A few wedding pictures, from the professionals!!

14 INCHES!

I got my hair cut on Saturday. I decided that it was my hair and I was really ready to have something new and different. The results of which was FABULOUS! I even decided to color it too once I got home so it is more brown now too. My husband really liked it, once he warmed up to it, except for the color - he liked the blonde and wanted me to go even blonder than I had been before. Maybe, maybe not!

I love it!!

To Posh or Not To Posh...

What do you guys think??
I am planning on getting my hair cut like Posh's on Saturday. I say planning to, because, while I have the appointment scheduled, work may interfere and I may be forced to reschedule. I have had (like most women) a lot of different hair styles over the years, and have never been nervous about trying new styles or colors. That said, I have had long, straight, blond hair for about 7 years now.

I think that I am ready for a change!

I am also really looking forward to donating my hair to help make wigs for children with cancer. I don't have a lot of money to donate to charities and I have low iron so I can't even donate my blood! But I do have a lot of freakin hair people!! I can help ease someones pain and suffering a little. I can do good and help my fellow man!

Knowing that the new style is a bit drastic, I have enlisted the opinions of my friends and family. Everyone is cautious, telling me to think about it or start with something less dramatic. My sweet husband, bless him, told me that while he will love me forever, even if I am bald, he is warning me that he will never cease to make fun of me if it does not turn out well! Sassy and Smug-Sister were both positive, but both expressed their disbelief that it would actually happen!

It is hair people - it does grow back! What is the worst that could happen? I hate it. I have to wait for it to grow out. Big deal! People are losing everything the own in CA right now, there is serious water shortages in GA, and no one knows for sure if J. Lo is pregnant or not!! These are the issues worth worrying about - not hair!

Best Laid Plans...

Well, I have spent most of the weekend on the couch with a nasty sore throat and sinus headache. My sweet husband has been doing the male bonding thing all weekend, so I have been pretty much on my own. Which has been fine, because I have not felt like doing anything, or talking to anyone, or, I hate to say, cleaning the spare room.

I have been taking Airborne and Immuno-Shield, I have done the Netty pot a few times and took some Benadryl - nothing has giving me much relief, but the vodka that I drank last night was a wonderful sleep aid!! I have been sleeping on and off all day.

I am sort of half watching the Redskins v. Cardinals game since that is where Smug-Hub and my family are today. I am thinking that I would like to eat something but nothing sounds appetizing right now. I am glad that I have this weekend to rest because I am going to be working a lot of long days this up coming week.

I am working on the laundry, as I am out of bras and underwear and putting items from one machine to another is not what one would call stressful! I really wanted to get some gifts returned and the spare room cleaned, but I think that it is in my best interest to rest while I can.

You know what is ironic? I am sick with allergies or a head cold or whatever, but I am scheduled to get a flu shot tomorrow, which may make me feel a bit sickly for a day or two afterward! No matter what, I am going to feel crappy most, if not all, of the week! Great!! :)

Week Wrap Up

So, this week was pretty good overall. The Transformers movie was finally released on DVD, the president of my company came to town and was pleased with how things are going, we held the annual employee tent sale and it was a rounding success, and best of all.... the weekend is here!!

Transformers was released on Tuesday, I had pre-ordered it from Amazon, so it did not arrive until Wednesday which worked out well, since we had my nephew staying with us Tuesday night and we would not have been able to watch it while he was awake. My time with him was really nice, we played in the park and then he watched some Generation 1 Transformer cartoons while I made dinner and then he helped me make ice cream. He had trouble falling asleep, which I think was caused by not being in his own bed with his own stuff and his normal routine. Not to mention when you are 4 your mother is your whole life and when he stays with me he misses her terribly. It breaks my heart to hear him quietly sniffing and wiping tears away while trying to fall asleep missing her.

Wednesday the president of my company was in town, I went pretty much undetected by him, which, if I am doing my job right, is the desired result! He did have all good things to say about the way that we are running things and all the improvements and updates that have been done to help make our peak selling season run smoothly. When I left work, I took a walk with Mom while my husband finished up at work. This gave mom and I time to catch up and get a little exercise. When he was finished, we picked up some dinner and turned on the movie!!! It was so much better at the movies, but our big screen TV made it seem almost as good!! We have decided that we really NEED to get a surround sound system, to really do the movie justice!

