John

Any day now

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John had his pre-solo check ride Friday afternoon, and it went well enough that if it hadn’t been so windy, he would have flown his first solo flight right after it.  They decided it was a bit too gusty to do it yesterday, and I think I’m a little relieved.  I’m not worried about it, exactly.  I have every faith in John’s abilities, and I trust his instructor to know when John is ready, but I think I’d like to be at the airport when he does it.  Just in case.  I think.  But leaving that aside, John is ready to solo!  Already!  This is very cool.  Soon we’ll be able to hop in a plane to visit people instead of the car.

I think he’s been learning in something like this (assuming Google Images is really showing me pictures of a Piper Warrior):

piperwarrior

And here’s the (student) pilot himself:

IMG_20150905_101230

Sometimes, they’re really truly asking for it

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I hit someone yesterday.  Lots of times.  With my fists.  He asked me to.  Insisted, in fact.

Oh, hey, background: I’ve been going to the M/W/F boxing class since that first time I went in early August.  I like it.  A lot.  But that’s not where I hit the guy.  I mean, yes, it was in a boxing class, but not that one (because yesterday was Tuesday, not Monday, Wednesday, or Friday).  John and I both go to the  M/W/F class, with this one instructor (Nick), and a fairly stable group of regulars.  John has been going to the T/Th class with a different instructor (Doug), and for a few months now, he’s been the only person there.  (The class is at 5:30am, it’s at the other location, not everyone likes Doug’s teaching style…)  John has basically been training one-on-one with Doug twice a week, and he really enjoys it (now that he’s convinced Doug that he really doesn’t want anything to do with kickboxing).

Too much background?  I like to explain things.

John has told me a lot about Doug, a lot about how his class is very different from Nick’s, and he’s invited me to go along many times, but I didn’t feel ready.  I feel more comfortable now that I have some basics down (kind of), so I decided Tuesday was the day (since Tuesday was Veteran’s Day and I didn’t have to go to work).  The first thing Doug did once it was my turn on the mat (John and I traded rounds with Doug on the mat, and then in the ring) was stick out his chin and tell me to hit him.  My first jab was somewhat tentative.  “No, HIT me.”  So I did.  Right in the mouth.  Doug: “There.  That’s what it feels like.”  Then he put his hands up, and he let me hit him, sometimes blocking, sometimes not.  I think he was trying to get me recognize openings and also stop dropping my right hand (’cause then he’d tap me on right side of my head).  Early on, I hit him with a left hook to the ear, HARD, said, “OH, I’m sorry,” and he said not to worry about it.  That I can’t hit him hard enough to hurt him.  I know I’m new at this, but he says the same thing to John, who has a powerful arm.  And seriously, guys, I landed that one.  ON HIS EAR.  And he didn’t even blink.  His head must be stone.  After that, I got over my fear of hitting him and took him at his word that I couldn’t hurt him.  You want me to hit you?  I’ll hit you.  I’ll try, anyway.

So that was fun.  I’ll go back.  I just don’t know if I can take boxing five days a week.  Plus, if I’m boxing every morning, when will I run?  John hasn’t been running at all, and he’s missing it.  We’ll have to figure this out.

Bathroom tile breaks sometimes

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John and I bought the bathroom tile yesterday morning, and then we spent today actually laying it down.  We have completed a very (very) important step in this mini bathroom remodel.  First, we did the layout.  We needed to know how many whole tiles we could use and how many (and how much) we’d have to cut.

Not sure why we didn’t put that one missing piece in – maybe I figured we had the idea?

From another angle:

Oh, hey, there’s the piece. Camouflage.

Then we picked them all up and started actually setting the tile with mortar and stuff.  I helped (a little).  Once all the whole pieces were down, John started cutting the other pieces to fit and oh dear god that is one of the WORST noises ever in the whole entire world.  Also, one of our three boxes of tile had a whole bunch of tiles that kept breaking and NOT along the line John was trying to cut them.  Very irritating.  And I’m shuddering just remembering the noise of the tile cutter.  My skin is crawling.

Here are all the tiles actually glued down.

All those little spacers kinda make it look like Arlington Cemetery in there.

The only pieces missing are the two up near the shower.  One will be whole, but the other has to be cut in a L shape – that’s going to be difficult.  Almost certainly beyond the capability of our cheap little tile cutter.

Then we’re going to paint (still deciding on a color – suggestions?), put the molding back on, grout, put the quarter-round back on, put the toilet back in, and oh yeah – we still have to buy a replacement vanity and sink.  So it’ll probably be a couple more weekends before we’re done.

