You and I both know the excuses I have for not writing often, so we’ll skip that portion of this blog and move straight on to the sweet nothings that I am wont to write.
The past few weeks have been, in a word, busy. Last weekend Anthony’s dad drove to DC for a visit, and the two weekends prior were devoted to visiting Preyasha at UVA (can I get a shout out for Martha, another UVA grad?) and giving me a heart attack at Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary.
So it was all that and graduate school, too. I spent most of the past weekend ignoring Anthony’s dad (sorry, Jeff) and researching security contractors in Iraq for a pro-con debate in my Third Party Governance class (which sounds just about as exciting as it is – unfortunately, it’s pretty darn useful, too; Damn you grad school! Damn you for being practical!). Greg, my fellow classmate, and I presented our whole “Despite-that-recent-Blackwater-incident-private-security-contracting-is-a-great-idea” argument Wednesday night. I think we did a good job of covering the basic concepts, but there is so much information on the subject and we were allotted a mere ten minutes in which to squish it. Even the Micro Machines man could not have expressed in ten minutes all the reasons why contracting in Iraq is essential. It’s a murky issue to manage and we public servants (this, despite the fact that I work for private industry) have to learn how to address the problems of contracting.
In any case, I worked really hard on this presentation and now I am glad it’s over. This class remains frustrating because, no matter how much time and effort I put into it, I still feel like I do not understand all the issues. Of course, this is the same class that is killing me slowly over the course of a semester so I shouldn’t be all that surprised. My other class, statistics, is a walk in the park, comparatively.
Anyway, my life really is that damn exciting.
Otherwise, the puppy is still in her cast, Pookie is still driving us nuts with all the talking, the Caribbean is still suffering from a tropical storm, California is still traumatized by fire, the Red Sox won the World Series (or so Andrew – my one link to the real world – tells me), Barak Obama danced on the Ellen Degeneres Show (maybe a new angle that all presidential hopefuls will try to emulate?), Jane Seymour has food poisoning, and a partridge still sits in a pear tree.
Friday, November 02, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
From the girl who used to fill out census surveys and then throw them away
This little survey is one of those cutesy couple questionnaires. I had a long weekend, so sue me if I don’t want to devote more brainpower to actual work today.
1. Who eats more?
It’s a photo-finish between Grace and Pookie. In second (or third) place is Anthony. And trailing at a distant third is me. In fact, Anthony still complains that I don’t eat anything at all now that I’m in grad school.
2. Who said "I love you" first?
He did – I conned him in to it. And then I gave him a Scooby Snack.
3. Who is the morning person?
It used to be me, but ever since his stint on the Secretary’s Detail, he can’t sleep longer than four or five hours. He’s up by 6:30AM, even on a Saturday. I at least have the good grace to sleep in until 7.
4. Who sings better?
He used to be in a band, I was in chorus. Apples and oranges, my friend.
5. Who’s older?
He is.
6. Who’s smarter?
He claims me, I claim the Fifth.
7. Whose temper is worse?
HIS. The good news is that he has an everlasting fuse.
8. Who does the laundry?
I do mine, he does his. If ever I become a housewife, I will be sure to peek into his laundry bag occasionally, but not a moment before then.
9. Who does the dishes?
As long as school is in session, he does. At least until I get so tired of seeing them in the sink.
10. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?
Wherever it is that I am IS the right side.
11. Whose feet are bigger?
If my feet were bigger, I’d cry.
12. Whose hair is longer?
Anthony doesn’t even have hair.
13. Who’s better with the computer?
Me. I’m geek-tacular.
14. Do you have pets?
Two gorgeous furry children, thank you.
15. Who pays the bills?
We split them. But I’m the one who gets the thankless task of balancing our checkbooks on Quicken.
16. Who cooks dinner?
As long as I have a say in the matter – he does. Until further notice.
17. Who drives when you are together?
Apparently, there is nothing so scary to Anthony as my driving. So he does.
18. Who pays when you go out to dinner?
He does.
19. Who’s the most stubborn?
It depends – we’re both pretty mulish.
20. Who is the first one to admit when they’re wrong?
I don’t know that we ever really admit we’re wrong. Cuz you know I’m always right.
21. Whose family do you see more?
For a while there it was his but now we see each of our families as infrequently as the other>
22. Who named your pet?
I named them both – one name was perfect, the other not-so-much. I’m batting at 50%.
