Three years running - pretty impressive!

November 30th 2006

November 30th 2005

November 30th 2004

Check out these weather pictures above- note the dates, specifically the years. This is my third winter in St. Louis and every year since I moved here we've had our first snow on November 30th (which also happens to be my friend Mike's birthday - happy birthday). Kinda weird, huh? Not first real snow or first big snow, but every year we have had the first snow flakes on November 30th. What a coincidence. I really think this is incredibly strange.

We're in the white now.

Yes, I am obsessed with the weather. I seriously check weather.com at least 15 times a day - less so in the fall and spring when the weather is nice and relatively predictible - but at least that in the winter when I need to see exactly how freezing it will be each day. So today the "winter storm" finally arrived. See the white stuff over us now? Around lunch it was just freezing rain. Then they told us all to leave work at 2 pm (the ONE perk of living where the weather sucks - you may just get to leave work early - but then you can't do anything because the roads are a mess and well, the weather sucks) and there was funny baby hail coming down everywhere. It really stung when it hit your face but it was cute baby hail. By the time I got home from work around 3 pm (yes, I only live 5 miles away but see next post for an explaination) it was full fledged snow and the roads were a mess - really a mess - slushy and gross. We're supposed to have soccer today (at 10:30 pm) but hopefully they cancel it so we can just stay in - though I would like to go get our Christmas tree so we can put that up while we're stuck in. :)

The pink stripe has arrived!

We're right in the middle of the pink stripe now. Nice and icy outside - they're already putting salt on the sidewalks outside our building. The white is coming our way now - the forecast says 8-10 inches of snow tonight. Maybe they'll cancel work . . . . not a chance.

The pink stuff is coming our way!!!

Yup - that's ice! Rain is okay. Snow is annoying. But ice is horrible. You can't walk, drive or do just about anything with inches of ice everywhere.

Today I purchased a wedding gown.

Yup. Everyone thought it would never happen, but today I FINALLY purchased a wedding gown. One more thing off the list of wedding-crap-to-do. :) Too bad I'm not telling which one it is. :)

In other news, I have my car back, again, and now the dumb thing doesn't work. Yup, that's right - we took my car in yesterday because it wasn't fixed right from the break-in and got it back last night - yippe - until this afternoon when I got to the garage (in a rush to make my wedding dress appointment) and found that the stupid thing won't start! AGGGG!!! Stupid stupid stupid car! I HATE this car! I can't wait to get a better job so I can afford a better/different car! I'm so tired of dealing with this thing breaking on me all the time (so far this year - O2 sensor, new battery, 3 new tires (thanks to nails), clutch slave cylinder and now random thing wrong causing car not to start (it's NOT my battery)). I'm so tired of dealing with this car. Oh well.

So much to write about -Thanksgiving trip, wedding dress, etc. but not tonight. Tonight I sleep and try not to have nightmares about my broken car and it sitting in the same garage it was broken into last week.

Why boys are like cats - or vice versa.

So tonight I cleaned the cat litter boxes since we're leaving tomorrow and I noticed something I've noticed a hundred times that I always forgot to blog about. Boys are like cats - or vice versa. We have three cats and thus three cat boxes because one of them (The Fat One -that's not an insult to the cat, it's her name) decided that she got angry when we only had two. Anyway there is one "igloo" one with a lid (they walk in and you can't see them) and two open ones. Sure enough, just like boys, they have no problem peeing in front of each other, or us, but they always go poop (yes, I just said "poop" in a blog entry) in the igloo one - apparently they like their privacy when they poop - just like guy bathrooms. Hmmmm.....
I'm not saying I spend a lot of time in male restrooms, this is all hearsay. :)

Car is back - sort of. . .

So yesterday evening I was FINALLY able to pick my car up from the repair shop. $500 later (that's my deductible) I was on my way home in my own set of wheels again. I was thrilled - finally I can drive again and not have to hitch rides all the time. Until this morning . . .
So this morning I was on my way to work and I kept feeling this cold draft in my ear. Seeing that it was about 32 degrees when I went to work this morning, that was not a fun feeling. So I put my hand up to where the wind was coming from, only to realize that while they replaced all the trim and sealants around my window, they apparently didn't do a wonderful job of it because I could practically stick my finger out the window from inside the car - with the window up. Why can't anyone these days do anything right the first time?
So as if that wasn't annoying enough, I later discovered that when you shut the passenger side door you can hear the broken glass inside the door. Yup - not only did they mess up the sealant but they forgot to vacuum all the glass out of the door when they put in the new glass. So, we were considering taking my car to Florida this weekend (better gas mileage and it goes faster - at least when I'm driving) but it looks like instead it will be going back to the shop tomorrow. I just don't get why places can't just do good, guality work the first time around.

On another note, we're going to FLORIDA tomorrow! Growing up in Florida you don't think much is special about the place - Disney is no big deal and you see the ocean enough to love it but also find the annoying things annoying (like sand and wind). But now that I live in Missouri, Florida holds this almost mystial quality that I never apprecitated before - it's Florida. Sort of like Hawaii is Hawaii and California is California. Sort Nebraska just doesn't hold the same mystical quality. :) Anyway, in addition to it being Florida, and thus at least theoretically warm (at least warmer then our frozen tundra), there's family. It's funny how as you age you appreciate your family more. When you're under the age of 13, family is everything. Then you hate family and want nothing to do with them for several years. Then you move away and realize that you're really lucky and you were a selflish brat back when you didn't appreciate them more. And then you get even older and move even farther away, and realize that when it all comes down to it, family is really all that matters in the world (and when I say "family" I also include close friends that you consider "family") and that if you lost them or even lost touch with them your life would never be the same ever again. Oh, and somewhere in there you meet a boy who you fall in love with and you become part of his family too. Bonus points if he also has a family that you cherish and love - and miss when you're away (like me!).

Anyway, we head to Florida tomorrow - a long, relatively boring 13 hour drive. I bitch and moan about the drive for weeks ahead of time - I bitch about how our entire "vacation" is spent running around and not sleeping and then we just have to drive back - I complain about how we always end up sick when we come back because we're so run down - but you know what? I wouldn't trade it for anything. Absolutely nothing. The mere thought of getting to see our families makes it all worthwhile - because there will come a day when we won't be able/willing to make the drive anymore (I assume we will probably never end up back in Tally -sorry to burst anyone's bubble) and we'll be happy for the memories we make now, visiting our families and seeing our nieces and nephews as they grow and visiting with our folks.

Can't wait to see you all!!!

Music Download Question

Okay, I'll admit - I have about 5000 songs on my computer and the vast, vast majority of them (okay, all but about 15) were downloaded for free. I'm not specificially admiting to downloading to pirated music for fear that those psycho record labels will one day use my blog against me in a civil suit. Anyway, as a maturing adult, I've decided I want to at least make an attempt to get some legal music downloads. The only problem is it's driving me crazy.
So I downloaded a few songs from Walmart.com since it was the cheapest I could find (88 cents), but then I discovered the songs downloaded as WMA (Windows Control Monger Format). So I figured that wasn't the end of the world - even though my ancient cheap MP3 player doesn't support WMAs, only MP3s - I would just convert them to MP3s - then I could use them in my MP3 player and burn them on CDs to use in my car (as WAVs). Nope - can't do that either - there is some stupid anti-piracy lock on the song (DRM or something) so I can't convert it to MP3 or WAV! Okay, so I OWN this song -I PAID for it - but I can't use it except on a new MP3 player or on Windows Media Player (which I hate and had thus deleted from my computer and had to reinstall just to hear my song). I want to listen to it in my car - but I can't because it won't convert to WAV. I want to listen to it in my crappy MP3 player - but I can't because it wont' covert to MP3!
So, my question is, after incessantly babbling, is there a music service where I can download songs that I OWN onto my computer that I can then convert to either MP3 or WAV for personal use on other devises other then Windows Media Player??? I looked around and could only find sites where you could get WMAs -but do they all have this lock on them? How can I just download my song for a buck and do whatever I want to it??? Any ideas? I don't want to stream music or listen to the radio - but actually download and own a song that I can then burn to listen to in my car. Thoughts?

Happy Anniversary!

One year ago today, Cody proposed. We had decided to go paddle boating at the lake in Forest Park since it was actually above 50 degrees (which it was not near today) so we rode our bikes up there to get some exercise. We paddled around the lake, all the way to the Art Museum and Grand Basin and were on our way back, checking out all the bridges, when he leaned over, got the ring out of his pocket, sort of got down on a knee, and asked me to marry him. It couldn't have been more perfect - outside, on the water, having fun. So, here we are a year later, still planning this damned wedding. :) We've made major strides though lately - we have the officiant down, got the engagement annoucement in the paper in Tally, I think I picked out invitations, I got the first round of Save-The-Dates out (if you don't have yours yet, don't sweat it -but let me know because it may have gotten lost in the mail or I have a wrong address), we're working on a photographer and DJ, and I'm down to two dresses. :) Hopefully we'll get some final details worked out with the hotel/reception site over Thanksgiving - menu, rooms, etc. Fun fun. I think I would enjoy wedding planning a lot more if my life were not already totally full with fulfilling things I enjoy (besides work -don't even get me started on this mess), but alas, we do what we can and then the next day comes and we do some more. :)
So, yes, it's official - we're going to Tally for Thanksgiving. We're hoping to leave here by 1 or 2 pm on Wednesday so we get to Tally around 3 or 4 am. Then on Thursday we hope to see my dad and his family in the morning, then Cody's family in the afternoon, and my mom's family in the evening - what a day - good thing we don't have kids to drag around to all this - they'd be even more exhausted then we would. :) Friday I hope to look at dresses, meet with the hotel/reception guy, work out some more wedding details, and work on registering - I still have to blog about what a disaster that was. :) Saturday is FSU v. UF which we hope to find tickets for and Sunday we drive back. If you're reading this and either live in Tally or will be visiting, please let me know where everyone is planning to go out or meet up - I'd love to see everyone!!!
In other news, we did a great job this weekend of getting the house cleaned pre-Thanksgiving. One of my biggest pet peeves is leaving for a trip and the whole time knowing you're coming back to a dirty/messy house. If we can keep it up for two days we'll be comign home to a pretty clean and tidy house - for once! :)
And no - we still don't have my car back - it still wasn't ready on Friday.
Have a good Monday!
p.s. I still think I like green on the blog.