In progress

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I didn’t take a before picture.  Oops.  Yesterday, we took out the toilet (fairly straightforward) and the vanity (not so straightforward) and ripped up the linoleum floor.  The vanity had been put in around the existing plumbing, when the house was built, so it wouldn’t just come out after we removed the valves on the hot and cold water pipes.  We had a choice – cut the pipes or cut the back of the vanity.  John chose to cut the vanity (we’re replacing it anyway).  Also, the cold water pipe kept on dribbling water even though the water was turned off to the whole house.  So, you know, that was fun to keep cleaning up.  But now there’s a big empty space where it used to be.

I’m waving at you. Say hi!

And there’s a toilet in the office.

Today we measured and cut the backerboard (what the tile will be glued to) and John glued it down to the floor.

You can see the hole where the toilet belongs.  (There’s a rag stuffed in it – apparently that’s necessary.  I’d rather not wonder why.)  The shop vac is where the vanity goes.  I took the picture standing just outside the shower.  Next we buy the tiles.

My birthday outing

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(My post title sounds like a Scrubs episode.)

My birthday present from John (aside from a heart-shaped Boston cream donut and tickets to see Three Dog Night in May – that’s going to be very cool) was a day in DC doing tourist-y things, something that we’d been talking about doing for a very long time.  The main attraction (and what gave him the idea) was this traveling Puppetry in America exhibit on display in the American History Exhibit from now until mid-April.  Among other things, it has muppets, so we went to see Scooter, Bert and Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, and Cookie Monster.

I love the muppets.

From there, we headed for the National Gallery of Art, but our nasty habit of getting there shortly before it closes lives on.  We saw the Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections exhibit, a couple of American landscapes (Lake Lucerne, Spirit of War, The Voyage of Life paintings) and ran up against 5pm, so we headed for dinner.  Where, you ask?  Ethiopian, of course!  We went to Meskerem in Adams Morgan for the first time in years.  The food holds up, but the restaurant could use a facelift.  Then it was back to our car and home to rescue Riley (and more birthday cake for dessert).

The weather was perfect, and it was a beautiful day.

Saturday is running away from me

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I don’t know what happened.  I got up fairly early (8-ish), had a quick breakfast, went to the gym.  Well, that’s part of the problem: it was 11:30 when I got home.  Spent over an hour fighting to get Ubuntu to recognize my phone and when I gave up on that, AirDroid took forever to download the pictures off the phone.  Finally switched to my work laptop (running Windows), which has no problem recognizing my phone, so now I’ve backed everything up.  Today’s the day for a new phone.  I think.  I need to upgrade to a new version of Linux on my laptop, but when we looked at that last weekend, we found that my graphics card is too old to handle the latest version of Ubuntu (which is supposed to have no problems recognizing cell phones).  So…new laptop?  Maybe soon.  Phone first, since I had the screen problem (went dark and wouldn’t come back without a reboot prompted by removing and replacing the battery) three times this morning.  Super irritating.  Anyway, after the phone/laptop drama, John and I went into the basement to see if we could find more stuff to get rid of (we could), and now all of a sudden it’s almost 4.  Boo.  And we still need to make a run to Target.  I won’t make John come with me to the Sprint store.  When we went to replace his phone last month, we were there for nearly three hours.  I’m bringing my book.

Lucky Thirteen

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You know what I missed this year?  My five-year blogoversary!  It was back in early November.  Oh, well.  You know what I didn’t miss (which is a good thing, as this one is much more important)?  Our 13th wedding anniversary!  We slept in a bit (sorely needed – Christmas week at the in-laws does not lend itself to much sleep), went out for a fancy (for us) brunch, came home and puttered a bit during the afternoon, went out to see a movie (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), and went out for a fancy (for us) dinner (which was delicious).  Better?  Our menus were printed specially with “Happy Anniversary, Mr. and Mrs. Zannah” for us.  So cool.  They rolled them up, tied them with a ribbon, and sent them home with us (along with mugs full of candy).  Nice place.  Happy Anniversary to us!

It’s not always about baking

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Sunday morning, I realized the disadvantages of having a ton of cookies (I will eat ALL THE COOKIES).  I decided to offload some of them at Erik and Margaret’s house (John was not exactly on board with this decision – he’s never thrilled when I give cookies and pies away), where we finally met new baby Will (who wriggled against my shoulder for a while as I held him, puked down my arm and side, and then fell asleep – he made some cute cooing noises, so all is forgiven) and played with Corinne (who gets more adorable every time we see her).  When we got home in the afternoon, John dropped his phone on the porch and smashed the screen into smithereens.  He was overdue for a phone upgrade, so we headed to the Sprint store.  That took the rest of the day.  Seriously, we were there for nearly three hours.  At least two and a half.  There was only one guy working and only one woman in front of us, but she took FOREVER.  Getting a new phone is never quick (it took John about 30 minutes, maybe 40, and he already knew exactly what he wanted), but it doesn’t have to take an hour and a half.  And that’s just after we arrived.  Who knows how long she’d been there before we walked in.  But hey, it’s over, and John owns a new Nexus 5.

