Category Archives: House

One for the Paper, Two for the Money…

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Rain… rain… rain… ugh.  I can’t believe we just had Easter!  It was a pretty low-key weekend in my house.  Matt got Good Friday off, and I had a half-day, which was nice!  We went and did all of our weekend errands on Friday, so we got so much more done this weekend.  We are getting pictures taken on May 15th, so I really want the house to be in tip-top shape.  I want to paint the main room, Matt’s office (ugh baby pea green!) and get my garden a growing!  I planted Morning Glories, Lavender, Basil, and tomatoes along with miscellaneous clover last weekend.  They are already sprouting!  I’ve got some Marigolds coming up too.  I don’t have much of a green thumb, so my expectations are low, but I will be happy with anything that grows.

I have also been trying my best on decorations.  I think it is a well-known fact that I don’t believe in things that match.  This is particularly hard for me since I also suck at matching colors.  Our basement is coming along well.  When we were in Chicago, we purchased a Picasso print to go over our huge fuse box hole.  It looks great!  I found an amazing deal at BBB of one of my favorite pictures, Jack Vettriano’s “The Singing Butler.”  It was only $59 and was framed.  Our dining room is looking great with that addition.  The next picture to put up is the Renoir in the bar room.  I also want to have the house in great condition for when Nikki comes to visit.  She called me last week and will be in Indy in early May.  She wants to spend the night one night and just act like old times.  I am extremely excited for this!  She has been to my house once, (the first few weeks when we moved in) and I don’t think we had furniture yet.  My goal is to have the damn ants DIE.  I caved and called Terminix today.  All of this rain is forcing the ants inside.  They are everywhere – the basements, the kitchen, the dog food bowl, my bathroom upstairs.  UGH.

In other news, life has been pretty great.  Mina got back from China mid-month, so I have spent a lot of time with her.  Last week we met up with Amy at Cooper’s Hawk for a decadent dinner + wine.  Amy always cracks me up.  Our poor waiter probably thought the lot of us were crazy.  All you need in life is an Asian side-kick and a redhead I tell you.

Easter Dinner was pretty uneventful as I mentioned before.  The rain was just gross, so I did a lot of experimental cooking.  I made a new recipe, which was ok.  It was Orzo with Fontina Cheese and peas.  Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but it was only an “okay” side in my opinion.  Pasta sides with no meat are always a bit weak.  We also made Ina Garten’s Company Pot Roast minus the tomatoes.  This was delicious.  We don’t dye eggs or anything since a) that is lame and b) I really hate eggs.  My mom stopped by with some lechon from the Barangay Club Easter Brunch.  She is going to St. Louis this week for a PNA event.  For those that don’t follow PNA events, they always somehow involve me behind the scenes.  Her group always performs a skit of some sort (a few years ago was Sister Act, and she’s done Star Wars, etc).  Usually I make a CD with the song to be played.  This time, this group of grown Filipino nurses are doing Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face.”  So yes, she brought over cheap sunglasses and requested a GaGa makeover.  I am a bit to scared the forthcoming pictures of Filipinos in GaGa solar shield shades, but hey, I no longer ask questions.

Monday night was super annoying!  First of all, I don’t usually have spring time allergies, but I’ll be damned if that wasn’t the case Monday!  I was sneezing like crazy and felt miserable.  Instead of doing my usual cooking and working out, I decided to go to Taco Bell for a quick fix.  When I got home, I was really close to ending my misery by taking a lot of Allergy pills, but I was afraid I might overdose and kill myself.  When you think about it, your itchy eyes and runny nose are half your face, so clawing those two things off was the next viable option. 

As my medicine started to kick in, I was happy to receive a phone call from the Nielsen Rating People.  Looks like we got chosen to log our TV watching in May!  I was pretty excited about that.  The phone call was the highlight of my day.

