it's just plain adorable

this is a picture of three of my college roommates (there were 6 of us total -- collectively known as the 'mckee girls'). kate (l) and becky (r) are due within two weeks of each other and both having boys, and beth (c) just had twin boys. this photo was taken over the weekend in connecticut where beth lives.

5 of the 6 have kids or one on the way... can you guess the odd man out?

accident prone

in the past two weeks i've done some severe damage to my right foot big toe (the comfortable shoes i was walking around DC in suddenly became uncomfortable the last hour we were out), fallen down an entire flight of stairs thanks to an icy morning last wednesday and my beagle who pulls like a son of gun when i take him out in the morning (the softball size black & purple bruise on my ass isn't office chair- friendly), and to top it all off my boss and i were hoisting the new water jug into the cooler this morning and she decided to let go before i did... with my thumb between the VERY heavy jug and the cooler. it's black & blue & bleeding. seriously... what the...?

song of the day: they might be giants, anna ng

holla atcha girl

i couldn't resist posting this. i have this weird affinity for snoop dogg that i can't expl-iz-ain. and i dig martha fo' shizzle.

enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioPrnas53d4&feature=related

damn recession

i love shelter mags. love love love love love. i subscribe to many and my day is always a little better when i get to the mailbox and there one is waiting for me. but i received some sad news today no thanks to time, inc. one of my dearest, cottage living, has gone the way of the glossy paper recycle bin.

this isn't the first to go. last week O at Home shut its doors. along with many others. coastal living's editor-in-chief was recently let go, as well. honestly, if Oprah can't survive the recession, who can?

so please, a moment of silence...

party!

today's my birthday. i forgot. does that tell you anything about how hectic my life is right now? i left the house this morning for work and had to be at an appt. first thing this morning. got all the way there, got a call from my husband that he needed to see me. for what? i'm thinking, oh great... the dog got out and got hit by a car. so i'm a little in a panic state, but at 8:58 he comes rolling into the parking lot where i am. all is fine and the conversation goes something like this:

[we both get out of our cars]
j: i forgot to tell you happy birthday this morning and i'm really sorry.
me: oh my gosh... i completely forgot it was my birthday!

yep, i forgot my own birthday. it was a little strange this year, granted. my parents have, every year that i've not lived at home, come to visit me for my birthday -- no matter where i am. at some point -- either the weekend before, the weekend of or the weekend after -- i spend my birthday with my brother and sister-in-law. this is the first year in 10 years i've not done either of those things!

but to make up for it we're having dinner with our community group friends and going to see denison witmer, who i haven't seen live in 6 years! and my husband is home this year for my birthday, which doesn't always happen with his work schedule. so that right there makes it a perfect day.

i just have one minor complaint... i was too busy today to listen to woxy!

mr. november

(thanks, national)

the holy crap election

seriously, i'm sitting here thinking "holy crap... this is huge!" (that's what she said.) i've been such a mixture of excited, nervous, impatient, tired... and it is all coming to a close so quickly! maybe that's why i really didn't feel like cooking tonight. i hope we can someday tell our kids what we did tonight: singapore rice noodles for dinner as we sit in our house that is torn up from one corner to another (that's a whole other story), both on our laptops, rabbit-ear television on in the background and our dog chewing up who-knows-what under the guest bed. completely unglamorous, but we've been able to laugh at ourselves all night long and that is priceless.

in all honesty, i thought for sure this would be a repeat of the 2000 election -- not knowing for weeks who the president would be. but, thanks to two states i am proud to have lived in (ohio and pennsylvania), barack obama is more than likely our new president. this is so incredibly exciting!

should we put all our eternal hope in a president? no, not at all. but i'm proud to be an obama supporter and i look forward to what lies ahead.

