Frustrating

Today has been very frustrating. Grown-ups shouldn't need to be told to do their jobs properly, they should just do it.... argh!

Another Year Older

So, now I'm officially 28 years old.
More than I don't want to get older, I don't want to be one of those pathetic people who can't deal with the fact that they aren't who they used to be anymore.
I'm not getting any younger. That's true for me and everyone else.
But, since the alternative is being dead, I'll stick with the whole aging thing.

Still... when I was entering my age/weight in the treadmill tonight for my "accurate" calorie count, I had to enter 28 for the first time.
Sigh. Okay, 28 it is.

Fun in the Woods

Well, we're finally back from our adventure in the woods.

We rented a cabin (http://www.maplewoodlodge.com/) for the weekend (Fri, Sat, Sun) and went to see a Midsummer Night's Dream at the American Players Theater (http://www.playinthewoods.org/).

The husband and I took off from work on Friday and Monday, so it has been a nice long weekend for us. The cabin is located in Mineral Point, which is surprisingly not that far from Monroe. It's really only about an hour away. A long, curvy nauseating hour away, but still...

Friday morning was busy. While I went to the gym and showered and packed up, the husband took Milo into Madison to be watched by his friend from work and then dropped off the big dogs at the kennel. Then, we headed out to the cabin. We were met at the cabin by the two owners, John and Coleman. Coleman had to leave, so John gave us a tour of the place.

I'll try to post some pics of the place later, but unfortunately I forgot my camera, so all my pictures are on the disposable. The place was gorgeous. What I loved about the cabin was not so much the decor or atmosphere (both of which were adequately cabin-y), but that they put so much thought into all the details of the cabin. Robes, towels, spices, blankets, movies, tetherball, hammocks, sunset benches, campfire logs, etc., the list goes on and on. It was really quite endearing.

mr. and mrs. blume joined us up at the cabin on Friday. We went to get some groceries at a small grocery store in Mineral Point, played some horseshoes and the guys attempted (attempted being the key word) to play some tether ball. It was a long, lazy evening. We snacked on cheese and crackers and chips and salsa. Then later we grilled chicken and made corn on the cob. Everyone else may entertain you with exaggerated stories of the "fireball" which may have emanated from our grill. While I will cop to some singed arm hair, I think "fireball" is a bit of an overstatement. Either way the husband thought the meal was "really, really good"

We played Yahtzee (which I won the first game of with 3 yahtzees, boo-yah! I know this comes as a surprise to those who know me, because I have sort of notoriously bad luck at dice games) and Scene It.

The beds in that cabin were the softest I have ever slept on. Light fluffy mattresses, pillows and comforters abounded.

Snoop and DaisyDukes joined us up at the cabin on Saturday. mr. blume and the husband were golfing, so poor Snoop was stuck shopping with the ladies in Mineral Point on Saturday. I wish I could say that the shopping was really good in Mineral Point, but mostly it was overpriced art. Which is great if you are in the market for overpriced art, but I doubt any of us would afford the stuff they were selling even if we could. If you are looking for some overpriced art, might I suggest the $1400 wooden snake that can be made to order?

Finally, the boys decided to show up from golf. So, we played Bocce ball out in the yard until the husband, or possibly Florence, threw their ball into the weeds and nobody could find the ball for what seemed like a few hours. After we finally finished playing, although it should be mentioned that the girls won in a thrilling down to the last throw of the ball match, we had some ice cream cake.

Before the play, we went to dinner at the Riverview Terrace, which had some of the yuckiest, yet most expensive food/drinks I've ever had. I had a terrible pork salad. Note: I thought it was going to be pork with a salad when I ordered, not what I got. Anyway, after that we trotted over to Culver's for some ice cream since we all had pretty crappy meals, or at least the girls did anyway, I believe Snoop, mr. blume and the husband all liked their food. It is unfortunate that the custard at Culver's was terrible. It was all weird and grainy. Yuck! I have to say on the pass/fail system, Spring Green rates a fail.

