What a weekend it was!

What a weekend, my friends. What a weekend.

Friday night we went to see The Gourds at the Bluebird Theater. They ROCK. They put on the best show. Definitely check them out if they're ever in your area...they're from Austin, TX and play alt-country/bluegrass/honkytonk. So fun to dance to!

At the show, I met the mayor. Twice. We were down on the floor in front of the stage and I remembered somewhere that The Gourds played at his wedding. So I tapped him on the shoulder (he was right next to me) and asked him--and I quote--"if the little bit of mayoral trivia were true." He seemed excited and impressed that I knew this factoid and told his wife, who was standing right next to him.

Right after the show outside of the venue, he said to me "what a great show huh?" and I grabbed his hand, shook it, and said in my best fundraiser voice "thanks so much for coming!" And he looked at me weird and goes "are you kidding me...of course!" I am SUCH a cheeseball.

After the show we went to the Berkeley Inn, this dive bar where I always seem to make a fool out of myself. Kevin even dubbed it "the bar where I inevitably embarrass myself." It's the truth...I am usually very inebriated whenever I am in there. This time, I broke my martini glass with my pool stick and invited the bartender to partake in some smoke with us (he didn't). Good thing...he was a yucky old wonker and he about caused a meltdown when I saw him stick his grubby hand into the olive jar for my martini olives. Sick! I guess I should know better than to order a martini at a dive bar anyway, right?

Saturday: uneventful. I took myself out to breakfast--alone--and napped on the couch watching back-to-back episodes of What Not to Wear. I then rose from my hangover slumber, cleaned some house, went out for Mexican with Kev, and watched the end of Season 3 of the Sopranos.

Yesterday I went for a relatively decent run (as opposed to Friday's poor excuse for a trot!) then went to a purse-making party! No sewing was involved, you basically just design how you want the purse to look and some gals in Oklahoma do all the stitching. I selected a super-cute vintage cowgirl pattern with brown embossed oil cloth and a 20's era floral patterned lining. Fun, but the new pursey set me back 85 buckaroos! I guess I'm paying for the fact that no one else will have my purse. And it is rather cute!

Of course, no purse party is complete without cocktails. Lots of cocktails. I was, naturally, the last one to leave the party (at almost 10 PM and the shindig started at 1!) and Kevin had to come get me. He is such a caring boyfriend to drive all the way to Lakewood just to fetch his drunk purse-making girlfriend. What a lush. Once home, I HAD to order a pizza. "I want a large mushroom, green pepper, and onion pizza." "We are out of mushrooms." "OK, I want a large mushroom..." "We are OUT of mushrooms." "Ok, ummmm just the peppers and onions then....and I want a salad too." Lord....OINK OINK!

I woke up at 2 am with horrible indigestion and couldn't fall back asleep until 4. That's what I get for scarfing down pizza at 10:30 PM. I also sucked down 3 glasses of water and a diet coke and laid there thinking up excuses as to why I was going to be late for work.

But, I made it, almost on time. Even retrieved my car beforehand. What a way to start a week....feeling chewed up and spit out from the weekend. But what a weekend it was!

Lucy's new blog.

The other day as I was blogging, Lucy approached me and placed her paw gently on my knee.

Her eyes said "Mama, what are you doing?"

"Well, stinky poops," I replied, "I am writing on my web page."

"Oh," she woofed. "That looks like fun!"

"It is, little muffin-eater."

"Can I do it too? I want to do it too, Mama!" Lucy pleaded with her sweet, melt-your-heart brown puppy eyes.

So I thought about it. Why should Mama have all the fun?

So I now present to you.... Lucy's very own web page!

Throw the girl a bone, won't you?

I want to share Sunday wine with you.

I am so excited! Not only does the new season of The Sopranos start on March 12, but a new series about MORMONS premieres immediately after!

I have a strange fascination with Mormonism. Sunday nights are going to be bumpin' (is bumpin' the right adjective to describe the Church of Later Day Saints?)!

Well, they'll be bumpin' as long as some nice people with HBO have us over to watch. We can't get HBO at our house because we have "free" cable and they will find us out if we subscribe.

Anyone?? I drink great wine and I will share.

Stocking up on the Patagucci.

It's time for Rose to do the kind of shopping she actually likes.

