I have a theory

Our house is located next to a pass-through.

This means two things: 1. we have a lot of windows 2. there is an extraordinary amount of traffic going by said windows.  Now that I am home for a lot of the day, I have a working theory.  Things done outside in the middle of a workday are almost as sketchy and creepy as things done in the middle of the night.  I inevitably go through this pattern:

Oh look, another person home during the day! Wait, I have a reason for being home. Why is this person home? What is he doing? Where is he going? Why is he home? What is in that bag? Why is he digging behind my house? What could POSSIBLY lead to this chain of events???

And then I realize that I have wasted roughly 10 minutes wondering why someone could POSSIBLY be home in the middle of the day and WHY they are walking home from the grocery store with a BAG of all things?!! I might be easily distracted.

This summer, I will be busy at an externship with the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and will be gone during the day.  This fall, I will have some classes during the day.  Until then, I will be that creepy lady peering out windows wondering why people are deviating from their known routines.  Just call me Gladys Kravitz.

A fake-out, a crazy lizard thing, and a future bunny cake

First off, my brilliant plan to cook and watch the Top Chef finale? Foiled- not because I didn't cook (I totally did for once!) but because this week wasn't the Top Chef finale.  Does anyone ever remember there being MULTIPLE SHOWS set in the Top Chef finale locale?  I remember one to weed off a person that probably shouldn't have been invited in the first place but the producers wanted a "twist" so there they are! We are on our third show in the Bahamas now.  I say "our" like I have some sort of claim on this show.  I like to think of all Bravo shows as "my" shows.  I like to claim things that aren't mine. Kind of like my friend Rhiannon decided that a hooker that lived near her host family's apartment in France was "her hooker" and named her "Desiree."  Fun times.

I have decided to add this pretty picture of flowers because a picture of a hooker named Desiree would not be very classy.  However, it was the area where all the diplomats lived so maybe she is a classy gal, I don't know her life.

Anyway, Dan really wanted to see Rango this weekend, and I had nothing against it, so I put on my cowboy boots and off we went! I like to dress like the movies I go to see.  Of course right now I can't think of an instant in the past when I have done this but wouldn't it be great if people could dress in period garb or something without it being strange?  Well, I wore my boots to a cartoon western about a lizard.  Let me tell you, that movie was awesome and it wasn't really kid-friendly.  There was a line about pooping out spines, I kid you not.  I was shocked the little kids in the audience weren't screaming in terror at some points but maybe kids are just hardier than I thought.  I have none, so I cannot judge.  Long story short, go see Rango, it is better than I thought it would be!

The grand plan for next week.... fake Easter! My brother will be in town (yay Phil!) so I think we might just do the whole Easter thing a few weeks early.  I would like to point out that Easter is WAY late this year.  Like practically in May.  How is that even... I cannot get into this.  The Easter calendar counting issue has always been a problem for me.  I know that there is a formula for this.  I have yet to learn what this formula is.  Why can't Easter be on a FIXED DAY? I mean this rhetorically.  At any rate, the big highlight of Easter in my family has always been four things things: 

1. Awesome Easter baskets- my mom LOVES Easter and I love all things rabbit-themed, so we have had some INCREDIBLE Easter baskets in my family.  It is always so fun to do the Easter egg hunt and basket reveal. This year I might have traded in my Easter basket privileges for a shirt from Anthropologie... hey it was a cute shirt (see my last post about quitting my day job).
2. Dyeing eggs at my grandparents' house- my dad's parents used to invite us over to decorate eggs every year.  We would come home dyed about 15 different shades of green and purple with half-cracked eggs decorated terribly every year, but my goodness did we love decorating those eggs! Fortunately, over the years our egg decorating skills improved (with the exception of my cousin Patrick, who always manages to break his eggs...).  Sadly, most of us don't live at home in Texas anymore and my grandmother, the great egg dye mixer, passed away about a year and a half ago, but we carry on the tradition in our own homes!
3. My grandfather's egg-hunting capabilities- I have many cousins and we have always hunted eggs at my mom's parents' house.  Each grandchild has an assigned egg color- mine is purple. The younger ones had their eggs hidden in more obvious places, while the older kids could have their eggs hidden anywhere in the yard.  I mean anywhere.  Hidden up drain pipes, buried in holes in trees.  My grandfather is the king of egg-hiding and it is further complicated by the fact that he doesn't always remember where he put them (did I mention that there are a lot of eggs to hide for a lot of cousins?).  Sometimes we find the eggs the following year and I am pretty sure there are some that will live forever in the front yard under the ivy. I think the record was my cousin Gregory's egg- three years? Somebody will correct me if I am wrong, I am sure.
4. Last but not least.. THE BUNNY CAKE!

This is before the nose ring was added... damn you, Phil, and your alterna-bunny antics! Notice also the unibrow...

Phil and I have plans to make another bunny cake while he is in town.  It is strawberry cake baked in two round cake pans.  One round pan is for the face, the other supplies the bow and ears.  I prefer a very traditional cake.  Phil likes to give them unibrows and nose rings.  It is a fight to the death! Who shall win? We will see next week!!

