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

One more thing.

I read that it is nice to have a running log, or blog, to keep track of your training and stuff. I guess it's nice to look back and be able to see progress, etc. Anyway, in case anyone ever wants to check it out, I made one. I'll have to see how it goes and if I keep up with it. It won't be interesting, just a run down of my work-out, nothing fancy. But if you're interested it's http://marathonmissy.blogspot.com/. I felt like I was sort of cheating my naming it "Marathon" Missy since I haven't actually already run one, but I figure it will be even more motivation. :) Plus if anyone doesn't like it, then they can take it up with Spreckles (the new fish who seems more Phirrana then Damsel). :)

I finally made up my mind . . .

No - not about a dress. About running a marathon this fall. You see, for some retarded reason, unknown to even myself, I have always wanted to run a marathon. Why someone would want to put themselves through that I have no idea. Then I started running half marathons. Since moving to STL I've done two and have another one in a few weeks with Marissa (it's September 17th if anyone wants to know - it's in St. Charles if you want to come cheer us on). Then I talked to my friend Kari in April (she ran the New York Marathon!!! How cool is that?!?!?) and she got me really excited about i. Then decided I wanted to run it before I got married.

Well, I was going to the Chicago Marathon in October but I wanted to wait until we got back from Germany to sign up because I wanted to see how my stress fractures in my shins cleared up. Well, they're doing decent, but the Chicago Marathon is full. So, on to find another. After a lot of running to see how my shins are doing and a lot of internet searching, I have finally decided to do the Memphis Marathon on December 2nd. I hope it won't be too cold then and I won't be miserable for the race and I hope the training runs aren't too cold either, but if I want to do it, now's the time. Now that I've made up my mind and am not waivering around anymore I am getting really excited! I can't wait for the half to be over so I can really start training for the marathon! Don't worry - I'm sure I'll keep everyone posted. :) If I like it I think I'll do the Nashville one in April (after the wedding). Sounds fun, right? Yeah, right!

It's that time again.

Fall. Football. Cold weather.

Wait! Hang on! Already? It's still AUGUST!!

Yup, folks, that's right. It's all here in Cold Corn Country. First, football. I used to always think of football as an after Labor Day thing. Not anymore. Football officially started tonight with South Carolina v. Miss. State - yeah, there were other games on too, but no one really cared. All we cared about was watching Spurrier play. Too bad we couldn't "watch" the game, since we have "baby cable" and we don't get ESPN (we get ABC, NBC, CBS, TBS, FOX, WB and that's about it - only $5 a month though!!! We rarely watch TV.). I would seriously trade every channel but one of the big four (so I can still get the news) all for ESPN. I would even pay extra for a "sports package" in order to just get ESPN, but nope, can't do that. You have to get the HUGE cable package to get ESPN and in order to get any extra sports channels you have to first have the huge package and then pay more. So it's not happening, we're not getting ESPN, so we had to "watch" the game on ESPN.com's GameCast - for the Gator games we just go watch them somewhere. Anyway, cable companies, if you're out there, here's what I want - ABC and ESPN, and I'll even pay $10 a month for it! That's it. No more channels. Anyway, football's back. Gators play Girl Scout Troop 109 on Saturday and FSU opens with Miami on Monday night! I LOVE football season!

Second, chilly weather. "Chilly?" you ask - it's only AUGUST! Yes, fall. For three days in a row now I've worn a jacket/coat and long sleeves. We went to the Cardinals v. Marlins games on Tuesday (with Meghan, Danny and Elizabeth - thanks for the tickets!!) and Wednesday (ate yummy pretzels with Marissa and Cassidy) and both nights it was quite chilly. I sat on my hands most of the game because they were cold and that was with a jacket on. At work it's even been a bit too nippy to sit outside for lunch. I can't believe it's this chilly already and we haven't even passed Labor Day.

And finally, fall. Yup, Labor Day is only a few days away, marking the official end to all things fun, laid back and well, fun, in the north. Summer is considered over and fall begins it's slow decline to winter. Everything cool closes at Labor Day and from here on into Memorial Day you pretty much just work and try to make it through the winter. While I love the feeling of briskness in the air and I really love Halloween and pumpkin carving (check out the carvings from last year on the webpage), fall is terribly depressing as it only leads to the end of Daylight's Savings Time (I see no reason it should end - it makes my life so happy) and winter. And everyone knows how I feel about winter. I HATE the cold! HATE really isn't a strong enough word for my dislike of winter. I am miserable, cranky and more miserable in the winter. Luckily I can rejoice that Cody is open to moving to a warmer climate at some point. :)

I hope everyone has a great Labor Day! We're off to Wisconsin for Cody's cousin's wedding in Appleton (it's near Green Bay). It should be a great time. We get to see his mom's side of the family - his Aunt Jackie (amazing lady - and hillarious!), Uncle Fred, Uncle Harold, hopefully Kristy, Cory and Cory's family, and Bev and Matt (very cool guy our age). It should be nice to get to hang out and get away from STL for a few days. It's just too bad we're not going somewhere warmer. :)

New Pictures.

More new pictures of Malhia on the webpage!

Maliha!!!

I finally got to see the baby elephant on Sunday!!! She is so amazingly cute!
Check out the adorable picture! She's about 3 feet tall and 350 lbs. She was born on August 2nd (Bo's birthday!), but they've kept her away from the public until last Friday. Unfortunately she is only outside from 9am to 11am and then 4pm to 7pm, so I didn't get to see her while my mom was here. So after we took her to the airport, we rode our bikes to The Zoo (we only live about a 10-15 minute bike ride from The Zoo) and checked her out! Just so cute!!! We found out today that the naming contest resulted in her being named Maliha - I voted daily for this name so I was happy!

Wedding Dresses.

Well, a quick update. My mom came in town last Thursday, we hit four dress shops that day. Friday, we got our hairs cut (Mommy cut over 9 inches!!) and then hit up a few more shops. Saturday, we got up yet again, gathered my friend, Marissa and hit up three more shops for a second shot at a few dresses. When all was said and done we think we've narrowed it down to five dresses (see http://www.cody-missy.com/Aug06F.htm). There are seven listed, but I think we've knocked off two. Then we found one more was discontinued and I probably can't order it, so now it's likely down to four. Yes, that's not a choice yet, but at least it's progress - it's much better then having 20 I liked and couldn't narrow down at all. :)
As for the voting, I'm still tallying all the votes! Thanks so many people for voting! So far dresses #2, 4 and 6 are tied with the most votes (11 each)!

Wedding Dresses.

Busy right now but wanted to post the most recent wedding dresses. I think I've narrowed it down to 7, probably five. I put them on the website so everyone can look at them and provide an opinion. My mom was in town this weekend and we pretty much did nothing but dress shop - crazy stuff. I just don't think I'll ever find "the one." Anyway more on that later. Let me know what you think.

Game Over.