Patagonia is having their annual winterfest sale. Last year, I totally scored some good deals. This year, I'm hitting up the first day for the best selection....which is, in fact, today. Needs: a new rain jacket, yoga tanks, black fleece, cuter down jacket. (The sale is really the only time I can afford this stuff...although last week I did buy a snuggly fleece shirt from Patagonia. The good news is that if it's on sale this weekend I can get a price adjustment. Sweet!)

All I've been doing is wishing for warm weather when I haven't even taken advantage of any winter pursuits! When we lived up in the mountains every day was a winter pursuit (I had to wear snowshoes just to walk the pooch). I want to snowshoe, cross-country ski, take a hut trip. Maybe rent a condo at a ski resort with friends and finally get my ass on the mountain!

I haven't done any of this yet this winter. Considering we have snow through April, I guess there's still time. Maybe some new Patagucci will do the trick! (Can someone please say YUPSTER?! I can't help it - they make the best stuff and their guarantee is incredible...not to mention their philosophy and commitment to the environment. So THERE.)

Somebody, please staple my piehole closed!

I will not eat the pizza and chips in the back room. I will not eat the pizza and chips in the back room. I will not eat the pizza and chips in the back room.

I will not. I will not. I will not. No sirree.

I was worthless in step class today. Absolutely lame. But I went, and that counts for something right?

I am really tired of carrying this 10 lb spare tire around my waist. In horror, I watched it in the mirror in step class as it bounced around to and fro. Lordy. I could almost hoola hoop it around my person if I felt so inclined.

The calories shall be cut, once again. It's the only way, the only only way.

The only only VERY hard and painful way. Note to brain: please interpret hunger as a GOOD feeling from now on!

On to some good news. Besides my intense and timely dedication to the aerobic arts, I am now taking a digestive enzyme that is helping IMMENSELY! I have less gas and less bloat. This enzyme is like a little pac man that goes in and gobbles up all that lingering intestinal junk, turning it into poo. Yummy, right?

Lucy is mama's night-night bear.

I had such a good yoga class tonight. It was one of those classes where I worked hard and the "pain" felt so good. But it's funny, it was so great of a class that the "pain" didn't even feel like "pain." I felt really strong and limber and connected and empowered. I've learned that the stronger (physically) you are, the better your yoga. This is kind of unfair and many yogis will deny it, but it's the truth. Once you're not concentrating so hard on simply getting through the pose without collapsing, you can really go deep. And concentrate on your breathing and your form and the meaning of what you're actually doing. Like my Oprah mag says...the AHA! moment (Ummm, OK I really want to delete that--so cheesey that I talk about O mag in the same paragraph as my vinyasa class! But, I won't. Censorship is not for the blogging lifestyle.)Well, tonight was one of those AHA moments that keeps me going! And I must admit--my teacher teaches a beginner workshop and a bunch of those students "graduated" into my class tonight--she used several of us as examples and that was nice. Ironically, the passage read before beginning asana was about loss and ignoring of ego. Hrrrmmpp. Maybe my ego is what made me have such a strong practice tonight?

At this point it might be helpful for you to know that I am drunk. Not balls-out wasted, but slightly buzzed. Wine, as always, is the usual culprit.

Kevin just got home from scoring some _ _ _ _. We haven't had a bag in this house in months. It's kind of exciting. No smoking has been done, but I smell it, that sweet, sweet aroma for which Colorado is known. Seriously, we have good dope out here. Anyway...the smell of herb is certainly a welcome aroma to the stale wet gnarly old plaster smell we've been inhaling. Sick! It's so gross.

Our landlord is a complete biznatch. We've known this all along... but in the face of crisis, she floundered. I mean....OK, she's on maternity bedrest. We didn't know that. But if you can answer the phone when we call, you can certainly call your rich Daddy and have him throw some dough at the problem. When I called, because--you know--a landlord would most certainly want to know if her house was falling to pieces, she retorted in a most bitch-like manner: "You know, I am on maternity bed rest, there is nothing I can do right now." I wanted to scream: "Try being on bed rest in a house with no heat and no water, you princess!" Uggghhh! She is the WORST landlord--a total snobby princess. She rolled all up in to our house a year back to "meet" us at 9 am in a Lexus SUV with a Ralph Lauren uniform and a rock the size of GREECE. We are such good tenants. Who else drives to Denver's "free mulch day" and fills up their truck with mulch and mulches the whole frickin' yard? We do!! Because we care and we are good caring people who put effort into their household!!!

Anyway, enough bitching. This place is a drain--it's a beautiful house, but it's a total drain on the old pockie-book.

