Val's exciting world

Tweet vault

2009-08-24T16:50:00.002-05:00

These are the tweets I had to keep to myself before I was out of the baby closet:

What to expect when you're expecting: chapter 1: infinite nausea, 22 hour naps

John: are you sure you should wear nausea bands to work? Val: I wear heart shaped sunglasses. I'm pretty sure I can wear whatever I want

United healthcare has determined that I've met my quota of anti-nausea medication

Turns out the placebo effect of decaf is minimal

Wk 9: I wonder if I am going to be the first woman on earth to carry a baby in my tushee. My tummy is still flat but every day I have more junk in the trunk

Old habits die hard. Everytime I walk into a starbucks the word venti just flies out of my mouth!

I will not read Fit Pregnancy magazine again. There's always a pic of a pregnant lady biking. I don't even have the energy to brush my teeth

Things I can buy with my raise this year

2009-01-30T18:15:00.003-06:00

1. Admission to the St. Louis zoo or science center
2. samples while I'm shopping at costco
3. Library books for 2 weeks at a time
4. Cookies at espresso Mod on Fridays
5. Cookies at Penn Station on Tuesdays
6. Movies that AB shows to support the soulard neighborhood (do they still do that?)
7. admission to the whittaker festival at Mobot

I'm running out of ideas and you get the picture. That is correct. I am not getting a raise this year. I guess with half the people I know being laid off, this is not something I should be whining too loudly about but I thought at least a small amount of whining was in order.

In other news, I've been facebook tagged today in those blogs to write 25 things about yourself and since I'm not feeling enough wit today for a decent blog entry, I'll cheap out and come up with 25 factoids.

1. I recently went to the doctor for chapped lips. I know health care costs are out of control, but gosh darn it they HURT!

2. I HATE lettuce.

3. If you ask me to eat lettuce at your house and I don't know you very well I'll probably politely make up an allergy.

4. I've tried to quit coffee about 5 times in the past year, each time failing more miserably than the next.

5. I have the WORST time keeping surprises a secret. There's one that I kind of want to out right here but I won't do it. :-)

6. My sister in law, Tiffany picked me to be a godmother to my new nephew, Alex. I'm pretty excited about it even though I don't know what it entails.

7. John and I are both reading Thousand Splendid Suns right now and while I'm finding it to be kind of a downer, he finds the depression infuriating. It's kind of funny.

8. (Good lord, I'm only on number 8!) Half of my front tooth is broken. I broke it roller skating when I was about 10. (Remember that, Westovers?)

9. I've given up the ghost finally. I'm a semi active text messager now.

10. I love the Family Guy. I have been boycotting it ever since the Bird is the Word episode. South Park was right, I think it is written by manatees.

11. I hate naps.

12. My honeymoon cost 20% of what my wedding cost and it was even more fun and far more memorable.

13. I was once the Hardee's Star of the Game.

14. I am 28 years old and I still can't swim.

15. I just asked my husband for an idea and he said to put "You like crappy books."

16. I would have a minor in theology but that was going to require taking a 9:30 a.m. class which I was totally unwilling to show up for because it was SO early!

17. I am 28 years old and I've never been ice skating. I like this because it's a nice tame fact for playing "I never".

18. Being ethical has its perks. I won't wear makeup tested on animals and I only will drink fair trade coffee which means I get fancy makeup and coffee.

19. I can't read lips. If you want to tell me something quietly, you had better send me a stinking text message.

20. I'm kind of non-confrontational so I really never know what to do when people make racist jokes. It hurts my feelings and I don't want to laugh but I just don't have the nerve to get on the high horse about it so the situation is just REALLY uncomfortable.

21. I need complete darkness to fall asleep. Even the lights from the numbers on the alarm clock will keep me awake. (reading too much Twilight has turned me into a vampire)

22. I got hit in the head with a golf club and had to get stitches.

23. I made a wish on a shooting star one time and it came true. (I know it is cheesy, but I'm running out of ideas here)

24. I am the last person in America that still refuses to watch American Idol. (I don't like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings either, send the angry mobs on over)

25. I play on a kickball team. Surprise, I am TERRIBLE! :-)

Sex or Internet

2008-12-16T21:51:00.001-06:00

As you may have already noticed I have been taking a break from my news junkie addiction as of late, but I did come across something interesting on CNN. I'm not sure if this counts as "news" but here it is anyway.

According to a recent survey, many would give up sex for 2 weeks versus the internet.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/15/internet.sex.survey/index.html

Those are 2 of my biggest hobbies (outside of camping of course) so that really got me thinking as to what I would do. They left a lot of factors out of that survey. Am I at work during those 2 weeks? How much is John around? I couldn't really come to a conclusion at first. Then it finally hit me. There's an easy solution to that problem. -Internet pornography. I would choose the internet and have the best of both worlds. Let's be honest, I just don't think there are any bedroom activities that can substitute for facebook and google talk. Also, I just hadn't blogged in a while so I figured the only way people would bother to read this is if I put sex in the title.

The other excitement consuming me recently is my fixation with the Twilight saga. If you are planning to read it or are currently reading it, I have some spoilers ahead so please skip the next paragraph with my vent in it.

Bella is an idiot. Maybe I am just not romantic enough but it is a good thing I didn't write the Twilight saga because I don't think there would have been 4 books. I get it. She's as the back of the book says "unequivocally and irrevocably" in love with Edward. He is a VAMPIRE who thirsts for her blood, as are his family members. For Bella to even be in his presence is completely dangerous. Additionally, Bella is dangerous to the Cullens (Edward's family) in that she could risk exposing them which is probably the most dangerous threat to a vampire. Edward leaves Bella, presumably because it is in everyone's best interest. Fast forward about 6 months. Bella is finally crawling out of her deep dark depression because she is enjoying the friendly company of a sweet, caring, good looking boy named Jacob who happens to like her. -but Bella just can't be bothered because she is just too stuck on Edward who she hasn't seen in lord knows long long and let's face it could get her killed! She spends months hanging out with Jacob breaking his little heart and eventually decides that MAYBE she can "settle" for Jacob, shortly after she finds out that he is a WEREWOLF!! Are you kidding me? For those of you that have read the books, I would have put Bella with Mike Newton on about page 300 of New Moon and called it good, but then I guess that would be why I don't have as much money as Stephenie Meyer.

In other news, we got new carpet downstairs. It looks about the same but it is really soft. John said that Staley spent the afternoon licking it. I haven't tasted it myself yet, but I'll let you all know.......

apparently goodreads.com lets you blog book reviews

2008-12-12T07:10:00.001-06:00

Just How Stupid Are We?: Facing the Truth About the American Voter by Rick Shenkman

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
I am pretty much a sucker for a good political book. I guess I should have been able to tell from the title but basically the book drove home how Americans are continually less and less informed and not at all knowledgeable about civics. I was already well aware of these facts. I don't feel like the author did anything but drive home that point. He didn't give a lot of information on how it could change or the eventual consequences of our collective ignorance. I could have done without reading this one.

View all my reviews.

My weekend visit to the Tundra

2008-08-18T18:13:00.001-05:00

Yes, I know I haven’t dusted off the old blog in quite a while. In case you didn’t already know the Gutrajs had a quick trip to Chicago this weekend.

Valerie Gutraj Travel Tip:

If you plan to go to Chicago anytime that is not July bring pants. Shorts will not cut it.

The Friday night drive was uneventful. I learned that Safari (iphone’s browser) doesn’t suit all of my many googling needs, and John learned that Pandora is indeed one of the greatest things ever invented, just as I told him. Speaking of which, I received some awful news this morning regarding my new toy. It really hurt me in my heart; see for yourself:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080818-pandora-cant-make-money-may-pull-the-plug.html

Saturday we went shopping with my inlaws for a new television set. They got nice new television sets and John drooled a lot over the television sets. We want to get a new one, but until we can get HD, a new television would be futile.

On Sunday, we had to head back so that I could make work today. I finished my Jim Webb book in the car. (He’s probably going to be added to my list of heroes, by the way.) I was cruising along happily down 55 when I saw a police officer behind me. I didn’t even need to see the lights go on to know that I was in trouble. I knew I was going too fast. He informed me that they were cracking down for the state fair. He certainly wasn’t lying. I saw a half dozen other people being stopped. Anyway, John thought asking the state trooper to take a photo with me for my blog to commemorate my first speeding ticket would be a bad life plan, so all that I’m posting is a picture of the ticket. Enjoy.

In case you can’t see it…….that’s right, 83 in a 65. I am going to need a new piece of Valerie trivia for this year’s Christmas party. Shortly after the ticket incident, a bird flew into my windshield and died. It was a little frightening. Other than that and a massive headache, there’s not much to report from the trip. John’s mom and dad did send us home with a “Nintendo Virtual Boy”. Look for it on Ebay sometime in the next week or two.

Good Gracious Ass is Bodacious

2008-03-09T12:57:00.002-05:00

Last night was the much anticipated O bachelor/bachelorette party. I've definitely got to hand it to Katie, she knows how to say goodbye to her singledom with a bang. I'm more exhausted than I have been in a long, long, time. It was awesome to get out like we used to!! I was really happy to hear that the dance clubs still played Nelly into the ground. I swear that man will be the mascot of St. Louis nightlife for the next few decades.

In other news, last week was our first game for our kickball league. We had been thinking it sounded like so much fun when the Webster kids talked about their kickball games but this year we finally signed up. We were blessed with beautiful weather and I got a basehit!! I just received official word that this week's game is cancelled, so hopefully next week I'll return with an even more stellar performance.

On the docket for next weekend are the amazing St. Patrick's Day parade and festivities!!! I'll be down there donning shamrock stickers, Guinness shirt, shamrock antennae, or possibly something more obnoxious if I can find it. I'm planning to do the run too, so we'll see how well I fare at the parade.

Okay, last night's antics are best told in pics, so I'm adding the link.

Katie's Bachelorette Party

Adventures in Flu Fighting

2008-02-20T19:13:00.002-06:00

It has been brought to my attention that I’m behind on my New Year’s resolution, so I thought I’d get a blog together. Since I don’t have any pertinent photos to post, I’ll just add a few recent ones. I’m by myself tonight and I know that I will not get a head start on homework so this is as close to productivity as I get when I am at home alone. First, for those of you that know my friend Quinn or even if you don’t please keep him in your prayers. He went into kidney failure yesterday. I’m getting a mix of stuff back from google/webmd and friends that are there in Omaha but the general consensus is kidney failure is not a good time, so since last night I have been very worried.

Since my last update I have taken a short trip out to California and come down with a terrible black plague like case of the flu. We went to California to celebrate Nolan’s first birthday so that was a lot of fun. Many of the Gutraj clan made the trip to see Nolan and I have to say, the birthday cake was worth it.

Here’s Nolan (with his Mom and Dad) going after his cake.

Also, there was of course a t-shirt commemorating the event.

Additionally, Jill who you may know as my “carpool buddy” left AT&T a week ago. I am really going to miss our carpool confessionals. I’ve started carpooling with Clinton which has been fun and more economical, but I still dearly miss my daily interaction with Jill. We’ve scheduled weekly dinners to fill the void. This week was the first dinner and it was very therapeutic. We talked about men and tater mitts. John lasted longer than I thought he would before disappearing to play more guitar hero.

Last week we tried to do Valentine’s Day twice and failed both times. Saturday I was monopolized by the black plague and Thursday we had a group date at White Castle that I missed due to an unfortunate incident involving my parents, a flat tire, and the wrong type of tow truck. This past weekend I was still trying to fight off the last of my black plague, so we just stuck to a trivia event and school work. We lost at trivia as usual but we had a good time.

The upcoming weekend we have mouse races, a baby shower and Avenue Q at the Fox on the docket. That about catches everyone up in the wonderful world of Gutraj chaos. I must go now because I have a big night of television. Jon Stewart is on Larry King Live tonight. :)

Last night I was the coolest person in the room

2008-01-27T20:43:00.000-06:00

Don’t worry I’ll explain that statement. It’s been a crazy weekend but one of the most fun and yet least productive we’ve had in a long, long time. Friday after work John called me up to let me know that he had located a Wii for retail price at Costco. For those of you that don’t know the full details of my Holiday Wii Plight, John and I have a special place in our hearts for those seeking Wiis at retail value. After a few phone calls we managed to find a loving home for the Wii. Janet had wanted one for a while and her mom was taken by some fraudsters in pursuit of her Wii. After several hours of cow-tossing and bunny pooping on New Years, I knew that Janet would soon be part of the proud elite Wii owners club.

After John got home from Costco (by the way, we’re executive members now so if you need something to make fun of us about, there you go) we had dinner, relaxed a bit and got geared up to go out at 10 p.m. If you’ve been around us with Dave recently, he’s been teasing us about the “married people curfew” and how us married people always need to be in bed early, so we never stay out and have any fun. I’ve taken this as a challenge and made it my mission to stay out until midnight at least one night of the weekend. Unfortunately, sometimes we’re not out with Dave and I’m unsure of whether or not I should call him with a “hey, we’re married and still out past midnight, neiner, neiner, neiner…….yeah of course we’re on our way home, so what’s your point?”

