Summer Itch

Oh I love summer!  Is there anything more perfect then a day spent driving to the beach with the windows down and the radio blaring?  If there is, I haven't found it yet.

So much has been changing with me lately that I have a major itch to change some other things.

For instance, have I mentioned that I'm going blind?  Not really, but kind of, sort of, maybe.  For a good month I was convinced I was loosing it because everything was blurry.  I thought I was a threat to other drivers and I'd never be able to read my precious books again.  Dramatic much?  Sometimes.  However, it freaked me out enough to get my eyes checked.

Turns out, I have astigmatism in my left eye, so I can't focus very well on things that are far away.  The problem got super irritated by all the time I have to spend on the computer these days.  There is also a slight prescription over all, so the optometrist said I'm legal to drive without glasses, but if I wanted to, I could get computer glasses.  Yay?  Since my problem hasn't gotten much better and I'm straining all the time I figure it's time to break down and get some glasses for work and maybe reading.  Since both of my parents wear corrective lenses I know that it's only a matter of time. Because I read so much for fun I'm very dependent on my eyes.

I'd like something like this for cheap:

Another thing that is different is that I need braces again.  Again, you ask?  Yeah, again.  Long story short: I have permanent retainers (hate them passionately), top half of them broke, never fixed it (dentist directed), so top teeth are moving all over the place like a country bumpkin's dental dream.  I got quoted $4500 to have invisalign for a year.  That's a few thousand cheaper than traditional braces.  I was floored! 

I'm saving up all my pennies and hoping that it really won't take a whole year...that seems like a really long time to me because I don't have that much to move around.  Thinking about getting a second opinion from Steven's old orthodontist.  I know it's basically just cosmetic, but it super bothers me.  It's getting to the point that I won't smile in pictures and I love to smile.  I smile a lot!  I don't want to stop smiling, ever.  

Until I save enough, I'm whitening for the summer.  I love coffee and that's no secret.  I drink a lot of it since I'm always on the go and feeling drained half the time.  Even though the Crest White-strips are OK, they've gotten gross and slide around and you have to wear them 30 minutes.  I don't have 30 minutes of time like that just laying around.  So I'm doing the Crest 3D whitening tooth paste that promises to remove 90% of stains in 14 days and the Crest 3D whitening mouthwash and, shoot, maybe some strips since I bought a box in the winter. 

Tomorrow I have an appointment to get my hair cut.  It was a pre-scheduled thing, but I really want to come out with something cute.  A friend just went short and I want her haircut!.  We all know how I love some short hair...I'm resisting.  The shortest I'll go is mid-neck to shoulder.  Trying a new stylist because the last one I got really didn't understand that I don't blow-dry, I don't use product, and I don't have time to spend 20 minutes on my hair.  I comb, air dry, and go, and then I do my make-up in the car.

I also switched up my shampoo and conditioner to Organix.  Steven says I have the most on-again-off-again relationship (OK, he said affair) with hair products.  I've just decided to stop buying shampoo in bulk.  It seems like a great idea at the time, but unless you have a family of 5 you're never, ever, going to use up the shampoo you buy at Cost-co.  Ever.  So I'm on a more sensible track that will allow me to switch products without wasting a gallon of Herbal Essences (crap).

The most pivitol change is that I've lost so much weight.  I have gotten rid of half of my clothes with the remaining half being pajamas and workout clothes.  The other stuff that's left doesn't flatter me anymore because my body shape has changed.  I'm not sure what my new shape is, but this is a great time to put some adorable pieces in my wardrobe!

Things I must get:
1. 3/4 sleeve cardigans.  I own a lot of full-armed cardigans, probably too many.  However, I always end up rolling the sleeves up and I think that's a bit frumpy and annoying.
2. New purse
3. More ballet flats
4.Tank tops that aren't loosey goosey, cause I have one and it's going to get super hot soon.
5.Shorts I can wear to work.
6. New perfume and maybe some cologne for Mr. S cause I want us both to be fancy.
7. A suit, just cause I think I should have one.

Top it all off with a pedicure and I might just be ready for summer!

