Living for Today, Letting Others Know We Care

I found out this week that a neighbor who has struggled with cancer for the last few years has opted to stop treatment and is getting hospice care at home. While the news is (unfortunately) not a complete shock, it is very sad and she will leave behind a very devoted husband and pup. Part of the reason she decided to come home was so that she could visit with neighbors that she cares about, and I feel so honored that she wants our company. Starting next week, a bunch of us are going to take shifts visiting and getting a chance to say goodbye. So this got me to thinking about life and how suddenly it can change, and how rarely we tell each other we care. For example, I saw that an old boyfriend recently looked me up on LinkedIn. He didn't contact me, but I decided to contact him anyway just to let him know that I hope he is well and happy. He was one of the rare good ones out there. So we'll see if he writes back. No expectations, but it just seemed like the right thing to do at the end of this difficult week.

Corroborating Witness

Today I was a court witness, or as they called it "corroborating witness" for the first time in my life for a friend going through a divorce. She is a great friend and I had promised her I would do it, and what a weird experience. The "judge" grilled me more than I thought she would. Her husband was also there, and while it was great to see him, as we were always friends and the divorce is an amicable one, it was also bittersweet and signified the true ending of an era. A bunch of us used to always do things together and those are truly some of my favorite recent memories. I really miss those times and sit here tonight reflecting on life and how much things change, whether or not you really want them to. You have to just keep moving on and persevere, but sometimes it's hard to know what to do with all the sadness and loss.

Weekend of Relaxation and Fun

Lately my life hasn't consisted of either relaxation or fun, to the extent that I forgot I could even have some. A girlfriend and I took the weekend to tour VA wine country in her cute VW bug convertible. With a base in Harrisonburg, VA, we visited the Valley Fest Beer & Wine Festival where we fell in love with musician Mike Davis and raced down the highway blaring Bon Jovi alongside some JMU students. The next day we visited Afton Mountain Vineyards, which was so beautiful (pictured) that I didn't want to leave. We enjoyed lunch on the patio and glasses of dry riesling, very rare. Our other favorite vineyard was Keswick, which was really pet-friendly and boasted a beautiful chocolate sauce infused with wine. The roads were beautiful country roads through the mountains, and riding around with the top down it was easy to forget your cares. Monday I went to a cookout for Memorial Day, and had a fun time with friends who are quick-witted and entertaining. There was tons of food and drink, and even a couple of cute guys to flirt with. All in all, a great way to end a great weekend.

Sad for a Life I Never Met

My neighbor and fellow dog person, who has become a very dear friend, told me today that her favorite cousin committed suicide. This is someone she had been wanting to fix me up with. Apparently he was more depressed than people ever knew. He left behind a teenage son--how very tragic for the family. I really feel terrible for my friend, and wish I'd had the chance to meet this cousin she so admired, though I guess I would be even sadder tonight. You just never know how much a day can change everything.

Weekend with Nothing to Do

Just once, I have had nothing planned this weekend except for the Pet Happy Hour I organized last night. It was awesome, very fun time. I organize this every year for my condo association. It was a long, tiring day, so I didn't plan anything else this weekend. I am trying to finish my garden planting, and my house is a wreck so I am trying to get things back into some semblance of order. I have gotten a lot done, but all on my own schedule. Which is nice and much needed. If only the dogs would just be a little more low key things would be almost perfect. Tonight I wanted to grill and sit out for a while, but my neighbors have people over and they are outside, so it's kind of awkward, so I am inside watching a movie instead.

Mad at Blogger

Ok, so I had created this special blog template with all these things in the sidebar, and for no apparent reason and with no warning Blogger changed it yesterday right after I made an adjustment to the template. Now my sidebar has nothing interesting anymore and I have to figure out how to recreate it. Fuckers.

Sunday Night

Is there anything more depressing than Sunday night? Sunday night without wine, maybe. Luckily my friend J came over and helped me to make sure I had plenty tonight. We laughed and cracked up about crap that happened this weekend, and she got to see some plants that I just bought for my garden. I did a little planting today, so that was nice. Still have a lot to go. How is May here already? Anyway, it's after 11 and I need to get my beauty rest. The dogs are restless so I guess it's time to finally get to bed. Night all.

Things I Love

Things I Love is an occasional rant about things that really bug me. Usually it's about work, but today's rant is about my friend K, who calls me repeatedly but doesn't ever leave a message. This really pisses me off, and I have told her in the past that it bothers me when she doesn't leave a message cause I don't know how urgent her call is. She has had a lot of stress in her life recently and I've been there for her. So when she has called in the past I would typically call her back if I saw her number on caller ID. But you know, my life has gotten really stressful and is she there for me? No. When I ask her why she doesn't leave a message, she makes up some dumb excuse why she didn't leave a message, like she didn't think I'd be home but thought she would check. Well, if you don't think I'll be home, don't call me. She also called last night, Friday, at like 8:30 pm. After working a full week, I don't want to deal with her shit for an hour on the phone, and her calls are never less than an hour. She doesn't work so she has no idea how hard Friday nights are--I am either too tired and don't want to spend an hour on the phone, or I'm trying to go out and have a social life. I also have told her not to call on Friday nights but again she apparently doesn't care. Matter of fact I think the previous "no message" call was last Friday too. Will she ever get a clue? Apparently not. I would tell her these things again, but past experience has shown that she doesn't listen and will do whatever she wants anyway. So I will do what I want and ignore her. There, I feel better now.

Crazy

I have been at my new job almost a year and it has gone by so fast. It's been very stressful--first the company got bought out and I lost out on stock options and profit sharing. That has been sort of taken care of with a new bonus plan, plus a free parking space. So I am finally sort of over it. However, I've been dealing with a crazy employee for the year too. He has been out of work more than at work, and had sort of a mental breakdown around the holidays. He's brought union grievances against me and my boss. Now he's being evaluated for being "fit to work" which at first he was, but now he is not. It's a long story. The worst part is I am having to do his work, and now this is dragging out indefinitely again. He's been out more than a month. I can't take much more of this. I desperately need a vacation. I am taking tomorrow off, and hopefully having a long weekend will help to get me through this month until I can get a break . . .

Happy Birthdays

My father and grandfather (his dad) both had April birthdays, only 2 days (of course many years) apart. That made it easy to remember as a kid. They are both gone now, my grandfather just this past July, so these past few days have made me a bit sad. My father has been gone a long tme, but my grandfather died in July, just after his 96th birthday. Thinking of them both this weekend.

Ridiculous Story of the Week

Ok, there is a girl in my neighborhood who jogs incessantly, hours on end. Everyone thinks she's crazy--she runs in the middle of the street and doesn't pay attention to cars. She's not even training for a marathon or anything, she is just jogging off emotional problems. In any case, one morning this week I saw her behind a tree. She was not very well hidden, and she definitely saw me walking right towards her with my dogs. She proceeds to pull down her pants and do whatever business she was doing behind this tree on a major street in my neighborhood. She was down for quite a while, so I am thinking she was doing some serious business. The thing that makes this so crazy is that she lives like 1 block from this spot, so why didn't she just jog her little bare ass home and take a crap there??? Insane. This just confirms it.

Where Do the Weekends Go?

Here I sit on Sunday night, wondering where my weekend went. A very common occurrence. The weekend virtually flew by, while I have very little to show for it, yet the work days just drag. I have so much to do over the weekend that I hardly have time for fun. And the fun sometimes doesn't even feel like fun because it means I have less time to get the things done that I need to. Fun becomes just another obligation.

I guess this likely means I'm in (yet again) the WRONG JOB. And now, I have some work to do for this wrong job. So I will end my weekend working, but at least sipping very nice sangiovese at the same time.

How do you all cope with the workday blues? The job you hate? The Sunday night blues?

