Friday, August 29, 2014

Five on Friday #29

UNO

If you thought the confessions on Wednesday were bad, they weren't really a drop in the bucket compared to my overall week.  Granted, they were definitely in the theme of the week, but holy crap.  Having Thursday off to take Yurtle to the car doctor?  Oh, I paid for that in spades via 3 days of work hell.

I was pretty sure on Wednesday, I was going to have a breakdown at work and just start crying from how frustrated I was.  Not because I was sad or my feelings were hurt.. no no, because of frustration.  Know the worst type of crying?  Frustrated crying, because people think they've upset you, not that you're so full of un-directed rage that you need to have a reaction so your tear ducts leak.


DOS

I been having all kinds of restaurant cravings recently.  I think I've satisfied all of them though, so I should be good for this weekend.  I got Red Robin on Tuesday night, Rita's on Wednesday, and a Chickfila biscuit on Thursday.  Only the Chickfila disappointed, so I'm 2 for 3.  Additionally, I made roasted rosemary potatoes one night for dinner (with roasted chicken) and we still have leftovers and those bitches are delicious.



TRES

I went on a run this morning and it was 6 painfully glorious miles of mid-60°F temps and there was actually shade since it was so early!  I wasn't even sure how to handle myself.  I really should start checking the morning weather for Leesburg, VA, which is where our half marathon is so I can figure out what I'm going to wear.  I wore a short sleeve shirt this morning thinking I might be chilly since I'm so used to running mid-day in the blazing sun in 80°s+ temps.  I was wrong.  I could have worn my normal running top with zero problems and got my tan on.  My "whore" tan lines are crazy dark.. along with my super sexy watch tan line.  Bitches wanna be like me.


QUATRO



Isn't she just the best?  I didn't see this until after my run this morning.  I was sad I slept through her getting ready this morning.  Also, this is why every house needs a white board.  Teh BFF and I used to draw picture code on the grocery list and rarely ever could we NOT figure out what the other had put.

Speaking of.. I need to find a board for the SC house... YAY shopping!

CINCO

I may or may not have not allowed myself to shower after my run until I finished this post.  It may or may not have been over an hour since I got home.  At least it's just the dogs here with me.  #judgementfreezone


Speaking of the dogs, this is how they start a long, holiday weekend.  I think they are setting a positive example.



I saved the best for last.
This is why everyone needs a greyhound.. to decorate their couch with fur and drool.
I lub my Phil-boy the mostest.


SEIS (or Sex in Latin, which is coincidentally fitting)

Mr. Mystery is arriving today!  Woot!





Happy Friday, Gentle Readers.

Linking up with these ladies since it's FFFFRRRRRRIIIIIIDDDDAAAAYYYY!!!!!!!!!
http://meetatthebarre.blogspot.ca/ | http://www.thelaurenelizabeth.com/ | http://farmerbell.blogspot.com


Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Humpday Confessions #19

I ain't even playin' this week...

Vodka and Soda

Confessions:

-After 12 years of my name being spelled incorrectly with my NC bank, I finally got it fixed and it was super easy.  It's been giving me a complex and setting me in an irrational rage since I first discovered it years ago.


-The first email in my inbox when I got back from vacation was my approved terminal leave chit.  It was hard for me to not to stand up and do the excited dance.  You are welcome, coworkers, for my restraint.


-I was over the ice bucket challenge a week before it became popular.  I know I'm heartless, but your social media attempts to support a cause aren't really supporting anything unless you're actually donating the money when you do the challenge.  I've seen the statistics that the ALS foundation has raised a butt-ton of monies this year, the influx mostly being from the challenge, but still.  Bah humbug.  Although the fail videos are priceless.

-I've started feeling guilty for having appointments to take care of things since I'm so close to terminal leave, but Meri really needed to get her hairs did and Yurtle's tire light was really making me crazy.


-Last Wednesday when I got in Yurtle and started driving to work, my brain felt a peace that it had been missing for 2 weeks.  I probably shouldn't love my material items as much as I do, but I really love Yurtle, she's so good to me.  And I officially owe under $10k on her, WOOT!

-I find the little comments on the poptarts wrappers amusing.


-S'mores poptarts are the best.  They are best toasted, but sometimes that isn't an option and they are still delicious.

