Monday, May 31, 2010

New kitchen stuff

Check out these new stainless steel appliances. I love them! Today and yesterday I added some tiles to fill in around the new oven and microwave and I need to grout the new rows tomorrow. Then the kitchen will be ALL DONE! At least... until we decide to redo all the cabinets that is.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Milly the thief!


DSC_2179, originally uploaded by agstratt.

Milly loved stealing the nephews' plastic alligator and running away. It was an epic game of chase!

Ears up!!


DSC_2169, originally uploaded by agstratt.

I love it when my camera catches Dog with the ears straight up in the air. So cute!

Wednesday update

I got the neighbor a flowering plant (a yellow heirloom rosebush to be exact). It was $20 and well worth it... I tucked a tiny card into the leaves, put it in front of her door, and ran like hell. It wasn't exactly my best moment, but my horror and embarrassment is still fresh. I'm glad that it was my neighbor's mother who this happened to, so I don't have to avoid my neighbor for months. Although by now I'm sure Neighbor also knows the story. Oh well, sh*t happens right? Literally.

Peeps, I got to POWERWASH this weekend. And it was awesome. We were helping Mike's aunts and uncles clean up his grandparents 100 year-old house. And I got to powerwash the lawn furniture. It was so cool. One minute old weathered-looking furniture, the next minute almost-new-looking furniture. No less than three uncles warned me about the hazards of running the powerwashing stream over my own foot, which I obviously realized was a bad idea. I mean, the thing takes the top layer of WOOD off, what is it going to do to my skin? Nonetheless, it was funny to see grown men take care to caution this little lady. They obviously cared about my tootsies and crocs. I also got some street cred with the uncles for wearing crocs to clean, as two of them were sporting them as well. Score!

Photography class is over next week and I am so glad. I love learning about how to use my camera better, but I could do with a little less talking about it. I mean, tell me how to use these buttons. I don't want to talk about how I felt when I took the picture. Or about why. I definitely don't want to talk about how anyone else felt when they took a certain picture. Oy vey. Talk about a waste of time. I guess I am far more utilitarian about the whole process than the average photographer, and way less dreamy artistic type. But seriously, one dude in my class rented an $8000 lens (rental price: $300) and drove to CAPE FREAKING CANAVERAL last week to photograph the spaceship launch. I mean, nice pictures, they are discontinuing the program, and blah blah special-experience-cakes whatever. People obviously have too much time on their hands. Maybe I would too if I canceled my cable television. Which will never happen. You would have to pry my remote from my cold dead hands!

We have the next three weekends in Chicago and I'm super stoked. Now here's hoping the weather cooperates!

I was all revved up to buy a macbook pro last night and chickened out. When it came time to veer off into Best Buy on my walk home from the train I just couldn't do it. Instead I went home, backed up my pink Dell, and then took it apart and extracted a dust bunny the size of my pinky finger. That largely cleared up the "runs so hot you can't put it on your lap" problem. Boo! and also Yay! Now I definitely don't need a new laptop. But I've had an offer from my mom to give ol pinky a good home so maybe I still should get the macbook. I hate big decisions, man. Maybe I'll sit on it for another month?

I need to upload pics so you guys can see the wonder that is a tiny beagle chasing around 4 little nephews from the weekend. It was so awesome.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Very bad day

We've all had that moment. Whether you're a foot out the door or ten or a hundred, it's all the same. The moment you realize you left your keys on the counter inside. I had one of those moments tonight. I panicked, knowing that Mike wasn't planning on coming home before his flag football game. Knowing I didn't have my wallet or my phone. I walked around the first floor knocking on doors to beg for the use of a phone. I finally found someone that was home, a nice lady who is the mother of the woman downstairs. She told me my neighbor was in Greece and handed me the cordless phone for the landline.

At first I freaked out again silently to myself, knowing that Mike's cell # is long distance. I prayed he was at his desk as I dialed the number. I know exactly four numbers by heart - my Dad's cell, my parents' home, Mike's cell, and Mike's desk line. Let's just say the parents weren't going to help much in this situation.

Mike answered and started calling the people who have our condo keys. First he called Carl, who was still at work. Then Jay, who was in Manhattan. He got Jay's girlfriend's number and called her. Her number went straight to voicemail. I started to cry a little bit, knowing that I was stuck here for a while without any help. Even worse, I was late to meet a friend for drinks who was in from Miami... a friend I hadn't seen in years.

All the while Milly is going nuts, pulling on her leash. I'm thinking it's because the lady who let me have the phone let the neighbor's dog out and they were playing. I started stressing to Mike that I was monopolizing the woman's phone and time, when Milly squatted. I yelled NO MILLY! And then she had explosive diarrhea all over the woman's brick terrace. I screamed over the phone to Mike that Milly had just pooped EVERYWHERE and to come home, ASAP. I hung up the phone and gave it back, crying, and assuring the woman I would be right back to clean it up (with what I have no idea).

I took Milly out and she did some more business, and when I got back the woman had it all cleaned up already. I felt awful. I sat outside on the sidewalk outside our condo for the next half an hour to wait for Mike to come home.

So here is the point of the whole story.... now I need an "I'm sorry my dog had the runs all over your porch and you had to clean it up" gift. Any ideas?

Wonka worker sighting!

I keep forgetting to tell you guys, there was an honest-to-gawd Oompa Loompa at last week's nerd conference. He was orange and everything!

You say bad spray tan, I say Ooompa Loompa!!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Sicky Milly

Last week we noticed that Milly's left ear had a ton of gunk in it. "That's weird," I thought, and cleaned it out. Then it got gunky again a few days later. And then while I was petting her a few times on Saturday (I rub the ears) I got a little yelp. Later that day when I went to pet her she ran away! Something was definitely wrong with our little puppy!
So I texted the boss and asked if I could work from home on Monday to take her to the vet. The text wouldn't have been any different if I'd been talking about an infant, and I laughed a bit at myself for being such a Dink. "Milly has an ear infection and the only appointment they had for her was 3 on Monday... would it be ok to work from home that day so I can take her?"

Clearly the dog thinks she's people because we treat her like she's people.

Yesterday I worked from home and took her to the vet and the poor little thing whimpered as the vet cleaned out her bum ear. Milly buried her head in my arms afterwards to ward off the evil ear-cleaning vet. The vet gave me medicine to administer twice daily, and ear-cleaning solution to use once a week to prevent further infections (I guess beagles are extremely apt to get those big floppy ears infected, boo). Milly seemed better already this morning, bounding around with unlimited energy.

"She seems better," I told Mike. "Yup, she's just happy to be alive, as per usual," replied Mike.

Maybe that's why people love dogs, because they are just happy to be alive. And ecstatic to rip up the new stuffed starfish man I scored at Target for her last night :)

Monday, May 03, 2010

Favor!

My sister's work is in a contest to get a grant... I'd appreciate any votes you could put in!!

http://pep.si/dbP7Da