Category Archives: Dave

Only 3 more shopping days until my birthday!

Posted on by

Test Week is still going very well. Yesterday, Dave wasn’t feeling well, so he stayed home and worked from his laptop in bed. I worked on my laptop in his office. It was strange, we hardly spoke to each other all day, but it was nice to know that he was in the house. We eventually got ourselves dressed, just in time to go out for dinner. I’ve cooked something every night this week – in addition to super-fancy omelets for breakfast – so I needed a break. We went to one of those standardized chain Mexican places, which was quite yummy. We were going to watch “Shaun of the Dead” when we got home, but we (or rather, I) got caught up in “Project Runway” and “Queer Eye for the Straight Girl” (possibly my favorite new show), and the movie idea kind of collapsed.

On the subject of Project Runway: The challenge this week was for the designers to make a wedding dress, but the models were the “clients” and got to have input as to what type of dress they wanted. The idea is that the designers have to come up with something that fits what they want to design, and that also makes the models happy. I have to say, my favorite was Kara’s, who won. That dress was gorgeous. But I’ve pretty much decided that I like all of Kara’s clothes (so far). The one who lost was whiny, crying Nora, who I was very happy to see go. The dress wasn’t all that bad, really, it was just a little too standard-bridal-gown – which should be expected, when the model who gets to choose the dress’s design is 16 years old. But as Angie has already mentioned, the worst dress by a mile was Austin’s. Good lord, what was he thinking? Teal and hot pink and animal print on a wedding dress? WTF?? It was horrifying.

Back to real life: today Dave is at work, and I’m home with the cats. Usually, Dave’s cats go outside during the day, so I just have Teenie inside (who’s old & sleeps most of the time), so I can work in relative peace. Today, however, Cleo (the 6-toed cat – I swear she has thumbs) doesn’t want to go out, and she has been a ball of neediness. I cannot keep the damn cat off of me. I don’t know what her deal is. It was cute for a while, but now it’s starting to annoy me. Especially when she does that bread-kneading thing with her very long claws. Ow.

Oh, have any of you seen Dave’s mum’s cottage? Apparently we have it for a week in June. Yay, I can’t wait!

The Test Week

Posted on by

I’m staying at Dave’s house this week. You know how some people live together before they get married to ensure that they’re making the right decision? Well, we’ve one-upped those folks, and decided to turn a week-long sleepover into its own little trial run before we even commit to the idea of living together. It seems to make sense – if we decide within the next couple of days that we don’t like each other, I still have an apartment that I can go home to. Although, honestly, I think that’s pretty unlikely. I’ve been here since Friday evening and he hasn’t managed to irritate me yet.

So far, it’s been fun. We had a nice relaxing weekend. It snowed an inch or two on Sunday, so we went for a hike at a little nature preserve nearby, which was cool. It almost never snows in the Pacific Northwest, so we thought we should enjoy it while we had it. Although I was somewhat annoyed that my boyfriend, who smokes, was less winded than me by the time we were done. Obviously, this is a sign that I really need to work on getting in better shape. We grocery shopped for this coming week, rented a bunch of movies, came home and watched “Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle.” That was pretty funny, although it’s one of those movies that I think I would appreciate more if I had been stoned when I saw it. And seeing as how I haven’t gotten stoned in years (I do believe that there is a time and a place for everything, and it’s called college), I think some of the humor might have been lost on me.

What’s funny about staying here this week is that now I’m getting all domestic-y and planning out what I’m going to make for dinner every night, and printing out recipes that I’ve looked up online. I realize that’s very un-feminist of me, but I really enjoy cooking when I have someone to cook for. Last week, when my friend Opie was staying at my apartment, I made him dinner one night and then breakfast the next morning. He made the comment that I certainly was accomodating, but I’m not even sure that’s it. It’s almost like some sort of maternal instinct thing. Today, while Dave’s been at work, I haven’t really had a lot to do, so I started cleaning. (For the record, I do have a job, but I’ve been working from home for a while now, and today was one of those off days where I couldn’t do anything until my project lead returned my last email, and he never did. So I was kind of stuck.) Meanwhile, I swept the hardwood floors, vacuumed the carpeted floors, did probably half a dozen loads of laundry, tidied up the kitchen, and cleaned the master bathroom. I’m turning into a regular little domestic goddess. Who’d have guessed that one?

Anyway, my fella is going to be home soon, so I better go get the lotion ready so I can rub his feet when he arrives. (Yes, that is a joke. Please don’t send Gloria Steinem to kick my ass.)

new pics

Posted on by

I forgot to mention in my insanely long post yesterday, I’ve added photos to the Thanksgiving album, and a whole bunch are now in my Christmas album. Feel free to browse, and take in all of the holiday festiveness! (Yes, I’m being sarcastic… I’m not even sure if “festiveness” is a word.)