-Seeing emails that praise my work skillz (and they even put it with a 'z' not an 's') and lament my departure from the navy make my freakin' week.

-I will miss being so good at my job.  Obviously I will get good at whatever job I have next, but that learning curve can be very frustrating and daunting for me to get past.

-When people request to work with me specifically on an issue, a part of me hates it because I have to do work that is sometimes difficult, but another part of me loves it because I'm the person that knows what's what.


-I absolutely loathe the song Rude by Magic!  Yet I can't stop singing it after I hear it, even if it's just a few seconds.  I hate myself.

-There is one person on base that when he calls me, my day gets infinitely worse.  I'd rather process foreign national visit requests and deal with Stars coming to visit all day long than talk to this man once a month.  I've spoken to other individuals on base who also detest this individual.  And he has an obnoxious manner of speaking with this chuckle thing he does that makes me want to reach through the phone and strangle the life out of him.  /endrant.

-When people act like they aren't at fault for something when it is most definitely their fault, I get ragey.  I asked you for information in January and you decided I wasn't important enough so when you didn't provide the requested information and consequences were enacted 8 months later, you get pissed off and skip the chain of command to have your problem solved since it's going to affect your career, that would have been solved had you just responded to my initial request in January.  I have no sympathy for stupid bitches.

-If you're the asshole who only uses an account 2 times a year, every 6 months, and you know there's a deactivation time on the account of 60 days and you want to reactivate it every 6 months for a week, you're doing it wrong when you get irritated at the IT folks when it takes them "too long" to fix your account.  Just come sign in every 2 months and save a few people a lot of work.


-The best thing about summer is watermelon and cantaloupe from the farmer's market.  Period. 

(source)

-I'm excited about having only a monthish left in MD, but I'm sad as well.  I already told Teh MD Adult Roomie that she needs an extra line on her work phone just for me to call when I'm having crises.


-Atheletes and actors are some of the more popular "models" for children, yet they aren't punished for their infractions when they do illegal things.  It was common knowledge that Robin Williams did drugs but how many times was he charged for it?  How many NFL/NBA/etc players have you heard of with drunk driving charges or drug charges that affected their life like it would a regular person?  DUIs get people fired in the real world, I don't understand why that doesn't apply in the "star" world.  There is plenty of talent in the world.


-I LOVE being able to make restaurant reservations online.  Holy moly, why can't every place have that?

-I have no shame, I will happily put earplugs (or foamies if you're in the navy/aviation community) in while sitting in the office if there are too many people in the space. 



Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Vacation Recap (part 4)

Since Mr. Mystery had to be at work on Friday, that left me home alone.  The only items on my agenda were to go on a run and wait for the Comcast guy to come install the internet/cable.

I was given a hefty dose of reality about Charleston when I went on my run that Friday in terms of humidity, about 98% humidity actually.  It was miserable.  I wanted to die.  And I hated myself for loving the fact that I survived running 3 miles.

The reality is, when I don't work out, I feel unmotivated and gross and fat.  That's the reason that people get "addicted" to working out.. because they don't like the guilty feeling from NOT working out.  It's really the worst.

I came back home and showered and waited and waited for the Comcast person to show up.  45 minutes after his 2 hour window he finally showed up.  We had no TV and no router for him to be able to properly set up the network, BUT we did have the modem!  Win!  I was able to have wired internet at least, even if Suzy2 was left wifi-less.

Since I was stranded at home, I had to order delivery for lunch.
This was my fortune.

Friday evening, I did some cleaning and waited on Mr. Mystery to come home.  He suggested date night, and since we couldn't find a movie that seemed appealing (since he'd already seen Guardians of the Galaxy) we decided that it was completely acceptable to lay on the awesome air mattress and just watch a movie on my computer.  We're classy.

After watching Anchorman 2, we headed to Texas Roadhouse for dinner, nomnomnom.  Afterwards, we headed back home and accomplished more cleaning and finally crashed in bed since the movers were scheduled to deliver my stuff at 0800.

Oddly enough, the moving truck was right on time, but they didn't start moving stuff in until around 0830.


The red carpet was even rolled out!

