Officially Technological

I had my monthly dentist appointment yesterday. I have problem teeth. They've been hatin' on me for several years now. I have put tons of my hard earned cash towards pacifying them, but that was still not good enough. My new dentist suggested (at my last six month cleaning appointment, six appointments ago) that I should start flossing regularly. So, my periodic (probably once a week) flossing turned into a daily habit. At my next appointment (do I have to tell you that it was five months ago?) he thought I should still be flossing more, maybe twice daily. So, I obediently floss my teeth two times every day. Even on Sundays (when I normally let things like eating right, washing my face before bed, etc slide). And yesterday I had my six-month cleaning, and my teeth were actually pretty clean. It turns out that I only need ONE appointment between this appointment and my next cleaning. The thought of even one such appointment may turn people who don't have "problem" teeth inside-out (as my mom would say). But not me, nope, I'm really happy with that. I don't know that I've had such a good cleaning in years. Since I was a manager at HoneyBaked (which is when my problems began) which was in 2003. So, after four years of paying through the nose to keep my teeth in my head, I may be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I can't wait. Maybe next time I won't have any appointments in between my monthly cleanings.

Does anyone watch the TV show "Monk"? I love Monk. For those of you who do not watch it, he's an obsessive-compulsive detective. He's so fearful, he's almost non-functioning. And one thing Monk hadn't done for 40 years was go to the dentist. His assistant was appalled and made him go to the dentist to solve a case, and he had the "cleanest" teeth the dentist had ever seen. How did Monk keep such incredible oral hygiene? Flossing 12 times a day. So, this may become my new motto: When in doubt, floss, floss, floss

I have been an Ebay member for two days now and I can already see it's not healthy.

I've decided to make bean burritos either tonight or tomorrow for dinner. And I went to the store at lunch to buy the stuff for guacamole. I love guacamole. If I had my druthers - which I don't - I would slather the world with Guacamole. It's pretty much the best stuff ever. I'm really looking forward to this. Making fresh guacamole is one of those cool things that ladies in cute little house-dresses make for parties. It's not the sort of thing that I make. I make spaghetti, and scrambled eggs, and - on a good day - three-cheese chicken. When I have parties I make microwave popcorn and order pizza. But tonight I'm going to make guacamole. Yum. I love how it's like sour cream only better. I love how a good, fresh guacamole is chunky. I love how it smells. I love it when they make chips out of it. I just love it. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out.

So, after numerous references from friends to my blog, Brian has decided to read my blog to catch up on our latest "news" (welcome, BK). However, Brian feels like my postings contain a little too much cynicism (I maintain I am realistic, not cynical). So, he suggested that for everything cynical thing that I say, I need to say one cheerful thing as well, which does sound pleasant. So, here goes...

I think I'm going to send around a petition to discontinue to use of the word "spring" for the season between winter and summer, I think it should be referred to as "mud". Puppies are cute. Mud is starting in Indiana. Brian is cute too. All of our beautiful, glistening white snow is starting to turn into slush. CHOCOLATE IS TASTY. By tomorrow it should all be mud (the gross dirt - not the season). Tulips are my favorite flower. And then when I walk Sam, my toes will get wet from all the puddles, and and 41 degree weather will not be warm enough to ever get them warm. Hondas ROCK. So, I will be walking around with freezing cold toes until the end of mud (which should occur sometime around June 15th - whoops two cynicisms in one sentence). Christmas is happy. Shoes are fun. Gr. Yahhh!

On a more neutral note, Brian and I intend on redecorating our living room. I'm really looking forward to that. I thought I was burnt out on painting and such, but I think I'm ready to do this room. It's going to look really nice. We decided to put up a chair rail and paint under it dark blue, and gray on the top. We may be getting new furniture as well. We've been eying up a set at Ashley's Furniture, which is where we bought our table and chairs. So, we'll see. Although I'm really excited to have that room done, I'd rather not actually do all the painting myself, although it would probably be pretty easy painting since there's nothing weird with the walls (no funky little nooks and crannies or anything). So, it will probably go pretty fast. The thing that seems most intimidating to me is the ceiling because we're doing the kitchen, dining area, and living room all at the same time and I'm not a big fan of painting ceilings. But I gotta figure after this room the only unpainted room in the house will be Sam's room, which probably won't get done while we have Sam. It's weird to think that we're almost done redecorating our house. Last year at this time only two rooms were done, and the bathroom was unusable. And now, the house is almost all done. Whoa.

