Unconvential beauty products that I love

I'm a beauty product junkie. I buy new beauty stuff even if I don't need it, just because it's new and something I haven't tried before. I can wander around the beauty/personal care section of Target or CVS for an hour and not be bored. This is not something I'm proud of, and I probably waste money, but it's something I enjoy.

So when I find something and keep using it for a while, I know it's good. Here are two of those things.


Wen Cleansing Conditioner - $28
I saw an infomercial about this stuff when I was on the road with one of my teams and stuck in the hotel while they were practicing. Finola Hughes was on the commercial and her hair was lustrous, and I wanted lustrous hair like Finola Hughes. After some internet research, and despite the fact that it was kind of pricey, I ordered some.

The weird/different thing about it is that it doesn't lather and it's a single product meant to cleanse and condition your hair all at once. But not like those weird shampoo/conditioner combos. Rather, something that's good for your hair, with no sulfates, which are in almost every shampoo on the market and are supposedly not that great for your hair.

At first I did not like this stuff and it was stashed under my sink for a while until I tried it again a couple weeks ago. The first time I used it, I don't think I used it correctly, because I love it now. My hair doesn't feel as "squeaky clean" as with shampoo, but now I realize that's a good thing. Your hair isn't supposed to be squeaky clean, it needs its natural oils to stay shiny and healthy.

Anyway, like I said, it's pricey, but it replaces your shampoo AND conditioner. And if you already use professional products, this stuff is actually cheaper in the long run.

It comes in several different formulations. I use the Sweet Almond Mint but there are other versions for dry hair or oily hair or whatever.


DHC Deep Cleansing Oil - $24
I have a hard time finding face cleansers that I like. Most things leave my face feeling tight and dry. But I also get an oily t-zone. Classic combination skin. So when I read a commenter on one of my favorite sites raving about using OIL to clean your face, I was intrigued. Then someone mentioned DHC Deep Cleansing Oil and I remembered that I had gotten a DHC catalog with some samples in it. I used the oil sample the next morning and loved it.

It's a makeup remover/cleanser in one. You rub it all over your face before you wet it, and it even removes waterproof mascara. It feels like a huge oil slick on your face, and sort of smells like extra virgin olive oil. But once I rinsed it off, my skin was soft and supple. I combine it with a very gentle cleansing facial bar to get some of the oil residue off afterward and my skin feels great, never tight or dry anymore.

I enjoy funny things

This is probably not new to most people, but it is new to me, and the videos will be taken down this Sunday night (after that, they'll be available for purchase on iTunes), so watch now!

It's hard to describe how much I adore Neil Patrick Harris.

Cloverfield and The Story of the Bad Husband

Let me tell you a little story about a Bad Husband.

You see, this man knew that his wife wanted to see Cloverfield almost more than she loved her dog. From the time she saw the teaser trailer before 'Transformers', through all the speculation that it would be another crappy Godzilla movie, until the movie posters started appearing, he knew she wanted to see it. He knew that she loved Lost and, therefore, J.J. Abrams, and he knew that most anything Abrams created, his wife would enjoy.

But this man, this Bad Husband, kept putting off taking his wife to see 'Cloverfield'. Oh, one night they had grand plans to see it, after a nice dinner at the Macaroni Grill (it was lovely), but the Bad Husband ate too much and didn't feel like sitting through a movie. So the Good Wife took her husband home under the premise they would see it soon.

Then, something terrible happened. 'Cloverfield' left theaters. And the Good Wife hadn't seen it yet.

So, the Bad Husband promised they would watch it together once it came out on DVD. And guess what? The Bad Husband, he kept his promise! And they watched it together, the weekend after it was released on DVD.

And... and... I'm glad I didn't pay $10 to see it.

Oh yeah, spoilers ahead.

Okay, my husband really isn't a Bad Husband, but I do like to joke him down about that. Also about the kitchen project that was started MLK, Jr. Weekend and supposed to be finished by the time I got home that Monday evening and still isn't done, but that's neither here nor there.