Okay, so back to the narrative. Judy has this little radius that she prefers to keep her entertainment. It does not include Affton. It does not include South City. Heck, I do not even think it includes Kirkwood, but I’ll have to double check with her on that. Anyway, Judy has this new man and she’s finally out of the closet about it so I was excited to head out and re-meet him. John and I go out to Harpo’s in Chesterfield. If you know John, you know that he doesn’t like bars where he doesn’t get a seat and he doesn’t get a punch card, so I didn’t expect him to have a good time. We arrive at Harpo’s and there’s a cover charge. For John cover charges rank right up there with country music, expensive cupcakes and visits to his in-law’s house. After drinks we managed to spend $21 before we sat down. Then we found out there was no place to sit down. Add to that, we were twenty minutes late and none of our friends had arrived yet. The outlook for the evening was bleak at best. Shortly after, Judy arrived with Anna and Sanjay, then Dave and Janet arrived and they brought Willie! We found a place to sit down, my Red Bull started kicking in and things got much better. Apparently Sanjay had met me before, I’ll have to get clarification from Ms. Judy on that but it was either me or some other chick who claimed to look like Kimmie Gibler. I think a lot of photos were taken, none on my camera. I was signed up to sing Redneck Woman but John brought me home quickly enough that I did not humiliate myself. Yes, I managed to have a great time in Chesterfield.

Yesterday morning Staley and Halas were due for everything under the sun at the vet so after a yummy breakfast we got out the door and took them in. Staley started a game of “chicken” with a cat in the waiting room. Staley lost. $200 later we were finished, John took the doggies to the park and I went to meet Rachel for OPERATION: Bridesmaid Dress. It was a good time and most importantly a probable dress was selected. We ran into Linda and Leah at Clarice’s and we all had a good little cry about how ladies’ night did not pan out this weekend, but I need to definitely get my act together soon. Somewhere in the middle of dress shopping John called me. We had agreed to spend our Saturday night together since we had barely spoken to each other with all the week’s insanity going on. I hear the words “The Fox” and I get all excited and I thought I heard the words “video game” but we right in the middle of OPERATION: Bridesmaid Dress so I didn’t seek clarification. After I get home from dress shopping, we both hurry to get dressed (nicely dressed) so that we can get to the Fox in time. In case you haven’t figured out by now, we went last night to go see Video Games Live. I am ashamed to say that I loved it. I have never seen so many dorky people in one room before though. Also, there was no cause whatsoever to dress up. Everyone there was dressed as a video game character or in ratty jeans. People were playing their DSes while waiting for the show to start. I’m ashamed to admit that I enjoyed listening to the scores from video games that I hate. For me (wii excluded) video games rank right up there with lettuce and reality TV. Since we had an early brunch date, we hit the hay in time for “married people curfew”

Brunch was a lot of fun but we decided the Ameristar brunch buffet beats the Harrahs buffet. Besides our buffet critiquing and usual high school reminiscing we talked about video games, Laura’s lack of favorite Republican, and country music songs. I made a quick jet by my mom’s after brunch and then I finally put my nose to the grindstone with homework for a decent part of the afternoon. I took a break to go to the dog park. We ran into Jilly and Katie. I start hot yoga with Katie next week, so I have to go get a mat. I came home and finished up homework and worked on my new year’s resolution of more blogging. Also, I snapped a pic of my bathroom for anyone that hasn’t seen it already. You can’t get the full effect without seeing it in person but at least you can see that the hideous pink is gone. I know you’re all resting easier.

68 days until spring

2008-01-12T22:57:00.001-06:00

! I promised one of my blog enthusiasts (can you BELEIVE I still have enthusiasts?) this week that I'd post some pictures sometimes soon but tonight won't be it! I resolved to be a better blogger this year and buy better I simply meant more frequent. I'm making no claims about the quality of each blog posting.

Let's see if I can sum up my EXCITING week since Tuesday. Wednesday night we were annihilated (spelled that right first try) at trivia. The very first category was 80's teen movies. Our fate was sealed almost immediately. We wound up coming in second to last which was pretty dismal but hey at least it wasn't last! Thursday was a lot of wii playing. Last night I made a chicken as in like a whole chicken (ok no head and feet) and it didn't turn out too bad. John was disappointed, not because he didn't like the chicken but he didn't realize how small they were. He was picturing something approximately the size of a turkey! Friday night, Rachel and Joe came over to play wii. Rachel and Joe are saving for their wedding so they are happy to do anything that doesn't cost them monies!!! Today Steph and I went to trader Joe's while John and Willie made a lot of beer!! We played right left center, guitar hero and trivial pursuit with everyone most of the rest of the night. We're home now since our doggies missed us. Tomorrow I've got about 4 days worth of stuff packed into one day so it should be a good time. I get to see Kim and Missy. This time I'll remember to make myself presentable because Missy always takes pictures. Crazy picture people ;)

Welcome Back to my blog

2008-01-08T18:02:00.000-06:00

Is anyone out there??? Is this thing on?? I went ahead and made 3rd NY resolution. I'm not sure if you've heard.

Here are my 3
1. Repeal of the 2007 budget resolution
2. Stay completely off of Terry's poo lists
--for any who don't already know Terry is my boss and she sends out poo lists and I'm pretty sure I was on every single one for 2007. Here's an example of the poo list
Team-
The following people have not completed insert admin item here. It was due insert today's date minus 3 days here.

Slacker Sam
Valerie Gutraj
Procrastinator Polly

3. The third item I'd like to take on and I know this is ambitious is I'd like to be better at blogging. Due to my less than stellar blog posting and my empty apologies for the duration of 2007 I've lost a lot of my loyal audience. I would like to do better in 2008. While I appreciate any and all the compliments on my blog I think the pressure to constantly be witty and interesting kept me from posting.
"Hmmmm..........does anyone care that we went to the dog park, dinner was burned and I fell asleep before the guest came onto the Daily show, okay I'll wait to post"

I'd never finish this entry if I updated from October where I left off all the way to present so I'm going to try and just cover start of 2007-present. We had a few people over for New Year's Eve. I didn't want to have a party because that entails immense pressure to clean the house, make a lot of food and dump at least $75 on liquor so we had a few people over and played wii. In case you have not already heard, hell has finally frozen over. They created a video game console that I enjoy. The wii has gotten John and I easily through the writer's strike. It's both relaxing AND interacive vs. the TV set which kills any hope of conversation.

I learned that I am going to be in Rachel and Joe's wedding which should be very exciting!!! I got to go with Rachel to look at dresses last week and we went to the wedding show!! After the wedding show Rachel and I tried out Bosna Gold. I'm going to go ahead and call that a "not recommended" restaurant. The food was bland and they seemed frankly pretty annoyed to be serving us.

Since this is my blog and I make the rules, I decided I'm not tied to any sort of chronology. Last Friday night John and I got to my Christmas present which was a yummy in the tummy dinner from Carmine's. I got a steak with crab meat on top. It was all KINDS of wonderful.

Other than that things have been fairly calm here at the Gutraj house. I'm counting down the days (2 months, 2 weeks and 6 days) to the camping trip in March. By the way March 28-30th is Campapalooza (as Dave has called it). Feel free to join us!! Ask me if you need details!!

Hola from Cancun Mexico

2007-10-21T10:38:00.000-05:00

In case you haven't heard already, we are back from our anniversary trip to Mexico! We had a great time but we are happy to be back in the good old United States where nearly every toilet is capable of handling toilet paper, wet floors are clearly marked with "Wet Floor" signs and all the steps have those nice little treads on them to keep you from tripping.

We stayed in the hotel zone which John appropriately nicknamed "Little America". We arrived on Sunday. We were off the plane for about 45 seconds before someone tried to sell us a time share. He claimed to be the transportation company at first so we wound up wasting about 5-10 minutes listening to him before we realized he just wanted us to sit through a 90 minute sales pitch. After finding the real transportation company we made it to our hotel and after having one more person try to get us to sit through a timeshare presentation we made it to our hotel room. After we unpacked, we went for a walk down the hotel zone and had dinner at a little sports bar that had a menu that consisted of about 30 different variations of tacos.
It was a nice relaxing dinner and then we walked back to the hotel and went to bed.

The next day we decided to explore the hotel zone in the morning and go to Isle Mujeres in the afternoon. We were up and walking around at about 8:00. We stopped by our hotel lobby where of course someone tried to sell us a timeshare. Turns out almost no one in Mexico is up and about at 8:00 a.m. but if you know me, you know I needed coffee so we took the bus to the Isle shopping center where the only thing open was a McDonald's. I had made John do all the ordering every place we went because I figured knowing my luck I'd encounter the 1 in 10 people in Cancun that know as much English as I know Spanish. I figured the one place that I could absolutely be a big flaming American was McDonald's. I walk in and order a coffee and the cashier indicates that she can't understand me. (I am pretty sure she was doing a school project on stubborn Americans that expect to go everywhere and speak English and spend dollars.) Anyway, John steps up and orders my coffee in Spanish. She tells him they are out of smalls and hands us a small coffee but charges us for a medium but why argue in Spanish over twenty cents. Anyway, we were told that we really didn't need pesos anywhere so John goes to pay and she says she can't take dollars. Then, he asks her if she can take credit and she says only pesos. He asks her if she knows where there's an ATM or a bank (in the mall she WORKS in) and she says she does not know. We then start to walk out indicating that we have no way of paying for our coffee then and McDonald's magically changed its policy and she accepts our dollars. We walked around the mall for a little while and bought two t-shirts that had a sign indicating they cost $5 USD each tax included yet out total was somehow $11. (I guess they count on Americans being too lazy to multiply eesh). After we collected some more souvenirs we headed over to the flea markets and then had lunch. The place we stopped for lunch was okay except that John and I each ordered something different and I'm pretty sure they gave us each a taco. The restaurant owner then came out and tried to sell us a timeshare. After we got our check we snuck out of that and made it back towards our hotel to figure out that we just missed the boat to Isle Mujeres but we could catch one in the afternoon. We had a little nap at our hotel that caused us to miss another boat to Isle Mujeres so we just killed some time at the beach before heading to Carlos and Charlie's for dinner. I figured Carlos and Charlie's was American enough that perhaps I could get something besides a taco. Turns out that I had a choice between tacos and hamburgers so I went ahead and went with the hamburger since I was about tacoed out. Thankfully no one there tried to sell us a timeshare though they did walk by our table twice to try to sell us shots and once to sell us a $16 polaroid photo. The waiter did come by and give me a nice hair do with napkins

Here's the pic

Tuesday turned out much better for us than Monday. We got up early and took the bus to downtown cancun and then hopped a charter bus out to Tullum. We had lunch in Tullum before exploring the ruins. (You guessed it, tacos again). Tullum was really cool and there's a part where you can go swimming and snorkeling. The water was too rough for snorkeling and some chick came by and tried to steal our stuff while we were swimming so we were only in the water long enough to cool off. Just beside the water there were a ton of iguanas and I got close enough to get a few pictures. After we walked around the ruins we went through the little market in the front to find that they were desperately trying to rip off Americans for their souvenirs. It's not that I'm stupid enough to think that no one is going to try and take me for a little extra money when I'm outside a big tourist draw but seriously if you expect me to pay $100 bucks or a thousand pesos for your necklace, your store had better have 4 walls and air conditioning. Our bus back to Cancun didn't show which gave me a chance to finish Memoirs of a Geisha (good book by the way) and an hour later another bus came so we made it back safe and sound. We opted to have dinner downtown. We ate at a place called Sambora or something like that which turned out to be Mexican Denny's but they had a huge variety on the menu, so I was pretty happy to be eating something besides a taco. We milled around downtown a little more and caught the bus back and then went to bed.

Wednesday, we had an awesome time. It was the ecotourism adventure thing I booked. The picked us up at the butt crack of dawn and took us on a bus to Tres Reyes. Our driver went about 100 the entire way out there. When we got there we took a short hike through the jungle and then we got to swim in an underground cenote which was BEAUTIFUL and then we got some sort of Mayan blessing. On the walk back we got a quick glimpse of a spider monkey! We kayaked over to another cenote. After that, we got dried off and went rock rappelling which looked like it would be really scary but it wasn't that bad. After we repelled we climbed back up the other side of the cenote and ziplined back across. I was more nervous when John ziplined than when I ziplined. After ziplining they made us a real Mayan lunch. It was awesome. It was buffet style so we definitely gorged ourselves and they had these phenomenal empanadas. I could have eaten them all day long. I'm not going to go into detail about the bathrooms in Tres Reyes but let's just say I would have rather been camping. After lunch we hopped back in the van and went to Coba. Coba was a cute little town with more Mayan ruins. It doesn't get as much hype as Chi chen-itza but that's apparently because they haven't unearthed a lot of it yet. Coba was really cool though. When we arrived we saw a crocodile. I was so sad that I didn't have my camera out. Sadly, there was a little toddler with no parents around trying to lure the crocodile out of the water with a piece of meat on a string. I was on the bus, but it seemed no one around him was going to say anything. As far as John and I can tell, Mexicans are pretty big on Darwinism. We pulled up to the ruins and we got a little tour. After that we took a little 2 mile hike up to this HUGE temple that they let you climb to the top of. Climbing up and back down that temple was far scarier than the ziplining or rock rapelling combined.