23. Who kissed who first?
The tequila made me do it.
24. Who asked who out?
I’m pretty forward, ain’t I?
25. Who stole question 25?
The sock gnomes.
26. Who’s more sensitive?
I’m more likely to cry, but I think he takes things more personally.
27. Who’s taller?
Thank goodness he is! He’s the 6’4” to my 5’10”.
28. Who has more friends?
Me. We joke that he has only one.
29. Who has more siblings?
Due to the fact that he is an only child, I win the siblings contest.
30. Who wears the pants in the relationship?
I think we’re both far more comfortable in pants than, say, a skirt.
1. Who eats more?
It’s a photo-finish between Grace and Pookie. In second (or third) place is Anthony. And trailing at a distant third is me. In fact, Anthony still complains that I don’t eat anything at all now that I’m in grad school.
2. Who said "I love you" first?
He did – I conned him in to it. And then I gave him a Scooby Snack.
3. Who is the morning person?
It used to be me, but ever since his stint on the Secretary’s Detail, he can’t sleep longer than four or five hours. He’s up by 6:30AM, even on a Saturday. I at least have the good grace to sleep in until 7.
4. Who sings better?
He used to be in a band, I was in chorus. Apples and oranges, my friend.
5. Who’s older?
He is.
6. Who’s smarter?
He claims me, I claim the Fifth.
7. Whose temper is worse?
HIS. The good news is that he has an everlasting fuse.
8. Who does the laundry?
I do mine, he does his. If ever I become a housewife, I will be sure to peek into his laundry bag occasionally, but not a moment before then.
9. Who does the dishes?
As long as school is in session, he does. At least until I get so tired of seeing them in the sink.
10. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?
Wherever it is that I am IS the right side.
11. Whose feet are bigger?
If my feet were bigger, I’d cry.
12. Whose hair is longer?
Anthony doesn’t even have hair.
13. Who’s better with the computer?
Me. I’m geek-tacular.
14. Do you have pets?
Two gorgeous furry children, thank you.
15. Who pays the bills?
We split them. But I’m the one who gets the thankless task of balancing our checkbooks on Quicken.
16. Who cooks dinner?
As long as I have a say in the matter – he does. Until further notice.
17. Who drives when you are together?
Apparently, there is nothing so scary to Anthony as my driving. So he does.
18. Who pays when you go out to dinner?
He does.
19. Who’s the most stubborn?
It depends – we’re both pretty mulish.
20. Who is the first one to admit when they’re wrong?
I don’t know that we ever really admit we’re wrong. Cuz you know I’m always right.
21. Whose family do you see more?
For a while there it was his but now we see each of our families as infrequently as the other>
22. Who named your pet?
I named them both – one name was perfect, the other not-so-much. I’m batting at 50%.
23. Who kissed who first?
The tequila made me do it.
24. Who asked who out?
I’m pretty forward, ain’t I?
25. Who stole question 25?
The sock gnomes.
26. Who’s more sensitive?
I’m more likely to cry, but I think he takes things more personally.
27. Who’s taller?
Thank goodness he is! He’s the 6’4” to my 5’10”.
28. Who has more friends?
Me. We joke that he has only one.
29. Who has more siblings?
Due to the fact that he is an only child, I win the siblings contest.
30. Who wears the pants in the relationship?
I think we’re both far more comfortable in pants than, say, a skirt.
Blogthings make those Mondays one degree sunnier
| You Are From Pluto |
 You are a dark, mysterious soul, full of magic and the secrets of the universe. You can get the scoop on anything, but you keep your own secrets locked in your heart. You love change and you use it to your advantage, whether by choice or chance. You don't like to compromise, to the point of being self-destructive with your stubborness. Live life with love, and your deep powers will open the world to you. |
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
The kids
Because I have nothing better to post and, more truthfully, no time to actually post, you will have to settle for these adorable pictures of our furry children, also fondly known as da' Momma's grandchildren:
Actually, the "upload picture" function on Blogger isn't working right at the moment and all I can post is Grace...
Oh well. You'll just have to enjoy the puppy!
Actually, the "upload picture" function on Blogger isn't working right at the moment and all I can post is Grace...
Oh well. You'll just have to enjoy the puppy!
