Torn

This weekend a very dear friend is having her bachelorette party in Las Vegas. I had to make the decision to not go. I waited till the very last minute to make my decision becauseI was just in denial, or hoping that I'd find a way to justify it. I'm extremely torn about the decision. I feel like I am not being very supportive of my friend by my absence, though I know she completely understands. At the same time I feel left out. It's just a very weird place to be.

I do hope they have an absolute blast, though, and I sincerely hope that what happens in Vegas does not stay in Vegas in this case, and finds its way to my ears by way of great stories, and my eyes by way of many, many pictures.

I'll be there in spirit! Viva Las Vegas, Ladies!!

I do plan to have a full weekend, though. Brian's heading to Houston to help his dad with the yard work, and to go to the Rodeo. That's one thing you will not find me going to. A rodeo. I find the roping and humiliating of animals for entertainment to be quite appaling. The one time I did see a rodeo I spent my time peeking through my fingers, sobbing because the animals looked so frightened, and furiously hoping that those mean and stupid men would get trampled or gored!
Right in the testicles. Serves them right. Bastards. Not that I feel strongly about this at all ;-)

While Bri's away I am going to spend some quality time with the girls, and by myself.

Fun weekend!

The bridal shower was really fun! Jen did an awesome job with the munchies, and we had mimosas as well. The girls gave me so many awesome pieces of lingerie! I couldn't believe there were no duplicates, too! I have so much lingerie now that I can surprise Brian with a new outfit every day for a long time! Thanks, Ladies, for an awesome time, and Thanks Jen for being an awesome hostess.
Brian and I had dinner at Firebowl and then came home to watch a movie. A couple of our friends were throwing a party at Jennifer's house down the street from us and we had a group of friends stop by our house prior to the party for a drink and to hang out. I finally showed Tara my unibrow pictures from when I was a kid, and my big 80's hair pictures from when I was a hairdresser. I'd talked them up quite a bit but when she saw them she said I really wasn't exaggerating. It's good to keep some embarassing pictures handy so people can really see how you've improved.
Around 11pm we headed to the party. It was great to see so many of our friends and Brian and I had a lot of fun hanging out with them. Apparently I had on my invisibility cloak because the host never made eye contact with me and appeared to look everywhere but AT me. Strange, I've been nothing but polite and friendly to her when I see her, so this treatment came as a bit of a surprise, but whatever. Jenn and I had fun "mini dancing" and taking weasley pictures with those around us, and Julia showed us some of her pole dancing moves with me as the pole!

Today Brian went to play racquetball with Mike, and I did a little retail therapy. I found the perfect white bathing suit for our trip to D.R, and a big gaudy belt that seems to be all the rage right now. It actually looks good with my camouflage skirt and black top, but it does look like the 80's are back! The rest of our evening will be spent cuddling on the couch in front of the telly, with any luck :-)

Friday ramblings

Work's been stressing me out a bit lately. I'm usually very even keeled and not much gets my knickers in a twist. And outwardly I'm not freaking out, but inwardly I must be because I had a nightmare about work on Thursday night. It happens so rarely that I dream about work that when I do it makes me stop and take stock of the situation and try to figure out a way to de-stress. Yesterday at 4pm, Brian, Mike, and I left work because we couldn't find a vacant conference room in our building and we were supposed to meet at 3. We went to Sherlock's Pub where they have free Wireless Internet, and we had our meeting over a pitcher of beer (and 2 gin and tonics). Surprisingly, it was very productive. We each finished writing up our patents submissions.

After our meeting Tara met up with us and we hung out at Sherlock's for another hour or so, then Brian and I headed to Shooters to see Andi and Brian play, and to meet up with Barbie and Scott. We played a few games of shuffleboard and Barbie and I had an awesome run towards the end when we got the hang of it. Barbie scored 10 and I scored 9 in the same round! Crazy!

Today, Saturday, my friends are throwing me a lingerie shower! I'm very excited.

More engagement pictures

We got our images back from the photographer today. I've posted them in our photo gallery: [click here]
This small set represents a good cross section of all the pictures. There is one that I absolutely love that I've not included here. But keep an eye on your mailbox in the near future ;-)

This is the one we got enlarged as an art piece to hang in our house:

Have a nice day!

