Dog Monty and Puke

I came home from work last night, a LONG day where I worked from 9am until 8pm and I was tired. Very tired. When I have nights like that I tend to come home and pass out on the sofa. Last night was no different. I walked in the front door, said hello to Jeff, went upstairs and changed into a VERY flattering outfit of sweatpants and tank top, and came back downstairs. Falling onto our sofa I looked down. Dog puke. On our carpet. In fact, there were THREE stains of dog puke on our carpet that I had previoulsy not noticed. Lovely. Now, the carpet in our living room is very small. The rest of the floor is wood, and the only reason that we have a carpet at all is because our wood floor is so badly patched that the only thing we can do is cover it. So the carpet is small, and the rest of the downstairs is either wood or tile. But it never fails that when Monty decides to throw up SOMETHING, its on the carpet. Why is this?? It's SO much harder for me to clean up the carpet than it is the wood or tile? Why carpet? What IS it about carpet that shines as a bright beacon for dog vomit?? ARGH! I love Monty to death, love him, he's a goofy, clumsy, loveable BEAST of a dog, but WHY oh WHY does he have to ruin our carpet?? In the three years we've been in this house we've had three different carpets solely because of Monty. Sigh. I guess this is the price we pay for being pet owners!

Movie Night

Went to see Wall-E with my father and Jeff this past weekend, and I LOVED it! Loved it, Loved it, Loved it! The first half of the movie is odd for a movie, no dialogue. And I think that's where the movie lost Jeff - but it totally worked for me. Wall-E and his pet cockroach, his love of all the items he finds, and his romance with the new robot "EVE" is just so cute. I absolutely loved it. The romance storyline was just too sweet, and the ending started to make me bawl like a baby. If you haven't see Wall-E you definitely should! Both my father and I enjoyed it, and even though Jeff nodded off in parts you really shouldn't go by his opinion! After all, its only my opinion that counts! ;-)

Favorite Books

Since we're still on the subject of books, I thought I'd make a little post of some of my favorites. I tend to re-read my favorite books, and if I can't see myself re-reading a book, I don't keep it. You can always tell my favorite books by how dog eared and beat up they are. Oh, and the binding is ALWAYS bent!

"Pink Think: Becoming a Woman in Many Uneasy Lessons"

This book goes into history to talk about how the idea of pink and feminity became intertwined, mainly focusing on the 1950's era. I'm making it sound boring, but its really excellent and had some interesting facts in there too. She dissects and rips into all the "how to" books and magazines marketing to young girls during that time, and she does it with a sly edge of humor.

"Emma"

Yup, LOVE Emma, love it. If you haven't read this classic, you are missing out!

"Sex with Kings: 500 years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge"

Really fun and quick read, the author talks about past kings and their mistresses. She ties in historical facts, how mistresses changed a dynasty for better or worse, why they were so popular, and how beauty was not always what had captivated a king. For example, did you know that Madam de Pompadour was actually frigid? She "hired out" the sexual side of her relationship with Louis to a brothel so she would not have to share his bed. She kept her power by being the most fascinating, enchanting woman in his court and she was by his side for over 20 years until her death.

"Megan's Mark"

Looking for a steamy, hot read that includes a kind of werewolf/sci fi background? This book is scorching hot. I mean the scenes in here are enough to make you blush reading it alone. Frankly after the third book in this series, the author loses me mainly because of the same reasons I've listed below. The writing all seems to repeat itself. But this first one I've kept because I still think it's HOT!

"Moon Called"

Ignore the really bad cover - it's actually a very good story. The heroine is a shapeshifter (she turns into a coyote) and she works as a mechanic. There's werewolves and vampires, and the lead is actually an interesting, strong woman where the romance angle isn't the main plot point. I've read all three books in this series and they keep getting better and better. If you like the whole fantasy genre, than you'll probably like this book!

"Can't Wait to Get To Heaven"

I adore Fannie Flagg and have read just about all of her books. This one is my absolute favorite. The lead character, Elner, has died and gone to heaven for the first half of the book and it talks about how her death affects the other characters, and also what Elner's idea of heaven is. For example, she gets to heaven on an elevator that is like a roller coaster ride - apparently each person' entrance to heaven is based on what they liked during life. One person arrived on a luxury boat, another in a convertible. It's really, really excellent and I actually got a little teary at the end. But I'm a sap like that!

"The Italian Boy: A Tale of Murder and Body Snatching in the 1830's"

I LOVE books about history, and if you throw in a mystery and murder, well, I'm hooked. This one is about the murder of an italian boy who had made his living in England by showcasing little white mice, he would set up plays and the such and people would pay him to see them. It was apparently a fairly common way for immigrant children to make money. It also ties in the whole idea that body snatching or grave robbing was the way most universities got their cadavers for research, despite it being illegal. The author REALLY did their research on this one, but kept the story moving at the same time. Excellent book, even if it is slightly depressing.

Well that's it, I could go on and on about my favorite books, but I think this covers them for now! Enjoy and happy reading!

Love of Books

I love books, love them. At heart, I am truly a book nerd. Give me a good book and I will be completely and utterly absorbed in that world until the book is done. And on the flip side, a bad book or a lazy author makes me crazy. Typos, grammatical errors, all those things make me insane. I'm incredibly loyal to an author and their storyline until the author does something I don't like. At that point I'm gone, never to reconcile with either the author or their characters.

