Friday Fave Five - Advent Edition

What a week!  MOTU has been in Texas all week, bonding with my parents, so he gets first mention on this week's FFF.

1. My wonderful husband.  We were both supposed to spend this week down in Texas with my parents, but because of work stuff I needed to come back on Sunday instead.  This is the longest time he's spent with his new (but awesome) in-laws, and I know many men would shy away from that kind of thing.  He's taken it in stride, and I've actually barely heard from him all week because he's gone out of his way to hang out with my family instead.  What a guy!  He also did some gift wrapping for me (a task he hates but does well) without complaint.  Love that guy. 

2. Progress!  I've got 3 stockings made, the garlands hung, and half the Christmas cards addressed and signed.  I need to make 2 more stockings, a tree skirt, and a couple of Christmas presents, but this is progress.

I forgot, I also started on the critters' gifts...everyone's getting fleecy pillows this year.  This is Shelby's, minus one zippered side.

Garlands hung with care.

3. Kini.  Lordy I love this dog.  Right now, she looks like this:

Last night though, we had this series of events:

 She wanted to be on the bed, but didn't want to scare Grisgris off. 

 So she waited.

 And climbed very...

 ...slowly...

 ...up onto the bed.  The only thing that kept moving was her tail.

 Eventually, she got up, flopped over, and laid very still so he'd know she was safe.

 Then she got comfy.

Then they got cozy. This took about 15 minutes total, and I was laughing the whole time.  She's so considerate!  I love that dog.  She's about 10 months now.

4. Potential.  This is another cryptic one, for fear of jinxing anything, but there are things to be excited about going on, and I'm, well, excited about them.  It's been a good week for winds of change.

5. SPACE.  I've finally managed to get rid of most of the furniture on the porch, which means we can once again walk through there!  Thank God!  I got rid of 6 (yes 6!) night stands, a couch, a coffee table, and two end tables this week.  Oh, and like 8 sets of wire shelves.  It's cleansing to have so much stuff out the door.

And one bonus one.

6. Freedom.  I love MOTU.  I miss him terribly.  There are things that I get to do though, when he's not here, that I miss a little.  For example, this morning I hit the snooze button...9 times.  I had no intention of getting out of bed at 6:30. None.  But I wake up better when I do it in 9 minute increments.  As you can imagine, this drives MOTU NUTS.  I don't blame him, but I still do it, on purpose, when he's not here.  I also eat completely crap food, let the critters sleep with me, and wear the ugly (but comfy!) sweaters daily.  I can't wait until he's home tomorrow, but it's been a fun week on my own anyway.  Especially since no one got sick.  :0)

Friday Fave Five - Last Chance Edition

First and foremost, I'm giving everyone one last chance (until 5 PM tonight) to enter Wednesday's 200th post giveaway.  You'll just have to go on over and see what the prize is (because you need the visuals to get the real fun of it). 

And now, Friday's Fave Five:

1. Accidental victories. A couple months ago, I came up with a very efficient way of doing some stuff for work which literally saved me days of tedium.  I shared it with my team, and they weren't really interested in learning the method because they were too busy.  No big.  Yesterday, the IT crew did some stuff behind the scenes that ended up breaking a lot of our files, translating to a HUGE overhaul of everything and some very panicked emails, particularly about my files. Thing is, the method I'd come up with had accounted for this kind of issue, so where it could have taken DAYS to fix everything, it took me 15 minutes.  At the risk of gloating too much (and having someone who may have chosen not to employ my method read thing), I'll leave it with a simple "booya" and move on.  I'll leave the victory dance to your imagination.

2. Kini.  I swear, this dog is on my list every week.  Right now, she's curled up on the treadmill (again), cuddling with her bone.  Dogs are so weird.  This week, we hit a milestone...her first buried bone!  I wasn't there for it, but MOTU says she buried it then immediately missed it and dug it up to carry it around the yard some more.  That's our puppy. 

3. Generosity.  I finally finished the thank you notes from the wedding last weekend.  It still blows me away that we needed over 70 thank you notes...even people who barely knew us (some who didn't even know us and were friends of our parents) gave us way more than we expected them to (and my expectation was that if they were coming to celebrate with us, that was gift enough)!  We are blessed.

4. Spin. I went to 2 spin classes this week, and while the first one was pretty terrible (sorry, but if it would fit in on a station called "The Eagle", it's not workout music.  Sailing Away was my breaking point...I literally walked out it was so terrible) the second one (last night) was AWESOME!!  The music was great (Time Warp, techno remix of My Heart Will Go On, etc.) and the workout was NUTS.  I was feeling fantastic and pushed hard.  I am in a little bit of pain today, and that's awesome. This weekend is Boston Balance, and I'm taking 5 classes...that's 7.5 hours of working out (3 classes are spin).  Sunday is going to be a long day, but so worth it.

5. Speaking of pain, my upper body is hurting too, because for the first time in a long time, we went rock climbing this week. I'm pretty bad at it now, and my arms/back/shoulders are in pretty sad shape, but it felt so good to pull some plastic.  Especially when I ended up showing up one of MOTU's friends on one of the routes.  :-)  Oops. 