So, 'Cloverfield.' It had so much promise. And I really did enjoy most of it. It was slow to start, of course, and since I knew what was going to happen I kept hoping that shit would start blowing up, and soon. I mean I guess the back story of the romance between the guy leaving for Japan and his best girl friend/crush was supposed to make me care about whether or not they were crushed by Cthulhu, but I didn't really. I just wanted to see the Statue of Liberty's head roll down the street. And boy did it!

The special effects were neat, and the guy who was supposed to be filming with the handheld video camera was funny. (Incidentally, did anyone watch Carpoolers? I loved that guy as Marmaduke on that show. Sadly, it's been canceled. But don't worry, they're bringing back The Big Bang Theory. (Psst - that show sucks.)) Also, the girl who gets bitten by the small monster (were they babies? parasites?) and then blows up was Janis Ian in Mean Girls, one of my favorite movies.

So, the premise is it's this dude's going away party, and the city (New York, of course) is attacked by some unknown monster. The dude loves this girl, who is one of his best friends, but she gets mad and leaves the party before the attack starts. So once everyone starts losing their shit and running for their lives, the dude starts to worry about the girl and whether or not she's safe. He finally gets through to her on a cell phone, and it turns out she's in her apartment and she's fallen and she can't get up. So the dude turns against the tide of people losing their shit and running for their lives to go back for the girl. His friends decide to come with him, and much drama and terror ensues.

The parts between the dumb romance storyline were actually very tense. It kind of stressed me out watching it, but in a good way, like how little kids always love to be scared and chased. The cthulhu monster was weird and scary, but even scarier were the smaller Doberman-sized monsters that fell off the big monster. They just bite everything in their paths.

At one point the dude and his friends are walking the subway tunnels in an attempt to stay away from the carnage in the streets, and it turns out they're being stalked by some of the small monsters. They can only see them if they use the Night Vision feature on the video camera. Um, does my camera at home have that feature? Because I could think of a lot of cool Nancy Drew-type things to do with that. Anyway. That's when Janis Ian gets bitten. She gets sicker and sicker as they walk, and they finally find some military and medical people with a makeshift hospital, and the girl starts bleeding from her eyes and nose. The medical staff say, "We've got a bite!", rush her behind a back-lit curtain, and she explodes. At that point I was thinking, J.J. Abrams, you have successfully entertained me even if the rest of this movie sucks.

Anyway, the movie makes it clear that only one of the friends successfully escapes (and it's not the dude or his girl that he rescues). The other three are on a helicopter but the monster pulls it down out of the sky. Then the guy with the camera actually gets eaten by the big monster in a cool scene with him standing directly beneath it, pointing the camera up at it. It looks down at him and considers him for a few seconds before it chomps.

The dude and his girl get the camera after that and hide out under a bridge in Central Park and make their final testimonials to the camera. (As an aside, that camera had a great battery.) Air raid sirens are going off because the military is just going to destroy the whole island and, ostensibly, the monster too.

I guess we should have watched through the credits because according to Wikipedia there's some weird noise or voice at the very end that says "Help" or "It's still alive" or something. That's some straight-up 'Lost' crap right there.

I give Cloverfield 3/5 stars. I would watch it again but fast forward through the beginning.

Random Pictures from my Camera

Here are some random pictures from my camera.

*WARNING* A lot of these will be about my pets so if you don't like that crap then stop now.

Here we have a recent shot of Maggie. She's not running in fear (she hates cameras) because a little girl is taking the picture. We had a friend over with his two little girls for Easter and they were working my nerves so I let them play with the camera.



Here is P.J. in her new favorite spot. The first time she was here, we were freaking out because we couldn't find her and thought she'd finally escaped.

P.S. You can see the new wall color & crown molding in the kitchen in this shot. It hasn't been caulked yet but I will post pictures once it's 100% done.


This is our new quilt for summer. It's lighter than our comforter. And it's not too girly. If Mike didn't live with me I'd totally have something like this on my bed.



We have a neighbor two doors down named Paul who has two dogs, Bella, who looks exactly like Maggie except taller and skinnier and with floppy ears, and Bailey, a little ankle-biter dog who is actually very sweet but likes to poop on the sidewalk. They came over to play in our fenced yard the other day but they didn't play much, they just wanted to come inside.