Reminder of Home

Sorry I haven't posted anything recently.  I have a collection of half-written posts that I abandoned because I thought they were too snarky.

Lately I've had a craving for some Southwind food.  Southwind is the restaurant I worked at over the summer to support myself in college and it has some of the best food and the greatest people.  If you're ever in VA, check them out.

Now this recipe is not exact since the owner keeps all his recipes in his head, but I really need some cucumber salad in my life.  Nothing like some good food to remind you of the south in the summer, ya'll.  Nothing.

I'll be whipping this up this evening, and if you ever come over this summer I'll make it for ya:

MARINATED TOMATO AND CUCUMBER SALAD

4 lg. tomatoes, cut into wedges 2 cucumbers, peeled & cubed 1 lg. Vidalia onion, peeled & sliced 1/2 c. olive or salad oil 1/4 c. cider vinegar 1 tbsp. sugar 1/2 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. oregano Put prepared vegetables in large salad bowl. In smaller bowl combine remaining ingredients with wire whip until salt and sugar dissolve. Pour dressing over vegetables and let stand in refrigerator about 1 hour before serving for best flavor.

Delish!

So you'll never guess what Mr. Doggity-dog did today.

My work e-mail pops up with a little message containing this:

Apparently, Bram jumped up on our bathroom sink and got stuck. He was waiting there until Steven found him.

Yes folks, my 70 pound puppy is really a cat.

You Capture: Depth of Field

As promised, you finally get the animal pictures from my trip to the zoo. Particularly enjoy the elephants:

(The most ferocious of animals: Oliver Linux)

(DOF with the bamboo.  I had a long lens on and he was far away.  I wish I could have gotten more detail on him.)

 (Toes...I like toes and wrinkles.)

(DOF spit up everywhere on this one.)

(And last butt not least, elephant butt, because it's cute to be curvy.)

That's all you're getting because the only other time I picked up the camera this week was to take this picture of the dog:

My goal was to steal a friend's baby for this one.  Conceiving a baby just for You Capture assignments didn't fly with the Steve-o (not entirely sure why).  I even bought some props for our friend's kiddo that would have been adorable in DOF.  Like--so adorable I want to kick some parents--adorable.  I also had the ambitious plans of trying it manual for the first time since high school photo class.  Silly people not handing over their children to me, psh!  Why else am I the unofficial godmother anyway?  Alright, I do give pretty killer clothes and presents.

Beth over at ishouldbefoldinglaundry.com was fortunate enough to already have a beautiful baby boy on hand as a foot model for this one.  Check out her awesome toe shots!  I just want to kiss um.

Sassy Design Sale

Sassy Designs (amazing place for photo-scrapbooking materials) has everything marked down to $0.99.

Yes, I said $0.99.

Go check it out because it ends today!

I've already spent a whopping $4 today on some things that I've had my eye on.

Look for more updates to the Ms. Domestique multi-process, face-lift soon.  It's going extremely slowly since I'm trying to fit a lot of it in between working 63 hours this week.

What's Your Jane Austen Character name?

If you know me, then you know I have a Jane Austen problem. A deep-rooted problem that doesn't bother me one bit. Although, I'm sure that Steven will run out of Austen inspired gifts for me eventually. My latest acquisitions are a Marvel comic version of Pride and Prejudice and a new novel entitled Jane Austen Bites Back where Jane Austen is a vampire still "alive" and working in the publishing industry.  I'm pretty stoked to read it.

Anywho.  I just found a Jane Austen character name generator.  I'm:

Miss Elinor Martin

It's kind of an interesting combo of Elinor Dashwood (a personal favorite from Sense and Sensibility) and Harriet Smith who marries Mr. Martin in Emma.  And I'm clearly unmarried in Austen's world, dang it! Oh, I'm a dork.

In other literary news: Hitch 22 by Christopher Hitchens arrived on my doorstep before we woke up this morning.  Got to love amazon's prompt delivery!  If I disappear for a while, it's because I'm nose deep in some good reads.

Attack the Fat

We had our final weigh-in yesterday morning and the end result was 11.4 pounds (and 10 inches)! My Steven lost 40, yes, 40 pounds!