The weather here has been great...warm and sunny most of the week (minus the creepy fog that settled in on Wednesday night), and overall it's been a great week.  I hope everyone else had a fabulous one too! 

Friday Fave Five - Frozen Toes Edition

With a puppy happily snoring on my treadmill next to me, it's hard not to think of happy things.  So without much of an introduction, here's this week's Friday Fave Five.

1. Feeling generally healthy.  A couple weeks ago I decided no more excuses, I'm kicking the Diet Coke habit for good. And I have!  Cold turkey!  I went from 3-4 20oz bottles a day to none!  I drink only water  now (and a glass of wine or beer at night when I'm sewing...it keeps me honest lol) and I've found myself making better food choices as a result...every time I think "hmm, maybe I'll just grab some drive through" I realize the only drink choices are sodas, so if I want to eat there I'd have to drink soda...and I don't want soda so I opt for something healthier (even if it's just going to the salad bar at the grocery store next to the Taco Bell.)  I feel better, I've ended up working out more (not a lot, just 10 minutes here and there), and guess what?  I've dropped 4 lbs!  Guess I'll keep going with this no soda thing.  :-) 

2. On the heels of that, I'm heading towards having a new (mildly lucrative) hobby!  I signed up to  get certified to be a spin instructor! In a couple weeks, I'll spend a full day learning how to teach spin classes, then will head right on over to my gym and demand they give me a microphone and an iPod jack.  Or something like that.  :-)  I'm already making up playlists...cannot wait!

3. On a completely unrelated note, I shipped my first commissioned quilt this week!  Those of you who follow this blog regularly are probably sick of hearing about it, but I'm still reeling over the fact that someone actually requested (and paid for) my creativity!  I sent the woman pictures while it was in progress, and she said her son wouldn't let her close the window because he wanted to keep looking at it...how's that for a glowing endorsement??  I've since moved on to another design that I'm very excited about and that I've already posted as a "coming soon!" in my etsy shop.  I'm hoping to have it done by the end of the weekend, pending thank you notes. 

4. Speaking of which, I always forget that the weekend previous counts towards this Friday's Fave Five!  Working appliances!!!  MOTU's dad generously bought us a new washer/dryer set for a wedding gift, and I cannot express enough how wonderful it is to have a functional dryer!  Seriously, there's a mountain of CLEAN laundry in the bedroom that I haven't gotten around to folding yet...so the worst part of laundry, don't you think?  I can't stop running loads though!  It's so delightful to have them come out clean and dry the FIRST time!!  I won't even start about how glorious it is to have a dishwasher!!!  (This could count as 3 separate faves if I let them!)

5. Simple, yummy, unusual food.  This week has been Nicaraguan week over on my cooking blog, and while I've only made 2 nights' worth of dinners (we've been munching on leftovers of both the rest of the week) they've been super quick and easy, and super yummy.  Tomorrow night I'm attempting flan and stew.  Wish me luck.  :-)  Next week is Greek week...anyone got any good recipes (and/or want to join me for the challenge?)

Friday Fave Five

Finally, I'm at a computer on a Friday!  w00t!

I won't even try to cover how great the honeymoon was (Aruba), and I'm sure we're all sick of hearing about the wedding so I won't go there either.  But that doesn't leave me without stuff worth celebrating!

1. Kini

 She's been so quiet this week, after spending the last couple with her friend, Ike.  It's like she keeps looking for him but can't find him and gets sad...but her tail still wags on.  :-)  Here, she was chilling out with me last night while I worked on the complicated quilt, and something about my foot got her very interested.  She sat like that for a good few minutes.  Also, can you believe that this used to be her??

She's 58 lbs as of last weekend, and still growing.  Our little monster.

2. Reminders of a nerdy past. 

I needed some extra moving space for the complicated quilt last night, so I unearthed some textbooks for area.  I miss math.  I miss having daily access to Matlab.  Anyone out there need free (assuming you'll provide fun software) labor on a math modeling project?  Have brain, will crunch numbers and make graphics.

3. Rainy Days

Rainy days like the one we had Wednesday are the reason why soul food was invented.  My college roommate would beg to differ, but I think coming home to the smell of cooking red beans is the best thing in the world.  Fortunately for me, I married a man who agrees with me.  :-) Bonus happiness is the autumn beer on the right.  Yummmmm.

4. Kitchen gadgets

Even better about making red beans this week was the need to finally unearth my rice cooker. We've been living off of minute rice for months, and that just wasn't going to fly this week. Finally, we had real rice. w00t!

5. Small victories.


This week, I started a new goal with my cooking blog. To that end, I've been reworking the blog, including making my very first button (see above)!  I've also done a lot of research (the tip of the iceberg I'm sure) into different cultures and their culinary contributions to the world, and I'm SUPER excited to actually challenge myself to cook this stuff!  It's going to be a comfort-zone-pushing year, since I'm sure I'm going to need to go to (gasp!) ethnic markets, which have, for as long as I can remember, intimidated the heck out of me.  Even butcher shops make me nervous.  This year is the year to conquer that, and I can't wait! If you're from someplace on the list, please please please share some family recipes with me!  I'm looking for authenticity, which doesn't always come directly from the world wide webs.  