It's 2012?

I can't believe I haven't posted since November! I hope everyone had a great holiday. I am just glad that they are over and hoping that 2012 will be better than 2011 . . .

Four-Day Weekends

I have to say, I loved having a 4-day weekend over this past holiday. It is so hard to compress your life into a 2-day weekend; working just sucks the life out of you that you need more than 2 days to recover. I was busy most of the time, but also had time to get most chores and things I needed to get done. I went back to work actually feeling refreshed, unstressed, and happy. What a miracle! Now if only all the weeks were like this . . .

Falling Back

It has been a most interesting weekend, with lots of unexpected drama. I found out the *real* reason my niece is grounded . . . found out that a foster father shouldn't be and now wondering what to do about that discovery . . . and found a source of unexpected wisdom in someone you wouldn't expect it from. She said she had a card for me that said something about "When one door closes, another opens. But you can only take advantage of that open door if you stop looking back at the closed door." Wow, is that applicable to my life, or maybe I've just had too much wine tonight? I am always the "grass is always greener" type of person. What would have happened if I'd made this choice instead of that? Guess I need to start letting go of some of that thinking . . .

I also am exhausted after supposedly earning an extra hour of time this weekend, after turning our clocks back an hour. The problem is, no one told my dogs,and they had me up twice in the middle of the night to go out, so I woke up completely zonked. I have a few more things to accomplish tonight, then I'm going to try to relax!

Estate Sale Finds

I went to an estate sale today and bought a couple of really cool things. Usually at an estate sale you don't find many good electronics, but apparently this person did a lot of stuff with computers and there were a lot of electronics to unload. I wish I'd gone earlier in the day as I'm in the market for a new PC and laptop, and apparently there were many of those to be had. But I did get a large, very nice flat screen monitor for just $25. You can't beat that.

Other items I purchased included an old-school phone that doesn't require power to work, for those rare times when the power goes off; a nice crystal candy/nut bowl, as I was just looking for one last week when I had guests over; and a copy of The Breakfast Club for $2. Nice!

Cancellations and No Shows

I was supposed to have breakfast this morning with 2 people from my neighborhood. I volunteer a lot of my time to neighborhood projects, and this meeting was to touch base about that. The meeting was supposed to be at 9 am. Who wants to be anywhere Saturday morning at 9 am? Not me. But like the schlump I am, I showed up, without having checked email first. No one else showed.

I waited 1/2 hour and figured they must have rescheduled or cancelled. I had just confirmed this like a day ago, and checked email last night to make sure it wasn't cancelled. I am supremely pissed and sent a very terse message to the people involved.

I am getting to a point where my time--even 1/2 hour--is too valuable to waste. Earlier this week I busted my ass to get to a meeting at 7 pm, which is really hard for me given work constraints and the dogs. Me and one other person showed up. Again, really pissed.

The lesson here is, my time is too valuable to just be giving it away like this. I told the folks this morning that I wasn't willing to reschedule. And I think I'm dropping the other thing from Tuesday. I have got to get a better handle on my life and my schedule, and I am starting to figure out how. Just say no!

I Have Followers?

I noticed that I actually have some followers of this blog, and people who seem to check it daily. I sincerely appreciate that, as I didn't realize that anyone really gave a crap. It reinspires me to put some interesting things up here to keep you all entertained, so I will do my best to try to post more often. I think these days we all get caught up in our emails, Facebook, etc. that require more immediate attention, and blogs have sort of fallen out of favor.

In the spirit of rekindling my blog, I will tell you some of the stress I have been dealing with over the past three weeks.

Work - I have an employee who is--well, let me put this delicately--crazy. He has thrown me under the bus with my boss more than once and has been ranting and raving about his job, what a bad manager I am, etc. etc. Over a two week period, during our busiest time, he got no work done and then we found out he did something slightly illegal. All this put together means . . . wait for it . . . I gave him a written warning and disciplinary action has been taken. Not sure what is going to happen, but this warning is a first step towards getting him fired. Now mind you, I have been at this job for like 5 months, and I just don't need this shit or stress!

Personal - I found out my ex of 6 years who "never wanted to get married" is now engaged to someone he met online less than a year ago. WTF?? (Sorry if you are reading this, but it's my blog so tough shit.) Then I meet this cute guy who is Italian and seems really cool. However, his baggage? He is going through a divorce, supposedly has 6 kids, and when I looked him up on FB he seemed to already have a girlfriend. Again, WTF? Are there no straight, single, eligible, decent men left? I didn't think so. Anyway, people wonder why women my age are bitter. I have no insight into that.

On top of all this I have a guy who has been after me on and off for 10 years, who decided that the weekend I found out about aforementioned ex was the weekend he was going to "charm" me into finally going out with him. Boy was he wrong, and wound up unfriended on FB. I am tired of being fucked over!

But on a good note, it is Friday and I am getting a massage tomorrow. So maybe things are looking up after all.

My Shockingly Bad Review of Martina McBride’s New Album “Eleven” (Revised)

I have made slight revisions to this post after seeing Martina in concert 6/13/2012 and listening to the CD a bit more. Parts of it have grown on me, parts of it I still hold my original feelings . . .

I have been a fan of Martina McBride for at least 10 years now and she is awesome and I love her. However . . . her latest album just came out last week and it is taking a long time to grow on me. I’m not sure it ever will . . . not sure it’s something I’ll crave listening to. That’s how I know when a CD is really good, when I can’t get the songs out of my head and I can’t wait to listen to it again.

Apparently, she has been writing songs and co-wrote most of the songs on the album. Well, I’m wondering if she should stop writing and concentrate on what she does best: sing. There are two main problems with the songs on here:

First, there is not enough new. A lot of the songs sound like other songs she has already done.

Second, the writing is often bland, not descriptive enough, and uninteresting. I really enjoy songs that have clever lyrics, descriptions that make you feel something. These lyrics don’t have enough to say.

Here is a brief review of the songs on the CD.

One Night – This could be a really awesome, fun, rocking song and was a great way to kick off the June concert referenced above. The one thing I don’t like is that parts of it are too similar to “Ride” from her last CD. There’s a part where she sings the word “Sky” with exactly the same melodic descent as “Ride.” It’s a shame cause it ruins the song a bit for me.

Always Be This Way – This has a sort of reggae beat, which is a little odd. The song is kind of catchy and sweet, though a little saccharine.

I’m Gonna Love You Through It – This is a tear-jerker about a woman with breast cancer. It’s her “statement song” on the CD. During the concert, she dedicated it to "The Survivors" and that simple dedication really made me admire her for always taking on tough issues.

Marry Me – This is a remake of Train’s song, which I adore. I don’t love her singing it. However, the end is cool when she duets with Pat Monahan, who I love, love, love. But more of the song should have been a duet.

Broken Umbrella – This song is full of horns and sounds very old-fashioned and boring. What is she doing with adult contemporary??? It’s so awful, saccharine, blech! I still felt that way during the concert, this was my bathroom break song.

You Can Get Your Loving Right Here – This is supposed to be her “sexy” song but again the horns! Not a big fan of this song.

Whatcha Gonna Do – This song kind of evokes the feel of "Whatever You Say" from years ago. It's a pretty good song about a relationship (man) that can never make up its mind. Are we on or off? Boy do I understand that. I love the sarcastic “whatever” in this song.

Teenage Daughters – This was already a radio hit. It is a pretty clever song, especially if you have teenage daughters.

Summer of Love – This is about a summer romance, and she wanted to evoke a “Strawberry Wine” feel here, and I originally felt it didn't quite work but the song has grown on me. I would have liked to see her perform it to see how she delivered it, but she didn't sing it.