It's supposed to be forty degrees next week - which to a "Northerner" such as myself, means that Spring is coming. But I'm not ready for winter to be over yet. Not that I don't hate winter, because I do. It's just that I hate spring even more. I mean, everyone likes the June kind of spring when it's 76 and sunny with big puffy white clouds and pink flowers and such, but let's face it: that's not spring! That's early summer! Spring is 45 and windy and rainy, and that nasty brownish grey color with sometime one, lonely sprig of green sprouting up. That's spring. That's March, and April, and half of May, and frankly, I'm not a big fan. So, I'm not ready for winter to be over yet! Not ready at all!

Well, it's Valentine's day again (it's amazing how the dreaded holiday comes up so quickly and it feels like decades in between Christmases). Valentine's day is pretty nice actually. It's just that it's impossible to buy a Valentine's day gift for a guy. Girls are easy. A cute little bunch of flowers, some DeBrands chocolate, and they are puddles at your feet. Guys? They don't want cute like flowers, they don't want chocolate, or teddy bears holding big red hearts. So, what do you buy a guy?? I honestly need some suggestions here, people. V-day is only two days away. I had a brilliant idea of getting Brian these sweet Diesel shoes that he liked, but I could only find them in an outlet mall in Birch Run, Michigan, and when I called to see if they could send them to me, they didn't have his size (or any where near it - for that matter). So, now I'm lost without an idea and Valentine's day being the day after tomorrow. What to do. What to do.

1. My costume drama that I rented for the weekend (Brian is not looking forward to this)
2. Sleeping in tomorrow
3. Not cleaning
4. Doing the laundry (so all my favorite socks will be clean again - it's amazing how much better you feel when you have your favorite socks on)
5. Being home with Brian and Sam
6. Eating lots of popcorn
7. Lounging around in my wind-pants, MSU sweatshirt, and fuzzy socks after 10AM
8. Going shoe shopping

I have been so sleepy this week. It must be the cold weather and all the shivering I've been doing to stay warm or something. I'm not sure, but I've been really sleepy. Last night, for example, we came home from church and promptly went to bed, where Brian thought we would chat and read and all those things that normal people do at 9:30 when they're not falling asleep. Well, I fell asleep. At 9:31. This has been going on all week. And I think I'm just as bad today. Maybe I need to start exercising. Yuck. Who wants to budge a single muscle when it's -4 out? Anyway, I've gotta do something. It's getting ridiculous. Maybe I'm fighting something off. Maybe there's some Heebie Jeebies going around. And I sure don't want to catch that. Maybe I've been over-booking lately (which is pretty likely) and if that's the case, I dread next week. Maybe it's because it's kinda slowish at work. Who knows. So, this weekend, Brian and I have very few plans. We may do this, we may do that. But mostly I think I'm just going to try to sleep it off.

I grew up in Michigan. Once in my entire life we closed schools for it being too cold. Once. It was -28 degrees and the diesel had frozen in the buses and they literally could not get them started. So, we had a "snow day" for cold weather.

Other than that we little Michigan children stood outside during cold advisories with snow suits (not the cool kind - the Michelin Man kind) three pairs of mittens, a hat, ear muffs, two pairs of socks and moon boots and we waited for that bus to come. Never mind the radio announcements that said, "Make sure none of your skin is exposed to the air." Never mind the warnings to not allow pet outside for more time than is necessary. No, no. We stood outside and we waited for the bus. When it snowed. We stood outside and we waited for the bus. When it hailed. We stood outside and we waited for the bus. When it rain that winter rain that's just slightly warmer than sleet. We stood outside and we waited for the bus. When we had pneumonia. When we had hypothermia. When our fingers turned purple (under the three pairs of mittens). When our freshly showered hair froze. We always waited for the bus.

Not to say that we never had a snow day. No, we always had tons of snow days. But often it was because the superintendent's four-wheel drive pick-up got stuck on Main Street on his way into the office. Another thing was, snow days weren't that great in Michigan. Why? Because the school didn't call off until they were absolutely sure that it was beyond the human physical powers to attend school. So, by the time all resources had been exhausted, the Michigan mothers had gotten their children out of bed, and had dressed them in all their cold-weather gear, and had packed their lunches, and had sent them to stand at the end of the driveway to wait for the bus. There was no sleeping in. There was no lounging under flannel sheets and down blankets.

