Earning his keep

Our dog Tyson has a thing for paper and tissues. I'm not sure what it is, but he loves to raid the wastepaper basket when we're forgetful enough to leave the bathroom door open. I can't even count the number of used Kleenexes he has eaten in his lifespan!

This being the case, Tyson is very active on walks after a fair bit of snow has melted away, uncovering various paper-litter type treasures. As we walk down the street he and I both keep a keen eye out for any potential targets - he tries to make a dive for them and my job is to pre-empt him either verbally by giving the command "off" or my tugging on his leash. When I fail and he has gotten ahold of his bounty, *sometimes* I can get him to spit it out by saying "out", but if it's particularly good, it's basically a lost cause at this point and I just tell him that he's a "bad dog".

The other evening we were out for our evening walk, which just happened to be after a major thaw. As usual Tyson was snuffling the ground for interesting treats and I saw that he was fiddling around with what looked like a piece of paper. I said "out" and he dropped it (mustn't have been particularly tasty). I stepped closer to inspect what he had been intrigued with and it was a $20 bill! One good thing about Tyson is that he is half golden retriever, so he is very gentle with his mouth. The bill was in perfect condition (save for being a completely soaked, so we pocketed it and brought it home to dry out).

Good doggy!

Does Newman deliver our mail?

Christopher has this theory about our mail delivery person. He thinks they take 1 day a week off - usually Wednesdays.

On any standard mail-delivery day we typically get something delivered to our mailbox. It's true that most pieces of mail we receive are junk mail, but it's still mail nonetheless. However we have been noticing that sometimes a day will go by where I don't see the mail delivery truck at all from my office window, the dog doesn't bark at the mailman making a delivery to our house or either of the houses next to us, and we don't receive any mail.

And then the next day we notice a few extra pieces of mail in our box, as if 2 days worth of mail is now being delivered at once. Of course this is just speculation on our part, but it is suspicious. I guess I could ask our neighbors if they also did not receive any mail on the same day.

I don't know why we care so much, it's not like we ever receive anything all that important via mail. I guess we are just fascinated that someone could be so bold as to skip out on an entire day's work. And if our mail delivery person is playing hooky, I hope they are at least doing something fun!

I just realized...

that at this stage in my pregnancy, 26 weeks along, that I weigh the same as I did by the time I finished my MBA.

Wow. Can you say "emotional eater"?

It was definitely a stressful year and with all the assignments/tests/readings the excuses for not exercising were plentiful. I know that I have the bad habit of soothing myself with "treats" and boy did I need them that year!

Anyways, after I graduated the weight just came right off so I was lucky. I don't even think I even had to consciously try - I just fell back into my old eating and exercise habits and things returned to normal. I think most of it was gone by the end of the summer. Let's hope that losing this baby weight goes the same way!

Getting Rid of Stuff + Free Stuff + Helping Others

It doesn't take much to make me happy during these cold and dreary January days. The highlight of my day was a trip to Pollo Tropical to exchange Christopher's clunky old pre-paid cell phone for two free sandwiches as part of their Helping Handhelds Campaign.

The combination of three things I love:

• getting rid of old stuff that we don't use anymore - and I don't mean tossing it into a landfill
• getting free stuff - especially free 'stuff' that can be consumed and doesn't end up as stuff that I will eventually have the burden of getting rid of at some future date
• helping others :)

Christmas Comes Early!

During their last visit back in October, Christopher's parents generously gave us our Christmas present early - a brand new snowblower! Last year Christopher was out of commission for about a week after injuring his back shoveling snow. He even slept on the living room floor one night! This year, being pregnant I wouldn't be able to help out so the snowblower really was a great gift.

This morning it was like Christmas at our house :)

We are still recovering from our jet lag, so both Christopher and I were wide awake and out of bed at 5:45am this morning - not normal for us at all! And this morning we were greeted by a healthy snowfall which had accumulated over the early hours.

Like a kid on Christmas morning Christopher was eagerly awaiting a decent hour before he could open his gift - in this case fire up the brand-new snowblower. He sat by the window and anxiously awaited signs of the first neighbor outside with their snowblower and then quickly dressed to join in the fun!

Movie Selection Methodology

The other night Christopher and I were at Blockbuster trying to pick out a Blu-ray to watch that evening. We had already gone out for dinner, but hadn't yet walked the dog. It was probably around 9 - 9:30pm when we were standing in front of the shelves of movies trying to decide which one to bring home with us.

We both happened to be in a particularly indecisive mood which is rare for us, and we were getting a little tired (so sad I know - we're getting old!). So we decided on a very objective method for selecting our movie for the evening - the runtime.

We quickly scoured the back covers of all the boxes:

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - 166 min, forget that!
• Watchmen - 163 min, not much better, does anyone make movies under 2.5 hrs these days?!?
  
• Milk - 129 min, getting there...
• Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - 90 min, we have a winner!!!

