Ramblings on a Thursday

Another week i am rounding the end of and it's been pretty good so far. Although tomorrow morning i have a dentist appointment where i will hear i have some cavities that I know will not end on an up swing. But so far so good. This week has actually gone by pretty fast too.

Here is my week in review:

Monday after work I went on a 5mi walk with Matt and Odie and actually had a pretty relaxing evening.

Tuesday I saw Eat Pray Love with a E, J (Matt's friend's girl friend) and L (from work). It was a unique group-- not everyone knew each other-- but we are all super nice. We had drinks and happy hour apps at Bar Louie and hung out for like an hour before the the movie. It was a good night, and I really liked the movie. Not as much as the book, but still really like it and thought it was a good service to the book. Considering most movies pale in comparison.

Wednesday I went to Party on the River with J and L. I wasn't expecting to end up staying all that long, but the time just flew by and before we knew it it was like 9:30!! It was really enjoyable, and made me miss being around J all that much more. I think about her a lot as her dad is getting weaker and weaker these days. I cherish the days i do get to spend some decent time. Too bad A couldn't make it, it would have been the trifecta.

Today is Thursday and I hope to have a somewhat relaxing day after work. We have dinner plans on Saturday night and B and A, we are getting out house appraised on saturday to refinance (yet again), and who knows what other random things we will get into the rest of hte weekend. It seems the super hot weather has passed and we are amidst the beautiful temperatures and sunny days. Really it was the perfect temp last night on the river. Here is a picture ( one of the 3 that was snapped from Q102 or Metro mix). This was on Cincinnati.com today:

I just cannot believe Labor Day is here next weekend already. Where did the summer go? it always seems to just fly by. Next week will be busy travelling, and then dinner with my old college friends at M's house (who may be moving out of cincinnati again), and then up to cleveland for the long weekend. Lots of thoughts on all this mentioned above...... seeing my old friends-- who last night i texted one of them and found our i wasnt in their phone anymore. She said "she lost her numbers"... although part of me wasn't surprised. But the most surprising was how little i cared when i heard. Things really are changing for me. But i think changing for the better.

And about Labor day weekend and being home-- I am excited to see my family and some of my good friends will be getting together at P & E's house right around the block from my parents. We are all going to a winery and having a cookout. It should be wonderful. But i was also expected to help out with my grandma's house and bring the trailer up again to haul stuff. Although i was incredibly offended this week by the actions of my some of my family members. And how nonsensical they were in response to an incredibly generous offer my father in law to help. I am unbelievably disappointed in their actions, thier thought process, and what they did goes against my grain. I feel like i cant be involved in it anymore. It's it such a shame to see things run the way they are. I know i am being nebulous, but it's necessary given the nature of my feelings.

Things are always interesting in our household. You just never know what is waiting around the next turn. Hopefully ill update my 101 things soon. Some progress has been made (not much), but its worth updating nonetheless.

Now closing another blog of abstract ramblings.... Have a great thursday!

Game night and Friday

Another busy week has come to a close, thank gosh it's Friday. I am travelling again for work, so i am not ready to move through another couple weeks so quickly. It was a good week, nothing too exciting happened. I barely remember the beginning of the week so ill take that as a good thing.

Yesterday, however, Matt and I hosted game night with Matt's friends C and C and their girl friends J and of course E. It was pretty fun, although probably wouldn't have been better if it was a weekend and no one had to go to work the next day. E and I cooked together for everyone after work; she made a cheesecake and homemade meatballs, i made the spaghetti and the sauce, and J made a Caesar salad. And i must say EVERYTHING WAS DELICIOUS!!! I must get the recipe for the meatballs because they were so yummy, didn't look too hard, and they reeeally went well with my mom's sauce. And Matt LOOOOOVED them!! I hope E and I cook together again because we make a good team. If only we both had bigger kitchens though..... some day it will happen.

This weekend Matt and I are taking a conceal/carry class. I was unsure if i wanted to share this bit of information to the world about my weekend plans because i still am not sure how i feel about the whole idea. I didnt tell very many people, MY family doesn't actually even know. Just dont have the energy to figure out how i feel about it as people may or may not question me about the idea, although i do know i am not taking this class to actually carry. No, no, not in the least. It's just a very extensive and informative class that i hope to learn a thing or two, especially for one who has never shot a gun before no less even HELD a gun before. I was raised in a household where guns didnt exist, they weren't talked about, and all i learned about them is 'guns are bad.' And i still do very much carry this sentiment.... to a degree. I am a supporter or the NRA, people who read my blog tend to realize i lean to the right, this is no surprise. People who make 'guns bad' are those that shouldnt have them anyway. Giving the responsible citizens all the more reason TO have them. But since i am gun ignorant i am taking the class, not just because matt would like me to not have such strong feelings against guns, but probably to have a lot more respect for it, and maybe will open my eyes to some things i haven't ever thought about. But right now where things stand i have no intentions of ever owning a gun.