GOBAMA!

i miss cincinnati

so as you may have gathered, i used to work for the most amazing little place by the name of WOXY. it's in a nice little city by the name of cincinnati. i always liked cincinnati, much to the confusion of many. but seriously, some of the most respected & influential music has come out of that little southwest corner of ohio. and the most amazing musical and political marriage is about to take place there exactly one week from today. did you get the invitation?

















song of the day: !!!, hello? is this thing on?

sheesh!

wow... i've been full of it lately. my cynicism is getting the best of me and i need to take it down a notch.

i recently read a post on another friend's blog about our community. we joined our homegroup a year ago and it has been the greatest journey. we felt so welcome from the first moment we stepped through the door -- and we are grateful to have built meaningful, dependable and fun-loving friendships with everyone. we share our thoughts on God, we share a meal, we share our opinions, we share our struggles and we share our praises. but what's most important to me is that we share a sense of family with each and every single person in our group. living far from both sides of our families, we really crave spending time and sharing our lives with folks who love us and care about us. we all come together from different backgrounds, schools of thought and experiences, but we all love each other and respect each other. i'm thankful that they can depend on us and likewise.

so cheers, homegroup peeps! we heart you!


song of the day: mgmt, time to pretend

nesting

Nesting refers to the process of efficiently manufacturing parts from flat raw material.

Thanks, Wiki.

and there you have it, folks. nesting, nesting, nesting... it's freakin' everywhere. while commonly used to talk about making a house a home, the whole nesting thing has gotten out of hand. meaning, this bird trend has got to stop, i tell you! want "alternative & artsy" decor? use a bird. or better yet, a silhouette of a bird. want to send someone a little "hello" note? get the ones with the pastel pencil drawing of bird on them. they are sure to brighten someone's day. or a tassel adorned with any combination of a nest, eggs and bird... that is just brilliant.

of course there are a few out there who have always liked birds (the mrs., for one) and have used them in one way (messenger pigeons) or another (logos). how to determine the sincere from the sheep i have no idea. nay, i do have an idea. if you see this hanging in someone's dwelling, you'll know he/she is an impostor!

so what's today's lesson? enough with the cuteness and step it up with the awesomeness.

(as though the bird isn't enough, the song of the day has a similar appeal)
song of the day: fujiya & miyagi, pussyfooting

i've never been so sure...

...of my love for OBAMA.

i was disgusted by sarah palin's speech last night. i couldn't figure out if she was running for her high school class president (er, vice president), rehearsing for her high school play or participating in her first public speaking class as freshman in college. it was so poorly delivered and offensive to me as a woman. it was a speech full of pathetic one-liners that made me want to scream. she had noting to say about what she would do as vice president for this issue or that. eh-em... i take that back. she mentioned that she would make sure that all families with special needs children would be taken care of. hmm... i'm guessing that had she not just had a child with special needs, she wouldn't give two shits about special needs. and don't even get me started about her completely absurd comment touting her service as a mayor of wasilla and saying that she actually had responsibilities... unlike her opponent who was "only a community organizer." she sounded so completely uneducated after every word she uttered. she was so incredibly arrogant and i'm disgusted at john mccain's blatant lip service to women by choosing one as a running mate.

and right now mccain is giving his acceptance speech. i am so sick of his military service being the lynchpin of this campaign. and i have never heard a speech so dumbed down in my entire life. pattern: i will do this... my opponent will do that... crowd boos. i don't want to hear about how he sacrificed so much because he loved his country more than his family, how he can name specific families in battleground states who have fallen on hard times and how many times he can get a crowd to chant "U-S-A" -- mccain is going to continue to lead this country down a path of international isolation and economic grief. a path of poor education and environmental instability. a path of increased racial and class tensions. a path that sees war and military aggression as a way to demonstrate power and secure our "status" in the world.

and in the words of the late, great Bernie Mac: "you know what america?" i'm terrified that the mccain/palin ticket is going to pull the wool over the eyes of americans. i can't live like this for another four years. can you?

wussy ass ponys

for some time i've quite enjoyed the melodies of cincinnati's own ass ponys. yeah, they were the ones who sang that song little bastard that "broke" them. but they ended up being more than that. and each time i hear them, or their we-broke-up-because-of-roll-your-eyes-typical-irresponsible-fame spawn, wussy, i smile bounce around a little. and you can no doubt count on hearing one of the two bands on request the x each month. like i just did. take a listen, why don't you?

