Inane Chatter

John and I have finally gotten our asses in gear with regard to doing house stuff.  It’s about time, too, for a number of reasons, the most pressing of which is the imminent arrival of 10 ladies he’s never met and I barely know who live in big, beautifully-decorated houses.  (I’m not sure about my deployment of commas in that sentence, but I can’t look at it any more.)  I’ve had lots of conversations with lots of people about what food to serve, and John and I are using this opportunity to do a few things around the house that have been on our minds for a long time.

1. Do something about the hole in the door to the basement.

Why was there a hole in the door to the basement?  Because it used to be a cat door.  Did we ever own a cat?  No, but the previous owners did.  Why didn’t you just call it a cat door?  Because Riley stuck his head through it, broke the door flap off, and left the hole.  And how long ago was that?  About seven years.  yes, we’ve had a hole in our basement door for SEVEN YEARS.  Long overdue.  John considered just covering it with a kick plate, but apparently doors only cost about $30, so while I was at the bridal shower last weekend, he hung and painted the new door.  It looks very nice.  No hole!  So exciting.  You know what’s more exciting?  Riley can’t reach through the door to knock the trash can down the basement steps any more when he’s angry with us for not getting up early enough on weekend mornings.

2. Replace the drip pans on the stove.

Again, something John did while I was gone.  He bought beautiful new brushed metal drip pans and threw out the disgusting, crusty, rusty, drip-covered drip pans that have been on that stove since before we moved in.  It’s lovely.

3. Take the blinds down from all of the downstairs windows and replace the curtains.

We did it!  There are officially no more blinds on any of our downstairs windows, including the sliding glass doors.  It’s amazing how much more light there is, even compared to when all the blinds were up or open.  We went to Target yesterday, found curtains and rods we liked (simple black rods, simple white cotton curtains – yes, they’ll get dirty fast.  I’m on top of it.  So fresh and crisp!), and then ran into our problem.  We needed two sets of long curtains for the front window.  No problem.  We needed one set of short curtains for the kitchen window (which looks fantastic) – no problem.  We needed twelve mid-length curtains for all of the other windows on the first floor (these don’t come in sets of two).  Problem.  They only had two.  Well, okay.  We’ll buy those two, put them up on one window, make sure we like it, and then order the rest.  We still have two weeks before the book club ladies come over.  That’s how we spent the rest of Saturday, and we’re really happy with how the curtains came out.  Unfortunately, when I went to Target.com to order the rest on Sunday, I found that they do not exist.  Not that they’re on the website but only available in stores, no.  They don’t exist on the website at all.  Not by description, not by item number.  So I called one of the other nearby Target stores and asked them if they had any (by item number).  One store said they might have some in the clearance section, but they couldn’t check for me.  I’ll called another Target.  They had three.  I need ten.  They put those three on hold for me, but only for 24 hours.  Can they order the rest?  Nope.  Okay…  I called another Target.  They had one.  I put it on hold.  Can they order the rest?  No.  Okay.  I called another Target.  They didn’t have any, but they could tell me that another store had three, another one had five, and the one in Falls Church had ten.  Magic number!  I needed ten.  So I called them, made sure they had them (they did), and I drove all the way to Falls Church (about 45 minutes away).  I bought my ten mid-length curtains and two long ones (for the sliding glass doors), and then looked for rods.  None.  No matching rods.  I gave up.  I’m fairly certain those won’t be as hard to find, and there’s a Target near my office (that’s the one that told me they might have some curtains in the clearance section), so I’ll check that one for rods tomorrow at lunch.  Wish me luck.

The part about this that bugs me the most is that I couldn’t order these curtains.  Not even from the store.  And they don’t ship between stores, so if the Falls Church location hadn’t had all ten, I would have made several stops all over the region yesterday to track down the right number.  Did I just choose the wrong curtains?  Or is Target just being difficult?  Regardless, the rest of the curtains will get done by the weekend.  Assuming I can find rods.