Well, we worked and worked in all our house "zones" and got the house as good as it's going to get before my mom comes. She gets in here in about 9.5 hours so we figure we might as well rest, get some work done (at work in the morning, not more work at home) and what's done is done and what isn't we'll hide. :) We got the downstairs done and part of the upstairs but none of the spare room - since that's where we dumped everything it looks like a tornado hit it but unless she wants to (a) play on Cody's computer (with Linux), (b) play with my scrapbooks, (c) work on on the gym thing or (d) do the treadmill or bike, she really has no reason to be chilling in there. And if she wants to do (c) or (d) she can always go to my gym as me for free. :)
So, for the next three days Cody and I are sharing a bathroom. He likes the downstairs one and I like the upstairs one - it works much better like that anyway. :) Not that we don't share well, or don't share bathrooms at all, just that he likes his stuff downstairs and I like mine up. Plus, he likes the shower downstairs (it's just a shower stall, no bathtub), where I'm a more traditional, want my bathtub and space girl.
On another note we got a new salt water fish today. He's pitch black like no fresh water fish you'll ever see with two white dots. It's just a little cheap Damsel fish but he's cute - I'd hate to buy a $65 nice salt water fish and have him die on me. I really wanted to name whatever fish I got "Nemo" - yes, I know I'm SO original - but now I don't think it fits him (he's NOT a clownfish - those are at least $20). I'm thinking maybe "Spot" or just name him "Bubbles" again. But I don't think that would be fair to our lost Bubbles. "Mr. Pickles" is already taken so that is out of the picture. Any name ideas for my new fish? :)
Well, better get some rest before Mommy gets here and we go wedding dress shopping mad. I am determined to find a dress this weekend!

Cody emailed me this today.

Another reason I love my new computer!

I love my new computer! First, I swear the monitor is bigger then our TV (yes, this is an exaggeration, but we do have very small TV's - on purpose). Second, it's wicked fast. I'm mean super duper wicked fast. I hava tendency to have a lot of programs running at one time (7 internet explorers, outlook express (yes, my computer friends, I do know it is a crappy program, but I like it so leave me alone about using it), Word, Excel (wedding guest list is always open for edits), and Front Page) - my old laptop would freeze up and run really slow. But not new super fast computer - it's great. Third, it's super light. I love laptops and I love light ones even more. Forth, the keyboard rocks. I type a lot, thus I love keyboards that are nice. This one is nice.
I figured out even another reason to love it tonight. As the whole world knows, I take a lot of pictures. I mean, A LOT. On the old computer, I would have to find my cord, hook the camera up to a USB port and download them using a very crappy Kodak Gallery program. First, the cord was always missing. Second, the camera had to stay on throughout the download so if the batteries were low it would shut itself off and all the pictures wouldn't download. Third, since I don't use Kodak as my editor, I would have to download to that program (because I have a Kodak camera), and then move them to Picassa - I love Picassa. Now, I just take my SD card out of my camera, put it directly into a slot on my computer and instantly the pictures upload to Picassa. No cords, no downloading, nothing. Just inset card into slot and done. FABULOUS!

Our First Nice Dinner

Cody and I are kind of weird when it comes to eating out. We typically don't go out to eat a lot and when we do we like good food (not fancy but relatively good for you -I'm pretty picky about what I eat out) but aren't really into fancy stuff. Our favorite restaurants are Crazy Bowls and Wraps, Subway and Bandana's (it's southern BBQ). Cody loves BW3 (Buffalo Wild Wings now, I think), but there's really nothing I like to eat there. Our average restaurant bill is probably around $20. We're usually just not into spending a ton of money on going out to eat. Going out with friends to bars, is another story, as we can drop quite a bit of money there. Anyway, the last "nice" restaurant we probably ate at was Anthony's in Tallahassee where he took me for Senior Prom in high school. He took me to a nice place here when I was up visiting but they served pizza which knocks it off my list of "nice" places. :)
Anyway, we've been trying to get together with some old friends for quite some time and finally all found a date we were free - Friday. Someone wanted to try a new place in the Central West End - Savor. I was quite excited to get to eat somewhere different and nice. We got their early for the drink specials - two for one wine pours and $5 martinis. I got a great Reisling from the Mosul river area in Germany (I'm a HUGE fan of German wine - sure, their beer is fine, but their wine is fabulous!) and Cody got a regular Martini (with Tanqueray). Cody, of course, liked the martini because it was almost pure booze, I thought it was one of the grossest things ever. I took a sip and then rubbed my tounge to try to get the taste off. :) Anyway, after drinks was dinner. I got an AMAZING salmon with a crap stuffing stop and Cody got some kind of pork thing with great mashed potatoes (but of course they didn't call them "mashed potatotes" they called them something much more fancy but that's what they were). I really enjoyed it. It was great to see our friends - they were two couples we used to see a lot more but just with life being busy we haven't gotten to see as much. We got to talk a lot about weddings since one couple is getting married in March, us in April and the third in May. Of course the other two girls have already found their dresses, but not me! It was a really great time. We did spend more on dinner then I think we ever have before (we did order a bottle of wine too with dinner), but I think one in a while, it's worth it. Now if we went every weekend and spent a ton of money on dinner I think we would have problems, but every now and then it's nice to go somewhere insanely nice and fancy and share good food with good friends.

Float Trip!

In reverse chronological order, on to Saturday's events (those I suppose on the blog this will read in chronological order).
Saturday we went float tripping. Or on a float trip as most people say - I love the phrase "float tripping" though. Anyway, for those not from Missouri, let me explain. Down in southern-ish MO, there are a bunch of "rivers." These are not like the Florida rivers I'm used to like the Suwanne, St. Johns, Appalacicola, etc. They are more like glorified streams, just deep enough in most places for a canoe to travel. You really can't boat on these "rivers" because they're just too shallow. Anyway, people here like to get a bunch of beer, Jell-O shots, booze, whatever will possibly get them the drunkest the quickest (lest I remind you I live in the state that is the nation's leader in meth so these locals like their substances), rent canoes/kayaks/rafts and float down these "rivers" - they call it going on a "float trip."
Anyway, it's actually quite a fun time once you get over the drunk/obnoxious locals. The rivers are really pretty and it's nice and relaxing to get outside and get some sun (something I sorely miss living in Missouri). I typically like to go "float tripping" on Sunday's to minimize the locals disturbance, but since soccer has been every Sunday it just hasn't worked out. So we got together with Dude and went canoe and kayaking yesterday on the Big Piney river. It was a great time. Everyone got a good bit of sun and Cody and Dude got a good bit of drinking in (I was the driver for those two fools - lucky me). We managed to gather quite a few rocks for the turtle tank as well as about 8 minnows for the tank. They will end up eating some of them (which is fine since we forget to feed them all the time), but some will live happily with the turtles.
We did have a good bit of shallow parts/mild rapids due to the draught we have going on and we even managed to tip the canoe over, cooler and possessions included, once. We were going through a particularly swift part, hit a branch, the canoe and everything in it tipped over. We all got dragged along the rocks since the water was only about a foot and a half deep and lost everything down the river. Cody grabbed the canoe, got it on shore. I chased the cooler, kept it closed and got it on shore farther down and Dude got the kayak and collected all our floating belongings. So far all we've realized we're missing is one of my shoes. Not a huge loss - I have dozens of flip-flops. :) So, we're all a bit scraped, bruised and cut up today but it was all in good fun. :) It's a good story to tell at least.

