Casual Thoughts
Fall Cleaning
Nov 6th
Ryan and I are spending today cleaning our apartment. So far laundry is put away, my sewing area is picked up after the Halloween insanity, Ryan’s desk is cleaned off, I vaccuumed the living room rug, Ryan cleaned the bathroom, I did most of the dishes, and I swept the hallway and living room. It’s all very exciting, I know. We still have our room to finish cleaning, the rest of the dishes to do, and the kitchen/bathroom floor to clean. That’s tomorrow’s project.
The reason we are doing all this cleaning this weekend (aside from the fact that we just should) is that we are leaving on Friday after work for the cities. On Saturday we fly to Miami, and on Sunday we will be boarding the cruise ship! For those of you who don’t already know, Ryan’s work is sending us to this conference. On a CRUISE SHIP. Obviously I went into the wrong line of work. Lucky for me, my husband chose better. Neither of us have ever been on a cruise, so this will be an entirely new experience for us. We haven’t been to the Carribean before either. We are very excited. So far our plans include a Fury Catamaran Snorkel & Beach Party (snorkeling and hanging out on the beach? OK!) and to find somewhere on Grand Cayman to get rum cake. Neither of us has gone snorkeling before either (this entire week will be full of “I’ve never tried that before!”).
So, back to the original point; we are cleaning the apartment this weekend so that we can just keep it picked up over the course of the week and don’t have to worry about it being a mess when we come back. Because nothing is worse when you get back from vacation than a messy house. It makes cleaning go a lot faster, doing it for a vacation. I highly recommend it.
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Ryan is currently making dinner; lasagna soup. It smells delicious, and I think all that’s going so far is the ground beef, onion, celery and peppers. We are having dinner with our friends next door, and plan on playing a game or something once the children go to sleep (they have a 14 month old). Ryan has to go to work at about 10 tonight…hopefully only for a couple hours.
I enjoy these laid back weekends. I like having a clean house, I like not feeling rushed, and I love hanging out with friends.
We also got to see our friend Jess and her 1 month old son Peter yesterday. He is so adorable, and so little (even though he’s bigger than James was at that age). We went out for dinner, and he slept the entire time. Ryan and I were remembering when we could take James anywhere, and he would just sleep. James was sitting in a highchair at dinner last night, drinking on his own out of a sippy cup and eating guacamole (he loved it), pineapple (that too) and “spring vegetables” baby food (that one was just ok). It’s amazing how much he’s changed in less than 9 months.
Other than that, there’s not much going on here. We are waiting for the baby to wake up (he’s going on 2 hours asleep), and we are heading next door for dinner in about 10 minutes. Time to pick up the baby toys before we go. Oh, and I hear James talking in his room.
Let me know if you have any great cruise tips (or tips about Grand Cayman or Cozumel)! And I hope all of you are having weekends as peaceful as mine!
Question
Oct 26th
Does anyone else find it romantic when books/people describe their grocery shopping and all they buy is “milk, bread, fruit and cheese”? Because I wish that’s all we had in our fridge/all we wanted. It sounds so simple (and so European!). And yet our fridge also has juice, 13,000,000 condiments, jam, butter, meat, various leftovers, and some old yogurt.
Do you buy just milk, bread, cheese and fruit? Is it delicious?
Writing Daily
Oct 23rd
I have noticed that this whole 30 days meme has been beneficial for me. Once I got going, it was fairly easy to keep up the writing daily, and there have been times that I post more than one entry per day, or when I think about new things to write about, even though I have posts scheduled a couple days out. For instance, I am writing this on the 20th, but I have posts scheduled for the 21st and 22nd already, so it might not get posted until the 23rd.
I’ve never been very good at writing consistently. When I was younger and kept written journals I would go in spurts. Usually the spurts coincided with whenever I found a new crush or had a new energy for an existing one (quite often). But it would quickly die out when my life (and hormones) slowed down a little. I still write that way, although I don’t get crushes on boys anymore (other than Ryan. awww….*puke*). I get very energized about politics for a while, and then I get sick of it all or I can’t think of anything else to write that hasn’t already been said (better) by someone else. I want to talk about cooking, but I’m not a great cook, I don’t cook often, and I never remember to take pictures while I’m doing it. I read a ton of blogs, and there’s almost always something interesting that I read and tell Ryan about, but I don’t want to spend every entry rehashing things that people have probably read somewhere else. I want to develop my own original content, but I feel like my life is pretty boring. Even writing about James I worry that I’m writing too much about a baby who doesn’t do that much that is of interest to anyone but his dad and I. Our life is pretty mundane…laundry, dishes, Target runs, TV.
Hopefully I can keep up the mostly constant writing once this meme is over. And hopefully the content will be at least mildly entertaining. ;-)
Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends
Oct 13th
Friends at a wedding in Delaware in 2007
Another photo from the same wedding.
UMD Pepband - Alumni weekend 2006. That's me in the purple shirt, and Ryan next to me in the jersey.
These photos are older, but represent some more of my excellent friends. Also, proof that I can (kind of) play an instrument. The reason I’m wearing that purple shirt has to do with a joke between some of my high school friends and me. I was wearing UMD apparel most of the evening. ;-)
Day 08- Short term goals for this month and why
Oct 9th
I’m not great at creating SMART goals. I have a couple for this month, though:
1. Decide on and create Halloween costumes for Ryan and I for the themed party we are attending. The theme is fantasy (fairies, Lord of the Rings, Alice in Wonderland, dragons, etc). Any fabulous ideas out there? Could be a “couple” costume, or individual ones. I can do some minor sewing (I’ve made our costumes the past few years by hand sewing/iron on hemming things; now I have an actual sewing machine!).