Guys, I have more mugs!  Really cute ones!  For reals, see?  My sister loves me.  The bamboo one has a panda in it!

I’m afraid I have a mug problem.  You’ve seen a sampling of my other mugs before, and I just got these three new ones (the floral ones are really good for deliciously sweet coffee on snowy days).  Well, last week I saw more mugs I MUST HAVE.  (Except that I don’t need them.  I just want them.  Really, I don’t know where I would put them.  We’re out of cabinet space.  But really, I want them.  Want is not the same as need, so I won’t get them.  I’ll just drool from afar.  Because I can’t have them.  Even though I want them.  We’re trying to stop accumulating stuff.  Really.  No more new stuff.)

The London mug

I can still admire them, though.  They’re made by Villeroy and Boch, and they’re part of the New Wave Caffe collection (cities of Europe).  There’s one each for London, Paris, Rome, and Berlin, with matching plates, and they’re adorable.

I would only want them if I got rid of all of my other mugs.  Which I will not do.  Why do I have a mug thing?  I don’t really have a shoe thing.  I have a book thing – isn’t that enough?  It’s not like I display my mugs.  …  No, I’m not going to display my mugs.  Back to these particular mugs – they’re not cheap.  Not crazy expensive, but we’re talking $20 a mug (when they’re on sale).  And that’s not including the matching plates or the cool spoons you can see in the picture I took.  So, yeah, maybe we are talking crazy expensive.  They’re MUGS.  I’m not spending $20 (or more) on a mug.  Boom.  Talked myself out of my muglust.

I went to Starbucks this morning, the one with the drive-thru.  I like this one for a couple of reasons:

1. It has a drive-thru.  I’m lazy and I don’t want to get out of my car.  Also, this drive-thru tends to be faster than going inside and standing in line (the two times I’ve done that at this particular location).
2. They make my wonderful syrupy drink the right way.  The other Starbucks with a drive-thru (closer to my office) ALWAYS messes it up.  Somehow, they manage to make it taste kinda fruity.  Every time.  So I don’t go there anymore.
3. Every once in a while, someone starts a pay-for-the-car-behind-you chain.  It’s nice, and I like that it happens somewhat regularly, regularly enough that I’ve been in that chain half a dozen times in the last few months.

Today was one of those days.  I got to the window, and the cashier (is she a barista?) told me that the woman in the car in front of me paid for my coffee.  I handed her my card and asked her to ring up the car behind me, and when the cashier handed me my card and my receipt, she said, “She also wanted you to have this,” and handed me a CD.  A music CD, in a sleeve, like many of the others Starbucks sells.  How exciting!  That’s different – maybe that woman just wanted to make someone’s day (more than buying their order would)!  I’d never heard of the guy on the CD, but I’m open to new music.  This could be cool.  Happy Monday!

Well, I got into the office and googled it.  Surprise!  It’s Christian rock.  I don’t think that should be allowed.  I mean, Christian rock should be allowed to exist (I guess), but proselytizing* via the Starbucks drive-thru is not cool.

Hm.  It just occurred to me – I don’t think she bought it at Starbucks for me.  I assumed she had, but I doubt Starbucks would sell it.  I think she gave it to them to give to me.  Weird and weirder.  Well, it’s not working.  I’ve spent half the day wondering how I should get rid of it.  Do I know anyone who might appreciate it?  Not really.  I don’t want to just leave it somewhere or give it to some unsuspecting stranger – that’s how I got it, and it didn’t make my day.  And I’m hesitant to just throw it out.  Maybe John knows someone.  Or I can always leave it at a church.  I know where I can find some of those.

*Maybe she wasn’t proselytizing.  Maybe the guy on the CD is her boyfriend or husband or son or cousin, and she’s helping him gain a wider audience.