My friend Opie (don’t worry, that’s a nickname) is here from Nashville for a job interview. He’s getting his Ph.D. in psychology and has to do a one-year internship, so he’s checking out a couple of places here; and of course, since he’s still in school, he’s completely broke, so I’m letting him crash on my futon. Which is no big deal, really, he’s an old friend and it’s been good to have some time to catch up with him. I just feel bad that I haven’t taken him sightseeing around Seattle at all, because I’ve been so tired from our trip. And he’s leaving tomorrow. Oh well, if he ends up with a job here, I’m sure I’ll see him a lot more often.

Not much else going on. Dave’s coming over to meet Opie tonight and we’ll go to dinner. Should be fun.

Holiday Madness!

Posted on by

Brace yourselves, this is gonna be a long one.

December 23rd: Early in the morning, we headed to the airport for our flight to Jackson, only to find out that the first leg was going to be delayed for 2 hours. This meant that we were going to miss our connection in Dallas. So I called the airline to find out which later flight we would be on, and I was informed that we could maybe get on standby for the first flight out on Christmas Eve, but it wasn’t likely. (Keep in mind Teenie was with us, so if we had to stay in a hotel, we would’ve had to get food, litter box & all other kitty accoutrements that my mom already has at her house.) Dave and I made the executive decision to screw the 2nd flight, rent a car in Dallas, and drive to Jackson so we could get there the same day. We told the airline this, and they said that they’d change our luggage orders so our bags would stop in Dallas. Turns out, my bag stopped in Dallas, but Dave’s apparently traveled on without him. Oh well. We got the car and I drove us the 450-ish miles from Dallas to Jackson. Dave slept for 5 1/2 of the 6 hours – he woke up in Vicksburg, so he was conscious for the last 40 miles or so. We got to my parents’ house sometime around 2 a.m., and promptly collapsed.

December 24th: We had to go to the airport in Jackson to get Dave’s bags, and in spite of the previous day’s bad travel luck, we actually got them. Whew. I should add, my sister flew to Jackson on the 22nd, and she didn’t get her suitcase until the 24th, either. And then there was all the news coverage about the thousands of people whose bags were lost by the airlines, so we felt pretty lucky by comparison. Anyway, we all went to the candlelight church service that evening, came home, had the Huge Christmas Dinner, and opened presents. I cleaned up this year. I got clothes from my parents and a pashmina from my sister, which were all great. Then Dave got me a necklace that I absolutely adore, a purse that is nicer than anything I have ever owned in my life, and other assorted goodies. I got him a grandfather mantle clock, which he seemed to really like – although he only got pictures of it at Christmas, because it was too big and breakable to get it from Seattle to Jackson and back again. (He got the real clock when we got home yesterday.) What can I say, Christmas was good.

December 25th: The worst migraine I have had in ages. My mom even gave me one of her heavy-duty narcotic painkillers, which did absolutely nothing for it. Somehow, in spite of the pounding in my head, I managed to get myself dressed and packed, and we headed down to New Orleans. We had to take a roundabout way to get there, because it had actually snowed in Louisiana, which is something that never happens there, ever. But, we arrived safe & sound, and we had a great time visiting with relatives that night and on the 26th. Then Mom & Tracy headed back to Jackson, Dave & I got another rental car, and we had the city all to ourselves.

December 27th: The first day of our vacation without my family around. We woke up at 9 a.m., showered, lay in bed to watch the news coverage of the tsunami, and fell asleep until well after 1 in the afternoon. Ah, laziness. I love vacation. After we woke up, we went to an absolutely horrible lunch (at a restaurant that both of my parents raved about, oddly enough), and then wandered around the French Quarter for the rest of the day/night.

December 28th: Slept late. Got up, checked out of the hotel, drove around New Orleans for a bit before heading back to Jackson. Hung out with my parents and watched “Collateral”. It was good.

December 29th: Slept late again. Actually, that was an accident, I got up at 11:00, went into Dave’s room to wake him up (no co-ed sleeping arrangements in my parents’ house), and I lay down on the bed next to him and fell asleep for 2 hours. I was worried that my parents might have caught us like that and freaked out because the door was wide open, but he was under the covers and I was on top of them, so I think it was ok. If they walked down the hall and saw us, they didn’t say anything about it. Anyway, we eventually got up and drove to Memphis. We checked into our hotel, met up with Kris for dinner and then went to play pool at a sketchy bar near the university, which used to be one of our regular hang-outs. Kind of funny to be there again, although I didn’t run into anyone that I knew. Which is probably a good thing.

