Amazing Race

In honor of Leap Day. (sorta)
Mike and I were watching The Amazing Race the other night and were speculating on how we would do on the show like you do when you watch the show.  The challenge we were speculating over was counting cows and figuring our the average weight. (i don't know either. it's the Amazing Race, roll with it)
me: I would do this challenge for us since my math skills are pretty good. We would have you do the heavy lifting challenges. .
mike: Thanks. And agreed.
me: Yeah, you gotta play to your strengths on the Amazing Race.
mike: Absolutely. Though my navigational skills would have us out the first leg of the race.
me: Hmm, good point.
mike: Yeah you would need someone else if you are going to win the Amazing Race. Hey, you know who would be great at this? Shyam. He's really smart and could do the strong stuff too, he would be good.  
me: Agreed! You know, Priya's really good at thinking on her feet too, and she would be great at the physical challenges too.  She should go in place for me.
mike: So we have our team.
me:  Yep, Shyam for you and Priya for me.
mike: Go team!

Step Up

I was putting some clothes away at work and I walked by one of the numerous graphics like you do. I was in then men's athletic section so I wasn't too familiar with the section in general, let alone the graphics.  But I saw one on the side of a fixture that caught my eye because the male model looked really familiar to me for some reason.

I thought it may be one of the stock models the brand uses frequently so I had seen him in other ads before. But I've never payed that much attention to Fila so I knew that couldn't be it.  So maybe I had seen him in a movie or tv spot recently.  And then after mulling it over for a bit, it suddenly dawned on me where I had seen this model:

He was the male lead in Step Up 3D.

And no, I am not ashamed to admit that is where I recognized him from.  And, it also explains why he couldn't act either.

Right Turn

Two years ago Mike and I went on our first date. With us getting married in 3 months(SQUEEEEEEE!!!), our dating anniversary date will more than likely be usurped with our wedding anniversary.  But I'm still going to hold a special place in my heart for the day my life took an infinite turn for the better.

I love you dr soc!  Here's to our future!

Zoo

Mike and I went to the jewelers the other day to try on our rings (squee!). There's a french restaurant named Zebra in the same plaza as the jewelers, and on the outside of the building there's a sign that points towards the main entrance.

Now, I don't need even more reasons to marry Mike than I already have, but the following conversation just reminded me how well we fit.

me -upon seeing the sign and reading it allowed--: Oh, guess that's how you get to Zebra, since the sign there says "Zebra entrance."
mike: That's racist. Where do the giraffes go in? 

I know better

Thirteen pounds of tissue paper was just delivered to my house. Let the crafting begin!
However, before said 13 lbs was delivered, I knew I had to practice what I would be making so as not to have a hot glue mess adorning my wedding day.  So I bought some tissue paper packs from the dollar store to practice with.  Everything was going according to plan.

Except.

That I had a serious lapse in judgement and bought one (one!) package of tissue paper with glitter.  So now that herpes of crafts is all over my dining room table.

Crafting FAIL.

How to

I click on a video of the 5 financial mistakes couples make for their wedding, because, well, if it's wedding related, I click.
Yeah, the advice was totally worthless. (I'm in the red)

1. Assuming you have to go traditional. me: but I want traditional. Instead of a full meal, throw a chic cocktail reception. But Mike and I both get super cranky if we don't eat on a regular schedule and/or a full meal. Do you have to have your wedding on a Saturday? YES. And to save on the cake, do cupcakes which cost $3-$4 a piece, rather than a traditional cake which can be $6 a slice. $6 a slice?! Our cake is $3-4 a slice, which is the same amount as that supposedly cheaper cupcake. Besides, how do you cut a cupcake?
2. Poo-pooing electronic invites. Use electronic save-the dates and or invites. That's fine (and green), but not all of our guest are tech savvy. We're already forgoing the paper postcard return rsvp for an online one, which is greener and saves on postage.  Our save the dates the postage to mail them was more expensive than the save the date itself. And the actual invite doesn't have to be $9 made of silver leaf card stock with 14 pockets and information cards.      
3. Overstocking/indulging on the booze. Guest don't need premium alcohols to have a good time. We're doing beer and wine, and if anyone has a problem with that and insists that they will only drink a certain drink/liquor, then they can sulk in the corner for all I care and they're the asshole for complaining.
4. Splurging on party favors. Most guest don't remember/keep the favors in general.  Charitable donations are the way to go. I'm totally down with the charity thing, (we're trying to figure out a way to link one to our registry if someone would rather do that in lui of a gift) and I agree that a matchbook or lip with my wedding date is a waste of money.  But I think a little foodstuff favor is a nice gesture.  And besides, my parents  wanted a certain type of favor and are generously taking care of that for us anyway.
5. Not asking for a discount. instead of saying i want x, y and z how much will that cost, say here's my budget, what can you do for me. Sigh. I did that already. Not to mention researched the crap out of everything to know what was the best option.

