The Roo(ette) Zoo

5 weeks, 5 photos, 5 words or less.

2010-04-15T09:16:00.000-04:00

Flowers, birds and snow.

Best Buds.

Self portrait success.

Art closet makeover.

Momma Bird.

2010-02-14T13:15:00.000-05:00

Here comes the sun. It's alright.

2/11/10

9/27/09

Dandy Mandy Studios

2010-01-12T14:05:00.000-05:00

Double Christmas

2009-12-29T17:04:00.001-05:00

Raven and Homer were busy dogs this year. Between posing for our Christmas card and helping Santa at the 11th hour, they barely had time to romp in the snow. We celebrated the Winter Solstice/ Christmas on December 20th at my parent's house. Dad won the 2nd annual game of Apples to Apples- it was his first victory. Ever. Fresh snow fell on my parent's land. Isn't Mother Nature a talented artist?

On Christmas Eve morning, Andrew and I loaded our sleigh with gifts, luggage and dogs. Ellicott City was under about 18 inches of snow and it made for a chilly Christmas Eve service. Jimmie was zonked from all the excitement on Christmas morning, so I let him nap while I photographed him. Sorry Jimmie, and thanks for being such a cooperative subject. The long weekend was packed with food (too much food!) and visits (not long enough!) with good friends. Our honorary nieces and nephew are really growing and turning into wonderful little kids. Taylor's and Tasch's- please hit the pause button to keep your kids in this phase. Really. They're changing too fast for us! Our trips back to Maryland never seem long enough. Even when we plan an extra day or two, we feel like we missed out on a visit with someone. Hey, psssst... come see us in Ohio!

Oh, one last zinger to keep you laughing till next time...
We think Anna and Sonja are responsible for trying to shuffle the Apples to Apples cards. Pony didn't want to play, so the girls went MIA.

Thanksgiving Week and other November Morsels

2009-12-04T21:31:00.001-05:00

Has it really been 2 months? Wow, my blog is dusty.

November was a mix of highs and lows in our house.
After a freak accident on October 28th, our beloved grey cat Sonica passed away on November 1st. She lived hard and fast, she was fearless and scared at the same time. She never let us snuggle with her, but we often found her mooshed up against Buster in a sunny patch on the floor. Buster still doesn't seem to understand that she's gone. Sometimes I am positive that he's asking me "Well... When's she coming home?" I just pat his fuzzy orange head and say that we miss her too.

We added one more dog to our house the Friday before Thanksgiving. Just kidding! We were dog sitting for the folks that adopted the stray puppy that we had on New Year's Eve. They got married earlier in the month, and took their honeymoon over the holiday weekend. We had 3 dogs for about 10 days. I walked dogs 100 times. I counted. I had a chart to keep track of who did what outside and when. Laugh all you want, but there were no accidents in the house!

Thanksgiving day, everyone came to see us. Mom and Dad, Bree and Todd, Marissa and her one-eyed chocolate Lab Cammie. Cammie has springs in her feet...

This dog never stops moving. Ever. Picture it.

Bree and Todd posed for a classic Miller family portrait, and we hadn't even opened the wine. Yet.

Despite all this insanity excitement, Wrigley/ Wriggles/ WrigRee/ Pooka found a safe place to supervise from. On the very tippy top of my kitchen cabinets. She's the only cat that can get all the way up there, and she seems mighty proud of her newest trick. Little rascal. She almost landed in my pancakes one morning!

Raven and Homer say 'Goodnight'.

A real vacation

2009-09-29T14:54:00.001-04:00

Mom and I spent 4 nights down in Naples, Florida. The weather was almost unbearable, 90° and 327% humidity. My glasses fogged up everytime I went outside. Most of our days were spent lounging around in our jammies till early afternoon, watching old Audrey Hepburn movies and eating cheese and crackers. Oh. And we drank wine. The good life, I tell ya!

On Sunday, our last night, we went to watch the sunset at Naples Pier. I took over 200 pictures. None are Photoshopped (I don't even have Photoshop!) It was one of the most amazing sunsets I'd ever seen.

Do you see what I see in this one? A hood ornament in the clouds!

Enjoy!

2009-09-11T16:32:00.000-04:00

In the days and weeks following September 11th, 2001, I drove around my hometown and took pictures of every American Flag that I could get my camera focused on. Here's one of my favorites. Finding the flags on every home and building made me look at my country in a different light. I'd never seen so many people show how proud they were to be Americans.
This is in Old Ellicott City, Maryland.

9-11-01

Grandpa said "These colors don't run!"

A dog's life.

2009-08-24T21:09:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, we packed up the dogs and headed north to Wooster. My sister bought a house this spring, and it needs some TLC. Lots of TLC. Andrew painted a bedroom ceiling while Marissa and I stripped wallpaper in the hall bathroom. How come you never move into a house where the previous owners have the same decorating taste as you? We're talkin' glow in the dark hand stencilled border in one bedroom, complete with stick-on glow in the dark stars on the ceiling...yuk. So since Andrew was the tallest among the 3 of us, we elected him to attack the ceiling. Notice there are no pictures of this. Only dogs. We played with the doggies a little too much!

Here's my gorgeous sister on her new staircase. Her chocolate Lab Cammie goes a million miles a minute- 24 hours a day. I like how Marissa is calm and perfectly still, but Cammie was talking to Raven while I was doing my camera thing..

Homer's had enough of the girl's nonsense.

My friend Jenny lives just 1,000 feet away, we visit back and forth through the week. Yesterday, she brought her dogs over to play. And this fine fuzzball is the newest member of her family. His name is Manny and he is too cute for his own good. Raven, Homer, and his big sister Skye are slowly teaching him all about our neighborhood.

Andrew made some Wacky Cake last night. He let Homer have the last of the peanut butter on the spoon... and that spoon went right into a bowl of hot soapy water- so no worries about dog slobber in your cake..

And here's the culprit of the cat pee laundry. Little Pooka thinks baskets of clean laundry = her bathroom. NOT OK. She spent the weekend locked in a bathroom with food, water and her very own litterbox. She just posted bail this evening and is currently re-joining the furry society that is our house.

Homer Kiss

2009-08-24T12:11:00.000-04:00

A glimpse into what Homer is really like at home... Quiet, Pathetic, Kissy and Loving. Don't wear short sleeves around him, he'll lick your arm off.

Summer, S'mores and Stuff

2009-07-23T09:48:00.002-04:00

Last week I trucked it down to my parents house to help my Momma organize the basement. Raven is oddly scared of the basement steps because they are just boards nailed to stair stringers, no 'rise' part nailed to the back. So she spent the day at the top of the steps, whining and sighing every so often. Luckily, Grandpa Miller (my Dad) kept her company while he made pizza for lunch.

Needy Sweetie likes things neat and tidy. This poor cat can't see her paw infront of her whiskers, yet she'll ball up a blanket to rest on. She's rarely feeling photogenic, so I was happy she let me take this photo.

A couple weeks ago my neighbor girls came over from next door. They love to help in the garden and they think watering flowers and plants is bunches of fun! Note: Do not give a hose to a 3 year old. She will soak you. Andrew and I have become good friends with the parents of these two girls and we made an evening ritual out of filling the bird feeder between our two houses. The girls help us fill it, and then they take turns hanging it back on the hook. It's ok, you can say it now. Awwww.

We've been enjoying our firepit pretty regularly this summer. Neighbors come down and chat for a while. I finally figured out how to get all the s'mores supplies down the backyard hill with minimal trash. This system beats my "tray propped on the edge of the wheelbarrow". Oops. We had some sacrificial s'mores, but we learned from my mistake.

And finally, Andrew and I were making our evening rounds one night- turning off lights, locking doors, etc... I looked up from the foyer and saw these two lovebirds. Perhaps a feline version of Romeo and Juliet was about to take place?

PS- see that painting on the wall behind the railing? Yeah. I did that.

See this?

2009-06-21T17:14:00.003-04:00

A mirror image of the wonderfullness that is organization! (and some blood, sweat and tears about Ikea.) Well worth it!

Dogs, ice cream and a haircut- not all together.

2009-06-16T13:58:00.004-04:00

Our weekend was a furry blur of dogs and me cutting Andrew's hair for the first time. He finally decided he had enough faith in me to do it...and like he said- "worst case scenario, I go bald!" Riiiight Honey, you'll go bald. (hehehe)

Saturday night, we met my sister and her husband at their house and they treated us to dinner. The cutest thing there? It was Lark, she's their tiny dog.

Andrew's glamour shot before:

I threatened to stop the haircut here if Andrew didn't quit squirming. I almost gave the kid a lolli-pop so he'd be distracted...

Dogs eating ice cream. They actually know what they're going to get when we head to the DQ drive-thru. Two doggy dishes, please!

Raven and Homer on the ride home from the doggy dentist last week. Have you ever seen more pathetic Labs? Raven was totally zonked and we could almost hear Homer singing like the Swedish Chef from the Muppets: Der der der...

Next up: Amanda attacks her office with the Ikea Army of build-it-yourself furniture.

Clippers Game and Homer

2009-06-04T17:50:00.003-04:00

Last Friday, Roo and I went to a minor league baseball game. It was the Columbus Clippers VS Norfolk Tides. In case you didn't know, and I didn't know...the Tides are the triple A team for the Orioles. So, as Maryland natives, Andrew and I dressed in Orioles orange and black, dusted off the foam finger, and away we went. We counted as two thirds of the Orioles fans, #3 was just 20 seats away from us. We felt a little foolish, but that was quickly remedied by our 13-2 win! GO TIDES!

So, here's Andrew, the practicing vegetarian.... Hey, it was $1 brat night. What's a guy to do?

And we all know it's best to get a self portrait, always give the camera to the shortest person in the group...DOH!

Homer

And they're off!