December 30th: Got up, had lunch, and gave Dave a driving tour of all the places I’ve lived in Memphis. Took him back to the hotel to shower, and then he wanted some quiet time, so I left him there while I went to go hang out with Kris for a couple of hours. We went to some of the local artists’ shops in midtown, which I love. Then Kris and I went back to to the hotel to pick up Dave, and we went to check out Peabody Place. This is one of those cool new things that’s happened to Memphis since I left the city – downtown is actually nice now. Who knew? It’s fabulous. We shopped and went to the Peabody Hotel next door to see the ducks. We avoided Beale Street because it was insanely packed, apparently there was some parade going on there, which may or may not have had something to do with the Liberty Bowl, we weren’t sure. The three of us met up with Becky, Naina and Carrie for dinner that night, which was great. Dave seemed to get good reviews from all of my friends, so that’s good.

December 31st: Spa day! Kris arranged for us to get manicures, pedicures, facials and massages. Ah, so lovely. I had never had a pedicure before, and I haven’t had a facial in years, so that was absolutely wonderful. And it took up the better part of the day; meanwhile, Dave had the rental car and he went off to explore Memphis on his own. We met up at the hotel that evening, got dressed, and went over to Kris’s house for her New Year’s party. I had way too much to drink and was quite obnoxious. Dave somehow managed to get me to bed, where I promptly passed out. Didn’t feel too hot the next day, either.

January 1st: Got up, checked out right at noon (barely made it), drove to Jackson. Chilled out with my parents. Watched “The Manchurian Candidate”. Dave & I had already seen it, but I knew there was no sex in the movie, so I would be safe to watch it with my dad. He seemed to like it.

January 2nd: Flew home. Not nearly as much airport drama as last time, just that we were tired and irritable. But I had so much fun on this vacation, it’s probably one of the best holidays I’ve had in years. I was sad that it was over. And I’m sad that I don’t get to see Dave every day anymore, I really enjoyed that. Even when I was pissy and he was getting on my nerves, I was still glad that he was around. Go figure.

another rainy Monday

Posted on by

I tried to write something last week, but it appears that Blogger has been having problems. Hmm. Ok, the recap. My company’s Christmas party was on Wednesday night – it was at a bowling alley. Apparently our regional director is a bit of a bowling fanatic, which is why we seem to do this at most company functions. Kind of strange. After the last time I bowled with my co-workers and won the “Least Graceful Bowler” award, I decided to sit this one out. So Dave and I enjoyed our free drink tickets and mingled with a few of my co-workers. (The ones that I know, anyway.) Thursday night was Dave’s company Christmas party, which was quite a different scene. It was a sit-down dinner at a very posh seafood restaurant. Not quite the same vibe as the bowling alley. I had a lot more fun at Dave’s party. Plus, his company’s Redmond office is a lot smaller than mine, so he actually knew everyone there. (Unlike mine, where it was more like, “Umm, I think I met that guy once, but I can’t remember his name…”) And the food was a lot better.

The weekend was good, very relaxing. I can’t think of anything particularly notable that we did, except that yesterday we did some Christmas shopping. It appeared that Dave had no idea what to get me for Christmas, so I dragged him around Nordstrom’s and pointed out a hundred or so different things that I liked, so he can get one or two and know that I’ll be happy. I was all excited when I woke up this morning because I realized that I was done with all of my Christmas shopping, and then I realized that I forgot one person: myself. My mom sent me a check with which to buy my own Christmas presents, and I haven’t used it yet. We do this every year; she usually gets me one or two small surprise gifts, but as a general rule, she doesn’t try to pick out clothes for me because it always ends in disaster. (I’m not saying that my mom doesn’t have taste. It’s just that she doesn’t necessarily know what I like. At all.)

I’m in the process of changing and updating pictures, I know I’m long overdue. I’ve changed the name of the Newport Beach photos to just California 2004 because all of our vacation photos are in there now. I’ve also added the ones from the Humane Society Walk, and from Thanksgiving. (Actually, they’re all photos from the weekend before Thanksgiving. I haven’t gotten the actual Thanksgiving photos from my mom yet.)

more money drama

Posted on by

Yesterday was the official 3rd business day since my checking account got looted, so I checked my balance online, and sure enough, I still didn’t have my money put back in my account. So I called the bank. The customer service girl told me that I had been misinformed; that actually, it would be 2 or 3 business days until I got an affidavit in the mail stating that the transactions were unauthorized. Then, I have to sign the affadavit, mail it back, it will take them ten business days to process it, and only after that will I get my money back. I proceeded to flip the hell out on the customer service lady. I started crying and I yelled at her, “Do you realize this is the first of the month? Do you realize my rent was due yesterday? What the hell are people supposed to do when this type of thing happens to them? How am I supposed to live with no money for 2 weeks?!?!!” I finally realized that I was borderline hysterical and this conversation was going nowhere, so I just hung up on her. I called my mom – she was willing to lend me the money, but it wouldn’t get here before the 5th (my landlord has a 5-day grace period), but she offered to overnight a check. Dave also offered to lend me the money. I decided that would be easier, since there’s no postal service involved, and we decided that he’d give me the check today so I could deposit it and still get my rent check in on time.