Here's the pick of the temple:

and here's the view from the top:

After that, we left Coba and stopped for some tequila shots and cookies before being dropped back off at our hotel. We ate dinner at an authentic Yucantanian restaurant. I had some sort of pork called pak chu (something like that), seasoned squash, ground matzo dough with pumpkin and cilantro and a hardboiled egg wrapped in tortilla with salsa on top. It sounds weird but the meal was delicious. We had coconut flan for dessert. mmmmm.......

Thursday we had intended to go to Isle Mujeres since we missed it on Monday. We attempted to book a trip online to Chih Chen-itza at an internet cafe earlier in the week. It said "we'll send you an email confirmation of your trip in in 36 hours. We never received any confirmation, so we assumed we weren't going and we'd have to to do another fun dispute with the credit card company. Well at 7 a.m. Thursday morning, our phone rang and as it turns out we were being picked up for our Chih Chen-itza tour. We got ready in record time (no shower) and ran out to the lobby and met our driver. We were on the bus to Chih Chen-itza which had more Mayan ruins than any of the other areas we had been to. The tour itself was definitely the most interesting, but it was the least hands on. We had another authentic buffet Mayan lunch. This one had some yummy tortilla espanola which was great but John knows how to make that at home so it wasn't quite as exciting as the empanadas we had on Wednesday. After an exhausting tour we had some free time where we milled around the ruins and little Mexican kids that were supposed to be in school tried to sell us overpriced souvenirs. After the free time, we headed back to our hotels. We went out for a nice Italian dinner at this place called Alfredo's. If you ever go to Cancun, I highly recommend it. The dishes were $12-15 a piece and they did everything but wipe your tush for you. Both of our meals were wonderful but as it turns out I was allergic to John's seafood risotto because after just one bite my lip started to swell up. I didn't eat anymore of it so other than a little goofy dentist like feeling I was okay. We headed back to our hotel because the next day the Grayline was taking us back to the airport at 5:00 a.m. We made it back safe and sound after having to run through customs and AA losing one of our bags.

We really had a wonderful time, but if I ever go back to Cancun again we are definitely doing an all inclusive so that we can hopefully avoid some of the snags. Here's all of our pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26406484@N00/sets/72157602585414572/

September in 500 words or less

2007-09-26T21:12:00.000-05:00

Okay so since Labor Day we’ve had a busy September as you might have guessed by my lack of blog postings!!! I made a cheese cake for John’s 26^th birthday. I followed the directions exactly and it tasted yummy but it had a big hole it in, so I filled the whole with strawberries and no one knew the difference! We’re both more excited than we should be about the premieres of our new fall shows. School is kicking both of our butts. Staley has learned to jump over the fence in our backyard in case you haven’t already heard.

Last weekend was the real adventure though. We went on our September camping trip. It was an awesome time as expected. Friday night was pretty uneventful but Saturday we left around lunch time on what was supposed to be a tiny little hike. We unintentionally hiked about tenish miles due to a mix-up in trails. J Had we had enough water, some of the thrill and adventure might have been gone and the hike would have simply been exhausting. Jill and I spent the afternoon fantasizing about missing work on Monday for all sorts of inventive reasons such as still being trapped in the woods and dysentery due to drinking river water. Around dinner time when we (by we I mean people on the hike with more of a clue than me) started to suspect we had made a wrong turn or started going in circles. Clinton contacted the park ranger and it turned out we were not quite as off path as we had originally thought but we had made a wrong turn nonetheless. I’m not sure if it was out of boredom or wanting to avoid the bad PR of city dwellers getting lost forever in the state park but our phone call prompted the ranger to come and rescue us. We were all very relieved and VERY tired.

The fun does not end there. Upon returning from camping nearly everyone discovered a terrible rash. Thankfully my case seems to be very mild but Jill managed to get herself and her dog infested with seed ticks. In case you were wondering what the margin of error is on the 30 days that Frontline grants you for its effectiveness, it’s about negative 5 days. Poor Jill was at about day 32 when we embarked on our hike and she is paying for it now.

That about sums up September. We finally had our basement professionally fixed. We have an upcoming trip to Cancun that just won’t get here soon enough. Our house is a mess but then what else is new? Tomorrow is the premier of the Office and if you RSVPed yes then you are in for some amazing Rachel Ray Sloppy Dude sandwiches with a side of salsa and frozen cake for dessert. Mmmmm… I’m almost at my 500 words and it’s about time for bed. Happy September!!

Why it's good to be Val

2007-09-02T09:42:00.001-05:00

1. No one crying until I got out of bed this morning

2. Cup of coffee number 4......

3. Seeing Superbad tonight

4. No intentions of changing out of my PJs before noon.

5. Discovered the deliciousness (is that a word?) of oatmeal cookie martinis mmmm....

Why it sucks to be Val

1. Still have not started homework due on Tuesday

2. FB season starts pretty soon

3. Paid $11 for the oatmeal cookie martini

4. No Bisquick to be found in the Carlson-Quinn home and the breakfast window closes in 14 minutes.

The trip to Omaha has been great so far. We got in later than planned on Friday night because our plane was late but we still made it over to Old Chicago. Quinn apparently frequents that bar often enough that the bartender knew his name. We had some yummy nachos and played Big Buck Hunter. Big Buck Hunter was $2.50 and 20 minutes of my life that I will never get back. All those years of playing Duck Hunt with the gun touching the TV did nothing to help my marksman skills as it turns out, but I still had a good time! Yesterday John and Craig were gone at the Husker game all day long so I was entertained by the Justins until about dinner time. We had some fried tacos, played some air hockey and some putt putt. I kicked butt and took names at putt putt so it allowed me to regain some of my lost dignity from Friday night's Big Buck Hunter incident. Last night it was off to the bars. Quinn and Craig live right downtown in the middle of everything so we got to try a lot of different places without the hassle of parking. A good time was had by all. The plan at the end of the night was to hit the Max which is Omaha's gay bar. John was a wee bit freaked out last time we went there so we came back to the apartment for that portion of the evening. Anyway, we'll be back Monday in case you are all missing us. In case you haven't been informed next Sunday starts up poker/FB watching craziness. :-)

mmmmm............Fajitas

2007-08-27T17:34:00.000-05:00

Okay since my last update we've been back to Chicago again. Last weekend we went up to Chicago again for John's Grandpa's 95th birthday!! It was a good time but very exhausting. We got to see little Nolan while we were up there too!!! He is getting so big and he gets cuter everytime we see him.

Here's John's grandpa checking out his cake at the party!

.........and here is little Nolan fast asleep on top his grandpa!

Last week we were pretty busy dog sitting and dinner hosting among other things and the house shows it. If you come over, please try to disregard the mud on the floor and the trash strewn about.

This weekend I went out to dinner with Kim to Simply Fondue which was yummy! It is a lot like the melting pot but it definitely has it's own uniqueness to it. After that Kim and I met up with Rachel, Kara, Steph, and Katie at 33. I decided that 33 serves a great purpose. You have a table to sit at and order drinks while you're waiting for your table at the Chocolate Bar. After 45 minutes on the wait list we made it over to the Chocolate Bar. I was still really too stuffed from Simply Fondue to enjoy anything but the ambiance. If you have ever been to the chocolate bar you know about the "Through the Looking Glass" theme of their bathrooms. I'll cliffsnotes it for you if you don't know what I'm talking about. If you're over 5 feet tall and not watching what you're doing, you WILL hit your head. In true Chocolate Bar tradition, I got a bump on my noggin at potty break number three. We closed out the night by meeting up with the boys and the dogs at Steph and Chris' house. They were supposed to come over to the Gutraj house and eat wings, play video games and drink beer but our power was out so it was relocated. (Fortunately it came back on by the time the night was over)

Saturday I went to the best book sale ever with Amy. It was at the YMCA in Carondolet. I wound up back there on Sunday with Justin and Katie, because I liked it so much and I'll probably go back again Wednesday. Saturday evening we went to Famous Bar with Justin, Katie, Rachel and Joe after the NGA Guido's dinner. The martini I had was phenomenal. I am seriously kind of picky about my martinis also but the chocolate martini I had was so smooth and delicious. It had a hershey kiss in the bottom of the glass. mmmm.....

Anyway, Sunday was back to the book sale like I said and then a long overdue dinner with Rubaba. Unfortunately, if you're planning to go out to dinner in west county on a Sunday night your choices are McDonald's and Casa Gallardo, so we went to Casa which by the way meant I had fajitas again. Since I can't finish a full meal anywhere unless it comes with a toy I of course had a doggie bag which meant for lunch today I had.............you guessed it fajitas.

Anyway, today was John's comp day which means we can both leave the house tonight and not feel guilty about leaving the furry kids so we're going to dinner at the Nordamann's. Afterward I get to do homework - YUCK.

okay so I'm turning in my female card

2007-08-11T16:42:00.000-05:00

For the first time in about a year I went to a mall and did not just run in and out. I walked around for a few solid hours. I did not by myself a thing. I bought my mom some mascara for her birthday and that was IT. Amy and I hadn't seen each other a lot in 2007, so when we both had a free weekend we sure took advantage. I just didn't see anything today that made me want to part with my money. Then being that we were within a few minutes of a Trader Joe's I had to stop in. I think we killed more time in Trader Joe's than we did the shopping mall. I tried to smuggle the Trader Joe's bags in before John noticed but I think he caught me. I didn't restock us with 5 bottles of 2 buck chuck like usual and I got him some pears though so I'm sure he's good. Anyway, I just have one more errand to run and then I'll be home for dinner. We still haven't made plans this evening so I guess we'll just go enjoy our pool that we spent so much money rebuilding.

I know someone getting a laptop for Christmas

2007-08-08T18:36:00.000-05:00

My top 2 forms of entertainment are at the library. (My husband and my laptop) Never mind that I have a sink full of dinner dishes and 2 weekend trips to unpack from. I want to be myspacing, talking to John and watching TV all at the same time. Is that too much to ask? We are supposed to go camping this weekend. This is the Webster camping trip that I have been looking forward to for a solid YEAR. It's a great time. I didn't really expect it to be cool in August but the heat this weekend is supposed to be ridiculous. Also we had planned on bringing the doggers and it seems unfair to make them endure the heat in their fur coats. John said he'd stay home and watch the dogs and I could go without him but given that I've come down with a huge dose of the bubonic plague this week, sleeping in an outdoor sauna hardly seems like a good life decision. The good news is not camping will give me a chance go and see my mom and dad. My mom's birthday was yesterday.

In other news we got a package in the mail from Nolan and it just occurred to me that I haven't really posted any pictures of him. I pretty much plastered my blog last year with Corey pictures but Corey's in St. Louis so if you show up to enough stuff you'll meet him eventually. Nolan, in case you somehow did not already know is our nephew (as in John's sister's son). He is an absolute doll.

See, I told you he's adorable. Anyway, if everyone could please pray for a break in this heat so that I can use my $100+ camping supplies I got for my birthday I'd appreciate it. Now it's off to finishing cleaning upstairs and watching Barefoot Contessa until my husband and laptop get home.

I'll teach you the electric slide

2007-08-05T18:26:00.000-05:00

We had a pretty great time at Jackie's wedding this weeekend. John and I assumed that we wouldn't really know anyone which was kind of a dumb assumption being that John, me, Jackie and Heath all graduated from SLU. The rehearsal dinner was the fanciest BBQ I'd ever had. Fiorella's Jackstack BBQ. mmmmm....yummy. The cheesy corn is the best thing ever. I have to figure out how to make it. The ceremony went off without a hitch and John took some pictures. I'm uploading them to flickr right now so they'll be available soon. The reception was a blast. A bunch of the wedding party people danced to "Save a horse, Ride a cowboy" because who can say no to a happy bride. :-) Then we of course did the electric slide like all good causcausian people. At the end of the night my flu really hit me and so far it hasn't left. I've been chugging theraflu like it's my job. John's getting more peace than he's used to because I have no voice left whatsoever. Anyway, I'll probably still try to drag my butt into the office tomorrow. Conference calls should be interesting. I hope you all had a good weekened. Boogie Woogie Woogie.

tales from a proud doggie daddy

2007-08-02T06:39:00.001-05:00

from john:
So now that Staley and Halas are done with potty training, their little doggie personalities are starting to show through. I'd like to share a few funny moments that all happened this afternoon.

