Snoozing

A couple weeks ago, I tweeted the following:




Now let me get this out of the way... I'm not pregnant. I waited two weeks for this post just so I could be sure when I say that I'm not pregnant. Yes I'm sure.

It seems like every time I sign into Facebook, I'm reading another announcement about some one I know popping out or about to pop out a little crotch parasite (a term of endearment I picked up from Aunt Becky) some point in the near future.

So babies have been on the brain, and for those 15 minutes until people started talking me down from the ledge, my thoughts were of the HOLY CRAP I DRANK THE WATER lines. I seriously thought I was going to end up pregnant after missing one pill. I didn't say I was rational.

It's not that DH and I won't start our own family of creation someday. But we just got married. Neither of us is ready to add a little Mochaface to the family dynamic.

So why can't I stop thinking about babies? I guess I'm at that age. You know that age. When everyone around you first gets married and then pops out wee ones.

I'm just grateful my biological clock has a snooze button. Because I've been hitting the shit out of it lately.

Hump Day Humor: Pacey-Con

One of the iconic shows of my adolescence is Dawson's Creek. Even the theme song transports me back to being a teenager. What I loved most about that show is Pacey. Cute, sarcastic, tragic hero Pacey. I cannot tell you how much it made my day when he finally got the girl. Sigh.


Anyway. Joshua Jackson - still cute as ever in Fringe, which I started watching just for him - at this year's Pacey-Con, keeping Dawson's Creek alive.

Pacey-Con with Joshua Jackson from Joshua Jackson

ANSWER - Tuesday Trivia: Movies

Which four Oscar-winning Best Pictures have animal names in their titles?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1976); The Deer Hunter (1979); Dances with Wolves (1991); and The Silence of the Lambs (1992).

Congratulations to Peggy Sue Brister for being the first to get the correct answer!

Tuesday Trivia: Movies

Tuesday Trivia is a weekly post of interesting trivia questions. Leave a comment with your answer - or best guess - and come back tomorrow to see if you were right. Happy guessing!

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Which four Oscar-winning Best Pictures have animal names in their titles?

A Monday Love List

A love list on Monday. Because why not?

1. Bikram yoga. It's now been a few weeks since I started the craziness also known as hot yoga. And I think I'm hooked. It's been a long time since I've had that particular feeling of accomplishment after something so physically demanding.

2. Harry Potter. The first part of the seventh movie will be in theaters in November. And in preparation I'm rereading the series. I forgot exactly how much I love those books.

3. Love dip. A recent discovery that I heard about from a friend on Twitter. Found at Central Market, this dip is amazing. And probably really bad in terms of calories. Oh well.

4. My Kitchen Aid mixer, which still is nameless. 'Nuff said.

5. Glee soundtrack, volume 3. It just makes me happy to listen to it.

6. These guys:

You have a beautiful face

Every time I talk to a friend who's had his heart broken, or has gotten disappointed in a guy she had hopes of dating, or is trying to find the courage to approach a guy, I am so glad to be out of the dating game.

I wasn't very good at it. And here's a little secret about me, I don't like not being good at something. Okay. So that's not really a secret. It doesn't change the fact that I sucked at dating. I didn't have many dates and had even fewer boyfriends.

But I still managed to embarrass myself from time to time with the opposite sex. One time being one of the most infamous and embarrassing stories of my life.

It was the summer between high school and college. My best friend and I were going to hear a Christian rock band play at a praise and worship service. The lead singer/guitarist had graduated a few years ahead of us, and I had always thought he was cute. So I was especially looking forward to seeing him play.

My friend tried to keep my expectations low by telling me he wasn't as cute as he was a couple years before. But when he came out to start their set, my jaw fell open. He was even more gorgeous than I remembered. I sat through the set enamored. Afterward, we went to talk to the band members my friend knew, including Mr. Hottie McLeadSinger.

I stood there barely listening to them while trying to keep my mouth closed and the drool to a minimum. When my friend turned to me and said, "You remember Becky," I tried to play it cool and compliment their set. What I had meant to say was "You have a beautiful voice." Only it came out "You have a beautiful face."

I died right there on stage. And immediately started insisting that I meant voice instead of face. He was gracious and tried not to embarrass me any further. My friend just laughed at me.

This would be why I'm glad DH decided to marry me before I made a complete fool of myself in front of him. Although I think my ability to make a fool of myself is one of the things he likes about me. Thank goodness!

Hump Day Humor: iPhone App

iPhone Murder Apps from Emma Stone

ANSWER - Tuesday Trivia: Calendars

What is the greatest number of Friday the 13ths possible in a single calendar year?

Three. The last time there were three was last year; next time will be in 2012. This year there will be only one, in August.

Congratulations to Jeremy for being the first to get the correct answer!

Tuesday Trivia: Calendars

Tuesday Trivia is a weekly post of interesting trivia questions. Leave a comment with your answer - or best guess - and come back tomorrow to see if you were right. Happy guessing!

