Date Night!

Friday morning my brother flew up to Colorado to help my uncle. Having the house to ourselves for the next month or so, Matt asked me out on a date :)

We went to dinner at Abuelo's (tasty!), then to a movie, and if you haven't seen it yet, PLEASE go see Slumdog Millionaire. SO good, really. We had a great time, enjoying each other's company, and I listened to a VERY long, very ridiculous work story. I swear, State Farm is so like high school, it's not funny.

Matt starts school again this week. Thankfully, his classes are only on Monday and Wednesday, and by the end of the month, he'll actually have Wednesday's off from work (LONG school day, but at least we can sleep in together!). I'm trying to completely rearrange my work schedule to coordinate, but its not looking good, and I may be cut down to 7 hours a week, and I'm actually considering a second job somewhere within walking distance. Thankfully, Avon has kept me pretty busy. I'm THISCLOSE to reaching the goal I'd set for myself last April, and already, I've broken all previous records for personal sales, so I'm very pleased (and rewarded myself tonight with my very own MP3 player. Its pink and SO cute, and I got it for half of the list price!) This means I won't have to steal Matt's when I want some music on my walks to F&E, which are becoming more frequent.

I've rediscovered a love for working out, and have been doing really well. I haven't lost more than 1/2lb just yet, but the fitted tee I wore today felt a lot less fitted in the arm and shoulder. Now, if I could just fight off this cold so I don't lose sll of my momentum!

Things That Happen When My Brother Is Around

I have my entire upper body wrapped in toilet paper, mummy-style.

I leave a lounge in Old Town with a large bottle of vodka under my butt. (it was paid for, hush up!)

I bake more, and am talked into ice cream sodas or walking to DQ (which is a bit counterproductive to my weight loss efforts. Eh, I figure the walk to GET dessert cancels out the dessert itself, yes?)

I stay up too late.

I have someone to watch Top Chef with.

I turn around in my kitchen after setting down a hot cake pan, and suddenly find my entire face and head covered in whipped cream.

I'm constantly told "c'mon. we'll all go out. I'll drive home, you and Matt have as many drinks as you want".

I run out of eggs at an alarming rate.

I've started to say "dude" and "awesome" a lot more.

I find myself saying "Boys! Dinner's almost ready. Can someone set the table?"

My sink is always full of dishes (from Mr. "I reuses glasses all the time")

Partnering with my husband, I am forced to relinquish control of my wheelchair and am taken around my kitchen in the fashion of "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride", laughing so hard I can't speak.



Never a dull moment...

Random stuff, really. A few days worth of posts crammed into one LONG one.

Its just after Midnight on Thursday (Friday? I agree with Matt, its not tomorrow until I've gone to sleep). This time last week, we were still in Old Town Scottsdale. Sponge, the fabulous band from Detroit (and good friends of ours!) was in town playing a free show, and they were probably just wrapping up their set. We spent the next couple hours hanging out in the VIP booth at ACME with the band, nibbling snacks (seriously. Best chicken fingers I've ever had, how weird is that?), watching some of the most...unusual dance moves I've ever seen, drinking and laughing and having a good time. Matt and I came home around 3am and went right to bed, since of course, Matt had to be at work at 7:45am. My brother Alan intended to get a ride home, somehow, as he was the sober one to drive everyone back to their respective hotels and homes.

Fast forward to 9:30am. Alan calls and tells me that he has no idea where in Phoenix he is, that he has no way home and that basically, the last person he dropped off didn't know how to get him home to Scottsdale, let him crash on the couch for an hour, then shooed him out so she could go to work, leaving him stranded. Oh, and asked for gas money. Right. So my penniless brother who isn't even FROM here is now trying to walk from nearly downtown Phx to the middle of Scottsdale. Matt calls and tells me that he's taking a half day, and I tell him that he has to pick up Alan on his way home. Ridiculous. Once home, the three of us did a whole lot of nothing on next to no sleep. Saturday and Sunday were pretty typical. I worked Saturday morning, then we ran errands all afternoon.

