My Future Mother-In-Law

I apologize for my recent hiatus, but I will defend myself by saying that I wasn't just ignoring you; I was spending lots of quality time with my future mother-in-law. She lives is New Jersey and had never traveled further west than Ohio. Plus, she hadn't been on an airplane in about ten years, so she got to learn all sorts of new rules and regulations! Anyway, it was a blast having her stay with us for almost a week and I hope that this becomes an annual trip because I loved seeing Jersey and her mom so happy. Actually, we're hoping that once Jersey's sister graduates from her East Coast University, we can convince both mom and sister to move out here. :)

FMIL (hmm, she needs a better name than that) arrived last Wednesday night and, with the time difference, it was late for her and definitely bedtime. We did, however, get to introduce her to Max, give her a tour of our home, and show off Jersey's ring.

I had to work on Thursday, at least for most of the day, so Jersey took FMIL to see the Hoover Dam (and they went into Arizona, so that FMIL got to "visit" two states on this trip!). They also drove past the juvenile detention center so that she could see where Jersey works, even though they couldn't actually go inside for security reasons. I left work a little bit early and the three of us went to a bar for happy hour and the Browns/Broncos game.

Fortunately, on Friday I didn't have a ton of work to do, so I wrapped everything up in a couple of hours while Jersey and FMIL took Max to his first vet appointment (well, first with us anyway). He was exceptionally well-behaved and they even brought him into my office for a quick visit with my coworkers. Oh, and they brought three dozen Krispy Kremes. Mmmm. After leaving work, we drove down to the Strip and walked. A lot. No, really, a LOT. It was awesome doing that with someone who hadn't ever been to the Strip...I get pretty blah about the whole thing, just because it's so accessible to me. Jersey and I also took FMIL to the restaurant at which we used to work (where we met...awwww) and found out some personally funny news...my ex, Goodfella (yes, he's male...I will do a past relationship blog post at some point to clarify a few things), has a new baby. Very interesting timing given when we broke up. Anyway, he has no idea that I know about the baby, though he's an idiot for telling so many people and thinking that I wouldn't find out. Tonight, Jersey and I are having drinks with him because he wants to toast our engagement. I plan to surprise him with a toast to his child. The look on his face will be priceless. Yes, I'm a tiny bit evil.

Saturday, Jersey had to work at her other job (at a local bar), so I spent the day with FMIL. I was admittedly nervous, worried about the possibility of staring at each other for hours with nothing to say. Everything went great, though! I took her on a drive through Red Rock Canyon and then we went out to Lake Las Vegas, which is a man-made oasis with a small village of shops and restaurants around it. The weather was warm for November, so we really enjoyed walking around outside and getting to know more about each other. Eventually, we headed home to rest up before Jersey got back from work.

Later that evening, the three of us met up with my mom at a new(ish) place that has become quite a Vegas hotspot. It's an outdoor shopping center with a huge movie theater and lots of phenomenal restaurants and it has become our "go-to" place to take visitors. Jersey and I were both a little scared about having our moms bond over dinner, but that went as well as everything else. Seriously, if our families get along (and, really, there's no reason they shouldn't) it just makes things so much more pleasant.

Sunday I wasn't feeling too great, so I took it pretty easy. We did go look at some model homes in one of the huge new-home communities here, which I always love to do. I give the sales agents my business card and talk shop...then they leave me alone so we can tour ourselves. Perk of my job, I suppose. Anyway, FMIL fell in love with one home and took the brochures back to Jersey with her; Jersey and I revisited the home we hope to purchase a few years down the road, once it becomes a resale. After we got home, I rested in bed and did some work on my laptop while they went back to the Strip to see a few things that we had missed on Friday.

Monday was FMIL's last full day in town, but we took it pretty easy. I went to work, they went back to Red Rock Canyon and then briefly checked out Downtown, and then we did one last yummy dinner together. We were all pretty worn out by then, so it was an early night.

