I bought an FJ Cruiser yesterday. She is beautiful and I am so seriously excited about it I just want to drive all the time.

The Volvo -- or any car that is tremendously low to the ground -- just doesn't work for me.

yay!

Sirius woke me up very aggressively this morning.

I figure I was sleeping pretty deeply not to have experienced sooner the progression of his attempt from polite to unavoidable. As I stood up out of bed and began walking, he lead me to the bathroom where he had pooped in the tub. I feel TERRIBLE about that -- but at least he was gentlemanly enough to do his business in the most appropriate place possible. For a cat, that is.

This is my second post about my cat in as many entries.

Over the weekend I got two things that I have wanted very much. The first, a lovely vintage pyrex six cup percolator -- like so.

STOKED

The other thing is a 1980-something AMF Roadmaster road bike. She's red and I am pretty happy about that. I will post a picture tomorrow.

I just ran across this photo while looking through some old pictures. This was in February of 2007 and I had a phenomenal time that evening.

and so did my date...

Mostly, thinking of this makes me happy.



Right now it makes me think of my cat, Mr. Sirius Furrealius Black. EVERYTIME I get up and move to another room -- even when I just get up to fill my water bottle -- he follows me and lays down right behind me. Stop motion kitty... so mysterious.

Also, he made me a little nostalgic for Thriller at naptime.



Cory is working all night tonight.

Cory and I drove down Washington Avenue last evening with the intention of going to El Tiempo Cantina. Unfortunately, there were just too many people and I don't wait in line for Mexican food, not even El Tiempo. We settled on Niko Niko's -- the usual, and it was terrific as always. I just couldn't believe what a monstrosity Washington Avenue has become. I can remember it being that place where my parents begged me not to go at night -- where parking for shows at Mary Janes sometimes ended with a busted window.

Now? Douche city. It is pathetic, and it hurts my heart. I would rather have the vagrant-laiden Washington Avenue of old than the vulgar business that it is now.

Poor Houston - facing a full-scale infestation.

Cory just used the term 'Fauxhemian'.

Seriously.

Five years ago today, I met a guy at a bar. He asked me how old I was, and I replied with, "old enough." We were instantly a pair.

Three months later we lived in the same apartment.

One year later we were engaged.

One year and nine months later we were married.

Five years later and it is today, and he is mowing the front yard of OUR home.

He is beautiful, and I love him madly.

Time is a funny thing.

afternoons and evenings

Me: If I had swine flu, would you be my nurse?

Cory: Umm, if I could be your nurse somewhere else, then yes. I would be your nurse over the phone like nobody's business.

Tonight, when I got home from school, our house was decorated this way. Cory decorated it for Halloween while I was at school as a surprise. There are few things I love more than kitch, seriously, and coming home to this just made my evening. It's the little things, you know?

I really am a lucky gal.

Also, I bought a Volvo and traded in my green machine, whom I miss very much. Pictures will follow sometime in the future.

It's pretty cute.

Things to look forward to:

Greek Festival this weekend

The prospect of obtaining a bootleg copy of HBP

Boehms' arrival

I took a knitting class last Sunday - how cool is that? So I can knit now... not well, but it's knitting all the same. This weekend I was hoping to go up to Austin but I have so much homework it would be horribly irresponsible to do anything but that.

What else? Work. School. Work. School.

Yesterday before I left to go to school I told Cory the things I was planning on making for dinner. It was almost like a special occasion because I had a test in Spanish so I got to leave a little early (if you can call 7:40PM early). When I got home he had cooked just exactly what I had described to him earlier in the day and it was just as cute as could be. He made macaroni and cheese! From scratch! With flour and butter and shredded cheese!

What a man!

It has been a while since my last post, so a sequential type post wouldn't make any sense. Instead, how about "Circumstances under which I have cried lately"

1. On the phone with my mom talking about how much we love each other.
2. Laying in bed with Cory because my job is to be bitched out on a daily basis.
3. ALMOST - while discussing my schedule with my advisor at school.
4. Listening to a voicemail from my dad.
5. Listening to a voicemail from my mama.
6. Because Cory mowed the grass and it looked great.
7. At least once during each of the last four movies we've watched.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am a basketcase.

Saturday morning I cut my hair. Twelve inches of my hair. Off.

It feels so weird.

Tomorrow is Monday and I am sort of looking forward to work. How bizarre is that?

The phones at my office have been down for the last two to three hours. When you work in customer service and your primary source of contact is via telephone, that makes for a pretty dead afternoon... Since I am unable to accomplish anything I called David Etc and made an appointment to get my hair cut, which I am pretty nervous about. My normal stylist, Ludmilla, is just too busy to take me right now so I will be having my hair did by someone else. I just can't wait anymore!

It's Friday, and Cory has to work for three or four hours this evening beginning at 9 PM. What does that mean? We will be doing absolutely nothing. It's a bummer because we were supposed to go to a going away party for a couple of friends tonight, but I don't want to go by myself and by the time he gets off I know I will not feel like going out. I plan on doing a bit of drinking alone and watching Anchorman. Don't judge me.

