Tag: Life as I know it

Life as I know it…

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But babe, you’re good at LOTS of things

I don’t know how many times I’ve said this to R in response to his frequent complaint of “I just wish I was really good at one thing.”

Um, hello? You’re great at everything! Let’s see, where should I begin the list? I know, sports:  football, basketball, baseball, track. Throw in pretty much any other sport that involves throwing, catching, or running, and he’s good at that too. Up next, things at home:  only ANYTHING, seeing as he has now single-handedly rebuilt and remodeled almost our entire house – structure, wiring, plumbing, duct work, appliances. He can even sew! He also shovels snow in winter, helps mow the lawn in summer, and takes out/brings in the garbage cans. What else? Cooking:  duh – we all know he’s amazing at this and does all of it for our household. Additionally, all things mechanic or electronic:  he’s changed the brakes on our vehicles, given them oil changes, helped replace a heater core (what? don’t ask – it was a miserable project), fixed window motors, replaced radios, and he is famous for his knowledge of every gadget from cell phones to computers to TVs and everything in between. And don’t forget all of his hobbies:  home brewing, charcuterie (and basically anything meat-related), motorcycles, music, kites, model rockets, photography. That list is pretty much endless. Is there anything this kid can’t do? In a word – nope.

Now me, on the other hand. I am really good at one thing. Swimming. I swam all through high school and college. I was a State Champion in high school, All-American in college, Academic All-Big Ten in college, and I held a school record at UW-Madison (that has long since been broken, but still. it was up there for a little while. :)). I’ve also been a US Masters National Champion in my years since college. Wow, SM, you’re a stud. Yes, yes, thank you, please hold your applause (modest, much? ;)). But, please notice how short that list is – ONE thing. See R’s up there? He has like a million. Sure I can kick your ass up and down a pool, but when it comes to being good, even moderately good, at a whole host of things, I fall far short.

This conversation always makes me curious, too – does everyone want to be really good at one thing? Like really, really, good, as I am with swimming (i’m sorry, i’m not usually so blatantly cocky, but i’ve learned to look back on my swimming career and be really proud of my accolades after downplaying them for many years)? Or would most people prefer to be good at a lot of things, as in R’s case? I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather be able to do pretty much anything I ever need for myself instead of having to ask for help all the time over being able to swim fast. Unfortunately, I swim fast.

Oh! How could I forget the most important thing R is good at? He’s the most fantastic, wonderful father – D is a very lucky little girl.

Daddy and D getting ready to hunt for eggs

 

He let her put all the eggs in the basket - so cute!

 

Daddy we found another one!

 

And another...

 

He just loves this little girl so much

 

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My thumb is turning green & a piece of family history

One thing you may not know about me is that I love gardening (or did I already tell you that?). I never would’ve thought it would be something that tickled my fancy, seeing how most things domestically-oriented don’t. But once we moved into our house and I started digging around in the existing gardens and transplanting things and planting new things and experimenting with what works and what looks good where, I found I really have a knack for it.

And I absolutely love seeing my gardens bloom each year and look pretty. I’m big on bulbs too, since they come up each year without me having to do any more work. 😉 I’m super excited about the new row of peonies this year that I mentioned before – I checked last night and all 6 are sprouting. Hooray!

This weekend my mom sent home some hosta plants for me, and last night I planted them around our lamppost in the front yard. A few years ago I dug up a little circle around the base of it to make room for some color in the yard, and I usually plant dahlias around there. But last year they didn’t do as well as they have in years past, and it never fails that they get nicked with the lawn mower at some point during the season.

I was thinking about putting daffodil bulbs in there this year because I love them and they’re one of the few spring flowers I don’t have anywhere, but then I got these hostas and figured it’d be just as easy to put them there instead. I’ve already filled a lot of space in our other gardens with hostas that I transplanted from under a bush in the back yard, so I was running out of spots for these new ones and I didn’t want them to go to waste. I think they turned out pretty well.

Lovely weather we're having.... AGAIN
Up close and personal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn’t dig a super deep hole for these guys, so I really hope they thrive here. I’m hopeful, though, since they were already sprouting when my mom dug them up for me.

We received an awesome surprise on the doorstep yesterday, too. My great aunt J and my mom’s cousin J sent a beautiful quilt for D. That’s nice, but what’s so special about a quilt, you wonder? It was my great-great-grandmother D’s (so D’s great-great-great-grandmother D), and she was the one after whom our D was named.