Tuesday morning, we got up and took FMIL to the airport. She was sad to leave, but Jersey will be going back east next month to visit before the holidays. Oh, and FMIL said that she got lots of pictures of Max and just a couple of us, which I figure is a good indicator of what it will be like when we have children! Anyway, she had a safe flight home, we settled down in the quiet, and everything is back to our normal routine.

Wordless Wednesday - A Kiss

Ten Things Tuesday

Ten Great Patriotic Songs:

1. America The Beautiful - Possibly the "prettiest" of the songs on this list. It's pure and can stir a lot of emotion in me when done well. This brings up a HUGE pet peeve of mine: Patriotic songs are special and should not be turned into some fancy schmancy chance for a singer to show off creativity. Sing it the way it was written. These songs are classic and fucking with them strikes me as disrespectful. Oh, and this rule also applies to Christmas carols.

2. I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy - This song cracks me up and I don't even know why. It's just fun. I'm not sure I could sing it without smiling.

3. Battle of New Orleans - Ok, this is a sentimental thing. My mom used to sing this when I was little and it made me really excited when I got to middle school and learned about the Battle of New Orleans. I felt like I was a step ahead of the rest of the class!

4. Some Gave All - Yes, I know that a lot of you don't like (hate?) country music. And believe me, I am not a Billy Ray Cyrus fan in any way, shape, or form. I really love this song though and it gives me chills. If you can't stand the thought of listening to it, at least check out the lyrics.

5. America (My Country Tis of Thee) - More so than a lot of the other songs on this list, this one sends me straight back to elementary school assemblies, where we used to sing a patriotic song after reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Are schools allowed to do that anymore?

6. This Land is Your Land - Ah, what a nice idea. All across this great country of ours, with all of the differences, we could actually share and respect each other. Hmmm.

7. Yankee Doodle - So, I learned something interesting about this song when I looked it up...not that I had really thought about it one way or another. Anyway, when he sticks a feather in his cap and calls it macaroni, he's not referring to the pasta (which I probably could've guessed, though it does create a fun mental image). Macaroni was a fancy style of Italian dress, so it's basically about some average kid standing proud as if he were dressed to the nines. Cool.

8. The Star Spangled Banner - When I was a toddler, my mom took me to high school football games each week to watch my dad coach. Every time, I was super excited to hear the band play the "spaindled bainder". Oh, and my dad was adamant that players respect the Anthem by staying still and keeping their mouths shut for the entirety. That respect has stuck with me to this day and I consider the playing of our Anthem to be rather sacred.

9. Battle Hymn of the Republic - This is another song that gives me chills (I'm sensitive!). When there's a band involved, with horns and drums, it's even more powerful. I like singing it slowly and somewhat quietly...then building up to the pride and glory of it all. I just can't adequately express how much I love this song. And, yes, I know it's very religious as well, but there's just something about the freedom that gets to me.

10. Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American) and American Soldier - Technically, this brings my list to 11, but I figured I can put these two Toby Keith songs together. I love Toby Keith, but those of you who don't can look these lyrics up instead of exposing your eardrums to country music. I'll admit these songs are significantly more powerful when he does them in concert (this year they were his encore...actually, they've often been his encore). Even Jersey, who is not a country music fan, was quite moved by the emotion when she heard these songs in person.

Happy election day to everyone! GO VOTE!

Surprise(s)!

Yesterday, while Jersey was at work, I told her I was planning a surprise for her and that it would be ready when she got home. She was a little nervous about what I might be up to, but she was a good sport when I told her to stop outside the bedroom door and close her eyes. I guided her into the middle of the room and told her she could look around. Around the room was a scratch post, a cat bed, and a couple of toys...she squealed when she realized I had adopted a kitten. The kitten in question was hiding under the bed when she first arrived, but I was able to take some pictures this morning:
After Jersey stopped squealing, I told her that the kitten was hiding under the bed and that I had taken the liberty of naming him already. She reached under the bed to pull him out and look at his tag...this is what she saw:Jersey thought it was a joke and started to giggle, but then she looked up at me and saw a ring in my hand. I got down on one knee and she fell backward onto the floor. I still don't remember if she actually ever said yes (she says she did, but I don't know), but there was an awful lot of shaking, crying, and kissing going on!
By the way, I went through a little bit of hell earlier in the day when I called Jersey's dad to ask for his blessing. I wasn't actually that freaked out about asking him, but I am terrified of the phone. It's irrational, but I can't stand the phone in the most normal of situations. This definitely didn't qualify as normal. Being the freak that I am, I wrote out exactly what I wanted to say, rehearsed it a number of times, vomited, stared at the phone for about 15 minutes, and then dialed. I caught her dad while he was grocery shopping with her four-year-old brother (not the best timing, but oh well) and went through my mini-speech. When I ended with "I would love your blessing because I would like to propose to Jersey tonight", he said "You got it." Wow, that was simple.

