Merry Christmas to All and To All a Good Night!

A Day In the Life....

I saw Kate at Elephantitas Alegres do this a few months back and I thought it was such a great post idea, so I totally stole it.  Hope you enjoy mine as much as I enjoyed reading hers!  This is my life on Thursday....

My terrier alarm goes off at 5:30 AM.  Petey hops off the bed and starts running around the room like a madman, hoping the jingling of his collar is enough to wake Ginger who sleeps in the other room and has a talent for barking us out of bed.  We've gotten wise to their conspiracy and Ginger now sleeps on the opposite side of the house and has a white noise machine, so Petey's antics are useless.  I walk across the bedroom, pick him up, and put him back in bed with us for another 30 minutes.

At 6 AM my real alarm goes off, I hit the snooze button and then I get up, take the dogs out, feed them, and then hop back into bed and hit the snooze button continuously until 7 AM.  At 7:10 I hop into the shower.  At 7:20 I host a conference call in my kitchen.  I should have gotten up earlier, so I lead the conference call sans pants.  ::sigh:: 

While I'm on the call I pop in a pod to my Keurig and fill up my pink sparkle travel mug I got in Vegas.  By 8 AM my call is over, I put on pants and makeup and am out the door by 8:15.

I don't have a long commute, in fact I only have to drive 3 miles and I don't have to get on any major highway.  My.  Commute.  RULES!  The whole way I rock out to Ke$ha.

I roll into my cube around 8:30 AM.  Here is where the magic happens.  In case you are new to the blog, I'm a geologist/environmental consultant.  Note that the magic is very messy and full of post-it notes.  I scarf down a half a cup of low fat cottage cheese and a banana for breakfast while I work.

This owl lives in my cube over my computer monitor next to my very professionally framed PG certificate.  You'd think a document I worked so hard to get would warrant a proper frame, but no, it's in a pocket protector.  The owl used to hang out in a tree in front of my office to scare off birds so they wouldn't poop on our cars (by the number of car washes I had to get, I'd say that was a fail).  They cut the tree down and this guy ended up in my cube.  He wears a bow because he's fancy.  I am currently scheming all sorts of holiday appropriate attire for it.  Anyone know how to fashion a pilgrim hat for a fake owl?  

I spend the day fielding one million phone calls and doing all sorts of tasks.  My desk is covered in papers and folders.  I don't like to get too specific in what I do, but just know I was super duper busy.  At lunch a coworker and I go to Maria's for lunch.  We go to Maria's at least once a week, usually on Mondays, but we haven't gone out to lunch all week and our day is pretty crazy, so this is a welcome break.

I come back to a million messages.  I accidentally left my cell phone at my desk when I went to lunch, but am kind of glad to have had an hour of peace and quiet.

Three PM rolls around and it's time for some Chai tea in my Longhorn Tervis tumbler and an apple cinnamon rice cake.  I continue on like this until 6 PM, by which point they've already shut the overhead lights off on me and I am the last person to leave the office. 

I get home around 6:15 and am greeted by the terriers, here's Ginger, a blurry, squirmy ball of fur who is wiggling and wagging all over the foot of the bed until I pet her hello.  I kiss the hubs hello, I change clothes, I freshen up and Christine  picks me up to go to see a movie at the Alamo.

Here's my movie outfit.  Gap curvy jeans, sweater by Old Navy, ring by the Limited, not pictured, red patent flats by Steve Madden.

On the way to the movie, I field a couple work calls (never a dull moment with my job) and fire off a couple work related text messages.  Finally we get to the Alamo and enjoy a lovely dinner, Malbec, and see Morning Glory, which is a totally cute chick flick. 

After the movie Christine drives me home, I have some quality time with Darryl, he has gone to dinner with Christine's husband while we were out, and by 11 PM I am passed out with Petey's body pressed up against my legs, I don't even hear Darryl come to bed....

Where's Waldo?

