Horray for cherrries!

This fell out of the tree in my backyard.

I think it is beautiful. Nature makes the best art!

I ate it, and all was well.

TGIF

Some times the best days off are the ones filled with your favorite people and their dogs.

Kevin’s brother in law, Tim, turns 25 this weekend. Desirae planned a dy trip for them to go to the zoo. (they live in Olympia, so Seattle is more of a day trip for them.) She called and asked about parking and Kevin invited them for dinner. And then Martin, Chris, Arwen and all their dogs all got invited. Kevin then told Desirae to spend the night and bring the dogs. 7 people, 7 dogs!

Pizza have been bought, lettuce has been chopped, a cake is being made. Uno and croquet will be played. Led Zepplin will be heard. Drinks will be had, and we even have juice for the pregnant Arwen.

I’m so in love with living in a house with a back yard.

Peace, I love the word peace.

I’m having one of those moments. The one that goes something like “aaahh, I’m at peace with myself.”

I had my annual review at work last week. All I can say is “hell yes!” Basically my boss said I’m a great staff member with the most cross training in our store. She also wants to see me be more confidant in what I know. Hey, I can totally do that! She also is really pushing me to learn more about beer and wine. Hey, I’m getting my pouring license today! Oh, and I got the whole talk less to distract other staff members less, again. Even thought I’m professionally trained as a massage therapist, I love that I’m working where I’m working. I think if anyone will help me get ahead in the company, it will be my current boss. I’m very happy that she is at my location and I hope she stays. I also feel pretty awesome that I can’t really think of anything bad to say about the company I work for, even after almost 7 years. I love what we do, stand for, and how much we are involved in the communities we are in.

I also feel like I have my money under control. Getting my tax return helped with this. I paid extra on my credit cards. I’m using Microsoft money to help me organize my bills. I finally have just one student loan to pay off, I’ve already paid off three.

My goal for the next few months is to stay on track with Weight Watchers and not lose and gain the same 5 pounds over and over. I’m so close to being under 200. I haven’t been under 200 since 2002 or late 2001. I’m finally back to where I can say, I gained a crap load of weight on Paxil but I’ve lost 50lb of it. I feel like my goal of 155 is so far off, but I’m very “eyes on the prize” right now. I’m going to Napa this summer and I want to wear little sun dresses!! I’m thinking about getting a tattoo of my highest weight on my ribcage as a reminder of how far I’m come and where I never want to go back to.

I also want to start looking more polished. I feel that being fatter has always given me an excuse to not look good, things never fit right! (as I say this I’m lounging in sweats and a Hanes tee) I actually know a thing or two about style, I just have been larger and poorer than I am at the moment. I’ve already invested in a beautiful pair of boots. (boots first because I’ll always be a size 9, no matter how big my ass is) I’m ready to invest in staples, and staples are where its at! Invest in the classic pieces that will look great in 5 years. And with the way the economy is going, why would you want to invest in trendy anything?

And lastly, I can’t wait for Kevin and I to be able to buy a house. I love the little house we are in now. We both have offices. We don’t have to commute to work. We have a yard with lots of potential. I really hope we can buy this house.

gravity, it works.

Earlier week, I took a bubble bath in the normal main floor bathroom. Later that night I went to the basement to get something out of the dryer. There was almost 2 inches of water on the tile floor.

Who? What? Where? Why?

The basement is finished and everything is drywall. Drywall is nice and way fancy compared to some nasty basement ceiling but it also makes the pipes and drain inaccessible.

We call the landlord and he says it will be fixed soon. Hmm. So, 5 days later with a holiday in the middle… it is still in the process of being fixed. The drain pipes were replaced but a gasket seems to have been lost in the process and not replaced. Emptying a bathtub and having all that water rushing out at once makes a nice mess without the gasket. It seems that it mostly went between the wall and the foundation and came out at the low point in the floor.

At the moment it looks like so:

and this:

and this:

This goes to show that flipping any house, let it be one you got cheaply or one that you own and no longer want, isn’t a good idea. Cheapest bidder is not the best contractor… unless you’re getting a great friend or family discount. And seriously kids, a nice drain in the basement for random flood issues would be awesome.

Dear dog-

Abigail aka dog-

Yes, that was the furnace that turned off… thank you for barking. If you really feel that someone might be entering the house, jump off the bed and go look. Dummy. I know you are still a little unsure about this new little house but yeah… sitting on the bed and barking isn’t nearly as effective as you think. But, I’m glad that our bed has become your safe spot. You’re so cute and a pretty good dog, way to be. In a bit we’ll go get coffee and I’ll make sure the lady gives you a biscuit or 2.

xoxox

-J

Hot damn!

The element in the hot water heat was replaced… I wish I had a picture of the old one, but sadly I don’t.

Hot water is on the way!

Happiness is on the way, too!

Horray for December First.

Hooray, November is finally over.  !!!