Paying close attention

Homer is Home

2009-05-11T07:27:00.003-04:00

Andrew and I are the proud new parents of a 5 year old yellow Lab. He was found walking the streets of the ghetto near a hospital here in Columbus. They also told us he was holding a cardboard sign: "will love you forever if you feed me". Homer is 90 lbs of mush. He's loving and playful, goofy and sneaky. He and Raven are getting along just fine, she shares her toys and she's showing him the ropes around here. I only have a few pictures from Homer's first days with us, my camera batteries went kaput.*

*After trying to upload the pictures of Homer, I realized that when you take pictures with dying camera batteries, you only get 25% of the photo...the rest turns out grey. Boooo.

Sooo, here's Raven on a rug, and Wrigley in a box!

The Easter Skunk

2009-04-11T23:33:00.002-04:00

Raven has finally proven herself as a guard dog. Andrew and I were relaxing after an emotional week and we heard Raven growl, I mean really growl at something in the backyard. A few seconds later, our noses were assaulted by the fragrance of Pepe Le Pew. We can only guess that Raven saw Mr. Pew, and he got scared and sprayed his stink all over the yard. I had a case of the stupids and opened the back door "just to make sure" it was really a skunk. That was dumb. We could smell it perfectly fine from the comfort of our recliners. When will I learn??

Why is a good pea green so hard to mix?

2009-04-01T17:53:00.001-04:00

My palette has 6 pots in it, 5 of them are horrible concoctions of pea green. None of them are the right one. I'm thinking of running to the kitchen to dust off the can of Split Pea Soup and use that on my masterpiece! HA!

I painted flowers

2009-03-25T22:02:00.000-04:00

Therefore, I am a budding genius. :D

Parking Lot: 1 Andrew: 0

2009-02-28T23:25:00.004-05:00

I think Andrew broke a mirror 2 years ago and he never told me. Most of you can recall our eventful spring of 2008: Kidney stones, root canals, a car accident all in 2 weeks and the list goes on and on. I thought we were in the clear till about 2 weeks ago. He started talking about major tooth pain and yadayada. Next thing I know, I'm schlepping him to the dentist, the pharmacy and the endodontist several times in a week. He's been recovering and it's nice to have him back on his feet. Literally. He has slept through most of the last 8 days.
So we go out tonight for a bite of food. We paid, walked back to the car talked about the music Jersey Mike's Subs was playing. Then out of the corner of my eye, I watch as Andrew twists his ankle stepping off the curb, stumbles, does a full somersault and lands flat on his back in the middle of the parking lot. Really? Yes. Remember that he is 6 foot 2 and the ground is a looong ways away from his forehead. It was a looong fall! Before he took his fall of shame, he threw my my sub (missing the oily spot) and chips to the ground. He broke his fall with his right knee (now bloody) and hands (only a little bloody). For real. Can we get a break here? When we got back in the car, he said it was revenge for me throwing his cake on the sidewalk 4 YEARS AGO. Let it go, Andrew. Let it go.

PS- We laughed about it the whole ride home.

Rissa's Birthday Dinner

2009-02-21T23:04:00.002-05:00

Bree and I drove to Wooster tonight and had dinner with our big sister. After one round of drinks, we were laughing loud enough to make our dining neighbors give us the evil eye.
So, as is the case at every family meal, we started remembering stupid things we've said over the years. Some of the best are "Where's my straw?", "You just took a sip of my own coke!", "Point to me where I am." and "Please take off your feet!"

I happen to think some of the zingers would make great book titles... Mine would be called "Rabbit Season, Duck Season: Perpetual disagreements for the average couple"

What would yours be?
If this makes no sense, kindly ignore it. If you want to participate, leave a comment with your imaginary book title.

Just for inspiration, my Mom's would be "Where's My Straw?" because that's what she said as she stared into her glass of water, peering right down her drinking straw. Everyone else at the table could see it except her. Guess you had to be there? Yeah.

Next week's topic: What would you name your sandwich?

Amanda VS The Shower Doors

2009-02-09T22:40:00.002-05:00

In the red corner: Amanda...lover of all things fuzzy. Her favorite color is platinum and her favorite accessory is elbow grease.

In the blue corner: The Shower Doors...keepers of the filth, grime and pure nastiness. They are literally the scum of the Earth.

Round 1:
Amanda takes on Door #1 with a vengeance and some pretty pink rubber gloves. She does a one-two punch with vinegar and scrubby sponge, only to be taken down by the sludge jammed behind the door handle.
Round 1 Winner: The Door.

Round 2:
Amanda brings on the 409, apologizing for the anti-Earth properties of the haz-mat. She thinks it is the only substance that can eradicate 2.5 years of the soapy scum.
Round 2 Winner: Amanda!

It was gross, I did it. The doors are clean, and our shower is almost in working order again. Next up, a shower re-caulking job... the entire reason the darn doors were off the track in the first place.

I won, I won, I won, I won!!!

Inauguration weekend

2009-01-29T20:37:00.003-05:00

I can't believe January is almost over. I'm just now realizing that it's 2009! I can only handle so much change at one time, you know.
Andrew and I drove to Maryland the night of the 16th. It was colder than bone chilling for most of the drive. The kicker was the stop at Midway on the PA turnpike. 0°. It was almost to cold for Raven, but noooo, she's a Canadian dog who was born to swim to shore with a fishnet in her mouth. So, walking we went, across the parking lot, I went pigeon toed, she had 4 paw drive. ..get it? She peed. Victory! And we ran back to the car before my paws froze. I felt a little guilty for not letting have some water at that stop, but I think it woulda been a little dumb to refill her tank, only to have to empty it once again in BRRR chilly weather!

Saturday morning we drove to McLean, VA for a family event. Since we were so close to DC, we stopped there and posed for several Kodak moments while Meredith drove the bus around monuments. We froze, headed home armed with PrObama stuff and we were happy. We came home to play a round of Apples to Apples and I saw a side of Missy I'd never seen before. What a breath of fresh air that was! Short and stout....pffft!

Sunday...Let's just say Go Cardinals! Every living thing in that house was wearing purple to watch the game. But it wasn't enough to take us to the Superbowl. I blame our loss on Jimmie for calling his Steelers fan of a sister and allowing bad ju-ju to seep into the house. Sorry Jimmie. Take one for the team next time and step outside to make that call!

Monday...was a blur. I don't remember Monday. I musta slept through it.

We watched the inauguration on Tuesday and headed west on Wednesday. We made a pit stop in Frederick for some emergency PB&J and playtime with H&K.
Whew. We always cram so much into our trips, and it amazes me everytime that we come out of it alive.

Andrew modeling his Dad's hat. Pretty sharp, I think. Although, it looks a wee bit "Richard Petty-ish" to me.

You're not an American if you can't name this building. Ok, if you're 10 and can't name it. Cutie pies are the only exception.

Anna wondering where her Aunt Manda's eyes are, while I'm trying to show Andrew how to take a picture. And we end up with this.

Yummerific football cake! Thank you Chris and Missy!

Two clowns, I'm married to the purple one.

I have purple hair.

2009-01-15T21:47:00.003-05:00

Yes, I had this done on purpose. Yes, Andrew loves it, he thinks it's a tribute to Baltimore. Yes, it's permanent.
Yes, it's awesome and it makes me feel younger than 27. Ugh. I'm in my late twenties. When did that happen?
My natural color is on top and the new color is on the bottom, so no roots will show when it starts to grow out. My hair grows almost an inch a month, so paying to maintain my roots is like throwing money right down the shower drain. Wasteful.

GO RAVENS!!

The New Year's Eve stray pupperoni

2009-01-09T09:07:00.004-05:00

Raven's watching you!

Setting the scene:
At about 8pm on December 31st, some teenage girls found a puppy sleeping in the street. Thinking she was already dead, they slowly walked towards her and discovered she was only resting before another long night under the cold Ohio sky. They picked her up and walked to the nearest house. The man there said "Take her to that house with the black Lab statue on the front porch, they'll know what to do."
At this point, Andrew is telling me how much he loves Raven and would eventually love to have a second dog like her, a buddy for her to play with. This is how the rest of the night unfolds...
Andrew and I were setting up for our own New Year's Eve festivities: I was vacuuming the dining room rug, and he was cleaning up in the kitchen. All was quiet as a mouse (except for the vacuum..) until Raven told us there was someone at the door. I peeked outside, and who do I see? A 13 week old pupster, loving eyes peering at me. The 2 girls explained what had happened and how they could not take her for the night. So we swapped phone numbers and they handed the puppy over, we agreed to keep our eyes and ears open for any leads on her owners. She had no collar, she was not spayed. No visible sign that someone was missing her. We set her up with food and water in a spare crate. She whined unless we held her and howled when she had to go outside. New years day, we made posters stating that a puppy was found in our neighborhood on 12/31/08, and to please call our home phone number if you think we might have your new dog. Armed with a tape gun and fear that we might never find her owners, we posted our signs at the 3 major intersections closest to where she'd been found. Our friends at PetsMart also listed her on their lost and found board. I also learned that 3 puppies just like our stray had been dropped of across the highway. It was becoming more and more clear that this sweet dog was a 'dump and run'. Out here, it's not uncommon for people to dump unwanted litters in a neighborhood on the other side of town. This way the pups are not recognized by the homeowners and the dog dumper never gets caught for throwing them away.
I took the pup to the vet on Friday. She needed a rabies shot, and I wanted to see if she had a micro-chip, No such luck. We kept asking neighbors if they knew someone who wanted a puppy. We had some prospects but they all fell through. So we kept the pup all weekend and enjoyed having her around. She played with Raven, didn't seem to care about the cats, and we discovered that she was an excellent snuggler. She was smart too, she brought us her empty food bowl to let us know it needed to be refilled and Raven taught her that to get a treat in this house, a doggy has got to sit.
Our good friend Julie lives across the street. She sent out an email Monday morning asking if someone, ANYONE wanted this little girl. If we didn't get an answer soon, she' have to go to the no-kill shelter that we support. I was not looking forward to doing that! Julie got one lonely reply to her mass email. One woman was interested and she and her fiance were willing to drive down here Monday night to meet (and possibly adopt) the pup. I called her right away, she said her fiance was acting like a 5 year old, jumping up and down, asking when they could get the dog.. So we met, they were amazing and I had no regrets about sending our New Year's Eve stray home with them. See? This wagging tail has a happy ending.

