Let me tell you a little story about a fish.


So when I married my handsome husband I knew we both were bringing with us things that the other was not exactly thrilled with. I for one found all of my things completely rational and items that most people would be happy to have, HH however felt a little differently about my cats. Excuse me let me correct that, my cat. It quickly became catS when a lovely black cat followed me home one day. So my major beefs with what HH was bringing into our home were only (mostly) two, 1) the ugly, godawful, taking up way-too-much-space camper topper. This hideousness he lugged with him from house to house in college, then to his condo, then to my apartment (preventing me from parking in my much coveted garage), and then into our first home. We have recently sold it on ebay, and are now free of that monstrosity. I couldn't believe anyone would actually want to pay good money for that, I was at the point where I wanted to pay someone to take it. Suckers:)
and 2) the fish. Dr. Lecter. a Piranha(sp?). Initally I balked at this ugly beast, but I was okay with it, because at the time HH bought him, we had just started dating, and it was a fun new pet for him and his roommate. They seemed to get great joy out of watching him eat and devour his food. Then as the relationship became more serious, I realized that this fish would soon become apart of my life. The roommate moved out, and it was just HH and the fish. My biggest objection to the fish was its feeding habits . . . live goldfish. I adamently objected to this feeding scenario, as I had been told that he could also survive on little meaty feeding cubes. But as I got to know the fish, I realized that he got such joy out of the goldfish, so I accepted this about him. Gradually he became apart of my life too. I eventually reached the point where I was buying fish for him, and cleaning his tank. I never actually thought I'd be living with the little fellow, because HH assured me that moving the fish was really tough on him, and Dr. Lecter most likely wouldn't survive any move. So they both moved into my apartment, and lucky me, the only place the fish was safe from the cat was in my bedroom, so everynight, I got to have a special moment with him. I waited and and waited for him to take a turn for the worst, and it never happened. Then it came time for us to move into our house, and we all thought, surely he wouldn't survive this move, he was getting up there in age, and the stress would be too much for him. And I'm sure you can guess. . .he made it through the move. Lucky us. Lucky me. So the little guy lived on. For 2 years.
That brings us to the sad conclusion. Dr. Lecter died on Sunday. Can we take a moment please.
For days he had been doing some iratic swimming movements, and at times even swimming upside down and sideways. Yes, I know, not good signs. So I frantically started doing some research and making phone calls, and came up with some last resort efforts. I even went so far as to perform diagnostics and inject the fish. But the efforts were futile. Whether it was age, stress, or some bad goldfish we'll never know. But we've excepted that it was just his time.
It was just his time.

People in our lives . . .



So we all have people that come in and out of our lives, some we love, some we hate, some we don't remember, and some that bug the ever living crap out of us. I know I can be a very judgemental person at times, and as I've gotten older, I have tried not to be so judgemental. Seriously. As an adult I have met so many great people, that initially I would have dismissed, or immediately become annoyed with. I try not to immediately rush to judgement, and give people the benefit of the doubt.
Recently a person has come into my life that I have to spend time with on a regular basis, and it takes every ounce of patience that I have to not want to bang my head against the wall after having a conversation with this person. I find myself being mean and petty with this person, and at the end of the day I feel awful about it. Interacting with this person causes me to say and be a mean person. I hate the person that I become around this person.
And here's the thing. . . this person is generally a nice person, they are kind, thoughtful, and relatively intelligent. Superficially there is nothing not to like about them. When I stop to actually talk to them, they seem perfectly fine. Today, right at the peak of my annoyance with them, they turned around and did something completely unexpected and kind for me. I was humbled.
So I decided to have a change of heart and do everything I could to be nice and respectful with this person.
And then an hour later, the annoyance returned. I was seconds away from wanting to hit my head on a wall.
I don't know what to do. I have to interact with this person on a daily basis, so not seeing them ever again is not an option. I think about this a lot lately, and I even pray for patience and acceptance with this person. But then everyday, the second I see this person, the annoyance returns and I find my head getting closer and closer to that wall.

My life this weekend...


