Thursday, April 16

5 Things I Love/Hate About Being Pregnant

Things I love...
  1. Being able to eat whatever I want and get away with it.
  2. Darren's spontaneous foot-rub offers.
  3. Having the suspense build to find out the gender.
  4. Not having to lift much at work.
  5. Shopping for baby-things.
Things I hate...
  1. Having a superhuman sense of smell.
  2. Having the seams of my pants imprinted on my belly. (Time to get stretchy pants, I think)
  3. The constant slathering of Cocoa Butter.
  4. The constant appointments at the doctor.
  5. Not being able to eat sushi. :(

Wednesday, April 15

Stuff I'm listening to....


Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

This Vermont-based group released the album This Is Somewhere a little while ago, but it is still getting rapid replay in my 6 disc changer. If you think Scott McIntyre of American Idol fame is a genius musician with a visual disability, wait until you get a load of Grace. Yes, she's legally blind, but she can belt it out like a rockstar on tracks like "Ahh Mary" and "Big White Gate." The beautiful "Apologies" shows her off on the piano and she leads the group on electric guitar on most of the others tracks. (So move over Scott...she really CAN play.) The group altogether sounds like a modern female reincarnation of a seventies rock band. And if you have to try out just one song, I suggest the tender "Falling or Flying," a sweet rock-infused lullaby about hitchhiking across the country with truck-drivers. You had me at hello.

Monday, April 13

Things that annoy me in the news....


Oh where oh where is Obama going to church on Easter Sunday? What's the new pup of choice? Who gave it to them? What is Michelle wearing today? Is Obama "Leader-y" enough for a Portugese Water Dog? Why didn't they get a pound puppy? What if it chews on Abraham Lincoln's Presidential desk?????????????????


Our country is being flushed down the toilet and all that the media can focus on is the Presidential dog. It really pushes my buttons that the journalists that so supported Obama throughout his campaign have now turned their heads to the important news of the day. Here is a clip from a piece that FoxNews was reporting Sunday:

"Already some 38 percent of Americans do not pay income taxes, and Barack Obama wants to increase that percentage dramatically. How ironic that he and other Democrats pretend to be targeting their message to "working-class" people when many of their constituents aren't working. But such is class warfare that the upper-middle class and wealthy are demonized as not earning an honest living.

Do you suppose it has registered with class warfare-receptive Obama voters that Obama is deliberately turning the American dream on its head? Could it be any clearer that his message to the middle class is: Don't aspire to achievement, success and wealth because a) it is immoral to have more than others, b) the government will take your wealth away from you and give it to others, and c) why bother to bust your rear end to make more when you can vote yourselves money from the public trough?

Obama let slip his socialist proclivities to Joe the plumber when he denied he wanted to punish wealth and insisted he just wanted to spread the wealth around. Joe was justifiably repulsed by Obama's cavalier attitude toward the American dream.

Democratic commentator Bob Beckel was dismissive of the significance of Obama's outright nod to socialism, saying we've had a progressive tax system since the income tax was initiated. Yes, Bob, and we've had socialists in America since then, too.

But what Beckel did not explain is that at least in those days, the stated purpose of the income tax system was to fund government services, not to redistribute wealth."


-D.Limbaugh

I think that's a little more important than a pooch.

Friday, April 10


Wines for the Weekend

Trivento Torrontes- ($10-$12) Perfect for the springtime, this wine has a crispness that goes perfectly with that slight April breeze. Sweet in a subtle and fruity way, Torrontes is an alternative white that you should definitely explore. Pairs nicely with summer salads and fruit dishes, this wine is also perfectly suited as a post-spring cleaning patio-sipper.

Monday, April 6

Officially in Suburbia


So my New Year's Resolution is to try to do a better job of keeping up this blog, especially since I'm expecting to have a lot to blog about in the coming months. Seeing as it has taken me about 4 months to start my "Resolution '09" you can obviously see that a lot has been going on in in the 'burbs this year. The title of this update refers to the fact that Darren and I have now officially entered so far into Suburbia that I think there's no turning back. We're having a baby! In addition to the manicured lawn and two-car garage we will now be going through the process of turning Darren's "man-space" office into a nursery for IT in the next couple of months.

*Note I will be calling the baby "IT" until the sex is known (or until I lose the habit of calling it IT)*

He's not very happy about having a change in his workspace and we're still not sure exactly where all of his gear is going to end up. But I know one thing for sure! Slammerhead the Hammerhead is going far, far away. For those of you who have never met Slammerhead, he is the 10 ft Hammerhead shark that Darren caught off the coast in Ft. Lauderdale and has mounted on our office wall. I think it's hideous. Darren thinks it's the creme de la creme of ultimate man-decorating. At this point the whole issue resides in strategy on my part. Saving up all of those "Honey won't you go get me Taco Bell" and late-night Macaroni 'n' Cheese runs for my ultimate goal: getting rid of the Slam. I think in the end I can march through some righteous cravings as long as I keep my eye on the prize. (And also secretly hoping that IT is a girl so there's no excuse to sell the monster to the local Red Lobster)

P.S. That picture is the only one on record that shows the magnitude of Slam's ugliness...just imagine.

Monday, June 23


Wow! I finally got around to decorating our kitchen!


It is a drastic improvement from the bare, random box and wine storage that we had for the past year. (And always banging our head on the hanging light fixture!) When we moved in we decided not to paint the kitchen, seeing as we repainted almost every other room in the house. Even though I'm not a fan of the mustardy color, I like how the end result turned out. I'm especially proud of the table and chairs...I found them on Craigslist (for I won't tell you how cheap!) and sanded and repainted them. I'm so crafty!

Tuesday, June 3

Lake!



Is this a kissy face or an "I'm really scared to get up on skis for the first time in a while" face? I guess we'll never know. This past weekend we had our first real houseguests! Chrissy, Heather, Maren, and Matt all hung out with us for a few days. We went to the lake on Sunday and everyone skied for a minute or two before they clunked out with muscle fatigue and passed on to the next person. We also spent about 45 minutes looking for a lost ski in the water. That was tons of fun! Our new patio furniture was put to the test and was given an A+! Peach Ice Cream was a hit as well....we'll have to do it again sometime gals!