Yesterday, I dropped the car off at the mechanic for the 100,000 mile tune up, smog, and an oil change. Oh, yeah, and a new timing belt. While I was waiting for the car; I walked the dog over six miles, and found a dog wash for $12 (SCORE!). I got home and cooked a nice Canadian Swiss Chalet dinner for DH, (isn’t it like Victoria day or something this week?). I think I managed to take out the trash before I collapsed on the couch.

Today is a new day, with a new list! And, darn it, I will finish this list today! Watch me!

Load the dishwasherand unload the dishwasher too!
Clean out the file cabinet
Put away loose files
Call about transfering retirement funds
Put stuff on the kitchen counter away
Cook breakfast
Walk Dog
Laundry
Vacuum
Cook dinner
Clean up dinner dishes

My high school sweethart is getting married next weekend. Hooray for him, its about time, and all that stuff.

He’s still a good friend, one of my best friends actually. He just gets me. I got a wedding invitation, and when I went to go look at the registry, all the cool stuff had already been purchased (can we say “C” list, anybody?). The only thing left on the registry that they had in stock was towels. White guest towels.

I hemmed and hawed about buying towels. Then I hemmed and hawed about stuffing them in a sack or making a towel cake… do you make a towel cake for a wedding, or just for a shower? Then I finally decided to buy the stuff to make the towel cake. Then I hemmed and hawed about covering it in silk flowers (as I’ve seen on the net).  Then I hemmed and hawed about making the cake too tall or too wide.

Then I just started rolling towels.

So. Is it done? Do I need to foof it up with more flowers, a cake topper, and trinkets? Or should I just leave it as it is.

This stunned me enough to come out and blog.

A For anybody who is interested: we are moving next weekend, would you like to help?

I threw out my back at work, and so far I’m not allowed to lift over 10 pounds. This is going to be lots of fun.

We don’t have that much stuff (no, really, we can’t fit that much stuff in 650 square feet).
We’re only moving across town.
I can bribe you with food. For those of you celebrating Chinese New Year, I make a mean Hot & Sour Soup.

Oh My Gawd!

Apparantly, its not possible to post in the blogophere this week unless you pick a side on the Momtini debate!

I hate to sound lame here, but can’t we all just get along!? Apparantly not. Ladies, I love you all. I met fabulous people in in San Jose this summer. Fabulous, cool, nice, friendly, ladies. Yahootinis, Momtinis, and that nasty “women’s mineral water” aside; you are my friends. It is killing me to watch you ripping into eachother.

I expect to see heated controversy over an issue like this. Its not that I expect harmonious agreement among Lefties, Righties, Greenies, Attachment Parents, Detachment Parents, Prohibitionists, and the I-Would-Never-Give-My-Child-Artificial-Sweeteners crowds. What I did not expect in my RSS feeds today was to see my peeps attacking eachother! On a personal level! I was horrified to see that the names signed at the end of nasty, below-the-belt comments and tirades were those of my bloggilicous friends.

Is this what it’s like to be friends with women? The first time I saw Beth and Angela do this to eachother in the first grade, I wanted to scream at them and knock their two coconuts together. “Look what you are doing to eachother!” I’m a coward. I announced that I would not play with them for the rest of the day, and stomped home. It didn’t solve anything.

The worst part of riding on the Intercollegiate Horse Show Team was keeping track of which alpha female hated which friend because they were taught to wrap a leg differently when they were seven years old! It was too much to take. I just wanted to ride my horse and go home. Forget friendships.

I’ll admit that when I told DH about the Today Show interview, we did argue over it. We have not settled the arguement, and we do not agree, but that’s no reason to attack eachother over it!

I like ::points finger:: *you,* and *you,* and *you* and *you,* I see wonderful, fabulous and different people. It doesn’t occur to me that *she* doesn’t like *her,” because *they* told *she* that *her* said blah, blah, blah, blah blah. 

It makes me sad. I feel defeated. This is why I was a tomboy as a kid, a loner in college, and I don’t keep up with the girls I hung out with in high school. Why try to be friends with women? If they don’t turn on you, they’ll turn on eachother and tap their feet waiting for you to pick a side. Damned if you do…

I guess I’m horrified to see that friendships are the same online as they are in person. Shame on me, I guess.

I’d really love to take a couple of you and knock your coconuts together! Coconut Momtinis, anyone?