The article was exactly like the million other smart money articles that tell me to brown bag my lunch instead of buying it, bring coffee from home instead of buying it daily, to quit smoking to save on health costs and save the cigarette money, and to do my nails at home rather than pay a weekly manicurist.  Information that I already figured out myself, or never even needed in the first place (you don't have to quit smoking if you don't smoke!)
And even though I'm putting in a ton of work planning the wedding, I'm having a complete ball doing so.  I don't mind researching, pouring over websites and crunching the numbers in the slightest.  It just comes down to not being an idiot when it comes to money.

Happy Birthday honey!

Today is my future hubby's 32nd birthday. Happy birthday darling!
Anyway, since we met a few days after his 30th birthday, I like to say I was the best 30th birthday present ever.  I don't know if he agrees with that entirely since I wasn't exactly gifted to him, but since it's his birthday I won't argue semantics with him.  Today at least. Tomorrow I may.
Love you honey!

Known For

Because I wanted to avoid the middle school shuffle as our first dance, and Mike isn't the greatest dancer known to man, getting him to agree to take a few dancing lessons was not hard.  When we showed up for our first lesson, the very flamboyant receptionist squealed when he saw my shoes. 

We are not the first couple ever to take dancing lessons for our wedding, otherwise they wouldn't have as many lessons packages as they do.  And these dance studios have a decent amount of clients in general, so it's not out of the ordinary for them to not really know someone too well there.  But, when we walk in, and I have my pink shoe box with my fabulous pink wedding shoes in there, they remember me.

And I have to admit, I LOVE being remembered for my fabulous shoes!

crazy cost vs just plain crazy

Not only are flower for a wedding my size silly expensive, no one really remembers them. Seriously, I don't remember the flowers/decorations from any of the weddings I've been to and/or in.  Nothing against them, but it's just not of of the aspects most people remember. So, after some hemming and hawing, I went to the internets and fell into the Martha Stewart tissue paper flowers page.  Then I got excited about spending $200 in supplies instead of $2000. And then I heard about donating the flowers to a hospital, and that they would last much longer than real flowers, and I get really excited about being able to do some greater good by way of my wedding.

I buy a glue gun. I buy some tissue paper. I prep the area like nobody's business. I am ready and I will attack this bubble of tulle project with gusto!
This was me yesterday:

MAKE ALL THE FLOWERS!!!!!

---and then, an hour later and 12 (of 2000) flowers made--

make ALL the flowers??

Damn you Martha Stewart! Damn you!
Also: thanks be to hyperbole and a half for the images and the hilarity. (and Jeanne for bringing them to my attention in the first place)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've had a few different kinds of Valentine's days.  There have been single ones and coupled ones, good ones, lame ones, no bad ones, but mainly mediocre valentines. The single ones were never really that bad (except in high school, but high school doesn't count) because I still got candy and treats from my family and sometimes friends.  In fact, single valentines were sometines much more enjoyable because there wasn't pressure to get anyone anything and a secret dread that my boyfriend would get me something lame. 
Turns out, what I really don't like about Valentines day, is all the hype.  I do like celebrating when I am with someone (and now I do since Mike's my perma-date), and the chocolates and flowers are a nice touch too if they accompany the valentine. (note: chocolate and flowers are a nice touch on any occasion)
Anyway, Mike and I started dating a week after Valentines day, so last year was our first valentines together.  We were trying to figure out the the other's expectations of the day and how we should celebrate.

me: I don't really need to make a big deal over valentines day honey.
mike: Cool. But what does that really mean?
me: I like the day acknowledged, but it doesn't have to be anything elaborate and over the top.
mike:  Oh, ok.
me: And by acknowledged, I mean flowers.
mike: --nodding-- Ok.
me: And by flowers I mean roses.
mike:--nodding again-- ok.

