Friday Photos

Look at the bumper sticker that Mabel saw:

Wha??? Did Teddy Roosevelt really say that?

And check this out this recent photo from CNN:

Joey Buttafuco is now sporting a gray mullet that is taking a rapid and frightening turn towards the skullet. Poor guy looks kinda surprised about it, too.

Stuff and Junk and More Stuff

I have been so very busy lately, I just can't seem to find time to update my blog. And I don't really find that I have much to say these days. Nothing worth typing, at least. My sister and I rode 37 miles on Saturday (it was a gorgeous day, with NO wind which made things so much easier). I was surprised at how not-dead I felt afterwards. I really think it was the lack of wind. Wind is the devil when you're riding a bike. I also co-hosted a baby shower for my best friend on Sunday. It was a lot of fun, and of course she raked in the stuff. She is going to have the best dressed kid around.

Nothing has been done on the house. We're waiting on bids for the drywall and flooring to be submitted to the insurance company, blah, blah, blah....For now, we just have a gaping hole in the bathroom wall, and we keep the door to the guest room shut. Funny thing, though, the cats have been going into the hole in the bathroom, then through the hole in the guest room wall and getting "stuck" in the room. Why they can't just go out the way they came, I don't know. We end up hearing a cat meowing at the top of their lungs and there they are, sitting in the guest room. DUDE, go back out through the bathroom.

I've watched a few movies in the past couple of days. The Squid and the Whale, disturbing yet funny. Jeff Daniels was really, really good. And I always love Laura Linney. A History of Violence, which I thought was HIGHLY overrated. The ending was tooooo abrupt, and there wasn't enough development of his original life for the ending to even mean anything. Not to mention the almost-rape-turned-into-monkey-sex-scene which I HATED. I cannot stand that shit AT ALL. It really just makes my stomach turn, and it perpetuates "no-means-yes". Can you tell I wasn't impressed?

Other than that, I dusted the crap out of my house last night---even the top of the fridge. Wheee! I'm starting a huge de-clutter project in my house. Knick-knacks (sp anyone?) be damned. I'm sick of shit just sitting around on a shelf collecting dust, so they're out. Everything is either going to be sold at a garage sale or given to Goodwill. It really feels good to purge old crap that doesn't serve a purpose.

Hope I can come up with some good/funny/interesting stuff to blog about soon. I'm bored (that doesn't mean I want another pipe to burst, mind you.....)

Hypothetical..

All of you have made me feel better about my cleaning habits. We bust out the mop every few months or so, otherwise it's vacuum up the dirt and hair and wipe down the rest. I'm jealous of those of you with maids. Anyone in Austin have a good one they'd like to recommend?

So here's my hypothetical exchange....Say you're a guy in your mid-thirties and you're telling a woman you work with that she looks like Elizabeth Montgomery (don't laugh) and let's just say, that the woman you are talking to is 29. And let's say this woman doesn't know who EM is, and you say, "Oh, do you remember Bewitched? You're IN YOUR THIRTIES, RIGHT?" Um, no sir, I AM NOT IN MY THIRTIES. I am 29. 29!!!!!!!!! Then he gives me, I mean HER, the, "Oh, it's just because you're so mature for your age." Whatever. I have no problems turning 30......when I turn 30. But up until I turn 30, I'm 29 and therefore in my 20s. Not that I'm the woman in that hypothetical situation or anything........

Quick Question

Thanks for all your comments regarding carpet vs. wood in the master bedroom. I think we'll go with wood in the two small bedrooms and carpet in the master. It's cheaper anyway. So here's my question. How often do you mop your kitchen and bathrooms? And by "mop" I don't mean get out a Clorox wipe and go over the spills and spots. I mean get out the mop and bucket and really MOP them. No lying. I won't judge. I'm really just trying to figure out how my habits compare to everyone else's.

