Friday, February 27, 2009

Ladies Weekend

A much needed ladies weekend is in order. So it shall be!

My very wonderful, dear friends from back home are coming to town this weekend - Emily, Marne, and Angie. I think the ONLY plan for the weekend includes retail therapy and drinks...

Let the giggling begin (I seem to revert to 16-year-0ld laughter when I'm with them)....I can't wait!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Happy B-Day Honey

It's Jeff's Birthday today!!! The big 2-9... (if anyone's counting. I am. It seems easier to accept ME getting older if he goes through the number first.).

I took the day off of work to spend a nice relaxing day at home with him - which included sleeping in, me going to the doctor, hanging out, birthday cheesecake, a nap, some internet time, and a phone call from Warren, our realtor...

We got an offer! It took several rounds of countering back and forth but we finally settled on a number - and no it wasn't as much as we wanted, but in this market I think we could do a lot worse (or end up waiting a long time and having to rent down south as well as pay our mortgage here).

So instead of yummy homemade tacos and shells tonight for dinner, we had Chinese food. Lucky Jeff will get his birthday dinner tomorrow, extending the celebration to 2 days!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Somebody's got a case of the

TUESDAYS! I am preparing to go home (it's only 4:19pm). I just remembered a bunch of stuff I have to do and am wanting to procrastinate it.

Not my typical response, but I am on VACATION tomorrow and I don't want to think about it...

Monday, February 23, 2009

Home

Yippee! I am home this week! And I am thrilled about it. I can watch all my TV shows live (sort of, without commercials - thanks Tivo), and do what I when I want to. No more mercy of meetings or airplane schedules for those things! (within reason. I am still at work.)

Because when you're traveling, suddenly those things you take for granted - like eating what you want, on your schedule, and going to the bathroom when the urge strikes - seem like such a luxury when you're home. Who needs clean sheets everyday? I'll take an unoccupied restroom right down the hall, thank you.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

New Shoes!

Here is what I will never pay full price on:

Clothes at department stores (Macy's, Lane Bryant, etc)
Tennis shoes
Work shoes
Chicken
Name brand packaged snacks

Why? Because you shop and buy ONLY when they are on sale! That being said, I purchased these shoes today for $59.97, discounted from $99.99 (that is a $40 difference!)




What a great deal, huh? Ok, I know they are a little loud, but they were the second to last pair of 9-1/2s that the store had in stock. We even called to another sports store down the road to see if they had the kind I REALLY wanted (Asics GT-2130) but were told they were sold out there as well.

It's amazing how quickly my old shoes broke down. I bought them about 6 months ago, and comparing to the shoes I bought today, there is a huge difference in cushion and support.

So, moral of the story today - REPLACE YOUR SHOES EVERY 6 MONTHS IF YOU WEAR THEM REGULARLY OR WORK OUT IN THEM! But only if they're on sale.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Too bad

Kathleen Sebelius will hopefully do a good a good job as the HHS Secretary. But I am telling you, Tom Daschle had unmatched experience navigating the Senate and Washington in general, as well as some really incredible proposals for improving the health of every American.

I continue to lament the dumbness of not paying his taxes. We truly lost out on the opportunity for a great leader to contribute wonderful things to this country. And I hope Ms. Sebelius can live up to my expectations I had.

A side note, what about that high-speed commuter rail system? Can you imagine - real transit to places that matter? It's a wonderful idea. China did it. Why can't we? (wait, the government can't do whatever it likes...) I just hope it can get to the top of the stinking pile we are trying to deal with called the "financial crisis".

Also, I have been meaning to post my created "Dump 'em Together" recipe from last week. Here it is!

Mexican Bean Salad
1 regular can of black bans
1 small can of corn
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro
2 tomatoes, cubed
6 celery stalks, sliced
1/2 cucumber
1/2 jar Mrs. Renfro's Mango Salsa
1/2 tsp salt

Friday, February 20, 2009

Back from unplugged week

What? No new posts since V-Day? No, Jeff did not poison me with the spaghetti (it was delish). And, I did receive a box of chocolates on Feb 15th.

Yes, I have indeedy been disconnected totally from the INTERNET for a whole week, Monday till Friday night. It's hard to believe I survived! No email, facebook, msnbc.com, ....

But I did. I was traveling M-T-W in New Orleans, W night in MN, Th-Fri in Atlanta, and am home now. A little later than planned - we had to circle MSP for an hour waiting for the runways to be continuously cleared of snow. But I made it! And Jeff was nice enough to surprise me by picking me up instead of me having to stand in the cold and clear the car off of snow. Too bad he had to wait for an hour, but he's wonderful that way.

Now, I am in my jammy pants and t-shirt with 2 kitties giving me lots of love and meows. We are all heading downstairs to watch the latest BSG!! I will talk to you all tomorrow.

In case you forget, much love, blogosphere.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day

We (mostly) think of Valentine's Day as a (mostly) made-up holiday here at our house. No fluffy teddy bears or flowers please!!! A card is optional.