The true story of my life:

2009-01-04T10:08:00.001-05:00

Amen.

Christmas x 2 = a blast

2008-12-29T09:33:00.002-05:00

We had Christmas here at home on the 25th, I conquered Andrew's Aunt Gloria's stuffing. Everyone stayed late and we topped off the day with a 3 hour Apples to Apples marathon where Dad calmly waited for "a redhead, any redhead" to play a card.
Andrew and I both worked on the 26th so we headed east Friday at quitting time. We parked our sled in Ellicott City about 12:30 Friday night and when we awoke the next morning, it was Christmas again! We all had some yummy cinnamon rolls for breakfast (I tip my hat to Missy) and I think we were all a little jealous of the fun Anna was having with plastic play food and a shopping cart that was just her size. Oooh, to be that age again!
Before all the adults crashed for the night, we managed to cram in another marathon of Apples to Apples. We learned that rain is cuddly and Andrew is dainty (riiiiight!), and Jimmie thinks telemarketers are.... ha! I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard with family! It was truly a night I will treasure. It's so much more fun than everyone watching different TV's or napping or flipping through catalogs.
So, good thing I remember all this. Even though I was smart and packed the camera AND the charger, I forgot to take it out of my bag while we were in Maryland. Oops. I was too busy having a blast.
Sunday morning, Andrew loaded the car, I hugged Meredith, we stuffed Raven in the backseat and we were off! Off to Jimmie's church service...Raven napped in his office in the chapel until after lunch and we hit the road for real.
We took the turnpike both ways, traffic was very light as we were going in the opposite direction of the majority of the travelers. And even though we have driven it about 50 times in 2 years, I am still convinced it's just a black hole or a wrinkle in time or something like that. Maybe I should look at a map.

Anna's Role Call

2008-12-23T01:29:00.002-05:00

Dear Anna, We're sorry we could not include your two favorite kitties on our Christmas card, we simply cannot get all 5 pets to cooperate at the same time. To make up for it, I've posted 2 photos that have all our pets in them. See? Everyone's accounted for!

Sweetie and Raven:

Sonica, Wrig-Ree and Busdriver:

Firetrucks, Ambulances, and Driveway Ice Skating. Oh My.

2008-12-17T09:49:00.002-05:00

Last night, Roo was in the kitchen during a commercial break. Our dining room shades were open and he could see a bunch of flashing red and white lights. I know what you're thinking, and no. Santa did not come early this year. Our next door neighbor fell earlier in the day and felt the need to be rushed to the hospital 8 hours later. I am told by her son and daughter in law that she does this every now and then. Thankfully, she will be just fine. I called next door to see if they needed a babysitter or anything after the EMT's left but Momma was already at home with the kids. Problem solved.
While the firetruck and ambulance were still in front of our house, a good friend across the street saw, and she thought there was something going on here. As I was clearing things up with her, another couple called. They drove by to check on their new house and saw all the excitement going on and they thought it was me in the ambulance. Whew. Did ya follow that?
A couple hours later, we were slip sliding away on our driveway trying to get in the truck. Our neighbor saw us making fools of ourselves and offered to throw some salt on our driveway while we scurried to Blockbuster to avoid late fees. We were seriously gone for 5 minutes, and upon our return we saw ice melting on our driveway AND our sidewalk! How thoughtful!
Andrew and I sat down after all that and realized we're surrounded in our neighborhood by people who genuinely care about us. It's such a change from apartment life in Columbia and condo life in Elkridge that it makes me downright giddy.

Winter has been here for about a month now. I just checked the forecast and it seems I should dig out my warm hat...Next Monday's high temp is 15...and the low is 14. I think it'll be a cold one.

2008-12-09T13:16:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving 2008
Roo carving the bird. It was so yummy. I'm still a little proud.

Roo and my Mom at the dining room table. What a feast we had!

Raven and her Uncle Meister being civil towards eachother. We gave thanks for this, too.

2008-12-09T12:49:00.002-05:00

See? Random fun, as promised. Oh joy!

I took Raven to the groomer and came home with Sister Raven.

Since Sweetie has come out of her funk, she's been just as dominant as she once was. Here, she kicked Raven out of bed and claimed this one for herself. Raven stood by without protest.

I thought our sweet dog was depressed one night, so I begged Roo to give her peanut butter. Even better, put some on your nose, Honey, and let her give you kisses! I think I had the most fun here...

Dogasaur came trick or treating at our house...

And so did Dr. Miller, the Tooth Fairy!

It finally happened.

2008-12-08T14:37:00.002-05:00

My memory stick in my camera ran out of room. Guess what that means....

Coming soon, to a blog near you: 6 months of random dog and cat pictures topped off with a nice helping of the first half of Thanksgiving 2008!

So I guess I'll actually have to delete every thing on the memory stick when I upload the pictures to my computer. I hate that idea. It seems so..final. Like eating the last bit of turkey and cranberry sauce...you can't just go back for more. Oh. Wow. That makes me want a Thanksgiving leftover samich, but we're out of leftovers. Whaaaa.

I voted!

2008-11-04T10:53:00.002-05:00

I stood in line for an hour and saw 3 of our neighbors in line ahead of me. Election day is finally here, so maybe that means the political attack ads will be replaced by the normal car/ toy/ crazy prescription drug commercials. Oh, how I have missed them!

Go vote!

Raven and Lily

2008-10-26T10:05:00.002-04:00

A playdate from earlier this month....watch their heads move in the first few seconds...

A peek into the future.

2008-10-23T09:35:00.002-04:00

Ahh, it'll never happen. Raven was spayed at the shelter. But if she hadn't been, I can see Andrew making this request.

And NO. I have no reason to get an ultrasound. This one frame comic was on my Yahoo page this morning and I only posted it because of the dog's name.

Grandpa's Birthday

2008-10-21T20:31:00.005-04:00

He would have had his 84th Birthday Breakfast here with a couple handfuls of friends and then he'd make a return trip for coffee at about 2:00pm. Instead, Mom and I had lunch here and saw a friend of Grandpa's. Funny how things fall into place like that.

Back in the middle of August, Mom gave me Grandpa's calendar from the year I was born. Apparently, nothing noteworthy happened after the first week of the year, because this is all he wrote. So to honor the day Grandpa was born in 1924, I'm posting a picture of the calendar he wrote in on the day I was born in 1982.

Circleville Pumpkin Festival

2008-10-21T20:14:00.005-04:00

Come on now, doesn't it sound like fun? It was! Pumpkin ice cream, funnel cakes, brownies, beer, and a few three-quarter-ton pumpkins to inspire us all. We went down on Saturday night, and despite the near 40 temperatures, the crowds went wild for all the pumpkin fun to be had. Fair rides and moonbounces, potato sack slides and FOOD glorious FOOD, little kid art work and all the pumpkins you could dream of.

Get it? Roundtown, instead of Circleville... We thought it was clever.

Irony

2008-10-17T21:57:00.004-04:00

Andrew likes to tell a certain almost 4-year-old story about us. It goes a little something like this:

My Dad had come to see me in Maryland, and Andrew and I had been dating for about 5 months. Dad had never really met him, so he took the two of us out to a local folky Italian place. The food was excellent, conversation was awkward, and it was moving time for me. Back at my apartment after dinner, Dad asked Andrew to hand his dessert to me so he could help Dad carry moving boxes up to my apartment. All was well until I tripped over the curb and sent Andrew's Neapolitan Cake flying onto the sidewalk where it met a sweet and chocolaty death. This occurred in January of 2005.

Tonight, we had dinner with my parents out in Reynoldsburg to celebrate Andrew's (31st!) birthday a weee bit early. We ordered dessert and the story from above was told. Again. And we laughed at me. Again. Then we got home. I drove, Andrew got out of the passenger's side door and promptly fed his caramel pie to our sidewalk. What is it with us not being able to hang on to leftovers? I ran inside to call my parents and leave a voicemail for them. Andrew was defending himself the whole time, saying his hands were full, whaa whaa whaa.
It was funny!

Who's laughing now, Birthday Boy???

PS, I love you.

I was just reminded of something I said in March.

2008-10-14T21:51:00.003-04:00

Arglemarf. If you google it, my info pops up. That makes me more famous then, like Britney Spears. Or something.

In other household news, Andrew started his PT jobby today. Errr, wait. His first day was Saturday. At any rate, he's working tonight and instead of being home by 6, he should be walking through the door any day now.... I said any day now... I think Raven is so used to the routine, that this hiccup in the schedule has really thrown her off. Her day is pretty basic. I found this entry in her journal:
6:00am- Dad hits snooze
6:09am- Dad hits snooze again
6:18am- Mom pushes Dad out of bed and says "Time to get up!"
6:47am- Dad walks me down to the power lines and back. He talks about how tired he is the whole time.
7:19am- Dad looks at the clock as he burns his tongue on too-hot-coffee and realizes he should have left for work 10 minutes ago.
7:20am- Dad pats me on the head and tells me to be good, (duh, what else can I be?) leaves for work, Mom and I wave from the front porch.
7:20am- 5:50pm- Wait for Dad.
5:55pm- Bark at every car door slamming in a 5 mile radius in anticipation of Dad coming home. "Is that his car? Did I hear his radio?"
6:00pm- Welcome Dad home!

So she sat by the front door at 5:45. 6:00pm rolled around and she came back up to my office. By 7:30, she was barking at me and running to the front hall as if to say, "He's not home, we should send out a search party." And while I was trying to take a bubble bath between 8:30 and 9:15, she barked and paced and jumped and growled at every bird, bug, and neighbor passing by our front door. She was so antsy.