We’re finally moved into our house. It looks like our old apartment threw up into our 2 story house… random stuff is everywhere. We’ll put it all away soon, but it does feel nice not to be on a strict deadline. Um, if only I could find my razor to shave my legs… but I might need hot water for that.

The dog survived the move… she might tell you about her little panic episodes if she had a voice box, but she doesn’t. Today was the first time she was in the house alone, minus the drop in by the land lord and electrician… more on that in a moment. She did bark at me when I opened the front door, from the confines of our bed.

So about 3 weeks or so ago I told Kevin there was no hot water. He said it was probably turned down due to the house having been up for sale and having sat semi-vacant for years. I asked the land lord when I saw him 2 weeks ago and he said it was turned down and just not very hot. Yes, not very hot is similar to freezing cold but different in my book… So we finally are in and ready to live on Saturday. I worked super early on Saturday morning and all I really wanted was a hot shower. I’m also pretty awesome and bought a stall sized shower curtain and was going to settle for a bath. But wait! No hot water because no one ever turned up the hot water heater. After being turned up, there still was no hot water to speak of Sunday night. So today, being Monday, our land lord and his electrician were supposed to come early and fix it. I left for work at 9:30, early they did not come. Kevin later called to say it was ready to go and had been fixed. O rly? No, not really. I got home at 4:30 and turned on multiple facets and let them run for a few minutes, not moments and there is NO FUCKING HOT WATER. Hmm, how would you know it was fixed if you didn’t wait for the water to get hot? Hmm. But see this all would have been solved if people had listened to me when I mentioned this in the first place. Seriously, I’m not as dumb as some might perceive me as. I might not know about engines and cars and computers but I know when hot water isn’t hot. I like my baths and showers to be almost scalding. So, tonight might be shower at folk’s house, day 2? Geez.

If anything, today was a nice day. It started out foggy and the coffee was decent.

November is almost over?! WTF?

I love ending vacation with a cold. Who doesn’t? I gonna sit here with my Umcka cold sipping stuff and some Breath Deep tea. Um, I guess if I am fighting a cold I should be smart and put on socks.

Whistler was nice, as usual. My parents were my parents, as usual…. Going down the water slide in the family pool was more fun than I would have imagined. It snowed 2 days after we left and rained the whole time we were there. I like Canada. I wish I could take a week off every month.

Kevin’s sister and her husband are coming up this weekend. Her husband is going to help Kevin wire the whole house for cable and internets. Hopefully his sister and I can get a chance to go out and do some girly stuff like go window shopping. I’d be happy just to get out and drool over stores full of Christmas decorations.

I have 78 podcasts to listen to, I best get started on them!!

That Burt’s Bees lip balm than managed to get washed and dried… yeah it also managed not to ruin all of my clothes it was washed with!!! Score, we can’t afford to replace much of anything right about now.

Hurry up everything.

Some days, like yesterday, are best when ended with some Guns N’ Roses cranked up and 3/4 of a bottle of red wine. High class, I know.

Today is a day off! It sure is welcome. But, a day off isn’t nearly as fun when it happens to be the first day you are able to start moving. Blah. I’d much rather spend it drinking a few french presses of coffee, thanks.

So this new little house has some interesting things to note:

• new windows
• new furnace
• no garage but a carport
• no shed
• no garbage disposal
• some awesome glass door knobs
• a very ugly padded toilet seat with embroidered butterflies on the lid
• a yard that needs a lot of help
• hardwood floors upstairs
• a newly finished basement
• no dishwasher
• a very trashy house next door
• no fences on the side yards to keep our dog out of the street
• no mailbox
• no blinds
• overhead lights in the bedrooms!
• chain link fences

11 days left until vacation! I can has vacation?!?! Heck yes. I need to find a knitting project and a book to take with me. Um, I was just looking at the Whistler website and they said the valley temp was at 32F and the mid mountain temp was 46F? Oh really? Something tells me that is off. Come on snow, I’ll be there soon, hurry up and snow in the village!! Oh hey, and exchange rate, if you just want to keep rising, I’m down with that too. When I was in Victoria in August the exchange rate was pretty even, now it’s at $1.30?! Sweet.

As much as a love all the fun internets jargon, I feel pretty stupid typing it out.. Like “O RLY?”

Welcome new house…

Dear little house:
We get your keys on Friday! We can’t think about much else other than you becoming a part of our lives. (okay, total lie because at the moment my neck is out and all I can think about is that I can leave at 8:45 so I can be the first patient at my chiropractor.) The plan seems to be to move in and then in 6 months figure out how you can be ours for good. Yes, we’d like to be able to make you part of our family. It might be rough in the checkbook for a bit but, seriously it will be the best possible thing the two of us can do in our boring lives. I promise to eventually make your outsides as pretty as your insides. And we both promise to fill you up with the smells of great foods. And supply plenty of dogs and dog friends to run in your yard. Oh, and we’ll use your yard to help keep us fed. Can’t wait!!
-Us