rosalicious

I am in such an awful mood!

No reason in particular, except maybe the weather. Two days of rain and chill and gloom are doing a number on me, I guess. Or maybe it’s my hair that I think looks like crap-on-a-ponytailed-stick right now (haircut and color next week though, hallelujah!). I dunno, but I’ve wanted to cry like 3 times today.

And no, it is not PMS! It’s just an icky, yucky malaise that’s making me wanna curl up on the couch with a pizza, some wine, and the movie we’ve had from Netflix for over 2 months (The Darjeeling Limited.) Ummmm, doesn’t that sound so good though?

I am not even going to yoga tonight. Though it’s partially because my calves are realllly sore from our backpacking trip this weekend.

So, there you go - that’s something sunshiney! Except for the fact that we woke up yesterday morning to rain and fog and hat-wearing weather. That’s not so sunshiney. But it was a good, quick little trip, just enough to whet my summertime camping appetite! ;)

And the rest of the weekend sure was productive enough. We bought a dresser for the bedroom, so now our clothing is all properly housed, and we planted our entire garden full of delicious fruits and veggies. I finally unpacked some “personal effects” for the house, and hung stuff on the walls. It’s really coming along.

Except, not. The kitchen wall is really bumming me out. I don’t know what to do. I wish someone else would just take care of it. I am tired of trying to solve the problem of who to hire and how much to pay and where to get the $$…sigh.

My life is just so rough.

(Said with absolutely no amount of seriousness.)

I also want to point out, because Kevin pointed it out to me, that I would never use this blog as a means of passive-aggressiveness. My “annoyedness” mentioned in the previous post has nothing to do with anyone who I know reads this blog. I would never ever communicate to someone that way.

You know, just so ya know ;)

Anyway, that’s all I got for today. I do believe the couch and Basil Doc’s Pizza are calling my name.

Incidentally, the things I have to blog about right now are unbloggable. They have to do with:

- Work
- Relationships
- People who annoy the fuck out of me (see above)

(Not Kevin!)
(And if you’re reading this, not you either!)

Otherwise, life this week has been a steady stream of predictable.

On the personal front:

I have been working out 5 or 6 days a week for 3 weeks now and I am seeing NADA in the way of ass-shrinkage. My summer clothes are all still snug. WTF?

We bought tickets to New York for 4 days the 3rd weekend of June. I am beyond excited; I have NEVER been to NYC. Can you believe that? I know, and I am from the east coast! There is so much I want to see and do and eat. My family is going to be up there at the same time as well. Party time.

Facebook has really been bringing old-school peeps out of the woodwork. Also, new-school peeps too. I feel like I make a lot more judgments about people based on their profiles than I should….like, so and so didn’t list Married, are they having problems? Oh, and brace yourself: Kev joined Facebook! One of his first FB friends is this girl who pounced on him when we broke up awhile ago for a brief spell. Unfortunately I can’t see her profile. Yes, I really am that juvenile. And not ashamed to admit it either.

Biggie Purrs also has a Facebook. Now it’s a family-wide festivity! ;)

On the house front:

I composted the garden, planted an entire bed of spinach, greens, and misc lettuces (somewhat belatedly), and planted some perennials. The yard is looking up. Well, except for the hideous ground cover in the front bed that I thought I dug up but is somehow making a come-back…I don’t know what to do about it. I wish that eco-friendly herbicide were more of a reality.

Our big Ikea bookcase has both arrived and broken. Cheap Swedish shit, I tell you. We still love it though…cheap Scandinavian design notwithstanding.

And I swore up and down that I would not bring a single piece of crappy Target furniture into our house, yet what did I go and do yesterday? Brought a piece of crappy Target furniture into our house. It’s only a CD shelf, so I made the exception (and it IS solid wood). Thing is, there are some cute little tables that would go great in our bedroom. However, I must stand by my convictions: NO LAMINATED CHIPBOARD.

I spray painted our mailbox. Only I would care about such a thing.

….and the list goes on.

