Bands

So today we had a mission: find out what size of ring Aaron wears.  He's not a jewelry person, and therefore owns no rings of his own to even know what size he is.  We thought the best way to do this was to go to a jewelry store and have him fitted.  Aaron was a little anxious and thought that whoever was helping us would just try to get us to buy something while we were there, or would think that we were wasting their time because were not going to buy anything, and just needed a sizing.

So we wander into Jared's over in Maple Grove, smile at the security guard, and wander along all of the bays of glittery jewelry.  It's unusually busy in the galleria for 11 in the morning, and all of the sales associates are busy helping customers.  Mostly young women, trying on rings with their bored looking man friends. 

A young woman in a white lab coat that says "Jared's Jewelry Repair" approaches us to see if we are doing okay and finding everything alright.  She's close to our age, and very friendly.  She said she noticed that no one was helping us, and wanted to see if anyone had said, "Hi" yet.  We let her know we hadn't been helped yet, but all we were looking to do was to get Aaron sized for a ring.  "Oh, I can do that!  I'm very good at that!" she says, and runs off to grab a giant ring of sizers for Aaron to try. 

While he is doing that, she goes over to the men's ring section and grabs four different rings, a wide array of widths for Aaron to see which one he likes.  She even wrote down all the information for us regarding the ring size and width, and was very knowledgeable about them.  She had said to us, "I am not a sales person, I usually work in the back.  So I am not going to tell you what you should buy, or that you should buy anything."  Well, that was perfect for us, as we already had a place in mind to get our wedding bands from, that way they match my engagement ring. 

All in all, it was just about the perfect way it all could have happened, and we came out of there knowing what size Aaron is and how wide he would like a band to be.  Wonderful!

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News!

Okay, family, friends, and loyal blog readers! I have some big news for everyone. This morning Aaron proposed to me! (I said yes, of course!) We haven't set any dates or anything like that, so I don't have any answers for that yet. Updates will be made as they are decided. Here are some pictures of the ring. It is made of Titanium, named for its strength after the Titans. It won't lose it's shape or get little knicks taken out if I smash it into something, as I would probably do. Because of its strength, Titanium is hard to work with, and pronged settings are not common. The setting I have is called a tension setting, and makes the diamond look like it's floating. It's very beautiful, and I couldn't be more happy!









So there you have it! Best weekend ever!

Nature walk

Yesterday afternoon Aaron's folks and I went out for a nice little walk at the Bird Sanctuary in the Theodore Wirth Park.  There are a few things coming into blooms, so I was able to get some pictures.  If you go to my Flickr page, you can see them.

We've been having a good time with Aaron's folks.  Shopping, walking, wandering around.  Tonight after the baseball game, we are going to make salmon steaks, green beans, and baked potatoes for Randy's birthday dinner.  That was the plan for yesterday, but we didn't get an early enough start for the day.

And with that, I must be off!

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Odin Videos

Here are a couple more videos of Odin playing around. The first one is his first encounter with a bug in the apartment. I saw him staring at floor very intently, with his face to the wall the other night, and had to investigate. When I found out what was going on, I grabbed the camera.



The next video is from a new game that I discovered. I have a little handheld mirror, and one side is super magnifying, so it sends a reflection on the ceiling that's pretty intense. We have a ceiling fan with three bulbs in it, so it casts off three little light rays onto the wall and ceiling. Odin goes nuts over it, and makes this weird chirping/chattering sound.



Well, Aaron's folks are over this weekend, but the weather isn't cooperating. Our first plan was to go to the Como Park Zoo, but we're not sure if that's going to happen now. I guess we'll have to make other plans.

Busy

I had a busy week, and never got a chance to post a blog over the weekend, which was brought to my attention by a few loyal readers.

It started off just busy and hectic at work.  Mondays are the worst because everyone is trying to play catch up from all the slacking they did on Friday, so I am constantly fielding phone calls from policy holders and claimants who have no idea what they're doing, and stepping them through every little part of the process.  Annoying.  Seminars or something need to be held with new employees and their policy holders when they come over to our company.  It would save a lot of time.  And then, give 'em a cheat sheet at the end of it all so they can use it, instead of calling me all day long.