When You Love a Sinner – This song title and melody have the potential to be interesting, but I originally thought the song didn't say quite enough to make you feel. Not sure I was right on that call. It has some good lyrics in it, but I want to know more of the story behind it. She’s been with her husband for like 20 years so obviously and hopefully it’s not about him.

Long Distance Lullaby – This is actually a beautiful song to her family when she’s on the road.

You’re in My House Now – Has the potential to be a sassy song, but there are like two measures in each verse where she goes "la la la la, la la la la, la la la la la la," like she just forgot the words or was too lazy to write them. WTF?

Closing Time – It’s an interesting concept, likening closing time at a bar to the end of the relationship. It evokes an old-fashion country feel. But I feel like it was better live as one of the closing songs--on the CD it's a bit too slow.

Ask the Boy – WTF? This song makes no sense. I originally thought I didn't like it cause I didn't know what was being asked of the boy, but in listening to it several times, what bothered me is that she switches tenses in the song. She talks about "me" in relation to the boy, but they says something like "if you just ask the boy." Who is the you?? What happened to me? That part really makes no sense. The melody is kind of interesting, so if it made a bit more sense, it could have been better.

I Give It to You – The first word was Jesus. Enough said. Fast forward and the CD is finished. Bummer.

RIP, Reed

I found out last Friday that a neighbor and former board member on my neighborhood association's board passed away unexpectedly. He had a heart condition, so this was not totally implausible, but still quite a shock and sad. He was only 45. The night he passed away, we were supposed to have dinner but I rescheduled cause things were busy, and he was just getting back from vacation. I thought, we'll just do it another day.

Well, there is no other day, and I'm really sad. Though, I admit I would probably have felt worse if I'd gone to dinner then found out he died right afterwards. It just all sucks no matter how you look at it.

Tomorrow is his funeral in DC. I would like to go, but practicality won out. I am new at my job, he's not a familiy member or boyfriend where it would make sense to be there, my dog is sick and I have to conserve my time off to deal with that, etc. I hate it. I hate the fact that life in DC is so annoying and work is so all-pervasive that I feel I can't even ask for a few goddamn hours to honor a neighbor who was a good guy and a good friend. So, I wanted to let it be known that while I cannot be there in person, I am there in spirit and heart. RIP, Reed.

Giant Rant

First of all, I hate grocery shopping because it takes precious time out of my very-time-crunched weekends. Second, the prices keep going up, while sizes keep going down. I am soooooo frustrated cause I try not to eat out during the week so I can "save money." Ha. I went to Giant today so I can get their Shell gas miles, and everything I bought, just about, was way more expensive than last time I was there. Blueberries were like $3.99 a pint! This price is fine in winter, when there are no blueberries, but summer? They should be like 2 for $4! WTF?

Then I go to check out and I use their recyclable bags to earn the 5 cents per bag. The stupid woman loads all the large things into one bag--two large containers of OJ, one 1/2 gallon of milk, 2 tubs of yogurt, etc. and I make a comment and she's like "oh I can change it for you." Well, duh, you shouldn't do it in the first place, you motherf*cking idiot! I am not the bionic woman with endless strength. I was quite pissy to her, plus I was furious at the prices so she's lucky I didn't just let her have it for the complete unfairness. I stopped going to Shopper cause they were so idiotic, Harris Teeter and Safeway are WAYYYY overpriced, so what am I supposed to do?

Sonny, Tony, Grandpa

It is with great sadness that I post about my wonderful grandfather's passing this past Thursday, July 27. He was 96 years old, and lived 4-1/2 years after my grandmother's passing. He was doing pretty well up until a year ago, then things got tricky after some surgery that I felt was unnecessary but others apparently did not. He was never the same after that--how is a 96 year old going to recover from surgery? Really?

Grandpa was sharp-minded, right until the end. I spoke with him last about 2 weeks ago, and he remembered that I had a problem in my basement with these hopping crickets. He was at my house only once, about 10 years ago, but he remembered these bugs and was giving me advice on how to get rid of them. He also thought I should white wash my basement. It was the most awesome confersation, and somehow I knew it would be our last.

I will never forget how amazing he was . . . smart though he'd never gone to college, handy, sharp as a tack, opinionated, Democrat! (old people are never Democrats), a major Yankees fan. He was a big music fan, and taught me all of these old songs as a kid. To this day I still remember the words to "I Love My Baby" and "I Took My Girl." He always took us to get Slurpees as kids, and told us the story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" no matter how many times we asked.

I leave tomorrow for the services in NY. My grandfather was very well-loved, there will be a lot of people there to pay respects, and it will be very hard to get through cause there will be a lot of tears. He was my last grandparent. It's the end of an era and I'm so sad . . .

July 4 Beach Weekend

This past weekend I hit the beach with NOAAGirl and we had tons of fun, starting with riding in her cute little red VW bug convertible. We were loving the attention we got as we rode with the top down, rocking out to great 80s tunes.

We left Saturday morning and it took a while to get to the beach. Saturday night we hung out on the Rehobeth boardwalk, having dinner at the awesome Pig and Fish. We shared the fried green tomatoes and pork tacos as appetizers, and probably could have stopped right there cause they were so awesome. But we got entrees, I had the swordfish (sustainable, of course) and NOAAGirl had tuna. My swordfish was out of this world, cooked just perfectly. The Rehobeth boardwalk was quite a spectacle and we earned our place in hell by people-watching and making fun of everyone who walked by.

Sunday we spent the day at Bethany Beach working on our tans. At night we went to Matt's Fish Camp, which also was outstanding and had a cute young waiter who was flirting with us. We drove to Cape Henlopen, recommended to me by a cute coworker, and watched the sunset from the beaches there. Then we cruised through Dewey back to Bethany where we hung out at the boardwalk and had more Kohr Bros. frozen custard.

Monday we left for home, and were determined to find Evolution Craft Brewing Co., on the way. It turned out to be closed, and we were peering inside sadly when a guy with beautiful blue eyes came out from the back and let us in. NOAAGirl bought a "growler" of a beer she'd loved the night before, and then we got samples of another Summer Session, which I wound up buying. Score! It was the perfect ending to a really fun, flirty, and fabulous weekend. Best of all, there was no traffic on the way home, unbelievable!

Quittin' Time

Ok, I have finally found a new job and accepted it! I start as of May 31, after taking a few days off for Memorial Day.

First, I am thrilled to be making more money. A lot more . . .

But second, I am very sad to be leaving some coworkers I truly love. As much as I complained, I am having a hard time dealing with all of this. The wine is helping, but not enough :( Maybe the brownies in the oven will help more. Today was a hard day having to tell everyone.

Hopefully I am making the right decision. Time will tell. But it is a great opportunity, one I cannot in my right mind turn down. But it is hard.

Getting the Last Word

I can't believe I haven't written since the crazy dog lady incident. But I got my revenge on her! I came across her and her dog playing this morning with another dog. She was letting it romp, etc. and the other dog owner was laughing delightedly. Oh, how I wanted to march right up to her and say "I thought dogs weren't supposed to play like this" but I didn't (cause then I'd be a crazy dog lady).

In any case, I kept walking and lo and behold she wound up walking right in front of me. I could not bite my tongue, and commented that I thought she didn't let her dog play like that. Huge pause . . . she didn't know what to say since she got busted! So she said, "Well, your dog jumps a lot." Which she doesn't, no more so than the dogs that were playing this morning. Great comeback.

Then she said "Well, you won't have to put up with us much longer we're moving." What an idiot, giving me such a free opportunity! So of course I said that was the best news I'd heard in a long time. And kept walking. I win!!

Ok, crazy . .

So I had this run-in this morning with this dog owner who never likes her dog to play, she says the dog gets upset when they play too rough or some crap like that when it's pretty obvious the dog is having fun. I have always thought she was a bit odd, her husband too. They're like this psycho couple. In any case, I approached her this morning and my dog really likes hers and they started playing.