And PS - have you noticed how many stupid diamond adverts are on tv? Puh-lease, people can't afford their house payment, let alone the equivalent of a house payment on a Jane Seymour necklace. It just galls me how commercial this holiday is - almost as bad as Halloween. At least Cupid's Neighborhood House Village has not been invented. Yet.

Chocolate is NOT optional though. The caveat is that it need not come on V-Day. In fact, I PREFER it come a couple days later, because by then hopefully it was on sale and I get a bigger box :).

So, in the meantime, I am smelling a wonderful homemade spaghetti and meatballs and will hopefully not be helping much to make it or clean it up. THAT will be the nicest present today!!

Friday, February 13, 2009

Fun Stuff for Friday the 13th

See if you can guess how these names were dreamed up!

1.YOUR REAL NAME: Jessica Lynn (Kienow) Hartman

2.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: Lynn Lewis

3.NASCAR NAME: Charles Merlin

4.STAR WARS NAME: Harjes

5.DETECTIVE NAME: Blue Kitty

6.SOAP OPERA NAME: Lynn WBC

7.SUPERHERO NAME: The Red

8.DINOSAUR NAME: Ess Rex

9.CELEBRITY BABY NAME: Apple Hill

10. PORN NAME: Joe Snickers

11.YOUR RAPSTAR NAME: Harizzle

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Rock Band

Here is the crappy part about having your house up for sale.

(In addition to the implications that you are totally uprooting your life and family.)

(And the fact that tomorrow we are dropping our price $10K, which means there goes ten thousand dollars down the toilet, literally.)

We have to keep our Rock Band 2 gear stowed away.

I know, I know, it probably seems trivial, but I am in some SERIOUS need of de-stressing via guitar slashing and maybe even clinking together my drumsticks. And we won't do it - because it takes a long time to set up and take down, and OMG, what if we have a showing and they only give us 30 minutes to prep....etc, etc.

So thank you, house-selling gods, for ONE MORE THING for me to be grumpy about.

I guess it will make it all the more sweet when I am finally able to pull out that plastic drum set and NAIL IT!!!!

As a side note, did I mention the New Orleans visit is ONLY ONE WEEK prior to Fat Tuesday? Should be fun. I mean, ahem...educational / great experience (it's for work).

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Hate to judge, BUT...

Why is it a good idea to have 14 kids when you are unemployed, with no income stream (because, if she had won the lottery and THEN had kids, it would have been better. Honestly).

I just don't get it. The government shouldn't HAVE to take care of you after you make poor decisions, but now that it's done, I guess we will. UGH.

BTW, I have traveled to Atlanta for some portion of each of the last 4 weeks. I am tired. And I am sure whooping it up did not help the tiredness (but it did help my soul!). And on the docket NEXT WEEK - the Big Easy (again). And this time it's for work!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

My Love

Aint no other woman gonna take it from my love....

Dude. So drunk.....

Just listened to the new Klipsch series something or other.

AWESOME. = !!!!!!

Jeff and I just SERIOUSLY jammed, danced, and drank (L.O.T.S) according to JT (that is, Justin Timberlake, for all you non-fans).

Thank you, last year's DVD Chritsmas present!!! It's 2:40am and I'm going to bed.

(PS - ya'll have NO idea how many times I've had to delete misspellings).

(PPS - I can do a mean beatbox, drunk. Just ask my drunk husband.)

(PPPS - Pleas contribute another concerrt DVD to our collection. Please. PRetty, ple4ase.)

Saturday, February 7, 2009

We are back!

Jeff and I woke up bright and early (read: 3am) on Wednesday morning to take off for Atlanta. After arriving around 9am EST, we got our rental car and checked into the hotel. We met up with our realtor in Atlanta and spent the rest of the day driving around areas and checking out houses at various price points.

On Thursday, I had a leadership meeting all day, but Jeff spent the day exploring on his own and came up with some good observations to rule different areas in or out.

We have settled on either something along the I-85 corridor, southwest of the airport, or something along Camp Creek Pkwy, west of the airport.

Now all we need is an offer on the house!

Speaking of, we have 2 showings today and 1 tomorrow, as well as one yesterday But we didn't have ANY on Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday (BOO). We're keeping our fingers crossed.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Happy Groundhogs Day

I am certain I do not know the official results from the groundhog-seeing-shadow myth, but I can tell you my prediction: Minnesota will be freaking cold until the end of April, and just plain cold until the 2nd week of May.

It's true, we will come back in 4 months and evaluate, but I know I'm right.

Not much success at the open house - one couple stopped by but were not very serious (surprise, surprise). We got a call this morning for another showing tonight at 5:30 so we will go out to supper as our 'hour out of the house'.

BTW, I really thought Arizona was going to pull it off last night. Poor Larry Fitzgerald Jr...if the Steelers had not driven down the field like they did, he would have been remembered as the Super Bowl XLII Hero, but now people will barely remember who played and lost.

That's the thing about losing (and winning)...even if you did a great job, you still LOST. And if you did an ok job, but WON, heck, you're a superstar.