song of the day: oasis, falling down (which may be a post all it's own one of these days)

yikes

so i was flipping through channels tonight and stopped in complete disbelief when i saw and heard the antics of this guy, who i'm pretty sure is certifiable. and i don't want to be friends with.

craigslist idiocy

i didn't really know what to title this post. "pet peeve," "stupidity" and "tasteless" were all candidates, as well.

so, i love craigslist. i've made some benji's, i've spent some benji's. it is just amazing to see the things that people will sell -- and how they describe it. and not necessarily in a good way. listen, if you are selling some piece of crap and you know it is a piece of crap, don't try to dupe people into thinking it is amazing. you know it isn't, so stop it. honestly, i've seen more posts that read like this:

*****GORGEOUS -- SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL -- WON'T LAST LONG*****

and the item looks like this:

*****SHIT*****

than i care to see. so you might be saying, "uhh... then stop looking at those posts," but craigslist is tricky that way. sometimes people are selling something that is gorgeous and beautiful... and you want to get your hands on it before they find out that they should be talking to Sotheby's.

here's a fun lesson in craigslist faux pas:
http://raleigh.craigslist.org/fuo/800628643.html

honestly, this woman (and we all know who it is thanks to her stellar photographic prowess)... she can't spell, obviously thinks that things/people of asian descent are still referred to as "oriental" like it is 1940 and she is trying desperately to make you think you want it. no way, lady. you can keep it.

again? really?

so i'm in the middle of transferring all of my files from the ftp server at work to my work computer. yes, the work computer that crashed on me two weeks ago. from the computer that crashed on me less than 12 hours ago. bloody hell! much like carrie (blog reference #2 to satc), i didn't back up. not to be confused with backing it up. cuz i can do that. and after my trip to best buy tonight, i'll be able to back up, too.

i'm just praying (and i mean PRAY-ING) that the transfer from the ftp server continues to go well and i won't be here all night waiting for it to finish.

on a completely different note, though... i was reminded of something just this afternoon that made me laugh. thinking of all of the gymnastics action in the olympics over the past two weeks(that i've been staying up until all hours of the night watching), i thought of our favorite gymnast of all -- a gymnast by the name of mary katherine gallagher.

gymmm-NAS-tics! baaack-FLIPS!


song of the day: gentleman auction house, call it casual

try it

bacon, spinach, tomato, cucumber, avacado and a VERY small amount of garlic & mayo. throw it all on sunflower bread and enjoy.

song of the day: delta spirit, strange vine

swimming

i love to go swimming. i'm a terrible swimmer. in fact, i don't think i can even say that i "swim" when i'm in the water. i took swimming lessons as a kid; i think that's what did it. swimming lessons pretty much entailed getting thrown in the deep end and having to "swim" to the person out there waiting. i mean, huh? but nonetheless, i do like to be in the water.

i've been home sick with some kind of stomach bug the past two days (along with about 5 other colleagues) and i've been able to watch a lot of olympic swimming. it is just amazing to me that human bodies can do what they can do. these swimmers are just amazing... not to mention all of the other athletes who are tumbling, running, diving, etc.

perhaps something that amazes me as much as the athletes is the photography. these amazing moments are captured by the most incredibly talented photographers. i'm guessing it is just as much pressure to capture the moment properly as it is to perform the moment being captured.

we fell in love in the key of c

going to see wilco tonight. that just makes me happy.

song of the day: jukebox the ghost, under my skin

the nomadic life

sometimes the thought of being in one place for a long period of time scares the crap out of me. the longest i was ever in once place (voluntarily) was in college. maybe it is because since college i have been in quite a few places and that i've just become accustom to it... i don't know. sometimes i see my photos of pennsylvania landscape and want to be there. sometimes i see the evergreens of oregon and can't stop wondering what it would be like to live there. sometimes i think of my experience in nantucket and then all of the sudden it is like in a movie when the record stops playing and you can hear it scratch as everything stops and everyone gets quiet... that's because i realize i'm not swimming in cash and can't afford to live in nantucket. hi, reality.