I’m going to try to choke down a bunch of chill pills this weekend, ’cause lord knows: I NEED THEM.

You try to take some too, ‘kay?

xoxo

Woooohooooo! The marathon is OVER!

(Oh yeah, and Kev did great too ;)

It was a gorgeous, productive morning (even for someone who didn’t even run 50 yards). I got up at 4:30 am, took Kev to the start, came home and did some gardening with the sunrise, then packed up the Subie with bagels, fruit, OJ, champagne, beer and our signs.

THE SIGNS! Oh lord, Deana and I got together Friday night and drank 2 bottles of wine and giggled our way through making signs to cheer Kev on. They definitely look like signs that 2 drunk (and possibly stoned) chicks made: “LOL UR DONE” and “SPIRIT FINGERS,” for example.

(Although, the SPIRIT FINGERS one ended up being appropriate as we were perched right next the cheerleaders at the finish line. They liked it.)

The signs were also a hit with all the other runners finishing, as well as the MC across the street, who asked us who we were cheering for, then proceeded to yell into the mike “Where’s Kevin, where’s Kevin?” every 30 seconds.

Even when a guy went down right in front of us from dehydration/heat stroke (scary!), he was once again yelling “Where’s Kevin? Where’s Kevin?” right after announcing the need for a medic. Way to make a girl feel confident, dude.

But I needn’t have worried, because shortly thereafter, Kev came ambling towards the finish. He did it!

Here’s the video of his finish. You can hear our friend on the mike yelling “Kevin! we’ve been waiting for you buddy, we love you!” Ha ha.. Oh, and Kev is the one in the camelbak. My excitement marred my videotaping skills, clearly.

Official time: 4 hours, 11 minutes.

from vodpod.com posted with vodpod

I know it sounds weird, but sometimes I try to read this blog like I am not the one who wrote it. And sometimes, I’ll enjoy it! I’ll read through my archives for entertainment, not for nostalgia, and sometimes I’ll even laugh.

Yeah, anyway, so I just read that last year at this time I was getting ready to go to Belize and I got so jealous of myself.

(No! I am not smoking crack! But it’s certainly schizophrenic-sounding of me, isn’t it?)

God, instead of fun trips and drunken mishaps, all this blog is lately is lame tales about the house. Fuck, it’s like I am a damn niche blog. Instead of a mommyblog, I’m a new-house blog; except the baby here has walls, a roof, a yard, and an incessant cry for new furniture.

So instead of doing house stuff tonight, I am going to go out and get hammered. JUST SO MY LIFE ISN’T SO BORING.

Just kidding!

(I hope. I have high hopes for going for a run after work, but a friend wants to hang out and since Kevin is not into hanging out because he is Mr. Marathon this weekend, that means I am going to be easily coerced into happy hour-style drinks and as a result will not go for a run as planned.)

Actually, hammered-time was last Friday night. Em came down and we went to Vita and lord, that is where the trouble starts and ends. I have sternly ordered the bartender there never to bestow upon me a shot ever again. Shots + red wine = bad news. And lost cell phones. I LOST MY CELL PHONE! Do you know how much that sucked?

Wasn’t the first time that happened though. I once lost my phone at PT’s Showclub (which yes, is a strip club, in case you were wondering) but when I called it, someone actually answered it and told me he was a bouncer there and to come ‘n git it! So, that time, it was sucessfully retrieved. This time, I wasn’t so lucky.

Anyway, I guess the last 2 things on my mind before I spend the next 30 minutes here at work cleaning my desk and watering my plants are a) I don’t want to grow up and feel old! and b) I have the biggest crush on Sufjan Stevens. His music rocks my world.

Nice weekends to all!
xoxo

Y’all, this house is bugging me out right now. I am tired of living in shambles!

(Okay, maybe shambles is just a touch too dramatic…)

We’ve been here for over 2 weeks now and we still don’t have a freaking couch. Our current fridge is held together with duct tape and is crammed hideously into a wall that we’re still getting bids on taking out. We are sleeping in the guest room. We have no door mat. We really don’t have many rugs in general. Walking down to the basement on the ramshackle stairs is a life risk. There’s nothing on the walls. The kitchen sink needs caulk around it. The garden is empty. All of my precious tchotchkes are still in boxes. There are no blinds on the bedroom windows.

