Puppy Madness

Boy was everyone right - puppies are a ton of work.

We are in the process of house/crate training, and although it's taking it's toll on us, Simon is doing very well. He is already sleeping through the night, and not having accidents in his crate. He is however still having accidents in the kitchen. Thank God for hardwood flooring!!!

We're learning his personality and his habits: eat, potty, play, pass out. For some strange reason he likes to pass out in his water bowl. It's very strange.

Poor Brian has been sleeping on the floor outside the crate, and I've been cuddling with the kitties in the bed to make sure they don't feel neglected by the new addition.

My female kitty - not a happy camper.

Off to make coffee. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post this week due to lack of sleep......

Oh, and Simon is the first puppy on the left in the pic I posted last week. Any guesses on the breed????

New Addition

Meet Simon, and his siblings.....



Simon comes home with us on Saturday afternoon.

Hot Mess

I'm finally coming to terms with the stress that is my wardrobe.

One third of my wardrobe consists of clothes that will fit if I lose a range of 5-10 lbs. Clothes that were expensive. Clothes that were tailored. Clothes that are beautiful and haven't graced my body in about a year. I miss them terribly....

One third consists of clothes that I don't like, that I would never wear, that I haven't worn either in a long time or EVER because...well, because I just don't like them.

The last third consists of everything else that I am wearing. I hate this third because I wear the same articles of clothing over and over again and they're becoming faded, or worn looking and I'm in serious need of some new threads.

I've been shuffling through the last few pair of pants that actually fit. 4. Pants. That's it. And out of the 4, none are solid black. I do not own one solid pair of black pants.

I should be banished to wardrobe hell.

To make things even worse, I have a huge (and I mean HUGE) sales meeting tomorrow where I may or may not win an award for 2009. I had a great outfit planned - black pinstriped pants, with a red shirt and black & white suit coat. Simple, understated, professional. This just happens to be the one simple, understated, professional outfit I have left that I have been wearing to ALL of my meetings. Thank heavens these meetings consist of different groups of people or my colleagues would know that I indeed wear the same thing over and over again.

Disaster struck this evening at about 8 pm when I discovered that the hem had completely unraveled, and since it's a cuff hem, I can't even begin to fix them. I do have other pants, but they don't go with the suit coat, and my other suit coats don't go either. Now I'm down to 3 pair of pants. One pair of black with pink pinstripes, a pair of brown, and a pair of blue. A white collared shirt would suffice with any of these choices, HOWEVER, I'm going to be so nervous about the damn award tomorrow that I will most likely sweat right through it. Hence why the suit coat comes in handy; I know I'm sweating like a priest in a whore house but you don't.

So instead of attempting to put together another outfit, I decided to watch Idol, and then blog. I'll deal with my outfit dilemma at 5 am tomorrow morning. Let's just pray I come up with something that matches, and something I won't sweat through.

And yes, I do wear deodorant. I just get real sweaty when I'm nervous.

What?

Roses Are Red....Violets Are Blue....

Guess who just turned 32!?

Yup. It's me.

When asked about my age, I usually tell people I'm 29. I figure it's a teeeeeny tiny little lie that in the grand scheme of things most likely WON'T aid in sending me to hell in a handbag.

I have to admit - turning 32 was kind of scary. I don't chronologically feel 32, and if I had my way, I'd subtract 3-5 years. On the flip side, I love what being in my 30's feels like. I finally feel...normal. Don't get me wrong, my twenties were super fun and unpredictable and adventurous. But under all that fun lied low self esteem, self loathing, awful choices, and bad relationships. I never felt quite right. Pressure to be successful, pressure to be thin & beautiful, pressure to be marrrrrrrrrried.

I really think it's the pressure to get married that kept me in awful, going absolutely nowhere, relationships.

30 feels grounded and secure and logical and wise. Things that bothered me or provoked a negative response back in my 20s don't even phase me now. I can't determine if it's because I don't have the time to deal with petty crap, or because I've learned from past mistakes.

If I could create a time machine and travel back in time to meet up with my twenty-something self, I would offer the following advice:

1) Enjoy the journey. Every step of the journey. Enjoy the Friday nights in your dump apartment eating mac&cheese with your roommates, & dancing to old school rap. Enjoy not having to answer to anyone about where you're going, who you're going with and when you'll be back. Enjoy your friends, and every minute that you spend with them, because although they will most likely be your friends forever, you'll never be as close as you are now.

2) Value yourself more. Don't allow anyone to decrease your value. You can't expect anyone else to put you on a pedestal, you have to climb up there all by yourself. Climb up there - it's worth it.

4) Laugh. Love the laughing. Remove anyone from your life that causes you more tears than laughter.

5) Relax. Relax about the future. Relax about your job. Relax about meeting the right person. Trust the process. Trust yourself. Trust that inner voice that tells you something just isn't right. You'll figure it out. It all works itself out.

Happy Birthday to me :)

Laughing Out Loud

I saw this commercial while reluctantly watching football with Brian over the weekend.

I hysterically laughed, just shy of snorting, as Brian rolled his eyes and annoyingly stated, "It's not THAT funny."



Yeah. It is.

Happy Monday.

Me Likey....

Me Wanty....



But for $360 I think I'll have to pass-y.

I do have some weddings coming up: June, July and September. Would that make it a justified purchase? A "must have" if you will.

I mean, if you guys say so, then I'll just have to buy it.....sooooooooo say so.

Thanks.

Tools Of The Trade

My path to kitchen discovery has been riddled with excitement and new purchases.

I LOVE new purchases!

I figured that if I was going to attempt this whole cooking thing, and succeed at it, I was going to need some tools to aid in my pursuit.

First things first. Where to start? What to cook? It almost seemed like a message from above when I came across this book during an errand to my local wholesale superstore:



I flipped through this publication and was excited to discover that I could most likely successfully execute the majority of the recipes listed. I was excited to start, but felt that the book was naked. It needed something. So on a different errand to my local Crate & Barrel I purchased this:



So now that I knew what I was cooking and my brand new book was no longer naked, I needed to focus on what to wear whilst I'm doing the cooking. Thanks to Mom for this fabulous Christmas gift:



And yes, in case you were wondering, this ensemble includes BOTH leopard and giraffe prints. Stylish I know, but please don't be jealous.

And finally, this is me attempting my very first recipe of 2010: steak burgers with shoestring fries accompanied by a garlicky dijon mayo sauce. And beer. Except I didn't make the beer; I just poured it.



I managed to NOT burn the house down or chop anything off my body. A success in my book!

And yes, it was delicious. Brian even says so!