the thought of making friends and leaving friends isn't fun, though. i would imagine pretty soon you just don't even attempt to make friends because you know you'll be gone in a couple years. and all that moving? honestly, we have been here for nearly 3 years and still have boxes that aren't unpacked. dammit. i need to get on that.

i like the south, though. the purchase of a swimming pool is justified because you can practically use it year-round, the air quality is good where we are, there's a vibrant arts scene, our friends are fun, our house is rad (and only getting better), we're close to the beach, we're close to the mountains, there's great universities, a minor league baseball team, it's sunny on most days, restaurants have outdoor seating almost all year long, shrimp burgers are awesome, the city continues to grow, one of my best girlfriends now lives a few hours away and rita's is scheduled to open yet this summer.

i think i'll stay here... for a while longer anyway.

song of the day: my morning jacket, aluminum park

a royalty fortune

listening to mmj will forever remind me of the fall of 2003. holy crap. that looks so far gone on "paper," but seems like just yesterday. everything about it still moves makes me want play some kind of dramatic hollywood scene where i am so moved by the inspirational frustration regarding the state of things in my life that i pack a bag of essentials and most valuable possessions, get in my car and just leave life behind, blazing a trail to a new beginning. (oh yeah, oscar nomination right here.) anyway, mmj has experienced a considerable amount of publicity in recent days (incredibly un-fashionably late to the party, folks), but so has that [sly little] fleet foxes. i mean, i enjoy it. but that's because i enjoy mmj. imitation is flattery? please. that is just a nice way of saying "copy cat."

an older, wiser, musical genius put it best, "all I could think of was that they either need to tour with MMJ or they need to send them royalty checks!"

toss it

i love to throw things away. it is such a rush to go through a box of who-can-remember-what-is-in-there and deem it a box of shit-that-can-be-thrown-away! if that isn't your style, try it. it will grow on you.

my dad likes to keep things, so obviously i got my cleaning style from my mom. but it's endearing. and i must admit that it is fun when he pulls out something old and we can ooh and awe over it and play "remember when." in fact, my dad recently told me a funny story about my younger cousin, cord.

cord is going into 4th (?) grade. he and his brother (donny) are polar opposites. cord is really outgoing and kind of a ham. donny is reserved, serious. cord has always seemed to have a fascination for how things work. most recently, a television that had hand-turn dials. he just couldn't believe it. so my dad was telling him that we might still have our old television with turn dials. sure enough, one trip to the storage above the garage and my dad pulls out our old school black & white 12" television. dad cleaned it up and plugged it in and the thing still worked! when he dropped it off at my aunt & uncle's house, cord thought it was worth a million bucks. my dad said cord set it up in his bedroom -- complete with various action figures surrounding it like guards.

my brother & i were never allowed to have television in our bedrooms, but there was always that black & white television on top of the refrigerator. growing up on a fruit & vegetable farm in NW Pennsylvania, the weather was always the topic of conversation. every night at 6:20 sharp, the family conversation at the dinner table went silent so we could watch dick goddard tell us if the farmhands would be in the field the next day picking whatever fruit or vegetable most needed to be harvested, or inside cleaning the barns & greenhouses. approximately 5 minutes later, normal family conversation resumed.

maybe jonathan and i should remove our craigslist post for our 15" television that has a convex (GASP) screen! our neices or nephews might might think it's gold...

song of the day: nick cave & the bad seeds, dig, lazarus, dig

i'm in a movie

you know how some songs just scream "write me into a movie"? this is definitely one of them. i thought that the first time i heard it, gosh, last year? already? sigh...