Thursday night I went bowling with Natalie and Barbara.  Fun times.  It was good to hang out with some girls and talk girl talk all night.  I haven't done that in forever.  I got to drive Aaron's car, as long as I filled it up with gas before I brought it home again.  The roads were terrible because it had started snowing again, but it was still warm, so it was that bit, wet, horrible snow that sticks to everything.  But I made it home safe and sound.

On Friday, some of my co-workers were putting on a fund raiser for the breast cancer awareness walk that's going on in September.  It was at a place called Houlihan's, and 5% of the meal ticket went towards their fund raiser, along with any donations.  They did pretty well, it sounds like, so good for them.  Aaron and I went, sat around for a while for a table, got some drinks at the bar, and ate some really good food. 

Saturday was pretty relaxed.  I think.  I don't really remember what we did on Saturday, so I guess it wasn't too incredible.  I think there was a lot of running around involved.  Sunday was grocery shopping.  We went to a place called Trader Joe's, which sells a lot of organic and wholesale stuff.  It was a teeny store packed with tons of people, and filled with things I wasn't familiar with.  Aaron said I was walking around the store with a look of horror upon my face.  That may have been true, it was pretty scary.  Then went over to Jamie and Karlie's on Sunday evening for some burgers, hot dogs, and hangin' out time.  We hadn't seen them in over a month for whatever reason, and it was about time.

Monday was Monday, and today was a Tuesday.  The weather is finally getting warmer and more friendly, and I can even seen green grass sprouting up, people on motorcycles, and barbecues stinking up the back yard.  It's Spring!

I've been trying to wear my contact lenses more frequently, because I had gotten out of the habit of wearing them when I was sick.  Then the nosepads on my glasses broke, so I couldn't wear my glasses, and was forced to wear my contacts 6 days a week, ALL day long.  It was rough.  Sometimes my eyes would sting after I took them out.  I think I'm getting used to them again.  They just seem to be more of a hassle than what they should be.  Maybe I should look into lasik. 

Well, it's getting close to that time of night.  Hopefully I'll be able to post next weekend.  Aaron's folks are coming into town on Friday, and we're going to a Twins game on Sunday!  I'm excited!

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2 weeks' worth

Apparently last weekend we were too busy for me to post my usual weekly blog. Last weekend was definitely busy. It was the weekend Aaron got his new car, a 2008 Mazda 3 5-door, in Galaxy Gray. It's super spiffy, with lots of neat options and features. After picking it up Saturday afternoon, we drove around up North a little ways, and back home through some back woods roads. It's a 5-speed manual transmission, so it's a lot of fun to drive. Any time we'd stop at a store, I'd say, "Oh, I'll just sit in the car and wait," and when Aaron would get back, I had moved over to the driver's seat. "Okay, where to next?"

It was really hard for me to give up my position as "driver" when Aaron picked up the new car. This weekend was better, and I didn't even hijack the car once.

Here are a couple of pictures of the new car.




Work has been super busy and a little stressful for me the last two weeks. But things have finally gotten straightened out (for this batch of stuff, anyway), and the week at work ended on a high note, with me feeling pretty accomplished.

We found out that Aaron's folks are going to be coming around the weekend of the 19-20th this month for his dad's birthday, and we're going to see the Twins play on Sunday, so that will be fun. I'm really excited, because it will be my first baseball game ever, plus, it'll be in the Metrodome, so even though it's probably going to be chilly outside, it won't affect us too much on the inside. I think we might go to the Como Park Zoo, as well, which is the zoo Aaron and I went to with Bret and Jess when we came out for a visit in June.

I have a blanket I am working on knitting, The Big Bad Baby Blanket, for Anne, who is due to have her boy in May, and her baby shower is May 4th, so I need to get it finished. I'm not quite halfway there. It's tedious, knitting an entire blanket, but I really liked the design, so I wanted to give it a shot, because when am I going to have a chance to knit a baby blanket?? Well, I'll get another shot in September, because another friend of ours is pregnant, as well. Must be something in the water.

I was getting tired of not having enough shelf space in the bedroom for all of our junk, and my desk and the dresser tops were being piled high with crap. So we went to IKEA and found something that works quite well. Odin was having a fun time "helping" us put it together.




It's pretty cool; just a giant set of shelves, 4x4, and we haven't even been able to fill it up yet. That's always a good sign. Hopefully it'll help us keep the bedroom cleaner, because that room often gets overlooked in the cleaning process on the weekends.

