actually fell asleep during two songs...they were slow songs and very ambient so I blame Madonna for playing good sleeping music.

Interesting features of the show:
1. Madonna gets mad at the front-rowers for not clapping, saying "You're in the front fucking row and you're not clapping! How lame!" It's true. That's trés lame.
2. Madonna takes a request from a girl in the audience and we all sing Like A Virgin with the Material Girl...it was awesome!
3. Five giant screens display "the incomparable Britney Spears" saying "it's Britney, bitch" to which I proceed to lose my mind and concern Laura. What can I say....I [heart] Britney!
4. Other stars that make video appearances during the show: Pharrel, Kanye West, Puff Daddy (or whatever name he's going by now), Timbaland and Justin Timberlake. Woot!

The show ended abruptly, but very "Madonna" and it was off to Brooklyn's for fried food to fill our excited bellies. It wasn't until I dropped Laura off at her car that I realized it was freaking one o'clock in the morning. Definitely intended to get home around 11:30pm, but that was assuming the show would actually start at 8pm. But hey, two solid hours of all things Madonna isn't anything I'm going to complain about.

It's going to be a challenge to stay awake today though....that is for certain...

All said, Madonna has officially taken over the top spot on my "Best Show I've Ever Been To" list, which was previously held by the Beastie Boys....and next year, Britney will probably overtake the #2 spot, pushing the Boys down to #3,4,&5 (yes, I've seen them three times....woo hoo!)

Till next time...

Because it's a good time...

This came from Amy's Blog....seemed like fun



If I were 7 again I would….
jump on the trampoline all the live long day

If their were an extra hour in the day…
I would sleep through it all the while knowing I should be using it to study.

my junk food indulgence of choice is…
jalepeño and cheddar kettle cooked potato chips

the color yellow makes me think of…
smiley faces

the most used item in my kitchen is…
The coffee maker.

Now, YOU go!

Brief update on the Obama Puppy

Sounds like they're leaning toward adopting a puppy from a shelter.

Way to go! There are plenty of puppies out there that need lovin'!
Just ask Leo and Suki...

Who is Barack Obama?

The last couple days have been pretty heavy around here. Cyber-space, I mean. I've been involved in a few different discussions regarding the recent election and they've gotten incredibly long and drawn out and occasionally feisty. Not that I mind any of it.

The country is changing, there's no doubt about that. And I'm quite looking forward to what is going to happen and what could happen. Whatever happens though, it's going to be different from we've been doing for the last little while. That's not good or bad. It just is.

And I think that's what's giving me this excruciating headache since Tuesday.

All the non-stop bickering about what has happened or what people perceive is going to happen.

The fact of the matter is that Tuesday, Election Day, has come and gone and what's done is done. Barack Obama is going to be our new president come January 20th (Inaguration Party anyone?) and really there's nothing that anyone can do to stop that now. The ballots have been cast and counted, the electoral votes have been dealt to their rightful owners and Barack Obama is it.

I'm just kind of over all the constant yammering, bickering, bitching and whining about the results. This is absolutely no reflection on the blogs that I've been reading and commenting on lately, but rather on the hateful and disrespectful things I keep reading on Facebook and hearing on the television.

Maybe I'm petty. Maybe I'm not smart enough for heated political discussions. Maybe a lot of things.
But right now, since it's the Obama's that are going to be living at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and I have made my peace with that, I'm more interested in other things.

Things like what kind of puppy Sasha and Malia are going to get.
What is Michelle going to wear to the Inagural Ball?
What kind of china is the new family going to choose?
Who will be the new Secretary of State? The Press Secretary?
And because I live for all things Christmas, how is the House going to be decorated next year for the holidays?
Is Barack's jump shot really as good as "they" claim it is?

I know that a lot of that is trivial, but that's what I'm more interested in right now.
I've been so personally invested in this election that I feel like I have some kind of personal attachment to this fabulous new family. And I want to get to know them, just like so many other Americans out there.

Yes, we did!

Last night, we went to an election party at Karla and Phill's place, complete with some Chicago-style goodies (butter cookies, pizza and PBR) and spent more than 3 hours watching the races and the talking heads.

We've all worked pretty hard in the last year or so not only to get our candidate elected, but to educate ourselves and make sure that we felt he was, FOR SURE, the candidate for us. Never have I felt so sure about the decision that I made. Granted, this is only my third presidential election, but this one took a special place in my heart.

I am proud of America this morning.

At one point in the evening, we got sick of the talking heads and opted for "Indecision 08" with Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert. Good grief those guys are absolutely HILARIOUS. I watched them during the Bush-Kerry race and was just dying laughing.

Anyway, at one point in the evening, Jon Stewart announced that, by CNNs predictions, Barack Obama had just become the President -Elect of the United States.

I nearly started crying.

Shortly after that, Sen. McCain gave his concession speech out there in Arizona. It was gracious and impressive and I imagine very difficult. I believe that McCain worked very hard and he had (has) supporters that are just as passionate as any Obama supporter.

The question has been raised: What if your candidate DIDN'T win?

Honestly, that was something that I thought pretty heavily about. It was always a possibility. I mean, it IS an election so things can go any direction at any time. So yeah, I considered that. I have long stated that if McCain was who I believe would be the best choice, I'd have voted for him. I educated myself on BOTH candidates so I feel that I did make the right choice for ME. And on the same token, had McCain won and NOT been my choice, he would have my full support.

Why?

Because this man is the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

I should hope that people this morning feel the same way about Obama having won.

The man deserves our respect and our support.

And don't forget that last night, Americans both made and changed history.

It's a big deal.

Make History

Vote
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Because whatever your reasons, you NEED to vote.

I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so!

Yes, our plans are in full swing.
Come early June 2009, we will be turning Japanese!
My brother, who lives and works in Japan right now, has been wanting all of us to come visit him while he's still there (he's probably moving back to Colombia at some point) and since going to Japan is something Todd has ALWAYS wanted to do, this is just a perfect opportunity to go! Man, Todd sure married in to the right family hahaha!