We went to the Bon Jovi concert in Houston on Tuesday night. IT FRICKIN' ROCKED!

As the concert started and the band came onstage, I didn't see Jon on the stage but I could hear him singing. Suddenly I realized he wasn't on the stage but in the middle of the crowd on a small platform. I felt like I could reach out and touch him. It seemed like they were alternating between songs from their new album "Have a Nice Day", and their older stuff. I knew every word to every song, and it felt like the whole room disappeared and they were singing just for me. During "Bed of Roses" Jon was in the crowd again but in a different location. On a small platform in the crowd. People were reaching up to touch him and I closed my eyes for just a second and reached out. As I did I felt someone take my hand. I didn't dare open my eyes because I wanted it to be him... and I felt an arm go around me and warm breath in my face, and when I opened my eyes Jon Bon Jovi was singing to me! He stepped down from the platform and lead me by the hand through the crowd and up to the stage, where the band started playing one of my favourite songs from their new album "Who said you can't go home". And as he sang I found myself performing the female vocals part of the song in perfect harmony with Jon. At the end of the song the crowd went nuts! And as I stepped down from the stage and returned to my seat in a sea of surreal "high fives". The band continued to play for what seemed like hours and I remained in this dream-like state unable to believe what had just happened to me. And as they tooke the stage for their encore and instructed the crowd to stand for "our national anthem", I arose from my seat and woke up from my dream to the lyrics "I'm a cowboy on a steel horse I ride. I'm wanted dead or alive".

As for what really happened at the concert, well, that's between me and Bon Jovi ;-)

Weekend Highlights

Aside from Brian's amazing marathon yesterday, we had a good weekend all round. On Friday night we went to happy hour at Bone Daddy's with a group of friends, then headed to Rhino and Jock's where Andi and Brian were playing. Brian was in rare form that night. A girl came up and handed them an entire list of songs and Brian said (over the mic.) "that's the biggest request I've ever seen without money in the tip jar!". Michelle and I almost fell over laughing! Then the tip jar mysteriously started to get a few bills in it ;-)
Erin requested "Sweet child of mine" and somehow I got talked into singing it! I thought I did a horrible job, but people were very kind and said it was good.
On Saturday, Brian and I headed down to the Expo to pick up our race packets. We did a little browsing through all the stalls looking for a top for Brian that had pockets for Cliff Shots, etc. but didn't find anything. We headed to Academy and found the perfect shirt for $17, though.
Brian's parents arrived around 1pm and Joan and I headed to the mall, then to Special Occasion dresses to find her a dress to wear for the wedding. We didn't find the perfect dress, but we did find the perfect style, but the dress had a small flaw in it so she didn't get it. I found several candidates for Barbie to wear for the wedding, though, and we'll go shopping next weekend to find it.
Meanwhile, Brian and his dad headed to Costco to pick up some ribs for our pre-race BBQ. Barbie, Scott, Mike and Tara came over and we grilled ribs and I made some green beans with garlic, and some cheesy mashed potatoes. A great pre-race dinner.

We got to bed pretty early. Around 10:30 so we could be refreshed for the Marathon.

Dusting the marathon course

3:46

Three hours and fourty six minutes (gun time).

That's how long it took Brian to finish his first marathon!

It was well below freezing for a portion of the race, and Brian, being a hater of cold weather, did not complain once. Jenny V and I ran the first half with Brian, keeping him on pace and making sure he didn't go out too fast and hit the wall early. At mile 11 or so Brian broke away and followed the 3:50 pace group while Jenny V and I finished strong for a sub-2 hour half marathon (GO US!)

Brian's parents met me at the finish line and we headed downtown to cheer on our runner. We parked at San Antonio and Ceasar Chavez, which was perfect because it was close to the finish, and right near the 22 mile marker. We saw the 3:15 pace group pass as we arrived. We stayed and cheered everyone on and drank Starbucks. Brian showed up right after the 3:40 pace group!! we were so proud. He had made a 10 minute increase in his pace since mile 11.!! WAY TO GO BRIAN! As he passed he said "head to the finish! I'm gonna need it!" He looked like he was in a little pain.

We headed for the finish line and positioned ourselves to spot him rounding the corner to the finishers chute. As he passed us we could see the pain on his face, but he kept going and pulled out a sprint at the end! almost 3 years and he still very frequently finds a way to completely amaze me :-) I'm SO PROUD OF HIM!