Shortly after, I received an email from iTunes which contained a receipt from a recent purchase.  Usually, I don’t open those (but will now!) since I know that I bought something and don’t like being reminded.  However, I hadn’t bought anything for a few days, and I opened it.  Once I did, I noticed that I had mysteriously purchased about $25 worth of CRAP aka the Texas Hold’em app from Hong Kong, which was in Chinese.  UMM WHAT?  Immediately, I saw on the receipt that my address had changed to some place in North Dakota.  I immediately went to Apple Support and reported the email as possible Phishing.  Then I went to my bank, and nothing had been charged, but I decided to get a new CC anyway.

After that, I went online to iTunes to change my password and change my address back to its original state.  A few weeks ago, I had gotten iTunes credit from a Coinstar kiosk, so I had about $35 in credit.  This was all taken from me with the Hong Kong buyout.  However, I noticed that my credit card was no longer listed in my iTunes account.  *sigh*  So last night I changed all of my passwords and went bonkers.  I don’t know if I was hacked via my iPhone or my iTunes.  I used to play “Words With Friends” and it always asked me to download a free Texas Hold ‘em trial offer, which I never downloaded.  (I don’t even know how to play Texas Hold’em).  So I then deleted all of my phone play apps as well.  It took me over an hour to navigate the Apple Support website to email them about the fraudulent charges.  I hope I get my store credit back, but at this point, I really doubt it will happen.  I will say that Apple’s Online Support is not very helpful at all.  User Friendly = no.  When you go to “Report a Problem” it keeps taking you back to the Support page where you have to THEN navigate some more to find the right place to make a claim.  You’d think if you “Report a Problem” a nice little email box will come up.  Hell, you can’t even call the damn company! 

I love music, and I actually have no problem purchasing music (compared to illegal downloading) but damn, I might start using Amazon after this debacle. 

So yeah, hopefully the rest of the week goes better.  I have next week’s Nikki visit to look forward to, and apparently Marty will be back in town that following week too!  Old Friends Unite!

**SNOWPOCALYPSE 2011**

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In case you were living under a rock this week, I’m sure you were affected by SNOWPOCALYPSE aka ICE ICE BABY or HELL IS FREEZING OVER.  Indiana was heavily affected since we were not only getting snow but freezing rain and sleet.  (Oh joy!)  On Monday, everyone at work was talking about the impending doom coming right at us from both the north and the south.  Afterwards, I went straight to the grocery store before the panic set in and purchased much-needed supplies.  Here is a highlight of the 2 days of the SNOWPOCALYPSE in the eyes of me.

WHAT WAS AWESOME?

- Seeing your company’s name on the “CLOSED” list scroller on television.  It was like being in high school all over again.  SNOW DAY x 2!

- Having a GARAGE!  Best invention ever.

- Watching a lot of awesome DVDs.  I have a huge stack, which I hardly watch anymore.  I re-acquainted myself with Memoirs of a Geisha, Something New, and then delved into the Joan Rivers Documentary (sad and frightening) and a show for Whiskey (Dogs Decoded).

- Knitting!  I finished the Baby Cocoon and am now working on a spiral hat to match my drop-stitch scarf.

- Watching Whiskey run in the backyard and end up doing triple axles since he became the first Jack Russell Terrier Figure Skater.

THINGS THAT SUCKED:

- When it gets cold, all I want to eat is ice cream.  I am insane and ran out of Chunky Monkey.  DOOM!

- The epic fight of fights between my husband and me.  Add in a little PMS, and BOOM FIGHT.  Let’s see?  I was angry that he planned to go to work in the BLIZZARD.  He has an hour commute up to Bumfuck, IN.  Since he wouldn’t listen to me, I decided to throw all of his freshly brewed coffee in the sink so he would be drowsy and crash.  Then to make matters even better, I got his bag filled with coffee beans and put dish soap in it so it was not able to be used.  “DON’T CALL ME AT ALL!  YOU ARE GOING TO DIE ALONE AND COLD IN YOUR CAR!” I am awesome when I am about to start my period.