The woman said she was pressed for time, so I started to leave. Then she turns and says "You know, your dog plays too rough, you should discipline her. Dogs aren't supposed to play like that. You should read some books." I just stood there in shock cause I'm like, where is this coming from? Who disciplines their dog for playing? And what books are she reading that tell her that dogs don't like to play that way? If they didn't like it, they wouldn't do it and most dogs in my neighborhood do.

I should have said to her but thought of it too late, "Maybe you should stop reading so many damn books and let your dog be a dog." Ok, crazy . . . and what right do you have to tell me how to parent my dog? F*ng bitch!

Thrown Under the Bus, Survived

WARNING: CO-WORKER RANT AHEAD!!

It's been a long time since I've put up a work rant, so it's about time. I don't think I can let this go until I vent about it. There is a particularly unpleasant co-worker in my small office of 14--not a good situation. Let's call him "Mark" cause, well, that's really his name.

Mark hates me, thinks I am incompetent and lazy. Which I am not. Nor does anyone else at work think that. He is a pompous ass. In any case, we have had many run-ins but it's been a while.

Today, a board member emailed Mark to tell him that he was having trouble finding some info on our Web site, which I maintain. He thought the information should be more readily apparent, he had some marketing tips for us, yadda yadda. (It's always so much fun when everyone tells you how to do your job.)

So of course it's immediately my fault--not the board member who probably didn't look real hard to start out with. Mark forwards the message to me and my boss as FYI. Then he responds to the message seconds after forwarding the "FYI" telling the board member that he would "work with me" to correct the problem and he would welcome marketing advice. As if that wasn't bad enough, he copied his entire department, my boss again, and the CEO. That's like 6 people out of the 14 on staff. Way to throw me under the bus, fucker.

To his credit, the board member wrote back and said something to the effect of: if only Mark had copied a few more people it would have been the entire staff on email. Ha! What a burn! (Yes, that expression shows my age.) I was so gratified to have Mark called out on throwing me under the bus. I win!

Goodbye 2010

Can't say I'm sorry to see you leave. I wanted to quickly post my favorite Christmas gift of 2010 from Funny Girl Goes Blog. The complete series of the Brady Bunch! I'm a fanatic!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I just don't have much time to post these days, so I thought I'd put up a quick post to wish everyone a happy holiday!! I'm off to start the festivities with an Italian fish Christmas Eve dinner. Then tomorrow it's basically presents and lots of food . . . and Sunday to recover!

Do You Know Where Your Christmas Spirit Is?

I admit I've been having a hard time getting into the spirit this year until this weekend. I went to the Gaylord resort at National Harbor, and they have a lights and fountain show along with Christmas music. The best part was hearing the screams of delight from the kids there whenever the fountain sprayed. It was really adorable, and made it a wondrous event . . . that along with the hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps ;)I think I'm mostly done with my shopping after this weekend. What a relief. It's thankfully a short week, I have Thursday and Friday off, and a retirement lunch that will take up most of Tuesday. Maybe, just maybe I can make it through to some much-needed time off.

Fuck Facebook

I am a victim of the stupid Facebook bug this week, and they have still not fixed my account. Now I'm getting another error that I may have been a victim of phishing. Right . . . I am beginning to think they are never reinstating me and I've been talking to various reporters to make a stink about it. I am completely pissed off and want to get reinstated just so I can quit . . .

701 Restaurant

Had dinner with a friend last night at 701 and it was fabulous! Started at the lounge with a pumpkin spice martini - like having dessert first! I had a Fig & Arugula Salad with goat cheese, crisp guanciale, grilled red onions, vanilla vinaigrette--what a yummy surprise the vinaigrette was. My friend had Grilled Baby Octopus with salsa verde, roasted breakfast radishes and usually I'm not an octopus fan but this was delicious. Not at all rubbery, cooked and seasoned to perfection. For my main course I had the Eco Friendly Pork Loin & Belly with cider & tobacco braised pork belly, celery root puree, savoy cabbage, and grain mustard. Absolutely to die for. Dessert was "Apple Pie" with vanilla bean ice cream, milkado sticks, and salted caramels. It sounds like a lot of food, but the portions were really reasonable and I didn't feel awful when I left.

The nice surprise was the piano player, playing soft tunes in the background. All in all, a fabulous experience, I highly recommend it!

Long Time

I just don't seem to have the energy to post much these days. Things have been pretty busy, here are some recent highlights:

1. Went to Chicago for work, didn't get to the restaurants that I wanted to :(
2. Went to a great Halloween party!
3. Loved Rick Springfield's new autobiography Late, Late at Night
4. Found out my grandfather has congestive heart failure, don't know how long he has. I'm pretty bummed about it and am trying to make a visit soon . . .

Idyllic Weekend Weather

What a beautiful weekend for Labor Day! It's been a pretty good one and busy too. The highlight was Saturday I had lunch reservations with NOAAGirl, her DH, and Jeffro at Volt in Frederick, MD. The owner is Bryan Voltaggio of Top Chef fame. It took months to get a reservation, and I could only get lunch reservations at that. But no matter, lunch or dinner, it was a fabulous meal. We all had the 5-course tasting menu of heirloom tomatoes, goat cheese ravioli, scallops, beef strip loin, and dessert. Dessert was supposed to be cheesecake, but I wanted something else so they were able to substitute. What a wonderful meal, attentive waiters, beautiful restaurant, and best of all we saw Bryan on the way out! He was every bit as cute as he was on TV but unfortunately he didn't really appear to want to say hello. That was the only bummer.

Accentuate the Positive

I don't want to curse myself, but it's definitely been an interesting week, in a good way. I've been interviewing, and had more luck than I anticipated. I have a second interview tomorrow, and they are calling references so that is really interesting. We'll see if they make and offer and how much, though I am more interested in another job and waiting for them to come to town to do interviews. This has all been very anxiety-producing, but exciting.

The other really great thing is my college roomate, who I haven't talked to in like 10 years, contacted me through FB recently. I was surprised in a way, but I had sort of been following her and knew she was on FB so it wasn't a total shock.

So these are some really cool things. I needed some good stuff sent my way. I also went to a very fun happy hour last week, and we're doing it again tomorrow night. Yeah!

The Audi R8 is the coolest car ever. I wondered how much it was, but was afraid to look. Now I know why. The MSRP is $156K! Someone actually parks one frequently in Shirlington. Man I need to find out who it is and make a new friend!

Back from Boston

I was in Boston recently for a conference from work, and it just about took me a week to recover . . . the conference went well, it's just exhausting. Now I'm full into interview mode. Every year I say to myself "this has to be the last conference" and yet every year I'm still there. So I am trying to change that before the next one comes around. There's also change in leadership coming, and I do fear that we won't be able to get through another budget without laying someone off. So it's go time. I've had two phone interviews so far with a company out of town. I would get to telecommute, but the job has a lot of travel. They are coming into town in August to do in-person interviews, and they already told me that they want to meet me in person. I also have an interview with another company Monday, so I'm taking the day off work cause it's in the afternoon. I also just really want another long weekend.

In any case, it's hotter than hell here. I just wonder what these extremes mean. We had record snow this year, and now record heat. I just don't like it, I think the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Ever the optimist here ;)

Two Saturdays This Week

My conference for work is coming up and Thursday was a really busy, stressful day. The kind where you feel completely beat up by the time you go home. So I chilled that night and got myself ready to face Friday.