I know what you're thinking. Can your dog write in a journal? ;D

Human Resources

2008-10-14T14:02:00.002-04:00

Is not very resourceful to humans.
Go figure.

2008-10-14T00:19:00.001-04:00

Disgust

2008-10-10T18:56:00.002-04:00

Pure and utter disgust. Today did not go the way I had hoped. But in a way, I came out on top. I stood up for something I believed in and still got kicked in the knees. Ahh, at least I stood up instead of taking it like a pansy.

Discuss

2008-10-09T21:08:00.002-04:00

If you found out you were making HALF the money that other people around you make for doing the exact same job, at comparable success rates, what would you do?

A Whirlwind

2008-10-07T17:58:00.003-04:00

A few weekends ago, we had our Cleveland Browns fans (gasp) neighbors over to watch the Ravens take on the Browns. They also brought a buddy for Raven. Sky and Raven are BFF's, you know.
It was a good game, but it was more fun to watch our dogs play together.

Here, Raven and Sky show us how they got their Indian names "Bumps-on-a-log"

Sometime between that game and today, I flew over to Maryland to surprise a friend for her 30th birthday. I actually called her on her real birthday, the day before the party and said "Happy Birthday! See you tomorrow!" So I kinda spoiled that suprise, but I did manage to shock 3 other friends who had no idea I was in town. Alisha has a chronic case of Babyphobia and my presence prompted her to grab hold of the nearest child and hang on for dear life. Hehehe...

Andrew and Nate before some much needed Bromance at the game on Sunday. Raven stayed behind, but she was so cute on game day with her Raven's bandana, so I made everyone pose. Nate was so thrilled.

And what's a dirt pile good for? Rolling in it! Exactly 72 hours after getting a good bath, she rolled in a bunch of dirt. Ahh well, she's washable.

WHOOOOOSH went September, October arrived much faster than I'd expected.

We're sickos here

2008-10-02T11:10:00.003-04:00

Apparently, I brought home more than just Berger Cookies. It seems a nasty bug has invaded our home in the form of... The Common Cold.

Andrew: sneezes, coughs, hacks up a lung and sleeps 23.5 hours a day.
Me: my throat is so sore, I can't swallow, fever of 101ish which is high for me, even at perfect health my temp is around 96. I'm not coughing or sneezing, but I have a feeling the best is yet to come. I'm starting to wonder if we'll even make it back to MD this weekend.

The meds: DayQuil and NyQuil for Andrew, I'm more of a Tylenol/ Advil girl myself. Hot tea, soup, humidifier, Vicks VapoRub, I even splurged and bought tissues with lotion in them. We're also big fans of those shower steamers that look like an Alka Seltzer tablet and we've re-discovered our good friend "Mr. Microwave HeatWrap" He's wonderful.

I'd post pics of this hot mess we're in, but we both look like a tractor ran over us...

So to lighten the mood, this Howard County Fair Prize Winning Photographer happens to be my father-in-law.

Pretty cool, huh?

Tag, I'm it!

2008-09-29T20:27:00.003-04:00

Allison in Columbus tagged me, so to keep the game going, I'm participating. I think I gotta list 7 random things about me. And I like lists and numbers, so this should be a piece of Wacky Cake.

1. I've been to Europe 4 times, and the top of the Eiffel Tower twice.

2. I miss my Grandparents more than anyone would care to imagine. They were the embodiment of love and trust.

3. I LOVE BUNNIES! Everyone knows this...it's common knowledge, like how everyone knows the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and Amanda loves BUNNIES.

4. When my immediate family of 2 parents, 2 sisters, 1 husband and 1 brother-in-law go out for dinner, there are 7 people at the table, and 6 have red hair.

5. Andrew tried to dump me after dating me for 2 weeks. He left my apartment and I said to myself: "That poor guy doesn't know he's gonna marry me someday." I was right, and I've been right ever since.

6. I am pretty clean around the house, except for my office, which is where art supplies and anything creative goes to die. I am very particular about who comes into my office, as the creativity graveyard must not be disturbed.

7. On more than one occasion, I've called one of my sisters at the EXACT same second they called me, giving us both a busy signal (yes, it's possible to get a busy signal even in the days of call waiting). So we'd hang up and finally get a hold of each other and figure out that we called each other at the same moment.

And one for good measure, since I am full of valuable information tonight:

8. I know how to fold a fitted sheet without making it wrinkle. It's one of the top 10 reasons Andrew married me.

9. My second toe is as long as my pinkie finger. So if I ever lose my pinky, I can have it replaced with my toe. Eeeeeewwwwww YUK!

I'm tagging you! If you read this (Dawn, Gail, Erin, Shannon, Barb, Michele, Trixie, Katie, Alisha, Missy, Meredith, and so on)
You gotta pull some random facts outta your....hat and hunker down like I did.

It was fun and I learned that I'm a strange little girl.

Things that go fast

2008-09-15T20:45:00.002-04:00

1. Planes
2. Trains
3. Reading material

We had Ike up for a visit this weekend. He blew the Sunday paper clear down the street at 76 miles an hour. We Grove Citians are quite proud to have experienced this along with tornado warnings and a 24 hour snowfall total of 18 inches this year.

So, if you're lookin' for a real excitin' place to live, swing by GC on the SW side. Something's bound to blow our way. Or fall from the sky!

PS, there are no pics of this hurricane force wind, cause you can't see wind. Duh. For real, I was afraid to take the camera outside, I figured it would end up smooshed into our neighbor's car door!

$20 haircut, million dollar flub-up

2008-09-11T20:59:00.002-04:00

That's right. My normal haircutter person had left the salon for the day and the only girl left to cut my hair was born in the 90's. I realized this was a bad idea when halfway through, she started talking about her prom, which I'm pretty sure was just back in May. Oy.
The bottom layer is fine, but the top layer is 2 inches shorter on one side, and it does this weird diagonal thing in the back. My plan is to call the salon and make an appointment for a time when she won't be there and have the manager fix it!

Moral of the story: If she was born in the last decade (and I mean 90's, not past 10 years) then she's too darn young to have control over my 'do.

The end, no pics for this one!

Labor Day Weekend pictures

2008-09-10T21:23:00.003-04:00

We had a great time with my brother in law and his family. Anna looks SO tall in these photos and the big hit of the weekend was cardboard blocks. So here's Anna with her leaning tower and Colosseum. Cute kid.

And really, what would a post be without a furry kid in it? Sweetie is confused. She finally came out from under the bed, only to take over the dog bed. Raven confronted her and told her to back off because that bed does say Raven's name on it. Sweetie got all fired up and told Raven that she was only napping there with her teddy bear and planned to smoke her cigar when she woke up, she even had them lined up next to the bed...Seriously, we're those pet owners. Our kids are doomed.

In other news: Work is going swell, I will have my own desk by Friday, and I'm lovin' what I'm doin'. Roo is taking the trash out and I am going to bed because my brain is mush now. G'night!

Back again

2008-09-04T19:32:00.002-04:00

I took the suggested dose (1,000mg's, baby) of Vicodin, and I made it a whole 30 minutes before I woke up. Yay. Why does this stuff knock Andrew out in 2 seconds and keep him knocked out all day, but it only gives me under an hour of pain-free bliss? So unfair. tsk tsk tsk.

In other back related news: My Mom is coming to visit so she can deliver a care package full of books and yummy food.
My neighbor offered to set up a spare mini-fridge in our bedroom so I wouldn't have to leave the second floor, but I do anyway. If only we had one of those outdoor doggie treadmills like Mr. and Mrs. Jetson did for Astro.

Tomorrow I get to go back to the chiropractor to be crunched and folded and cracked some more to help the healing process. I think Andrew is somewhat skeptical, as he already set up a consultation with a surgeon. Easy for him to do....it's not his back!

Back

2008-09-02T21:32:00.005-04:00

Aaaaand back.

Back from the chiropractor. I tore a ligement. Don't know how. But I did. Doc thinks it's re-injury from last years episode. Great. Going to take the recommended dose of pain (knock-you-out) meds and crawl into bed. I'll see you back here if I can't get comfy!

*Sorry to anyone who subscribes to this and doesn't get this added to the inbox, cause I updated/ changed yesterdays post. So sorry.

Can we talk about how good my life is?

2008-08-29T21:14:00.002-04:00

Great hubby: got him
Safe house: check
A fur-kid family: checkeroo
Amazing friends: too many to count. I'd be out of fingers and toes.
The job I've paid my dues waiting for: Woot!
Co-workers who'll back me up and call me Babe-Ah: Got those too!

Life is Schweeeet.

Inventory.

2008-08-22T03:50:00.002-04:00

I just got home. I tried to write a Happy Friday note to Roo cause I will not see him between now and when he'll leave for work at 7:15. I misspelled more words than I spelled correctly. My back is in knots and my brain is still wide awake. There are a few lights and stops signs on my way home from work, and I tried to pull away from a red light in 4th gear. Niiiiiiice. The poor car was chugging and moaning. It was sad until I realized I was the problem.

Such is life.

I hate inventory.

Time to putz around till my brain gets tired.

Food, Glorious food!

2008-08-18T23:40:00.002-04:00

Today I cooked.
I made tuna mac -better than it sounds!
I made chocolate mousse- as good as it sounds!
And I made salmon. I started with a recipe, but halfway through, I got bored.* So I started doing my own thing.
Here's whatcha do:

2 salmon fillets
Some olive oil
Some minced garlic
Some salt
Some pepper
Some creativity
Some courage (that you won't screw up the $12 fish.)

Put the salmon in a glass baking dish.
Throw everything else on top of the salmon.
Bake for 35-45 minutes at 375.

And Voila.
Amanda's Random Salmon.
Magnifique. So magnifique that Andrew, an anti-salmon man, ate the WHOLE thing. Musta been pretty darn yummy. He even ate the veg too!