- And yes, he didn’t call.  Of course the Filipino in me starts to worry and then imagine that I made him crash since I put the words into the atmosphere!  So I do what comes natural – I prank call him!  He answers and I hang up.  He calls back and I pretend to be asleep.  It totally works.  Not really.  It took him 2.5 hours to get home; white knuckled and sliding on black ice.  He should have listened to me!

- Falling on my face while out trying to get the mail.  Did you know that mail does not come during Snowpocalypse?  BOO!

- Having to cancel my Remicade appointment since it is freezing rain.  I am so smart.  Let’s make an appointment at 7 am when it is 30 minutes away and still pitch black outside.  Blindness + Crazy Black Ice = DEATH!  It’s the new Math.  Learn it.

Otherwise, it was interesting to say the least.  I am really happy we didn’t lose power or else I would have been like the blind old lady who died alone in her basement since she couldn’t find her way out.  Whiskey would have eaten my face for food.  That would have been a terrible way to go.  I have no idea how to de-thaw our driveway either.  Our neighbor was using a sledgehammer AND a baseball bat.  Poor kid.  I’ll just wait I suppose.  This picture is my backyard.  There used to be a pond over in the distance.  I couldn’t get a good shot of the icicles, but they are everywhere!

 

Labor Day ’10

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Ahhh Labor Day weekend heralding the end of summer.  Labor Day weekend and I have a love/hate relationship (you imagine your dog jumping out of a car on I-65 while strangling it to death as you grip the leash and not hit another car ALL IN SECONDS!) so I was thrilled to have a lazy weekend.  Gualdoni took some extra days off, so I will actually be with my husband for a change (how will I cope?!)  The weekend began with a bit of furniture shopping since we are now sans coffee table.  I was very upset to learn that the matching hutch for our dining table is now discontinued, which definitely hurts my feelings.  Can you believe how much space a person needs for kitchen stuff?  Ugh, it’s sickening. 

The weather was unbelievable in Indianapolis, so I actually used our patio furniture for a change.  The only major thing I hate about my neighborhood is how the houses look so close together when you are driving around.  This and the fact that EVERYONE PARKS ON THE STREET is what bothers me the most.  However, I am so in love with our backyard because of the fence and general open space available.  It feels like we are on our own.  The little pond is a great thing to see in the morning.  Sometimes I wish I was a coffee drinker so I could just go outside and watch Whiskey and drink some coffee.  Just look at this picture.  LOVE IT. 

On Labor Day, I went over to Emily’s house for a little get-together.  Jen N. and Dana also made an appearance.  It was nice hanging out with some fun girls, but they all managed to get a little tipsy as I didn’t drink anything.  We couldn’t stop talking about our high school reunion in a few weeks.  It was a little sad since Emily’s divorce is almost finalized, and I just feel for her.  I know she is being brave by being out there on her own, but it is quite a life change.  I try to spend as much time with her as I can.  She’s strong and doing great, which is awesome. 

Gualdoni and I rented Kick-Ass on Saturday night.  I had heard raving reviews about it, but I just didn’t like it that much.  I was a little weirded out that the Kick-Ass main character had the same bedroom color (purple) as I did while growing up.  Yes, it is a stupid point but valid.  The only good part of this movie was Hit-Girl in all of her awesomeness.  I thought it was a bit too violent and unrealistic when the bad guy was kicking the shit out of her in the end.  I’m sorry, I just can’t stand watching a girl getting beaten.  It was too over the top.  I do wish my comic store had a milk shake stand.  It reminded me a bit of Von’s, so that I enjoyed.  Ugh.  I did like the style of the movie, and it gives me hope that Matthew Vaughn will make a decent X-men movie.  (I am still bitter he left X3… ick!) 

Other than that, I literally played Lego Star Wars ALL WEEKEND.  This game is so mindless, it’s addicting.  Gualdoni likes to play it too, and we don’t have many 2-player games anymore.  We have started to talk a bit about vacation plans.  I thought we would go back to Vegas for our one year wedding anniversary, but we may not in order to save for a big European trip next summer. 

I am still bummed that I’m not seeing Marina and The Diamonds on Thursday.  Boo!!!