Weekend Update

What a lovely, sunny, relaxing weekend. Wow.

Friday night was, of course, pizza and movies. Trish, Dan and baby Rosalind came over and we watched Pieces of April, starring Katie Holmes before Tom brainwashed her. I loved it. Patricia Clarkson played her mom, and you just can't go wrong with a Patricia Clarkson.

Saturday, Todd, Kayleigh and I drove up to CarPros to get the iPod chord and trunk cover that was listed on my window sticker, but somehow never made it home with me. And if I'm paying that much money for a brand spankin' new car that I didn't even want, by gawd, I'm getting the iPod cord and the trunk cover.

On the way home, we stopped by Blue C in Fremont for lunch. Kayleigh, and Tyler, love Blue C, as does Todd. I am a very lucky woman.

Saturday night we watched The Rocketeer and then turned in early. After having, gasp, dessert! Strawberries, angel food cake and vanilla frozen yogurt. Not too bad, huh? A semi-healthy dessert. The angel food cake has no cholesterol!

Because we've started reading labels more than ever now. The hubby's cholesterol was a bit higher than we like, so we're cutting back where we can. And butter was the first thing to go. We actually looked at labels, and holy cow, we switched to Brummel & Brown spread. The family had a stick of butter beside the toaster and that's what was put on toast and English muffins. But no more! A stick of butter has 30g of cholesterol PER SERVING. Margarine? Zero. And here's a tidbit - a stick of anything is worse than a whipped something or a spread. I've been reading up.

Anywho, Sunday was another sunny beautiful day, so Todd and I wracked our brains trying to come up with something the family could do outdoors that didn't cost any money. Ha. So we ended up walking down to the Junction and visiting the Farmer's Market. It got us out of the house for a few hours. Then I got a wild hair and decided to cook dinner. Pasta with a walnut pesto. Very yummy. Although, the kids didn't like it. What's new? Guess they'll have mac-n-cheese next time I make it. That's always a good standby for them.

And Sunday evening we watched THREE episodes of Buffy. Fantastic! There will never be another show quite as entertaining to me. The writing was so clever, and the humor so dry. Go Joss.

After Buffy, everyone retired to their respective rooms. And Todd and I settled in for story time. I've been reading him my journals. I started keeping journals when I was in 4 or 5th grade. I finally fell out of it around 1996, when I got busy with real life, and my live in boyfriend and partying five nights a week. At that point, you kind of forget to write.

We started reading them when I was freshman in high school. That was entertaining. I love so and so, but then so and so asked me out, but I think I love so and so..... Todd had a hard time keeping up. Then we skipped ahead and even at 20 years old, Todd was still asking, "Now, who was Bob?" I just tell him to keep up.

I don't know why my new husband wants to hear about all of my drunken exploits. But my "stories" absolutely crack him up. And I can't count the number of times I say, "Oh, Rae-rae. Really? What were you thinking?" The boy who called me a bitch and said I'd never find anyone to ever love me? Went out with him the next week.

Sigh.

So young, so stupid, so insecure, so desperate.

Thank goodness those days are over. I'm down to asking Todd maybe once a week if he still loves me. That's not too bad.

For Ma & Pa

We love CuteOverload.

If I Had a Million Dollars....

I would hire a personal driver. Because 1) I absolutely HATE driving now and 2) I am paranoid as all get out. It's like everyone is too close to me, or trying to merge into me, or breaking in front of me for no reason, just so I'll run into them.

My hands hurt by the time I get because I've got a death grip on the steering wheel.

Oh, but I've discovered a cool little trick.

If you follow a bus or a semi or cement truck, people will go around you. No one wants to ride my ass when I'm doing 30 miles an hour behind a slow moving whatever. So when I'm feeling really paranoid and can't keep up, I find the truck or the bus and get behind them.

Yes, it takes me twice as long to get anywhere, but by gawd, I can relax a little as I just putter along.

**********

And another reason I now hate driving, especially downtown, is that one of my greatest fears came true yesterday.

I was driving to my doctor's appointment and came to a stop light. I was behind another car, waiting to turn right on red, when a weirdo dude on the sidewalk, kind of squatted down and looked at me through my front window. I saw him out of the corner of my eye, but completely ignored him. Then he crept closer to my car, about the same time I locked my doors, then he came up to my car, on the passenger side and bent down to look at me through the window.

And then he KNOCKED ON MY PASSENGER SIDE WINDOW.

Excuse me?! Who the hell do you think you are? Get the frick away from car, you nutjob!