We live in a very safe area.  I knew this already, but it was reinforced for me tonight.  I went out to pick up dinner from Noodles & Company (mac and cheese with meatballs for John, Bangkok curry with shrimp for me), which is located in one of those new mixed-use shopping centers, with lots of apartments upstairs and lots of shops and restaurants downstairs.  I parked right across from the place, went in, got ignored by the staff for a few minutes (for no reason I could tell – the place was completely empty), ordered our food, read my book while waiting, got the food, and left.  I was in there for maybe 15 minutes.  I walked outside and noticed my car immediately.  “Why is that so unusual?” you may ask.  “Surely you know where you parked, and since it was “right across from the place”, why wouldn’t you look right at it?”  “Well,” I might answer, “it was dark and lots of people drive cars like mine, so shut up.”  Most people, however, do NOT leave the driver’s side door open, even if it means the dome light will be on to welcome you in (which is what I saw immediately, by the by).  I’ll admit to being a little hesitant as I got closer to the car.  I mean, obviously I must have left the door open.  I seriously doubt some car thief got into my car and then left it like that.  But what if a crazy murderer had taken the opportunity to hide in my backseat?  Well, again, the light was on, and I could see that there wasn’t anyone in the car.  Couldn’t see into the back, though, so I checked the trunk, too.  THEN I got in and went home.  (Confession: I wasn’t that scared. There were lots of people around to hear me scream if I HAD found someone in the car.)  The real question is this: how on EARTH did I get out of the car and not close the door?  Usually, John gets on me because I slam it instead of closing it gently.  And it wasn’t just ajar or not quite latched – it was OPEN.  I can’t even blame this on the cold medicine.  Today was my first unmedicated day since Friday.  I should maybe just go to bed.  After I eat the rice krispie treat I’m pretty sure I got for free.  Maybe the guy felt bad for ignoring me.

Oh my god, guys, the high for Sunday is only going to be 51 degrees.  It’s 80 today.  Is the world insane?  (Yes, but for other reasons.)  Are we all going to get sick now from the temperature ups and downs? (Again, yes.)  Am I going to make sure I spend some time enjoying the warm air this evening?  (Very much yes.)  I may also stop by DSW on my way home.  The weather may be nice for the last time this year, but I’ve got priorities.

My friend Stephanie and I spent FIVE HOURS outlet shopping today.  We tried on all the clothes at the Ann Taylor and Banana Republic Factory Stores and bought half of them, and then we visited every single shoe outlet there.  Struck out on shoes, though.  I’ve lost track of what I’m looking for, except for a pair of black pumps that I can wear with anything for work and a pair of boots.  I didn’t find anything remotely like the boots I want.  I’ve been noticing people wearing them, but I don’t know where they’re from.  I’ll be heading to DSW again soon.  I checked Zappos and they’ve got what I’m looking for.  I’d just like to try some styles on before I order.

I’m looking for something like these:

Type Z Mamie

Lucky Brand May

Romantic Soles Brooke (Wide Calf)

Gabriella Rocha Abbey

Enzo Angiolini Visco

They’re casual, something I wouldn’t be afraid to really wear (I don’t want to have to worry about scuffing them, so I want boots that can take it), looks good with jeans…  I love boots.  Before I buy anything else, though, I’m going to clean out my closet.  For real.  I wear the boots I have, so they can stay, but most of my other shoes will go.  I mean it.  Clothes, too.  I’ll be ruthless.

I bought the Garmin Forerunner 210 over the weekend (from my friendly local running store) and finally used it this morning.

It’s awesome.  I got the heart rate monitor, too, so I strapped myself in (watch strap, heart rate monitor strap – any more straps and I wouldn’t need clothes), synced everything up (found my heart, found my satellite), and took off.  I had a great run, but the coolest part about my new watch is that when I uploaded the details to the website (Garmin Connect), I got a whole bunch of neat graphs.