It's funny right now because every time i typed the word "gun" i found myself fat fingered the key board and ending up with "fun."

Well, i better finish up this workday. I hope to have time to update next week. Lots of stuff on my mind, just I am too tired right now to think about it all. I hate going to bed late. Until next time..

Weekend review and other thoughts on Monday

So I am back to another long Monday at work. I can tell i am PMSing because i am all over the board with my emotions today. I cant tell if i am feeling sad, happy, depressed, tired, anxious, hungry? Who knows. Another busy week ahead, nothing i am dreading, nothing i am too terribly excited about.

I am at work today watching all 25 items we posted on Ebay from my grandma's house go for auction. We posted 25 items-- all of varying degree of value (in my personal opinion) and its been interesting to see the process. Some surprises, some let downs, but very much a learning experience. We had a 7 day auction for all items that will end tonight at 8:30. Matt says the most action occurs in the last hour, but i am not holding my breath or anything. So far today we are up to a total of $321.75 in bids; not bad for a virgin Ebay-er, i guess.

I had a pretty good weekend too. Nothing majorly exciting to tell, but nothing not good either. Friday night Matt and I went out to dinner at Bella Luna and got some stuff we needed to around the house. We decided on a late dinner there-- Matt's brother went there twice in a month so we figured we should try it when the most frugal people we know went two times. It was absolutely delicious! And a much needed relaxing evening. Saturday I helped my friend M move out of her apartment that morning. She is moving to a beautiful high rise building in Chicago right on Navy Pier; she starts medical school this fall at Northwestern. She is a smarty! I am so proud of her. I just met her this year and i am a little melancholy seeing her go... but i am glad she is doing something great for her life.

Saturday afternoon Matt and I dog sat Rowdy for a first... JF was in a pinch so of course we are glad to help out a good friend. He didn't ruin our house even though he is a bit high strung. We had fun with him, even took him on a walk and gave him a bath as he helped us water our lawn. We even hosed each other down in the process. This weekend was insanely hot. I hope i remember this kind of heat when i am dying for summer again in the sub-zero temps of the winter. Saturday night i went out with the usual crowd for dinner at Arnold's and over to the hofbrauhaus. It was a not too bad evening....And Sunday we sweatted (sp?) our asses off at the Reds game. It was a busy, uneventful, not too thrilling weekend.

I was thinking this weekend about how different this year has been from the last. SO many people have left my life this year.... and it;s only August. Not only all the deaths, but the new people that have come into my life and have also left. Talk about some ups and downs. It almost wished i knew it was coming in 2009-- one of the most memorable years of my life-- and maybe i could have appreciated some moments a little more. I dont know. My boss was talking today about how she sees herself back in Chicago (where she was born and raised) after her youngest son graduates from HS in a couple years. She also said to me that you need to be flexible because you just never know what life is going to throw at you. You can never tell what another two years is going to bring you. This coming from a woman who also lost her 49 year old brother a few weeks ago to pancreatic cancer. The cancer that ended his life only 5 months after he was diagnosed.

I think about this as a i think about my dad and the sale of his company. Or more accurately the blood, sweat and tears of my dad's entire life and most of my childhood up to this point. This year appears to be yielding even more changes. Who knows what is in store next.... all you can do is remain positive and hope for the best.



In the words of Spiro.... Life is perfect exactly the way it is.

Incredibly Productive few days

Wow Productivity is at all time high in our household. And of course, i couldn't go without saying that my sleepless, sweaty nights have not relented. But i am still chugging. And i am motivated by all the progress we have made. Ill give a brief weekend/start to the week rundown. Tell me we couldn't have been any more productive?