Speaking of bitching, Kevin just picked up some cord that connects this computer to the stereo and he's creaming his britches to use it, so I have to go. We are getting so technical in this household....next you thing you know, I'll be blogging about my new ipod, which is something I am not looking forward to, but I'm sure will do anyway. (I really need an ipod--not to be cool but because it is the make-or-break factor to my running skillz.)

Toodles!

P.S. I am enjoying a GIRL SCOUT COOKIE. I never eat sweets, but I can always support my little pumpkins in green, even if it means scarfing down the scrumptiousness that is a Samoa!

Em turns 30.

Emily turned the big 3-0 yesterday....Happy Birthday Em! We went up to Summit County to celebrate with her.

Em had planned to have some people over for dinner....dinner that was going to be prepared by her. Well, no 30th birthday girl should EVER be responsible for her own party, and especially should not be slaving over a hot stove to cook for her friends. So we surprised her and threw the party for her!

Snacky-poos:


Since Em was not as lucky as yours truly and was not able to take a tropical vacation for her birthday, we brought the tropics to her! Jerk chicken, Coronas, lemonade vodka drinks, and leis abound!

Kev dons a lei in the true spirit of the tropics:


Lucy was excited for the party as well, and even more excited to cavort with her "older man." I swear, we did not pose them like this:


So we drank and ate, ate and drank, drank and ate and smoked and drank some more. Some glassware broke, some girltime was had, some gifties were opened. You know, it was a birthday celebration.

Then, after a good many shots of Crown Royal, we found the wigs. The wigs worn by Bottled Violence, Crawford's band. As any good garage band would store their gig wear, we found them...in the garage.

The blonde mullet is so sexy, no?


Don't you think Em looks like Rizzo from Grease?

We never made it out to the bars, but we did gear up and take a short trek to watch some Summit County boys go off kickers on a skateboard with a ski on the bottom. I fell face first into a huge snowbank on the walk home while I was escorting Kevin to bed. That's right....me putting Kevin to bed! Imagine that! After he was safe and sound in drunken slumber, I made myself a big ol' plate of jerk kabobs and potato salad and ate like any intoxicated woman would do.

A hangover was successfully staved off and a good time was had.

This sucks.

So, we just got home from the mountains after celebrating Emily's 30th birthday (more on that later) only to find that our house is chilling at 40 degrees....inside!

Our furnace is broken. It's 20 degrees outside, 6 with wind chill. I'm sitting here, bundled up in my down jacket and hat. I can see my breath.



I'm so over this shit, this cold, this piece of shit old house.

I can't wait for spring.

UPDATE: Now a pipe just burst--AGAIN--and we have no water.

No heat and no water. This sucks.

Everyone has an ex.

Guess where Kevin is right now?

A. Lunching with his ex-girlfriend
B. At a promising interview with an awesome planning firm
C. In the ER with a broken leg
D. On a plane to Cincy to see his nephew James

Well?

If you guessed A. then you are correct! He is having lunch in Boulder with his ex-girlfriend, Lynne, as I write this.

Um, I already have lunch plans baby, but thanks for inviting me.

There is a time not too long ago when I would have come completely unglued over him having lunch with her. I had some serious issues with this chick and I had never even met her!

These issues started when all of Kevin's friends mistakenly called me "Lynne." This happened all the time. Apparently we look alike....red hair, freckles, same size, same nose...yada yada. It felt like I was always being compared to her by everyone and that sucked. I wanted to be known for who I am, an individual. I was embarrassed to meet Kevin's friends because I knew the first thought to cross their minds would be "she looks like Lynne." I felt like second place....a runner-up. A replacement.

Secondly, I formed an opinion on her based on Kevin's stories. I know this isn't fair, but he put it out there and it's all I had to go on. Psycho, crazy stories involving driving cars into barns and drunken brawls and shit like that. She cheated on him, with her ex. She sounded, to me, like a possessive delusional woman with a lot of mental issues.

(Hmmm...but aren't we all? Looks who's talking here.)

It wasn't her entirely though, back in that time. It was me being insecure and scared of losing Kevin. I had this idea that she was still madly in love with him and hopeful that they would get back together. Kevin, himself, admitted that this idea wasn't so far off. She called a lot. In fact, the first night our phone was turned on at our first house toegether, the phone rang. It was her. She was our very first caller at our new place. I was LIVID.

