Not Dead Yet

Jeez, it's been forever since I had something to say. Thanks to school and a cold I've been pretty busy. I slept something like 15 hours yesterday, thanks to Nyquil and the illness that necessitated it. Since I last posted I've started school {hate it}, had the house's foundation examined {gotta repair it}, celebrated Josh's birthday {huzzah}, and seen The King's Speech three times {love it}. Okay, technically I've only seen it twice, but I've got plans to see the pre-noon showing with Mom tomorrow. We're smuggling in donuts {shhh}. I'm actually hoping {needing} to get a lot of stuff done this weekend. Tonight will be math homework, but I'm hoping it will be accompanied by a side of pizza or queso. Post morning movietimes tomorrow will be birthday shopping with Josh. He said he wanted clothes for his birthday. I also need to do some reading {Comp II and Govt}, some research, and some writing {History}. Our Service Learning Project this year is writing to an authority on behalf of a local historic building in need of preservation. I also desperately need to make a big batch of pancakes {Cinnamon Oat, mmmm} to stock the freezer for school days. There's the usual grocery shopping and laundry to be done {oh joy}. And on top of all that we need to get to work on a home inventory. There have apparently been several break-ins in the neighborhood, so that is on the urgent list- along with replacing the burned out bulb in the backyard and safety latches on the exterior doors that don't have them yet. It's beautiful and in the 70's outside today. I wish it could stay like this long enough for me to enjoy it, but it's supposed to be back to winter tempt by next week {sigh}. I'd love a picnic right about now.

News and Shoes

Hey duders! Things are really getting hectic around here these days. We managed to survive our three Thanksgiving dinners last week, and we're headed into a busy weekend. I go in for my 6 month glaucoma exam this afternoon. Really not looking forward to that- especially since I'm well aware of what all it entails now. Lots of poking and poofing my eyeballs, and the darn dilation drops that make me soooo sleepy- they contain a decongestant. They conveniently don't tell you that part, so thought I was going crazy when I felt all drugged up after the first time. Following the eye exam we'll be heading to a surprise party for Josh's stepbrother Alec. That should be fun on the sleepy eye meds, ha.

We have our nephew, Alec's son, Griffin's birthday party early tomorrow morning and have to leave it a little early to make it to our haircut appointments. We adopted a Fort Worth Zoo animal in his name for his present. Josh tells me that he's going to put the Christmas lights up on the house this weekend, so I'll probably put the other outdoor decorations up too. We were invited to another party tomorrow evening, but it's not looking likely that we'll have time to attend. Oh, and I have to write a short paper with 2 outside sources analyzing portions of the film Wag the Dog. And History notes to catch up on. And about 5 loads of laundry. And grocery shopping. Haha, I can't wait until the semester is over, so I'll actually have some time for all the housework instead of homework.

This week I got an A+ on my Network paper for English, and a 100 on my Service Learning Project in History. Josh had me put my English paper on the refrigerator, haha. :) And I paid for my next semester's classes, so aside from books I'm all ready to go for the Spring.

So, that's the news portion of this post. For the shoes portion- well, it's technically the boots portion- I got these great gray boots in the mail this week. Ordered them from Piperlime and they came quickly and well-packed. And, best of all, only $69. I lurve them.

And The Days Go By

Okay, haven't updated in a week. Let's recap. Wednesday of last week we did the anniversary thing. Thursday I had school and went to the Writing Center after class to get help and extra credit on my history paper. Friday I worked, and Josh was off in Florida for a Back In Black show. My plan was to do homework, but it turned into eating junky and watching stuff off the DVR. I did however pick up "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" when I stopped by Half Price Books after work. Saturday I did a little housework, and spent a good chunk of the day in bed with the windows open, reading and watching the Rangers game. Josh got back and had another show that night, so we spent the evening grabbing a bite to eat at Benito's and at the Chat Room for Fate Lions. Sunday was some more chores, baking, grocery shopping, etc.

