Ahhhhh, a nice four-day weekend! Finally! We had a very nice Christmas weekend. Our friends Jay and Anne invited us and a few others over to their house for dinner with their family. There were lots of goodies to munch on before dinner, lasagna, mashed potatoes, salad, and garlic bread for dinner, and random goodies for dessert.
Anne had me bring over some scraps of paper for my save the date cards to test and see if her paper cutter would work on it - it worked great, and then she gave me a present - a brand new paper cutter just like hers! It was great! We were able to get all the paper cut up just right, printed, and put together. We mailed off a good chunk of the cards, to everyone we had addresses for. Still need to get a few addresses, and people keep getting added to the list, so we might need to buy some more paper and envelope for the cards.
The day after Christmas, Aaron and I headed out for some good sales! Well, only just slightly I wanted to stop by Bath and Bodyworks because they ALWAYS have stuff on sale, and we were getting low on hand soap. We also picked up a felt tip pen from an art supply store, for addressing the envelopes. Picked out some cute heart stamps at the Post Office, and mailed off Mom's scarf that I made her for Christmas.
On Saturday, Aaron and I ran into IKEA to grab Ashley a birthday gift - she'd been wanting a nice down-alternative comforter for winter, and a duvet to go along with it, as white is boring. Aaron and I had recently got a new comforter/duvet set from IKEA, and really like it, so I think Ashley will like hers, too. I just have to get it shipped off in the mail this week. It's going to be an early present, as her birthday is not until February, but it will make up for her late Christmas present, which isn't due to arrive until January 2nd.
I've been working some more on Aaron's scarf. It's not really a Christmas present, but winter is a good season for knitting. I'm almost finished with it, and he'll be able to wear it to work this week.
I've been plowing through the "Twilight" series of books this weekend - I'd finished the first one a while ago, but never got around to buying the others, because I have friends who own them, and thought it would be most cost effective to borrow them. Our friend Vandi stopped by last Tuesday to drop of some yummy home-baked cookies, as well as the three remaining books in the series.
We moved on to the next step in toilet training Odin with the CitiKitty - it involves cutting a small hole, smaller than a fist, in the center of the training pan, that rests on the rim, over the bowl of the toilet. This is to get the cat used to less litter, a hole which he will eventually start using instead of litter, and balancing on the seat, instead of in the litter. Odin does not like it one bit. He cried for half an hour last night before finally pooping on the rug next to the toilet. No punishment for him, though, don't want to scare him off from being in the bathroom. We'll see how it goes today.
Aaron's making Chex Mix right now - I can smell it coming from the oven. Mmm, mmm, mmm!
I think that's about it for our weekend. If I think of anything else, I'll be sure to post. Another short, three-day work week ahead for me, then Thursday and Friday off again for New Years. Aaron gets Thursday off, but may take Friday off, too, if he can. If he can't, that's okay, we've been hanging out together WAY too much this weekend! Only kidding, but it is nice to have some alone time, and just veg out in front of the TV with some silly shows or movies.
Until next time!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
so warm...
So our heater has been broken for the last two weeks. It's only really bad when it gets below -10 outside - that's when we start to feel it in the apartment. We kind of ignored it at first, which was probably not the best thing to do, since the apartment is heated with hot water, and last winter, it got so cold outside, the pipes froze, and the apartments on the first floor flooded.
It was negative 12 today, and the apartment was REALLY feeling cold, so we finally bucked up and called the rental office maintenance emergency line. A guy came over about an hour later, wasn't familiar with our apartment building, or our type of heater. He ended up getting in touch with our usual maintenance person, who just started a few weeks ago. They wandered up to the apartment above us, because it is vacant, to see if it was having the same problem. Nope. Came back down, fiddled around, banged on some stuff, then went to get a defroster thinger.
