King and I

No, I'm not talking about Cody and I - it's a Thai restaurant, Cody's favorite restaurant actually. They serve obnoxiously hot (spicy, not temperature) food for Cody and some really good healthy type food for me - so it's really a great place for us - except every time we try to go there they're CLOSED! Seriously - I'm not kidding - there's been at least four times that I can think of right off where we've loaded up in the car, headed to South Grand, and driven by only to find them closed. I think two of those times we tried to go for a late lunch/early dinner on a weekend around 3 or 4 pm and come to find out they're closed from around 2 to 5pm - no clue why, but they are. Well, today Cody and I decided to go out to eat so we could relax and discuss his crazy job situation and when we drove by, low and behold, they were closed. Why? But of course, it's Monday - stupid stupid stupid places closing on Monday. I still eat on Monday. I especially like to go OUT to eat on Mondays. I hate cooking on Mondays - though to be fair I hate doing just about anything on Mondays, but especially cooking so it's a great day to go out to eat and spend some quality time together. But they were closed, as it seems they are every time we try to go there. So we ended up at some half-ass Applebees in South City. Neither of us are big chain food people so we usually avoid those types of places, but they usually have decent food at Applebees - I especially like a chicken teriaki bowl they have - lots of yummy veggies and rice and some chicken. So after waiting forever for a waitress, I order the chicken bowl, with no crispy rice noodles (fried = bad). After waiting an eternity for the food, I get my chicken bowl with tons of rice noodles, but no RICE. AGGGGG!!!! So I explained the difference to our waitress with about as many brain cells as Tuppis (the fat cat who likes to smell other cat butts) and she took my bowl of veggies and chicken back to the back. Mistake #22 for me. . . . when they mess up your food, never let them take it back to add something (here, rice) - you never know what they'll come back with. I should have just asked for her to bring me some rice to add to it. So we ate Cody's food and about the time we were done she comes back with my bowl, with mostly rice and somehow most of my veggies and yummy chicken had disappeared - and they added about three cups of very sugary teriaki stuff. Usually I love that stuff but this was overkill. So after simply requesting rice (which should have been there to begin with) I end up with a mean 20 minutes later I couldn't even eat. Should have just eaten frozen pizza at home. :) Next time we go to King and I (if we can ever manage to make it there when they're open), we're leaving a comment card that says "please stay open more then 2 hours per day."

Mardi Gras!

Too tired for a long post so I'll try to post full details tomorrow, but FYI the Mardi Gras pictures are up on the website. It was an absolute blast!!! We had such a great time - it's hard to even describe in a blog (but I'll try - later - not today). There are less pictures then last year since it was colder and it was much more difficult to take pictures with gloves. :) In case it wasn't clear by the pictures we were in the parade as part of the COPS float (the theme this year was Soulard and the small screen, aka TV shows) - Cody and I both dressed up as cops and amazing as it sounds were not overly harassed by cops for our costumes. :) We had a blast throwing beads on the parade route and of course, partying in Soulard afterward. Now we're just worn out, tired and our legs are crazy sore.

Website Update

Mr. Pickle's page on the website finally has some pictures. Check it out for some obnoxiously cute pictures of the cats - and proof Cody doesn't want them all dead all the time. :) Hopefully I'll have some great Mardi Gras pictures to share tomorrow! Cop costumes are finished and ready to go!! So excited . . . .

So busy rambling I forgot my point. . .

Okay, so in last night's blog I rambled on and on about sugar, ultimately culminating in a profession of my love for Cadbury Creme Eggs and their reappearance on the store shelves. My whole point to that blog however, was that Cody had to go to Wal-Mart yesterday to finish gathering the pieces for his COPS costume for tomorrow's Mardi Gras parade (more on that later) and brought me home a four-pack of Creme Eggs. I thought that was sweet and really showed how well he knows me. That was the whole point of the blog - but I forgot to ever get to it. So, in another corny closing, Nobunny Knows Missy like Cody. :)

Nobunny Knows Easter Better

I swear the world is out to get me - or at least the sugar industry is. If there is one vice I have above all others, it's sugar. I absolutely can not live without it. I seriously can't. If it's around I have to eat it. I can't resist. I used to be absolutely addicted to Mountain Dew - to the tune of 5-6 a day, but I managed to give up not only caffeine but all soda about 10 years ago, in exchange for sugar. I told myself that I just couldn't keep drinking all that soda and eating all the sugar I like and still stay healthy/weigh a reasonable amount. So I gave up soda - it was hard, incredibly hard, but it was worth it so I could keep sugar.