So that's been my week.  Tomorrow we get to go retrieve the generosity of others from MOTU's best man's house...then next week I get to write thank you notes!  (Seriously, I actually like writing them...I love getting them, so writing them is fun. I'm also thinking of including fun pictures in them, so we'll see.)  Anyway, hope everyone has a lovely weekend! 

Indulgence - Friday Fave Five Version

Man, what a great day!!!  What a great week!  If you don't regularly follow my blog (welcome FFFers!), check out the two or so posts previous to this one...if you're not smiling by the end, you need a hug!

On with it!

1. I can't believe it was earlier this week, but Mom was here! She helped me get a lot of wedding work done, and was in town especially for my shower...

2. ...which is number 2 because I had 2 showers this week!!  One was a complete and utter surprise!  My coworkers, Lisa and Maryrita, organized the office (mostly boys, so this was a feat!) and had them turn the August birthday party into a birthday party/shower!  I was completely caught off guard!  The first shower was on Saturday, which was also amazing...you can see the rundown here.  Suffice it to say, I have some pretty covetously awesome friends and family.  You should be jealous.

3.  Indulgence!

At lunch I ran out and got MOTU and my marriage license!  That's right folks, the state of VT is letting us get hitched just 4 weeks from tomorrow!  And wouldn't you know it, but between the library (where I'm working today) and the town clerk, there was a quilt shop!  If that's not divine inspiration, I don't know what is!  They had all their fall fabrics out in front, just waiting for me to rub up on them and hold them in stink-eye-inducing ways.  The four on the right are for the tables at the wedding...I'm going to cut them into 18x18 blocks and hem them, so now I don't need to collect leaves for that.  I still need leaves for the flower girl to throw though.  The one on the left is for the wedding rings quilt I'll eventually make from all the fabrics people gave at the shower. I got enough to make a border, to tie the whole thing together (it's going to be VERY colorful...)  After the wedding, the 18x18 blocks will magically turn into napkins.

4. How could it get better than that?  It's just a glorious day out.  I went to a deli in town and got a freshly made sandwich with good quality meats and local veggies on it.  I sat outside the library and soaked up the sun until I had to resign myself to coming back in to work.  It's maybe low 70s out, not a cloud in the sky (except the pretty white puffy ones but those don't count), and I'm in small-town VT.  It is a damn good day.

5. Foreshadowing: tomorrow I'm going to get my hair and makeup trial done for the wedding, then we're meeting up with some friends at the fair.  Then, we're having a second engagement shoot done, at the fair!  I cannot express how much I'm looking forward to that!  MOTU has been tolerant of this whole thing, and I know he'll do his best to grin and bear it like last time.

What the heck, it's been such a good week, let's throw in an extra:

I finished and shipped out two quilts this week, got all my thank you notes for Saturday's shower done and sent, and had my first etsy sale! Nothing can stop me today!  Nothing!

Fabulous Friday

What a week!  So much awesome (and so little quilting...not so awesome) crammed in! Let's a four-letter word week, just for fun:


1. Utah! I'm going to Utah!  Two of my bridesmaids live in Salt Lake, so I'm going out to visit them over Labor Day weekend for my bachelorette party and some fun.  I cannot express how completely and utterly excited I am to get to go back to SLC.  I went to college at the U (no BYU hate mail, please!) and can say without hesitation that if anyplace in the world is "home" to me, it's Salt Lake.  My best friends and best memories are there.  There are still certain bands/songs/moods that make my heart ache for the Rockies.  I want to scream right now, I'm so excited to see that U on the mountain as the plane's landing. 

2. Kini.  She's so silly and so absurd, but we've reached a point in our puppy/momma relationship where she will actually calm down for me, and snuggle on the couch.  She still gets riled up with MOTU, but he doesn't really stop her (in fact, he starts it half the time).  I keep thinking of next year when she'll be my constant companion while MOTU is away at OCS.  She'll be a good one.  :-)

3. USMC.  They're taking their sweet time processing MOTU's medical records, which means in all likelihood he won't be leaving for OCS until January.  Oh darn, I am so disappointed.  Really.  Ok, maybe not at all.  I get Christmas AND Thanksgiving with him, which means we get to stay home and be us since it'll be our first as a married couple and that's our prerogative.

4. Work. Now there's a 4-letter word.  Work's been good though.  LOTS of meetings.  I'm finally getting more information, so I can start planning the summer and getting stuff done.  It's been sort of a culture shock trying to realign my expectations with their actions, but I am LOVING how much responsibility they've given me.  It's going to be a lot of work, but they're grateful to have me on board (not always the attitude tech writers get, believe me) and are happily handing off loads of work to me...can you say "job security"?  :-)

5. July. Yesterday I scheduled times to taste wines for the wedding, consult with our photographer and get engagement pictures taken, and do a trial run of my hair/makeup, all in the same day! Oof!  I'm so excited to do the engagement pictures...hopefully Helen will be back up and running, so we can take her and Kini up and involve them in the pictures.  The kitties would be involved if they were at all portable, but, well, they're kitties.  I know MOTU isn't at all excited to get his picture taken, but I am.  We need good pictures of us while we're still young and pretty.  :-) 