Much of last night and this morning was full of phone calls to excited friends and family. Oh, and the kitten's name is Max and he'll be four months old on Tuesday (he was born on July 4th!). He kept us up most of the night with his talking, but he's adjusting pretty well to his life outside the shelter. So, now Jersey and I have a kitten and a wedding to plan! Yay!

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween, though I will admit that Jersey and I plan to be bums tonight and avoid the craziness. We don't get any trick-or-treaters where we live, so I think we're just going to go out to dinner and a movie. However, last weekend was my company Halloween party and my mom, Jersey, and I attended it together.

When I went to buy the costumes, I knew I wanted to find some theme for the three of us. Given that my mom wanted something age-appropriate, and I am not in the best shape of my life, these zombie costumes were perfect. I was a zombie cheerleader, Jersey was a zombie prom queen, and my mom was a zombie headmistress (or something equally supervisor-like). Jersey never dreamed that she'd be dating a pom-pom girl! Ha!

The party was held at a coworker's home and the floorplan is really different (actually, Jersey and I had toured a model of a similar home a few months ago). From the entrance, the master bedroom and bathroom are half a floor below, the two other bedrooms and a bathroom are on the next floor, the kitchen and living room are on the third floor, and there is a rooftop deck on top of it all. Interesting, though I don't think I would like to live there full-time.


Ok, back to the party...this was specifically an "adult" party (though someone brought their 13-year-old anyway) with an open bar for anyone who paid for a ticket (all money went to our company charity). The cocktails were fine, but the funny stuff began when someone brought out a table, plastic cups, and ping pong balls. That's right...we played beer pong! I hadn't played beer pong since my college days, so it was actually a lot of fun to play at the party. Jersey and I played the first game against another couple and we managed to keep our competiveness in check (!?!) throughout. In all fairness, the couple was very nice and we joked around while playing. It was a relatively close game, but we beat them by a couple of cups.

Game two was interesting; I'm not sure how else to describe it. Jersey and I played against two of my coworkers and I really, really don't like them. The fact that people might consider them to be successful businesswomen makes me gag. Of course, this made the game more important than it might otherwise be, because neither one of us wanted to lose to these giggling morons. After scoring against them almost immediately, they looked at us in surprise when we told them that they had to drink the beer in the cup. Um, hello? Did you not pay attention at all during game one? Jersey wasn't in the mood to deal with them, so she offered to drink it for them. And so the game went. We'd score, we'd drink. Totally defeats the general point of the game, but it did make them look like idiots, so we were ok with it. We blew them away in the game and moved on to our last opponents of the night.

We played the final game against a coworker and the brother of another coworker. I knew they'd be tough, so it was time to get serious again. Of course, by this time, Jersey and I were seeing double, but we managed to maintain surprisingly good aim. This was the closest game, but I was able to land my ball in their final cup while we had one of our own left. Yay! I'm not sure what it says about us that we were the company beer pong champions (I would argue it had more to do with the winning part than the drinking part), but it's a title we will try damn hard to defend next year.

