Nutcase 101

If you’re awake and reading this post, you’re probably aware that 2009 has passed us by and 2010 is now what we’ll be writing on checks (if you still write checks).

This year, I do have resolutions and by putting them in writing and allowing public scrutiny, maybe I will actually execute said resolutions. Let the resolution games begin!!

- Organize the boxes of stuff in the my closet and guestroom closet. These boxes belong to both B and I pre-relationship and they (in my case) have not been opened in YEARS – at least four. A lot of the stuff either needs to be given away, sold or thrown away. Obviously we don’t need most of the items because we haven’t cared enough to pry off the lid.

- Exercise once a week. Just once a week, really how much ass power will that take me? I could say three times a week and be sorely disappointed with myself but once a week will wet my whistle for exercise and possibly cause me to go to the gym more. Because I know me, that once I get into the pattern/habit/addiction of exercising, I’ll want to go and will miss it when I don’t.

- Cook dinner at home twice a week. I’ve been incredibly slack in the area of cooking for B and I, relying on fast food, quick dinner restaurants to be our source of nourishment. This has caused both of our waste lines to expand in ways that make us sad puppies. Also, all my pots and pans are threatening to leave because of the neglect.

- Only buy yarn or fabric once every two months and the purchase amount has to be less than $25. I need to take pictures (once the closets are organized) of my yarn and fabric stashes. I think I have enough fabric to make 10 king size quilts and enough yarn to make all friends and extended family a nice warm scarf or a pair of socks. It’s ridiculous.

Four is a nice even number and none of the resolutions are overwhelming by any means – completely doable. And hopefully, I’ll do them. Let 2010 begin.

The love of my life has been cruising through life in a Miata. Yes, you read that right. A Miata.

It’s the car that we dated in. It’s the car that he took me to our proposal site in. And it’s the car that drove us to work for the first time as a married couple. And now it’s a part of our history.

And we had another huge first: We made our first purchase that required multiple signatures together.

B is now the proud owner of a 2010 Mazda 3 5-Door. 5-door is just a fancy term for hatchback.

(Car doesn’t have a name as of this post – but we are taking suggestions.)

Now to say this car came with bells and whistles, is an understatement. I think if I review the owner’s manual closely, I’m pretty sure I’ll find a button that will make the car cook us dinner and do our laundry. Now, the geeky feature B got all excited about is that the car doesn’t have a key.

NO KEY! You keep the car fob in your pocket and the fob talks to the car “Hello, car, I’m your friend!” and the car says, “Hi, fob, please bring you and your stranger into my inner sanctum of buttons and gizmos.”

And then the door unlocks when you touch the door handle. No touching the fob because fob doesn’t really like to be handled that much.

When you want the car to start, you press a button that says “Start” because the “Start” button also has a convo with fob as well. You, the driver, you don’t really get too involved.

Now, for me, this is all neat. Really, it is. But the feature that got me all hot and bothered? POLLEN FILTERS. When the pollen gets to much for me in the apartment, I can seek solace in the new car and breathe. BREATHE as nature intended: through my nose and not my mouth.

Oh, I also like the ass warmers. Because really after breathing, a warm ass is all you really want in life.

(Especially, Deb and Jocelyn.)

Alright, I’m showing you the areas that are somewhat presentable. I’m not showing you the bedrooms due to the guest room currently being a junk storage area and the master bedroom having massive laundry piles in every corner. Those piles are where socks come to mate because before we moved I couldn’t find a sock to save my frozen toes and now every sock I’ve ever owned since age four has been found.

Anywho, on to the grand tour!

Livingroom (my computer is the one in the very corner – yes, that’s where this magic happens):

Dining/B’s Office (yes, he has DUAL MONITORS, I’m jealous):

Ms. La Rue inspecting:

AND, for the BEST PART OF THE WHOLE APARTMENT…….THE KITCHEN!

Another fab kitchen view (before the move):

Now, you know why I have such an orgasm when we found out that this unit was available for us to move into. If you need me, I’ll be in the kitchen caressing every piece of granite, stainless steel and slate.

BACK!

I love, LOVE, LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE my new apartment. Once I find my card reader or the cable to the camera, I have pics! And, the internet. Oh, how I love our new service provider. What? You didn’t know how I despised our old cable service provider? Yeah, RIGHT!!

I’m hoping to cook dinner tonight. Unfortunately, my back and I are not on speaking terms. I think I over did it this weekend with the moving of clothing, shoes (I have WAY TOO MANY – that I never wear, need to resolve that problem ASAP), food. Did you know dropping frozen chicken breasts on your toes hurts like a MOFO?? Benefit to that though, you can use the frozen chicken breasts to reduce the swelling.

Now, I have to get back to transferring the small things and we have a TON of books to move. Yeah, that’s the bad thing about being a reader. Four bookcases of fiction, non-fiction, scholarly journals (like I’ll ever read those again) and the school books, that I couldn’t resell for more than a few dollars after I purchased them for three figures.

And, in about twelve months…we’ll be doing this whole moving thing all over again.