We headed over to meet him as he came out of the finisher's area and everyone gave him a big congratulatory hug! Next order of business, NXNW for a burger!

The rest of our day was spent in front of the fire watching movies. We pulled the futon mattress downstairs so we could both lay flat. Both of us were very sore after the race.

Congratulations, Brian, on not only meeting your goal, but blowing it out of the water!

oooh la la!

Here's a little taste of what our engagement photo shoot went :-) WE LIKEY A LOT!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love is in the air! Tonight we're having my favourite food. SUSHI!

On Saturday, Brian and I (finally - like almost a year later) got our engagement pictures done. They are AWESOME. Our photographer, Andrew Sterling, is a true professional and an amazing artist. His studio is filled with amazing and powerful emotion-provoking images. We had so much fun during our photo session, and there are some truly artistic shots of us. It's hard to decide which one we will get blown up to hang on our wall. We might use one of the images for our wedding announcements. I have an artsy fartsy idea in mind :-)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Wedding update

I'm excited because 25 people are now booked for the Dominican Republic trip for our wedding. Brian's friend Benoit from Switzerland is now booked and Brian has asked him to be a groomsman, and of course, he accepted :-)

Of course, Barbie is the logical choice as Maid of Honour for me, but Darryl and I have always said that we would be in each other's wedding. Last year I had the honour of being the best man at his wedding. This year Darryl will have the honour of being a bridesmaid in mine! Maybe we should change his title to "Man of Honour" since it's less girly. hehe. I did toy with the idea of making him wear a dress, as per our agreement when we were young. But I thought I'd give him a break and let him keep his dignity. So I'm getting him an ocean blue guayabera shirt and white trousers so he can match both me and Barbie. I'm really excited about the decision to have Daz in our wedding.

This week we're getting our engagement pics done, and then I get to create our announcements, which I think are supposed to be mailed out the day we leave for our trip. This whole wedding ettiquette thing escapes me completely, and there isn't much info on destination wedding ettiquette so I guess I'll make my own rules! YAY! Anyway, I have an idea of what our announcements should look like, I just need to buy the paper, etc.

Anyway, enough wedding drivel.
Amanda out.

What we did in New York

Saturday, January 28th

We arrived in New York around noon and were taken to our hotel in a Limosine! The ride was about 25 minutes and when we arrived at our hotel, I requested a high floor with a good view. Our room wasn't quite ready so we stopped at a local deli for some New York pizza, which was awesome, then we went to Times Square and stood in line at TKTS to get tickets for a Saturday night show. We got tickets to Chicago for 8pm!
We went back to the hotel and got our room keys. Our room was on the 37th floor and faced Madison Square Gardens and downtown. The room was small, but clean.
Before the show we went to the Heartland Grill in the Theatre district for appetizers and a drink before the show.
The show was great. Pretty much what I expected, except that there were little to no costume changes, and the set never changed. Brian and I both felt a bit ripped off because for a show on Broadway you expect to see some fluff and fanfare, and while the content was great, it could have been greatly improved by a change of scenery. I imagine they spent their whole budget on two somewhat famous people to be in the cast, though to be honest, the show would have been just as good with no-name actors.
After the show we went to Haku on Times Square, which is a sushi bar. I had the most wonferful Chirashi dish, while Brian had his usual of Tuna and Tamago.

Sunday, January 29th

We got up relatively late (9am) and went for breakfast at a nearby restaurant, then made our way to the Empire State Building, which was only a block from our hotel. It was rainy and cloudy so the pictures we took were not the best but it was a good representation of what we saw. I called my parents from the top of the Empire state, but of course the signal is awful up there!

Next we headed to Chinatown and SoHo to take a look around. We stopped in Chinatown for lunch at a small restaurant. i was extremely happy to see that almost all of the patrons were Asian, which is always a good sign. Many of them were local and appeared to have just gotten out of church. There didn't seem to be any tourists except for us. The place was packed, too. I had some wonton soup and Brian had orange chicken.
As we made our way through Chinatown we found ourselves in the middle of a parade. It was Chinese New Year! how lucky! We followed the crowd through the streets. People were playing drums and popping off confetti cannons. There were several dragons (well, not really, but you know what I mean) dancing in the street. In all it was a very festive time.

