LolaGeek

I was all set to write about what a busy day I had yesterday, and then this morning at work was totally wacky! So now you get two stories!

So yesterday, I worked from home, and I started working at 6 AM (because my boss had called me the day before a couple minutes before I left, asking me to do something, and since I couldn’t do it then I did it first thing the next morning). Eventually, GG and I had to round up the cats, because Ivan and Katrina had to go to the vet. They actually went into their carriers very well – I was able to just pick them up and they walked right in. Little Sacha I have to battle every time he goes! I decided it’s because Ivan and Katrina are so big, if you stick their front end into the carrier they have no choice but to walk in, they don’t have room to turn around at that point! When I explained my theory to GG, he did a great Temple Grandin impression, talking about cats instead of cows!

Getting out of the car at the vet’s office, GG did something to the door handle on my passenger’s side and I had to open the door from outside. Just great. After that, the handle worked but made a weird clicking sound. The vet’s visit was good, they’re both healthy, teeth look good, etc. Katrina actually lost a pound from last year, woo hoo! However… Ivan now weighs 22.4 pounds! We have to get his weight down, but I don’t know how to feed him any less than he is currently getting! Seriously, I worry I’m starving them sometimes! (Obviously I’m not…) While I was paying, GG went back to my car and managed to fix the door handle – apparently some plastic piece had popped off and he just popped it back in. Weird. But I’m glad it wasn’t serious!

When I got home, I worked and also did some housework. I stopped working right on time, and instead of having dinner and taking a nap before band, I went to this restaurant where we were having a band fundraiser, where I met up with a friend for dinner. I’d never been to this place before, but it was not really what I had imagined. Oh well, the food was good, and by the time it was time for us to go we actually had a pretty good turn-out of people there to support the band. So hopefully the fundraiser was worth it!

After dinner we had an extended band practice, since it’s concert week! We played almost the entire program, and it sounds pretty good. It’s amazing how everything always seem to come together right before the concert… Usually I’m kind of wired after rehearsal, but after band I just went home and went straight to bed!

Now, this morning! I was sitting at my desk at work, when the power suddenly went out! Most of us have laptops, so we could still keep working, but some people’s batteries were already dying. Plus, there was very little light, and nothing else electrical (printers, etc.) was working. Apparently it was just our building, so after hanging out for a while with no sign of power coming back, a couple of us walked over to another building to camp out in a conference room there. We had literally just set up our stuff when someone came in and said the power had come back on. So we unplugged, and then the fire alarm started going off! At least it was a nice day for a fire alarm… I thought maybe the power coming back on reset something in the alarm system, and set it off. But as we made our way downstairs and to the exit, we saw smoke and smelled something electrical burning at the bottom floor of our building! Then everyone had to stand outside in the parking lot for a while while they took care of whatever was on fire. Amazingly, no fire trucks showed up! They even come for fire drills, and I figured setting off the alarm would just automatically alert the fire department. But I guess they never made it. Eventually, they let us back inside – though there was still a horrible burning smell downstairs. But we have been safely back at our desks for over an hour now, and everything seems to be fine. Plus, we have electricity!

After the Snowpocalypse this winter, with its ice dams and leaking walls and all that, I called my favorite roofer to see if he’d be able to seal our roof (he’d kind of mentioned this when I called him about the dams). He came over and climbed up on the roof and said it was actually in pretty good shape, and had probably been replaced in the last ten years. But there were problems with the metal stuff around the edges, and where the gutters connect to the downspouts, and that’s probably what caused the leaks.

So last week we had all that replaced, and they also sealed everything by giving us a white roof. GG had actually wanted to do that for a while, so he was really excited that the roofer recommended it. I guess we’ll see for sure how it works this summer – hopefully the house will be noticably cooler!

Also while they were up there, the roofers removed the giant antenna that came with the house. I’d thought it was a radio antenna and asked around to some local radio groups if they knew what it was and if anyone would want it, but we actually found out that it was for TV and nobody would want it. So they just broke it up and we’ll put it out in the trash this week. Yay! That thing made me so nervous – I was always afraid it would eventually blow off in the wind and fall onto a car!