Then there was the play. I have to preface all this by saying I love a Midsummer Night's Dream. It has sentimental value for me and I just love it, love it, love it. I was worried when we sat down because the set was a little... industrial. Plus, all the characters were wearing a more modern wardrobe. When I watch a Midsummer Night's Dream I want to be charmed. I want to feel the magic that lives in a midsummer night. My worries were in vain. It was an excellent play with all the magic and charm that this play deserves. Puck was wonderful; he was lively, energetic and full of mischief. Bottom and crew were actually hilarious. I thoroughly enjoyed the performance.

Even driving away from APT turned out to be a good time. What does "FCCAMP" stand for? I won't appall you with our suggestions. And it seems like mr. blume may or may not be able to figure out how a gas pump works. Don't feel bad mr. blume, you can't win them all.


Everyone else left on Sunday morning and the husband and I were left to ourselves. What did we do? Well I'll leave any "naked hammocking" that may or may not have occurred to your imagination. I will tell you that we went to see the Dark Knight that afternoon, which we both enjoyed. The only bad part of the day was that we couldn't find anything open for dinner in Mineral Point, so we just ended up eating sandwiches, which makes for a sort of boring birthday dinner.

This morning we got up early enough and made our way home. First, Milo was returned and then the big dogs. Now, the family is all together again. Yay! I found I actually missed the furry babies this weekend.

Everything will all go back to normal tomorrow... boo, but on the bright side, it's only a four-day weekend! :)

Only One More Day...

Only one more day and then I get to be on vacation!
We have Friday and Monday off of work and we're going up to stay in a cabin in Spring Green for a few days and see Midsummer Night's Dream at APT.
Then the husband and I are staying over on Sunday night as well to celebrate my birthday.
Should be fun. I'm looking forward to it. :)

Demo Derby

The husband and I went to the Green County Fair last night to walk around for a while and go to the Demolition Derby.
The walking around part was kind of boring.
The fair is not big. And by "not big" I mean very small.
We ate some dinner. The husband got the "famous" cheese curds, wherein I discover I'm not really a big fan of fried cheese curds. I've had them before and I basically think they are okay, but really nothing I really want to waste the calories on.
I'd rather have non-fried cheese curds. Or cheese and crackers a la the Glarner Strube Saturday night... those were so YUMMY!
Then we had some really terrible brats for dinner.
I actually was unaware that brats could be really terrible before yesterday, but in fact, they can be. I didn't even finish mine. What a disappointment! They smelled so good...
And we found a place that sold soft serve and had some twist ice cream. That was good stuff!

Then there was the demolition derby! It was all I could have hoped for and more!
It was loud... beaters often do not have the greatest mufflers, who knew? AND I suspect some of those cars were "fixed" to be even louder.
There were 4 rounds of regular derby. Then 1 round of winner take all from the cars of the previous rounds.
I'm a little fuzzy on the rules of the demolition derby, so I wasn't always sure what was going on. That hardly matters at all though!
Crunch! Crash! Ram!
Over and over.
We saw cars get tossed up over walls, over other cars. They stopped the matches about 1/2 a dozen times to check for fire. There were at least 2 major fires that we could see!
It was awesome!
The final match was really fun to watch. It's made up of cars that have all been beaten up previously in the night. One car (053) had 3 other cars (out of a total of 7 other cars) ganging up on him, but he prevailed and won the evening. I'm not really sure why they were all ganging up on him... I wonder if he was just a huge dickhead or something.
Don't really care that much though, it made things entertaining to watch and that's what I care about.

I have a lot more respect for guys who drive those little Bobcats though after watching the demo derby. You should have seen those little things zipping around, hauling off the cars that were too beat up to drive themselves and sealing off the track with these cement chunks. They were so fast! I was impressed. Hmmm.... how hard do you think it would be to learn to drive one?

The demo derby was fun, fun, fun. I will definitely be going to one of those again! :)

How Now Brown Cow?

The husband and I went to the drive-in movie in Monroe tonight.
We saw Wall-e and Journey to the Center of the Earth.
I really like going to the drive-in. It's a lot of fun.
The pizza is really good and it's just sort of fun to watch a movie outside.

Here's what I don't understand though.
The two cars to the right of our car were full of dudes. Around 3 per car.
I don't think the guys in the one car knew the guys in the other car.

So, if you're a guy, what is the impetus to go to the drive-in together?
To see Wall-e? And Journey to the Center of the Earth?
Really?
Alrighty.

