I love my dog.

Really. She sleeps in my bed. She eats expensive food. I spend obscene amounts of money on her veterinary care. She gets her teeth cleaned more often than I do. She is my baby.

HOWEVER, she is not an ACTUAL baby. and treating/talking to her like she is results in only one thing: a poorly behaved dog. She has to know that anything that walks on two legs, no matter how short or non verbal, is in charge of her, espeically when that thing is eating food.

So, if you come to my house, and I ask you not to do things like talk to my dog when you are at the table, encouraging her to get up from where she is minding her own business and come over to you, expecting to be fed (because you are, after all, talking to her while you're at the table.) Please realize that I am not trying to be bitchy or picky, I am just trying to protect us all from bad manners.

Thanks.

I am so bored, la, la, lala

It is brutally hot here. It's 81 degrees in the living room and it's even hotter upstairs. It was so hot earlier, I just laid down and took a nap. It was the only option.

Tod is coming home really really soon. The last part allways seems to go by the slowest.

I have gone from watching the SciFI channel not at all to it being one of my favorite channels. Eureka is a brilliant show, and Dead Like Me looks really good too. I am currently watching Stargate the movie, hoping that it is connected to stargate the series. They definitely seem to be connected, but kind of tenuously at best.

My XX roommates parents are here, and his sister. They're nice people, but having people here I have to be social with is always stressfull. I mostly hide in my room. They're here a lot. I only got like two hours notice they were coming yesterday, or I probably would've gone to see my mom.

Just 24 Days until Todd comes home . . .

That's just 4 episodes of Psych and Monk, 3 Episodes of the 4400, Saved, and The Closer, And 3 episodes of Project Runway and Eureka.  Not to mention countless episodes of law and order.

In case you didn't know . . .

'tis the season for BLT's.  Share one with someone you love.

and my seestur isn't really a brat.

My seestur's a brat . . .

First the good news.  THis is the last day this week I have to get up at this ridiculous hour.  Hallelujah.

My seester is all up in arms because Todd and I intend to stay in the same hotel room the night before our wedding.  She says it will make it less "special" and we need "contrast."  Here are my counter points.

1. We're getting married, I think that's pretty much as special as it's gonna get.

2. We live together. We will be sleeping in the same bed all the nights other than the lst one before the wedding, so how much contrast would that really provide, anyway?

3. I'm not sleeping on someone's couch the night before my wedding.

4. Todd ahs been gone for three months and is coming back almost one month to the day before the wedding, which means
           a. there's going to be "contrast" anyway.
           b. we're not spending anymore time apart.

5. In Mad About You, the night before Paul and Jamie get married they let themselves get talked into sleeping apart at the last minute and end up running off to find eachother in the middle of th enight and get married by a DOT worker who they thought was ordained, then they find out in the season finale that he wasn't really ordained after all, and they have to get remarried. 

SO I don't see what good can come of sleeping separately.

P.S. Martha- just because I think We're different in the picture than you say we are, doesn't mean I don't know!

you know what I'm going to do this weekend?

SLEEP.

Darn you cute paramedics . . .

Man, I am so sleepy. The Closer and Saved are such a double wammy on my sleep pattern monday night. I have got to start taking a nap or something if I'm going to stay up and watch both of them instead of just letting them tape. *grumble*

In related television news, I have finally succombed and started watching Stargate SG-1. It's pretty good. It's like Star Trek, only instead of that commie federation, it's the Good 'ole US of A that's running things.

The first wedding mistake . . .

So I finally got like 95% of the invitations addressed, made, and stuffed today. It wasn't until I was ALL THE WAY DONE, that I realized I had misprinted the zip code on the return address. *sigh* So when you get your invitationa nd there's a number written in on the return address zipcode, you know why. I guess as mistakes go, that's not so bad. This was after I caleld Todd to confirm that his middle name was, in fact, what I thought it was.