And finally, I saw this driving to work one morning. I should probably receive some sort of citation for driving and taking a picture at the same time, but it was too good to not document.

***Please note that the license plate says "Choose Life" at the top. There's nothing quite like a pair of hot pink truck nuts that screams CULTURE OF LIFE, is there?

Air Band

These clips are probably two of my most favorite things I've ever seen on TV. Like I literally watch them five times in a row every few weeks. Sad? Maybe. But you can't deny you never liked 'Poison' by Bel Biv Devoe. Seriously, don't deny it.

Anyway, this is from Scrubs, and the Janitor, Ted, and Lloyd are putting together an air band. Sort of like playing air guitar, but you also have air drums, air bass, and an air lead singer. They are auditioning potential lead singers.

Scrubs Air Band Tryouts


And this is their awesome performance, together as the Cool Cats.

Scrubs- More than a feeling Airband


I guess it helps that Boston's 'More Than a Feeling' is a kick-ass song that I crank on the classic rock station all the time.

I'm lame.

OMG I am lame. I haven't updated in so long.

The holidays were a whirlwind. Thanksgiving was great. We stayed here in Birmingham and Mike's Aunt Janis came here to visit us. I cooked a full meal, turkey, all the good stuff. It was great not having to deal with a bunch of family. We saved that for Christmas.

It was kind of funny seeing how Mike reacted to my family's Christmas. First of all you have to know that I have an effing huge family. Both my parents have three siblings. Both my grandmas are alive and kicking. I have lots of cousins and lots of those cousins have children. So Christmas Eve we go to my mom's mom's house to open gifts.

At Mike's house, for the gift opening, you go around and open gifts one at a time, so everybody can see what you got. That's not how we roll. We hand out the gifts and tear into them. It's basically a 15-minute free-for-all gift-opening frenzy. It's awesome, but Mike was overwhelmed.

Then Christmas morning, we hang out at home for a little while, exchanging gifts with my parents and sister. But then we head to my dad's mom's house for Christmas lunch. Another gift-opening frenzy ensues, and it's even nuttier because there are like 57 little kids there running around. More like four or five, but man they are all over the place. And they are especially apparent when they love Hannah Montana so much. But I digress.

Needless to say once we got home after that it was nice to just relax a bit. But that was short-lived because we had to drive back on the 26th for one of Mike's games (Mike is the assistant coach for the varsity girl's basketball team at his high school). Usually we have to leave early because of my games for work, but this year it was Mike's fault, ha!

My sister, Kelly, rode back to Birmingham with us to stay for a week. It was fun having her out here. Last time she was here, we forced her to help us move, so it wasn't very fun. But this time she had the guest room all set up nicely for her and everything. Plus we got a Wii for Christmas from my parents so we bowled our asses off and played tennis like nonstop. Seriously, my ass muscle was sore from bowling and I got tennis shoulder or something. It's really kind of sad.

Since then, we have just been working a lot. Basketball season is in full swing for both of us. Our women's team, at the school where I work, is kicking ass and taking names (15-3) and the men's team isn't doing too badly either. Mike's team... well, they are young, really young, that's all I will say. And he is having a good time learning how to coach. And they are good girls.

Last weekend I went to Texas with our women's team, to Austin and San Antonio. It was pretty fun, but colder than I thought. I was really sort of expecting like 70s but it was more like 30s and 40s. Also, while we were there, it freaking snowed in Birmingham. The first time it's snowed since I've lived here, and I missed it. I was so mad!

I saw the Alamo. It was smaller and not as impressive as I was expecting, but still interesting. I fought the urge to ask to see the basement. Please post a comment if you get that reference. None of the basketball players did. Damn young kids.

We still love our house. We are doing some minor kitchen upgrades at the moment. If you saw the old pictures, it was painted brown. Now it is a light creamy yellow, so pretty, so bright. And it seems a lot bigger, too. We also put up beadboard and are going to put up chair-rail moulding and crown moulding (is it molding or moulding?). It is going to look real nice when we are done. The best part is, Mike's teacher friend, Chip, is helping us out for free. He's the same guy who helped us paint all the rooms for free back before we moved in.