I've always worried that one of the beggars on the street corners would come up to my car and knock on the window or try to open the door. So I always lock my doors if I'm coming up to a light and see someone standing there. But they've never bothered me.

I ended up nudging the car in front of me, so he'd turn right so I could turn right and speed away. And then I was right back in bumper to bumper traffic, so I went back to gripping the steering wheel like a mad woman.

Yes, once I win the lotto, I will post an ad for a driver. Contact me if you know anyone who would be interested in the job.

Weekend Update (with a touch of love)

Our weekend of love began with a surprise birthday gathering for Trish on Friday. We had about 10 of her good friends over for a potluck and party hats. Rosalind was passed around and there was much laughter and conversation.

It was the first gathering, aside from the post wedding brunch, that we've had in our new house. And we decided 15 people was about the max.

Saturday morning, I met Jamie for brunch, then we did a little shopping up on Capitol Hill for some....personal items. Let's leave it at that.

After brunch, Todd and I were domestic, then it was time to head to Ballard for the Thornton Creek show. Kim-n-Tim joined us because Milo had an overnight, and since it was an early show, Steve, Todd and I invited ourselves back to Kim-n-Tim's for some low key social time. Low key social time turned into Tim playing some albums and us laughing our asses off. It was a great evening.

Sunday morning, I slept in. Until I was awakened by my husband, standing over me with our lap tray. On the tray was coffee and a plate with bacon, eggs and a biscuit. How fantastic is that?

And how sucky am I that I actually believed Todd when he said we didn't need to do anything for each other for Valentine's Day, so I got him nada? Pretty darn sucky. He even made me a card that was so sweet and earnest, it just made my heart melt.

After breakfast, I got cleaned up and dashed off to meet his sister, his niece and stepmother at the ballet. Because I am very cultured like that. We saw "Sleeping Beauty", and thank gawd Todd and I watched the movie a few weeks ago. I had forgotten the ballet has no dialogue. So there's a lot of acting out stuff. And if you don't know the story, it's very confusing. Sara was very helpful - she's a ballet connoisseur. Like when everyone started clapping for no reason toward the end, Sara leaned over and whispered "It's for the orchestra." Thank you, Sara.

The ballet was beautiful, but not something I could take part in very often. I'm a words girl. I need dialogue. I need action! But it was a nice afternoon of bonding with my new family.

Sunday night we watched Across the Universe. I didn't think I was going like it because I'm not a huge Beatles fan (back off!) but it was really good. A little spastic in the beginning, but it got much better.

Monday was a holiday!! We love the Presidents! Well, we love our current one.

Todd and I were up relatively early, so we walked down to the Junction, had some coffee and just toodled around. It was a nice, lazy day. I wasn't stressing because I felt like there was something else I needed to be doing. Except laundry. Which we got done that afternoon.

And we splurged that evening on Indian take out. Yummy poo. Kayleigh, however, had pasta. She's doesn't do Indian. But she liked the tandoori chicken, and the naan. So, baby steps to new food. And the movie of the evening was The Beastmaster. I'm sure it was a hit in it's day, but holy crap, what a bad movie. We just mocked it all the way through. And said "boobies" a lot.

By the time the movie was over, it was time for everyone to retire and get ready for the work week. Except those pesky kids are off all this week for mid-winter break. What the hell is "mid-winter break"? They get winter break and they get spring break. Who came up with "mid-winter break"? No wonder they have to go to school until late June. They're always on holiday!

Okay, yes, maybe I'm a bit jealous.

Because I'm running at break neck speed at work and it's just not letting up. I'm so tired and blah all day, however, we're hoping that changes as my brand new dawn simulator arrived today! It's a big 'un too. I got it all programmed, so we'll see how tomorrow morning goes. It will start lighting up at 6am and by 6:15, it will be at full light. Just like waking up to the sun....right beside your bed. Good stuff.

A side note: I'm sitting on the bed, blogging to you on my BRAND NEW LAPTOP. It's wonderful. I feel very hip. Now I just need to get Quicken loaded, and then I am done with the desktop computer completely!

Look at me! Entering this wondrous age of technology!

Now if I could just figure out how to email on my cell phone....then I'll be golden!

Random Thoughts

I am damn perky for waking up at 4:30 this morning. And to answer your next question, I have no idea.

I was awake at 2am Tuesday morning. Wasn’t nearly as perky that day.

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When I put my earbuds in at work, I put a note on the back of chair that says “I’m rockin’ out. Got the earbuds in. Can’t hear you. Approach gently.”

