Happy Halloween

Boo! I'm wearing a black shirt today and that's about as close as I get to a Halloween costume. I'm just not a dresser upper. Even if we had gone to the big doins at Oak Lawn Saturday night I probably wouldn't have gone in costume. Party pooper you say? Comfortable and happy I say. I saw one guy in the hallway awhile ago who was wearing normal clothes and he had a big scary mask propped up on his head but it wasn't covering his face, and when he saw me coming he pulled the mask down over his face so I could see the lights flashing out of the googley eye sockets. Nice. I said, "Ooo, scarey" in my best Paris Hilton voice and gave him a couple of gratuitous giggles and remained on my mission toward the bathroom. I don't get it. And all of those yards with R.I.P. headstones and the cobwebs in the trees...heeeell to the no! That just gives all the evil spirits floating around out there a nice place to land.

We are going to pass out Halloween candy though! I get the candy part of Halloween. But I would rather pass it out only to those kids who go for the cute and cuddley look rather than gross and scarey. We should at least give the cute ones more candy to reward them for not being on the path to becoming a serial killer. We bought an assortment of M&M's to pass out, but we love peanut M&M's so much we picked all of those out stashed them in the pantry so we can nibble on them for the rest of the year. We'll be generous with the plain ones and the M&M Mini's, but as soon as we run out of those we're shutting our light off to protect the peanut stash. Unless a cute little ladybug happens by. That's what my niece Jada is going to be when she trick or treats in Nebraska tonight. And Ciara is going to be a flower so her head will be surrounded by petals. I'm miss them somethin' fierce! Too cute.

We're not crazy dog dresser-uppers. With the thunderstorms and the constant ringing of the doorbell the pups will be stressed enough. Besides, we've only had Harry for a week and we don't want to put a little football player outfit on him and annoy him to the point that he wishes we had never adopted him. He has already learned how to "gimmie five" so maybe we'll just make him do that trick for a treat. Happy Halloween!

Retro wear and roasting

Harry made it through the whole night without doing anything naughty in the bed! Harry is a dog and I was worried about him doo-dooing in the covers. Get your mind out of the gutter.

I'm wearing a William "Refrigerator" Perry shirt today from the 1985 Chicago Bears. I wore it in 1985 and then shoved it in the closet and it stayed there for eons, and my parents dug it out and brought it to me last Christmas to see if it would still fit. It does. I was a fat kid and now I'm skinny so it balances out. That's a really great life lesson. If you want to save money on your wardrobe, be a fat child and lose the weight at some point during adulthood. The clothes that used to be filled up with fat, will then be filled up with broader shoulders and a chest and they'll fit great. (In my case it's mostly the shoulders that do the filling.) And you'll always be cool because you'll be retro. It's genius I say.

Angela is in Austin until tomorrow afternoon, so I'm a loner right now. I have no exciting plans. I'm going to roast tomatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and garlic so we can try our friend Anna's homemeade marinara recipe. I love roasting things, as long as it's not a roast. Veggies are fun, but I can't do all that meat. And I'm going to make asiago cheese bread to dip in olive oil. The house is going to smell great when she gets home! Then we'll have a nice quiet wine evening at home. Sunday we'll switch to wings and football mode and pray that the Cowboys don't blow a fourth quarter lead. Game on!

Pop Rock sabotage

Last night on the way to church I was catching Angela up on the things coming up on our social calendar in the next few weeks, and we talked about how much our lives have changed in the past couple of years. We moved to Dallas four years ago without knowing many people and we felt isolated for awhile, but in the past couple of years we've had the opportunity to meet a lot of great new people and cultivate a plethora of new friendships. We're blessed, and friends make us feel warm and fuzzy, and all of that...but friendships are a lot of work! They require time and energy I've found, and if ya don't put some work into 'em, they fizzle. Big revelation, I know. Sometimes it's just easier to sit at home on the couch and watch an L Word marathon all by ourselves. But we're doing our best to put ourselves out there.

