Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Do you have any of habits that have just snuck up on you?

When I got my first car in high school, I had this little thing I would do every time I got in the car...besides actually starting the car. I would get in and start the car, then pull the keys up and hook them so the wouldn't hit my leg when I drove. They were long and would tap me until I got the heebie-jeebies. However, it was one of those odd little things I did that I never realized. Until one day my sister got in the passenger side and flipped my keys up for me. She said she couldn't believe I had forgotten to do that. She saw me do that every single time we got into the car, but I had never noticed until she pointed it out.

Another habit...I must have chapstick in my right pant pocket. If I don't have pockets, it goes in the left cup of my bra. Why? I have no idea. I've noticed this more in the last year. It really wouldn't matter what pocket it goes in so long as I have the chapstick with me or I'll freak out and obsess about it. No really. Freak Out.

Laying in bed last night, I realized that I always come to bed with a glass of water. Cause what if I get thirsty in the middle of the night? Couldn't possibly get up and get a glass then, too sleepy. Rarely have I ever woken up and actually drank the water...but it's there just in case. When did that start?

The thing I'm curious about is how long is it between when we start these odd little habits and when we notice we are doing them. I don't remember having to have water next to the bed at my last apartment, but maybe I did and didn't notice it. I've been addicted to chapstick for years. This is actually a trait passed down by my father. But when did I start having to keep it in a certain pocket? Maybe tomorrow I'll try a different pocket, but then again why mess with a good thing. Plus if I do put it in another pocket, I might panic and thing I left it at home.

Now I'm curious what other little habits I have, that I haven't noticed yet.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Mating Opossums?

Yesterday evening I decided to kick back a bit. I lit a fire in the fire pit and sat out on the back patio with my blanket and a book. It was a good time. I am tempted to do it again tonight. However, I washed all the blankets today and it would be dumb to get them all stinky again.

Anyho, during my nice relaxing evening, the Tadao decided to come over to do his laundry. He brought gifts. He brought us dinner...C3PO. Which is some strange concoction on chili, chicken, curry, and other things I don't want to know about. It's oddly tasty and free, so I don't question. He also brought laundry detergent. Yes, for him to use, but also a bottle for me. I got on his case last week about using up all my detergent. I don't mind people coming over and using my machines and soap. The thing is I like to be asked. I don't like to go out and start a load of laundry only to find out I'm out of soap. So last week when he was over doing laundry, I asked him if he was using my detergent. He thought he was sneaky and I hadn't figured out he was using my soap. So he got a little embarrassed. I told him he could use my detergent but he could only use the amount that the bottle suggested. It's a pet peeve of mine when people put in two cap loads, when it only says to use one. More soap doesn't mean cleaner clothes! The reason there are measurements on the cap, is because the manufacturer has figured out how much to use so that all the soap will be rinsed out in a cycle. If you add too much soap in, it's not all going to be rinsed out...making your clothes dirtier. Ok venting over. I must really scare him because he did bring over soap. I told him to just keep it here and he can use it when he needs.

So I was sitting outside reading. Tadao was nice enough to offer to bring out some of the C3PO to me. I thought, hell yeah I'll take him up on that. Hearing this, Mario yelled from inside the house to come in. I thought it was because I was being lazy out there, but Tadao ran inside. Then came back and yelled something about "mating opossums" in the front yard. Is that really the best way he could think of to get me off my ass? But then Tadao an back inside excited again. So I decided to follow. Mario, Tadao and Bob(cat) were all at the front door staring out. So there was something out there. I decided to take a look at these mating opossums and actually saw was they were looking at...a baby opossum. It was a like an ugly baby kitten with scary teeth. We don't know where he came from, but he was just hanging out on the grass. Of course when I stepped out to grab the cat...didn't want Bob messing with that guy. Bob decided that the opossum looked like he would be fun to play with. So Bob started doing drive-bys and just jumping around and scaring the shit out of this poor baby opossum. Bob's such a little jerk. The opossum was hissing at him. Dexter hisses at Bob all time, so I'm sure Bob thought that little guy was playing with him.

I decided to bring Bob inside and let the little guy be. When I realized that it would be a great story for the bloggy, I decided to go out and get a little photo of him. He was long gone. We have no idea where he went.