But when I got up, my brain did not want to face Friday. It told me that the day was Saturday. I turned my alarm off thinking, why did I set my alarm for Saturday? I took the dogs for a really long walk, thinking, why are people standing at the bus stop on Saturday? We stopped at the dog park, thinking why is it so empty on Saturday? I walked home and started taking my vitamins in my Sunday - Saturday plastic packet and noticed I was taking vitamins marked Friday. How odd that I forgot to take my vitamins on Friday, I thought. Then, with dread, it occured to me: Maybe today is Friday. Oh crap. Could it be? Are you kidding me? Am I getting really senile or something? I checked my cell phone to be sure, and it was indeed Friday at 9:30 a.m. and I was already 1/2 hour late for work and hadn't showered yet.

What a terrible shock, and such a disappointment!

I quickly checked my work schedule: did I have a meeting? No. Did I have something due: Yes. Crap, I need to go to the office. Otherwise I would have called in sick. I called my boss and left a really vague message about running late and that I would be in around 11. Am I going crazy? I was completely convinced that it was Saturday. Unbelievable. I think after my conference I need a serious vacation.

A Person Who Cares

I was walking my dogs tonight (what a gorgeous night!) and just up ahead this guy was walking towards another dog owner. The guy was walking very quickly. The woman had a small pug on a leash, and was trying to get out of this guy's way. She was standing on a hill, and in trying to avoid this guy, she slipped and fell down the hill in her sundress. The guy didn't blink an eye, just kept barrelling past. Didn't say "are you ok?" or "sorry about that" or anything. She was looking at him like WTF and I approached and said I couldn't believe that he didn't even acknowledge how rude he was by just about knocking her off the sidewalk. I said that I was sorry he was such a jerk and that most people these days just don't care and she agreed. Then she said "A lot of people don't care, but I'd rather be a person who cares." I thought that was such a great sentiment I had to put the story up here. I'm glad too that I'm a person who cares. Well, I try to be anyway ;)

Goal!

No, I'm not talking about the World Cup. I'm talking about my sponsorship goal at work. I actually met it this year, and it was $10K higher than last year. I'm so thrilled! Now if and when I leave my job I can leave on a high note, so to speak. The rewards? A nice fat commission? A bonus? No. Ice cream. But I guess I'll take that. At least it was acknowledged.

Last Chance Highway

Tune into Animal Planet for "Last Chance Highway," an 8 part series that follows a group of volunteers who rescue soon-to-be-euthanized shelter dogs. Part 1 airs on June 19th at 8 pm, June 20th at 1 am, 3 am, & 10 am, and June 21st at 8 pm. For a sneak preview click here.

Busy Weekend and Unsealed Lips

Things have been crazy as ever. This weekend was busy with gardening in between all the other fun stuff. Boy it was great to have Monday off!

Friday: shopping for my sister's surprise birthday party

Saturday: car repair in the morning, sister's party at night (she was very surprised!)

Sunday: gardening during the day, friend's BBQ at night

Monday: dog park, dog baths, pedicure, wine and dessert with friends

On a separate note, Belinda Carlisle, one of my favorite singers (lead singer of the Go-Gos!)from the 80s has a new book out: Lips Unsealed: A Memoir. Apparently she's had a really huge problem with drug abuse most of her life. It looks like an interesting read cause she struggled with self image and depression problems, and that just makes her so real. So I might have to pick up a copy.

Why I Hate Work

I have read a couple of interesting articles recently related to work.

The first is about how now that the economy is improving, people are quitting their hated jobs without having anywhere to go. I would love to do that. Check out the article here.

The other article was about the terrible health effects that it has on your body. I always thought that work is killing me, and it truly is. Check out the article here.

Then I saw an episode of House Hunters tonight where the person moved to Cabo in Mexico, bought this huge, great place for $350K that had a level that could be rented out. How sweet would that be?

And let's close this with one of the things I love from the past few weeks:

Why does your boss tell you to give someone a deadline of Friday then decide she wants it Thursday after you’ve already told them Friday? Then you have to go back and look like an ass and ask for it earlier.

Long Gone

I have been super busy this month, so I haven't been blogging much. Here are a few highlights of what I've been up to:

*Coordinated a pet happy hour in my neighborhood
*Helped put on a neighborhood day
*Pulled up two overgrown shrubs in my yard that didn't fare well over the winter
*Dug out two new flower beds behind my fence
*Purchased flowers and started to plant, waiting for the rain to subside!

I'll try to be better about blogging, but truthfully it's hard to keep up with all the "social media" stuff that you're supposed to these days . . .

NY Wedding and Shelter Stamps

Well, I just got back last night from my cousin's wedding on Long Island. It was a really fun time and I got to see people I don't see very often. I didn't stop dancing the entire night!

I also wanted to raise awareness of new forever stamps being issued by the Post Office to create awareness about adoption and shelters. Check it out and buy other really cute products here.

NYC

I was in NYC this week for a business meeting. I haven't been to the Big Apple in many, many years but it never seems to change. Here are some highlights of my brief time there.

Ate at Morimoto! I stayed my first night at The New Yorker Hotel, which was walkable to the restaurant. I had called ahead and asked if I could sit at the sushi bar, partly because I hate eating by myself at a real table, and partly because I knew I'd never get in at the last minute to the restaurant itself. So I sit down at the sushi bar and look to my right and THERE IS MORIMOTO himself, looking just like he does on Iron Chef. My jaw hit the floor and I had to resist the urge to call everyone I knew right then. Eventually, I saw that he was very personable and talking to other guests, so with some encouragement from my waiter, I stood up and shook his hand when he walked by me. He asked how everything was, and if the sushi chefs sitting right in front of me (two of which I recognized from TV) were doing a good job. What a thrill!

As an appetizer, I ordered some of my favorite spicy tuna rolls, and they were outstanding. By far the best sushi I have ever eaten. Then I ordered the black bean cod, which was also outstanding. All in all, a delicious and memorable experience! Oh and before I forget, I went to the bathroom before I left and the seats were heated. An unexpected and very nice feature.

Before I got in a cab, I went into the nearly-closing Chelsea Market, located apparently under where Food Network films. It was a cool indoor market that held all kinds of little shops and restaurants. And the stars from Food Network always shop there. Too bad I wasn't there during the day.

The rest of my trip wasn't nearly as eventful. I moved hotels and stayed at a Marriott right in Time Square/Broadway, which was really cool. They have closed off a street and made it more of a pedestrian area, so it was pretty crazy. One night I walked with my boss to the Apple store, and it was late, around 10, but you would have thought it was a weekend afternoon cause there were so many people around.

I walked by the famed Magnolia Bakery but it was too early in the morning for me to consider cupcakes, and I was leaving in about 1/2 hour so I couldn't get one to go. All in all a good trip, I just wish I'd had time to stay and see more sites or catch a show.

Rude or Not Rude? You Decide

I'm invited to a family wedding next month, and received the invitation a few weeks back. The RSVP date is March 31, next week. I have been really busy and haven't had time to send the RSVP back, but this week, my cousin e-mails a bunch of us who haven't RSVP'd yet reminding us that we have only 8 days to reply!

Call me crazy and old fashioned, but I thought that:

1. I had until March 31 to reply.
2. Since the invitation was a formal printed invitation, a follow up e-mail seemed a little gauche.

My sisters were offended and wrote back nasty replies. The next day I mailed my invitation and didn't reply cause it seemed like it had been addressed by my sisters. However, today I got YET ANOTHER e-mail reminder. And boy, I let my cousin have it!! Cause I mailed the friggin RSVP already, and it's only been a few days so the RSVP couldn't have gotten there yet.

So I'm wondering what everyone thinks about this? Is it tacky as hell to ask for an RSVP before the RSVP is due? And to ask by e-mail? And twice in one week? Curious minds want to know. I'm just furious about the whole thing and have half a mind not to even show up now!