Cardinal Sin

Since I've been told my blogs are too long, I'm going to break this one into several installments. The first is our adventure in Wal-Mart today.
First one of my biggest pet peaves, when it comes to myself, is making the same mistake twice, or three times or even more. I have no idea why I tend to do something stupid and then months later think it's a great idea and won't be stupid this time. Yeah right. Anyway, case in point - going to Wal-Mart on a Sunday evening.
I would love to get all my errands done on the weekdays. Every week I say I am going to save the fun stuff for the weekend and do all the tedious errands during the week. But sure enough, every week we end up at Wal-Mart Sunday afternoon, after Cody's soccer game. The Wal-Mart we got to is horrible on Sundays. It's packed, they're totally out of everything I ever need and it's just a stupid madhouse. But once, a while ago, we didn't make it there until the evening, not the afternoon as usual - it was 10 times worse. Absolutely horrible and I vowed never to do it again. I also vowed last year never to shop at Wal-Mart in late August/early September because of the insane "back to school" shoppers. I hate back to school shoppers.
Anyway, today Cody's team played their second playoff game, won, and then had to play in the Championship Game. Good news is they won the Championship for the first time, bad news was that put us leaving soccer later and thus getting to Wal-Mart around 7 or 7:30. It was miserable. The play was a wreck. They were out of most of the items on my list (yes, I'm a dork and go to the grocery store and Wal-Mart with a list), including fish filters, cat litter, toilet paper (the brand I like at least), the soap I like, etc. So, I committed my Cardinal Sin of making the same mistake twice (or more) - I should have known better then to go to Wal-Mart Sunday evening. Never again. And if I have to then I'm going to the one in Kirkwood and not in Brentwood (for all you STL people you'll get why).
On a less frustrating note, we went to Target afterwards and it was an amazingly peaceful experience. Plus they have this super cute gray pinstriped suit for $70. Unfortunately I left my giftcards at home and will have to go back - hopefully when Mommy visits this week - and try it on.
Congrats to Cody's soccer team, Tap This, for being the Champions in the Budsports Co-Ed Soccer League! Great job!

Back to School.

So, I'm debating going back to school - again. I'm not sure exactly why (maybe I should figure that out before paying even more money for a useless education), but I want to get as much education as I may need before I get too old to go back or have kids and not have enough time/money, etc. And I figure I may not always want to do law so I'm considering things that might expand my career possibilities. I think every time I get far enough out from being in school I miss it and want to go back, hence the law degree (and the inability to spell - is it "hense" or "hence"???). :)
For instance, I can get a Masters in Math, then I could teach math (in college, not K-12) or stay in law. I could go for a few more classes and get a Bachelor's in Engineering, then I could do engineering stuff if I ever so desire, or I could sit for the Patent Bar. I could go for a Masters in Computer Science (provided my minor in CS will get me into a program without too many prereqs), then I could teach math or computers, or sit for the Patent Bar. I could get an MBA, then I could do law or do law type business things. So many options. And such expensive options. I was looking at UF's online MBA program and knowing how affordable undergrad was I figured it would be as well. Nope. $39000 for the two year, online MBA program. Not what I call cheap. If I do go back to school, I would not be leaving work. I would want to do an evening/weekend/online program. It would be neat if Cody and I could do a program together and we could both get a degree, help each other out and have Boeing pay for his! Of course we'd still have to pay for mine since, aside from a great office with a view of Busch Stadium (and my rockin' secretary who can spell better then anyone you've ever met), I really get no perks at my job. None. Not even free internet time. But that's another story for another time. Anyway, that's my current debate.
Oh, today's "zone" was supposed to be both bathrooms, but I only finished the upstairs one. I figured we could not touch it until my mom gets here and only use the downstairs one and then I can just clean the bathroom downstairs right before she gets here. :) I did get both fish tanks in the living room clean though. So now we have all clean fish tanks - not counting the turtle tank though. :)

Is it murder if you kill a rock?

Tonight's "zone" was our bedroom. We picked that since, after the living room, it's pretty much the easiest room in the house to clean. Since it's crazy hot upstairs in the summer, to save on electricity, we sleep downstairs on the futon in the Boy Room - plus Cody swears the futon is better for his back. So the bedroom is pretty much just a big closet all summer. Anyway, we wanted an easy room tonight because (1) we're generally lazy if allowed to be, and (2) tonight was Party in the Park and we figured we'd better go, lest they cancel it again.
A quick Party in the Park lesson - for those of you not from STL, people go crazy here in the summer - the winter sucks so bad they try to fit in everything cool and fun into the few short summer months. One of those fun things is Party in the Park - it's just what it sounds like - in Shaw Park in Clayton (a really nice part of St. Louis) they set up a band, some food and beverage (read: beer, wine and booze) vendors and throw a party from 5 pm until 8pm - it's a sort of after work, extended outdoor happy hour. Anyway, it's the second Wednesday of each month and this summer it seems it always storms on the second Wednesday of the month so they cancel it and move it back to the next Wednesday. Unfortunately in July, the third Wednesday was an amazing heat advisory so they cancelled it all together for July. So we figured we better get one in before they're over or they cancel another one. So after work we headed up there and met up with friends - as usual a good time was had by all - especially since it was amazingly nice outside tonight!
Okay, back to cleaning. So tonight was our bedroom, which consisted mostly of putting away the multiple baskets of clean clothes and gathering the baskets of dirty ones. Then we put up my "pet net" a net type contraption that hangs from the ceiling/wall to put stuffed animals - yes, I still have a ton of stuffed animals and just not enough room to store them so the "pet net" works great - I get to keep my keepsakes and they're out the way, but not just sitting in bags in the basement.
Finally we had to deal with the salt water tank. Up until January (yes, JANUARY, 8 months ago), we had a salt water fish in the tank, Bubbles, who lived with just herself and her live rocks. You see, in salt water tanks, you put rocks that are alive - they actually are members of the salt water community and contribute to the tank environment. Well, in January Bubbles died - she was a few years old so she lived a good fish life - but instead of getting around to getting another fish we just left the rocks in the tank to live by themselves. Of course, in the past 8 months I haven't done much to keep that tank up to par, so it's sort of fallen in disrepair, if you will - until today while on my cleaning binge I decided we needed to do something with the tank. We had a few choices: (1) clean the tank (a big pain), change the water (an even bigger pain because now that I live in the Midwest I have to MAKE saltwater), and get a new fish (which then I would have to feed) or (2) be happy with the three tanks we already have, clean the tank and put it in the basement. The problem with (2) is what to do with the rocks. I would pretty much have to "kill" them. To "kill" rocks you either put them in bleach or put them in the sun outside a few days and that pretty much kills off anything living on them. For whatever stupid reason I just hated the thought of "killing" my rocks.
First, as an old anti-war friend described me during our war discussions, I'm pretty much a pacifist and hate killing - including rocks (thanks Adam if you ever read this!). I guess I could have donated them to a pet store to live in their tanks of for them to resell, but then it's like taking your cat or dog to the pound because you didn't think hard enough about the responsiblities of pet ownership when you got him/her and are now too lazy to take care of it. I didn't want to be THAT person. Second, live rocks are expensive and I just knew if I killed mine then I would decide in two weeks that I wanted to reset up the salt water tank and I would want to buy new rocks.
So, what did we do? We spent the better part of a few hours, draining the water, cleaning the tank, making new salt water and setting up the tank all nice and clean again, all so I wouldn't have to "kill" my rocks. Now my rocks are happily living in clean water, with a clean filter and light system. Yippe skippy rocks. So hopefully this week I'll find myself a salt water fish store in St. Louis (someone in the Midwest has to have salt water tanks, right?) and buy a new fish. On a less pain in the butt note, salt water fish are crazy beautiful and I look forward to picking out a very pretty one. :) Maybe I'll name him Bubbles 2 or Nemo. I LOVE Nemo!
Now, remind me who ever said rocks can't be pets??