I've had a hard time deciding what to do for "favors." I would go with nothing, but that seems petty. The best idea I've heard is personalized fortune cookies. You can get like 300 of them for $130, and I don't htink that's so bad. But what to put on them? I would like your suggestions, oh great internet.

No, really, make suggestions.

side note: attn. Kristina, please send me your mailing address, thanks :)

attn: Martha

your site is not down, but it might as well be.

31 Days till Todd comes home!

I just thought you would like an update.

My guest room is now officially open for business, that is, a soon as I get a mattress sometime this week.

See my cute little vegetable garden?



And My baby watermelon?
And the snake I saw on the way back from the house from taking these picutres?

I have the sweetest fiance ever.

So, we wont' get into how sad and lonely it is here now that I've come home and Todd's not here. OK, we will. To paraphrase Martha, it's like all the color is missing. I kind of go to a different place when he's gone so I don't miss him so much, but seeing him kind of pulled me out of it and now I miss him more than ever :(

I told him a story about how a boyfriend I used to have used to rub my leg until he felt my muscle relax and then punch me right in the thigh, HARD. I won't mention any names, but at least two of you can probably guess who I'm talking about. This old boyfriend used to think it was really funny, and I wasn't telling it in an "oh woe is me" sort of way, just because it crossed my mind and it was an interesting story. but Todd was aghast. That's when it occured to me that I don't think he could intentionally hurt me if his life depended on it. In fact, I don't think he could intentionally hurt anyone. He is a genuinely better person than anyone else I've ever dated. I'm just glad that I didn't have some kind of bad boy complex that kept me from falling in love with him because of it. Because I am way lucky to have him.

OK, the sappy portion of our program is now over.

Yucky . . .

It is so hot here. It's not that our air conditioning is broken, it's just that the unit is way undersized for the house, so it's like 80 degrees in here no matter what. It's hot. The only hope is to sit perfectly still in the downstairs and will yourself not to sweat. Which is ok. Except the kids are spending all their time down here too. I can go in the bedroom and do my usual sitting watching TV thing, but the DVR isn't in there! Anyway, it's ok, they're really sweet kids (the little one is starting to walk now! it's so weird to see him stand up! ) they're just, well, kids.

I should be makingn wedding invitations. Because they're due to go out sometime this week. But I'm not. Because it's hot. Maybe this weekend. If I don't have your mailing address, and you are one of the at least 4 people who read this who are invited to the wedding, would you please send it to me? Thanks. :)

I am going to sit here and pine for a new imac and the new osx, and, for that matter, HIGH SPEED INTERNET now.

34 Days until Todd Comes home . . .

It's down from like, 100, so I'm starting the countdown early.

My students asked me today if I had ever been drunk. (It came up, we were talking about conferences.) and I said I didn't think that was something we should talk about. Apparently, my dead pan is getting pretty good because they were all like "She hasn't! She would've smiled if she had!"

It's amazing how high school kids perceive their teachers.

I'm happy for him. Really.

Generally, the stuff they say in the mac commercials is true. It really does just work. I know if you live in PC Land it's anathema to you that I haven't restarted my laptop in months, but I haven't. And I've been running the same 10 or 12 windows of the same 3 or 4 applications basically the entire time. No problems.

Todd, however, had a lemon of an i book. I don't know if it was made on a friday or what, but it's been in and out of the mac store the entire 2 1/2 years he's had it. He's had to take it in about 6 times, and twice he's lost all his data and they've sent it "off" somewhere.

This last time, in Ithaca, he was without his computer for like two months. I was starting to get a little ticked. For me not having a computer is really no big deal. But Todd actually uses his to, you know, work. Not to mention communicate with his fiance. This was not okay. The words "should we just buy a new one" even passed my lips.

When the nice man brought Todd's computer back to him at the mac store this time, I asked him if there was a mac lemon law. It turns out, THERE IS. We left the mac store yesterday with a brand new shiny macbook, complete with all the rebates we would've gotten if we actually bought it, so we also got a free printer! Now Todd has all the things I long for in a new imac, isight, the new OS, shinyness. Sigh.

