Time just circles...

For the first time ever, I have had a shirt long enough that it is back in style! I got a shirt from Ann Taylor about 4 years ago that is black sleevles with a bunch of pleats all around the arms and down the front. Well Tuxedo looks are back in this year, so I guess I can wear that shirt again!

Lola wasn't acting like she felt well this morning, but after yacking up some yellow goo and pooting a few times, she seems to be back to normal mostly. She was "wallering" in the back yard and has brought me her toy to throw a few times. She didn't sleep well last night, moving around a lot, so we took a nice nap together!

We are watching Gustav closely. Now they are evacuating Beaumont, which I think is a good idea. I looked at the forecast and we will get a fair amount of storms, and it looks like the main storm will hit between New Orleans and Beaumont. We have water and a freezer full of food, we should be fine if we have to stay in for a few days. We have ice too, just in case, and full gas tanks.

We are certainly enjoying this lazy holiday weekend. Lee is napping right now (though Lola is currently in his face with her toy!) and we are grilling ribs tonight and just being lazy. I can't wait for it to cool off outside so we can get bikes and go riding in the park with a carriage behind us with the puppies.

That chick keeps stealing the pink ball!!

Tonight was "Wacky Bowl" sponsored by McCoy Flooring for all the Architecture / Design firms here in Houston. We had a pretty friggin fun time!! There was bowling, drinking, music, and goofing off. Wacky bowl consists of 2 rounds where you play 1 regular, then 1 wacky. Here are the wacky rules:
Frame 1: Regular
Frame 2: Opposite Hand
Frame 3: Between someone else's legs
Frame 4: Both Hands
Frame 5: With a partner's hands around your waste
Frame 6: Sitting on someone's knee
Frame 7: Spin 5 times and bowl
Frame 8: Eye closed!
Frame 9: Sit on the floor and push with foot.
Frame 10: Your choice (i did the happy gilmore approach and bowled a strike!)

Here is one of me after a drink or 2... I put on a bandanna (and my bowling improved...)

And here is what the back of the shirts looked like:
We had a grand time and now I want to go bowling again!!!

Big City livin'...

Today was actually a really good day. I got some things done at work (i am getting much better at space planning), I came home and marinated a pork loin and then set off to run errands. Now, I had called Lee and asked him to stop and grab 3 things at the store, but since I needed to get the dry cleaning, I just went to do it myself. The difference? I left with $100 of groceries! I was there for Milk, fat free French Vanilla creamer, and trash bags. I left with 4 different kinds of meat, oodles of veggies from the frozen aisle, and baggies too! I don't know how this happened!!!

While I was there, I got to thinking about how odd it is to go to the grocery store in the city rather than Palestine. Here, you don't really look at anyone, you don't ask people for help finding something, and you generally don't say much at the check out counter. In Palestine you get into full fledged conversations about which bacon is best, you wave and say "excuse me!" when you need to squeeze past, and you smile and wave at most everyone you see. I miss that sometimes. Lee and I were standing in front of the sausage in Brookshires in Palestine and he asked me "which one?" and this old man standing there was like "oh you can't beat this one" and told us how much he liked it! That just doesn't happen around here.

And another thing... I was behind a Prius in the parking lot and looked at their bumper sticker and it said "Vegetarians save lives every day!" Seriously? So do I put a bumper sticker on my car that is like "Cows. Yum yum to my tum!" Just.. ugh. I do want to try and find a local ranch that treats their stock humanely, but other than that... I am going to eat all the steak I can!
Top Design starts next Wednesday on Bravo (best channel ever!). I didn't like it very much the first season, but there is a new host and maybe they changed some stuff around. I hope that other people in the office watch it so we can talk about it the next day, that would be cool.

All is well around here. Lee is traveling on Thursday, which always makes me nervous. YAY 3 day weekend for Labor Day!

Almost that time!!

So today I was working SO hard at work, getting so much done, and then BAM - Jennifer brings up Halloween and dogs. What do I do? Obsess. After thinking and searching, I found it. Teddy will be Peter Pan, Lola will be Tinkerbell!!! I orderd the costumes online and will post when it gets closer to time! I can't wait for the contest at the Doggie Day care and Tashi will be there too!

Also, Jennifer and I are going shopping for fall and Halloween decorations. I want to really do alot this year, with a big spider web and stuff on the porch, glowing scary ghosts, etc. I hope we have a party to go to this year, that would be so much fun. We have never been out to a Halloween party before. I want to be a playboy bunny and have lee wear satin pajamas and be HEF! How fun is that?

I really hope Teddy and Lola like the costumes. It will be hard to top last year Thing1 and Thing2 but I feel wierd about repeating?....

There used to be this show on tv about a lady running her Doggie Day Care and they had a costume contest and some people were suuuper creative. Maybe next year I can think up something insane and make it myself....
Back to work (UGH!).

Oh man!