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
A little more than half
Proviso: I am in the middle of graduate school. We don’t read anything for fun. I started to read Madeline Albright’s memoir near the end of August (right after re-reading the whole Harry Potter series, to include the 7th book), but that has fallen to the wayside because graduate school has taken over my life. So, with my excuses for not being more of a nerd firmly in place, and without further ado…
These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users as of 9/30/07. (Stolen from Rob)
These are the original instructions: “As usual, bold what you have read, italicize what you started but couldn't finish, and strike through what you couldn't stand.”
Instead, I bolded what I read, and italicized anything I felt I wanted to comment upon. I’ve read a little less than half the books here, and had something to say about another twenty books. All told, that’s 61! Whew, am I ever a book geek.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (on my Amazon wishlist)
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One hundred years of solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion (own it, not interested; Tolkien’s greatest works are the Hobbit and LOTR – everything else he wrote was pretty dense and difficult to read according to my taste – it’s too bad, b/c I really LOVE elves)
Life of Pi: a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses (own it, but I’m hesitant about getting into Joyce)
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice (probably about 10-15 times, and I own the Keira Knightley version of the movie; the BBC version is on my Amazon wishlist)
Jane Eyre (at least twice)
A Tale of Two Cities (I have basically read everything Dickens)
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies (on my Amazon wishlist)
War and Peace (there’s a great cartoon my friend drew of me in high school, clutching this book to my chest – she thought I was an egghead – but I have to admit, I’ve never read it)
Vanity Fair (saw the movie – is that even close?)
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Iliad
Emma (2-3 times)
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway (on my Amazon wishlist)
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged (great read!)
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books (own it, haven’t gotten there yet)
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West (saw the musical – does that count?)
The Canterbury tales
The Historian : A Novel (I enjoyed it, Anthony felt it lost steam by the middle – go figure)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault's Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A clockwork Orange (hated the movie)
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King (does owning the movie count? Or how about dating someone who loves, loves, LOVES the movie???)
The Grapes of Wrath (I wrote the longest paper of my life in 8th grade on this book, part of which was a summary of each chapter - do you know how many chapters this book has???)
The poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984 (it’s scary how often I find myself referring to this book and Fahrenheit 451)
Angels and Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses (I read part of it in college, and then read it again last year – I can’t say that I’m a fan)
Sense and Sensibility (Own the movie, own the book, seen/read it plenty!)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Just read it this year – I really wanted to like Oscar Wilde – his quotes are really quotable – but this received only an “eh” from me)
Mansfield Park (read this at least twice – I have this love of Jane Austen if you haven’t noticed yet)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (again with the movie!)
To the Lighthouse (on my Amazon wishlist)
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Oliver Twist (loved it!)
Gulliver's travels (used to watch the movie every weekend as a child – what can I say? We didn’t have a lot of movies; it was either that or the Wizard of Oz)
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Dune (own it, but haven’t quite gotten around to reading it)
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury (and I abhorred it – reading the quintessential “tale told by an idiot” is an exercise in futility)
Angela's Ashes: A Memoir
The God of Small Things
A People's History of the United States: 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners (own it, but haven’t quite gotten over my antipathy towards Joyce)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita (on my Amazon wishlist)
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything (own it, but haven’t gotten there yet)
Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity's Rainbow
The Hobbit (at least five or six times)
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences (again, saw the movie)
White teeth
Treasure Island (this was one of the other movies we owned when I was young, along with Wizard of Oz and Gulliver’s Travels)
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers (love the movie!)
These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users as of 9/30/07. (Stolen from Rob)
These are the original instructions: “As usual, bold what you have read, italicize what you started but couldn't finish, and strike through what you couldn't stand.”
Instead, I bolded what I read, and italicized anything I felt I wanted to comment upon. I’ve read a little less than half the books here, and had something to say about another twenty books. All told, that’s 61! Whew, am I ever a book geek.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (on my Amazon wishlist)
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One hundred years of solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion (own it, not interested; Tolkien’s greatest works are the Hobbit and LOTR – everything else he wrote was pretty dense and difficult to read according to my taste – it’s too bad, b/c I really LOVE elves)
Life of Pi: a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses (own it, but I’m hesitant about getting into Joyce)
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice (probably about 10-15 times, and I own the Keira Knightley version of the movie; the BBC version is on my Amazon wishlist)
Jane Eyre (at least twice)
A Tale of Two Cities (I have basically read everything Dickens)
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies (on my Amazon wishlist)
War and Peace (there’s a great cartoon my friend drew of me in high school, clutching this book to my chest – she thought I was an egghead – but I have to admit, I’ve never read it)
Vanity Fair (saw the movie – is that even close?)