Absolute craziness.

What did the honey and I do to celebrate our victory?  Well, we went to Carmello's, an Italian restaurant we've always wanted to try, to celebrate my birthday post weigh-in.  It was divine!  We had a mini, pesto pizza for an appetizer, I had alfredo tortellini, and then I had the triple layer chocolate mousse cake!  And who do you think would have walked in while we were being so naughty?  One of the trainers from the gym.  You can't even plan such serendipity, folks.

I'm pretty sure I gained all 11 pounds back.  I couldn't have, could I?  Naw, but I'm determined not to eat at all today to make up for it.

I already did some squats and leg exercises with my elastic bands...thinking about a run when I get off work too.  Cause I'm determined not to gain any back.

Determined, ya'll.

A Place in the World to Sit

Steven and I have been on the hunt for a sofa since before we moved and now we have one!  We have tried out every sofa in the state.  I'm not even using hyperbole when I say that, promise.  We found a dream chenille sectional at Arhaus, but when we measured it was too big to fit in our space.  You see, this room was actually supposed to be a dinning room and living room.  They designed the living room to be at the far end by the front of the house and the dinning room table was supposed to be where the ottomans are...and I think that 6 ft does not a living room make.  So since we have a space in the kitchen for a table, I wanted the whole room to be a living room.

We ended up finding this sofa and chair at Crate and Barrel...a magical place, to be sure.  The cats certainly like it.  Penelope spent the morning rolling all over the furniture like it was catnip.  I got the ottomans at Pier 1, as well as the console on the right.  I also got matching end tables, but they're still in transit from the warehouse.  I'm still in a heated mental debate about what rug to put in here.

Now we really need to paint!  Let me tell you how gross our walls are.  The backstory of our walls is that the builders put the worst paint up, it doesn't even have a finish to it so anything that comes in contact with the wall is absorbed by the drywall.  Don't believe me?  Let me show you my jelly stain on the kitchen wall.  I hate the paint, so I've slowly been trying to paint a room at a time.  The only rooms I've managed to get done are the rooms upstairs.  Anywho, the dog's crate used to be in this room and the far corner is tres gross.

I spent the morning washing my baseboards.  I know that sounds ridiculous, and I used to laugh at my mother a lot when she cleaned the walls and the basboards, but dang it, I get it now. You work so hard to keep the house clean that the little details will keep you up at night!  I scrubbed those things to get the dog and cat gunk off of them.  I feel much better, but it made me notice all the nicks in the walls and all the stains and all the things I couldn't wash off because they had fused with the drywall.

The moral of the story kiddies is that you should always have a paint with some sort of gloss to it and that you will eventually turn into your mother.  Heaven help me.

New Look

Not only has my lovely friend Caitlin given me my first blog award (future post pending), but she wanted to know what I've been doing to my blog. She loves the new and unfinished look, I personally think it still looks very similar to poo-on-a-stick, but what can you do?

My secrets?

1. Cut the crap. I love widgets--like, mega love them. It's a comfort to me to be able to look at, say, a countdown for how long I've been with the Big S.  It's constant, and flashy, and I love it. But, they look so messy and jumbled. Really, they're kind of like wearing too much jewelry. In one word: distracting.

2. I really wanted a single column template since I like to use a lot of pictures. In comes this blog template. My advice: don't use this template to start from scratch.  It has a lot of broken code and the divs are all over the place.  I had to have the honey use his computer science degree to whip it into shape just to get the header and pages to center and we had to widen the content area. What a mess.

3.  Don't have a computer hacker running around your house?  No problem. Get Firebug. This is a genius little bit of software that allows you to look at any webpage, hover over a page element, and look at the code behind it.  So, essentially, you could use it to copy and paste all my html and stylesheeting. Not that I would take kindly to that...mind you.  It's a great little tool to tweak your blog, get the code how you want it, and then copy it into the html editor of your blog.  Firebug won't actually change the real code for you, so it's OK if you make a mistake.  If you see something on a website you like and want to know how they did it, you can look at their code and then make it yours.  Really, it's fabulous.