Even so, every now and then I try to reduce my sugar intake, for health's sake. But the sugar industry just seems dead set on shoving it down my throat. There's candy at Halloween, pies at Thanksgiving, everything at Christmas, sweets at Valentine's, cake in June (for my birthday), Memorial Day and Labor Day cupcakes, 4th of July goodies, and then there's Groundhog Day, President's Day, MLK Birthday, Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day and Friendship Day (okay, maybe the last bit of those I only use as excuses). And then there's Easter - second only to Halloween in encouraging candy consumption - and at least in my book, miles above it for one reason - Cadbury Cream Eggs. Whoever thought of those yummy delights certainly didn't care about my waistband. At 170 calories and 25 g of sugar in EACH egg, they are calorie and sugar havens and I love them. I got the biggest joy last Sunday when I was reading the Sunday ads and Walgreen's ad listed a sale on Cadbury Eggs - not that I need to get them on sale, they're only about 50 cents not on sale, but it was the fact that it was that time of year again. After all, Nobunny Knows Easter Better than Cadbury!

Toilet Paper

Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

Ich learne Deutch.

Yet another day of German. Very cool class. Today we learned out to tell time and how to change money while "in country." I'm really getting excited about the trip. Cody and I even dragged out the old TCC (that's Tallahassee Community College for all you non-Tally natives) Western Civilization book last night so we could catch up on our European history. Learned a lot of interesting stuff we didn't bother to pay attention to at 19 years old. . . . wish we would have paid attention then when we had it right in front of us instead of having to go back and learn it now. But I guess that's the problem with the American education system - you get shoved through 13 years of education and then forced to go right into four plus more years of education. You hit college (at least most of us do) at an age when you care least about learning and most about everything but. Then years and many thousands of dollars in debt later you realize what an opportunity you had with that expensive education and regret that you didn't make more out of it and you rush to read the books you avoided most to learn that which you realize now you need most. I like what some other countries, namely Australia, do in creating a rite of passage of sorts after high school graduation. The kids graduate and then travel the world for a year or so to sort of learn the world. I think they have a better grasp on the "real world" and what really matters and return to their education with a newfound appreciation for the quest for knowledge and its usefullness. A personal example is that I took off some time between undergrad and law school to work in this "real world." And I quickly learned that with a math degree and no real focus or drive the "real world" sucked. Working sucked. And in order to make it not suck (at least not as much) I needed to better my education and find a path I could really take hold of and appreciate. That led me to law school. So at a time where many of my colleges were still living off mom and dad, right out of undergrad and having never worked an honest job in their life, I entered law school with an appreciation for what this degree really could do for me and what I needed to do to make the most of it. I understood how much the real world could suck and how I really needed to do a good job and learn a lot in order to make a life for myself that didn't suck. Profound, huh? :) Enough of that I suppose.
On another rambling subject, I hate drama. Most people who currently know me know this about me. At least now. I must admit in the past I was a full-fledged Drama Queen. I thrived on it. I loved it. I created and encouraged it. Even when things were seemingly nice and normal, I would find drama in some shape or form or just create it - I for some wacky reason needed it. And then I grew up. Not sure exactly when this occurred, but when I was deciding to move up to St. Louis to be with Cody and the weekend I was here his ex-girlfriend kept calling, I distinctly remember telling him, "I don't do drama anymore" (unfortunately he was the brunt of a lot of my previous drama when we were younger). At some point (prior to this visit with Cody) I just decided that I didn't want that for my life or the people in my life. And since I moved up here Cody and I have truely lived with very very minimal drama. We don't argue or yell or pitch fits - we have honestly managed to deal with issues as they arise and deal with them as sane adults. We talk things out - we understand each other and how to push each other's buttons - and avoid doing those things. It's one of the many reasons I think he and I are so wonderful together. While it still rears its ugly head now and then, I truely do attempt to avoid conflict or drama if at all possible and I'm certainly not going to go create it. Well, it's reared it's ugly head in my life lately (not with Cody - it's a friendship situation) - long story, not apropriate for the blog, but I couldn't help but mention it since this blog is about my life. Anyway, it just makes me thankful for all the drama I normally don't have. Hopefully the situation will resolve itself one way or the other at some point, preferably in the near future, but as long as the drama ceases. Most people know I'm training again for a half marathon in April, so I've been running lately - a lot. Well last night after running I was so tired of drama I even went to a Pilates class at the gym just so someone could tell me when to exhale and inhale for an hour. When I get stressed I tend not to breathe well, so it was so nice to have a whole hour of someone telling me to breathe - though I did realize my abs and arms are pathetically out of shape. Time to do push-ups and sit-ups every night. While running will give you great calves and hamstrings it leaves you with weak quads, shins and abs - gotta even yourself out.
Okay, that was WAY too long -sorry for the rambling but I had to babble for a while. :) Take care!