Shoot from the back,
take good aim,
Make sure I'm dead
Bang Bang

'Cause I'm a rat
there's no mistake
Under the bed
where you sleep

Crush the skull
make me tame
Sweep it up
Hide it away

No morals shown
in no way explained
Stupid human
Shit for brains

And draw tiny pictures
'round all the days
Bag and burn
Bang Bang

Throw your judgements
across the breeze
Bag and burn
Bang Bang

You live inside
your Jesus dream
Bag and burn
Bang Bang

Get some sleep
or lie in wait
Until the day
I run away

Forget the corpse
present the case
to bring me down
and lose your words

I'll follow you
into the grave
and at the gates
I see the passing say,

"The judge be judged,
and all the rich be saved."
I throw my curse
all across your days

And draw tiny pictures
'round all the days
Bag and burn
Bang Bang

Throw your judgements
across the breeze
Bag and burn
Bang Bang

You live inside
your Jesus dream
Bag and burn
Bang Bang

And draw tiny pictures
'round all the days

Throw your judgements
across the breeze

Watch them float off
to never be saved

You live inside
your Jesus dream

grr...

you know what really grinds my gears? the cost of a decent bookcase. i mean, honestly... i need to hold a fund-raiser just to buy two!

song of the day: wolf parade, california dreamer

it's all around

inspiration is a wonderful thing. for me, it is such a sign of God's presence when i see things or hear things (or touch, or taste, or smell) that awaken me in the most exciting ways. the senses are just amazing. they can serve as reminders of the good, the bad and the ugly. but they can also make you feel something that comes from deep within -- something you didn't know even existed inside of you. and i'm pretty certain that the senses are 99% of the catalyst for taking risks. the other 1% depends on who you are -- it could be utter stupidity or fall-on-your-knees faith.

i should definitely take more risks.

song of the day: john vanderslice, up above the sea

'tis the season

wedding season. ahh... makes me remember what it was like for me this time three years ago. finishing up our wedding thank you notes, playing tennis after dinner at the courts in mt. lebanon (that's what we like to think it was... any real tennis player would have passed out watching us), still figuring out where things are going to go as we sorted through (both of) our belongings, wishing we were still in hawaii... it was fun. this year, three of our friends are getting married -- and all of them this saturday! one in ohio, one in pennsylvania and one in new york. obviously none of them asked us before deciding on a date, or a location. thanks, guys.

sadly, we won't be heading to ohio for the wedding of maria & george. maria and i met when i worked at woxy in cincinnati (oxford). we hit it off right away and she has been such a dear friend ever since. i have been waiting, with eager anticipation, the arrival of the beautiful kate spade toasting flutes i purchased for them -- only to get home yesterday to find them delivered in a shattered mess. lovely. so thinking i could purchase them in a store and not just online, i went to buy them last night and they are nowhere in sight. figures. so maria & george will be toasting their new life together in vera wang instead. the trade off could be worse, right?

song of the day: silversun pickups, lazy eye

rejected

as it turns out the "opportunity" didn't love me as much as i loved it. apparently it's just not that into me.

and one thing i'm not into is the song of the day (i'm just not cheating and i'm being honest about the first song i heard on woxy today):

the donnas, too bad about your girl

oh, patience, wherefore art thou?

patience is a virtue, right? sometimes i'm really good at it, but sometimes i'm not. this is one of those "not" times. kind of. i think it started last night with frank [the beagle]. he's such a little pisser sometimes! sure, he had to be in his crate yesterday instead of roaming the house like he normally does during the day, but that is no excuse. he was giving us 'tude all night. so i gave it right back. he wouldn't go to sleep until i coaxed him with a biscuit to lay down. and as i was coaxing him, he actually nipped at me! ughghrrr... that just made me even more frustrated at him.

and i'm waiting to hear about a new "opportunity" [code for just what you think it is code for]. i'm so excited about it and put a lot of time and effort into preparing, etc. and i'm trying to remind myself that it isn't the end of the world if this "opportunity" doesn't come through, but oh that is just so hard sometimes! i know i'd do a great job at this new "opportunity."

lessons stink. i'll be singing a different tune later, but for now, that's my motto.