Originally, we were going to fly in to Tokyo and take the train on to Toyama-shi where my brother lives. Apparently, that wasn't a good idea. For one, it's friggin' expensive as hell to fly in and out of Tokyo. Secondly, it's more in northern Japan so we wouldn't be able to hang with my brother as he's in the southern part. And third, my brother says that Tokyo is uninteresting at best. He flew in to Tokyo and did most of his training there before moving to Toyama-shi and frankly, if Daniel says that something is uninteresting, it probably is. So he recommended that we fly in to Osaka. It's closer to where he lives and is "the gateway to the south" of Japan so there's plenty to see and do in and around Osaka. We'll get to head into Kyoto and possibly Kobe (for some amazing beef at only $150 per steak) and Hiroshima.

We probably won't get into Toyama-shi, which is might be okay. Daniel describes it as the Des Moines of Japan. And as he stated, "If you were going to visit the US, you'd want to go to NYC or Chicago or LA...not Des Moines." Mostly that must made me laugh a whole bunch.

Todd has downloaded and installed Rosetta Stone - Japanese so that he's relatively prepared to go over there...he has plenty of time to learn the language and we might even look into some kind of "learning annex" class for him to take. He's all about trying to immerse himself in the culture as much as possible while we're there.

I'm a bit nervous about going, but in a good way. Everything will be fine a wonderful, but I worry about losing luggage or getting sick (or worse) while I'm overseas. I'm basically just a worry-wart and shouldn't be. I'm so excited to eat ridiculous sushi and Kobe beef and hopefully (because my stomach can only handle so much exotic food) some McDonald's. I do have this thing where I try to eat McD's (and/or Starbucks) while I'm in different countries, just to see what they offer. It was HILARIOUS to do that in Paris and Barcelona, so I'm sure Osaka is going to provide endless entertainment for me.

And hopefully, if it's not totally dork-tastic, we'll do some amazingly awful karaoke and it will be fantastic!

Watcha gonna do??

It's been a L-O-N-G time since I've had a truly free evening. For the last five+ years, I've been in school or studying nearly every night of the week. Now that I'm closing in on being done (don't get too excited...I still have about 6 semesters left), I'm wondering what I'm going to do with all that free time. I really have no idea what it's going to feel like to have absolutely NOTHING to do at night. I'm sure I'll get back in shape big time. HA! Maybe I'll just sleep. Or read. Probably travel. Definitely spend better quality time with Todd. Probably give him a break from life while I handle the house and everything about it for a spell.

Still though. What is it like to have free time? What is it like to not have things pressing from every angle? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll read a LOT. And watch Project Runway at it's regularly scheduled time!

It's almost like thinking about winning the lottery. If you've never had that kind of money, the options are mind-boggling. That's how I am with time. Living with Todd has taught me that time is precious. What we do with it is important. Best not to waste. We only have so much of it, after all.

Ah, I do know that we'll be going to Las Vegas as soon as I graduate...it's my graduation present...and it's definitely for both of us.

Anyway, yeah....the idea of having spare time...it's overwhelming right now. Best I not get too caught up in that and concentrate on the studies for now.

The '09 Challenge

Todd came up with our new year's resolution yesterday.
We have to find five things we've never done before and do them before 2009 ends.
I'm really excited about this one!

I'm just not sure what to do...most of the things I want to do involve enormous sums of cash (walking to Russia, spending a week in Cancun learning to surf, etc. ) or are kind of ... fluffy and not likely (sing the national anthem at a major sporting event) or the timing will be 100% not right (having a baby) or are things I should just do anyway (floss with regularity, keep our bedroom floor free to clutter).

So I'm trying to think of things I should experience in the next year...and I'm open to suggestion!

One year down....50+ more to go!

I've sort of been reflecting on mine and Todd's first year of marriage the past few days...our first annivesary is fast approaching (on Sunday, as I've mentioned numerous times) and there are just so many things that we did in the last year, it's kind of staggering!

Probably the most exciting thing we did was TRAVEL! Man, did we do a lot of that! Buena Vista, Santa Fe and the Great Sand Dunes were first, followed closely by Toronto and Las Vegas and topped off with Boston...each trip was strikingly different and hold so many memories for us that we'd need a book just to talk about it all! Traveling always has been and always will be one of my biggest passions and I'm so glad that I now have someone to share that with who is equally as interested in traveling as I am. I really never thought I'd find someone who could enjoy it with the same fervor and excitement that I do...lucky me!

We adopted puppies. Oh man. What a ridiculous idea and process that was. I remember distinctly sitting on out front stoop at our first place trying to convince Todd that we should get cats (yes, multiple. Three, to be exact) and he was having none of it...didn't want a litter box in the house because "that's gross in a house as small as ours!" He paused and then said, "Maybe we'll get a dog....do you want to look at puppies today?" I about fell out of my pants. It was totally ludicrous. Neither of us have ever owned a dog and had no idea what to do with one or even what kind to get. Two weeks later, we were at "Crazy Dog Lady's" house visiting a pup named Sunny...and his BFF, Jackie, suddenly became enamored with us too, even letting Todd cuddle her. A month after that, Sunny and Jackie came to live with us and we re-named them what you all know as Leo and Suki. They are so freakin' cute and I kind of can't remember life before them. They have been on trips with us and have taken us for all kinds of wild, garbage-eating bed-destroying rides as well :o)

We had our share of fights, but that was something we knew would happen. We're good talkers though so nothing was ever catastrophic and no one ever wound up on the couch haha!

We have eaten so much fantastic food in the last year, it's kind of a miracle that we've both maintained healthy weights! Italian, Greek, Mexican, Thai, Indian, Moroccan, American, French, you name it, we've eaten it! Additionally, we have tried probably hundreds of new beers, much to my delight! I have found that not only do I no longer abhor beer, I quite enjoy trying NEW beers! Todd is likely grateful for this as well :o) We've even started a new blog - tuesdayorfriday.blogspot.com - where we review our restaurant experiences for our fun and your enjoyment. We make a pretty heavy effort to NOT eat a big chain places (unless we have a gift certificate haha!) so eating out is always an adventure for us. Date night = awesome in the Newton House.

Yes, lots has happened in the last year, but markedly, the most important thing is that we are still madly in love and falling more and more so every day. Having someone to wake up to and come home to is fabulous. Having someone to take care of and to take care of me is ... necessary (tee hee). Having Todd is perfection.

Has it really been almost a year already??!?

Things that annoy me recently:

1. When cashiers don't give you change back when it's less than like 5cents. I know, I know...pennies are nealry obsolete, but still...it's MY money. I never said they could just assumedly keep it.