Holes = New Floors

First things first. Kami will be glad to know the toilet has been taken by some lucky fool. Sorry people, there will be no toilet/flower pot this spring:

It's so nice when perfect strangers take your trash. I LOVE it. I actually got my sewing table from a bulky trash weekend. I made my husband drive his truck by the house so I could put the table in the back. The only way he agreed to help me was by me promising that he didn't have to get out of the truck. He hates anything having to do with selling/giving away "trash" such as garage sales and bulky trash days. He thinks they're, well, trashy.

Here are the photos of our walls:

Other than the cats and dogs (ha! I just noticed Dulce is sniffing one of the holes in that photo) trying to get into the holes, I'm not freaking out. I just keep telling myself that new flooring is going to be the payoff. I think I'm going to do Pergo or wood in the guest room, office and main hall while we can (insurance will pay for new carpet, so we'll just pay the difference). We'll do the living room and maybe the master bedroom at some other point when we haven't just paid the almost $900 deductible. What do you think about keeping carpet in the master bedroom?

Sunday Wrap-up

We now have industrial blowers and a huge dehumidifier going nonstop in the guest room, and they sprayed a super duty disinfectant all over the cement under the carpet, so the nasty smell is gone. Whee! It's really loud, but I'm so happy the smell is gone.

I had a fantastic day yesterday. My mom, sister and I were supposed to drive to Calvert to do some shopping, antiquing, etc, but since the weather was so crappy, we stayed home and had girls' day at her house. We did our toenails, watched Sleepless in Seattle, ate at Luby's (we're turning into old ladies), and played Scrabble, Truth or Dare Jenga and Yatzee.

This morning I watched Ray. It was so good. I can see why Jamie Fox won the Oscar last year---he was fantastic. I think I'm going to watch The Hours now. Call it "Drama Sunday" at Nappy's house.

One last thing....tomorrow is bulky trash day in our neighborhood. We put our old vanities and toilet from before the bathroom remodel out on the street. They are shining examples of 70s ugliness. Nice fake marble:

Anyway, they were gone less than 3 hours after putting them out. Someone already snatched them up. Good riddance. Now all that's left is a sad old toilet:

I can't believe I have a used toilet sitting out in front of our house.

I Think I Miss Our Apartment - Updated

UPDATE - Sweet, we have a slab leak which is technically this: "When a structure is built on a concrete slab, the water lines are placed under the cement and due to soil acidity the copper can leak. This condition can lead to foundation problems, high water and electrical bills and structural damage to your home." Nice. So, on Monday, they're going to rip into the wall and find the leak to the tune of roughly $2500. That doesn't include the cost of new flooring or fixing the wall(s). Luckily, insurance will pay for most everything, but our deductible is $900 - the exact amount I just put toward out credit card. When it rains (or leaks) it pours.


For the past few days, the rockstar and I have been smelling a mildewy cat peeish smell in our "guest room". The reason I use quotes is because not one single, solitary guest has actually stayed in that room because everyone I know lives in Austin and doesn't need (nor want) to sleep in our stinky dog room.

Back to the point.

The door to that room is constantly shut (therefore pooling up the stink) because the dogs' crates (along with extra furniture, all my jewelry making supplies, my grandmother's china, two sewing machines, a lovely free armoire that my wonderful boss GAVE me, and a healthy dose of dog hair) are in there. Basically, it's an eyesore. Covered in pet hair. Now covered in stink. You really want to come over now, don't you?

Back to the point, again.

Everytime we opened the door to the room of doom, we smelled cat pee. We hate cat pee. It's the one smell you can never really get rid of completely. The rockstar swore it smelled more like mildew, but I swore it was cat pee.

Cut to tonight.

We decided we were going to move everything around to figure out where the horrid smell was coming from. As my husband moved a piece of furniture, he looked at me with a look of horror and said, "My sock is completely wet."

DOES.NOT.COMPUTE.