We met a great new couple at church last night. It was the first time they had been to the 20something group that I co-lead every Wednesday, and we were able to chat afterward about some of the things that we had been mutually inspired by during the group discussion (I love gettin' my inspiration on). But I think I made a bad impression. The feeling has carried over into today, so that must mean I made a faux pas of some sort. As we were standing there talking, all I could think about was this nagging pain in my stomach that had risen up out of nowhere about thirty minutes earlier, and made my insides feel like I had about a pound of Pop Rocks rolling around in there. Exploding gravel I tell ya. Only nothing ever exploded. It just felt like I was being poked by sharp objects under my ribcage. And it made me light-headed and sweaty so I had to start fanning myself while they were talking. I noticed that everything I said and everything they said sounded like it was in a hollow tunnel, and I couldn't fully concentrate on any of it. Who knew that Pop Rocks could make life so surreal. What was this? Hot flashes already? While I was standing there fanning myself and planning my strategy for cutting the conversation short I was also thinking about how I would likely regret this sweaty, distracted behavior. These girls were super cool and I wanted to be their new friend. But the Pop Rocks persisted and we had to leave. As we were walking out Angela saw the sweat beads on my forehead and touched my back and told me I was burning up which was not news to me, but by the time we got to the car the terrible sickness had passed. Does the bird flu come and go this quickly? The whole thing ticked me off. The Pop Rocks had sabotaged my first impression in a potential new friendship and just like that they were gone. Maybe I was just allergic to these people.

No terrible yet fleeting illnesses today. All is well with my insides. I'm having lunch later at Mi Cocina with my new friend Anna, whom I adore, so I'm looking forward to Mama's tacos and chattin'. Yay for friends!

While you were sleeping...

I don't sleep all that long--around 6 hours per night--but I sleep like a rock. (That phrase has always cracked me up. Rocks don't sleep, do they?) Every once in awhile a big crash of thunder will wake me up, but otherwise I'm completely out and unresponsive to anything that goes on around me. That's turning out to be a huge pain for Angela, because Harry is waking her up about five times every night to go outside. I hear none of it. When my alarm goes off at 3:30 I reach for Harry to help him get down off the bed cuz he's too scared to jump, and just as I'm rounding up all the dogs and heading to the door Angela says through her slumber, "They just went." Hmm, I missed it. I guess all of the dogs are going outside each time Harry wakes up, and I'm blocking out the noise of the entire herd. I wonder if Harry tried to wake me up the first night, and I was unresponsive so he moved on to Angela. I must be having some good dreams. I wouldn't know. I can never remember them.

Here's what scares me. Angela is going to Austin to visit her sister tomorrow through Saturday, so I'll be all alone with the dogs and if Harry poops in the bed it will be all my fault. I'm going to have to do a shot of espresso during Will & Grace tomorrow night so the effects will still be lingering when I decide to go to bed and I'll be forced to sleep lightly. Maybe God gave us Harry as part of a baby-training program, to see if we could handle something high-maintenance in the middle of the night. If so, Angela is fully capable. I need to have a dream about falling every hour and a half so I'll be jolted from sleep and I'll be just in time to perform whatever task is at hand.

Other than having to jump up when Harry says he's ready to go outside, I've managed to remain focused during this week of renewed self-discipline. But before I get started on my work this afternoon, I must allow myself to become distracted by a couple of Sheryl Swoopes articles. I had heard through friends of friends in Houston that she had joined the club, and then my mom told me in an email this morning that she had seen it on the news. I love that stories like that get my mom's attention now. She's my little gay newswire. Love ya Mom! Okay, back to focusing.

Clunky clothes and self-discipline

I'm loving this cooler weather. I'm excited about the transition to long sleeves! I look better in fall clothes than summer clothes because I'm pastey white and the extra material helps counteract the flourescent glow that comes from exposed appendages, but also it just makes me warm and fuzzy inside to have long sleeves and jeans on instead of short sleeves and shorts. Have you noticed that people on TV almost always have long sleeves on? Newscasts, sitcoms, talk shows...Upper arms don't look good on TV and they don't look good on me. I'm wearing my black leather hightop Pumas today too. I've been looking longingly at them each day since March, hoping that the weather would eventually get cool enough to wear them again, and today is the big payoff day. They're clunky and sassy and I love them. But they hurt my feet a little bit. That's the price I must pay for clunky beauty I guess. I hope clunky beauty exists. Maybe it's sporty beauty. Hmm.

I decided yesterday that this will be the week of renewed self-discipline. I have the exercise routine down, but when I'm working on the laptop at home I piddle too much. I'll be working on a project and stop in mid-thought to check my email or see if I got a new friend request on myspace, and then before I know it I'm thirty minutes in and I've emailed six friends and ended up on some guy's page in Wichita who prompted me to click on his profile with one slick comment about the Colts on someone's blog, and the only things that yank me back to reality are the creepy skeleton faces on his page and the realization that my original thought has been suspended in midair for the past thirty minutes. I love myspace, but I need to love it during free time and not focus time. But if I limit my myspace time, here's what will happen; I'll find other things to distract myself, like puppy lovin' time, ESPN News, and a sudden urge to water some plants.

