Ich learne Deutch.

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

Uncle Bob and Elizabeth get passports to see the Titanic

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

Cody the Psychologist

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

Speaking of late . . . .

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

Happy Valentine's Day . . . late

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

Lebowski goes to Germany?

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

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

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

Owwie

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

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

Birthday Weekend

Well, these past few days have been Cody's "Birthday Weekend." Some of you may ask, "Birthday Weekend? I thought your birthday was just one day." Well, not in St. Louis and not with Cody's friends. They have "Birthday Weekends" and even "Birthday Weeks" - quite the celebratory crowd, I assure you (more to do with finding any excuse to go out and drink then celebrating one's birth, I'm sure).
Cody's Birthday Weekend began with his day off on Friday. He worked too many hours this past week and since they no longer have overtime, he went ahead and took Friday off. Being the great guy he is, he took it upon himself to get a ton of our "chores" done Friday while I was working -helped out a lot to clear up the weekend. :) We started the celebrating with a not-so-birthday related celebration - a going-away happy hour for two of our great associates at work. Most would think happy hours last from about 5-7pm, maybe even 8pm, well, not this crowd - at 10pm most were still alive and kicking. We had a blast with everyone and it was a great kick-off for Birthday Weekend!
Saturday we took our first day in forever (literally) to just hang out and relax and veg - we did absolutely no work. We rented Cinderella Man and watched that and went to dinner at one of Cody's favorite restaurants - King and I. It's a Thai place in the city and they'll make stuff as hot as you want. Cody was quite impressed with the degree of hottest prepared for his birthday - he drank at least a gallon of water just trying to eat his meal - I have no idea how he can stand that stuff. :) We had his "cake" after dinner - though Cody doesn't eat cake and isn't a particular fan of sweets at all, he really likes the Jell-o No Bake Cheesecakes with Cherries for his birthday - his mom would always make them for him but since our families are so far away these days I've kept up the tradition for him. They're really yummy pies and take about five minutes to make. Then of course we went out - first to Tejas (bar in Clayton with $1 drafts, though the selection on draft is quite limited) and then Columbo's (south city bar near our house, open until 3am). Quite a fun time - though Kyle fell asleep on the bar at Tejas well before 10pm (I've got pictures I'll post later).
Today we concluded "Birthday Weekend" with a paddle boat ride in Forrest Park, a walk around the lake and then some light errands (for chili making supplies so Cody can cook his famous chilli tomorrow). Overall, I'd say it was a nice, relaxing, laid back Birthday Weekend.

p.s. I have just been informed Cody put the treadmill back together and now it won't work again. Some connector is all screwy so we might have to cut it off the circuit board and solder it directly to the board - sounds fun, eh?

It's Alive!

The treadmill is alive!!! It broke sometime last week and Cody has worked his vodoo electrical engineering magic to make it work again!! While we got it for free so didn't have much economically invested in it, the prospect of having to buy a new one isn't exactly feasible at the time being with our tight budgeting (blame it on the World Cup, property tax increase, income taxes, wedding, etc.). Anyway, I need the treadmill because I can't yet run outside after work (still too dark too early) and I need to run (see above list for reasoning - property tax increase, etc.). I'm training for another half-marathon in April (the Spirit of St. Louis again) and then plan to run a marathon in the fall (either the St. Charles in September or the Chicago in October) so in order to make this plan work, I need to run - a lot - and the only way to do that is to join a gym (minimun $30 a month) or use my free treadmill. I prefer the free treadmill option and now that has again become a viable option as Cody is the most wonderful, smartest person on this earth and has fixed the machine! And yes, he's the most wonderful, smartest person on the earth for more reasons then just fixing the treadmill. So, folks, back to my training because my treadmill is again alive!

Christmas in February?