And here's just a couple of cute pictures of the cat, because I have been lacking in the crazy cat lady department of posting pictures of every damn thing that he does.



We got rained on all day today. It was a nice change of weather in comparison to all the snow we'd been getting. Finally, Spring is here! So there ya have it. Have a good week!

Weekend stuff

Well, after last weekend's busy schedule, I hope we have a laid back time this weekend.  Aaron is currently at the Mazda dealership looking at a Mazda3 5-door.  He has it narrowed down to two of them, each with some good features.  He called me to see what I thought.  I just want to be able to afford it, so I told him I would prefer the less expensive one (it's still a million times better than his current car, anyway), but I don't know what the more expensive one has that is so much greater, besides a moon roof, and who cares about that?

I think he wants to take it out for a long drive up North to get some low speed miles on it, and maybe just spend the night somewhere up there, and come back tomorrow.  That was his plan earlier in the week, when he was thinking he was going to pick up the car on Thursday or Friday.  However, work has been really busy for him, so he hadn't had the chance to do that until today.

This last week at work has been kind of confusing.  For the last month, I have had someone checking over my claims before any payments are made, checking over my letters before they are sent out in the mail, etc, etc.  Well, that person was gone this week on vacation.  She normally works on Long Term disability stuff, and I think I'm really the only Short Term disability stuff that she looks over.  There are subtle differences in each, and I haven't really had the time or experience to know what they are.  So when she says to do something a certain way, that's how I do it.

Now someone from Short Term disability is checking over my claims, and she has other ways of doing things.  I think she's been in Short Term the longest out of anyone in our area, and she definitely has her certain way of doing things.  But it almost feels as though I am getting opposing views on how to do things, and the beginning of this week was quite frustrating.  I worked through most of it, and it's not that either way is "right" or "wrong", it's just different.

Now that it is spring, I am feeling the need for a new wardrobe.  All of my work clothes are actually all of my student teaching clothes.  I did student teaching in the fall/winter, so they are mostly long-sleeved.  Then when I started working at Von Maur and needed to dress nicely again, it was fall/winter.  I just want some new shirts and stuff, I guess, and some shoes and pants.  Everything, mostly.  Mostly because what I have is 2 years old and probably doesn't fit me the greatest any more.  Oh well. 

Anyway, that's it for me right now.  I'll try to post some pictures of the new car if it ever shows up.  Adios!

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Happy Easter

Happy Easter to everyone!  I hope you all had a good weekend and got to spend some time with family and/or friends.  We definitely had a busy weekend, but it was nice.  It all kind of started on Thursday, actually.  First, I had to get the brakes and rotors replaced on the front of my car, so Aaron had to follow me to the repair shop.  I was most of the way there when he called me to say his keys got locked in the car, so I needed to come back and let him in the apartment so he could get his spare.  It was pretty cold, and his car acts funny in cold weather.  He'd started the car, and then went to scrape the snow off the windows, and when he shut the door, it locked itself.  So I get back to the apartment, give him my keys, and wait.  And wait.  Then he calls me again because he can't find the spare keys.  I tell him where they are, and wait.  And wait.  And then all of the sudden I see Odin darting out into the hallway from the entryway door.  Crap.  So I get out of the car just in time to see Aaron running down the stairs after him.  Bad kitty. 

So now Aaron has to give me a ride to work and pick me up after work.  Then we go to dinner with Nathan an Natalie and Nathan's parents, as they are in town for Easter.  Then Aaron has to go into work with some others to switch over a server or something, and this is at 10pm.  I ask him about how long this is going to take, and he estimates he will be back around 3am.  3am comes around, I wake up, he's not home.  I send him a text message; he says they are about halfway done.  Great.  I wake up at 5:30/6:00am to get ready for work, and he's still not home.  He says they're almost done, though.  Hmm.  By the time I leave for work, he still isn't home.  Then I try text messaging him and emailing him at his work email, and no answer or reply.  Well, that is because they were kind enough to let everyone who was there for 10 hours that night go home and not work on Friday.  Of course, then Aaron starts to get a cold. 

On Friday, our friend Brandon from Spearfish, who now lives in Iowa, comes over for a visit.  We go out for dinner, then go play RockBand with Bret and Jess 'til about 1am.  Go home, sleep, wake up, go out for breakfast, go to a really weird store called Ax-man, which is basically an odds 'n ends store with everything you can imagine.  For super cheap.  I picked up some magnets for my cabinets at work, a mirror to mount on my desk at work so I can see what's going on behind me, and a wristpad.  Aaron picks up spray, cloth, and a duster for the television.  All of this for under $9.00.  Right on.