Lunch will be the first thing that steals my attention. I'm starving right now. And Harry has the hiccups so I'd better rub his belly. Surely this self-discipline renewal can wait until this afternoon.

Lil Bit Harry

Here's the new pup! He's such a sweetie. His foster mom and foster aunt brought him over to the house on Saturday and we fell in love with him immediately! They named him Lil Bit and we added Harry, so his full name is Lil Bit Harry. We're calling him Harry mostly, because Harry is fun to say in a high pitched voice.

He was nervous to meet us at first, but he warmed up as soon as he figured out we meant no harm and that we had toys and treats. The rest of our dogs didn't even get too upset when we introduced all of them--they just did the once-over sniff and check, and went on with their day. He's a keeper! We feel fortunate to have him, considering all that he has been through and all of the times we went back and forth about getting a fourth dog. I'm glad we caved.

His original owners dropped him off at the humane society at the beginning of August with a broken leg, and he was acquired by Miniature Schnauzer Rescue of North Texas about a month after that. I can tell MSRNT did a great job fostering him. No one knows how he got the broken leg. That's probably knowledge I can live without. You can't tell in this picture, but the hair on his left front leg is still a little shorter after being shaved and immobilized in a cast for a few weeks. The bone has healed, but he still favors that leg sometimes and he's timid about jumping off of the couch. Poor guy. We don't know how anyone could ever be mean to him or neglect him.

The word Angela is using to describe him is "pliable." Interesting. That makes me think of the time I made a coffee table in shop class in high school and I chose oak which is a hard wood, and it wasn't that pliable so I had to create some stiff joints to fasten it all together. But I guess pliable applies to dogs as well. Harry is receptive to change and easy to work with. If she keeps using that word I'll just have to fight the urge to sand him.

He couldn't figure out why I got up at 3:30 this morning. Pierre, Sophie, Beanie, and Angela are used to it and they always go back to sleep, but Harry looked at me and wiggled around like he was excited and it was time to play. I'm sure that will pass and by Wednesday he'll be happy to burrow back into the covers and forget about my early rising plight. He fits right in.

We love him already!

I love animal lovers

Yesterday my excitement over the fourth dog possibility was mixed with a lil' bit of reservation and worry about whether or not we could handle it, but now I'm pumped! The comments and emails have awakened me to the fact that there are tons of other crazy animal lovers out there, and Angela and I will not be alone in our animal insanity. So thanks. We should really start a multiple pet ownership support group or something.

Here's the link to Miniature Schnauzer Rescue of North Texas if you have a schnauzer addiction like we do: http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/msrnt.html. Lil' Bit is ours, so hands off. But there are lots of other sweetie pies there for ya. Schnauzers are smart, playful, cuddley, and they don't shed and I think everybody should own one...or four.

I'll be out at Crest Cadillac in Plano today from 4-6pm. Stop by and say hey! I'd love to meet you. It's on 75 between Park and Parker.

Angela's sister Amanda and her 9 month-old son Gavin are driving in tonight to stay for the weekend. So if Lil' Bit likes us tomorrow and the foster parents approve of us, we'll have four dogs, three adults, and a baby in the house. Paaarrrrtyyy! It'll be a hoot. My mom thinks it might cause the gray hairs to start sproutin'. As long as I can see the TV during the Texas/Texas Tech game I'll be okay. Football, family bonding, the excitement of a new pet, and flautas drizzled with queso... I'm in love with this weekend!

We'll probably add to Lil' Bit's name. We both like the name Harry. Maybe Lil' Bit Harry? That makes me laugh. I hope he likes us.

A fourth dog?

I think we may have officially lost our minds. Several weeks ago we almost took in a friend's miniature schnauzer because she needed to find a home for him, and although that fell through it shattered the three-dog ceiling we had in our heads and allowed us to think we could handle another one. I checked out the Dallas miniature schnauzer rescue group online just for fun, and we saw a little guy on there that peaked our interest and we decided to inquire about him. I should have stopped myself. But I have this habit of checking into things and walking through open doors until they close on me, and that gets me in trouble at times. It's how I got this job so it's not all bad, but leaving no stone unturned can also lead to pool tables, flat-screen TVs, and now an overwhelming number of pups.

