Almost here!

So this week was work. Which is really not unusual. Actually it's very very normal.

In addition to work I went to my first professional basketball game. Wizards versus the Toronto Raptors. All in all, I must say I really prefer college ball. There's just more zest with the younger players. Professional ball is about a show. But, it was fun enough because it was free and there was free food!

In other news, we got a bathroom ceiling again!! Yay!! It isn't terribly pretty and they didn't paint the ceiling in the hall that got all discolored, but it is very nice to not have freezing air dropping on me while I shower.

Dave's car finally was started yesterday although it still isn't running smoothly. Has a bad tune but hopefully that is getting fixed up.

Excited to see him soon!

Happy New Years!

So here's my New Year's Resolution: To blog at least every other week on what's going on in my life.



In other news, here's a recap of things that happened in the last three months since I actually posted:



1. My first business trip was to Houston Texas!!

2. My group at work got reorganized

3. I got married!!!!

4. Honeymoon!

5. Christmas!

6. My older brother Mike got married!!

7. New Years!



And, on Friday my bathroom ceiling started pouring water all over. Luckily I got to work from home as the maintenance men ripped out the majority of my bathroom ceiling and cleaned up a lot of the water and now I am without a bathroom ceiling until Monday. I will say, it is a lot colder taking a shower when you don't have a ceiling than it is when the bathroom is an enclosed space.

Whew finally bought in

While Facebook is a serious time waster, I agree, it does really have its usefulness. I set up my Facebook event page for the wedding today. Now, family don't be too offended if I left you off, since I am quite certain that mother or myself will personally email/call/text/generally pester for the necessary address. You know, you're family and all and can't get out of this.

I'm so relieved this whole mess is finally coming to an end. I have decided I really don't like having a year plus to plan because I rather lost my enthusiasm for the details six months ago but they're the only thing left to plan! AAAAHHHHHH! What are people's thoughts about mirrors and votive candles as centerpieces instead of flowers? It's kind of my leaning right now because I don't want to have to pick out arrangements and stuff.

Oh, if somehow you happen to be reading this blog, aren't family, and haven't gotten invited to the event or don't have Facebook, give us your address here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDdPcUZNYnNmRnBiaXlIcWRoZFJFZFE6MQ

Wedding plans

WHEW!
I'm pretty proud of my almost-completed newest creation. daveandkarenwedding.blogspot.com

Now I just have to do invitations and decide about centerpieces. HOORAY for almost being done with planning!

FALL! Ouch.

Fall fell on us this week. It went from being in the comfortable 80s to the rather chilly 50s overnight. And I'm hardly even exaggerating. And we're not talking Utah 50s where it's 50 in the morning and 75 that afternoon, we're talking East Coast 50s here. Where you wake up and it's 52 and when I go home at night it's warmed up to a balmy 63. Needless to say, I'm really glad I got my heated throw in to work already. It's already been discovered by my coworkers and become a running joke as well. Ah the life of the cold people.

In some other exciting news, I cleaned out my personal email this week. I had the first half of the week that was pretty incredibly boring because the markets had fallen in switching from summer to winter grade gasoline which meant that VGO prices were too high relative to their value and that meant that my traders didn't buy anything and when there is no buying I have no work to do. So I was productive and weeded my personal inbox sorting all of the mail and deleting a good bit of it. I've gotten down from 3000+ to 4 emails in my main inbox. Which I'm pretty proud of. I've been meaning to do it for a really really long time. Except that I re-discovered my weekly emails that I wrote when I was in DC before and realized I have no excuse not to be a more consistent blogger since I managed to do it for seven months before. Guess I still need to work on that!

In other cool news we got our table today!! So now our furniture set is all complete. Totally mismatched, but hey. It's my first set of furniture and I think it's a little bit expected since 1/3 was inherited, 1/3 from Target, and the rest from Ikea and my couches from RC Willey. So not really any matchiness expected. Although it does sadden me a little that not even the stains come close to matching at all. But, I did get the table all put together, shown here:



It was a long hard process. Luckily only the very end of it required power tools so I was mostly free of stellaference.



