Month of April, 2007

Friday Night Happy Hour

On Friday, Chris picked me up from work and we went to Casey Moore's for happy hour. We found a lovely table on the patio and had a number of people come and go. I especially enjoyed seeing Pete, whom I haven't seen since he first moved here 10 months ago. Pete is a friend of Abby's who was in DC when they met. Pete moved down here for a job after finishing his MBA. We haven't had many opportunities to hang out, but I really enjoyed his company. He also brought his coworker, Mike, accompanied by his significant other, Lisa. They were great and I hope to hang out with them again very soon. Of course, Jennifer came by and we toasted to the acceptance of her thesis proposal. That is a HUGE thing to celebrate. I'm so happy for her. Ryan, from work, also joined us. Ryan constantly impresses me at his ability to engage everyone in good conversation.

We snacked on oysters and fried veggies. There was plenty of beer flowing. The night was lovely. Having Chris there was a highlight for me. I'm looking forward to doing happy hour with him every week.

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Bentley Update

So Bentley is feeling better. He's on the mend. The ear drops and antibiotics have done the trick and he's back to normal. Or at least he's back to acting normal. He's got his energy back and he wants to cuddle again. It's a huge improvement. We're going back to the vet next weekend to run some more tests and make sure everything is OK. I'm confident the tests will turn out fine because of the way he's acting. I'm so relieved.

Oh yeah, and if Bentley could use the Internet, he'd be so embarrassed that I'm posting this picture. He just woke up and has a bad case of bed head. Chris and I got a good laugh about the look on his face so a picture was due. Not the most flattering, but certainly a funny one.

Dinner at Delux

Thursday night Chris flew into Phoenix. After picking him up from the airport, we headed to Delux to see what all the hype was about. Delux is supposed to have wonderful hamburgers that I've been anxious to try. It was a lovely evening so we sat outside. The whole experience was good and we really enjoyed ourselves. I think it had a lot to do with the company. The food was great. We shared the house special, the Delux burger, and a basket of fries. Mmmm, sweet potato fries! We intended on sharing dessert too but after a martini I was ready for bed. There's always next time, because I really enjoyed Delux and plan to go back.

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Quote of the Day

"Fair and Balanced?! I'd watch Al Jazeera before watching that channel."
- Ryan, about Fox News

Quote of the Day

"Kleetus.org. Some other redneck got dot com."
- Kleetus, about the URL for his upcoming blog

Happy Birthday, Karen

Today is my sister, Karen's birthday. I'm sad that we're not together to celebrate, but it's just not easy to pop over to Germany with a cake. We were all hoping that this was the last year Karen and J would be so far away, but we recently found out that they're staying in Germany a little while longer. So we'll just have to celebrate from afar as usual.

Karen, know that I love you and miss you. I'm sorry that this year I don't have any embarrassing baby photos to post; however, there are plenty from a previous year. Hope you have a wonderful birthday!

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The Weekend

It was a chill weekend for me. Friday night I went home after work and couldn't even stay awake through a whole movie. I was asleep before 9pm.

Saturday I got up early to take Bentley to the vet. Turns out he has an ear infection and calcium crystals in his urine. The x-rays don't show kidney stones so I'm hoping it's just an infection that will be cleared up with the antibiotics. After the trauma at the vet, I sent him straight to the groomer. Poor baby had a big day.

I spent the rest of Saturday running errands, cooking food for the rest of the week (mmm, stir fry!), and cleaning house. I also worked on the car a tiny bit but got stuck when I didn't have enough strength to loosen a couple screws. While it's hard for me to rely on someone else, I'm glad Chris is coming on Thursday. He can deal with the screws.

Saturday night I had drinks with Ryan and Jim at Papago Brewery and The British Open. At Papago, I tried their brew, the "Hop Father," because I liked the revolver on the tap. (Darn, should have taken a picture.) Then I tried Tetley's because it's made in Leeds, England, where Jim is from. Tetley's is GOOD. It's officially my second favorite beer...Guinness is still my favorite.

Sunday I woke up and wrote my to-do list. It focused around laundry, cleaning my room, and emptying out a closet for Chris. (I just know his move is going to creep up on me so I'm trying to get as much done as early as possible.) I worked at a leisurely pace, but eventually got everything done. Looking for a reason to get out of the house, I went to Papago Park for Urban Arts at the Park. It was an Earth Day celebration put together by Women Living With a Purpose. It was a happy and excellent way to spend the evening - listened to good music, watching people dance, and enjoying the weather. And Bentley was an excellent companion.