2. When there's a rack of clothes at a store (cough cough GAP) and all the clothes on the rack are on sale, but when you go to ring up the jeans, turns out, THOSE jeans aren't on sale....so why the hell are the 78 pairs on RACK OF SALE CLOTHES?!

3. When we go to check out new apartments and they tell us there's a fire place in each unit only to find out that the city of Arvada has forced them to turn off the heating element to said fireplaces...so what is the friggin' point of having a fireplace?


Moving right along~
Fall is officially upon us. 71F today, 70F tomorrow, then 50s for Friday and 40s for Saturday. WOO HOO! Too bad we can't use our fireplace for warmth, but whatever. We'll have each other (awwww....). Beer Fest is also this weekend and Todd and I are going to be volunteering at the event both Friday night and Saturday morning. We get to go to the festival for free, we get bigger tasting glasses than those poor fools who actually pay to go, we get official t-shirts for working two sessions, we get to use nice, unclobbered, non-gross bathrooms at our leisure, and we get to spend a ton of time wandering around tasting some of the 1800+ brews that will be featured at the festival....all for volunteering to help pour beer for part of the time we're there. Woo hoo! My favorite part of the night is that we get name tags are are not required to use our real names. I'm usually KATE JACKSON, Todd typically goes by TAN WICKER and Laura (my friend that got us in to this whole volunteering at Beer Fest thing) is always THAT GIRL. This year, all the girls are going to don our GABF t-shirts, denim mini-skirts and insane tights with tennis shoes...my tights are white with black and hot pink houndstooth...woot! Todd found them for me :o)

So other than the insane cold that I'll have to endure walking to and from the convention center in a mini-skirt, it's going to be a grrrrrrrrrrr-EAT weekend!

It's only 12 days from our 1st annivesary...I'm getting more and more excited as the days wear on. We opted to stay in Golden for the weekend, since that's where we fell in love and subsequently got married. It'll be fun to re-visit all the places we used to go when we first started dating....the Starbucks in Golden, Blue Canyon Bar & Grill, Buffalo Rose, etc. etc. We're going to have dinner on Friday night at Old Chicago Pizza (where we had our rehearsal dinner) and then on Saturday night, we're having dinner at Fossil Trace (where our reception was). Sunday morning, we'll be going to church at Calvary Church (where we got married)...we've been there once before and really enjoyed it so I'm sure that this next time will be no different...

C'mon, October 19th!!!

Damn that stupid timeline...

I felt the "timeline" creep back a little bit today.

I was thinking about when I was going to wind up graduating from college. Feeling a little blue about all the time that I wasted in my previous life. I'm putting it in perspective with the global financial crisis and how the odds of me ever being able to go to school full-time are, well, slim to none right now. I'm not sure how people (like Laura) were ever able to do 40hrs a week and still graduate on time. I would kill to be able to do that.

I think I had a bit of a stabbing pain in the last week when I realized how many of my friends are pregnant right now. Too many to list, that's for sure. Granted all of them have been married for quite a bit longer than me, but still.

I dunno...will I be the ONLY one going through pregnancy when we finally start a family? That will feel rather lonesome, I think. I'm not sure what that feeling is about or where it's coming from. It's totally baseless, really.

Dammit, I just want to be done with school. I'm getting desperate and insane about it at this point...

Stepping away for a bit...

I have just finished one of the better books that I've read in a great while. It's called TWILIGHT by Stephanie Meyer. I'm sure you've heard of it. It's what Todd would call "urban fantasy"...it's about a vampire, after all. I don't know how or why I got so engrossed in it, but I did. Finished a 500 page novel in about 4 days. It has been a l-o-n-g time since I've read a book that I was practically addicted to...I read that thing every chance I got. Yeah yeah yeah...it's *technically* and teeny-bop novel, but I'd never read a vampire story before and the few vampire movies I've seen have been so-so at best (frankly, I could have done without ever seeing INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE...kind of a suck-fest)...so there was something intriguing about this book. I told Todd today after finishing the book that I'm kind of dying to read the next one...there are four in the series. He thought that was "cute"...

Honestly, it's just been nice to have something to focus my energies on OTHER than politics. The election season is starting to get to me, what with all the commercials, blogs, emails, debates, magazines blah blah blah. I'm ready for November 5th. Very ready. I'm not starting to get apathetic about the political situation of the country, but I am becoming a little desenstized to how dumb Sarah Palin can be. It's exhausting and she supplies the comedians with so much material, it's not enjoyable anymore. Nothing is ever really enjoyable when you don't have to try very hard.

So I'm ignoring it for a little while. Just a day or two. Focusing my energies elsewhere (like school, for instance...and fitness) for a bit while I let myself unravel from all the political craziness. While I whole-heartedly believe that emotions should not get mixed in with politics, this season, it's a bit hard...I feel very passionately about a lot of things that are going on right now and tend to get very upset when people don't/can't/refuse to listen to another point of view or even hear me out without scoffing...like I've somehow not educated myself rather thoroughly on the situation and the people and that my statements are the mere ramblings of a liberal young lady. Sigh.

Tonight Todd and I are finally doing a date night we've been wanting to do for months...literally. We're having wings and beer at Buffalo Wild Wings and singing karaoke...I kind of love karaoke dates with Todd...I kind of love Todd....nah...I definitely love Todd.

Also, our first anniversary is in t-minus 16 days...could NOT be more excited!!!

Another day, another weakening dollar

Driving to work today, I was considering this nearing recession of ours. Well, really the recession is upon us with a depression nearing, if we're not careful. I just looked around at all the people on the highway, all of us in our cars heading to work. I wondered how many of them were doing the very same thing I was doing. We're all going on our merry way, just trying to get through whatever kind of day we were about to have. How many people got laid off today? I don't know.

I also got to thinking, all these bank closings and sellings and what not (Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG), they seem to affect the people at the top right now. All these big wigs that thought they were being so sneaky and screwing the life out of homebuyers with "predatory loans" are now getting screwed right back. Seems karmic in a way.