I was fussing with Petey one night while D was out, cleaning his eyes and he didn't care for it much.  So I left the room and came back and couldn't find him.  He had found a little hiding spot amidst the pillows and popped his head up when I called his name.  He ended up curling into a little ball there until bedtime.

Miller Time

This is a cautionary tale, though slightly humorous. But I would like to preface this post with a disclaimer that animals should never be given alcohol on purpose, it is poisonous and cruel and anyone who intentionally inflicts this on their pet should have them taken away and should be arrested.  What happened here was a genuine accident and one we will never repeat and is only funny because we got lucky and our Ginger is healthy and fine, despite our mistake.  Even a small amount of alcohol can KILL YOUR PET.  Do not try this at home.

This is Ginger.  Our sweet little girl and Petey's partner in crime.  We are dog lovers.  My husband refers to me as a crazy dog lady.  I would never intentionally do anything to hurt my dogs, but sometimes the best of us make mistakes.

Ginger helps in the office.

Hiding in her crate

Edward Hippo Hands!

Ginger's got a new bag.

Last night we learned she had something in common with a certain famous redhead.  No not a cocaine problem (I'd have pictures of Paril Hilton for that, duh).  A drinking problem.

Something's been attacking my green beans in my garden and I suspected slugs, so I did what I've done since I was a little girl (who had a dog, HE never did this) to combat slugs, I set a beer trap.  You put a little dish of beer in the garden and the slugs drink the beer, get all drunk and drown in it.  My garden has a small fence around it, after setting my trap I tightened the fence up so our dogs couldn't get into it and I told my husband about it when he got home and how we needed to keep an eye on the dogs when they were in the yard for the next couple of days so they didn't mess with it or try to break into the garden.

Around 9 PM we both forgot and we let them into the yard.  Ginger came back in and hid under the bed, not unusual for her, it's like her little den.  About 30 minutes later she came bounding (actually slipping and staggering are more accurate) across our living room.  I looked at D and said, "I think the dog is drunk."  He looked at her and said she was fine and there was no way, but upon closer inspection she clearly had rolled in poop (a favorite past time) so he whisked her away for a bath while I strapped on my headlamp and garden clogs to inspect my trap.  Sure enough, most of the beer was gone.  I checked under the bed and as I suspected, dog beer vomit.

By this time Darryl comes out of the bathroom with her soaking wet.  She's shaking to dry off/falling over and he looks at me and says, "yeah she's drunk."  I took dog CPR and First Aid (yes I am certified to do CPR on a dog or cat, WHAT OF IT) so I knew I should call the ASPCA poison control hotline which I keep on our fridge.  As I'm sitting there a message comes on and says I'll be charged $65 TO TALK TO SOMEONE.  REALLY ASPCA?  REALLY?  One little voice in my head was screaming "THIS IS NO TIME TO BE FRUGAL" and it was a case of poisoning, but it wasn't like she drank a quart of motor oil.  I was not about to pay $65 for someone to tell me to give her bread and water and help her walk it off (that's what my freshman year of college was for, duh). 

So I called the local emergency vet, figured I could scam the receptionist into soliciting some free advice from the vets which totally worked.  We keep the map to the animal hospital stuck to the fridge.  We are the most prepared pet owners ever...except for when we accidentally leave dishes of beer in the back yard.  Dog owner, fail.

I talked to a vet, described her symptoms, the quantity ingested, weight, age, etc.  I was expecting them to tell me to bring her in for stomach pumping or charcoal or something dramatic, but they said all they could do is give her an IV of fluids.  Also not worth $60-$150 since her favorite snack is ice chips which she greedily gobbles up, so I kept the bowls of those coming to keep her well hydrated.  I know for a fact she was well hydrated because she peed all over our house, but by that point, we deserved it.  Meanwhile D had to disassemble our whole bed to clean the carpet where she'd thrown up (thank God she threw some of it up).