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Iliad
Emma (2-3 times)
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway (on my Amazon wishlist)
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged (great read!)
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books (own it, haven’t gotten there yet)
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West (saw the musical – does that count?)
The Canterbury tales
The Historian : A Novel (I enjoyed it, Anthony felt it lost steam by the middle – go figure)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault's Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A clockwork Orange (hated the movie)
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King (does owning the movie count? Or how about dating someone who loves, loves, LOVES the movie???)
The Grapes of Wrath (I wrote the longest paper of my life in 8th grade on this book, part of which was a summary of each chapter - do you know how many chapters this book has???)
The poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984 (it’s scary how often I find myself referring to this book and Fahrenheit 451)
Angels and Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses (I read part of it in college, and then read it again last year – I can’t say that I’m a fan)
Sense and Sensibility (Own the movie, own the book, seen/read it plenty!)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Just read it this year – I really wanted to like Oscar Wilde – his quotes are really quotable – but this received only an “eh” from me)
Mansfield Park (read this at least twice – I have this love of Jane Austen if you haven’t noticed yet)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (again with the movie!)
To the Lighthouse (on my Amazon wishlist)
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Oliver Twist (loved it!)
Gulliver's travels (used to watch the movie every weekend as a child – what can I say? We didn’t have a lot of movies; it was either that or the Wizard of Oz)
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Dune (own it, but haven’t quite gotten around to reading it)
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury (and I abhorred it – reading the quintessential “tale told by an idiot” is an exercise in futility)
Angela's Ashes: A Memoir
The God of Small Things
A People's History of the United States: 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners (own it, but haven’t quite gotten over my antipathy towards Joyce)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita (on my Amazon wishlist)
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything (own it, but haven’t gotten there yet)
Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity's Rainbow
The Hobbit (at least five or six times)
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences (again, saw the movie)
White teeth
Treasure Island (this was one of the other movies we owned when I was young, along with Wizard of Oz and Gulliver’s Travels)
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers (love the movie!)
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Meanwhile, they’re breaking my dog…
I dropped Grace off at the vet this morning to get her surgery with the meanest orthopedic surgeon on the planet. She started trembling in the back of the car by the time we were driving around Dupont Circle, and was panting in earnest by the time I parked the car. Does she ever hate going to the vet.So now I feel like I deserve the “Worst Mommy on Earth” award. Not only did I force her to go to the vet, but I also a) left her there, b) left her there with Dr. Evil, c) left her there with Dr. Evil so she could get surgery, and d) left her there with Dr. Evil so she could get surgery that may prevent her from coming home until tomorrow. My baby girl may be stuck at the vet’s office OVERNIGHT. I hope she forgives me.
So, the surgery. If I haven’t already told you why Grace is getting surgery, I’ll tell you now. About two weeks ago, we brought Grace into the vet for her regular checkup to see how the ol’ leg is healing. Dr. Elliott took one look at the leg and told us that it wasn’t healing properly. There was swelling and her little foot was sticking out at an odd angle.
We set up an appointment with Dr. Evil for the following week. I brought her to that consultation as well (trembling and all) and had to leave her at the vet’s office for a good portion of the day. By the time I picked her up, she was so happy to see me I thought her tail was going to wag itself off. She was all like, You came back! You came baaaaaaaaaack!!!
Dr. Evil earned his nickname then by calling me and basically blaming Anthony and me for Grace’s leg not healing properly. (Apparently, we really should have followed through with those joke recommendations I thought up in a previous blog.) He really pissed me off with his comments, but the vet office staff reassured me that, although Dr. Evil’s bedside manner really sucks (their words, not mine), he is very good at what he does. He had better be, because Anthony is threatening to introduce Dr. Evil to his little friend if Grace doesn’t come out of this well (so very a la Scarface of him, eh?).
So now I’m waiting impatiently to hear back from the vet’s office. It’s so unceremonious the way you just leave your pet with the vet for surgery – I tried to tell Grace it would all be okay, but, unlike the cat, I don’t think she understood me…
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