But all this will trickle down eventually, don't you worry. I'm sure of it. I wish there was a good fix. There's just not. The federal bail out is a temporary fix at best...and by printing $750B more dollars, we're just weakening the economy more than it already is. But if they don't bail out AIG and the like, what will that end result be. I wish it were as easy as just saying, "Well you're the ones that made the bad decisions that got you here...deal with it." A guy came into our office today and was doing the hi-hello greetings and saw the sign on my cube wall that says, "Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine." and he was like, "Hmm....how true it is" and then delved into a brief discussion about the economy. It's kind of true though. Why are we paying for the sins of others?

This is just such a bizarre time for the country right now. I look around a just tsk-tsk and shake my head most days.

Well, bite my butt and call me an apple!

WASHINGTON — In another unnerving day for Wall Street, investors suffered their worst losses since the terrorist attacks of 2001, and government officials raced to prevent the financial crisis from spreading.

Lehman Brothers tanked on Sunday night with employees scrambling throughout the building to gather their belongings in fear that, come Monday, the doors would be shut. They were.

Merrill Lynch was purchased by Bank of America at pennies on the dollar (approx $50bil which, if you know Merrill Lynch, was an act of desperation at best).

Yesterday, AIGs stock dropped nearly 60%. AIG is one of the largest investment firms in the United States. Rather, it WAS. Unless they can come up wtih $75BILLION IN BAIL OUT MONEY BY TOMORROW. And the White House is saying "thanks but no thanks" to a federal bail out. The government is broke. Aaaahhhh...weapons of mass destruction. I'm so glad we found them.

This recession brought to you by Conservative Ideology...and the letter "W".

I have never in my life been so glad to have a job. It makes me work harder, more efficiently and frankly, with a great deal more fear.

Colorado is a swing state this year. First time in many many elections that has been the case. We have traditionally been RED. And God, I hope we go BLUE this year. I think we stand a fair chance at that, but it's going to take some good hard work on the part of Obama/Biden supporters. It's going to take more-than-adequate research from all of us to be able to back up Obama and refute McCain (and that jokester, Palin).

So far, it's incredibly difficult though. I'm trying my hardest to convince a couple specific people to re-consider their McCain support. I'm just asking for people to look simply at the facts. What's hard is that people's emotions get invovled...and I really don't know why. FEELING like something is right almost never actually MAKES it right. You have got to remove emotions from the equation.

What I'm really getting tired of is people playing the Experience Card. You just can't do that with this election. You really can't. Because if you look at it that way, Biden is the only person really EXPERIENCED enough to run the country. And with that not being an option (because he's not "a heartbeat away from the presidency"), you have to remove that card from the deck.

But just for kicks, let's look at the various credentials surrounding our candidates:

BARACK OBAMA: Graduated from Columbia University (after transferring from Occidental College) with a degree in political science (emphasis in international relations). After working in Chicago as a community organizer, he studied law at Harvard University where he was the first black man (or man of color for that matter) to be president of the Harvard Law Review. He then taught constitutional law at University of Chicago Law for twelve years while working at a law firm specializing in civil rights. From 1997 to 2004, Obama was a member of the Illinois State Senate. In 2004, he was elected to the US Senate.

JOE BIDEN - Graduated from University of Delaware with a double major in history and political science. Continued to Syracuse Law School and graduated in 1969. Biden has been a US Senator since 1973 and has consistenly been named one of the least wealthy members of the Senate.

JOHN McCAIN - Graduated from the US Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1958 and went on to serve in the Vietnam War. First elected to the US Senate in January 1987. McCain was later on a list of potential running mates for Bush, Sr. in 1988.

SARAH PALIN - Enrolledat Hawaii Pacific College in 1982 (for one semester). Transferred to North Idaho College in 1983, then to University of Idaho, then to Matanuska-Sustina College (for one semester), then back to University of Idaho to complete her degree in communications-journalism in 1987. Won the Miss Wasilla pageant in 1984 and was 3rd place in Miss Alaska pageant where she won a college scholarship. In 1988, Palin was a sports reporter in Alaska. She was elected to Wasilla city council in 1992 and 1995. Was mayor of Wasilla from 1996-2002 and was elected Governor of AK in 2006.

Notice that neither of the Republican candidates every studied law or political science (something that, in my estimation, is crucial learning for a role in national politics).

Again, all I really ask is that you really weigh what is important to you in this election. Is it abortion rights? Gun control policies? Foreign affairs? Education? Equal pay for equal work? Raising minimum wage? The war in Iraq? Terrorism in general? Taxes? Universal health care? Immigration (legal or otherwise)?

Consider what you hold important to you. Consider which candidate falls in line the BEST with what you believe will be the best choices for the country.

But please....don't just blindly choose a candidate for the reason of "BECAUSE" or "I've ALWAYS been with this party!" Consider that maybe, this time around, the unexpected might be just what we need. Consider the possibility of NOT having another old white guy in the Oval Office. Consider that maybe, just MAYBE, the country can be better, be more, than what we've come to expect.

Simply, consider.

Fantasy Religion

Our Bible study has begun again. This time 'round, we're studying the Corinthian letters and so far, it's proving interesting.

I think the big lesson from last night was summed up in one word: RESPECT.

With the election coming up quickly, it's funny to watch how people often try to tie both politics and religion together when, to me, they're mutually exclusive (for more on this, ask Todd about his thoughts regarding a country that is a democracy vs. one that is a theocracy).

Gabe brought up an interesting comparison after we briefly discussed the validity of religions worldwide and even the varying sects of Christianity itself. In all of us, we have the desire, nay, compulsion, to believe in something, anything. And when we find that something, we hold it very dear to ourselves and it becomes part of who we are, part of our very fiber. But I wonder if maybe there aren't some laurels that we hold too tightly to sometimes?

The best example I can think of, for myself, is that of creation. Genesis 1 uses the terms "day and night" to separate out what was created and when. Some people interpret that to mean "7 literal days" while others think it means "7 time periods".

Then there are those, like myself, who simply don't care. I believe that God created the universe, but I don't know how (though science is ready and willing to try to figure it out), I don't know when and I don't know how long it took. It's a big place, the universe. To steal a line from a movie, "Begging your pardon, sir, but that's a big ass sky."

It's true. It's huge. But I really just don't care how long it took. I don't. It's not something I care to discuss and it's not a hill I'm going to die on. Because at the end of the day, that one talking point is not something that I call up as part of my spiritual fiber.