As many of you may have heard my tirade in December, we got our first live Christmas tree in St. Louis this year and I was shocked to get to the tree farm and find spray painted trees! I had never heard of such a crazy practice! Anyway, we ended up cutting down our painted live tree and decorating it in the house. We took the tree out of the water right after Christmas and put it in our compost/log pile in the backyard to later cut it up for firewood for the fire pit. Today I let the cats out to play outside and they decided to go play around the tree. I went outside to watch them and was quite disturbed that the tree is STILL bright green! It's been dead now for over two months and is still errily bright green! I'm thinking that we can probably use it again next year if the spray paint doens't wash off - we should probably just put it in the basement for storage and then we won't have to bother with cutting down another tree next year. The Midwest is a strange strange place! Welcome to Corn Cold County!

Addendum

Just to clarify, I'm not saying ordinary is necessarily bad. Ordinary can be very good, especially in the at-times hectic life Cody and I tend to live where there always seems to be something going on or something to do. Ordinary can be very refreshing. It can be a break from the whirlwind of our normal running here and there lives. Some days I pine for an ordinary day where I can come home, do chores and otherwise basically relax and not think about my calendar or "to do" list. Ordinary can be bad though as well, at least for my high-energy, high-paced self, where I live off the energy and hecticness of life. So that's it, ordinary just is.

p.s. Cody is in the background yelling "Du bist blogging" to impress me with his quality German skills. :)

What to blog about when there's nothing to blog about?

Today was ordinary. Obnoxiously ordinary. Woke up. Went to work. Worked all day. Went to the denstist (I went to get a crown but they weren't able to do it because the root canal I had two years ago still hasn't "healed" so now I have to go to a root canal specialist - sounds fun, huh?). Went to the grocery store (been out of milk for 5 days now - a tragedy in Cody World). Came home. Did laundry. Did the dishes. Did more laundry. Did more dishes. Did more laundry. Did more laundry (a total of four loads). Cody came home. Ate dinner (Mac & Cheese). Hung out a bit. Now should start getting ready for bed to sleep and wake up and do it all over again tomorrow. This weekend is Cody's birthday so that should be fun. Guten Nacht!

Sprechen sie Deutsh?

Wow - what a class! We had our first German class in preparation for our hopeful trip to Germany this summer to see the World Cup. It's a good thing Dude is in the class with us so he can answer all my crazy questions! I think the class is going to be really good for all of us - though it's way below Dude at this point. The teacher does a lot of talking in German to get us used to the language but also makes us do a lot of speaking as well. Just in our first class we learned over 10 verbs (and how to conjugate "sein" the word for "to be"), more then a dozen nouns, a bunch of random words (which I'm not sure what part of speech they fall into) and a ton of phrases (over 50 useful phrases). I'm already back in school mode (you miss it when it's gone) rewriting all my notes and organizing everything. I'm pretty excited because I did pretty horrible at foreign language in all of my former attempts (basically failed 2 years of Latin in high school along with one year of German and then another three semesters of Latin in college) but I figure now that I'm older I might have something I was missing before that will allow me to pick it up (like paying attention in class and some common sense). Well, off to finish up around the house before bedtime. Auf Wiedersehen! Guten Nacht!

German class

We're about to go to our first German class! We've enrolled in a German for Traveler's course with the local community college so we can at least somewhat understand what's going on when we go over there for the World Cup this summer (provided, of course, we get tickets). How fun . . . .except I'm the worst person in the world at foreign languages. We'll see . . .

p.s. The treadmill still doesn't work - though we now have a schematic for the entire electrical system of the machine.

Treadmill

I love my treadmill. Cody got it for free on the Boeing Classifieds when we first moved into the house and it's perfect for running when I can't run outside (i.e. all winter since it's dark by the time I get off work). Today I worked late (after 7pm) and just wanted to come home and run to let off some steam, except the treadmill went nuts on me. The belt would turn but the display that tells me how fast I'm going (or not going as the case may be) and how long I've run, just wouldn't work. So when Cody got home from work (even after I did), he went to work on it. I helped get the cover off (I am a master of the power drill), but once he got started messing with electronic stuff, I was useless (except to hold the flashlight). So now I'm writing about his mission while he has my treadmill pulled apart all over the floor. I hope it survives. Good luck 'ole pal (the treadmill, not Cody).