Vosges Hautes Glaces

The other night on a rare trip to Whole Foods, I discovered that my favorite chocolate, Vosges, based in Chicago, now makes an exotic ice cream, Hautes Glace! I wanted to buy the Red Fire, which is hot and spicy, but felt too guilty cause it's full fat ice cream and I would have eaten the entire thing. So I refrained, but I'm sure at some point I will have to go back for it!

Cincinnati/Memphis Trip

I just got back from being away for about a week. Sundae, my trouble dog, ate just about everything in my house. I had a good trip except for that little problem.

Cincinnati was a trip for work, and was pretty tiring. I have to say the city itself was nicer than I remembered. I'd been there once years ago. I didn't get to have any of the city's famous chili, but I did manage to have some Graeter's ice cream.

I went to Memphis afterwards to visit Funny Girl who moved there back in December. We had a great time, hitting all the popular sites: The Rock and Soul Museum, the Peobody, and Sun Studios. But the highlight was probably seeing Graceland. It was really pricey, but I wanted to go. It was amazing to see all of Elvis' gold records. What a legend. We even went to the Botanic Gardens on the only sunny day. Loved the barbecue at Corky's and got to see her brother-in-law sing at BB King's.

At Sun Studios I discovered the first song to officially be called rock 'n roll: Rocket 88. Click on the link to hear it and learn a little about it. I'm a little obsessed with it right now and bought a CD that had it on there. I can't believe I have never heard it since my dad used to love this kind of music. I'm recovering today and trying to get my life back in order. It feels like I was gone forever!

March Mourning

I absolutely hate the month of March. Not only is it the time when I'm just waiting for spring to be here, a very busy time at work, and the longest month ever, but for the second year in a row there's been a death in my family.

This weekend my last remaining grandmother passed away at the age of 92. I am grateful to have had my grandparents for as long as I have . . . I still have one grandfather who will be 95 this year. I wasn’t as close to this grandmother as the one I lost three years ago, but it’s still hard to accept death and the fact that you will never see that person again.

And in loving memory, today is the day I lost my beloved Pepper last year. I miss her every day.

Officially. Sick. Of. Winter.

I am so sick of this winter I could just spit. We have beat the all-time record for most snow in VA, over 54 inches total! If I wanted a winter like this I would live in Buffalo or something. There are just huge piles everywhere, it's hard to get around and walk the dogs, having to cross the streets like a maze to find an opening to get to the sidewalk. Then there's the post-walk cleaning up of the dogs again and again. Not to mention the trouble of trying to find an empty parking spot after leaving the lot. Oh, I am so tired of it all. And it's so cold, that whenever we have temps above freezing it feels nearly balmy. I just can't take it and don't know how many more winters I'll be willing to spend like this! Here's a photo of my back gate for your amusement. The gate is about 5 feet tall.

A Bit of Thanks??

To follow up on a recent, post, we did actually celebrate our goal being met at work during our last staff meeting. However, when someone exclaimed that they wanted to thank those of us who marketed the hell out of it (i.e., marketing) my boss very quickly jumped in and said that it was due to everyone's work and that's why we were all here having champagne. WTF??

Martina McBride - Shine Indeed!

I went to see Martina on Sunday night, and wow, what a great show. That was probably the best she's ever been, and I've seen her about a million times so that says a lot. She played for nearly two hours, and it was a great mix of her old and new songs, ballads and upbeat tunes. The only "bad" thing I have to say is she didn't sing "I Just Call You Mine," her current single, and that surprised me a bit. She ended with Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer, which was such a fun surprise. I started cracking up when they played the first chords, cause I couldn't believe she was going to play that, and the friend I was with thought I was nuts. In any case, here's a photo I took. She came out to a stage right by me for a while, then out into the audience. It was a really awesome show. She's back in the area on Feb. 20 in Baltimore, and I have half a mind to get tickets and go again!

More Things I Love

We hit a huge goal at work today. A goal I was mostly responsible for achieving, and largely responsible for surpassing. Yes, surpassing, which was very exciting. Because we hit the goal and people were excited, the person processing the orders was told that she could leave work early. Um . . . all she did was process everything. So somehow due to her great processing we achieved the goal? I don't think so. Yet did anyone even think to tell me that I did a great job achieving the goal? Not a one. I didn’t get sent home early. Bastards. So I just left work early anyway.

Lady Antebellum New Release

If I wasn't so annoyingly busy this week, I'd be purchasing Lady A's new CD, out today, Need You Now. My first free night is Thursday, so I guess I'll try for then. In the meantime I'll have to be satisfied with the sampler snippets on Amazon or iTunes. Sigh.

Things I Love: Another Installment

I love it when your boss knows you probably haven’t done something and they really are asking you to do it, but for some reason they can’t just come out and ask you to do it. My boss last week came in my office and said, “I’m sure you’ve probably already done this, but the CEO is looking for blah blah blah.” Ok, now “blah, blah, blah” was never discussed with me, nor is it something we’ve ever really done before, nor do I see any great need to do it, so I don’t know why she thinks I would have already done it?

I just hate this passive aggressive bullshit. Just say “the CEO would like you to do X by X date” and be done with it. How hard is that?? I love work.

Peed Plumbing

I saw a truck with this name on it today while walking my dogs. Really? Really! You gotta wonder if it's a family name, or just something someone made up who thought it would be clever marketing. I just think it's weird.

About My Staycation

We're more than a week into the New Year already, where does the time go? I had an entire week off work for the holidays, and didn't have any plans, so I had a "staycation." I have to say, it was really awesome. Got to do some things I hadn't gotten around to in forever, saw family, and spent a lot of time with the dogs. We're working on training a lot right now, and it's pretty slow going. But it was still great to be home. I have to say, it really chilled me out and made me able to get back to work and actually be productive and not hate it as much. So yeah, staycations! I highly recommend them.

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday this year. Though I'm not really feeling it, I'm trying to get in the spirit by listening to Christmas carols. Check out my beautiful poinsettia from Funny Girl's mom. Can't wait for 2009 to finally end!

Country Christmas

Well, 2009 has certainly been an interesting and terrible year, and it couldn't be over soon enough. I've been meaning to buy Christmas cards and start writing them out, but I realized that I have very little good news to share with people this year. Matter of fact, this year's events kind of read like a sad country song:

My old dog died
My boyfriend left me
My best friend Funny Girl moved hundreds of miles away

So I'm thinking about trying to formulate that into a funny little message somehow so people won't get my card and be severely depressed. Hoping for a creative inspiration!

Things I Love

Here is another installment of Things I Love, my way of lashing out when I get really angry over something stupid that someone does at work. Today it's my boss being totally passive aggressive. She has no business even being a boss if she is as much of a chicken shit as what she showed today.

I wrote some copy for a promotion, and left it with her around 12. Around 12:05 she called a coworker into the office and closed the door. Paranoid, I assumed they were talking about me, but then thought I was being ridiculous and just dismissed it.

Around 1 I had a meeting with her and a different colleague about a different subject, but I saw the copy on her desk with comments written on it from her and the person she had a closed-door meeting with. However, she said nothing about any of this while I sat there.

I get back to my desk around 1:30 after our meeting, and there's an e-mail about the copy I had left with her. She said that basically my copy wasn't treating the audience with dignity (which in and of itself is completely not true), but she said it so sarcastically that ironically I felt I wasn't being treated with dignity. I was really upset, looked at the time it was sent, 1:03, probably just as I was sitting down with her for the meeting. If she had problems with what I wrote, why didn't she have the balls to say something while I was in her office? Instead she sends me a mean e-mail when she's sure I won't see it till after I meet with her.

And BTW, just because you use cute emoticons all over your sarcastic and mean message, doesn't mean it's going to soften the blow ;) :) Bitch.