Uncle Bob and Elizabeth get passports to see the Titanic

This weekend was low key. We needed a nice low key weekend. Cody's been ill lately and even missed work on Thursday and Friday (it takes a lot for Cody to miss work) so we wanted to just lay low and relax this weekend. Sometimes you just need that. And I must admit it was great.
Saturday we got up early (by "early" I mean by our standards - none of this 7 a.m. stuf or anything, but I think we were up and moving before noon which is a rarity). We went to the Post Office and got everything turned in for Cody's passport. It should be here 4-6 weeks, so plenty of time for the Germany trip. :) Then Cody's Uncle Bob from Wisconsin called as he was passing through St. Louis so we got to have a great lunch with him and catch up on everything with the family. One thing I just can't say enough is how great I think Cody's family is. They really are some of the nicest people you'll ever come across. Uncle Bob is a great example of this.
After lunch, Meghan and Danny came over with their adorable 3 month-old, Elizabeth, so we could all go to the Science Center to see the new Titanic exhibit. Though it's only about a block from our house, Meghan and I got the guys to drop us off with Elizabeth and then find parking so we didn't have to walk in the 8 degree weather. The exhibit was great, but even better was spending time with Elizabeth. She is absolutely beautiful and Meghan and Danny are just wonderful parents. She was a little fussy at the beginning of the exhibit (it interferred with her eating time) so I got to hold her through most of the exhibit to try to calm her . . . . totally made my day. By the end I could feel it in my arms, but I didn't even care. She was just so cute . . . she was totally fine as long as I was moving or dancing around with her but she didn't like it when I would just stand still!!! But I must say, as much as I adore her and want kids one day, this is in no way an indication that we are having kids anytime soon. As all of my friends have heard me say a dozen times, we can barely take care of ourselves and the turtles, much less a kid. :)
Today we went shopping with the guys - not often you would hear me say that! :) Anyway, we're in the Mardi Gras parade next weekend and needed our costumes. The float theme is the TV show "Cops," so everyone needs to dress like a criminal, convict, cop, or what-have-you. So we wandered around town trying to figure something out. . . some progress but not complete yet. Any ideas? Send them along!

Cody the Psychologist

This afternoon while driving back from our afternoon outing with the guys to search for Mardi Gras costumes, I was whining about how dark and dreary St. Louis was this time of year. All the trees and grass are dead - absolutely no green, no leaves, just a lot of twigs sticking up from the ground. So I made some comment about how dark and dreary this was. Cody's sarcasic respondse was: "Cheer up. Happiness is in the heart." Yes, he was trying to be cheesy and stupid and mock my complaints about the winter, but it was thought-provocing nonetheless. Good thing my heart is happy - it's about the only way I could survive temperatures in the single digits. . . . BRRRRR!

Speaking of late . . . .

I finally put the pictures of Cody's "Birthday Weekend" on the website.

