So Close

So, we close in the morning. Only hours away. Tomorrow I become a homeowner.

Paint colors chosen. Check.
Possessions packed. Check.
Ready to move. No.

It wouldn't be so hard to move if I didn't absolutely love our apartment. It is THE coolest apartment ever. Or at least in Memphis. We took it two months before we needed it simply because it was so cool. Its my first place away from home and our first home together. Yes, we've outgrown it, but I still love it. And it kills me to see everything packed up.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited about our new house and seeing it become our home. But there is something bittersweet about leaving this place. So excuse me if I don't burst at the seams with excitement over moving.

Our First Christmas

From Holidays 08

Well only 7 days til we close on the house and I haven't even packed one box yet. I'm avoiding it at all costs. The boxes we have accumulated are hiding under the table or in our storage area, so all traces are hidden.

I am really bummed that our first married Christmas is overshadowed by the move. We originally asked for a closing date in January, but the seller wanted it at the end of the year, and as long as she was taking less than she was asking, we were pretty much okay with that. Now I take it back.

All the presents are wrapped (besides the one that has yet to arrive) and nestled under our lovely tree. Tomorrow night is the Baddass's family meal. Which means I'll race home after work and prepare two dishes. I made one ahead tonight and it took great self-will to not eat it. It looks amazing, if I do say so myself. Who can resist a warm rum cake?

But seriously, the Baddass asked if we could go to the mall on Saturday to get some Christmas cheer. I suggest we sing a loud for all to hear, but we do that all year round and doesn't provoke Christmas spirit in our house, just a reckless merriment. I felt bad for him, so I agreed. However, circling the mall parking lot for about 15 minutes without any luck only aggravated us both, so we went to a bookstore we had a gift card for. I sat and read my favorite magazine while the Baddass shopped for a gift for friend. Then we had a fabulous lunch at P.F. Chang's. Tonight I suggest we watch Elf. Nothing fills one with Christmas cheer better than Elf. Well, maybe A Christmas Story or Christmas Vacation, but I do not own those on DVD (yet!) so we watched Elf and drank spiced rum.

We also had my parents and grandmother over and got rid of two remaining desserts. Definitely a score for my waistline, especially at this time of year. It was also probably the last time we will entertain at our apartment when it looks normal and not halfway packed. However, at this rate, I could entertain for the rest of the week and it will remain the same. Bwahaha.

Our first married Christmas is overshadowed by the move though. We can hardly focus on one thing and it makes me feel like an ADD child. I hate the feeling I get when I think, "if I can just get past Christmas..." I love Christmas and I wanted to enjoy it make it extra special this year. But I guess there is always next year...

Paint

So things are still gung-ho regarding the house. We close in a little over a week. I have started full swing on paint colors today. I even forked over a little money to use this handy-dandy thing on the Behr (the paint brand) website where you can upload a picture of your own room and then paint the colors on there... its pretty cool in concept, but I keep having issues with it. And the most annoying part is the colors look WAY different when they are painted on. Like five shades too bright and light. Which has me really confused. But we're going to want to start painting once we close so we can get most of the painting done before we move in. And I still have absolutely no idea what color to paint our bedroom. What goes well with brown, wood, and hunter green? Anything in the purple family is out.

Christmas arrangements, buying a house, and freezer burned food give me a headache.

Birthdays

The Baddass made sure I was a spoiled Birthday Girl this week.

Paint

Pending the inspection and all that closing stuff, the Baddass and I bought a house. We're very excited. Its almost perfect... and it will be after we paint a couple of rooms. So I've been thinking about paint colors. I will need to paint the kitchen, laundry room, guest bedroom, master bedroom, and bathroom.

My mother, being a loving mother and who wants to help, suggested that I consult our family interior designer for colors. For just an hour consultation I can pay $200, visit with the interior designer we haven't seen since Mom bought living room furniture, and get a couple of paint swatches.

I took a home furnishings class in college. I can pick swatches for myself. So I went to Sherwin Williams today. It can be slightly overwhelming. Maybe it is easier to make decisions for you. Sometimes I wish I could pay someone to make all my decisions for me. Like what to eat for dinner, what movie to watch, how much to drink, etc.... Wasn't that on a Friend's episode once?

One Year

In the past year:

I got engaged
graduated college
got a full time job
moved out of my parent's house
got married
adopted a cat
bought a house

It's official. I'm a grown up now.