 

Ugggh.

The thing about hobbies is: to get really involved in one, you end up not spending time on the others.  I would really love to find time every day to write, blog, cook, make jewlery, go horseback riding, jog, and finish my wedding album. And lose weight.

Weight? Wait! That is not a hobby!

Recently, I signed up for the weight loss program endorsed by Fergie, online. I don’t have time to go to meetings, and I figured it’d be easier to find information about nutritional data on the site.

Now, I get up every morning and record in my food journal. Then I look at the clock and it’s time for work. No blogging, no bible time, no jogging, just logging my food journal.

I am now officially the lamest person on earth!

This makes me a really great candidate for lively and engaging conversation. Hi, I’m Dink(y), my hobbies are: reading closet organization magazines, walking around The Container Store, and counting POINTS. Uggh! I’m bored with listening to me, I’d rather just keep my mouth shut!

Anyone want to teach me to make small talk? I’ll pay you!  I  don’t know what I want to talk about, let alone what I’m supposed to talk about at social gatherings. I’ll pay extra for the CliffsNotes version: I’m already struggling to hold together 1.5 jobs, a clean household, a healthy diet, finances, and a sense of who I am.

Come back and see the site redesign. Real soon now!

An excerpt from Christmas With My Mother:

“Yes, honey, alchohol and sugar make wine. Its called fermentation. When yeast breaks down, it pisses out wine. When yeast farts, it makes bread.”

Now that I’ve ruined bread and wine for you, here, have a Christmas picture.

Merry Christmas.

At BlogHer this year, it seemed like *everyone* who flew in to San Jose from out-of-state just had to make sure to leave the conference just long enough to go to the Sephora Store. The Sephora Store!

We may get our Christmas photos done today, so yesterday I decided to suck it up and go buy some make up.

It came with a DVD!? On the DVD, a pretty lady says “it takes 30 seconds to complete your whole look,” and then proceeds to spend FOURTY-FOUR minutes explaining how to apply all the stuff.

Huh? Now, I’ve never been a math wiz, but…

Victoria would like to know what kind of advice I have for a single girl.

1. See the 2 books in the sidebar ->
GO BUY THEM!!
I am not making any money by telling you to do so.
The Five Love Languages is good for your relationship with anyone. The point is that sometimes the way we *feel* love not the way the other person expereses love. The book offeres some suggestions for showing other people love in a way that is meaningful to them. It also helps you know yourself.
The Questions For Couples book is a MUST for ANYONE who is planning on marriage or long-term committment. DH bought the book in electronic form. While we were dating, we each answered three questions a day for about a year. The book asks the easy questions first, and gets into the more difficult questions at the end. ANSWER THOSE QUESTIONS, even if its just for yourself. You should have most of those answers at least thought out before you run off and get married to someone who wants completely different things than you do out of life.

2. If he’s really going to be around forever, he’ll be around *next year* too. If you are not ready to (fill in the blank), and you want more time, you have every right to say so. This is not some sort of test that you give a guy to jerk him around, and see how much he really loves you. This is about your plans for your life. You have control, you have the ultimate say over how old you are when you get married, the length of your engagement, and how long you want to wait before having sex.
Like it or not, the converse is also true. If you’re telling the guy that you have to get married right now, and he had better propose before this date… you owe yourself some major introspection time.

::Steps off Soapbox::
Now go visit Victoria!

Shamelessly Swiped from iVillage 

1. Thou shalt not live in a bubble. Sometimes love is such a whirlwind of crazy joy that you forget that there are other people, things, and activities in the world besides the two of you. While this is understandable, you have to have outlets, otherwise you’ll drive each other bonkers. Before you met Your Guy, you were always getting together with your gaggle of female friends, hanging out with your family, putting in extra time at the office, saving the world at the local shelter, or taking a few classes to keep expanding your brain. Don’t stop. Just because you are Mr. and Mrs. So-and-So doesn’t mean you have to be attached at the hip and forget about everything else. Your marriage will be a lot more interesting if you keep on being the fascinating gal you were before he met you. You’ll also have a lot more to talk about over dinner.