This little guy is about two years old and he only weighs 9 pounds, so he's smaller than Marlee Bean, our littlest. Where else are we going to find a 9 pound schnauzer? The opportunity may never come again. And he won't eat much. We won't have to buy much extra food. (Justify, justify.) But check out his story. His owners dropped him off at the pound a few weeks ago because he had a broken leg and they couldn't pay for treatment. Don't know how he got the broken leg and I may not want to know. His owners also said he had irritable bowel syndrome. Doggie IBS. The miniature schnauzer rescue group picked him up from the pound and paid for a cast on his broken leg, and he has been in foster care since then. His foster mom says his cast is off and his leg is healed, and he doesn't even have IBS. She just thinks he was never properly house trained, and it's likely that he spent most of his time in a crate and couldn't go outside when he needed to. His foster mom house-trained him and now he's accident-free. Who wouldn't want to give this little guy a better life after all he's been through? He deserves toys and treats and big comfy beds, not broken bones and crates.

We had to make the decision last night, so when I picked Angela up from work yesterday I asked how she was feeling about it, and all she said was her heart hurt. :-) Aww. This sweet dog needed a home, but could we handle a fourth dog? Either way we might be hurtin'. I felt the same way. But we talked it out and decided to err on the side of love and goodness. So we're going to meet this dog on Saturday and if we're all a match we'll adopt him. I have to go home now and break the news to the other three. Pierre and Marlee will be excited that there might be another playmate around soon, and Sophie the diva will just lie in the sun and chew on her bone and do her best to remain above it all. Dogs. I love 'em! But we're nuts.

Two for the Money

Thanks for all the anniversary well-wishes. Ya all rock!

It was a good day yesterday. We didn't go out to an anniversary celebration dinner because neither of us likes to eat much late in the day during the week. (At least Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. It gives us time to empty out from the previous weekend.) So we went to a movie instead. We had planned to see Elizabethtown, but when I picked Angela up at her office after work, one of her co-workers said she and her friends wanted to kill themselves in the middle of it and we should only see it if we were in the mood for a huge whippin', so we decided to wait for that one to come out on video. We saw Two for the Money instead. I love sports, but my only knowledge of sports betting comes from an obsessed guy friend of mine who knows the line on every game and has pretty good luck picking winners each weekend. I don't really get bettin'. I pick the winners right along with him, but I never put money on it because I fear losing Levis and Doc Marten money and I refuse to get sucked in. I was 13-1 last weekend, but two weekends before that I was 7-7. Too scarey. So I just do it for fun. Anyway, the movie wasn't profoundly impactful and life-changing, but we liked it.

We got to the movie early and tried to at least have a quality anniversary conversation while we were waiting for it to start, but the audio was cranked so high on the plethora of ads and previews it was hard to concentrate. I guess we could have stepped outside, but then we would have lost our favorite seats in the middle of first row behind that metal bar/fence or whatever it is. It's fun to put our feet up on the bar/fence during the movie. So we put up with the loudness. When there was finally a silence between ads our voices were still in loud projection mode because they had to match the volume coming from the screen, so those around us were forced to hear bits and pieces of our conversation and random sentence fragments like, "...horse radish cheddar cheese at our reception. We need to get more..." and "...are my better half..." There were only about six people in the theater (all guys) and they didn't seem to mind. They probably would have saved our seats for us.

Since we didn't eat or have deep dinner conversation last night, we'll do that this weekend. Maybe Kathleen's Art Cafe. Love that place. And the music is nice and soft and conducive to talkin'. So the celebration continues. It seems like we've been celebrating a lot lately, but why the heck not.

Much to be thankful for

Yay Colts! I managed to stay awake for all of Monday Night Football last night because I was upright the whole time, playing pool. Upright is the key! As soon as I become horizontal I'm a goner. At the beginning of the game Angela and I were slamming pool cues on the floor and stressing about the Colts' seemingly porous pass defense, but at 10:20pm the Colts finally took the lead for good and all was right with the world. The pool table is upstairs in the gameroom and we played with the windows open so the noise we made traveled easily. I hope the neighbors considered our screams to be part of the football-watching atmosphere and not part of some sort of criminal activity. Nobody called 911 on us, so I guess they heard us yell out the names Dwight Freeney and Peyton Manning enough times to figure out that we were okay.

Today is the third anniversary of our holy union. I'm thankful! We celebrated seven years together in August, and today marks three years since our ceremony. The more anniversaries the merrier I say. It hasn't been smooth sailing the entire way, but everything we've been through has led us to where we are today and that's what I'm thankful for. We went through a three-month rough patch in 2002, and we ended up breaking up and Angela moved out of the house and into an apartment. It was bad. Every time I think about that I cringe and realize what a complete fool I can be at times. I threw away the best thing that has ever happened to me, and it is only by the grace of God that I got it back. Angela said I was "not guilty by reason of temporary insanity." I'm glad I'm sane now and that we've healed from that crazy time. We're happier than ever.