Then I tell my co-worker “I’m goin’ under.” He always laughs and says, “Okay.”

Dad used to say that. After dinner, he’d go in and lay in front of the stereo with these huge headphone on, listening to music. And he’d always yell, “I’M GOIN’ UNDER!” so mom and I would know he couldn’t hear us. And man alive, that music was so loud we could hear every word. We always said dad was going to go deaf like that.

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My new red laptop is scheduled to be delivered today! And as I was emailing mom to tell her this, it occurred to me that I have never purchased a piece of electronic equipment. Ever.

Mom and dad bought my very first computer (as a Valentine’s day gift because I’d just broken up with a boyfriend and was sad. Ahhh). All of my TVs have been hand me downs or a present, as well as VCRs and DVD players. My current computer that I use now was given to me by Sergio when his company upgraded and was giving away their old systems.

But this laptop? I purchased it with my own money. Mine.
Well, except for the whole marriage and common property thing.

Mine.

**********

I’ve never had Dots before. My co-worker, Matabulor, gave us some today as a thank you. For what, I have no idea.

Anyway, I learned something about Dots.

Never put one in your mouth when you’re on hold. Because there is no way you’re getting all of that crap off your teeth before the customer service rep comes on the line.

**********

I hate being stupid. HATE IT. I am very intelligent person who, for the most part, has her shit together.

However, I set up an automatic bill payment from my credit union to my new car loan credit union (because MY CU, who held my car loan for Ruby TURNED ME DOWN for a car loan for this silver thing. Something about “debt to income ratio”. Well, duh, I just signed a mortgage for an exorbitant amount of money, so yeah, I have a wee bit of debt right now. Because I wasn’t expecting to have to get a brand new car loan two months later!). And I set it up to pay half of the amount twice a month. My financial advisor told me this ends up accumulating less interest that you end up paying. You see that balance go down a lot quicker.

But I failed to tell my new car loan CU what I was doing, so come my due date, they only received half of my car payment.

Fantastic.

This just hit me out of the blue, so I called them, I called my CU, I filled out forms, I faxed back and forth to get a quick payment made before the end of the grace period. Which is Monday.

I am now exhausted.

**********

Did I mention my laptop arrives today?

Weekend Update. With 40% More Cake!

We have a lot of cake at our house. Well, we did before last night.

Friday night, Darlene and James came over for a zombie fest – Zombieland and Fido. Zombieland was fantastic. Except at the end. Where the girls were stupid. Sheesh.

We had pizza and our guests brought a chocolate cake and apple pie. This should have been a sign that weekend diet plan was shot to hell.

Saturday was shopping. Big event shopping.

Laptop shopping.

Actually, it wasn’t so much “shopping” as it was going to Best Buy and telling the guy what I wanted and buying it and bringing it home. Rae-rae (defined by Urban Dictionary as a “Polynesian transvestite”, thankyouverymuch) don’t just go buy expensive products without doing her homework.

To start, I had a spreadsheet that listed all of the laptops I thought were pretty. Cause you gotta start somewhere. I had columns for the vendor, model and the price. Then as I read about them, I determined what my priorities were and added columns for them – RAM, hard drive, number of USB ports, did it have a 10 key, did it have a gloss or matte area around the keyboard (fingerprint issues) and what were the overall reviews (good or bad).

In the end, it came down to a Dell Inspiron (in pink) and an Asus (in boring ol' black). I had a print out for each of them, so when we walked into Best Buy and were approached by an eager salesboy, I quickly held up the two printouts, as if to shield the onslaught of selling, and said “I want to see these two laptops and that’s it.”

Uh....well....uh...okay.....

He showed me the Dell (shiny!) then the Asus. I didn’t like the Asus because it has a 10 key, which is nice, but throws the keyboard off center. I want the keyboard centered in front of my screen. Because I am neurotic like that. And I can buy a USB 10 key for $20 and just plug it in when I need it, which is only when I balance the checkbook (which I am refusing to do because BECU blows goats right now and their two statements a month have completely screwed up my register, but don’t get me started…)

Where was I?

Oh yes. The Asus (which I keep pronouncing as “ASSus”. Hee.) It also had keys that were flat, so when you run your fingers over them, it’s more difficult to tell them apart. The Dell has beveled keys. That creates a nice distinction between the keys and therefore, I can type faster.

So, a Dell it was!

I told the salesboy I wanted a pink one, or if they did not have a pink one, a red one would do. He went off to check and came back a few minutes later to tell me all they had in the store was blue. Baby blue. Yuck. He said he even called around to neighboring stores, and there were no pink or red ones. But look how pretty the blue is!