Obviously things have changed quite a bit. I am very secure in our relationship now and I know without a doubt that it's me Kevin wants to be with. I can respect the catching up with the ex thing, it's not a big deal. I know nothing will happen, that it's just eat, catch up, and go on your merry way.

But I'd be lying if I didn't admit to you that it does bother me a little. Will she be nervous seeing him? Will he? Will it bring back good memories? Will they talk about the past? Will she still think he's attractive? Will she ask about me? Will she hope that maybe something is still there? Will she search for clues that might indicate as such? Will he compare her to me?

He didn't invite me, and she didn't ask for me to come. I don't even know if that would have been a good idea. I know Kevin would feel uncomfortable the whole meal...knowing how I felt about her in the past. But I just want to meet her, see what she's like, see them together so I KNOW, once and for all, that it truly is...no big deal.

I love my dog so much it's sickening.

Last night a new nickname for Lucy slid out during a string of baby talk:

Poosnickers.

Say it with me:

Poosnickers!

Oh my god, isn't it the cutest? She loves it too!

P.S. It can also be used interchangably with Snoopickles....I got confused during this morning's cute attack.

A lazy list.

Because there are some new readers to my blog, and because I am a sorry excuse for a blogger today, here are some not-so-random things you should know about yours truly:

- I am from Charlottesville, VA. It's a damn shame too. There goes one cool town we can't check out for a future move! (Sorry girls, there's just no way.)

- I have English degrees from George Mason University (BA) and Colorado State (MA).

- I am really, really impatient. I do everything fast....walk, drive, eat, etc. Slow people drive me crazy!

- I love drinking, especially wine. I keep waiting for the day when it is not fun anymore.

- I love dancing. Not afraid, no sirree. I will dance to anything, anytime.

- I also enjoy karaoke. I'd even do it sober.

- I have red hair. Everywhere. Freckles too.

- I don't eat red meat. My favorite foods are Mexican, Thai, peanut butter, french fries (good ones), and a big salad with grilled chicken or fish on top. Pizza is yummy too.

- I hate sweets. Lucky me, right?

- I ran 3.5 miles today during lunch.

- I have been with Kevin for almost 5 years, lived together for almost 3. We are total opposites in terms of how we approach the world (I am a Capricorn, he is a Libra) but essentially we share all the same interests....food, politics, ideas, music, games, outdoors, etc. I know we frustrate each other to no end, but it for some reason it works.

- I am inherently shy but I can chat up anyone.

- I am INFJ.

- I have a really green thumb. We have a garden and over 30 houseplants.

- I love bluegrass music.

- I am good at keeping in touch with people, but I hate talking on the phone.

- I get nervous when I fly. I hate it.

- I'm a total neat-freak and I am very, very organized. But I hate rules and I hate following instructions. I am a total doer, I jump right in. I hate learning new card and board games. Again, this is because I am way too impatient.

- I feel like my brain is currently not being stimulated enough. I read a lot, but I also watch too much crappy television. I feel uninspired.

- My mom is a hippie.

- My dad is a jerk.

- My brother is a chef.

- My sister is 10 years old.

- The last movie I saw on DVD was "In Her Shoes." In theater: "Brokeback Mountain."

- I am currently reading "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." I love non-fiction, especially memoirs.

- My yoga class intimidates me.

- I hate grocery shopping, going to the ATM, and getting gas. I will drive dangerously past the light just because I am too lazy to stop. And I never have cash.

- I also hate shopping for clothes. When I do, I always end up at REI, the Gap outlet, or J. Crew. (It's that Virginia in me!) I love Anthropologie and it's little sister Urban Outfitters, but don't feel like I can wear much from either.

- Even though my patchwork and hemp-wearing days are over, I am still pretty au natural.

- I LOVE earrings. The bigger and danglier, the better. I've never collected anything in my life (stamps, coins, animals....please.) but I guess I could call my earring fetish a collection of sorts.

- The first thing I do when I get home from work is put on jammies. I love me some comfy cozy jammies. I don't care if it's only 5:30.

- I love me some hot baths too. I am a total homebody.

- My favorite flower is the dahlia. I also like hydrangeas and tulips and some random flowers nobody has ever heard of. I used to be a florist.

- Jobs I have held: waitress, lifeguard, sales person at a leather goods shop, florist, sales person at an outdoor store, office girl at a whitewater rafting company, writing consultant, fundraiser.