They came back, plugged it in, started defrosting our frozen pipes, and then the fuse in it blew. They ran off to the car parts place to get another one, came back, started it up again, and tripped the breaker twice. We had to turn off all the lights and unplug the big appliances while it was running.
They left the building, said that it needed to run for half an hour, came back an hour later. It was starting to smell, so we turned it off after about 40 minutes.
Now it's nice and toasty warm in the apartment. Almost TOO toasty warm, if you ask me. Guess we don't have to worry about freezing to death in the middle of the night!
We braved the horrible roads and snow yesterday to do some shopping. Looking for a Wii Fit, couldn't find one. Got paper to make our Save the Date cards, as we finally have our wedding venue and date booked. Wandered around a bit until we finally retreated home to safety.
Today, I did laundry, cleaned the apartment, sat around for hours while our heater got fixed, watched Supernatural, and Aaron and I baked cookies. A good winter day, if you ask me!
It was negative 12 today, and the apartment was REALLY feeling cold, so we finally bucked up and called the rental office maintenance emergency line. A guy came over about an hour later, wasn't familiar with our apartment building, or our type of heater. He ended up getting in touch with our usual maintenance person, who just started a few weeks ago. They wandered up to the apartment above us, because it is vacant, to see if it was having the same problem. Nope. Came back down, fiddled around, banged on some stuff, then went to get a defroster thinger.
They came back, plugged it in, started defrosting our frozen pipes, and then the fuse in it blew. They ran off to the car parts place to get another one, came back, started it up again, and tripped the breaker twice. We had to turn off all the lights and unplug the big appliances while it was running.
They left the building, said that it needed to run for half an hour, came back an hour later. It was starting to smell, so we turned it off after about 40 minutes.
Now it's nice and toasty warm in the apartment. Almost TOO toasty warm, if you ask me. Guess we don't have to worry about freezing to death in the middle of the night!
We braved the horrible roads and snow yesterday to do some shopping. Looking for a Wii Fit, couldn't find one. Got paper to make our Save the Date cards, as we finally have our wedding venue and date booked. Wandered around a bit until we finally retreated home to safety.
Today, I did laundry, cleaned the apartment, sat around for hours while our heater got fixed, watched Supernatural, and Aaron and I baked cookies. A good winter day, if you ask me!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
We've finally done it!
Well, we finally booked our wedding venue this week! Which also means we finally have a wedding date! We have booked October 3, 2009 for the ceremony and reception at the Earle Brown Heritage Center in Brooklyn Center, MN. *sigh* What a relief! Now I can start working on things again! I want to start making Save the Date cards as soon as possible, so now is the mad hunt for finding addresses!
On an un-wedding related note, we are still toilet training the cat. His trainer is up ON the toilet now, where it should be, instead of on the floor. We'd gone over a week with it on the floor with no accidents, so this weekend, it has been moved to its proper toilet training place. Hopefully Odin doesn't have too much of a hissy fit about it.
We're set to get quite a bit of snow this weekend. It started snowing early this morning, and is still lightly coming down. The roads aren't completely covered, but aren't completely clear, either. I'd like to get out of the apartment and do some stuff today.
Thursday night, Lori, one of my co-workers, and I went to the Holidazzle, which is like a parade of lights, in downtown Minneapolis. We did a happy hour before that at a pub called The Local, which is really cool, and then walked down to the Hot Seats (bleachers set up under a tent with a clear front) and got hot cocoa. Mmm, mmm, good! The parade was really cute, and fun. We couldn't hear most of the music because of being in the tent, but that's okay. All the floats and people on the floats were covered in colored lights, very festive.
Aaron and I have just a tiny bit of Christmas shopping left to do, and then we're done! Thank goodness. I don't think we've even stepped foot inside a store to do any of our shopping, which is always nice, because I hate crowded malls filled with people milling about, in my way. Ugh. Drives me crazy.