Thursday was the employee tent sale and I was in charge of the people working it, so that translates to on my feet for 14 full hours, on asphalt!! My feet, knees and legs were so killing me by the end of it - I normally work at a desk, in an office, so my body is just not used to all the physical work of lifting, carrying and standing for long hours. I ended up spending the majority of the time working security at the tent door, to make sure that no unauthorized people got in. It sucked! But, my wonderful husband went for Chinese take out while I took a hot shower and then rubbed my feet until I fell asleep - at 8:00pm!! He got me up and I brushed my teeth, took an Advil and went to bed! I actually tossed and turned for a little while, my legs were hurting/burning/tingling so bad that I had a hard time getting comfortable. I was asleep before 10pm anyway! Smug-Hub said that he tried to wake me a bit later without success. I have no memory of it at all!!
Today, was more relaxed. I was able to get my whole list of "to do's" done and get all prepped for next week, which is going to be a killer week, but I only have these really crazy ans stressful weeks 4 times a year, the rest of the year - much better, even fun most of the time, so it is a totally cool trade off!

My sweet husband is going to an NFL game this weekend with my dad and uncle. It should be fun filled day of male bonding, easting food that is soooo good, and yet soooo bad! They are leaving Saturday evening and will be back late Sunday night. Smug-Hub is also taking a few guys out to test a new fishing rod in the morning, so I will have the house to myself most of the weekend! I bought a small pumpkin and a small butternut squash and I have plans to see what wonderful fall treats I can make! I am also going to catch up on all the taped TV shows that I have missed all week, return some wedding gifts, and clean out the spare room.

Speaking of the spare room... what a huge mess it has become! This apartment is way too small for us and we are trying to use the spare room as an office for us both, a guest bedroom and a fishing/hunting supplies room - it is just not working! I think that I am going to try to get most of my stuff organized and packed up. I can get all my school stuff packed up or tossed and everything that is needed office stuff (checks, bills, thank you notes, banking statements, etc.) I am going to take into my office at work. It will be much easier to keep important stuff there, where I can get to it, than spend an hour looking for the blank check register here at the house. I think that I will try to take everything else, including the wedding gifts that we want to keep, but have no room for, to the storage unit. While there I will pull out one of the boxes of books that I want to sell and get them onto eBay. We have got to get our lives in order and while I can't make the bills go away or make the landlord keep this place nice, or speed up the home buying or baby having processes, I can de-clutter the spare room!!

Everyone! Have a wonderful weekend and remember to be thankful for what you have and take time to smell flowers and enjoy fall!!

Ice Cream, You Scream

Well, I attempted to make Mango Mint Sorbet with my new ice cream attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer. I have been wanting this attachment for a long time and finally got it from my dad for my birthday.

I thought it would be fun to make with Will, who was having a sleep over. So, I made up the mix the evening before, because it has to chill for like 10 hours before putting it into the mixer. Will sat on the counter and helped me put all the attachments together and turn on the machine. I poured in the mix and we watched it start to thicken. Now, let me explain something about this mix. It was oddly separated. The recipe was followed to the letter, but you know how you are supposed to temper eggs into a hot liquid or they will scramble? Well, this is what the ice cream mix looked like, like tiny little pieces of cooked egg, only there are no eggs in this batter. Milk, sugar, corn syrup heated together until all dissolved. Pureed mango with a bit of lemon juice and chopped fresh mint (more on the mint later). Mix together and chill.

We let it mix/freeze for about 3 times longer than the recipe said, and it was still pretty slushy. Will said that he liked it, but when I gave him a little bowl of it, he left a lot behind! Now about that mint - it was all stuck to the mixing blade, I guess that I did not chop it finely enough or something, cause it was really odd. I thought and my husband agreed that the taste did not come out all that well either. It was a bit gritty (I guess from the "cooked egg" thingies) and had a strange aftertaste. Maybe too much lemon? Maybe? I don't know?

I put it into the freezer to see if it just needed to get really hard or something. I will test it out tonight, but I have a feeling that it will be getting a nice up close look at the garbage disposal!

I am going to try freaking vanilla next - how hard can this really be??

