Stuff and Things 5/29

Can't stop watching Gossip Girl….

Chuck:  You were late.
Blair: I got caught in a text flurry… with Dorota.

The next time I'm late it will be because of a text flurry.

Scott asked if he could watch Game of Thrones the other night as I was laying in bed trying to watch Mad Men.  I said, "Yeah…can you bring me my headphones?"  He said, "YOU HAVE A PROBLEM."  He knew I meant "Bring me my headphones so I can watch Gossip Girl on the iPad while you watch (the recently most boring) Game of Thrones on t.v. and we can still lay here and pretend we're spending time together."  This is how well we know each other after 5 years of marriage.

I hated the Mad Men finale.  Like, could barely watch it.  Thoughts?  Weiner better bring it next spring.  Or maybe I'm so accustomed to the drama on the above-mentioned show that anything else would pale in comparison.

Onto other things…

I got a new blog design from the sweet Angi at Angi Clark Designs.  She was kind enough to a) suggest it, and b) do it for free as a moving present.   I realized that I get a new one every time we move.

Our life has been pushed into upheaval mode.  Again.  We're PCSing with a full do-it-yourself move over the next week.  Woo-hoo.

This little guy turned one year old over the weekend.

And I bought a new dog basket that says "Things".  To go with the basket that says "Stuff".  

Get it?

Stuff and Things 5/1

 Today, we have a Mad Men theme.  *Spoilers below…*

This is a terrific character analysis of Betty Draper.  I read it on my lunch break yesterday.  Because sometimes we just need to break with reality.  Her character, if nothing else, is very consistent.  She hasn't really evolved the way Don has (though, has he?).   She's just the same character in different situations.

I find it interesting that Don is the one we're rooting for now.  Megan seems kind out there this season.  I see her falling into the hippie universe of the early 1970s.  If she lives that long that is.  Remember last season's theory?

Peggy just makes me angry.  I don't know why she's so mean to Don.  I think she's letting her blind rage at Ted cloud all of her judgment.  

There's no need to be bitter toward Stan.  He could be your last chance at happiness, Margaret.  

Speaking of Don, I really, really wanted him to be like:  BUY ME OUT.  In the same way Walter White would say: SAY MY NAME.

Unfortunately, he appears to be desperate.  Or he has a plan.  Either way, that gif shows exactly how I look at 85% of the papers my students hand me.

Like, "Okay.  *longlongpause* Sit down."  (Can't solve all the world's problems, right?  It's been a long week.)

Are you watching?

Happy thoughts…

My new sneakers. 

And my scratched up legs are not a happy thing.  When my shins get dry and itchy, I really take to them with my fingernails.

Panera iced coffee.  So much better than Starbucks.  And a billion times better than the awful stuff I had at Einstein's last week.

This dog who is refusing to have his picture taken.

I know this looks like I'm posing him this way, but he was laying there being all cute and as soon as he saw the camera (phone), he covered up.  I have 10 of these pictures.

Ken Cosgrove dancing.

Happy Mad Men day!

Game of Thrones, Once Upon a Time, and Mad Men in one night?!  

Exciting times.  Maybe there will be a discussion this week?

Stuff and Things 4/3

+April Wallet Watch

1. Make shopping lists and stick to them.  Cook from my pantry/fridge before I resort to shopping trips.

2.  No ice cream runs.  (No explanation needed here.  Just…no.)

3.  No buying soda at school.  Generally, once a week or once every 9 days or so, I'll resort to a Pepsi from the vending machine because I truly can't stay awake at school (I need to go to bed earlier).  This is a bad habit and I just need to get over it.  

4.  Stop shopping online.  Really.  I rarely shop at actual stores, unless it's for food (#centralMOproblems), so I've been getting books, shoes, etc. online.  I can give this up for a month.

+Someone I know is running the Boston Marathon in a couple of weeks.  Here is her tumblr if you're interested in reading about someone who takes running seriously and has gotten good at it in a few short years. She's also a teacher.

+This happened last week.

The rental company OPENED their tenant's mail.  How is that okay?  Ever?  

My biggest piece of advice about FLW is to neverevereverever rent from Realty Executives.

Like Taylor-Swift-nevereverever.