Petey didn't know what to do with the whole thing, he kept trying to play with her, pushing her with his paws so she fell over.  She was trying to run around the house and was slipping and stumbling.  I ended up keeping her snuggled up next to me, feeding her ice chips so she didn't hurt herself.  It may have been the fact that she was half wet from the bath and being pumped full of ice by me, but her whole body was shaking.  As funny as it was at first, you could tell she was really scared and that being drunk for a dog was NOT fun the way it it is for humans.  I ended up making her some white rice, I was hoping consuming a couple tablespoons of cooked rice would help boost her metabolism and process the alcohol faster.  Plus, I totally need a snack when I'm drunk, so I figured it wouldn't hurt.

We stayed up with her into the wee hours of the morning, pushing fluids, taking her out to pee, and keeping her awake (ah college memories, though I never took a roommate to the bathroom on a leash).  When she finally sobered up enough to the point I was comfortable going to bed (basically she was cognisent enough to scratch to ask to go outside rather than peeing wherever she happened to be standing at the moment) but we put her in our bedroom and took turns getting up every couple hours to check on her, take her out to pee, and give her more ice chips. 

The next morning she was clearly hung over.  A little snuggle time in the bed with me, followed by breakfast, followed by another big bowl of ice chips and she seemed okay.  I came home from work at noon to check on her and repeat the hydration drill and she was thankfully back to her normal self, saucy, running around the yard, tail wagging.

I think as more time passes I'll find this funnier, honestly I didn't know if I should laugh or film it or burst into  tears because I was so scared for her or maybe just have a beer myself.   Thankfully she is okay, remained conscious, frisky, and was openly taking on fluids which is why we didn't seek emergency medical attention, but if this does happen to your dog definately call a vet.  And let this be a lesson to pet owners out there to keep an eye on substances that could be toxic to pets, we were clearly very lucky and are so glad our pretty little girl is feeling like herself again.  In the meantime, we'll be signing Ginger up for AA.

Edward Hippo Hands

I discovered a new toy at Bark N' Purr last weekend called Bite Meez which are basically plush hand puppets with a squeeker in them that you can use to torture your dog.  Petey seemed excited about it in the store, but hasn't given it a second look since (for a dog that likes to pounce on hands, it seemed like the perfect toy).  Surprisingly, Ginger effing LOVES it.  She never wants to play, I can never get her to do tug of war, but the pink hippo never fails.  Perhaps it's the squeeker, perhaps it the fact that she occasionally chomps down on my finger if I haven't stratigically placed it in the puppet, who knows.  All I know is playing "Edward Hippo Hands" is a huge hit in our house. 

Weekend Recap

Friday

Attempted to go for a run after work to blow off some steam.  Made it half a mile before my blister started giving me problems.  Stormed off the tredmill, purchased 2 boxes of blister dressing and a bottle of wine.  Drinking hiatus, fail.  Went over to Christine's place for dinner and ladies movie night. 

(stole this from Christine's blog)

Saturday
Ran the trail at Town Lake, procured fabulous hot pink mini dress (on sale) in the new phase of the Domain, then I took a nice long disco nap with Petey.  Met a group of 9 gals met up at La Condessa for a yummy dinner followed by a night of bar hopping and dancing our fannies off.  No photographs though, everywhere we went was darkly lit and my iPhone couldn't handle it. 

Sunday
Woke up only mildly hung over, stayed in bed as long as possible and then went downtown to meet Elizabeth for brunch at Moonshine.  The wait was long, but the meal was worth it and the company was the best part.  So wonderful to spend time with E, whom I have not seen since....the fall some time?  Must do it again soon!  Then I ran some errands, bought groceries, planned a fabulous meal of Shepard's Pie to welcome home my husband from his skiing adventure.  The meal didn't exactly happen....he came home and wanted Kerbey Lane and I wanted to get out of the kitchen and spend time with him and watch the Oscars, so to Kerbey we went.  Looking forward to the week and my date with the hubs tomorrow night to see John Mayer!