I'm sure we'll revert to this system again in a pinch - it actually worked out quite well for us this evening. Not only did it help us pick out a movie quickly, but I was able to stay awake for the whole thing so I didn't have to waste the next morning watching the ending I so often miss :)

Gloucester Wedding

This past weekend Christopher and I went to a beautiful outdoor wedding in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Since Hurricane Bill was scheduled to pass through the area, we were worried about the fate of their ceremony. As luck would have it, the main portion of the storm passed while out at sea and never came inland, so the ceremony was able to proceed outside as planned and the guests treated the some amazing white caps and crashing waves.

Brooklyn Wildlife

While out for dinner in Park Slope last night we came across some cute wildlife in the city:

So cute!

Dunder Mifflin & Architectural Salvage

This past weekend we made a trip to Scranton, PA. The main objective of our adventure was to pick up an old 5-panel door from an architectural salvage warehouse. But a close second was to check out the home of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.

Architectural salvage... basically this is a fancy way of saying building supply junkyard. It was our first time. We were completely & utterly overwhelmed by:

1. the volume of *stuff* they had
2. the way that everything was sort of organized, yet still seemed like a mess
3. the variety interesting things in the inventory - there were from a HUGE marble mantle-type thing at least 15ft tall and must have weighed a TON, to a real boar's head

Scranton... as avid watchers of The Office I have to admit that the town is pretty much exactly how they portray it in the show. To me the town had the feeling of a modern day ghost town. In the 1900s Scranton was a booming iron ore and coal mining town, but that is long gone and without an industry to replace it.

You can't really blame them for trying to take advantage of The Office popularity. We saw signs for a $35 "The Office" walking tour which takes you to locations referenced in the show. While wandering around the downtown we walked to the Radisson Lackawana Station Hotel. This is the location where Dwight gave his Salesman of the Year speech. While that episode was really funny, the hotel was, well - just a hotel.

Needles

Over the past 3 weeks I have been receiving physical therapy for tendinitis that developed in my right wrist. I'm not sure what brought it on, but it either had to do with my new workstation in my home office, or mowing the lawn. Christopher is usually responsible for cutting the grass, but since we had been spending our weekends away from home for the past month and a half, I have been filling in.

Today at my session my doctor suggested we try a round of acupuncture in addition to the electrode and ultrasound treatments I was receiving. We only did 3 points and the first two I didn't even feel as she put them in. The 3rd one felt like a tiny pin prick, but when the needles came out there wasn't any blood or anything.

Evening Dog Walk

One thing about working from my home office is that it makes me really want to get out of the house at the end of the day. Not leaving the house to commute to an office, if I haven't gone outside all day I feel rather cagey by the evening. Sometime I have time around lunchtime to take Tyson for a errand-walk to the center of town, to do some banking, drop off/pick up a book from the library, etc.

But other days when I'm too busy to get away during the workday after I'm finished working I need to leave the house to just de-compress and relax. That way, when I come back home I can enjoy my evening. Today was one of those days, so after work I grabbed Tyson's leash and we headed over to the Reservoir #6 just around the corner from our house. There is a 3.7 mile trail around the perimeter of the reservoir and it was so beautiful and serene, the perfect way to finish my day.

Here are some pics from our walk that I snapped with my Blackberry:

These ducks hopped into the water and swam off as soon as we got close to them. They had no intention of being Tyson's dinner! He was watched them intently as they paddled away.

Blog-Block

I've been shamefully neglecting my blog for the past 4 months. Not that I post very often, but after I skip a few weeks of updates then it just seems to become an insurmountable task to go back and update it with all the things that have happened since my last update. But this means it gets more and more out of date.

So I've decided to just skip ahead to today and post about current events, and hopefully this will motivate me to fill in the gaps. My apologies to my faithful readers (all 3 of them - lol) for my hiatus. Be sure to check out my older posts to find out what we've been up to since April :)

Twilight

After reading rave reviews from friends about the Twilight series, I decided to grab a copy from our local library.

I never got into the whole Buffy the Vampire Slayer scene, so I was skeptical. I mean really - how much would I enjoy a teen vampire romance novel? ALOT apparently!

After the first book I was hooked. I read it in about 2-3 days. Didn't do much else that weekend. I quickly placed holds on the remaining 3 books at the library. But like an addict, I couldn't just sit around and wait for my next fix. I needed to DO something to make it happen.

I scoured the online catalogs of the surrounding libraries that have reciprocal agreements with our town. I found a copy on the shelf, but it was 8:15pm and the library closed at 8pm. I came *this close* to breaking down and going to Barnes & Noble to buy it, but in a moment of strength refrained (luckily a new episode of Gossip Girl was on that evening).

Was I embarrassed when I went to pick up the book at the library the next day and a girl that couldn't have been much older than 13 asked me if I had seen the movie yet? YES! But I felt a little better about myself when the librarian told me that she had read all 4 books over her last vacation.

I am now in the middle of the fourth and final book. I have put my life on hold for this series - unable to do anything else until I have finished it. Laundry is piling up. The fridge is barren. My in-laws are coming for a visit this weekend so I need to finish the book tonight so I can have some time in the evenings to prepare for their visit.