That's about everything, I think. We aren't having babies yet, so don't ask.

She's dressed in yellow, she says hello...

I heard this on the radio today and remembered how much I absolutely love, love, love this song.

Young MC - Bust A Move

My Favorite Picture

I haven't posted any pictures from the wedding here yet because I'm lazy, but I have started scanning them to my computer and here's my favorite one out of all the pictures:

If my dad wasn't my dad

Since Mike has left his wife home alone tonight & tomorrow while he goes to Nashville to watch Vandy play Alabama, I'm taking the opportunity to watch TV shows that Mike would never watch with me. One of those shows, which I have just recently re-discovered my love for, is Little House on the Prairie. Wow, I love this show.

Charles Ingalls (played brilliantly by Michael Landon) is one of the best TV dads. Ever. Now in the past if you would have asked me, I would have said Andy Taylor (played by Andy Griffith). But Mr. Ingalls has the edge for a few reasons.

1) He lives in the olden days and lives on a farm. My grandfather was a farmer (among many other things) and I just have a real soft spot for farmers.
2) He successfully raised three girls (I'm leaving out Albert because they adopted him later).
3) He always knows the right thing to say or do. Always. Of course so did Andy.

At any rate, if you've never watched Little House, I highly recommend it.

Also, I think Karen Grassle is one of the most beautiful women who was ever on TV.

Oh yeah, once when I was younger, I dressed up as Laura Ingalls Wilder for a book report on Little House on the Prairie. It was awesome. My grandma made me an outfit with one of those funny bonnets and everything.

Do you think it's bad luck/bad karma to kill bugs?

I'm not like some tree-hugging hippie, or even a vegetarian, but I always feel a little twinge of remorse when I kill a bug. One time a couple of years ago at the apartment complex where we were living, there was a wasp's nest on the railing of the stairs leading up to our floor. I got stung on the foot and came back with some bug spray and annihilated those suckers. Then I felt like crying. They didn't sting me to be mean. They were protecting their nest. I feel sad thinking about it now and every time I walked by that dead nest for the next few days I felt like I'd run over a kitten or something.

Also, I hardly ever kill spiders, if I can help it. Not only because they trap and eat other bugs (like mosquitos) but because I saw Charlotte's Web and it really resonated with me. (Aside: Last week we went out to eat and walked by a pet store on the way to the restaurant and they had little piglets. Piglets!!! I really wanted one but Mike said no. If I ever got one, his name would be Wilbur.)

Anyway, also, our volleyball coach says killing spiders is bad luck. I don't know about all that but I do know that unless it's like a black widow or something really huge and hairy I hardly ever kill them. If I see them in the house, I get a cup and a piece of paper (unopened mail works well) and trap it and let it go outside. Silly? Maybe. But it makes me feel a little bit better about myself.

I do discriminate, though. Mosquitos for example never get my sympathy. Neither do ants. Especially when they get into leftover chocolate cake on the counter that was really really delicious but you had to throw away because the ants got into it, and then you spend half an hour spraying said ants with bug spray and wiping them all up and wiping everything down because you don't want any bug spray residue on the countertop where you prepare food. That was just an example.

So let's hear it: do you feel bad when you kill bugs?

Cats in funny places & new stuff

So now that I'm a boring married lady, the exciting things in my life are, in no particular order:

-our new house
-our pets
-our new(ish) car

So here are some pictures of our cats, as well as our new house (and furniture).


Mike got a laptop in the mail from his friend and we left the open box on the table. This is where we found PJ when we got home. She was asleep before we so rudely interrupted her. And as I type this, here is what I see:

Right after I took that (with flash), I got the evil eye for a good 30 seconds.



"What? This is where cats go."


That's our new dining room furniture. It's "pub height" which means it's kinda like sitting at a bar.


That's the guest room. It used to have baby blue walls and ceiling. Yes, the ceiling was painted the same color as the walls, and it was all baby blue.


That's the guest bathroom. It used to be a bright aquamarine color.