So today is a day of celebration! I get to have quality time with one of the warmest yet coolest, most genuine people in the world tonight and every night for as long as I live. And the Colts are 6-0 and they have those hapless Texans up next. It's a great time to be alive. :-)

Breaking from the routine

I'm rockin' the Peyton Manning jersey today. Women's cut of course, because even though I ate too much over the weekend and I'm feeling puffy today I don't want to wear the big baggy Manning jersey and make matters worse. Angela and I only eat fast food about once every two years, but a new KFC opened up near our house and we had to try the boneless buffalo wings while we were watching football and playing pool yesterday. The honey bbq ones were awesome! And we decided we needed a DiGiorno thin crust cheese pizza from the freezer to go with the wings. (Not eating fast food doesn't really save us any calories. We find other ways to sabotage our own self-discipline efforts.) By the time we were finished with all of that we were stuffed! Imagine that. So we chased it with some Peanut M&Ms. Now I have to do 55 minutes on the treadmill today instead of 45.

I don't usually take naps, but I'm going to force myself to take one today. (First the fast food and now the nap...what's happening to me. My routine is all out of whack.) If I fall asleep tonight during the first quarter of Monday Night Football like I usually do, I'm going to be so mad! The Colts need me to stay up and watch and cheer and drink water with crushed ice out of the free Colts coffee mug that my friend Kelli brought back from the RCA Dome. Rams are toast! I hope. I wish I had one of those construction-worker hats that holds a beverage on each side and siphons them into your mouth through a tube. I would totally wear it. And post a picture of course.

Better hit the treadmill now. I wouldn't want to break from the routine too much. But first I must finish off the leftover wings and pizza. And that may produce another hankerin' for some Peanut M&Ms. It could get ugly.

Wild and crazy times at the house

Angela went to Wicked last night as part of a team-building experience with her office. How sweet is that? But since I'm not part of the team I couldn't go. I wish I were writing a Wicked blog today, but instead I have to write about lying on the couch with a blanket and a pile of schnauzers, watching Joey and Will & Grace, and falling asleep during CSI. I was outta control. But I'm well-rested today.

I got home from work and discovered a spot in the bedroom where one of the dogs must have puked earlier this morning, and although I have no proof I'm sure it was Sophie. She has a sensitive stomach, and when compared to other dogs she pukes at a ratio of about twelve to one. The funny thing is, there were a couple of toys sitting on top of the stain so she must have felt bad and tried to cover it up. Other dogs don't practice such manners. Silly Boo. She doesn't look guilty, but moms know these things.


I'm ready for football this weekend. Go Longhorns, Huskers, Colts, and Cowboys! I'm not going to point out that the Colts are the only undefeated team left in the NFL because I wouldn't want to jinx them or anything. I love the Colts! Tony Dungy for President! I've been trying to hold back with the Colts obsession lately, but evidence of it slips out sometimes.

Have a great weekend.

Salt, Pepper, and M&M's

Last night was the first time I've ever gone to church and walked out with football-shaped salt and pepper shakers. I love 'em! My friends Sara and Amy happened to be shopping in Target one day this week, and they saw these and thought of me. Thanks ya all! They'll go perfectly with our set of 4 football-shaped nut dishes and our football-shaped vase. I'm happy that we have another fine piece to add to our fancy collection.

I'm really hungry today. But I'm happy about it because I've been at the low end of my acceptable weight window for the past few days and the hunger is a sign that calories are still burning and I'm not in danger of floating back up to the high end any time soon. I know, I analyze too much. But I feel better and I'm in a better mood when I'm in the window and my pants fit comfortably and my stomach doesn't squish out over the waistline. But sometimes being at the low end of the window becomes an excuse to skip the treadmill and allows me to justify grabbing huge handfuls of Peanut M&M's when I walk past them in the kitchen. I probably shouldn't put them out in the open like that, but we had to utilize the football-shaped dish and we didn't want to put grapes in there. I'm addicted to M&M's now.

So anyway, can't wait for lunch. I'm going to find something to salt and pepper and then chase it with Peanut M&M's. Hmm!

Another reason to be happy

Angela has had not-so-great health insurance for several years, but we just found out last night that my company is adding full domestic partner benefits. I'm so excited! Much love for the powers that be! I have Kip's technology song from Napoleon Dynamite playing in my head today, but instead of "I love technology..." it's, "I love my company, but not as much as you, you see. But I still love my company. Always and foreverrrrr...."