Why Women Rock

I think women are amazing beings - and not just because I am one. They manage to juggle careers, homes and self seamlessly day in and day out. Tragedy hits, crisises occur and more often then not women take the hits and keep moving forward. Anyway, today one particular nugget occured to me.
Women can stand at the top of a set of basement stairs and can tell from about 40 feet away if the washer is running, even if the dryer is loudly spinning - we can tell the difference between the way the washer and dryer sounds from 40 feet away and can even tell, on occassion, what cycle the washer is in. I think that's amazing. Sorry, guys, but there's not a chance in hell you can stand at my basement door and tell me if my washer is running over the sound of the dryer. Pretty cool.
We can also tell you, while standing at the grocery store, just about how much milk and bread and cheese we have left, even without going home to check first.
I'm not being sexist, I'm just sending a props to all the women out there that manage to take care of everything in their lives so wonderfully - and I'm not talking about me, just all the ladies in general. :)

Still no car.

Yup - still don't have my car back. Supposedly it should be ready tomorrow afternoon after 4pm - the only problem is they're only open until 5pm - which gives us an ever-so-inconvenient ONE HOUR in which to pick up the car or miss it until Monday - oh, and add to that we only have one car right now for the both of us and I will have it in Poplar Bluff until about 7pm (I have to go there to take a deposition tomorrow afternoon and it's 3 hours away). Ahhh... the joys we go through just so some dumb thief can get a kick out of breaking into my car.

In other, not so bitter news, not much is going on. Yesterday I was in Mexico . . . . Missouri. What a place. I was up there for work and got to drive Cody's baby, the Jeep. It's odd driving an SUV when you're so used to a tiny car. And boy does it blow with the wind. I was quite concerned that it might tip over, but it didn't and I made it home safe and sound in our one remaining vehicle . . . because the thief messed up our other one, leaving us with one. Lest I digress.

It was supposed to snow yesterday - 2-3 inches at least - but it didn't. Just lots of cold rain. For the past two years I've been here the first day of snow has always been November 30th - we'll see if that holds true again this year.

Yesterday I got to babysit the most amazing one-year old (almost one - next week). My friends were going out so I got to baby-sit their adorable one year old daughter, Elizabeth. We had a blast. I seriously had a great time with her - and no, that does not mean we're going to be popping out babies any time soon - it just means that I got very lucky to be able to spend a decent amount of time with such a great kid. I have no pipe dream whatsoever of having a kid half as good as she is, as I'm convinced I'm going to be cursed with the worst demon child ever - since I was one myself - seriously, ask my mom, I was a serious demon child. Anyway, Elizabeth was wonderful. We hung out on the couch playing with cloth letters and books for about an hour. Then we crawled around on the floor a while - playing hide and go seek (sort of - the one-year-old version) and chase. Things were going great and she started to get a bit fussy - not bawling or anything - just fussy. It took a few minutes to figure out what she wanted since at first I thought she was just getting tired - but then she didn't want to lay down - her diaper was clean - and she didn't want any juice. But then I hit the jackpot -Cherrios. She was in love - and happy. She had the greatest time eating those Cherrios - it was almost the most fun part of the evening watching her pick them up one by one and shoving (not placing, but shoving) them into her mouth. Then she would debate putting one in my hand for me but would always take it back and eat it. She was adorable. I had such a great time with her and could only imagine how great it must be to have a kid that good (again, I will never know because my kid will be a demon child). But again, no we're not having kids any time soon - too much to do first!!!

In today's news, we had our second soccer game of this "season," or better termed, "session." We lost 5-1, but it should have been 5-2. The other team was good and we had a good time playing. Cody really rocks - I wish I could play 1/2 as good as him or the other folks on the team - but I'm learning. It's fun nonetheless. Unfortunately I thought it would be a good idea to get in a quick work-out before soccer so I rode the stationary bike for a while - bad idea - my legs were like lead weights during the game. :) That was the lesson learned today.

Well, off to bed to wake up, take Cody to work, go to work and then to the metropolis of Poplar Bluff. :)

Tuesday's Gone.

Well, I got my CDs back today from the parking garage. Sure enough, the moron thieves didn't take any of them. So today at work I listened to Peter, Paul and Mary Campfire Sing-Along songs all day - needless to say I got little work done because everyone kept stopping by wondering what in the world I was listening to. Apparently "Puff the Magic Dragon" isn't on the popular radar these days. Maybe it should be. :)
In other news not much happened. I FINALLY mailed a portion of my Save-The-Date cards. Not all got mailed - because not all addresses have been compiled and not all cards have been made -but I got at least some made. I've been majorly stressing over this wedding thing lately, thinking about Vegas more and more every day. My biggest concern is keeping the guest list within reason and keeping the amount of people within the space we have - this is much tougher then one would think because so many of our guests are from out of town. It sort of goes like this - anyone who wants to come I would love to have - nothing would make me happier then to have everyone I care about want to be there and for us to share the day with them - on the other hand, I don't want anyone to feel obligated to come and make the trip if they can't afford it or don't care to make it. I'm just guessing it will all work out. :)
In even other news, we're forecast for snow tomorrow. I hate the winter. Snow is beautiful but it's a pain - not to mention cold. I hate it getting dark at 4:30. I hate feeling like my eyeballs are going to freeze. I hate not being able to dial my cell phone because my hands are covered in mittens. I hate the way my hats/caps mess up my hair so it's not even worth it to bother to do my hair. I hate getting into my car with 10 lbs of clothing only to crank the heat and be burning up in five minutes and trying to wiggle my way out of hats, gloves and a huge coat while drving down the interstate. I sure can't wait until spring -and this wedding is over.
In other news, I found out today that Cody really hates buggers. I mean, really hates them. Just news for thought.

Green.

Ask Baylee (our cute three-year old niece) - I really have no favorite colour. She's very into whose favorite colour is what and has memorized the entire family's favorites. Very impressive since I certainly couldn't remember that. Anyway, whenever she asks me mine, I always tell her "the rainbow." I really do like all colours - they all have their purpose and place. I'm not sure I ever had a favorite but if I ever did have one it would have been blue or black. I tended to like groups of colours - like earth tones. But lately I've been attracted to green. I've never really particularly liked green before - certainly no more than any other colour - but lately I have a thing for green. I even bought my first real green shirt last week. I'm experimenting with green lately.
The reason for this green tirade? I'm trying out a green blog to see how it fits. We'll have to see.

I'm a statistic.

I'm now a statistic in the lovely City of St. Louis. They say St. Louis is the "most dangerous" or "least safe" or something like that, city in the US. Okay, I can buy that if you're in certain parts of the city - parts we don't live, work, play or travel into - so that has never been a huge worry for me (knock on wood).
We're also number 1 for car related crimes. This I totally buy. Until now, Cody and I have been lucky - we have not had our garage/his car broken into, nor mine messed with while parked on the street (I park on the street because I drive a clutch and they are less likely to be stolen). That is, until this weekend.
Friday night we had a rousing happy hour after work, one in which I drank the better part of a caraffe of maragritas. Being the responsible citizen I am, I called Cody to pick me up. So we left my car in the work garage downtown and he drove home. We never quite made it back downtown to pick up my car over the weekend(we only live 5 miles from my work/downtown but we were just never heading in that direction) - usually this is not a big deal. I leave my car in the work garage when we go to Florida for Thanksgiving or going out of town for a long weekend - it just seemed safe.
So this morning Cody drops me off at work at 7:45 and I sit down for a long day at work. Then I get a call. It was our garage saying my car was broken into.
So I rush down to the garage (only 1.5 blocks away) and find my car completely assaulted. The moron thieves had apparently tried to break in the front driver window but didn't manage to actually bust out the entire window - only tear up my weather stripping and chip at the window all along the top. Apparently the geniuses then moved to my back driver window which, in a sporty car with two doors, is only about a 1.5x1.5x1.5 foot triangle. They busted it out, only to discover there was no way to unlock the door from that window - left glass everywhere though. Moron then moved to the passenger front window and finally hit the jackpot - glass everywhere, car open. The thief person then ransacked my entire car, thowing everything around, emptying the glove box and console, climbing into the back seat, messing with the trunk, etc.
All in all, he remained an idiot. The two most expensive things in the car where my new jacket (the warm one I blogged about) and Cody's Gator coat - together over $200, though not a ton of street value, I suppose. Next was my parking pass which could have gotten him in and out of the garage whenever he wanted - nope, left that. Then there was my building pass - he left that too and that would have given him unlimited access to a 22 story office building 24-hours a day. He really blew that one. He DID take my owners manual to my car (go figure) and all my non-burned CDs. He left the four packs of ripped/burned CDs and took the one pack of real CDs I had. His only problem was he robbed the wrong car - my CDs have ZERO "street value."
For instance, all day we were joking that some thug is driving around St. Louis listening to the Peter, Paul and Mary Campfire Sing-Along Songs (yes, I really own that CD - it has "Leaving on a Jet Plane" on it and I really like that song). We were joking that he was riding around singing "Michael Row your Boat Ashore." And then he's going to try to sell my Alladin soundtrack - good luck with that one buddy. And he's not going to know what to do with half the CDs in there - a ton are obscure bands no one in STL has heard of so the only person he could possibly sell them to would be ME! Then there's the entire collection of Bad Religion and They Might Be Giants CDs - good luck selling those on the black market too! What a moron thief!
Anyway, so after the police reports were filed and the insurance was called and the half dozen body shops were compared, Cody picked me up in his car (I had a doctor's appointment so I needed his car) and he took mine to the shop. The thing that really gets me is that he might have gotten $20 worth of stuff but did $1200 worth of damage to my car to get it! No one wins here except the body shop - thief dude loses because he got a bunch of lame CDs, I lose because I pay a ton of money and have no car now and the insurance loses because they pay out (though I'm sure they'll raise my rates for it).
I think I'm going to either (a) put a note with $20 on the car and just say to take this rather then break in since there are no guns, drugs or cash in my car - EVER or (b) leave the doors unlocked and windows down so if they want to fish around they can be my guest but it won't cost me a week with no car and a ton of money for breaking all my windows - good luck finding anything of value in my car.
So of course now I have to file a claim, because my back window alone is over $500 (which also happens to be my deductible). This is now the second claim I have ever filed and NEITHER were my fault - the first is when my car flooded at FSU parked in the bowl during a heavy rain. That's insane! Not only do I have to pay $500, my insurance will have to pay $1100 but my rates will go up - all becasue this moron wanted some CDs. . . but it gets better.
So, after all day joking about how this guy is a moron for stealing the worst street value CDs ever, I got another call from the garage and apparently the guy broke into another car and left my CDs in that guys car! So the theif figured out that my CDs were so bad that he wasn't going to get any money for Peter, Paul, and Mary and Aladin that he LEFT them!!!! So I get my CDs back tomorrow! All that damage to my car for what? An owners manual??
So what a Monday! Now Cody and get to carpool for the rest of the week and I get to deal with the body shop to get all my windows replaced and the weatherstripping fixed. AGGGGG... This week had better get better.

