New Windows, Book Review, Lazy Weekend...

The windows are in, per my post last week, but I’m just a little late in getting completed pics up…sorry! (The interior pics aren't the best...but it's HARD taking pictures of clear glass, people!)

Before new windows:

Get out of here, skanky old windows!:

If I could just comment on the awesomeness of these windows – they are fantastic. I had become used to my bedroom sounding like I sleep in a tent, due to the fact that I sleep right next to the window and they acted as more of a wind shielding device and less of an actual ‘window,’ per se. But these new ones are like real deal windows…they keep out ALL the noise, ALL the bugs, ALL the burglars, and keep the house much cooler. Thank you, Window World! You can’t quite get the doors right, but by god you installed a fabulous window!

Also, last week, my book club met to discuss our August read, The Time Traveler’s Wife, and to see the movie. We met at The Grape at Phipps, had some wine and appetizers, and then headed over to see the flick. We were all pretty pumped because the book turned out to be really good! (I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 due to the randomness of some vulgarity in the book, but the love story was really sweet and there is a letter from Henry to Clare at the end of the book that made me cry…at a book…I cried.) Anywho, we bop on over and approach the window to buy our tickets and the lady says that they cancelled all showings because of projector problems. Huh? Isn’t this 2009? There wasn’t a quick fix for that? Like cancel one of the ‘Julie & Julia’ showings to show one ‘TTW’…and why are we still watching movies off of projectors? I had so many questions, clearly, so we called it a night and plan to see it this week.

Also, on Thursday, I went to see a movie, The Proposal, with Danielle and Mandy at the Fox. It was cute, typical romantic comedy, but I do love Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock. After you got used to the acoustics in the theater, it turned out to be a pretty cool experience…thanks, D, for the invite!

As for the weekend, we didn’t do much…which was awesome. On Friday night, we went to Ri-Ra, a new Irish bar in Midtown, with some friends. It was so packed! AND, there were mostly girl bartenders so we had NO pull on the drink-getting abilities…it took like 15 minutes to get a drink! We hung out there for a while and then headed home.

Saturday was movie day. Shane got up and cooked breakfast, he’s so sweet :), and then we preceded to do absolutely nothing but watch movies.

Sunday was cleaning day and we got all of the blinds put back up in the house. We also hung some curtains in the master, so I’ll share pics tomorrow.

Shane played tennis last night, they lost and were accused of being sandbaggers. Shane also patented a new move – when you missed the ball, you make a full lap around your side of the court dragging your racquet along every surface. That man is going to make us rich one day with his moves…

Hope everyone has a great week – and it’s a short one! Also, we’ll do goals tomorrow - prepare yourself.

What's Behind Door #1?

Not the doors that I ordered!!!

They brought the wrong doors...we wanted doors that were full lights with no grids, and they brought full lights with grids. No ma'am. So, the windows are being installed...more to come on the doors!

Window Before (with a weird ghostly shadow on the right...creepy):

Window After (or During, rather):

New Windows Going in Tomorrow...

Say Adios to the cranking windows and mismatched doors...

Weekend Update

What up?! An update on Monday – woo hoo! How was everyone’s weekend? Ours was supposed to be really relaxing, and it was to a point, but we did manage to pull a late-nighter on Saturday night…

Friday: Dinner at Dad and Greta’s place…enjoyed some pizza and a heated game of Scrabble. We

had the Webster’s and Scrabble dictionary out, and some pretty hard core rules about challenging words. BUT – when my mom comes with words like ‘squirms’ and ‘Elks,’ I’m going to have to call her on it. Greta’s son, Justin, was the winner and I wound up with second place (first loser.) We left around 11 and headed home…

Saturday: Yard work. Ugh. I. Loathe. Yard. Work. About four months ago, you may recall, I ordered pine straw, fill dirt and river rock. Well, the river rock was laid…the rest was just sitting in the driveway – for four months. Yes, we are THOSE neighbors.

But, finally, we made some progress this weekend. We moved all of the crumbled rock from the slab that we jack hammered (what, like 2 months ago? Geez.), shoveled about 10 to 12 loads of fill dirt to fill the hole that was left by the concrete, and tried to clean up the driveway a little. Do you know what happens when you let fill dirt sit in the elements for four months? Well, it gets rained on, gets ants in it, gets really heavy, gets clumpy, and becomes a huge muddy mess. Word to the wise: Don’t ever order fill dirt…for anything.