(i was singing this earlier) song of the day: talking heads, cities

you stay classy, san diego

song of the day: elliot smith, pretty (ugly before)

we got back from san diego last monday. i had a conference to attend and jonathan was able to tag along. it was a great time. we haven't really been on vacation since our honeymoon... i know, tragic. last year we went to napa w/ family for a dear friend's wedding, but nothing just the two of us. anyway... we went to a padres game, ate at some fantastic restaurants, spent hours debating over which long board to buy (only to find out it can't be taken on the plane, so we didn't get it), mastered the metro, soaked up some California sun and got a sunburn. it was great! jonathan is so much fun to be with... he makes the smallest trips into an adventure. oh, the conference went well, too.

so in honor of the great city of san diego, the fun we had there and the comedy of Will Farrell, here is one of the best sequences from Anchorman... enjoy!

Ron Burgundy: Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means a whale's vagina.
Veronica Corningstone: No, there's no way that's correct.
Ron Burgundy: I'm sorry, I was trying to impress you. I don't know what it means. I'll be honest, I don't think anyone knows what it means anymore. Scholars maintain that the translation was lost hundreds of years ago.
Veronica Corningstone: Doesn't it mean Saint Diego?
Ron Burgundy: No. No.
Veronica Corningstone: No, that's - that's what it means. Really.
Ron Burgundy: Agree to disagree.

song of the day

my goal was to have a song of the day each time i posted, but you can see how that went. and no i'm not just going to make something up for those days i missed. cheater.

ok, back in the saddle...

song of the day: the wedding present, the thing i like best...

sneaky dipping

it is hotter than the hinges here and what better way to cool off than a nice dip in the pool? we don't have a pool. i wish we did. but we remedied that by sneaking, along with our friends joe & jessica, into our old apartment complex's pool over the weekend. sweet chlorine bliss, it was. we'll definitely be doing that again.

3 years (plus one day)

jonathan and i celebrated our third wedding anniversary yesterday. hoop de boo ya!! the day was so chock full of things, i didn't have a chance to write about it! ok, so we both still had to work and the "things" were a lot of insane work frustrations from uncooperative departments, but jonathan, like always, let me get it off my chest so that i could move on an enjoy our evening together.

i like to think i'm pretty low maintenance, and i'm pretty sure that jonathan would agree on most occasions. i didn't really need or want some elaborate and planned-out evening to celebrate. i came home to three dozen roses and an amazing husband who left work early to go home and make the house spic-n-span before i came home. he's awesome like that. we decided to hit up humble pie (and no, it isn't a bakery) for a nice, long, european-like dinner. tapas style, so just ordering one at a time so we could enjoy and chat and spend time together. it was fantastic. the owner is a client of jonathan's company, so he hooked us up with some nice sparkling wine, as well.

topped off the night watching the Pens lose... crap.

it was a great day. not a lot of hoop-la, just us being us, thankful for one another and thankful for another year together.

thanks for another splendid year, jonathan. i love you.

Season 5, Episode 71

remember this one? it's when carrie celebrates the launch of her book and is the guest of honor at the most fantastic soiree ever, and samantha shows up looking like she's wearing her birthday suit inside out... at least on her face. well, i can now relate. oh, right... to samantha that is. you were jealous for a second, huh? admit it.

so i'm allergic to something. and the culprit is one of three things:
1. cargo liquid/powder foundation
2. cetaphil face cleanser
3. aveeno calming moisturizer

say what? yeah, that's what i thought, too. these are supposed to be some of the most gentle items out there, right? as much as i hate to admit it i think the cargo has to go. i mean, it could be a combination of any of the three, but what are the odds? (did anyone notice that that question calls for both permutations and probability? not that i can figure out either of them, but it's fun to pretend like i know what i'm talking about.)

oh, so the rest of my story. so i bid my colleagues a giant PEACE OUT in the middle of the picnic (it was rainy and cold, so the picnic was a bit of a bust) and i went to the dermatologist. honestly, i wore my sunglasses all day yesterday thinking that i could somehow achieve incognito status wherever i went. that didn't work. i had to give my name at the dr. office and my colleagues knew who i was. foiled again! so the doctor comes in the room and i tell her what's wrong and all. her response "yeah, all those tiny red bumps all over your face are hives, and your skin is swollen & inflamed, too!" really? you think? not quite the reaction i was looking for, doc, but what did i expect? so she gave me a prescription 'roid cream and some super strength antihistamine and sent me on my way.

my face hurts real bad.