- I have a car, it is what everyone in Colorado drives: a Subaru Outback.

- I have sketchy credit and lots of school debt.

- My favorite color is, naturally, green.

***

Alrighty. That's all the tooting of my own horn I can take right now.

I guess it's also known as a hangover.

Today, I'm tired. And graced with nausea.

The surprise Valentine's dinner last night was a good surprise indeed! We went to LoLa. I'd been wanting to go there for ages, but you know....could never justify the expediture. Plus, we've got soooooo many Mexican-fusiony places in Denver and so many Mexican joints that are good and cheap.

But LoLa was delish. I started out with a margarita, sucked it down in about 5 minutes, and had another. Kevin had a caiprihana (if that's how you spell it). I don't know what was in it, but damn...it was yummy. We had mussels for an appetizer and chips with homemade guacamole. And when I say homemade, I mean that they wheeled a cart right over to our table and made it right there. For dinner I had BBQ shrimp (which was tastier than it sounds) over poblano grits. Grits! Kevin had a good fish called hebi.

Springing for good food is so worth it. The flavors are exquisite and the service is always so flawless.

After dinner, we stopped by My Brother's Bar for a nightcap and a smoke. I had two cosmopolitans and 3 cigarettes. I also befriended the not-a-couple at the table next to us, as I am apt to do. I got their life stories in about 10 minutes. I can't help it, I know all the right questions to ask.

Now I'm sitting here like a bump on a log, all unmotivated and useless. I have a craving for something totally unhealthy, like a burrito from Chipotle. My head hurts. I feel like crap. I guess it's also known as a hangover.

Anyway, can I go home now? Me so sleepy.

A love story.

Once upon a time....

I was a desperate fool, dating an even bigger fool. Let's call him "Gardenburger" in honor of the T-shirt he was so fond of wearing. Gardenburger and I had a very tumultuous relationship and I was basically filling up some lonesome void with his presence: I wasn't that into him, I just had some issues with co-dependency.

One winter's day in 2000, while leaving Rocky Mountain Bagel Works in Fort Collins, Gardenburger in tow, we run into this guy in a green North Face jacket. Gardenburger knows him from AmeriCorps. He is cute, I think. But then again, everyone is cute next to Gardenburger. Gardenburger = ehhhh and rather chunky. (I know, what was I thinking?! To his credit, Gardenburger was extremely intelligent and quite the hippie....there were some good qualities, though far and few between.)

Flash forward 5 months to May of 2001. Gardenburger has been kicked to the curb, I'm just about done with my first year of grad school, I just started Paxil, I have a fun job at an outdoor store, I've made a bunch of awesome new friends, my new roomies are super cool....in short, I'm feeling SO GOOD. Life is terrific. I am thin, riding my bike everywhere, partying all the time, digging the Fort Collins scene. And I have a secret crush! Eeeeeee!

The last night of the semester a girl--Meg--from my program has a party. After multiple BBQs, this party is where I end up. I remember exactly what I was wearing too: cropped yellow corduroys, a white linen tank top, and brown flip-flops.

It's a Thursday night. I am being sassy and drunk. I'm totally ON. There, standing next to the kitchen door is green North Face jacket guy from outside the bagel place. I prance up to him and demand where I know him from. First we think it is through Mel, Gardenbuger's friend. But we realize it is actually Gardenburger. I tell him Gardenburger is no longer. I think he seems kind of interested/ing?

We pile into Jeanine's room (Meg's roomie who I am still friends with today but also met on this very night!)and get high. Green North Face jacket guy is named Kevin and he sits right next to me on the bed. He is interested, for sure. I can tell. He keeps looking at me. His eyes are so twinkly!

Many cocktails later we are in the living room debating about something, but of course, I can't remember what. I march out to the porch for a cigarette. Kevin follows. I ask him if he dances. He says yes. I tell him we are having a cocktail party at my house the next night for my roommates' graduation and that then we are going dancing to Cabaret Diosa. Does he want to be my date? But only if he dances, because that is the requirement.

(I had actually asked my "secret crush," or SC as I called him, to go but he was going back to VT for his sister's graduation. I'm now so glad he couldn't go!)

Before I leave Kevin hugs me and asks for my number. I give it to him. I am expecting nothing! I don't even feel those excited butterflies...I just think he seems like a nice guy. No attraction.