Out for dinner, then over to Nathan and Natalie's on Saturday night for a party.  Nathan's work friends were there, we played RockBand and Super Smash Bros. on the Wii, and drink.  I don't drink because I have a headache and took ibuprofen before going over.  It snows most of the night while we are there, about 2-3".  We finally leave at 4am.  I get on 394E, and the plows haven't hit it yet, so I am basically driving 25-30mph the whole time, and just following tire tracks of the vehicles that were there before me.  I end up taking the wrong exit because I was just following tracks, and end up on the wrong highway, one that I'm not familiar with.  Aaron was mostly asleep in the front seat, but he is my navigator, so I was asking him what exit to take to get back to highway 100 so we can go back home.  He says get off on 42nd street.  Okay.  Drive, drive, drive.  No signs for 42nd.  I wake him up to ask him if we've gone too far.  "Nope, you're fine," he says, and goes back to sleep.  "Oookay."  Drive, drive, drive.  Pretty soon we're in Champlin, which is about 11 miles North of where I wanted to be.  Apparently 42nd street is also County Road 9 AND Rockford road.  I saw signs for both of those streets, just not for 42nd.  Piss.  Now I'm mad because I wanted to go home about 3 hours ago, but we didn't, then I'm driving in shitty weather with Aaron passed out in the front seat, and Brandon doesn't know where we are, so he can't help.  Finally make it home about 4:45am.  Grr.

Sleep, wake up at 10:30am, no time to make desert like we said we would for Easter dinner.  We had been invited over to Nathan and Natalie's again for Easter dinner.  Nathan's mom was cooking up a roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green bean casserole.  Natalie made creamy orange Jell-O with tangerines on top.  Yum.  Everything was delicious.  Brandon had to go home because he has work on Monday (like the rest of us), and Aaron and I left shortly after.  He was feeling yucky from his cold, and I just wanted to go back home and relax.

I wanted to get quarters to do laundry, but no banks are open, and even the grocery stores are closed.  So we end up just going home.  Aaron naps, I play video games.  Then we played cards and made scones.  What a weekend.

Next weekend we are doing NOTHING.  The end.

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St. Patty's Day

We are having Mexican food on St. Patty's Day, and that's just fine with me.  Homemade pico de gallo and tacos.  Mmm, mmm, good.

I think I am getting a cold.  I have horrible pressure in my face and my sinuses, I can't concentrate, and I can't breathe out of my nostrils.  Awesome.

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window shopping

This weekend we spent most of Saturday test driving new cars for Aaron. His '87 Ford Tempo is now a classic, since it is over 20 years old, but that is about the only redeeming quality it has left. He just replaced the serpentine belt at the beginning of this week, and the mechanic told him his drive shaft was going to need replacing soon. Well, instead of putting more money into a car that's just going to suck up money, it's better to just get a new car. Aaron had talked to his folks about this, and that seemed to be the sentiment. So on Thursday, Aaron test drove a Toyota Yaris. Saturday, I came with, and we looked at a Nissan Versa, but decided it was too much money, and test drove a Kia Rio 5 and a Honda Fit. Aaron really seems to like the Honda Fit Sport, so I think that is what we are going to start saving up some money for, towards a down payment. Maybe in two or three years we can start looking for a new car for me. Since mine is already paid off and in good running condition, why not get a new car while the old one still has some trade-in value?

Saturday night was also the 4th birthday for a beagle named Turbo, and we went to his birthday party. Weird, right? It was more fun than I thought it would be, but only because I knew some of the people who were there and could talk to them. Everyone was encouraged to bring their dog if they had one, but seeing as we only have a dog-like cat, I didn't think that counted, and left Odin at home.


Here is another one of his dog-like tendencies - he likes to play fetch;


Odin got to go outside on his harness for the first time on Thursday. It lasted about five minutes before he got concerned and went back inside the apartment. So I guess we'll just take small steps when it comes to outside. I just thought he would like to come with me to the rental office to pick up the sausage and jerky that Dad made and sent to us. Very tasty stuff.

I thought I had more to say, but I guess I don't. So I will be back next weekend!