I have yet to see the movie, but I doubt it will live up to my high expectations. Plus I am a little scared to watch it on my own - even though I know everything that happens, I would still prefer to wait for Christopher to come home on the weekend to watch it with me, just in case I have some vampire-filled nightmares.

Don't knock it till you've tried it

I think we all grew up saying "EEEEEWW GROSS" at the mere mention of anchovies on pizza.

But I had never tried them, so how did I know? In my defense, every other kid I met shared the same impression so how could they all be wrong?

Well - kids are kids and peer pressure is a fierce thing.

The other night I decided to give the anchovies-on-pizza thing a try. And you know what? I actually liked it!

Conference Call Funny

A funny exchange had me laughing out loud
during a conference call yesterday. Good thing my phone was on mute!

Scenario: a question was raised about a preceding slide in the presentation

Presenter: What slide are you referring to?
Meeting Attendee: Slide number 27 in the presentation. It's the one with a picture of a river on it.
Presenter: It's a fjord actually.

LOL - this totally cracked me up. Even today, a whole day later I can't help but smile to myself when I think about it!

Philadelphia

This week I went to Philly to visit a potential customer. I had connected through the PHL several times before, but had never been to the city as a final destination.

I drove in and made good time so I had a couple of hours to check out the downtown area. I went to Reading Terminal Market grab a bite to eat (not a cheesesteak, but a yummy roast pork sandwich with greens & sharp provolone from DiNic's) and then from there walked over to check out the Liberty Bell & Independence Hall.

Brooklyn: a Study in Minimalism

This past weekend we moved Christopher into his apartment in Brooklyn. It's a small studio, rented to us by a very nice musician who is on tour for the next 3 months.

The apartment is the perfect size for Christopher and has a comfortable amount of space for a week's worth of clothes, frozen food from BJ's (Costco-equivalent), and the Xbox + games. But moving in there it really made us think about all the "stuff" we have back home. From ski/golf equipment stashed in our attic, to bookshelves filled with paperbacks, and textbooks from our student days. We have even gotten into the habit of buying things like shampoo & deodorant in multiple quantities from Amazon for cost savings

But this suburban style of living - where we can park our car steps from our front door, and we think nothing of buying 4 cases of soda when it's on sale, along with buying jumbo packs of paper towel & toilet paper is definitely not conducive to city living - especially in NYC.

I find it pretty cleansing to have a clean space. Sometimes when I go into our attic and am surrounded by all the clutter it makes my pulse race. And I know that my closet is definitely in need of a good spring cleaning. But when I think about giving/throwing away my stuff, I can't help but feel a little protective... What is it about "stuff", especially the stuff we don't use, that we're so attached to?

Energy Efficiency

Wintertime in New England, living in a home built in 1916, certainly raises some questions about our energy efficiency. We use heating oil to heat our home, and natural gas for our hot water. Since the price of oil is way lower than it was last winter, we turned our focus towards our natural gas consumption.

I dug out the folder containing our past Connecticut Natural Gas bills and whipped up this chart using my good friend Excel:

Christopher and I are always looking for ways to improve the energy efficiency of our home. From what this chart indicates, it would appear that our gas consumption is significantly lower during the summer months. So, we're gonna look into an insulation blanket for our hot water tank (new in August 2007) since they are relatively inexpensive and we already insulated our pipes last year.

As a side note - I am feeling a mixture of pride in the geekiness of my analysis combined with embarassment of the fact that I am proud. And I did this whole thing on a Friday night to boot - definitely a sign that I'm getting old, or that I need a hobby!

Ski Weekend

The timing couldn't have been better really. I was asked to visit a customer in Denver the week before Christopher was scheduled to start his new job. So we decided to buy a flight for him on points and do some skiing over the weekend.

We hit up Arapahoe Basin, Keystone & Copper. We didn't have any new snow while we were there, but enjoyed beautiful weather. Is it wrong to show up to business meeting with a goggle-tan?

Craigslist Miracle!

It's funny how fast your life can change sometimes...

On Thursday evening the phone rings - a guy wants to phone interview Christopher for a job he had applied to a week and a half ago. At the end of the call they set up a time to meet in person the next day. Friday Christopher heads into Brooklyn for the interview and comes home with a job offer. Friday evening I scout out a few sublets and send some e-mails to set up appointments to view them. Saturday morning we head into to Brooklyn together and secure a very nice furnished apartment in Park Slope, only a 9-minute walk to the office.

Both the job and the apartment were found via Craigslist. It's a Craigslist Miracle!

I know that Christopher wants to come home to CT for most weekends, but I am super excited about having a pied-a-terre in NY. I am always looking for excuses to go into the city and visit friends, and now that I'll have a place to stay it makes it super convenient! Plus the owner loves dogs, so he's cool with Tyson coming for the weekend. Springtime in the city - I can't wait!

While waiting for Christopher to arrive back home on Friday evening I whipped up this sign with some scissors and blank printer paper. I'm pretty proud of my craftiness: