all · awesome, · all · the · time

Back from Charleston...so far, 30 seems pretty much exactly like 29. We had a great time, and, in true "us" fashion, got exactly one picture of us together...this one. Fortunately it's a good one, taken on my actual birthday, post-carriage ride (duh). We didn't have our usual horse, Marty, but we did see him. Buck here was a good second choice - I liked that he was bad-tempered (the nameplate on his stall door warns that he's a biter, and he was mad waiting for our carriage to leave, as illustrated by his throwing water around and stomping his hoof repeatedly). :)

Some trip highlights:

1. The giant snowcone place, while slightly less huge than I'd pictured it, did not disappoint.

2. New season of Project Runway plus champagne equals a pretty perfect birthday evening. (Side note: that blonde, overly tan man is already on my nerves - stop trying to force your catchphrases!)

3. My adventures in regional beverages continued with two fine new contenders: Cheerwine (like a very fruity, cherry Dr. Pepper) and Blenheim Ginger Ale (holy shit this was hot, like pepper hot!).

This is the first time I'm posting pictures from flickr, so if it doesn't work...get Facebook, because I have pictures there that worked. :)

Today I drove to work for the first time ever...on the one hand, that's kind of funny for 29 years old, but on the other, I'm pretty proud of myself. David stayed home today and I had asked if maybe later today I could borrow the car for a work errand (the VP offered that I could use her car yesterday, which nearly gave me a heart attack - I'm not comfortable driving the car of someone who could fire me yet), and he said...why don't you just take it now? So here I am, at my desk with perfectly un-frizzed hair despite the fact that it's a rainy, humid day, and the jeep is in visitor parking downstairs.

It's too bad people don't wear driving gloves and hats anymore, because I could totally rock some driving accessories.

I've been going through grant applications all day...which while it's been nice to have something not super taxing to work on the first day back from vay-cay, I'm kind of sick of them by now...and still have like 20 left to go through.

So as a break, let's see pictures! We're so high-tech now, we can share pictures right away, and not just by handing the camera to people and having them click through the photos on the camera (which is how the digital camera worked for the first few months for us).

So here's how it went:
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Homeboy and I need to get going on what I like to call the research phase of buying a house. Because I'm feeling lazy, I'm taking the "ask people on the internet" approach right now. Those of you who own houses - would you mind giving me an idea of how the process worked for you? Like, did you talk to a real estate agent first, then get a mortgage, then find the house you wanted, or do those things happen in a different order? Are there pieces of the process I'm missing? Is there anything you wish you'd known before you started the process?

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Experimental recipe #1 = a smashing success. A baggie is maybe not the right serving vehicle for black bean dip, though, but that aside, very tasty. And also, Stacy's Pita Chips are perhaps one of my new favorite foods (http://www.pitachips.com/).

Huzzah - drugstore.com carries the method dryer sheets that I love and that our Target has apparently stopped carrying. I was afraid they were discontinued, but no. Instead they sell weird wet wipe dryer sheet things by method which are just not the same. Drugstore also has the 100 package of band-aids we've been looking for, ever since we got them at Target and then never saw them again. And we go though a lot of band-aids, so the 100 pack is a very good thing.

Saw Charlotte's Web, which was very cute, though I could have done without so many close ups of the spider (I know, I know, she's in the title).

Oh, the big day is finally here...or as David put it, "what time do you think the political ads will keep running until?" Our state (MD) has two big races that are dead even, so should be an exciting night.

I love to vote. In person, by absentee ballot, in a primary, in a general election. And whatever your beliefs or opinions, I hope all of you vote today too. In case you're looking for some last-minute information on who/what's on the ballot where you live, here are two non-partisan, easy to search sites:

www.vote411.org

www.vote-smart.org

Last night's hockey game started off slow and boring...but ended up as a pretty good game, ending in the first overtime win I've seen in person, I think. There definitely could have been a lot more hitting and fighting, and I still think the NHL should have adopted my idea for a new rule: if you skate around for a long time and nothing happens, you have to push the guy from the other team nearest you into the wall. It would liven things up, it's all I'm saying.

My free lipstick for recycling mac containers came today...in a box big enough to hold, oh, 80 or so lipsticks. Rather interesting that a company so interested in recycling that it offers free things for sending in old packaging uses enough packaging to kill at least a shrub to package said free gift. Oh well. High strung is a lovely shade, which is nice since 90 percent of the reason I picked it was the name (it suits me).

Have made yet another pass through the closet and dresser and think I've finally weeded out all of the stuff I don't wear/that doesn't fit/that I should have never bought in the first place. Need to get to Goodwill before I break down and put any of it back in the closet.

It was so not necessary for me to give myself time to fix my hair today...the rain took care of any hairstyling efforts, though now I'm thinking it's looking sort of wavy and interesting. Then again, I'm really tired.

I remembered something just a few minutes ago: in high school, I used to get up at 5:30 in the morning to fix my hair...I used to put my hair in hot rollers (or "electric curlers" as my mother calls them, and I might add continues to use to this day) every single morning. This was in no way part of any trend in either of my high schools - in New Mexico the look was what I think of as taco bangs - really tall bangs that went straight up and curled at the end (some schools actually put a height limit on them). In Oregon, it was very natural, to go with the flannel shirts and birkenstocks. In math class junior year in Oregon I remember a girl stopped by my desk to ask me how I did my hair...she wanted to do hers that way for prom.

I like to think of myself as a recovering big hair addict, but as anyone who's ever lived with me knows, I still do rollers nearly every day - though I made the switch to velcro ones years ago, which is much more of a "why yes, I did spend hours and hours giving myself a salon-quality blowout" look than the "my hair is so big and curly and voluminous it got cut off in my yearbook picture" I was going for before (to be fair, the time my hair got cut off in my picture was when I had a perm, which is a whole 'nother category of hair misfortune).

You didn't seem too happy with your model. Was she really that big? I mean, was she a size 4 instead of a size 2?

No, she's a lot bigger than me. She's absolutely gorgeous, but she shouldn't be a runway model. She's maybe a size 8 or a 10. She's not thin at all.

http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1228212_3||321057|0_0_,00.html

Project Runway Alison, I'm glad you went home after reading your interview with Entertainment Weekly. Size 10 IS obese, and OMG, you had to work with a model with scoliosis? You ought to sue, really.

So we're coming up on the end of our two months of free Netflix, courtesy of the Christmas gift we forgot about and then found in the desk. For the first month, we were watching movies like it was our job - and then we sort of tapered off, and now we're down to the last one or two on our list and then we're done. In fact, I think now we're just waiting for one last thing and then that's it (Wake Up Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie, which is apparently made of outtakes from Anchorman). Tonight we're watching Corpse Bride, and while I was gone David watched Deliverance.

Now. For some reason, I've thought Deliverance was a comedy. I'm pretty sure this is because David and a couple of his friends like to yell the "squeal like a pig, boy" line and then laugh hysterically. About a month-ish ago, I caught the end of it on TV and was like, whoa, dead hillbillies? This isn't a comedy. And then this morning I watched the beginning of it and yeah. SO not a comedy. Creepy and horrible, all those bad teeth and people lurking in the woods. Pretty much wish I hadn't watched it, but oh well.