Sorry to offend any male readers for refering to my thief as a "he" but no woman would be that stupid to break into a car as messy and dirty as mine - she would have known I had nothing in there - just a bunch of shoes and trash. :)

God hates the Gators.

So here we all, good Gator fans, patient and loyal, but this week I'm done being patient. As everyone knows we have a RIDICULOUSLY hard schedule. And thus far we have managed to make it through with only one loss. So we fell in the polls after our loss and have slowly been working our way back up.
The week before last we made it up to number 4 - only Ohio State and Michigan (who still have to play each other and since one will lose presumably the other will drop below us) and West Virginia were above us. And then West Virginia lost! Yippee - we got to number 3, right? Nope. We won our game vs. Vandy and stupid undefeated Lousiville jumps us to #3 (they were the team that beat West Va.).
Okay, so we pouted a week but moved on. Then Louisville losses on Thursday! Yipee- we should go to #3! And to top it off, #5 Texas, #6 Auburn AND #8 Cal all lose too! We should be set for #3. So we play South Carolina (coached by our old ball coach, Spurrier) and barely sqeak out a win but a W is a W. We should be set!
Until we checked the polls today and we're number FOUR! What??? Who in the world does these things? USC (last week #7 to our last week #4) JUMPED US!! That's insane! I swear God hates the Gators.
So now we need to win big, need Cal to beat USC and then USC to beat Notre Dame (just in case some pollsters vote them to jump us next!). Football season. Gotta love it. Gotta hate the voters.

Dedicated to Chris

What a weekend - and it all started with a great night out with our friends Chris and Rachel. Yup, that's them in the picture at our party a few months ago - unfortunately I forgot my camera Friday night or I'm sure I would have had more photos. :) Anyway, Chris mentioned that for some reason he has never made the blog so I promised that I would put him and Rachel on the blog and rave about how great they are and how wonderful they are as a couple and as people. Good things it's all true because I'd really hate to lie on my own blog. :) Anyway, we went out to the Central West End, which is lovely, in addition to being close to our house. We had a great time hanging out with them and had fun meeting Rachel's sister and her gang (her sister's getting married in January in Key West - only a few more months to go for her). Can't wait to hang out with them again.

Insane.

It's been a while since I last posted. As usual, things have been insane. I won't bore you with details, but we did have a great trip to Nashville last weekend to watch the Gators beat up on the SEC whipping boy, Vanderbilt. I swear there were more Gator fans then Vandy - it was almost like a home game. Good fun was had by all - pictures will be up soon.

Upon returning to STL it was time to get serious on this wedding. When we got engaged I thought I had all the time in the world to plan the best party of my life. Then we spent the entire spring planning the Germany trip. Then we went to Germany and I came back crazy sick so that took almost a month. Then it was full blown summer which you just can't let slip by you here - you have to enjoy every sunny moment of it. Then it was fall and trips. And now it's winter - and less the FIVE months from the wedding! Needless to say I'm freaking out. But this week we've gotten quite a bit done. Cody has been working on the DJ situation and the officiant and I've been hard at work on the photographer and Save-The-Date cards (which I thought was funny has an acronym of "STD"). The cards are almost done but I still have to finish up some addresses, put on stamps and get them in the mail. It's coming along slowly but surely I suppose. I made out a master list of things to do so that should streamline things a bit hopefully.

In other news, we had our first soccer game tonight of the new season. We have some really nice (and good soccer player) new people which is always nice. I'm getting better - slighty- still not good but just not as crappy. I'm enjoying it though.

We decided we are going to try to make it to Tally for Thanksgiving this year. It's an insane trip - absolutely insane - 13 hours on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, three Thanksgiving meals in one day, a super busy Friday, hopefully FSU v. Florida on Saturday and then drive back on Sunday. And while it's insane and I bitch and moan about it there's just somethign about being home at Thanksgiving that just can't be replaced. Plus there's wedding stuff we need to do there. :)

Sorry for the break in blogging -blame it on the insaneness - now that the internet and computer are all working great I should be back to normal with blogging. Take care.

It's Alive!!

We finally have internet back! I haven't been able to do any blogging, emailing or looking up of websites all week because our stupid cable internet has been down. When I talked to them yesterday they actually admitted that "It looks like the problem might be on our end." Wow! Amazing - the first time I've ever heard a cable/tv/phone/internet/water/electricity/gas/etc. provider say anything was THEIR fault! I was shocked. Anyway, they sent someone out and we now have internet back. Yipee.
Now that I'm home from work to wait for the cable guy, I should go pack, as we're leaving for Nashville in a few hours to go watch the Gators play Vandy! It should be a blast! The Music City Gator Club puts on a huge party tonight for a pep-rally type thing. It's quite a good time - I'm sure I'll have lots to post about it on Sunday. :)

Halloween in the CWE

As usual, we headed down to the Central West End for their annual Halloween party this year. Great times were had by all. I have a BAZILLION pictures to put on the website (Halloween, World Series on Friday, parade today, etc.) but I wanted to post this one of the crew about to leave our house to walk down to the CWE. I was, of course, a pumpkin - again. Everyone else's costumes were way more creative. More pics to come on the website. 

Finally, our engagement announcement.

Yup, we've been engaged close to one year. Actually it will be one year in 20 days - we were engaged on November 18th. So you'd figure we would have put the announcement in the paper in December, or January, or possibly even February. But not us - we wait until 5 months before the wedding and almost a year after we got engaged. :) But at least it's done. And here's the link to the Tallahassee Democrat.

CARDINALS WIN THE WORLD SERIES!!

Cardinals win The World Series! Cardinals WIN The World Series! CARDINALS WIN THE WORLD SERIES! Wow!
Contrary to what the picture below might suggest we did not have tickets to the game (unlike the last time the World Series was in STL in 2004 when we got to see Game 4 where the Red Sox won their historic World Series). We did however leave the party we were at during the 8th inning and get our happy butts downtown to watch the festivities afterwards. We got to see the crazy fireworks go off and we even made it into the stadium afterwards where I took a MILLION pictures (reinforcing my conviction that digital cameras are the best invention EVER). I can't even describe the atmosphere! It was just amazing. I am seriously so humbled and feel so priviledged to have the opportunity to witness something so cool. Even if you hate baseball, having the opportunity to celebrate in a town that just won their first World Series in over 20 years is magical - especially when they win it at home. Looks like this may just be our lucky year for sports - our basketball team won the NCAA Championship, our baseball team won the World Championship - now if only we could get our football team in line (we'd drive pretty much anywhere if the Gators made the National Championship). The cool thing is we were there for the NCAA Championship and there afterwards for the World Championship - and we even got to see the World Cup this year - what a sports year we've had. Not to mention next weekend we're heading to Nashville to watch UF v. Vandy. Maybe we're a bit obsessive about sports.
BUT THE CARDINALS WON THE WORLD SERIES!!!

Tomato Harvest

Since we live in the Artic Tundra, opps, I mean St. Louis, our low the other night was 29 degrees! Yes, not only is that freezing, but it's freezing and then some! Well, my tomato plants have been doing fantastic lately so I hated to just have it freeze and lose them all, so Cody and I bundled up and went outside and picked all the tomatoes we could find of suitable size (we left the smaller ones hopeing they would make it and eventually go big so we can make salsa out of them). Here's a picture of all those tomatoes we picked off our plants! Pretty cool, huh? They're green now but a few days of sitting on the counter and they'll be perfectly red. Can't wait.

Oh, and those curious creatures in front of the tomatoes? They're elephants (at least we're pretty sure they are). Our wonderful niece and nephew sent them. We're assuming there's a story behind them, but just don't know it yet. In any event, we love them, they are super cute and are currently gracing our kitchen counter to keep our tomatoes safe from Mr. Pickles.  