New Things

Tonight I am cooking with turnips. I have never had turnips... come to think of it, I've never even touched a turnip before. So the idea of me cooking them is crazy. But the Pioneer Woman put up a really tempting recipe. I'll let you know how it goes. So far the kitchen is smelling really good.

Oh and we put an offer on a house!

The Great House Tour of 2008

Well today is the day. We tour 7 houses to help us decide on which house to buy.

This was not my idea. I like the Courthouse, which is the new dream house mentioned a few posts back. The Husband decided he'd like to view a few more to help him feel validated in his decision of liking the Courthouse. I said okay and showed him some of the favorites I had saved from my Crye-Leike searches. (Crye-Leike has the best website to search for houses, just an FYI.) I thought he'd pick out two or three to look at. Oh no, he picked out six. And then added another one later in the week.

So today we are going to look at 7 houses. At the end of the tour I believe I'll be so confused I will refuse to leave our cool apartment ever again.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Agenda

Today's Agenda

Wake up, make coffee because Husband made snarky comments to his brother about me making him make me coffee.

Read unread literature cluttering the den area.

Admire all the new channels (with sound now).

Dust den.

Go to the grocery store.

Deep clean the kitchen for the first time since living there.

Be repeatedly grossed out in the process.

Plan estate sale shopping for the afternoon.

Lunch with the women in husband's family. Deny all alcohol because drinking early is not fun unless a beach or pool are nearby and someone to fix and fetch drinks is available.

Hit all the good estate sales.

Hit all the good thrift stores with the husband.

Come home to relax and enjoy the prepared chili ready for your in the crock pot. Enjoy Bosco's beer at home and a Netflix movie in p.j.'s.

Take expensive cough medicine, go to bed.

As you probably know the TV times are achangin' and we have to get some kinda converter box thing so we can continue to watch tv on our existing tv, despite the fact that we have bunny ears and it should be free... but whatev.

I sent in for the coupon/voucher thing months ago. I finally got around to using it today. I went to Best Buy shelled out $14 of my own moneys for this shiny little black box.

The rumor was that you get more channels and clearer picture than with the bunny ears all by themselves. So I was pretty excited to try it out. I plugged everything in, which took a few minutes because of all the confusing wires going to this, that, and the other. But finally, I was done. Every thing had been plugged into the write plug.

I pushed the TV back into the cabinet, put the batteries in (yet another) remote, and stepped back to enjoy the fruits of my labor. Its brilliant. I have twice as many channels and crystal clear reception. There is even a fancy guide function to see what is on and what is coming on soon!

Now if someone would just tell me how to make the sound work I'll be a happy girl.

What is the deal with me and my electronics not having sound?! My laptop refuses to have sound too and I've just grown to deal with it, but the TV?! Totally unacceptable.

Please help!

Thoughts

Buying a house involves many difficult decisions. Like where to put the bikes along with how much money can you pay a month without having to eat only ramon noodles.

The cat has hardly gotten off of an American Eagle shopping bag in two weeks. Mental note to self: don't spend money on beds and toys because he's going to prefer the shopping bags and the squishy balls given away at public events.

Taco Tuesday is a very good reason for living.

I want a baby blue Kitchen Aid mixer.

We found a new Dream home, one that might actually might become a reality.

Dream house on Holly is officially off the market.

Let's take a moment of silence....

My compact iPod speakers is competing with crazy neighbor's amps.

It's true what they say... you do eventually turn into your mother. My mother repeatedly said today, "You are my child!" I don't even know how many times she said it.

It all started when I went to an estate sale this morning. I purchased four matching 5x7 frames (once we have a house I think I'm going to do a grouping of wedding photos) as well as this little piece with four drawers. I don't even know how to really describe it other than a tall-ish, narrow drawer thing. I thought it was a kinda cute and had potential and it was cheap, so I bought it.

I was on the way out east to visit the parents (mainly because I desperately wanted to put my Christmas music on my iPod) and brought in my purchase to show my mom. She was very upset that she didn't get it and we proceeded to spend a few hours on fixing it up.

I should have thought to get a picture before I started cleaning it, but I finally thought of it after I had taken the drawers out to start cleaning.

We puttied holes and did some touch up today. This afternoon my mom was going to purchase some stain that she needed for another project that will work well for this project. So in the next week or so, we'll stain it.

It is actually two seperate drawer sets from sewing tables that had been put together. After stain and a little more support, its going to be an amazing piece I can't wait to use.

Spirit

Oh my! I have caught the Christmas spirit in a big way. I've had a slight urge the past few weeks to listen to Christmas music, but it has been my rule in past years to wait for after Thanksgiving to begin Christmas celebrations. (This rule excludes Christmas present shopping, I like to get that chore out of the way so as not to interfer with actual Christmas celebrations.) I caved one afternoon last week at work. After so many hours of the same tedious task, I just needed some kind of pick me up. It was a momently fling into the merriness.

However, today a co-worker had Christmas music going at her work station in the back. WRVR, our mellow, dentist-office radio station, had already begun playing Christmas music non-stop.

Then after work I was driving a very short distance to Target. I didn't want to be bothered with plugging in my iPod and the unplugging and turning it off once I arrived at the store, so I turned on the radio... to WRVR.

Big mistake!

Jingle Bell Rock was playing. Only one of my very favorite Christmas songs. In fact, it was such a short trip I had to stay in the car until the song ended.

Yeah, so Target is now fully stocked for your Christmas needs, as am I.

Well, we saw the dream house. However, there is already a contract in the works, so it really doesn't put as at the advantage. Plus, we're not 100% ready to actually buy the house... you know, paper work and such. The house is adorable and in really great shape, there are only minor things that would need work. And my table doesn't fit in the tiny dining area, but there is a space that we could use as a dining area.

We weren't ready to put in a contract yet, so our realtor suggested we go look at some other houses she had sent us to be able to compare what we could get in our price range. We saw a complete dump at the top of our price range, really a disaster. Then we saw on that is great, but on a busy street. And there was one that looked perfect, but they had just rented it out a few days ago. Major bummer.

Our realtor is going to tell the other realtor on the dream house that if the other contract doesn't work out, let us know, but for now we'll pass it up. The good news is: we've got time to wait for another dream home to come on the market, we've gotten to see a few houses in the area and know what we should be looking for. Definately not time wasted.

Our lease isn't up towards the end of February. Which means we really shouldn't be thinking about moving out for another couple of months. However, since finding this dream house I can't stop thinking about it. I'm impatient to see it. Just so I can know if it is as fabulous as it looks.

But if I do see it and it is as fabulous as it looks then I'm not going to wait on pouncing on it.

Have I told you about how fabulous our current home is? Its actually a condo/apartment. We were lucky enough to find one for rent about the time we were looking for an apartment to live in once we were married. Its seriously amazing. THE single most coolest apartment in the city. And I'm not exaggerating.

And despite how much I love this place, I'm still ready to find my own really cool home. Why is that?

Our realtor sent us a few listings to look at today. There one in particular I can't stop thinking about. Hence the post at 4:30 am.

We have a disobedient cat. How do you discipline a cat?

Christmas is around the corner

After a month of deliberations we have finally chosen a Christmas card... sort of. You see, I love this thing on Etsy called alchemy. I posted that I wanted a custom made Christmas card and people can bid on it. They send in their suggestions and what they'd charge me to do it. Its pretty much awesome. I had about 30 bids to make my cards. It was a very difficult decision, but I finally chose a bidder and soon I'll have my very own custom created Christmas cards!

Which brings me to a very perplexing question. How early is too early for Christmas? I try to keep all Christmas themed things for after Thanksgiving. Black Friday means bringing out the Christmas cds.

I have however, gotten a head start on my Christmas shopping. I'm actually practically finished. I would start wrapping except I feel like I must have a tree to put them under. Otherwise they'd just get dusty and a dusty Christmas present is a sad Christmas present. And we can't have that.

Fall

The leaves are changing here in Memphis and its so beautiful. I particularly like driving down East Parkway. It reminds me just how much I love midtown.

I took these pictures on Saturday in our parking lot.

Election 2008

Off the topic: I hate election coverage. Just before 8 pm CT the brilliant newscaster say something to the effect of: At 0% reporting, we have determined that it is too early to call Arkansas.

WTF? Are you serious? I wonder if these people just talk and then realize how dumb they sound after they said it.

Every morning I leave for work and the chairs are pushed under the table and the kitchen sink is empty. When I get home every single chair is not in the same place and there are multiple dishes and glasses in the sink. What kind of cruel messy elves visit my house while I'm at work?

I have spent the last 8 hours looking at houses... either driving around or by looking on the internets. I've given myself a headache and some really tense shoulders. I think I need a back massage.

I have a feeling the next few months are going to be very stressful.