Farewell, giant antenna!

In case you missed it last night, my imaginary boyfriend John Mulaney made an appearance on Saturday Night Live! His rant about Girl Scout cookies was definitely the highlight of an otherwise awkward episode :o) And his favorite flavors are my favorites!

(And yes, in case you’re wondering, I’ve kind of been trying to Googlebomb him with the “imaginary boyfriend” stuff.)

This was one of the laziest weekends I’ve had in a while. Besides laundry, food shopping, and a little cleaning, I had no other plans or anywhere to be. I didn’t even go to Target for one of my unnecessary shopping trips. Of course, GG has been very busy with alumni activities all weekend at his school, so it’s not like I’ve gotten to spend much time with him, but it’s been nice just reading, napping, and relaxing at home. Now I don’t have another free weekend until probably July..!

I had a tiny bump cut off my arm over two weeks ago…

Now I have a giant red, itchy, irritated patch, thanks to all the adhesive from the bandages I have to cover it with. I wish this thing would just heal up more so I could stop covering it, but the bendy part of your elbow is a hard place to heal, I guess.

Last night was our third (I think) “Bad Movie Night.” This time we had an animal theme to our movies, so I served all animal-named foods: cream cheese penguins, gummy bears and fish, animal crackers, pigs in a blanket, ants on a log, and buffalo dip. I was worried because GG ended up inviting a lot of people (in addition to the folks I had already invited), but luckily none of his friends showed, so we had a comfortable group of about ten people, and everyone had a place to sit and there was exactly the right amount of food. We watched Gatorface, which was awesome and perfect for making fun of, and Karate Dog, which was also a bad movie but somehow didn’t lend itself to as much joke-making as Gatorface.

Today I went out to Target and discovered that they are giving out a free reusable shopping bag with your purchase! Not sure if it’s just for today or this weekend, or all month in honor of Earth Day. Also, you get $.05 off your order for each reusable bag you bring, and the one they give you counts as one of the bags, so I got $.10 off since I had also brought my own bag. I hope that’s something they’ll continue, and isn’t just for Earth Day. (It’s a nice bag, too – cute pattern, and it’s made of recycled plastic bottles.)

Leaving soon for my imaginary nephew’s first birthday party! …Better wrap his gifts!

This past weekend was really nice. On Saturday, MB and A came out for the day. GG took A, who is a huge beer fan and makes his own beer, to Monk’s and McGillin’s, where they met up with his brother and another friend. Then they came home (via train!) and had more beer!

Meanwhile, MB and I went out to our alma mater for PSP’s induction ceremony. There was a new addition to my lineage this semester, which makes her my great-great-great-great-grandlittle! At the ceremony, I was the second oldest Brother there (the oldest was significantly older, though, he joined in the early 80s). One of the current brothers asked when I joined the fraternity, and when I told her 2001 she said, “Oh, I was in 6th grade then.” Eeek, I am old! After the ceremony, we had some time to kill, so MB and I checked out some spots on campus (the SMC, the art building, the dining hall, etc.). There’s lots of construction going on. We also drove over to our old house, which apparently has some children living in it now.

Later we met up with a bunch of the Brothers for dinner at Ruby Tuesday. (Half the fraternity was going to Ichiban, but my great-great-great-grandlittle doesn’t like Japanese food, so the other half went to Ruby Tuesday, which was fine with me.) We had a very large group, so we ended up at different tables, but actually it was really cool because my table was my whole lineage (minus one, who is away at grad school), another older Brother who I at least knew who she was, and another Brother who is a “cousin” of our lineage.

It might be about time for me to stop coming to activities like this, because I felt really awkward about being the oldest one there, and felt like I was the creepy older Brother who hangs around. (Though my grandlittle kept telling me: “You may be older, but you’re not creepy.” Aww, thanks dude.) Anyway, it was really fun and good to see everyone and see how the fraternity is doing. And it was nice to spend a bunch of one-on-one time with my MB!