The top one shows how my pace varied over time, and I can tell that the downward spike is at the point where I had to wait a few seconds to cross a street.  The watch calculates all the easy stuff (average heart rate, average pace, stuff like that), but it’s also tracking elevation and calculating calories burned, and the website displays the details per lap (I set it so one lap equals one mile), and it’s just so COOL.

I had my first facial ever today.  And a massage.  It was a very nice afternoon.  John got me a Massage Envy gift certificate for those services for my birthday (WAY back in February).  I don’t know why it took me so long to use it.  It was wonderful.  I am seriously considering making this a regular thing. (I like being pampered.)

I had a really annoying song stuck in my head earlier today, and a friend of mine at work asked me which one.  It was “I Love You Like a Love Song” by I don’t know who, and I told him that the part where she goes “beep beep beep beep beep beep” wouldn’t get out of my brain.  I got corrected immediately.  He said it’s by Selena Gomez, and she’s actually saying “repeat repeat repeat” there.  We had a minor battle over who was more embarrassed: me for not knowing the words or him for knowing them AND being able to name the teenybopper who sings them.  I let him win that one (he’s around my age).

Roxy just came over to say hello and would I please give her the crumbs from my sandwich.  At least she said please.  She also told me that I have no unifying theme today, so I should quit now.  Smart dog.

I’m of two minds about being home.  On one hand, there’s my bed, my shower, my clothes, my DOGS – I’m SO tired, and it’s SO nice to be home.  On the other hand, DISNEY WORLD.  It’s the happiest place on earth, and I LOVE IT.

Some pictures before I collapse.  Details at some later date.

Molly, Emily, and me in line for the It’s A Small World ride.

Our first five minutes in the park.

Happy to finally be in the air-conditioned line for Pirates of the Caribbean.

Hey! You can totally see my new house. It’s right there behind John’s head.

John is working on his blog software, I’m cataloguing (Really, spellcheck?  That looks SO wrong.  I want to pronounce it cat-uh-log-YOO-ing.  I might from now on.) our books because I’ve noticed that many are missing from my spreadsheets (Yes, plural.  Don’t you talk about me and my spreadsheets.), and I’m finishing a bottle of wine I wasn’t really crazy about.  (Yes, there is such a thing.  Let’s all forget that I’m drinking it anyway.)  This one was described as “herbaceous” at the store.  I’m not getting anything herb-y out of it.

Leaving the not-so-great wine out of the equation – no, even including the not-so-great wine, this is a pretty great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  I got my nails done earlier (at a place I will NOT be going back to – I don’t know why I keep trying out new places.  I love my normal place.  I should just keep going there.), and John painted the trim between the library (that used to be the dining room and has no furniture other than my desk (where I am not sitting) and the bookshelves) and the family room, and yesterday we went to Home Depot to start pricing hardwood floors because we’re going to do the whole upstairs ourselves, and I feel like this weekend we’ve reached a nice balance of productive (painting, estimates, laundry, etc.) and relaxing (blog software, book organizing, wine, etc.).

The other thing I did while I was out today was ask around about this GPS watch I’m thinking about getting.  I wanted to ask some real runners what they use, so I went to the one of our local running stores (I went to another one last week) to talk to someone.  I’m thinking about the Garmin Forerunner 210, and the only decision I have left to make is whether I want that one or the 610.  I’m leaning towards the 210.

Man, I am very much over this wine.  And I’m going back to my books.  And thinking about dinner.  Because I’m hungry.

We’re at the breakfast table this morning with Gaby, who is writing in her journal about what we did yesterday.

Gaby: Well, I want to write that we saw monuments, but…I don’t know how to spell “saw”.

John couldn’t hold the laughter in.  She had no problem with monuments.  And then I heard her spell Washington with very little hesitation.  She’s a genius!