January - Got a new job and moved to Texas so I could be closer to B

February – Stared at four walls at new job

March - Went to N’awlins for the first time and ate some fantastic food

April - Me and a world famous pastry became best friends

May – Lost twenty-five pounds in five months

June – World Series of Poker and millionaires

July – Nose surgery, fun times for all

August - World came tumbling down with being laid off and an uberly sick La Rue

September – More job prospects than I could ever wish

October – Start new job with fabulous title and four weeks of vacay time

November – Gave lots of Thanks

December – Said “YES!” and started planning the “I dos”

And a lot more fabulousness to come in 2008

Next door! That’s me because it became official today that we got the apartment. There wasn’t really any doubt that we wouldn’t. We’ve been great tenants for the last year, it was a no brainer. Now, we have to prepare for our huge move of a whole sixty feet.

We might not be leaving our current apartment complex. We DEFINITELY are not staying in our current apartment but we might not have to move as far as we thought. Actually, we might just move right next door. And, that my lovelies, would be a dream move. Simply carry boxes right around the corner. Only bring in people to disassemble the furniture and reassemble it in the, larger more spacious, apartment beside us.

We’ll find out this week if this plan is feasible. I really, truly hope that it is. And, Sassy La Rue, will be able to keep her lovely view of the fountain. And you all know, it’s all about keeping Ms. La Rue happy.

I still haven’t unpacked. Nearly three months after moving from Memphis to Houston, there are still lovely Allied Van boxes decorating my living room. Actually, a lot of them are from my move from Tuscaloosa, Alabama to Memphis. Shameful, I know.

I have a friend whose fiance would DIE with just KNOWING that there were boxes still packed and in his house. He had to have EVERYTHING out of boxes, properly put away and boxes removed from the premises within five days of moving. Me, I can live with my boxes. B seems to not be worried about it either. He ignores them much like I do. Also, they block out the sun in the mornings thus we haven’t had to buy curtains – boxes are a money saver.

But, now I have a small dilemma. I’m actually having a house guest at the end of May. I hope that it will motivate me to remove my boxes that are now being used to hold up coats and entertain one superstar of a cat. I think Sassy would be upset if the boxes were taken away. Where would she hide and pitifully meow from? Also, she has a perch up on the top of the stack of three that allows her to reign over her kingdom.

The other thing is I don’t know where to store the stuff that is in said boxes. Frankly, I don’t have enough storage. And, the boxes keep all the mystery stuff safe and out of my way…what to do, what to do? I guess me and The Container Store need to become fast friends.

Please forgive the spelling and the grammar. As I write this, I’m POOPED! But, I had to share my early V-day joy. B and I are going out (where I don’t know) tomorrow night for our first Valentine’s day in the same state. So, I decided that I would cook him a nice meal tonight. Also, we never celebrated our Anniversary on Sunday (we both kind of forgot it.) He told me that he wanted to give my gift early. By early he wanted to give it to me before dinner.

I screamed with joy when I saw the Sur La Table bag. There were two boxes, wrapped beautifully and accented with a Sur La Table ribbon. As I lifted the bag it felt VERY heavy. Could it be what I had been hoping for? Don’t tease me… Yes, it was LE CREUSET! I honestly thought I would not own a piece until we got hitched but he remembered me talking about it when I first saw and had been saving it for when I was going to cook a special meal. I’m now the proud owner of the 12″ skillet and 3.5 Quart French Oven in beautiful cobalt blue. What cooking minded girl wouldn’t just swoon?

I immediately peeled off labels and began cooking! Tonight’s menu was mushroom risotto (Thanks, Deb!) modified from the recipe. I just followed the parts about the mushrooms and left out the rest of the veggies, since the selection at the market wasn’t that appealing. Also, I cut most of the stuff in half because it was only going to serve the two of us. B said it turned out delish! The whole cooking process was fun when I finally had REALLY nice cooking equipment. I’m still cooking with the set that I had in college along with a few pieces that of calaphlon that I’ve recently acquired. But the mushrooms and risotto came out lovely. The chicken cooked a little faster than I was prepared for but it was my first time frying in a cast iron pan. You can see the old pan in the background. B was really pleased with his late anniversary (two years on Sunday) early Valentine’s dinner. He’s requested that we have it again as soon as possible.

So, now I have two pieces of my dream cookware and my dream man, what more could a girl ask for on Valentine’s day?

Moving into a smaller place came with some issues that I was not expecting. One being, where to place the garbage can? I got a narrow, plastic trash can with a lid believing the issue was resolved. But, alas it was not. The can would not allow the lid to function correctly once a trash bag was inserted. With the lid impotent, we were exposed to seeing and SMELLING trash in our undining room, the only room with space to fit our refuse receptacle. B was utterly offended by the scents wafting his way and the issue needed to be resolved ASAP.

We went to Target and we were afraid to go plastic again due to the fact that my old can in Memphis absorbed odor and refused to get clean after a few months. But, we could banish it to the laundry room and give it chlorine baths. Alas, that was not the case here. So, B took me to a fabulous new place, a place I will soon be visiting again and again…THE CONTAINER STORE!

After reviewing the trash bin selection and getting over the sticker shock, we picked out this beauty.

Yes, I know that it is a little on the pricey side but it has a 10 year warranty, the bag is never seen by the outside due to plastic liner in the bin and the lid GLIDES shut. NO clanging, it glides smoothly closed after you lift your foot from the nice wide peddle. Also, it is heavy and Miss Sassy La Rue has not been able to knock it over, not for lack of trying. Proof is in the cat prints.

PS…I love B EVEN more, he brought home Girl Scout Cookies tonight. He even knew my favorite…Do Si Dos!