Birthdays Are Natures Way of Telling Us To Eat More Cake

Today is Mr. Petey and my's birthday, here he is in a jaunty scarf.  Yes, my dog, who was a sad little fella who nobody wanted until I rescued a couple years ago, shares the same birthday as me.  I knew right then that he was my perfect little match.  Petey will be 3, I will be....err...in the late 20's (scary, getting towards the end!).  Here's one of my favorite photos of him, trying to help me wake up in the morning.  Sometimes he takes the covers in his teeth and pulls them right off of me, but lately, I've been convincing him that sleeping in is a better way to go.  

Devastation Station

Allow me to introduce you to what used to be my favorite heels. I got them in 2007 at the outlet mall. They were Nine West, nautical, nice and tall and plenty comfortable, a rare combination. So I wore them today with my fab Banana wrap dress. Lately, I've really been into the neutral colored shoe to elongate the legs, I cannot tell you how much I loved these shoes. Yes, it was a little late in the year for nautical shoes (could be too summery) but it's still plenty hot here and they were cute.


I made the mistake of kicking them off by the back door and then falling asleep after work. Guess what I found in Petey's bed...

Since the stack heel is damaged, I'm pretty sure these can't be repaired, I'll try I suppose, but it doesn't look good. Anyone have experience with this sort of shoe repair? Can anyone recommend another fabulous neutral pair of pumps that are under $120 to fill this void in my shoe rack? So devastated, that I went to OldNavy.com and bought tons of stuff. At least it was all on sale, we'll see if I don't return most of it when I'm in a better mood. So depressed.

Petey's Haircut and Other Things

Here's Petey, fresh back from the groomer, she took a little but much off of the face. You can see by the fact that his ears are pushed back that he's mortified to be photographed in such a state.

And while we're on a public humiliation kick around here, I give you my attempt at water skiing. In my defense, this is the first time I've ever tried it. I'm much better at sitting on the boat and drinking.

Not in Kansas Anymore

Survived Tornadogate 2009 unscathed. We were supposed to babysit for a friend tonight, but they cancelled. Good thing because we would have been hunkered in an interior closet with the baby, because I'm from West Texas and that's how we do it. Instead the dogs and I just chilled out and listened for the freight train. We did lose power for 3 freaking hours (note that the houses across the street had power, I assume just to taunt me). Luckily I had about 45 pink honeysuckle scented votives left from the wedding that I used to light the house and several boxes of 4 ft sparklers which I contemplated lighting up on the porch, but then decided against it.

The dogs were freaking out, someone definitely tinkled in the living room. The hail looked pretty small, so I'm hoping my garden wasn't decimated, fingers crossed. So many beautiful little green tomatoes, noooooo. Anyways, I lit up the house, put on my headlamp, did some chores, and read a magazine. By the time the power came back the temperature was up to 80 degrees. Thank you air conditioning, I would be hot and sticky without you.

Also, FYI, never ever get out of your car and seek shelter under an overpass, the way the wind whips under those things, you're in a lot more danger. Get out of your car, lie in a ditch and cover your head. We were discussing this at work one day and I asked, "so if you can't hide under an overpass, what do you do?" My coworker responded, "find a pipe sticking out of the ground and tie you and your ex-husband to it with a strap, then ride through the tornado unharmed." Yeah, that's the ending of the movie Twister. Love that someone else remembers that.

Weekend Recap

Friday
After a tough day at the office (note I like my job and I LOVE my projects, but it was a demanding day) Darryl got to pick the restaurant since he's been slaving away until 3 AM in the morning all week. He picked the Texas Roadhouse, not my favorite, but they had 23 oz Lonestar Beers for $2 and you really can't go wrong with that. Then we brought Ginger over to a friend's house, watched some TV and fell asleep on our friend's couch after a couple more beers. It was a long week.