Today at lunch I went to the deli located in the same building as the class I am taking. While there, I drummed up a conversation with a fellow throwback girl who is taking the same class that I am.

What followed was PRETTY BIZARRE.

• Her name is Rachel
• Rachel has little bangs
• Her husband's name is Jason
• Jason has arm tattoos
• They have a sincere appreciation for 50's and 60's culture
• They have two cats
• One of them is named Elvis

Obviously, in addition to this, Rachel is in the insurance business.

WHAT.THE.HECK?

Today, tomorrow, and Wednesday I will spend 9 hours in a class designed to help me pass the Texas exam for insurance licensure. I am sunburned to a crisp, and all I want to do is sleep until it doesn't hurt anymore. Instead, I will put on my big girl panties and go to this thing because my boss was kind enough to drop 5 bills on it for me.

Life before sunburn:

My Saturday:

(I cleaned off the kitchen counter - and got new canisters.)

We got this at an antiques mall near Old Town Spring.

Moments ago, my husband and I were standing with our shoulders hunched and our heads hanging over the sink, ears deep in our respective watermelon slices. At some point a thought occured to me. WHO REALLY DOES THINGS LIKE THIS?

A bit later, once we had washed the melon off of our cheeks and chins and necks and moved into the living room, I sat down on the sofa and started singing my own interpretation of Sea Lion Woman by Feist. Cory looks up from his 60's do it yourself book with the most bewildered look I've seen him make in ages, and I say, "What? I thought you liked that song?" He just shook his head and chuckled while returning his attention to the book. Apparently, WE DO THINGS LIKE THIS... a lot.

Today, we went Pyrex/FireKing/GlasBake/oldtool/knife hunting at the monthly flea market in Winnie.

You may have noticed that there are no old tools or knives here - that was all Cory's idea.

After the flea market we drove down to the beach at High Island to look for sea glass. I got horribly, embarrassingly sunburned, but we got a good haul.

Once, when I was much younger, I remember having a discussion with the father of a boyfriend of mine. We were in the living room at their house, and at the time I was criticizing another girl who was very interested in my boyfriend.

He looked at me in all seriousness and said, "Tootles, if you turn 'em upside down they're all the same.

Words to live by...

I have been trying to post this for two days. This was my weekend, and a lovely weekend it was!

Yesterday my sister turned 38.

I am sitting at the bar in my kitchen listening to Billie Holiday waiting, as the pie I baked for my sister's birthday cools, for my parents to come and pick me up. We are going out to my sister's house where my beautiful husband will meet us later this evening. I am missing him to death, kind of like the anxious and desperate first ten minutes after your mom drops you off for your first day of preschool, only I am a grown woman and I know I will see him this evening.


To pass the time, I read this story online, and it could not be more relevant to me at this point in my life. We don't have kids, but everything else fits. I am this woman when she was young and newly married. I have an amazingly gentle and loving husband, and sometimes I just feel like this undeserving harpy train wreck. When I think about it, it absolutely blows my mind.

I don't mean to discount the wife that I am, because I am a fantastic wife in my own right. I just need to recognize that even though we are totally different, we are just right for each other.

Just as Cory was closing the dishwasher, I noticed that there was something dirty inside the door. I asked him to open it up whilst I broke out the magic eraser to which he replied, "We'll just get it later." The OCD neat freak inside me was quite miffed at this, so I started pouting.

Adorable feller that he is, he started singing along with The Animals - Bring it on Home to Me (which was playing in the background at the time) while dancing with me around the kitchen. Obviously, pouty OCD neat freak completely melted and forgot all about stray dirt on the dishwasher.... but I still wiped it off.

Right now, we are watching Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome for the 12th time this month, and I still could not tell you what it's about.

What else?

My job is awesome, except for my boss. She is single handedly destroying the organization from the inside out while making the owner look like a complete jackass in the process.

Also, I saw Harry Potter, but that is a post for another day.

More often than what I would consider the "norm," people make reference to the similarities between my personality and their own. This is usually expressed as "Oh, I know why so-and-so likes you so much! It's because you are just like me." Or, "We are SO much alike." Or, "Oh my gosh, girl, we have the same personality!"

Let me just come out and say that nine point eight times out of ten, this is absolutely untrue and inconceivable from my standpoint. I typically have nothing in common with these people. This leads me to one narcissistic and terrible conclusion: these people secretly want to be like me, so they just pretend like they share my traits.

Who can blame them?

Today I came home to a husband whose beard had been modified to resemble the facial hair of one Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. It was weird and I am still getting used to it. OH! And he calls them "pork chops."

no rain, no rainbow

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

Today the mister and I have been married for three years, and a couple for almost five. It's crazy how time changes you, but I still love him every bit as much -- and more -- than I did three years ago when we got hitched. Every day he surprises me with little reminders of what a smart move it was to snag this feller up.