Missy's House Cleaning/Prepare For Guests Strategy

My mom is coming to visit next week, actually in exactly 10 days, to hang out and help with the wedding. Mostly, I need her help finding a wedding dress, so I called whining and begged her to come help. Our objective? Hit as many bridal boutiques as necessary to find "the one" or at least "the good enough one because we're tired of looking at dresses." Anyway, whenever a family member comes to visit I get very excited. We don't get to see our family often and they get to see our humble home even less often, so I get excited that they're coming to see us in our house and our city. And I want everything to look as nice as humanly possible for their visit. You see, they get to see our siblings houses all the time but ours only once in a blue moon, so I want to make a good impression and at least trick them into thinking we keep our house this nice all the time. So I have a plan when family is visiting.
I divide the house/property into rooms, or "zones," if you will. And there are 10 "zones" - Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen, Boy Room, Bedroom, Spare Room, Bathrooms, Hallways and Stairs, Basement, and Yard (front and back) and Porch. So each day I have a list of things I want to do in the "zone" I have assigned to that day. For instance, today's "zone" was the Living Room. So I came home from work, painted the trim around the window (the rest of the room was painted last June but for some reason I hadn't finished the trim yet), got started on the trim around the doorway (actually Cody did this part), washed the couch covers (in a feble attempt to remove the cat hair), vacuumed the rug, cleaned/dusted the coffee table, book cases and fish tank stands, reorganized the bookcases totally (we have an enourmous amount of books filling bookcases in ever corner of this room), swept and washed the wood floors, cleaned the blinds on the front windown, and then just general straigtening. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to put the second coat on the doorway trim or clean the two fishtanks, so that will have to eat into another "zones" time later in the week. I can't wait until I have all these little chores done and the house looks super nice.
We also found out that Cody's parents are coming to visit next month! I'm super excited because they came up with us last July when we moved my U-Haul of stuff into the house and did a great job helping us paint, but they haven't seen the house since so they've missed the house looking like an actual lived in house! I can't wait to show them all we've done and they can see how we've organized everything. I think they'll really like what we've done with the place - especially since the last time they were here there were boxes in every room and we were still sleeping on the floor. :)
Well, off to shower after a totally grueling 45 mintues on the eliptical today. I don't know how 45 minutes on that damn thing can seem harder then running 7 miles. Go figure.
p.s. Wow I love the new computer - the monitor is ginormous!

Palpable Happiness

Wow - I get a new computer and I go blog crazy. One more for good measure - a quick update. This past week was crazy busy, as they usually go for us. I worked my butt off redoing our dining room and Cody had to work a lot of extra time at work. I got the entire chair rail up, nailed in, caulked and painted all by myself. All I really have left to do in the dining room is paint one section of the chair rail and one coat of paint on the doorway leading to the living room. Yippe! Another project almost done!!
Saturday we had the SEC Softball Tournament with the Gator Club. Cody played on the team, after not playing softball/baseball for about 10 years. He was actually quite good - being a natural athlete and all. After the tourney (which the Gators won I might add), we headed to Greg's pool party. More fun in the sun! Saturday night we headed downtown for the LIVE concert at Live on the Levee. Yes, we've seen them in concert quite a few times before, but as usual, it was a great show. There's just soemthing about seeing that band in concert that is just really amazing and moving. They do a really great show and it really gets the crowd moving. After the show we watched the always wonderful firework showcase. Sometimes happiness is practically palpable.
Sunday Cody's soccer team had the first game of their playoffs. It was a hard fought victory, but a victory nonetheless. Great job guys! Now they play next week for the Bud Sports championship! The rest of the day we ran errands, did chores, etc.
Today I went wedding dress shopping . . . . again. Still no luck. I think I'm destined never to find "the one" and just have to settle on something that looks decent. We'll have to see once my mom comes up. After dress shopping, Marissa and I ran 7 miles in preparation for the half marathon next month. Getting closer . . .

Happy 10 Years!

10 years. Wow - that's a long damn time. As a matter of fact, that's how long Cody and I have known each other this second time around. Second time around? You see, we first met on the Deerlake Middle School 8th grade trip to Washington D.C. He and his friends were on the same bus as my friends (hey there Meghan, Christine and Rachel!!!) and I on the trip up to D.C. Anyway, I had a HUGE crush on him so we sort of middle school flirted a bit here and there on the trip. Actually my friends and I pretty much stalked him and his friends because some of my friends also had crushes on some of his. I have about a zillion pictures of his butt from the trip because we were always following him and his friends around taking their pictures. Okay, we were lame. :) I do have one really great picture of him on the bus with his huge glasses. As soon as I figure out if my scanner still works, I'll scan it onto the website. :) Anyway, we even had a bet on the way back to Tally as to who can stay awake the longest and wrote notes the whole way back - I think I even have some of the notes. Anyway, upon returning to middle school, he went back to his friends, I back to mine and we really never talked again.
So that leads us to the second time around. 10 years ago this week, I got a job working at the grocery store where he worked. I had already worked for the store (Bruno's for those curious) at another location so got hired at his location working with him in Customer Service - where you buy lottery tickets and make returns. Anyway, I hated him because he didn't remember me. I refused to talk to him or really even be nice to him. I was really mad/hurt that he didn't even remember me when I had such a huge crush on him back in the day - come to learn later that it wasn't personal, it's just Cody and his faulty memory. :) So, when I first started working there not only did I hate him for not remembering me but I was dating someone else. When that relationship sort of fell apart, I noticed that Cody wasn't such a bad person after all. He trained me one Friday night on the office closing procedures (I was "promoted" from Customer Service to Office) and was really quite a funny guy. Anyway, jump forward a bit and he came into the store one evening while I was filling in as cashier and said he had to see the movie "Romeo and Juliet" for extra credit for English and wanted to know if I wanted to go. Obviously I said yes. To be continued . . . .

New Computer!

After months and months and months of pleading my case, I finally talked Cody into letting me get a new laptop! Actually, I just saved and saved my mileage checks until he couldn't argue with me anymore about the necessity of a laptop. You see, I get paid mileage for every out of town docket I go to so in the past I usually put half in savings for us and the other half I spent on whatever I wanted - clothes, etc. But since the old laptop finally broke, I've been saving my mileage checks for a new laptop. Well the time finally came and Cody went and got it this morning. You see, Cody is a desktop guy. I'm a laptop girl. Though he probably uses my laptop about 90% more then he does his desktop, he sees a desktop as a necessity and a laptop as a toy. I'm the opposite. I don't see why anyone in the world would want a dumb desktop - they're practically useless (especially ours since it's upstairs where it's currently too hot to even hang out and plan on the computer) and totally immobile. Laptops just rock. They're mobile, I can take it around the house whereever I need it. They're just cute too. :) In any event, I got a new laptop and am thrilled. . . though Cody's being insane about making sure we're careful with the hinges (I have a thing with hinges - they always break around me - cell phones and laptops being the big ones). :)

More Paper Towel Wisdom

A while ago I posted about my cheap-brand paper towels (Sparkle, for those interested) and the wisdom they have recently attemted to pass on to their users. Well, I bought some more paper towels and low and behold they have more wisdom to empart. Here goes:

"If you love life, life will love you back."
- Arthur Rubinstein

"The greatest happiness in the world is to make others happy."
- Luther Burbank

"With every rising of the sun, think of your life as just begun."
- Anon

Thanks, cheap Sparkle towels.

I'm a home improvement godess!

