Monday, July 13, 2009

This is why I was really excited to get a really long stick

It took us two Sundays, but we finally managed to get the ceiling in our living room painted.

The previous owners had it painted the same awful color as the walls. An orangey-taupey color.



It looks so much better now. And lighter. Of course the walls are still the orangey-taupey color. But those are next.


Finally! I can mark off something on the house to do list.

Well it's really one part of a bigger project. But still. It's marked off.

Just fyi - it's difficult to paint a ceiling. Especially a really tall one.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Trying to Find a Balance

Life over the past week has been crazy. We're starting to paint. There's Cooper to take care of and a wedding to plan. And we have our full-time jobs on top of all of that.

Of course, this is only a preview of the months to come. I will undoubtedly become stressed. But I will also enjoy as much of it as I can.

I don't think DF realized how much a puppy actually has to pee. But we are making progress. Cooper knows he's supposed to go outside but has yet to realize that he needs to hold it until he can get outside. So unless we get him out right away, we have messes to clean up.

Then there was the night he started barking at 2:30 in the morning and continued incessantly for 45 minutes. Not whining. Barking. I had a lot of coffee the next day.

Before you ask, no I do not have an official date or location yet. I'm working on it.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Book Review: Out Stealing Horses

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

[Full disclosure: I link to Amazon because I like their descriptions. No one pays me to review books and link to Amazon. Though I wouldn't mind considering it as side thing ;-). Do not feel obligated to buy the book from Amazon.]

I really didn't enjoy this book at all. It was not long in number of pages, but it felt very long. Sometimes the longer novels are daunting because of their physical size, but they may actually be a quick read because you're enjoying it. But this book is not over 300 pages and yet felt as if it were 1500.

It wound around and off what you might think is the plot. But I'm not sure there is an actual plot. I kept waiting for something to happen. Anything. Please, just let something happen. There was a promise of something at the beginning but it was dropped and never brought up again.

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy books where it's more like a leisurely drift down the river of the story. If they're written well, I like them as much as the books that are more like a white water rapid trip. But this one was not well written. Of course it may have been lost in translation as it was originally written in Norwegian.

Characters and story arcs were introduced never to be really heard from again. It almost seems like story without a purpose. I would not recommend this book.

Next month: The Devil in the White City by Erik Lawson

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Hump Day Humor: A Blonde's Flight to Chicago

A commercial airplane is in flight to Chicago, when a blonde woman sitting in economy gets up and moves to an open seat in the first class section. A flight attendant watches her do this, and politely informs the woman that she must return to her seat in the economy class because that’s the type of ticket she paid for.

The blonde woman replies, “I’m blonde, I’m beautiful, I’m going to Chicago and I’m staying right here.”

After repeated attempts and no success convicing the woman to return to economy, the flight attendant goes into the cockpit and informs the pilot and co-pilot that there’s a blonde bimbo sitting in first class who refuses to go back to her proper seat.

The co-pilot goes back to the woman and explains why she needs to move, but once again the woman replies by saying, “I’m blonde, I’m beautiful, I’m going to Chicago and I’m staying right here.”

The co-pilot returns to the cockpit and suggests that perhaps they should have the arrival gate call the police and have the woman arrested when they land. The pilot says, “You say she’s blonde? I’ll handle this. I’m married to a blonde. I speak blonde.” He kneels down next to the woman and whispers quietly in her ear, and she says, “Oh, I’m sorry,” then quickly moves back to her seat in economy class.

The flight attendant and co-pilot are amazed and ask him what he said to get her to move back to economy without causing any fuss.

“I told her first class isn’t going to Chicago.”

ANSWER - Tuesday Trivia: Alcohol

When it comes to alcoholic beverages, what is a cordless screwdriver?

It's chilled vodka in a shot glass that's served with a sugar-coated orange wedge. The vodka is downed first, and then the orange is eaten.

Congratulations to Mochaface friend Catizhere for being the first, and only one, to get it right.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Tuesday Trivia: Alcohol

Tuesday Trivia is a weekly post of interesting trivia questions. Leave a comment with your answer, or guess, and come back tomorrow to see if you were right. Happy guessing!

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When it comes to alcoholic beverages, what is a cordless screwdriver?

Monday, July 6, 2009

Hanging with Mr. Cooper

We had a really really busy weekend. Busier than normal. And busier than some recent weekends. Which considering how busy we've been since May, that's saying something.

I've wanted a dog for a long time. And since we started planning on buying a house, I knew I would soon be able to get a dog (I had wanted to wait until I had a yard). The running joke in my family was about how long it would take me to get one. Well for various reasons, we had decided to wait until after we came back from Boston.