Mostly not all. There's a big coupon event at Joann's this week so I should be able to go make stuff for seat cushions. Because let's face it


Hard wood chairs will never be comfy. But a couple inches of foam might help. And once I do that I'll pretty much be done with all interior decorating. At least until Dave moves in and decides where he wants to put up his pictures and such and if we need a new TV stand. 

The table's inaugural meal will have to be breakfast though, I didn't get all of the seats put on the chairs until after dinner today. But I'm excited for it! And with three weeks to spare before I have company. Whew. 

Stella's Corner: Stella has a real patience problem. When I don't respond quickly enough to her demands for a walk she gets rather upset. Exhibit A: 

She stomped my foot pretty bad this week because I was holding her up and letting another guy exit the apartment building before us. Note to self: Self preservation more important than courtesy. Or maybe next time I'll just have to be in real shoes instead of flip flops. That would always work :)

Bye Bye summer

So although the first day of fall isn't really until September 21 or 22 (I can't remember which this year), Virginia has decided that Labor Day coincides with the fall fashion season and has thus given us weather appropriate for wearing all that delightful fall fashion. The price being I'm freezing all the time. I used my heated throw at work today. Modern technology really is incredible. I was actually warm today wearing just my sweater (plus blanket) vs typical wear of an almost-winter-coat. Dave teases me rather mercilessly about being so freezing, but it's the way I was made I guess.

On a side note: This weekend is also supposed to be raining and cold. Sigh if Summer ever did go out with a bang it was this year. And here I thought I was escaping Utah's weather mood swings. I need to get some more pairs of long johns.

Stella's Corner: Neither Stella nor I particularly care for the rain. So all this rain is making her unhappy. Today it was probably raining harder than when Irene came through. I think we all agree that we should be able to bottle up all this rain and ship it to Texas where it would be useful. In extreme protest of the rain today Stella got so worked up she ran into and dented one of my walls. No worries, no dogs were harmed in the making of that memory, she turned around and looked at me like nothing happened. Silly girl. 

too-rah loo-rah too-rah loo-rah lay

Come on Irene! Well the song is actually Come On Eileen, but it did come up both in the office and on the radio this week waiting for Hurricane Irene to make landfall in the nations capital. Needless to say, to me it was pretty disappointing. Then again, having grown up in the South where I'd heard stories of hurricanes and lived through at least one tropical storm that I remember. As far west as I live, she ended up being just a bunch of rain and a little wind. There were a couple branches down in my complex, but no trees that I saw, no serious property damage, no power loss, water loss, or gas loss. Not even any thunder and lightening. So, for me at least, I escaped the wrath of Irene pretty unscathed.

On the note of the other natural disaster that occurred in the area this week, it really couldn't have picked a lovelier day to happen at least. The weather was seriously perfect to have to stand outside for 45 minutes while they swept the building for damage. The earthquake itself shook for probably five seconds, although it felt more like fifteen. I haven't actually looked up the figure to know for certain. Probably half the people in the building wondered at least once if it was an explosion because they evacuated the building by turning on the fire alarm rather than announcing over a PA that there was an earthquake and we should evacuate. There are quite a few people in the building who were with Mobil in New York during 9/11. In any case it was sunny and warm instead of hot. I got home and the only casualty of the day was actually a bit of a surprise. My mom gave me a decoration of Peace on Earth for Christmas a few years ago, and when I arrived home it was broken on the floor. Any doubts that these are the Last Days?

Dave's Corner: Dave is doing well for the most part. The air conditioning comes and goes so he's had to deal with some pretty bad heat but he's coming down to only about a month left in Sangin. The most interesting story I've heard recently definitely was that he was searching an Afghani man when the man pulled a live bird out of his pocket. Dave admitted to being startled. I probably would have squeaked in surprise.

Stella's Corner: Stella has managed to break one leash by getting it stuck in the hood of a car while we walked. The leash had to be cut out to detach it from the car hood. She's well on the way to ruining her next one by chasing too many overenthusiastic squirrels who make me drop the leash so I don't get bowled over. I am seriously considering wrapping it in duck tape to preserve its live.