That's our room. It used to be a taupe/khaki color and we painted it a light creamy yellow, although it doesn't show up too well in the picture. You'll have to take my word for it. If you don't believe me, well, I don't care.


That's the master bathroom. We didn't paint it but I just like it so I posted a picture. Got a problem with that?


That's our TV room/den/office/dog's room. That's also P.J.'s butt.
We moved our old couch & recliner in this room. It also used to be a taupe/khaki color with lots of holes in the walls where the previous owners hung stuff.
The dog has a better room than I did growing up.


That's our new sofa, chair & ottoman. And pillows. And a whiny dog. I can't believe she walked into the shot. She usually puts her tail between her legs and turns away from me when I have the camera. Definitely not an attention whore like P.J.


And that's the matching love seat. I always wondered why it's called a love seat. It's not really big enough for anything but sitting.

We still have a lot to do around the house (mostly involving hanging curtains) but it is really starting to feel like OUR house, finally. Especially since we have to pay the mortgage every month. And had to get the AC fixed when it went out last week in 105 degree weather instead of just calling the front office/landlord. But we love it and can't wait for people to start visiting us. That's a hint. Come visit us, damnit.

So I really slacked off on updating my blog on my honeymoon. I'm sure you'll forgive me for that. :)

As Mike said in his last posting, the ceremony at the Duke Gardens got rained out. I was pretty excited at first because it was nice and cool outside and kind of overcast which is the perfect weather for pictures, but when we started hearing the thunder rumbling as we were taking some pictures I started to worry. Then I felt a raindrop and we headed up to a gazebo to take shelter. A nice lady walking by gave me an umbrella to use and we ended up waiting for at least 30 minutes for the rain to pass. Well it only got harder so at 5:50 p.m. (the ceremony was supposed to begin at 6 p.m.) we decided to officially move it back to the hotel.

It turned out to still be a really nice ceremony. Everyone was able to sit down (there were only 50 chairs at the Gardens) and it was nice to be in the same location as the reception. The rain did pass while we were in the ceremony, so we went out to the courtyard area to take pictures and it was a lot of fun. At that point I just felt so relieved that the "formal" part was over that I started relaxing and feeling a lot better.

The reception was great, the food was outstanding, and I danced my ass off until the DJ left at 11:30 p.m. I also drank a bit too much but it was a lot of fun. The open soft bar was a big hit, as was the chocolate fountain, and the cake was delicious. I got to see a lot of friends that I hadn't seen in a long time which was really nice and I think that everyone had a great time.

We stayed at the hotel bar after the reception until about 1:30 a.m. Needless to say we were a little bleary-eyed at the send-off breakfast the next morning at 9 a.m. but I wouldn't do anything differently if I could go back. Besides the rain it was just as I imagined it.

The honeymoon was really fun, too. We left for New York on Saturday afternoon around 3:30 p.m. and got to our hotel that evening around 6:30 p.m. We walked around the block and had some great pizza and then got some much needed sleep.

On Sunday, we had brunch at The View at the Marriott Marquis, which is a revolving rooftop restaurant. It was really nice, and then we went to a 3 p.m. showing of 'Curtains' with David Hyde Pierce (from Frasier). It was REALLY good - very funny with good songs. We also had tickets for 'Phantom of the Opera' for Wednesday night but ended up seeing a LOT more shows than just those two, thanks to the discovery of the same-day half-price ticket counter in Times Square.

We saw 'Les Miserables' Monday night, 'Inherit the Wind' Tuesday afternoon, 'Phantom' on Wednesday, and 'Chicago' Thursday evening. We also went to the ballet (Swan Lake) with Alexis, one of my bridesmaids, Tuesday night, went to the Bronx Zoo on Friday, and then stayed in the Bronx to see the Yankees play the A's on Friday night. Saturday morning we took a harbor cruise, and then flew back to NC Saturday evening. In between all that, we did some shopping and ate some really great food.

So now we are back in Birmingham and it's very strange to have all the wedding hoopla over & done with. However we do have some new excitement in that we closed on our house yesterday (Monday) and will get to start moving in next Monday.

