Grateful...

First of all I just want to say that this season of Project Runway sucks. It does not even come close to comparing to last season, not by a mile. And the challenges have been horrible. And the designers are……well……less than outstanding, but more than dislikeable…..except for Daniel. Oh, and Keith. Oh, and Blayne……damn! I can’t stand this season. So disappointing. Having said that, I kind of want Korto to win. I like Leanne, but I don’t know if I want her to win. I like Jerrell, but I am still on the fence about where he should fall. Kenley, as much as I think she is talented, she needs to shut her mouth. I do think, with her mouth clenched, she has the ability to be in the top 3. Suede…..well, I don’t think he has the talent. He is likeable, and I think he is talented, but I don’t believe he is talented enough. Kelly should never have been voted off the show and especially not after just a couple of shows! I was pissed about that. Anyway, this season sucks, and yet I am still addicted. They better step it up next season though.

Now on to business. I have been feeling a little melancholy this evening for whatever reason. Don’t ask me why because I really have no clue. Although I have forgetfully not taken my Vitamins D and C the last two days and that MIGHT have just a slight bit to do with it. Who knows? Maybe I am getting my period. I don’t know. Anyway, I have been thinking a lot about what we/I have and where I am as a person right now. I have not one thing to complain about…..not that I want one either. I am just saying that Adam and I are in such a good place right now. We have a house with a solid mortgage. We have a little money in the bank. We both have very solid jobs, although Adam is not too thrilled with his at the moment, but we are both making very good money and are stable. We have each other! We still have Gizmo even with all her little health issues. We have so many true friends and family members around and give us such strong support. I am grateful for all these things. I almost feel a little guilty because I see so many people around us (friends and family) that are having a really rough time right now. I have multiple friends in rocky relationships. There are so many people around us that have lost family members (mostly to cancer) in the last 9 months or anticipating that loss in the very short term. I know a number of people that work like dogs and get no where and others that are on the verge of loosing their jobs for one reason or another. Plus, it doesn’t help that I watch the news and see the train wreck that is the economy and how it is affecting the whole country, not to mentions hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and anything else Mother Nature keeps pummeling people with. It all seems so tragic and overwhelming.

I am grateful for the never ending laundry. I am grateful to scrub the bathroom and the floors. I am grateful for the TV I get to watch Project Runway on, crappy season and all. I am grateful to have the opportunity to go to the gym and get my fat ass moving. I am grateful I get to sit in traffic, although that is a rare occurrence these days. I am grateful for the garbage that needs to be taken every couple of days. I am even grateful to clean up after Gizmo. I am grateful for the life that I have, and I believe I have worked my ass off to get here.

So that is all I have to say about that. I am going to curl up in bed, for which I am also grateful.

Inch by inch......

Hi, everyone. It has been forever since I sat and emptied my head……..and I will tell you after the last two months it is pretty freakin’ full. So I guess I will just start at the beginning and try not to be too random with all the info……good luck with that.

Our trip to Hawaii was fantastic! We really did enjoy ourselves. The 8 of us that rented the house together got along really well. Having a huge house that gave us each our own space to disappear to when necessary helped of course. But overall we had a great time drinking, eating, eating, um…..eating, swimming in the ocean, laying around and relaxing, eating, drinking, and enjoying each others company.

Some observations:

• Maui is not a very big island. You can drive across and back in just a few hours. Also the west side (where we were staying) is completely different than the east side. The west is dryer and less tropical. The east is VERY tropical and gets a lot more rain. Very strange actually.
• The people in Hawaii are very nice and do things in what I like to refer to as “Hawaii time.” It is a very casual and laid back place so people just kind of do things at a pretty relaxed pace…….a little too relaxed sometimes.
• Salt water is nasty.
• You don’t get a lei from a beautiful Hawaiian girl when you get off the plane. Although our friends who met us at the airport brought us leis, so that made up for it.
• I was not the fattest one on the beach…….thank God! I will get back to that one.
• It does not feel good to kick coral…..or as I prefer to call it, “Don’t riff with the reef.” OUCH! I got a couple of small scrapes and they took forever to heal up! As a matter of fact I can still see the marks on my ankles to this day. I also found out that if you don’t take care of those kind of cuts the saltwater can give you a nasty staff infection. Eeek! Luckily I did not experience that.
  