First of all, most of you know that we use kongs filled with wet dog food to crate our dogs all day long. Well, the second thing they do when we let them out is go into each other's crate and see what he/she didn't lick out of the kong (the first thing they do is run outside to relieve themselves and see if any bunnies had been there since the morning). Halas has gotten pretty smart about it. He knows he can't lick the stuff stuck to the way back of the kong, so he tries to knock it all loose. He takes the kong in his mouth and throws it up in the air so when it lands on the floor it'll kick out some dried dog food. From our perspective, all we hear is lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, lick. Well, today Val couldn't find 2 of the big kongs, so she had to give Staley one of the small kongs from when they were little. They did their usual ritual and traded kongs. Halas brought the small kong downstairs to where I was checking my email and, sure enough, he started tossing it in the air. The problem was that the food was so crammed in there that it didn't want to come out whatsoever. Nothing. Poor Halas tried so hard to get the food remnants out. He finally tried going up the steps a little ways and tossing it down from higher up, but still no luck. At that point, Staley was at the back door and started to whine that she wanted to go out. The small kong is still at the bottom of the stairs.

So then I needed to drop my car off to get worked on. Val wasn't home from work and I figured the dogs would love the ride and I could walk them while I was waiting for her to come pick me up. So we started walking and we made it to Grant's Trail, this bike path near where I dropped the car off. Normally, these two can make it through 3 miles and still have energy to tear up the house afterwards. Today, however, it was pretty hot out. After only about 1.5 miles, they really started getting worn out. I could tell because they would stop at every shaded area and pretend to sniff around for bunnies. At one point, the both of them just laid down and stopped. Now, of course I brought some water with me, and they both polished off about 2 bottles of it, but that was just too hot for them. I finally had to drag them the last quarter mile or so to where Val picked us up (total walk about 2 miles). Val opened her car door to say hi to them. Let me pause to explain that Halas, while being a gigantic puppy at 71 pounds, normally needs an airlift to get up over anything taller than 2 feet. So Val opened her car door and Halas immediately crawled over her and plopped his butt on the floor of the passenger seat right in front of the A/C. Staley stayed back and got some more water from me, and then followed her brother into the front seat. The two of them were so hot that they just wanted to lay in front of the cold blowing air. I let them sit there for a minute before I kicked them into the back.

When we get home, of course, they both pass out dead to the world. Staley was so tired that she started dreaming. This was one of those active dreams where her legs and paws were twitching, so you know she's running through a pasture chasing something. Well, all of a sudden she started barking in her sleep. But it was a closed-mouth bark so it was muffled. Normally, her sleep barks are very faint and you're not quite sure if it was a bark or not. These barks were full and loud. The funny thing is that neither of the dogs woke up from them.

Well I figured you guys would appreciate some doggie stories. Our dogs are crazy.

Happy Monday

2007-07-23T18:54:00.000-05:00

In case you were wondering what my doggie does while I'm blogging, I've posted a little picture for everyone. My exciting weekend recap is coming. I know that you are all on the edge of your seats. Before I bore you to tears, let me first state that John and I made a concerted effort to have a few quiet weekends before the next 4-5 busy ones. Okay so Friday night we walked the dogs and watched Heroes. Saturday I got in a good 4 hours of internet searching. Saturday night when we went to Joe's where I drank enough wine to fine Bourne Identity entertaining. Sunday I had a 2 part Big Love Marathon. It was great but then we had to get to bed early because we're experimenting with schedule staggering which means the alarm is going off at 4:30 everyday YUCK. That also means that John is napping after work. :-( Anyway, I'm off the hook for dinner tonight since Cortney is cooking for the Webster crew. I'm not sure what she is making but the key here is it's being cooked for me. ;)

Okay here's Kipper

2007-07-17T06:35:00.000-05:00

Please disregard that I look drunk in this picture and that there's a bag of Science Diet next to me. Yes that, is a super soaker on our coffee table.

I waste too much time on myspace

2007-07-16T18:27:00.001-05:00

After work today I realized it's Webster Monday Night Dinner so I really didn't feel a need to get my rear in gear in the kitchen. I came home and myspaced since John was busy. Before I know it I look up and another hour of my life GONE. Lord only know how I do this. The remnants of the flowers that Halas ate are still all over the floor so I definitely could have vaccuumed. John and I are not normally 7:00 p.m. dinner people so I finished off the Corn Pops in attempt to hold myself over. It didn't work. By the way, Corn Pops in case you have forgotten are phenomenal. I hadn't had them since I was about 8. They were on sale for not kidding you 1.97 at Shop 'n Save so I figured for that price if John didn't eat them I would. As it turns out, John was not interested in Corn Pops so I had the entire delicious box all to myself.

In other news, my electric kettle came in the mail today. Is it bad if I want to boil some water just to try it out? Maybe I'll have some hot cocoa or something. I was thinking about posting some pics of Kipper but Flickr decided that it's going to crawl this evening so you'll all have to wait to see the monsterous lady we were dog sitting last week.

It's about time to head over to Steph and Chris'. Myspace has officially burned half my evening. I think I need my classes to start up again.

Saturday Adventures

2007-07-14T17:44:00.000-05:00

This is the first time in a long time I've really been in the mood to post. Every post I think since March has been the result of popular demand. This post is completely me feeling compelled to post. Last night we had a yummy dinner and continued our Heroes marathon after taking our puppies on a 3 mile walk. They didn't get any walks while Kipper was here so I know they were WAY overdue.

Today I took Katie to the airport at 8 am. She gave me the Ohrenberger-Owen dating anniversary flowers since she's leaving town and they will be dead when she gets back. These are the first flowers I've received since I've gotten married (hint, hint).

Anyway, I came home and made John breakfast and had it on the table in the nick of time for the end of the breakfast window. For anyone who is confused, my husband operates like McDonald's no breakfast after 10:00 a.m. We woke up on the 4th of July at 10:05 and he wanted hamburgers. :-) Anyway, there were lots of leftovers so Jill came over and cleaned up for us.

Later I got really ambitious. I decided to clean the kitchen and not stop until I was done. Three hours later I decided that the kitchen was as clean as it was getting. I think the microwave alone was about 30 minutes of the 3 hours and it *still* looks like we microwaved a small animal in there. I abandoned the kitchen at about 2:00 p.m. and went to Schnucks and the alterations place. I forgot to ask the lady that runs the shop how much my alterations were going to cost so for all I know she can ransom my dress for like $300 and there's not a darn thing I can do about it.

John's taking a nap right now with the doggies but when he wakes up we are going to haul ourselves out to Godfrey, IL for Tara's birthday party. I told John that I would designated drive because I am hoping he will bond with the Webster people. I'll bet you are all jealous of my exciting day :-P

Busy Summer

2007-07-07T10:48:00.000-05:00

Since my last update we had our annual Amazing 3rd of July Party. The date rotates btw, if it was convenient to have it on the 4th that's when we'd have it. Tradition continued and Dave did his ceremonial roof jump into our 3 foot pool. In our next house we are both really hoping that the pool is not next to the roof.

Anyway, if you missed the calamity, feel free to browse pictures of the event.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26406484@N00/sets/72157600715725168/

New this week, we are dogsitting for my Uncle Ken's dog, Kipper. In case you haven't heard about Kipper this dog weighs more than I do. My dogs are a little calmer around her than usual doggie visitors because Kipper is the epitome of lethargy. Staley seems a little disappointed that she doesn't have another partner in crime but I'm sure she'll still manage plenty of mischief with just her brother. Luckily that's all that is new at the Gutraj house for the time being. We have a few semi-free weekends coming up and we are going to try and be lazy and enjoy them. :-) August will be madness again.

Long time no post

2007-06-29T20:50:00.001-05:00

It has been a crazy month to say the least. Congratulations if you are still reading my posts. Since my last post I have been camping/floating, been to Florida, and been to Chicago. Things are finally settling down here so that we can have some hope to get our house ready for the 4th of July party. Our dogs both graduated their intermediate puppy class and our little trivia group seems to have broken up. Due to the nice weather everyone seems to be doing the jazz nights at the botanical gardens instead.

The doggies amazingly didn't eat Charles' beach house when we took them to Florida.

Here's our Florida pics.

We don't have that much planned for July, amazingly. It feels like time for a quiet month. I am leaving town at the end of July to take a trip to Chicago and see the girls I used to live with on 4W. Do you think 3 trips to Chicago is enough for one summer.

John's homework for this evening is to watch the Wizard of Oz for his class, so that's our exciting Friday. You're jealous and I understand. :-P

Doggie Disaster Updates

2007-05-15T21:56:00.000-05:00

I have been a pretty lousy blog updater as of late. Hey I had a good run in March. Anyway, since I last posted Staley went out back and destroyed our pool as you may have already heard. John was ready to kill her. We still haven't got the pool rebuilt but I am sure that it will be ready to go by the 4th of July. It appears Dave will not be able to make our party so thankfully no one will be attempting to jump off the roof into the pool. The pool flooding restarted the basement flooding, so our main entertainment area has been out of service for 2 weeks but John thinks the 24 finale party will still take place as scheduled. By the way, if you are interested we'll have deep fried anything you want on the night of the finale and by we I mean me since John will be gone on business.

Also Staley has figured out how to get out of the gate. She got mad last Thursday when she didn't get a walk and decided to give herself a walk.

In other news, Amy and Matt are finally engaged in case you did not already know. As of Thursday Karen and Charles will be medical school graduates.

We went camping this weekend and had a great time. Me, John and both dogs had ticks all over us. Even though it was far tamer than our past camping trips we still managed to get in trouble for having too many cars and for John peeing in the woods.

Here are the camping pictures

The ones with us crouching down are us pulling a tick out of Staley's butt.

Also John caught Halas sleeping like this a week ago.

Not much else. Remember your RSVP for my bday float trip is due before I leave for FL or you have to make your own reservation.

Greetings from Sunny California

2007-04-14T22:47:00.000-05:00

We've had a fun day here in California so far. Our flight went well because we both slept like babies. Poor John woke up with drool in his lap thanks to me. We were both so excited to meet baby Nolan and he was even cuter and sweeter than we thought. When Tiffany met us at the airport she had him with her and he sat in his little car seat sleeping with a grin on his face. I can tell his Uncle John loves him too. The California weather is wonderful. We had lunch outside today at In-n-Out Burger.

John sent out an email with this picture taken from Tiffany and Ray's back yard

In case you were left off it said:

it's 61 degrees here in San Diego. what's it like where you are?

We got quite a few pictures of Nolan but Sparty (the dog) is really a camera hog so we definitely have more of him! For dinner we went to Claim Jumper's since I was sick when we went there over Christmas and I didn't really enjoy it! It was awesome this time though. John and I split a full rack of ribs, yummy! We are going to the Wild Animal Park tomorrow. I hope when we come home we bring some San Diego weather with us!

Maybe you should enroll your dogs in a puppy class........

2007-03-31T16:51:00.000-05:00

Our dogs are so unruly that today we have had 2 people suggest we put them in puppy class. It was supposed to rain lots today so instead of a real walk we took them to Petco. They shoplifted from the bulk section again. The manager didn't seem to mind. If you are wanting to make fun of us here's your opportunity. Tomorrow we are taking the dogs to Petco to have their picture taken with the Easter Bunny and next Saturday we are taking them to a Dog Easter Egg Hunt. Easter is always a sad holiday for me because I'm mostly heathen so we do not do much. John's family is all out of town so we will be all by ourselves for the first time in months since everyone else is heavy into family stuff.

This afternoon we went to a BBQ at Jill's. Jill had 7 people and 6 dogs at her condo. It was a great time. Unfortunately, Jill does not have a fence. We used a tie out for a little bit but the dogs kept getting tangled. When we let them off leash, Staley was good but Halas kept running off and wouldn't come back when he was called. Thankfully the afternoon was enough to make both dogs tired. I guess it was enough to make John tired too. :-) We have an exciting Fast Eddies night planned and John just volunteered for Designated Driver so it should be extra fun for me!

Please return this card with Balls to Retrieve your License

2007-03-25T08:17:00.000-05:00

We wound up playing pool last night. John wanted to go see TMNT but no one else would go with us so we decided to play mini golf with Rachel and Joe. It was such a beautiful night, but apparently the minigolf place is only open seasonally so we gave up and went to Pink Galleon.

I am terrible at pool, as I am bad with all things requiring coordination. I know you are all shocked. We played 4 games and Rachel and Joe beat us twice. The 2 times that we won though were because Rachel sunk the 8 ball. Hey, I'll take what I can get. We found out that we are way, way too smart for most of the trivia designed for drunks on the megatouch machine so we mostly stuck with Photo Hunt.

Also, since I've only seen Amy once in 2007 and that was at a trivia night where we were on different teams, we decided it's high time we hang out so we are going to Fast Eddies!!!!

Okay, I have a huge to-do list for today so I'm not that sad that the puppies woke me up at 8:00.

