Happy Birthday, Boys!

On April 27, two of my ADORABLE nephews had their birthdays. My little buddy, Chase Michael, turned 10, and the too-freaking-cute-for-words Anthony James turned 1. I dedicated my Facebook status and photo to the little darlings all day, and I thought I'd share the picture with you. They're just too precious for words!

LOVE YOU BOYS!

Creative Stroke of Genius of Laura Cooke Proportions!

I have been staring at my sad, beat up, $4 garage sale coffee table all winter long. I've been waiting for the weather to get a bit warmer so I can make this interestingly-shaped coffee table look fresh and fun. All of my staring finally paid off this morning! I have decided how to make it fabulous once more.

I'm going to paint it a deep, chocolate brown (to match my TV stand [also $5 at a garage sale. Holla.]). I will then paint my hands a nice spring green (the color of my laptop, bedspread, oh goodness, I LOVE that color!) and put a handprint in each corner of the table. After letting that dry, I'm going to...get this, people...paint on henna designs. WHOAAAA. I know, I'll give you a minute to handle my greatness.

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**** still admiring? Ok, I'll give you a moment more.

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Ok, so it may not be everyone's cup of tea to have bright green painted hands on their coffee tables, but it is SO mine! Plus, it gives me an opportunity to paint very tiny things, which always centers me and makes me happy to be in the world. And in case you're not sure what henna is, I've included a photo below:

I'm super pumped! When i finally get around to buying the paint (because you KNOW I don't like to pay full price for anything [which drives Ivan and my mother nuts...but they secretly LOVE it]), I'll post a picture of the grand "new" table.

On a furniture note, if anyone would like to visit good ol' Btown on August 1 and surprise me with a comfy couch (ugly is ok, thrift store sheets make great slipcovers) or a couple of kitchen chairs, I'd be eternally thankful!

CONGRATS, IVANI!

Ivan just got his email that he has been accepted into medical school! He's going to the American University of Antigua (it's in the Caribbean--hello, 2010 vacation spot!). He'll study the academic part there, then do his rotations, residency, etc. in the States. I am freaking PUMPED! We've been friends, etc. for quite a long time, and becoming a doctor has always been his top priority. He hit a few bumps along the way, but we all knew he would get into med school. I'm SO proud of him!


Here's the site: http://www.auamed.org/
The picture above is Antigua. Doesn't it look like a dream? I'd much rather be there than Indiana, that's for sure.

Louise and I are SICK!

I was so sick yesterday! I was really considering going to the ER. I was throwing up about every 40 minutes from 1am to 2pm. Yuck. I'm much better today, but I tried to get up this morning and fell right back down on the couch. Dehydration sucks. I was so weak, but I'm on glass #12 today of water, and I can really feel a difference.



Perhaps more importantly, my Louise is ill. I read online that the lifespan of a hyacinth is pretty short, but she's just looking terrible. She grew SO quickly (perhaps 8" since I bought her?), but she's starting to thin out. Her delicious, sweet smell is starting to turn into something quite gross--I'm not sure why that's happening, but she's about to have her flowers trimmed off!

On a completely unrelated note, I think I'm going to start adding pictures to my blog. Laura is the blogging QUEEN, and I am just trying to steal all of her good ideas and improve my own blog. Celebrating Haikusday is tempting, but that is just too dang clever to steal. Sigh. One day I will reclaim my blogging glory.

Assistance Needed!

I woke up this morning and greeted my dear, sweet, Louise. Unfortunately, she is looking very droopy. Does anyone know how to keep the stalks strong and straight on a hyacinth? The poor lil thing is looking very sad. I think I'll leave some Mozart playing while I'm gone today. I remember someone's plant project for the 8th grade science fair that showed that classical music promotes significant plant growth. It should be noted that my 8th grade science fair project was pouring various cough syrups into plants and seeing which ones died faster--I was no scientist.

Leave your advice in my comments, please! By the way, I already did a brief internet search, and I didn't find much.

Thanks!

My Dear Louise

I finally went grocery shopping today with the Kroger gift card Mom gave me. I have discovered that I am super cheap and super shopping savvy (well, at least when it comes to groceries). I know I only use bread for grilled cheese sandwiches, so I buy the 56cent bread. I know I doctor my soups, so I buy the Value brand at 47cent a can. I also just discovered the "must sell" section of the meat department. I bought a pot roast for just under $3, cooked it today in the crock pot, and have lunch for the rest of the week.