  So we had a good time and would definitely go back, but we would like to see some of the other islands. I can’t say that I would want to live there, but I definitely enjoyed visiting and look forward to seeing some more.
  
  Since we came back things have just been absolutely insane! My job is crazy busy…..which is no complaint. I am going to brag a tad and say that I had such a good first quarter that I believe I am in the top 10 out of 180 salespeople and will definitely be receiving a big fat bonus!! Woo hoo! It feels so good to get the validation for the work that I am doing. And I am seeing results from it as well. Yay!
  
  Beyond that, the dog has been in and out of the vet (nothing too severe….but she is going for another ultrasound on her liver this Thursday just to make sure); I am in the middle of helping plan my Mother’s 70th Birthday at the end of October; I have multiple friends on the verge of losing their jobs, marriages, or both – some of which to whom I have played counselor; Adam is having issues at work and working like a dog!; and I am trying to lose weight…..officially. I mentioned earlier not being the fattest one on the beach….but not by much. Everything was great until I saw a video of myself running on the beach and diving into the surf. I watched the video and said to myself, “Oh look, there’s Adam! Oh look, there’s Kristen! Who is the big fat hairy guy……..HOLY CRAP!” Not fun to come to that realization. It is one thing to see yourself in pictures (with your shirt on!) next to friends in some stupid pose. It is an entirely different thing to see your fat ass moving at a speed and in ways that it shouldn’t, sans shirt, in a video! Ugh. Needless to say I refuse to be a before and after commercial for fucking Jenny Craig. So Adam and I joined All Star Fitness in West Seattle a couple of weeks ago and have been going pretty religiously. Plus we changed our dinners to nothing more than salad, except on weekends when we will have something extra. So it is good. And somehow I am actually enjoying it. And I remember Dr. Oz say on Oprah that men lose an inch of penis for every 30 pounds overweight they are. I want my inch back, damn it!
  
  Among the many other things taking place, we are still planning my 40th Birthday next April. So far we have determined that a party is in order and a trip will be taken. The party is simple enough, and we will probably have that the weekend of my birthday. However the trip is something of a different egg. Originally we talked about going to Argentina and Uruguay. Then we got invited to Ireland for a wedding. We kind of decided that Ireland wasn’t going to happen because it would be too expensive and neither of us would have enough vacation when the dates required. So back to Argentina. BUT we now have been invited to England and to tour around a bit with a friend I have made on-line (NO, it isn’t what you think!) who lives in northern England with his partner of several years. Paul and I are part of the same Yahoo group for my favorite band All About Eve. We have sent info to one another over the last year on occasion, and he and Ian went to Vietnam last year, too. So we got to compare notes on that trip. And recently we connected via Facebook and have been communicating at least once a day. So they very graciously invited us to stay with them and maybe take a bit of a tour around the UK. It is rare that anyone makes that kind of offer, and we don’t want to be too greedy, but when will we ever get this opportunity again? So it looks like England will be the destination for us next May. There is still a lot of planning to be done, but I am sure the details will all come together very quickly.
  
  I think I have prattled on enough for now. If you have read this entire thing then you are more dedicated than I gave you credit for. Off to bed with me.
  
  

Fish Die. Your Feet Get Wet At The Beach.

We had a death in the family. One of Adam’s 3 Bala Sharks was found fins up today. It seems like kind of a silly thing to be a bit sad about, but the Sharks have been around for a long, long time. I think we have had them in the tank for nearly 8 or 9 years. The one who died was the runt and we did notice recently, even though he/she had been eating normally, that he/she was starting to look a little gaunt. Lucky bastard. I wish I could eat like that and lose some weight, although look how far it got the fish.

I have to comment on a news story today that made both the local news and the (very tragic) Today Show this morning. Apparently there is some movement against advertisers targeting junk food/unhealthy food to kids under 12. O.K. I get that kids shouldn’t eat so much crap. Hell, I shouldn’t eat so much crap……although I really don’t eat too much crap. Yes, I had an ice cream sandwich for dessert after dinner tonight……shut up! Anyway, I also get that advertisers do target certain audiences in order to make a point and a buck. What I DON’T get is where the parents of these fat-assed, unhealthy little punks are while all of this is going on! Once again it is easier to blame everyone but the people who should ultimately be taking responsibility. YOU! All of you who just had to pop out youngin’s and then decide to let TV and video games and everyone else raise them besides YOU! Lame! Take some responsibility for your actions and your kids actions too! Jesus people. I think instead of taking action against the advertisers we should actually cook a dinner or pack a lunch for our kids and include a fucking carrot for God’s sake. Teach your kids some responsibility and take ownership of your lives. PLEASE!