!!!!!!!!!!!

I know that good taste (*wink*) doesn’t happen overnight, especially when everything we buy is online and needs time to be shipped, but still. I want my home to feel HOMEY and I WANT IT NOW!

I am the most impatient person I know. This house certainly, no, DEFINITELY, is no exception.

Ugghhhhh!

(I am also ready for the marathon to be over, but that makes me sound so incredibly unsupportive so I’ll leave it at that. I am very proud of Kev but it is A LOT of time and A LOT of good, wholesome behavior.)

Anyway, I kind of just needed to bitch, so thanks for listening. I also needed to take some pictures so when everything is finally pretty and lovely and cozy I can look back and THANK THE SWEET BABY J it’s over.

Go have a looky at my flickr to see some of what I’m talking about —–>

(I am too lazy right now to post ‘em on here)

This week marks the anniversaries of several noteworthy occasions.

In order of importance:

- Kev and I met/had our first date 7 years ago. SEVEN YEARS. Most marriages don’t last that long these days ;) To celebrate, we had dinner last night at Izakaya Den which was A GAZILLION times better than Sushi Den. I wanted to scream at all the people waiting in line for Sushi Den: “NO! Don’t wait for overhyped Sushi Den! Izakaya Den has the same quality sushi (same owners, so why wouldn’t they?) but better service! And no wait!” But then that would spoil it for everyone, wouldn’t it? I’ll just keep my little secret to myself.

- I started my job 5 years ago. Sometimes I can’t believe I am still here. But, it’s been going really well lately. I have a new boss and she is good. I now get FOUR weeks of paid vacation a year, plus the same 2 weeks of sick time. (I know, awesome!) And, I am about to do a little $$ negotiating. I just wish I had a window back here in my office! (wah.) It could definitely be worse.

- I started this blog 3 years ago. The absolute best thing about having this blog has been having a written record of the last 3 years of my life. How many people can remember what they were doing 2 years ago to the date? Not many. I love looking back and seeing what I’ve done and how I’ve grown. So many times I have wanted to throw in the towel, but then I remember: I write this thing for ME. I don’t make money from this blog, or have gobs of commenters. But that’s OK…rosalicious isn’t trying to be anything other than the online diary of little ol’ me.

So yeah, May seems to be a big month!

So the latest house saga is the kitchen wall we’re trying to take out.

We had a structural engineer come in last week and check it out because it’s a load-bearing wall and is also an original external wall made of brick. (While he was here he inspected our foundation too and thankfully, our 1923 house isn’t falling down! woot!) He drew up some design plans and gave us a recommendation for a contractor who specializes in restoration of older homes.

We had the contractor come out and give a looksee. When we got his bid several days later we about keeled over:

Guess how much. Seriously. Guess how much he bid to take out less than 6 feet of brick wall.

THIRTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS.

I know, right? Let’s all have a deep-bellied laugh together.

And NINE HUNDRED of that was to re-tile less than 2 square feet of slate tile, slate tile that WE are even providing.

‘Kay, let’s laugh some more.

Needless to say, we decided to get other bids.

God, y’all would not believe the character who just left our house tonight after giving us our next bid. We got his entire life story: why his wife left him, how his nephew is a coke head (but works for him), how one of his clients is allergic to teak and broke out in a rash on her assfrom sitting on something he built, how he demolished half of downtown Denver in the 80s, how he’s “a Christian man and ain’t passing the pearly gates knowing he ripped us off.”

Dude, you could be satan’s beer-gutted spawn for all we care: YOU BID TEN GRAND LOWER!

Still - we are getting more bids. If you guys know of anyone good, let me know! ;)

*   *   *

I put some “during” pictures of the house up on Flickr. Look at the set, not my photostream, as I positioned the “during” and/or “after” pics so you can better see the progress.

