thinking about spring

today D and i got to spend some time goofing off and wandering around town together, going to hardware stores and grocery stores, making plans for home improvements and gardening in the spring.  earlier this year we got this beautiful catalog from baker creek seeds, and we've been looking through it and reading books about backyard gardens.  well, to be honest, i've been reading the books, D already knows how to garden. he grew up on a working farm, so in some ways gardening is a lot less romantic for him than it is for me.  our plan, lofty as it is, is to start kind of small this year; a simple square foot garden, basic veggies, figuring out how good or terrible our soil is and whether or not i have a black thumb.  eventually, we'd like to be able to turn much of our front and back yard into edible landscape.  we've been making an effort this year to eat greener, more locally, and incorporate way more veggies into our diet.  being able to grow our own food is kind of a natural extension of that, i think.  that isn't to say that i'm going to go full-time hippie mama, i just think it makes sense to use the land we are fortunate enough to have to do something other than grow grass.  gardens used to be an important part of home life, and now many people can't even tell you when fruits and veggies are in season.  we eat bananas that have giant carbon footprints and tomatoes that have no taste.  i'm not saying that i'm never going to eat another tropical fruit or enjoy the occasional hamburger, but i think those should be special occasion things.

in any case, i'm excited about trying my hand at growing stuff, we have a million ideas for the back and side yard (we're going to encroach on the front yard slowly to acclimate the neighbors), and i think so far i've actually been pragmatic about all this.  i bought very few veggie seeds; i don't know how good i'll be at starting plants from seeds, and am more than okay with building the beds and then using starts for most everything. i haven't bought anything too crazy yet (although i did splurge on chinese long beans and tiny, thai eggplant), and i understand that there's a good chance i won't grow a lot of things well, if at all.  i'm excited about trying, though.  i love that i have a house that give me the opportunity to try this. i love that my husband is as gung-ho about it as i am. hanging out with him today, making lists and plans and schematics was a blast.  even if i end up growing some sad lettuce and sickly beans, i know i'll have fun, and will learn enough to make next year's garden better. 

how can you not love this face?

moreover, how could not love this voice? meet my latest secret jewish boyfriend, eugene mirman.  in the immortal words of troy mcClure, you may know him from his work on bob's burgers (he's the voice of gene), delocated, or from his stand up.  if you know him from any of that, you know he's funny, and for your friend amanda, that's usually all it takes to become my secret jewish boyfriend.  (well, that and you have to be one of the chosen people.) check out the video below, and tell me you don't find him both adorable and hilarious.

Jokes.com
Eugene Mirman - Accept Me as Your God
comedians.comedycentral.com
Eugene Mirman Comedians Stand-Up

hee hee heee!

being poor the day before payday

is always the worst, isn't it? you think about stuff you need to do, look over the grocery list (toilet paper, ramen, eggs, rice, hot sauce) and realize you can't go buy RAMEN and feel like a total jackass.  all of this is hopefully changing though, since a) i have a new job with new and improved paychecks and b) the husband and i are working on a budget and saving some money.  i've always been kind of carefree (read: moronic) with money, so this will be new.  i sparked my ING savings account back up, set it up for automatic deposits, and have been actively watching my money.  the reason i'm so poor right this second is that i went out with a friend the other night, which i always forget is soooo expensive, even in the not-too-exciting town i live in, and i owed D for the computer we bought the boychik for xmas.  i'm not neglecting-the-children poor, but definitely not-doing-anything-fun poor.

i'm also sick, which is annoying.  i took the day off work because i was so phlemy and my throat hurt, which is lame when you spend all day on the phone.  i slept, read, slept some more, and watched some stand up comedy on netflix, and then slept. i'm awake now which means i'll be up all night. oh, the horror.  maybe i'll take my laptop to bed and see what i can do about that.  (that sounded dirty but i didn't mean it dirty!) the nice thing about being sick is that the cat spends all day with me when i do nothing but lounge supreme.  i kept waking up to her licking me and kneading my blankets.  nothing makes a girl feel better than some serious cat time. oh, and ramen with an egg poached in it.  man, that always hits the spot.   

ask a mortician

have you see this lady?  i love her little videos! i was always a morbid kid, grew into a morose teenager, grew further into a weirdo grown-up and did things like take classes called "death and dying" and became fascinated with stuff like victorian mourning jewelry, real bone china, and cemetery laws.  so yes, i love this. 

watching these videos, reading her blog, makes me want to write a few of my own stories.  i think in general americans don't speak of death enough, we try to avoid talking about it, mentioning it, thinking about it,  and end up totally unprepared for it and devastated when it happens to us.  which is ironic, seeing as it happens to all of us.  it's the only thing we all have in common, besides birth.  why not consider it on occasion?   

things we call the cat

by no means an exhaustive list:

• LuLu
• lulu-bean
• lu-bot
• lulu kitten
• kitten face
• baby cat
• we like to sing this in the style of crazy train, "lulu, lulu, lulu, lulu, ai-ai-aieeee."
• kitten pants
• lu-pants
• oh my lulu, oh my lulu, oh my luuu-lu, lulu pants.

rocking out with youtube

sometimes my little family and i poke around on youtube watching random videos, talking about songs we like, and rocking out in general.  on tonight's playlist so far,

of course, we like to find versions of the song we danced to first at our wedding, and so far this is our favorite,

tonight we were digging on things kind of psychedelic as well, like donovan,

and last, but not least, grace slick looking amazing and kicking ass at woodstock.