My brain is wondering why on God's green earth would his sock be wet? Was there that much cat pee? Had one of the cats learned how to open the door with her sweet kitty paws and used the carpet as her personal litter box? Had the iron (oh, yeah, the iron and ironing board as well as the vacuum cleaner are also in there) tipped over and spilled out mass quantities of water?


And then the light bulb appeared over my head. Ohhhhhhhh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttttt. The wet spot is DIRECTLY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL FROM OUR SHOWER. OUR SHOWER!!!! Are you connecting A and B people??? Fuck.

Fuck is right.

After further frantic investigation, the wetness continued under the bed and all the way to the opposite wall. And it's all mildewed. And it stinks. Really badly.

So I will be at home in the morning, waiting for the plumber to come out and tell me he's going to have to cut into the wall to check out the pipes.

Sometimes, I really want to move back to an apartment. Owning a house isn't all it's cracked up to be. Unless by cracked up, you're talking about EVERY FUCKING PIPE IN MY FUCKING HOUSE.

Weekend in Bullets

Because I had a busy weekend, you're going to get the bulleted version. I don't even feel like I had a weekend.

* Friday night - Got off work, went to the grocery store, got home and made lasagna, watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with the hubs, went to bed at 11.

* Saturday - Alarm went off at 6:35, got up at 7, drove out to Dripping Springs and rode 25 miles with my sister, drove back to her house, showered, drove to the salon and got our hair cut and colored, went home and got ready for going away party, went to Central Market for a bottle of wine and a fruit tart, managed to show up on time at 6 pm for my friend H's party (she's the one moving to Colorado), left her house about 10:40 drove home, did a load of cycling clothes, got into bed at 11:30. Forgot to mention the BITCH that slowed down and honked at us and gave us the finger as she passed us. We weren't even in her lane. I swear, the nerve of some people. We're trying to raise money for AIDS Service programs and she's giving us the finger....

* Sunday - Alarm went off at 6:35, got up at 7, did a 21 mile ride around town (for those of you in Austin, Jollyville to 35th Street and back), broke out in hives all over my chest and neck (I'm assuming from the oak pollen since that's the one thing I'm allergic to, and there are tumbleweeds of it rolling around town right now), took a benadryl, got home and ate lunch, showered, sacked out for over 3 hours, woke up did laundry, watched DH (FINALLY!) and Intervention (fabulous show) did a crossword and fell asleep at 11.

Okay, I'm still knocked out from the Benadryl. One of those suckers and I'm a goner. It got rid of the hives really quickly, but I also lost hours from my Sunday. I think I need to get back on Zyrtec. It was the only thing that ever worked for me that didn't make me feel like someone slipped me some GHB.

We ended up riding about 46 miles this weekend which is good, but we were supposed to ride 54. We keep telling ourselves that 46 is better than nothing, and we're doing the best that we can. So it's yoga tonight to stretch out all my sore muscles from this weekend, and hopefully I can get into bed at 10. Have I mentioned how much I love to sleep?

One last rant, can I just tell you how much I LOATHE SXSW? Every year about this time, all these crappy people in their trendiest clothes and shaggy hair (think Daniel from Project Runway) descend on our city, clog up the restaurants and make traffic worse. I like what SXSW was supposed to be (a festival for unknown bands to get exposure), but now it's just a trendy scene for the rich and famous and it SUCKS. Normal people like me can't afford to buy wristbands (wristbands that don't even guarantee that you'll get in to see the bands you want to), so what's the point? Bleh, I guess it will be over soon, but not soon enough.

Please Don't Tickle Me

This is for Isabel. She loves Elmo, so here you go ma'am! In college, I had a marketing internship with the Frank Erwin Center, one of the main special events centers in Austin. We got to see all the shows for free (I was *this* close to the Dixie Chicks), but we also had to work them. We had to work the meet and greets (I once met The Rock at a WWF show), and the ticket on-sale events (and pick up Ukrainian acrobat families from the train tracks at 5 am...no, I'm not joking....oh, and drive a mini-van full of clowns to Borders book store...again, not kidding).