+Speaking of bad customer service (I feel like I'm full of complaints lately), Quickenloans has been giving us the runaround.  We had everything ready to go and then they insist on a completely insignificant, random tax document be updated.  I don't think it's possible to supply a 2014 tax document…in 2014.  Right?  Anyway, the guy was an absolute ass.  So much so that Scott hung up on him and the boss called us back and he doesn't seem to be much better.  

Other businesses to not bother with: Reliable Toyota in Springfield.  I've never heard Scott yell at a salesman before.  Also Farmer's Insurance.  Also the first time I watched him hang up on someone.  

It's been a rough few months.  

Can I just say we've had worse customer service in the last year than we have in the last 5 years combined…?

+However, I had fabulous service at the Optical Center on Ft. Leonard-Wood when I went to order contacts the other day.  

+Maybe I should start my own Angie's List-like company.

+My personal goal for the week has been to watch all of Mad Men season 6, in preparation for season 7 on April 13th.  So far equals success.  My goals are small.

+The Following delivered again this week.   I don't know what it says about me that this is what I choose to watch right before I go to bed.

+I stayed up until 11:30pm watching The Walking Dead last night.  It was the first time Scott had a chance to watch and I didn't want to without him.  If that doesn't say "best wife ever", I don't know what does.  I enjoy the fact that old Rick is back.

+We saw Divergent over the weekend.  I liked it.  After some necessary introspection, I realized I didn't like the book because her descriptive writing was painfully boring.  I'm pretty sure I skipped over the whole capture-the-flag scene because it was putting me to sleep.  There also seemed to be more character development in the movie.  I really want to see Insurgent now to find out what happens next. I could read the book, but I just don't enjoy the way Ms. Roth tells a story.

Funny stuff. 6/30

I was scrolling through my Humor boards on Pinterest and here are some things I'd like to share and/or re-share.

You see, these images are not embedded because, since Pinterest changed their embedding procedure, every single pin I've embedded over the last two years has disappeared.  Which means, if you search through funny stuff I've posted in the past, you come up with nothingness.  I'm not happy about it.  So, I won't be embedding anything from here on out.  You can get to my Pinterest page if you'd like the links.

How I feel after I make myself run on the treadmill:

Because:

I've actually been opting for the elliptical lately when push comes to shove.  

I really have to be in the "I'm going to do this!" frame of mind to get on the treadmill.  

It happens about twice a month.

This is important:

"Happy Fathers Day to all the daddy's out there!", right?  

I know you saw that all over the internets a few weeks ago too.

ALSO, please note: When you use a word like "cant", "its", "Im", "dont", "wont" and don't include an apostrophe, a kitten probably dies.  I don't understand this.  Most computers auto-correct it.  We have idiot-proof devices, yet...we still have idiots.

(One mistake is fine.  I usually find one per blog post on my own blog..and then I try to correct it asap. When I can depend on your blog/status/tweets as a source of typo amusement, something is wrong with you.)

And Don Draper loves puppies.  Probably kittens too.

Anyway..

I found a tumblr site with gifs related specifically to blogging: #thetopknot.

It provided me with a full 15 minutes of laughter and guffaws.  Because it only took me 15 minutes to cruise through it.  They need to update more!

For example:

When I'm really excited about a post and no one comments right away:

This is how I feel every summer, because I usually don't have much to do:

Happy Sunday!

5 things friday

1.  After watching Forks Over Knives, and after talking it over, I think we're going to stop drinking cow's milk.  I have nothing against dairy products, because I don't generally eat them in large amounts. I just don't think drinking full glasses of milk is something we're going to be doing anymore.  (Is this weird? You'll tell me if it's completely illogical, right?)

2.  I watched Pitch Perfect last week.  It was okay.  The music was good. But...um, that's it?  I liked the "finish him like a cheesecake" bit.

3.  This is my exact reaction when Scott's friends show up at our house whenever they feel like it.

Just say I'm an awful person and get it over with.  It's okay.  I won't take offense.

4.  On Wednesday, Scott backed his (brand new) truck into another car. It made us both feel awful and stabby.  You know, like how Pete often feels.

