What I Came Home To

Those things on the floor used to be on the top of the cage, as was the comforter, which has been pulled through the holes

I think he's realizing now that what he did probably wasn't good

Hangs his head in shame

My Jake Incarcerated

Sweet Irony: A Follow-Up

The Bon Jovi concert was last night and I decided not to go. I had a few friends volunteer to be my plus-one, but I just could not justify driving up, missing work, staying at a hotel, etc. I tallied it up and it would have cost over a hunderd dollars to see Bon Jovi, and even if they were playing in town, I figured I would not spend that on a ticket. Most of all, I hate being away from Chris.

Last evening Chris and I were driving over to Target* and we were discussing how funny it was that he didn't want to go to the Bon Jovi concert because he had all this homework, yet we had time to go to Target. I know, it's not the same, but I needed to get my point across, albeit wrong. He did, however say how much he wanted to go see Wilco in Richmond, but it was sold out. This morning, I, being the most loving and dedicated wife in the world, set out to find him Wilco tickets no matter what the cost. But much to my chagrin, like Bon Jovi, the concert was last night.

*We went to Target to get Jake some toys. Because of the storm and his separation anxiety, he chewed everything in his cage. His pillow, the towel, his old tent (which was outside of his cage, believe it or not), but he didn't chew any of his toys, because they're not really chewable. Out of our $35 bill from Target, we spent $28 on chewable dog stuff. Here's hoping it works. Otherwise he's going to have to go to doggie day care.

Another busy weekend

Friday night I convinced Chris to take me out to dinner and a movie even though Chris hates going to the movies and we are both exhausted Fridays. I have to remind myself that Chris commutes two hours every day, five days a week, 10 hours total. I commute 30 minutes 5 days a week, two and a half hours a week. No matter how tired I am, he is way more tired. I did a school day with him once and I was wiped out dirty style. Anyway, I was able to sneak in a 30 minute nap before he got home, and I decided that I wanted Pad Thai and Hot Tub Time Machine. Chris is a champ, so off we went. We got to New Town and saw that the movie plays only twice, at 7:15 and at 9:45. We looked at our cell phones. 7:25. Rats. We decided that a movie wasn't going to happen. Besides, we needed to buy milk afterward and nothing would be open after the movie. So our date night consisted of dinner at Ichiban and groceries at Bloom.

Saturday was a goregeous day, and I spent a great deal of the day doing my Sunday errands (see why later) while Chris pounded away at his equation sheet. We were just about to head down to Newport News to run more errands when we got news from Margie that one of her cats needed to go to the pet Emergency (or Emergen-C if you're Sarah). We, being calm in the face of crisis, took Margie and Schmooy to the vet. In Newport News. Where I needed to go anyway. We spent some time reading magazines and watching Animal Planet and just in time for all the good stores to close, Schmooy was released. We grabbed the cat, paid the bill, tried to pry Margie from other peoples' cats and children and raced to Target to try to find the throw pillow I was interested in. It was too big and hard so I left it behind. Then Margie treated us to a very late dinner at the Silver Diner where we committed major gluttony and hogged the jukebox while the cat stayed in the car with the window cracked. I kept looking at the car just in case he broke out and stole the car, chasing after a bird or somthing stupid a cat would do. He was fine. He was just happy to be out on the town on a Saturday night. All of the other cats were pissed when he got back home.

Sunday was the grand opening of my day care for VCU Engineering students' toddlers between the ages of 2 and 3. With such strict guidelines this allows for only 2 kids at a time. Baby steps. Luckily I called for reinforocements early and convinced Margie (aka the Baby whisperer) to help out and bring crayons. Even more luckily the other baby's mom, Carey came along. So that's 3 adults and 2 kids. I didn't even have to be there, but it was fun. It was Carey's birthday, and she is 8 1/2 months' pregnant, so it was extra special. She only has like 3 more weeks to go, so every movement made me a little nervous. I didn't want any of that water goo breaking out on my new rug. But seriously, we got pizza, the kids watched those ridiculous Barbie movies and the Disney one too with the Princess and the Frog. I think it's called the Princess and the Frog. We colored, we picked flowers, we even watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall while the kids napped. It was fun, and after all was said and done, the students got their studying done and the partners got their visit on. Even after everyone left, Chris still had more work to do, so I cleaned up and we were in bed by 11 pm. And now we're back to Monday.

New Digs

I told Chris that for my birthday I wanted an office so that I could have a place to balance the budget, blog, write my correspondence, file our taxes, etc. We usually keep my laptop either on the kitchen counter or near the couch, which is convenient when trying to resolve disagreements (to google/wikipedia) but it felt very...I don't know, is "ghetto" the right word? He didn't really need to buy me anything other than shelves, just move some stuff around. Another problem that needed solving was Jake. Since we have been spoiling him, he has been regressing. He has been more destructive, and so we needed to bring out the big gun (his kennel) so as to reinforce boundaries, and protect our home. The room I decided to occupy has been many things, most recently a guest room with bunk beds. We've had the bunk beds for a few years now and they have only been used a hand full of times - so infrequently, that we haven't washed the sheets because they continue to be occupied by the same people, Abigail and Elizabeth. Since we don't need the beds, I figured Margie would love to have them now that Kate and Sarah are prime candidates for bunk beds. Since they will likely be the only ones to use them, she won't have to wash those sheets either. ;) So to recap, the new room will have a desk and shelves for my work, the kennel for Jake, and I will keep in there the elliptical and a yoga mat so that I can work on my Abs of Beer. The results are to my liking.