I'M THE ONE THAT WANTED A NEW COMPUTER.

Sorry, my intense jealousy broke through there for a second.

Anyway, congratulations to mac for standing behind it's product. I always like to see that from a supplier of consumer goods.

NY . .. .

I'm in NY with Todd for the weekend! Yay! I won't get into the gory details, but . . .

My plane was uber delayed in Richmond and Laguardia, that sucked

BUT

I SAW AUSTIN SCARLETT FROM PROJECT RUNWAY IN THE LAGUARDIA AIRPORT!

That Rocked.

BAHAHAHA

My old job called me today. They sent me my contract but it came back.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

TV gooood. . .

I think we all know, so I'm willing to admit it, i am a complete TV junkie. Always have been. Until recent years, this means summers have been hard for me. I've looked for support groups, tried to pick up other hobbies, but none of them have quite gotten the job done.

Fortunately, cable tv networks have finallly figured out how to capitalize on people like me, they have started showing special summer series. Some of them are veeery good. Here's the run down.

1. Psych, USA, Fridays at 10. This show is goood. It's about a guy who has a photographic memory and so he figures stuff out and the cops think he's involved in crimes, so he lies and tells them he's a psychic, and now the premise is that he's running a private investigation firm and he's a fake psychic. It's laugh out loud funny.

2. The 4400, USA, Sundays at 9. Very good, in its third season, may be hard to catch up on, but very good if you're a sci fi fan. I'm watching it right now. It never ceases to suprise me.

3. The Closer. Mondays at 9 on TNT. If I had to pick just one of these to be on all year long, it would be this one. IF you're any kind of procedural crime drama fan, you MUST WATCH THIS. It's simply phenomenal. It should win an emmy soon.

4. Saved, Mondays at 10 on TNT. THis show is like ER before it got bad. And on Crack. And with cuter boys.

5. Project Runway, Bravo, Wednesdays at 10 I think. This show is also great and in its third season, reality tv at its best, with catty fashion designers.

Audience Participation

They're making a Clerks 2.  I have mixed feelings.  How about you?

my own personal roller coaster . . .

Living with people is always exciting.  I feel like I'm on a constant roller coaster about having my feelings hurt and feeling bad and then feeling better and treating everything like it's ok, and never saying anything about what they did to make me feel slighted.  I did finally speak up and talk about some stuff with the XX HO today, and I feel much better afterwards.

It's hard because this is their house and not ours, and more hard because I really want to buy a house here but we can't afford it yet.  And then, as anyone who's ever had a roommate knows, it's just much more complicated than living alone.  And then it's extra hard because Todd is not here and I only had two friends here, anyway, and they both moved away or are gone for the summer so I don't know ANYBODY.  I went and saw my family over the weekend, and it was really nice to see everybody and then I was a little sad when I had to come home :(

I really like my roomates, though.  We have a really good time hanging out, and I LOVE their children, and I like that I'm not here all alone all the time.  I just wish, you know, that they would never ever touch my stuff and would leave whenever I wanted.

But I guess that's not really practical :)

Just checking in . . .

Sorry I haven't posted much lately, I blame it on the dial-up. The only reason you're getting anything out of me now is because I'm at Martha's visiting.

TO update: All the water is back on at the house, hot and cold, and the hot water is WAY better than it was before. We also have decent water pressure again. Living with other people continues to be mroe complicated than living alone, but I really like the people I'm living with, so we're working it out.

I found a photographer I really really wanted for the wedding, but of course I couldn't afford her, and I emailed her and told her so, and she took 1000 dollars off the price because she wants to be in Chapel Hill that weekend. I said "Done!" (You still have to take lots of p ictures, DI.)

It looks like my grandma is leaning towards making the cake, which mean I might be off the hook.

I need to take a picture of the invitations and post it, maybe next time I go tot he library . . .

I'm going to see Todd in Two weeks! and then it's only a month until he comes home. Yay!