A Dog Named Sundae

I haven't posted in a while, but I've been busy fostering a new dog, Sundae, who I now plan to officially adopt. She has the sweetest disposition, and I think is actually helping to mellow out my crazy 10-year old dog. Check out her photo, isn't she cute? She needs some training, but hopefully she won't destroy my house :)

Call from the Angels

I had the most exciting call today. I was in the middle of vacuuming and had just cut my finger. I was rinsing it and putting a bandaid on, cursing a lot, when the phone rang. Highly annoyed, I picked it up and was greeted by an unfamiliar British voice. I immediately was annoyed and asked impatiently who was on the line. It turns out it was one of the founders of Best Friends Animal Sanctuary! I had recently become a member and donated money, and actually went out there in July to visit. He was calling to thank me for my donation. We had a very lovely conversation about my pets and his, and he told me next time I'm out there I should ask for him as he's frequently around.

It was the nicest, most uplifting call. He was so appreciative of my efforts, when he's the one who started this amazing place that has saved thousands upon thousands of animals. Amazing. I got off the phone and just started crying because I was so touched. I'd heard rumors that the founders made calls like this, but I didn't quite believe it. What an amazing group of people!

Loving Chi-Town

Boy, I have always loved Chicago, and this trip was no different. When I arrived Monday night, I had such an ordeal getting to my hotel that I immediately needed a drink and went to the hotel bar. I had a late reception to go to, then some girls and I went to Devon. Since I'd already eaten, I only had their complimentary biscuit, which was amazing, and immediately regretted my earlier dinner at the hotel.

I also went to a great sushi bar/sake bar called Izumi. My friend and I did the flight tasting of four different premium sake, and it was awesome. We also shared the spicy scallop roll, and it was just amazing.

I was in Chicago for a conference, which went pretty well, and included an architectural tour of the new building at the Art Institute of Chicago. What an amazing place, with a view of Millennium Park, which had been built long after my last visit to Chicago, and the new "Bean." I also finally got to see the "Married with Children" fountain, which I had somehow missed in previous visits.

I stayed at the Hilton Suites, right on Magnificent Mile, and really enjoyed getting to walk around Chi-Town. I had lunch with a friend I hadn't seen in like 12 years at Bistro 110, and my last day got some of Giordano's famous deep dish pizza.

I really, really wanted to go to Vosges Haut Chocolate, but in the end I had to decide between that or the American Girl store to get a gift for my niece who was having a birthday. Being the nice aunt that I am, I chose the latter. Sigh. But overall, a great trip. I just wish Chi-Town wasn't so cold, or I would have moved there long ago.

Back from Beach, Off to Chi-Town

The beach was pretty nice, great weather and I actually got a tan. But even though it was relaxing and I was able to get away from it all, I wasn't able to get away from my own thoughts. I was going to try to post some photos, but I am having difficulties with my camera and can't get anything to download.

This week I'm headed to Chicago for a few days for work. I haven't been in many years, and I know a couple of people there, so I hope to be able to see them. And visit my favorite chocolate store, Vosges!

Beach Bound!

I am finally, finally getting away for a vacation after more than a year. I'm headed to a beach in NC near Wilmington. Hopefully the weather down there will remain sunny and in the 80s. I have no itinerary, just beach, beach, beach. I can't wait! After the completely shitty year I've had--losing my dog and my boyfriend--I SOOOO deserve this.

Lavendar Moon Cupcakery

Today I spent the day in Old Town at the Alexandria Festival for the Arts and enjoyed a very nice cupcake from Lavendar Moon Cupcakery. It was vanilla with lemon curd, yum! The cupcake was not too big, not too sweet, and just moist enough. And unfortunately better than Cake Love, which I have written about in previous blog posts. I can't find a website for it, but it's at 116 South Royal Street. Check it out!

My Birthday

Today is my birthday, and it's always tough because of the date and what happened 8 years ago. I always take the day off and enjoy a pampering massage, and this year was no different. The difference I guess is that Jeffro and I have decided that living together isn't working, so he's moving out Monday. So happy birthday to me indeed. So our trip to BGR last night was probably our last dinner together and it made me really sad sitting there for the last time. I've been having a rough day today, but tonight I'm lucky my best friend Funny Girl Goes Blog has agreed to go out to dinner with me. We'll be off to the Carlyle for some good food and hopefully lots of wine.

The Burger Joint

Tonight we went out to eat at a relatively new place in Old Town called BGR: The Burger Joint. We'd read about it in Washingtonian, and I guess the chef won a Throwdown with Food Network's Bobby Flay for his Greek (lamb) burger, so we'd been wanting to go there. I have to say, I was just dying for a burger, and it was good, but I am not sure I would go there again. The burger was salty, as were the fries. I don't object to the fries being salty, and boy they were awesome, but to me the burger was just too much so. Jeffro got the sweet potato fries, which were supposed to be incredible, but they were just pretty good. Unfortunately I would say there are other local and more convenient places I like just as well or better, so I probably wouldn't go there again, though I'm very glad I tried it.

Best News Ever: Thin Thighs Kill You

This story has been flying around the Internet today: people who have thin thighs don't live as long as those with heavier thighs. Wow, that's the best news I've ever heard, as my thighs have been the bane of my existence since, oh, about sixth grade. Some of the theory has to do with the apple/pear theory, that people who carry fat in their core around their organs (apple shape) have more health problems than people like me who carry it in their thighs (pear shape). Read the story here then go have a Twinkie if you put on weight in your thighs.

Weekend and Macy's Goes to the Dogs

I spent yesterday helping out a local rescue group A Forever Home at the event Wags 'N' Whiskers in Shirlington. It was fun, and luckily not too sunny out cause we had lots of dogs there available for adoption. We got at least a dozen great applications and collected a decent amount in donations. It was a fun day. Then we had Funny Girl Goes Blog and her sister over for dinner last night.

Today I went to Macy's to finish buying my nephew's birthday gift (party in 3 hours!). Below is an actual account of what transpired and the corresponding conversation. It never fails to amaze me how inefficient Macy's is every time I go, and I always wonder why I keep going back . . .

Jeffro and I stood on line while 3 Ukranian guys were trying to apply for a store credit card and things were not going smoothly. After we'd stood there forever, a manager walked by and saw our completely frustrated faces and told us there was an open register across the store. We get over there, and of course the register is no longer open, so she kindly decided to ring us up. Jeffro had some coupons that we wanted to use, so we were going to put the items on his store credit card to do so.

Jeffro: I'd like to use my "$10 off" coupon on these purchases.

Manager: Well, let me see. It looks like these are our "everyday value" items so the coupons would not apply.

Jeffro: Well, the coupon here says most brand names are excluded. So if most brand names are excluded, and "everyday value" items are excluded, what exactly can you use this coupon on?

Manager: (silence)

Jeffro and me: (snickers and eye rolls. Now, I don't normally laugh right in someone's face, but this was just too good and could not be helped.)

Kora Restaurant

Monday night Jeffro and I went to Kora Restaurant by Morou as part of DC Restaurant Week. Morou is my favorite local chef, and I was very sad when Farrah Olivia closed (hopefully will reopen one day soon). In any case, the food at Kora was just about as incredible as I'd hoped. I started with the roasted red bell pepper, and Jeffro had the gnudi, which is a pasta. Mine was pretty good, but his was amazing. For the main course, I had the cannelloni with crab, fontina cheese, prosciutto, and sauteed spinach. I was a little worried that the crab would over power everything, but it was delicious and I just couldn't stop eating it. Somehow it was very rich, yet light at the same time. Jeffro had the halibut which was nice but paled by comparison to mine.

