cultural differences

here's a story that's been sitting in the drafts folder for a while:

one night while working late at the office, a member of the cleaning crew was working his way past my cube. seeing that my desk was occupied he stopped to chat - and, i'm guessing, take the opportunity to work on his conversational english.

he focused mainly on the photos of my family and friends and began to query me on them, quickly learning that i had family close by and had been married for about a year. he then narrowed in on an image of me holding a baby.

"yours?"

"no", i quickly assured him - "it's a friend's baby."

this was apparently a phrase he was not familiar with so after several failed attempts to explain the relationship i landed on "nephew", which he understood.

"you have no children?"

"no children" i responded with a smile

"married, one year?"

"yes"

there was a lengthy pause and then he shook his head, looked me in the eye and very emphatically stated "one year, one baby".

as he gathered up his supplies and solemnly walked off i got the impression i had just greatly disappointed his view of how the world should be.

as an update to this story, i periodically run into this gentleman as i am leaving for the day. he never greets me with words, but simply begins shaking his head. apparently my married-yet-childless state left a permanent impression.

lady of shalott

i recently stumbled across this video, and it reminded me of a certain iconic scene from the anne of green gables/avonlea films of the late 80s. turns out my geek had never seen them. so, we borrowed the old vhs tapes from my parents (along with their vcr) and watched through them in 5 sittings over the course of a week.

its important to note here that our forays back into childhood favorites have not always proven successful. (murder by death = worst. movie. ever.) and the anne stories are not exactly typical "guy" fare… so for most of the film i was watching my geek's reactions almost as much as the movie itself. at times he appeared to be genuinely interested in the story - other times, not so much. by the end of the saga i was still unsure if he really appreciated it. cue the closing romantic bridge scene:

anne: "i don't want sunbursts or marble halls… i just want you."

music soars.

credits roll.

geek, frustrated: "he should shove her off the bridge now."

"guess he didn't like it much after all," i think

me: "yeah well, mom always said anne should have married morgan."

geek, passionately: "oh, I would have been seriously pissed off if it had ended that way!"

success :)

hippos

as you may already know, i am close to completing my first year of grad school. in addition to still working full time. so much for slowing down!

it's been an exhausting, but very positive experience, and i'm incredibly grateful to the school of art at isu for being so flexible in allowing me to pursue this part-time. (and huge kudos to my geek for picking up the slack at home when i'm at class or stressed out over homework)

last night i wrapped up a little foray into writing object-oriented java applications. it was a great learning experience... and the result is kinda fun so i thought i'd share:
Hungry Hippos

note: there is quite the back story to this project involving myself, my geek, and a certain stuffed hippo named Marten.

yards are a lot of work

when we moved into our current home a year and a half ago, it was entirely surrounded by mud.
as you can imagine:

new house + dogs + mud = fail

by the time the weather warmed, we were determined to remedy the problem. of course it turned out to be a much bigger undertaking than either of us anticipated, and ended up taking almost all our free time last summer. it's paid off though, and this year our yard looks... well, like a yard.

we've been looking forward to actually getting to relax outside this year, but there was one final piece to the project that needed to get done. when we put in the fence last summer, we discovered that the grade of the lot away from the house prevented our front gate from opening fully and since our lot is long and narrow there's really no other place to put the gate. we've been putting off dealing with it, but knew we'd need to address the problem at some point this summer. since we're leaving on a trip soon and we're free this weekend we decided it was time to just get it done.

so yesterday i left work at noon and drove out to the landscaping company my brother-in-law works at to select materials. my geek left around the same time and made the always-necessary trip multiple visits to the hardware store for the remaining bits and pieces and ... late in the afternoon the three of us converged on the gate.

as projects go it wasn't too bad. (this may or may not have been because the guys did most of the digging/dirt hauling) and now that it's done we can breathe a sigh of relief and declare our yard project(s) complete.