4. The folks over at Maternal Lens got me on to digital scrapbooking. Until this week I never knew that existed  I got my background paper from Sassy Designs. Epic website full of things I must have!  They have sales a lot (not that they are expensive to begin with) and Maternal Lens gives away stuff from them pretty frequently. 

Lots of stuff going into this change.  I've got plans to work on my header this weekend (weather permitting).  I'm sure with our schedules it will take at least a week to get it edited and up and running.

Have mercy,

You Capture: Yellow

I've come to the conclusion that yellow and I don't get along.  The You Capture challenge Beth at ishouldbefoldinglaundry.com came up with this week was yellow and I have to let you know that I don't own any yellow because I look horrible in it and I don't decorate with it because it just doesn't work for me. My decorating color concept is, essentially, if I can't wear it, I shouldn't decorate with it.

I spent the entire week walking around thinking "just don't take a picture of a school bus"..."just don't take a picture of a school bus."  I'm pleased-as-punch to say that I succeeded by refusing the flirtacious glances of the big, yellow, bee-looking buses.  There was a brief affair with a little, yellow harlot-of-a-butterdish at Anthropologie.  I almost bought just to have something to photograph, but I decided it would be a waste of money since I don't really eat butter...and I shouldn't start eating it.

What I did come up with for You Capture resulted from a cloudy trip to the National Zoo on my birthday this Tuesday.  So here you go, some yellow mixed in with a lot of city shots (I'm saving the animal shots for next weeks Depth of Focus challenge):

In the DC area, the concept of yellow is basically "Danger, Will Robinson" aka: don't step here, don't fall down here, don't cross here, basically: don't be anywhere near here.  How depressing!  Especially when yellow really is such a fun, spastic, and lighthearted color.

 

I'm never more at home than when I'm in chucks and jeans.  I hope you feel the same.  Notice the "please don't fall down the escalator" yellow.

 

You can also catch glimpses of some entertaining defacement of public property. Definitely yellow and cheery.  It made me giggle.  The picture to the right is the inside of an escalator.  I've never seen the inside bits of an escalator before, and in case you haven't either...now you have.  There was also a man sitting in it.  Sometimes I wonder how you get a job like that?

 

The stripes were on a huge "please don't fall in the gaping and exposed escalator" barrier. I know, lots of dark pictures; sorry. I was underground.

 

This one I purposely made darker so that the yellow stood out more.

 

And finally, if you look to the lower left you will see a yellow baby bottle that was thrown across the metro tracks...that kid had quite a throw. It's a little evidence that life goes on...

The most "yellow" I experienced during the day was the joy of the kids at the zoo and their little phrases of pure sunshine. My favorites:

"They look just like big toys." 

"Why do they only have one hippo!" (A valid exclamation, I must admit.  You can't possibly play very hungry hippos with a singular hippo: obviously.)

"Mom!  I want to see the tigers again" 

"Oh, it smells, it really smells" to which the mother could only reply "I know the horses smell, honey, I know"

Now, please go check out Beth's post and all the other participants too!  Ignore my futile attempt at yellow, it was a hard one.

I feel like I have been drooling over a digital SLR since the dawn of time.  In reality, it has probably only been since I took photo in high school and just loved it.

Let me present to you the fabulous Nixon D5000, the latest addition to our circus!

This shiny was my birthday present!  Today we went to the National Zoo and I gave it a whirl just on auto.  I must say I absolutely love it!  It came with two lenses, so I'm feeling rather ambitious...and in the need for things to photography to get better at using it.

So if you are in my area and have a kid, family or something random you need photographed, hit me up!

Do you know how amazing my Steven is?

Even in the midst of horrible work drama--he's moving to a fabulous new job and people are being less than nice about it--he sent me gorgeous flowers at work to celebrate that I'm moving up in the company.

The arrangement even has mums in it. The first flowers he ever gave me were yellow spider mums. So mums are a must whenever he gives me flowers.

He really is the bestest. Now, what can I do for him? He definitely needs to get some loving back.

Silhouettes: Just A Phase?

