Ho hum...

Worked all day. Tomorrow's goal: get our apartment back in order! It's kinda messy... Had pasta and homemade alfredo tonight. It wasn't too shabby. It looks like one of my nails is chipped. I'm trying to find the motivation to get my nail file... Can't find it (my motivation) anywhere.

Snowboarding

Man, this week has been a busy one. Jus and I attempted to go snowboarding for the holiday on Monday, and discovered the coupon we had didn't work on holidays. Curses! Foiled again! Honestly, it feels like each time we try to go, something comes up. We WILL hit the slopes before the snow melts. You'd better believe it.

My husband is an awesome snowboarder. He's been doing it for years. I didn't learn until recently, that he took a vow long ago to never enter into matrimony with a woman, unless she could snowboard... That rules me out, I guess. We got married under the condition that I would learn how to this winter... Ok, ok, so like %32 of that story is actually true. But I have always wanted to try snowboarding. After all, it's what the "cool kids" do, right? Justin is sweet enough to be my snowboard instructor this season, (he is the best looking guy on the mountain, of course.).

The first, and to this point, only time we went snowboarding, things were great. Apart from tumbling (a lot) and bending my pelvis over and around my cranium (a lot), I would say things went pretty well... it was the lift that killed me. I couldn't get off of it without falling on my face, (and taking out the fellow seven-year-old skier on the lift with us). Awesome.

Since then, I've tried practicing in my mind the motion of getting off of the lift with one foot strapped into a board. Perched on the edge of our bed, I keep my "strapped in" foot held in the air, and then try to gracefully push myself off the bed, and then do this dorky looking propelling motion with my other foot. But I bet it will look better than just tumbling right out of the lift chair, to the painful entertainment of everyone else enjoying the powder. Wish me luck folks... I'm going to need it.

-Ali

"I Love You" is spelled O.J.

It's been a few days! Apologies. It's been that busy (or that boring depending on how one looks at it). Hope your Valentines was wonderful! Mine was. Jus came home that night with a beautiful bouquet of red roses. (Aww shucks...) We hurried and changed into nice(er) clothes and headed to Chef's Table for dinner (delish!). Cake Bites for dessert (delish, again!). I had heard a lot of things about Chef's Table, so I was really excited to go there for myself. I was not disappointed. Tuscan Tomato Soup= heaven in a tureen. Now I've got this drive to find a recipe that is similar... I'd be ok with eating it every day... for every meal... sigh.

Early mornings in our household will find my husband singing in the shower, and me sprawled out in bed (Someone's got to hold the bed down). I keep a tired ear open for when Jus makes his way into the kitchen for breakfast. At which point, I drag my sorry behind out of bed, take a quick look in our mirror, grimace at my hair's startling similarity to that of Madame Hooch, and stumble into the kitchen. Most mornings.

Today, the routine was much the same, only, I missed the singing in the shower cue. I heard rummaging in the kitchen. "Did I really fall back asleep this morning?" I asked myself. I hurried out of bed (as fast as I could safely stumble). Jus calls from the kitchen, "Go back to bed. Don't come into the kitchen!" It doesn't take much more convincing than that. Back to bed I went. As I lay in bed, feeling slightly guilty for being there, I heard hissing on the stove, and a sound that sounded suspiciously like the beating of eggs... Five minutes later, my handsome butler came in with a delicious looking breakfast sandwich and a glass of O.J...

I think there may be a puddle where my heart used to be. I'm a lucky, lucky woman.

After breakfast, the musical stylings of Jus could be heard from the general direction of the shower...

Musings on a Saturday

The puppy upstairs disappeared. And no, I didn't bring him to our place (as much as Jus would have loved that...). We woke up the other morning to little pitter-patters upstairs, along with some barking. I learned that my husband doesn't like being woken up by an animal running around the ceiling. Who knew? Anyway, the puppy is gone, to who knows where, and my sympathies with it.

Valentine's is on Monday. I love how nienie refers to it as the "Lover's Holiday". It sounds better. Jus and I celebrated the holiday like, three weeks ago, after I accidentally discovered his gift (jeans that I'd been wanting for forever). Whoops... I'm no good at keeping surprises for long either, (Christmas nearly killed me.) so we just had Valentine's early. Oh well... Next year, we'll celebrate the same time as everyone else. Have a happy weekend, and a lovely holiday. Hope the restaurants aren't too crowded!

-Ali

Puppy

Coming home from work is always exciting. I haven't seen my other half like, you know, all day, and his kisses are something I look forward to. Call me crazy.

Jus and I have been having some "dog discussions" as of late. There is one in our future, that's certain. When? That's another discussion for another day. Here, I should admit that really, I've never loved animals. I think it's just the hair that gets EVERYWHERE (including one's clothes and pillows... um... no.) That being said, there's just something about a little, helpless ball of fluff with those big, endearing eyes that gets me every time. Without fail.

Tonight, I came home to my love, a delicious aroma of swiss chicken, and a mysterious noise coming from The Cave. "Do you hear that?" Jus and I both asked simultaneously? We stood still to listen. That's when we heard a series of very distinct yelps (pathetic yelps, mind you) coming from the garage, which is above The Cave. Yep. There's a puppy of some sort up there...