I love Kip. And domestic partner benefits. We had them once in Austin, but we've been without them for several years and it has been a big pain. The insurance issue is one of the things that has stalled our talks of having children because Angela is the one who would probably carry the baby, but now that the benefit fog has lifted maybe we can start planning more seriously. That thought scares both of us a little bit mostly because of the fear of inadequacy I suppose, but we have a lot of love to give and that's what will probably win out in the end. So the talks are back on. We know it's a long process with no guarantees, but we have some friends who have done it and they have become our coaches. Yay for community. We'll be happy no matter how things happen to work out.

"Our love is like a flock of doves. Flying up to heaven above. Always and foreverrrrr, always and foreverrrrr. Yes our love is truly great. Always and foreverrrrr...."

Now I want to watch Napoleon Dynamite again. "Tina, come and get some ham!"

Sinks, slugs, and spiders

We did more blowtorchin' yesterday and we're getting so good at it we're thinking about installing new faucets in the bathroom upstairs just so we can power it up again. It's quite fun. But then I'm not the one shooting the flames around--that's Angela's job because she's way more capable. So maybe what I mean is it's quite fun to watch.

After we finished plumbing we mowed the yard and then watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Angela has all the Harry Potter books and loves the whole idea of a boy wizard who can fly around on a broomstick, but I don't really get it. Angela is much better at letting her mind drift off into the land of suspended reality than I am. But this Harry Potter movie was pretty good up until the point that the red-headed boy starting puking up slugs. I had to start clipping coupons and thinking about saving fifty cents on fajita chicken strips at that point. As soon as I had recovered from the slugs, we got to the part where Harry and his friend had to go deep into the woods to get a piece of vital information, and oodles and oodles of big spiders were there when they got to their destination. That gave me the willies. Then I felt bad because some of the spiders had to die as Harry escaped. I'm such an animal lover--even the creepy ones. I encountered a huge spider underneath the manhole cover out by the street yesterday (I had to keep going out there to turn the water on and off during the plumbing process) and she scared me at first, but after awhile I was striking up a conversation with her. She was ugly, but she meant no harm. She was carrying a sack of eggs on her back and everything. She was just going about her little life and who was I to interfere by killing her just because I didn't understand her completely. So now she'll probably have oodles of babies and we'll be no better off than Harry Potter in the woods.

Speaking of animals...there was a comment the other day asking if we got a fourth dog. No, not yet. But don't be surprised if that is the subject of an upcoming blog. If a spider came after one of our dogs I might have to kill it. Hmm. Something to ponder.

Plumbing can be kinda fun

What a great sports weekend! We did make one trip to Ikea and walked out an hour later with a shelf, but we spent most of the weekend at home in the gameroom playing pool, eating spinach dip, and watching games. I was sad that Nebraska lost on one of the last plays of the game, but we were excited of course that the Longhorns, Colts, and Cowboys won. And the Packers finally won! Our Packers grill cover on the back patio has a new glow.

Angela and I have been together for seven years and you would think we know everything about each other by this point, but she continues to amaze me with seemingly endless capabilites. Yesterday she was a plumber. We decided to change out some faucets in our bathroom sinks, and it turned out to be a lot more involved than we thought it would be. Mostly for Angela. I'm just the helper when it comes to that sort of thing. We don't want any home improvement projects to hinge primarliy upon my ability.

Angela went to Lowes 4 times yesterday for various plumbing supplies, and one time she came home with a blowtorch. Scary! The plumber on duty at Lowes asked her how handy she was, and after they talked for awhile he decided she was capable of some light soldering. Melting pipes? Oh dear. He told her to torch the seal on the copper tubing under the sink, remove those pipes, and put on new tubes with compression valves. My plumber vocabulary has expanded in the past couple of days. We were both nervous about torching part of the master bathroom, but Angela thought she could do it and wanted to forge ahead. We would rather risk burning the house down than pay a plumber anyway. So I stood behind her with a fire extinguisher while she sat on the floor and shot the flame into the cabinet. All plumbers should take such thorough safety measures and employ a backup fire-extinguisher-holder. At one point one of the boards that we put up as a buffer started to smolder, but not enough to require me to pull the pin on the fire extinguisher. Whew! Overall it was a success. Angela was giddy! We finished two out of three faucets yesterday, and we're going to finish the last one today because Angela only works a half day and will be home this afternoon. I'm excited that we'll have extended quality time, even if it does involve soldering pipes.

The coolest thing about owning a blowtorch now, is that we can make a mean creme brulee! I'll be all over that. And Angela can back me up with fire extinguisher.