I said thank you, but I want pink, so I’ll just go home and order it online.
And we left.

My instant gratification was squashed.

And even squasheder when I tried to order a pink one online and they were out. But they had red. I like red. And Todd won’t look like a sissy if he has to use it. I’m such a good wife.

Saturday night, we had JD and Alison over for some veggie enchiladas and sangria. They brought a chocolate raspberry torte. Oy. Delicious.

We just sat around and visited. It was a nice low key evening.

And Sunday. The Semi Okay Bowl.
Well, first there was sleeping in until 10:00am, then just laying there with my eyes open staring at the wall for half an hour. That was nice.

Todd and I got all domestic and cleaned and did laundry while waiting for the game to start. He also helped me color my hair, since I can’t do it our clawfoot tub now. I stood on my tiptoes and hung my head into the kitchen sink while he used the extendo faucet to wet my hair and then rinse the color out. He’s a good husband.

The kids hid downstairs in Tyler’s room as they 1) don’t care about football and 3) don’t like the screaming when we watch football. Steve came over right before kickoff and Stephanie joined us at halftime. And they helped us polish off the cake. Gawd bless them. There were also pigs in a blanket, chips, pizza rolls and of course, a veggie tray. To balance it all out.

It was a boring first half of the game, but boy howdy, the Saints were fired up after halftime! I’m sure many people thought the Saints just got lucky by getting to the Super Bowl, but they showed that they can play the game. I did feel bad for Peyton – I just love him, as a quarterback and as the host of SNL. But he has his ring, so let the underdogs have the day in the sun.

And after the game, I headed straight for bed. Not because of my excessive alcohol intake (shocking, I know) but because I think the pretty purple pills that I started on Friday are making me sleepy. They also prevent me from drinking, which is both a blessing and a curse, I guess. No wine for me. Sniff.

I’m very aware that something is amiss with me. I think we were just so cracked out busy the past year that I really didn’t have time to stop and think about how I was adjusting to my new role and my new life. Now that we actually have some downtime (and it's winter again), I find that I get out of bed in the morning, only because I know I can come home and go back to bed that evening. I have absolutely no energy and find it hard to muster any.

There are other symptoms that I talk about with my therapist, so we thought we’d try some medication, maybe just to get me through the SAD season. Those of you who don’t have a SAD season may think it’s a crock, but let me tell you, there are a lot of depressed zombies walking the streets, despite all the coffee, because we have no sunshine for months at a time (although, the last few days have actually been pretty sunny and warm. Weird)

I also bought a dawn simulator, which is recommended for SAD symptoms. The sun doesn’t fully rise here until 7:30am (this month. In December, it was around 8am) so waking up in the dark is hard for someone like me who can sleep for 12 hours straight. A dawn simulator is an alarm clock that gradually lights up, as it leads up to your set alarm time. Once it's the alarm time, the light is at it's brightest, so you wake up slowly. We'll see if that helps my mornings.

So, back to the cake. Yes, I've had a couple of pieces of cake this weekend. Shoot me. But it was totally worth it.

But Do You Have Red Travel Mugs and Whisks?

Today is National Wear Red Day.

You would think someone could have come up with a better title.
Although, I can’t right now….

Go Red For Women is an organization dedicated to raising awareness about heart disease, the number one killer of women (lung cancer is number two, then breast cancer).

I did not know today was National Wear Red Day, but I am wearing my new red shoes, so I’m inadvertently participating.

I have to buy a laptop soon, and I really want a pink one. Not for breast cancer awareness, but because I like pink. So I will inadvertently be supporting their cause, too.

What about lung cancer? What color is their cause? I would say blue, because pictures of lungs are blue and red. Although, maybe blue is for prostate cancer.

And don’t get me started on colon cancer…

Portland Road Trip

We were lucky enough to head down to Portland Friday night for a quick road trip. Adam (of Adam+Kris, and SweetJuice) emailed a few of us Seattlites last month to say, “You need to come visit. Here’s a list of shows we’re playing.”

Well, how do you argue with that?

So, the stars aligned, childcare was found and at 2pm on Friday, Todd picked me up from work and we were off!

I’d found the Ramada Inn at the airport for a mere $49 a night, so that was the original plan. You know, go the cheap route, save some money.

Oh, but you know Rae-rae don’t go the cheap route. I ASPIRE to go the cheap route, but in the end, I am a snob.