Puppy Graduates

2007-03-20T20:35:00.000-05:00

Please hum the tune of "Pomp and Circumstance" to yourself while you read this post.

Tonight was puppy graduation. Our dogs both passed their final exams and received their puppy diploma and clearance to go ahead to the intermediate class. We are already signed up! The puppies both of course did an "excited fountain pee" on the floor in class. Halas' pee is a little more projectile and he peed all over Brody's mom. Also, Staley tried hard to eat the tassel I'm surprised we are welcome in the next class.

Anyway, here are their pictures.

Oh and I'm taking a chocolate class on Saturday. I'd rather be camping but it sounds like a good time.

Why cheap stand mixers are a bad idea

2007-03-15T20:16:00.000-05:00

Can I just say for a second how nice it would be to have a wife? John needed to bring some snacks to work so I took the opportunity to try a flourless chocolate cake recipe that sounded SO yummy. I scanned through the recipe and thought that I had the proper kitchen equipment to handle it. I didn't fully realize that it would be the consistency of concrete as I was mixing it up. I have this little $95 stand mixer which if you've ever priced stand mixers you know that you do not get the cadillac of stand mixers for $95.

I was a little frustrated that my eggs and butter weren't getting combined the way they should, since my motor is so weak. I cranked it up all the way and this is what happened to my kitchen.

overall view:

Floor only:

Close up of counter type appliances:

It is really a shame I didn't get a picture of the dogs. They were covered in chocolate too. The cake tasted AMAZING though.

dose of my own medicine

2007-03-13T18:13:00.000-05:00

For anyone that hung out with me last fall you know that I probably had about a foot more hair than any person needs. John, while he likes shoulder length hair is not a huge fan of butt length hair. It gets in the way while you are driving with the windows down, eating and a host of other things. John couldn't stand it but I was always like "I'm not cutting it I'm giving it to Locks of Love" and I just defiantly kept growing it. If you've seen John in person at all you know that he has massive eyebrows. I swear there's one that's like 3 inches long. I tried to take it out everyday for the past week and today I looked at him and begged him and said "why won't you just let me take it out?" to which he replied, "I'm donating it to Locks of Love".

ouch

2007-03-11T12:49:00.000-05:00

Apparently more than my lungs are out of shape. John and I both hurt so bad from our pansy game of kickball. We had a long day of doing almost nothing planned but we've decided that our dogs don't appreciate art the way they should so we are taking them up to Laumeier. I haven't been there since I was 11 so this should be a good time.

I am not sure why they don't make bigger heating pads. I'm sorry but more than 1 square foot of me hurts. I'm going to invent big ones and make lots of money.

out of shape

2007-03-10T15:11:00.000-06:00

Today was our habitat/kickball day. Do you know what job I would hate? I would hate being the police officer that has to kick tax paying people off of ball fields on beautiful days like today. We got evicted from the first spot in forest park, but it wasn't super fun like when you normally get kicked out of someplace. We just needed a permit for the field that we were using so we were booted. At any rate, we went over to the non-level portion of forest park that does not require a permit and did some kickball there. Everyone assumed based on seeing me do anything that requires coordination that I'd be terrible but I found that I was actually a pretty reliable base-hitter. Here's where the out of shape part comes in. After eating our picnic we start the kickball game and I'm up to "bat" like 3rd or 4th. I kick the ball amazingly between 2 fielders and manage to get on base. This felt pheonomenal. John goes after me and kicks the ball and I go running to 2nd. I get on the base and all of a sudden I notice I'm huffing and puffing. I can't breathe, I can't talk. It's just a mess. That's right. I can't run 2 bases without being out of breath. I blame my mother for smoking while she was pregnant with me. (If you are actually reading this Mom, I AM ONLY KIDDING!!) Anyway, after that everytime John was up after me, he kicked a pop fly that got him out (usually our 3rd) which I know he did because he loves me and he did not want me to have to run to 2nd base and pass out. Also I found that a great way to become dehydrated is to drink nothing but coffee or beer all day and then run around in the sun. Tonight is trivia which I thought we were going to kick butt but apparently we are going to be one short. ugh.

Happy Spring Break

2007-03-07T18:22:00.000-06:00

That's right! After about the worst semester schedule-wise not material-wise I finally get a rest. I just took my final and I have about 3 hours to kill before Stephanie gets out of her presentation.

As though I didn't kill enough time online looking up stuff about dogs, Kim got me on goodreads.com and apparently I read more books than I thought, I guess.

The exciting weekend agenda coming up is happy hour on Friday. This is not at Lemmon's so I don't think anyone will be kicked out. I do feel a little bad about missing Joe's Growler's Happy hour with the scotch eggs and mullet conversation. Life will go on though. Saturday I may or may not be hitting the habitat orientation, it depends on if they will credit me with the one that I went to 7 years ago. We are then doing kickball and lunch afterwards and I'm hoping to bring the puppies. I think they'd be great at kickball. Saturday night we are doing trivia. I just know this time we are going to kick butt unlike in the past.

The kids next to me just downed a full bottle of pancake syrup. Mind you, I'm in the LIBRARY. I take back everything nice I said about webster, I definitely should have gone to SLU

Staley is the Devil

2007-03-03T12:20:00.000-06:00

Well first of all if you are still reading this after I missed posting throughout the entire month of February you are one dedicated blog-reader.

February was a month of cold crappy weather. Due to project budget we pretty much omitted Valentine's day but thanks to Craig and Tara's generosity we did get a nice dinner at Jimmy's. I'll be out of town this year for my all time favorite holiday, but I will get to see them dye the Chicago River Green. Please if you are in St. Louis cheer for Hazelwood West's band at the parade. (even though there's no one left there who knows who I am)

This next little excerpt is from dogmanners.com
The benefits to crate training are many, but the most important one is that it can prevent unwanted behaviors from developing like destructive chewing for example. Your cute, cuddly companion can't shred your clothes and furniture to bits when it is in a crate.

I want everyone to know this is a complete load of b.s. Staley the little devil found a way around that. We keep their crates next to our bed so that they can wake us up when they want to go out. We discovered last night that Staley has been yanking our bed sheets into her crate and shredding them. These are the nice new bed sheets that we just got as a wedding gift.

Anyone want a free puppy?

Belated Welcome to Halas

2007-01-28T09:47:00.000-06:00

That new little cutie on the left is our new puppy Halas. I always have an excuse for not posting but this one is a good one. I have been cleaning up poop and referree-ing doggie fights. We love our new little furry babies so much but we haven't had much time to ourselves. I think we have gotten out of the house twice to do Trivia nights in the entire month of January and that is pretty much it. We have them both in obedience class at PetsMart. They like seeing other dogs but so far they haven't learned too much. We did get a good relaxation technique from the instructor that surprisingly worked.

Let's see that is pretty much all that is new. I'm in accounting this semester (yawn). I'm supposed to be getting some new responsibilities at work sometime but it has yet to happen. We are having a little superbowl party so if you haven't made plans yet, feel free to stop by and we'll be deep frying stuff!! Okay no one believes my promises to post more so I am not going to bother! :-)

Welcome Staley

2007-01-07T12:57:00.000-06:00

We are pleased to announce our new baby puppy, Staley! We brought her home yesterday! Staley cried the first few minutes of the way home from the shelter, ran around the car and then went to sleep in my lap. She sleeps a lot still and when she's awake she either wants to play or poop. It's only the second day though and Staley already will use the puppy pads. She didn't cry at all last night. She slept downstairs all by herself and she was very good. She didn't cry until this morning to let us know she was awake. We can't wait for everyone to meet her!

Happy New Year

2007-01-01T23:08:00.000-06:00

Coming to you from beautiful las vegas, NV. This is where our hour layover has turned into an all night fiasco. We are now supposed to arrive in St. Louis at 3:20 A.M. I guess thank Goodness for the free wifi but man I am sick and I am pooped

bye bye 2006

2006-12-31T15:29:00.000-06:00

I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas. I'm blogging to you from Sunny San Diego, CA. Jealous? Well, don't be. I got a TERRIBLE cold 2 days ago and we had to cancel half the stuff we had planned. :-( I'm just trying to focus on recovering so that I'm not miserable when I go back to work. Lesson learned, do not use all your vacation for the calendar year in 2 shots. I was sick over my honeymoon and now I'm sick in San Diego so I didn't get to FULLY enjoy either vacation. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and I hope everyone has a happy New Year. Also 2 of my friends got engaged and I'm so EXCITED but I can't say who in case they haven't told everyone yet, I don't want to steal their excitement. 2007 and 2008 are going to be very wedding heavy years though, that's for sure!

experiments

2006-12-16T09:13:00.000-06:00

Okay I won't go into excuses, let's just say it's been a LONG time since I've updated. In between, I have stressed a lot over school, Christmas, etc. I am counting down the days to San Diego. When we get back we are getting a dog. I have been on petfinder.com every single day to check out the potential puppies. I wish we could take them all!

So my little experiment..............First, I have to bank on John not reading my blog. If he reads, all bets are off. Okay 2nd he keeps maintaining that he does not mess up the kitchen when he makes his spaghetti sauce. Well he put together a batch last night for Monday Night Webster dinner this week. He still has the empty tomato can on the counter. Normally I would throw it away but I'm going to see how long he lets it sit there if I don't do anything about it. I'm just going to clean around it. We are getting ready to leave town so I'm sure it will be extra yummy looking when we come back tomorrow! If it's still there when we leave for CA, I'll take before and after pictures. Btw, thanks to everyone that sent us a Christmas card!

adventures in power outages

2006-12-03T09:32:00.000-06:00

Let's see since I last blogged we have lost power for 13 hours which is oh so much better than the week we lost power before. Also, I got about a foot of hair chopped off. I'm like the rest of the girls with "project" hair for the time being because I can't just roll out of bed, brush it and have it look good. I'm already not looking forward to going back to work this week but the good news is I'm working from home on Tuesday to have our new front door put in. That's about all that's new for now. We got the Christmas shopping done for the kiddies but I still do not have anything for my mom and dad!

not long enough

2006-11-25T19:31:00.000-06:00

I really thought that 4 days would feel like a nice weekend, but man I needed longer. I guess it's only Saturday but I'm already feeling the reality wanting to creep in a bit. Maybe I just feel jipped since I was up at 5:00 yesterday even though I didn't have to work. Today we spent $700 on a front door and after doing lots of research we found that this is the cheapest we can possibly get a front door. This is quite sad. Yesterday we got an estimate for $1700 from Barry door so we are opting to go with the $700 one from Lowes. Should have have to spend 2% of the home's worth on a DOOR? I mean seriously. A roof, plumbing, etc. I can understand but we really just need a door to last us 2 more years.

I made a pot pie for dinner tonight which was a huge hit with John but it turns out I could have made one pot pie for the both of us and it would have beeen fine. I have pot pie coming out my ears right now and I went so overboard at Shop n Save that we don't have any room left in our fridge. (Yes, I went to Shop 'n Save for once because I felt bad about all the money we dropped on the front door. I'm sure $20 saved equals $700 somehow)

black Friday stinks

2006-11-24T08:48:00.000-06:00

5:30 a.m I headed to Linens N Things in pursuit of the aerobed. First of all, I do not know my way around Fenton so I wound up in Jeffco briefly. I turned around and wound up stuck at a stoplight that let 2 cars through at a time. After parking 3/4 of a mile away I ran into the store just in time to see the other lady grab the last aero bed. aaaahhh!!

2006-11-20T10:38:00.001-06:00

OK, so we've been unofficially discussing a Christmas party like we have done in the past. Unfortunately, with travel, birthdays, and other parties it doesn't look like we will be hosting a Christmas party this year. Perhaps next year. We sincerely apologize to all of our loyal fans who were looking forward to this event.

We will, however, be having a super bowl party on Sunday, Feb 4 2007. We will break out our new deep fryer and hopefully Karen and Joel will bring theirs too. (one for sweets and one for normal foods). More details to follow when it gets closer, but mark your calendars and tell your boss you will be late the next day.

election jubilation

2006-11-08T20:59:00.000-06:00

What can I say nearly everything I voted for went my way. It was a good day. If you haven't seen this, it's worth checking out. HILARIOUS

I'm a HUGE Jon Stewart fan and this was on the Daily Show Monday Night.

Also, American Dad had a pretty funny song featuring the Log Cabin Republicans.

wedding pictures

2006-10-29T09:10:00.000-06:00

all the wedding pictures are up

http://www.pictage.com/122554

I promised myself

2006-10-28T18:08:00.000-05:00

that I'd make a HUGE point of remembering where I was and what I was doing when the Cardinals won the World Series. I was 2 last time this happened. I know this sounds weird but I have a FEW memories of when I was 2 but mostly they are of eating candy that my Grandma gave me and playing with my dog and spinning around in the living room chair. I can't remember the Cardinals winning the World Series. My mom said that I was running around the house with a bucket on my head yelling "Bruce Sutter, Bruce Sutter!!" I have spent 24 years frustrated that I didn't have even a little bit of a memory of watching any of the games though.