I had no idea this quilt was coming, or even existed, so I was very excited to get such a wonderful heirloom. And it is even more special for D since it came from her namesake. The note with it said my great aunt J remembered seeing it in her grandma D’s house when she was younger, and it was probably made in the 1910s-1920s.

How cool! I had R take a picture of it on my phone this morning, but it turned out really blurry. I’ll take a better one tonight, but at least you can get the idea.

D will be the 6th generation to have this quilt. Awesome!

 

I absolutely love family tradition, so getting this quilt for D means a lot to me. It will be the perfect cover when she transitions to a big girl bed from her crib. Her great-great-great grandma D will be watching over her each night and blessing her with sweet, sweet dreams.

 

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It was a lazy day and a wine night

Today we had all the best intentions to get a lot of work done on the house, since we’ve been extremely remiss in that department lately and the four year mark of this remodel is knocking on the door. Honest.

However, an early rise by D, followed soon after by a 2 hour nap for her that allowed R to sleep in and me to go back to sleep too resulted in us turning this day into a fully lazy family day. And it was pure bliss.

We don’t get these often, and the skies have never come tumbling down when we’ve put off house work before, so we took full advantage. I did no cleaning or laundry, R hung not one inch of trim, D got to be in jammies all day after her bath this morning, and we spent the entire afternoon and evening catching up on and finishing the series Big Love. Ahh….

D’s cold is back – AGAIN – but her usual smiley little self was in full effect between naps, complete with laughing, squeaking, and scooting around the house. This afternoon I was blessed with 2 hours of my left arm full of this, though:

Beautiful sleeper

Followed by a little of this:

Happy 'lil girl

Tonight we cracked open 3 bottles of wine, simply because we can. They were great, too. I can’t remember the last time I actually thought each bottle we opened was really good. Here’s what our personal wine tasting entailed:

Lindaflor Malbec 2007
Menage a Trois 2009
Cupcake Shiraz 2008

 

It’s been a wonderful day. And the best part? The weekend’s only half over!

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Was it Summer yesterday?

Because it sure felt like it. 80+ degrees, sunny skies, hot breeze blowing, it was great! It was actually almost a little too hot for this early in the season, but I am certainly not complaining. I started off the day in jeans and a 3/4-sleeved shirt, then quickly changed into shorts, then again into a tank top. R grilled up some delicious homemade green pepper and Colby Jack burgers for lunch, then D and I sat outside for a good hour yesterday afternoon enjoying the fresh air and listening to the Brewers on the radio. Talk about the perfect way to spend a Sunday.

I did a garden survey too, and am happy to report that all plants appear to have survived the harsh winter again and are coming up nicely. I’m especially excited for one garden in particular this year – I created a new one in our backyard last fall and wasn’t sure how well it was going to fare. I dug up and tilled a row along our neighbors’ garage and planted 6 peony plants that one of my grandmas sent for D, then covered the whole thing with mulch. This was in October and the peonies were just roots, so I was afraid they were going to be destroyed over the winter. Fortunately I saw a couple of them starting to peek through yesterday, so I’m very hopeful that they’ve all made it and will be a beautiful addition to the scene. Peonies are one of my absolute favorites, and I planted these right next to one mature white peony bush that we already have in the back corner of our yard. I can’t wait to see these all in bloom together.

Oh, and the anniversary present turned out splendidly! I rented a limo to take us to dinner Saturday night and then out on the town afterwards, and R was completely surprised. He was so excited and we had a blast. I still have to get the pictures uploaded, so I’ll share those tomorrow.

Until then, here are a couple from our lazy, almost-summer afternoon yesterday. I can’t wait until the real thing is here to stay!

Pure deliciousness

 

D playing in the shade while Mommy soaks up some rays. I need a pedicure!

 

All worn out from playing outside

 

D and Daddy hard at work 🙂

 

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FF & other random musings

Here we are again – TGIF! And an extra special one today, for it’s our anniversary!! Hooray! R and I have made it 5 years so far in the holy sacrament of matrimony. Yeah, I’m not so sure how holy we are, but you catch my drift. 🙂 I did finally figure out something to get him, but I’ll wait to divulge it until after today, just in the off chance that he happens to glance over here.