Mr. Pickles watching the Cardinals v. Tigers

Here's Mr. Pickles watching the Cards lose to Detroit in Game 2 of the World Series. She was so disgusted she couldn't even watch any more. Luckily they won Game 3 and she's much happier now.  

Scaredy Cat

Here's a picture of Wiggles with her pre-Halloween costume on. It's her bandana that says "Scaredy Cat" - it's more fitting for Mr. Pickles but you're risking life and limb if you try to put a bandana on Pickles. In case you're wondering, her real Halloween costume is her nice pretty red dress.  

Radar Love

I think I've watched more weather radar in this postseason then I've watched baseball! I think I know every weather man this side of the Mississippi better then I know our pitchers!!

Today the THIRD postseason game was postponed - and that's just for the CARDINALS! I swear - we get all set to watch a game and then have it delayed . . . delayed . . . delayed . . . delayed . . . and then three hours later they finally postpone the stupid game. Like they didn't know it was going to continue to rain! It's rained all day! There's a HUGE green blob over STL on the weather radar map and it extends all the way until the end of the screen to the west. Now, I don't have a degree in meterology but that leads me to believe that it's raining now and it's going to continue to rain for quite some time. Too bad they also said it's supposed to rain for the next 36 hours straight - right through game 4 (should have been game 5) tomorrow!

HA! Forget stupid FOX and their stupid ratings and their stupid insistence of getting the games in on time so The Series will finish this weekend (weekend Series = good ratings) and not have to compete with Monday Night Football (which might happen if two games get rained out). :)

In any event, with all this mix-up with game times (now the people with Game 5 tickets will now be watching Game 4 tomorrow and the Game 4 people who had tickets today will be watching Game 5 on Friday) we may try to go downtown tomorrow and pick up some cheap tickets. We saw the Series two years ago - Game 4 when the Red Sox won - but it would still be a cool experience to see another one. Yeah, we're hopelessly obsessed with sports. . . even boring baseball. :)

Happy Anniversary, Pumpkin!

Happy 10th Anniversary, Pumpkin! 10 years ago I was working at Bruno's (a grocery store in Tallahassee) as an office manager/customer service person. Cody and I worked together and were in the early stages of our flirting. We may have even gone on our first date by this time, though I think that was in November. Anyway, our manager said we could wear a costume if we worked Halloween (which of course I did), but the problem was I had no costume - nothing. So I went to the fabric store, bought some cheap orange fabric and black fabric paint and sewed up this lovely costume. Just stuff it with newspaper and bam, you have a pumpkin. I have now worn this costume for 10 straight Halloweens. I even made it in the Tallahassee Democrat one year when I wore it to work at the mall (I was working at Victoria's Secret at the time) and was handing out candy to the mall trick-or-treaters. The hat was added in law school when my friend Virginia convinced me I needed something more to the costume. It works great! I even have candy corn earrings I wear with it, circa 1985. It's become a classic costume for me. It always works and I'm alway the only fat pumpkin at a party. So this year I got to pull it out of the closet early for a Halloween party we went to Saturday night. Fun fun fun. I've decided next year I might pass the pumpkin on to Cody - yeah he can fit in it too - and for now on I'm going to be a bride. Yup, I figure I'll just wear my wedding dress every year after the wedding. After all, what else would I ever do with it and it has the added bonus of encouraging me to fit into it year after year. :)

Thursday's Big News Items

I meant to post this on Thursday but got busy. . . .

1) The Cardinals made it to the World Series!! This is my third post-season in St. Louis and the second time we've been in the World Series. Pretty impressive. As you may already know, by the time I got around to posting this tonight, the Series is already underway and we're up 1-0. Game 2 is actually on right now, as we sit in the Boy Room with the space heater and all three cats, watching the Cards as they're down 2-0.

2) I scored my first goal in soccer on Thursday! Wow! Okay, actually it wasn't that impressive since the other team didn't show up (Game 7 of the NCLS was on) and we just split up our team and played Us v Us. So both of our teams were playing with 4 or 5 people and I scored the ugliest goal EVER! I think I actually tripped and fell into the goal and managed to take the ball with me. :) I was proud nonetheless.

Stupid Cardinals!

Way to blow a 3-2 lead! Now we have one more chance to win in New York for a chance to go to the World Series. Not that I think the Cardinals DESERVE to go to the World Series, but this town goes nuts for the Cards and I like the atmosphere.

For Cody's Dad

Hey Rick - Cody wanted you to see the pictures of his brake job last weekend. Just click on this link. I think he wants to show you the calipers - something about how there's no where to lubricate them. Enjoy! I hope all is great with you guys!

Why I Love My Future Husband #893

When I get stressed I can be a beast to deal with. A real beast. I've learned in my years not to take out my stress (at least the stress that's not Cody's fault) on Cody as it doesn't really get anything accomplished. Instead I just vent. And then vent some more. And then sometimes some more - I vent "with" him, instead of "at" him (at least that's what I tell myself). Anyway this week has been the worst week known to man. First, Monday our power went out because it rained all day. Yes, it rained, the wind must have blown and we lost power. So I came home from work to a cold and very dark house. So I packed my crafting stuff and went to the craft store to work on my Save-The-Date cards - I'm STILL trying to design them. Anyway, I figured the power would be on by the time the store closed at 9:30 pm. No luck. So Cody props #1 this week: he was nice and calm as I bitched constantly about how cold and dark it was as we sat in the kitchen with all the burners on the stove. We even made rice krispy treats as we sat in the kitchen trying to stay warm without dying of carbon dioxide poisoning. Anyway, he's quite the trooper. At 1 am when we went to bed, still no power. By the time we woke up the next day, still no power. We didn't get power back until sometime Monday during work. To make a long story somewhat shorter, Tuesday sucked. And then today sucked - it rained all day and I had to drive to Jefferson City. So last night I was at the end of my rope - I hadn't done laundry, dishes, I still didn't have Save-the-Date cards done, I had a million things to do for the wedding, work was a beast, etc. - so I went on and on about how stressed I was to Cody. Being the patient person he is, he was encouraging and patient and just listened to me and all my stress. And I really went into it - just on and on and on about my "to-do" list (a list that would scare most CEOs). So we went to bed, woke up late to start another crappy day. Then this evening I went running while he was heading home. While running I debated what to make for dinner, another thing on my eternal list. But when I walked in the door the house smelled like food. Sure enough Cody the Wondeful had gone to the grocery store and made us dinner. Sure it was just frozen pizza and salad with chicken, but it was dinner and I didn't have to make it. AND he even bought me a cookie and some Amaretto (I know it's a wussy drink, but I'm on an Amaretto and lemon juice kick - I think I just like adding the cherries)!!! Just when I was at the end of my rope, he goes all sweet on me. I am so thankful to have someone who listens, understands me and my needs, and is so good to me! And he's cute to boot! :)

My New Coat

I look like an eskimo! But at least I'm a very warm eskimo! :) This is a picture of my new winter coat. Last year my "winter coat" was a wool peacoat - it was nice, looked cute, but seriously underinsulated. Then I saw my friend Melanie's coat - it was fabulous - she looked like an eskimo but she was warm. I asked her where she got her jacket - Lands End - but it was too late in the season and I couldn't find it on their website. So I ordered their catalog and waited - past the spring, then summer, then fall and finally a few weeks ago I got their winter coat catalog. And there was the coat! So I promtly ordered it. The only problem was the sizing. I would have picked an XS (coats are always sized huge) but they only had XS in petite and while I may be able to do petite height-wise, I can't with my arm length. My arms are too long for petite stuff, so I had to order a regular small. The arm length is perfect but I can fit me, Cody and the three cats in the coat part. But who cares because I will be warm!!! This lovely thing is rated for -40 with warm clothes on and -20 with light clothing!!! Super! I've already worn it a few days and even wore it around the office one day when it was freezing in my office - it was fabulous!!! I'm going to be so warm this year! I'm sick and tired of being freezing! Oh, yes, I had my pajama pants on in that picture - and you can see my dining room paint job in the background!

What a weekend.

Not often do we have weekends like this one. A nice mixture of getting "chores" done, relaxing and having fun.
Friday night we decided to just hang out at home, as I was beat after my week and Cody wanted to get his contacts out as soon as possible. So we hung out together, made dinner and shamelessly watched television. First we watched "Grays Anatomy," a show I am ridiculously addicted to. It comes on Thursdays but since we were out Thursday (viewing for our friend's mom who passed) I missed it, but got to watch the replay on Friday. Then we watched the Cardinals beat the Mets in the second game of the NLCS. That tied the series 1-1. Then we watched "Walk the Line" which Cody had rented on his way home from work. Actually a pretty good movie. That was our shameless TV night - a lot of time in front of the TV for a couple that barely gets the watch the news on a regular basis. :)
Saturday Cody did the brakes on the Jeep, while I ran 17 miles. Yes, that's 17 miles. It was tough but I think I'm getting used to these longer runs because it wasn't half as bad as my 15 mile run - not to say it was easy, because I still felt like I had been run over by a truck. I napped for a while after that, as that much running really takes a lot out of me. Then we went to a friend's party/fish fry over in Illinois. It was a pretty fun party. The crowd was happy as they watched the Cardinals beat the Mets to take the lead in the series to 2-1. Cody and I, however, were on the verge of tears as Auburn managed to beat the Gators. It was awful - I could write pages on the game but will just say that I honestly think we were robbed. First, we were dumb enough to hold someone in our own endzone, giving them a safety - this is critical as much of the second half they were only up by 1 point - without this moronic move, we would have been up 1. Then in the second half they called a fumble on our QB when he was making a FORWARD MOTION!!! WHAT IN THE HELL!!! I'm not a NCAA rules nut, but my understanding is that if the QB is in the process of throwing, i.e. his arm is moving forward, then if the ball comes out it's an incomplete pass, not a fumble. We challenged, the fumble call stood, we lost the ball and our last time out. It was all downhill from there. Sad night in Gator Nation.
Today I let Cody sleep in while I worked around the house - cleaning the kitchen, living room, doing laundry, etc. When he woke up we decided to go bike riding in the park and play some one on one soccer. We had a great time biking around in the fall weather and he taught me a lot of cool soccer moves (I still really really suck but am getting better, slowly but surely). When we got back we ran our errands to the grocery store and Cody made dinner! Yup, Cody made dinner. His special spaghetti. Yum! I made desert - frozen eclairs from Smart Ones - they're really good and not terrible for you. :) Then we did our Sunday evening chores - cleaning, bills, etc. while watching the Cards get their tail kicked by the Mets. We were getting beat so bad we stopped even watching the score.
So, all in all a nice, relaxing, yet productive weekend. Makes you hate going back to work tomorrow!