I remember when we went to the 1985 world Series and did not win. I remember being in preschool sometime in between 82 and 85 and wearing Cardinals clothes and dancing to "the heat is on" which is why I updated my myspace song. I feel like my life is a little more complete now that I have a memory of the Cardinals winning the World Series.

photography slideshow from our wedding

2006-10-28T11:02:00.000-05:00

http://lilyphotography.com/slideshows/ValandJohn/index.html

the full set of pictures should be up soon

finally some pictures!

2006-10-19T23:26:00.000-05:00

This is my favorite of me and John.

Here are the rest of the pictures

Click on Bryan pictures and wedding photos to see the 2 albums that John's mom sent me!

anonymous gifts

2006-10-17T13:24:00.000-05:00

We started rooting through wedding gifts and we have 2 that we cannot find cards for. It's very important to John and I to tell everyone thank you for our gifts, so if you or anyone you know got us a bottle of champagne (we know one came from Willie and Steph but we have another one) or a Peterboro basket, please let us know so that we are able to tell the gift giver thank you.

Honeymoon adventures

2006-10-17T11:56:00.000-05:00

In case anyone was curious, we made it out of Hawaii. Rather than type my own version which is essentially the same I'm posting John's version of what happened.

Yes we're back now. It's kind of a long story. We were woken up on Sunday morning around 7AM by the entire hotel room shaking: the bed was jiggling, the lampshades were swaying back and forth, the walls were creaking, etc. (we were on the 9th floor which made it even worse). I thought I was just hungover from the night before. After a second or two we both realized what was happening and we ran for the doorway into the bathroom. Then the power went out. We grabbed our clothes and ran downstairs. For some reason they didn't have emergency lighting in the stairwell, so we had to navigate by the glow of cell phones.

When we finally got outside it was downpouring rain and gusting wind. We thought for a second that it might have been a tropical storm and not a hurricane. We rushed for cover with all of the other guests. I think this was about the time we called Adam, Craig and maybe a few other people to ask them to check the news and weather for us. We were running low on cell phone power, so we had the phone off for most of the day. After about a half hour we were told that it was OK to go back inside.

Before we tried to go back up we figured it would be a good idea to try to scrounge up some food first. We managed to get into the snack bar and get some pastries and pineapple. There was a lady in front of us who had a bag of like 20 pastries and was upset that they weren't accepting credit cards at that time! (can we say dee dee dee).

Anyway, we got back up to the room and managed to shower in the dark. Our flight wasn't until 11PM. They wouldn't let us check out of the hotel late because they couldn't tell how many people were supposed to be there that night (the computers were down). So we had to pack up and be out by noon. We couldn't go lay out on the beach because it was raining. We wanted to go to the Dole plantation and aquarium, but there was no power anywhere on the island, and our rental car only had a quarter tank of gas. We really had no choice but to head to the airport, turn in our rental car, and just sit in the terminal for hours. We were reluctant because the radio had said that most flights were grounded, but we called the 800 number to US airways a few times and everyone we talked to said that the flight was on time and would leave as usual. (yeah right) We went there regardless.

Well, US airways only has 1 flight a day out of Hawaii, so they don't even let people check in until 7:30 PM. It was a little after 1 when we got there. We had to just find a comfy spot on the floor and pop a squat. Of course, the airport was on backup power only. We again figured that we'd better procure some nourishment, so I sent Val to investigate rumors of a hot dog stand. Hot dogs were no more, but they did have muffins and potato chips. Val was going to get the muffin, but some people cut in front of her and grabbed it instead. So she bought 4 bags of chips- 1 each for lunch and dinner.

So all that was left to do was wait and see. Fortunately, we had enough juice in the DVD player to entertain us with about an hour or so of Scrubs. Then we did some reading and some pacing. The bathrooms were interesting. Most of the flushing mechanisms were automatic and therefore didn't work with no power. After about 6 hours after the power went down, there were some interesting smells in there. Combine that with the minimal lighting available and going to the bathroom was an adventure.

The people working there said that the plane can't take off if the runway lights aren't working, but if power was back on by 6 then the flight would go out as scheduled. About 5:30 they came around telling everyone that the flight has been cancelled and moved to 9AM on monday. 5:45 the power came back up. They already told the flight crew to stay home, so it was too late.

We managed to contact the hotel first and reserve a room for tonight. Fortunately, their computers were back up and they were able to get us back in. Then we called the US airways people (again) and set up our return flights. Our new flight leaving Honolulu at 9AM wa sscheduled to get us into Phoenix at 6:07. The last flight out to STL was 6:18. We were told we'd have to spend Monday night in Phoenix and take the 8:45 flight on Tuesday. We were upset that it cut into our recovery time, but there was nothing we could do.

After we got that squared away, we joined the hundreds of other people waiting to get a taxi or bus back to Waikiki. By some stroke of luck, the ladies next to us in line spotted a cab waiting for someone and weaseled their way in, jumping everyone else in line. They offered to let us split the ride with them and off we went back to the hotel.

The rooms were still without power and so were most of the eating establishments in the area. The hotel had 1 restaurant serving hot food and that line was an hour and a half long. There was another restaurant that was just serving cold sandwiches and its line was only 20 mins. Our cold ham and cheese sandwiches were very gratifying.

The power eventually did come back on in the rooms about 10PM or so. We were able to charge the cell phone and DVD player again. We were so exhausted that we pretty much passed out after dinner.

So we got up early and made our way to the airport 2 hours early like we're supposed to. We were apparently the last people on our flight to get there because only like 4 people were behind us in the check-in line. There were 5 clerks checking people in and only 1 US airways flight that morning. It took us an hour and a half to get our bags checked! To make matters worse, the guy at the counter couldn't even get us in seats next to each other. We weren't even in the same row! We had been on the phone with US airways at least twice since our other flight got cancelled and they assured us that we were sitting next to each other. We didn't have time to sit there and argue with the guy, but we were hoping that someone on the plane would switch with us. We wanted to stop and get a book for Val and maybe some breakfast in the terminal, but that didn't happen. We sprinted to the gate which was already boarding. The guy behind that counter was more than happy to get us switched to seats in the same row. It turns out that only about 3/4 of the plane was full, so I don't know what that guy at the check-in was smoking when he told us that we coundn't sit together.

5 hours and change later we got into Phoenix, 15 mins earlier than scheduled. After disembarking, we sprinted a few gates to the left where the 6:18 flight to STL was close to finishing up boarding. The nice lady at the counter gladly put us on that flight instead of making us stay in Phoenix overnight. The only problem was that our luggage was only checked to Phoenix because we were supposed to pick it up and re-check it in the morning. At that point, we didn't care anymore and we told them to send it to us later. All that was in our checked bags were some dirty clothes, tioletries, and snorkeling gear. We just wanted to get home.

We had about 90 seconds once we were on the plane to call around and find a ride home from the airport at 11:15 at night. We called Val's mom hoping that her dad was not working tuesday, but he was. Val had to literally hang up on her mom because otherwise she would have talked for an hour. We thought about which of our friends is most likely to stay up past midnight on a regular basis, and Matt was at the top of that list. Thanks again Matt for hauling our butts from Lambert in the middle of the night!

Anyway, to make a long story short, Val and I are OK and back in St Louis, but our luggage is probably somewhere over Oklahoma right now. We'll have pictures soon (and we have a ton).

case of the mondays

2006-10-02T07:04:00.000-05:00

I have been putting off posting, because I have a very cute picture of Corey that I wanted to put up, but if I wait until I have both the motivation to post and my digital camera it will be a long time before I post again. Let's see I have been SICK all weekend so I forced myself to stay in so that I will hopefully be recovered before my big weekend next weekend. I still have plenty to do but unfortunately on that list is go to work Monday-Thursday this week :-( Oh yes, and the house still looks like a train wreck.

I did go to Taste of St. Louis last night. It was a great time. Far less of a rip off than taste of Chicago I must say. Okay that's all the updating since I am supposed to leave for work in 2 minutes and I have not even gotten in the shower.

deep breaths

2006-09-26T07:24:00.000-05:00

This is the same thing I just posted on myspace so if you read there, stop reading now.

I just thought I'd update in case anyone is worried about me. I decided I'm just going to man up and get to the airport at 7 am. (like I had a choice) I constantly functioned on 3-4 hours sleep daily in college. There's no reason why I can't now. At this point, we've finished everything that NEEDS to get done so I am hoping the next 11 days will just pass already! We got our marriage license yesterday. The only thing I'm not excited about at this point is that I only have 11 more days to be a Shea

I AM SO MAD RIGHT NOW

2006-09-20T19:06:00.000-05:00

I HATE THIS SO MUCH

ALL FREAKING YEAR ALL ANYONE FREAKING TELLS ME IS THAT I'M SUPPOSED TO BE SO FREAKING THANKFUL FOR THE STINKING 5-6 WHOLE DAYS I GET WITH JOHN IN HAWAII WHILE HE'S GONE ON HIS FREAKING BUSINESS TRIPS NOT CALLING ME OR NOT HELPING ME WITH THE STINKING WEDDING AND WHEN I WAS WORKING TOO MUCH, THIS IS ALL I HAVE HAD TO LOOK FORWARD TO. I'VE SAVED FOR 2 STINKING YEARS AND STINKING US AIRWAYS DECIDES THEY CAN FREAKING RESCHEDULE OUR HONEYMOON FLIGHT. WE HAVE A CHOICE OF SHAVING A DAY OFF OF THE STINKING FEW DAYS THAT I'M SUPPOSED TO BE SO GRATEFUL FOR OR WE CAN BE ON THE PLANE AT 7 AM AFTER OUR WEDDING (WHAT WE'VE PICKED). WHAT A WONDERFUL AND ROMANTIC WEDDING NIGHT WE ARE GOING TO HAVE SPENDING A WHOLE 3 HOURS IN OUR HONEYMOON SUITE BEFORE WE GET TO THE AIRPORT I HATE US AIRWAYS. OH AND OF COURSE NO ONE IS THERE AT MY TRAVEL INSURANCE COMPANY RIGHT NOW BUT IT DOESN'T SAY CRAP IN MY POLICY ABOUT THE AIRLINES RESCHEDULING I'D LIKE TO RESCHEDULE MY HOURS AT WORK FROM 10-2 BUT I THINK I'D BE REASSIGNED. I HAVE TO GO BEFORE I'M VULGAR. THIS IS SUCH CRAP

makeup trial today again

2006-09-17T14:33:00.001-05:00

I'm starting to see why everyone says my hair should be up. The obnoxious amount of hair really takes away from the makeup.

John still hates it up though

makeup trial today

2006-09-17T14:15:00.000-05:00

Well I did as I said and here it is Sunday and I'm posting. I got 2 new Hawaii swimsuits last night, so I'm super excited.

I had my makeup trial today. Even John likes it! Let me know what you think!

Okay I know I'm behind

2006-09-14T21:05:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry I've been so crappy about posting lately. I just haven't been that happy lately and I'm not huge into posting to try and get sympathy.

Let's see it's been almost a month since my last post. The only major event missed was probably my bachelorette party

Here's one of Amy and me at the bachelorette party:

And here's the group photo, we are pretty cool I have to say.

Last weekend I went down to Mountain Home, AR and had a great but very relaxing trip. Peter's parents are splendid and their boat is amazing. I don't have any pictures from that trip because I'm still a little too scared to bring my digital camera around the webster people. Last weekend was really just what I needed honestly.

This weekend I have a busy weekend of wedding crap (of course). Other than that, nothing is new. Thank God it's almost Friday. My goal is to update again on Sunday, we'll see.

I've created a monster

2006-08-23T22:05:00.000-05:00

John is a lean mean reading machine. When I first met John he did not read, period. He even jumped on the Lord of the Rings bandwagon like the rest of you crazies and he could not make it past page 20 of the hobbit. I now can't get him out of the Dan Brown book that I couldn't finish. I spent all night at book club winging it because I was still 100 pages from finishing our depressing Oprah book. Right now I'm trying to decide on a good myspace profile song. It has to be a certain amount of obnoxious. I'm leaning towards the "bossy" song right now.

Anyway, the updates from me have been few and far between due to the wedding consuming my life. The only reason I haven't called it off (the wedding not the marriage) is because at this point I think it would cause me more aggravation than biting my tongue and going through with it. I just keep saying to myself "Hawaii, Hawaii, Hawaii.........."

EXCITING NEWS!

2006-08-14T19:32:00.000-05:00

Okay so I have known this for a little while, but I finally have the clearance to go ahead and post it! I'm going to be an aunt again!!! Don't worry Stephanie is not having more kids! Tiffany and Ray are going to have a baby!!! I love being Corey's aunt and I just can't wait to be an aunt again! I'm just so sad that they live in California. Even though I always have a good time with John's family for the holidays I have always felt like they were missing little kids. I do think that John prefers to think of himself as a little kid still so I'm sure a little part of him will be sad.