I just think that sometimes, all these varying sects of Christianity get so caught up in the insignificant details that we forget what the point is. I think one of my new favorite verses is 1 Corinthians 1:10-12.

10I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ."

Paul goes on to say, essentially, "When did Christ divide??" meaning, why all the divisions? Why all the separations?

All that to get you up to speed before I talk about Gabe's analogy.

After discussion all of the above for a while, Gabe laughed to himself and said "I just had a really bad thought." to which we all immediately said "What?! Let's hear it!"

So he said the following:

Okay, so all of us here like football. We all have our favorite teams. The team we root for, pull for, yell for regardless of if they're winning or losing. Hell, some people even get in fights (or worse) for their teams. But we also have our favorite players who may or may not be on our favorite football team. We follow the players and their stats and are interested in what they are doing. My point is, I wish we could have fantasy religion.

Here's what I took from that. I love love love the Broncos. I'm a Denver native and have always been a Broncos fan. I was born into that. It's almost default. But I also really like Peyton and Eli Manning. Sometimes I like Tom Brady (mostly just when he's on SNL though) and I most assuredly will keep up with John Lynch (sadly, no longer a Bronco). Everything that those four guys do impacts my team in some way, at some point.

I'm a Christian. Always have been. I was born into that. It's almost default. Don't get me wrong...I made that very important decision many many years ago, but it was also how I was raised. But in the recent past (maybe the last 6 or 7 years), I'm coming to realize that religions the world over are valuable and important. I wish I could be as peaceful and centered as the Buddhists. I wish that I had the dedication and fervor of the Muslims. I wish that more families held true the family values of the Mormons. I wish that I could commune with God the ways the Hindus can. I love and admire the longevity of the Jewish faith (it is where mine spawned from, after all).

All of these things are valuable. All these things are important.

And so I choose to learn about them. Not so that I can BECOME one of any of the multitudinous religions worldwide, but so that I can learn to respect them more.

There's a sign on my campus that says "If we all spoke another language, the world would be less divided."

I say, if we all understood and respected other religions and faiths, the world would be more peaceful, more constructive, more....shalom....

Uh-oh...here I go again...

I've gotten the urge to travel again. Ergh. I have to wait until next March at the earliest to go somewhere uber-exotic.
So to quench my thirst for travel, I'm making a list of all the places that I want to go...again.

United States
Alaska (we'll be heading there next August)
California
San Diego
San Fransisco
Colorado (yes I know I live here)
Vail
Telluride
back to the western slope
Flordia
Orlando (Disney)
Miami & the Keys
Hawaii
Illinois
Chicago
Kentucky
for the derby (Todd says we'll go some year for my bday since it's around that time)
Maine
Montana
isn't that where Yellowstone is?
New Mexico for some skiing
New York
North & South Carolina
Hilton Head, specifically
Oregon
Seaside
Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh to see grandma
Philadelphia
Texas
I've heard Austin is pretty nuts
Vermont for the skiing
Washington
Seattle
D.C.

Elsewhere in the world
Vancouver
Toronto
Banff/Lake Louise
Montreal
Cancun
Much of South America
England
France
Space
Italy
Germany
Ireland
Scotland
Switzerland
China
Japan (woot!)
Thailand
Singapore
Australia / New Zealand
Zimbabwe (Victoria Falls)
India
Morocco
Egypt
Russia

I need a freaking 12-step program.

The price of coffee in Colombia....

I'm trying really hard to understand the RNC right now.

I'm watching all the speeches with as much fervor as I did the DNC. In order to make educated, informed decisions, I feel it's more than necessary that I do.

But all the speeches have been about McCain's military trauma and I'm trying to understand why they're only telling me about THAT and not about any of his policies or ideas.

I also would love to know why there's such grand and glorious hypocrisy regarding Bristol Palin's pregnancy. Isn't it funny that Bill O'Reilly took Jamie Lynn Spears and ran her through the ringer, tearing her (and her family) up one side and down the other, and yet with Bristol Palin (equally as young and irresponsible) is "off limits"? Why?

And then there's the whole "we never did this to Chelsea Clinton" line, which is a load of crap.

Frankly, I'm with Obama on this one (and on many other things)....let's go ahead and leave the kids out of this whole politics thing. It's not fair. They're easy targets. And really...name me one family that doesn't have something really jacked up going on...

Let's focus instead on the real issues....policies, procedures and political history....Sarah Palin's is one to be reconned with. And not in the best ways.

Eureka! Again! I have a new vacuum!

Oh man.
I bought a new vacuum at lunch today and it. is. a. ma. zing.
It's *almost* as good as the Dyson that I really want, but was only $75 rather than $400. I'll take it!

I got it home, put it together and used the crap out of it! Gross as it may be, you'd be SHOCKED at how much dog hair and miscellaneous nasty that sucker...sucked. It's the greatest vacuum I've ever had.

I mostly hate, abhor and loathe housework (which should be shocking to none and disappointing to Todd haha)*, but having this wonderful new vacuum makes me want to clean clean clean! If only I had more carpet in the house!!

I also managed to pack up one entire set of dishes, two-thirds of our glasses and most of our service-ware this evening and it was glorious! I think the Suk-ster was a little confused when I was packing up the kitchen...she kept pacing about around me and looking at me like I was totally nuts. Poor puppy! Oh well...at least I can rest assured that she will love her new house a whole bunch!...as soon as we can get her up 3 flights of stairs. She hates stairs...but she loves TREATS! This is going to be so easy. She's a smart one, but man is she a sucker for treats.

Anyway, I love my new vacuum.

Now back to watching the RNC.




*The truth is, if I had more time in my day, I'd clean like a crazy-head.

History in the making....

Two days of being downtown for all the DNC madness has caught up with me.

I have a political hangover.

Monday, Todd and I went downtown to see what all the talk was about and it was surprisingly uneventful. The only pictures we took we of the multitudes of cops in riot gear. Cops on bikes. Cops on motorcycles. Klingon cops. Cops cops cops! With all the money and time spent on security, it would almost be a shame if something DIDN'T happen. Not that I want something to happen. There have been plenty of protestor arrests so whatever.