By the way, Wiggles (the co-dependent kitty) squeaks every time I pick her up - I hope she didn't eat a squeaky toy (or someone didn't feed her one at the party).

I should probably go do something productive now while Cody operates.

Party Time!

Well, we finally did it! Cody and I finally had our house party! We've been intending to have this party for months now, but first it was summer activities and then it was football season and then the holidays - but we finally picked a date, told everyone to show up, bought the keg and had our party. And in my humble opinion, I think it turned out great! We staged it so our friends with kids could come earlier in the evening to hang out before the not-so-tame crowd showed up later that night. All in all it was a success! We had a great time meeting and hanging out with our friends' kids - they were so cute and wonderful - and then an equally good time draining the keg with everyone else. We even got in a few rounds of flip cup! I'm so happy that so many people were able to make it - quite a great crowd! I've put the pictures on the website if anyone wants to check them out. :) Thanks to everyone who showed up!!!

Party Planning a Precursor for Wedding Planning???

Okay, we've been in our house over 7 months now and are just getting around to having our first party. It's actually turned into a house warming/ engagement/ Cody's birthday party - all rolled into one. So you would think we just pick the house up a bit and tell people to come over, right? That's what we thought. But gosh there is so much more to it - who to invite, what to serve for food (chips and salsa or something more), what to serve for beverages (just a keg, keg and mixed drinks, etc.), what times to have people show up and what times for different people. So much to think about and ponder - and this is only a party!!! I can't even believe the decisions and preparations we'll have for the wedding!
But before we can even have people over, we first must get our house "picked up a bit" - this is not an easy task - we're constantly in the middle of some project or another so it is always torn up to some degree. On top of that we haven't finished unpacking from the move. So this past weekend we went to town unpacking and "picking up." We had high goals - of which we did not reach, mostly because we woke up around 4:30 pm on Sunday and then went back to bed at 1am, having only been awake about 8.5 hours total, none of which we spent cleaning the house. So this week, the house has been divided into parts with a part to be done each day. Yesterday was Boy Room and Kitchen. Probably one of the things I love best about Cody and I is the way we work as a team. Though we were both dead tired yesterday, we attacked our rooms with a determination and teamwork unmatched by many. While I cleaned and picked up, Cody handled the "decoration" in the "Boy Room" - he hung up all his beer signage, Gator stuff, etc. Then while he cleaned the kitchen I handled the decorating and picky cleaning stuff (cleaning extra paint of the counters). Both rooms look great and we're on our way to being prepared for the party. Tonight is Dining Room and Living Room.
At least the wedding won't be at our house so that's one saving grace there.

Word of the Day

sesquipedalian - the word is indicative of it's definition

Progress! Finally, some progress!

Cody and I closed on our house on June 10th. I started painting the living room right away and then moved onto the kitchen. I put up blue painting tape all over the kitchen sometime around June 15th. And then stopped. Cody's parents were gracious enough to come help us paint the first of July and totally painted our upstairs spare room since it was a more immediate concern. Cody and I had high hopes of finishing up the rest of the house shortly thereafter. But then there was summer and bike rides and float trips and general outdoor/summer fun. So time passed and passed and before we knew it fall was upon us, then Christmas and now the New Year. All this time the blue tape adorned our kitchen - like when you fall asleep with a face mask on - for 7 months! So since we got back from Tally, I've been on a mission - finish the kitchen and get that ugly blue tape off our walls! Well, last night around 11pm, we pulled off the last of the blue tape in the kitchen!! It's finally painted!!! I still have to put on one or two socket covers and paint the trim and picture indow sills, but the walls are at least done and we have no more blue tape - we've made progress!!! This is big for us. Now it's on to finishing trim and moving on to the dining room. But for right now we're basking in our progress. . .

New Website!

I know I've been bad about blogging but I have a good excuse - our new webpage!! My brother Bo got me a webpage for Christmas - www.cody-missy.com. So instead of blogging I've been working to get it going. I want it to look nice since it our site instead of some stupid thing through Charter. Hopefully I can get it FTP'ed to the internet before the end of the game tonight - gotta get back to my web development!