Happy Valentine's Day . . . late

I swear these days everything I can't seem to do anything "on time." I have full intentions to get birthday, anniversary and even Valentine's Day cards sent off on time. I have grand hopes of having presents bought and shipped days before a birthday or event. I really care about getting those things done, I honestly do, but sometimes I swear there just aren't enough hours in the day. So for all my family who might read this and wonder why I didn't send you a Valentine's Day card - I did, but it was sent late and with the state of the St. Louis mail it might not get there until Easter, but know that I was thinking of you anyway. :)
As for our Valentine's, Cody and I have never been very good traditionalists. We don't like big fancy dinners (I like cheap Southern BBQ and he likes a good pizza or wings) nor do we typically enjoy spending lots of money on useless or fleating objects (exception: my engagement ring which I will forever cherish and treasure). (I think this is one of the reasons we're having so much trouble planning a wedding - that and see Part I again.) We sort of do things our way. So first, we did Valentine's on Monday because Tuesday we had German class and listening to a class full of American's try to make the guteral German sounds just isn't romantic (myself included). So we left work early (Cody because he had to - they were moving his group to a new building - and me because I like any excuse to leave work early) and made dinner together. I love shrimp, he hates them. He likes steak, I'm not a red meat fan. So we made shrimp for me, steak for him, shells and white cheddar (a mac and cheese knock off, just change the cheddar to white), salad, and leftover mashed potatoes. It was nice. It was simple. And it was us. And I guess that's what I like most about us, we don't try to be anything else but just us.
Yesterday we had another German class. I'm really glad we're taking this class because I think we'll be able to experience the culture so much more if we can at least understand some of what's going on. I'm so excited - this is going to be an amazing trip!

Lebowski goes to Germany?

Wow - it's been a while since I last blogged - big news since then! We found out today we have World Cup tickets!!! Not just one game either - we have tickets to FOUR games! The lottery for tickets closed in mid-January and they drew names for who got to buy tickets on January 31st - since then I've been on pins and needles dying to find out if we got tickets. Well, we found out today we're going to four real life, acutal World Cup games - Game 10 on June 12 in Gelsenkirchen between USA and Czech Republic, Game 11 on June 13 in Berlin between Brazil and Croatia, Game 16 on June 14 in Munich between Tunisia and Saudia Arabia and Game 18 on June 15 between Ecuador and Costa Rica! Yes, you read that correct - that's four games in four days in four cities nowhere near each other - there will be a lot overnight train riding. I absolutely cannot wait and am bouncing off the wall with excitement!! Now we have to figure out plane tickets, agenda, etc. - fun fun fun (sounds like all the planning we need to do for the wedding that we haven't done yet). :)

As for other news, we went to the First Annual St. Louis Big Lebowski Festival at the Moolah last Thursday. I thought it would be sort of a strange event (who wouldn't?) but it was really quite a good time. There was free beer, free bowling, free t-shirt, and a free showing of the movie at midnight. I realized I need to do more things every now and then out of my proverbial box. . . . find more out of the ordinary events in St. Louis and try them out.

WE'RE GOING TO GERMANY!!!! YIPEE!!!

Owwie

What's worse then having a root canal? Having two root canals - on the same tooth. I had a root canal at some quack dentist in Gainesville while I was still in law school - he was cheap, I was poor. He sucked at root canals - he even said that he hadn't done one in a while, but I trusted him - how can you screw something so easy up? Anyway, of course he managed to screw it up and since I've been dealing with this never-healing tooth. So I finally ran out of other options and today I had another root canal on the same tooth. Owwie - boy does it hurt! It "technically" shouldn't (or so I was told) because all the nerves are either gone or dead (that's the point of a root canal apparently), but it can't help but hurt after this guy pushed and pulled and yanked at the tooth for a good hour and a half. I thought he was going to yank it out of my head for a while now - and now it feels like it's about to fall out of my head. Well, that's my sob story for the day - enough complaining. Time to go to sleep soon, though I'll only sleep in 3 hour blocks until the Advil starts to wear off. Owwie!

p.s. This root canal cost 4 times what the other one did.