This week has been similar. Monday I went to work and made a big bowl of pesto pasta for dinner. Did some homework and watched/live-tweeted Hoarders. Tuesday was a rough day at school. The teacher read half of my paper aloud, luckily as a good example. It was anonymous, but it was still awkward. History class was canceled, so I had some waiting around to do. Then math class was super hard. I just wasn't getting it that day. Luckily that night when I got home from work I took a walk, ordered some pizza, and tucked in to my math homework- and it was easy! I don't know what my problem was in class, but I managed to even work a whole section ahead rather easily. Yesterday though I stayed home most of the day, only coming in to work for a bit in the afternoon, due to a lack of sleep induced headache. Worked a bit more on my next English assignment last night, and then relaxed by getting caught up on Glee! (I can't WAIT for the Rocky Horror episode!) That brings us up to today, when I got even more work done on my paper in English class, found out I got a 110 on my history paper thanks to that extra credit visit to the Lab, and breezed through a quiz and got out of math early.

Now I just need to make it through today and tomorrow at work. I'm looking at this weekend and I'm seeing lovely things. Possibly:

-a bike ride
-a museum visit
-a trip to IKEA
-Fall/Halloween decorating
-hanging out with some friends
-playing some badminton
-a teeny, tiny, smidge of homework

Fall in Texas, I think, brings the best weather of the year and I love being able to enjoy it when we can!

A Break In The Weather

I don't want to jump the gun, but I think we've possibly made it through another Texas summer. The ten day forecast here has highs in the upper 80's. That's damn near fall, right there. I might even be tempted to sleep with the windows open, if these 60 degree lows turn out to be fact. These temperatures have me looking forward to the weekend. I'll be doing homework tonight, but think I'll be doing some of it while lounging on the deck. While I'm at it, maybe breakfast will be enjoyed on the deck this weekend too. I've got chores and the like to get done this weekend, but no reason I can't fit plenty of outside time in there too. Actually I could probably get a few outdoors chores done as well. And I'm thinking a bike ride will be in order at some point. Josh's playing at the House of Blues tomorrow night and I'm excited because Stephanie & Rodney are going to come hang out with us. We'll get into some backstage shenanigans, no doubt. And I'm looking forward to the extra day off, even though Josh will be gone to play in Houston Sunday night. Yay outside times! Been cooped up all summer long!

Weekend Hopes

Here are a few of the things I'm planning, or at least hoping, to find time for this holiday weekend. Happy Fourth!

.Make some Whole Wheat Peach Muffins
.Measure my NYC map for framing
.Do breathing exercises twice
.Do pilates thrice
.Get a Small Time Cooks blog post up
.Finish reading 2 books
.Grocery shopping
.Bit of house cleaning
.Hang out time with Josh
.Hang out time with friends. Possibly a party?

Entertaining is Fun!

We've invited some friends we haven't seen for quite a long time over for a bit of a last minute dinner Friday night. I was already going to make Vegetable Enchiladas and Mexican rice for dinner, which serves 4, so there's no problem there. There's a pineapple upside down cake from Smitten Kitchen that I've been meaning to try for a long time and I have all the ingredients for it on hand. I was already planning on making a batch of homemade vanilla ice cream this week, so no extra cost or work there and it will go great with the cake. I've decided to make some guacamole so I'll need to stop by the store for the ingredients, and also pick up some yummy Mexican beers, extra tortilla chips and flowers for the table. Since it's all a bit last minute I've made a little schedule to make sure I'll be ready on time.

Last night: Made ice cream
Tonight: Take Mom out for birthday dinner, stop by store for missing ingredients/supplies, prep 1 pan of enchiladas for the oven and put 2nd in the freezer, arrange flowers
Friday: Finish cleaning by 3 (4 at the latest), make the cake, shower and get ready, make guacamole, make enchilada sauce, finish up any last minute things, put rice on the stove, enchiladas in the oven, and welcome our guests

Good thing I just finished re-reading Entertaining Is Fun!