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What is the greatest number of Friday the 13ths possible in a single calendar year?

Oxycute 'Em!

It sucks to get older. I think that's a truth universally acknowledged. At least among everyone I've talked to.

But there is one thing I was really looking forward to about getting older, and I must say that so far I've been incredibly disappointed.

Pimples. I haz em. I was always told that they would go away as I got older. And the little pus-filled bastards insist on hanging out and setting up camp on my face.

Now thank God they aren't as bad as they were when I was in middle and high school. Because if I still had it that bad, well, I shudder at that thought. It wasn't bad enough to earn a nickname like Crater Face (again, THANK GOD), but that didn't stop the self-esteem from dipping into angsty teen levels.

When I was a wee little Mochaface and in the 7th grade, we were leaving gym class when a couple of girls called out to me. So I turned around and in chorus they said, "Oxycute 'em!" I was mortified. I tried to tell myself it didn't matter, but clearly it affected me if all these long years later I still remember it. Bitter? Not me. Though just desserts were eventually served, as at the end of that year, we all moved onto 8th grade while the main tormentor had to stay back and repeat the 7th. Not that I took any pleasure in that. Okay. Maybe a little.

Still, now that I'm an adult I really wish I didn't have these teenage reminders popping up on my chin or forehead. Granted it is only at certain times of the month (THANK you Mother Nature) so there's generally a couple weeks where I am blissfully pimple free. So there's that.

Hump Day Humor: Apple Friend Bar

There are some Apple fan boys out there who could totally use this. I'm just saying.



New Apple Friend Bar Gives Customers Someone To Talk At About Mac Products


From Cary.

ANSWER - Tuesday Trivia: Food

How many pounds of fresh grapes does it take to produce a pound of raisins?

About 4 1/2 pounds.

You guys were close!

Tuesday Trivia: Food

Tuesday Trivia is a weekly post of interesting trivia questions. Leave a comment with your answer - or best guess - and come back tomorrow to see if you were right. Happy guessing!

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How many pounds of fresh grapes does it take to produce a pound of raisins?

Namaste

A month or so ago, a friend told me about Groupon, the website that sends you a new incredible deal on restaurants, spa services, gyms, really a variety of different businesses in your city every day. They are always amazing discounts.

One such deal recently was a month unlimited membership to a bikram yoga studio. I love yoga, but studio memberships are expensive. So I immediately clicked the buy button.

This weekend, I finally started my membership. I'm a bikram yoga newbie. I knew it was hot yoga, or yoga practiced in a room heated to 105 degrees. Yes. 105 degrees. I know. I'm nuts. Something about the heat and relaxing your muscles, detoxing your body, blah blah blah.

It's the basic postures in yoga. But that doesn't matter. You do them in a room that's 105 degrees.

Saturday morning, I walk into the studio, fill out the profile and after dropping my bag off in the changing room, I walk into that heated room. It is not long after I get settled with my mat, towels and water that I start to sweat. The room smells like Cooper or any dog does when he comes in from spending 30 minutes in the backyard during the hottest part of the day. Sweat.

It didn't take long for me to feel the effects of that hot room. But somehow, by some miracle, I made it through. There was not a dry spot on my body I was so soaked with sweat. And then I went back on Sunday. Because I'm crazy. Actually they say to take another class within 24 hours of your first one. Something about it being good for the soreness you feel. I don't know about that. My body is still sore.

But I do know I feel very invigorated, and my body feels stronger. Well, it does now. After class I'm so wiped and have nothing left that it takes what very little energy I can manage to find to get into my car and drive home.

I haven't decided if this is something I want to do past this month but I am going to enjoy breaking up my usual workout routine.

Faking It Til I Make It

I have been scrapping the dregs of the inspiration barrel for blog posts. Like for reals y'all. I got nothing. Did you read that post last week on the verbal goodbye dance? Oh you didn't. Don't bother. No seriously. It's utter crap (not to be confused with udder crap, which I don't even want to know). So this is a mish mash of things I couldn't make into a complete post. Ok, it's still crap but at least it wastes a few more minutes until beer thirty.

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After dinner last night, I got a case of the most annoying thing ever... hiccups. It was so bad I started predicting my death by hiccups and contemplated what I could shove down my throat to stop the gawd awful feeling of my stomach trying to jump out of my body because it thinks it would have an easier time of it on the outside.

DH tried to be helpful and asked how I got the hiccups. Well I'm not Bill Nye the Science Guy, I have no idea how one gets the hiccups. And then he asked if I knew what cures the hiccups.

Having an inkling of where he was going with that, I tried to beat him to the punch by saying "Sex." His reply was, "well, okay then" and a wiggle of the eyebrows.

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Two of my favorite things right now are the grill pan that can be used on a stove and my Kitchen Aid mixer. Twice this week when I wanted to grill something for dinner, the weather outside wasn't cooperating. That grill pan is the best thing ever because it's like grilling without the mess of the coals or standing in the ridiculous heat to grill something. And you can stay dry when you grill because it's raining outside. DH would probably disagree with me because it doesn't have the same "flavor" but whatevs. Tastes the same to me.