Valentine's day you know what showed up on our porch? Roses. Oh yeah, I knew I had a keeper!
Love you honey!
Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

peanut butter w/a touch of crack

When Bailey was a puppy, I had to learn how to give her lots of pills in a short amount of time, what with  her parvo and knee surgeries an all (see: million dollar dog. see also: why I'll never want another puppy*).

With the parvo, hiding the pills in her food didn't work, so she took her pills in the pill pockets the vet gave us for a while. However, those pill pockets ran out but the pills didn't. And those pill pockets aren't exactly pocketbook friendly either, so I wasn't chomping at the bit to buy her a whole lot more of them (not to mention that someone said they would pick some up from the vet and then someone never did).  And then when the knee surgery, she was taking 10-12 pills a day. No way was going to buy a new bag of pill pockets every few days, especially after a $1000+ surgery alone.(though, I would imagine that part of the $1000 included the morphine drip.  Which, I know made her comfortable when she was alone, so it was worth every penny) So I learned the quickest, most efficient way to give Bailey pills is to literally, shove them down her throat. It wasn't exactly the nicest way, and yes she ran aways from me the second she swallowed, but she got her meds. (and forgot about in 2 minutes time and was cuddling right back up to me). I just figured that this was the way Bailey would take pills from now on.

Until I met dr soc. He gave Jules her allergy pills and any other medication via crunchy peanut butter.  And peanut butter, is crack to dogs. Bloody 'effing brilliant if you ask me. One day I tried it with Bailey, which, OHMYGOD a billion times easier.  She snarfed it down, licked her chops and wagged her tail in hopes for more. Now, lesson learned, Bailster always gets her pills** with a healthy side of doggie crack!
 
* No honey. No puppy. I don't care how much sharktopus and dinocroc say i want one. they are liers***.
**With pills it's ok to take with food that is. empty stomach pills go down the old fashioned way
***Yes, I just called my future children liers. Don't judge me.

Rude?

I'm at the alterer for my second fitting (squee!), and it happened to be a busy day for them.  So I'm standing there, in my dress like you do,  while my seamstress is pinning and measuring and color coding the bustle (heads up bridal posse: it's a 5(!) point bustle),  and another, older, lady walks in the shop carrying some white undershirts. She heads directly towards my seamstress, who is on her knees, pinning and measuring and color coding my bustle to talk to her.

The older lady first apologizes to me for interrupting and attempts to smooth over some things by telling me I look beautiful (which, yes, I do, but that's not the point right now). The older lady's husband is waiting in the car for her and that's why she can't wait for her (my) seamstress to be done with my fitting. She needs the neckline changed in the undershirts she's carrying for her husband who's waiting in the car asap since he just had a something-ectomy in his throat, so the crew neckline irritates him.

Which, I get that she's on a bit of a time crunch. And I have some time so I'm not rushed at the moment. But then the older lady keeps discussing the neckline, about what she needs, and how she needs it soon, all while my seamstress is still on her knees at my hem with my gown in her hands. My seamstress has to stop what she was doing to feel the shirt, explain something, and then finally send her back to the front desk to schedule the pick up time.  Then she can get back to the bustle of my dress which takes another 15-20 minutes to figure out, uninterrupted.  

I know that my wedding is not the center of anyone else's universe except mine (somewhat dr soc's but I think we know it's overall more my thing), and she did tell me I was beautiful which is the quickest ways to break down my defenses. But it still felt a little rude to just barge into my appointment time. My seamstress was clearly working with a bride (we don't just stand around randomly in our dresses (do we? I don't)), in the middle of something. And it wasn't like there weren't other people there who could help her either, she had to have my seamstress.  While I have just as much a claim to these ladies' time as anyone else, and everything got done for me in a timely manner, it still just felt a little rude.

Woman of a Certain Age

coworker: Hey, how you doing?
me: Ehh. I'm actually not feeling all that great right now, I woke up a little nauseous.
coworker: Oh I'm sorry. You know, there's a flu bug that's going around. Did you get your flu shot at least?
me: Yeah, I did back in October. But thanks.
--beat--
me: And by the way, thank you for thinking flu and not pregnant when I said nauseous.