I don't think so, and I'm pretty sure that Jane Austen would agree with me.

When we first moved into the new house, I took the opportunity to sketch our silhouettes.  By using an old lamp, paper taped to the wall and a pencil, we each took turns tracing eachother's profiles.  Once we had the outlines, I used them as stencils on black poster board.  Throw them in some fancy frames and you end up with this:

A modern, yet classic family heirloom!  They'll be a great way to remember our first home!  Steven always says he's going to make them face different directions the next time we have a big fight.  I'm happy to say we haven't had to try this out.

Once I get going on something I just don't stop, do I?  I got these silhouettes to go in the half-bath downstairs:

I painted it this crazy green and put up a black mirror to replace the run-of-the-mill mirror the house came with.  So far, Jane Austen's silhouette is the only one residing in there.  I'm trying to build more of a collection than these two, but the antique malls around here are very so-so.  It looks like I might have to venture to Alexandria or parts of Maryland for good antiques.

If any silhouettes cross your path, snatch them up and send them my way!

Spring!

As I promised you yesterday, here is more information about a photo challenge I'm taking on. Beth at ishouldbefoldinglaundry.com hosts You Capture where, she assigns a weekly photo theme for everyone to capture on film. Last week the challenge was spring, and this week the even tougher challenge was Spring {again}: only different. I feel like I'm semi-cheating since I didn't do it last week, but I just found her blog this week...if I had known about it, I totally would have done it!

After the crazy winter we had in the DC area, I am very thankful for spring. I'm thankful that I can wear  colorful clothing and paint my toe nails and go outside and take the dog for walks without freezing.  The list could go on forever!

For the challenge, I've taken the opportunity to compile a photo-list of the things I'm thankful for this spring (think of it as a practice run for Thanksgiving):

1. As of this month, Steven and I have officially made it through a year of living together.  You want to know how I feel about that?  I'm more in love with him than I was 3 years ago when we started dating.  No lie.  I 100% live for the moments we get to spend together, even if we're doing boring tasks like grocery shopping.
2. My best friend left for Greece today.  She gave me these flowers.  I'm thankful for them because I love roses, but I'm also very grateful for her enduring friendship.  I know that she is going to have a blast in Europe over the next 3 months.  I'm a little jealous, truth-be-told.  She will be keeping a detailed blog of her adventures HERE under a fake pseudo-gnome.  No, really.
3. My birthday is in 5 days!  Those are my presents.  I'm so lucky that my Steven still wants to spoil me on my birthday!  Another reason to love him.
4. What would I do without aloe vera to save me from the soon-to-be sunburns?  Ouchies.  At least in the spring the sun doesn't hurt so much.
5. Dog drool.  Ok, not so much, but I love my critters and their zest for life.  I need to learn from them.
6. The flowers growing in our window boxes and the netting to keep the bugs out--got to love that.
7. The fact that this room is completely clean...it used to be filled with all the crap from our move and that crap has pretty much sat there all year...that is until Spring Cleaning!  I've ordered some furniture too, so we should have a living room soon!

Now, go check out Beth's You Capture HERE...and maybe participate with me next week.  The new challenge is yellow...it's going to be a toughie.

But, before you go look at her fabulous page, I want to know what you're thankful for this spring?

I've really been blown away lately by how slim my face has gotten.  Enjoy the embarrassing photos I borrowed from my photobooth.  There are about 1,000 photos save on my computer that I took in between my facebook time in college. I swear I did, in fact, put in the work for that degree!

The top left is the oldest picture I could find, circa beginning of sophomore year.  The two in the middle are the most recent.  It's also a homage to my crazy and ever changing hair.  Crazy, huh?

I really can't believe that old picture was 45 pounds ago, ya'll.

Introducing the Power Lunch:

Everyday Steven and I run home for our lunch break.  Today, I was flying solo since he wanted to have lunch with a work buddy.  Since I'm not that sick anymore, I was feeling a ton of "get it done" energy.

I decided to have a "power lunch" (you know--power nap, power walk, etc.) so that the house wouldn't be in a shambles later this weekend when my parents come to town.  Maybe one day our house will look like a home...and maybe the day after that, it will look like a home featured in Home and Gardens.  Anywho...