O.K. Enough of the soap box for one evening. Monday cannot come soon enough. I don’t think I have mentioned that this will be the first time I have ever swum in the ocean. I have been to the ocean. I have gotten my feet wet in the ocean. But I have never swum in it, so I am very much looking forward to the salty sea-water experience. And can I just say that “swum” is a ridiculous word?! Actually I am more interested in the relaxation and spending time with the group. I actually took Adam’s lead and ordered a couple of books to take with me to read on the plane and on the beach. You have to understand that I HATE to read…..well with the exception of music and cooking magazines. But that hardly qualifies as reading in my opinion. Anyway, I got a true novel (Catcher In The Rye) which I have never read and probably should have years ago, as well as a trashy memoir (Party Monster – originally published as Disco Blood Bath) – a true crime memoir of the Club Kids in New York in the 90’s. I have seen the movie several times and decided to actually read James St. James’ account of the whole ridiculous time and incident. It looks like a very easy read. I wouldn’t be surprised if I finished it in a day, assuming it keeps my attention long enough. That really is one of the major reasons I don’t read hardly at all……it bores me to death and puts me to sleep. I most certainly don’t want to be bored or asleep in the sun!

A friend of mine in College, Chris Jamison, used to say, “Fish die. Your feet get wet at the beach.” That was her way of saying “shit happens.” And it is true if you think about it. Both things are pretty much inevitable. You can’t stop either from happening. It seemed rather fitting for this blog.

Now go eat your vegetables! Yes, you too Stephanie!

Dog's Barking.......Can't Fly Without Umbrella.

If you haven’t seen Jumping Jack Flash (yes, the movie with Whoopi Goldberg) you won’t understand the title of this blog. I think that movie is hilarious, so many one-liners. Um, actually I should say it’s a gas, gas, gas………..don’t tell me you didn’t see that coming.

Anyway, we seemed to have gotten past the barking issues in the neighborhood. We have a new neighbor, a renter, who is perfectly sweet and actually has cleaned up the yard since she moved in. She has a dog of her own and a “loaner” dog that she is watching for a friend of hers. In the last couple of weeks she has left the house early and come home very late and left both dogs outside the entire time. The “loaner” dog is quite the offending barker. It barks at the cats, and the squirrels, and the trees, and the birds and the air and anything that moves past it. It actually got so bad on several occasions (starting reportedly before 6:00am and not ending until after 11:00pm sometime) that the entire development began buzzing about the barking. I felt kind of bad for the new neighbor because I had a feeling she didn’t even have a clue about it. How could she if she isn’t around to hear it? Whenever she is home, the dogs are inside. I made the attempt to talk with her myself but the couple of times I went to talk to her she had disappeared again. She is a busy gal. But nonetheless someone got to speak with her and fill her in on the situation. It seems as though the barking has come to a close. Thank God! I had to sleep in the back bedroom a couple of times just because it got so frickin’ bad. Now it seems that all is well……..at least for now…..I am sure someone else in the neighborhood will fuck it up for everyone, although apparently Home Depot has changed their evil ways. I ran into a neighbor at the grocery store the other day and he said he spoke with one of the Managers at Home Depot in passing and they seem to have heard our cries to shut the hell up at 3:00am. Not that the City of Seattle has been useful or any proper chain of complaints has done the trick. It has taken a couple of years for them to finally get their shit together. I am not sure what did it, but something got through to them. It is about damned time.

So with peace restored (in the middle of the night at least) to our little group of homes it has been quite enjoyable around here. The sun has been out. We planted a few more flowers out front. We have been able to enjoy our nice back patio and take advantage of all the work done over the last couple of years. Very nice indeed.

Work has been very productive and kind of an adventure each and every day. I ended up not having to schlep an umbrella with me last week on my days out in Downtown. Whew! And it is a good thing, too, because my hands were full as it were. I find that I am toting more around with me everyday. It is good exercise though.