Also, in other developments my St. Louis shower went very well. Just when we thought we were out of space from gifts from the Chicago shower we got another truckload from the St. Louis shower. We are so lucky to have received so much! Now, if we only had a bigger house!!

isn't it weird

2006-07-31T17:42:00.000-05:00

John and I didn't think we had met until late August or early September 2001. Imagine standing this close to your future spouse and having no idea :-)

(hint- check out the chick who the arrow is pointing to)

hallelujah

2006-07-25T17:49:00.000-05:00

After 6 days of no power our lights are FINALLY back on. We had a wonderful shower in Chicago last weekend and we got more gifts than I ever would have imagined!!! I'm going to get to work on my thank you's now since I intended to get started on them immediately but the darkness and heat prevented me from it!

also, if you still haven't seen our engagement pictures they are up on pictage.com. do a search for Gutraj under events.

barbapalooza was sweet success

2006-07-04T16:53:00.000-05:00

Since too many things have gotten broken, we opted not to take out the $250 camera. If you want to see the madness you'll have to experience it for yourself next year. We had 35 people in attendance which I'm pretty sure is considered full capacity for a house my size. My mom again SWEARS this is the last time anyone can taste the legendary potato salad. John's cell phone was destroyed. We burned through almost the entire keg. We have only a few pitchers left. The kitchen is still a mess.

almost time for Karen's wedding

2006-06-29T18:10:00.000-05:00

I finally have my USB cord and my camera in one place so the bachelorette party pics are uploading as we speak.

To do for this evening:
wrap karen and Joel gift
purchase stick on bra
remove 5 month old nail polish and possibly put on new coat
purchase tape to wrap karen and joel gift
figure out what i'm doing with my 24 inches of hair for karen's wedding
finish the diagram for work tomorrow because I don't hate my job anymore

oh and by the way the bathroom is done. I would like to specifically thank Amy for the idea of bringing the giant inflatable boy part out for Karen's party. It was a great conversation piece.

help me with my campaign

2006-06-27T06:50:00.000-05:00

If you see John, tell him that he cannot wear the brown belt with the black shoes for one more day or I may wind up slapping him. Every morning we have this argument and he still walks out in the brown belt and said if I buy him a black one that he will not wear it. I am thinking I will just throw out the brown belt since he does not have any shoes that match it anyway.

I'm a busy bee

2006-06-24T12:09:00.000-05:00

Ok, let's see if you've missed me it's because I just haven't stopped. I would post the winery pics from last weekend but I left my USB cable at work. The past 2 Friday nights I've done a Tin Can/Friendly's thing and it's turned out to be a great time.

I do have some pictures from that.

As you can see these were not my finer moments.

Here is the full album

Other stuff we've been up to:

We talked to an investment guy and learned that it's a bad idea to retire before you can draw from your 401k if your 401k is your only retirement fund. I knew there was a reason I didn't major in finance.

I went to Happy Hour and the free concert at the Botanical Gardens on Wednesday. I still haven't seen the Chihuly exhibit except from a distance but I keep hearing mixed reviews.

Here's me and Judy at Mobot

Here are the rest of the Wednesday pictures

Let's see Thursday I went to Dierbergs for the 2nd time this week due to some bad produce. Last night we had dinner with Charles and then went to Tin Can and Friendly's. I didn't take anymore pictures because it basically looks the same as last week, sorry.

Tonight is Karen's bachelorette party. I expect everyone else to be ridiculously chaotic as I am the DD. My mission for the evening is to get Mrs. Bowker to drink too much.

If you don't hear from me, it's because I have book club this week, Karen's rehearsal and wedding and our own infamous crazy BBQ, in addition to our bathroom being completed in the next few days. By the way if you didn't receive an evite for the 4th of July BBQ I probably just don't have you in my address book. Everyone is invited!

Happy Birthday to me

2006-06-12T06:50:00.000-05:00

Today is my birthday and tonight I get to go out for my birthday dinner! I'm super excited but I don't know where we are going. Let's see since my last post things have been going terrific, but unfortunately, that has not left me a lot of time to post. My birthday float trip was awesome, lake of the ozarks also awesome, Corey's 3rd birthday party, also awesome. Here are the lake pictures, I only think I wound up posting the one of the sunburn.
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y147/local81/memorialday06/

I got some bad news on Friday at work. My team lead, who I am crazy about is in the hospital. She seemed fine when I talked to her on Thursday, and then Friday they told us she was in the hospital and they were thinking that she might have had a stroke. I don't really know any details so I'm trying not to get super-worried.

I think that's about all for now. I'm going to the wineries this Saturday!
Next weekend is Father's day but dad has to work. I gave him a Father's day present already but I'd still like to see him! Mom told me last night that Corey asked if I was having a birthday party! I wish he was a little older, I would've taken him floating!!
Anyway, hopefully the posts become a little more frequent!

hooray

2006-06-06T22:26:00.000-05:00

I FINALLY got my progression at work. I'm so happy. I don't have to hate my job anymore and I can call off the job search. 3 more years until that extra week of vacation. Thanks again to everyone that listened to me gripe.

ouch

2006-05-31T06:51:00.000-05:00

DC was great, and so were the Ozarks but pale people such as myself do not belong out on a boat for 9 hours. I wanted to call in sick to work but I was afraid they would think sunburn was a bad excuse. I'm still in so much pain and it's Wednesday. Here's a pic near the end of the day. I got much pinker later. It's just not fun.

going to DC

2006-05-17T19:46:00.000-05:00

Sorry no time for real posts. If you want to see Nebraska it's here:

http://quinnsgraduation.shutterfly.com

Please don't look if you are a parent or an employer as these photos have not been censored. Have a good weekend.

back from Nebraska

2006-05-09T07:13:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the posting hiatus. We've been very busy, but having a great time. Tiffany and Ray were here last weekend, and I got registered and had the chance to see the new stadium. Of course, we got plenty of pictures.

We went to Lincoln this past weekend for Quinn's graduation party. I was nervous at first, because my car got puked in, Craigs car broke down, and Rachel got a scenic 2 hour long tour of Nebraska. I had pretty much declared the whole weekend a bust when things finally started turning around. We had a great time. I'm so happy for Quinn that he's graduating law school, but yet I'm so sad that there will be no more law school parties.

Sometimes, I still regret not going to law school, but let's face it that would be a LOT more loans just to go to some sweet parties. :-D Have a great Tuesday.

4th of July Party

2006-04-28T06:42:00.000-05:00

I told John this morning that I want to have a 4th of July party on July 3rd this year. It's a Monday. He says we have to do a poll to see what works best for other people. 2 problems with this. 1. I think the poll should be when we want to have it since it's our house 2. The poll was to be mosted on our college friends forum which half of my friends (since I don't know them from SLU) don't use it, so I thought I'd post here.

Will everyone that would like to come to our party be off work July 3rd? We intend for it to start around 3, so even if you won't, would you mind coming after work? It will go pretty late. Last year we still had people here at 9 in the morning the next day.

aaaahhhh!!!

2006-04-27T19:16:00.000-05:00

Please tell me I'm not the only person in the world outsmartted by horizontal mini-blinds!!

John's sister is coming in less than 24 hours. House cleaning progress: 7%

late for work

2006-04-25T07:31:00.000-05:00

Okay since I'm already late I'll try and do a quick recap of my weekend. Of course I do not have the pictures with me, but we really tried out our new digital camera. I really like it.

Friday night we went to the square one microbrewery in Lafayette square. That was a good time, but I had to be up at 8 Saturday morning so we got out of there just a little after midnight.

Saturday, the guys had an X-Men Marathon, but the real hit of the evening was my buffalo wing dip. The girls just sat upstairs and talked. I can't sit through 2 movies in a row. I'm not sure what's wrong with me. I've tried to watch the Godfather movies, and it doesn't work.

Sunday we spent all day at the St. Gen wineries. It was an absolute blast. Dave was in town this weekend too, so that was a special treat. I have the most pictures of that. Sunday night poker was cancelled

Also, John is in the dog house. We went to talk to the priest yesterday, and last time he told us to come prepared to talk about our faith. Well, pretty much for John his faith goes as far as dragging me out of bed to get to early church so that he doesn't have to miss football. John was hoping the priest would magically forget about the religion thing, and SURPRISE he didn't. He started asking us questions and John pretty much hung me out there to dry. He at one point said "well, Val you do believe in God, right?" which did FAR more damage than help. I was really tempted to answer him "Gee, John I dunno now that you've asked I really waiver between atheism and satanism" but I didn't think the priest would appreciate the humor in that. Anyway, long story short I guess in the end all they want you to do is sign the paper agreeing that your kids will be raised Catholic, because after that part was over we were done. Anyway, I should have been out the door 7 minutes ago and I'm not even dressed so I'll post pictures later.

oh my

2006-04-24T07:09:00.000-05:00

I just looked at my calendar this morning and realized I'm busy every weekend from now until July 7th. I don't know how I'm going to keep any of this straight.

wedding stuff

2006-04-19T17:34:00.000-05:00

Yeah this wedding that seemed so far off is really sneaking up on me.

I finally got around to picking out dresses. here are the pictures:

There's a 5th but the designer doesn't have a picture. It's pretty much the same but it's strapless!

very tired

2006-04-18T22:57:00.000-05:00

Sorry Krista, I will get to the dress pictures tomorrow.

Actual conversation.......

Val Val 216: how big is yours?
JakeSLU: oh really?
JakeSLU: :-*
JakeSLU: haha
Val Val 216: ahhahaha
Val Val 216: as soon as i hit enter
Val Val 216: i knew that was coming
JakeSLU: naturally

Happy Easter

2006-04-16T10:56:00.000-05:00

The more beautiful the weather gets the less I feel like posting in my blog when I could be outside.

Yesterday I picked out bridesamids dresses. I'm so excited to have that behind me, I was really dreading it for so long, and I found out that if I'd waited any longer the dresses wouldn't have made it in on time! I went for a walk with Rachel, but since we weren't exactly sure where Grant's Trail goes being that we are both North County natives we walked all around Crestwood.

It's exciting because now I can report 5 miles back to my walking club. John and I are going to buy a new digital camera in the next week, so I'm sure there will be plenty more photo posts. John's got 95 pictures from South America so I will probably put a link to them.

I have to take my midterm this week, and I'm slightly nervous about it, so I'll post about how that's going soon. Other than that, work is going much better. I haven't been called off hours in about 2 weeks so I'm very happy about that. We are 99% sure that our bathroom construction is going to start May 1st. We still haven't signed the contract. The construction guy is out of town this week so it gives us a little bit of time to let it sink in before we sign on the dotted line. Everything I picked for the bathroom was bland and beige, but I want everything generic for when we sell the house.

John started opening the pool yesterday. I told him we're not waiting until the end of June to swim this year. Hooray. Maybe there's hope for a tan Val

I hate the city of St. Louis

2006-04-10T17:21:00.000-05:00

They try to make like they are being SO nice and allowing free parking at meters starting at 1:00 p.m. on the day of the home opener. My meter was up at 12:50. Would you believe those !@#$%'s were out there to give me a ticket in their last ten minutes. Should I try and contest it? I don't think I will get anywhere and I was driving the neon which means bad letters will get sent to my mom and dad if they don't get their money. Stupid meter maids.

raise your hand

2006-04-03T18:01:00.000-05:00

if you want your hour back. no time to post b/c I'm an hour behind and extra daylight is allowing me to see how gross our house looks. have a wonderful day.

sorry!

2006-04-02T21:38:00.000-05:00

Okay so apparently I haven't done the most superb job of keeping up with my blog. Let's see if I can't cover my week in a paragraph. Monday I watched a fantastic episode of 24. Tuesday I worked from home for 14 hours. Wednesday I went to Ruiz with Rachel and Krista. See myspace for the picture. Thursday I sat at home all night awaiting John's phone call like a pathetic fool, but I was SO happy when he did call. I talked to him for around a half hour. Friday I got together with Linda and Leah at the pin up bowl. Saturday I went to Venice Cafe with the SLU people, but we only there for an hour. I met my mom on the Ameristar earlier Saturday and I had dumped $20 so I wasn't really in the mood to spend anymore cash.

Today was a highly entertaining day. I went for a walk at forest park in spite of the tornado warnings. bad idea. We got stuck out in the storm a mile from our car when the sirens went off. we ran towards the planetarium. luckily, they put us in their tunnel which was 20 feet underground, so we were even safer than we would have been at home. Gotta go play poker now and lose John's money!

tired but I can't sleep

2006-03-26T23:35:00.000-06:00

The nuttiness that always follows me when John is gone is coming. I should be in bed by now and I am tired but I can't sleep. There will be no picture posts until John gets back since my digital camera is in South America. I was really planning to finish "The Glass Castle" but I read too fast, and now I need another book to read to tide me over until John gets back. If anyone has any recommendations for a good "can't put it down" book I'm wide open. I should note that I think I have a touch of undiagnosed ADD and I can't read books over 500 pages no matter how good they are.

sorry it's been a while

2006-03-22T18:01:00.000-06:00

due to my lack of updating I have been called a smelly pirate hooker, so I guess I owe my 13 loyal audience members a post.