Saturday
I'm not going to lie, we worked really hard on Saturday. I spent hours giving the house a thorough cleaning (hubs made me fire the maid since the wedding is over, but at least he helped), did laundry, and then we borrowed our sister in law's truck for an Ikea expedition with Christine! Here's what we got:

No one got us our duvet cover off our registry, but this one was much cheaper and super comfy. I think I'm still going to keep the pillow sham, I think it'll go with the tan bedspread nicely. What do you think?

We also got this buffet to put in our kitchen (which the hubs is currently assembling, major hammering happening in the living room). Since we're running out of cabinet and counter space for our new swag, this will allow us additional storage and counter space. And I plan on stacking up my cooking books on the shelves. So excited! We also got the curtains hung in the study and the other furniture moved back in.After our trip, we feasted on curried chicken which I cooked in our crockpot while we were out shopping. After dinner I made an Academy run to get stuff for swimming. I'm going to start swimming laps on my lunch break with my coworkers 2x a week so I needed a new workout swimsuit, goggles, and a cap (dorky, yes, but I can't do my damn hair 2x a day). I was tempted to buy the Michael Phelps USA swim cap to be funny, but I figure I should focus on not drowning before I try adding comedy to my workout. Finally, Saturday night, Petey and I went over to bring Christine a diet cherry limeade from Sonic and hang out/give Darryl alone time.

Sunday

I totally scrapped my plans of having another super productive day and slept in then went to an early lunch with D at a Greek place nearby. We went to Crate & Barrel and finished off our registry, got all our dishes and silverware and ordered my stand mixer! I know it sounds bizarre, but I am planning on doing a lot of mixing as soon as that bad boy comes in. Sadly, it was on backorder.

One of the registry items we did pick up was this gem (see below):

It's like a mood ring for your wine bottles, helping you to figure out if your wine is at the optimal temperature, love it.

After that I treated myself to a pedicure since my feet were looking pretty scary. I'm not one to pamper myself this way too often, but lately Darryl has made some comments on the heinous condition of my feet and my callouses so I'm trying to go a little more often than, say, four times a year.

Afterwards D made me a Nalgene of frozen sugar free margarita and we met up with friends to grill and hang out by the pool. Afterwards, I went to the grocery store and returned to find a glass pane missing from our fire place door. Darryl had been flailing his hand around in an effort to get his wedding ring off for his buffet construction project, and the ring went flying into the fireplace door, shattering the glass. ::sigh:: And he thinks we can't just replace the glass pane and all the ones I saw online cost over $300 for a new set of doors. Another weekend project I guess, the look was a little outdated and they were hard to open and close, so I guess it's not a total waste.

That's all I've got for now, have a great week!

Wanted: Cairn Terrorist

Yes, we tried to dress our dog up like Bin Laden. We have problems.

Very Busy Here

Petey gets a little work done before hitting the sack. After leaving a puddle in the study that Darryl walked through of course. A little dog's work is never done...

I Survived Memorial Day Weekend '09

I kicked off my weekend by leaving work at 2 PM and meeting up with Darryl to take me to get my Lasik. Thank God they pumped me full of Vallium, because when they cut your flaps with the laser, they have to attach this suction thing to your eyeball and I was clutching the teddy bear they gave me for dear life.

He then took me home where I promptly passed out, only to wake up to my fabulous friend and bridesmaid Christine's (see below) phone call to tell me that her boyfriend Parker had PROPOSED! I tried to sound excited, but I'd had 2 Valiums so it came out more like, (imagine Paris Hilton-esque monotone voice) "You're engaged? That's sooo great. I had Valium." Soooo yes, did not display the appropriate amount of enthusiasm, but I was pumped! I actually got it out of Darryl earlier that day while I was still at work and the general excitement of it all greatly inhibited my productivity. I told all my coworkers since I couldn't tell anyone else :).

