Month: January 2015

They can’t close it without telling us!

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As we pulled into the parking lot of the gym this morning, we realized two things.  First, Doug’s car wasn’t there, and second, the lights were off inside.  Not a good sign.  We pull through our normal parking spot and saw Doug’s car across from us.  He came running over to the driver’s side window to tell us that the gym was closed.  “Closed closed?  Like, forever closed?”  “Yeah.”  “Well, that sucks.”  We’re not at all annoyed with Doug – it wasn’t his call.  But the owner, who has everyone’s email addresses, could have let us know.  That’s kind of obnoxious.  John and I could have gotten an extra hour and a half (or more!) of sleep this morning, if only we’d known.  It was nice of Doug to show up to tell us.  The other location (our M/W/F class location) is still open, so Doug gave us the owner’s number so we could petition to have Doug teach there Tuesdays and Thursdays instead.  Which I promptly did.  Well, not promptly, but same day.  I called early afternoon and talked to him.  He said he’d work on it.  I’m hopeful.

Update: I got a text from Doug (because he has our info NOW) – he’s lined up to teach at the other location now, Tuesdays and Thursdays, same time.  Yay!  I’m not taking credit for that.  I have a very high opinion of myself, it’s true, but I’m fairly certain one phone call from me can’t save someone’s job.  If I have that kind of power, I should probably be more careful.

It’s her parade. She can hide if she wants to.

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The Bloggess is a wonderful thing (as is love – thank you, Michael Bolton, we’re aware, please wait your turn), and whoever invented her should be given a parade.  So, you know, that would include everyone she’s ever come into any sort of contact with.  No, that makes it sound like she’s only who she is because of other people, and I don’t think that’s right.  She should get some credit for molding herself into who she is (as should everyone, of course, good and bad).  So maybe I just want to give The Bloggess a parade.  Of course, she probably wouldn’t go, or maybe she’d hide in the crowd (either of which would be totally okay).  She can send a stand-in – maybe someone in a red dress.  Oh, EVERYone in the parade could wear a red dress!  If they wanted to.  No pressure.

In a recent post, she used Twitter and the Benedict Cumberpatch Name Generator (which I wish I’d known existed when I posted the thing about him a while back) to name her new fish, and between the suggestions and the picture of the lemur who looks like he’s about to jump out of skin in panic, I nearly fell out of my chair laughing.  I am SO naming my first horse Rinkydink Clompyclomp.  (Someday I’ll own a horse, just you wait and see.)

And now it’s Michael Bolton’s turn (warning: language not safe for children):

A terrible, no good, horrible day (for John)

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Sunday, John replaced the side mirror on his car (it was cracked, and he needs to get the car inspected), and then he replaced the door-lock relay in my car.  Remember that?  How I’ve had manual locks for FOREVER because they kept cycling on and off and draining the battery so John unplugged the relay?  Well, he ordered a new one and installed it Sunday, and now our fingers are crossed that it was actually the relay that was bad and not the switch in the door.  We’ll know if my battery dies.  So yesterday morning, in the cold, I half-expected us to have to take John’s car to boxing since surely my battery would be dead.  But no – it started right up.  Hooray!  And then it started up again when we left boxing, and again when I left for work.  Hooray and hooray again!

Then I got to work and heard from John.  His day didn’t go so well.

HIS car wouldn’t start.  I was already gone, so I couldn’t jump it for him.  He tried to pop-start it, but he couldn’t get enough momentum to back out of the driveway and into the street.  (Our driveway has a little bit of an incline towards the street, but not much.)  Then he tried to push it back up the driveway and let it roll back again, but that didn’t work.  After about half an hour, the neighbor we almost NEVER talk to (the one who mows his lawn (when he mows it) in khakis and a button-down shirt) came out to go to work, so John got him to jump it (which I’m sure took a lot of explaining on John’s side).

Side note: I just typed “hump” instead of “jump”, and I had to pause for giggles.  And more giggles, because that really would take a lot of explaining on John’s side.

Okay, I’m back.  So, his day didn’t start off well.  THEN he found out that his window wouldn’t work when he tried to order lunch in the drive-thru.  It just wouldn’t roll down (he assumes he did something when he replaced the mirror on Sunday).  It’s always embarrassing when you have to open your door to place your order.  In the cold.  At lunch time on a weekday when there’s a line of cars behind you.

Poor John.  At least his car has started without assistance every time since then.  Of course, then today arrived, with its two to three inches of snow.  We shoveled the driveway, and I started to head off to work, but I changed my mind when I heard they hadn’t even plowed our parking lot yet (at the office, at ten after eight), and then I fishtailed a bit when I took a turn at the bottom of the street, so I came home just as John was backing out of the driveway.  I gave him my car and stayed home.  It STILL took him 25 minutes to go 3 miles, but at least he was in a car with 4-wheel drive instead of rear-wheel drive.

Cars and winter – these do not a good combination make.

There’s a long road ahead

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It’s January, and the holidays are over.  The countdown to spring has officially begun.  (It’s a long way off.)  But it’s not all bad.  Our house is under contract, the buyers’ condo is on the market, they haven’t returned our HOA docs in horror, there’s a three-day weekend this month, and my birthday is next month.  I will survive.

Go home, January, you’re drunk

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January appears to be confused.  Yesterday, the high was 45.  Today, almost 65.  I went for a run.  It was nice.  Tonight’s low is 35, which happens to also be tomorrow’s high, and then it’s going to be in the 20s for a few days.  I suppose that’s closer to normal, but come on!  I didn’t actually ask for winter.

Two things you need to know

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1. The bread pudding at Ford’s Fish Shack is really really good.  White chocolate and blueberries and some sort of delicious sauce and vanilla ice cream and WOW.  We split one tonight, in honor of our delayed anniversary dinner.  Also, their crab cakes are good.  Also, they’re crazy popular.  The first reservation I could get for tonight (I called at 4pm) was at 9pm.  So instead of waiting, we ate early (like before 5) because we’re old married people.  But dude – it was good.

2. Friends is on Netflix now!  I mentioned it to my esthetician (I had a facial last night), and she got so excited.  We spent the last half-hour of my appointment quoting our favorite lines and giggling like idiots.  It was fun.

I like games

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Because John’s family knows us so well, we got two copies of the game Geek Out for Christmas.  It seems silly to own it twice, so after playing Lords of Waterdeep with Jess and Chuck on New Year’s Eve (good game, lots of fun), we decided to exchange a redundant Geek Out for that one.

lordsofwaterdeep

Well, we haven’t done it yet, but if we make it to the mall soon, we will.  At least a decision was made.  Margaret, when you decide to start your LARPing career, you should aim for the scary dark-elf-type person on the right for your first costume.  I don’t know who she is, but she looks like she could kick some ass.

We haven’t played Geek Out yet, but it’s a trivia game (that can also be played by two people), so maybe we’ll give it a try this weekend.

geekout

Happy New Year!

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celebratechampagne

Happy 2015!  It’s starting off well, actually.  Last night, we heard from our agent that the buyers we’ve been nursing along for the past couple of weeks signed our last counter-offer!  Woohoo!  I haven’t seen the official final copy yet, but unless our agent is playing a very cruel joke, we have a ratified contract on our house!  HOORAY!  We’re a half-step closer to our magical future.  Now we just need to get the buyers’ condo sold.  Anyone looking to buy a condo near me?