For the Sesame Street Live on-sale, someone had to dress up as Elmo so the kids could get their photo taken with the big, red, furry baby.

That someone had to be 5'2" or shorter.

Who was the ONLY intern 5'2" or shorter?

That's right.

Me. Midget-me.



Yes, although you can't see them, those are my eyes peering out of that gaping mouth. Creepy, huh?

LYLAS

Update: We had a lovely time at lunch. Not nearly enough time to catch up on 10 years, but we got through the most important things. We lead very different lives. She is a MOM through and through. She's all about PTA, Girl Scouts and dance classes, and you can tell she lives through her kids which is fine, but it's not me. I could tell she was very concerned with appearences (lots of talk about who lives in which neighborhoods, houses, junior league, etc.), but in a very non-judgmental, non-snobby way. Who knows if we'll get together again. Part of me thinks it might be better left alone.......

I'm having lunch today with my best friend from elementary and middle school. We met on the first day of kindergarten and were inseparable from that day on. She was the "bad" kid, I was the "good" one. We got into SO MUCH trouble together. As an adult, I can certainly see why my parents didn't exactly LOVE me hanging out with her. We eventually drifted apart in high school because, ahem, certain activities became more important to her. I haven't talked to or seen her in about 8 or so years, but I hear she is now married with two kids. She recently found my name in our reunion booklet, so she contacted me and here we are. I'm really looking forward to seeing her, but a tad nervous.... (Seriously, are those kid mullets? Methinks, they are.....)

More Confused People.....

If you enjoyed my post about the confusion of not knowing what you want to do with your life, read here, here and here for similar posts. We are not alone.

I think one of my worst fears is that I will be the 60-year-old working at McDonalds. That if I don't figure it out soon, I won't have enough money for retirement and I will have to work until I die. I CONSTANTLY worry about debt, money and the future, even though logically I KNOW there's nothing I can do, I can't change the future and things happen for a reason. And how could I possibly bring a child into this world if I'm so worried about debt and money? Because people do it all the time. People who are not doing nearly as well as most of us.

I also worry that if I can't figure out what I want to do, that means I must be a horribly boring person. I mean, if I am interesting and fun and intelligent and capable, then I should SURELY figure out what I want to do? Right?

I know I'll figure it out one day, but I am impatient and want to know NOW. I want concrete assurance that I'm not going to be cleaning the toilets at Target in 30 years. I guess all I can do is slow down, stop worrying and enjoy my life as it's happening right now, but that is so much easier said than done.

Whew, we lucked out...

The plumber came out today found the source of the water. There was a pipe that was crimped off at some point, rather than capped. Over time, water pressure pushed through the crimp, causing the water leak. Here is the newly capped pipe:

$325 later, here's what the back of our house looks like now (yes, there is duct tape in there...don't ask. The house was built 30 years ago so who knows how it got there or how long it's been there....):

It could have been soooo much worse.

Enough about that. Here's a funny picture of Doc to start off your week:

Goddamn that kid is cute.

Oh Holy Hell

So our dishwasher started making a funny noise tonight, and as I was looking at it, I noticed a stream of water flowing out from under the cabinets (never you mind about the boxes on the right hand side of the photo. I'm in the process of organizing).Nice. I turned off the dishwasher, but the water continued to flow, and I could hear the sound of running water coming from under the sink. Oh crap. I looked under and sure enough water was flowing from the wall down under the cabinets. We deduced that our hot water pipe burst, so we're going to have to call out a plumber first thing Sunday morning to confirm or deny our suspicions. I'm sure THAT'S going to be cheap. I suppose it would be nice if insurance had to pay for new cabinets and new flooring.......TKW, you'd be soooo jealous wouldn't you?

Are you ready for my crazy?? Cause I'm bringin' it.