I hate wedding dresses.

I really do. I thought I would love them and have a great time searching for one and when I found "The One" I would cry and laugh and just know it. Obviously that didn't happen. But while Cody's mom was here I thought I found one that would work for me. So today I went back to try it on with the proper bra and undergarments. I really loved the dress. It's really pretty and I love the feel of it. But then Marissa brought up that it looks like a prom dress. I don't necessarily think it looks prom-dressish but more evening dress-ish. So then I started to feel like it wasn't "bridal" enough and felt more like I had on an evening gown with a train. I tried on a few more and they were okay and then I went back to one before - a lace one. And I loved it too. Everyone asks which I like better and there really isn't a way to compare them - they are TOTALLY different dresses. One of these days I HAVE to get a dress! By the way, if you go to the website, click on August 2006, I've narrowed it down to Dress #6 and #4.

Thoughts and Prayers.

A friend's mom passed away yesterday. She emailed today and I was at a loss for words. What do you say in that situation? I cannot even fathom what she is going through right now. I would not wish that on anyone in the world. It just has to be the worst feeling ever - especially when it's unexpected. So I did the best I could and offered to help in any way we could. The viewing/wake/memorial service (depending on your religion or traditions) is Thursday and Friday. We'll go hoping to offer her the tiniest bit of consolation and in the very least let her know she has a friend to lean on.

It sucks getting older - a rather unfortunate side effect is that it's less of a shock with a friend's parent dies. We're still young enough for it not to be happening on a regular basis - as a matter of fact I think I've had more friends die young then friends I've known whose parent has died - but we're getting old enough that it's becoming more and more a fact of life. Ten years ago if a friend's parent had died it would have been totally and completely tragic and unfair. It's no less tragic now but as we get older we accept the fact that those around us do as well - and our folks just happen to have a big head start on us.

So, as you read this be thankful for those in your life still alive, be blessed by the ones that aren't and please keep my friend in your thoughts and prayers - whichever you believe in.

"Safety Violation"

This past weekend we went up to Wisconsin to see some of Cody's family - most importantly, Grandma Raffensperger (aka Grandma Raff) - though she is actually Cody's GREAT-Grandma (making her Baylee and Brandon's GREAT-GREAT-Grandma). She is 97 years young and is such a great woman. The last time I saw her was the family reunion in 2000 and she seems just as good now as she did then. She has more family then most of us can ever imagine and they all care about her more then I can explain.
Well, other then our guest of honor, we also got to visit with Sara, Larry and Baylee and Brandon this weekend, which was simply wonderful! Brandon is one now and walking around like mad. He walks sort of like a drunk person and just will run into anything in his path. This kid seems fearless. And boy does he love to walk. Walk walk walk. No holding or sitting or stopping - just walking. He's adorable though - I can't wait to see how much he changes in the next few months over the holidays. And then there's Baylee. This little girl is smart as a whip and cute as a button. She's really amazing. And she is actually the subject of my story.
So, on Saturday afternoon we were heading to Trish and Joe's for a gathering/BBQ. Since Brandon was sleeping we took Baylee while Sara and Larry waited for him to wake up from his nap. We put her car seat in the middle seat in the back of the Cruiser between Donna and I. Well, about 15 minutes into the trip, she looks at me and says, "Missy, your knob is up." I was terribly confused and said, "My what is what?" Well, she pointed to more door lock and said "That's a safety violation." Sure enough I had no locked my car door and the door lock (aka "my knob") was up. And Baylee was observant enough to issue me a "Safety Violation." I felt like I should write my name on the board or get a sticker taken away. :) So we joked about that for a while until we got to Trish and Joe's.
We were having a great time at their house, playing with the kids, catching up with everyone, when Baylee walks right up to Joe (who had just finished smoking a cigarette) and says, "That's a safety violation. You're going to die." Everyone CRACKED UP! It was hillarious. At least my Safety Violation wasn't accompanied with a "You're going to die." :)

In a funk.

There are some days when you're just in a funk. Today is one of those. First, I'm horrible at good-byes. Cody's parents left this morning and I managed to hold it together just long enough for us to wave them good-bye. Then I just broke down. As Cody closed the door, I just cried and cried and went on and on. Going on and on about how it's so hard to live so far away from family. And it's not fair that everyone in St. Louis (okay, I was exagerating here) lives near their family (because most of them never move away). And why do we "have" to live so far away (knowing all the while that living far away is just as much my decision as Cody's). And on and on. All day I was just bummed. I know that sounds dumb, especially since they're my in-laws and most people jump for joy to get rid of their in-laws, but I have REALLY great in-laws. And we had a REALLY great time with them. Even walking around the house this evening with Cody at work seemed lonely since they weren't here. I wanted to walk into our spare room and see them there. I wanted to sit and drink wine with his dad and beer with Cody and his mom. I wanted to just chat some more and pick their brains some more. I can't even explain how smart these people are! And how "together" they are - they're just so pragmatic and give such great advise. They are able to just put so much into perspective in such a non-assuming way. For instance, we were talking about us living far away from family and I how I sometimes felt guilty for not living closer and helping out more with the family and they just casually explained that Cody and I will be each other's families soon and that has to be a top priority. There's something about the way they said that that just made sense and made me feel better. There's no on thing I can ever put my finger on and no particular specific quality that's so great, they're just all round good people. And now I miss them.
So today's kind of been a funky day. I pouted and whined to Cody all day and he, like the great guy he is, has come to be patient with me on days like this - especially when it's good-bye days. I know he's got to be missing them too, but he manages to just put that aside and deal with my much more emotional, outward display of missing them. What a guy!

Soccer.

Well tonight I had my third consecutive start for our indoor soccer team. Yeah, I guess I didn't mention that we only had three girls (which you need three to play) so there were no subs, thus I had to start. :) Actually we ended up with four girls total so we did have one sub between the three of us.

I'm getting better. I'm not good, but I'm getting better. Tonight I worked on being more aggressive on defense and actually getting to the ball instead of just standing a few feet away from my mark. The only problem with this is I feel bad about invading someone's space or hitting up against them, so I constantly apologize every time I bump into someone. But it's a fun game and I'm learning.

Finally Maybe?

Finally. Maybe. This afternoon I managed to somehow talk Cody's mom into going wedding dress shopping with me - actually we didn't so much as go shopping as we did just go look at the ones I had narrowed it down to. Poor lady didn't know what she was getting herself into with the beast that is me and dress shopping. :) She's quite a trooper though - and she's not even MY mom! Anyway, we went and looked at them and for some reason whatever she said to me resonated and I think I've picked a dress! Not totally yet, but 75% sure. Remember how I said how wonderful his parents are and they have a way of saying things that make sense? Well this is one of those instances. I can't remember exactly what she said or how she said it but she listened to what I was saying and watched my movements in a way that when she did give advise I really understood it. She basically picked up on my actions in a way I can't and pointed those out to me. When we were done looking at them and discussing them, I just felt more comfortable with one of the dresses in particular. She pointed out that I just kept saying "But I love this dress" over and over whenever the salesperson or I would notice something about it. So even though it's the least forgiving dress in terms of body forgiveness and it might wrinkle a bit more then others and it's not as dressy or fancy or lacy or sparkly, I just kept coming back to "I love this dress." Anyway, I really have no idea how she just makes you feel at ease with decisions but she doesn't push one tiny bit but rather somehow paves the way for you to feel comfortable in your own decision. I really need to learn that skill. I sometimes tend to give a bit more then my two cents worth when most times both I and the person I'm listening to would probably be better off if I had the skill to just point out observations about their choices and make them feel comfortable in their own decision making. Anyway, for what it's worth, I think I made a decision about my wedding dress. Now if only I could move forward with all the other planning and decision making there is to be done!!

Bumble Bee, Baby and Biopsy

It's "B" Day! First up: Bumble Bee.

On Sunday we took Cody's parents to the wineries out in Augusta, Missouri. Wineries in Missouri? Yup, that's right we have wineries right here in Missouri. And they're not just glorified beer halls that serve wine. They're actually pretty nice and have decently good wine. Yeah, we're not Napa Valley or France, but it's still gorgeous scenery (especially this time of year when the weather is great and the leaves are changing) and good wine. Anyway, we took them to Montelle which has really good white wine (and fruit wine - raspberry, strawberry and blackberry) and a great view of the Missouri river - they have a great multi-level porch/deck system for tons of great seating. So we sat outside in this beautiful weather and this bee starting buzzing around me. Well, I tend to talk a lot (a bit of an understatement) and this bee actually flew into my mouth! Yes, Marissa (my friend with a serious irrational fear of bees), the bee actually FLEW INTO MY MOUTH. So naturally I shut my mouth, felt the bee and then promptly spit it back out. Lucky me it didn't sting me or anything! He just flew away on his happy little life. A friend of his came back later and almost got into my nose, but you can bet I kept my mouth closed!