After chinatown we headed back to our hotel and got ready for dinner. We went to a restaurant on 46th street called Brazil Brazil, which is a Churrascaria, meaning that a bunch of waiters with meat on large skewers come to your table and cut off a piece for you. They keep coming until you turn over the little indicator on the table to say you're done. There were 11 kinds of meat and most were amazing!
After dinner we went to an irish bar near Times Square and had a few drinks before returning to our hotel.

Monday, January 30th
We got up early today and headed uptown on the Subway to the Natural History Museum. I was amazed by the space exhibit and we both wished we had more time to spend there because there is so much to see. I would recommend dedicating at least 4 hours here, but we only had 2.
Next we headed all the way down to Battery Park where we purchased tickets for a tour of the Statue of Liberty.
Before the tour started we ran into the financial district and found a pizza place and took a slice to go. We ate on the ferry over to the statue. The view of New York from the ferry was awesome! Brian took the audio tour of the statue, but he said he didn't recommend it. Most of the things on the audio tour were written on plaques that you can read anyway. It was very interesting to see how the statue was constructed and the tools used. Nobody is allowed to go up into the actual statue anymore, but you can get as far as the pedestal it stands on and look up through the glass ceiling up inside the statue. We skipped the Ellis Island tour because there were other things we wanted to see. When we got back to Manhattan we headed to Wall St. to see the Stock Exchange but, sadly, we weren't able to go in. Since the terrorist attacks they have stopped the tours of many things. Brian felt quite disappointed that he gave up Ellis Island for the stock exchange and then couldn't go in.

Next we headed for the Bodies The Exhibition (http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/). This was the most fascinating thing I've ever seen. They use real human bodies (from people who donated themselves to science when they died) and showed all aspects of the human anatomy using real human parts. My favourite part was the circulatory system exhibit. It looked like art and was completely amazing. The process to preserve the bodies was what amazed me the most. for the bodies they removed all of the water/moisture from the tissue and then replaced it with a polymer solution that hardens and effectively turns the tissue into plastic and preserves it forever. What was more amazing was how they so accurately and painstakingly dissected the different systems to make them visible and removing all other thing around it while keeping ti completely intact. For the circulatory system they injected coloured solution into the veins, which then hardened and preserved it. They then dissolved and cut away the surrounding tissue so that all that was left was the veins, then they suspended that in a clear solution that looked like water, but probably was something else. The way it was lit and presented made it so beautiful. I was just completely awestruck.

After the Bodies exhibit we headed to Canal street to do a little shopping, then headed to Little Italy for dinner. We chose a tiny Italian restaurant with a wonderfully warm atmosphere. I had linguini alla vongolette (linguini with clams) and brian had a chiken breast stuffed with mozerella and proscuito.
After dinner we headed to Times Square for some New York Cheesecake, then headed to an Irish bar near our hotel to finish off the evening.

Tuesday, January 31st.

We got up early and headed out for a quick breakfast at Cafe 34, which is right next to Madison Square Gardens. Then we headed up 35th street for a little shopping before heading home. We didn't get a chance to spend much time in Macy's but I at least got to take a quick peek. That place is HUGE.

We called the same limo driver that picked us up at the airport when we arrived to pick us up at our hotel. Her name is Rosa and I have her number if you're ever in New York. She's very reasonably priced. At 10:30 our limo picked us up and took us to the airport. We arrived a little earlier than expected because traffic was good, so we flew standby and arrived home an hour earlier than our original schedule.

We finished off our vacation with a trip to Papasito's for dinner. And now we're back to real life again.

We had a blast! You can view pictures by clicking here.

if you thought my birthday coudn't get any better.....

You were dead wrong!

Brian is taking me to New York City for the weekend. We leave on Saturday morning! Our hotel is right near Times Square and we're going to go to a couple of broadway shows. I'm so frickin' excited!
I have to thank Brian's dad for the idea. He sent us an email that JetBlue was doing trips to NYC for $79 each way. But when we went to book it, that fare wasn't available. But good old Expedia came through with an awesome deal.
I'm excited. I can't wait to go shopping in Soho, and do a long run in Central Park :-) Wooohooooo!