It really hit me right before we left for Germany that we'd lived in our house for a year now and still haven't finished painting or unpacking and really hadn't gotten a start on all the projects I had such high hopes of accomplishing the first few months in the house. Life just got busy and there was always something else to do . . . . until this last weekend. Friday night I decided that come hell or high water, I was determined to get something done on the house. So we went out Friday night and started working bright and early Saturday morning on the dining room. Since we bought the house I knew I wanted to do something different with the dining room, but didn't really solidify any ideas for a while. Cody was actually the one who thought of the idea for the dining room paint decor and we actually bought the paint, I think, last Labor Day, and until now just hadn't gotten around to it. Anyway, Saturday we primed and painted the dining room. Add in Sunday in there and we primed the whole room, painted the top part a tanish colour and put three coats of burgundy/red on the bottom. There will be a white chair rail where the colours meet. Oh, and yes, I said THREE coats of red. The first coat was just awful and the second made the room look very Aztec or something - like a Mexican restraunt - but the third coat made a nice deep shade of burgundy which really adds a richness to the tan and white in the rest of the room. So after working so much on that project I was obsessed. After work I came home and painted all the baseboards and trim around the doorways white to match the chair rail (which we picked out but haven't purchased yet). The house is a zillion years old so not only does it have a ton of trim, but it's very thick trim. I'll have to post a before and after picture when I get the chair rail up. Anyway, in line with my general dorkiness, that has been what I've been up to - redoing our dining room so it looksl ike grown-ups live here instead of a bunch of lazy college kids (no offense to my college friends). Next up is to paint the entry way/hall way, then tile the back splash in the kitchen, redo the carpet/hardwoods, and then redo the downstairs bathroom. :) Sounds fun, huh? Oh, the joys of homeownership.

On another note, I was all excited this weekend because it was tax free weekend in MO (on "school" items), so I was going to go ahead and get a new laptop while there was no tax (for you Florida people, our tax here is over 8%). So we searched the ads to find one I liked, that was cheap enough but still nice enough. We knew we wanted at least 1024 MB of memory, a fast processor and as much hard drive space as I could get (with all my pictures and music). We finally found one we liked at Circuit City on sale, but before running out to buy it we decided to check online at Dell first. Turns out with Cody's Dell discount (another Boeing bonus), it would actually be cheaper for us (including shipping and tax) to buy one on Dell. So it looks like we're going to finally get me a new laptop, just have to pick it out and order it now! :) Yipee! No more ghetto broken hinge!!!

Website Update

The website, www.cody-missy.com is now officially updated with new decor, minus the wedding section which my brother is working on. Also available are recent pictures for July and August, including last night's soiree at Double D's. Enjoy!

Flash.

If you wonder why my house is a mess and I never get anything done, today is a prime example. Today's schedule: Wake at 7 am. Leave for work at 7.30 am (Yes, my goal is to wake up, get dressed and ready to go and out the door in less then 30 minutes - I pride myself on my low-maintenance mornings). Work all day. 5:30 leave work. 5:50 arrive home, change into work-out clothes. 6:00 leave for gym. 6:10-7:10 Cardio Kickboxing class. 7:30 arrive home, call Cody back from the three "missed calls," find out everyone is going to Shafly Brewery (a local St. Louis brewery - awesome Hefeweizen) to watch "Flash Gordon," find out movie starts at 8pm. 7:30-7:45 eat quick dinner (frozen salmon cooked in microwave), take shower because I was stinky, and get in car. 8:00 arrive at Shafly, watch "Flash," laugh uncontrollably. 10:30 pm arrive home, having not done laundry, dishes, vauccuming, sweeping, yard work, or any other possible task I had on the never ending "to do" list. You know though, damn life is good and I wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Peace.

I'm writing earlier then normal tonight because Cody is coming home soon and we're going to watch a movie (a rarity in our house as we never ever have time for such things) and hang out (another rarity lately with his work and social schedule and my always seemingly conflicting social schedule). But as I was about to take a shower, snacking on graham crackers and Neutella (thanks again Germans for the Neutella - wonderfully delicious!), I realized that amid all this craziness in our lives - work, the house, working out, friends - there really are moments of peace sometimes. They often don't last long (the cat jumped on the counter trying to eat my Neutella, ruining my peaceful moment) as we move to another task or event, but it's nice to know they're out there when you need them.
In other events, it's the kitties birthday's today. They were all born right around four years ago. I got them four or five weeks later, when they were just little bitty things. I told everyone at work today they were all related and no one belived me (Bumpis, the fat one, looks nothing like Wiggles, the skinny co-dependent kitty, or Mr. Pickles for that matter), until I explained that the vet told me that one cat can have a litter of kittens with different dads. I guess the kitties mommy was a little hussy. And Tubby's (aka Bumpis) dad must have been really fat and fluffy. Thinking they are four years old makes me think of four years ago. I had just come back from a whirlwind summer in Europe. Amazing trip - did a lot of thinking and growing up. I also decided to swear off boys forever. I was single and planned to stay that way forever (sort of like saying "I'm never going to drink again" after a long night out with Jose Quervo). So I decided I might want a cat. That thought of possibly getting one cat (to which I am deathly allergic) one day in the future ended up being three kittens. Yeah, I'm a sucker for "They were abandoned. If no one adopts them then they will be put to sleep. One cat will need a playmate while you're in school/work all day. But you wouldn't want to break up a set of three sisters would you? They should stay together." Alas, three cats and four years later I sit here writing about their birthday. So, happy birthday furballs! May you live many more years tormenting Cody (he *swears* he hates the cats - but loves them more then he'll ever admit - proof? See "Mr. Pickles Page" on the website) and making my eyes itch!

I'm officially obsessed.

No, not with the website this time, though I have worked a bit more today on getting the glitches fixed and the pages running right again. Nope, this time I'm officially obsessed with this wedding. I swore up and down I would not become obsessed with this wedding. I wasn't going to be like that. I just didn't care about details. All I wanted was family, friends and an open bar. I guess I lied. I'm obsessed!
Favors. Guest List. Attendants. Flowers. Photographers. DJs. Wedding band/music. Catering. Colours. And don't even get me started on DRESSES! It's insane. I don't know how people ever make it through long engagements! I can't decide what clothes to wear to work today or what to eat for lunch, much less what I will eat on my ONE wedding day. Or what music will play on my ONE wedding day. Or what flowers. Or anything else. Decisions, decisions, decisions. But at least I'm getting into it now. I sort of had the "whatever" attidude for a while, but now that I've been killing myself with dress shopping, I'm sort of getting into it. Speaking of dresses, thanks for everyone who has provided opinions and thoughts! Especially my mommy who sat on the internet for hours with me pouring over picture after picture of gowns online. The one thing I do regret about this wedding is not being able to share it more personally with our families in Florida - there's just so much you can do over the phone, fax and email. But they are all wonderful nonetheless.
Anyway, one thing wedding planning has done for me is provide me an opportunity to be introspective on where I've been, where I'm at now and where I'm heading. I'm glad we've got a semi-long engagement, because it's really given me a chance to take stock of everything and really "prepare" to move onto the next step of my life. I never though marriage would affect me so profoundly, as I've never been that kind of person. But I've really had an opportunity to figure out more of who I am and what I want to be. I try not to think of marriage as losing anything, most importantly yourself, but in a way you do move on and put a lot of your past behind you. I guess for girls it can be even more profound because we give up our names (huge, unfair presumption here, but since I plan to, I'm speaking from my thoughts), something that really is a core of who we are. My entire life I've been "Melissa Flynn." My license says it. My degrees say it. My buisness cards, email and name plates all say it. But on April 8th I'll be Melissa Raffensperger. First, it won't even fit on half of those above mentioned items. Second, I'm not used to the way it sounds. I'm not sure how long it will take for me to respond to it. When I have kids they won't ever know I had a totally different name before I married their dad. They won't know a thing about who I was before I was their mom. I wonder if old friends will still be able to find me and track me down. Will my current friends even take the time to learn how to spell it? Will my family, for that matter? :)
Okay, enough of that. I feel my thoughts are going more random then any particular direction and when they do that I need to regroup and get things together in my head before I ramble myself to death.
Thanks mommy for your help. One of these days we'll find the right dress - now go ask your boss for time off work to visit The Lou!