We’re all on our laptops (except Gaby, who’s using a cute little spiral-bound notebook) this morning, after a nice lie-in.  Wolf Trap cancelled last night’s performance of The Pirates of Penzance, so we stayed in and had our picnic dinner in the family room with The Muppet Show.  It’s just as well – we were all pretty worn out after the heat and the driving.  We met up with Jess (Hi, Jess!) for a yummy lunch in Annapolis, blew some bubbles at the harbor (also thanks to Jess), ate some really good ice cream, and tried on lots of hats at Hats in the Belfry.  Hey!  That’s news for us – John found a hat.  One that fits and looks pretty cool and will keep him from burning his head every time he goes out in the sun.  It’s a miracle.  I fell in love with a plum-colored cloche hat, but then I looked at the price tag.  I just can’t spend $175 on a hat.  Even when it’s this cool.

Today the plan is to stay inside and hide from the heat.  No plans, no schedule, just whatever we want to do, whenever we want to do it.  And now that the internet is back (the storm late Friday night knocked it for most of yesterday)…you know, I really don’t know how to end that sentence.  I don’t remember where I was going with it when I started it.  Now that the internet is back, we can…play on the internet?  But we’re not really going to do that today, so…yeah.  No idea.

Panera is toying with my emotions, guys.  A few months ago, they had a salad I loved.  The spinach power salad was awesome, and I got it every time I was near a location that offered it.  When they took it away, I was pretty disappointed.  So imagine my elation yesterday when I got an email from Panera with the subject “Celebrate the summer with a spinach salad.”  They brought it back!  Hooray!  John and I had just discussed picking up dinner from Panera for tonight (because going to the store is beyond us after a long work week), and now I could get my favorite salad.  The world is a wonderful place.

Today, though, I got a second email from Panera.  Subject: We’re sorry – we made a mistake.

We were so excited to send your monthly MyPanera® email yesterday that we failed to notice that the Spinach Salad we featured is no longer available. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience you may have experienced. We’d like to suggest that you try the Strawberry Poppyseed & Chicken Salad instead. We hope you’re enjoying your summer — and thanks for understanding. — your friends at MyPanera®

I was (I am) disappointed.  At least they sent a nice email.  But hey – it reminds me that I’m capable of making a similar salad myself.  We’ve been doing that with that salad I love from the Cheesecake Factory (French Country Salad) these past weeks, too.

French Country Salad

• Good lettuces
• Steamed asparagus
• Pickled beets
• Crumbled goat cheese
• Balsamic vinaigrette
• Pecans or walnuts

Spinach Power Salad

• Spinach
• Crumbled bacon
• Boiled eggs
• Fried onions (optional)
• Some sort of sweet onion vinaigrette

So good, so good for you.  And it doesn’t count as cooking, so I can still say I don’t like to cook.

We still have a land line at home.  I’m not sure why, really.   We use it to make some calls (the vet, the pharmacy), and our parents use it to reach us sometimes, but they use our cell phones at least as often as the land line.  We mostly ignore it because despite registering for every Do Not Call list out there, we get tons of telemarketers, political robocalls, and other spam.  We talked about getting rid of it not too long ago, but I think our main reason for keeping it is because it’s our primary contact number for every bill, every account, every everything, and it would be a pain to update those.  Not the greatest reason to keep paying for it.  It’s Vonage, so it’s cheap, but still.

As long as we still have it, though, I get some entertainment out of its visual voicemail feature.  All voicemail goes to my Yahoo account (another dinosaur, but I have better reasons for keeping it), but Vonage doesn’t always do a good job of transcribing what was actually said.  Sometimes the program gives up altogether, but usually it tries.  Just about half an hour ago, I got this visual voicemail:

“Hi Ms. Bird, this is Sharon calling from pointless mom. Just calling to let you know that your contacts are ready for pick up. Thank you”

That’s Vonage’s punctuation, not mine, and this is better than most since at least the second half makes sense.  It’s also only the second half that told me it was my eye doctor’s office calling.  I might suggest they change the name of their practice to Pointless Mom when I swing by tomorrow.  Much funnier.  I don’t know where that came from, though.  It doesn’t even rhyme with the actual name.  Speaking of names, no names had to be changed to protect the innocent – Bird is not my last name, and Sharon is not the name of the woman who called.  (I listened to the actual voicemail, too.)

