JANUARY ’09 BOOK CLUB

Posted on January 23, 2009 by Jenn

Last night we had a very successful book club at my house, thanks in part to some wonderful new members helping to reinvigorate the group. We read the Feast of Love by Charles Baxter, and almost everyone read it! I’d say the majority of people liked it. My husband was so kind as to make veggie chili for us and get the floor vacuumed so I didn’t have to worry about Luke playing on a dirty floor. Luke is the only boy allowed at book club and he was adorable, as usual. And it was really nice to see Izzie was gentle and sweet with him.


And of course I have to include a miscellaneous Izzie picture.

Posted in Babies, Book Club, Izzie | 3 Comments

ALDI’S

Posted on January 21, 2009 by Jenn

Ryan and I had been hearing about this new discount grocery store in Vernon and being the thrifty shoppers that we have become, we decided to check it out. The store is called Aldi, but we prefer to call it Aldi’s. As in some little old guy name Aldi opened this market, and he owns it, so it’s called Aldi’s. It’s different from other grocery stores for several reasons, all of which I approve of.

Reason #1: You have to pay 25 cents to rent a shopping cart. You get that 25 cents back when you return it. This way there are no carts left in the parking lot, and no poor cold bag boys that have to retrieve them. You literally put your quarter in a slot and unchain the cart yourself.

Reason #2: The aisles are wider and fewer, but there are still a lot of selections.

Reason #3: You probably haven’t heard of most of the brands, although we did find several national brands there as well.

Reason #4: The prices are great! We walked out of there having only spent $50 on groceries! We usually spend $100+ per week.

Reason #5: They don’t have shelves. Everything is pretty much displayed as it was shipped, on pallets.

Reason #6: Plastic bags don’t exist, and paper bags are for sale, so bring your own bags!

Reason #7: Checkout – the cashiers are literally timed. After the ring all your groceries, transporting them from one cart to another, you take them in the cart over to a long counter where you bag them yourself. And they do not take checks or credit cards, only debit or cash. I can’t believe there is a grocery store where I will never get stuck behind some woman writing a check!

I am sure there are other great reasons, but I can’t remember them now. We got pretty much everything we needed there, and for great prices! The selection is limited, which is kind of nice – it means I won’t buy a lot of things that aren’t on my list.

Posted in Shopping | 2 Comments

DAY THREE WITHOUT A MICROWAVE

Posted on January 20, 2009 by Jenn

On Sunday morning our microwave died. It went out in a blaze of glory. It was like a lightning storm was happening inside of the microwave. Lots of pops and bangs and sparks flying. There is a burn hole in that metal square on the inside about the size of a nickel. My plan was to immediately buy a new one, but in the back of my head I thought of a past co-worker and friend who doesn’t own a microwave. Could I do that? Could I LIVE without a microwave? So we’re going to give it a try. I think Ryan is game because he doesn’t want to buy me a new microwave after just having invested in such an expensive vacuum – not that microwaves are expensive. (Can’t the Dyson heat my food up too?!) So Sunday I had to melt the butter in a saucepan for my blueberry muffins from scratch. Then, Monday morning I had to eat cereal instead of microwave grits, which can of course be made on the stove, but I was being lazy. And last night we had to heat up our taco shells in the toaster oven. But so far, so good. We are officially a microwave-free family. We’ll see how long this lasts.

Posted in Eating Out | 4 Comments

TOMORROW IS AN HISTORIC DAY

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Jenn

Gosh, I have never liked writing “an historic,” it’s even harder and weirder to say out loud.

Tomorrow, something that has never occured in the history of my life will be happening. I hope that this historic day will end with lots of relief from the pain that I’ve been feeling. I think it will bring about a big change in my life. I know you think I am talking about the inauguration of our first African American President, Barack Obama. But geesh, don’t you know this blog is all about me!? Tomorrow I am getting my first (and hopefully only!) root canal. It started with a cavity that I didn’t even know was there. They drilled and filled. This was last year (Dec 30)! It’s been causing me so much pain since then that my dentist has decided I need a root canal. I am not looking foward to it. I can only compare it to what the pest control guy said when he found termites in our house. It’s not the termites that are bad, it’s the cost to get rid of them. So now I find myself hearing that it’s not that a root canal is bad (in fact it’s done to relieve pain), it’s the cost of it. It’s a shame that 20 days into the new year I am going to more than max out my dental plan for the year. Hopefully I won’t have any other cavities this year and this will be the push I need to get me to cut down on the sugar, brush after lunch and floss every single day (not just the three days leading up to my 6 month checkup). I haven’t had a soda since 2008!