What the heck, it's been such a good week I'll add a #6:

6. Pain. That's right, pain.  Today, the majority of it is in my upper quad, but yesterday I was barely walking straight.  I ran 8.06 miles in 1:04 on Tuesday (longest run ever, per Nike+), 2.06 miles in 15:07(?) on Wednesday (fastest mile per Nike+), 25 minutes (about 3 miles) yesterday (plus 100 walking lunges with weights, and some other weight machine stuff), and today I'm hoping to go rock climbing after work.  I've got a lot of pictures to take this summer, and I'll be damned if I'm going to get them taken at my highest weight ever.  (I also met mileage, speed, and calorie goals according to Nike+ this week as well...like I said, good week!)

What goals have you reached this week? 

Friday Fave Five - The Allergy Edition

No explanations this week, I'll just jump right in:

1. Sweet sweet irony. Did anyone ever see "The Happening" by M. Knight Shamalayan?  I know I probably butchered that name, but bear with me.  First of all, I'm going to spoil it for you.  It was the trees.  They somehow rapidly evolve so that, when humans are grouped together (in decreasing numbers until the end, when Marky Mark displays how very little he actually reads before signing a contract for a movie), they emit a chemical that causes spontaneous, and often so over the top it's comical, suicide.  Seriously, one guy throws himself in front of his lawn mower.  A hand mower.  Just silly.

Well, the irony here is, given how much we mocked that movie when we saw it, both MOTU and I are suffering in ways that could only be described as "the trees are trying to kill us".  Our cars are yellow.  Our clothes are yellow.  I literally can't swallow today because my throat is so swollen.  And all I can do is shake a fist (thereby stirring up the pollen even more) at the trees.  Stupid trees.

2. Vantage points. (And as I typed that, FFF #3 occured...remind me.) There's one corner in our house where  two baby gates meet, to keep Shelby "safe" in her room (see FFF#3 for why that's in quotes), Grisgris safe in his space, and Kini from eating everything in half the house.  It's been happening more and more frequently that the three critters meet at this junction...what's great is that I'm the only one tall enough to see that all three are present...usually Kini and Grisgris are fussing at each other while Shelby just sorta howls at anybody blocking her from getting outside.

3. A living house. I lived by myself for a long time...3 or 4 years I think, all said and done.  It got to the point where I would go out just to avoid coming home to an empty, silent house.  I didn't want roommates, but it really gets lonely being, well, alone all the time.  I'm not alone anymore.  Now, even if MOTU isn't around, the house is ALIVE.  Just this morning, during a meeting I called in to from home, I had to put the call on mute and sprint across the house to grab Grisgris as he was leaping over the baby gate that protects Shelby from his big, fat presence.  Stupid cat.  He literally just went in to drink her water.  Kini will poke her nose in to eat Shelby's food, given the chance.  It's pure chaos, I tell ya, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.  I love our little zoo and how much it makes our house feel like our home.

4. Good, long runs.  Tuesday was the season finale of The Biggest Loser.  I ran for 1:15 of the show, covering just shy of 8 miles.  Seriously, if I'd known I was that close to 8 miles I would've just stayed on the extra minute.  But.  That's the furthest intentional, consecutive distance I've covered since high school, maybe ever.  Best part is, I'm not even sore from it!  Though I will say, the best way to sabotage a long run is by wearing short shorts...yikes.

5. Flexible work geographies. Yesterday, I had meetings pretty much straight from 8:30 am to 3 or so pm.  I called in from home to the first one and ended up just working from home the whole day. Over the course of the day, all three critters came to visit me:

Grisgris just purred away next to me on the couch when Kini was in her kennel: 

 Shelby tried to remind me that the dining room/kitchen/laundry area table isn't mine, it's hers:

 And eventually, Kini settled down enough to take Grisgris' place on the couch:

 At some point, MOTU came home and took over.  I love my life.  I love OUR life.  :-)

Kat's Draggin' In...

Lordy lordy what a week.  We started training this week for the new company, which has been unrelentingly fast paced and difficult to absorb.  It's also a pilot training course, which means the materials are in far from perfect shape, which adds to the difficulty.  So with bleary eyes and barely functioning brain cells, here's this week's fave five:

1. My number 1 cheerleader.  On top of all this training stuff, I'm trying desperately not to stress eat (fail) and to get to the gym more often (sort of fail).  Yesterday, I got my ever-expanding booty out of bed at (groan) 5 am.  MOTU, of course, kept right on sleeping.  However, as I was about to head out the door, from the bedroom I hear him sleepily yell, "You rock and I love you!" to keep my spirits up (which were also half asleep at that point).  He's too cute.  Every day this week I've come home mentally exhausted, physically drained, and nearly unable to function enough to even make dinner.  Every day he's told me how smart and beautiful and awesome I am.  He's my number 1 cheerleader, and I'm so glad I get to spend the rest of my life cheering him on too.  :-)

2. Getting it. This training is rough.   Everyone is struggling with it in a major way. I'm not going to claim that I'm not struggling, but I'm definitely getting it.  Wednesday I even felt *good* when I walked out of here.