Would you believe that I actually considered trying to make him a pet for half a minute. His mom was no where around and Bob was having so much fun running around trying to play with him. Then I pictured him hissing again with his scary teeth and I shot that thought right down.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

InD'Anna Jones and the Temple of BBQ

Tonight we had Mario's family over for BBQ. It's Aunt Meg's last night here and then she's off to visit other family members.

I was in the kitchen making a yummy salad and some other sides, when all of a sudden there was blaring music from outside. Now Mario likes to create an ambiance when he ques, so there's always a little music playing and dancing going on. It adds a little flare to the food maybe? But this was some realy loud music. One of our neighbors had been playing some music earlier, but this was really loud and not his style. Finally I stopped to really listen to it.

It the soundtrack to Indiana Jones. That's so Mario. Apparently Mario was on a culinary journey in our backyard jungle(tomato plants). His geeky side was definitely showing. The fact that he had the soundtrack is one thing, but the fact that he was absolutely blasting it in our backyard is another. I was actually embarrassed. Our neighbors couldn't have loved this. So I snuck out to turn it down. He was bopping around in front of the BBQ...so cute but so nerdy!

Well, that extra pizazz must have worked because dinner was awesome! Later tonight he was working on a photo for facebook. The man loves turning movie moments into his own. Today's theme carried on. He put our faces on Indiana and Marion from Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's actually really cute...


He's having a theme night tonight...who knows maybe we'll do some Indiana Jones roll playing later?

Updated to add...Mario just corrected me on the actual name of the music. It's called "The Raider's March" GEEK!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

I love..


when little old ladies where short pants, skirts, dresses...and you can see where their knee-highs end. Mario's Aunt Meg is visiting from New Zealand. I love Aunt Meg but can only understand half of what she's saying...thick Scottish accent plus living in New Zealand for 15 years. It's a little complicated at times. Meg makes a yearly pilgrimage to the states to visit friends and family for 4 months at a time. We knew she would be visiting in May. However, when sister-in-law called to say hello last weekend, she found out Meg would be here the following Tuesday. There were multiple people who knew she would be flying in, however, no one found it necessary to call the people who would be picking her up from the airport...us. After some mad cleaning and rearranging, she's here safely and settled in.

Anyway, Meg is lots of fun and I couldn't help but get the giggles when I noticed her knee highs. I also got a good glimpse of them when she decided to do high kicks in the kitchen to prove to me how healthy she is...now that's when I really wish I had the camera!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

My New Obsession

My new obsession lately has been my little patio garden. This year I planted everything earlier because, I want them to have a chance to grow before the patio turns into a searing oven.

I've planted tomatoes, sage, cilantro, lettuce, radishes, carrots, cauliflower, and other things. And they're actually growing! I'm so excited...which got one of my friends all excited. So we decided to plant gardens together. We each have our own tomatoes and herbs. However, we decided to plant things that we could trade with each other.

My first little green tomato!

We're both very excited. Maybe a little too excited? Because we decided to get one of those veggie garden plots in a community garden. We drove out to check it out and see what we got. It's very close to Tracy, so she'll take care of the day to day maintenance. I'll come out a couple times a week to clean up and all that fun stuff. The part I'm not looking forward to...getting all the rocks out of that garden. Luckily the community garden we are a part of has everything we need. sifters, wheel barrels, tools, all that stuff. All that's left is the hard labor. Luckily Mario volunteered to help with that...nice guy. Still going to be a lot of work.

My sage is growing like crazy...I can't wait to use it!

So now we have to choose what other veggies we want...

Thursday, April 16, 2009

My Date With Joey


Monday I had a date with my friend's 3 year old son, Joey. Nick and Katie had moved that weekend and really needed the day to unpack. So Joey was all mine! With Auntie Laura in charge, I will inevitably break some child rearing rules. This also means that my goal of teaching him annoying phrases continues on. This day I focused on "Radical", "Totally Awesome", and "Rock and Roll!". I know these phrases aren't that bad, but they're born-again, so I gotta keep it clean.

We started the day by going to this weird indoor jungle gym place with tubes and nets to climb around. We had celebrated Joey's birthday there the week before. It was fun and I had already successfully humiliated myself there, so why not go back? Also, apparently exposing yourself to a group of people is ok there, because they let me right back in.