In other news, I just completed 12 grueling miles of running in the rain. No walking, no water stops, no whining. I'm glad to be done. Brian went out to do another 8 or 10. Brian hates to run in the rain, and he also hates the cold, so todays run is a huge character building exercise for him! I'm so proud of him for his tenacity.

Best Birthday Ever!

Ok, maybe not ever, but as much as I can remember. And because I'm old, the ones I can remember are becoming fewer. Anyway, this was a wonderful birthday despite the rocky day I had the day before.

I woke up with quite a bit of soreness from the accident, but nothing too bad that a couple of Ibuprofen and the heat pad couldn't handle. I did, however, choose to work from home from the comfort of my couch because I needed to de-stress, and not sit in my uncomfortable office chair all day. I had lunch with Brian and his friend Ben at Sushi Sake, which is my favourite restaurant of all time. Ben brought me a small white birthday cake. How sweet! We didn't get to eat it right away because Ben had to run, I had some when I got home and it is damn near the best cake I've ever tasted.

My mum called me to wish me a happy birthday and to see if I got her flowers yet, which had not yet arrived. Later in the day I got two deliveries of flowers! one from mum and dad and one from my sisters, Sheila and Paula.

At 6, Brian picked me up and took me to Freda's Seafood Grille, which is a place I've been dying to try. Brian had reserved the private room and as luck would have it, it was the restaurant's 3rd anniversary and they were giving out free champaign! wooo! The food at Freda's was wonderful. We all tried many different appetizers and some of us ordered dinner. I had a wonderful time surrounded by all of my friends. So many people came to celebrate with me and I was completely touched. I have such a great group of friends. I won't get all sappy but I feel truly lucky. While I ran to the bathroom with the girls, Brian brought in a cake and when I got back there were candles all over a cake with a Union Jack on it! it was AWESOME! and the frosting on the cake was my favourite, so I ate my frosting, Brian's, and Barbies! Jen has a picture of me with blue frosting all over my teeth. hehe!

After dinner/appetizers we said our goodbyes to those who had to leave, and a big group of us went to Shenanigan's, which is a local hole in the wall bar, where we spent the evening dominating the kareoke. Andi did Prince's "Kiss" and it was by far the best performance of the night. I sang Holiday by Madonna, and Andi and I did a duet of Elton John and Kiki Dee's "don't go breakin' my heart". Emma and Paul did the Partridge Family "I think I love you", which was SO cute! Eric did Devo's "Whip it", and Reba did that "old time rock and roll" and it totally ROCKED! I did Evanescense's "Bring me to life", and I was so thrilled that I impressed Andi, my rock star friend :-). Andi and Renee did the Shoop song by Salt and Peppa, and Renee nailed it! she was a total rock star! And the icing on the cake? Jen sang "We are family" with me, despite her tremendous stage fright. I had no idea she had such a beautiful voice.

We got home shortly after midnight and ate a little more birthday cake. Brian did the most wonderful job of making my birthday so special. And of course he had a lot of help from Barbie, who advised Brian on how to plan a party ;-)

So a big fat thank you to all of my friends who made my Birthday so very special. You can view pictures by clicking here.

Pre-birthday trauma

Yesterday was a crappy day all round. I had my yearly review from my old manager, and got a rating that was less than I was hoping for. I expressed my disappointment to him and sent an e-mail to him asking for more explaination. In the afternoon I took Brian to pick up his car from Honda, where it was getting a service and inspection. On my way home, and only 2 miles from the house, I got rear-ended by a guy going quite a bit faster than me. I was doing about 30 because someone ahead of me made a right turn, but the guy behind me never slowed down, and was going about 55 or so.

I was on the phone to Daz at the time and it came as a complete surprise to me. It knocked the phone out of my hands, and whipped my head forward then back quite violently. We both stopped and I realized we were in major traffic so I gestured for the guy who hit me to follow me to a side street, which he did. As I got out of the car I was shaking so bad. I checked that he was ok, and actually found myself thanking him for stopping! I guess my lack of faith in humanity has jaded me into thinking that most people would have just drove off.

We assessed the damage to our cars and exchanged insurance information. A police officer was at the gas station nearby and he came over to ask if we had called the police. We said no and he said he didn't think it would be necessary because we had exchanged information. After I left the scene I went home and immediately called my insurance company, then made a claim on his insurance.