The Fridge That Never Was

When my husband and I moved into our current apartment, we listed two (count um, TWO) type written pages of items that needed to be fixed. Several were of urgent need and others were less urgent and still others were things that we would like to see fixed but weren't causing problems. The ONLY item on the list to be fixed was the ceiling fan in the master bedroom, and that only after many phone calls and begging and pleading. There are safety plates missing from the electrical plugs, we were told that all the flooring would be replaced, they only replaced the carpet, leaving the vinyl which is yellowed from the previous tenants smoking and full of holes. We were told that screens for all the windows were "on order", they have never arrived. The fridge does not close/seal correctly, thus wasting electricity if you are not careful to push the door shut from all 3 sides. The paint job was terrible and many places were missed. The whole place still smelled like smoke!

Now, I was deep into finishing school and planning the wedding, so most everything else was left alone. I just did not have the time to do all the begging, pleading, phone calls, and letter writing needed to get anything done. Then the bathroom sink begin to leak... hot water... I called the maintenance guy on a Friday morning and no one called me back. On Monday I called the landlord, no call back. He did finally call me back on Tuesday and gave me the phone number of a plumber. While I had the landlord on the phone, I mentioned that it had been a few months since he told me that the new refrigerator would be arriving. He told me that the one that he had ordered was on back order and it should only be a few more days. I think that this man must either be very dumb, or just used to dealing with dumb people. Anyway, the plumber came out a few days later and the leak was fixed - really not the point of this post, but it still burns my ass that my hot water dripped for 5 full days at the rate of 1 cup full every 20 minutes! Yes! I timed it! You want to make something of it?!?!?!

Yesterday afternoon about 3:30pm, I received a call from Lowes, letting me know that they were going to deliver the new fridge this morning between 8-noon. When I tried to figure out who scheduled this and why I was getting such late notice and how I might be able to re-schedule, he was very rude and basically told me that he was doing me a favor even calling. He told me to call the retail store in the morning and ask for this certain guy. When I asked for his name he would not tell me - this tells me that he knew he was being nasty!

I got up this morning and started making phone calls to all 3 of the local Lowes stores. I attempted to call the landlord (to find out which store he got the fridge from) but his phone was going right to voicemail. None of the 3 stores could find a record of my delivery. I arranged for my husband to stay home while I went into work to put together the important morning status report and then I would come home to wait while he went into work. During the drive to work, while at work, during the drive home and during my 3 full hours of waiting I was still trying to call the landlord.

At about 5 minutes before noon, I called the stores again and finally found the store where the certain guy worked, but he was out sick... I asked to speak to his boss and when he came on the phone I explained everything including that now it was noon and I had missed work and no one was there. We put me on hold and when he came back he told me that the landlord had called late yesterday evening to reschedule the delivery for after the end of October and he would call to reschedule.

I am livid! Not only was Lowes rude and unhelpful both yesterday and this morning (the final guy was very nice and it turns out it was not Lowes fault at all), but I wasted half a day that I could have been working, wages that my husband and I both would have lost (were we hourly) come to $301.28, not to mention the missed meetings, late reports and everything else. I am going to tell him that I am taking the $301.28 out of next months rent. I am sure that there is some agency or government body that I can complain to about this! We seem to be a sue happy country, maybe I can sue for a few million in damages for mental and emotional anguish!

I have left an urgent message for the landlord - it is going on 31/2 hours without a response from him. I did not tell him what I was calling about, I just told him who I was and asked him to call me right away. Now, if that was a message on my voicemail, I would be thinking that the place was flooding or something and I would be calling right away - nothing from this man.

I think that I dislike him very much. You know that we have never met this man? He had an agent show us the place and sign the lease. I doubt that he has even been on the property to see what a dump it is. He must be used to renting to people who don't mind living in filth, if the last tenants are any indication. How can he run his business this way? I would think that it would be a landlords dream to have clean, non-smoking tenants who pay on time and have a history of long term rentals. We were 2 years at our last place, only leaving because it was being sold as a home not a rental. The place before that we lived for 5 years! Again, only leaving when the landlords changed and rented the other unit to drug dealers - two slashed tires later, we felt it time to move!!

My husband says that I need to calm down and stop being mad, that being mad does not solve anything and make things better and he is right - that is one reason that I have this blog, I can let out all my anger, or pain or whatever without hurting anyone.

Fuck it - we are buying a house soon anyway and then we will be out of there :)