Second: Baby!

Yup, Cody and I have a new baby!! Bet you didn't even know we were pregnant! Just kidding! Our fish was pregnant and had babies! We were sitting with his parents in our living room/reading-fish room yesterday and his dad noticed a little baby fish. It looks about a week old and he managed to live this long! The others were most likely eaten by the other fish in the tank but this little guy managed to live and survive the wrath of the big fish! So we scooped him up and put him in his own little mesh area inside the big tank so we can feed him special food and have him not eaten by other fish. So we have one more animal in our house - a new baby fish. On another, much sadder note, our big Bala Shark died in the same tank. Circle of life I guess. I got Cody that baby shark with two others for Valentine's Day back in 1999. I put them in a 10 gallon tank with all orange and blue rocks. When I went to clean the tank a few months later I put all the fish in a bucket and when I went back to put them all back into the tank two had jumped out of the bucket and killed themselves - this one was the only remaining from that first batch. So our 7 year old fish finally died - he survived many moves and a lot of crazy fish situations but was always a trooper.

The final "B": Biopsy.

This one the guys may not care much to read about. Consider yourself warned. I usually don't talk too much on here about deeply personal stuff - unpleasant medical situations, arguments with Cody, ugly family situations, bad work events, etc. - but I figure I might as well give it a try. So, today I had a second biospy of an area which I'll just call "a very sensitive girl area." I had the first two years ago and have continued to have problems, so my now THIRD doctor decided to do another one. So not only do they cut a large piece of skin out of a very sensitive area but then they put in THREE stitches. Yes, stitches. You can't even imagine how stitches feel there, unless, I suppose, you've had a child. Then maybe you can understand. Anyway, I came home crying, half because of the pain and half because I just want them to figure out what in the hell is wrong already. How many damn doctors does it take to diagnose things these days?!!? Not only is this my THIRD doctor but she's also referring me to yet another specialist - yes, that's doctor #4! So, that's today's issue. I'm in pain and I want the doctors to be miracle workers - is that too much to ask? It's just I hate not knowing things and then I start thinking that Cody and I will at some point want to have children and I don't want to do that without being totally positive that I'm 100% healthy. I just want this whole situation to be over - it's been going on for too damn long. Speaking of kids, in case you're dying to know, the answer is no - we're not having them any time soon.

So those are the "B"s for today.

Go Gators!

Today was another great day with Cody's folks. I ran 15 miles this morning while they hung around the house (see other blog for more on the running). It was a very hard 15 miles but I'm glad it's over with. Then we went out to Ozzie's and watched UF beat up on Alabama in the Swamp. Great game.
Tomorrow we've got outdoor soccer in Creve Coeur and hopefully the wineries. :)

They're here!

They made it! They made it! Cody's parents finally made it here. We were like little kids waiting for the Easter Bunny all day waiting for them to call and let us know they were close. They got here this afternoon, we hung around the house - which the last time they saw was a wreck with boxes everywhere, with our bed still in the living room and the fish tanks on the Boy Room floor - and caught up on everything and then went out to eat for Cody's mom's birthday at Blueberry Hill. As those not from STL might not know, Blueberry Hill is a St. Louis institution. The restraunt/bar takes up an entire city block in the U City Loop (a very hip alternative area of town). Quite good food. They purport to have the best hamburgers in town but for others of us they also have great trout, red beans and rice, and pancakes at all hours!

While we love living here, living our fiercely independent lives, doing our own thing, whatever that may be, whenever we might want to, we regret not being able to see family more. It's so wonderful to have people visit because then we get them all to ourselves, and vice versa - whereas when we're in Tally we get to spend two hours with one family, two hours with the next, sleep a few hours and then hope to catch the rest of the family in the remaining 30 minutes. We don't have time to really talk about live, etc. because we're just busy saying hello, good-bye and catching up on the obvious. Anyway, it's great to have family here - I'm looking forward to next weekend in Wisconsin to catch up with the Wisconsin crowd and Sara, Larry and the kids - apparently Brandon is walking now - I can't wait to see it!

Life is good.

A First.

The thing is the older you get the less "firsts" you have. You can only have one First Pet. One First Plane Flight. One first whatever. Unless you starting counting retarded things like "First Slice of Strawberry Pie on a Tuesday After Turning 25 When it's Raining." And then you must just really be bored. Anyway, today I had a first. As some of you know, I've been playing soccer on Cody's indoor team (certainly a first). Well, today I got my first ball impression on my body. Yup, someone kicked the ball so hard at me it left the soccer ball shape on my leg. My knee actually. There's a fat bruise and you can make out the shapes of the soccer ball - in my SKIN! That's insane. I am never again going to stand between a big guy and the goal. Ow! I swear it took my 30 minutes to regain feeling in my knee/upper leg as the entire area went numb it hit so darn hard. Oh well, the price we pay. :)

Cody's parents get here tomorrow! They get to watch us play soccer next week - my first spectators. :)

The Truth About Driving in St. Louis

This came to me via a forward, but it was too funny not to post:

If you live in St Louis, you'll understand this. If you've ever visited St.
Louis you'll understand this. If you've never been to St. Louis, consider
this your Visitor's guide To Driving in St. Louis.

1. There are 75 "official neighborhoods" in the City of St. Louis. St.
Louisans commonly give directions (especially for restaurants) to strangers
based on these neighborhoods which aren't marked on any maps that are
handed out by the tourist board, the AAA or Mapquest.

2. There are 54 school districts -- on the Missouri side alone - each of
which has their own school bus system and scheduled times to block traffic.

3. There are 91 official municipalities in St. Louis County. Each
Municipality has its own rules, regulations, and often their own police
departments.

4. More importantly, most have their own snow removal contracts so it's not
uncommon to drive down a road in winter and have one block plowed, the next
salted, the next piled with snow and the last partially cleared by
residents wanting to get out of their driveways.

5. Snow plowing is never a problem in the City of St. Louis. They plow
nothing, and if the forecast calls for snow, they close everything. Except
on "The Hill" (refer to ..1 above) where each homeowner goes out to the
street and shovels out one car-sized rectangle and then stands watch over
it.

6. Any car parked longer than 4 hours in the city is considered a parts
store.

7. The City of Ballwin actually proposed that drivers use connecting strip
mall parking lots to get from place to place rather than drive on
Manchester road to cut the traffic on Manchester.

8. Laclede Station Road mysteriously changes names as you cross
intersections. As do McCausland, Lindbergh, Watson, Reavis Barracks, Fee
Fee, McKnight, Airport Road, Midland, Olive and Clarkson. Gravois Road can
only be pronounced by a native. Ditto for Spoede and Chouteau.

9. A St. Louisan from South County has never been to North County and vise
versa.. West County has everything delivered.

10. No native St. Louisan knows that Lindbergh runs from South County to
North County! And, if you tell them, they will not believe you.

11. Lindbergh belongs to every neighborhood except Kirkwood, who had the
nerve to creatively change the name to "Kirkwood Road."

12. There are 2 interchanges to exit from Highway 40 onto Clayton Road and
2 for Big Bend. Stay alert,people!

13. If you need directions to O'Fallon, make sure to specify Illinois or
Missouri. This is also true for Troy, Maryville, St. Charles,
Springfield,Columbia....

14. The Page Avenue extension and Airport expansion projects took over 20
years to get approved and St. Louisans lost track of how many political
figures claimed them as their own ideas.

15. St. Louisans were aghast when the federal government required them to
redo the highway signs
to indicate that the federal highways went to cities in other states
instead of local municipalities.

16. Drivers are starting to cut their OWN plates rather than go through the
Missouri Department of Motor Vehicles to get new tags. You can also
purchase tags from dealers behind QuiK Shops in the city. They are cheaper,
the clerks are nicer, and the service is faster.

17. Lambert Field and St. Louis International Airport really are the same
place. The East Terminal, however, is a different place.

18. Highway 270 is our daily version of the NASCAR circuit. (Same goes for
Highway 70.) You can go all four directions on Highway 270: North and South
in West County, East and West in South County, and East and West in North
County. Confused? So are the St. Louis drivers.

19. The outer belt is Highway 270 which turns into Highway 255 in South
County. The inner belt is Highway 170. Highway 370 is an outer-outer belt.
Highway 40 is the same as Interstate 64 (but only through the middle part
of St. Louis).

20. The morning rush hour is from 6:00 to 10:00 AM. The evening rush hour
is from 3:00 to 7:00 PM. Friday's rush hour starts Thursday morning. Never
ever try to cross a bridge in St. Louis during rush hour unless you have a
sack lunch and a port-a-potty in the car.

21. YIELD signs are for decoration only. No native St. Louisan will ever
grasp the concept.

22. If someone actually has their turn signal on, it is probably a factory
defect, or has been on for the last 17 miles.

23. Construction on Highways 40, 64, 70, 255, 270, 44, 55 and 170 is a way
of life, and a permanent form of entertainment.

24. All blue haired old ladies in Cadillacs (driving on Olive west of 270)
have the right of way.

25. If it snows or rains? Stay home!!

26. It is called a rolling stop at any stop sign intersection. Only native
St. Louisans can do it just right...

Drive Safe!!