And then I sat down and just got totally overwhelmed by my crappy day and by the time Brian got home I was a big snotty, bug-eyed, sobbing wreck. Poor Brian. He looked mortified when he saw me and his mind immediately went to the animals, thinking that something happened to one of the cats or the fish. Thankfully it was something easily fixed. I wasn't upset about the car. It's just stuff and it will get fixed. I guess I was just stressed out from a bad day that got worse.

After I had calmed down we went for a run, and all the negative energy from my day manifested itself into a great run.

When we got back Daz called to check on me. I guess it's pretty scary to be talking to someone on the phone and hear them get into an accident. Anyway, thanks, Daz, for calling. That's a record! 2 calls in one day. It's almost like it's my birthday or something ;-)

Anyway, we called Joan (Brian's mum) for some advice on what to do next and she was very helpful. Then we went to Papasito's for margaritas and fajitas and I tried to forget the stress of the day.

Today I woke up with back and neck pain, which was expected. Though it's not really bad, and I can it's just muscular pain. I am uncomfortable, though. Right now I'm sitting on the couch with a heat pad on my back.

I'm hoping that my bad day yesterday was karma's way of ending my year by flushing out the bad things that could happen to me and clearing the plate for a great year full of good karma.

On the bright side of things, althoug poor Ruby Sue (my car) is a bit mangled, at least I'll get the bumper fixed from that time that stupid woman backed into me in the Target parking lot!

Well, happy birthday to me.

Honorable mention

Just a quick note to say "Hello" to my friend Wassim in Canada. I hope you're enjoying that cheesecake! ;-)

Staring down the barrel....

Less than a week! I'm once again staring down the barrel of the birthday cannon. Last year I promised that I would celebrate every birthday like it was my last. So with that in mind, I'm thorougly looking forward to this year's birthday! Those of you who know me know how old I'll be, and for those of you who don't know, well, I'm as old as you think I am :-P.

In the spirit of celebrating like it's your last, I'm issuing a blanket pardon to those who have wronged me in the past. It hurts my heart to feel badly about people who used to be close to me. You know who you are, and let's face it we both know you're reading this. And I want you to know that although you've acted in a manner that has hurt me deeply, I want to forgive you.

And finally, as I'm at such a wise old age, I feel it's appropriate to dispense a few pearls of wisdom that I've learned over the past year. And here they are:

• Surround yourself with people who are important to you.
  
• Take care of your skin. Don't cheap out on a good moisturizer and ALWAYS wear at least SPF 8.
  
• Drink lots of water. You may think you drink enough, but you don't.
  
• No matter how close a friend you are, honesty is not always the best thing.
• If it's important for you to express yourself, then express yourself. Don't invalidate your own feelings by dismissing them as silly, and don't tolerate others invalidating your feelings.
• Pets help relieve stress. If you are in the market for a pet, ensure that you adopt from a local shelter.
  
• Make every effort to stay in contact with your friends who are far away. Distance shouldn't be a hinderance with true friends.
  
• If you think you're too fat, stop whining about it and get your ass to the gym our out for a run. If you don't do either of these and you still complain, make sure it's not to me.
  
• Make time for yourself and keep your commitments to yourself.
  
• Don't stress out about minor details. Keep a little perspective.
  

So here's to another great year! Happy Frickin' Birthday to me! ;-)

Engagement pictures

Brian and I found a photographer to do our engagement pictures. I know it's a little after the fact, but I'm a procrastinator, so it's not surprising. Anyway, we have an appointment at the end of this month.

I'm a huge art fan, and I have some great creative ideas for what I want, and very distinct ideas on what I don't want. I've been to hundreds of photographer's web sites and seen thousands of engagement pictures and it's completely UNDERWHELMING. I'm looking for an amazing piece of art in which Brian and I are the subject, and the setting/background is completely irrelevant. So we're going to do it in a studio, rather than out at some garden or on location. After I spoke to the photographer I'm very excited. He said he had some great ideas, and instructed us to bring several changes of clothes, something vibrant, and something just plain black should be included. He said he always uses music during his shoot and we can bring whatever we want to listen to, though he has an extensive library.

This is going to be SO MUCH FUN! WOOO!