Another exciting thing to note is our new Cherry Blossom tree. We purchased two last year, and only one survived. She is blooming now, which makes me very giddy.

Once upon a time it was an office.

It was Chris' office, but look at Ramona! :)

Another time it was a guest room.

Now it's MY office.

I worked out, filed taxes and filled out the Census Sunday.

Our new tree.

Proud papa.

33

So the day after we came back from SPRING BREAK 2010 I turned 33. We slept in so late and Chris took me to lunch at the Baker's Crust, then to TJ Maxx to look for stuff for the house that we wanted to update. Instead, I found some really cute shoes! Nothing for the house. I did, however, run into Amber there who was shopping for a birthday present for me. Funny. I just gave her one of the cute pair of flip flops I had selected. Chris and I ran a few more errands then got some food to grill and invited some folks over. We had Christopher and Corbett, Jason and Amber and Margie. It was to be a quiet affair since it was a weekday and all. Actually the only people that had to get up early the next day were Jason and Christopher. So lots of beer was consumed. None by me. Then we all did shots of Jäger, which is a staple at our house for celebrations. At one point after dinner, someone handed me a piece of cake. Immediately I shot up and demanded to know why I was being given cake without anyone singing "Happy Birthday". I took the peice of cake off the plate and returned it to its original place and made everyone sing to me with candles and everything. It was kind of funny.

MIA

My brother complains from time to time. The latest complaint is that I haven't blogged in a while. But I have an excuse. I've been MIA. Literally. I've been in Miami.

Chris and I joke around that sex is for poor people. We must be right, because since this recession hit I've been doing nothing but shopping for babies and going to baby showers. The latest victims of the recession are my brother Joey and sister-in-law Patty, and my old friends Ornit and Jordan (well, they're not that old). They are both expecting girls this summer (May/June), and both decided to have their baby showers in March. Two weekends ago was Patty's shower. It was a quick visit and for Miami the weather was very cold and windy. I flew down alone on Friday morning and came back on Sunday afternoon. It was a whirlwind of commuting, unpacking, shopping, mani/pedi, wrapping, primping, baby-showering, packing, and back at the airport. Patty had a beautiful shower at her family home in Kendall with killer food and games. I won both and got to take home prizes, which made me happy because I was tired and cranky. We snuck out had dinner at Joey's house with the family. Chris picked me up at the airport on Sunday and all I remember is crashing out on the guest room bed. I know I worked the following week, but I have no memory of it.

Patty & Me

Last Friday Chris joined me on my second trip to Miami, since he was on Spring Break (woo-h00!). This time we both stayed with Joey and Patty while they still have guest room furniture. This will soon be swapped out for nursery furniture. We had pretty much the worst flight ever coming in because we flew into Ft. Lauderdale and were expecting Ornit to pick us up with Lauren. It was a turbulent flight due to bad weather in FLL. We circled for 30 minutes before stopping in MIA to refuel. This was particular frustrating to us because Miami was our intended destination. We were not allowed off the plane, yet we could see Cory's office from our window. Three hours later we departed MIA for our 8 minute flight to FLL. Then we waited another 30 minutes for a gate. We were starved and exhausted. We had a meal with our friends then rented a car and drove down to Miami. Sunday was the baby shower in Delray Beach (almost 2 hours north of Miami), which was nice, and I got to spend the day with Lauren, which was a big treat for me since I hadn't seen her in two years. When I got back to Miami from the baby shower I met Chris with his folks and we went to a show to see Klaus' new band, and Chris joined them onstage for a few Agency songs. It was a lot of fun to see old friends. We had a brilliant visit with the family and did some fun tourist stuff. Monday we drove down to Islamorada for lunch with mom and Joey and on Tuesday we went to the Historical Museum of Southern Florida to see the Crime in Miami exhibit. I wondered if they had anything from the time my car got broken into on South Beach in 2002 or when I got mugged in Coconut Grove by a hobo in 1998, but no such luck. Apparently they had a lot on the Cocaine Wars in the 80's and another load of stuff on prohibition-era crimes with Al Capone and such. I got two birthday parties while we were there, one from the Druekes and another from my folks and went to Fox's Lounge with Klaus. We came back home on Wednesday, and again we were delayed by the airline. Amber picked us up at the airport and took us home where we found Margie and Jake. While we had a smashing good time during our break, we were relieved to be back home. I'm only now beginning to unpack. I start work again tomorrow and I don't know if I have any more clean clothes.

So tired of being on Jetblue

View of J&P's pool from a chaise lounge

Lauren, Ornit and me

Pier in Islamorada

Mom and me in Islamorada