So he calls! The very next afternoon. He comes to our cocktail party with his friend Jim. Turns out, Kevin lives right down the street! We all ride bikes downtown-- the whole party. The night turns out so great. Kev and I dance and I am so lit I am falling all over the place, but he thinks I am fun. Kevin spends the night at our house.

The next night, Saturday, is another graduation party and I am now SMITTEN. I have met someone, I tell all my friends. I am so excited. I drunk dial him and leave a message. He doesn't mind, and actually tells me the next morning that he's glad I did. He invites me to go to a cook-out with him that afternoon, which I do. At this point I have some serious butterflies! We know so many of the same people. He comes to another cook-out with me after.

He spends the night again and this time.....well, that's between us you nosy people! I wake up sick with a cold and we go out to breakfast at Lucille's. I ask him his last name: McDermott. I write all about him in my journal.

The following weeks we are inseparable. I am into him like I have never, ever been into anyone before. He is sooooo cute, and so nice, and he listens to good music and loves the outdoors. He's athletic and fun and likes to party and is from the same part of the US that I'm from. I am so in love.

Kevin is still all of this. Five years later, I am still so in love! Our relationship is so different than it was back when we first met, yet still the same. I know we've both grown significantly. I am not so dependent, he is not so commitment-phobic. We compliment each other.

I get such warm fuzzies thinking about when we met. I was in such a good state of mind at that point in time and I know that's how and why I attracted someone like Kev. I am so lucky it's lasted so long and that he puts up with my shenanigans.

And that, my friends, is your love story for this Valentine's Day.

You're never too old for drinking games.

This weekend our dear friend Mark paid us a visit. We had a little shindig in honor of the reunion.

If you want to see all of our happy posing, click on me (breaking out the old party staple--drinking Jenga*):



Just like old times.

(Sans Sunya....hi muffin eater! We sure missed you!)

* We played the hell out of some Jenga when Mark and Sunya lived in Denver. We're not talking lame directives written on the bottom of each tile...ie. "drink a shot of whiskey." No, our version of Jenga was MUCH more creative than that. It was awfully naughty and awfully fun. The loser of the game, the one who knocked down the tower, was punished with the SPANKING MACHINE. I'll leave that up to your imagination. In any case, when the Tursis moved away, Kev and I inherited the Jenga set. I will always treasure it and remember fondly the good times we had playing it.

Peace over the boob tube.

Kevin and I rarely agree on what to watch on TV. I can't stand watching sports (the drone of sports commentary is without a doubt the most irritating sound in the world) or old re-runs of Law and Order on TNT and he hates The OC and anything on MTV.

The exceptions: Sex and the City, What Not to Wear, and Grey's Anatomy. But truth be told, I still feel like these are MY shows that he simply tolerates. Meaning: there is not an all out physical battle to swipe the remote control or incessant griping and bitching. I get to watch these shows in relative peace.

Lo and behold....things have changed! I love love LOVE a Kevin show: The Sopranos.

You see, when the show made its debut, The Sopranos wasn't something I was interested in busting my bodacious booty to watch. We don't get HBO, violence and guns are not exactly my thing, and mob dramas....ummmmmm, no. Especially not mob dramas. And especially not a mob drama set in New Jersey, the very antithesis of how and where I was raised (in the South).

But Kevin put every single season of The Sopranos on our NetFlix queue and I watched. And I watched. And I watched some more. And now I'm hooked.

It's one of the best effing shows, ever. I'm so wonderfully surprised!

We're currently only on season 3 and we're trying to get through season 5 before the new one starts next month. But I think we can do it.

Thank you Sopranos for allowing K and I to have a little peace over the boob tube, finally.

Popping and pooping.

I'm having some serious issues with my neck this morning. It doesn't quite feel like I pulled it, though that's entirely possible. It's a pain that extends up into my head and is exacerbated (one of my favorite words y'all!) whenever I nod or turn from side to side. Go to a chiropractor, you say? I did that once. It was scary....I seriously can't handle the cracking and popping. HEEBIEJEEBIES!

Maybe a massage. Ummmm, that sounds good. There's a delightful spa where I get my goods waxed...I am thinking of springing for the couples fireside massage for Valentine's Day. Too predictable? K has never ever had a professional massage. Maybe I should let him experience it alone, just in case he has a "reaction" and I see it and suppress wild and uncontrollable giggles, thus ruining the experience. HEY- no one ever said my mind wasn't in the gutter! What are you guys doing for the big V? K is taking me out for dinner...I don't know where, it's a surprise. I'm dying to know.