The movers had everything inside by 1100 and they seemed to be on a mission to GTFO ASAP.  They apparently weren't aware that their supervisor had called me to remind me that they could also unpack for us if we wanted them to.  I didn't actually want that, but they seemed to be in such a hurry to leave that they were going to leave the bed in pieces for us to put together because they couldn't find the screws.  I equipped my DW ears so magics would help me find the bed screwed.  And I found those bitches too.  WHAT?!  Disney ears are magical, I don't care what anyone says ever.

Magic equipped!
My ears helped me find the bed screws, but not the screws for the dresser mirror and they didn't fix the wifi issues.

I was lucky the movers even set the dining room table up with how in a hurry they were to leave.  I ended up having to set up the rowing machine all by myself and Mr. Mystery and I had to do lots of moving around of boxes.

While unpacking I learned that the original movers hadn't actually been so great.  Things were labeled incorrectly, so I had no idea what some of the items in the boxes were based on their description.  For instance, there was a kitchen box with "extractor" written on it.  I don't own any kind of "extractor."  After emptying all the kitchen boxes except for that one, I was still missing Betsy the Stand Mixer.  So apparently an extractor = a stand mixer.  There was also a box labeled "Scooby items and dress" which I had no idea the contents of.  I opened it and discovered my scuba gear and my wetsuit.  I can't even.

After the movers left, we decided to run out and do some errands.  We vowed that we are never going to our Walmart on a Saturday again.  No, no, no.  There were too many people for both of us.  We made it home in once piece, barely.  Saturday night, we went out on what I would call a double date with Teh SC House Finder and her husband.  We went out to dinner at place called Hom.  It was delicious.  I didn't take a photo because it was another burger with egg on it, like I do.  I know what I like, what can I say?

After dinner we decided to do some walking through the city.  We started at Waterfront Park (I think that's what it's called, one day I'll be much better about actually knowing exactly where we went) and walked north.  Remember the cannoli I had wanted in CA?  Well, we went on a cannoli hunt.  Teh SC House Finder and Husband knew of a few italian restaurants downtown, so we set out for them.

We sweated our way to a place called Bocci's where I walked in to ask the hostess if they sold cannolis.  She said yes and I excitedly called everyone else in.  We sat at the bar and ordered drinks and desserts.  Cannolis for myself (duh), and Teh SC House Finders and tiramisu for Mr. Mystery.  I failed at bringing my ID, so I got to enjoy water and sips of Mr. Mystery's chocolate martini (that he'd really ordered for me since I had said that's what I would have ordered) while everyone else got to be adults.


I don't even care how dirty this looks.
It was that delicious.
I also posted this on FB.  Lots of dudes liked it.  Mr. Mystery took the photo for me and my have mentioned what it looked like, but I was in cannoli nirvana so I was all, whatevs.

After dessert, we continued walking around downtown, to include through an open market, which was awesome, and then we headed to the boardwalk for a break.  Finally, it was getting late, so we decided to head back to the car and start the trip home.

Sunday morning, I got out of bed and made breakfast and pretended to be super domesticated.  Mr. Mystery was impressed that he didn't die when he ate the foods, so that was a positive.  After breakfast, I set to unpacking and trying to fix the router.  When I would get frustrated with the router, I'd unpack a box or two.  It was quite productive since the router was really frustrating me.  While I was working inside, Mr. Mystery was working outside to clean up the yard.  When they mowed the grass, they used a tractor mower and there was dead grass in crop circles around the yard.  We were NOT impressed.

At some point during the afternoon Mr. Mystery mentioned that I should go to the store and pick up item so he could make dinner and I completely thought he was kidding because he meant just me going to the store which meant ME driving his truck (which really hadn't worked out so well the first time).  I kept thinking he was going to change his mind so I wanted until the evening when he finally asked me if I was going to the store.  I couldn't believe it.  He was totally serious about me driving unsupervised.  Woah.

After a shower, I headed to Lowes to pick up some yard stuffs Mr. Mystery had requested and then to the grocery store.  I only had to call him 2x to ensure I was getting the right things.  When I called from the grocery store, he didn't pick up so I had to improvise.  It ended up working out, but we sure were hungry by the time dinner was ready since I bought a whole roaster chicken instead of cornish game hens since the hens were frozen.  Whatevs, it was delicious either way.

I came home with the goods and we worked on dinner together.  While it was cooking, I unpacked more boxes and Mr. Mystery used his unlimited data to watch all the things on his phone.  Once food was finally ready, we ate and then headed to bed.