* In second grade, I often got in trouble for not reading directions and making up my own rules on my assignments. My teacher started calling me Shortcut Mandy. Who knew it would play out 20 years later in my kitchen?

You've got to be kidding

2008-08-15T09:30:00.002-04:00

First, my sincere apologies to anyone still starving for Zoo pics. I will post them. Someday.

I saw two things in the past 24 hours that have made me question the logic of men. Yes, men.
1. I witnessed a young 20 something brushing his teeth while driving. Driving. Not stopped at a red light (as if that would be better!). If he has an accident, at least his breath will be minty fresh for the EMT who gives him mouth-to-mouth.
2. About an hour ago, I passed a 60 something man riding his bike, with a weed whacker on his lap. He gets a round of applause for balance and coordination, but he gets kicked of the stage for stupidity. Seriously. I have trouble moving the weed whacker in the garage without feeling like I'm going to lose a finger, this guy had the blades zig-zagging all over the sidewalk, ready to dis-member the next unlucky fellow to walk by.

And they say men are better drivers? I have my doubts.

Roo at the Zoo

2008-08-06T22:54:00.001-04:00

Post coming soon, not tonight. Try back tomorrow.
I am tired.

Family reunion and dog park weekend

2008-08-04T22:09:00.005-04:00

Three of the cutest sights in Beverly, Ohio on Sunday:

Grandpa's sister, my Aunt Lena (cute for wearing a sweater on an 85 degree day)

My cousin's 6 week old baby girl, Calla (cute for hardly wearing anything)

And another cousin's miniture schnauzer. The opposite of Miester. (cute for having pony-tail ears)

New hairdo preview. It's shoooooort. But you can't tell here. You'll have to wait and see it in real life.

One of the best days with Raven...ever. She swam farther than she ever has before, and she was swimming more, and ignoring the boy dogs. Good Raven.
Before the dog park:

Running into the water:

Running back to Andrew:

Dog wash at the park:

After the dog park:

Whew. I'm tired just looking at all the stuff that happened this weekend, and I bet you are too.

We made it to the dog park

2008-08-03T00:18:00.003-04:00

Pictures will be up Monday along with video. (yes, I love my dog, and this is my blog so I can post what I want.) It's after midnight here and tomorrow is a long day full of a family reunion and a floorset at work that might keep me there till sunrise. Our little red car is still in the shop, so I'll be home Monday, recovering from tomorrow night. So that is why I'm saving pictures for Monday.

¿comprende?

Peace out.
And love. Lots of love.

The Flower Fairy. Like the Tooth Fairy, only better.

2008-08-01T09:40:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago, Roo, Raven and I walked to a street in the neighborhood that we rarely make it to on our walks. We saw an amazing purple garden in someone's front yard. The owner was out pulling weeds, so we chatted for a while about how long we've lived here, where we moved from, etc. Then we said goodbye. But I stopped in my tracks because the purple garden around their mailbox put our entire yard to shame. I wanted to learn the name of a certain purple plant so I could add it to our collection. The owner found his wife and she was so tickled that someone liked her purple garden, she invited us to tour their whole yard! We got to the back yard and she said "This Siberian Iris is just too big and we were about to divide it. How about you take a clump?" Sure! So we dug it up and brought it home, Roo planted it a couple nights later. It will have purple blooms next year.

Fast forward about a month.

Yesterday morning, I was taking the last sips of my Caramel Cafe flavored coffee drink...and I sneezed. Since I was on the front porch, I had a witness. The woman walking across the street was Susie, The Great Gardener from a few weeks ago. She blessed my sneeze and then realized who I was...
So she came closer to the house and I walked her through our yard so she could see that her contribution to our garden had a good home. We chatted some more about yard work and plants, then we went our separate ways.

This morning, not even an hour ago, I had my usual cup of coffee on the porch again. I ate my bagel and washed it down with the last sips of caramel yumminess. I got up, turned around to go back inside, and there it was next to the door... A grocery bag filled with Russian Sage (I think I have the name right). I am sure it has to be from Susie. We have another gardener across the street, but I don't think she has this plant in her yard. Since it is purple, it must be from Susie. But there is no note, and I want to know who to thank for it!

The car...

2008-07-31T11:24:00.001-04:00

It's been 9 weeks since the accident and we're still dealing with things breaking on the car. The Repair Du Jour: A broken CV boot and CV joint. Cost? A good thousand buckeroos and about that many more phone calls back and forth to the VW dealer, insurance company, and to Roo. Insurance says it's normal wear and tear on the car and they won't cover it. But the dealer says it's from the accident and a third party (Rice Body Shop) also believes it is accident related. In Miller/ Schwartz car history, the car is just a wee babe with about 85K miles. My folks are driving an 8 year old car with over 200K miles on it....And I don't recall any CV joint or boot ever being replaced.
Me thinks our insurance company is tired of dealing with us.

:(

Massillon visit

2008-07-31T08:51:00.005-04:00

Last weekend, Roo and I drove up to my Dad's hometown to celebrate my cousin's 40th birthday. I have exactly 2 pictures of actual random party people, but I thought this car would be a big hit here. Start your engines...

Uncle Gary and the dinosaur:

I do believe that car belonged to my dad's parents. It's a family heirloom now.

The land yacht again...

Who are these wacky people? Good thing I'm not related! Oh. Wait just a minute. It's Bree and Todd!

Furkids and Fosters

2008-07-31T08:30:00.003-04:00

Wrigley, Buster and Sonica watching for birdies.

Raven...or Raven's Shadow?

Raven's Shadow...or Raven?

Princess, the neighbor's kitten. He, yes HE moved to a farm last weekend.

A 3 month air filter lasts 2 months in this house. The fur is worth all the love.

Alrighty. I've got some 'splainin' to do.
The 2 dog pictures: The first one is temporarily living at a shelter here in Columbus. Andrew and I dropped off a bag of puppy food and she looked depressed cause her brother was getting adopted. Roo and I took her for a walk cause she looks SO much like Raven (and acts like her too) I hope someone can see that in her and not ignore her because she's jet black. Big black dogs spend more than twice as much time in shelters because potential owners think all big black dogs are aggressive and mean. So not the case here, this pup was putty in my paws.
The second dog picture is the same foster pup. I just couldn't get over how much she looked like Raven...right down to the "Baltimore Raven's purple collar".

Our phone works again

2008-07-16T10:23:00.002-04:00

The phone guy was supposed to be here anytime between 10 and 12. I came home from dropping Andrew off at the dentist, and a magic white van was sitting in the driveway. At 9:30. Oh well. My mid morning nap can wait. (insomnia struck again last night). He was here for 2.2 seconds and showed me how a wire was unplugged and plugged back in to the wrong spot. I wonder who could have done that? Surely not the only other living thing in this house with opposable thumbs! It was either Sweetie, Buster, Wrigley, Raven, Sonica or the Little Dude.
I may have forgotten (my own new word) to tell you, we're stashing our neighbors kitten here while he gets big and fat enough for some, ahem..surgery. The 3 year old next door is still learning how to hold him gently and her Momma thought it was best to separate the 2 until he is healed from, ahem..surgery. So she calls him Princess, and I call him Little Dude, or LD, or maybe he spells it Eldy?

Anywhoosie..call the casa, telephone is up and running again.

HOLD the phone!
My home office just called me for an interview on Friday!
So it was fate that the phone repair guy showed up waaaaay early. Otherwise I would have missed that call!

More stuff is breaking

2008-07-15T11:08:00.002-04:00

The phone will be back in order by tomorrow evening at the earliest.
In the meantime, our niece Anna should not come here for PT, as we are now a 2 bathroom household. One is out of commission because it sounds like a jackhammer. More on that later, I can tell you're dying to know why it sounds like a jackhammer.

I'm stuck here today...no phone, trying not to drive anywhere because of gas prices, so I'll work on my flower pots until it gets too hot outside.

Oh, one more thing...I'm about to call the sherriff if Mr. Motorcross doesn't take a break from his little dirt bike over yonder. It's really half a mile away, but it sounds like a weedwhacker is in my house. All my windows are closed too...so no one can hear me complain!

Attention friends, family, and other loved ones:

2008-07-14T11:51:00.003-04:00

Our house phone line has been down since Saturday night thanks to a MAJOR storm that came through. If you need to reach us, use email or the cell phones till I get on the horn with the phone company.

Think of this...when the phone went dead before cell phones, how did we call the phone company? Hmmm, it's nice to have neighbors to ask!

More news: I tried to call the phone company from my cell phone and my call got dropped twice. Nice!

My art.

2008-07-09T17:41:00.003-04:00

So if you read/ talk to me at all, you may know how I have this thing in my head that I want to put on paper...er...canvas. Progress was made in my office over the last 2 days and now I have room to mess it all up again and start a new project.
brushes- check
palette- check
watercolor paper and canvas- checkity check
The Master Plan- check
watercolors and acrylics (duh!)- check
palette knives- check
courage to 'destroy' a beautiful plain white canvas- lacking

I always get scared when I begin a new piece of art. I feel like I have one shot, and if it doesn't turn out like I'd hoped, than I feel like I've failed.

Harumph.

I guess I should sketch it out like I did in high school...it's not like this is for a grade and I have a deadline. YIKES!

I'll post pics of the finished product, maybe even some 'during' pics before it's done. Oh, but that's such an artist's faux pas! ;D

Roo's Parents came to see us

2008-07-08T15:34:00.006-04:00

And we put them to work doing things like installing a storm door and holding Miester's leash while Raven walked by. It was a great visit here in Grove City. We saw fireworks behind city hall and Raven joined us for that celebration. But before they set off East bound again, we made a 24 hour stop-over in the tiny town of Stockport, Ohio. It's 10 minutes from my Mom and Dad, so we all had a big dinner at the local (read: only) restaurant and then made S'mores over the firepit back at my parent's house. Good times. Better stories.