Anyway, I was on my way to the checkout, feeling quite proud (and looking quite pretty in my floral skirt from morning mass), and I passed by the flower section. I smelled the hyacinths, and thought, I did VERY well with my grocery shopping. I'm going to buy myself a present. I chose a very pretty purple one. Since I tend to forget about plants and kill them rather quickly, I decided to name this one in hopes that I can take better care of it--er, her. Her name is Louise. She is going to replace the dog that I can't have in this AWFUL apartment.

On a completely unrelated note, the new Quizno's commercials are REALLY starting to make me uncomfortable. If you haven't seen it, the basic rundown is that the oven is sexually harassing the Quizno's employee. It asks his to "put it in" him (the new sandwich). When the employee refuses to rub the oen down with a shammy like "last time," the oven says, "Come on, we both enjoyed that." AWKWARD.

Rough Night

I went to bed at 5am. Well, I went to bed at 10pm, then woke up at midnight for Ivan's yearly April Fool's Day joke (surprisingly, I wasn't gullible this year--I was prepared for the call), back to bed at 1:30, then back up at 3am. Why was I up at 3am? The worst April Fool's Day trick EVER--played by my apartment complex. Unfortunately, it was no trick. Water was dripping/pouring from the apartment above me, soaking the smoke detector and everything in my hall closet. The alarm went off, I freaked, called my rental company, wrote down the emergency maintenance number, and called--twice. It had been disconnected. SUPERB. I then resorted to calling 911, screaming "NOT AN EMERGENCY!!!!" as soon as the dispatcher picked up, and explained the situation. She referred me to the Bloomington Police Dept., who then referred my to the Bloomington Fire Dept. By this time, I was sick of trying to yell over a fire alarm (and it was really freaking me out even more), so i threw an oven mitt at it until it quieted down to a sickly, squealy groan (water and batteries don't play well together...?! Sigh.). I told the dispatcher several times that it was not an immediate emergency and that human lives weren't being threatened, but they still came speeding through the city with their sirens blaring...all three trucks carrying all six firefighters and the fire chief (the picture above is of the fire trucks parked on the street). I understand that it must have been a slow night, and they were probably bored, but I was trying not to wake my neighbors at 3:30am. They investigated, nearly smashed through the window of my upstairs neighbors, and drained their 30 gallon water heater. They will have cold showers this morning. I think it's good payback for all the loud lovin' they do every day at 8am...and 11am...and 3pm...and 10pm. Sheesh.

Meanwhile, three random neighbors from the house across the alley, whom I had never met (or cared to meet), were discussing the situation with the firefighters. They were up at an ungodly hour, no doubt because of all the commotion I brought to the neighborhood, so I kindly offered them a beer from my fridge. It is important to note that the beer was Bass Ale--no cheap Keystone for these fellas. They gladly accepted; I then discovered that they were all drunk, and one was especially obnoxious. They requested/entered my apartment on their own for a tour of the situation, so I begrudgingly complied. After all, a team of Bloomington's finest protectors were just a few feet away. I realized the drunkest one had a cigarette in my apartment, near the dying smoke detector, right in front of the firefighter. I shooed him out with a very stern, motherly lecture on fire safety and respecting people's space, and they all went back home. Yuck.

The fire chief told me their heater had been leaking for a while, but they hadn't felt the need to mention it...idiots. he also said that the manager of my rental company was furious that the emergency number on the recording was wrong, so I began to worry. Would people lose their jobs over this mishap? The economy is bad enough--I had better be sure that the number was wrong. I called the main number back and listened to the recording again...OHHHHH...the area code was 888, NOT 812....shit. I freaked out. After the firefighters left with a flurry of me screaming "thank you" and "I'm so sorry it wasn't a real emergency," I waited another half hour for the maintenance man to finally take down the screeching smoke detector.

The adventure doesn't end there. The maintenance man who came to my house was obviously drunk, and I suspect that he was into meth (rotting teeth, open sores of picked skin, etc.). He took down the smoke detector, then stayed another 20 minutes to tell me about his new Blackberry and walk in stumbly circles. Sigh. While the odd meth man was fixing my flooded apartment, I hear a knock at the door. Who would knock on my door at 4:30am? Oh, hooray--the creepy drunk neighbor boy! He half stumbled into me, asked if I wanted to smoke a cigarette with him, and when I said I didn't smoke and was going to bed, he walked away in a huff in the opposite direction of his house. In the words of the Four Seasons, "oh, what a night!"



On top of that, I have a paper due at 1pm today. Ugh.

I need a hug.