At least my appointment is right around inauguration time tomorrow, and they have a TV visible to every chair. I’ll always remember what I was doing when our first African American President was sworn into office.

Posted in Life, Politics | 1 Comment

LAZY WEEKEND

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Jenn
I had a pretty great, pretty uneventful weekend. Friday night I met up with Stefania for a yummy pizza and calzone dinner. It was great catching up and I’m so looking forward to her joining Book Club this week. The night didn’t go late – I longed to be on my couch in my pjs. And in fact, I didn’t even stay up long enough to see Ryan when he got home from his gig. I am so glad I am ok with not going out!

On Saturday, I took my car in for a new windshield (I had a small nick from a rock on the highway). While we waited for my car, Ryan and I did some returns leftover from Christmas. We also got a new Dyson DC-17 Animal. This thing is awesome! And it better be, because it was NOT CHEAP. It has a 5-year warranty, so if this one breaks, you better believe I am sending it back! It even comes with a dog grooming attachment.

So yesterday, while Ryan was at rehearsal, I put together our new vacuum and was quite horrified to see how much my old vacuum wasn’t picking up. I think Izzie was horrified too, she chased me around the house the whole time – growling and showing her teeth.

Ryan’s performance last night was canceled for some reason – not really sure why. It was so nice for us to be together on a Saturday night! I think this was the first one in probably 8 weeks or so that neither of us had to work. We took advantage of that and went to the Bidwell for beer, wings and french onion soup. It was wonderful!

Today, I fully planned to go to kick boxing, but woke up to snow instead. I decided to lay low and eventually heard that my movie plans were also canceled. The snow was just beautiful, perfectly light and fluffy. I made homemade Blueberry muffins and read some of Seven Years in Tibet (which is taking me 7 years to read!). Since the house is all clean in preparation for book club this week, I also had the idea that I should give Izzie a bath in the tub while Ryan was at his concert. She’s a good girl, I told myself. I had some trouble getting her in the tub, but once I hoisted her in (all 55lbs) and got her settled I thought everything would be ok. She did not like the water, and as soon as it touched her scrambled to get out. I ended up having to hoist a wet, flailing dog back out so that she wouldn’t scratch up my tub. I managed to get a pretty big scratch down my leg from her. I guess she’s going to have to stink at Book Club and we’ll give her a bath in 5 months when it warms up enough. I waited until she was dry to let her outside, I am not that bad of a mom, but then promptly forgot she was outside for about 1/2 an hour in the snow – oops. Good thing she LOVES the snow. See picture and video below.

Homemade Blueberry Muffins on a cold, snowy day:


Izzie eating snow:

Izzie romping in the snow:

Izzie playing rope (rodeo dog):

Posted in Book Club, Izzie, Life | 2 Comments

IF THIS IS MY BIGGEST LIFE PROBLEM RIGHT NOW . . .

Posted on January 16, 2009 by Jenn

I feel like I am totally copying Katie with this post. But today, my favorite shoes died. I don’t know when exactly it happened, but I felt a draft and looked down to find the sole totally cracked and the shoe almost splitting in half. I’ve had these shoes since college. I have no idea what brand they are, because any identifying marks were long ago worn out of them. What’s funny about the fact that I feel like I am copying her post is that everyone at work was like, “Oh, your shoes broke, like the Marriage Confessions Girl!” Pretty funny. Anyhow, now I am trying desperately to replace them.

I bought this pair at Clarks:
http://clarks.zappos.com/n/p/p/7507771/c/90532.html

But I think I might return them for this pair of Born’s at DSW: http://www.dsw.com/dsw_shoes/catalog/product.jsp?category=cat20084&prodId=162272

Please tell me which pair to buy. I am so indecisive! Assume the price is the same, because with sales and employee (same shopping plaza) discounts, they are the same price – about $50. I am leaning toward the Born’s at DSW.

Posted in Shopping | 4 Comments

SWEAR BEAR

Posted on January 13, 2009 by Jenn

I am not calling New Year’s Resolution #1 a failure yet, although it’s been tough going. I think the key is developing a new vocabulary replace my old choice words:

“Gosh Darnit all to Heck!”
“I can’t believe these freakin’ idiots!”
“Learn how to drive you stupid witch!”

Ok, so maybe that’s not the key. Maybe I need to deal with the underlying root anger and rage I feel towards people who can’t do their jobs correctly or even drive correctly.

In the meantime, at work, I’ve taken to squeezing this adorable little teddy bear that my dad got me for Christmas when I feel the need to curse.