2. Start thinking about Christmas presents, and what we want to do for/get people.
3. Figure out all the logistics of our vacation in November. Ryan’s work is sending us on a cruise to the Caribbean (there’s a conference on the cruise ship; it’s rough, I know!). We are VERY excited, but have never been on a cruise, and never been out of the country except to Canada, so we don’t really know what to expect. A lot of research will be involved. We have our plane tickets, and a hotel for the night before since we can’t fly into Miami early enough on the day it leaves. The cruise itself is booked. Beyond that, I have no idea!
Day 05- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to
Oct 6th
Ryan and I on top of the 30 Rock building, in front of the Empire State Building
Ryan and I went to the East Coast last fall, as kind of a “baby moon,” although we didn’t call it that. It was just a nice last trip out there while it was still fairly easy for us to travel. We went to Albany, Connecticut, NYC for a day, Delaware for dinner, and spent a couple days in Maryland with my aunt, uncle and cousins. It was a fabulous trip. We want to go back again, and hopefully take more time at each place.
Grand Central Station
We took a day trip to NYC, taking the train in from Connecticut and wandering the city. One of our friends who works in the city was our tour guide, and WOW did we see a lot. Grand Central Station, the subway, Wall Street, Ground Zero, 30 Rock (including a tour of the building), Times Square (where they already had the New Years ball up), Carmine’s Italian restaurant for dinner (YUM), and an “O-bar,” as our friend Shawn calls them (O’Brien’s, O’Malley’s, O’whatever’s) for lunch.
Crazy political people in NYC...they were a little frightening.
It was a delicious and exhausting day, and we are so glad that we went, even if we didn’t have time to do all the things we would like. We’ll just have to go back!
Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn’t have
Oct 5th
You mean, besides saying I’m going to write on this blog every day and then failing spectacularly?
Biting my nails. I quit biting them after James was born. I was doing so well! I made it until the end of July, and then in 5 minutes undid all the work I had done. They were too long and uneven, you see, and I just wanted them to be a more manageable length. But I didn’t have a nail clipper handy. And then they were rough at the edges, so I tried to smooth it out…with my teeth. That doesn’t work so well, just so you know. And now, I can’t get back to where I was; where it didn’t bother me to let them grow through the uneven phase.
I hate that I bite my nails. I know it’s a gross habit, but it’s one I’ve had for a long, long time. I’ve tried pretty much everything to kick it. Some things work for a period of time. Having a baby was the most successful deterrent so far, but I can’t really be doing that constantly. It’s just not practical. ;-) One day I will be able to quit permanently. I know it. In the mean time, I’m glad it’s this and not something worse (smoking, in particular-my whole family smokes, and so it’s kind of a wonder that I don’t).
What are your bad habits? Please, share with me so I don’t feel so badly about this one.
So much fun…and so little sleep
Aug 9th
I will have more of an update later, after I’m done with work, laundry, filling out passport paperwork (we NEED to get that done!), and catching up on my sleep. For now, let’s say that the weekend was FABULOUS. The bachelorette party was great; there were jello shots, inflatable dolls named Brenda and Steve, and a “public nuisance” ticket involved. Too bad about the ticket, but really it helps describe the evening quite well. The rest of the weekend was awesome, too. We got to see all of my grandparents, and James had a pickle. It was very exciting.
Back to work. Too bad I can’t close my eyes for just a second here…
We are *those* people
Aug 5th
We brought our baby to a bar last night. Not intentionally, but there it is anyway. We wanted to go try out this new place in town that says it’s a pub; they serve pub food and drinks. We have taken James to other “pub-like” places in town. They all feel like restaurants that serve alcohol, so we didn’t think it would be a big deal. But as soon as we walked in I knew it would be weird. And of course the place was almost totally empty, so it was really awkward. We went and sat in the chairs/couch in the corner, and tried to keep James quiet, but we forgot his nook, and he’s at this stage where he likes to scream. He’s happy screaming, but still; it’s a weird noise, and distinctly a baby. In a bar.
I figured we would grab a beer and eat and be out of there quick, but of course everything took longer than it should have, and James started getting a little noisier, and so I fed him. Normally no big deal. But we were in a bar, remember? And I had a beer in front of me. I only drank half of it the entire time we were there, but still. Klassy. With a capital K. Oh well. No one said anything to us about it, and really, for a baby, James was awesome. I took him outside once we were done eating, and waited there for Sam and Ryan to finish and pay, and we said repeatedly that if we ever go back we’ll be getting a babysitter. It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if we had been able to sit outside, but of course the only time it rained that day was right when we wanted to go out.
James & I are heading North after work tomorrow. It is my middle-younger sister’s bachelorette party on Saturday, and Grandma is going to watch the baby for me (and my sister’s kids for her – Thanks, Grandma!). I haven’t been up North in a few months, so I’m excited to go. I’ll try to get pictures, although no promises.
Speaking of pictures, here is one of one of the ships we toured last weekend:
It was cool to see the ships. We only toured 2 of them; the HMS Bounty (from the movies!) and this one – the Europa. It was pretty hot and muggy down there, and there were a billion people, so I was ok with not spending all day wandering. It was fun, though, and seeing them sailing on the lake was AWESOME. One year I want to take the day they come in off work to go see them up close.
I really need to work on figuring out how to end posts. Maybe next time…
Really, Facebook? You think?
Jul 30th
I know we have all seen the funny things Facebook recommends that we will like because we like something else (apparently because I like Stephen King I should like Country Music; who knew one had to do with the other!?). This one, though, I found a little bizarre:
Really Facebook? Because I like The Princess Bride, I might like The Princess Bride? You are so smart!
Ryan says I’m overthinking it; of COURSE you would like The Princess Bride if you like The Princess Bride. Duh!
By the way, in case you missed it, I do like The Princess Bride. The movie is great, but the book is even better.