This is what I got done:

1. Let Bramston out of his crate to relieve himself.  He's only 6 months old so we're still crating when we aren't home.  However, we always go home for lunch everyday to give him a break.  8 hours in there would be the sucks.  I should also point out that he is in a 48 in tall crate right now...that's huge!  And we're about to upgrade to the 56in (a small room). 
2. Gave an exasperated sigh because he had already pee'd himself.  I really think he enjoys it because the vet says he can hold it for 8 hours.  I know he loves the, almost daily, baths we have to give him.
3.  Loaded the dishwasher and started it
4. Moved Mother's Day gifts to one side of the kitchen for future wrapping
5. Moved the wrapping paper to the work area in the kitchen so Steven would remember that my birthday is coming up and to please produce presents wrapped and ready for inspection.
6. Tidied up the countertops and opened some mail from my orthodontist.
7. Clorox'd the countertops.
8. Sorted recycling to take outside.
9. Changed into my nice pants.  They 're from Anne Taylor LOFT and I love them oh-so-much because they're the only dress pants I have that fit right now.  I feel bad wearing jeans to work, but I don't want to buy new pants yet (still losing).  I needed them to work at the Pier tonight since jeans are completely against the dress code.  The pants have been getting a lot of action lately and since they're dry clean only (didn't know that when I bought them), I've been trying to get a lot of wear out of them before I send them to the cleaners.
10. Realized that they are splashed with lots of dog drool.  My dog drools.  My dog drools a lot.  It's the one, and only, thing I don't like about his breed.  Other than that, Newfies are top-notch dogs, but we have to keep towels around to wipe him off. 
11. Remembered to take my antibiotics
12. Started a load of laundry
13. Said a silent "Thank you!" to our water heater for being big enough to let me do dishes and laundry at the same time.  Love it!
14. Carried a stack of books downstairs and put them back on the bookcase
15. Thought about hitting the "clean" button on the Roomba, but then I decided I'd need to clean out the dirt-trap first and the floors weren't looking that bad.
16. Put the pup back in his crate with a new red teddy bear I found at work.  He loves to carry around his little babies.  Only once has he torn one apart.
17. Grabbed my keys
18. Said "Good-bye" to Penelope, who was on the steps--yelling at me.
19. Watered the plants.  My petunias need some help this year.  Send "grow-baby-grow" thoughts to my purple petunias, please.
20. Thought: I really should put window boxes in...tried to think of a way to do that without drilling into the house...the jury is still out on that one.
21. Started to drive to Subway since it's on the way back to work
22. Wondered why a guy was walking down the road in just swim trunks when we aren't anywhere near the beach.
23. Got a little saddened by the fact we aren't by the beach since the weather is so great right now.  Need to schedule a trip to the wah-tah!
24. Turned down a date from a construction worker named Howard working outside the Subway.  This was probably the most interesting conversation I've ever had with a random person.  I ended up telling him I was engaged.  It seemed like the easiest thing to say...but I'm not really engaged.  Tomaaato, tomahto.  I mean I've been in a completely monogamous relationship for almost 3 years, we live together, share a bank account, have fur-babies...I mean it's close enough of an explanation for dear Howard.  Since he hadn't broken into my car while I was in the Subway or done anything shady, I decided to take it as a self-esteem booster.  And apparently, Howard likes drool covered pants.
25. Ate my sub in the car
26. Added lite mayo stains to the drool on my poor pants

Finally, arrived back at work--what a lunch hour!

Mother's Day Giveaway From ishouldbefoldinglaundry.com

My newest blog obsession has to be the fabulous Beth at ishouldbefoldinglaundry.com. Her life and resilience is truly an inspiration, in fact I spent at least an hour or more reading all her older posts about her most recent pregnancy.  I could have kept going, but life called me back to reality.  You should check her out just for the sake of checking her out.  In fact, she does a weekly photo challenge that I really want to participate in--more on that later.   Cross my heart.