There is an amazing smell wafting from the oven. I feel most like a housewife when I've prepared a good meal for my husband and/or guests. I should totally put on my new custom made apron. Its funny how this role is so stereotyped and we all think stereotypes are bad. But is it bad to be glad to provide a good meal for your family?

In other news, last night we carved our first pumpkins as a married couple. (And my first pumpkin ever.) We had fun and I was able to roast the seeds for a delicious (possibly healthy?) snack.

Last weekend we had a weekend getaway to Nashville and Chattanooga. It was great to get away, explore new things, and just spend some time together alone. I highly suggest it.

Being sick together means taking shots of Nyquil together.

And also making promises which you can't keep about what happens while you are under the influence of Nyquil.

Lazy Saturday Morning

I slept in this morning. I can't remember the last time. It felt good and was much needed. I've had a pretty much constant headache and sore throat since Tuesday morning and have been taking tons of medication. Rest was just what I needed. I still have a headache, but I think that has more to do with the fact that I require my after-lunch caffine kick immediately following my morning coffee.

However, I do feel slightly bad about my rest. The Baddass woke me up early to get ready to go to his race. Since we only have one car he needed a ride to the race to prepare. He likes to get there unncessarily early to warm up and shit. This would mean an hour and a half of me sitting alone or watching him stretch, then alone for 15 minutes while he runs with a couple of chance sightings of him passing by not even looking at me, then a few minutes post race where he's completely sweaty and worn out and barely even looks or talks to me, then another forty five minutes of me alone while he does his cool down run, and finally at least forty five minues or more of waiting until they start the awards which would be at least 30 minutes of them slowly calling out and mispronoucing everyone's name before they get to the Baddass. Sounds like a lot of early morning fun, right? Yeah... so I wasn't too thrilled when he woke me up for this. I fell back to sleep actually.

I do feel bad about it. I like to support him at his races and he seems to want me to go. Although he did forget that I went to this race last year, as he was trying to describe the festivities to me yesterday. And this race is unique, it is in conjuction with the Scottish festival so the Baddass does run in a kilt as well as others. Sigh... men in skirts. However, since it is a Scottish festival it does include a bag pipe. Blah.... those are completely unncessary in the morning. Who wants to deal with that kind of screeching first thing in the morning?! Seriously.

The Baddass came home and I was still in bed, freshly awake. I hadn't even taken a sip of the coffee he made for me hours previously. He took a shower and went off to work.

Tigger and I have been sitting on the couch drinking coffee, shopping a J. Crew sale, and added more home design blogs to my Reader (its completely out of control, I need help). I'm contemplating going to an estate sale in east East Memphis if I can ever get up and dressed. But I really need to tackle the mountain of dishes in the sink and a load of whites. Boo...

Saturdays are more fun with the husband is off and I don't feel like I have to do things around the house.

Photos

I don't think of myself as a person who takes a lot of photos. I do make a point of keeping a camera nearby (in my purse) in case the mood should strike me to take pictures. But somehow I have ended up with roughly 200 photos of the engagement, engagement photos, pictures from showers, pictures that guests at our wedding took, and pictures from the honeymoon on top of the over 200 professional photos I printed.

What the heck am I supposed to do with these?! Surely I'm not going to have to do the unthinkable..... scrapbook. Please please please, don't make me scrapbook!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is only one thing (okay no, two things: stupid photographer) that I regret about my decision making as a bride. I decided it would be a cute idea to do a scrapbook instead of a guest book. I bought a scrapbook and color coordinating pages that went along with "my colors" (what a ridiculous phrase, only a bride can get away with saying something as stupid as that) and had guests sign messages to us on it while leaving space to put photos from the wedding. It sounds cute, but who the hell is going to make this cute scrapbook for me. Something that I will be proud to keep forever and ever and ever and hand down for generations and generations. Certainly not me. What the hell was I thinking when I decided this, I don't know.

I think I'm going to have to chalk it up and pay for something to scrapbook for me. How much do those kinds of services cost?

My only other option is to discard the guest signed pages and do a coffetable book on the internet and have it printed. But I still like the idea of the messages signed by our guests. Bummer.

P.S. I've gone crazy decorating. Its all I can think about now. I almost hate myself for it.... but not because I bought the cutest vase today.

Love

Husband "I think I feel in love with our cat." Pause. "But don't worry, I would kill him and feed him to you if it came down to it."

 

Me: terrible face and wailing 

 

Husband: "Its my way of saying that I still love you more."

