Joining the Smug Marrieds

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Beau and I have been working in the basement - clearing out junk and making space for the table I’m going to use as my work desk when I start to telecommute. The table is set up, but needs a little tweaking. Now we just need to figure out how to configure the loveseat and recliner, if we’re going to keep them, to accommodate the Pack-n-Play for baby Jesse.

I think I’m going to go ahead and pull out some Christmas stuff early to work on this afternoon. Since we’ll be gone for most of next weekend, we won’t have the time then to do any decorating and I really do want to have the decorations this year. Last year I was still at my parents’ house awaiting our wedding at New Year’s, so I didn’t do any decorating - even though Beau was already living in our townhouse. It was just too crazy and we were in boxes until well after the wedding.

It’s nice to sit here at the computer with Beau nearby in the recliner. I’m thinking that we really need to get the fireplace area cleared so that we can use it this winter - we’re all going to be spending a lot of time down here and having a fire to warm us and make it cozy will be super nice.

Friday, November 17, 2006

So Beau and I were driving up to his sister’s place last weekend and he put a CD into the player in his car. It was kind of jazzy/bluesy and I liked it a lot.

“Who is this?” I asked.

“Keb Mo,” he replied.

In my head, I thought, Keb Mo? Really?

“Really. Keb Mo?” I did say out loud.

“Yeah, why?” he asked.

“You don’t know Celine Dion, but you know Keb Mo?” I asked.

He didn’t say anything long enough for me to continue, “Did someone give this to you?”

At that he laughed and said, “Gwynne.”

Of course!

We both laughed pretty hard - he’s still mostly pop culturally illiterate, but he’s coming up to speed quickly now that he’s married to me.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Friday morning started out like any work day because I was the moron that set the vet appointment for Mr. Kitty and Annie at 9am. Because of holiday non-traffic, it took me no time to get there and it wasn’t busy at the vet at all, so we were done there in about 30 minutes. Annie got her kennel cough vaccination and Mr. Kitty got his clean bill of health, although I was told to monitor his food intake because he’s getting fatter - he weighed in at 17.5 lbs.

From there I killed time at the Target across the street until the time for my appointment for the prenatal massage, which was fabulous. I got there a few minutes early, but my masseuse, Lisa, came right out and whisked me away for a very relaxing hour. Apparently my back pain of last week was because of tense outer thigh muscles, which seems weird. However, when she started working on my right hip I about jumped off of the table in pain. The left hip hurt less, thankfully, and when she was done I had no pain at all. That lasted for about 4-5 hours and then I had some aches return. I guess there’s no escaping some aches and pains at this point in pregnancy.

My massage ended before my mother’s facial, so I waited for her - only about 10 minutes. We then went for a nice lunch together. After lunch I went to AC Moore to buy some bead supplies I needed for some things I was making for Mom and then I went home.

The pets were in the car the whole day - total car time for Annie and Mr. Kitty - 6 hours, poor things. Mr. Kitty was so happy to get out of the crate and then he crashed.

Saturday was a lazy home day until I had to get to church for the choir practice before the service. After church we went to dinner with my parents as we usually do. Beau and I both ate a little too much, so we lounged in the living room for a bit before heading to bed. And then we struggled with getting to sleep because of the party going on next door. That lasted until about 1:30am.

Sunday morning was an early one since I had to be at church at 8:15. We woke up later than normal and rushed out of the house. Poor Beau had parking lot duty in the cold and pouring rain. After the choir was done in the first service I went out to the front to meet up with him but he was nowhere around. I was told that he went home to get rain gear - turned out his pants got soaked, so he changed into jeans and wore weatherproof pants over those, too. So I didn’t see him again until the choir was done singing in the second service - we lounged by the fireplace until the choir had to go sing for the end of the service.

We left church pretty quickly, made a quick lunch, and parked ourselves to watch the Redskins terrible loss. They really stink. We both fell asleep in the second quarter - I woke up halfway through the third quarter. We spent a lazy afternoon, watching TV and reading.

It was a good weekend. I just wish there had been a little bit more of it.

Monday, October 23, 2006

I bragged to my parents at dinner on Saturday that I would have a great night’s sleep with Beau gone. I’d have more room in the bed.

Turns out that was not the case.

I went to bed at about 9pm. Woke up at 10:45, 11:30, 12:30, 1:30, 2:30, and 3:30. At the 3:30 wake up I decided to get up and head downstairs to watch a little TV, thinking that I’d doze off in the recliner.

Not so.