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Quote of the Day

"I'm sure it's safer than I just described."
- Chris, about the giant bounce-house / slip-n-slide he's talking about getting for his 30th birthday party

Where I Work

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Automattic Kismet

For the past year (or two, who's really counting?) I've had serious problems with comment spam. Like tens of thousands of comments that are spam. While its certainly annoyed me a lot, I haven't been motivated enough to address the problem. I've tweaked the blog settings to try to cut down on it but a lot still gets through. So all this time, I've let the spam stack up in the database and will eventually run some scripts to clean it up manually. Not exactly an efficient route.

Awhile back I heard about Akismet and how successful it is at managing comment spam. Yet, I still didn't do anything about it. There are just more interesting things in my life than manage spam. Somehow this week the spam got to me. It might have something to do with the fact I have 59, 216 comments published on the blog and I know that only a small, small fraction of those are real.

I finally installed Akismet based on the instructions at Appnel and I'm already amazed at the results. This is a significant improvement and if I had realized how easy it was to install, I would have done this ages ago.

A HUGE thanks to everyone at Automattic who made this wonderful, wonderful solution to a very crappy problem.

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Weekend in Arlington

I spent the weekend in Arlington with Chris. We spent time with my parents, his parents, visited my grandmother, went on a date, and visited the Arlington Museum of Art. I even got to spend a few hours alone with Autumn, which was really nice. The weekend was great - busy but not too busy.

Saturday night we went to The Studio Movie Grill where we ate and watched a movie at the same time. We saw Shooter, which we both really enjoyed.

Sunday afternoon we went to The Arlington Museum of Art, where some friends from Lubbock had a show. I was sad that I missed the opening Friday night, but it just wasn't possible for me to get to Arlington in time. It would have been nice to see both Brian Wheeler and Brian Gilbert. Instead, Chris and I got to see their art.

View the entire set.

Chris is Moving to Phoenix

On Thursday night I had dinner with a friend and in the first few moments of catching up, he tells me that he's engaged to be married. It wasn't that much of a surprise, because I knew he had a serious relationship. I just didn't know how serious it was, apparently. After congratulating him and getting details of the event, I asked him why he hadn't blogged about it yet. I mean, why wouldn't you blog about a major life moment like getting engaged? He explained that his blog is more often about work and didn't necessarily feel this kind of news would be appropriate. I think his readers would be thrilled to hear this kind of news on his blog and encouraged him to write about it. Whether or not he does, is completely up to him, which is why he'll appear anonymous here. (Even though I wish I could publicly tell him, "congratulations!" I'm satisfied that he knows I'm excited for him.)

As we walked through Tempe to chose a venue for dinner, conversation turned to me. Naturally, I shared various personal topics and caught my friend up on my life's events. Through that conversation, I realized that I'm a hypocrite. Only moments earlier, I was telling my friend that he should blog about his engagement because it was such a major life moment. Then I realized that I had failed to follow my own advice and blog about one of my own major life moments. Nothing quite like realizing one's failure to drive you to action. So here I am. I must confess I've put this off for entirely too long. I have something I want to announce.

Chris is moving to Phoenix to live with me.

I wish you could feel the excitement I have in my chest when I'm writing this. It's liberating and freeing to say it out loud. I can't help smiling.

As you probably know, Chris and I have been dating exclusively since April 2006. We've arranged our lives such that we can spend as much time together as is reasonable, considering the expense of traveling between cities. For the past year, we've been seeing each other approximately ever two weeks. We've gotten to know each other at depth and have seen the love between us grow. We've built relationships with each other's families. We've talked a lot about the future. We're happier together than apart. We plan on being together a very, very long time. It only makes sense that we take our relationship to the next step and live in the same location.

At the end of June, Chris will be moving in with me. While I'm scared and nervous, I'm also very excited and happy. I've never had a relationship like the relationship I have with Chris. He is a wonderful man, who treats me amazingly well. And while I'd love to go into all the details of what makes our relationship so wonderful, I don't think the web is necessarily the right medium. Chris has always been amazingly cool about my blog, even since the beginning, and I certainly don't want to embarrass him. So just trust me when I say he's wonderful. Really, really wonderful.

This announcement has been a long time in coming. It was early February that we committed to a move, but there were so many people in our lives that needed to be told first. Chris works for a small company and needed to make arrangements with them in order to avoid hurting the business. He gave four months notice, which in my opinion, is the most generous gift he could have given them. Then he told his parents. Then I had to tell my parents. But I didn't want to tell them over the phone so I waited until March when I was in Dallas. In between February and March, we'd both told a number of friends, but I wanted to wait to announce it online until the most important people in our lives heard it from us. I should have announced it in March, just after I told my parents, but then real life got in the way. I started a new job and got a new-to-me car and just got busy.