While I had really wanted a beagle, DBF wasn't too keen on the breed. So after looking up several breeds and doing some searching on Petfinder, we decided to just go visit a shelter and see what we might find there.

So Friday we did just that. And we found this guy...

His name is Cooper. He's a redbone coonhound mix, and he's about 5 months old. And this is the best picture since he always gets distracted by the wrist strap and lens cap of my camera whenever I try to get a picture of him.


He likes chewing on things and doesn't discriminate. Anything will do. Clothes, my hair, my jewelry, feet, remotes. But his favorite is shoes (GASP! Closet door WILL be CLOSED all the time now). In particular shoe laces.


Right now he's all legs. And it's hilarious to watch him run as he reminds me of a gangly teenager that looks uncomfortable in his body.


He likes to stare at himself in the full-length mirror in our bedroom and try to bite his reflection and bark at himself. It's really quite cute and adorable. But who am I kidding. Just about anything this dog does is cute and adorable. Especially when he gives me the puppy eyes look. Which he is VERY good at.


I knew we had to get him when DBF refused to give him up at the shelter. And speaking of DBF, I guess I should really start calling him DF now.


That's right! DBF asked THE question. You know. The one that begins with Will and ends with Me and has You Marry in the middle. And the only response I could think to give him was naturally and quite rightly YES!

Friday after we got home with Cooper, I left to go to the grocery store as we had zero food. And he stayed home with the dog since we didn't want to leave him by himself just yet.

So I got home and immediately went in to say hi to Cooper and while I was petting him, DF said there's something on his collar. So thinking it was just a piece of lint, I half-assed looked at the collar. And not finding anything, I stood up. DF then became quite insistent. "No, really, there's something on his collar." And he bent down and turned it around to show me.

Damn, he did a perfect job with the ring.


I wasn't sure what it was at first. And then I thought it was a fake ring someone had left on his collar for some reason (I know, what the hell was I smoking?). Then I realized that in fact the ring was real. And it was for me.

And now we're engaged. Betrothed. And I am so far up on cloud nine, I'm not sure I'll ever come down. (Not to mention the amount of blog material I'm going to have from the dog and wedding. And that doesn't even include the house.)

Thursday, July 2, 2009

I think my hangover is finally gone

Boston. Crap, I love that city something ridiculous. It has a certain amount of charm that no matter how hard it tries, Dallas just doesn't have. Or at least that particular kind of charm. I guess Dallas is charming in it's own way. I mean there are definitely nice parts. Don't get me wrong. I like Dallas. Just not as much as Boston at times. Damn it. I'm rambling.

ANYway...

I took DBF to Boston. Because I love the city. And he's never been. That and it had been two years since I had been back and that's just WAY too long to go without some Boston love. We didn't do just a whole lot but I did manage to give a little bit of a tour to DBF.

We went to Fenway Park.


Took a walking tour of the historical sites with Benjamin Franklin. (Well technically he was James Otis but before that tour I had no idea who James Otis was and thought he looked more like Benjamin Franklin anyway.)


Hung out in the Public Garden (my FAVORITE part of the city).


Hung out in some of my favorite Boston bars.



(Please excuse the faces. We drank a lot LOT of beer that night.)

Where at one bar I had the best fucking sandwich anywhere. Which is why I'm stroking the menu. I was so excited to be getting a zuni roll. Like I said. Two years is a long time to go without Boston love.


There was lots of food. And lots of beer. Lots and lots of beer. I thin

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Hump Day Humor: Total Eclipse of the Heart

The literal music video. I love these. http://www.youtube.com/v/lj-x9ygQEGA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1">

ANSWER - Tuesday Trivia: Food

How many calories will the average slice of bread lose after toasting?

None. Toasting removes moisture, not calories.

Congratulations to Mochaface friend Catizhere for being the first and only one to get the correct answer!

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Tuesday Trivia: Food

Tuesday Trivia is a weekly post of interesting trivia questions. Leave a comment with your answer, or guess, and come back tomorrow to see if you were right. Happy guessing!

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How many calories will the average slice of bread lose after toasting?

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Back to Boston

Today DBF and I take a little trip. One of my favorite trips actually. Boston.

Have I mentioned that I lived in Boston for a couple years during graduate school? Well, I fell in love with the city. And still have a few friends that live in the area. So I try to get up there once a year (though I'm not always successful).

DBF's never been. So I'm way, uber excited to show him some of my favorite parts of the city.