I channel surfed for about 2 hours. I could have watched something on the DVR, but I was thinking that I didn’t want to fall asleep during a show and have to rewatch it again anyway. Nope. For that 2 hours I was wide awake. But then I started yawning close to 5:30 so I turned off the light and pushed the recliner back further to see if I could fall back asleep.

I think I had just fallen asleep when Mr. Kitty decided it was time to attack Annie. Annie doesn’t play without barking. For the next hour I yelled at both animals in desperation to HUSH! to no avail. Finally they stopped running around and barking at about 6:30 and I was able to get a little shut eye. Unfortunately it was only an hour because I had to get up at 7:30 to get ready for church.

I did get a nap of sorts yesterday afternoon and I slept great last night. However, Beau was the one who escaped the bed last night for the recliner because he wasn’t able to get comfortable. I was hogging the bed for once.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

I just got this from our warrants clerk via email:

Dear Tech Support:
Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and almost immediately noticed a distinct slowdown in overall system performance - particularly in the Flower and Jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NFL 5.0, MLB 3.0, NBA 4.0, NASCAR 4.2 and Golf Clubs 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.

I’ve tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?

Signed,
Desperate

******************************
Dear Desperate:

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System.

Please enter the command: “http//www.I-T hought-You-Loved-Me.com” and try to download Tears 6.2, and don’t forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. But remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0, or Beer 6.1. Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources)

Also, do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. This is an unsupported application and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommen d Hot Food 3.0 and Lingerie 7.7.

Signed,
Support Tech

So far, my Husband 1.0 is running great. I have no complaints.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Still no final word from GMU on the spring teaching job for Beau. But he’s pretty certain it’s a done deal. He’s got a sub job today, so I won’t know anything until later this afternoon, if anything.

I’ve been making the case to him that we really need an additional freezer for extra food storage. Our tiny freezer just isn’t big enough and I know we’re spending way more money than we need to for things like meat. We have the room for a small chest freezer in the utility room in the basement, so I did a quick search at Craig’s List yesterday and found one that was purchased by the owner back in March that he’s selling for $75. We sent an inquiry email last night (after some more convincing arguments from me) and now we’re just waiting to hear it it’s still available. I’m hoping it is.

I also saw an ad for a FoodSaver vacuum sealer, which will also help us to save grocery money. I want to be able to buy meat in bulk and then vacuum reseal it in smaller packages to store longer. The Cooties do this and I know they are able to save a ton of money each year as a result. Plus I’m thinking that I might try to make my own baby food later and vacuum sealing packages of pureed veggies for Jesse that I can freeze will be great. I want to be able to make and freeze meals for later use and Beau likes to make fresh bread - he can make several loaves on a Saturday, we can vacuum seal them and freeze them for later use, too. He’s going to go get that tonight - only $20.

Spending money to save money.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

I’m busy at work since it’s the end of the month. However, I have a few random things rolling around my head that I thought I’d share.

1. We’re having a pot luck tomorrow here at the office. I will post the recipes for my contributions if you’re interested: hash brown casserole, baked beans, corn pudding.

2. John Mark Karr vs DA Lacy: I was an early skeptic that this whacko’s assertion that he killed JonBenet Ramsey was true. However, it seems to me the Boulder DA’s office did the exact right thing regarding this sick nutjob. I was amazed last night that almost immediately she and her team were being villified for making the arrest in the first place. From the little I got from their presser today, it seems that they had no choice but to arrest him.

3. Baja Fresh rulz.

4. Paul at Wizbang! (a New Orleans native) puts forth a very plausible explanation of how the levees broke before Katrina’s fury hit in full force. Why isn’t this news getting more play?

5. I have the best husband a gal could ask for. I love you, Beau. :smooch:

That is all. Happy Tuesday.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Beau and I played a game of Scrabble last night while I waited for BB, which came on at 9pm instead of 8pm. For most of the game I had the point lead, but it turns out that he had way better letters at the end because he came back to demolish me.

The funny part was when we were down the last few letters on our racks and he said, “I bet you can take these tiles and come up with a word in less that a minute.”

“You want me to try?” I asked.

He handed me the tiles, which were the two blanks and a C. I took a quick look at the board, found an open T and placed the blank, C, blank in place - TACK.

He cracked up that I managed it so fast. Then I took my last two tiles, an O and an I and placed them behind the blank-K to make KOI.

See, I’m quick with the words, but he gets more points with his.

Friday, August 04, 2006

So Beau and I had a rough night last night.

