The Truth About Cats and Dogs

Perception is reality. Deo and I were sharing dinner one evening with some friends. We were having a thrilling discussion on which character from a movie best represents who we think we are. After hearing some really good comparisons I jokingly said, "I think I'm Janeane Garofalo from The Truth About Cats and Dogs." After hearing a couple of snickers someone said, "I can TOTALLY see that!" I guess when I'm going for a completely ironic comparison, I should pick someone a little more less like me. Maybe I should have said Uma Thurman instead and that would have evoked more laughter!

Sarah's Bachelorette Weekend

The Bachelorette Girls outside of Biddies

So a few weekends ago I traveled to Columbus, OH for my best friend's (whom I'm the matron of honor for in her wedding) bachelorette weekend. It started off with her Bridal Shower at Biddies Coach House, which is this cute little tea house that had real old "biddies" serving tea and bite sized sandwiches. I got to meet a lot of Sarah's family and friends that I have never met before which was nice. Her family is super warm and welcoming and made me feel like I was at home. We only played one game, which I think may have upset some people that there were no toilet paper brides. Prior to the shower, I called the soon-to-be-husband, Derek, and asked him a series of questions that Sarah had to guess his answer to. To give an example of how it went, I asked Derek, "If Sarah was a color, what color would she be?" Each table of guests had to give their answer to give Sarah some hints as to what Derek may have said, and then Sarah had to choose. Most of the tables said Sarah would be blue, which I completely agree with. Sarah thought Derek would say green. Well, Derek actually said, "pink, because she's a girl." He's very insightful! It was a cute game that brought a lot of laughs and I have to give credit to my sister-in-law who did this for me at my shower and is where I got the idea from.

The Bride-To-Be and myself

After her shower, we headed back to the hotel and got ready for our dance class. But not just any dance class...an exotic dance class! Ten of us girls all learned the ins and outs of exotic movements, how to give a lap dance, and event worked on the pole for a bit (think Carmen Electra Strip-Aerobics). Everyone was a bit nervous at first, but it was a great ice-breaker as most of us didn't know each other. It ended up being a good bonding experience and so much fun! If you ever get the chance to do this, please do! And its a GREAT workout. We were all SO sore the next day! Two highlights of the 90 minute class: 1) When the teacher (who was a former stripper) told us, "That's what it looks like when my 8 year old daughter climbs the pole." and 2) When Emily climbed all the way to the top of the pole after our teacher told us we wouldn't be able to with pants on. YA!

Sarah being very shy!

Emily showing our teacher how to climb the pole

The day ended with VIP at BOMA (Bar of Modern Art) which was actually an old church converted to a dance club. Raised a Catholic, I felt very guilty drinking our screw drivers in there, but it didn't really stop me! Overall, the weekend was a blast! Her law-school friends are awesome and I can't wait to see them all again in May for the wedding. I've been friends with Sarah since pre-school; I love her, am so happy for her and Derek, and am so happy to be a part of their wedding!

Camera Klutz

Let me start from the beginning...which was way before our wedding. Deo and I had really wanted to purchase a cool new camera for our wedding and honeymoon. So after research and looking online, we decided to go with this really cook Sony touch screen. After about a few weeks, we took the camera to a UA football game. During the game, I got so excited during a touchdown that I dropped the camera and it fell all the way underneath the stands. The camera appeared to be fine but then when we tried to turn it on, it would turn on but the scope would not extend. At this point, it was only a couple months before our wedding. I thought it would take too long to send it in to get fixed but we really needed a camera. So we though that we would purchase another camera while trying to get the other one fixed, and then return the new one when the other one came back (I know, very dishonest and it ended up biting us the butt anyways...can we say karma?). Anyways, so we bought a new one. I brought the new camera with me to Vegas when some work buddies decided to plan a quick girls/bachelorette weekend. Long story short, I ended up dropping my purse in a the Luxor and loosing the new camera! It pretty much ruined my night as as I tried to frantically find it for the rest of the trip (called club, asked bouncers, asked people in the club). It sucked! So not only did we loose the option of returned the camera, we didn't have a good camera for the wedding or our honeymoon. Anyways, Deo finally got around to sending in the broken camera and they fixed it in like 3 weeks for free and we just got it back yesterday...working just like new. I'm so excited to have our camera back and there was even some fun pictures saved on it from the football game when I broke it. Oh, and I forgot to mention that in the mean time, I had also dropped the office's brand new camera and broke the cover to the batteries. I'm such a camera klutz and need to be extra careful as I take the fixed camera to Ohio next weekend from my best friend's bridal shower and bachelorette party. Part of me can't believe Deo is even letting me take it!!!