Hook 'em Horns

Horns make me happy! I wish I looked a little tougher and more football-like in this picture, but whatcha gonna do. I don't possess much testosterone. I wanted to try out for the Dallas Diamonds once, but Angela reminded me that I'm not that tough and one good hit in the ribs would probably do me in forever. I always wished I could be a wide receiver growing up, but I was too fat back then and I would have been better off being a center or something else that usually benefits from a low center of gravity. As a freshman in high school I was about fifty pounds heavier than I am now, then I lost it all as a sophomore. I guess I could have been a wide receiver that year. But then I gained about half of the weight back in college, and I lost it again when I got my first radio job at a country station in Lincoln, Nebraska and decided I should look hotter if I was going to have a public job. That was also around the time that I was beginning to awaken to the fact that I had been trying to drive northbound my whole life when I was a natural southbounder, I think accepting that freed me from a lot of demons and allowed the extra weight to fall off. Anyway, the weight fluctuation didn't allow for a steady football career so that's why I'm not rough and tough today. I suppose I could fake it with some black eye paint. I do like eye makeup. Anyway, hook 'em horns! Texas, Oklahoma, and spinach dip tomorrow at noon! I'll be in uniform!

Persistence is more than a cool-lookin' chinese symbol

I was tweezing my eyebrows in the bathroom yesterday afternoon and I had CMT blaring from the TV in the living room so I could have some music to tweeze by, and I heard a familiar guitar intro that made me trip over dogs in a dash toward the living room to see if it was who I thought it was. It was! Patty Griffin. She's one of those artists who hits me in the back of the spine and makes my chest tighten. She was doing the Long Ride Home video from the Elizabethtown soundtrack and it was a CMT world premiere. That might mean she'll be on CMT lots in the coming weeks! I jumped around and cheered like I was watching a Colts game. I like a lot of artists - Sarah MacLachlan, Tori Amos, Melissa Etheridge, Blackeyed Peas, Coldplay, Jennifer Nettles/Sugarland, Hootie and the Blowfish (yes, really) - but Patty Griffin is just plain mesmerizin' to me. I love the one-name songs: Tony, Mary, Christina... And this lyric from Nobody's Cryin':

May you dream you are dreaming, in a warm soft bed
May the voices inside you that fill you with dread
Make the sound of thousands of angels instead
Tonight where you might be laying your head

She's so empowering. And sad at times. We saw her in Austin a few times when we lived there and we've seen her once in Dallas. I became verklempt each time. Not while she was rockin' out; just when she got mellow and contemplative.

I think one of the reasons why I got so excited about seeing her on CMT yesterday, is that she is proof that persistence pays off. She just keeps plugging away and new doors open all the time. She's had success (Dixie Chicks' Let Him Fly is her song), but she's not mainstream. She just keeps doin' what she's doin'. I have a black rope necklace at home that has the chinese symbol for persistence dangling from it, but sometimes I forget to believe it. I start doubting that persistence will ever produce positive results and I feel defeated. But Patty Griffin offers renewed hope! Someday I'll have more opportunity in my career and with my side projects, and I'll feel like I'm a better contributor to the world. Then I'll be able to look back (squeezing my persistence necklace of course) and know it was all worth it. Thanks Patty!

Dog blog

I wish I had had a profound experience or startling revelation in the past 24 hours, but since I don't have anything like that to blog about I'll just talk about the dogs.

The mobile groomer came to the house yesterday as she does every eight weeks or so, and that always stresses the dogs out. They love Chrissy, but the minute they realize she's there to carry them off into that van of doom where unspeakable things like bathing and clipping happen, they start shaking and trying to hide behind the couch. Then I feel bad for forcing them to go. I'm such an overprotective wimp when it comes to these pups. I will need therapy when something happens to them.

All of the dogs were high maintenance. Pierre's beard was extra tangled, Sophie had one of those reverse sneeze attacks in front of Chrissy and scared her to death, and Marlee Bean was extra fussy and yelped a lot and it turns out she had a wounded front paw. We thought she looked a little frazzled yesterday morning. She was under the bed instead of on top of it and she looked like she hadn't slept a wink. Anyway, Chrissy pointed out a toenail that was broken over halfway up near the pad, and she said I should take her to the vet so they could cut if off and cauterize it. By that time the toenail was hanging off to the side and she was limping. For sympathy I'm sure.
So I took her to the vet and it turned out to be completely uneventful. They clipped the nail and cauterized it, and it took about a minute and a half. The most traumatic part for Beanie was getting the sniff-over once she got home and Sophie and Pierre figured out she had been to the vet. But all is well now. She's keeping her balance with one less toenail and everything.