He arrived home from small group to discover that Annie and Falcor had both peed in the dining room. And then Falcor was hiding under our bed and he couldn’t get him out until he got a broom and pushed him out. And then I puked. By the time we fell asleep it was close to 11pm - late for us lately.

We were both rudely awakened from a deep and sound sleep when he let out a Howard Dean-like yell and then he brought his left elbow around and did a pile driver move into my chest - not on purpose, of course, it was a reflex move.

“Are you OK?” I managed to ask. And then I looked at the clock - 1:40am. Damn, I thought, not even 2am yet. *sigh* I hope I don’t puke because of this.

“My knee…” he muttered and reached down to grab it. Apparently, he tried to turn and it didn’t or something didn’t work right and he woke up in excruciating pain. Hence the yell and elbow.

After a minute or two, he said it didn’t hurt anymore and that’s when I started laughing. Fortunately, he got the joke and laughed with me. We laughed for a while.

“I hope I don’t throw up,” I muttered after a bit. See, it all depends on how long I’m awake for the puking reflex to kick in. If I can fall asleep within 10 minutes or so I’ll be OK. Somehow I managed that, because we both slept hard until about 6am. We woke up chuckling at the chaos in the middle of the night.

And then I puked.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

I missed two anniversaries in July.

On July 24, 2002, I began blogging at jenspeaks.blogspot.com. It doesn’t seem like it’s been four years that I’ve been doing this little hobby. It’s hard to believe I’ve stuck with it this long. Folks who have been with me since nearly the beginning include my sister, of course, Tony, and The Thinklings. There are many more who have come and gone in those four years - too many to name.

The other anniversary is Beau’s and my 7 month anniversary of wedded bliss. I am so blessed to have such a loving and thoughtful husband. He’s been great to take care of me and pretty much everything around the house, especially since I got pregnant and couldn’t take care of myself and the house myself. I love him more everyday and can’t believe how much he’s enriched my life. I love you, Beau.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

As is common during pregnancy, my dreams are much more vivid and remembered. Let me recount the three I’ve had so far:

1. I came home from work to find that Beau had redecorated our house from stem to stern. Unfortunately, he had replaced all of our nice furniture pieces with what I call “college eclectic” stuff. For instance, the TV was no longer housed in the armoire we use today. Instead it was displayed on a brick-n-board shelving unit he had set up. Needless to say, I was not happy and what followed in my dream was some R-rated, profanity laden yelling. I woke up in shock at what spewed from my mouth.

2. I have a training class the first week of August and the second dream is related to that. The class is in the Arlington area and because I drove I needed to park on the street. So I parked in a spot on the street up from the building where my training was to take place. When I came back it was dark and I got a little turned around. When I realized I had turned up the wrong street, I backtracked and decided to pass through a bar on my way to the corner where I needed to turn. I entered the bar to find my friend Joan and some of her other friends hanging out in the bar (which is weird enough if you know her). We chatted for a bit and then I headed out to go look for my car. I got to the spot where I knew I had parked only to find that there were no cars at all parked on the street.

The rest is a bit of a blur, but I think I called Beau to figure out which Metro bus I needed to take to get home. I never figured out if my car had been stolen or towed. And I was about 6 months pregnant.

3. The third came this morning and I asked Beau if I could share this one because I didn’t want him to be embarrassed by it. He chuckled and said it was fine. I then said, “You’d never do something like that anyway.” But he paused and smiled and said, “Actually, I think I would.” And then we laughed because he just might.

Anyway, this one was about our wedding, except this version was doubled. In that we had two weddings/receptions because there were too many people to accommodate in just one. And we combined the ceremony into the reception, so the guests were seated at tables alongside the aisle and eating their meals while Beau and I went through the ceremony rituals.

At some point during the second wedding/reception, there was some kind of weird break and Beau disappeared for a few minutes. While he was gone, I mingled at the tables. He reappeared with a teenage girl and a basketball and had changed out of his tuxedo pants into shorts. He still had the shirt and bow tie on. I heard chuckles from the other tables and turned to see him headed toward a basketball hoop. Confused, I went over to him. “You know we’re not done with the wedding, right?” I asked him. He just looked at me. “We need to finish the ceremony and then you can play basketball,” I said. “Go put your tuxedo pants back on.”

He left and I mingled some more. When I heard fresh chuckles I turned to see that he had returned, in his tuxedo pants, but had changed into a burgundy shirt. I just looked at him with a questioning look and my hands raised palms up, “What are you doing?” I was thinking. His face dropped into this completely perplexed and confused look that was so cute that I just started laughing in delight. That was when I woke up. And I woke up laughing.