J&A storm door installation crew:

Rarely spotted Sonica and her new love, Buster (with their headlights on)

New door bell, door and hardware. Exciting!

Raven being a good pupster at Beulah Park fireworks: (That's HER cup.) I brought a jug of water for her, and nothing for the rest of us.

After dinner in Stockport:

Camp-fire in my parents backyard. Just add shooting stars and mosquitoes.

Oh, before I forget, I got new glasses so now I can see road signs at night!
Yours Truly:

Bill Cosby is right: Kids do say the darndest things.

2008-07-01T20:01:00.002-04:00

Tonight I got to have a rare chat with our new neighbor. We were sitting in the grass between our houses and I was holding her 5 month old. Her oldest (3 years) noticed the baby was slobbering on my hand and she said "She thinks your hand is a juicy hotdog!"
It was so random and perfect at the same time. Something I'll have to remind the 3 year old of when she's heading out the door on her first date.
Then the middle daughter started petting my back. She had been petting Raven earlier and I guess she forgot that 1) Raven is a dog. And 2) I am not a dog.
Somewhere in the middle of all this we managed to play 3 rounds of Follow-the-Leader and we watched the horses on the farm behind our house. It was just a nice summer evening, the way I remember them as a child...only this time, I'm the adult!

Still wide awake

2008-06-30T03:11:00.003-04:00

It's after 3:00!
I had no caffiene today. Wait. Noooo. I had a super extra giant tall mega iced cappucino from Tim Horton's (yummy) at noon. NOON. 15 hours ago. That must be the culpirt. Phooey.
After nearly 3 hours of Breaking Bricks on Yahoo and beating my personal best of 300,000 points, I think I am ready for bed. I must be, cause my last round of Breaking Bricks didn't even break 100,000. :(

Waitwaitwait. I need to look something up on iTunes.

Whatever.
Goodnight/ morning/ evening (for Dawn)

A list

2008-06-30T00:56:00.003-04:00

No. Not the "A" list. Just a list of things I want to take care of this week. I feel like if I post them here, I am really responsible for them because people (Hi Mom and Dad!) read this and check up on me with loving phonecalls and emails.

1. Clean. Clean anything that looks icky.
a) mop kitchen floor, it is beyond icky, headed towards nasty. Oops.
2. Clean the vacuum (YES I do this, you would too with 5 furry animals in the house.) If the vacuum is covered in staticy fur, it's only going to drop it somewhere else. >gasp<
DONE 3. Wash the front porch area. Since it is under a roof, it does not have the benefit of being rinsed clean during monthly tornado warnings. Don't worry tree huggers, I'll use a plant based cleaner.
DONE 4. Fill flower pots for (clean!) porch railing.
5. Hang new shelving in garage. I'm not Super Woman, it's only 3 feet of Elfa.
DONE and happy! 6. Weigh myself. :D
7. Celebrate anticipated weight loss with several calls to sisters and parents. "Hey guess what? I'm shrinking again!"
8. Fall asleep tonight (insomnia has hit, Andrew, Sweetie and Raven are ALL sound asleep. They went to Dreamland and left me behind. Thank goodness I have something to blog about.
9. Tell stories from work, which leads me to my next idea....

Stories From Work:
Last night, I was rockin' out to corporate chosen music, ringing people up left and right. One woman and her 5 or 6 year old daughter bought a boatload of stuff. It went like this:
Daughter: Mom, can I sign your name on the screen? I know how to spell your name!
Mother: Oh yeah? How do you spell it?
Daughter: It's SO easy! M-O-M!
Mother: Well, that won't work here.
And so the mother signed her name. End of this story.

Later, a mother and son came in. The poor kid was bored out of his skull. When I was showing the mom more stuff, the boy was reacting silently behind his mother's back by putting his hands on his face, dropping his jaw, and bending over in such a way he looked like he was in pain. Maybe he watched his father perform this retail ritual so many times, he thought it was a part of the shopping experience. Like I said, Poor Kid.

And one last thing about work. Do you know what happens when you try to walk through a 36" wide doorway with 37" wide box in your arms? I'll tell ya. You nearly take the special fire alarm thingy off the door and donate some blood right there at the scene. Then, your arm turns from red, to purple, blue, green, and now it's a nice shade of black.

The End
I'm off to search for recycled plastic adirondack chairs. :D

You decide

2008-06-24T21:06:00.003-04:00

What's more fun:
~Losing power at 9am on a beautiful sunny day
OR
~ Losing power at 9am...in the shower where there are no windows to let light in

Hmmm.
Someone hit a telephone pole behind our neighborhood. Power was out till about 5pm. At least it was only 80 degrees today, and no tornado-like rainstorms came through either. It wasn't as bad as I'm making it sound. I just think it's funny that it happened while I was lather-rinse-repeating.

Clearly, there are no pictures from today. :(

More photos

2008-06-23T13:54:00.002-04:00

Buster inspecting the new camera.

Andrew. It's funny what you can see when you enlarge a picture. Click on this one to read some snazzy graffiti on the wall behind Andrew. At least it's G-rated. Oops.

Two of my favorite things.

The (ahem) most recent Mr. and Mrs.

2008-06-23T11:58:00.005-04:00

Bree and Todd's reception was this Saturday. We had a blast on a stern wheeler in Zanesville. We saw some never-seen-before trees and Pepsi bottling buildings. OK. I'm joking about that. The weather was perfect and the company (family) on the boat was even better. Andrew gave a quick and moving toast to his new brother-in-law and then the Newlyweds cut the cake and fed each other nicely. Only classy will do on a boat, you know. I spent the day taking a picture of whoever was in front of me. Some smiled, some turned away, Andrew struck a pose (a la Madonna's VOGUE, not the Heisman). Great memories were served up with a side of down-home happiness.

Mom and Dad

Cake (no kidding!)

Newlyweds Bree and Todd

Ceremonial cake cutting

Lorena's sign on the boat

After the party, we headed back to Mom and Dad's where we let Raven have a taste of freedom: running outside...off the leash. She stayed right with us and only tested her boundaries once. We reminded her where she was allowed and we had no issues after that. Yesterday while Andrew loaded the car, Raven followed him back and forth..house to car. She was off the leash again and didn't run off! It's nice to see she's become a dog we can trust.

2008-06-20T13:46:00.001-04:00

Sometimes when I get stressed, I imagine I look like this:

Macs are great for impromptu photo shoots.

Opportunity knocked, so I answered.

2008-06-18T14:38:00.002-04:00

My boss just called me.
My district manager (Anita) needed a recommendation for someone from my store to be moved up to....corporate!
I was first pick! I told them that I want to know more, and in the meantime, to please pass my info along to Anita so the ball can start rolling.
Holy. Cow.

It would be M-F 10-ish to 4-ish and it's about a 20 minute drive from here. Oh...and I would get a sweet raise too!!!

This is VERY awesome news since our Spring has had more 'downs' than 'ups'...We can't wait to see what happens!

Working in the garden...again

2008-06-17T07:58:00.003-04:00

I went out the other day and found that Andrew had become a machine. Something like a Honey-please-dig-a-big-hole-right-here-3000.
He's been working really hard every night to clear the old grass and condition the soil so it can support new plant life. I got my green thumbs back and played in the dirt Sunday night. We got a lot done, and I figure we're a third of the way through this project. Whew! Our goal is to finish the work by July 4th so we can enjoy it when we have visitors over the holiday weekend, but we hope to be done MUCH sooner. We have plans to build our own firepit between the 2 big trees and make a seating area around it. The firepit will come in handy when our backyard is overgrown with the wild honeysuckle and other random brush back by the horse farm...we can burn all the foliage and clean up our yard!

A view of the whole garden.

Spirea and river rock border with edging. (we'll do this all the way around both gardens.)

Marigolds, landscape fabric and a pile of old sod at the back of our yard.

Knockout roses and a tree from Mom and Dad.

Same pine tree as above, just a closer shot. When we planted this tree, it was about 10 inches tall. There's a second one on the other side of the yard, and there were 3 more in between them...but they didn't make it. We planted gigundo trees in those spots instead.

Long Overdue Pictures

2008-06-10T11:10:00.004-04:00

Rissa graduating from .25 miles away. My flash is weak. :( OSU Dental School Graduation was June 1.

Bree and Rissa at the reception.

Bree and her husband Todd.

Todd 'holding' my Dad's jacket while Dad posed for the photo that Todd is taking. Get it? Yes. We're a wacky bunch.

Fox in our backyard...he's there somewhere!

Buster's Spring hairdo...he's so fluffy I get him shaved and he prances around for the Summer like he owns the place.
Buster Before.

Buster After

Hehehe

Raven thinking "I know you, but WHO are you?"

Hotter than fire.

2008-06-08T21:55:00.002-04:00

It's June. It's hot. Today it was 96 degrees here. It's only June...the hotter days are ahead of us. Boooo. Andrew decided today of all the days this year, today was the day...THE DAY to dig up part of the backyard to start our next garden near the new trees. It was hot. He wanted me to help, but I complained too much. Heat makes me cranky and I don't like to risk getting sunburned. It was hot. It's almost 10pm now, and it's still 83! Wait...the sun sets here around 9:30 this time of year, so it hasn't been dark for very long...I love being on the west end of the time zone!
Buster has thanked me in advance for getting his fur cut tomorrow (I have before pictures, will post them along with after pics tomorrow).
What else is new? Sweetie seems to think our bath mat and my side of the bed are her own personal restrooms. A trip to the vet cured that, they ran tests for kidney stones (she has none) and we're switching to a water based food to help clear things out. So far, no accidents. YAY!