We have two short weeks in a row at work, for Christmas and New Years, so that will be nice, because it means two 4-day weekends in a row! Aaron and I don't have any plans, but we've been invited to a friend's house for dinner on Christmas, which will be nice if we go. Nice to get out of the place, because I know otherwise, we would just sit in the apartment all four days, staring at each other blankly, slowly going insane. Two weekends in a row. *shudder*
Only kidding!
Well, I am off to figure out what we are going to do for the day. Adios!
On an un-wedding related note, we are still toilet training the cat. His trainer is up ON the toilet now, where it should be, instead of on the floor. We'd gone over a week with it on the floor with no accidents, so this weekend, it has been moved to its proper toilet training place. Hopefully Odin doesn't have too much of a hissy fit about it.
We're set to get quite a bit of snow this weekend. It started snowing early this morning, and is still lightly coming down. The roads aren't completely covered, but aren't completely clear, either. I'd like to get out of the apartment and do some stuff today.
Thursday night, Lori, one of my co-workers, and I went to the Holidazzle, which is like a parade of lights, in downtown Minneapolis. We did a happy hour before that at a pub called The Local, which is really cool, and then walked down to the Hot Seats (bleachers set up under a tent with a clear front) and got hot cocoa. Mmm, mmm, good! The parade was really cute, and fun. We couldn't hear most of the music because of being in the tent, but that's okay. All the floats and people on the floats were covered in colored lights, very festive.
Aaron and I have just a tiny bit of Christmas shopping left to do, and then we're done! Thank goodness. I don't think we've even stepped foot inside a store to do any of our shopping, which is always nice, because I hate crowded malls filled with people milling about, in my way. Ugh. Drives me crazy.
We have two short weeks in a row at work, for Christmas and New Years, so that will be nice, because it means two 4-day weekends in a row! Aaron and I don't have any plans, but we've been invited to a friend's house for dinner on Christmas, which will be nice if we go. Nice to get out of the place, because I know otherwise, we would just sit in the apartment all four days, staring at each other blankly, slowly going insane. Two weekends in a row. *shudder*
Only kidding!
Well, I am off to figure out what we are going to do for the day. Adios!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Here we go again
Alright, another request to update my blog. Such needy readers!
Let's see. The toilet training is going slowly. We started with it up on the toilet, like it's supposed to be, but Odin sure had a hard time getting used to that. So, after a mistake, we had to put it down on the floor, where his old litter box used to be. We'll just give him time to get comfortable with it there, then move it again. I think it's just much smaller than what he's used to, for starters. We'll get there! I have faith in him!
My wedding dress came in! I wasn't expecting it until February, but it got here over Thanksgiving. I went and tried it on this Friday. It's great, and I love the burnt orange color! I think we are finally going to reserve the wedding venue for next fall.
Some other exciting wedding news: my college roommate, Jill got engaged! I'm so happy for her, and now I have someone to talk to about wedding stuff! And we won't get tired of listening to each other! Hahaha. Once we get the place booked, then I can start making wedding invitations, and I'll start needing to get addresses. That'll be a chore.
Work's been busy. Not as bad as it was in September, when I was up to my eyeballs in claims, but I am finally at a comfortable level, and getting caught up with past-due tasks! Year-end will be looking good for me.
I put up Christmas lights last night, and they blink. Odin went bonkers! He's adjusted to them now, but last night was pretty darn funny. They're up high enough that I don't have to worry about him knocking them down and chewing on them. Although he would get a nice little ZAP if he chewed on them. Hehehehe.
Well, we got rain all weekend, it was in the 30's - highest it's been in a long time. And now the high for tomorrow is going to be -6. The ride into work is going to be AWESOMELY SLOW. It's like people around here have never driven in this crap before. Hopefully the salt trucks are out in full force tonight.
Well, that's it for me now. Adios!
Let's see. The toilet training is going slowly. We started with it up on the toilet, like it's supposed to be, but Odin sure had a hard time getting used to that. So, after a mistake, we had to put it down on the floor, where his old litter box used to be. We'll just give him time to get comfortable with it there, then move it again. I think it's just much smaller than what he's used to, for starters. We'll get there! I have faith in him!