In all seriousness - I am so in love with this man it makes me dizzy sometimes. I may yell at him for scuffing up the sink with the skillet and not putting the toilet seat down, but he is the love of my life and he makes me proud every day.

Saturday we went garage sale-ing. I got an adorable vintage pillowcase and a westinghouse mug that says "mom" which Cory picked out for me because we have two cats and that technically qualifies me as a mama. We stopped by the salvation army for their 25% off fourth of July sale and got away with a 26 piece set of Fire King Golden Anniversary dinnerware. I am beyond stoked about this... a lot of that has to do with the fact that we spent $13.25 for this set when just four plates alone sell for $28 online.

With the pillowcase, I made an apron. If you ask me, it came out pretty cute...

I woke up this morning with the intention of making another apron out of an old zebra print pillowcase I have. I got greedy, and I decided to go to the thrift store down the street for more vintage pillowcases just in case I got on a roll. They didn't have any pillowcases, but they had a few other things to pique my interest. I bought two pencil skirts, one magenta to match a super cute top I have, and a houndstooth one as well. In addition to those, I got a beautiful Glasbake divided casserole dish with an olive floral folk pattern. I paid four dollars for this baby, and it sells for $17 online. I won't be selling this one, though, because I have another 10" casserole dish and I am working on a cute ole SET! Anywho - here's what it looks like:
SO, while I was there, I got into a conversation with the cashier about bringing in my old, unused plastic bags. As it happens, I carry them around in the back of my car in case I come across a place to recycle them... I went outside and got them and when I came back in, she asked me if I would be willing to volunteer -- I said yes. They asked when I could start and I said immediately. Today, for four hours I volunteered at one of my favorite thrift stores, the thrift store that gave me this enormously adorable Glasbake dish... Suffice it to say I will be returning tomorrow.

On top of all of this fun stuff, I got my pyrex cups today for the kitchen! They are beautiful!

YAAAAAAAaAY!

Finally, I got my first unemployment payment which was not in the form of a check as I had expected. Instead, they gave me a debit card with ONE THIRD of my salary on it. THANKS. It's nice to know that's the result of five years of hard, loyal work.

singin' our song, all day long at Hoggggg-warts!

With Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince coming out in a scant fortnight, I am feeling the pressure. It may not be common knowledge that I am all kinds of unholy obsessed with this little feller - but I totally am. I have read HBP a total of four times -- four times that I am hoping to turn into five before the movie comes out in 14 days. It's odd because I feel like I have already seen the movie... when I am reading the book I can see all of the scenes playing out in my head like I am relating it to a movie that I have already seen. I tried to get Zoe to read it so I would have SOMEONE in this crazy world to talk to about it but she can't get into it because she hasn't seen the movie yet. I suppose this means that I just have a tremendously active imagination...

At any rate, to me the sixth book is one of the best. I am pretty sure I am not alone in the belief that the Potter series just gets better as the kids grow up and everything gets darker and creepier. The sixth and seventh books are really the best of the series.

To celebrate two-weeks-before-Harry-Potter-and-the-Half-Blood-effing-Prince-comes-out I will post my absolute favorite Potter Puppet Pals little slice of awesome... ENJOY!

Elvis has an orange mouse that I bought him for halloween one year that he absolutely loves. He plays with his orange mouse more than any of his other babies, and it shows. It has had a big hole in the bottom for a while now, and I have just watched him play with it as the hole got bigger and bigger until I finally decided to do something about it. I suppose most normal cat owners would go and buy a new baby for him, but I have done that and he just really likes playing with this one. SO -- I fixed it!

Elvis was very apprehensive about me spending all of this time with his mouse. He was very attentive and made sure that I was aware of his presence throughout the entire process.

He felt much better once I got my grubby hands off of his baby. He has been half-sitting on it since I returned it to him.
I will take this opportunity to acknowledge that I realize nobody but me cares about this. That said, the fact still remains that my cat is better than yours.

Yesterday I rearranged our living room - A LOT. Nothing is in the same place it was before I got a hold of it. Consequently, there are aching muscles in my arms that I did not even know I had. It is one hundred percent worth it though, the house looks amazing.

We went to Austin over the weekend to see Laura, Dave, and Rory - collectively known as the Boehm Family. A few things happened during our visit, not the least of which being me falling deeply in love with Aurora Jane. We had breakfast at a super cute place, went to Hamilton pool, had cheap tacos, and unfortunately, had to leave for a false alarm Father's Day celebration.

just like Jesus

I defy you to tell me there is a lovelier child out there. I submit that there is not!

wearing my eyes

Hamilton pool was absolutely gorgeous and a total blast. We stayed so much longer than we had planned because that's what happens when you are having an awesome time. While the entire front of both of my shins are a nice pinkish brownish purple color, and I am pretty sure Laura's behind shares this shading, I could do that every day. I cannot wait to go back, period.