Jealous? You should be!

The Green County Fair is this weekend in Monroe.
There are cheese curds and a demolition derby in my near future.
Boo-yah!
Nothing but good times ahead...

Billy Joel

I was listening to some Billy Joel this morning courtesy of the $2 Greatest Hits album of his I found at Frugal Muse over the weekend. ($2!!) I was sort of struck by the lyrics of "She's Always a Woman." I liked the song because it is accurate (not sure this is the best word to describe what I mean, but I can't think of a better one), but without being accusatory.

There is a certain power in being a woman that I think is pretty cool. We're strength, light, softness and beauty, but we can be hard, cool and careless, too. It's the best and the worst of what we can be and there is power in both.

"She's Always a Woman"

She can kill with a smile
She can wound with her eyes
She can ruin your faith with her casual lies
And she only reveals what she wants you to see
She hides like a child,
But she's always a woman to me.

She can lead you to love
She can take you or leave you
She can ask for the truth
But she'll never believe you
And she'll take what you give her, as long as it's free
Yeah, she steals like a thief
But she's always a woman to me.

CHORUS:
Oh -- she takes care of herself
She can wait if she wants
She's ahead of her time
Oh -- and she never gives out
And she never gives in
She just changes her mind

And she'll promise you more
Than the Garden of Eden
Then she'll carelessly cut you
And laugh while you're bleedin'
But she'll bring out the best
And the worst you can be
Blame it all on yourself
Cause she's always a woman to me

CHORUS

She is frequently kind
And she's suddenly cruel
She can do as she pleases
She's nobody's fool
And she can't be convicted
She's earned her degree
And the most she will do
Is throw shadows at you
But she's always a woman to me

Working Hard and Hardly Working

Tomorrow morning is the big deadline at work.
Luckily, I have been totally on top of my game lately and I was done yesterday.
It's nice to be out from under this for the moment.
Unfortunately the next deadline is only 2.5 months away.
That may seem like a long time, but we really only get a months worth of testing, so it goes really fast.
Plus, my girl is going to be out of commission for another month, so I'll still be flying solo for a while yet.
Boo. (Yea for her, boo for me).

Tonight was a good night at the gym though. I stepped it up to run at 7 mph pretty much the whole time. I have been working up to this for awhile. So, it was pretty awesome that I was able to go at it for the whole time.

Also good, the annoying girls from Monday and Tuesday were missing, which meant I got to run on *my* treadmill as opposed to the one downstairs. Yay.

The only downside is that Tats was missing for the third day in a row. The gym is so much more fun when there is eye candy on display.

All in all, work is wrapped up and I'm feeling good about my progress at the gym. It was a pretty good day. Too bad it's Wednesday, which means there are two more days to go until the weekend.

Two more days until I get to play at Sephora and go out with the fam for my birthday.
Sigh.

America's Funniest Home Videos

America's Funniest Home Videos is often playing when I'm at the gym.
I do not understand why this show is still on.
The stuff is usually staged and more importantly not funny.
I guess it's possible that if you listen with sound, it might be funny, but I kind of doubt it.
Oh look, that dog is freaked out by a hose.
Well, that's pretty special, except that's just what dogs do.
But, congratulations to you for having the ingenuity to capture it on tape and send it in to be on tv.

Bah.

I didn't think so, but it's possible I'm a bit crabby this evening.

It shouldn't annoy me, but it does

I went to the gym tonight to work out on the elliptical.
This is important to the story.
I was not planning on using the treadmill.
There were two girls using the treadmills I usually use.
They were using them last night, too.

Okay, I know it's petty and wrong. But I kind of hate them.
The one girl was running on the treadmill so slowly she might as well have been walking.
The other actually was walking.
Not just walking, but walking slowly.

Just watching them annoyed me.
Mostly, because I think it is only the beginning of what I hope is a short-lived trend.
I've seen their type before. They get all "serious about going to the gym" and they come everyday for a week or so, then nothing.
I really hope this is their type.
I really hate running downstairs.

Petty, petty, petty.
I know it's wrong.
I hate having my routine interrupted.