Before:

After:
Damn dirt:Saturday night we went to the Braves game and hung in the suite, compliments of Manny and Debbie! It was very nice, and it’s always a plus when you are drinking and have a bathroom within 20 paces. After the game, we get a wild hair to meet a friend at Vintage Tavern. Five shots later, I am being ALL KINDS of verbally inappropriate – the details of which I will not share. Let’s just say that I’m lucky I wasn’t slapped, right there on the spot. Wow. We left VT and then headed to Waffle House, because I enjoy watching my waistline expand, and then decided we’d pop on over and visit a friend that lives near us…at 3:45 a.m. We were all so confused as to why he was asleep, and then noticed as we were leaving that it was nearly 4 in the AM. Wow again.

Sunday: Hungover. Shane and David had a tennis match on Sunday, so I scooped my worthless butt off the couch, showered and went to watch them play in Dunwoody. They lost, but the highlight was Shane trying to hit the ball backwards. As in he was facing opposite the net and tried to hit the ball behind him. It was out, and David’s response was ‘Dude – what do you think this is?!? Horse?!” Hilarious. We grocery shopped, came home, watched a movie and passed out at 8.
It was a good weekend, and we are now looking forward to our windows and doors being installed on Wednesday! Hopefully for real this time…rain or shine.

Funny Thoughts...Long, But Funny

I know this email has been going around, and probably reached everybody by now, but I just think it's hilarious! Happy Friday!

• I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.


• More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.


• Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.


• I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?


• Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.


• That's enough, Nickelback.


• I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.


• The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase "Regards" again.


• Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.


• There is a great need for sarcasm font.


• Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f ** was going on when I first saw it.


• I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.


• The other night I hit a new low at an open bar. I had already hopped on highway blackout when, inevitably I had to find a bathroom. Eventually I decided it was probably on the other side of the bar so I tried to walk over there, but ran into a guy coming the other way. We played that, Both go left, Both go right game to no avail, so I finally put out my hand to guide myself past and that's is when I realized, yup, that's a mirror I just tried to walk through. And the guy on the other side is me. Even cats can re cognize their own image.


• How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?


• I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.


• I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.


• The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text.


• A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.


• Was learning cursive really necessary?


• Lol has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".


• I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.


• Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.


• My brother's Municipal League baseball team is named the Stepdads. Seeing as none of the guys on the team are actual stepdads, I inquired about the name. He explained, "Cuz we beat you, and you hate us." Classy, bro.


• Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".


• How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?


• I love the sense of camaraderie when a n entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!


• Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"


• What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?


• While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.


• MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.


• Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.


• I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.


• Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.


• I would like to officially coin the phrase 'catching the swine flu' to be used as a way to make fun of a friend for hooking up with an overweight woman. Example: "Dave caught the swine flu last night."


• I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.


• Bad decisions make good stories.


• Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!


• Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?


• If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.


• Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....


• You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.


• Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.


• There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.


• I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.


• "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.


• I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'


• While watching the Olympics, I find myself cheering equally for China and USA. No, I am not of Chinese descent, but I am fairly certain that when Chinese athletes don't win, they are executed.


• I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damnit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?


• I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.


• When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.


• I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.


• Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...


• As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.


• Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.


• It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.


• I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.


• I think that if, years down the road when I'm trying to have a kid, I find out that I'm sterile, most of my disappointment will stem from the fact that I was not aware of my condition in college.


• Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.


• Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...


• My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?


• It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.


• I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.


• I think the freezer deserves a light as well.


• I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.


• The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimate d that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.

Wowza.

It’s Thursday…dang. So what’s been up since, well, this time last week?

Our weekend was jam-packed full of fun, food, drinking and more drinking! Friday night was Kelly’s husband, Austin’s, birthday so we celebrated with them at East Andrews Upstairs. We had a great time, met lots of new peeps and as if I have to say it…drank too much.

Kel and Austin (the b-day boy!) - hilarious!:

Saturday, we were pretty much worthless, but had a BBQ to go to that evening. We managed to pick ourselves up off the couch, get ready and head to Alpharetta for an end of summer BBQ. We had a really good time, again met some new peeps, and I ate this killer bacon-wrapped, cheese-stuffed, grilled jalapeno…I had to restrain myself from having seven.

Sunday, I was up and at ‘em pretty early for my friend, Christen’s, baby shower. It was at my other friend, Gretchen’s, house which is a good 50 minutes away from my house. So although the shower started at 12 – I left my house at 10. You never know…The shower was really nice and Gretch did such a great job!