I will probably post pictures from the wedding here as I get them.

I'm married!!!!!!!

Okay, now that I got that out of my system, I'll pick up where Mike left off in the story. (If you haven't already read it, click on the link to his blog on this page and read that first.)

So throughout the whole wedding planning process I was relatively un-stressed. Strangely so, apparently. But let me tell you, it all caught up to me on Thursday & Friday. All of it.

Thursday started out well as our friends & family started arriving. I had a hair consultation to figure out how to fix it, place my veil, etc. on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. and that's where things started getting stressful for me. I ran late at the hairstylist and then traffic was a beast and we ended up being 20 minutes late for the ceremony rehearsal at the Gardens. Also, it was hot. Damn hot. So I started worrying that it would be unbearable for our guests (and me) on Friday for the 6 p.m. ceremony.

The rehearsal dinner was really fun with good food and cake. Seeing all our friends & family mixed up and mingling for the first time was a trip. They all got along really well and had a blast.

Once we got back to the hotel, all the younger people wanted to keep partying, so we went on the hotel shuttle to the Carolina Ale House. A fun time was had by all, including me with too many drinks the night before my wedding. I wasn't drunk but I definitely drank too much. We got back to the hotel about 1:45 a.m. and my sister and I finally went to bed about 2:30 a.m.

We had 9 a.m. manicure/pedicure appointments so I had to be up early. I couldn't sleep, though. Is there any worse feeling than laying in bed, not able to sleep when you know you NEED to sleep, and worrying about dumb stuff? Well that's what I was doing. I was worried about tripping down the steps of the pergola (gazebo) after the ceremony. I was worried about my tan lines showing. I was worried about how I'd dance with Mike and my dad at the reception. I was worried about people having enough to eat. So all in all I got about three hours of sleep. Not fun.

Friday was a whirlwind. Me and eight other people (four bridesmaids, Mike's mom & aunt, my aunt, Mike's "sister", and a groomsman's wife) went for manis & pedis and that was very nice and relaxing. I couldn't really eat all day, though, because my stomach was churning so much.

Then at 1 p.m. I got my hair done, along with my sister, Kelly, and cousin (and bridesmaid), Karen. Once we were able to get out of the salon by 2:30 p.m. I started to relax more. So we headed back to the hotel (me with my veil in my hair and wearing shorts & flip flops) where me & Kelly had to pack up our room really quickly and move up to the honeymoon suite to finish getting ready. The makeup artist/photographer met us there and did our makeup, and did a really good job. Then I put on my dress, shoes, and jewelry, my mom cried a little bit, and we were off!

I'll leave off there and let Mike tell the next part of the story.

Tonight was Maggie's graduation at PetSmart training. It was a grueling eight weeks, filled with frustration, anger, and exasperation, but we made it! She was actually very well-behaved in the last session, probably the best she's been so far. Here are one of the few good pictures we got of her (Mike had to hold the cap on her head):



It was pretty cute and a fun time for all.

In other news, four weeks and two days til the wedding. Not that I'm counting down or anything.

Work is REALLY slow right now. Softball is over and we didn't have baseball this year, so we are already thinking ahead to football (ugh) and the other fall sports. Next year is going to be so different, adding football and playing in Division III instead of Division I. I'm not really sure what to expect. Oh, we're also adding men's and women's lacrosse as varsity sports in '08-'09. I know nothing about lacrosse, and even more nothing about the stats involved, so that's going to be an adventure.

Also, we're starting to look at buying a house. We met with a mortgage lender last week and we're meeting with another one tomorrow, and we've already been to look at houses with a real estate agent. We'll probably move out to the west side of Birmingham for a couple of reasons: 1) We can afford something much nicer out there and 2) It's really close to work for both of us. So far it's been a frustrating process because we initially found a house that we REALLY liked and found out somebody bought it the weekend we found it. That was disappointing but I think we'll find something else. It will be really nice to have a yard for Maggie and not live right on a busy highway like we do now.

That's about it for now. Probably the next time I post something it will involve wedding pictures. I'm going to be somebody's wife, how weird is that??? :)

And without further ado, here's Maggie!