In other news, you remember that Supreme Court election I was all excited about because it had become so close and the person I’d voted for seemed to have a fighting chance? Yeah, not so much anymore. Apparently they *missed* an entire city in our area when they were tallying the votes, so now the candidate for whom I did not vote is ahead by like 7,000. Um, what? How does that happen?? How do you just miss 11,000+ votes? That is either a) a lie, b) a very convenient stroke of good luck for my opposing candidate, c) the latest scummy incident in what has become the shitstorm of politics in our state, or d) all of the above. Guess which one I’m going with? (hint – the answer is d) I hope that county clerk, or whomever is in charge of the ballots in that city, was fired immediately. Or at the very least has some sort of charges levied against him/her. That just can’t happen. Politics – yuck.

On a lighter note, here’s a good quote for this anniversary FF. I’m not sure what the problem is – I haven’t had any witty nuggets lately, so my quote book’s been getting a workout:

“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.”  ~ Mignon McLaughlin

And here are a couple pictures from that wonderful day 5 years ago…


The beautiful church in which we were married

 

Taking off on our carriage ride after the ceremony

 

Cheers!

 

Yum, cake!

 

I love this guy!

 

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Road rage(-ette)

It seems most times I’m in the car there is at least one person to whom I’d love to shout, “You $#%! moron!” Seriously. Not a full-fledged road rage episode or anything, just a little “ragette”, if you will, to point out their lack of motor vehicle operating skills. I constantly ask R how people learn to drive up here. It’s like the driver’s ed teachers just put kids in a car, slam the door, and shout, “Away you go!” Some people have zero concept of the rules of the road. And merging? Oh forget it. I swear to god merging is not in the driver’s ed lesson plans in the state of Wisconsin. There is one on-ramp to a major highway near our house in particular that is especially terrible. 3 lanes merge into 2 just past the ramp, so essentially you have 4 lanes merging down to 2 if you include the on-ramp lane that joins the mix. People NEVER do it right. They zoom past the gigantic line of cars already on the highway using the on-ramp and 3rd lanes, then cut everyone off right at the last second when they run out of lane. I HATE that! That is NOT how you merge, you f’n idiots. This pisses R off to no end too. I’m always tempted to ride the line on the lane on that side so people can’t get around me and have to get in the line of traffic like everyone else. Too bad I rarely get the balls to actually do it. 😛

Now I’m not a perfect driver, but I do consider myself a good driver. Yes, I tend to be a little on the quick side, but I just like to get where I’m going. And I’m not an asshole about it either. I don’t tailgate (at least I try very hard not to. this is something i used to be really bad about doing, but have gotten much better since R felt the need to point it out CONSTANTLY), I don’t zip in and out of lanes cutting people off, I do know how to merge, I do obey traffic signals and signs, I do use my turn signals, and I am one hell of a wicked parallel parker. Ok, that last one doesn’t really apply to *driving* per se, but I thought I’d throw it in for good measure. 🙂 Don’t believe me? Just ask R – he’ll even admit I’m good at it, which is a rarity. He’s seen me squeeze into some spots that other people would drive away from too scared to even attempt.

This morning’s drive wasn’t too bad, but there was one choad in particular who really annoyed me. He pulled onto the on-ramp right ahead of us (not the one I was talking about earlier, though), and I noticed that the left rear of his SUV was totally low-riding it. Big Poppa must’ve been sitting back there, plus that tire was super low. He zipped into the carpool lane on the ramp and totally failed to obey the metered light signal – he took off when the lane next to him got the green light. Um, ok, whatever. Then a short way onto the highway, he decided he had to get right back off and completely cut off the car behind him to get to the exit, of course NOT using his signal. Ugh! I’m sorry, but even when the dumbass drivers aren’t affecting me personally, I still get mad at them. If you don’t know how to drive then get off the highway!!

The absolute worst road rage I’ve experienced came a few weeks ago, though. And actually, I wasn’t the one raging, it was R; but I was in the car and had I been driving I absolutely would have been fuming too (i was fuming, but i was just in the back seat for this one ;)). We were using the terrible on-ramp above, and the jerk in question actually tried to cut us off getting onto the ramp. Should’ve known something was up from the start with this one. Turns out it was an idiot chick on her cell phone. Wonderful, this should be fun. So we merged into traffic as soon as we were off the ramp, but whaddya know – she blew around us and flew farther up the lane that ends instead of merging like the rest of us. So when we finally got up to the point where her lane was ending, guess who was stuck up there, trying to get into the highway flow? Moron girl, surprise, surprise. R didn’t want to let her in, since we had been witnessing her idiocy that whole time and couldn’t stand it. I don’t blame him, and I probably would have done the exact same thing. Just keep nosing forward so she can’t get in front of me. But she didn’t take the hint and cut right in front of us anyway, literally coming within an inch of smashing into our front right side. WTF! Nice maneuver, bitch! So now R was pissed, as was I from the back seat (I was back there b/c D was really cranky that day so I was going to give her a bottle on the way to wherever we were going). Plus we were stuck right on her rear bumper, since she left us zero wiggle room with her jackass move. R honked when she did this and she proceeded to flip him off. Oo – bad move, you incensed the lion that is my husband. He honked again and flipped her off now; very mature, I know, but such is the beast of road rage. She obviously knew she cut us off and he was letting her know he was unhappy, but she just continued to yap on her phone and shoot us the bird from her rear view mirror.