In my defense, I tried to post a few days ago and blogspot was down so I had to use myspace.

Things haven't been too terrific lately. I have been working more than any human being should work and I was scared to go to sleep at night for fear that I would get called into work in the middle of the night.

The dogs just left and while I don't mind the dogs that much I do mind the extra maid service that John seems to think is included in the dog stay. Normally I do all the vaccuuming, sweeping, mopping, dusting, etc. and now we desperately need to pay a little TLC to our nasty house and Mr. "I love the dogs" doesn't have any time to help. I am having a professional carpet cleaner come while he's in South America and he doesn't know it yet, but I might have a professional maid come, also. My sanity is worth the money.

I saw Corey yesterday and Sarah and David, but I have no updated pictures unfortunately. I was an idiot and I forgot my camera.

I did promise pictures of the St. Patty's day parade, didn't I?
It's hard to believe it was over 75 just last week and yesterday and today I was shoveling snow and ice off my car.

Here's us lady's at the St. Patty's Day parade.
That's: Katie, Rachel, me and Karen.

Next is a gross picture. I went walking on Sunday with Katie and I got the biggest blisters you have ever seen in your life. This was from a 30 minute walk with no socks. Do not look if you are easily grossed out.

Okay that's about all. Now you know why I haven't posted that much.

ugh

2006-03-15T19:00:00.000-06:00

If I was willing to work this hard I would have joined the army. Work has bitten the big one this week. My stupid eBay coupon that my sister got me at Harrah's didn't even work. I tried to use it to buy my book. What a ripoff. First of all they kept my mom and my sister going back to the casino to get the codes for the coupon. They'd advertise "come every day and get a chance to win". Then when you go to redeem your 2nd one it tells you only one per eBay account, so unless you care to create new fraudulent eBay accounts all day it would get you no where. I went to use my one legit $5 coupon code and stinking eBay wouldn't except it. This is not the first time Harrah's has ripped off my mom, dad, and sister with some free coupon to get them in the door and then the coupon didn't work later. Don't they rip you off enough while you're AT the casino without having to stick it to you later?

Long time no post

2006-03-12T18:49:00.000-06:00

It's been a week since my last post which is a little out of character for me. My life has not been all that exciting.

Monday- double episode of 24
Tuesday- 5 hours of my life I will not get back. Thomas construction high pressured us all night long to pay 3 times as much for a new bathroom
Wednesday-cleaned the kitchen all night while John was at class. You cannot tell now
Thursday-Pampered Chef show, controlled my impulses and bought useful stuff only
Friday-John's parents came into town, but unfortunately my 2 least favorite in-laws-to-be (Buddy and Dakota) are staying with us. I feel like it's 3 on one. I think it will be different when I get my own dogs because I get some say in the rules, but these ones come in and take over and John sticks up for them. I just do not want anyone in my bed but me and John. Sometimes I do not even want John there. ugh.
Yesterday-St. Patrick's day was probably the best ever. Usually we have a good time, but we are cold and sunburned. Don't ask how that happened but it does. This year it was like 75. I had a great time.
Today- Skipped church. I made John pasta alfredo something or other, John did his taxes, nothing exciting.

See, you didn't miss anything with me not updating!

ugh

2006-03-05T20:59:00.000-06:00

I'm sure I'm in the minority here but I hate the Oscars. These people already make enough money, do we need to dote on them more. In addition to that for whatever reason Desperate Housewives is not airing this week, and John is playing poker at Jake's. Wouldn't you know it too, it's the one week that I got my homework done early. I'm just bored.

Happy Mardi Gras

2006-02-25T21:15:00.000-06:00

Work has been a big stressful pain in the rear end. Other than that, things are not going too badly.

Here's the Mardi Gras pictures!

This week in pictures

2006-02-20T18:53:00.000-06:00

I finally got my digital camera back from my fiance and his friends, so here are pictures of what I've been up to:

John trying on his tux vest. His mom and dad got him this special gift! Sorry it's blurry

Next the infamous blender bouquet:

and of course an updated picture of Corey. He is wilder everyday!

I promise I will post pictures later

2006-02-19T10:50:00.000-06:00

I'm just too tired. We went out last night until 2 am. It was a good time. I love Venice Cafe, and I'd definitely go there more if only they took credit.

Luckily, I had cash on me since Katie and I accidentally snuck into the Working Women's Survival show. It was great, we were not about to walk all the way around in the cold so we walked through the hotel and in this little side door and right into the show for free. oops. It was a good time except we then spent what we saved on clinique stuff. so much for our savings!

Friday night John and I went to Growlers by ourselves and played NTN triva and drank beer. I had lunch with Marissa yesterday. It was very good to catch up with her, and I definitely loved the crepery. For the first time I finished my ENTIRE crepe.

Thursday was Indian cooking class. It was really fun, and really yummy. The teacher taught us short-cut samosa's which are considerably easier than actually making your own dough. Now I have to decide if I want to go to global foods and drop $75 on spices to make pakoor, chutney and samosa.

Not too much else to report. I got a 100% on my stats midterm, after a good scare on Friday. My teacher graded it wrong and initially gave me a 47% which would mean I'd have to drop the class and retake it and I'd be out $1500. Luckily he fixed it.

Ok later I will have pictures of my valentine in a blender, John in his special tux gift (it's adorable) and pictures of my little nephew. I'm going over to my mom's after lunch with Kim, Linda and Leah.

I love my Valentine!

2006-02-14T17:49:00.000-06:00

The man that refuses to buy things that "are already dead" found it in himself to buy me a bouquet of roses today! I was so happy and so touched! Now I feel bad for not getting him the chocolate covered strawberries, but I really didn't expect flowers at all! I came home to a bouquet of roses in water in our BLENDER. Yes, you read that correctly. John could not find the vase (which I might add we store right next to the blender!). We are going to J Buck's for dinner. I just had to share my cute news.

Happy Valentine's Day

2006-02-14T07:38:00.000-06:00

I got the digital camera back Sunday night! I'm excited for my 3 day weekend and Valentine's dinner. Before you go hating me, I took a vacation day, I'm not really off!

still no camera

2006-02-12T13:59:00.000-06:00

Well the bad news is, Jake forgot my camera. I hate to go this long without picture posts, because quite honestly I just don't find my life that exciting that the narration from me will keep people coming back for more. Anyway, so we did a trivia night last night. We didn't come in last, but we definitely didn't win. We could have won the prize for A. The most beer drank or B. the biggest decline in score. We totally flopped the TV themes, because a lot of them were before we were born and we stunk really bad in the 80's category because most of us were WAY focused on cartoons in the 1980's. Next time we need an old person on our team for sure. Rachel got a picture of our table, so if she throws it on myspace, I'll make sure to snag it and post it here.

Today, not much else went on. Some butthead called our house at 5:30 this morning, and since there was a chance it might be work I had to grab it and of course they hung up. I tried dialling the number from the caller ID 3 times, but they just kept breathing into the phone. Anyway, today is operation clean the kitchen. I got the living room done yesterday and I'd like to give the carpet cleaner that my mom gave us for Christmas a try. Oh and we finally finished our jigsaw puzzle through the brain power of our beer chugging trivia team.

nothing broken

2006-02-11T10:46:00.000-06:00

Last night we went to Skatium. It was a lot of fun. I didn't have much opportunity to get hurt, because the skates they had left were 2.5 sizes too small! I skated around the rink maybe 10 times. Also, Matt told me that the place was ghetto when he meant to say hoosier. I was really expecting people to be out in the middle break dancing like they did at Spinning Wheels! Anyway, we stopped and had some whitee's on the way home and then went off to bed. Mission clean the house is going okay but slower than expected. So far, I have loaded the dishwasher.

p.s. when I get my digital camera back I'll post some superbowl party pictures.

just finished my book

2006-02-08T22:02:00.000-06:00

John had to be at class late, and instead of cleaning the house or doing homework, I finished "Marley and me" It was such a good book, I cried my eyes out. I have to get a dog now. They are worth the pain and the smell.

almost forgot

2006-02-06T07:33:00.000-06:00

and John finally signed up for myspace. Who wants to be his friend?

http://www.myspace.com/john_gutraj

:-P

still all better

2006-02-06T07:23:00.000-06:00

I'm sure everyone can tell by the fact that I have had other things to do but post blog updates that I'm feeling a little better. The house is still messy, but not unsanitary. Yesterday I slept in until 11 because I was hoping my homework would magically disappear. It didn't and I wound up working on it until 3:30. Yesterday we deep fried snickers, oreos, triscuits (not good), twinkies and hardboiled eggs (I did not eat any of the eggs) Other than that, um I hear there was a football game on too, but I was having too much fun with the deep frier.

Saturday night we made a good attempt to go out to bars and found out that the Shrewsbury nightlife is not really jumping after midnight. Saturday day I went shopping and movie watching with Katie and Rachel. That was a lot of fun. Too bad I still didn't remember to return my stuff to Limited. We also saw Tristan and Isolde. Wait for it to come to video. It was okay. There were far too many people killing each other for a chick flick and I can only listen to so much British accent before I get a headache. Saturday night, pre-bar-attempt we played trivial pursuit with Karen and Joel who are two of the smartest people I know and even though we lost we really held our own. We might have even won if we got the El Nino question?

Q: What holiday is El Nino named for?
Val: What does El Nino mean in spanish?
John: The Child
Val: Then I think it's named for Christmas
John: I think it's named for cinco de mayo since it's spanish
Val: No, I really think the child means it's christmas or MAYBE Easter
John: Nope I think it's Cinqo de Mayo, Val
Val: Fine

It was Christmas, and so we did not get our last pie wedge but I have to say without John on my team I would not have known that el Nino means the child to equate it with Christmas, so I can't totally blame him. Again, officially late for work now. Mission accomplished, have a good day.

feeling a little better today

2006-02-01T07:27:00.000-06:00

I have no plans for the weekend yet except that I have to entertain Katie on Saturday. I think we will probably explore the Pier 1 clearance store. Then I would LIKE to get my house clean. Let's just say that being sick made it a little grosser and dirtier than usual. I hope everyone is having a good day!

Sinus infection

2006-01-31T07:16:00.000-06:00

Yuck. That is what the doctor said I had yesterday, so she put me on some antibiotics and sent me on my way. I had a dose last night, but I don't think it's kicked in yet, because my throat is still on fire. In other news, 24 ROCKED last night. It was so cool to watch Jack threaten someone's eye. :-D

Let's see what else, John got a FAT raise yesterday. I'm so happy for him! We pretty much make the same money now. I am the breadwinner in the house still by a TINY hair. Unless SBC really pulls through for me this year, I think that John is going to take me down. Oh well, it doesn't matter, I'm sure I'll be the one to spend it either way :-P

I ordered my sister a DVD player for her birthday and my mom said she's really excited about it, but they are also worried it will get stolen off of her front porch when it gets delivered. Let's cross our fingers. It's on my Citibank card, so if that happens, they will give me my money back, it will just be a bit of a hassle.

Okay, I'm officially late for work, mission accomplished. :-P

nothing much new

2006-01-29T11:31:00.000-06:00

first of all, you guys were right about the crockpot liners. I'm buying them next trip to dierbergs, I always don't want to scrape. second, still sick.

Oh yeah here's a quiz I took:

Take the quiz:
Which "24" character are you?

David Palmer
You are David Palmer!! Your the President of the United States.. You are sensible and know what needs to be done. Honest, and hardworking, and nobel. Why cant you have 3 consequtive terms?

Quizzes by myYearbook.com -- the World's Biggest Yearbook!

do you know what is a ripoff?

2006-01-28T16:49:00.000-06:00

slow cooker liners.
Look at that picture. You would think you might get at least 10 in that box, right? WRONG. 4 come in the box, not kidding you, 4. They sell for $2.59 at Dierbergs and they are not sold at all at Shop 'n Save. I was so excited when I saw the commercial. Finally I could use my crockpot without an hour of scrubbing! No way will I ever pay that. Oh and yes, I'm still sick.

you guessed it, still sick

2006-01-28T08:50:00.000-06:00

I'm calling the doctor Monday if I'm not better. I feel sick to my stomach, sore throat, headache, stuffy nose, anything that can be wrong is wrong. Also, I think my new found love for veggies only applies to gourmet cooked veggies. I tried eating some again this week from Fridays and they were nasty, rubbery and planty, the way I always picture them in my head. Gross. I'll try and make some myself when I'm feeling better. Last night I just sat around and talked on instant messenger. I swear between being sick, having my back thrown out, the holidays, and having our water main break I've had about 1 weekend to accomplish stuff since November. It's no fun. I am sending John to do the grocery shopping since I don't think I can handle it. We'll see how he does I'll report back later.