I'm still a dork.

So, I have this list of about a zillion "to do" things. Everything from paint the dining room, to put my registration sticker on my car, to plan this darn wedding. One of those things is to do a wedding website and make our normal website look better. Well, I put Bo in charge of the wedding website and I've been working on revamping the regular site. It's not all done yet, but check it out and see all the new changes: www.cody-missy.com. I think I'm happier with the changes, but after working on it for so long, I can't decide if I still like the layout or not. Oh, by the way, if anyone knows how to make links not have that annoying underline in HTML, without making them into pictures, please let me know.
As for other news, another busy weekend as usual - pretty much nothing marked off the good ole' "to do" list. Friday, Cody played golf and I went shopping/eating in the Loop with Marissa. Then we all met up and headed out to West County for Mason's going-away gathering. A good time but stayed out too late for having to wake up early Saturday for another day of wedding dress shopping. Cashel came with Marissa and I this time for added perspective and advise. They were super wonderful and so patient with me with this whole affair. It's really getting on my nerves that I can't find a dress I like. I can't decide if I'm being overly picky or if they really don't have any dresses that I think are perfect. I have an idea in my head of what I want but can't seem to find it in a store. I guess I'll just keep on looking. Saturday, while I tortured my friends with dress shopping, Cody played in a golf tournament (which I keep calling a golf festival for some reason) that got rained out by more St. Louis storms. He went to some party afterwards, I went running instead. (BTW, I'm adding a "running" section on the website to keep up with my marathon training - maybe it will make me stick with it - I can at least chart my progress.) Today we all went out to West County for Cody and Marissa's soccer game. I ran while they played. It was the worst run ever - it was over 100 degrees and I really thought I might pass out. I seriously think I still don't feel right. Oh well. Then it was errands and cleaning hte house for the rest of the evening. We were going to watch a movie but we're both so exhausted we would never make it through. So, a few more chores and off to bed.

I'm such a dork.

I'm trying to lay out a wedding website I like. What do you think of this one?
http://codyandmissy.weddingwindow.com/index.cfm?fa=welcome

We're back. . .

Well, we made it back from Tallahassee safe and sound. We had a great time with everyone, though, as always, we regret not having more time, or "enough" time - though I don't know how much time it would take to be "enough" because whatever we have is never enough. Saturday, I got to hang out with my mom, run some errands, do mommy-daughter stuff, and work on the wedding planning. Not so much the planning per se, but the organization of my piles of crap and a discussion and brainstorming session. Saturday evening we hung out with Cody's family to celebrate his sister's 30th birthday. It really seems like just yesterday I remember celebrating her 21st birthday with his family. Boy does time fly. Anyway, we had a great time hang out, catching up, playing with the kids, discussing the wedding and watching old family videos. It was errie how Baylee is so much like Sara was in the videos. I can only hope and pray my kids won't be like me - I was a terror - or so I've been told numerous times. :) Anyway, Sunday we saw both families again, packed up the kitties in the kitty carrier (actually we borrowed a friend's doggie carrier), and stopped by to see some more family. We got to see Dianne (my stepmom), my step-grandparents (who are just like any real set of grandparents to me - there is absolutely nothing "step" about them - they are truly truly wonderful people - I really couldn't ask for anything more from a step-family then I already have), David and Kim, and Athena and Aurora. I know I'm probably prejudice but those girls really are gorgeous - I keep telling David he's going to have to beat the boys with sticks to keep them away. :) It was great to see them, even if for such a short time. Then it was off for another 13 hour drive home - but we made it.

As for wedding news, we sort of got the weekend of events roughly planned out. I'm going to try to post a ton more on the website coming soon, but tonight I'm just too tired. :) Thanks the to absolute genius of Cody's mom (who is the GREATEST wedding planner ever - whether she wants to or not, she's sort of been nominated - she's been AMAZING), we figured out our rehersal dinner deliema. We're doing the rehersal at the gardens but then for the dinner, since we wanted to invite all of the out-of-town guests (and in-town since we never see anyone), we're going to have a pool party at the hotel! We're getting my favorite restraunt (Sonny's) to cater it - should be a total blast! I love it - totally low-key and very "us"! We also finished asking all the bridesmaids this weekend but Cody's still working on his groomsmen. We also asked our three amazing nieces to be flower girls, David to play a song on guitar and Kim to read a passage at the wedding (actually I meant to ask her but haven't yet - plan to email her tonight - so I hope she doesn't read this before I ask her). :) I'm really getting excited!! Now I just have to find a dress and photographer ASAP! Well, no sleep last night so off to bed early tonight. . ..

I type about as much as I talk.

I just realized I type obnoxiously long blogs. People who know me know how much I talk. Now I think I type as much as I talk - but not as fast (though I'm still a pretty fast typer - I talk crazy fast). Anyone who made it through that last one deserves a cookie - and probably needs a beer by the time they're done. :)

What a whirlwind week!

What a crazy week. Monday and Tuesday weren't too bad - normal stuff - work, come home and go work out, clean the house. Cody's been working late lately because they're trying to finish up a big project so nothing too exciting those days. Wednesday everything was blown around, quite literaly.

First, I had an appointment with the otologist my ENT (ear, nose and throat) refered me to in an attempt to fix my ears. They did an audio test thing and my right ear was pretty good but my left ear has lost quite a bit of hearing since this bird flu thing. I basically can't hear much of anything of out it - the doctor described it as "substantial hearing loss." So he poked around in my ear, did some more tests and suggested one, possibly two surgeries. SURGERIES!?!? I just wanted some stupid eardrops to make it all better. I certainly didn't sign up for surgery, much less the possibility of two! Anyway, he wants to do the first one as soon as possible - it will basically fix the large hole in my eardrum (which while it has been there for at least 10 years, got much larger as a result of said bird flu and is causing said hearing loss - at least presumably) and then do another mastoidectomy (I had this surgery already when I was 9 years old). Then, assuming some of the loss is also due to otosclerosis (every female on my mother's side of the family has had it going back at least to my great-grandma), he wants to do a stapendectomy second (they can't do it at the same time because there can't be a hole in your eardrum when they do the second one). Fun fun. I'm not a huge fan of doctors to begin with, much less when they want to cut my head open. So, needless to say, this pretty much freaked me out Wednesday. In addition to the whole cutting at my head thing, these things are not cheap. I have health insurance, it's just not great (only covers 80% after my deductible), while Cody has rock star insurance. So now the deliema - wait until the wedding so I can get on his insurance (and live without hearing in one ear until and through the wedding), pay for the 20% (can't imagine that will be cheap), or go to the courthouse, get married and still have the reception next year. Too much to think about. . .

So, in the midst of all that stress, Marissa was nice enough to take me out wedding dress shopping Wednesday. The first shop (in a mirror of Saturday's excursion) was total crap and didn't have anything remotely wonderful. Most looked like nightgowns. Then we found another shop so I could try on two of the dresses I liked from Saturday. Well, I knocked out on of the gowns from Saturday but found two more. First, I love Watters gowns (www.watters.com). I'm not a big name brand person or anything, but seriously, every dress I tried of theirs was gorgeous. I'll put up pictures later with links to the website (I'm assuming Cody won't look because he's more supersticious then I am and it's unlikely he even made it this far in the blog). :) So on our way back into town from the burbs it started storming. Not just a summer shower, but I seriously felt like we were in a hurricane. To cut to the chase, this was the storm that's been all over the news. By the time I got home, we'd lost power. We still do not have power. It's been over two days now and they don't have an estimate as to when it will be back on - hopefully by Monday.