When you are a woman of "baby making age," quite often the first place most people jump to when you say nausea, is pregnant.  And heaven forbid if you say you have a craving for something!  I have cravings all the time, but it's usually because I'm lacking a certain nutrient, not because I'm in the family way. Though I admit, if I ever start to crave pickles, even I would assume!

Arbor Day

me: You really hope someone gets us that banana tree from our registry don't you?
mike: The wooden one? Yeah, it's like a real tree!

So, on that note, I hope someone gets us that!

Betrayed

The first time Mike made me dinner we had sweet potatoes, and so he put the giant tub of butter on the table just in case I wanted some. Since he was a single man at the time (though, he wasn't for much longer after that date, but that's neither here nor there) I found the proportion of one guy and a giant tub of butter pretty funny. But I had to know why, so I asked.  His response was along the lines of: that's just how we do things.
Growing up, his family always kept the family sized tub of spread, and like a lot of things, it just carried over into his adult life.  His parents have the giant tub, his brother has the giant tub, so he has the giant tub.  I learned it was one of his things and I did what any girlfriend does: mocked.  Then eventually planned to phase this out after I moved in.

However, he goes through the little tubs pretty fast. I started seeing the economical side of the giant tub. True, it takes up a lot of space in the fridge, but it is a lot cheaper to buy one giant one over the course of 3 months than 6 little ones.  And one Sunday, we go grocery shopping together, and I tell him we need tub butter (real butter, the stuff in sticks, is simply referred to as butter in my house).  He gives me this hopeful look, and I buckled. And so now we always have the giant tub in the fridge.

A few weeks after the butter acquisition, we went up to visit his parents along with his brother and sister-in-law. We're having breakfast, and Mike is searching for the spread for his toast with no avail.  He asks his mom where it is, and she tells him it's the small tub in the door.

Mike is shell shocked to say the least.  How could this be? They've always had the giant tub of butter. it's how they do things! And then his sister-in-law pipes in that they switched too, they now use the spray stuff.  Crestfallen, Mike cries out: "I just got her (me) on the giant tub train!"

Poor Mike, he felt a little betrayed.  Though, I probably wasn't helping much by cackling from my chair was I?

Romeo and Juliet

I was looking for ideas for some ceremony music.  We're not going to do any of that stupid bridal party shaking it down the aisle that seems to be so popular on you tube.  For so, so many reasons, some of them being that this is my wedding and not a frat party, I'm so over the auto-tuning thing, and nowhere does someone with a name like T-pain belong at a wedding in general.

So I think it's no surprise that we're opting to go the traditional route and looking at classic pieces. The only song that I don't care to be played is the Wedding March by Wagner.  Mainly because when I hear it, I start to sing "here comes the bride, all fat and wide!" in my head, which, no.  And also, when I hear it played on a on a horn, my mind jumps to the fanfare played at the start of a horse race and want to excitedly scream "and they're off!" while jumping up and down, which, also, no. (well, not for the wedding at least. This is perfectly acceptable at an actual horse racing event.)

So I searched for a few of the alternatives pieces, and one the knot suggested tunes is the love theme from the ballet Romeo and Juliet by Tchaikovsky.  It is quite pretty, and it does have a very classic feel to it. And honestly, if I just heard it without any prior knowledge of what it was from I might even say sure.  But it's Romeo and Juliet.  And the thought of having Romeo and Juliet as a part of my wedding music seems...no.

Yes I know it's supposed to be one of the most romantic stories of all times, but really, not so much.  When you break it down as such, it's just 2 horny teenagers (though, "horny teen" is a bit redundant), who kill themselves over because ohmygod they can't be together.   So I remember reading the play in high school like you do in freshman english.  And while most of the girls are swooning over the romantics of it all, I thought: really? She killed herself over a boy she's known for what, a week? God, what a waste! 

good mom bad mom

I am a good pet momma because I took Bailey to the vet to have her paw looked at when I noticed a blister-like thing on it.
I am a bad pet momma because I post pictures like this:

Cone of Shame!

Simply because it makes me laugh.
No idea what the blister thing is since it was too inflamed for the vet to look at. She's on some meds to control it and we'll revisit it in 2 weeks. Until then:

I do not like the cone of shame.
And I do NOT appreciate you suddenly becoming a photographer either momma

Sorry Bailster!