Weekend Fun

I am looking forward to a weekend full of fun and hopefully some progress too. Just what am I anticipating?

Tonight- Packing up our picnic supplies and heading out to Concert in the Garden for an evening of jazz, food and fireworks.

Saturday- Heading to Goodwill and HomeGoods with Holly and getting several projects around the house wrapped up (some of them quite literally).

Sunday- Seeing Josh's band, Fate Lions, and many others at the Fort Worth Weekly Music Awards Festival. If you're feeling very generous today you could do us a favor and zip on over to that link and vote for Fate Lions. They've been nominated for Rock Band, Rock Album of the Year, and Rock Song of the Year. They were also recently the feature story in the Weekly's Music section.




























Pic from last year's outing to Concert in the Garden.

Busy Bees

We're heading into one busy weekend. We'll definitely be ready for our vacation to start on Tuesday. So, just what's on the agenda for us?

-Tonight: Show Mom how to use our washer & dryer, go to Target with Holly while Josh has rehearsal, Scotchguard livingroom rug(?), make ice cream for Sunday, a load of laundry (?), get together with Josh's fam for Drea's birthday, run soaker hoses, water compost pile a bit

-Saturday: Possibly hit farmer's market early with LeAnn, Nikon class at Fort Worth Camera, Ashley's 30th birthday party in Grapevine, Jason's birthday party back in Fort Worth

-Sunday: Up early to start digging ditches, installing yard drainage, make lunch/dinner after a hard days work (Nathan's hot dogs, grass-fed beef burgers w/ homegrown onions, roasted corn and homemade ice cream, I think), probably collapse, run soaker hoses

-Monday: Buy Nelson/Dylan tix on presale, clean house, finish laundry, pack clothes and carry-ons, notify Ann when we'll get to their house in the morning, spray the house and deck for springtails, get entertainment for flight together, pay mortgage/water/electric/gas online, decide on what sightseeing we'll do during our (rainy) visit to DC, decide best way to pack S&M's wedding gift.

Sadly, I'm sure there's more that I'm just not thinking of. But, when I leave today there'll be no more work 'til June! Yeah!

Weekend Plans

I am very excited for this weekend! We have lots of plans that I am looking forward to. Tonight I've got a lot of chores, including laundry, but I'm going to make some tomato soup and grilled cheese and make some time for a little relaxing too. Tomorrow we're borrowing John's truck and heading up a caravan to IKEA with Steph & Rodney and Holly. Can't wait to grab some lunch and finally get a chance to take my time there. Hoping to get so much stuff- patio furniture, a desk, frames, plant pots, a rug pad; the list goes on and on. We might stop by Jen & Jason's garage sale before we have to be at Steph's at noon, but not sure. And then Sunday we're going to make time between assembling all that the frustrating IKEA furniture to go to the Amon Carter Museum. There are three photography exhibits going on that I really want to see. One ends in just two weeks and then a week or so after that they are closing part of the first floor for renovations, so I want to make sure to catch them all while I have a chance. Hope everyone has a great weekend and that mine turns out as fun as it seems!

Weekend To-Do List

Lots to try and get done this weekend!

-Build dining room cabinet
-Get hair cut, bangs how I've missed you!
-Smooch Josh, 11 years!
-Unpack at least 4 boxes
-Put doors and shelves back on built-in
-Clear rocks and sticks from yards
-Weed and cut backyard
-Cut front yard
-Clean house, especially vacuuming
-Grocery shopping
-Make enchiladas and cilantro-lime rice for Josh's boss for recovery dinner
-Try and get at least one room ready for some photographs
-Finish laundry
-Drop film off for development

Weekend Plans Pictorial 2

Friday:










Saturday:



























Sunday:

Holiday Weekend

Ah, a nice holiday weekend is just what Josh and I need. I have a few things on my to-do list that I am looking forward to marking off. Hopefully I/we will:

-Spend some time with Matt & Ashley
-Make graham crackers
-Get some big time cleaning done
-Formulate a plan of action for the next few months
-Find shoes for Spencer & Deb's wedding
-Do some other baking
-Grocery shop

I hope that everyone has a great Independence Day!