Will It Ever Be Complete?

So this weekend was a well-welcomed few days of relaxing. After finally settling in back from New York and getting on somewhat of a normal sleeping pattern (I'm still going to bed at like 8:30pm and waking up tired) I got to spend some time with my hunny, dogs, and working on the house. We finally got everything set up in our family room with our new furniture and I can finally check that room off of my list of "To-Do's." The days were so nice it was hard not to be outside, so we decided to start fixing up our backyard (again) for the spring and summer months. We re-seeded our grass, bought some fun cacti for our planter, and tidied up our front landscaping which made our front look 10-times better. There is still a lot of stuff we want to do to our backyard, which led me to thinking if our house would ever be "complete." Sometimes I think it's just my nature, but here is a list of everything else I hope to accomplish in our house (probably just in time before we turn around and want to buy another house). Being a list person, this will also help me organize and prioritize my to-do's with the house.

Backyard

1. Paint the wall the same color as our house
2. Put up terraces with ivy along our back and side walls for more privacy
3. Plant a large shade tree in the middle of our grass or put in a fountain
4. Put a knee-high fence around our grass to help keep the dogs from treading on it
5. Make a fenced area for our trash cans

Dining Room

1. New kitchen table (I want a square, counter-top height one)
2. Small banquet or hutch
3. New, larger pictures on wall (I think the ones we have are too small)

Kitchen

1. Repaint to a neutral beige (I know, I just painted but I'm thinking it's too much green)
2. Back splash

Master Bedroom

1. Paint a country-blue
2. New dressers and bed frame
3. Pictures on walls
4. Headboard

Family Room (so I thought I was done)

1. Rug
2. Make covers for ottomans

Garage

1. Organize junk
2. Shelves for laundry area
3. Work-out area with our elliptical, bike, and upcoming weight bench purchase

Guest Bedroom and Guest Bathroom are actually finished to my liking (for now). It seems like my priorities lie with getting everything nice for people who visit rather than focusing on us, who live there! Looking at my list of things that I want to do, and realizing it will take years of tax returns to do everything I want, I wonder if it will ever be complete??

The Kids Are Gone!!!

So the kids finally left the nest and my work-wife for the week, Pam, and I are alone at last! We had a real New York day today. The kiddos (OK, so some of them are practically my age, but I felt really old this week) left after our last site visit to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society around 11:30am. We try to end on a not-for-profit to show that there is another part of New York that isn't money-grubbing, quick-talking, and all-night working. I think we got a few students to think about that as an option, but most of them sat there and stared blankly like they were looking at people from another planet. It's hard to relate to not-for-profits when you want to "buy a Ferrari in the next five years" as one of our students said.

To move along, after our last site visit Pam and I hopped on the subway to Times Square, had a bite to eat and shopped in the M&M and Hershey's store (which is way cool)! We came back to the hotel and got prettied up for dinner at the famous Rainbow Room and "Legally Blonde" on Broadway....which was completely awesome! I'm excited we finally have enough time, and energy, to enjoy the city! Tomorrow is our last day and night here....so we're going to try to make the best of the bone-chilling wind!