P.S. My apologies for the random combination of topics, sometimes these things just happen.

The Next Step in Being Happier?

Well, folks, I have done the unthinkable.  After the whining, bitching and moaning, I decided to act.  In an attempt to streamline my life, get some sanity back, and get more sleep, I quit my day job.  You know how everyone tells people not to?  Well, I did. 

One of my favorite wallpapers from Foxy Blunt perfectly captures the mood, as always. (http://www.foxyblunt.com/goodtimes.aspx) 

So far, I have slept. A lot.  I have od'ed on HGTV.  Did I also mention it is spring break?  That means that, aside from an interview for a summer clerkship I had on Monday and my normal head shrinking appointment yesterday, I have had no appointments, no meetings, no requirements.  One would think that would be liberating?  I have been just... watching Georgia run back and forth.  I should be studying, but I am tired.  Overwhelmingly tired.

Even Georgia needs a recharge.

I went and saw the King's Speech in the middle of the afternoon yesterday and now I am thoroughly convinced of two things.  1. That movie deserved the Oscars it won and 2. England is basically Baltimore in March all of the time.  It is grey. It is rainy.  Why did I leave Portland if it is at least GREEN there?!  In Baltimore, it is rainy and I am just more likely to get murdered here... in the rain.  There is a gutter outside my house I could make good use of!

So, in short, my "Be Happier" plan is faltering.  There is only one solution to this problem.  Change perspective! Tonight is the Top Chef finale and I am going to cook something!  Tomorrow, I am getting up, getting dressed and getting to the art store to get watercolor paper.  I will take Georgia for a walk and paint my nails and get my homework done.  Then I am doing something fun.  Freedom will be great, I think I just need to adjust.

I am going to die first in a horror movie (also known as "The day I downloaded Nike Training Club on my iphone and proceeded to use it")

So there I was, lying under my heated blanket, watching season 6 of 24, thinking about the New Year and how glad I am not being tortured by Jack Bauer for information I don't have.  I was also flipping through InStyle, as this is the exact position I undertake any night that I don't have school and Dan is at his gaming group.  "Why don't you see if anyone is around," he asks.  This question is met with a finger pointing at the blanket and another finger pointing at my pajamas.  It is the ultimate relaxation night! 


Anyway, I was reading up on Gwyneth's perfect lifestyle and Rachel Bilson's perfect petite body and I got to thinking about my New Year's Resolution (capitalized, as it is important!).  Only two words:

Be Happier!

http://seekingthemuse.com/flowers/goodbye-dahlias/

Well, part of that "being happier" is feeling better, both physically and mentally.  I don't really want to set goals for myself right now because I am not a goal attainer.  I am a goal failer that turns into an "I'm a failure" which turns into "Ooh popcorn!" So no, not doing that.  Just aiming for "better" here.  Someone, maybe InStyle or Martha Stewart, told me to try the Nike Training Club app on my iPhone.  I thought, what the hell, why not? 

And here comes the whole reason why I will die in a horror movie/fire/angry bear situation.  I am living in what I like to consider my "ideal desk job body."  Lots of padding for sitting for long periods of time.  I am perfectly attuned to hunching over a keyboard.  I can do it with pizzazz!  Ask me to run away from a mountain lion and that mountain lion has found a tasty morsel with little effort spent!  When school is in session, I have about 5 spare minutes a day and those 5 minutes are usually spent eating something, not figuring out how to work out at home (I may be exaggerating on that 5 minutes thing). 

Normally, I find that workout videos are very fluffy and happy, like if they push us women with body issues to actually physically work out, we won't accept who we really are inside so just listen to the yoga music and sway back and forth like a palm tree in a gentle breeze. This is not that workout video.  I believe this Nike app was created by mean gym teachers.  Did I say gym teachers? I meant the KGB/Russian ballet teachers- as I am pretty sure they are one and the same.

The app has 4 main categories- Get Lean, Get Toned, Get Strong, and Get Focused.  I decided that I probably need to do those in order, as I am pretty sure if I got toned right now, nobody would notice due to a lack of leanness. Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced?  Beginner please! Then there are about 6 workouts to choose from.  Fighter Fit sounds intriguing, let's go with that, I say! And then, the craziness begins.  The whole thing is broken into 1-2 minute intervals.  1-2 minutes of actual exercises like lunges.  You can even set your workout to your own music.  I decided the Tron soundtrack had a good beat to it so off we go!

This is what I have learned so far from my amazing Nike Training Club app:

• The only thing missing from this app is some sort of dog whistle.  Georgia felt it was her duty to inspect what I was doing every single step of the way.  Doing crunches?  What a perfect place to scratch a dog's stomach from, don't you think? ::lick, lick, lick::  Walking lunges?  Let me try to get between your feet! Perfect.
• If you are doing walking lunges in my dining room and one side is clearly stronger than the other, you will run straight into the dog crate even when the crate is far far away from you.
• Little videos explaining the exercises are helpful. Getting super-athletic models to do these videos does not keep me from screaming "you want me to do WHAT?!" a lot.  Like for every video. 
• When you complete your crazy old school workout routine, Maria Sharapova shows up at the end and congratulates you.  And you get a BADGE! What am I, a boy scout?  A badge does not an incentive make.  I will take the cash equivalent of that badge, thankyouverymuch!