The most exciting thing to come of Monday night happened while sitting at Chili's at 16th & Champa. Just enjoying our two-for-one margs and beers and chowing on chips and salsa and along comes James Carville! No security, no entourage, no briefcase, not even DNC lanyards. Just Carville in his sport coat and shiny red Asics. Woo hoo! HE cemented himself in my mind as "coolest old guy alive" when someone yelled "Oh my god! James Carville!" and he responded with a fist in the air and a solid "YEAH!" and kept on walkin'. He was on a mission to get somewhere, which I found amusing.

Monday was supposed to be the only day we went downtown, but with public transit so cheap and accessible and history being made 2 miles from our house, we couldn't keep ourselves away.

So we went again last night. There were substantially more crazies out than on Monday, but last night was also Bill Clinton's speech and Joe Biden's (woo hoo!) acceptance speech, so crazies in droves was to be expected. Right when we stepped off the bus, we saw a band of people walking down 16th Street Mall shouting "Jesus is my gay friend! He can be yours too!" complete with signage. The statement made no sense to me and wasn't protesting anything so we were all kind of curious what their point was. I dunno.

Then there was the chick selling Obama action figures (which Kelly went back to buy later) whom our friend, Steph, took a photo of earlier this week. We gave her Steph's blog address so she could check herself out...she was pretty excited that someone blogged her haha!

There was a TON of Obama / DNC schwag to be had last night, but all of it was wickedly overpriced. $15 for an Obama/Biden car magnet?!? Sure I want one, but I don't really want to drop that much on a friggin' magnet. Oh well. I do still have my BARACK THE VOTE t-shirt which will be fun to wear to work, I'm sure. :o) Gabe saw some dudes selling light-up DNC t-shirts that he so wanted to buy, but they were $30. No way!

We made our way to Chili's for 2-for-1 margs and beers and some chips and queso while we watched Biden's acceptance speech, which was very very good and inspiring. We were all clapping and hootin' and hollerin' during the speech, which was just fun! At one point, Heather started chanting "Hillary! Hillary!" and a guy sitting next to our table leaned over and kindly said, "Get over it, honey." to which we all fell apart laughing. I think the end of Biden's speech was my favorite when his wife, Jill, came up on stage to congratulate him and tell him she had a surprise for him. He said, "What?" and that's when Obama walked out on stage and all of Denver erupted in cheers and "woo!"-ing and Biden had a look of glorious shock on his face...we were all dying laughing!

Oh and by the way, Obama was (is?) staying at the Westin downtown so we marched over there and actually got pictures of his motorcade! It was so cool! There were a bazillion demostrators outside the hotel with bullhorns and what not so we stayed pretty far away from that, lest we get arrested when Obama came out the hotel (just kidding...it was all pretty chill), but oh my damn it was so cool seeing a motorcade like that! There were at least a dozen vehicles hauling it over to the Pepsi Center so who knows which car he was in, but it was rad nonetheless.

Heather and I watched "roll call" on TV yesterday and both got shivery and teary when Hillary suggested that the entirety of the democratic votes go to Obama and to stop wasting time, nominate their candidate and get going on this! It was so exciting! Obama's mother was in the audience and she was a mess of tears. I guess until I saw that, I never put in perspective the fact that Barack Obama is somebody's KID...I mean, how many people's kids get to run for and/or BE President?! Not many. I can't even begin to imagine what she's feeling.

So now I have political hangover and am a bit sad that the Pepsi Center is all de-DNC'd. I'm jealous that some of our friends are going to be at the speech tonight. Megan and I are having "girls night" while we watch her husband be at the speech so that should be a good time.

History in the making, folks!

Confessions of a computer moron...

I hate computers. We actually have a love/hate relationship. I love having a computer. I hate working with them. Something always goes wrong or blows up or stops working or works w-a-y to slowly or runs out of space or a myriad of other shit. I hate dealing with computers.

My current computer is a lovely little Dell laptop that I bought with my own money about 3 years ago. I needed one when I went back to school so I jumped on Dell's website and found one that was about $600 and had all the things I (thought I) needed...CD drive, wireless card (I was stealing wireless at that point), internal modem and USB ports. That's all I thought I needed. It seemed like a great deal and I paid for it outright rather than in installments (I try to pay in full whenever I can which, other than my car, I have done every time).

But over time, my poor little Dell started giving out. It started running kind of slowly or the modem didn't work when I needed it to (hard to search for jobs or register for classes online when the online portion of your computer starts crapping out). I would get frustrated and slam the book shut and try to walk away without freaking out more. Then I started running low on memory so I transferred all my photos to online storage sites and to CD (which really isn't a bad thing to do anyway if you're a photo freak like me). More recently, it's just proving to not be the laptop I need anymore. It's great and works fine and if you want to buy it from me for dirt cheap and do little more than word processing, surfing the 'net, and fiddling with photos, then let's chat. haha!

The other week, Todd came home and told me he'd almost bought me a "prize" (see previous Cracker Jack post) and that it was going to be a new laptop. Megan just got Paul a new one as he is in dire need of one for his job. She got a screaming deal on it so Todd took a look at it and nearly bought it. But with careful consideration, he figured that a "prize" of that nature (and price) should be discussed with me first. So we talked and I was probably more flippant about it than he was. My computer seems to be fine for now, but Todd is a computer geek so he's been pretty adamant about getting me a computer that I will "luuuuuuuuuurve" and have for always and will be eveyrthing that I'm dreaming of and more. I mostly couldn't care less.

Today, he sent me the link to this rad Toshiba (the one that Megan got for Paul) and I looked at it and saw that it was good. But I'm a Dell girl so I went to their site and found one that was comparable to the Toshiba but was PINK!! Gads! Could it be true? Was I going to have my cake and eat it too?

No.

That laptop apparently had less memory so it wouldn't be worth it. And did I really just like it better because it was pink?

Yes. So I told Todd that he'd be the final call on the laptop selection. Boring Toshiba with more memory or rad pink Dell with less memory.

"Wait a second!" he exclaimed!
Dell Outlet has a Flamingo Pink Inspiron with even MORE memory than the Toshiba (250GB, y'all!) for less money than the Toshiba.

OMG! It's true! I was going to have my cake, in the color and flavor I wanted, and get to eat it too!

So purchase my new "lappy" Todd did.
Holy wads. I have a pink laptop.
250GB
CD+DVD writer
6lbs (gads! that's the weight of a Zack Morris Phone!)
and all kinds of other specs that make it awesome enough for Todd to approve of the pink lapster.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Eureka! It's time for a new vacuum!