When I was younger, I loved Romance novels. You know, the bodice rippers filled with innocent virgins and dashing men. One author that I read a lot of was Julie Garwood. ...


The one above was the first one I found, and at 14 I don't even remember why my mother bought it for me, but I wound up reading about 7-10 of Miss Garwood's books. I stopped reading them when two things happened:
1. I noticed that all her books were pretty much the same. Beautiful, innocent, VIRGINAL heroine somehow crosses the path of handsome, world-weary, SLUTTY man. Man at first dislikes heroine, until he starts to become enamored with her charms (virginity). Heroine finds man loathsome at first (he's a man whore), and then eventually becomes enamored with him. They have sex, scenes that largely consist of phrases about caresses, gasps, and hearts filled with love. Cue to the BIG PROBLEM, where some sort of misunderstanding separates the two, hurt feelings abound. Then the big make-up where the two get back together and either get married immediately, or get engaged immediately, walking off into the sunset hand in hand. End Story.
2. My father, being even more of a book snob than I am, HATED the fact that I read these books, and undertook a spectacular cure for my obsession. How did he manage this? Well he would pick up a book, flip it open, and randomly start reading. OUT LOUD. Now I don't know how he managed this, but he would always manage to find the BIG SEX SCENE of the book, lots of descriptions of salty kisses, rough hands, bodies pressing together and my father would gleefully follow me around the house as he read. I, meanwhile, would be holding my hands over my ears and screaming because let's face it, the horror of my FATHER talking about sex was enough to scar me for life. I don't even think 20 years later I've fully recovered from that trauma.

Anyhoo, books. I do love books and maybe my next post will include some of my favorites!

Slack Ass Lazy Dinner Planning

I don't cook. Ever. I don't actually *hate* cooking, I just get distracted easily and tend to forget that there's, oh, something in the oven. As a result Jeff and I had gotten into the habit of eating out a lot. Not because Jeff doesn't cook, he's actually a really good cook, but because we're slack ass lazy. I usually come home after 8pm at night, and the last thing either of us wants to do is cook something. Normally one of us will call the other and say things along the lines of "I'm in the car, where do you want me to stop pick up dinner". We've done this for, oh, the last three years of our relationship.

But money has been tight. Like everyone else in this country, we're trying to cut back. Not spending as much money, and eating out is just not the daily occurence that it used to be. We've been buying groceries and EATING THEM! You have no idea how unusual this is for us. We normally shop on a Sunday and the next Sunday throw everything out. Not so anymore. We've been eating our groceries and planning our meals, and it's a freakin' miracle!

Maybe the phrase "planning our meals" sounds like we're actually making dinners with the four food groups. Nope. We're still slack ass lazy. Instead our dinner tonight consisted of the following:

Jealous?

Hatred for Nightime Noises

Some of you may know that one of my jobs (aside from Massage Therapy) is working as a caretaker for the elderly. It's not a glamorous job, but I actually like it and some of the clients I've been assigned to have been a lot of fun. Well right now I'm at a client's house, and my job is to sleep here overnight in case my client happens to need me. Not a hard job, or mentally taxing, but its fun, and lets face it. I'm ASLEEP for most of it. Anyway, my client tonight lives in an apartment building and it is LOUD. As in there are neighbors that talk, watch tv all night, drunken fighting, tires on cars schreeching, all sorts of noise. I HATE noise at night. I have had insomnia off and on for, oh, the last 8 years or so. Changing careers helped it a LOT, but I still have a hard time falling asleep. I like things to be QUIET. Ask Jeff what a joy I am to be around at night if he should happen to want to watch television. Even if he's downstairs and watching a progam with the volume turned ridiculously low, I can hear it. And if I can hear it, I can't sleep. And if I can't sleep - well, let's just say I'm not exactly fun to be around. When I moved into my studio oh so many years ago, the guy next door to me proceeded to play his Salsa music on level 10 at like 2am on a Tuesday night. Who does that? I rolled out of bed, pounded on his door, and I'm positive I scared the shit out of him because he immediately turned down his music.

When we were first dating, Jeff got me a white noise machine to listen to, and it helps quite a bit. I don't have that here, I can't have anything like that because I cannot drown out the background chaos. Remember, my job is to be here "just in case", and if I have a noise machine on, or ear plugs in, or anything else, well, I can't hear my client if she needs me. So I'm sitting here and WIDE AWAKE silently cursing the people downstairs who are listening to the nightly news at an insanely loud level. It's kind of nice in a way though, now I know that it should be in the 70's tomorrow with a chance of rain/thunderstorms.

Wish me luck everyone, its going to be a long, long, long night!

Lunch

My lunch today consisted of the following:

1 Can Diet Coke

8 Pepperidge Farm Mint Milano Cookies

That's the lovely thing about being an adult. You can eat whatever the heck you want. Remember when you were younger and you would get lectured about "completing the protein" or something like that when you had lunch? No? Okay, that was just my house. But still, remember when you had to follow rules about what went on your plate? Or how much you HAD to eat? Not so anymore! Feel like having chocolate cake for breakfast? Go for it! How about a lunch that consists of a handful of tic tacs and a glass of wine? No problem. I'm telling you, out of all the bad things that come from being an adult, this is the good part that I take full advantage of!