Will I use the Nike Training Club app again?  Absolutely!  I whine a lot but that was a good workout!  Soon, maybe I can outrun a marmot or something!  One can only dream.

Look, we're famous!

Let me just say that I am lazy.  I have been meaning to put up pictures about our house for months now and never really finished doing it.  Stuff gets in the way.  But I have good news! Apartment Therapy, one of my favorite design blogs, liked our Room for Color entry so much they decided to do a whole house tour of our little abode.  AND the photographer/blogger happens to live about 2 blocks away from us- small world!

Elizabeth and Daniel's Bright, Bold & Narrow Rowhome House Tour

Stop by and take a look!

Happy New Year!

Well, another year has passed.  I am not sure how or where it went but I understand that physics, gravity (probably) and the sun have some sort of conspiracy going on.  Physics is a sneaky little monster.  So, I have spent a lot of time this past year sitting in various places- at work, at school, on the couch at home.  It isn't the existence I want to have and I need to make some changes.  However, I did get something for Christmas that requires that I maintain a seated position.

Dan and I exchanged gifts a bit before Christmas since we spent it in Texas and why drag gifts halfway across the country when you don't have to, right?  Well, I got Dan a keyboard (the piano kind, not the computer kind) and he got me this odd box...

What on earth...

So I had to do some investigating...

Yep, still a cute box with deer and a sleigh on it!
But what is inside that is keeping the box open...

And voila! It plays White Christmas and contains....

A bike bell! But I don't have a bike.  Well, I will!  Dan got me a bike! Now when I am seated, I have to pedal if I want to go somewhere. A vast improvement over my sedentary lifestyle. I have picked out a pink Raleigh bike that should be good for roads and easy trails. Yay! Exciting! I can even bike to the library where I can.. sit some more. But in a different setting!

Decorating Endeavors Part IV: the Dining Room!

Clearly, it has been a while since I updated this.  I started school. That is my excuse.  I do nothing now but work, go to school, study, and listen to Georgia whine incessantly for attention (sorry Georgia)!

This is Georgia's default position these days

I also spend a lot of time painting my nails. It is part of my mental process, don't ask. I did manage to make it to the Baltimore Book Festival and the Harbor East Fall Festival yesterday- Friday nights/Saturdays are my days off.  I also saw "Easy A" on Friday night and it was a nice, fun little escape.  All these people were lined up to see serious movies like "Wall Street" and "The Town" but these days I prefer movies that have either a) penguins b)dancing c) a lot of sarcasm or d) dancing sarcastic penguins. 

ANYWAY, I promised pictures of the dining room to half a dozen people or so, so here they are!!

The dining room, in the beginning- notice there is nothing there...

Dining room round 1.

First, we tried painting the dining room and the living room this yellow color.  It stayed yellow for approximately 3 months, then turned this tan/brown/ill color.  Dan insisted it was fine but it gnawed away at me.  It actually looks a bit green in this picture but what do I know?  Also notice the lack of dog crate in this picture...

There's the dog crate! Edmond decided to try it out and since I am evil (see previous post) I politely asked Georgia to join him.  She kindly obliged, Edmond was confused.

Then, I decided NO MORE VALSPAR! TO HELL WITH THEM AND THEIR CHANGING COLORS!  It probably wasn't their fault.  I moved on to Benjamin Moore, dill pickle.  It ended up being... browny green.  I don't know what it is about this house and color.  It sucks it up.  Granted, I also decided that the color swatch was lying to me and that the green would look greener in person.  I was wrong.  You can see dill pickle behind my lovely, confused, caged animals above.  It did not please my delicate sensibilities.  At this point, Dan decided that painting was a job I could do myself unless he was EXPRESSLY asked to help.  I don't blame him. Smart man.

Third time's the charm!

If this isn't green, then I can't pick green out of a line-up.

Tada!!!! Grape green by Benjamin Moore.  It is green.  Very. Green.  I love it!  Also you will notice that the furniture is different.  My mom decided she didn't want her marble top Saarinen tulip table.  Who does that?!  I reap the benefits :).  

In an attempt to create a reading nook in the other room,
we moved this big cedar bookshelf into the dining room for storage purposes.
I think it works out quite nicely, as does Edmond.

So the microwave had to find a new home when we moved the kitchen about.  This is what happens- I try to "clean up" one room and then I find myself shifting the entire house around.  It's a domino effect.  The whole house is communist now too (bad history joke, sorry). 

Dan built this table out of some old shelves we had.  It is a perfect tea station/dog crate cover.
Georgia likes having a cave too!

Like I said, GREEN!

After 3 different colors, multiple furniture placements and a lot of swearing at the ceiling fan for blowing dog hair around when I was trying to paint ( I wised up to its plan and turned it off eventually), I have my lovely dining room.  Yay!

Next stop... the living room!