This is how we roll

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John and I have found the best way to shop for Christmas presents.  With snow beginning (1-2 inches forecast) and sleet coming later in the day, we decided to brave the biggest mall in the metro area less than 3 weeks before Christmas.  It was great.  I’ve never seen Tysons so empty (maybe not a good sign for retailers, but wonderful for us).  No huge crowds of people, no crazed shoppers, no long lines – heavenly.  We got there as the mall opened (10am), parked right next to the Barnes & Noble entrance, got some Starbucks, and got it done.  I think the weather and the threat of bad roads kept a lot of people away (something that wouldn’t have been a factor closer to Christmas).  The roads certainly weren’t great on our way home, but with fewer people out and most of those driving slowly, we got home incident-free, shoveled the driveway, put the flannel sheets on the bed (it is seriously cold out there), and now we’re relaxing and lamenting having to go to work tomorrow (like usual).  And we’re done!  We have a couple of things to order, but the plan is to do that tonight, so we’ll really be done.

Want to shop like John and Zannah and actually enjoy a trip to mall with the decorations and the Christmas music?

  1. Go early in the shopping season.
  2. Go early in the day.
  3. Bring bad weather.  This is the hard part.  It can’t be too bad or you’ll get stuck.

You’re welcome.

Trying out insufferable

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I feel virtuous.  I RAN to my polling place this morning and voted and then ran home.  I exercised my rights as a citizen of this country while exercising.  (John did, too.)  I am proudly wearing my “I voted” sticker, which has so far managed to stay stuck to my sweater, so EVERYONE knows how citizenly and more-civic-minded-than-thou I feel today.

And with that, I think my period of insufferableness (insufferability?) needs to end.  I’m tired, and I’d like to take a nap.

Ow

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Still achy this morning, but it occurred to me that maybe my legs are achy not just because I didn’t pay attention to my pace yesterday but maybe also because I spent several hours standing around in heels while trying on bridesmaid dresses with Emily AFTER being stupid about my speed.  I thought running through the ache this morning would be good for me.  Maybe it was.  (It’s hard to say.)  But that wasn’t the only reason I ran this morning.  (It wasn’t even the main reason.)  Mostly, I ran because I felt obligated to.  I spend so much time complaining about how I don’t like to run in the dark that I just couldn’t pass up an opportunity to run at my usual time (just before 6am) and see the sun.  It was nice (if a little cold).  Also nice?  John told me that I looked super-skinny in my running clothes.  I think I’ll keep him.

Food decisions are hard

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I almost wish I didn’t care how food tastes.  This is not a diet post (I can handle eating normal portions (and handle it when I eat other-than-normal portions)).  This is about decision fatigue.  There are too many choices!  Every day I have to make a decision about where I’m going to get lunch, and every night, John and I have to decide what we’re having for dinner.  We have too many choices and too many decisions to make.  We bring it on ourselves, I know.  We NEVER go to the grocery store, so we have almost no food in the house.  If we had food in the house, we’d have fewer choices about what to eat (which would make the decisions easier), but getting food into the house involves making choices about what to get, and – WORSE – it means making choices about what we’re going to eat DAYS IN ADVANCE.  That’s just crazy.

If all food tasted the same, this wouldn’t be a problem.  Somebody should get on that.

It was great

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I had a glorious weekend.  So much time to READ.  Tempting as it was, though, I didn’t read ALL weekend.  I did some stuff for others – I spent a couple of hours on Saturday trying on bridesmaid dresses and taking pictures of them (or notes where pictures weren’t allowed) for Emily (no, you may not see those pictures), and I helped John test out his new recording toy.  (I may have enjoyed doing both of those things, but that doesn’t change the fact that I did them primarily to help John and Emily.)  On Saturday afternoon, John and I went for a run together, something we haven’t done in a while.  I think I enjoy it more than he does.  (I’ve heard I sometimes talk too much.  I don’t know who starts these rumors.)  But Sunday?  Yeah, I spent hours and hours reading.  It was heavenly.

Free time? Is that really you?