The next day I woke up and drove myself to my follow up appointment. My eyes feel a little gritty, I have a few small hemorrhages in the whites, but my vision is 20/25 and will continue to improve. It's still a little hazy to read and see close up details, but I think it'll take another week or so to stabilize.

After my appointment and errands, Darryl and I took Home Depot by storm buying stuff for our home office project. Unfortunately, I didn't take a before picture, but one of the walls was such a bright yellow that I was constantly walking by wondering "Who the eff left the light on in here" only to realize that the lights were off, it was just the wall. It has been my junk room since I moved in here, in fact, most people were surprised to hear we HAD a third bedroom since we keep the door shut when we entertain.

Three gruelling days later, we scraped the popcorn ceiling down, reinstalled the joint tape at the ceiling wall joints, applied and sanded joint compound, sanded and repainted the walls and trim, recaulked the windows, replaced all doorknobs, power outlets, light switches, phone jacks and their respective faceplates, and installed a smoke detector. It was pretty challenging since I had to wear goggles to protect my eyes and I had to do a ton of taping which with my sketchy vision situation, basically required Darryl to come through and retape everything. AND we bought a new desk which we installed (I put it together wrong, once again, vision not really great for reading directions). The dogs expressed their dissatisfaction in our not paying attention to them by walking through the paint, pooping on our drop cloth, and running off with our paint brushes in their mouths.

Here is our finished product. We still have to install the ceiling fan, window treatments, and a few decorating details. After that we'll push the desk back into the corner and install a flat screen between the two windows so D can watch basketball while he's in working. This way he has a nice space to work from home rather than staying at the office until all hours of the night and I have space to set up my study materials for my upcoming PG exam.

Midway through rewiring the light switch I got hit by waves of nausea and had to go lay down and focus on not barfing all over our bedroom. Darryl's theory is I just got over exhausted, I spent most of the day half assing through the rest of the project and laying in bed with body aches (hard to tell if that's from all the crap I did this weekend or actual illness) and chills (but luckily no fever). So here I sit, continuing to watch the John and Kate plus 8 marathon, with the little doggies at the foot of the bed while Darryl works away in the study on actual work stuff. How he has the energy for it, I will never know. He was very patient and sweet nursing me back to health and was okay with my failed attempts to assist in the project. Best husband in the world.

Random Musings of a Woman on the Verge of a Mental Break

• Today at work they announced that they will no longer be compensating us with a monthly stipend for cell phone use. Instead, if we go over our plan due to work related activities, they will reimburse us on a call by call basis. They also had the nerve to suggest I look into getting a better plan.


• Today we discussed mutinying and refusing to use our cell phones in the field. Or "losing" them and failing to replace them. I go out of the office for a week or more at a time. Guess the project manager will have to wait for me to call him when I get into the hotel at 8 PM at night. WTF?


• I have worked over 30 hours this week and it's only Wednesday.


• My house is filthy, my mom is coming on Saturday, and we're having a bridal shower here on Sunday. I need to hire a maid, but ironically, I don't have time and Darryl refuses to allow someone to come in his house and touch his stuff. Therefore, we are living in squalor. This isn't a power play, I just cannot work 10-12 hrs a day, work out with a personal trainer 2x a week, go to WW once a week, cook meals, take the dog to the groomer, do laundry, AND have a clean house. Right now, I have a clean bedroom and that's about it.


• I walked in the door tonight at 7 PM and D, sitting on the couch eating a sandwich, asked me if I'd fed the dogs when I got home from work. I looked at him and said, "This is me getting home from work, did I feed them in the last 2 seconds? No."


• As much as I'm bitching, D has actually been helpful as of late, doing chores that I usually do without being asked and remembering to do stuff without me nagging him. I feel like you carry a subconscious "odor" when approaching a mental break and maybe he can sense that. One of my coworkers asked me today why I haven't had a freak out yet. I'm always upbeat and happy and calm at work (something that might shock my previous coworkers). I'm pretty sure it's because I'm about to have a stroke or something.