... at least for this season.


our recently added finishing touch.





the pups have their own door into a dog run area. i'm so glad we did this! it's come in handy so many times that they have a separate yard space.

man vs. nature

reinforcing the fact that i can also be geeky… i found this article to be a fascinating read. i blame my interest in such non-typically-entertaining things on home schooling :)

drool

the pups have constant access to our downstairs bathroom, and after weeks of coming home to wet, mushy tp we surrendered and relocated the paper to the top vanity drawer.

i occasionally forget to explain this to guests and after several people "helpfully" replaced the roll i decided it was time to hang a note from the tp holder.

this is what i've come up with (appropriating christopher berry's lovely sketch). i plan to print it at 4x6 and use ribbon to hang it in a narrow frame. i'll post a photo of the final result.

family

one year

this post is a few days late... but we have now been married one year. our marriage has been, hands down, the best thing about my life so far. it is amazing, loving, sometimes challenging, always good.

things we've learned:

• i am definitely not a morning person. (mg makes sure i have coffee every morning)
• mg is not patient. (i have learned to be more on time... mostly)
• discipline decisions are tough. (and we only have dogs)
• i am easy to please. (take my hand with a kiss and i'm happy)
• mg is easy to please. (baked goods are always a hit)
• we are not formal people. (example: we didn't actually do anything to celebrate our anniversary)
• we (ok, mostly me) are too busy and need to slow down.
• our families are awesome. (well, we knew that already)
• communication is important and praying together daily equally so.

our life together, for better or worse, is going to be amazing.

nothing to say

i am exhausted and overwhelmed today - but our little family brings me joy.

a matter of perspective

me: you're such a drama queen.
mg: i don't induce drama, i exaggerate for effect.

tired

it's been a long time since i've felt rested.

at mg's insistence, i have an appointment to look into a sleep study, but part of me wonders if i just need to find a better balance. i feel so silly saying this, because we have no kids, but i just don't have enough time in the day!

whoever came up with the 40-hour work week clearly had a maid. or, more likely, a homemaker wife. i have neither, and while i'm all for women in the workforce... most weeks i really wish i could have an extra 6 hours at home to take care of all the things that seem to continually fall through the cracks.

six months later

so i own an apology to the blogging community. or rather, the tiny corner of the blogging community who read my posts. i have been very neglectful of this space of mine.

here is a quick update on my life the past six months:

• i applied, assembled a portfolio, interviewed for, and was accepted into grad school. i start classes in a couple weeks.
• my amazing grandfather passed away. this still does not seem real to me.
• i injured my rotator cuff and spent most of the summer frustrated at my inability to do... everything.
• we adopted a second dog. he is wonderful, challenging, and completely different from remy.
• we took a long-anticipated vacation out west. my geek was introduced to water skiing.
• we took on a major landscaping project which has filled pretty much every spare moment in our summer weekends.

it has been a wonderful, sometimes exhausting, summer in which i have re-discovered the joy of being outside, and neglected the online word.

photos to come soon.

ode to a crockpot

there is nothing quite like getting to the end of a long work day and knowing dinner is waiting for you, warm and ready to eat, at home. i'm not really going to write an ode. i'm too tired. but if i were a poetically inclined individual that is what i'd do.

so instead i will leave you with this:

Paean to My Crock Pot (For Eileen)
Oh Crock Pot--
how I love your 70s sensibility.
You stay home all day dressed
in floral charm, serve me
dinner with a warmth
free from post feminist irony
or messy cleanups.

so true

i should buy stock in sterilite

if you know my mother, you know she is the organization queen. i've never considered that to be one of my strengths, but as we unpack things from the move i've realized that an overwhelming majority of the things i own are sorted into neatly labeled plastic organizers. I have big bins for sweatshirts and pajamas, medium sized bins for shoes, small bins for underclothes. There are drawers for scratch paper, for pens and pencils, for phone chargers. Smaller drawers for toiletries, paper clips, broken jewelry (yep, seriously) and tiny boxes for first aid supplies and band-aids.

i do indeed have a place for everything... though everything is rarely in it's place!

it seems i owe my mom a thank you for getting her scatter-brained artistic daughter to live in a semblance of order. let me just pull down that "cards and notes" box from the closet...

six feet under (series finale)

me: aww, you're all teary-eyed
mg: it's sad. what are you, an emotional brick?

moving is a lot of work

new house = muddy yard
muddy yard = muddy dog
muddy dog = muddy hallway

1. crate dog

2. afternoon project: fix muddy yard

3. evening project: wash dog. wash tub. wash hallway. wash crate. order takeout.

the dress

is blogged again. this time on vintage weddings by the knot. check out Reese's dress at the end of the post, it's amazing.

is it possible

for the third time this year i will be in a position to review student portfolios. college seniors. seriously? i'm qualified for that now? oh yeah, college was... years ago. weird.

boxes

it is only when moving that i regret having a library's worth of books.