This week is the week I've been writing all my eats and drinks and poops down for Jenn, the soon-to-be nutritional therapist. I can say it's definitely helped curb my bad habits.....I didn't eat those french fries because I didn't want to have to look at the words "French Fries" on my log. I have been working out everyday just so the exercise line isn't blank. I've been chugging tons of water just so I can circle a W for each 8 oz. consumed.

My eating, however, is entirely boring. I eat the same shit everyday. Yogurt for breakfast, banana for snack, salad or soup for lunch, some fake soy product with dinner, more wine at night than I am willing to write down (but I do anyway). I hope I give her some good material to work with. I am suspecting that as healthy as I think I eat, there's going to be some adjustments to make. Not only am I trying to lose weight, but I'm also trying to control my anxiety and monitor my --ahem--digestive habits. This morning I joked with Kev that what if I had to write down everytime I passed gas? He said my log would be [------- this thick--------]. Ha.

In any case, I'm basically getting a free consultation and I'm down with that. I hope that just because we're friends Jenn doesn't sugar-coat anything. I need to hear it, poop patterns and all.

Lord, Katie Holmes sure is looking heinous these days.

Is it me or does she look like an old hag in this picture?


I thought pregnancy was supposed to induce that plump healthy glow!

Improvements at 3834 Lowell.

Remember that wee bit of daydreaming I did a few weeks ago about doing some rearranging of our living space? Well, with the help of my tax refund I made it happen!

Here's the old TV room, now a pleasant sitting area. Hendrix especially likes to sit in there.....what he does best! The chair and the rug are new:


Lucy is enjoying the plushness of the new rug with some of her favorite toys:


The old living room now has the TV in it. Note the classy new armoire! I hate when the TV is the focus of the room (it technically is here, but at least you can't see it). I have a love/hate relationship with the fireplace...hate because it doesn't work and those wood engraved swoopy garlands are terrifying...love because the tile is neat and it's an original piece of the house:


It is absolutely decadent to sit in this LoveSac and watch a movie. It didn't fit in the old TV room and I'm ecstatic it's back in action:


This is the new shelf. Kev says my book arranging looks too contrived, but I like it:


I've always been a rearranger....growing up I used to rearrange my bedroom monthly. I looooove change! Next up: our totally unsexy bedroom.

Excuses, excuses.

Real honest-to-god reasons not to go to the gym after work today:

- I'm having a terrific hair day
- I'm having wretched cramps
- I have a tree in the car that needs potting
- I'm starving and there's leftover chili in the fridge
- Running on the treadmill is SO BORING
- Lucy needs a walk
- College football players are dirty and stinky
- I ate really well today
- I don't have anything to read on the elliptical
- The music in there sucks
- Kevin is in class
- I have a bottle of wine
- I'm tired and don't feel like it

My, that was fun! Seems like I really made a strong case there, huh?

Well....forget about it, I'm going.
**Update: I went and I'm feeling good!

Wine and chili and the hometown date episode of The Bachelor = reward.

Chunks blown: Malbec and Mexican

Me: "Dude, I'm too old for this shit. Is thirty too old to be puking?"

Kev: "Puking, no. But by thirty you should be able to at least hit the toilet."

Happy Birthday Bob Marley!

Going here last month rekindled my affections for Bob.

I'll admit, I was over the whole Bob Marley thing by 1999. Too many stoned nights in college listening to him over...and over....and over. I was done, he was overplayed.

But my recent trip made me fall back in love with his music all over again.

Incidentally "Waiting in Vain" is on the radio right now. It makes me feel so warm and summery!

Katie ruined my morning.

I don't know if any of you caught the Today Show this morning, but if you did, don't you think Katie Couric needs to tone it down a little with her Republican partisanship?

My god, chick. Please, don't hold back on your love of Bush! Especially on national television!

She interviewed John Kerry. Bad choice. Very bad indeed. The guy couldn't formulate one coherent answer to any of Katie's questions about Bush's State of the Union Address. Not that she was any better.....her defensiveness and bias were EVIDENT.

THEN, she quite happily made a point to emphasize that 63% of Americans think the Democrats do a terrible job at articulating their plan for the country. That's 63% Senator Kerry, that's a HUGE number!

Screw you, Katie. I used to think you were perky and cute, but your clumpy eyelashes and thinning hair defy you.

BLAHHHHKKKKKK!