And admittedly, I got a little scared. I started focusing on all the things that were going to change in my life. I started obsessing about what I was going to lose, because I'm selfish. I've questioned our decision over and over. I asked why we couldn't just keep things the way they are. I argued that while it's amazingly expensive to have a relationship like ours, at least we're both blessed with jobs that allow us to continue it. Thank goodness, every time I've started talking about changing our minds, Chris has talked through it with me. He is amazingly strong and resolute. All my questioning and fear (and freaking out) hasn't phased him. He holds to the course. He reminds me that we'll never go any deeper in our relationship unless we spend more time together. The only way that can happen is if we live in the same city (or become millionaires but we know what's more realistic). He's reminded me how good our relationship really is. This step in our lives is a really, really good thing.

I'm convinced. I'm not convinced because Chris is talking me into it. I'm convinced because I just spent the weekend with him. It was the reminder that I needed. My relationship with Chris is the best thing in my life and I don't want to give it up. Instead, I want to invest in it and make it even better.

So, that's what we're going to do. To start, we're going to live together. We're going to work on our relationship. We're going to enjoy life together on a day to day basis. And I absolutely can't wait to see what the future holds for us, because I'm confident those are good, good things.

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Missed ANOTHER Flight

I'm flying to Dallas tonight to spend the weekend with Chris. The flight was originally scheduled at 6:22pm. The US Airways website said it was delayed until 7:35pm. So I hung around the office late hoping to arrive just in time for the newly scheduled time. Instead, the flight wasn't delayed and I walked up just after it left.

Why, why, why in the world did the website give me bad information?! According to US Airways employees, it was a weather delay that "could be lifted at any time." I don't remember the website saying that, but maybe I missed it. I've been known to skip a few words here and there on websites.

The only good news is that there's a later flight tonight and I'll be on it. At least I'm not sleeping alone tonight.

Braydon's Smile

My nephew, Braydon, is now smiling at 8 weeks old. So cute. Kristen and at least one of her friends seems to think that he looks a bit like me. I don't see it, but it's a possibility. Since Kristen and I have always looked similar, it's quite possible her son will look like me. When really, he looks like her and she just can't see it. Regardless of who this child looks like, he's gorgeous. I'm so thrilled to watch him grow up.

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Quote of the Day

"Ohh, Coca-Cola, how much I love you."
- Gist

The Killers

Josh and I went to see The Killers last night at the Dodge Theater. It was a very good performance. The lights were incredible and over-the-top. The music was sharp and true to their recordings with just enough variation to make it real. The only disappointment was that there wasn't more crowd interaction. I like going away from a show feeling like I "know" the band a little bit better. Last night, I just saw a performance by The Killers; I didn't get to know them. But who can blame them? They're musicians and did a wonderful job performing their music.

More pictures of the show.

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Easter Brunch

Early last week, Josh and I realized that Easter was on Sunday. Since we didn't already have plans, we decided to host an Easter brunch. Josh said he'd bring the main dish and mimosas so I said I'd do the rest. So the email invitation went out and I was pleasantly surprised at how many friends showed up on Sunday.

The pictures don't do anyone justice, but in attendance were Dan, Ryan, Ian, Stacy, Josh, James, David, Jennifer, John, and Aaron. A little later Becky and Reid showed up. It was a full house! Brunch turned into lunch, except for the mimosas, so we ate ham, green bean casserole, broccolli, salad, sweet potatoes, and rolls. We had cupcakes and chocolate for desert!

After everyone left, Josh was nice enough to put all the food away while I napped on the couch. I spent the rest of the evening lounging around, enjoying the gorgeous weather and watching a movie (The Last Kiss). It was a lovely, lovely day.

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Toothpaste + Vinyl = Clear

As I mentioned in a previous post about the car, the windows on the soft top of the convertible were all gunked up and impossible to see through. I was worried that I'd have to get a whole new soft top even though the rest of it is in pretty good shape. Ryan, a coworker, saved the day by sharing a tip with me - toothpaste.

Ryan has a '91 Jeep and his mechanic suggested toothpaste to clean up his vinyl windows. It worked like a charm so he passed the idea along to me. To my surprise, all the grime came off with a $1.50 tube of Colgate and with a whole bunch of elbow grease. I'm thrilled I don't have to buy a new convertible top!