So we're essentially approved for the new rad pad (that is what I'll be calling it from now on) so it's time to get packin'!

Yes, it's SIX WEEKS from our move date, but because I hate packing that much, I have to be very systematic with how I do this stuff. So we have one week for each room of the house, which will hopefully help with the insanity. We're making every attempt to get rid of any misc. crap that we possibly can via donations, recycling, throwing away or selling. So far on the auction block are a futon (that my parents may or may not want), Todd's desktop computer and our office desk. I have at least 7 bags/purses that I'm giving away and I may give away some misc. luggage. The funniest part of all of this, so far, is that there is at least $150 we have to spend in order to get all this crap squared away. We need a new vacuum and some more storage bins to tidy up all the crap that we have and are keeping.

When we first got married, we bought a dinky little vacuum because a) we have a small house with mostly hardwood floors and b) we had no pets. Now that we'll have all carpet and we have two puppies, a decent vacuum is in order. If Gabe reads this, we will gladly baby sit your Dyson after you move until we move hahaha! And we also need a vacuum with hoses on it so that we can effectively use our "space bags" which are going to come in wicked handy during the move for all our clothings and beddings. Awesome! I can't wait to use those things! I frickin' LOVE space bags and Hercules Hooks! hahaha! I'm such a dork for "as seen on TV" crap!

In other news, I'm fairly certain that my in-laws were hoping we wouldn't be able to take the dogs with us to the new house so that they could adopt Suki from us hahaha! Just kidding! I just know that they love love love that little weirdo!

So if you're in the mood to pack someone else's crap, you feel free to come on over at any time haha! just kidding...sort of.

I'm sorry....you're a COLLEGE professor?!?!

My newest professor at Metro is kind of a moron. I'm in a journalism class this fall, which is quickly turning into a hybrid of editing and 10th-grade spelling/grammar. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

I'm going to start writing down all the dippity-do-head things I hear in class so that I can share them. Here are last night's selections:

1. The prof kept saying CONSTANANT instead of CONSONANT. Are you f-ing kidding me?!

2. When asked by a student about how to notate time in journalism, professor said that everything is notated numerically except "noon" and "midnight" rather than 12am or 12pm. One of my classmates said, "Haha! That's because no one knows which is which!" WHAT?!?!

3. During out "spelling class" section of the evening, we had to choose which of the following words was correct: paniced / panicked. Obviously it's the second one. Prof says, "I'm not sure why the "k"...it probably just came over from England." Umm actually it's because of a VERY basic spelling & pronunciation rule: When "c" is followed by ANY vowel, it gives the "c" a soft "s" sound. In order to get the hard "c" sound you have to follow the "c" with a "k". Good Lord.

4. Finally, she said that something in the newspaper "stook" out to her. That's not a word, just FYI.

This class is going to be fuuuuuun!!!

Well we're movin on up...to a deluxe apartment in the sky!

That's right, folks.

Todd and I have HAD IT with our current house so we're moving. Woo hoo! We looked at moving into another house with a yard, but after all the drama with our yard right now, we're just not interested in it. And we're also not interested in dealing with a private landlord again. We'd much rather deal with a company whose business is that of managing property. If something breaks, I want it fixed stat. I don't ever want to have to wait 5-6 days to have my heat fixed in the winter. Absolutely not. I don't want to be bitched at when the lawn looks like crap even though we've called time and time again re: the lawnmower being broken. Todd doesn't want to shovel that much snow again. Ever. If you've seen our house and its lot, you'll understand why. He was responsible for shoveling nearly an entire block worth of sidewalk. Totally nuts.

So upon approval of our application, we'll be moving into Jefferson at Arvada Ridge.
This place is absolutely smashing and has all the amenities we want and even some we weren't expecting (like a 24hour pool in the summer and a 24hour hot tub year-round...and they'll be putting in a fire pit soon-ish). Yeah, the rent is higher, but like I told my mom, I'd too old and too professional to be having to deal with BS. I want what I want and I'm willing (and able) to pay for it.

We're even probably going to hire movers since we'll be living on the top floor (woo hoo!) and I have no desire to haul furniture up that many flights and I really don't want to have to ask our friends to do that for us. No no. This time, we get movers.

I think this is quite possibly the ONLY time I've ever been excited about moving. Okay, yes, I was excited to move into our current place, but that's because I was moving in with the Todd-meister and that in itself was exciting! But never in my life have I not dreaded having to pack and move. Blechth. I hate it. Fire-of-a-thousand-suns hate it. Most of you know that.

This is going to be awesome.
Awesome to have a kitchen island.
Even more awesome to have a dishwasher.
Awesome to not have to pay $200+ for heat in the winter.
Awesome to not have to shovel snow or mow the lawn.
Awesome to have a view of the mountains and THE perfect spot for fireworks.
Awesome to have a pool and gym thrown in for free.
Awesome to have a "big kid" bathroom that won't drive Todd nutso-bonkers.
Awesome to have TWO walk-in closets.
Awesome to have a linen closet and a real pantry.
Awesome to have same-floor laundry.
Awesome to have a fireplace.
Awesome.

Boston 2008 - Day 5 - August 8 - My feet just want to watch more Project Runway

Last day with lots to do so it was an early start. 8am and off to Dunkin Donuts for more coffee sold to us by a cheery Spanish woman (and yes, I used my skillz to converse briefly). Then the long walk to Boston Common and the park to visit The Ducks and begin a l-o-n-g day on The Freedom Trail! It's 2.5miles and allegedly takes about 4 hours to finish with all the things to read and photograph. It's a beautiful and fascinating walk but we have decided that it should have been done closer to the beginning of the trip rather than the end. Either way, it was enjoyable. The last stop was Bunker Hill. There's an ice cream truck at the bottom, which we giggled at...until we climbed the 294 steps to the top of the monument! After all that, it was time to head back to G'vannis for lunch (chicken parm, veal parm and pinot grigio) and gelato at Mike's. Took an inadvertent and round about way to the harbor to get sweatshirts (Boston for me, Harvard for Todd) before getting on the train back to Copley - wanted to tour Trinity Church, the library and Berklee, but only made it to the library before our feet all but gave out. Back to the hotel!