• Tomorrow I wake up at 6 AM, go to the gym to work out with my trainer. Then I get in to work ASAP, help the admins prep materials for my superiors' super important meeting at 10 AM. Then I spend my lunch meeting with our wedding caterer, come to work until 5:30 AM and then go back to the gym to see my trainer AGAIN. Arrive home at 8 PM, pass out.


• Petey's groomer and I had a miscommunication regarding my vision for his look. We're pretty close to the shave down debacle of the summer of '08. On the other hand, Ginger's hair is so long I discovered a giant dreadlock on her chest and had to cut it off.


• If I do have a mental break, tomorrow is the prime day for it. Wish me luck folks.

Confession Monday

My favorite guilty pleasure as of late are The Closer and Saving Grace. I wish I was a detective. Not really, because in real life I bet it's scary and gross, but I wish I had a cooler job sometimes. Plus as flawed as the heroins of these shows are, there are some aspects of their personality that I really admire, especially their dedication to their jobs and how good they are at them.

I also wish Petey and Ginger could sniff drugs. German Shepards get all the glory, I bet a Cairn Terrier could root out some drugs like a champ. Criminals would be like, "Oh what a cute fuzzy little face, OH DANG YOU JUST FOUND MY STASH!"

Skunked

Maaaaybe dumping the used cooking oil in the front yard wasn't the best idea. The morning after the incident, I woke up to the yard stinking of skunk. Our gates were closed, so he couldn't actually get into our backyard. I wonder the oil it attracted the skunk and then he got scared and it sprayed? The part that amuses me is that my neighbor sleeps with their window open and our garbage bins (and my dumping point) is in the general vicinity of their bedroom window.

These are not my favorite neighbors. They yell at Petey when he barks too much and never have bothered to come over and introduce themselves. Yes, I can see how Petey's barking in the morning is annoying, but shut your effing window. Or maybe come over and say hello before yelling out the window at my fur-son? How anyone can sleep with an open window in my 'hood is beyond me, based on safety and noise issues. Hopefully a good skunking taught them a lesson. And yes, we're getting them bark collars, because we are not assholes.

25 Things

I was tagged by my friend Lyra on Facebook and by The Waspy Redhead, in their “25 things” posts, the instructions were to write 25 random facts, habits, goals, fears etc. and then tag some people to do the same.

1. I saw Spoon perform live last spring. They were terrible. It was the first time I saw a band live and consequently liked them less.

2. I signed up to run the Capital 10k, somebody for the love of God please sign up to do it with me. Also, do not judge me when I stop to walk after the first 5k.

3. My cube is adorable, if there was some sort of adorable cube contest at my work, I'd win, hands down.

4. I ate an apple today in a fit of anger. My computer crashed and I had to gnaw on something.

5. You know how you feel when you first meet someone and you're all working to impress them and are all insecure? I thought I'd never feel that way again since D and I are getting married, but last night I had a dream and it was like when we were first dating, the feeling totally came rushing back. I immediately woke up and snuggled him.

6. I would like to attend cooking school some day.

7. My dog Ginger is obsessed with sitting in my lap when I'm in our office at the desk. I don't know what it is about that desk/chair/room but she goes ape shit if I don't put her on my lap, then she licks the keyboard.

8. I keep saying I'm going to join Weight Watchers, but I know I'm procrastinating because I'm afraid it won't help me at all.

9. Darryl and I talk on the phone every day, I think we've gone without speaking maybe 3 times in the 5+ years we've been together.

10. No matter how annoyed I am at Darryl, no matter how many hours I've been stewing over something, he walks in the door and I can't stay mad because I'm just so dang happy to see him. This gets him off the hook more than he'll ever know.