Go ahead. Get serious about going to the gym.
Just don't inconvenience me please.
Really, it's best for everyone if I don't even realize you exist.

I keep trying to shake it off.
Meh.
It's no big deal. Don't sweat it.
And yet, still, it annoys me.

And back home again

Thank goodness I am home again.
That was the most boring trip I have ever taken.
Boo.
Normally, I wouldn't be that upset about it, except that things are mad crazy at work right now with our deadline next Thursday.
Bah.
What are you going to do?

What was I thinking?

I left for Cincinnati this afternoon forgetting quite a few things that would have been pretty helpful to bring.

Here is a short (and most likely incomplete) list:
1. Shampoo
2. Conditioner
3. Razor blade
4. Face wash
5. A note pad
6. My itinerary
ETA: 7. Toothpaste

Boo!
Yet, I managed to remember all my workout clothes. Sigh.
Sometimes I really annoy myself.

I hope that this is not indicative of how this whole trip is going to be.

Family, Fun and Fireworks

This fourth of July weekend turned out to be a really fun time.
Friday, I got up early to take Cash into PetSmart and get his hair cut.
This is a picture of Cash before:

Here's a pic of a sleepy Cash after our long walk today:

He looks like a completely different dog! He loves getting shaved down. He always jumps a little bit higher after he gets a hair cut.
I'm not sure why, but it takes forever for Cash to get his hair cut. I dropped him off at 10, and they told me to pick him up at 2:30. 4.5 hours? Really?

Oh well, I needed to do some shopping anyway. I needed some new blue jeans.
So, I went over to the mall to shop. Jeans are a surprisingly hard item of clothing to shop for. There are different sizes which can often mean different things at different stores. Some stores use the 0, 2, 4, 6, etc. sizing method, some stores use 27, 28, 29 (waist size) for sizes. Then there is length... it always throws me off that the Gap uses A for their short length pants.
Anyway, the Gap and American Eagle had a sucky selection of jeans, so I wandered over to the Buckle.

The sales girl was helping me find the short length pants and she told me that I should try on a regular length pants and that with heels I might be able to swing it.
I shook my head sadly at her.
I was thinking "No honey, the only way I'm not going to walk on the hem of the short length pants is with heels."
Sad, but true.

Ash called me to see if she could come along to dinner since Dad and I had planned to go to dinner. I told her of course she could and then politely begged her to get her ass over to the mall to help me shop.

Being both sweet and fantastic, Sist-A complied. So, she came over and we went to a few stores, ate lunch and then played for a while in the new Sephora in the mall. Fun, fun, fun.

Then, we picked up Cash and went back to my house until it was time to meet Dad and Fern in New Glarus.

Here is a picture of us after getting ready to go to dinner:

Dad and Fern were a little bit late for dinner since they waited for Broth-A to get to their house since he decided to come along too at the last minute. Which is awesome, because I feel like it's been years since I've actually been able to hang out with the kid.

Here is us having some drinks, ordering appetizers and taking pictures before the parents got there.

We got the sampler platter of onion rings, cheese curds, potato thing-ys, cheese pie and escargot in puff pastry.

That's right. Escargot in puff pastry.

Fern "hogged" all the escargot and she said it mostly tasted like puff pastry.

The food at the New Glarus Hotel is pretty good. Every dinner comes with soup or juice (ahem... yeah, I'm not sure on the why of the "or juice" part of that sentence) and salad, plus your actual food.

Here, you can enjoy brother cutting the cheese at the salad bar.

Dad, actually allowing me to take his picture without fussing about it the ENTIRE time before grabbing some salad, and Fern looking sweet.

You cannot believe how much everyone bitched and moaned before agreeing to take any of these pictures. In spite of all that I think they turned out pretty cute.

Me and the father at dinner.

Grasshopper and I had quite a bit of time to peruse the menu before the DAM party got there and we noticed that they offered a chocolate fondue for dessert. Yum. Actually they offer a number of fondues at the New Glarus Hotel.

So, we jumped right on that bandwagon and ordered the chocolate fondue.

It was delicious. It came with apples, melons, strawberries, bananas and sponge cake for dipping.