3. Future families. Last weekend, MOTU and I went up to VT to book vendors and figure out wedding details. We had dinner with his extended family, and I realized at some point during that meal what I'm walking into...his family, while quirky like any other family, is amazing.  They are so supportive and happy and eager to help.  They make some sarcastic comments to each other, but overall they're never mean or snippy to each other.  They respect each other and care for each other...the amount of effort that goes into taking care of MOTU's grandmother, for example, is humbling.  Every one of her children (4) were there on Mother's Day, and they went out of their way to take lots of pictures with her and her sister (Aunt Margaret, who helped raise MOTU).  It was very sweet...even sweeter that they pulled me into the pictures like I was already family.  They're good people, and I'm really happy to be joining their ranks.  Having family like them so close (but just far enough that visiting is still special) makes MOTU leaving not so lonely.  It also makes me less stressed about the idea of someday having kids...there is so much support and love that I'm not afraid. 

4. Wedding stuff coming together like woah. Here's the latest, as of last night:

• We have the following vendors booked, with deposits either cashed or in their hands: 
• Reception - Snow Farm Winery
• Ceremony - Immaculate Conception Cathedral
• Photographer - Margaret Michael
• DJ - Digital DJ
• Photo Booth Rental - VT Photo booth company
• Paper for the invitations is on my doorstep, from paperandmore.com
• We have the following vendors tentatively lined up, with contracts/deposits pending: 
• Pie people - Allenholm Farm
• Cake maker - Cosmic Bakery, St. Albans (no website yet)
• Caterer - Chow Bella

I've decided not to get a florist, since the flowers I've made have worked out pretty well: 

It's slightly more filled out than yesterday, and the pieces are actually glued together.

I think I've also decided that, in addition to the bouquets that the bridesmaids will obviously get to keep, I'm going to make them all some kind of carrying case that can double as a purse. I'll need to figure something out for Jimmy. 

5. Training is almost over.  For this week. Honestly folks, my brain is completely fried.  I haven't absorbed anything since about 2 pm. We have another week of this next week (keep in mind that by "a week of this" I mean "start the day by driving in to Cambridge from Nashua".  Google maps that.  It ain't pretty.) but you know what?  I'm getting it.  For the most part, I'm actually understanding this stuff at least to a point.  After next week, I'll have ANOTHER week of training in June, which will be really interesting...because that training (actually it's only 3 days, not 5) is the stuff that I'm going to be in charge of rewriting.  It feels really good to have a solid direction, and even better to know how much responsibility I'm going to have.  I am the sole writer for this product, and it's the second biggest product the company has.  Yowzah. 

Anyways, that's my week.  Tonight, I'm going to hole up with my honey in our favorite local beer joint, have some yummy food and beer, go for a run (not in that order), and rock my jammies until I fall asleep.  Tomorrow, hopefully I'll get some work done on Mai's quilt...maybe even Alishia's if I can commandeer some floor space someplace.

guess what???

I'M GETTING MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday Fave Five: 

1. MOTU

2. MOTU

3. MOTU

4. MOTU

5. MOTU. 

And this concludes my Friday Fave Five.  :-D

Friday Fave Five!!! #5

Phew, another week gone by already??  The days are getting longer, so how can these weeks keep getting shorter??  It's been a great week though.  I'm pretty sure it rained Monday, but the past couple of days the weather has been so great that I honestly don't remember if it did or not.

On that note, my Friday Fave Five:

1. Summer beer.  God bless the Germans, they know their beer and they know what to do with it.  This lovely little concoction is half UFO (Hefeweizen) and half lemonade.  That's right, lemonade.  Any white beer works, but the unfiltered kinds tend to work best I think.  It tastes like summer.  I had one glass last night and just wanted to jump in Helen and drive. (Wendy, Helen is the van.  Yes, that VW beauty is our van...she's our first child, for all intents and purposes.  She needs a lotta lovin' and some new tires, but she's pretty badass.  She made it all the way up to Newfoundland and back last summer, with only a few small mishaps along the way.  You'll hear plenty more about Helen in the coming weeks though, I'm sure.  I'm going to need to fix up her canvas by hand, so there will be reports.)

Anyways, don't judge me on the glass...MOTU doesn't have a dishwasher, so it's sort of the dish equivalent of laundry day right now.  Good thing he's working from home today and has sworn to do it before I get there...I HATE doing dishes by hand.  HATE IT.

2. Project success!  I decided to make my cousin (who just had a baby) a diaper bag instead of a stuffed animal of some sort, and it came out pretty nicely, if I do say so myself!

I won't lie though...I cut out double the pieces and plan on making one more of these.  I'll send her the better one and keep the other one for myself.  Maybe I'll get more fabrics and turn this into my giveaway prize. I love the colors on this though.  The butterflies is light courderoy (fine bumps) and the pink is coarse courderoy (big bumps).  The gray is just thick lineny material I found...I really dig it as the inside of the bag though, it's nice and heavy but still washable.  The whole thing is machine washable actually.