Other quick notes: Jersey is dressed as a pirate today. Her prom dress would've been tough to handle all day at work. I am off today (odd state holiday), so I am just wearing a Halloween shirt while I run errands. Oh, and we had a pumpkin carving contest at work yesterday. I decided to participate at the last minute, but ended up winning the $75 grand prize. My mom won the booby prize for the entry below. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Ten Things Tuesday

Ugh, my internet was down all weekend, so all of my best intentions to blog went kaput! And I was incredibly angry that I waited weeks for the podcast discussion of The Stand with The Dark and Stormy Book Club, and then had to miss it. Yes, I've listened to it since and yes, I will be contributing my thoughts in the comments of that blog, but it still made me cranky. Anyway, I am back now (well, I'm at work...don't know if my home internet is fixed yet), and I figured a TTT post is an easy way to jump back in.

Ten Things I Love to Eat

1. Avocado - I've loved avocado my entire life and will add it to sandwiches, burgers, salads, and much more whenever possible. Many places add very little avocado (and it's not cheap!), but there is a sandwich place around the corner that just heaps it on. Yum! I also make a pretty nice guacamole (if I do say so myself), and I don't add a ton of stuff to it because I still want that avocado taste. And you probably don't want to hear about the time that I ordered three (yes, three) plates of the Avocado Club Egg Roll appetizer from CPK on my birthday. No, I didn't share.

2. Cheese - One of my two biggest vices. I admit that I don't have as much knowledge about different cheeses as I would like, but it's something on which I am working. I love adding extra cheese to entrees, but I also try to behave on occasion. Cheese and crackers with a bottle of wine makes quite the romantic snack.

3. Sushi - See #2 regarding my knowledge of it. I'm still very new to all things sushi, but I'm interested in learning how to roll my own. If I do learn, look for a blog post all about that adventure!

4. Kiwi - It's such a cute, yet powerful fruit. For some reason, I haven't enjoyed kiwi-flavored things as much as I would have thought, but I'll eat the real thing in a heartbeat. The thing is, I don't like biting into it when it's too cold, so I have to pull it out of the fridge and then actually remember it when it's closer to room temp. I'm bad at that whole remembering thing.

5. Peanut butter - When I was little, I used to eat peanut butter on a spoon as a treat. Seriously. I'd ask my mom for permission, dip my spoon in the jar, and then savor it for about 30 minutes. Oh, and I think that peanut butter and chocolate might be the best combination of flavors in the whole universe.

6. Ice cream - The other of my two biggest vices. Oh, and see the combination in #5 for one of my favorite flavors. I say one of my favorite flavors because I probably have 372 favorites. It's wonderful (and awful) that there is a Baskin Robbins, a Cold Stone Creamery, and a Dairy Queen in the same intersection, right down the street from my house (there was a fourth place there up until about six months ago...my withdrawals are getting better). I have so many ice cream stories that I just might be able to do an entire TTT about them!

7. Spinach - Odd, huh? I've been a spinach fan since my childhood and I'm thrilled about it because I don't like very many veggies. I love a good spinach salad, preferably one that I have created at Sweet Tomatoes or Whole Foods, and will substitute spinach for iceberg lettuce at any restaurant that will allow it.

8. Tomato soup & a grilled cheese sandwich - Ok, so this is two things, but we all know I can't do a TTT that has only ten items. Besides, I don't think they'd make the list on individual merit; this is probably the universe's second best combination after peanut butter & chocolate. I don't even care that eating it makes me look like an eight-year-old. Dipping that sandwich in the hot soup and trying not to drip it down my chin as I eat it...ok, you get the picture. Heaven.

9. Clam chowder - New England clam chowder, and not some watered-down blah version of it. Outside of New England (duh), I'm a big fan of San Francisco's N.E. clam chowder. Every now and then I come across a winner in a random restaurant, but I hesitate to order it because the quality can vary so much.

10. French or sourdough bread - Dipped in #9 would be great, but I will just as quickly eat it alone. I don't even butter my bread, I just eat it (ok, I do like to dip it in olive oil, if it's there). I've thought about being healthy and switching to whole grain something, but I'd rather be happy. At least when it comes to my bread.

Aside from the fact that I probably just disgusted Mrs. Chili with #3 and #9, does anyone want to have dinner with me?

Wordless Wednesday

Ah, that's my girl! :)