Oh...One more thing. I don't think I said this last week, but my sister is a Doctor! That's right! Dr. Miller graduated from OSU on June 1st with flying colors and 5 redheads cheering her on as she received her diploma. After the graduation, there was a reception outside. My sister's friends came over to our family and asked "Oh! Are these all your brothers and sisters?" To which Rissa replied "No. These are my sisters, and THESE are their husbands." Ok, that was funnier in my head. I always get a kick out of other people's reactions to so many redheads in a small group. No one acts like that when half a dozen blondes or brunettes go out in public!

Worthington, We Have A Problem!

2008-06-07T23:25:00.002-04:00

Our car is fixed. We picked it up today. I drove it for 5 minutes before smoke was spilling out from under the hood. I pulled over. Smoke filled the inside of the car. We coughed. We called the tow truck (again). For those still counting, this makes 8 trips on a flatbed for this car since the Fall of 2007. :::back to my elementary way of typing::: Coolant leaked, coolant container under the hood was EMPTY. Body shop said it's 'normal'. I called their bluff and demanded the car be taken to a real VW dealer, not The Worthington NISSAN Body Shop, where it has been for almost 3 weeks. Grrr. GRRRR. We still have the rental. VW dealer will make repairs, Erie Insurance will cover their rears.

The End.

www.i'msotired.iwantmyjammies.com/goodnight

MURF!

2008-05-31T22:55:00.002-04:00

I sent this truck directly to you because I know how much you love Egglands Best Eggs! :D

The Pines!

2008-05-31T22:34:00.007-04:00

My Mom and Dad live here. They call it The Pines because of LOTS of pine trees on the property...enough for plenty of Christmas trees. The land belonged to Mom's Uncle for decades...I think somewhere near 60 years. I'll double check. Mom and Dad bought it in 2001ish...I think. Oh geez. They tore down the old dilapidated house and re-built a pre-fabricated home about 800 feet from the road. The same road that is shared with Amish buggies and horses. Yup, it's that far out in the country.

Getting there...

...is half the fun. 12 miles, 67 turns, 20 minutes and a speed limit of 50 but I do 45!

The old house sat right under that big tree.

Front yard. See a few trees on the left next to the drive way? There are foundation stones next to them from the old barn...so in a way, you drive "through" the barn on your way to the house!

Back yard. The 5 walnut trees in the middle were a 4H project for Mom's cousin. So...that makes them about 55 years old.

Grammie and Grandpa's house

2008-05-31T22:14:00.003-04:00

No one has lived here for almost 2 years, but magically it has a better garden and greener grass than most yards in our 'hood. How? Garden Gnomes I tell ya. Grammie and Grandpa bought this house in 1973 and it is the house I have the most memories in. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Summer vacation, hanging out in the wood shop (garage) to 'help' Grandpa, throwing frisbees over the roof, climbing the tree next to the garage...but it's long gone.. There are so many memories here, I am sure the house has a soul. My folks bought it last summer and I'm glad they rescued it from the "rough" real estate market of Morgan County, Ohio.

Front of the house

Patio and deck that Grandpa built years ago

Grandpa's billboard on his own garage door

Sidewalk from wood shop to house. See those double doors? They lead into the kitchen, Grandpa built the kitchen too. : )

And Grammie and Grandpa used to stand on the top step and wave goodbye. They were amazing.

Ok. I'm done reminiscing. The next post is happy!

Rescue Run

2008-05-31T22:00:00.004-04:00

On May 24th, the Ohio Schwartz Family completed the Rescue Run. It's a 5K walk/ run through downtown Columbus...with about 1,000 dogs and their Humans. The money benefits homeless pets in Franklin County, and if you know us then you know how we feel about that! The walk started at 10 and as soon as we rounded the first corner we realized just how slow it was going to be. Lots of BIG dogs, strollers, people. It was fun! It was a beautiful sunny morning filled with lots of rescue stories and grateful people! You might not believe it, but it was a very moving experience. As usual, Raven cleaned the teeth of every male dog that came across her path..it's just what she does. About half way through the race we noticed Raven was lagging and she seemed wiped out. We talked about just walking back to the 4 R DOGGY mobile, but she heard us and she picked up the pace lickity split. We finished after 70 minutes...I know, super slow. But we had to let her take some pit stops and she also stop at water bowls to refill.

Before:

Just after the start:

Last chance for a photo op:

After:

Spring cleaning my computer

2008-05-27T13:58:00.003-04:00

I found this gem of a photograph. I took this the day we moved in. I told him to "Be dramatic" I guess he heard "Play dead".

Andrew's car accident (NOT his fault!)

2008-05-22T09:15:00.006-04:00

Andrew had a green light and someone pulled out from a gas station on his right so they could make a left turn to go to the light Andrew had just gone through. He was in the left lane, the HUGE van on his right was blocking his view and a woman pulled out in front of him and >boom<.
He bent her left front tire and smooshed her driver's door. But he hit the brakes hard and fast enough that his car did a nose dive and avoided hitting the other driver directly. His airbags went off and he has gnarly burn on his arms from that small explosion. We think his left hand hit the windshield cause it's cracked in the upper left corner, but that could just be from getting squished on impact. Andrew was (Thankfully) wearing his seatbelt. If he wasn't, his head would have hit the windshield and I'd be sitting in the hospital with him right now. But fortunately, my husband is brilliant and always buckles up and his injuries are minor. He's sore and achy and that's to be expected. The other driver's husband said that she should not be driving because of her mental state. Yay. Thanks for giving her the car keys yesterday! We're impressed that the headlights are OK and they still work, however the car won't even start so the headlights are useless. Insurance adjusters are on the way to the Body Shop where Hoto now resides. I know the pics are hard to see, but the license plate fell off, along with a decorative grill under the front bumper. Front bumper is dented and scratched but all 4 doors still work!

Some pics of Hoto (the name of the car!) post accident. ***WARNING*** There is ONE pic of Andrew's cut on his hand, the cut looks like a black line, not too bad, just wanted to give you a heads up. It's near the bottom.
The excitement never ends in this house!

Anniversary Trees

2008-05-21T14:26:00.004-04:00

They're here! These autumn blaze maples will grow about 20-30 more feet to reach their full grown height of 40-50 feet. Three feet of growth a year = lots of dense shade in our backyard and a nice screen from the horse farm (which we love) in case the farm ever sells to a builder. The root balls weigh about 600 lbs a piece and it was amazing to watch these lovely things get placed in the yard. Originally, we thought these trees were 12-15 feet tall, but the 2 delivery men said "Oh, no, 20 feet easily!" YIKES!

Special thanks to HubbyRoo for digging the holes and to Mother Nature for filling them with trees!

Oops...sorry it's sideways.

Trust me on this one.

2008-05-17T00:12:00.003-04:00

I may have insomnia, plus a snoring hubby and a dog in the bed that's dreaming, AKA kicking me...C'mon, you know how awesome Raven is! Back on track.

My friend Dawn in NZ read a book. She knows what I hard time I have dealing with death and dying, so she recommended this book to me. I bought it. I read it (Ok, I have 50 pages left). My message is simple. If you can read, and you've seen, spoken to, or thought about a human at least once in your life, read Elsewhere. I am sad to be near the end of the book, I always hate finishing a good book, I feel like I won't get to 'visit' with the characters again. Anyway, I loved it. Go buy it!

Trust me.

Oh! I ordered mine from Barnes & Noble, it took about a week to get to the store.

UPDATE: May 18,2008: I finished it last night and my rating stands at 4.5 stars out of 5. My only gripe is that I wish it was longer, like maybe twice as long? Dawn, you know what I mean!

2008-05-15T20:53:00.002-04:00

Better get comfy, it's going to be a long ride.

Sonica, the foster cat. This is one of 3 photos I have of her. The other 2 look just like this. She has not stopped running since she woke up from this nap. She is about 11 months old and she's 7 lbs of pure muscle and insanity. Her meow is loud and obnoxious and it always sounds like she's yelling "NOW!" She's a cutie though with her tigery stripes and leopardy spots. Maybe she's part leopard. Sheesh!

Dandelions:
When I was a weee Mandy, my Grandfather nicknamed me Dandelion. Well, nicknames are generally shorter than a persons real name, but he was Grandpa. So who cared? After he passed away in August 2006, dandelions had a whole new meaning for me. They are not just a weed. They are simple flowers who struggle every spring to prepare for the next generation. I happen to see the beauty in this and so do a few of my friends. This photo and photo collage were anniversary gifts from Erin in Maryland. I LOVE IT!

Andrew, me, and Cal Ripken Jr. on May 6th, 2008. He signed our book with "To Amanda and Andrew, Happy Second Anniversary! - Cal Ripken Jr." He was great, he's tall, and I look unusually wide (and red??) between my husband and a Baltimore icon. Or do I? Be careful with your answer! Oh, I'm 5'9", Andrew is 6'2", and Cal is 6'4". I felt short!

End of a tornado-warning filled Mother's Day. The sky was 100 different colors of black and grey and it was ugly. The clouds looked like they could rumble into a storm at any moment and the sun barely poked through.

And finally, Andrew played fetch with Raven tonight. I don't know who won, but look at those flowers on the left of this picture! Knockout roses, spirea, and marigolds await me and my green thumbs!

Exciting Mother's Day Surprise!

2008-05-11T17:50:00.002-04:00

No, we are not expecting a RooBaby.
Since we couldn't be with our real Moms today due to sky high gas prices and the miles between us, we celebrated with Mother Nature herself. She threw herself one heck of a party...
We had a tornado touch down about 10 miles north of us, and another one a few miles north-west. The tornado sirens went off at about 1:10 this afternoon, Andrew and I herded 4 cats and Raven to the basement. Well, 2 cats at least. Buster and the foster kitty decided to weather the storm behind our couch. We hung out in the basement for about an hour with the weather radio. It's amazing how many radio stations will continue regular programming when a tornado is in the area. Geeeez! After getting the "all clear" from the NWS, we went grocery shopping and so did the rest of Columbus.

A cornucopia

2008-05-09T19:53:00.004-04:00

I have no real blog worthy news, only tidbits of stuff to share, and I feel the best way to share is with a list. I love making lists.