The menu at Kora is very diverse, some traditional Italian dishes, some with a twist like squid ink tagliatelle. Sophisticated dishes like pork shank ossobuco are offered, along with popular Italian fare like pizza. In other words, the menu offers something for everyone. I'm curious to see how it will do in this location, and hope that it fares much better than its predecessors.

Love and Theft Album Out Today

My favorite new country group, Love and Theft, is releasing its debut album World Wide Open today! I've got their live EP and they are fabulous. They are three guys who met up when they quit their day jobs and moved to Nashville to try to make it in country music. I guess they found the power of three to be better than one, and formed an incredibly talented group with beautiful harmonies. Listen to their hit single Runaway and preview the entire CD at www.worldwideopenCD.com. Matter of fact, I'm waiting for a phone call from them this morning about the CD!

Keith Urban and Sugarland

Last night Jeffro and I went to the Verizon Center to see Keith Urban and Sugarland. I'd been having a terrible day for a variety of reasons, and I hate to say it but the concert didn't lift my spirits all that much when it took us nearly 2 hours of metro delays and incompetencies to get home. It was infuriating.

Keith Urban and Sugarland themselves were great, though Keith didn't play many songs from his latest album, which is kind of odd. And Sugarland didn't play for nearly long enough. Unfortunately, we were sitting far away, so most of the pics were taken on the big screen as my stupid camera couldn't focus very well on the stage. But here are a couple of shots to enjoy.

Sugarland on the big screen.

Stage shot of Keith Urban--he went running around the Verizon Center and wound up sitting on a makeshift stage near the back for a while so I was able to get a decent shot, not from the big screen.

Shot of the tour bus outside the Verizon Center. They also handed out free posters to everyone. It was pretty crazy.

This weekend will be busy, we are going to some friends for dinner tomorrow, the possibly having some people over on Sunday. In between, I hope to get some cleaning up done, but we'll see if that happens or not . . .

Busy Weekend

I got a lot done this weekend, including finishing up my deck project (with another run to Home Depot), cleaning the house, watching Mad Men, playing with puppies, and grilling last night. These are all good things, but what I really wanted to do today was go to the pool. Our neighborhood has a million pools, and although I went to three of them, I was too paranoid I would run into someone I know and I just couldn't stand the mortification of facing a neighbor in a bathing suit. So I just came home and I'm pretty bummed about the whole thing. I'm pretty sure today is the quintessential pool day. So I will just shower, run errands, and do some things around the house. Boy am I bored. Jeffro is not a big sun worshipper, so doing something outdoors today was completely out of the question.

Jeffro's Amazing Marinade

Jeffro made this great marinade tonight for our grilled salmon. It was quite outstanding. Soy sauce, sesame oil, scallions, garlic, sugar, ginger, and red pepper. I added some wilted spinach and rice, and boy was it a great dinner.

And just when I thought I was having another tough day at work, I found out my neighbor has had this kind of a day:

Found out a dog she fostered died
Found out a fellow dog rescuer died
Found out a dog she fostered got loose and was running around

So I guess in comparison my day looked pretty darned good, though I got retested for allergies and found out some have improved slightly, but I have some new ones including a couple of food allergies. Fun!

Things I Love

Here is another installment of your favorite column, Things I Love. It's just been that kind of day.

I love it when:

1. Your boss is off work but she frantically e-mails you in the morning with something that she forgot to do and you have to do it immediately. How is this my problem? Happy Monday!

2. You suggest something for work based on conversations that have taken place where people love the idea. When you actually put the idea down on paper for them to see, you get criticized that the suggestion isn't really a great one. Um . . . we all loved it so why is it wrong all of a sudden?

3. Someone in the office who you don't get along with sends you an e-mail with three attachments and no message. Now granted I know what I'm supposed to do with the attachments, but he couldn't have written "Hi CCHarmony, please edit these documents for me. Thanks. Sincerely, The Asshole." BTW, this is also the same guy as in #2 above. It's a lovefest at my job!

4. Your sister, who's mad at you, e-mails a diatribe on why she's mad at you with bullet points, examples, supporting documents, etc. The sister who's not mad at you, in discussing the situation, provides the same bullet point list as if I need to review it yet again. So now I'm mad at both sisters.

5. A telemarketer pollster calls and asks for me, but it's really my boyfriend that he needs to talk to. I tell him that said boyfriend is eating dinner and probably doesn't want to talk to him right now. Telemarketer asks "when would be a good time to call back" and you say "he probably doesn't want to talk to you at all" and he says "great, I'll try again sometime soon."

Boy that felt good! Now it's on to the Carlyle for some wine!

Highs and Lows

There were many highs this weekend:

Finally nearly completed year-long project to clean and waterproof/stain my deck!

Finally discovered cool young singer Charice. I missed the Oprah she was on, apparently, and she's going to take the world by storm. Great voice, but not sure about first single choice.

Got to visit some very cute puppies. Check it out here then scroll down to "Golden Septuplets."

Accomplished nearly all of my "to-do" list.

And some lows:

My sister is mad at me, long story. So my other sister didn't call today, probably cause sister #1 is mad and she doesn't know how to not get caught in the middle.

I found out about a party that I wasn't invited to that I was last time around.

It is Sunday and I have to go to work tomorrow. I didn't have a good day at work Friday and wound up leaving while the rest of the staff was having a happy hour cause I didn't want to be with them.

RIP John Hughes

John Hughes, my favorite 80s filmmaker, died today. My favorite movie of all time is Sixteen Candles, but Ferris Bueller is a pretty close second. This has been a very sad year for celebrity deaths. RIP, John.

Kora . . . Italian by Morou Is Open!

Morou, my favorite local chef whose wonderful restaurant Farrah Olivia recently closed, has just opened Kora, an Italian restaurant/bar/lounge in Crystal City. This restaurant features cuisine by his brother Amadou Outtara. I can't wait to check it out! Make your reservation at Open Table. I'm pretty psyched, especially for the $20 Prix Fixe 3-course brunch! Morou, we're so glad you're back! (Don't forget everyone, DC Restaurant Week is August 24-30, featuring $35.09 fixed price dinners and $20.09 fixed price lunches, though Kora unfortunately does not seem to be participating.)

All About Dogs

This weekend started off with a visit to the new Lost Dog Cafe, recently opened on Columbia Pike. Jeffro and I had been to the Washington Blvd location many times before, but this new one just opened a couple of months ago so we went to check it out. Nice location, spacious, and a great menu including tons of interesting beer selections. Our waitress was very well-informed about the beer, and I wanted help picking something interesting so she suggested Sea Dog Wild Blueberry Wheat Ale. I can't find any info about it on the Sea Dog Brewery Web site, but it's definitely a great summer beer, refreshing and not too sweet. As soon as I took the cap off I got a strong whiff of fresh blueberries.

The weekend continued with puppy sitting for a neighbor's foster puppies--seven cute lab/shepherd mixes that were little balls of fur. I've been around a lot of puppies, but these were the sweetest, most even-tempered little things I'd ever seen. I don't know how I would choose if I had to pick one. I'm kind of sad that the weekend is over and I don't have to take care of them anymore.

On the recommendation of NOAAgirl, Jeffro and I watched The Best Years of Our Lives, made in 1948. Generally, I don't really like old movies much, but I have to admit this was pretty good and sucked you in from the start. We had to stop watching it halfway (it was 3 hours long!) so I think it kind of lost its momentum at that point and the second half wasn't as good as the first, but still a solid movie. Then last night Jeffro went to see Paul McCartney, so I rented a chick flick at home by myself, Catch and Release. For some reason I just love Jennifer Garner.

Today, besides the puppy watching, was kind of slow since it rained all day and my dog refused to go outside. A nice break for me . . . now I'm wondering how the weekend went by so quickly and why I have to go to work tomorrow when Jeffro has the day off . . .