So house projects march on. Here's how my weekend started out. . . I get home from work Friday evening and HH and one of his friends, the electician, are working on the electrical component of the kitchen remodel. I guess I should have been a little concerned about the situation when they called me to pick up beer on the way home, "get a 12 pack", 2 minutes later, "um, can you pick up an 18 pack". Right, the perfect combination for electrical endeavors. . . beer and tools. So I patiently waited upstairs while they, hammered, pounded, drilled, and drank. Only a few times did the lights flicker, I was told they knew what they were doing. To my surprise, the by the middle of the day on Saturday, they had completely wired the kitchen for all of our new appliances and even installed a few new lights. . . not too shabby. I love that Handsome Husband is so handy.
Saturday evening HH took me to what we will refer to as a Regatta Gala. It was a benefit put on by his alma mater, and his company bought a table, so we were invited. It was fun to get dressed up and be fancy,I was pretty excited because I got to wear my smokin' hot new shoes. The entertainment left a bit to be desired. It consisted of a very bad middle age man making bad jokes in between singing and dancing performed by mediocre middle aged people. I felt very grown up, and sophisticated. . .I didn't even spill wine on myself:)
Sunday was more work on the house, but this time it was on the outside. I did something I've never done before. In the middle of my yard work, I realized I needed some more tools, so I headed out to the hardware store in what I had on. Picture it. . . shorty, short pink shorts, white t-shirt, and baby blue crocs. HOT! I was a little self conscious until I got into Ace and realized I was a little bit over dressed since none of my clothes had holes in them:)
Oh the joys of domesticity!

So this is where I'd like to live when I retire, or if I win powerball in the next 50 years. I have this vision of sitting on my front porch (or back, I'm undecided on this point) with my HH, sipping on wine, and watching the sun set over our vineyard. We'll marvel at what a good harvest it was that year, and toast ourselves at what a great Cab we produced. I don't see where this is an unreachable goal:)
So we just got back from our weekend of wine drinking in Sonoma, oh how I love that weekend, its the best thing ever. This year our weekend o' drinking started on thursday and went through sunday, 4 solid days of wine tasting. The weather was perfect the entire weekend, sunny, warm, and barely a cloud in the sky.
We started the trip going through Napa where we hit I think 5 wineries. Then we headed over to Sonoma for our big "Passport Weekend". Essentially Passport weekend a lot of the small and not so small wineries in dry creek valley set up special tastings and with special food, and sometimes special themes. All in total, I think we went to 36 wineries, not too shabby.
So we had most of our wine shipped home for ease of transport. Since someone 21 or older needs to be present to sign for the wine, I have all our wine shipped to my work, as we've done every year we've made this trip.
The first year we did this, my co-workers really suspected I may have a drinking problem, but they overlooked it when I offered all of them a bottle of wine.
The second year we ordered a ridiculous sum of wine, all of which was delivered to work. That year most of our cases showed up on the same day, so it really didn't do much for my argument that I didn't have a problem.
This year, the wine is just slowly showing up over the course of several days. Now I think they've accepted my addiction to the wine, and just give me the knowing nod as they take their bottle of wine.

I have a new love...

So I'm back. And because I'm blog illiterate, I started this new one, since apparently they close your blog if you don't post for more than six months. Actually, thats probably not a true statement, but my ineptness with computers did not allow me to sign back on to my old blog. So here we are at Life in the Burbs.
So much has happened since my last blog, and most of my avid readers know what I've been up to, so I won't bore you with the details. But back to my new love...
Don't tell my husband, but the new love of my life is my hardwood floors. They are the prettiest thing I've ever seen. And I know it sounds a little strange, but I wake up every morning, and just want to lay on the floors, they are that pretty. We are now at the point where we can start moving our furniture back into the house, but the floors are too pretty to cover with my crappy furniture. Does this mean I need to go out and buy new furniture?!
We are in the middle of a major house renovation, and basically have had to move off the first floor of our house. So me and my handsome husband (HH) have been living in our bedroom. Now some people would see this as a romantic way to spend the evening, but no. Not only are we living in this room with our two dogs and two cats, we also are surrounded by mounds of crap, because there is no other place for it to be. Not to mention, any romance that may come up, is quickly dashed out when the dogs and cats start chasing eachother over the bed. They are not exactly petite little flowers.
Im sure over the next several weeks I will keep you updated on my newly reformed home. I know you will all be anxiously waiting and checking the blog daily:)