It also came with rules. You have to kiss all the members of the opposite sex at the table if you drop anything in. I had to kiss all the boys on the cheek twice after dropping sponge cake in the chocolate. Sist-A did once and I think Fern did once too.

The husband SHOULD have had to kiss all the girls, but he wussed out.

I kissed them on the cheek mostly... don't make it weird.

Here's a picture of me with the Best. Waitress. EVER!!

She was a good waitress because she was really nice. Not fake nice and perky, you know, like they are sometimes at Fridays, but just really genuinely a nice person. She was accurate with our orders and good about getting refills... you know all those waitress-y type things.

PLUS! When we were done with our chocolate fondue, she came by and noticed that we had run out of items to dip, but not out of chocolate... and here's where the heavens opened and shone a light down on her angelic head... she offered us a refill of items to dip. Not just the same assortment either, she let us pick what we wanted. So, we had a whole second plate of strawberries, bananas and sponge cake.

Seriously, she was an awesome waitress and I will remember her fondly till the day I die.

After dinner, we went back to Monroe and walked over to Twinning Park for the fireworks, which were awesome.

They were kind of funny since they played some really loud Journey music before the fireworks. I'm not sure why Journey, but I guess, maybe the questions isn't why Journey, but why not?!?

It was so loud that it really allowed Sist-A, Fern and I to belt out the lyrics to "Open Arms" when it was played without really distracting anyone.

I am such a three year old about fireworks. I get excited for them every year. It was a really great show in Monroe. I was pretty pleasantly surprised. They had music that accompanied the fireworks and it was pretty long show. We had a great view of them.

Brother spent the night and went to the gym with me the next morning.

It's a good thing he's so pretty, because that treadmill kicked his ass for a while until he figured out how to work the damn thing.

Then, we had to hang out at the house for a while because the Jeep was being fixed on Saturday. After that we took brother back to Oregon, so he could get going back to Beaver Dam for his baseball game. The husband and I headed over to the East Side because we decided to go to his baseball game too.

Brother is an idiot, so he told me that the game started at 6:30 and then only texted me when he learned the game didn't start until 7. Since I didn't notice the text, the husband and I arrived to the game a 1/2 hour early, which would have been a lot more fun if the concession stand had started selling libations more than 10 minutes before the beginning of the game.

It was probably the best baseball game I have ever been to. Brother's dad got thrown out of the game in the second inning for heckling the ump (who DID suck by the way).

I blame N8.

N8 actually made the comment that got Craig kicked out the game first, Craig just repeated it louder.

They had a hilarious conversation.

(I can't remember it exactly, but it approx went like this)

Ump: Shut up Dude! I'm calling the game, not you. I get paid for this, whether I do a good job or not.

Craig: You shut up. You suck!

Ump: You're out of the game.

Craig: Suck it. I just came here to take my kid (Ben) to the park anyway. You can't kick me out of the game.

Ump: Excuse me? Where are you from?

Craig: Beaver Dam.

Ump: ?? I'm old and confused.

Ump: Well, what team are you rooting for?

Craig: Juneau.

Ump: Well, get out of here.

Craig: See ya after the game, chump.

It was awesome. Hands down, the most entertaining part of the game for me.

Then, after the game we tried to go bowling, so brother led us around to a series of activities in Beaver Dam that were closed. So, we ended up with a shitty, shitty rented movie "Vantage Point" (that both brother and N8 swore up and down they heard was good) and snacks from the gas station.

Poor husband had to drive home at midnight and I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open for 5 minutes at a time.

Today was a much more chill and relaxed day. I slept late. Took Cash on a long walk. Found a bunch of new stuff in Monroe (apparently, we have a city pool... who knew?). And went to see a movie (Indiana Jones.... I'm going to pretend I never saw it. I think the world's a better place if I do that).

All in all, an excellent weekend.

If only it weren't going to be followed up with a week in Cincinnati. Blech.

Oh, well... what are you going to do?

Life can't always be candy and bubbles

Credit, where credit is due

I just got finished watching Flags of our Fathers.
It was a pretty good movie, but that is neither here nor there.
I was watching the credits for the film and I noticed they gave actors credit for the roles of "Wounded Marine" and "Wounded Marine #4"
What the hell happened to Wounded Marines #2 and #3?