I booked the Hotel deLuxe two days before the trip and just happened to forget to tell Todd about that change of plans. Until he was driving into Portland and I had to tell him, “No, we’re not exiting here. We’re exiting downtown.”

Wha…?

I am such a good wife.

And not only is the Hotel deLuxe simply gorgeous, it has a theme – 1930’s and 40’s movies. Because my husband is a movie guy. Get it?

Who loves ya, baby?

Anywho, we checked into the hotel (free valet package!!) and changed clothes, then headed out to have dinner with one of Todd’s high school friends and his family. They went uber low key and ordered take out from an Italian place, so it was a nice, casual introduction.

After a lovely dinner, and lots of stories from high school, Todd and I took off to see the show.

Adam and Kris always, always rock it. I am never disappointed when I see them play. It was nice to have Todd finally get to experience one of their long, live shows, too.

As always, Adam wanted us to come up and play one of our songs, but since our songs aren’t really ready for public ears, we declined. But they still invited me up to take the lead on “Promises”.

And this was after three gin-n-tonics so you KNOW they love me.

(And now that they FINALLY have a bunch of videos up on YouTube, you have to watch them do "I Row the Boat". Holy crap, I LOVE IT. Adam is OWNIN' that guitar! It's one of my favs.)

At about 11pm, Todd started fading (poor baby was up at 5am) so I actually took the responsible route for a change and started drinking water so I could drive us back to the hotel.

Look me! All mature and crap!
That’s what happens when you get married.
So I hear…

We made it back to the hotel after taking a couple of wrong turns downtown because that little map that the hotel gives you just doesn’t cut it when you have no idea where you are. Thank goodness Portland uses the grid system/numbered streets like Seattle.

The next morning, we up somewhat early to check out and meet another old high school friend and his wife for breakfast.

Side note: Todd went to high school in Palo Alto, California and yet he has….um….6? friends up here in the Pacific Northwest. That’s not including their spouses, who may or may not have also gone to school in Palo Alto. I have never run into a person who went to my high school in Huffman, Texas. Go figure.

After breakfast and quick visit to said friend’s lovely craftsman home, we hit the road and headed back to Seattle. And believe it or not, it was a straight shot. No stopping to gas up. No pee breaks. No stretchin’ the legs.

Straight shot.

We got home about 3pm to find Uncle Gavin and the kids playing a game, and Aunt Michelle curled up on the couch reading. It was a lovely, Saturday afternoon. After Gavin and Michelle went home, Tyler retired to his room, Kayleigh got picked up for an overnight, so Todd and I made some dinner and watched Ray (after watching the CMA Awards for an hour and making up naughty adult phrases for the sparkly hot pants that Carrie Underwood was wearing – my gawd, to have legs like that!).

Since we’d been up way later than usual the night before, and drove straight for three hours that afternoon, we were in bed at 10:30 and sawin’ logs by 11pm.

It’s official – I am no longer a party animal.
It’s very sad.

What’s not sad is that I slept until 10:30am on Sunday! I had my earplugs in so no amount of banging in the kitchen or gunfire from Todd’s Champions game could rouse me. Once out of bed, I wanted to start my day with walk, so since Todd was busy flying around and throwing things with his buddies, I called Stephanie. To my amazement, she stopped what she was doing and came over to walk my 'hood with me. For a whole hour.

I felt very healthy.

After the walk, I piddled around the house a little, played some guitar with Kayleigh, then got cleaned up so I could dash off to my hair appointment. See previous post.

Once home, there was dinner and Buffy and finally, bedtime.

I love bedtime. I wake up looking forward to bedtime. I don't think that's such a good thing, is it? That's called depression, huh? I should work on that.

This week is already a colorful mess on our Google calendar, but there is a prize at the end. The Super Bowl! Or, as I called it in my email to a few friends The Semi Okay Bowl. Our football season sucked, so this really isn't a "super" bowl for us. But I am very excited to watch the Saints in their very first one. Even though Peyton is a hoot in those commercials, I would love to see the Saints crush 'em.

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I just went over to see if Todd put up a post today. And he did the same thing I did - lay out the weekend for you. Lucky you - you get both perspectives!

At least we don't do this every day, huh?

I’m a Big Kid Now!

(Really? A picture at 7am on a Monday morning? Really?)

I got my hair cut. Todd says I look a little more mature.

Which is probably good because his high school buddy that we had dinner with on Friday asked Todd, “How old is she?!”

He was quite surprised when I told him I’d be 35 in April.

I’m going to be 35 in April.

Oy.