April 2008
Monthly Archive
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Doug and Elena got married on Saturday in a beautiful wedding on a gorgeous day. Congrats!!
With all this rain we’ve been having, I’m really glad I have a nice pair of waterproof hiking boots. Especially since the field we walk Illy in has grass up to my ankles.
Anyway, about Illy. She’s sort of a case of two steps forward and one step back. Or three, depending on the day. She was doing pretty well until a pan fell in the kitchen and scared her half to death, causing her to regress about a week’s worth of progress in the bravery and outgoingness department.
But she’s getting there. I hope.
When I came home today, she was so excited that she was wagging her whole body around, her tail spinning like a windmill, and she actually jumped down the stairs to the first floor landing, looking at me like, “Come on come on come on get up here already!!!” Of course, she was too chicken to actually come down and meet me in the foyer.
Baby steps.
So she gets all excited to see me and I play with her – for about five minutes, and then she’s done. Bored or worn out, she wants to go lie in her crate again. She’s sort of like a cat. She sleeps a lot.
I remember talking to Aaron’s brother and sister in law about how they managed to raise the most well behaved kids on the planet. The first thing his sister in law said was, “Get a dog. When you have raised the dog and have complete control over it, then you’re ready for kids.”
We laughed, ha ha ha, but she has a point. Since we got her her, I’ve had to become so much more patient. And calm. And less stressed. And then there’s the other parts – coming home to an animal that excited to see me is the greatest feeling – and she didn’t even spring from my loins!
Because she’s sort of a special needs dog, she’s much more challenging, and I wasn’t sure I was up for it. But I guess I am – I may not be doing everything right with her, and we’re all learning as we go, but at least I don’t feel like I can’t handle it or want to give up. At least, not yet.
The other great part about this whole thing is seeing Aaron light up when she gets excited to see him, and see him taking care of her. Awwww. I just sit back and smile as I watch them together.
- Was David A. wearing leather pants?!? Hmmm, or were they pleather.
- Mariah had a freaking prong collar on her tiny little dog, the collar was way too low, and she wasn’t actively training the dog, so why the hell was he wearing it? Sorry, dog training rant.
- Did anyone else think that after every hug she gave the contestants, Mariah looked like she wanted to rub sanitizer all up and down her body?
- Syesha. Eh.
- PSA to Kristy Lee Cook: You are not riding a horse! Stand up straight! God, I cant’ stand her stance – pull your left leg back even with your freaking right leg. And those facial expressions! I can almost get over her eyebrows (and I’m pretty sure it was those caterpillar brows that gave Mariah goosebumps, by the way) until she starts doing that scrunchy thing with her eyes. Gah!
- Ditto Carly Smithson. I can almost take her voice if I’m not looking at her. Something about the shape of her face, how angry she always looks, and the fact that I can see down past her weirdly shaped tongue into her esophagus really, really bothers me. And, and, I really don’t think she’s that great of a singer. Strike me down for saying this, but I prefer Kristy Lee’s voice because it’s smoother when she’s pushing it. Carly just screeches to me.
- Brooke White. Love. That is all.
- David Cook made me actually like a Mariah Carey song. And he cried! Love it. Watching him sing reminded me of watching Rob Thomas from Matchbox 20 sing. Yeah yeah, make fun, but if you’ve seen him live, hell even if you’ve seen some of his videos, you know the man is so incredibly intense and passionate that he takes your breath away. And forgive the dog reference, but he has a border collie stare. You just can’t look away. So yeah, rock on David. I will buy his album.
- Sorry, did anything happen after David Cook sang?
Also, the best quote from the preview for Hell’s Kitchen from Gordon Ramsay: You move like a tortoise giving birth!
Yesterday was 72 and gorgeous, and today is 40 and grey. I really do love jeans and sweater weather, and we had a nice brisk walk with Illy this afternoon. But yesterday did get me really in the mood for summer.
Matt and I had a great day of skeet shooting, eating, drinking, wandering DC basking in the beautiful weather, and finishing with a show at the DC Improv. Surprisingly, all the openers for the headliner were really funny, and the headliner was hysterical. And we made friends with the people sharing our table, and we all exchanged contact info, so hopefully that will turn into a new friendship. Well, I made friends with the girl and Matt used to work on the same project the guy used to work on (or something) so they made friends. Is it sad that the girl and I bonded over the fact that people in DC are so…mean…and it was refreshing to actually meet someone nice? Is that friendship fate, or does it reek of desperation?
I just don’t know.
Anyway so yesterday got me all in the mood to throw a BBQ. I love chilling on the deck with friends, margaritas, beer, wings and burgers. Hopefully people’s weekends aren’t fully booked already. I usually don’t expect that many people to be willing to make ‘the long trip’ out to our house to hang with us, but I’m always surprised that people really aren’t that put out by it. I guess if you don’t do the long drive daily like I do, once in a blue moon it isn’t really that bad. And hey, free food! So stay tuned for invitations!
That reminds me of how my dad would decide whether or not to go visit his brother when we were growing up. His brother lived I guess an hour away or so, and my dad was kind of reclusive, so there was always a lot of hemming and hawing over whether we would go or not. Whether it was worth it to make the trip. I, or course, being the social butterfly I was, always pushed hard to go. Mostly because when all the relatives got drunk it was easy to bluff them out of their money at the poker game. And my cousin Wanda made a mean Mudslide. Good times, good times.
When Thanksgiving would come around and Uncle Hutch invited us over, my dad would have a conversation with us (himself, really) that went something like this:
“Let’s see, 30 miles there, 30 miles back. That’s 60 miles, so four gallons of gas. Eight dollars worth of gas to get there and we have to bring a pie, which is $5. But we’ll get a free meal and we’ll bring some leftovers home, so if we bring back enough turkey, we’ll end up in the black! Let’s go!”
I remember those long drives back and forth to my uncle’s house, and how my dad would play the song game with us the whole way, to pass the time. It was hard because all the songs he knew were from the ’40s and ’50s, and my brother and I only knew modern songs. I’m trying to remember exactly how the game was played, but I think it was that we would pick a word, and then sing a song that had that word in the lyrics. Matthew, is that right?
I have the strongest memories of the long ride home, tired out from a day of hanging out with our cousins, swimming in their pool and stuffing ourselves with all kinds of food (to get our money’s worth, of course). Those rides, when we were surrounded by the blanket of darkness, rolling along in our station wagon, listening to my dad’s deep voice singing the chorus of one of his favorite songs…yeah, that was the best part of those trips.
Worth every penny.
What the fuck is wrong with people.
Why, when I’m walking my dog, and you are driving past me, do you need to honk your fucking horn at me?!? You can’t know that I have a skittish dog who already hates traffic and you just scared the shit out of her for no good reason, but it’s really unacceptable anyway because your horn is fucking loud when you honk it right next to my fucking ear and it bothers me, too, jackass!!
Is this your way of ‘flirting’ at 45mph? Or are you just trying to show off to your friends in the car somehow? I swear it makes me want to carry rocks in my pocket so I can show you how I ‘flirt’ back.
Austin and Kelli came over last night, meatloaf in hand, to have dinner and meet Illy. The meatloaf was fantastic, and Illy found a friend in Kelli!
They lovingly donated some of (their late dog) Blue’s doggie goodies, including this giant Blue-sized dog bed.
Illy wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, since it’s taller than her bed, which she lays on 24/7.
However, all was not lost. The cats quickly claimed it as their own, and have been on it ever since.
Buddy does tend to kick Misty off it – even though there is clearly *plenty* of room for them both.