And if I wasn't already married, I would propose to my Kitchen Aid mixer. Hell, I may just adopt bigamy and do it anyway because I seriously lurv it. Like big time. I decided to make s'more pie (recipe) as the dessert for our family bbq on the 4th. From scratch. The entire thing. Including the marshmallow creme. I didn't melt marshmallows or buy marshmallow creme in a jar (though now that I think about it, I may have a jar in the pantry I could have used. Eh, hindsight's 20/20.) I mean it wasn't there before, and little ole me boiled some stuff and then mixed some stuff and poof! Marshmallow creme. All thanks to my Kitchen Aid mixer. (on a side note - he needs a name because Kitchen Aid mixer is horribly long to type and if I'm going to propose, he needs a better one. Hm, will have to think on that.)

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And because it's Friday, here's a picture that I took while I was in DC a couple weeks ago, that makes me laugh. Every time.


I can't say exactly why I find this sign so damn hilarious. Except that this house is not actually called "House Where Lincoln Died." It's really the Petersen House. And there is a sign declaring it so. But it's much smaller and harder to find than this one.

Book Review: The Lace Reader

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

Set in Salem, Massachusetts, The Lace Reader is about a young, mentally unstable woman who returns home after a beloved great aunt has disappeared mysteriously to have her family and her past waiting to confront her. There are many secrets, lies, half-truths and confused identities that must be faced. At least the narrator is up front with the reveal that she is a liar.

I'm going to be blunt. I hated this book. So much so that I actually considered putting the book down without finishing it - something I never do. I only finished it because we were discussing it in my book club.

I found the book to be inconsistent in it's writing style, narrator and tense. This may have been intentional on the author's part to encourage the story to seem more like a fever dream where it's hard to tell the difference between what's real and what's imagined. Except it didn't work for me. Not in this book. The writing also felt very elementary.

There were too many mysteries crammed into one book that there was a lot of confusion for me that even the ending couldn't completely clear up. The story itself had a lot of potential, but there were parts that had nothing to do with moving the plot forward that they felt out of place and made reading this book more of a chore.

I know several people who enjoyed this book way more than I did. If I had known that this would not be a no-brainer read, I may have liked it more. And the characters were complex and interesting. So there are some redeeming qualities. But it is not a book I will ever be rereading, or even keep on my book shelf.

And be warned, the book has very little to do with lace reading.

Next month - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Disclosure: No one paid me in any way, form or fashion to do this review.

Hump Day Humor: Butt Drugs

I couldn't stop giggling when I saw this local commercial for a pharmacy. Local to where? No idea. But it is most clearly a local commercial. It's relatively safe for work.



From Cary.

ANSWER - Tuesday Trivia: Jargon

How did "a cup of Joe" become U.S. Navy jargon for a cup of coffee?

It was named for Secretary of the Navy Josephus "Joe" Daniels, who banned "ardent spirits" from the officers' mess in 1914, making coffee the strongest drink offered aboard ship and inspiring the slang reference to coffee as a cup of Joe.

Tuesday Trivia: Jargon

Tuesday Trivia is a weekly post of interesting trivia questions. Leave a comment with your answer - or best guess - and come back tomorrow to see if you were right. Happy guessing!

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How did "a cup of Joe" become U.S. Navy jargon for a cup of coffee?

The Verbal Goodbye Dance

You know how you're talking to someone on the phone and when you've finished the conversation and then starts the verbal goodbye dance?

The verbal goodbye dance is those final minutes of a phone conversation when you're thanking them for the call or sending well wishes to mutual friends/acquaintances or promising to talk or see each other soon and the other person is saying the same things at the same time.

I always feel so awkward and embarrassed when I get sucked into the dance. Especially at the good ole jay-oh-bee. Like I should know how to hold a proper phone conversation.

And I do. Until the music starts and I don't know who's supposed to be leading and can't find the beat. Then I'm stepping on toes, even my own, and bumping heads trying to spit out those final sentences of the conversation before the other person hangs up while not sounding like a complete idiot.

It makes me shudder every time. No idea why. But it does.

Mr. Cooper

I'm a pet lover. Cats, dogs, bunny rabbits. Whatever. Ok, maybe not snakes. Yeah, definitely not snakes. But if it's cuddly, I'm burying my face in someone's fur.

While I like all cute and cuddlies, I am a dog person. No question. I had been anxious to get my first dog as an adult. It took me several years as I didn't want to get one while I lived in an apartment. So when DH and I bought our house last year, I knew it wouldn't be long before we got our first dog.

Cooper...

He may be 76 pounds, but he's still likes to cuddle.

He loves to go for walks and rides. If we even open the car door, he hops in.

He's very sweet and cute. When he's not driving me crazy.

Though there are times where I enjoy his energy and watching him flip a toy in the air as he plays by himself.

Our family