None of this is convincing me to keep a land line for the house, but it has convinced me that I don’t have to worry about evil robotic overlords just yet.  Or maybe they just want me to think that…

I got a new phone!  Yippee for me!  The very nice guy at the Sprint store fixed the button before we left for our trip, and it worked great, all the way up to the morning we left to come home.  The button quit on me, and I gave up on my phone.  I did some research, and not too long after that, I showed up at my neighborhood Sprint store and bought the Samsung Epic 4G Touch.  We’re very happy together.

I am way far behind on my internetting, so I’m off to visit my blog-buddies for the evening.

While coming home from my disappointing pedicure yesterday, I found myself behind a car at a stoplight.  The light changed, but the guy didn’t go.  I waited a couple of seconds, he still didn’t go, so I lightly tapped my horn.  It didn’t come out so light.  I wasn’t irritated, I wasn’t in a hurry, it was no big deal, but to the guy in front of me, I must have sounded like “Hey!  Jerk in the car in front of me!  What are you, asleep?”  Not what I meant.  But I have a solution!  Every car should be installed with two horns.  One little one so you can politely nudge someone when it’s clear they just need a little help, and then the normal obnoxious one, still with the big button in the middle of the steering wheel, so you can find it easily in an emergency and pound on it when loud blaring blasts of your horn are called for (which is practically never, unless you live in New York, but that’s a whole different thing).  Problem solved.

Also this weekend, my most recent phone problem got fixed!  Yes, it still reboots when it overheats and I can’t always find the GPS satellite (so yes, I’ll still be shopping for a new phone soon), but last week, the button that lets me turn my screen on and off quit working.  WAY more annoying.  The only way I could do anything with my phone was to plug it in (or unplug it).  Then the screen would light up and I could make a call or check email or whatever.  Otherwise, nothing.  I took it to the Sprint store in the mall where the friendly technician took the whole phone apart and cleaned the button.  For free!  (Because I don’t have the protection plan and he can’t charge me for it and technically shouldn’t have been working on it at all.)  Yay!  And because I am a happy and grateful customer, I bought him a frappuchino.  And a cookie.  He also told me that I’m eligible for my upgrade in June, not August, and that technically, I’m eligible as of May 17th.  Double yay!

This would make my commute so much easier to handle.

This is still my favorite XKCD comic.  I think.  It’s one of my favorites, definitely, because it’s one of the ones I continue to laugh at, even though it’s been years since it was posted.

Also, this one.

Do you have the Draw Something app?  Our friendly neighborhood Wombat asked me that exact question just the other day.  My response (after immediately downloading it to my phone) was “I do now!”   I am so very bad at it, but it’s fun.  It’s like Pictionary without the yelling.  (Usually.)  And Wombat is being very gracious about my terrible drawings.  She’s good – she drew a great cheeseburger.  I really suck.  Truly.  But if you download it and you want to play, send me an email!

Do you get the Uncommon Goods catalog?  You should.  Because it’s got some cute stuff in it.  A few weeks ago, I bought myself a sugar bowl and little pitcher set.  I couldn’t resist.  I mean, look at them.

They’re just the cutest things.  Then John noticed that the feet look a lot like the Monty Python foot.  I knew there was a reason they called out to me.  It was fate!  And THEN I noticed that when you look at the pitcher from the other side, the placement of the handle makes the little pitcher look like it has a butt.  The cutest butt.

So, no, I don’t work for Uncommon Goods or know anyone who does (in case you were wondering).  I’ve just ordered a few things from them and I really like their catalogs.    And they sell pitchers with butts.