Matt, in preparation for the Phoenix Comic-Con this weekend, decided to finish reorganizing his comic book collection tonight. Halfway through, he discovers a hole - and a number of teeny bugs - on a box and the shelf. The box next to it no longer had a bottom. Ew. Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew. Ew times a zillion. He and Alan spent the next hour pulling all the comic boxes out, cleaning up what was left on the shelf, wiping it down with ammonia, and sorting through the comics in those two boxes, one by one, to determine the damage (only 4 comiccasualties to report, in case you care). It appeared to be some sort of fluke, something in between the two boxes, whatever it was hadn't gone any farther out than those two boxes, but you know I'll be putting a call in to pest control. Again, as they were just here last week as we found a friggen SCORPION the week before. Ew ew ew ew ew.

Matt's prepping for his second semester of school. I'm trying to work with my boss to completely rearrange my entire work schedule so he can get to class, and I get to work around stupid JURY duty on the 3rd. Thrillsville. In SA, if you had Jury Duty, you were there pretty much all day. If you were lucky, they called your group early and hopefully sent you home. Here in Phoenix, I get to go downtown (where I've never been) and I don't have a CLUE where. I won't even find out WHEN I have to be there until I call a phone number after 5pm the day before I have to show up. Thanks for being convenient. Let me just tell you how easy THAT will be to work around 2 work schedules, a school schedule and one car.

If I can remember the rest of the random stuff that happened earlier this week, I suppose I'll just have to post it tomorrow, for I seem to have forgotten it all at the moment..

I've been tagged!

8 TV Shows I watch:
1. How I Met Your Mother
2. Fringe
3. 24
4. LOST
5. Top Chef
6. The Biggest Loser
7. American Idol
8. America's Next Top Model (oh hush. its my one girly reality thing)

8 Restaurants I love:
1. Cantina Laredo
2. Jacala's (back in SA)
3. Taco Cabana (back in SA)
4. Freebirds (back in SA)
5. J Alexanders
6. Canyon Cafe/Sam's Cafe
7. Macaroni Grill
8. Wildflower Bakery

8 Things that Happened Today
(or yesterday in my case since it's only 9am)
1. did 40 minutes of strength training
2. walked to Fresh and Easy
3. baked chocolate chip shortbread
4. made a last minute decision to get Chicago dogs for dinner instead
5. talked to my mom
6. sorted an Avon order
7. watched Fringe and 24
8. read a chapter in my book

8 Things I look forward to:
1. the end of the day...I hate Wednesdays
2. that maybe it will get cold again here
3. being a mom
4. Seeing a movie Matt wrote at Sundance someday
5. Game Night this weekend
6. our 4th anniversary
7. reaching Honor Society with Avon
8. Matt's graduation from Film School

8 Things I wish for:
1. Reaching Honor Society with Avon
2. That Matt doesn't get burned out with working full time and going to school
3. a bigger kitchen
4. a magic kitchen so that I might cook lots of yummy amazing treats and not gain weight
5. but that the people I don't like might gain it instead ;)
6. a million dollars
7. student loan companies to magically lose all of their records and decide they can't collect anymore
8. Social Security to decide that that error they made in regards to the FIRST error they made wasn't actually an error and to fix it all the first time.

8 Songs I just listened to: (I won't count the craptastic music we've got in our changer at Curves right now)
1. Kings Of Leon - Sex On Fire
2. Hoarse - Crown
3. They Might Be Giants - Particle Man
4. Boston - More Than A Feelin
5. Led Zeppelin - All Of My Love
6. Good Charlotte - Lifestyles Of The Rich & Famous
7. Green Day - American Idiot
8. Sponge - Party Til We Drop

8 Favorite Movies:
1. Love Actually
2. The Holiday
3. The Goonies
4. Singin' In The Rain
5. Bells of Saint Mary's
6. Most of the Harry Potter movies
7. You've Got Mail
8. Swingers

Tag 8 people for this meme:


Yeah, I'll get to that later ;)

New Years Resolutions

I don't set them. Do you?

I'm probably in the minority, evidenced by how busy we've been at Curves and all of the new members that join every January (and I don't need all 10 fingers to tell you how many actually stick with it past Valentine's Day)

So far, the 2 weeks of 2009 have just kept me a busy bee. Busy at Curves. Busy with Avon. Busy with family (spending LOTS of time on the phone with my Dad since my grandma died.) Busy helping Matt prep for school. I'd like to change my vote please. I'd like to make a resolution to not be so BUSY! Busy keeping the apartment clean. Busy working out. Busy trying some of the most amazing new recipes, like Soy Ginger Chicken, Chile Rellenos Casserole, Chicken Biscuit Pot Pie, Almost Tempura Chicken Strips..

Too bad this isn't a food blog, right? ;)