(song of the day: pj harvey, this is love)

the office

song of the day: television, marquee moon

my office is a-buzz, i tell you... a-buzz! today is the highly anticipated office picnic. really, the sight of us looks a lot like a family holiday gathering. i'd say the median age of my "older" colleagues is around 53. (i love saying "around" and then naming such a specific number... that's right... like i did just now.) then there's a pretty large gap (with a few 30-somethings in there) and then a handful of us who are still in our 20's. we look like the grandkids at a family function. we have the kids table where we all sit together and make fun of a few of our colleagues (in a joking sort of way, of course) and make a few inappropriate comments, engage in a few friendly sporting games, and inevitably one of us does something stupid to get hurt. all while the "adults" sit around and drink their diet coke out of a can wrapped with a napkin or something so as to avoid actually touching the condensation on the can (what's this on my hand?! water?! well, that's the end of that!) and half-heartedly interject a laugh or side note into a conversation. they might partake in a little bocce when things get wild. but just like family, they are endearing and you enjoy (most of) them anyway.

one year and counting...

song of the day: atmosphere, glasshouse

today marks one year that jonathan and i have lived in our house. memorial day 2007 was the first night that we spent at our new address and it seems as though not much has changed... we still have a million fire ant hills that seem to never go away no matter how much you poison them, the yard isn't really grass so much as it is weeds, the green room is still the shit room, and our walls are still mostly without photos and artwork.

here i am being all glass-half-empty, but when i think of it, we have done a lot of work. i mean, really, when you buy a house that was once a crack house, there is inevitably going to be a lot of work that needs to be done! and you might think, "oh my gosh, those countertops are horrific. and that island? are you kidding me?" and yes, i think that, too. so although no room in this house is entirely finished (yet -- i always have to throw that word in there to make me feel better about myself), this house has seen some dramatic improvement over the past year.

(and our newest accomplishment is the little oomph of color we gave to the exterior over the weekend thanks to a $10 quart of paint... we now have a turquoise front door!)

so i guess i've learned a few things this past year, too, when it comes to owning a home:
1. it takes 10x more time and money to do something than one ever imagined (duh)
2. there's always "something" that isn't just right
3. live with it
4. flat paint is your arch nemesis
5. there's always one or two neighbors who have absolutely no taste or class whatsoever
6. there can never be enough trees
7. always keep a can of white and black spray paint on hand
8. in the land of mcmansions, "quaint" is always a compliment
9. an anal retentive personality + off-square corners & slightly crooked edges = disaster
10. other people aren't judging you and your home as much as you are... at least you hope
11. the instance that makes it all worth while is a quiet, warm spring morning enjoying a cup of great coffee and your favorite magazine or book on your deck along with your husband and beagle while listening to woxy.

oh it's on

didn't exactly make the opening lap, but tuned in to catch an all-time favorite: tori amos, cornflake girl. i love this weekend each year, but it inevitably makes me sad because i realize how many albums i don't own...

start your engines

so i guess i've been waiting for some life-altering event to begin writing in this thing. i'm still not sure how i feel about it, either. maybe i'm just having a lapse in better judgment and/or a lemming moment...

nonetheless, my first post will revolve around something near and dear to my heart.

WOXY.

this memorial day weekend marks the 19th annual modern rock 500, to which i will listen as much as possible. i mean, i do have other obligations besides good music, but not too many. therefore, i will attempt to force those obligations to revolve around WOXY for the weekend. see how that works? i will spend far more time setting up my computer outside to listen while i work on the yard than the time it will take me to complete my yard projects. i say "my" and "i" not giving appropriate credit to my husband, who is 100% rock & roll awesomeness and enjoys doing things with me, like i do him... including yard work and listening to woxy. it just works out so nicely that way.