I am so tired of all my thoughts beginning with the words “I need to.” I am ready to get back into the “I want to” swing of things…

I want to drink coffee and leisurely read the paper.
I want to go for a bike ride.
I want to have a picnic in the park.
I want to go bowling.
I want to play disc golf.
I want to go for a hike.
I want to start drinking tequila at 2 pm in the afternoon.

None of my days lately are open books where possibilities are endless. Each day is packed to the gills with need-to-do stuff, each hour occupied by an errand, a chore, a project, a trip to the Big HD.

I know, cry me an effing river, rosalicious.

Still. I don’t feel like I have choices. I feel like I have “have tos.”

Regardless, this weekend was spectacularly productive. Last night at dinner I told Kev that the average person wouldn’t have accomplished as much as we had. And seriously, it’s true - Kev and I are both super hard workers. We don’t stop until we’re DONE (or until one finds out they don’t have enough of the right hardware to finish the master bedroom closet).

Check it:
- We bought a new couch, chair, and ottoman. And also, a new shower curtain.
- We hit up free mulch day and shoveled 50 lbs of mulch in the back of my Subaru.
- Kev ran 20 miles while I hauled away the hideous rocks that lined every single flower bed, dug up the area in front of the entire front porch, and spread mulch.
- We hung blinds.
- We organized the basement.
- We bought this dining room set.
- We went to a 30th birthday dinner.
- We tore out the master closet and replaced the fixtures.
- We weeded the entire yard.
- We mowed the entire yard.
- We painted a dresser.
- We made it so we can walk around the office where all the boxes of crap currently live.
- We put all the plants outside.
- We planted some herbs.
- We talked to a dude about a new mattress.
- We got cable and internet hooked up.
- We returned some shit at HD.

Are you impressed/exhausted/irritated yet, because I can KEEP GOING…

Only, I can’t. I am TIRED.

Goddamn, give this girl a cookie! Look how many times I’ve blogged this week! ;)

Ugh, so it’s Friday and I have a riveting evening of furniture shopping ahead. I am dreading it. FOR REAL. I love domesticity, but I do NOT enjoy shopping. And I do not usually enjoy shopping with the significant-other (or anyone else, for that fact!), especially for things like this where you could say we have different…ideas about how things should be/look/affect the environment. Getting the house together has been/is a true test! I do not have a boyfriend who doesn’t care about house things, that’s for sure. I don’t know whether to be thankful or bummed.

Hey look! my neighborhood is listed as a good (safe!) area to buy a house in this month’s 5280 magazine! And my street, Hayward, even got a shout-out! I am so PROUD. And so relieved. Cha-CHING!

Yeah, so Cha-CHING is right! We’ve been doing lots and lots and lots of BUYING. I just paid $100 for a custom address plaque (don’t tell Kevin) from Smith and Hawken. To my defense, you would too if you saw the cheesy plastic Home Depot-style house stickers that identify our very-special abode. The list of other things to buy is *this long*. Poor Kev is having a hard time with the consumption aspect, but I’m trying to convince him that this is our FIRST house and that consumption comes with the first house-territory.

Other than furniture shopping, tomorrow is Denver’s Free Mulch Day, to which I am driving the Subie and loading ‘er up with a big free pile of ground-up Christmas Trees! We also need to weed, mow grass, paint a dresser, hang blinds, organize the camping gear room, fix the armoire, install the closet, procure bookshelves, unpack the office, replace the basement stairs, paint the stairwell, run 20 miles (oh wait, that’s Kev) and go to a 30th birthday party.

DON’T YOU WANT TO BE ME?!

For the past few weeks I have been riveted by Crystal’s “Crazy Chronicles” on her blog. Seriously, I check everyday, waiting for the newest installment to come out.

Wow. It is amazing what this chick has been through and I just want to hug her, and then beg her to keep telling her story because it just so damn juicy.

(Oh, and apologize for likening her to Lifetime TV.)

(And probably also for using her difficult life experiences for my own selfish entertainment.)