Cross-posted at Whiny Complaints.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Eric posted a picture of the container they use to collect their spare change. I love it!

It reminded me of our own spare change collector, which is a bowl type flower vase. However, right now we’re putting spare change in a baby bottle for a fundraiser our church is a part of for a local crisis pregnancy center.

Anyway, when were on our honeymoon we stayed in a timeshare and opted to go for the spiel to get the discount on the Pink Jeep Tour we wanted to do later in the week. The thing the sales lady said that cracked us up, especially when she started to talk real money, was that she was able to buy her timeshare with the spare change she collected. Maybe that was so about 20 years ago, but at the rates they go for now? No way - you’d be saving for the rest of your life.

But it’s a long standing joke with us now. Every time we dump money in that bowl and the other is in the room we say, “We’re saving for the timeshare!”

Of course, I’ve emptied that bowl into the Coin Star a couple of times already, so…

Monday, June 19, 2006

I woke up this morning feeling like I hadn’t gotten the 7 hours of sleep I had just woken up from. But I got up and tried my usual morning routine before getting ready for work. Didn’t work; I was exhausted. So I called My Boss to let him know that I was going to stay home and went back to bed. That was at about 7:15am. I just woke up about 30 minutes ago; feeling refreshed and more normal.

I rarely nap anymore. Three hours is a really long nap for me. I was tired.

Anyway, I’m at home today. But that’s nice because Beau is home, too. It will be nice to have a quiet day with my husband.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

The following is very mundane figuring-out-married-eating stuff. Mind-numbingly boring for most of you, I’m sure…

As a single person, dinner was usually scrambled eggs or a bowl of cereal. My husband expects something a little more substantial for dinner, which we like to eat together, and he prefers to eat earlier than would be possible if we waited for me to start cooking after I get home. For the past five months we’ve been hit or miss - partly because we never really talked about a strategy for meal prep given my full time work and Beau’s more flexible schedule. What’s great is that Beau is a very good cook - where he doesn’t know how to do something I give instructions, which he follows very well.

This past weekend, Beau and I scrounged for meals that were easy to prepare because we were too lazy to go to the trouble to make a nice meal that would take more time. And we don’t have enough snackable foods in the house to make do that way. What we wanted were handy leftovers that would be easy to heat up and also be a little more nutritious than hot dogs or pizza. So we discussed it, strategizing the regular weekly meal preparation so that we have plenty of leftovers for the weekend scrounges.

We’ll be out and about for most of the coming weekend with CH’s wedding festivities, which will include a few meals. So we implemented the plan for early in the week and we’ve done well.

Monday: I had purchased a pork loin vacuumed packed in a balsamic-basil marinade. Since Beau got home before I did, he put that in the oven with some potatoes to roast and two leftover roasted ears of corn from last week. We’re becoming big fans of roasted veggies - so much tastier than steamed and just as easy to prepare. Anyway, that was delicious and we had enough pork and potatoes leftover to hold for Wednesday’s (tonight’s) dinner.

Tuesday: I had also purchased a whole roaster chicken. Since Beau was home yesterday, he prepped the bird for roasting, with some chopped onions, celery, and carrots in the bottom of the roasting pan. He also started some potatoes for mashing. By the time I got home, the chicken was nearly done with delicious looking veggies, the potatoes were ready for mashing, and I started some peas on the stove to go along with it all. He started the cooking and I finished it - a great plan that works well for us. A quick cook off of the giblets in some water provided additional broth from which to start a nice gravy, which I finished off with some of the drippings from the pan. We feasted well last night and were still left with 2/3 of the chicken, half of the potatoes, and about half of the peas/roasted veggies for Thursday’s dinner (and other meals beyond as needed).

So tonight we’ll dine on the leftover pork meal, tomorrow we’ll dine on the leftover chicken meal. Friday we’ll be at the rehearsal dinner. Saturday will be a grab during the day whiel I’m working the wedding details with a nice dinner at the reception. Sunday lunch will most likely be out with my parents and dinner will probably be the rest of the chicken meal.

Next week, we’ll start the process over again.

Monday, June 05, 2006

This is like reading about myself.

Just ask my mother about The Lemon Incident.

I think Beau has probably had similar close calls in the past five months, although he probably didn’t realize it at the time. Or he didn’t let on that he realized it. Or he doesn’t care, in which case I have married a saint.

Speaking of…I got an email from Beau’s Sis with the information that there is a saint day for my Beau (his real name, of course). Hilarious.