3. My kitty.  He is just so...special.  Thursday night, I was making dinner and heard him making the same noise he made when Shelby ate his food the first time...this long, low howl that kind of raises the hairs on the back of my neck.  It's eerie.  I went to find him, and he was looking out the storm door to the back yard.  It was after dark, so I figured he'd been conversing with another kitty outside.  I didn't see one run away, so I flipped the porch light on...nothing.  Grisgris stopped howling and started sniffing at the door, but didn't see his friend anymore so he started purring.  I turned the light back off and went to walk away, but as soon as I turned back around Grisgris started howling again.  I went over to see what he was looking at and realized...he was howling at his shadow on the ground outside!!!  It looked like a black kitty and kept moving around (because he did), so he thought there was an intruder who wouldn't talk to him!  I about fell on the floor I was laughing so hard.

He reminds me a lot of Alex the Lion from Madagascar. Pretty boy, kinda slow, goes completely wild sometimes, but all in all he means well.

He jumped out a window (first floor) yesterday to get outside, then hid under the trailer every time I tried to get him back in.  He's a little punk.  But I love him dearly.

4. One more week!  I have to say, every time I make the commute in or out now, I am a little more excited about not making it ever again.  Even on the good days, it still takes 45 minutes plus each way and I'm just so over that.  I can't wait until I can bike to work again too.  And have time in the evenings to run, cook, AND sew.

5. Spring skimpies!  This is what MOTU calls it.  At first, I was sort of offended (or at least annoyed) by both the term and the attention, but let's face it...it's a seasonal rite of passage.  What woman doesn't love that first day where it's technically still a little cool out, but darn it, it's been months since your shoulders have seen the sun so it's time for a tank top?  Apparently the boys love this time of year as well...the first day that women suddenly *aren't* wearing hoodies and parkas and jeans...some of us opt for the hoodie and shorts, some opt for tank top and jeans.  Personally, I know my legs glow in the dark so I'm all for jeans.  What's your spring skimpy style?


Addendum:

Another fave for this Friday?  The Friday Night Sew-In, of course!!




I'll have another post later to organize my thoughts for tonight.  I know I'm going to make another bag, and I'll probably put the top together for Emily's Matilda's baby blanket.  It's a pink/green/white rail fence, nothing spectacular.  I think I'll call it Fencing Matilda.

Also, I need to start doing labels for my quilts.  The QFK ones came with labels, but I didn't put one on Abby's Road.  I thought about it and sort of meant to, but then got excited about sending it to her and forgot entirely.

Friday Fave Five!!! #4

Oof dah, what a week!  I'm so glad it's Friday!  I have more than 5 faves this week, but let's see if I can compress them anyways:

1. I gave my notice!  What this implies is a few sub-faves:
   
   
   • I have a new, better job (and better means more pay, MUCH better commute, and new opportunities in a new environment).
   • I'm moving in* with MOTU (but not letting my lease go until I have a ring on my finger...*I've told him I'm not really moving in, I'm putting some clothes in his closet, my sewing junk in his old room, and my treadmill by the sewing junk...but I'm not moving in).  This act implies a lot of complicated things as well, including another fave which I cannot compress into this one because it deserves to stand on its own.
   • I only have 2 more weeks from today to deal with the people and projects that are not the highlights of my days.  
   • I no longer need to attend planning meetings. 
   • Cold stares melting into "why are you leaving me" puppy-dog eyes from more than a few people...including some rather higher-up people that I didn't realize even knew I existed but apparently value my contributions.
2. I'm valued!  I had no idea some of my coworkers felt the way they do about me.  Some of my favorites have been:
   
   
   • "We've been through a lot of writers on this team, but you will be the tear that hangs from our soul."
   • "But you're my favorite person here!"
   • "You know, they have boyfriends in MA too..."
   • "I get sick for 2 days and the whole place goes to hell...what happened??"
   It's been a bittersweet week, hearing so many people saying they'll be sad to see me go.  I honestly had no idea I'd made such an impact here...I knew I was trying, but I'm glad to know some of it worked.
   
3. We applied to adopt a puppy! I posted her picture yesterday, but here she is again for those of you who are just stopping by:
   
   
   
   
   Her name is currently Marlow, but we're planning on renaming her...no idea what her new name will be though. She's pure pit (and pure adorable), so she's gonna be a big 'un.  I'm looking forward to walking/running/camping with her.  Our van's name is Helen (as in Helen of Troy), but we couldn't think of anything to go with that...not for a girl puppy anyways.  Any ideas?
   
4. Getting a mom-cooked meal at pseudo-family's house tonight!  MOTU and I were planning on running the Niantic 5k this weekend, but the weather is looking like it's gonna be nasty so that's probably not going to happen.  Still, we're going down anyway because my parents' best friends live in CT and MOTU hasn't gotten their approval yet.  We might stop at Ikea on the way home, who knows.  
5. Midterms are over!  And now it's spring break!  From my one class!  w00t!  I'm hoping I did ok on that midterm, but I'm not sure.  We'll see.  The one downside to leaving TMW before class ends (well, besides not getting tuition reimbursed) is that now I won't have access to the toolbox or the team that's helped me understand so much.  Of course, I also won't need to take a Statistics class ever again (have I mentioned how much I LOATHE Statistics??) so as long as I pass this one I should be ok.  