Oh yeah, I got another quote on Overheard in the Office! Speaking of the office, we’re having a birthday party in ours right now, so I’m going to head over there…

Things I have done recently:

• Tried two new recipes out of Real Simple – one was really basic but good, one looked weird on paper and was weird in real life too.
• Ordered a pair of Skechers Shape-Ups – and I will try to go for walks regularly, too!
• Got a suspicious bump sliced off of me, as well as more of a suspicious bump that had already been sliced off last month – good thing my dermatologist is such a nice person, since I’ve been seeing so much of her!
• Started flossing my teeth every time I brush in an effort to impress the dentist at my appointment today – I usually do this for about a week before a dentist appointment, then go back to my usual flossing habits.
• Sat very still to remain comfortable in our very hot house this week – luckily, it should cool off in the next couple days, because I refuse to set up the air conditioners in April!
• Got our cable bill lowered just by calling the company and asking to reduce the bill – no change to our service! (I should have done that a lot sooner, but every month I put it off.)
• Realized last night that I could name all the Duggar children in age order.

This weekend we took our annual Easter weekend trip to New Hope. But, in an effort to change things up a little, we actually stayed right across the river in Lambertville, NJ. We’d walked over the bridge from New Hope to Lambertville once before, but only had time to get lunch and take a quick walk down the main street, so I assumed there was much more of the town that we hadn’t seen yet, and since it seems like we’ve done all there is to do in New Hope, we thought we’d give (ugh) New Jersey a try. We were wrong, but I’ll get to that later…

We both took Friday off work, and headed out around 10 AM. Our first stop was the t-shirt shop where GG painted the mural last year. They’ve now put it on bumper stickers, business cards, mugs, and every price tag in the store! People love it! He also worked with them to design a shirt for a band’s cruise to Jamaica with their fans, and they tie-dyed around his printed design, which looked awesome (this is a picture of a picture, but you get the idea).

After that visit, we went to a new restaurant, The Sandbar, for lunch. Until recently, this was a very fancy and expensive restaurant called 90 Main, designed to appeal to visitors from New York City. Now it’s sort of a Cuban place that prides itself on its margaritas. We didn’t drink, but we did have delicious pressed sandwiches: GG had a traditional Cuban sandwich (with American cheese instead of Swiss); and I had a grilled cheese with Manchego cheese, Serrano ham, and fig paste. I hope this new place does well there – it’s in a great location, with outdoor seating, and it was a gorgeous day, but there were no other customers in there when we arrived at noon, and only a few when we left around 1:00.

We walked around New Hope for a little while longer, before driving over to Lambertville to check into our bed & breakfast. We stayed at the York Street House, and it was great. I only wish it were over in New Hope! This was probably the nicest B&B check-in we’ve ever experienced – the owner was super friendly, it was non-pretentious, and we got a little tour of the lovely historic house. We went up to our room and ended up taking a little nap, before getting cleaned up and going out for the afternoon and evening. I chose this room because it was one of the less expensive ones, and the bedroom itself wasn’t that big (still plenty big, though), but it was connected to the original master bathroom, which was large and includes a footed bathtub and beautiful stained glass window. We were very happy with the room.

Our dinner reservation was for 6:30, which gave us a few hours to kill walking around town. I figured that if it was like New Hope, there would be plenty to keep us occupied. Wrong. Sorry, but Lambertville kind of sucks, especially if you’re not into antiques. Almost every store we came across was an antiques store. (Yes, I know Lambertville and the surrounding towns in NJ are famous for antiques shopping, but I figured they’d have other stuff, as well!) The first shop we went into was the most horrible pet boutique ever. The owner of Picky Paws, Margo, was completely rude to GG and I. I don’t curse (I don’t!), but the moment we walked out of that store, the first thing I said was, “What a b*tch!” So stay away from that place! Luckily, the rest of our interactions with the townspeople were much better! We went to a puzzle/game shop, some neat housewares places, the used instrument shop we’d visited before (but without that crazy guy working there, it just wasn’t as interesting), and a coffee shop, where we got some fancy sodas. We even took a walk down a little path by the canal. After all that, we still had some time before dinner, which we spent on a sunny bench on Bridge St., watching people go by.