27 Hours

Its been 27 hours and he finally came out of hiding as well as eat and poop for the first time. Success.

Addition Added

Well since I last posted I responded to the post, emailed back and forth, went to a stranger's house to meet the cat, and now have the cat in my possession. The Baddass left me so its me and the cat. He's spent most of the evening behind a certain side table and only once was I allowed to pet him. Hopefully things will progress and he will get a little bit more comfortable in his new home.

Addition to the Family

For a while now I've been wanting to adopt a cat. Ever since I was a little girl I've always loved cats. My family cat died almost two years ago and I've felt the urge to get a new kitty for the past year. During the engagement the Baddass suggested that we wait a few months so that he "could learn to take care of [me] first." I thought that was logical and sort of sweet, so I waited a few months. Well its now been exactly 4 months, time to find a cat. The Baddass is slightly reluctant, but he knows it is something I really want. Also, I give him the sex: Happy wife, happy life.

So today I began my adventure into pet adoption. I've searched Craigslist, made phone calls, emailed, and after some discussions with the Baddass I decided to try the local cat adoption place. They keep about a hundred kitties and are entirely volunteer run. I walk in and there is only one lady there with about ten kitties at my feet meowing. The woman makes me fill out an adoption application. Then proceeds to question me: where is my husband, why isn't he helping in the picking out process, what happened to my cat, did my parents neuter him, what the hell were they thinking, would the cat be indoor or outdoor, why, where do I live, etc. Then she proceeds to lecture me about the cat's best interest and a bunch of crap. I have never been so pissed off at any person before. Okay, that's not true, I was more pissed off at my old boss who fired me after I quit, but this is close. So my application has to go before an advisory board because she can't take a risk with me. WTF? Have you seen me? I'm completely normal, I don't even have my ears pierced. I got all As in college and had a great GPA in high school. We don't have any other pets, we live in a great part of town, not on a busy street. I just want a cat to pet and love on and occasionally take obsessive pictures of.

So I left the cat place pissed off and decided to call a couple of more numbers I wrote down from Craigslist. There weren't the greatest of scenarios. And as the Baddass advised, we don't have to adopt a cat today. I decided to check Craigslist again a few minutes ago and there is a beautiful cat that fits my want list. I'm now anxiously waiting for a reply and for my husband to come home and approve.

Well this just clenches it, I will never be a crazy cat lady. 1) Because I'm married, so unless the Baddass dies, I doubt he'll let me adopt 50 cats and let them run lose in our place and 2) Cat ladies are bitches.

Direction

I have finally come up with a direction and title for this blog. Its about time.... although I did start out not really know where this would take me. So I let it progress naturally and I have come up with something that I hope works.

I am supposed to be cleaning right now. I can't remember the last time either of us vacuumed or Swiffered (Swiffer is our best friend). And we're having a guest over tonight so I guess someone should clean. And seeing as the Badass is working all day and then has to take care o the dogs, I guess that person must be me. Damnit...

I hate hate hate cleaning. If we were to ever come into some money I would save it and make it a fund to pay for a maid. I informed the Baddass of this when we were merely dating so there are no excuses as to why this shouldn't happen.

The last 24 hours have been very tramatic for me:

• We're housesitting and the couple usually buys several six packs of good beer, this time when they left they said there was beer and food in the fridge. All we found was two beers left in an empty six pack and two frozen pizzas.


• Baddass promised me ice cream and peaches and never paid up.
  
• I don't like housesitting.


• The dogs ate my shoe and I had to go to work with chewn shoe.

• No food = no lunch to take to work = fast food = indigestion.


• The button on my jeans fell off for the 100th time.
  
• I made fried green tomatoes, they were delicious... This wasn't tramatic, I'm hoping its the turning point.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Months and months ago, maybe even a year or so ago, I had this random dream. I dreamed that the Baddass and I were married or at least living together, and I was making fried green tomatoes. This is weird because a) in the house I was raised in we never fried anything at all, b) the idea of me cooking at the time was laughable, c) Baddass and I were still merely dating, and d) it was just a freaky dream. Anyways, as part of my dream, I decided I'd just make some from scratch and happened to have all the ingredients to make it. This is weird now because my kitchen is still in its beginning stages and I'm always needing ingredients that are staples in normal people's kitchens.

Well yesterday I won a bet with a co-worker and we agreed I'd be paid in fresh veggies. Today she brought me tomatoes (the red and green kind) and cucumber. So I decided I'd try the delicacy known as fried green tomatoes. I just googled a recipe and clicked on the first one available. I have every single ingredient... and that's when I remembered the freaky dream I had long ago.

I'm totally freaked out right now.

Good news! Free, unsecured internet is back! Just when I was beginning to get used to the one spot on the couch with the low signal. I do love our couch. I'm actually sitting in the spot right now.

Tonights revelation: I love music. I'm somewhat of a music snob. I am slighty ashamed to admit that I do judge those people who only listen to the top 40 radio station. I only say that I'm ashamed because its wrong to judge. However, if there was anyone to judge it would be those people who can't look beyond the top 40. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing all top 40 songs and/or radio stations everywhere. I am merely bashing those people who don't look past it to the other great music out there.

In my office environment I am subjected to the top 40 radio station all day, everyday. I pretty much hate every song they play now. Every one. Except for today they did play the big butt song and you just can't hate that one. Anyways, the work radio often leaves me angry and depressed, but every once in a while I am reminded just how much I love love love music.

These revelations never occur while listening to the work radio -- well maybe occasionally when I'm trying to ignore it and listen to my quietly playing music at my computer. I made a bold move several months ago and brought my own computer speakers for my work computer. Only a couple of the co-workers have speakers. I believe my computer speaker purchase occurred after I was facing a major mental breakdown due to work radio induced stress. (I'm not making this up, it really really really bugs me!) Almost every day I turn my speakers on and down and listen to something that isn't, wasn't, and maybe never be on the Top 40. It refreshes me and keeps me calm. I keep it low so only I can hear it when I'm at desk close to the screen and speakers. I consider this respectful of the open environment I work in. My music makes me feel better most of the time, but I can still hear the work music over my own most of the time, which sucks.

Back to music, the iPod is pretty much my favorite invention ever. It might even top the internet and computers, even though I know one can't exist without the other. I would die without my iPod. It holds my music collection, and its not just a music collection though, its an insight into my life and taste. Its my sedative. It gets me excited about a fun night on the town or relaxes me after an bad day at the office. Its my companion when I'm alone. It was my entertainment.

I didn't mean for this post to become about the work radio or a love song to my iPod. My main point is that I had one of those revelations tonight about how much I love music and what it means to me.

Music is to me what movies at to the Baddass. He went to see the Dark Knight today alone on his day off because I've been dragging my feet to see it. Its okay though, I'm glad he went without me, it just makes the odds better for us seeing Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 in the drive in.

This is the air I breathe

Being a child of Generation Y (I think that's what I am) the internet is pretty much my oxygen. I need it to breathe. Without it is like being lost in the woods with no compass. Its almost unthinkable. However, I have found myself lost in the woods more than I care to talk about lately.

You see, we've had a nice neighbor with an excellent unsecured wireless signal. We've enjoyed it immensely. I might have given up on this living alone and married business and moved right back home to where the internet was as stable as Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood. But earlier this week, our world's air has taken a different shift. Our once excellent source became secured. Damn Comcast.

While sitting on the couch playing Solitaire (I'm attached to my computer at the lap and if I don't have the internet I've got to do something with it, plus its very addictive) when I got a low unsecured signal. Never in my life have I been so excited to see a low signal. And even though its super slow and reminds me of my early days with Internet - oh dial-up, how you teased me. I still, sometimes, get to breathe normal air.

Won't You Be My Neighbor

The Baddass and I live in the coolest place ever. No seriously, it is the coolest place to live in the city. There are so many awesome aspects to our home that I'm not even going to discuss it in this post. But the one negative thing about our abode is our neighbor. Technically we have 3 the way our condos are arranged. We never hear two of them, but the other... that's a different story.

He's one of those people that is loud, he has a loud voice. But he also makes a habit of yelling obscenities. Usually its just random curse words (the f one is his favorite). But every once in a while it gets out of hand.

The neighbor on his other side has told us stories about how loud he can get and one time he came over to tell him to be quiet and a knife was pulled out. We can testify to the facts of this story, but it wouldn't surprise us.

Tonight he was being louder than we've heard yet. We think something might have broken, but he f-in hates someone, we're just not sure if its his cat, the other neighbors, a ghost, or a figment of his imagination. He proceeds to yell for several minutes. Then we hear a pounding on metal outside. We paused what we were doing, looked at each other, then thoughts of cars pop into our heads and we run to door window to make sure he's not beating up our car. He's not. But we're still curious as to what the heck he's doing.