To make matters worse, by the time school was called off, the Michigan moms were so annoyed that their kids would be bouncing off the walls all day, that she would immediately assign them "spring-cleaning" tasks (don't ask me how you can be spring-cleaning when it's clearly not yet spring). The favored task in our house (our mother's favored task, not ours) was to take all the things out of the cupboards and wash them down with Murphy's Oil while listening to "Listen to the Missus" (a local radio show that mostly featured cleaning tips and recipes). Not exactly watching cartoons and snugly with a puppy by a fire drinking cocoa, and eating cookies. That's what snow days in Michigan are like.

So, I have moved 50-odd miles south of Michigan. I thought, "Fort Wayne couldn't possibly feel that differently from Michigan." I was so wrong. Last night I was watching a little TV while I was waiting for Brian to get home. Now, I am willing to admit it's really cold out. It's almost miserable. But the schools in this area have been closed all week (so far) due to cold weather (there's only about an inch of snow total), and they close the night before! This is very strange for me. When I grew up, I would go downstairs and tell my mom that I didn't want to go to school because I felt sick, and my mom would say, "Well, take a shower and get dressed and see if you don't feel better." I knew even then - that she was trying to trick me and even if I still felt gross after showering and getting dressed (after which I normally felt even worse than when I woke) I would still go to school on the principle that I had spent the last half an hour getting ready to go and if I didn't go I would have just wasted precious sleeping time getting cold and wet. That's why calling off school the night before is so foreign to me. It would be like calling in sick before you go to bed. They don't know what it's going to feel like in the morning. It could be a balmy 52 degrees in the morning. Even if the diesel has frozen in the buses, I would still get up and shower and get dressed. Just in case it thawed.

Yes, Indiana has wimpy schools. But I'm probably just jealous. I probably am just wishing wistfully that I were 6 again, or a teacher and living in Indiana.

*Post may contain slight exaggeration

Brian and I had one of the best weekends this weekend. First of all it is freezing in Indiana. Right now, for example, it is -4 degrees. Yes, negative 4. It is really cold, and mostly Sam never wants to go outside to go potty. So, on Friday night we went to Hobby Lobby so that I could spend the gift certificate his mom gave me for my birthday. We got a bunch of stuff that we have been meaning to buy and never got around to it. Then we went home and decorated. Which was really fun for me. I don't think Brian was exactly ecstatic, but he didn't complain and he really liked it once it was all up.

Then on Saturday, I had a heated stone massage, and Brian dropped me off at the spa and went to Best Buy to look at computers, because he got lots of Best Buy gift certificates for Christmas, and he's been drooling over laptops for months now. So, he went to Best Buy, and when he picked me up from my massage, he hadn't gotten one and was kinda depressed, because every time he found one that he wanted they were sold out or it was too expensive. So, we went back to Best Buy and he was eying one that was pretty reasonable, but it was a wide-screen (which I thought defeats the purpose of getting a laptop, but apparently it enhances the purpose of getting a laptop). So, we went home with a new computer. At home, we were kinda cleaning up for our annual super-bowl party and baking and stuff (and Brian was playing with his new computer) and Brian's old roommates called (the Kaeb twins). The two of them, and another person from the Alto area were driving home from Biloxi, MS and they realized that they wouldn't be able to make it home at night because Michigan was getting 12ish inches of snow with 50mph winds, so they stayed at our house over night. Kinda spur-of-the-moment. That was fun. As weird as this sounds - it was fun to be useful to someone.

Then yesterday was our second annual super-bowl party and it was great, but they didn't even put a dent in my double batch of chex-mix. Which... is a "shame" (it actually turned out really well). So, that was our weekend. And I got free lip-gloss out of the deal (My cousin, a Mary-Kay consultant, gave me some lip-gloss for having us over). So, that's pretty much the best thing ever.

And even though it was freezing cold, Brian was not stingy with the heat, so we kept our house pretty warm, and everyone, including Sam, was as cozy as bugs in rugs. It was a pretty great weekend.

Apparently, seven can fit comfortably. Maybe eight if you're in a bind and can't find another place to keep your chapstick. The real question is: What kinds of Chapstick?