Monday was my last day in town, which was super sad.  I had to complete all the unpacking so I knew I was going to be unable to get to the cleaning, fortunately cleaning was a much easier task to leave to Mr. Mystery than unpacking.

I headed out on a longer run before Mr. Mystery even left for work, productivity was the name of the game!  After a much needed shower, I started the unpacking adventures again.  Mr. Mystery came home and picked me up during his lunch time and we went out to a cheesesteak place nearby that was pretty delicious, I think he was feeling some residual guilt for stranding me at home with no food on Friday or he wanted to spend some extra time with me since I was leaving the next morning.  I say both.  I hadn't planned on him coming home for lunch since there was actually food in the house (and I had picked up peanut butter and jelly and bread just in case over the weekend).

This is the key to my first vehicle, The Ghetto Mobile.
The Ghetto Mobile = a rusted out 1990 Ford F-150.  It was a stick shift and even with the bucket seat all the way forward, I could barely get the clutch to the floor to change gears.  It was a real sweet ride.
One day, Teh Mom commented how she had passed me on the road and said she could barely see me above the steering wheel.  Yep.
Let's just say that Teh Kaar, which was a 1997 Honda Civic was an excellent upgrade.
Also, I think that keyring is still totally applicable.

I continued unpacking until Mr. Mystery came home and said we were going to the grocery store to pick up items for dinner.  He was cuttin' into my unpacking time, but I was leaving the next morning, so I agreed.  I unpacked until it was dinner time.  I only had a few more boxes to get through and I was determined to get through them all.  Before we made it to bed, I finally succeeded.

Tuesday morning, neither of us wanted to get up.  After much moaning and groaning (that is not an innuendo for anything, pervs), I finally got up and got in the shower.  While Mr. Mystery was in the shower, I moved all of my clothes to one side of the closet to prove to him that I didn't have to take up 2/3rd of the closet.  I also vowed to purge when I got to SC.  Truly, I just have too much stuff!

Mr. Mystery dropped me off at the airport and I was, bittersweetly, on my way back to MD.  I had missed Teh MD Roomes and the puppies (and my regular internet habits) and I was going to miss Mr. Mystery from MD.

Overall, it was an excellent vacation.  There was very little stress and it was a relaxing 14 days.  This isn't sponsored, but if they wanted to pay me they could, buy a JetBlue ticket for your next flight.  OMG.  I loved flying JetBlue.  The seats didn't feel as cramped as United/Delta (and there's the option to buy more space), there's no first class, so boarding is done in a logical order (people who need assistance/people with small children first, then from the back to the front), there was a screen on the back of each seat which offered a selection of normal tv channels, XM radio, and pay-per-view if you wanted (with the card reader beside the screen), the hostesses were friendly, there was no "sign up for our credit card" spiel at the end of the flight, and when I flew out of Charleston, they offered juice and coffee in the waiting area that was free.  It was full 'o win.

On my way to CA, there was a noisy kid behind us, so I put my earbuds in, turned on the Sirius XM Spa channel and passed out.  The only compliant I had was that my flight from Charleston to DC was FREEZING!  I had B.o.B the blanket and socks thankfully, otherwise, I would have been miserable.

YAYYYYY vacation!
YYYYYAAAYYYYY for one more month!!!



CA to SC adventure!



Monday, August 25, 2014

Music Monday #3 and Weekend Review {8/24}

Want to know something crazy?  It feels like foooorever since I've done a weekend wrap-up post.

First off, lets accomplish Music Monday, a linkup hosted by Brittany, Emmy, and myself where we talk about muzacks!  Link up with us!!!

can I decide another day?

I know everyone is all "WOOO! Taylor Swift put out a new song and she's fightin' for her right to be awkward!" but I'm over here like, "Meh."  But, shh, don't tell Teh MD Teenage Roomie, she loves Taylor Swift.

After realizing that I left my ipod cord in Mr. Mystery's truck (he's welcome, very much), I really wanted to listen to my ipod, of course, so I connected it via aux cable (because Yurtle is smart and she has all the options) and was jammin' to some Run River North - Foxbeard.

Foxbeard (live) by Run River North on Grooveshark

The harmony, the violin, I swoon.