I wore minimal makeup on this trip to the vet, so yesterday's blog was theraputic! Having more face confidence is my new focus in life.

Roll out of bed and go, or no

I was intrigued by the conversation on Kidd's show today about personal appearance. It started when they pointed out Shanon's no makeup/fleece combination and Kellie's no makeup/baseball cap combination. Kellie and Shanon will be the first to tell you that they don't see the point in getting all gussied up just to be on the radio, and they're not terribly concerned about impressing Kidd, Al, and Rich. I admire the independence.

But makeup is a must for me! I went without mascara for a couple of weeks after I had lasik, and after a few days co-workers started asking me when they could expect the makeup to return. I imagine it was comparable to staring directly at the sun during an eclipse. It just wasn't healthy for their eyes. I have to go through the whole shower/makeup/hair routine because I feel off-center all day if I don't. I hate that feeling. I could probably sleep in until 4:00 if I would just brush my teeth, get some coffee and go, but I would rather get up at 3:30 and feel good all day. Angela laughs at me because I'll even put on makeup before we go play tennis. Not a lot, but enough to look presentable. And I put base and powder back on after my post-workout shower in the afternoons, even though I'm just working around the house and Angela is the only person I will see the rest of the day. Angela has natural beauty. I need help.

I'm not in Las Colinas with the rest of Kidd's show so I don't know what they look like from one day to the next. But there are a couple of people over here in the Clear Channel building who come to work in fleece and without makeup. One morning girl who works for one of our sister stations always comes to work in a pony tail, t-shirt, and without makeup, and she even drags a blanket around with her as if she just pulled it off the bed when her alarm went off and brought it to work. She's always in great spirits so it works for her. It just makes me tired to look at her. Most of the other radio gals in my building have gone through the whole hair and makeup routine and look ready for the day.

I wish I had face confidence without makeup. Maybe I can get Shanon to give me some pointers. Then I'll give her a few pointers about other matters. ;)

Should we or shouldn't we

We're going to have to make our girl gatherings a monthly thing. Saturday night was a hoot. Fourteen girls (mostly couples) gathered at Amy and Sara's house in Grapevine for chicken parmesan, lasagna, salads, and wine. (A wine gathering in Grapevine...how fitting. Maybe a barbecue in Mesquite next?) Between passionate conversations about babies and The L Word, we did manage to find the time to play UNO Attack and Truth or Dare Jenga. Let me just say, sometimes the friends who seem the quietest and the meekest are really the most liberated when it comes to "mature subject matter." I love it.

After a couple of glasses of wine Angela and I got into a conversation with our friend Kristin, who mentioned that she was looking for a home for her minature schnauzer, Morgan. We already have three schnauzers and Angela has said on more than one occasion that we would be nuts for adding another, but I couldn't stop myself from getting excited about the idea. Angela is the sensible one when it comes to dog ownership, while I'm a total pushover and I don't stop to think about how difficult it might be to sleep with four dogs in the bed, etc. As Kristin described Morgan we started to picture how small and sweet he must be, and I could tell that Angela was beginning to cave. He was smaller than our dogs so he wouldn't take up much space, and we would be helping a friend. It was easy to justify. So we told Kristin to bring Morgan to our house Sunday afternoon to see if he would get along with our three sweeties.

We were still excited about it when the wine wore off, so we figured we had made the right decision. But wouldn't ya know, Sunday morning Kristin called and said the people who have been taking care of Morgan for the past two weeks wanted to keep him. Dang it! We were so deflated. Angela might have even been more bummed than me. But here's what happened in our heads during the whole process -- the three-dog limit has been tested and we survived, so the ceiling may be forever lifted. I didn't know how to handle the pain of the disappointment yesterday, so I got online and started looking up miniature schnauzer rescues. I found one little guy who is in foster care recovering from a broken leg, and I inquired about him. The person who emailed me back said he was going to meet with another family this week, but if that falls through she would let me know. Since I had gotten that far I figured there was no harm in continuing on and looking up other schnauzer websites. I found some other cuties.

Saturday when we left for the party the idea of a fourth dog had not even entered our minds, but now we're entertaining the thought. We need to even things out and have two dogs per lap. Our dogs are 9, 8, and 6 and we need to have a younger one. We want to provide a good home for a pup that needs one. The list of pros is so much longer than the list of cons.

So we had fun at the party Saturday night and now our family might be expanding. Perhaps we should have paid more attention to the baby conversation than the dog conversation. Heck, why stop now. Let's add a baby and a schnauzer.