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I’d been hoping this would happen, and it finally has!  Kind of.  Keeping the house clean is easier than emptying it, rearranging it, and cleaning it, so after what feels like forever (and what was probably only a little over a month), I’m enjoying some time to myself.  Well, restful time with John, but when we’re both happily ensconced in our own activities, that’s basically the same thing.  We spent all of Saturday hanging out together – the morning (pre-open house) cleaning, the afternoon (during the open house) having a family photo taken, and then having a cupcake and coffee at a little cupcake place with outdoor seating, so Riley could drape himself over our feet and enjoy all the attention he got from passers-by.  What’s this about a family photo, you say?  We donated to our local volunteer fire department, and as a thank you, they brought in a photographer and gave all donors the opportunity to get a free family portrait taken.  They do it every year, and even though we’ve donated every year, we’ve never remembered/bothered to go.  They allow pets, so we took Riley.  It’ll be interesting to see how it turns out.

Sunday we had NO plans.  It was wonderful.  There was an afternoon showing, so we disappeared to the park for half an hour, but other than that, our time was our own.  Actually, since it was John’s birthday, our time was his to do with as he wished.  And he mostly wished for free time, so I call this birthday a success.

Open House

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Typing “Open House” up there made me thing of Full House the TV show, and man, are those two things not at all related.  Unless John Stamos (now, not then) is going to come over to help sell the house.  Or move in and help us raise our sassy but cute dog.

Then

Now

Anyway, we had our open house yesterday.  Our agent said we had really good turnout.  One family stayed an hour, and other another family stayed for TWO hours.  The two-hour people are the ones who lingered for 40 minutes on Thursday, the first day we were on the market.  No offers yet.  (Be pessimistic!  Your optimism is scaring them away.  Don’t tempt fate!)  We had another showing this afternoon, and we have one tomorrow, too.  I’ve said (and I keep saying) that we’re not in any hurry here, but now we’re in limbo, and I don’t want to stay in limbo.  I should be putting this time to good use (see Step 4), but I figured I deserve a couple of days of relaxing before I start obsessing over the next thing.  It’ll come soon enough.  (Also, it’s John’s birthday today, so no doing not-fun things.)

Everlasting love

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John and I saw Huey Lewis and the News for the sixth time last night.  It was, as usual, a really good show.  I’m willing to bet poor old Huey can’t talk at all today, though.  Last night, his voice was really going.  He still sounded great, but there were things he just couldn’t do.  (It didn’t sound permanent, thank goodness.  More of a sore throat thing.  Let’s hope that’s not wishful thinking.  Heh – wishful thinking about wishful thinking.  Stop before the world collapses in on itself!)  Poor guy.  I hope he drank a lot of water.  It’s the 30th anniversary of Sports, so they started the concert by playing the whole album, which was totally awesome.  (John noticed it when they started the third song – clever guy.)  This year (unlike two years ago), they did the whole not-relevant-anymore thing right and only played one new song all night.  Man, I love them.  It seems like everyone else in the area does, too, since I’ve never seen such a parking nightmare at Wolf Trap before.  The place was packed, the parking lots were completely full (the police were telling people to park on the grass on the side of the road), and John and I had to park at the Barns and walk over (under a mile, I think, but not by much).  And on our walk over, the skies opened.  We had umbrellas, but when it rains buckets (sideways buckets), you get soaked no matter what.  It poured like that for a solid 20-25 minutes before the intensity backed off, but even then it didn’t stop until around 8:45, just as the real show started.  I don’t know who opened for them (couldn’t hear them over the rain, certainly couldn’t see them), and I didn’t really care that we were missing whoever it was.

Okay, I’m rambling now.  I’ve lost my point, if I ever had one.  Maybe it’s just that I’ll stand in the pouring rain for Huey Lewis and the News because I LOVE THEM.  I could point out that we spent much of the storm under shelter (after getting soaked on the walk in), but what does that matter?  I would have stood around in the pouring rain for them if it hadn’t stopped in time.  I would.

I might need a haircut

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My right eye was bothering me this morning, so I decided to take a break from my contacts and wear my glasses to work today.  I wore one of my favorite sweaters (if only I had it in a forest or olive green or a deep red – this blue is beautiful, but it’s not really my color) and the little clock Mindy got me from JewelMint.  My outfit had nothing to do with my decision to wear glasses, but apparently the combination of glasses and little clock clicked for me.  A coworker told me I looked studiously cute.  I will totally take that.  So here I am, looking studiously cute:

And very pale and very tired.  But I am NOT wearing a 3/4-sleeve sweater.  This is according to John, who doesn’t believe in them.  Therefore, that is not what I’m wearing.  Because they don’t exist.