Riddle me this people: Why does our society want people to decide what they want to do for the rest of their lives when they are 18 to 22-years-old? Up until age 20 or so, I thought I wanted to be an advertising executive. Living the good life, going out to happy hours, no kids, climbing the corporate ladder, running ad campaigns, etc, etc, etc,. So, I got a business degree in marketing and promptly realized that I hated it and everything that went along with it.

I HATED IT.

And by HATED it, I mean I despised it with every FIBER OF MY BEING. I wanted to throw up on it and kick it while it was down. I wanted to walk into the dean's office and give him the finger while yelling, "Thanks for nuthin' dick!!!!"

I hated the professors, the classes, and the students (except for some of the marketing people like me). I hated the culture, the expectations, the EXTREME snottiness that is the UT business school.

I.HATED. IT. Still do.

I made C's in Finance, Calculus, Economics and Accouting yet I made A's in Child Development, Art History, Anatomy, Human Sex, etc. You get the idea. I should have switched majors, but everyone around me (with the exception of my mom) told me how great it would be to have a business degree and how I should just stick it out.

Because of my "training" at the business school, I got multiple job offers, none of which I accepted (hey, the economy was great and jobs were plentiful, and before you get all judgy on my ass, let me just tell you that one job was for DeWalt tools where I would go to construction sites and sell the industrial power tools to the foremen......um, no thank you).

I was so.incredibly.happy to be out of school that the thought of going back made me want to puke (and you know I hate puking), yet I had no clue what I was going to do. Circumstance let me take a few months off, where I did nothing but sleep and eat and sleep and sleep some more. It was like I was recovering from a 4 year, shitty-ass nightmare. But then that asshole called "reality" or some shit came a-knockin', and I had to get a job. I taught preschool for a little while (it was mostly like daycare) and now I've been at my job for almost 5 years now. It's not my calling, but it pays the bills.

What's my point? I'm not sure.

All I know is at 18, I had it all figured out, and now at 29 I'm not at all sure. I never wanted kids, but as I get closer to 30, I'm learning about that damn "clock" people keep yammering about. I want nothing more than to stay home and cook dinner and CLEAN. WHAT???? What is happening to me? It's me!! Messy Marvin. She who can't keep anything neat for more than a day. I'm just a huge confused mess. The thought of having kids doesn't scare me to hell anymore, and the bitch of it all is now that I WANT to stay home, I can't because of financial reasons. To make matters worse, I'm about to go meet my precious, glowingly pregnant best friend for dinner. I'm finding myself increasingly jealous of her. Again, WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?????

Either snap me back to reality, people, or tell me "this too shall pass" and I'm completely normal.

The Big Story

I turned on the local news tonight and the headline said "THE BIG STORY". I couldn't figure out what was so important, but reporters were on the scene reporting live, and it looked like something really big was happening in Austin. So what was the big deal?

A murder? No....

A car chase? Try again....

A bank robbery? Nope....

A successful organ transplant? Not even close....

It was.........okay, are you ready for this?




They were covering the City Council's decision on the "Dining with Dogs" law. Hello? Are you fucking kidding me? Do we really care THAT much about whether we can take our dogs out to eat with us? This is "The Big Story" (and I'm quoting directly from the screen)? I guess I should be glad they don't have anything bad to report on, but still, they could have come up with a human interest piece worth watching. Dining with Dogs?

I guess the suspense got to someone....

Sometimes Change Sucks

I like to think I can handle change pretty well, but this time, I'm in denial. One of my closest friends is moving to Colorado with her husband in a couple of weeks. We've known each other since about 1991 (freshman year in high school), and we've gone through boyfriends, college, weddings, jobs and more. She is an amazing friend and woman. She is a registered dietician, she ran the Motorola marathon, she is great at home improvement projects (she and her husband gutted and completely remodeled their 1920s kitchen with their very own hands), I don't think she's ever had a pimple in her life, she's sarcastic as hell, loves dogs and she's a great cook. We have the same sense of humor and we just GET each other. Poo. I don't want her to go. I guess this means that the rockstar and I are going to Colorado more often!