I first heard of this song from Today's Letters.  Em posted about the song and I haven't stopped listening since.  I have since stopped following her blog because she had a baby and now baby content is pretty regular and I'm not hatin' but that's not why I was following her blog.  I do miss the photos!

This song brings a calm over me.  I could have listened to it on repeat for hours.  And the end line: And I don't know, if this ever gonna stop... I just stop and let it wash over me.  Because that's what you have to do when you feel like your life is out of control.  You have to stop and gather yourself and then start again.


Speaking of starting again, getting back to the real world has been interesting.  This weekend was exactly what I need to separate 2 short weeks of work, lol.

Last week was a short week because I returned to work on Wednesday and after running a 5k with my command on Friday, I came home, showered, picked up Teh MD Adult Roomie, and brought Meri to Fredericksburg, VA for her first grooming appointment.  Fredericksburg is actually over an hour and a half away, but the lady I took her to is a greyhound friend and I knew that I didn't want Meri's first grooming experience to be a bad one since she is so easily scared and scarred.  While Meri was gettin' her hairs did, Teh MD Adult Roomie and I had lunch and headed to the mall to use my Victoria's Secret and Bath and Body Works free item coupons.  I also got fitted at Victoria's Secret... yeah that was enlightening.  Despite how much weight I've lost, these are still tig-ole-bitties.  I also may have picked up some new bras with matching underwear because I've never in my life owned a matching set of bra and underwear (that I can recall).

Hairy Meri kisses!

Mr. Lincoln (who doesn't usually play) wanted to play with Meri!


We came back to a completely different dog!


Meri was givin' me snuggles.


I LOVE IT!!  She was so shaggy in her face and I was always trying to push her hair out of her eyes.  We headed back to SoMD and I dropped off Teh MD Adult Roomie to pick up her car and headed home.  I had a short break and then Teh Monopoly and Mr. Kilt dropped off the baby for me to sit so they could go see a movie.


Meri was very concerned and curious about the furless puppy.


The only time the baby got fussy was when I was delaying feeding time because I over heated his bottle and had to chill it.  I'm totally a fan of good babies.  I'd baby sit him again.  After I was relieved of baby duty, it was bedtime since Teh MD Adult Roomie and I had the Habitat for Humanity 5K on Saturday morning.

We had to be there early because I wasn't sure if I had signed up or not... Megan fail.  Turns out I hadn't, so I was able to sign up there.  We ran the entire way and Teh MD Adult Roomie kept trying to speed us up.  She challenged me to sprint out the very end at the finish line and I came in first!  Honestly, I didn't expect to be able to sprint very fast, but I guess after running so much my body just accepted it and now sprints aren't so bad.  I opened up my stride and away I went.  I was kinda proud of myself.  We finished at about 34 minutes.  My 5k on Friday had been 31 minutes, so we didn't make bad time.



My first selfie with the Solomon's Bridge!

We cam home after the run and had breakfast and Teh MD Adult Roomie dumped out one of the puzzles I had borrowed from Teh Granny and we started on it.  And by started on it, I mean worked on it from 1000 to almost 2pm.  Oops.  We finally took a break so we could be productive.  I gave Yurtle a bath and cut up melon so we could have fruit for the week.

After a shower and dinner and some internet time, Teh MD Adult Roomie and I finished up the puzzle.  It was only 750 pieces, but doing it in one day surprised us all.  Next up is a 2000 piece puzzle of Times Square on NYE.


I made watermelon juice!
It was almost up to Bahrain standards.

The completed puzzle.  Missing one piece.  Le siiiigh.
At least it was only one missing piece.  The dogs (Meri) ate at least 15 or so pieces from the last puzzle we tried to do.
 Saturday night, I was in bed early.. and then I proceeded to check FB and read until 10pm, at which point Teh Humanitarian called me to ask about the 5K.  She calls from Alaska, so I didn't even mind.

Sunday morning, I struggled getting out of bed and going to church.  I almost didn't go.  I arrived as the first song was being sung.  But I know that the days that you don't wanna do something are the days you need to the most.  I was glad I ended up going because the speaker was the InterVarsity (IV) leader from St. Mary's College which was awesome to me since I was involved with IV for a short period during college.