Here she is chillin on her new bed we got her:



And so they don't feel left out, because I know they check my blog every day, here are the cats:



Continuing the previous theme of finding PJ in funny places:



That's it for now.

See, I told you I suck at blogging. Damn, it's been a while, but I'm back!

First things first: we got a dog. We got her last Saturday (March 24) and all of us (me, Mike, the dog, and the cats) are still trying to figure things out. The cats hated us and the dog for the first few days. Now they tolerate the dog and possibly still hate us occasionally, but are starting to get more comfortable. The dog just wants to chase and/or play with the cats, but of course the cats do not want this. Basically we are taking it one day at a time.

The dog is a 2.5-year-old Corgi mix. We changed her name to Maggie to give her a fresh start. We got her from the Shelby Humane Society. She was in the shelter because her previous owner gave her up because the kids wouldn't take care of her like they promised they would. How crappy is that? I call that bad parenting. Way to teach your kids responsibility.

Anyway, she's a real sweetie, but a bit clingy and whiny. We think this is because she's never been left alone and, living with kids, had tons of attention and constant stimulation before going to the shelter. We are trying to crate train her for at night and during the day while we're gone, but she's starting to hate it. Fortunately she is potty trained already - no accidents yet and she's great about going outside to use the bathroom.

Probably the best side effect so far of having Maggie is that we walk every day. I take her out in the morning for 20-25 minutes, and Mike (or both of us) takes her out at night for 20-30 minutes. Although I hate getting out of bed, it feels great to get out and walk. It is a lot of responsibility, though, and I still think I'm mostly a cat person, but I'm glad we got Maggie. I think once we move to a place with a yard, then the living arrangements with the cats will become a little easier.

Anyway, that's about it. I'm heading home to North Carolina this weekend for my bridal shower. Very exciting! It will be nice to spend time with my family.

I will post pictures of Maggie soon. She's a real cutie.

I suck at blogging.

I haven't posted for a mixture of two reasons: 1) I'm lazy; 2) I have a hard time thinking of stuff to write about. So here are some random things that have been going on.

We bought a camcorder. It's a Sony MiniDV Handycam and it's awesome.

We have gotten a lot of wedding stuff done: booked the photographer, booked the wedding coordinator, picked out invitations, ordered the bridesmaids dresses, bought my wedding band, found a rehearsal dinner site, reserved the florist... the big thing that still needs to be taken care of is the honeymoon. We can't decide between an Alaskan cruise or one of those all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean. Any input is welcome.

I really like watching Scrubs reruns on late-night TV.

I watched the entire Academy Awards broadcast for the first time probably ever. It was pretty good but kind of long and boring at times. I thought the best dressed women were Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet, and Reese Witherspoon. I didn't like Will Smith's double-breasted tuxedo.

The cats are playing with an empty Bud Light box right now and it's hilarious and weird.

Our apartment management people suck and I can't wait to get out of here. Our appliances are about 15 years old and starting to break down but they don't want to replace anything, just keep trying to fix it (i.e. our dishwasher). It also takes about three phone calls and a visit to the front office to get any kind of work order put through.

'Lost' isn't as good as it used to be and that makes me sad. I still can't figure out why they took such a long break over the winter. I think they lost a lot of viewers because of that. On the other hand, I love 'Medium', 'How I Met Your Mother', and 'CSI' (the original).

I really don't want to turn this into "My Wedding Blog" but wedding preparations are the most interesting things going on in my life right now.

The past few weeks have been really productive. While I was in North Carolina, we found a preacher and I got a dress. Then this past weekend I found shoes, and yesterday we bought my wedding band. It's really gorgeous - platinum band with channel-set princess-cut diamonds. It looks really great with my engagement ring. While I was there, I gave them my engagement ring to get sized down a bit, so I am without a ring right now. Maybe it's time to go out to some bars. Just kidding.

We are also about to send in the contract for the ceremony music (violin & cello), and I've found a photographer that I like. I've also been talking with a florist that I really like, and got a price list on that. So things are progressing nicely.