Weekend Plans

Right now I'm typing this as my hair does some air-drying before the blow-drying. And I am so excited for our weekend. Josh has two shows tonight, hectic but fun. An afternoon show tomorrow, hot but a java-chip frap will help with that. And then there's Sunday. Last year, as I wrote here, we were planning on going to the Concert In The Garden. But we didn't. That will all be remedied this Sunday though- tickets bought, picnic menu planned, sunscreen at the ready. I am so ridiculously excited to go- Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and fireworks! I stopped off at Target to pick up a cute new cooler and picnic basket for our evening in the park. Can't wait to fill them with goodies!

Weekend Plans Pictorial

I decided to post about our weekend plans in picture form today.

Friday night:




Saturday:


















Sunday:

Say Cheese

I am really looking forward to this weekend. Josh and I have made plans for a lovely one. One activity I am really looking forward to is our visit to the Amon Carter Museum. I took a class there in high school, but I've rarely been back since. There is an exhibit that has really caught my interest and I can't wait to see all it has to offer. The Art of the American Snapshot, 1888-1978 traces the history of the snapshot in America after the introduction of Eastman's Kodak camera and film. This exhibition particularly speaks to me since it's about finding art in the average. And aside from the exhibition the Amon Carter has an impressive photography collection that I am really looking forward to perusing. I just finished watching the Ric Burns directed American Experience on Ansel Adams, so I will be keeping an eye out for this piece in particular.

Four Day Weekend

I plan to get some things accomplished over the holiday weekend. And most of them include food.

-Order in Chinese food
-Make a pound cake
-Make ham paninis
-Watch a Cary Grant movie
-Laugh at Monty Python
-Play some Sudoku and Risk
-Have a good cup of coffee, maybe with pancakes and bacon
-Make a Goodwill drop off

What are you guys doing?

And Then I Don't Feel So Bad

I'm so excited! I finished packing up the box this afternoon and shortly I'll be at the post office shipping off a few of my most loved odds and ends to my partner for Jihan's Favorite Things Swap- Summer '07. I really hope that my partner will be as excited to open the box as I was to fill it with goodies. And I hope the goodies I chose don't disappoint. I can't wait to receive my package either, but it's always more fun to give than to receive. At least that's how I justify my Christmas budget, ha.

Josh and I are looking forward to this weekend so very much. We don't have any plans, aside from doing a few things we need to do and a lot of things we want to do. For the first weekend in a month or more we don't have any obligations to family or friends. We're going to finally(!) switch bed frames with my bro & his wife so that we can get our new headboard put up. I will probably do laundry and grocery shop. But aside from that, we are free. I plan to watch some of the quality television that I've been dvr'ing, but haven't gotten to watch yet. Josh plans to play a lot of PS3. These both require the same television, but compromises can be easily reached. Especially when we play the sudoku game he downloaded together. And Saturday night I'm going old school and making chicken tenders and Kraft macaroni & cheese. I've been craving some of our not so healthy, but oh so yummy meals of yore.

This has been a long week, and today has been a long day. I'm so thankful that when I leave work today I don't have to be back till Monday! What are you thankful for today?

Cure for Insomnia?

Probably not, but you never know. I just ordered the West Elm headboard that I'd been keeping my eye on lately. Aside from needing new bedside tables, it's the last big piece of furniture I was looking to replace. I got a lovely note from West Elm advising me that they were having a bedroom sale, and it turned out they were kind enough to mark my desired object down $40. It will be a while before it arrives, but I need to get a new bed frame and some risers, so that's not really a bad thing. I'm definitely still feeling a bit down about yesterday's events, but this has helped to raise my spirits.























I've got all sorts of ideas swirling in my head about how to spend the lovely 4 day weekend ahead of me. I'm imagining Baked Ruffles with fat-free ranch dip, some good movies, and working on my cleaning list. And of course some quality time with the hubster.