Let me explain...I am skirt wearing girl. I'm just more comfortable in skirts. However, I did know there would be playing and keeping this in mind, I decided to wear a longer denim pencil skirt. Which was totally fine, until after lunch. You see the kids eat lunch upstairs. Then afterward, they open this little door and shove the kids through the door "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" style. The kids disappear down this slide and everyone's happy. Well, Joey isn't crazy about slides. So all the other kids go shooting off to other places. Only Joey and a few adults left at the top. So he decided he will go down the slide with Auntie Laura. We climb in and just as we are about to go, he changes his mind again. He decides that the cute little high school worker guy should ride on my lap instead. To which I respond "I don't know if uncle Mario would like that"(when I told Mario about this later, he said "I think Uncle Mario would pay to see that guy ride down the slide on your lap"...thanks a lot).



I figure, I'm already in the slide, why waste a perfectly good ride? So I wave good bye to the other adults(who I might add are totally not worried about where their children have disappeared to) and start the decent. Now I was warned about these slides, they are long and you catch some speed. So I was totally prepared for the that. I less prepared for my fitted skirt to be up around my waist when I arrive at the bottom of the slide. Of course now that my ass is exposed to the plastic, I came to a screeching hault three feet from the end of the slide. It was an enclosed slide, so I couldn't just hope up and run away. No, I have to hop scoot my ass to the end slide, making that bare skin squeak as I go. As I'm quickly trying to get to safety, I hear Joey at the top of the slide yell "GOOD JOB AUNTIE LAURA!". Yeah great job.

When I finally clear the slide and stand up, it's then that I realize my friend's husband and a group of children were witness to the entire show. The look on his face said it all. Horror! I pulled down my skirt and ran mumbling past them trying to play it cool. Of course the next person I ran into was his wife. I promptly apologized for any night terrors Mark might have that night, and explained to her what happened. She thought it was hysterical but every time Mark would pass me he'd just shake his head.

So after all of that, you'd think that I would have learned my lesson and wear pants on Monday. Nope. I wore a skirt again because I was running late and couldn't find any pants. I would have looked harder had I known that Joey can climb up to the third level of the jungle gym...but he can't climb down. I climbed up to the third level I-don't-know-how-many-times! There comes a point when you don't care who sees what and just climb!(this is where I recommend chasing a kid around one of these places for two hours...I was so sore the next day from all the damn climbing!)


The rest of the day was pretty quiet because me and the kid were both exhausted from the jungle gym. And yes I did get in trouble for letting him have a sip of my diet coke. At which point I ratted out Nick, because I have seen him give Joey orange soda...at least mine was diet! Ok I also got in trouble for letting him fall asleep in the car instead of getting him into a bed faster...because as soon as I got him back to Nick and Katie, he was having some major melt-downs. Oh well, I know there'll be payback when I'm a mother.


Wednesday, April 15, 2009

I've been absent this week. Partially because life has been quiet and mostly because I couldn't think of anything to write about.

So tonight I was going to tell you about my Monday, but then I found this site. True Wife Confessons...totally blowing my mind. Ok some of it is nice, alright very little of it is nice. Most are crazy. It's surprising and not all at the same time. I have married friends who have told me some of the same things I'm reading on here. I don't know if I'm more surprised at the people staying in miserable marriages or just the hate that some people feel for their spouses.

So, want to feel great about your marriage or just want to know there's someone else out there feeling the same way that you do? Read True Wife Confessions.

Friday, April 10, 2009

The Easter Bunny Arrived...via UPS

My mother loves her some Easter. My sister and I...not so much. It's not that we don't like it, it's just that we've always had to humor our mother and her crazy Easter egg hunts. My mom once showed up to my college apartment and promptly kicked us all out. This was a shock to my new roommate, who had not met her yet. My three roommates and two other friends(they had only just stopped in to say hi and were now sucked into mom's Easter egg hunt) sat outside in the dark for twenty minutes. Then she finally let us all in to the dark apartment, handed us flash lights and told us to find the three dozen Easter eggs she'd hidden around the apartment. It took a while of course, because the woman doesn't remember where she hides them and she's already had a couple of glasses of wine at that point.

Most years we can't get together, she sends a nice Easter package for me and who ever I'm living with. So this year the UPS Bunny rolls up and hands the box off to Mario. We rip into it excitedly looking for a little chocolate fix. There was no candy. However, there were two cute photo albums with price tags still on them(cause that's how mom rolls), cute chicky salt and pepper shakers, Easter towels, a cute apron, and a Easter candy jar(empty of course).

This is the conversation that we had about my Easter package...