And he's sounding pretty "doggone" lonely, if you'll pardon the expression. I'm exercising great self restraint to not go up there and give him a hug... and maybe bring him down to our place... just to stay warm... for the next week... or forever.

-Ali

PS: My wreath is finally done! I inadvertently locked myself out while taking this picture. Knocking on the door woke up said puppy upstairs.

Fondu and other things

Around Monday afternoon, I'm already counting down to Friday. Pathetic, I know. The weekends are delicious. I relish them when I get the chance. Jus and I got to hang out ALL weekend. I loved it.

We attempted round one of "Fondu Friday" this weekend. Let me say that fondu shouldn't be difficult for me, but oh... it is. Friday night was no exception. Justin had the chocolate fondu down to an art, while my cheese fondu was looking a little um... runny? I just told myself that it would stiffen up in a minute or two. (I'm beginning to see a pattern of lying to myself when my gut says "This isn't going to work". Remember last week's curtains?) Taking some french bread in my fingers, I tentatively dipped it into what was supposed to be a delicious bite of heaven. My gut instinct won again... it was awful. That's when Justin chimed in with "well, could I try to make it?" I nodded my consent, and consoled myself with a pretzel and the chocolate fondu. He started grabbing things from the fridge. Five minutes later, there was a beautiful pot of cheese fondu on the stove. And it was divine.

Saturday found Jus with hours of physics homework. Poor guy. He's the hardest worker I know. He will not stop until he gets a project finished, even if it means sitting in "the cave" (our affectionate term for the Whatever Room) for hours on end. We decided to take a break from homework-ing and project-ing for a couple hours and take a trip to The Sweet Tooth Fairy. My, that place is lovely. (Their cake bites are decadent) We even did a little shopping and found some sweet deals at the mall. Awesome.

I love going on "hang out dates", when Jus is all mine for a few hours. He is hilarious. I forget sometimes, just how much he makes me laugh until I spend the whole day with him. Yep... I am a lucky girl. Thanks, bud.

-Ali

P.S. Check out this new band I just discovered. Love, love, love.

Curtain Conundrum

February is here. Isn't it a comforting thought to know that we don't have to see January again for another 11 months? I think so.

Valentine's day will soon be upon us. I put up our one and only decoration yesterday, and now, I want to do more! Growing up, my mom would always dress the house from top to bottom in "love decor" for the holiday. It always looked like so much work to put it all up, and then take everything down. What about that is fun? Being in my own apartment, now, I realize how much I miss the fun decorations. Poor Justin. He probably thinks I'm so un-festive. (Is that even a word?)

Yesterday, mom and I made a curtain to hang over our little kitchen window (remember how much we love that one?). Jus and I have talked about putting one up for forever. We had some decorator fabric we bought at Ikea for a different project that didn't work out, and we figured we could just use it to make kitchen curtains. I was pleasantly surprised when curtain construction turned out to be easier than I imagined. (Really. Four steps and you're done!) I left my mom's house with high hopes that this would be just the thing to make our kitchen look better.

Let me tell you a little bit about our kitchen first. It's green. Green counter tops, and little green diamonds in the linoleum. The cabinets are oak. You get my picture? Don't get me wrong. The kitchen looks nice, on its own. It's only when I try to incorporate black and red kitchen towels that things start to look weird. Our curtain is a bold black and white stripe. At first, I thought it would work... Black will go with anything, right? But this optimistic thought slowly turned into a desperate plea for my misgivings to be wrong, just this once. "This curtain WILL look good, I say!"

Sweet Justin. After standing on the counter, twisting his arm upside down and sideways, and getting spiderwebs in his hair (with baby spider attached...) he got our curtain rod mounted on the wall. With feverish excitement, we shoved the rod through the little pocket of the curtain I had made, not three hours before. We stood back to admire our work. The rod was a little crooked. Fine. We could deal with that. But it was sagging in the middle. My shoulders sagged a little too. The stripes were too bold for our kitchen, and neither of us loved what we had worked so hard on. I was pretty disappointed. Jus tried to make me feel better... As of today, the curtain is in our Whatever Room, awaiting a different fate as a pillow or something.

Skinny Ties

Went to work yesterday. I love my job. It's fun to talk to the other ladies there, and see what neat stuff they are working on. I either come home inspired or depressed about my lack of creativity. Usually the latter. But, I am discovering that there are a lot of creative people, with a lot of interesting projects they are working on. And yesterday, such a project was brought to my attention. While chatting with another girl behind the counter, she told me about a skinny tie tutorial she had seen on a blog somewhere (surprise, surprise). I didn't even know skinny ties were back in!

I'm gonna be honest... I've always been jealous of Justin's plethora of ties. And I wish I could wear them. Secretly. "Jus, this tie is cute! I mean... 'awesome'..."

After telling Jus about the "tie tutorial" he jumped up to fetch his tie hanger and we pawed through his luxurious collection. He was sweet enough to donate some of his lesser favorite ties to my cause. (What a guy! I am pretty lucky.) He'll get most of them back anyway, just a little skinnier... Well, I'm glad he didn't love the first tie I destroyed. Or the second. But attempt number three came out better. I still have to sew it back together, however... We'll see how that goes.

-Ali