It actually was an enjoyable weekend. Really it was. Friday we randomly decided to do the Downtown Dash and Block Party sponsored by our church. It helped that we 'just so happened' to be walking by the church parking lot at lunch and saw our incredibly awesome priest who married us at the ready to register race participates. And whaddya know? Matt is all in for running a 5k. the first race he has ran since before we started dating!! (that priest really does have someone on his side;-). It was actually a tough race, mostly hills, and it was HOT-- but we both finished. I finished a couple minutes sooner than Matt, but not more more than a 10 or so min mile. Which is actually not half bad considering we both walked a bit. It was good to spend the time together and do something a little more challenging together. And we walked around, got some drinks, and strolled around downtown together. It was MOST enjoyable:)

Saturday was another busy one. We headed up to the Matt's parents house where we actually ended up spending the entire day up there. We first ran to Jungle Jim's to meet up with Matt's friend who is the manager at the Garden Center to look at their sales. They were getting rid of a lot of stuff so we basically bought plants and bushes for entire side yard and spent less than 100 bucks. Way less than a hundred actually. Since we had Matt's Dad's truck we drove them back to our house and came back North again. I brought my Ode with me, and we got to work again going through all the stuff we set aside from my grandma's house we thought was worth anything. We cleaned it, staged it, took pictures, and then started post those things we wanted to sell on eBay. Yay us! Huuuge headway! And then, around 8 or so, we pick up pizzas and headed of to Jungle's house-- matt's good friend C's parents-- because he was house sitting. Yay E and I coordinating; We brought over pizzas and hung out all night. Another couple came over and we drank wine, played botchi ball (for HOURS) outside on their court, and hung out. It was one heck of a good time.

But this is just the tip of the iceburg....

Sunday-- matt woke up NOT hungover-- which was incredibly important because we were back up at his parents house to pick up odie first thing, Matt could get some condo stuff done, I could pick up some tools, and then i left him up there while i headed home to starting trimming down the monster ugly bushes we had on the side of our house. It took me a good 4 hours; cutting, pulling, hauling huge branches the size of me to the curb. I got all of them trimmed down to a few inches! Then i met up with Matt again to finished posted everything on Ebay! And here we are sitting today with 25 items up for auction:)

Yesterday after work, with Matt's help, we began uprooting the stubs i had left behind from the day before. And spent another solid 3 hours together planting our new bushes and plants. We finished. I am praying they stay alive. But gosh, now i know why landscapers stay in business. I am SO SORE today!

It feels good to have accomplished so much. At this time next week i will measure our success. A profitable week on eBay and alive plants in our side yard.

Back to work for me!

Shark Week

OK, I have a new favorite time of the year....


SHARK WEEK!!!

Can i just say I LOVE SHARKS!! Almost as much as my unnatural affinity towards Dinosaurs. But sharks, o i love to hate them! Ive always liked shark week on Discovery, but since i lived in Cinci i never had cable and this is the first year i have had Discovery Channel to enjoy the awesomeness that is this week of the sharks:)

And can i also say i love Mike Rowe now too.

Matt knows about my new crush, i think he secretly has a man crush too. It;s really brought us together tapping and watching shows before bed. Some of my favorites include Dirty Jobs that Bite, Air Shark, and of course Air Shark II, Eatin Alive, and Shark Attack Survival Guide. But let's be honest, i love them all!!


..... OK, i swear i am not crazy.

Outside of shark week things are pretty good here. I have had a busy week and am ready for the weekend. Monday i watched the season finale of the Bachelorette with E and ordered Indian food. Yummy! And Tuesday I went walking with F in this god awful heat, yesterday i was with matt parents abd brothers all day looking at a condo they are going to buy. It was a long night, but they wrote an offer to i think it was productive for them. This weekend we have no official plans and i think that is going to be nice. Who knows what we will do, maybe get a tan. But i do know i have to do some ebay stuff with all the things we brought back from my grandma;s house. One more day until the weekend.

Happy Shark Week!!

The List

So i discovered someone;s blog today on facebook and i really liked something she did. She had 101 in 1001 in list form for 101 things to accomplish in 1001 days. Now i am too lazy to do the math, i have no idea how many years 1001 days are. But i like the concept and it got my brainstorming. Or perhaps the thought was if i actually write it down maybe i will do it. Thinking of 101 things maybe be quite a task but i guess they don't all have to be big accomplishments. Just things I want to do:

In NO particular order... here goes: My 101 things!
1) Do more Yoga and get good at it
2) Lose 10 pounds
3) cook more-- learn more healthy recipes
4) Write more letters to my friends
5)Learn more things to do with my hair
6) Start an in-house project
7) Take a cooking class
8) Take a cake decorating class
9) Take a spinning class (i have been too scared to try it)
10) Read more books
11)Travel
12) Have another cookout
13) Go cabining
14) Go to Mammoth Cave
15)Make a Wedding Album *
16) Preserve my wedding Dress
17) Print a mural wedding picture
18) Pull out the large ugly shrubs on the side of my house
19) Re-plant the side of my house
20)Plan a trip to visit my sister
21)Host a dinner party
22) Babysit my nephews more
23)Get more involved with my Church
24) Go to church more frequently
25) Try to recover my old pictures and files from my broken laptop
26)Wear more colors to work (besides varying shades of white, black and grey)
27)Play tennis again
28) Play a game of racquetball
29) Start going to bed earlier
30)Try to keep up with laundry more during the week
31) Blog more frequently
32) Take Odie to the dog park
34)Update my address book
35) Think about buying a new house
37) Go on more dates with my husband
38) Update my iPod
39)Update my resume
40)Buy window treatments for my dining room
41)Go on more walks
42)buy my Mom flowers
43)Delete old numbers in my cell phone
44) make a home cooked meal for my good friend's family in need
45)Learn to listen better
46) Say Thank you to much husband more
47)Pay off my student loans
48) Take some more time for me
49) Take one big trip with Matt before we have kids
50) Visit my parents more
51)Complain less about work
52) Hang more pictures in my house
53)Clean the garage
54) Go the the Art Museum
55) Go to the Krohn Conservatory
56) Go Apple Picking
57) Go to the pumpkin patch
58) Buy a new pair of Mizunos
59) Organize my inbox at work-- delete more emails
60) Organize my inbox at home-- delete more emails
61)Buy more nail polish
62)Read the news more
63)

I guess i cant think of 101 things... but made it will be my list in progress. I will update accordingly-- and hopefully post about them as i go.
Lets see how this goes.....

An autobiography

I don't know if I have mentioned it in another post recently, sorry if i repeat. My grandma wrote an autobiography. She told her kids and about it this year a few months back and I remember thinking what a cool thing. When she passed it was distributed-- the three copies she manually typed-- for each of her kids. When i went home for the funeral last months i saw it on my parents table but i just couldn't read it. It was hard enough pulling it together, but reading that would make me fall to pieces knowing i cant ask her questions and hear her stories anymore.

I read it yesterday.

Last week an "Addendum" surfaced and it was slightly more current. I read them both. I read them at work for some reason, i don't know why. Maybe i thought i could separate myself from it a little if i read it at work. And it was close to the end of the day so instead of starting something i wouldn't finish, i read my grandma's autobiography. It was incredible. What a neat life she had; she separates the document in pieces: Her parents, her family, her jobs, her husband, and then the last page is a handwritten page that says "my favorite times." All pieces are so fascinating and i can pull out some of what she wrote from the stories she would tell us. And then when i left work i got sad. Because memories of sitting in grandmas house, and laughing at some of the stuff she says and the way she talked when she told those stories. I am SO sad, i am wiping tears and i think about it. But i know when the pain lessons I am going to re-read it and think about how wonderful she was. And be able to show MY kids a little piece of the wonderful women that shaped my life for 26 years.

Now, i think about this like grandma would have documented in her life. It would be very sad, but she would chronology it because some of the things my grandma lived to see and do would blow your mind. She discusses the loss of her brothers, sisters,friends, neighbors, and even her own son. She says that pain is the most hurtful. But this is just one time in my life-- similar to my grandma's-- there are ebbs and flows and sometimes times are just a little happier than others.

I miss her deeply.

Its going to be hard this weekend going into her house to take some stuff away. But i am hoping i can repress these feelings for the car ride home on Sunday. But maybe it wont be sad, maybe ill be on project mode and not think about it. I have no idea. I want to kick myself for reading that right before this weekend. I shoulda waited?

I am tired today at work because i stayed up very late last night playing Monopoly with Matt, his friend C and E. It was a lot of fun actually. E and I drank 2 bottles of wine. It was a random but well embraced evening after the slightly emotional evening i had already embarked upon after leaving work. When I got home I also for my first letter from K, my friend I was in Chicago for at the end of June. I haven't discussed much about that situation yet, but receiving my first correspondence was a mixed bag of emotions. Emotions are tiring.

Matt and I went to the library last night and got 4 books on tape for the looong car ride with the trailer tonight. I am reeeally reeeally hoping it helps.


Thats all i got for now. Until next time.