Ok fine, typical road rage stuff, but then she did something unthinkable. She actually slammed on her brakes when we were inches behind her, knowing full well there was about a 99.9% chance that we were going to slam right into the back of her piece of shit mobile. WHAT?!?!?!! Who does that??! OMG. At this point I was ready to jump out the back window and ring her scrawny little neck. There is an infant in this car, you bitch, and you think it’s funny to try to cause an accident??! Where were you raised – HELL?! Oh you should’ve heard the words that were flying around our car at this point. Poor D – I hope she doesn’t understand that colorful language right now. 😉 I seriously was flabbergasted that this little shit would do such a thing on a jam-packed rush hour highway. Did she honestly think the accident would have been found to be our fault? She was the one slamming on her brakes with the intent of making us crash into her! I have no idea how we managed to avoid a collision, but thank god we did. And of course the middle finger-flipping and curse word-shouting contest continued until we were fully separated once traffic dispersed. But man oh man, was our blood boiling for miles after that one. I was amazed at the audacity of that piece of trash to do such a thing – that was something I had never witnessed first-hand before and hope never to again. Especially since she was endangering D. Me and R, who cares. We can handle ourselves. But D?? She’s an innocent, helpless baby, you low-lifed whore! (sorry, can you tell this one still riles me up?)

License plate 414 NNC – you are the most despicable, disgusting driver I have ever seen, and if I ever see you stranded on the side of the road, I will NOT be stopping to help. I may be struck by lightning for being such a Bad Samaritan, but when you endanger me and my family, may God have mercy on your soul if I ever get my hands on you.

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I voted! But should I have?

Yesterday was another mid-term election day ’round these parts, so I got out there, did my civic duty, and voted. But I don’t think I could have been less prepared when I looked at the ballot.

We were voting for Supreme Court justices, local School Board members, County Executive, and then the recall ballots for some of our Republican Senators were out too if you were so inclined (if you’ve been following along from the beginning here, you can probably guess whether or not i signed that one ;)). Most of the races only had one candidate, so those were easy; but I kind of felt like a deer in headlights when I got to the ones with multiple choices. I had been meaning all day yesterday to look up each of the candidates to do a little research before I went to the polling place, but I kept forgetting then ran out of time before I left work. Oops.

I have already admitted that I am pretty politically obtuse, so this really should come as no surprise. But usually I at least know all the candidates’ names and have an idea of what their platforms are. This time, though, I felt like a complete idiot.

I wasn’t too keen on voting in the first place, because I figured Supreme Court and County Executive? Those aren’t huge elections – my vote probably won’t even matter. Isn’t that horrible? People have fought long and hard to ensure we have this right to vote and here I am tossing it aside. Don’t worry – I chastised myself and then did cast my ballot.

So, if I didn’t know for whom I was voting, how did I decide? I went with that good ol’ rule from tests in school – go with your gut, as your first answer is usually correct.

Fortunately I did end up recognizing a couple of the names on the ballot once I got in there, but I still felt so stupid since I wasn’t 100% sure on anyone. I stuck with my instinct though when I got to ones where I was unsure, and it turns out that was the way to go. I did end up voting for the candidates I would have chosen had I been the most highly-educated political pundit out there. (admitting my lack of political knowledge here really makes me sound like a moron, but like i’ve said all along, i’m just being honest. i just don’t get all charged up for this stuff)

My polling place dilemma made me wonder, though… Which is worse – an uneducated voter or a non-voter?

**Edit: As a follow-up on the day after this post – it looks like my vote did count after all. In the race for state Supreme Court, with 100% of votes in, the race will most likely be headed to the first statewide recount in more than 20 years. The unofficial winner leads by a margin of just 204 votes out of a total of roughly 1.5 million cast. That’s only 1/100th of a percent. Crazy!