So in Rear Window style we turn off all the lights, go to our bonus space upstairs, climb on the chairs, and look out the window. He has gone into the trash area with a broom and was beating at something. He then went back to his condo. The cat has escaped and is sitting in the middle of the parking lot watching us watch him. Then he proceeds to drag something out of his condo. We can't see it, but we hear it. Whatever he is dragging he doesn't take it to the trash can. He goes back to the trash can area and closes the metal door that encloses the trash cans and then pounds on the door. Then he walks back to his condo mumbling something, obscenties probably.

Thus ends the mysterious behavior. He's quieter now, he's only yelled his favorite word once since the metal banging. Hmmm... crazy behavior. And not the funny crazy, but the I-wonder-where-we-can-stay-tonight-if-this-keeps-up.

Oh well, I guess its just part of living in Midtown.

Newlywed Food

So The Baddass and I like to make our own pizzas. This is a very creative process which usually involves left overs and sometimes a frozen pizza which we just add with my delicious things. I'm not really sure how this came about. I think it was his idea. You see, my husband doesn't like to follow recipes. He just finds what he has and just does something with it. Which I guess is pretty good since we're on a budget (or something like that). Anyways, last night we made one of our best ones yet, we call it: The Steak, Asparagus, & Corn Lover's Pizza.
Here it is before the cheese. I artfully placed the steak and aspargus as The Baddass chopped away. I should have added more corn in hindsight. It was just a whim as we were cutting to add the corn. We had never experimented with a corn pizza yet, but after consuming it, we would recommend corn pizza.

Baking... I thought the heating element added an artsy touch to it, don't ya think?

The Baddass and our concoction. I did not get his permission to post this picture, oh well.

Oh, you should go out and buy this IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!!!

The Baddass is a little annoyed by my deep love for this product. I make noises that make him jealous when I eat this cheese..... Okay, I'll stop there.

Lately I've been listening to a lot of NPR and public radio, especially on the weekends. I would have laughed at the idea of myself listening voluntarily to public radio a few years ago, maybe even as little as one year ago. But I've been captured by it. I feel like I am learning something as I am in the car listening to the talk shows and news programs. I have something to talk about.

For instance, what do you think about the new bill Congress passed this week allowing telephone companies and whoever else to listen to our phone conversations at will?

This afternoon I was listening to parts of an episode of Speaking of Faith where the host talked to a writer who wrote a book, Animal, Mineral, Miracle. They were discussing food culture. The author said that some people help the planet by not eating meat, she stopped eating bananas to do her part. I laughed at first, but she has a point. Bananas are very hard to transport and come from far away lands (can you tell I really researched this? Really I just discussed it with my husband who heard a NPR story regarding the sensitivity and future extinction of bananas). Her part to help in this global crisis is to eat only locally grown foods. She also discussed the mindset of Americans and eating. Americans, including myself, often think preparing a meal at home is so time consuming. Think of all the new recipes, cookbooks, even cooking shows that are focused on the least amount of time it takes to prepare a meal. We lead busy lives, we come home and need to prepare a meal, feed the family, when all we really want to do is veg out on the couch in front of the boob tube. Hello! TV dinners! There is a whole genre of food created because of this mindset. The author of the book was saying that if we only thought of meal preparation as entertainment, something to do together with the family, of creating something beautiful and delicious, it wouldn't seem so much like a chore.

So I think I'm going to change my thinking on this whole meal food thing, which might even have bigger effects on the why I think about food in general. I often feel guity when eating food, wondering how it will impact how my clothes fit me and my size. When really, if I'm eating fresh locally grown food, prepared in a delicious way, why should I felt guilty? God meant for us to enjoy food and enjoy his creation. This is a whole new outlook.

Tree Rat Victory

{Pretend this post was not published mintues after the previous one}

I must admit my defeat. I should have followed the advice of wiser ones who suggested Seven dust and other methods of preventing something as terrible as this happening yet again. However, I was unwilling to shell out money to stop this pesky rodent.

This is what happened while I was at work today.

See that little round thing down there. About 8 - 9 feet away from where I last saw it this morning?

Yes, that was my last tomato.

Its okay, its natural to be frightened and upset after such an event as this.

Well, Tree Rat, maybe we'll meet again.

The Tree Rat Strikes Again

This actually occured a few days ago, but I've been too tramatized to post it. I've been in denial that a tree rat can reak this much havoc in my life. How!? Why?! These are the questions I keep asking myself.