Then, this morning, I got online again to check my bank balance – it’s sort of become a habit over the past few days. Lo and behold, my money is back in my account. It’s listed as “provisional credit”, so I think that means that it’s just a loan until they get the affadavit processed. But still, thank God. The customer service chick told me it would take 10 days just to get the damn provisional credit, so I guess she was either confused or just an idiot. Either way, all is well now.

In other news, Dave’s mom left on Thursday. We had a little going-away dinner on Wednesday night, which was fun. I’m kind of sad that she’s gone, I had a lot of fun spending time with her over the past couple of weeks. At the same time, it’s nice to have Dave all to myself again. Speaking of which, I plan on wrapping up with work sometime in the next couple of hours, and then Teenie and I are going to pack up & head over for a weekend in Duvall. Maybe we’ll get a Christmas tree. Yay!

Turkey Day recap

Posted on by

I picked my sister up from the airport on Wednesday in kind of a panicked state. Her plane was a half-hour early, so I was still at my apartment when she called to tell me that she had landed. I met her outside baggage claim, she said she didn’t wait too long. I guess de-boarding time and all that. We went to Redmond to meet up with Dave for lunch, who was unusually quiet and well-behaved. I think he was more nervous than he let on. But lunch was fine, and then Tracy and I shopped for a while before we headed back to my apartment. (We both managed to find Christmas gifts for our mom, who is the most impossible person in the world to shop for, so hooray for that.) After chilling out at my apartment for a couple of hours, we went back to the airport to pick up my folks. They were supposed to get in at 7:00, and when we were at lunch, I could’ve sworn that I told Dave to meet me at my apartment between 7:30 and 8:00. I guess there was some miscommunication there (my sister heard the same thing Dave did, so apparently I was wrong), and my phone rang at 7:00, which was Dave, asking me to go downstairs and let him into the parking garage. Oops. I told him to go to the Irish pub around the corner and have a beer, and I’d call him as soon as I collected my parents and got back to the city.

Meanwhile, back at the airport, Tracy and I found my folks – my dad managed to make it almost 5 minutes before asking me if I had gained any weight. I suppose that’s progress. We got back to my place, met up with Dave, and went to dinner. That actually went pretty well. My mom seems to really like Dave, and he even got a couple of laughs out of my dad, which is amazing. After dinner, we got my parents settled in at their hotel (a block & a half from my apartment), and called it a night.

Thanksgiving Day, we loaded up the car with goodies and headed out to Dave’s house. And I must say, I think Mags and I managed to pull off a mighty impressive Thanksgiving feast. (Dave gets props too – he made the house look great before we all arrived.) But I’m SO glad that Mags was there to make the turkey, because it turned out amazing, and there’s no way I could’ve pulled that off. Everyone seemed to really like the food, and the families all seemed to like each other, so yay! I was incredibly stressed out and snapped at people a lot because I kept feeling like my family was nitpicking every little thing I did – even down to things I can’t control, like why is it so cold and rainy in Seattle. Dave, bless his heart, kept refilling my spiced rum and diet coke, which helped to relax me a lot. After dinner, we played Cranium and Pictionary, which was hilarious. My dad is the most random pictionary player ever. He draws boobs on a stick and we’re supposed to guess that that means “Miss America.” And his cars look like space shuttles. It’s kind of insane. Makes for a fun evening, though.

OH! The biggest breakthrough of the day: Greta, the semi-feral cat, actually let me pet her. I think this is all due to Mags, who is like Dr. Doolittle with animals. She had gotten to pet Greta, which may have made her realize that humans are not all bad. So when I managed to get her to eat a piece of turkey out of my hand, she let me pet her while she ate it. That was so cool. Who knows, she might actually turn out to be a normal cat someday.

Friday, it finally stopped raining, so I dragged my family through Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square. We were going to do the Underground Tour of Seattle, which I have wanted to do for ages, but the last tour was sold out. This is the 2nd time that I’ve tried to go on this tour and not been able to (the other time was because we missed the start of the last tour of the day), so I’m starting to think that’s a sign that I’m not meant to go. We were all pretty exhausted by early in the evening, so we got deli food from one of my local grocery stores, rented “Cold Mountain” (had to fast-forward through the sex scene at the end because there is No Nudity when my dad is in the room), and chilled out.

This morning, everyone is getting ready to leave, which means there is no sleep to be had in my apartment. My sister has already left, and my parents will be going soon. As soon as I get back from dropping them off at the airport, I plan on taking a nice 4 or 5 hour nap.