I felt like a real jerk when I went up to the guy and talked to him and he had to remind me that we had met before at a church event last year.  Oops, my bad.  I guess I just don't consider myself a memorable person?  After chatting with a few folks, I headed home for lunch and caught up on emails while waiting on my lunch to finish baking, yay pizza and a slow oven.  After lunch, I dedicated the rest of the day/afternoon to catching up on blogs.  I finished up the final vacation post and then wrote this post and then worked on the puzzle for the remainder of the night.

It was a super awesome weekend.  It was relaxing which I needed to be ready to survive 3 whole work days next week.  It would be 4 but Yurtle has a doctor appointment in Alexandria since her tire light won't go off.  Le sigh, please Kia Gods let this be covered by the warranty!  Oh yeah, not only is it going to be a 4 day weekend next weekend, but Mr. Mystery is coming to visit!  YYYYAAYYY!!!

Happy Monday!

Don't forget to link up with us to talk about your tunes!  The theme for Monday, September 1st is what is your favorite Disney song?  So tell us all about it and link up with us (cause we're lonely)!

Linking up with these ladies:

Music Monday w/ Stories, Songs, & Praise and Love Woke Me Up This Morning |

Monday Morning Gossip w/ Join the Gossip | Weekend Recap w/ Dateless in Dallas |
Weekly Wrap Up w/ The Rachael Way | Weekending w/ B Loved Boston


Sunday, August 24, 2014

Vacation Recap (part 3)

The primary reason for stopping at home, home was to pick up a washer and dryer... which we did, Wednesday afternoon.  Wednesday, we slept in super late, which was awesome because there was no stress of having to wake up to get on the road.  We made a trip into town for lunch and supplies from Walmart (and so Mr. Mystery could get to observe all the folks at Walmart, which always cracks him up).  We also got Cookout shakes, which was a mandatory to-do item.  We had dinner with Teh BFF and then we headed over to Teh Granny's house for a little bit before heading over to pick up the washer and dryer.

I borrowed a puzzle from Teh Granny for Teh Roomies and I to do now that we have a dining room table again and Meri can't eat any of the pieces (she definitely ate a significant portion of puzzle pieces from the last puzzle we tried to do when we were tableless).

We met Miss Piggy when we were loading up the washer and dryer...

On Wednesday night, we to go hang out and watch tv and melt off our skin in the hot tub and enjoy adult beverages.  We went to bed super late, but it was ok since we only have to drive 4.5 hours to Charleston the next day rather than having to be on the road for 10+ hours.  Bleh.

We were on the road by 1100 so we could make it by the afternoon.  The worst realtor ever informed me that the keys would be waiting on us at the house and she gave us the code to the door lockbox.  The only reason we had been on a time schedule was because we thought we were going to finally meet this lady in person.  It wasn't to be.  Which was probably more for her benefit than ours.

Woooo!!!! FINAL DESTINATION STATE!!

Saw this at a gas station, thought it was pretty awesome.

When we finally arrived in Charleston, we had some issues with the lockbox, primarily the inability to open it since we hadn't been educated on HOW to actually open the stupid box.  Did I mention worst realtor ever?  I was not joking.  We got everything unloaded from the truck and then we looked at each other and decided to go out since sitting in an empty house was boring.

Home sweet home!

Required selfie

Since Mr. Mystery had been stationed in Charleston before, he was knowledgeable on the area and was able to give me a driving tour of downtown.  He also was able to pick a place for dinner with very little debate.

French Quarter

the bridge!

The tavern preserves the memory of Edgar Allan Poe,
who was stationed near Sullivan Island when he enlisted in the Army.


Burgerssss, nomnomnom

Bathroom wallpaper

Bathroom wallpaper

Bathroom wallpaper

Bathroom wallpaper

The men's restroom was more impressive because the raven.

We had relatively minimal difficulty parking and we walked in the door right on time as we were seated within 5 minutes and we watched people start to line up at the door after we were seated.  Whew!  The food was delicious, and they had a burger with egg, which is always a winner in my book.

After dinner, we made a Walmart run for necessities like an air mattress (aka Mr. Mystery's sleeping trampoline) and laundry detergent and things.

Charleston sunsets seem to be rather gorgeous.
Prepare for a lot of these!

Cranes!




Mr. Mystery had to be at work on Friday, which meant that Thursday's adventures were the last of his vacation.  Fortunately, it wasn't the end of my vacation!!!


CA to SC adventure!