Cody's parents are leaving tomorrow from Florida to come visit us in St. Louis (See? I still don't say I live in "Missouri.")!!! I am so excited! They haven't seen the house since we first moved in when our bed was still downstairs, there were boxes everywhere and the fish tanks were all set up on the floor in the Boy Room. So, for weeks now I've been telling people that my in-laws are coming. The overwhelming response is "I'm sorry." Every time I hear that I think to myself, "Man, I have it good." I seriously, no joke, have the best set of to-be in-laws in the WORLD. To begin with they are just wonderful, good people. And good people are hard to come by these days. That would be enough in itself, but they have this way of making me feel like I was born into the family (in a non-incestual way since I'm marrying their son) and just treating me like one of them. They always listen if you have a problem and give advise in a way that is caring, understanding and wise, yet not lecturing or belittling. Anyway, they're just great people and I'm really looking forward to their visit. What's even more special is it's Cody's mom's birthday on Friday (the day they get here) and their anniversary on Saturday! How cool is that!

As for plans while they're here, we, of course, are taking them to the Gator game at Ozzie's on Saturday (v. Alabama), Cody's soccer game on Sunday and our indoor game on Thursday. The next weekend we're taking a road trip to Wisconsin to see the family, but most importantly Great-Grandma Raffensperger (yes, Cody still has a GREAT-Grandma, leaving Baylee and Brandon with a GREAT-GREAT-Grandma). She'll be visiting from California and since she's crazy old and lives in Cali we hardly ever see her, so that will be a nice visit. We're also hoping to take them to the wineries because the weather should be beautiful for it and the leaves are just starting to change their colours.

Well guys, have a safe trip! At least Missouri has the lowest gas prices in the country right now - Cody filled up for $1.99 a gallon today! Wow!

Juice.

This goes in the category of funny, off the wall things Cody says that just make me crack up.

When we finally awoke at 2pm Saturday afternoon (not too bad for us), neither of us felt much like doing anything except watching football. So we dragged the laptop downstairs to keep track of ESPN Scoreboard and watched some network TV football. Since we live in the Midwest we were cursed with having to watch Illinois. They suck. Ron Zook is now their coach. He sucks (he was the coach at UF after Spurier in case you don't keep track of those things and lost about a zillion games). Anyway, at least they were playing a ranked Iowa team who didn't suck so bad - but I guess you really couldn't tell because they were playing such a bad team. Anyway, Illinois had a player named Juice Williams. No kidding. Want proof? Who in their right mind would name their child "Juice"? Are you just sick in the head? Anyway, lest I digress from the story. So, at some point the announcer asked something to the tune of "When is Juice most efficient/effective?" He was, of course, refering to his offensive ability (he's a QB), but Cody just answered "When you're sick." Just as plain and matter-of-fact and straight-faced as you can get. But of course, Juice is most effective when you're sick. Thanks Cody. You crack me the hell up sometimes.

Happy First Day of Fall - Late, as Usual

Happy Autumnal Equinox! Well, it was actually on Saturday (the 23rd) but I was too lazy to actually post on it that day because of the party so I'm posting on it now. :) I guess it's officially fall now. I am officially in cranky mode - the days are now shorter then the nights. I make no bones about it - I love the warm sunny days. I love the long days. I love sunshine and the outdoors. The winter? Not so much. I can tolerate it for about a week and then I'm done. I get cranky and pouty and just want to sit inside in my warm pjs with some warm food and then more warm food and more warm food - you get the drift. I am not a winter person. People say winters aren't bad here - I guess those people never grew up in Florida.

Well, it's fall and it's certainly showing around here. The leaves are changing and twice already I've had to wear a scarf to work - I've worn a jacket quite a few times and actually have busted out the coat a few times as well. It's not just been cool or chilly, but downright cold already a few days. I guess it had to come sooner or later.

I touched an NBA player!

At the Gator Club gathering yesterday to watch the Kentucky v. UF game, David Lee was there!! And I got to meet him! And shake his hand!! For those of you who don't know, David played basketball for UF and now plays for the New York Knicks. He's the son of one of our great Gator Club members in St. Louis, Susan, and was in town visiting his mom (he's from St. Louis). Anyway, I was giddy like a moron meeting a celebrity - shameless, really.

Party pictures are up.

In case you've been sitting in utter anticipation of the party pictures - they're up now on the website - www.cody-missy.com. It was a great party - at least in our humble opinion. Our first guests arrived around 6 pm and the final ones left around 4am (not counting the ones who stayed the night). We finished the keg around 10:45 but then finished off another 120 or so beers after that, so if that's any indication that it went well, then it did. :) It was a "Birthdays Party" for several of our friends who had birthdays either the past week or so on in the next week or so - apparently we have a lot of "blizzard baby" friends. Thanks everyone for coming out and we can't wait to have the next one. Oh - check out the pictures of the newly renovated/refinished dining room! The chandelier is down because I broke it about 20 minutes before the party started but you can at least see the paint job! :)

Caulk.

I love this stuff. I really think it's what is holding our house up. The damn thing would be falling down if it weren't for this wonderful material. I can't stand the gaps and cracks that are EVERYWHERE in our house due to it's age (my mom thinks her house is old because it was built 60 years ago - ours is easily pushing 100) so before I paint anything I fill every gap, hole, etc. with tons of caulk. Pretty much every place in our house where two things meet has caulk it in. The corner where the walls meet? Caulk. Where the baseboards meet the wall? Caulk. Ceiling hits wall? Caulk. Window sill meets wall or other part of window? More caulk. I'm telling you, before I paint any surface in this house it has to be caulked. Plus I just love the stuff - it's fun to play with. I AM the home improvement goddess after all. I can't wait until we get this house finished!!!

Cody's folks are coming soon and I CAN'T WAIT to show them all the work we've done since they were here last! Until recently most of the painting done in the house was done by them when they visited last July - but I think we jumped ahead of them when we finished the dining room (yes, a year later, but we at least got it done). :) I am seriously so excited to show them the house and around STL!!

Foreman Pickles.

Tonight Cody and I worked on painting our hallway/entryway for the party we're having on Friday. Party? Didn't we just have a party not too long ago? Yup - it seems like just yesterday but our last party was for Cody's birthday. In the past few weeks and coming week we have a ton of friends with birthdays so decided to throw them all a party - Dude's big 30 was yesterday, Marissa's birthday was last Thursday, Cassidy's is next Monday and Dave's was Saturday - lots to celebrate! So as people who will take just about any excuse to party, we're throwing another one!!! Yipee! But so much to do to prepare. Starting with working on the painting yet to be done downstairs (no one goes upstairs except us so it's not a huge priority).
Well, when Cody and I are working together (we use the same strategy with disagreements) we have a third party we can blame stupid stuff on so we don't blame each other. Who might that be since we live alone? Mr. Pickles of course! So tonight while painting when I gave Cody the crappy job of putting the ceiling light back up (I took it down so I figured he could have the joy of putting it back up) and the smoke detector. He of course blamed Mr. Pickles, the foreman on the job, for giving him the "crappy" jobs. Then when I was using the big roller and he got stuck with the baby roller, he again blamed foreman Pickles for the lack of proper supplies. See? Having a blame cat sure does help keep the peace around here. Plus, when I asked for a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (the BEST home cleaning tool EVER), and it was delivered dry, instead of wet, I could blame Mr. Pickles.

p.s. For those of you who aren't blog regulars, Mr. Pickles is our cat, formerly known as Nala. LONG STORY!

We're a mess today.

(Opps. This was yesterday's blog but I guess I didn't hit "Publish" on the computer before I went to bed).

My whole body feels like I was hit by a bus. Cody's got a cold/mini flu. We're just a whole bunch of mess today. :)

Mine at least is explainable. I ran - a good darn bit. I still can't get over that I ran it in under 2 hours. Running is such a deeply personal thing and all your goals are tied to personal accomplishment rather then competition. I couldn't have cared less what anyone else in that race did yesterday - I'm happy for all those that finished, proud of those who at least tried, and hope everyone got a personal best - but in the end it was just me versus me. And I think I won that one. It just makes me so happy to see the improvement in my running.

Cody is another story. After a "rough" night Friday, a football filled Saturday and a VERY early Sunday (our alarm went off at 5am to make it to the race), he's got himself a nice little cold/flu. He's hilarious when he's sick.

A quick week update.

Wow. Another week gone so fast! I sometimes sit and wonder where they go so darn fast and then after 30 minutes of thinking about it realize that I just passed another 1/2 hour that I'll sit at the end of the week and wonder where it went. :)

Anyway, this week was mild in comparison to some of our weeks, but fun nonetheless. Cody worked a ton of overtime this week (still!) so I got some time to work on some projects around the house. Some good "me time." :) Thursday was the first indoor soccer game of this "season" and the first game where I'm actually a real player. Yup - that's right - I'm playing soccer this season! I still have no real clue how to play soccer but I figured I'm not getting any younger, so might as well give it a shot and hope I don't blow out a knee. :) I figured I'd start with indoor because it's more moving around, and might lend itself to better practice for me. Anyway, I didn't play a lot because my shins were killing me and I didn't want to get hurt before the 1/2 marathon. We won 6-3 so it was great! There's a great group of people on the team so I think it will be a lot of fun. Marissa's birthday was also on Thursday so we took her out to lunch for her birthday at work and then all went to Barcelona (a tappa's restraunt in Clayton - very spify) for dinner and Tejas for drinks afterwards. Barcelona was good - I think the boys were all still starving after dinner but the sangria was great. Tejas was Tejas. :)

Friday we went to a happy hour at Syberg's out in West County and then to the Funny Bone to see Kevin Nealon. He was, of course, HILLARIOUS! We ended up at some blues bar where Cody thought it would be a good idea to have three double Jack and Cokes in the matter of an hour after only having a cucumber for dinner (yes, he had a cucumber because he had it leftover from him lunch - I put a cucumber in his lunches because he'll eat them like apples). Needless to say that didn't end greatly. So in addition to dealing with him another friend of his (who will remain nameless) had a few too many and I ended up attempting to carry him out - didn't work too well. :) Anyway, we all had fun.