Three hours of American's Next Top Model and we were ready for pub food! Torrential rain and a lack of desire to walk landed us at The Pour House on Boylston & Fairfield. Good beer, great wings, the Sox game and opening ceremonies...couldn't have asked for a better end to our vacation!

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Notes from after the trip:
*Todd actually said the title of today's post. Yes, our feet hurt that badly.
*We missed out on Fenway, the Sam Adams Brewery and Berklee this time, so we're already planning on another trip and we'll hit all those things, I'll get to shop on Newbury and we'll probably head up to Cape Cod for a day. And we'll also do the harbor dinner/dancing cruise.
*We had the opportunity to go dancing on the pier of a hotel on the harbor (swing dancing, no less) but we missed that so we'll be doing that next time too.
*Boston fricking rocks!

Boston 2008 - Day 4 - August 7 - Big and DUUUUUUUUMB!

Dunkin Donuts coffee and pastry for breakfast. Long-ish walk to Boylston & St. Charles to catch the tour to Salem. We're across the street from Boston Common, so now we know how far it is to the start of the Freedom Trail.

On our way to Salem, via Marblehead. Stopped at Castle Rock to see the ocean (quite warm for this far north) and the Carcassone Castle. This whole area is beautiful and quaint, even if the crummiest house is priced at well over $1,000,000 - yowza! Professional dog walkers and rich socialites everywhere. The US Navy originated here, by the way.

Salem is nuts! Beautiful and you have to eat at Brother's Deli - hugest sandwiches ever! The witch museum is interesting and nice. Plenty of misc. crap to buy, especially for halloween. The Common is HUGE for the size of town this is. We got separated from the rest of the tour so our driver, Bob, took us over to see the statue of Samantha from Bewitched. She was given to Salem a few years ago. No one else on the tour got to see that...shhh! Bough the pups some collar charms at Pickering Wharf and tons of candy at Ye Olde Pepper Companie, the oldest candy company in America. They also make their own soda so we got cream soda and birch beer. It's the first time I've ever said "one of everything please" and MEANT IT! WOO HOO!

Got back to Boston and walked through some misting rain through Copley back to the hotel. Rested for a bit before getting dressed up to hit the town! Dinner at Legal Sea Foods - the had a dish with everything I wanted all at once! Crab cakes, shrimp and scallops - perfect! Todd had grilled tuna steak which was also very good. Took our time enjoying dinner until we stepped outside the Prudential Center to take a picture for the start of the Olympics. Then -- to the Top of the Hub for dessert and coffee! Lovely view, great live jazz and excellent dessert, but our server was NOT good and was kind of rude. Would have thought it would be better considering we dropped $45 on dessert.

But on the whole, a perfect day!

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Notes from after the trip:
* The title comes from a couple that was on the tour that could not, for the life of them, tell the bus driver where they needed to be at the end of the day. Critical information, given that Bob the Bus Driver was taking every single person on the bus back to their respective hotels. Sheesh. *If you go to Brother's Deli, definitely get a cheese steak sandwich...but split it with someone...it's freakin' HUGE! The place is set up quasi-cafeteria style so it's kind of fun and funky.
*I pretty much could have stayed in Marblehead all day and been okay with it.
*Our Olympics picture is part of a Facebook thing where you're supposed to take a picture at the exact time the Olympics started which, for us, was August 7 (yes 7, not 8...gotta love the int'l date line!) at 8:08pm...Boston is exactly 12 hours behind Beijing, in case you were terribly curious.

Boston 2008 - Day 3 - Aug 6 - The Holocaust Memorial

[This topic and portion of our trip, I felt, deserved it's own page in my journal]

We also went to the Boston Holocaust Memorial. I cried, like I usually do at these kinds of things.
There are six pillars, each with one million numbers, representing the tattooed #s on each victim of the Holocaust. It was beautiful and touching. Overwhelming, actually. 6 million people. There are some amazing quotes from survivors all through the park, many of which discuss the tragedy of inaction.

There was a family there who took photos of the smiling children in front of the entrance to the memorial. I found it disrespectful and cheap.

I've kind of had an onslaught of Holocaust information in the the last week or so and I'm a bit emotionally spent from it all. I suppose that's okay.

Memorials, stories and memories are how things like this do not melt away into nothing and become forgotten or glamorized.

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Notes from after the trip:
* The reason I'd had such an onslaught of Holocaust info is because I had just watched Freedom Writers and the whole movie sort of revolves around the idea of how a Holocaust comes to fruition. I have a huge spot in my heart for the Holocaust for many reasons...currently (and for the last few years) it has been because so many of the people that survived those atrocities are now starting to die and I do not want their stories to die with them. I wish I had endless time and resources and could hunt down every survivor in the US and document their stories.

* I made it VERY clear to Todd that we will NEVER cheapen these memorials by taking photos of ourselves or our children on, in, near or around them. That is not what this is for. And frankly when I saw that family, I was disgusted by their lack of respect. It was trashy, to say the very least.

Boston 2008 - Day 3 - Aug 6 - There are no pretty girls at Harvard...just smart ones.

Mr. Bartley's @ Harvard. Best burger - so sayeth Wall Street Journal and Pete Buchwald. Best/Only strawberry shake I've ever had.

Harvard is beautiful - amazing architecture & greenery.

MIT is funky and weird. Strange building - kind of look like Frank Lloyd Wright...or whoever did the Denver Art Museum. Haven't heard anyone say "Hahhvahd" yet, but saw a shirt that did.

The Harvard Co-op is waaay too expensive so if I get a Harvard shirt, I'll get it from a street vendor. Todd did get a cigar from a shop that could have been straight out of Roger Rabbit. Seriously.

It's very foggy tonight. so going to the Top of the Hub proved a bad idea so we changed our reservations for tomorrow night. Instead, we'll have wings at Whiskey's where we ate last night. YUM!

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Notes from after the trip:
*Canbridge is so beautiful, it's almost like being in a dream. It rained the whole time we were there and it couldn't have possibly been more lovely.
* The title of today's post comes from a girl whose phone conversation I was eavesdropping on. It's quite possibly the dumbest thing I've heard it quite a while.
*Definitely have AT LEAST dessert at the Top of the Hub...it's pricey, but totally worth the view and the live jazz.
*Karla, definitely check out the crazy MIT buildings!