An even better reason to check her out is that she is giving away a free $75 gift certificate to Lisa Leonard Designs for Mother's Day!  Lisa's jewelry is the perfect extra, caring thought for the mothers in our lives and it's all freaking adorable.  I've already entered and I wouldn't mind some friendly competition!  The challenge is to think of your favorite breakfast to eat on Mother's Day.  The challenge and entry is listed HERE.

I'm sorry that my links don't show up very well yet, but they're there and functioning.  Tossing the old blog layout for a clean start is refreshing, but it's hard work trying to come up with what I want... all ideas on that front are welcome.

Care for a pop'o'cake?

The plain, fact-of-the-matter is that I need Cake Pops in my life.  Married to the Military made them here and she got the recipe here.  I've had a bad case of the birthdays this year...but I'm really looking forward to just having a day to myself with a possible trip to the National Zoo or Neiman Marcus (David Yurman to drool over, folks.)...and maybe Cake Pops.

These things look extremely involved to make, almost like a piece of art.  Maybe their intricate nature will deter me from making a ton of them and eating them all up!


However, part of me doubts that will be the case.  Let us consider my attempts at making sushi that always end up with a lot of "mistakes" for me to eat.  I mean I can't serve someone incorrectly rolled sushi, can I?


"Not I."

I know that the blog is currently looking like something Bramston P. Puppy crapped out, but I promise I will soon have it patched up with fabulously chic band-aids.  I really wanted a single column blog template...found one...but it won't do headers and horizontal pages very well...to put that delicately and the only way it will let me customize is in the code.

I've done all I can to try to fix it and even figured out how to change the layout configurations of blogger on my own.  My html and CSS skills are ok for what they are, but when you live with a professional coder and web developer...why not just ask him to fix it? Yeah, that's what I think too.


Also, come hell or high water, I will be taking some new photos for this thing.  I need to find my camera...shoot, I want to buy a new camera (suggestions welcome).  That's what I asked Steven to get me for my birthday...I'm super crossing my fingers for a DSLR camera...or something very expensive and shiny that sits, ever so perfectly, on my left hand.  Like that's happening...psh!


Anywho, I digress.  I really wanted to pass along this website: http://www.mylivesignature.com/  I've tried before in photoshop to make my own blog signature.  Little did I know that there are generators for this.  Le sigh!  I could of had one all along.  I do love it so!  Check it out:

Christmas in May?

It's extremely difficult for me to wait for my favorite holiday: Christmas. I live for it the whole year. Lately I've been thinking" "oh, I should start present hunting and baking goodies...getting out my holiday tunes and all that jazz." However, I will sit here patiently waiting until at least Halloween.

My birthday is coming up and I'm really excited about that too. Like...Christmas excited for it. Today at lunch, I told Steven I wanted a birthday tree of my own and I'm half tempted to put up my little 2 ft tree and put some really colorful not-so-christmasie-ornaments on it. I'm also hoping that the birthday-Santa leaves me some goodies under this tree. :D

I'm still debating what to do for my birthday. I've scheduled a cleaning and orthodontist consultation for the day before...completely boring, but they need to be done. I've taken 2 days off, so I should have a long weekend to myself if the pier is generous and doesn't schedule me. I'm hopeful, but not delusional. I really want to take a day and go to the city either solo or with the Steben. We live 45 minutes from D.C. and we never get up there. Shameful, isn't it?

Oh! Also excited that amazon has informed me that the new Sookie Stackhouse book has been shipped and will, I hope, arrive on the book's release date. Lately, I've lived for book releases. I've done more pre-ordering off of amazon in the past few weeks then in the whole existence of amazon.com. Once Hitch 22 arrives I'll probably disappear for a good week or so until I go to a book meet-and-greet with the author...

Also, in other life events: I have fluorescent orange pee. Yeah, you read that correctly. It's a side effect from one of the medications I'm taking to get rid of a bladder infection. Very nasty and annoying things that completely disrupt your life. I genuinely hope you've never experienced one. I'm trying to take it as easy as I can, but I know that I'm just not getting enough sleep. I never get enough sleep these days.

All work and no play really does make Ms. Domestique a dull girl...I know, I know...