So, we arrive home to find no electricity on the hotest day of the year thus far (turns out Thursday would be an even hotter day). Cody and I hang out in the house, all windows open and candles burning and try everything we can think of to get the house cooler. It was no use. We finally managed to sleep a little Wednesday night in the heat, but we knew that wouldn't last. Since we were already planning a trip to Tally (still needed to pick up the fur balls), we just moved it up a bit. We went to work Thursday, came home, packed and got on the road. It wasn't even worth trying to take a nap in the house before we left - it was a sauna. We emptied the fridge and took anything still good in the fridge and freezer to a friend's house for storage and drove through the night.

So we made it to Tally today and have been checking the electric company website to see if our power is back on yet or if they at least have an estimate - no luck yet. I feel really bad for the fish because they're probably boiling by now, but hopefully they'll all make it since they're tropical fish. While it's great to be in Tally and not have to worry about the heat and no power, I hate to leave the house in such a state. Plus there was another storm today and we haven't had anyone drive by yet to make sure my car is okay and there is no damage to the house. I guess this is what we get for living in the midwest. Hopefully all will be fine by Sunday when we get home.

In other news, while in Tally today, I finally renewed my car registration (it was due in March). Yes I still register my car in Florida - so I don't have to pay the yearly personal property tax in Missouri on my car. Then I got a new cell phone because I pretty much destroyed mine - the hinge broke on this phone for the second time - I'm just not lucky with cell phones (I'm also not the gentlest with them either). It was also my mom's birthday today so we had a nice little party at my aunt's house - a good ole' seafood fest with crab claws and shrimp - oh, and of course cake. :) I think this is the first time I've been in Tally for my mom's birthday since I was probably 17 years old - I always ended up being out of town. Not this year.

Well, I'm beat from the 13 hour drive - time to sleep. Hope everyone in St. Louis is okay and is getting power back!!

Glitch fixed.

Just in case you all were wondering, the pictures that weren't working on the Germany pictures page of the website are now working again. Stupid FTP program.

Quick Update

Wow, it's been a while since I posted last. Usually that means either nothing has been going on or so much has been going on that I haven't had time to post. This time I guess I have no real excuse as I've been somewhere in the middle.
Last week was moderately uneventful. I went to an amazing ear specialist on Monday who actually had a clue what was going on with my ears. He gave me some meds for the acute problem (gross drainage stuff) and refered me to a specialist for the ongoing problems (large hole in eardrum for quite some time and hearing losS). So that was quite successful after several horrible experiences with my primary doctor who didn't even see the damn hole in my ear.
Wednesday we had a Partners v. Associates softball game at work. It all started because the associates have a softball team but haven't ever won a legit game (they have two wins via forfeits because the other team did not have enough players) so the partners "challenged" them. Turns out that was a bad idea since the associates won 19-7. At least they finally won a game. I was the creative coordinator for the game and came with signs reading "Partners put the SLOW in slowpitch" and "We'll show you who's boss."
Thursday I got my hair cut much shorter then it's been in a while. I was not kind to my hair while in Germany and it needed a cut anyway.
Friday we went to "Live on the Levee" at the Arch and saw Better then Ezra and Sister Hazel. The latter was pretty good, the former was an arogant Screach-looking fellow who's best songs were covers. The fireworks were amazing. I think everyone who is ever stress, depressed or otherwise unhappy, should be forced to watch fireworks as therapy, as they are incredibly soothing and make you really realize how small we all are.
Saturday, Marissa and I went wedding dress shopping. She was such a trooper and SO patient with my indecisive self. She was amazing at conveying to the sales people what I liked and didn't much better then I could. I think we found two possiblities. I'll put links for them up tomorrow. They wouldn't let us take pictures (thought the gowns are online) so I've got to go back on a non-busy day this week to take pictures and get everyone's opinion (not Cody's though). Saturday evening we went to Sabrina's husband's 30th birthday party. I think between Cody and our work friends they floated the keg by 10pm. :) A good time was had by all.
Today Cody had soccer, but it was so damn hot I didn't even bother to run. I was feeling very hot and lazy. :) We ran errands, did a super cleaning of the turtle tank and then hung around the house.
Now off to bed. . .

More Germany Updates

Okay, two weeks after we got back from our trip, all the pictures are finally posted. I finished narrating the trip as well as posting all the pictures Dude took. His camera has a crazy good zoom so he has some great pictures of the games and other stuff where I couldn't take pictures (inside the Louvre, etc.). If you are just insanely bored or have an amazing amount of time on your hands, check them out. :)
As for other news, I'm still sick, though have resorted to being sick of being sick so I'm at least back to running a little bit. I'm debating whether I have enough time to train for the Chicago marathon after 6 weeks of no running while recovering from stress fractures in my shins and then two weeks of no running because I was sick. I ran two miles on Friday and felt okay, but was just exhausted later. Today while Cody was playing soccer I ran a while, but still didn't feel great afterwards. Hopefully by the end of the week I can make a decision.

Tired of being sick!!! Oh, and I hate my car.

Okay, this is getting really really old. I am so sick of being sick! My ear is still in crazy pain and my head just will not get uncongested! I finally went to the doctor and was told, gasp, that I have a hole in my eardrum. Thanks genius! I already knew that- goes to figure why there is stuff ozzing out of it! Enough gross sick stuff. On to other news. . .
So, for the second time since returning from Germany, I had to travel for work. Not to complain because I really enjoy my travel time - I love mileage checks and it's nice to get out of the office for a day. But for the second time since returning to Germany, my car gave out on my trip. Last week it was my car battery simply dying when I went to turn on the car. Today, I was on my way to Columbia, crossed the bridge over the Missouri River, and my right front tire blew out! At that point, I thought I must have done something pretty bad in a past life to deserve this karma. Anyway, I changed the tire, Cody game and met me, and we switched out cars so I could take his to Columbia. He, being the great guy he is, took my car to the store and got a new tire put on.
So, as I close out day 658 of my illness, all is still good in the world, as at least tomorrow is Friday. :)