My wedding dress came in! I wasn't expecting it until February, but it got here over Thanksgiving. I went and tried it on this Friday. It's great, and I love the burnt orange color! I think we are finally going to reserve the wedding venue for next fall.
Some other exciting wedding news: my college roommate, Jill got engaged! I'm so happy for her, and now I have someone to talk to about wedding stuff! And we won't get tired of listening to each other! Hahaha. Once we get the place booked, then I can start making wedding invitations, and I'll start needing to get addresses. That'll be a chore.
Work's been busy. Not as bad as it was in September, when I was up to my eyeballs in claims, but I am finally at a comfortable level, and getting caught up with past-due tasks! Year-end will be looking good for me.
I put up Christmas lights last night, and they blink. Odin went bonkers! He's adjusted to them now, but last night was pretty darn funny. They're up high enough that I don't have to worry about him knocking them down and chewing on them. Although he would get a nice little ZAP if he chewed on them. Hehehehe.
Well, we got rain all weekend, it was in the 30's - highest it's been in a long time. And now the high for tomorrow is going to be -6. The ride into work is going to be AWESOMELY SLOW. It's like people around here have never driven in this crap before. Hopefully the salt trucks are out in full force tonight.
Well, that's it for me now. Adios!
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Saturday, December 06, 2008
Good weekend so far
So this weekend, one of our friends had his birthday party, and it wasn't scheduled until late, so a few of us went out for dinner beforehand. Our friends Bret and Jess have been going to this bar for a few years, which also has a sushi bar. They started eating there, and have become good friends with the head sushi chef. And this is where we went for dinner last night. I've always wanted to try sushi before, but I wanted it to be at a very good place, not something that'd been sitting in the grocery store deli for a while.
And let me tell you, it was GREAT! The chef knew it was my first time trying sushi, so the first roll, he went easy on us. Yum. He made up a plate with all kinds of raw fish, tuna, mackerel, and some octopus limbs, thinly slice. The octopus was surprisingly delicious. I can't even count how many different rolls he made up for us. We didn't order off the menu, the sushi chef just started making rolls as we were eating. Everything was great. There were a few rolls with roe on top - orange eggs were "regular" and the green ones were wasabi flavored. I had tried a bit of wasabi paste earlier, and decided I didn't much care for it, so we tried to scrape most of the green ones off, but it was still pretty spicy. But the regular eggs were fun. Not a lot of flavor, but they POP! every time you bite down on one. Like a little party in your mouth. Mmm. He even made us a dessert roll, with sliced up strawberries, rice, sweet soft shell crab, and it was deep fried. Nice and sweet and good. All in all, a great experience for my first time (and hopefully not last) eating sushi. I will definitely have it again.
We went to the birthday party right after, which was a lot of fun. I didn't know most of the people there, but a good time was had by all. I gave one of our friends, Anna, my camera, because she said she likes to take pictures when she's been drinking, so that was good, because I got a bunch of pictures of people I don't even know, but some of people I do know, always a plus.
Odin's CitiKitty toilet training kit came in the mail today! I'm glad it came on the weekend so I can be home for it for a few days. It's got a shallow pan that fits over the rim of the toilet, and you put your seat down over that to hold it in place. Then you pour some litter in, and train the cat to get used to using the litter box up on the toilet seat. Then, as he successfully uses the litter box for one week, you start removing from the center rings, which allow some litter to fall in the toilet, and as you remove more, the cat gets used to supporting himself on the seat. Eventually, you take away the whole contraption, once all the rings have been removed, and ta-dah! A toilet trained cat! No more litter again!! Hopefully it will only take a couple of months to train him, because we only have the one bathroom, so we have to take the kit off every time Aaron or I want to use the toilet.