The other day I left my house and there were two tomatoes riping perfectly. One of them was just showing the first signs of changing colors. My heart was happy. Freshly grown tomatoes from my own porch, how cute!

However, when I returned home that same evening, this is what I discovered. (The pictures aren't the best becuase I'm not a professional photographer, and oh yeah, it was pouring down rain)

Be careful of the tree rats, they are developing enough skills to remove the tomato from the vine and move it a few feet.

Getting married changes things. This might be an obvious statement, but it takes a little while to realize its full effects. For instance, not so long ago I was a fashionista. I was pretty hot, co-workers declared me avant guarde, if thats not cool, I don't know what is. I went to the newest resturants. I had no place to decorate and could care less about home furnishings and especially anything related to the kitchen.

Now, two and a half months after marriage things are very different. I haven't put energy into my closet in a while, which means I'm left with that, "I have nothing to wear and I hate all this crap" feeling daily. Don't get me wrong, I still have cute things, remants of yester-year, but its just not the priority it once was. This deeply saddens me. Fashion and clothes was what defined me as a person. I was the stylish one of my friends. People I hadn't even met yet knew me as this way and had nicknames for me (still wondering if thats good or bad).

In the past three months I've spent more money on things for my apartment and kitchen than I have clothes and shoes. I can't put my finger on the moment when my priorities changed from the closet to the rest of the house? My best guess was when we found the uber cool apartment and I felt the urge to make the inside just as cool as the whole building. (Apartment/Building post to come later)

And now I spend time instead of looking at fashion week photos looking for simple, delicious recipes. My collection has grown by amazing amounts in just a few short months. The jury is still up on whether I actually enjoy cooking.

I do, however, enjoy the life I'm living with my husband. We do have a super cool apartment in an area that I love. I don't mind cooking as long as its something I'm excited about trying. Really my goal in the kitchen and recipe search is what is the easiest to prepare, yet the most delicious? And I love my home that I'm making. Its still definately a work in progress (which means: still more money yet to be spent on decorative objects and projects), but its home.

I have outdone myself.

Pests

Some thing ate two of my tomatoes.

I have been waiting patiently for my tomatoes to rippen. And this is what I came home to. I was so excited to bake some tomatoes tonight for my dinner. Its one of my all time favorite dishes. But alas, I only have one teeny tiny tomatoe now. At least my pest gave me that.

I had the realization today that my secret fantasy of marrying George Clooney can now never ever in a thousand years (unless my husband dies) come true. Sigh, lets take a moment of silence to honor this dying dream.




Thank you. Now I have to go fix dinner for my husband's family.

Do you ever feel like you are the Cinderella of something. I felt like that today at work.

 

Cinderelle... Cinderelle...

My husband does not like Harry Potter. Its one (of the very few) things that bug me about him. I can some what understand where he is coming from. I don't like Lord of the Rings (I don't want to talk about it!). But Harry Potter!  I could get lost in the books for weeks. I want to live in them.

 

Don't you love and hate the feeling of loving a good book. How you don't want it to end and how you just want to be a part of it. But I guess it becomes part of you in the end. I love love love reading a good book. But I hate when it ends. The last book I felt like that was the Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs. I read most of it during my tour of service in jury duty and recently finished it on a car ride. The Baddass didn't know what to do with me when I was a bundle of emotions as I finished the book. It was the only time he'd seen me get teary eyed besides when he proposed.

 

I've been reduced to watching Harry Potter when the Baddass goes for his late long runs on Sunday evenings. So here I am, home alone in my jamies watching Harry get out of jams and uploading pictures and uploading this thing.

First Post

I hate starting a new blog, mainly because you have to set it up and come up with a catchy title, as well as a first post that isn't too "first post-y".

{Long Pause: I forgot I had laundry to fold/hang upstairs, damnit}

So I guess I should tell you a little bit about myself. I'm a recent college graduate, even more recent newlywed. I have a job which I may/maynot talk about (okay, probably more likely than not I'll be talking about my job - I'll try not to get myself fired for it). I like in THE most awesome apartment ever with my loving husband, who we'll refer to for privacy sake (but which I'll end up forgetting to do more than half the time), the Baddass. It is spelled that way for a reason, and its not cursing if its the truth. I don't mean in the goat way, he's an all around bad ass and I love him for it.

I don't want to reveal too much for now, because what would that leave us to talk about later on?