Not sure what I am going to do today though, since my bear is currently on loan to one of my favorite vendors. She promises to return it soon.

Oh, and I just checked out the website a little more closely. It mentions the bears are buy one get one free. I have to wonder if my bear was the free one. And if not, who got the other bear from my dad?

Posted in Family, Work | 4 Comments

I SURE HOPE THIS GROWS BACK

Posted on January 8, 2009 by Jenn

I could be the worst mom ever, and I don’t even have children. This past weekend I was super gluing a hook to the inside of the coat closet door to hang Izzie leash, and we had a little incident. Izzie was, of course, underfoot. I didn’t hold the hook against the door long enough for it to dry and it fell. It fell on Izzie’s nose. It could have been worse. It could have fallen on the wet part of her nose. But it just hit the snout part of her nose. She had a crusty glue clump there for a few days, but now all the hair has fallen out. I really hope it grows back. Worst. Mom. Ever.

And . . . I just submitted this picture to UpsideDownDogs.com

Posted in Babies, Izzie | 2 Comments

2009 RESOLUTIONS

Posted on January 2, 2009 by Jenn

1. Be Impeccable With My Words.
This comes from the first of the four agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. This year, I would like to reinvent my vocabulary to exclude certain curse words, and other words with I do not like to hear myself use. I am working to no longer feel like I need to use these words in my workplace, and in my daily life, to gain respect. I see now that more appropriate language is going to garner me more respect with the people I really want to respect me. Oh well if it makes me uncool. I think I’ve been relatively comfortable being uncool for a while now. Also, I am going to strive to not speak wicked words. Or at least to reduce them. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

2. Read More.
I was pretty excited to have finished the Book Club book, Feast of Love, early – a full 3 weeks before book club. Although I did have several days off and 14 hours on a train to help me. This year, I am going to try to read more. So far I have been doing pretty well with this. Already halfway through one book.

3. Go to Bed Earlier.
I am going to try to be in bed by 10pm. This needs to be paired with #2. Perhaps I can be in bed by 10pm, read and then lights out by 10:30pm.

4. Watch only the TV Programs I Plan to Watch.
I’ve been pretty good about this lately. Fake TiVo really helps eliminate the flipping. To achieve #2 and #3, I may need to wait to watch things the next evening, instead of when they are actually on. Good thing most of the shows I watch have ended for the season. But there’s a whole round of other shows I love about to start. I’ll have to see if they all make the cut this year.

5. Stop sweating the small stuff.
This is the hardest one for me. I think my first step is to make a list (big surprise!) of what the small stuff is that I currently sweat. Maybe seeing it written down in B & W will make me realize how silly it is that I sweat that stuff. Perhaps seek professional/friendly advice on how to stop sweating the small stuff.

6. Take care of myself.
I will no longer feel like a cheap hypochondriac and avoid going to the doctor when my body is telling me that something isn’t right. What’s the worst that can happen – I pay them $30 and they tell me I will be just fine.

7. Get organized.
Organize the things that make my life feel chaotic and maintain organization with the things that make me feel better when not chaotic. See #5 so as not to overdo #7.

Posted in Book Club, Life, Work | 1 Comment

I’LL MINIMIZE IT, I SWEAR

Posted on December 31, 2008 by Jenn

I had been hoping to make a New Year’s Resolution to reduce the swearing altogether. And I’d still like to do so, even though I am losing faith in myself. I’ve been trying to cut down for weeks. I am not sure what I really have to be stressed about. Things are going remarkably well, except that I don’t have as much down time as I’d like, and I am still not going to the gym, but I digress. I am at least thoroughly noticing my swearing now. I had already been noticing how the F word is everywhere, and then we started watching Dexter. The female co-star on that show is beautiful, but every other word out of her mouth is the F word. And it makes her ugly. And makes her seem uneducated and immature. And I don’t want to seem that way, because I am not. I want to be taken seriously and respected. I think that I started saying the F word in my new job to be more respected with the “boys.” But I am over that now.

This is how bad it’s gotten: This morning I woke up and Ryan told me he doesn’t know how I am going to quit swearing, because I am even doing it in my sleep. Apparently last night in my sleep I said, “I just have to put my f-ing head down and figure this situation out.” I have no idea what I was dreaming about, but geesh, it must have been intense.

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, and we’re expecting snow. I’m planning to hunker down: rent some more Dexter, write thank you cards, perhaps make more peanut butter balls, read my book club book, relax and make some positive resolutions for 2009, oh and drink Champagne with my girls.

Posted in Life, Work | 3 Comments