That's about it for now!
And let me tell you, it was GREAT! The chef knew it was my first time trying sushi, so the first roll, he went easy on us. Yum. He made up a plate with all kinds of raw fish, tuna, mackerel, and some octopus limbs, thinly slice. The octopus was surprisingly delicious. I can't even count how many different rolls he made up for us. We didn't order off the menu, the sushi chef just started making rolls as we were eating. Everything was great. There were a few rolls with roe on top - orange eggs were "regular" and the green ones were wasabi flavored. I had tried a bit of wasabi paste earlier, and decided I didn't much care for it, so we tried to scrape most of the green ones off, but it was still pretty spicy. But the regular eggs were fun. Not a lot of flavor, but they POP! every time you bite down on one. Like a little party in your mouth. Mmm. He even made us a dessert roll, with sliced up strawberries, rice, sweet soft shell crab, and it was deep fried. Nice and sweet and good. All in all, a great experience for my first time (and hopefully not last) eating sushi. I will definitely have it again.
We went to the birthday party right after, which was a lot of fun. I didn't know most of the people there, but a good time was had by all. I gave one of our friends, Anna, my camera, because she said she likes to take pictures when she's been drinking, so that was good, because I got a bunch of pictures of people I don't even know, but some of people I do know, always a plus.
Odin's CitiKitty toilet training kit came in the mail today! I'm glad it came on the weekend so I can be home for it for a few days. It's got a shallow pan that fits over the rim of the toilet, and you put your seat down over that to hold it in place. Then you pour some litter in, and train the cat to get used to using the litter box up on the toilet seat. Then, as he successfully uses the litter box for one week, you start removing from the center rings, which allow some litter to fall in the toilet, and as you remove more, the cat gets used to supporting himself on the seat. Eventually, you take away the whole contraption, once all the rings have been removed, and ta-dah! A toilet trained cat! No more litter again!! Hopefully it will only take a couple of months to train him, because we only have the one bathroom, so we have to take the kit off every time Aaron or I want to use the toilet.
That's about it for now!
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Thursday, December 04, 2008
It's about damn time!
So I have had a few complaints from my readers that I have not updated my blog since Halloween, or something crazy like that. Well, that's not completely true - I did update a couple of weeks into November, but it was ABOUT Halloween.
So, since we last were here, what's been going on in my life? Oh, not too much. We've been spending time with some friends, playing with their babies, working, and staying fairly busy. Work is less hectic now that the new guy has started working on claims The end of the year is approaching shortly, and I can tell it's going to be a little chaotic. I have done 11 month-ends at work, but not year-end. I wonder if it's any different?
Speaking of 2008 ending soon, WOW! I cannot believe how fast this year has gone by! In January I got a new job and we got Odin, in April, Aaron and I got engaged, Aaron's parents visited us, we went to our first baseball games, Saw Mason Jennings in concert, two of our friends had children and their families have grown And now it's almost 2009. Which also means that Winter is officially almost over (only a few more weeks!!), and I can stop driving to and from work in the dark within a month. I hope.
On to more recent news. For Thanksgiving, all of our friends were either working or leaving town to spend time with family, so Aaron and I had four days off together, to just sit around and do nothing. And that's exactly what we did. No Black Friday shopping crap, just hanging out, not working. It was really nice and relaxing. Aaron and I had fajitas for Thanksgiving dinner. Mmm, mmm, good!
I got a cold this last week. It started out pretty innocent, and I actually thought it was going to go away fairly quickly. Boy, was I wrong. Now, it's not the most horrible cold I have had, and thank goodness it's not the horrible crap that some co-workers and Jill got last week where they spent most of their Thanksgiving weekend hovering in the bathroom around a toilet, just your regular head cold.