I think I have more pictures on my camera, but for some reason my work computer won't recognize it as an input device.  Grumble grumble. 

Oh well, it's 1:17, which is cookie o'clock in TMW-speak!!

Have a great Friday!

Friday Fave Five #3

It seems cruel to do these on Fridays because really, the week is just starting for me...all the fun stuff happens over the weekend but by Friday I've forgotten what happened just the weekend before!

1. I got the phone call I was hoping for.  With any luck, I'll be able to post the details on Monday but feel free to email me if you want details now.  It's a big change, so expect a big post.  :-)

2. Somewhat related, I'm learning to react to opinions of others better.  In the past, some people's opinions (mostly family) have very much affected me, my actions, and my self-esteem.  What's frustrating is that it seems like I can never live down the mistakes I made in college (which, admittedly, there were more than a few)...the reality though is that I'm doing pretty ok in life.  I graduated in 4 years, I don't have kids (I'm not married), I've never been on drugs or to rehab, I've paid back all I owe and can now function entirely on my own...I think I'm doing pretty darn well actually.  But some people worry too much without knowing all the details, and that gets both frustrating and hurtful when I don't remember to put everything into context...and "she/he's always right" is never the right context. In any case, I've started remembering to put stuff in context before letting it get me down.  That's a HUGE step for me. Moving on.

3.  The floors are getting there.  As I type, MOTU is gearing up to put a layer of polyurethane down.  They look SO good!  The stink of stain has finally left (I've been cooking a lot this week) which is good too.  It's a pretty powerful stink.

4. Grisgris and Shelby don't really fight anymore!  She acknowledges him, gives a disgruntled growl, and lets him be unless he's heading towards her food (which he always does because he's a punk like that).  Another big step in the family.

5. And finally, one more big step.  MOTU has filled out the initial paperwork and has scheduled the initial medical exam to join the Marines.  His appointment is on the 27th.  That's just the initial exam, not the physical fitness test, so he doesn't need to have his 3 mile time down as far yet.  But we are running a 5k next weekend just for kicks anyways.  :-)

So that's the fave five first thing in the morning.  Who knows, maybe today will bring more faves.  Anyone else going to see Alice in Wonderland tonight??  I am SOOOO excited to see that!

***UPDATE***

Gabby was featured last week, I know, but "Greta" (her sister) knitted some fabulous new accessories for her and I got them as a surprise in the mail this week!

I love it!!

Friday Fave Five #2

1. Today started flip flop season.  It was low 40s, projected to snow, but dammit...my feet have been miserable for months.
   
   
   
   
2. Ok, I got this a while back.  My friend Emily made Gabby the office gremlin for me.  She's the reason papers go missing, my computer magically reboots, and my diet coke is suddenly empty.  Today, she's making me smile.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. New friends!  It turns out that Brenda, of Pumpkin Patch Primitives, lives within a couple miles of MOTU!  
4. My kitty.  I'll post pictures later.  He discovered that there's a second shelf to the kitchen cabinets...the one we keep the olive oil on, specifically.  He likes to hide there now, crouched in the back.  Not really sure why, but it's really funny anyways.  Also, he's doing just fine after his surgery.  I've be mastering the kitty rodeo (yes, that's right...I have to SIT on him to get him to hold still long enough to give him his medicine).  I'm getting such a kick out of it that I'm going to be genuinely sad when I don't have to give him meds anymore.  It doesn't hurt him at all, don't worry.  
5. Closet space!  It turns out that installing a new bathroom is going to *start* at $5k, which means that we get no new bathroom for now.  Instead, that whoooooollllleee space is gonna be a closet.  And that other half of the bedroom is gonna be just open space.  I'm a fan.  I like open spaces.  The best part is, since we're not doing anything at all to the bathroom part of things, it's entirely conceivable that we could get the room done by the end of this weekend!  Which means that I could start transporting my sewing stuff to Nashua in the next couple of weeks!  Huzzah!  

Ok, a few more faves...

As soon as I hit "Publish", I realized there were a lot of good things that happened this week.  Here are a few more (as well as some introductions to the important people in my life...I'll put a cast of characters on the side in a minute):