B for 'Bella':

Her cake:

Mommy-to-be Christen:After I left the shower, I popped by my mom’s to visit with my aunt, uncle and cousins that were in town from South Cackalackee (South Carolina). It was so good to see them outside of the holidays, and they are some of my most loyal blog readers so we had lots to chat about!

Monday, I was sick – so I took the day off. It was boring, and at about 11 I was starting to wish that I had just gone in. Why do I always feel the most sick after I get out of bed, start the shower and begin to contemplate my day?

This week has been busy…Shane played tennis on Tuesday and plays again tonight, I’ve been working out a lot, and making up for workouts, work, etc. that I missed on Monday. So needless to say, I’m pretty psyched about this weekend…which is a weekend of relaxation. Well, not really because Shane and I plan to do yard work. I mean, we have just reached a point where it’s like ‘We aren’t going to pay anybody; one of our nice neighbors isn’t just going to pop by and do it for us, so let’s just get it done.” So that’s that…we’ll see!

How has everyone else’s week been? Busy? Why does it seem like this summer is completely flying by? Hmmm….

August Goal #3

I finally made some jewelry! Is it my best work? Probably not, but I haven’t done it in so long that I figured I would ease into it…

Forewarning - the pics aren't high quality, but you get the point!

Exhibit #1: Sterling silver, wire-wrapped Blue Agate

Exhibit #2: Don’t know the stones, not my best work, and to be honest it has to be redone. (Why don’t I just know how to lie?!?!) I have never made a bracelet before, so I didn’t take into account the length of the clasp, making it too big.
Now that I’m back in the beading biz (after making two items :)), I plan to start making stuff that is a little more complex than basic stringing. I have a special project that I plan to start this weekend…stay tuned!

Weekend Update

Happy Tuesday! Hope everyone is getting this week started ri-zight. Here’s the recap:

Friday: So, I had a work off-site at 3:30 at Ship and Anchor in Dunwoody. We were reviewing a presentation for the following week, today actually, and thought that a bar would be the best place to do so. I had every intention of reviewing my slides, having one drink and then going to the gym. Ummm…two martinis, one car bomb and a Miller Lite later…along with an email to Shane at 8:15 saying that I’m leaving in a ‘bit’….at 10:45 – I was home. Oops.

Saturday: Shane and I had a very important ‘appointment’ on Saturday morning (speculate if you will) and then were house/dog sitting for his parents. We ran home, picked up the boys, and then headed to Acworth for the night. We hung out at the pool and took it easy…

Sunday: More pool and taking it easy…

I can tell that this week is going to fly by, thank gawd, and we have a jam packed weekend: Friday night birthday party at East Andrews, Saturday beer tasting and end of summer BBQ, and a Sunday baby shower. Shew.

No house updates, or window/door updates, but here is a pic of my mom’s new guest bedroom bedding (compliments of Ikea, and my design expertise, of course. Love you mom! :))
And a little funny for the rest of the week:

July Goals

The good thing about not accomplishing goals, and having to constantly move them to the next month, is that it gives you time to really analyze what you are trying to do. Thanks to my inability to accomplish some of these tasks – I have actually decided that I want to leave some things the way they are or have just decided that I don’t feel like messing with them right now…and when I say ‘now, I mean in 2009. So, let’s see how July panned out…

1. Paint front door
2. Paint kitchen and bathroom ceilings
3. Paint master bath and shower room
4. Get bamboo shade for the kitchen (DONE)
5. Sign up for 401K
6. Figure out Breck medical bills
7. Make 1 new piece of jewelry
8. Finish landscaping backyard (moving concrete pad, pinestraw, grass seed)
9. Read two books (DONE – Chasing the Dime and Blindsighted)
10. Have new windows/doors installed (Not my fault…rescheduled for August)

So, when I say that I have re-evaluated, this is what I mean:

1. Paint front door – I wanted to paint the front door black. But after careful analysis of my front yard, and the lack of ‘landscaping personality,’ I need something to stand out and be lively. So I’m still painting it…just another shade of red. And I will apply enough coats to not be able to see brushstrokes and will paint the yellowy pieces in the glass (current issues with existing door)…who doesn’t paint that? Or should I paint it? I don’t know…
2. Paint kitchen and bathroom ceilings – doing this just sucks and I keep putting it off. I’ll do it this month.
3. Paint master bath and shower room – I have a plan for these rooms, but we have just kicked into savings mode due to a vacation that we are planning to take in November…so I may wait until September or October for this one.
4. Get bamboo shade for the kitchen (DONE)
5. Sign up for 401K – Yeah…like I said – I’m saving for a vacation. No time to be throwing money towards my retirement. Besides, Obama will save the world and I’ll be able to live off of Social Security. *cough*
6. Figure out Breck medical bills – Saving – not paying stupid bills from 2007. Again, Obama.
7. Make 1 new piece of jewelry – I will do this in August. I have enough beads to string from here to China so I mine as well take advantage of a free project.
8. Finish landscaping backyard (moving concrete pad, pinestraw, grass seed) – I’ll have to write another post about how freakin’ bad this project sucks and how time consuming it is!
   Read two books (DONE – Chasing the Dime and Blindsighted) – Loved Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter! Thanks, Kel, for introducing it to me and letting me borrow all of your books! So anxious to start reading the second book from this series…
9. Have new windows/doors installed – Not my fault. But these puppies are being installed in August! Or else.

August Goals:

1. Paint front door a deeper shade of red
2. Paint kitchen ceiling
3. Make 2 new pieces of jewelry
4. Finish landscaping backyard (moving concrete pad, pinestraw, grass seed)
5. Read two books
6. Have new windows/doors installed
7. Pay the water bill

Too da loo!

Weekend Update + 3 Other Days

I’ve been a little MIA the last few days…sorry ‘bout that. Let’s start with a funny story from last Thursday night/Friday morning. Warning: this is gross and not for the faint of heart.

Brother and Beau went outside to play on Thursday night. It wasn’t but a few minutes after they went out that Brother was sitting by the back door whining to come in…he never does that. I let him in and we notice that he is just running around the house frantically and will not sit down. Then we see two big welts on his back leg, and come to the assumption that he got stung while he was outside. I give him some Benadryl, he kind of passes out about 30 minutes later and it’s all good. We go to bed a couple of hours later and his welts weren’t as swollen but he was really groggy.

Fast forward to 3 a.m. on Friday morning – we hear Brother walking around the bedroom. Shane gets up and puts him back in bed, but Brother is up and walking around again at around 4 a.m….then 5:30 a.m….and again at 6:15 a.m. But the last time was a little different. He was sitting by the bedroom door, and Shane told him to get back in his bed. A few seconds later, we hear what sounds like a dog cough. ‘Shit, Shane – he just threw up.’ ‘What?!?’ We get up, turn on the lights, and see what I am still thinking is throw up. I tell Shane that I am going to go get the paper towels and cleaner, and he says ‘I don’t know…I don’t think this is throw up. I think it’s shit.’ Then I get a nice big whiff of the diaherra that is splattered all over my bedroom floor. We let Brother out, and I go get the cleaner, a towel to ‘bandit-wrap’ my face in, and come back to the bedroom. There is poop on my sheets, bedskirt and rug by the door – but Brother had his accident across the room by the bathroom??? Long story short, his ass exploded in front of an industrial fan that sits on a chair in my room. It blew it across the room, as well as splattering in a good 3x3 square in my room. We spray odor eliminator on it first, just to be able to manage the smell, but that resulted in Febreeze scented poop. And to further communicate the magnitude of the situation, I not only had to clean the floors, but I had to wipe down the walls people! Finally, one roll of paper towels and 30 minutes later, we have it cleaned up. What a lovely way to start the day!

Friday – Besides cleaning up poop for a half hour that morning, me and Shane, and our friends Alan, Lindsey, Jamie and Audrey went to the Darius Rucker/Rascal Flatts concert at Lakewood that night! We had a great time and it was a great concert!

Group shot:

Saturday – We slept in, like really slept in, and then ate lunch and headed to Ikea with my mom to help her pick out bedding for her new guest bedroom. We are planning to go over there this weekend and help her set up, so stay tuned for pics! Saturday night, we made our way up to Woodstock to celebrate Danielle’s b-day (Happy Birthday, D!) and see her new house…so cute!

Sunday – Shane played tennis, as he is preparing to be the next Andy Roddick so he plays at least five times per week, and I did the usual…grocery shopping, cleaning, some work, blah.

And an update on the windows, they should be installed in the next week or so. After we got our initial quote from Window World, we called someone else who quoted us a price that was about $600 cheaper than WW. I contacted the WW rep, since his guarantee is to match the price and double the difference, and sent him over the new quote. Turns out that the other guy quoted me for windows that were much smaller, and that basically wouldn’t fit in my house, but WW is still matching their price! So while they pissed me off by not installing as planned, they have redeemed themselves by cutting my costs!

Also, I know it’s goal time…we’ll assess tomorrow.