And since we are leaving in a week……7 days from today!.......Adam and I got a little motivated last weekend to get a few things done. We organized our laundry/storage area and got rid of a bunch of stuff we either never use or just shouldn’t have to begin with. We have a nice fat donation pile all ready to go. Additionally, my nephew will be getting a free desk and computer once we get that torn down so we can actually have our dining area back to use as an actual dining area! Unheard of! One of our neighbors is moving in September so she is going to donate her bar stools to us. That will be nice. Getting rid of that big fat table at the bar area is going to free up some space in our living room, too. I can feel how things are starting to come together. It feels pretty good.

This is rather a boring as hell blog, isn’t it? Hmmmmmm. I don’t quite know where it came from, and I can’t say it is really anything prophetic on the page by any means, but it needed to make its way out I guess.

Well, as I don’t have one solid piece of entertaining news to report I will just bring this to a close for now. Have a great day!

Irrigation irritation.....

Adam finished the final details on the irrigation system this last weekend. It works great……well, it will when he adjusts the timer again. It came on at the proper time this morning, but once it finished its cycle it started all over again. So I figured I better shut the damn thing off or it was going to water all day long. Not good. A minor wrinkle easily ironed out. Oh, that reminds me that I need to pick up my dry-cleaning tomorrow. Good to know. Anyway, I am rather proud of him having put the whole thing in by his little self……although I am not proud of the bill. Let’s just say he would make a seriously shitty contractor. I was told one figure…….double + that figure two weeks later we have a system in place. Although I suppose that might actually make him an excellent contractor depending on how you look at it.

I worked my butt off cleaning the house for several hours and then spending 2 more hours on “doggie day of beauty.” Gizmo was filthy! She really needed the bath and the feet trimming. She is usually really very cooperative during the whole process, but not this weekend for some reason. She fought me tooth and nail the entire time. It was beyond frustrating, but it was ultimately worth it for both of us in the end.

It looks as though we are going to get a reprieve from the bright sunny weather tomorrow. That means I will probably have to schlep an umbrella around with me since I will be meandering downtown in a tie. No self-respecting Seattleite should have to carry around an umbrella…...it makes you look like a tourist. Very amateur. And my boss will be with me tomorrow at least for part of the day. She occasionally goes on joint calls with each of the reps which means she has to travel up and down the west coast between Seattle and Northern California. I am a little nervous about it only because I am giving my first full product presentation to one of my customers. I am sure it will not be the most eloquent presentation ever given, but I still have a long way to go. Not to worry……..time and practice will make it all come together.

Off to brush my teeth and get ready for bed.

Do you have any coupons???

(This is a repost from my MySpace blog. As I just signed up for this new blog spot I figured I better post something. So please enjoy a post from July 14.....only aged slightly.)


The weekend came and went in a much too hurried fashion once again. But it was a good one I suppose. We went to see Eddie Izzard perform at the Paramount on Saturday. My Brother gave us his tickets……I am still puzzled by that one…..but I turned around and gave him some money for them just because it seemed like the right thing to do. Too bad the show wasn't better. Don't get me wrong. It was entertaining, but it wasn't quite what we had hoped. It was a nice evening out for Adam and me though. We enjoyed ourselves.

Adam earned his evening out on Saturday that is for damned sure. He installed an irrigation system up the side of the house and into the back "yard." It really isn't a "yard" so much as a patio with terraced planters, but that sounds way to gay, so "yard" it is! Anyway, it took him several hours on Saturday and pretty much the entire day on Sunday, not to mention 3 or 4 trips to Home Depot and 2 to McClendon's Hardware for various supplies and replacement supplies. He was pretty much done with the whole thing by the end of Sunday but not before he made a mess out of my freshly vacuumed floors…..dirt and mud everywhere. And then the system only worked o.k. It wasn't perfect, and we can work around a couple of things, but at least we won't have to worry about our plants and green-growing things crapping out while we are in Hawaii. I should probably make some sort of a special nookie coupon for Adam for doing all that work. He can redeem it whenever he wants……….some restrictions apply. I mean I know the boy earned it, but I am NOT doing THAT……ew.

Hawaii is only 21 short days away and I cannot wait!!! I have something special planned for the 10 of us as a surprise. I can't say what it is just in case someone from the group reads this, but it is something small that we will all get a kick out of. It will make for good pictures anyway.

Adam is finished with the dishes, so we are going to watch some more "Drawn Together." It is really sick and twisted, but it is funny as shit. I can't believe some of the shit they get away with. It is hilarious!

Toodles.