I didn't realize I have gone this long without and update! In fact, I thought I updated recently, but maybe I was mistaken?
Things around here are about the same. I still have migraines - the preventative isn't doing it for me at all. I have gone through the long, painful process of getting a copper IUD so that i can get off hormonal birth control, which may help the headaches (and the acne too?? wee!!).
I have a new kitchen tool that tried to kill me - a Mandoline! I cut a finger pretty bad but I ended up with decent first try au gratin potatoes. I need a better recipe than the one i had.
We are hooked on Mad Men.
I am DYING for fall tv to start! Things kick off Sept 1 with Gossip Girl. I am truly freakin excited for a new Sunday Night HBO show - True Blood. I have been reading the series by Charlaine Harris and I am really looking forward to seeing on tv. Then again, I may have an issue if they change things you know?
Today was a debacle of Lee, Ben, and Donald installing surround sound speakers in our home. We already had some, but they weren't very good. This entailed Donald and Ben crawling around in the attic and multiple wire hangers in the wall... hey they came in handy from the dry cleaner!
The dogs found something absolutely dreadful in the background to roll around in. Now they need baths and the collars need washing! I am glad I have extras!
I found a new website for pet collars - www.cozycritter.com. They have oodles of choices including sports teams and holidays!
Better wash those dogs before we go to bed. Peee-yew!

No pain, no gain..

This will be a bit of a TMI post. Today I went to the Dr and had an IUD inserted. The one I got was the Paragard, which is Copper, no hormones.

Olympics

Lee and I are absolutely addicted to the Olympics this year. We have watched hours and hours since the Friday night opening ceremony, which was awesome!! I was super excited about the fashion stroll. I thought USA looked great but the Brits really looked the best out of everyone.I know we looked similar, but those belts are freaking cuuuute!
Then there was Hungary... really? REALLY?
I can't even start to rationalize... Wow.
We stayed up last night and watched the men win the gold for the 400m relay swimming! It was really exciting! I like Michael Phelps and all but... I feel bad for his teammates because it it like HIS show. They did awesome. The poor gymnastics girls just could not catch a break last night!! And the grading system is way off. I mean, Lukin did a PERFECT balance beam and was totally robbed.

In other news, Lee and I barely left the house all weekend (can you tell?)

Responsibility

Ok people. If you are going to have an outside dog (which i have never understood the point of) then you need to acknowledge it when it starts barking relentlessly for 30-45 minutes. Starting at 6am this morning, the dogs towards the end of the block started barking... and never stopped. Every now and then, the dogs next to us (which I loathe and I am an avid animal lover) would join in. In turn, my dogs would get upset and start growling and barking. Why didn't anyone go outside and see what the issue was? Similar thing happened the other night. Dogs next door barked for 15 minutes before the dude came outside to see why. It was a stray dog that needed to be run off.
UGH!
I am not nice when I can't sleep...

It's raining, it's not really pouring...

Edourd ended up being a bit of a tease, as far as "hunker down! buy supplies!" goes, but we are getting nice rain that everyone needed. I am taking this opportunity to work from home and be a little lazy. I haven't missed a day of work since we got back from Chicago in June so I think working about 5 hours today and laying low in my pj's is a nice thing. Lee stayed home as well. The main concern is that if we do start getting really heavy rain, I can't traverse any kind of high-ish water in a Mini! I would go to work, but the idea that getting home would be hard makes me weary. And if every school and all the courts are closed, why go in?? :)
So far, only 3 other people are at work today. I already emailed in to my boss that I was going to be home today. I brought work home and I am sure alot of other people are out today (so my email should be light today.)
We are fine, we have food, water, and shelter. The dogs, on the other hand, are a bit mad that they are cooped up inside!

Lazy Sunday after a busy Saturday night...

Well last night I had quite too much fun! I shouldn't be allowed in the room when there is endless Champagne...And i maybe shouldn't drink it from wine glasses? There are many more embarrassing pictures!
After a yummy breakfast and retrieving our car, I did some busy body things around the house. I did laundry, washed the sheets, and picked up around the house. I also got some gorgeous flowers at the store and put them by the front window.
Then I put fresh coffee beans in all my coffee-bean urns.
And then, i decided to make Oreo Balls, my first attempt. Please excuse the messy almond bark! The taste is still yum-o! I roasted some chicken and veggies in the oven and we are about to lay back and watch a movie or 2 and listen to the rain come in. Tomorrow... back to work and a new chick starts! I might hit the store on the way in and grab her some flowers or something. She is a SFA alum like myself!

Moving on

Lots happened this week!
Wednesday was the busiest day of my week. First, I had my review with the boss's and.... I got a raise! Yay me! I am finally in a salary I am proud of and feel like a grown up! It only took me like 4 years after school to get a job I love and start making money that counts, but eh...
That same day we had a pot luck for the Interns because it was their last day. I am really missing them already, they were so much fun and eager to help out and learn. So Ashley took pictures.This is Mike (boss), Sierra (Intern), Me, Ashley (Intern), and Alyse (boss.)Here we are again. I rarely like pictures of myself and I liked this one. The next day, I was at JCrew getting that shirt Ashley is wearing, but in Black. :)
This is a bad one of me but anyhow.. The subject of some of my blogs is Tim and Deborah. deborah is the noisy one from my last entry (the one in white) and Tim... he is new-ish. Everyone knows I love my gays but lordy, this guy is just a little overwhelming. This is a pretty tame outfit got him actually (yes the shirt is shiney, it isn't just the picture). We think he is about purple from tanning so much. Nice guy, just barely comes to work and somehow has like 45 hours on his time sheet. Ugh.

Last night we went to Lee's 10 year high school reunion. I don't have any pictures (oops) but we had a pretty nice time. tonight we have Jennifer's big launch party for her business, Two Party Planers. You can check out her blog here: http://twopartyplanners.blogspot.com/

I will most likely have pictures from that!

Today is new window day. they will be here any minute to get the new windows installed in the kitchen. other than the clean up after, I am really excited! I am willing myself to stay in pajamas all day until we need to get ready for the party. I am just exhausted... and we slept until 10 (off and on thanks to barking dogs next door.)