god, i want a perm so bad now. 

not such a lazy sunday

things i have already gotten done today; took out the trash, took out the recycling, took out the compost (and mixed in some nice dirt and worms and turned the whole she-bang), mopped the kitchen, vacuumed the stairs, did a load of laundry and ate a slice of pizza.  whew.  to be honest, i'm taking a wee break from all the cleaning and organizing, and if there is a better procrastination tool than blogging, i don't know what it is.  (oh wait, it might be watching cartoons.)

the last two weeks i've done some overtime at work.  nothing too major, adding on about half an hour to forty-five minutes each day, but this week when they offered it i declined it.  i might change my mind half way through the week, we'll see, but my brain feels overloaded lately and i think a regular work week will get me back to feeling normal.  it's not that the job suddenly got harder, it's just that there is so much to learn.  seriously.  i don't think anyone ever gets to the point where they can just quote benefits and deductibles and stoploss like no big deal.  plus, the beginning of the year sees a lot of folks with new plans calling for information, and we have been swamped.  you sit down, log into your phone, and you talk for eight hours straight.  one day i actually talked so much my throat hurt, and had to get a cup of hot tea, like some fancy-pants diva.  i think dialing down the amount of time i'm at work right now is okay, even though i feel a bit guilty not taking the extra money.  i suppose it all evens out, and in the end what i want more than a giant paycheck is to come home and not feel fried.

D and i are tackling the household chores today like gang busters, so i have a feeling tonight after dinner it will be super easy for us to fall asleep.  he hasn't been sleeping too well lately, and i've been trying a new mouth guard for my bruxism, which to be honest, i don't know is working that well.  i'm trying a smaller piece, in the hopes that it won't make me drool as much and feel so uncomfortable around my lips, but the flip side to that is the piece feels smaller, and i think i clench my jaw all night trying to keep it in place.  yeah, i'm not grinding my teeth, but i'm waking up with a sore jaw every day.  i think with our new insurance i'm going to go ahead and have a real mouth guard made at the dentist. i know they cost an arm and a leg, but hopefully it will feel better.

technically, NOT resolutions

at the risk of turning this into a house-blog, here is a list of things i would like to do to my home this year!

• paint my bedroom.  i bought a really lovely, icy shade of pale blue for the walls but have yet to actually paint them.  currently the shade down there is a green like cheap chocolate chip mint ice cream, and while it's not the worst, it's not the best.  
• either buy or create a new duvet cover.  i'm not too girly, but one of the things i've always loved is matching bed clothes.  i like a nicely put together bed, and when i was single, that was easy to achieve because i only bought red or pink stuff for the bed. D has never once complained (or spent much time thinking about) about sheets not matching duvet covers, but i've done my best to get rid of all the pink and move into neutral colors.  plus, pink is grand, but i'm also growing up a little and am digging on a soothing palate in the bedroom.  long story short: we need a new duvet cover and some sheets.
• paint the living room.  the walls turned out to be very barely pink, which we not have noticed had i not used a very cool shade of yellow in the kitchen.  i know that the color "warms" a space up, but i hate it. it's such a trivial thing, really, and we're living with it and i'm not going crazy, but i don't like it and want to change it.  i also want to paint the trim in here and cover up the wood on the sills and fireplace mantle with a bright white.  i want clean, modern backgrounds with which to populate with my crazy colorful stuff. 
• rugs! i want some area rugs. to delineate space as well as protect our carpets.
• that downstairs family room is amazing, but needs to be cleaned, organized, and made livable.  there's so much to do down there that i'm going to leave it at that.
• i'm also going to ask my husband very nicely to make me some built-in bookshelves.  there's some space in the upstairs hallway that's begging to be used!
• outside, i'm looking forward to doing a little gardening. nothing too big or ambitious this year; a nice small bed of veggie will do just fine.  i want to get started though, and see how well the soil does here.

it will be interesting to see if anything on this list gets done this year, and what things not on my list do get done.  overall, as long as the roof doesn't sprout a leak and a giant sinkhole doesn't eat the house, i'll be happy.  (i'll just be happier once the living room walls don't look so geriatric and boring.)

happy new year!

my resolution this year is to not make any resolutions, except for the following: hang around the house more.  2011 was BUSY, you know? we got married, we moved, i got a new job, one of the kids is in their last year of high school and one is making the transition into teen-dom, and all i want for the next year is to relax and spend more time with them.  i want to work on the house a bit, do some painting, get the rest of the boxes either unpacked or set on fire.  this sounds ridiculous and hokey, but i want to make the house more comfortable and cozy, and more "us."  it's already awesome, don't get me wrong, but the family room we never use because it's not very inviting looking, my nook is overwhelmed with stuff, i have a whole lot of clothes i never wear taking up space, etc. isn't there always a laundry list of things you'd like to do in the house?  i would like to work on saving money this year too, but i'm afraid of saying that out loud.  i'm thinking i'll go ahead and get an account at a bank i'll never use, and start socking money away in there.  or something. i have a coffee can that might work as well... 

regardless of resolutions, i had a wonderful 2011, i'm looking forward to a quieter 2012, and am wishing you and yours the very best.  the new year always feel so good, so hopeful, like the first sheet of blank paper in a journal or sketch pad, you know?  i'm going to just enjoy the possibilities, and try to make the most of it.