Other than that, I had two basketball games to cover this weekend, and we lost both of them. We're heading down to Charleston & Myrtle Beach this weekend for games and we'll be lucky to get a win down there. I know I sound negative but I prefer to think of it as realistic.

Oh, I did have some excitement Friday evening when a guy backed into my car while we were sitting at a red light. I got all his info and everything, and today I went to the Honda place to get an estimate: $750 to replace the bumper, plus the cost for renting a car for three days. I called the guy and he asked if I would mind getting another estimate at an independent body shop, so I guess I'm going to do that because I'm too nice. At this point I'm scared that he's going to try to flip on me and say that I rear-ended him.

Additionally, it has been in the 70s here over the past several days but all of a sudden it's freezing today with highs in the 40s and wind chills in the low 20s. At least it finally feels like winter.

Well, it's back to the old grind for both me and Mike this week. We drove back from N.C. to Birmingham on Thursday, and then I was supposed to leave with women's basketball for Savannah at 6 a.m. (6 a.m.!!!) on Friday. Well, I was all packed and ready to go, drove out to the school, boarded the bus, and there was barely enough room for everyone. There were 12 beds and about three couches worth of sitting space, when we had 20 people in the travel party (13 players, 2 managers, 3 coaches, 1 trainer, and me). Keep in mind that this is a nine hour drive, and after the Saturday night game, we'd be driving back all night, so pretty much everybody would want to sleep at some point. So, being the selfless person that I am, and also due to the fact that I felt like crap after being sick all week, I volunteered to stay back. I could work from home anyway. So it was a nice restful weekend at home with Mike.

The trip to N.C. was good. I got a wedding dress! It's beautiful. Now I need to find shoes and get it altered. We also ordered our cake and found a place to get flowers, although they were supposed to call me over the weekend and never did. So it was a productive holiday season.

The next big thing on my plate at this point is finishing the softball media guide. Once that's done I'm home free for a while. Except for wedding stuff, of course. What will I do with my free time once the wedding is over?

It has been a long eight days.

Last Friday (Dec. 22), Mike and I drove 2.5 hours from Birmingham to Atlanta, where we took a flight to San Francisco, where Mike's mom & stepdad picked us up and drove us another 1.5 hours to Mike's hometown, Stockton, CA. That's where we stayed for a week, including my first-ever Christmas away from my parents. It was a lot better than I thought it would be, as far as feeling like I was missing something, because we had a really good time. Mike's mom cooked some great dishes that she got recipes on from my mom, and we had In 'n Out Burger, which I love. We also got some good presents, I found a wedding dress I really like, and we went to a minor league hockey game, which was really fun. We also drank Fat Tire beer, which is delicious, and especially good because we can't get it in our area of Alabama. I think it is a West Coast/Midwest thing.

After we spent a week in Stockton, visiting with Mike's family and friends, we flew back from San Francisco to Atlanta this past Thursday (Dec. 28). We drove 2.5 hours to Augusta Thursday night, and drove the remaining several hours to my hometown, Richlands, on Friday. We're driving back to Birmingham on Thursday so we're not quite done with all the traveling yet.

Today was my Grandma Catherine's 90th birthday party, which seemed to be the event of the season. I think about 150 people showed up in all. My grandma, and my late grandfather, are both very well-known in the area, and I think I already talked about my grandma in my first blog post, about how independent she is, still lives on her own, drives on her own, etc. Anyway, it was a great party, and gave Mike a good chance to get to know that side of my family. We also talked to my dad's uncle, who is a preacher, and he agreed to marry us! He married my parents back in August 1975 so I think it will be pretty special to have him there.

We also spent last night in my parents' new house. They aren't completely moved in yet, but there are two beds and a couch so me, Mike, and Kelly (my sister) stayed there. It's going to be really, really nice when everything is done. It's really beautiful.

That brings us to now, and as of right this minute we have made plans to take my other grandma out to lunch tomorrow at Smithfield's, which is an Eastern NC BBQ chain with outstanding barbeque. We always go at least once every time we come home to NC.

That's all for now... no plans yet for New Year's Eve but I was never really hip on going out for that anyway. Overall it has been a really great first holiday with Mike. :)