Finally it was 6:30, and we were very excited for dinner at No 9 Restaurant (which does not have its own web site, but has excellent reviews all over the internet). It is very small, and from what we saw, there is one chef, one waitress, and another woman who seats people and clears the tables. The food did not disappoint! I also have to say, the waitress was so sweet and she was totally into the food – the way she described the specials, you just wanted to try everything! I got iced tea to drink, which was apparently her own concoction, and it was probably the best iced tea I’ve ever had. To start, GG had a plate of steamed mussels (he saw someone eating them when we walked in, and knew he had to have them), and I had an awesome salad featuring beets, blue cheese, and walnuts. Then for dinner, GG had Atlantic Cod (served with spring vegetables like new potatoes, peas, and spinach), and I had hanger steak (with grilled vegetables, mashed potatoes, and a wedge of brie!). We were pretty stuffed at that point, but still were able to split a creme brulee for dessert.

After dinner, we went back to the B&B, where we read some of their books in the living room before going up to our room and passing out pretty quickly – all that walking around in the sunshine all day was tiring!

On Saturday morning we had the best B&B breakfast we’ve ever had: perfectly ripe cantelope with fruit salsa and French toast with sweetened cream cheese and blueberries (that even got GG to eat cream cheese!). Before checking out, we had a nice long chat with the innkeepers. These are definitely my favorite innkeepers of all the B&Bs we’ve stayed at! We went to Peddler’s Village for a little while on our way home, and also checked out the outlets across the street (got GG a couple nice polo shirts for the summer, and some sweaters for next winter – there were great sales!). All my pictures from our trip are on Flickr.

After unpacking, I talked GG into going food shopping with me – something he hasn’t been able to do for a while with all the extra time he’s been spending at work. We rested at home for a bit, and then we went to a 30th birthday party that night for one of GG’s relatives. That was… interesting. The only person I knew there was GG’s brother, and GG only knew his cousins and aunt. It was kind of like a frat party with grown-ups – complete with keg stands by the time we left! Really not our style…

Yesterday morning, we went out to Easter brunch with my family, then went back to my grandmother’s house to help move some furniture. I took a nap when we got home, then we went to GG’s parents’ house for dinner. For some reason, even though they knew we were on our way (GG had just talked to his dad before we left!), they ate right before we got there and had literally just finished when we showed up. So that was weird. We had our dinner while everyone else had dessert, then we had dessert, then everyone sat and talked for a while and meanwhile I started feeling really sick. I don’t think GG understood, even though I kept telling him I felt dizzy and like I was going to throw up. We finally left, and when we got home GG picked up some DVDs and went out again to watch them with a friend who’d invited him over. Meanwhile, I sat on the sofa with an ice pack on my head, before running to the toilet and losing that nice dinner and dessert. I felt much better afterward, though! Nobody else was sick, as far as I know, so I doubt it was anything I ate. Kind of a sucky ending to a really nice weekend :o/

April Fool’s day is a busy time on the internet! Here’s some of my favorite internet pranks for this year, found in my travels today:

• Project Runway Season 8: Heroes vs Villains – Too bad this is a joke, I actually love this idea! They would cast a favorite and least favorite designer from each season so far, and a new production company would return the show to its roots.
• Canada Buys Half of Hawaii – No, you silly Canadians, you’re still stuck in the frozen north!
• Anthrax and Smallpox Announce a Merger – Forming a new disease, Anthpox, “will extend their disease coverage significantly, making them the third largest disease in the world.” Sounds like a great plan, and very efficient! What could go wrong?
• Google – They were really busy this year: changing their name to Topeka, developing new storage capabilities for Google Docs, offering a new Standard Voicemail Mode for Google Voice, and experiencing a vowel outage.
• Flickr Introduces the FlickrPad – A very high-tech new device…