But, this prompted me to wash (and actually take care of) my little Alaskan car.  While washing it, I noticed the registration sticker was outdated.  I knew that we had taken care of this before we left Alaska because we're not that irresponsible.  (Alright.  He's not that irresponsible.)  I had no idea if we ever got the new stickers, where they might be, where the registration was, etc.  I got out of bed at 6am Thursday to check the glove compartment and discovered I'd been carrying around an expired one for the last month.  Great.  I searched everywhere and it literally felt like I'd been glamoured or something because I couldn't remember anything.  Those last few weeks/days in Alaska were such a blur!  Finally, I realized if we had gotten the registration stickers in the mail, it would've been after the car was shipped to St. Louis, therefore that paperwork would be in the old truck we drove from Alaska.  I checked that glove compartment and there it was.  I thought my resourcefulness was nothing short of miraculous.  Scott never would've found it.  Like, never, ever, ever.

5.  Speaking of our friend Taylor, sometimes she's pretty cool.

I found this somewhere.  I don't follow her, as that "Following" button would lead you to believe.

funny stuffs. 6/21

This is one of my biggest problems.  I've suffered with it for a very long time.

I really like this guy.  Did you see him in 30 Minutes or Less?  Quite surprisingly, a really good movie!

This is how much I care about Kim Kardashian having a baby.

Remember, I don't even really like sandwiches.

I slip on stairs a lot.  If there's too many, I'll even get dizzy.  

I'm pretty sure this would push me over the edge.

And, yes, thank you.  Me too.  However, I do plan on getting out and enjoying some sun this weekend.

Can you believe it's already Mad Men finale time?!

Pins can be found here.

Weekending

The Pulaski Regional County Fair.

I couldn't make this up if I tried.

At least it was free.

Unimpressed with the "fair", a friend and I went to the local cupcakery.

Sassy Sweets Cake Boutique.

The owners/employees were so nice, and the cupcakes were delicious; heavy-sugar frosting and moist cake.

On Saturday, Scott and I went to Springfield.  It's 90 minutes south-ish.  I went to Marshall's, which was refreshing, so I can see this becoming a once a month trip.  Springfield has pretty much all the shopping you could want, but it's just kind of far.  However,  it rained. A lot.

I really know how to pick a place to go, right? But it rained everywhere on Saturday, at least a little bit, and spending the day doing nothing at home would've been boring.

We went to a haunted castle.  I found this tourist attraction on TripAdvisor, and you can go here to look up the history of the Pythian Castle. 

The building next door where they kept WWII POWs. Really.  

You can read the history within that link up there.

"Haunted" tunnel in the basement leading to the building next door.

POW cell.  Complete with very accommodating air holes.

They let the POWs paint on the cell walls.

Can you spot the green orbs?  Totally a reflection of the lightbulbs, right?

Though, those were the interrogation rooms back in the day, so it'd make sense for them to be haunted.

I kept taking pictures of myself in random mirrors, hoping to see something pop up in the background of the picture.  No luck.  The bathroom was particularly creepy.

We also went to Bass Pro Shop (the flagship store).

And I thought the moose in Alaska were scary. 

(Those are random people. The line for photos was kinda long.)

Anyway, on Sunday night we went to a friend's house for dinner.  I wasn't necessarily pleased with this arrangment, because I was planning on having a True Blood premiere party.  The only problem being that I don't have any friends here who watch True Blood (in fact, I might be the only person I know in real life who does watch it...which is a crying shame). So it wouldn't be a party as much as just me, sitting on the couch, answering the millions of questions Scott would undoubtedly ask during the show.  But a good night, nonetheless, right?

It came down to...

Scott: So you'd rather watch t.v. than go out and socialize?

Me: I don't understand the question.  

Scott: We can watch it when we get home.

Me: It's not the same.

Scott:.......

So, we went. I legitimately like the people we hang out with here.  I really, really do and don't want there to be confusion about that.  However, I sat at a table with 7 other people who are all in the Army (wives included) and listened to them talk about the army for 3 hours.  Then, the 6-month-old baby went to bed and I officially had nothing in common with anyone else at the table.  

However, onto the important stuff:

True Blood was good.  I think it's going to be an action-packed season.  SPOILER: My heart broke just a little bit when Sookie rescinded Eric's invitation.  le sigh.

And Sally Draper is smarter than I gave her credit for.  Betty, deservingly, is going to have her hands full.