• My dad wasn't in any way related to the plane crash in Austin.  His hospital is about a mile from where it happened, the plane was the same make/model as his and taken from the place he keeps his, but it wasn't his plane.  He wasn't in his office when it happened, but he said they could see the smoke from his window. 
• MOTU has a phone interview this afternoon!  And then he's talking to the Marine recruiter!  It's gonna be a good day for him...he has options for getting out of a job that's dragging him down in a major way, and that makes me so happy.  
• Johnson (he lives in MD and also works at a thankless job, though his job is much more dramatically awful than MOTU's is) has an in-person interview scheduled!  This is HUGE for him, as he's not been able to get any kind of answers from anyone for about 6 months, and his current job is killing him slowly.  Literally.  
• Latina Machina is having a great week too...her latest love, Mr. Armstrong, is turning out to be a dream come true for her AND she got a call back for an acting school she really wanted to get in to!  Yay! 
• The Boy is looking forward to graduating, and is starting to put together stuff to get a job...we're all very excited for him, if a little nervous given the economy and all that. 
• I figured out how to add another column to my blog!  Isn't it pretty?  Next up, figuring out how to quickly and easily change backgrounds/header pictures.  Woo! 
• This weekend we start demolition on MOTU's house!  That's one step closer to securing my HUGE new sewing room!  Muahahaha!  It's also one step closer to me moving in with him (gulp!).  Poor Grisgris is getting booted out of his "safe room" though.  That's fine for him, since he basically rules the house while Shelby (MOTU's 6 lb furball) cowers in the bedroom.  I think she likes it there best anyways, because her main purpose in life is to cover anything and everything that I touch in fur.  I'm pretty sure I left some of her fur in NZ, that's how much there is.  
• Have I mentioned how excited I am for the Sew-In tonight? I do need more white noise movies/tv shows though...I'm almost through the second season of Big Bang Theory, sadly.  Maybe I'll just start that over from the beginning.  It's funny because it really hits home...that's my life, seriously.  Some days, I'm not Penny either. 
• Of course, it's been a short week...I'm a fan of short weeks.  Next week promises to be a good week too, but I'll tell you about that later.  

What are you working on tonight?  

First Attempt - Friday Fave Five

This week was a pretty decent week.  I figure it's as good a week as any to start doing the Friday Fave Five. So without further ado, here's what made me happy this week:

1. Flowers on my side table.  Last week, MOTU snuck into my house on his lunch break and left flowers for me.  I debated bringing them upstairs to my sewing room, but a) there's not enough space, b) I'm pretty sure I'd just dump the water everywhere, and c) leaving them in the living room makes it so they're the last thing I see (aside from my kitty's pathetic frowning face) when I leave for the day.  Makes me smile every time.

2. The number 4.  Specifically when it's the first number in a two-digit temperature reading.  Well, when that reading is from outside my house anyways.  It happened a couple times this week!

3. Taking care of business.  This week I got a lot done on the personal front.  My car feels better (she got her oil changed, which lead to the 75k mile tune up, transmission fluid change, spark plug change, etc) and safer...and my mechanic rocks too!  He took her down the street to get my inspection sticker reupped...just because.  What mechanic does that??  In addition to car stuff, I got Grisgris* scheduled for surgery next week.  He needs 3 teeth removed so he can eat regular food again...poor little thing. 

In addition, All my bills are paid (for now), my taxes are done and refunded, and a few rebate requests (specifically for my health club benefit from my health insurance...be sure to check on this if you've got a gym membership.  BCBS refunds up to $150/yr for this stuff) are in the mail. 

* I feel like I need to explain the name here.  I adopted Grisgris from a friend at work who had previously named him "Grey Kitty".  He is, in fact, very much a grey kitty.  I decided to rename him, and I'm a climber.  There's a piece of climbing equipment called a grigri.  I decided to spell it with the "s"es because gris = grey in French, which is my family heritage.  So it looks like grizgriz, it's actually greegree, and I'm pretty sure I'm the only one in the world who thinks it's clever.  :-D 

4. Peeling fingers.  Yeah, it's pretty much as gross as it sounds.  But it's so much better than that.  MOTU and I went rock climbing last night and as a result, my poor dehydrated and uncalloused fingers are peeling.  Hurts so good.  I managed to rock out a V2 in spite of lack of strength and epidermis. 

5. SNOW! While I recognize that there will be a couple of you who wholeheartedly disagree with me, bear with me.  It's actually the hilarious lack of snow that I'm a fan of here.  Last Wednesday, we got a lot of hype about a storm that sounded like it was going to be at least as bad as anything MD has been getting.  I even left work early that day to avoid it.  Class was canceled, the governor told us to stay home, I pajama'ed it up in my sewing room for the night...we got half an inch.  Half an inch!!  It was a joke!  BUT!  I went to class this week and the prof said that, since there aren't any extra weeks for us to make up last week, instead of making our midterm an in-class monstrosity (ok, he didn't call it a monstrosity), he's making it a take home!  w00t!! 
A little background here: I'm in grad school to get my Mathematics Master's.  It's a hobby degree (don't laugh), but because of work I've sort of been "nudged" to make it a Statistics emphasis.  I hate statistics.  It's been the one subject, my whole mathematic career, that I have always struggled with.  I happen to be the documentation writer for, you guessed it, the Statistics Toolbox from The MathWorks.  I inherited it about a year and a half ago, and taking classes has been my attempt at trying to help me write better for it.  Anyways, needless to say, a take home exam is WAY better for me than an in-class exam.  SO I like snow.  Especially when we don't actually get it. 

So that's it, my FFF.  I'll have more to post later (maybe not til tomorrow) as tonight's the Friday Night Sew-In!  I put in a new whiteboard in my sewing room to track the projects I'm working on (yeah I'm OCD like that) and tonight I've got 6 to select from.  8 if you include the 2 I have stuff for but haven't started yet.  I've got leftovers for dinner, so as soon as I get home, it's pajamas and sewing room time.  I can't wait!