I started looking for a second job this week at the mall across from where I work currently - nights and weekends, part time. I walked into the Bath and Body Works, and as I was picking up the application, the manager of the store approached me, asked me what I was doing at 6, and let me know they were having a group interview at that time, and I should come. She's hoping to have some people hired by this Saturday. It's Thursday, and I haven't heard from her, but who knows. I think I am also going to start donating plasma, there is a place near us that compensates for the donation. I figure all the extra money will go towards saving for the wedding.
A couple days ago, I ordered the CitiKitty, a toilet training kit for cats. I am so sick and tired of the litter box, in our one bedroom apartment, being in the bathroom, with bits of litter everywhere. It's driving me nuts. If we had a basement or extra bedroom, it wouldn't be so bad, but we just don't. Hopefully within a couple of months, we'll have him all trained up, and bye bye litter box! I'll let you know how it goes. Possibly pictures to come.
Our company had their Christmas party this afternoon at a location away from work. It was Hawaiian-themed, and a lot of fun. Games, trivia, prizes, and good pork barbecue. I got second place in the beanbag toss, but didn't manage to get my raffle ticket pulled for any of the other prizes. I never win those things.
So, that's about it, everything that's happened in the last three weeks or so, that I can think of that is worth blogging about! Sorry to keep you waiting so long!
So, since we last were here, what's been going on in my life? Oh, not too much. We've been spending time with some friends, playing with their babies, working, and staying fairly busy. Work is less hectic now that the new guy has started working on claims The end of the year is approaching shortly, and I can tell it's going to be a little chaotic. I have done 11 month-ends at work, but not year-end. I wonder if it's any different?
Speaking of 2008 ending soon, WOW! I cannot believe how fast this year has gone by! In January I got a new job and we got Odin, in April, Aaron and I got engaged, Aaron's parents visited us, we went to our first baseball games, Saw Mason Jennings in concert, two of our friends had children and their families have grown And now it's almost 2009. Which also means that Winter is officially almost over (only a few more weeks!!), and I can stop driving to and from work in the dark within a month. I hope.
On to more recent news. For Thanksgiving, all of our friends were either working or leaving town to spend time with family, so Aaron and I had four days off together, to just sit around and do nothing. And that's exactly what we did. No Black Friday shopping crap, just hanging out, not working. It was really nice and relaxing. Aaron and I had fajitas for Thanksgiving dinner. Mmm, mmm, good!
I got a cold this last week. It started out pretty innocent, and I actually thought it was going to go away fairly quickly. Boy, was I wrong. Now, it's not the most horrible cold I have had, and thank goodness it's not the horrible crap that some co-workers and Jill got last week where they spent most of their Thanksgiving weekend hovering in the bathroom around a toilet, just your regular head cold.
I started looking for a second job this week at the mall across from where I work currently - nights and weekends, part time. I walked into the Bath and Body Works, and as I was picking up the application, the manager of the store approached me, asked me what I was doing at 6, and let me know they were having a group interview at that time, and I should come. She's hoping to have some people hired by this Saturday. It's Thursday, and I haven't heard from her, but who knows. I think I am also going to start donating plasma, there is a place near us that compensates for the donation. I figure all the extra money will go towards saving for the wedding.
A couple days ago, I ordered the CitiKitty, a toilet training kit for cats. I am so sick and tired of the litter box, in our one bedroom apartment, being in the bathroom, with bits of litter everywhere. It's driving me nuts. If we had a basement or extra bedroom, it wouldn't be so bad, but we just don't. Hopefully within a couple of months, we'll have him all trained up, and bye bye litter box! I'll let you know how it goes. Possibly pictures to come.
Our company had their Christmas party this afternoon at a location away from work. It was Hawaiian-themed, and a lot of fun. Games, trivia, prizes, and good pork barbecue. I got second place in the beanbag toss, but didn't manage to get my raffle ticket pulled for any of the other prizes. I never win those things.
So, that's about it, everything that's happened in the last three weeks or so, that I can think of that is worth blogging about! Sorry to keep you waiting so long!
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