Handy hubby

Brian's becoming SO handy! Over the weekend he used his xmas present to change the oil in my car. This is the first time he's done mine, he usually changes his own oil in the Honda. The new jack and safety stands I got him for xmas worked like a charm and we save lots of money on the oil change. Of course, it'll be a few years worth of oil changes before it offsets the cost of the equipment, but it makes him happy, and that's what matters.

In other news, this evening we're having Andi, Mike, and Cameron, Jenn, Ethan and Steve over for dinner. I'm trying out a new dish. Pasta with pesto and feta cheese, with chicken, feta, and spinnich sausage. MMMMMM! I'll post the recipe to my recipe page if it's good.

Busy weekend!

So Jenn found me the perfect hairdo for our wedding. It won't be a traditional up-do like most brides, but then I'm not a traditional bride ;-). So thanks, Jenn, for being so helpful. I had a hair appointment on Friday afternoon and got a trim, mostly took out some of the bulk around the bottom and hopefully my hair can grow about 2.5 inches by May to pull off this style.

Friday evening we met Tara, Mike, Tiff, and Brett at Mesa Rosa for happy hour, then went to Sushi Sake with Tiff and Brett. They are as enthusiastic about sushi as me! afterwards, Brian and I headed down town to meet Andi, Barbie, Scott, Michelle and Brian at Cedar Street to watch Andi's husband, Mike's band play. They were really good! It was a bit cool because Cedar Street's stage is outside, but they do have heaters outside.

On Saturday morning Brian went an played soccer at Zilker and I hung out around the house and watched The Learning Channel, which is my Saturday morning ritual, then I headed to the mall to find some hair jewels that would go with my wedding dress. I found them at a little cart in the mall, though I'm not sure how they will stay in my hair unless I rat it up a bit. We'll see.

Saturday evening we went over to Mike and Tara's for an impromtu BBQ. It was a pretty good turn out of people, too. We grilled steaks and drank wine/beer and the boys played some pool.

On Sunday Brian and I went to Town Lake for our weekly long run. Brian ran 17 miles and I ran 10. After we had showered we went to Costco to pick up some necessities, then headed home and relaxed for most of the day. Sunday evening we had Eric and Reba over for dinner. I made Chicken Parmesan and Reba made a pecan pie for dessert.

A great weekend full of close friends. What more can we ask for?

Mystery smell

We've been having the weirdest problem with out new fish tank. So after we set it up on New Year's eve, and put the fish in, we went about our business as usual. A couple of days later we came home from running errands and Oh-My-God the house STUNK like cat pee. So of course we accuse the cats and start sniffing around, but no... it wasn't the cats. It was THE FISH! I am serious when I say that the water in the fish tank smelled like cat pee so bad that it burned our eyes. So I took a sample of the water to Petsmart, where they tested it and said there was technically nothing wrong with the water, except the nitrate levels were a little elevated, but they did smell it. In fact when she took the lid off the water bottle she almost fainted.

.... so we set up their old tank, put them back in and I cleaned out the new tank and all the accessories with bleach water, per their instructions at Petsmart. After thoroughly rinsing out all the bleach water we set it back up, put water in it, ran the filter for a day, and returned the fish to their new tank.

Oh you think it's all over? no. 2 dyas later, deja vu. The smell is BACK! WTF? So we did a partial water change but it didn't really help.

I called an aquarium shop and the guy said it might be plastic eating bacteria from the accessories sitting in a closet for years, and to get rid of all the plastic plants, ornaments, etc.

So again, we set up the old aquarium, and we transfer the fish. And I dispose of everything from the new tank, except the gravel, which I rinsed thoroughly with hot water. We then put the gravel back in, and all the water, and are now letting the filter run for a few days. However, this morning, there was a faint smell again. I'm going to see if it gets worse over the next few days. If the smell does come back, the only conclusion I can draw at this point is that the bag of gravel we got from Petsmart is causing it!

Poor William and Harry. This morning when I went to feed them they were completely uninterested and just cuddled up together at the bottom of the tank. They have no plants and no big rock house to hide in and I'm sure they're completely freaked out. If the smell is back tomorrow, I guess I'll have to buy new gravel and set it all back up again!... that is, if William and Harry don't die first. :-(

I'm frustrated, and I'm afraid that my boys might not make it because I wanted to give them a bigger house, which will cause me enormous guilt. Even though they're just fish. I can't stand to think that I killed them.