Happy 4th of July . . . . hope you don't have bird flu

I hope everyone had a fun and enjoyable 4th of July. Typically this is one of my favorite holidays, not because I'm overly patriotic (with today's government, quite the opposite), but because it's about the pure joy of family, friends and fun. There is really no stress involved (New Year's is another fave but it's in the winter, which I hate, so that bumps it down on the list), just barbeque, beer, fireworks and good fun. Until this year. Until bird flu (again, I really do not have bird flu, but it certainly feels like it). I haven't written in a few days, basically because they've been the worst few days in recent memory and I've done nothing worth writing about. And I mean nothing. I was so excited for the weekend to get some things done and hang out with Cody, until I came home from work Friday feeling like a truck hit me. But while him and Dude played hours of drunk chess, I gathered my energy and worked on painting the dining room ceiling. I was doing okay for a while until I really started to fade fast. So I slept. Saturday I was awful. Awful. Awful. I woke Cody up, we went to Wal-Mart, stocked up on tissues, juice and cold medicine and I stayed in bed ALL DAY. Sunday was no better. I just sat in bed and worked on my scrapbooks (in the good news category, I at least got some work done on the ole' scrapbooks). Monday I went to work, felt absolutley horrible, so for the first time since starting this job 1.5 years ago, I left work early because I was sick. I came home and crashed. Last night when Cody called (he was working late) I was almost in tears with the pain and pressure in my head and ear. He came home, did everything he could to help, but sure enough I was awakened at 4am with my ear draining nasty stuff. My worst pain fear had arrived - my stupid ear gave out on me and the pressure ruptured my eardrum and was draining fluid out of my ear. Gross. Super gross and super pain. So I waited until 8 am to call the on-call doctor, only to have her call me in an antibiotic. Oh well.
Okay, enough about being sick. Bird flu sucks and I am the biggest baby when I get really sick. I am pretty good with normal colds and flus and I'm usually pretty tough, but once I cross a certain treshold I just melt and become 4 years old again. Anyway, with other news, Germany lost to Italy today. A tragic defeat. 119 minutes of scoreless soccer. Only one minute to go until the game is decided in penalty kicks. And Italy scores. And then with less then one minute to go, they score again. Heartbreaking. I can't even imagine that country tonight. Absolute sorrow.
Went and saw the fireworks tonight downtown. It was sort of raining/sprinkling so we watched them from our parking garage - too bad there was another building right in the way. Still got to see a good bit of them so it was still cool. No BBQ and beer though - doesn't go too well with bird flu.
I really really really hope this thing is over soon.

Germany pictures are up. . . at least some.

All of the pictures I took in Germany are now on the webpage - www.cody-missy.com. I haven't finished the commentaries yet (it's late and I've got the bird flu and need my sleep), but plan to do so tomorrow. Dude also took a ton of pictures, which as soon as I track him down and torture him, I will put them up as well. Enjoy.

Make sure to watch Germany beat up on Argentina tomorrow - 10 am central time, ESPN!

Papertowel Inspiration

I buy cheap papertowels. Sparkle brand I think. I buy them because in every 12 pack there is at least 3 rolls with frogs on them and I like frogs. The other designs are okay too - some strawberries, maybe some flowers or seashells. So my frogs ran out, I went to the basement, got a new roll and realized my cheap papertowels are now inspirational. On each sheet: "I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination." Okay, so I found that odd that my papertowels are now coming with inspirations. Maybe I've just had too much wine tonight. I should probably stop blogging now.

Why I love my husband-to-be . . .

There are about a zillion reasons, everything from the way he is so patient with my insane moods, my crazy way of doing things/going through life and my general nuttiness, to the way he puts the cap back on the toothpaste because he knows I like it that way. But on our trip one thing he said really stood out from the array of other things he does. It was warm out one day, but not particularly hot. A temperature that I would usually be quite comfortable with, but one that most people might comment on. Anyway, he said to me, quite nonchalantly, "Are you hot?" and I said something to the effect of, "Yeah, normally I love this temperature but for some reason I'm really warm." Feeling like that was a sort of odd question, I inquired, "Why do you ask?" He responded back, just as it were any old comment, "Because the hair on the back of your neck is curling and it usually does that when you get hot." For whatever reason, that really struck me. How in the hell does he notice me enough to know that the hair on the back of my neck curls when I'm hot!??! I don't even know that! You know that someone must really care about you to notice those little everyday things that no one else would ever take the time to learn or notice.

This trip also gave me a lot of time to think and really regroup - not only on Cody and our relationship (which I realized was even more special then I ever realized) but on live in general. Even with as hectic as things were and how much we were running around, being away from the US and the day to day grind really gave me a time to reflect. But since we're on the boy subject, I'll just note a quick thing on this topic and comment on the others as they strike me.

It's no secret that I'm not getting married at 21, or even 25 for that matter. Cody's not the first guy I ever dated. We've both lived lives, sometimes together and others separate, and had an opportunity to really see the world, sort to speak, in terms of what's out there in relationships. While on one hand, it would have been a great story to tell had we stayed together after high school and then college and then gotten married and had 3 kids by now, that's not what life had in store for us. On the other hand, we both got to really grow up and figure out who we really were as people individually and what we wanted from a relationship. This time around we really understood what it takes to make these things work, what works and what doesn't and most important, what we want and need to be happy in a relationship.

For me, that was not so easy to figure out. I had the sort of stupid Jerry McGuire attitude of wanting to find someone to "complete me." But in order for someone else to complete you, you have to be incomplete yourself. Only after being alone, being in good and bad relationships, did I realize that you have to be complete before you add another person. You can't (or at least I can't) need someone else to make you whole. And on that note, that's why I love Cody. He doesn't so much "complete me" as he does "complement me." He really lets me be me. And that's not an easy task. He doesn't expect to change me or want me to be someone else. The first time we dated I tried really hard to be what I thought he wanted and that just didn't work (obviously). This time around I'm me and it works for us. He lets me watch stupid cartoon movies (even if he hates them and thinks they're retarded, he accepts that's me). He understands when I get cranky and yell that it's not him but usually something else that's bothering me. He lets me dress like a stupid hippy and braid my hair into 156 braids and just understands that's me. He understands that sometimes I want him to come to Wal-Mart with me, not because I need help shopping or can't do it myself, but because I just want to spend time with him. I could go on and on and on here for pages and bore the death out of anyone who's even made it this far. But in the end, what I found (at least for me) is one of the most important things is finding someone who lets me be me, good and bad and the ugly. Thanks Cody for complimenting me.

We're back . . . now I have Bird Flu

Wow - what a trip. And what a few days back. Makes me really wish I were back in Germany. So we get back on Sunday, Glenn picked us up and brought us home and Cody proceeded to bed. I stayed up in an effort to try to get back on US time as soon as possible. So even though I was dead tired, I stayed up and cleaned a bit and did some laundry. Then I went to bed. Then I woke up at 5am (noon Germany time) and just couldn't get back to sleep. So I went to work. I checked my calendar and found I needed to be in Jefferson City for a mediation at 2pm. So I left work around noon and headed out. I stopped by the house to get a bottle of water, but then when I got back in the car it was dead. Totally dead. So I called the other attorney frantic, only to find out the mediation wa Tuesday! AGGG!! Now I had left work early to go to a mediation that didn't exist and my car was dead! So I waited until Cody got home and we went to Wal-Mart for a new battery - and four hours later we were still there. The good news we at least got some more cold medicine and Cody got a new watch (his old one broke somewhere in Switzerland). So we get home, both feeling like crap - I'm convinced we have the Bird Flu (for anyone who doesn't know my sense of humor, I'll go ahead and insert a disclaimer - WE DO NOT REALLY HAVE BIRD FLU - IT'S A JOKE!).
So yesterday I ended up at the mediation in Jefferson City and Cody worked late. I busted my butt when I got home trying to get the trip pictures downloaded but had hard drive space issues. I went through deleting everything I could think off which turned out to include my website creater, Frontpage. So when we finally got all the pictures downloaded I couldn't put them on the webpage. AGGGG!! Then Cody got home, fixed the disk space problem in about 2 minutes and I was an idiot for deleting everything. Now I can't reinstall Frontpage because I have a pirated copy and can't find my pirated key code!
So we get to bed after me wanting to throw the computer against the wall, only for me to wake up at 2am with the worst sore throat ever. So I take some medicine, get back to bed, only to wake up again at 6am when the medicine wore off and can't get back to sleep. So I go to work. I try to convince everyone I have bird flu but they don't buy it - though they did say if I infected them, they at least wanted a fun quarantine.
Now we're trying to figure out how to get the picture online while we eat our first tomato from our garden. At least there's a bright side. No sleep in Germany is way better then no sleep in St. Louis.