~ Work is wonderful. My bosses are sweet, and they're good at delivering constructive critisism. Not that I need any, cause I'm perfect.
~ Andrew feels better, almost kidney stone free! He feels like his kidneys are his business. I say not when you wake me up at 5:00 in the morning screaming out in agony. Then they are everyone's business. Including our friend across the street who offered to sit with me in the ER.
~ Raven met a frog today. She barked and howled and waited for him to croak his reply. Sadly, upon further inspection we could see that he had already croaked. Poor little green buddy met his fate on a street called Peridot. RIP Peri. (Ok, so I named a dead frog after the street he died on) So what.
~ I'm reading the coolest book: Elsewhere. It's about life after death (purly fictional, of course) and I can't wait to put my jammies on and read some more.
~ I need to buy milk.
~ I need to post a picture of the Cal Ripken Jr. booksigning. I will, I promise. The one photo we took with him, I look ridonkerous. How is it that I became twice as wide as I really am when I was standing between to men over 6'2"? I look short and wobbly. And red in the face cause there were over 200 people in the store. Ugh. My skin and hair do not like the heat.

That's all I got tonight. I will try to post pictures over the weekend.

: D

No animal testing!

2008-05-06T22:23:00.003-04:00

A great friend in Maryland knows about my life-long love for bunnies. She brought this Staples ad to my attention and it's too good not to go on here, so here she is:

Alllllll BY Myselllllllf, Don't wanna beeeeeee......

2008-05-06T14:59:00.002-04:00

Andrew is full of Percocet and he's sleeping through our anniversary while I fold his underwear. I keep telling myself it's OK cause if he weren't sick, he'd still be at work and he wouldn't be home till almost 5:00 anyway. But oh, it's gorgeous outside, as it always is on May 6th, and we're missing it! At least we'll get to meet Cal Ripken Jr. tonight at a book signing. Hubba-Roo had better be awake for that!

A new rock!

2008-05-05T20:47:00.003-04:00

Andrew is the best husband ever. For our 2 year anniversary, he got me a brand new gem to add to my collection. It's about 2mm across and it's his kidney stone. No pictures will be posted as I do not have the stomach for that. We began our anniversary eve in the ER at 6:00 this morning. Fun fun. I'm wiped out. I'll explain later, I just wanted this memorable event to be dated as 5/5/08 on the bloggy.

G'night! (Yes, I am going to bed before 9pm, it's been that kind of day for us.)

PS, for real, we did buy 2 new trees for our yard, those are photo worthy. I'll post pics when they're delivered later this week. That's the real anniversary gift this year. : )

Late night ramblings.

2008-05-02T23:10:00.003-04:00

What do you do when your husband falls asleep at 8:30 on a Friday night? I mean, it was still daylight here for almost another hour! Well, Raven, Peyton and I had some much deserved quality time, and I rediscovered my love for this: It makes me feel like I'm 7 years old again. It's an instant mood lifter for me. (Not that my life needs lifting, I'm only sayin')

Bath and Body Works Cherry Blossom. I can't get enough and I think I know why. It smells a lot like the Avon sunscreen Mom smeared on all 3 of us at the pool when we were little. My memories associated with this scent are days of diving into the deep end and summers of sun-warmed sandals. Ahh, summer. How I love the, even if my naturally curly frizz-prone hair does not!

Happy weekend, we're due for some bad storms in the morning, I hope we won't need to crack into the Tornado Box. Eeeek!

iTunes

2008-04-29T21:45:00.002-04:00

It's new music Tuesday. I think iTunes is overloaded with shoppers like me. So what do I do best when I'm mad/ happy/ stressed/ furious/ or overjoyed? I write a song (or a poem). This one's for iTunes.

Buy Song Now

All I want is a simple song.
But iTunes made me wait
They made me wait way too long.
And now it's getting late
And I wanna go to bed
But iTunes ain't listening
To what I just said....

Cause I said
Gimme my song
You know you're slow
You know you're wrong
I wanna know why it's taking so long
Just gimme my song....

La la la la la la Fa la la la la
Doo bee doo wopp Tooti frooti

I click on the button and it says "Please wait"
I have no more time
So I'll try again someday
"Rebuffering Stream" is no excuse
iTunes better not take my dime
This is so frustrating
I am so tired of waiting....

Cause I said
Gimme my song
You know you're slow
You know you're wrong
I wanna know why it's taking so long
Just gimme my song....

Lyrics and Music by: Rooette
Produced and Recorded by: Rooette
Made possible by: Rooette

Randomness

2008-04-28T21:11:00.002-04:00

I am preparing for my Great Uncle's funeral, my mind is scattered and I doubt I could make a typical happy entry about this. I do not deal well with death and since this is my family's third funeral in 20 months, I am a wee bit shaken and very sad.

I feel these urgent questions/ concerns should be addressed. ; D Thank you Meredith for asking me to brag about my awesomness when I am blue.

A comment left below:

"What's the Feedjit thing all about?
Your flowers a beautiful.
How's the new job?
How are the new hours?
We miss you.
Mom/Meredith"

Feedjit = a thingy on the blog so I can see where my readers are. I have one in New Zealand, one in NJ, a few in MD, some in Ohio, it's mainly for fun. I'm not stalking anyone, nor am I being stalked.

Flowers = Thanks! Andrew and I really worked hard and it was nice to have such a beautiful homecoming last week.

New job/ hours = AWESOME. Hours...eh, I'll get more as time goes by, but I love selling! I'm good at it too! Yesterday there was a young married couple in the store and she was paying for her loot while he was bored out of his skull. I saw him looking at aromatherapy stuff and >WHAM< I did the sneak-attack sell and sent him out the door after he bought $60 more in 'stuff'. It was fun!

We miss you too!

Love, Daughter-in-law Amanda

The guilty party

2008-04-28T09:22:00.004-04:00

And I am done. Wonder how long before Amanda knows I did this. Hopefully she wont be too mad. I have to go see my good friend John.

I know Andrew did this! I figured it out because there was an email telling me I had a comment posted on an entry I did not make. Pfffft.
Maybe it's time I teach the Hubby how to blog...

PS Andrew: How is John doing these days? He sure is a good friend of yours. You seem to visit quite a bit, I hope everything is OK.

EDIT: It's almost 7pm and I am strongly considering thinking about possibly deleting Andrew's ramblings from my blog. I mean, he stole my precious internet space and then he babbled and squawked about sports.

The Party

2008-04-26T20:30:00.002-04:00

To deviate from the routine, Amanda isnt writing this blog. Instead it is her husband who was lucky enough to figure out how to write on the blog.
See, today is Saturday April 26t, and I am cooped up in Amanda's office because she is having a girl's party downstairs. So I rented a movie and got a computer game from my office so I could keep myself busy and not interrupt. I had already spent most of the day cleaning the house, mowing the lawn, and taking down Christmas Lights. Yes, I know CHRISTMAS LIGHTS! Anyways, I thought my wife's supersmart Apple would be easy to play my computer game on. However I have come to realize that you need a PH.D to understand how to install it. That I dont have nor do i have the patience to try and figure this out. Instead I am going to go into our room and watch a movie while Raven chills. Do you know she puked a couple times this week and our cat Sweety has decided that our bedroom is her own personal crapper. I love my life (sarcasm)/.
No really I do love my wife and my life. I guess that you have to take things like the cat pooping everywhere because somewhere down the road something better will happen too.

Ravens drafted Flacco out of Dware with the 18th pick. I guess we're still good in our secondary. I would have thought that Talib would have been a better use of our pick, but that is why i work for a bank and not the NFL. Flacco is going to be the quarterback of the future or he'll start on the practice squad and end up starting for the Brownies.
What kind of name is that, the Browns. Is that the result of someone not changing a diaper. Its like naming the team in Cinncinnati the Bengals. Do you see any Tigers roaming the woods around there? At least the Ravens are named for Edger Allen Poe. Quote the Raven. Nevermore. There is also a professional wrestler named Raven.

Other curious team names.
Indianapolis Colts - Cleveland gets to keep the Brown's name, but Baltimore gets the shaft
NY Mets - ooohh, I play for the Metropolitans...
St. Louis Rams - better than the Los Angeles Rams
Houston Texans - you can learn geography when watching football
Duke Blue Devils - wrong color for the devil, but right color for a smurf

And I am done. Wonder how long before Amanda knows I did this. Hopefully she wont be too mad. I have to go see my good friend John.

A Springtime Garden!

2008-04-23T18:46:00.002-04:00

These lovely flowers popped up while we were out of town. It was a real surprise to see them when we got home. 1. Because I forgot what we planted and 2. Because I didn't think they would grow!

Taylor Twins

2008-04-23T18:43:00.002-04:00

Enough said. These kids move too fast for my camera. So, this is what I have from the weekend.

Vacation

2008-04-23T18:34:00.003-04:00

Vacation with family is better than most people think. Free room, free food, and you know the people you're having your meals with. What could be better? A sunny spring day with your niece and your dog... : D
Pictures to prove it:

Raven runs fast. Anna walks slow. Yet niether one was harmed in the making of this blog entry.

Dearest Pedicure-ist

2008-04-16T18:53:00.001-04:00

While polishing my toes you shall refrain from jumping up from the chair to show everyone in the shop how long my toes are. I know they're long, I've had them my whole life. You mumbled something under your breath about "Hmarhph freaky blabity blah". I want you to know that you were the freak in the room today, not me. You were the one being un-professional. Also, there is NO POINT in wearing rubber gloves if all you do is turn them inside out, instead of throwing them away and starting the next client with a fresh pair. I'm sure this is a health code violation, but don't worry, I'll tell the authorities for you, so you don't have to!

Love,
your never-to-return-again friend from Grove City (NOT Gro See)
Amanda

Never going back there again, must go scrub feet to get rid of germies! Ahhhhk!