Saturday was, of course, more football. The Gators played Tennessee - in Knoxville. Every year the St. Louis Gator Club gets together beforehand for a fun little tailgate in the Ozzie's parking lot. As usual, it was a ton of fun. The game was a nail biter, but they pulled it off - by a whole one point. For those of you who care, FSU didn't fare as well and managed to lose to Baby Bowden at Clemson all because their "top rated" defense couldn't stop Clemson from driving 80 yards in the final minute of the game! Insane! Anyway, it was fun. One funny note from the night that I have to credit Tina for: Our great AB friends offered to pick up everyone's tab for the game for AB products - free beer! Only problem was I wasn't drinking becuase of the half marathon. I explained this deliema to Tina who easily responded, "Missy, there are always 1/2 marathons to run - but how many nights do you get free beer?" So that ended that debate.

So we got a few hours of sleep Saturday, woke up for the 1/2 marathon, ran and came home and crashed. Luckily it rained so Cody's outdoor soccer game was cancelled because I can barely walk. We watched a movie tonight while I laid on the futon with bags of frozen veggies on my hips where my tendons hurt so bad I can't hardly walk. :) The joys of running.

Tomorrow - Monday. Boo!

Okay, here I actually look happy.

This is about mile 1ish. I'm still happy here. At least I don't look like I'm dying. :)

Gorgeous.

Great, huh? Don't I look happy and wonderful? Yeah, that's me after 13.1 miles this morning. A very very hard 13.1 miles. The entire saga is on the other blog, but I'll briefly summarize here.

So, as most of my blog readers know by now, today was the Louis and Clark 1/2 Marathon out in St. Charles. A while ago a friend decided she wanted to do a 1/3 marathon so we've been training together over the past few months. I think we started running back in May for it, but then with Germany and a bad bout with shin splints that turned into stress fractures in my shin, we didn't get to run most of June and part of July. In any event, in a cruel twist of fate, she sprained/strained her knee last week playing soccer so couldn't run today. Unfortunately I hadn't really trained to run the race fast, I just wanted to run it to finish with her. I really wasn't concerned about my time or anything, I just wanted to be with her for encouragement, etc. throughout the race. Then when I found out this week she couldn't run it all got turned upside down. I didn't want to do worse then I did back in April (I ran it in 2:09 in April), but I wasn't prepared to run faster.

Long story short: We woke up at 5am, got out to the race a bit after 6am. The race started at 7am and I finished 1 hour, 58 minutes and 40 seconds later!!! YES!! I actually beat my last time and made it under 2 hours!!! I can't even express how excited/stunned/proud I am. I NEVER thought I would beat 2 hours, much less after not training for it. Granted, I feel like I was run over by a very very very large bus and at the end of the race I had to have Cody come into the Finisher's Area because I thought I was having an asthma attack - but I DID IT! I can't really move right now and I can hardly make it up the stairs (Cody had to help me put on my jeans this afternoon) because my hips hurt so bad (all that moving back and forth much faster then I'm used to), but I MADE IT! As you can tell I'm quite excited! Of course, right now I never wnat to run again, much less a marathon, but we'll see how I feel in a few days. :)

News Quote of the Day.

Rose said she does not take her monkey through buffets.

Click here to read more.

A nice weekend.

Gators won. Seminoles won. Notre Dame kicked the hell out of Penn State and Ohio State beat Texas. I'd say that was a good weekend. Okay, I guess some will say there is more to life then football - but don't tell Cody that.
Friday we went to dinner with friends at my favorite Greek restaraunt - they have an amazing spinach pita! Saturday Cody fixed my car and I ran. Yes, that's right! Cody fixed the clutch so now I can drive again! I was quite impressed - in less then 1.5 hours and for less then $50 he fixed the entire problem! The dealer would have charged a few hundred dollars and likely taken days! It's so great to have someone handy around! Not only can he replace parts, but he can diagnose a problem, figure out what needs to be done, and then can fix it!! Yipee! Go Cody! Then of course, it was football time. And then more football. And then some more. The Gators looke good - against a sub-par team. The Seminoles looked awful against and even more sub-par team. I was simply happy Notre Dame and Ohio State won.
Today was soccer for Cody, biking for me and then Cody went into work the rest of the day. I cleaned the house and ran errands. Actually a quite productive weekend - especially the car part!!

Job seach.

Okay, along with considering going back to school, I'm also looking at changing jobs/fields. So tonight I was looking on Boeing's website for job openings in STL, mostly in law, but was looking in other areas too. One area was "Unmanned Air Vehicle Pilot." If it's unmanned, then why do they need a pilot?

Same old.

Same old, same old here. Cody's been working ridiculous overtime. I think he's got over 36 hours in just the three days of this week - yikes! Yesterday, I rode my bike to the parts store to get a part to bleed my clutch this weekend when we get around to fixing my car. I had a really nice bike ride around the park and then hung around the house doing chores. Today I had to go to Columbia all day for court. Some good cases, some bad. Not a bad drive, but not great either - a pretty boring mid-Missouri 2 hours. Good talking on the phone time. :) Since I had the only available vehicle, I got to run a few errands - Michaels, Target, Old Navy, etc. Then a quick run, the grocery store and pick Cody up from work. Not too terribly interesting.

I did get some great news today though! I have a new niece! Well, not really, but sort of. She was already my niece but now the government agrees with what we all already knew. My brother officially adopted his daugther and it cleared our legal system! While we already considered her 110% family, the law now agrees! I'm so excited for my bro and his fam! They are such a cute family and Kim and David are AMAZING parents! I'm sure when we decide to have kids - at least ones without four legs and a lot of fur - we'll be calling asking for advice. :) Congrats guys!

Car-less

Boy do I feel "American." For two weeks in Europe this summer and then an entire summer a few years ago, I survived with no car. I managed to travel all sorts of places, big and small with no vehicle. Tons of people over there have no car and they live perfectly good lives. But here I go now with a few days without my car and it's as if the world is falling apart around me. :) This morning Cody gave me a ride to work since he woke up early (usually he wakes up as I leave the house) and I got a ride home from Mike. But just the thought of not being able to leave whenever is weird (even though I could go home at anytime and take the train). Plus, I've got shopping to do - grocery store, Target, etc. - and that's really hard with only one car in the family - not to mention Cody didn't get home from work until 9.30pm. Oh well. Just a few more days and I'll have my "freedom" again. By the way, I hate the hyjacking of the word "freedom." Just a note.
On another note, ran 10 miles tonight and feel just dandy about it. I'm super excited about the 1/2 marathon on the 17th and even more excited about the marathon in a few months. The person who actually inspired me to run the marathon, my lawschool friend Kari, actually just had her first baby this past weekend. She emailed pictures and the baby is just precious! Really really really adorable! She and her husband will make awesome parents. She is one of those people you really admire in the world - really down to earth and real and just really has their head on straight. There's a girl at work who is like that too - super smart and well spoken, yet funny and interesting all at the same time. Where I tend ("tend" may not be a strong enough word here) to babble and just spit out the first thing to come to my head, these people really have insightful thoughts and are so very intelligent and interesting. I'm lucky to have met a lot of the people I have in my life.

Busy Weekend.

We had a good time this weekend - fun, but busy as always. Friday we headed off to Wisconsin for Cody's cousin, Chad's, wedding in Appleton. We got in pretty late (1 am) so pretty much just crashed. Saturday we hung out with his Aunt Jackie and Uncle Fred (they're awesome folks) and then went to the wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and all - very nice. The reception was at a Performing Arts Center so that was great too. We got to see a ton of his family which was really great. They are all such wonderful people. We had a great time visiting with everyone and a great time at the wedding. Sunday we drove back after the present opening, Cody mowed the lawn and I ran. Since we were exhausted after the drive we just hung out and watched a movie.
Then there was today. It seemed as if nothing could go right. First, the clutch on my car went out last night. All of a sudden the stupid thing just wouldn't go into gear and the clutch petal had no tension behind it - it just went out. So instead of Cody working today to get ahead on hours (they are super busy so instead of working all 12 hour days he was going to work some today so he would only have to work 10 hour days this week) we needed to fix the car. BUT we couldn't find anyone that was open that had the part. One place could order it but it would be $50 more expensive then we found it online. And the dealerships weren't even open so we couldn't even ask them if they had the part. Doh! So we decided to sit outside and ponder what to do with our day - well, Bumpis, aka Dumb Cat, was looking at us from inside so we let her out on the porch to sit. She was just being lazy sitting on the porch so we weren't really paying much attention to her. We decided to pull some weeds in the garden and then when we went to go inside we couldn't find her. So we spent the next hour looking around the neighborhood for the stupid cat. Sure enough she was two houses down in their back yard and just thought it was great when we found her because then she wanted to play hide and go seek and run from us. Dumb cat.
After that mini-adventure we decided to bike downtown to my office to see how bad it would be for me to bike to work. Yes, I could easily take the train, but I thought it would be nice to have a built in 30 minute work-out each morning and afternoon. The problem is to get to work is super easy by car - get on the interstate, go and then I'm there - but on bike there are a lot of turns, hills, etc. in order to avoid the interstate. It took about 32 minutes to get there and 36 to get back (more uphill, we took a longer route and goofed around). Not bad but I really don't want to show up to work sweaty and smelly, especially if I have to be in court. So I might try it one cool day to see how bad it is, otherwise this week I'll be taking the train into work without a car.
This evening we headed to our friends, Meghan and Danny to hang out with them and their adorable baby and watch the FSU game. This was pretty much my highlight of the day as we (1) got to see Elizabeth who is just too cute for words and (2) got to see FSU win a game - albeit, it wasn't pretty. So that's it for now. Off to try to clean up before heading to bed to go to work. fun fun