11. I am scared at how much I love my dog Petey. I like Ginger just fine, but she bites me, hard, without warning and then pees on my couch and bed for no good reason. Petey is a total snuggle bug. I think if anything ever happened to him my heart would stop. I think if anything ever happened to Ginger, his heart would stop.

12. My favorite thing about my new job is that they don't treat me like a field tech.

13. I love to entertain, my favorite thing to cook are hors d'erves.

14. I love to watch my dogs greet each other, they touch noses and wag their tails.

15. I am concerned by the way people my age eat junk/fast food. I cringe when I see people with fast food cups or sacks in their hands.

16. I love Asian food, I get crazy cravings for it.

17. I wish I could get up when my alarm goes off, but I snooze for like 45 minutes.

18. I once dated someone who would get angry when I hit the snooze button. What is wrong with you? Who doesn't like to snooze?

19. I came close to hippying out pretty hard in college, right before I met Darryl. It was a time where I seriously considered shaving my head, braiding my hair, and getting my nose pierced. I am glad I never defiled my hair, but I do regret not getting the nose piercing. The most hippied out I got was going around braless with a scarf in my hair.

20. I sometimes wish I could live the life of a south Austin hipster for a month. Generally I think they're ghastly, but I was sitting at a diner on SoCo tonight thinking, I wish I had a crazy arm tat and face piercing and a very interesting outfit on with some sort of crazy looking hair held back by a scarf. I bet I'd take a lot of smoke breaks and talk to my friends about some band that no one has ever heard of but that's playing at SXSW.

21. I really like the 70's as an era, I think we can draw many parallels to today. I'm obsessed with all TV shows and movies that depict this time period. If I could go back in time, that's when I'd go. I loved Swingtown, I wish it was still on the air.

22. Sometimes when I'm really working hard on an environmental cleanup site I fantasize about Captain Planet coming in and saving the day. Sometimes I even sing the theme song softly to myself.

23. I think that getting all upity about certain chemicals in Nalgene bottles is rediculous. I hate people who throw away their perfectly good Nalgenes. If you knew the cocktail of much worse things you are exposed to on a daily basis, some plastic chemical in your Nalgene would be the least of your concerns. I am trained to know what I am coming in contact with. I'm surprised I'm not already growing a 3rd arm based on just what we have around the house.

24. I have a friend who was horrified that her mother suggested she clean her child's high chair with a bleach wipe, prefering a more gentle cleaning method. I on the otherhand, consider bleach the only acceptable cleaning method. Hope my baby likes bleach.

25. I can't stand people "Going Green". It's so trendy. I know, ultimately, it's hella annoying but worth tolerating if it raises awareness, but I still think people who bring canvas bags to the grocery stores are giant posers.

I tag:

- Kristen at Life in the Mozart State
-Fu at Dollip of Solipsism
-David at Hiero's Experiments

Confession Monday-Birthday Edition

My little dog Petey and I share the same birthday (this is how I knew he was the perfect dog for me)! Today he is 2 years old and I am 27. I was supposed to start my new job today, but they are waiting to get my drug test results, which should come in some time today and they'll call me, but I'm expecting to start tomorrow.

Tonight Darryl's taking me to Perry's Steakhouse, one of our favorites from our Houston days. I'm thinking maybe some seafood stuffed mushrooms followed by a filet topped in crab meat with a side of creamed spinach and hopefully they do the same tableside bananas foster as they do in Houston for dessert. I'm a lucky girl!

Birthday Dog!

A little known fact about my dog Petey, we share the same birthday, which is on Monday! So I had to go get him some goodies in preparation of his second birthday.

I got him a little carob and peanut butter birthday treat that he can split with Ginger. I also got him a turtle named "Ted" from Jax and Bones. It is appropriate because he is obsessed with the turtle that hang out in our next door neighbor's backyard. A portion of the toy's proceeds go to helping rescued dogs. Appropriate because Petey himself is a rescue and this will be his first birthday in a real home!