2. Thou shalt respect all forms of life, not just married life. Life becomes awfully narrow when your social life revolves exclusively around other couples. One too many brunches spent talking about the real estate market will make you think you’ve died and gone to married hell. One benefit of your wedding was that you had the chance to introduce all of your previously separate social circles to one another. So once you’re wed, keep mixing things up: his friends and your friends, work friends and school friends, neighbors and family, old friends and brand-new acquaintances, singletons and smug marrieds, parents of twins and the child-free.

3. Don’t worry. You’ve still got it. When you were single, you met cute guys everywhere — at the laundromat, on the subway, at funerals. Once you’re hitched, it’s easy to miss the buzz of universal male admiring attention. But unless you’re a movie star and you absolutely have to look lustily at other men because it’s your job, don’t go batting those eyelashes at anyone but your beloved. Don’t worry, you still have the power. You’ve just got to take it on faith instead of soliciting daily proof.

4. Honor thy mother-in-law and father-in-law. Your in-laws may be incredible bores, gossipy and nosy, or so tacky and embarrassing you want to hide under your turtleneck when you’re out with them. Whatever type you’ve inherited, welcome them with open arms whenever you see them. No matter what you think of them, remember that they are responsible for raising your terrific husband. Even if you really believe that he only turned out normal due to some sort of divine intervention (think Marilyn on The Munsters), give them the credit. So listen to your father-in-law drone on and on about weird weather patterns and act riveted. Eat your mother-in-law’s scary meatloaf (even if you prefer things green) and don’t forget to ask for seconds. Grab another glass of wine if necessary.

5. Thou shalt not even bother trying to keep up with the Joneses. Let’s get things straight. There will always be a couple that is funnier, more attractive, sexier, wealthier, nicer, hipper, healthier, smarter, more successful, and more glamorous than you two. Got it? Even if you are the grooviest couple in the room at one party, you won’t be at the next. If you are constantly comparing yourself to other couples (some of whom you will find out later were just faking it on the road to divorce court), you will miss out on enjoying how happy you are just being yourselves.

6. Fight a clean fight. When you were dating and you got into a spat you may have found that slamming doors, crying and racing back to your apartment were effective tools in winning an argument. He would be so lost without you that he would come running over and say he was sorry. Well, I hate to break it to you, but the tactic is not going to work now that you are married and living together. You’re a lot better off staying calm and staying put to solve a tiff. Fight a clean fight and you are guaranteed at least that he’ll listen to your point of view. Winning is up to you.

7. Be a team. While you are both successful, independent people, don’t forget to cheer each other on, support each other’s crazy dreams, and encourage each other to live your best lives. If he’s up for a promotion, become best friends with his boss at the office Christmas party. If he’s always wanted to ride in the Tour de France, buy two tickets to Paris to see it up close. Lousy day for him? Treat him and his buddies to an after-work gripe session at the corner pub. On the days where your star is shining and his isn’t, make sure to pass him the winning shot. In a mean and crazy world isn’t it nice to know you always have someone on your side?

8. Be fabulous. Be comfortable being unconventional, glamorous, or unique. You don’t have to become June Cleaver now that you’re hitched. Who cares if you guys like to have the Christmas ornaments up in June, don’t have matching silverware, or prefer Pabst Blue Ribbon to a fine vintage? Let your hair down. You’ve found someone who loves you, warts and all, so be the marvelous off-beat woman that he fell in love with and never try to be some cookie-cutter Mrs.

9. Be romantic. Sounds crazy but sometimes it’s easy to forget what got you married in the first place. Don’t stop being romantic, sexy, creative, impulsive, spontaneous, and crazy in love now that it seems easier to rent a video and order takeout. Take tango lessons, get season tickets to the ballet or hockey, go ice-skating hand-in-hand, and let him pick you up for a date. Don’t be afraid to be unabashedly Hallmark-card cheesy and profess your love. Whatever it was that got you thinking he was the man for you, keep doing it. Most important, don’t ever forget the power of an unexpected drop-everything smooch.

10. Be thankful for your guy. There are times when married life will make you think back to your sensational single days with longing and alarm. You were Mary Tyler Moore, for God’s sake, what made you think you wanted to be Edith Bunker? When the love of your life is driving you bananas, it is time to remember how sexy/suave/smart/sensitive/studly your man was the night you first decided that he was IT. Remember how lucky you are to have someone who puts up with all of your nonsense. If through everything, you remember to be grateful for landing the most wonderful man on the planet, your marriage will reflect that, every day.