Laura: Thank you...everything is cute
Laura: and one day you'll take the price tags off of the things you buy us
Mom: You should also know that I did not pay that price, but it looks like I did
Laura: figures
Laura: bob thanks you for the big box to play in
Mom: always
Mom: the photo albums are for your mother
Laura: what?!
Laura: they are for you?
Mom: if your heart feels like printing any photos for me
Mom: your old old mother
Mom: maybe pictures of europe
Laura: right
Mom: when we were together in Italy or the rest of the trip
Mom: I will probably like any pictures that my daughter would print for me,
Mom: starved for things that she does
Mom: pictures of my grand sons(grand cats) playing in the box
Laura: alright alright
Mom: a silent tear falls on the keyboard
Mom: then another
Laura: oh jesus


The conversation turned to the apron and towels...

Laura: Thanks for the cute apron
Laura: I was just telling mario that I need an apron
Laura: a girly one
Mom: my wish is your command
Mom: but actually that was for mario
Mom: he cooks
Mom: you don't
Mom: haha
Mom: figured the guys(Mario and my sister's bf) would like the apron and a set of towels - their choice
Laura: funny



Mom: and you could fill the bowl with candy
Laura: but you didn't send jelly beans
Mom: I was told no candy this year
Mom: sorry
Mom: the bitch spoke(the bitch would be my bossy sister, "bitch" is out of love)
Laura: all I have to put in there is motrin
Mom: sounds good to me
Mom: I would use it as a wine glass myself
Laura: I bet you would


Tuesday, April 07, 2009

ADD Blogging

It sucks when you are thinking all day long about the salmon you have in the fridge, only to come home to find out that it's gone bad. To make things even worse, the next morning you realize that you forgot to throw the trash out the night before with said salmon.

Bob has developed some strange fascination with my bathing suit. After swimming, I'll hang it on the door knob to dry. I keep finding Bob all tangled in it and attacking it. Is it because it's red and Bob is red? Is it the chlorine? Just as long as he doesn't ruin it. Buying bathing suits isn't one of my favorite things to do.

I get gut feelings about Mario's crazy ex every once in a while and they usually come true. I'll get a feeling she's going to call, and then she does. Expect a text, and sure enough he gets one. We've been ignoring her calls and messages, hoping she gets the hint. Well, I've gotten the feeling she's found my blog. Not sure why, it's just one of those gut feelings. I've just had some odd search terms and she's been quiet lately. I think she's figured out we're married now and that's why she's finally leaving us alone. Woo hoo!

The nasty neighbors have been quiet. Well with the exception of the fight Sunday morning. They've been fairly well behaved. Maybe they read my blog and got the hint?

Sunday, April 05, 2009

What's really in the jar?

Last night, I marinated chicken, made a lovely salad, sliced some zucchini for grilling, and steamed some artichokes. YUM! While we were waiting for the artichokes to steam, we decided to have our salads. We seem to have accumulated a variety of salad dressings. One of the bottles in there was from a friend moving out of state. I decided it had been sitting in there long enough and we should actually use it. It said toasted sesame...sounded great. So I pour some on mine and Mario's salad. I take a little bite as I handed it to Mario. Then proceeded to walk back into the kitchen for a napkin. Then it hit...Holy Hell that is some spicy dressing! It did taste good but damn the burn. This couldn't really be a salad dressing. I started questioning if it was really dressing or a marinade. I got the bottle and sure enough it said marinade, but it also said great for salads and veggies...and no mention of spicy hot lava in there. We actually had to mix some ranch dressing in to calm the fire. Didn't work. This isn't someone just being whiny, I loves me some spicy. I love a nice burn. This was ridiculous. Poor mario, he doesn't quite have the chops for the fire. His eyes were watering and he couldn't get enough water...but he finished the salad.

Now what the hell was in the jar? The jar was completely full, but it was already opened. I don't remember ever opening it. The friend I got it from's husband is a chef. Who knows what he might have concocted. A warning note on the jar would have been nice. That's just not what you expect when you bite into a fresh salad. However, fire or not I'm using that to marinate some tritip. That's gonna be some good shit!

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Messages From My Mom: Instant Message

Sara : I have decided that if I eat food, then I fart
laura : yeah
laura : no surprise
Sara : there is not a food I eat that does not make me fart
Sara : so I should take beano every meal
Sara : and snack
Sara : or is there something better
laura : I don't know, I didn't inherit that problem
Sara : bullshit
Sara : you are just jealous