Before

After

After - so clear!

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Happy Hour

Dan Ritzenthaler, Josh Knowles, Aaron Post, Sean Tierney

Went to happy hour with some friends last night. The martinis were great, but the conversation even better. I'm so lucky to know a bunch of very smart and thoughtful individuals. It's wonderful that we can talk about some highly charged topics, disagree to varying levels, learn from each other, and always be friends. It was a very nice night.

I came home and slept like a log. It's been a long week and I'm still adjusting to the new schedule. It was great to sleep late and wake up on my own. Today looks to be a beautiful day - the sun is out, its cool with a light breeze. I swear this time of year is paradise. I think today will be a good day to run errands and catch up in general. So I'm off to clean house, do laundry, and eventually leave the house to shop and stuff. Though, before I start, I'm going to sit on the porch for a bit and enjoy the breeze.

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Gone

Before

After

My parents cut down the huge tree in their front yard. I had no idea this was going to happen, probably because my parents and I have had better things to talk about other than their yard maintenance. Yet somehow when I got the email about this tree being gone, I was upset! My favorite tree to climb as a child is now gone. It makes me sad. From my father's email, it sounds like my parents are sad about it too.

I'm tempted to wax philosophic about growing up and how things change, but that's a bit too much for tonight. But I'm sure you know where that kind of thing goes.

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Truncated Thoughts on the New Job

Day 1 - What have I gotten myself into?
Day 2 - I'm starting to see where I can help.
Day 3 - I feel like I should be doing more but I'm just not sure what to do.
Day 4 - Frustrating...I can't help
Day 5 - I can help! I just need to be more patient cuz things take time.
Day 6 - There's still so much for me to learn.

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New Phone

I was complaining last week because I don't have a phone at work (and maybe I could use one). I came in this morning and realized I got a phone! It's NICE. Teach me not to complain again.

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Weekend with Chris

When Chris leaves, I get sad. I find myself thinking of all sorts of things I want to talk with him about but can't. His visits aren't ever long enough. I just dropped Chris off at the airport and I'm sad.

We had a lovely weekend though it was cut short by unexpected flight delays due to weather. Chris was supposed to leave Dallas on Thursday night and stay in Phoenix through Sunday night. Instead, his Thursday night flight was canceled and his Friday flight was delayed. He didn't arrive until 4:30pm on Friday, which was frustrating.

The time we did have together was good. We packed the weekend full. Friday night we had my neighbors, Christy and Matt over for dinner. Chris grilled some incredible steaks and I cooked the side dishes. We drank good wine and had a lot fun hanging out.

Saturday we got up early and after a lovely breakfast cooked by Chris, we started working on the car. We washed it then took the hardtop off since the whole reason I wanted this car was to drive a convertible. The soft top is in decent condition except for the vinyl that's supposed to be clear. It's not, but not something that's going to be replaced anytime soon. All of the mechanisms around the hardtop and soft top work fine so that's a relief.

We also took a good look at the engine. We determined that it is leaking power steering fluid and its due to a poorly patched hose. Once we called the dealer and got a $360 quote on the hose, we understood why it was patched. The good news is we've found it for a third of the price elsewhere. Other than this hose, Chris determined the engine is in pretty good shape which is a relief.

We moved on to troubleshooting the blinkers that don't work. Chris checked the lights which all seem to be fine and narrowed it down to the turn signal switch. He took apart the steering column and pulled it. Now we just need a replacement. Chris is really good at taking things apart. And lucky for me, he's equally as good at putting them back together.

The final task we took on was figuring out why the passenger side window wouldn't roll down. We took apart the entire mechanism, figured out how it worked, adjusted it, and put it back together. Turns out, the main problem is a defective switch. That was a LOT of work and putting it back together was delayed until Sunday morning. But it's back together and fully functional (borrowing the switch from the drivers side). It felt like a huge accomplishment and this project isn't nearly as intimidating as it once was.

Saturday night we had a quiet night around the house. We cooked dinner together and did a bunch on research on car parts. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep before 10pm.

Sunday we finished up window project and called it done for the weekend. We need parts before we can get any further on the car. So we cleaned up and went to the movies. We saw 300. It was quite good though the movie theater we went to was a bit too loud for my taste. When did I get so sensitive? I must be getting old. And if sensitivity to sound wasn't a tipoff, it was definitely the waking up at 6am on Sunday. At least there are benefits to being old - like getting to do cool projects. I just keep looking at this awesome convertible in my garage and I can't believe its mine. I'm so lucky!

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