Four Awesome Things

1) My friend Mike was published on McSweeney's. Read it. Even if you don't follow the Royals and have no idea who Jon Lester is, you'll find it hilarious.

2) Call off the Orbit search party. I found the Sangria Fresca gum mentioned in a previous post.

I would give you a full review here about how it's good but not as good as I thought it would be (I really, really like sangria), but I found this other blog post that sums it up better than I could. She's as obsessive about new flavors as I am, apparently.

3) On Monday, Jim hosted the first-annual Yard Beer Invitational. I forgot my camera, so I didn't get any photos of the event, but it was glorious. There's nothing better than blind tasting cheap beer (with the help of Wonder Bread to cleanse the palette). Below was my beer of choice. It's smooth, easy to drink, watery and oh-so-inexpensive, a perfect beer for me. I shall drink copious amounts of it this summer.

4) And most awesome, my cousin done and got married yesterday evening. And it was beautiful. Congrats to the newlyweds! I should have a photo or two to share soon!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

I hope all had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend. I know I did. Ryan and I spent lots of time with friends, family and the backyard. In our attempts to "go green" and save money on produce, Ryan and I spent five-plus hours in the hot, hot sun Sunday, planting our very first vegetable garden. We did some serious manual labor, but we're anticipating our sunburns and extreme soreness will be well worth it in a few months when we have fresh tomatoes, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, green bell peppers and two varieties of basil. BLTs, cucumber salad and pesto abound this summer.

I've been slacking on the blog and photo front lately, so I made sure to document our 16-foot by 4-foot backyard transformation. (Taking photos also gave me a good excuse to take a break. hehe.)

First, Ryan and I started strong, removing the grass from our area. Then our wheelbarrow's tire went flat and Ryan broke the hoe (too many jokes). Here's the state of the "garden" before going to Sutherlands for the third time this weekend:



While there, Ryan and I upgraded our work gloves. They make purple ones!


It reached 90 degrees while we were out there, and Siena figured out that the coolest spot to be, of course, was in the middle of our workspace.


All of this tilling was done with love/cursing and sweat. No machine can do better, although next time I think we'll investigate our rental options...


Finally! We get to plant.


Tomatoes, yum.


And the payoff: leisurely watering the garden.


This weekend, Siena also learned a few things. First, her love of ice cubes continued to blossom. I've learned that if I fill her water dish with ice cubes and water, she'll stick her nose in and bob for them like you would for apples. Here you can see her cheating with her paws.

And, Siena made a buddy! Below is our neighbor's dog Izzy. She's half Whippet and insanely fast. Siena tries her best to keep up for the first five minutes or so of playing. Then she just flops down and wrestles around with her.

I love how dogs look up at you when they're happy.

Here they are patrolling the backyard.


Memorial Day weekend isn't over for me though. I've taken today off to get some things done around the house this morning, and this afternoon the hubby and I are cruising down to Springfield to see my cousin marry his high school sweetheart. I have to give them both a shout out. Drew's my only cousin and, having no siblings ourselves, we've always been more like brother and sister than cousin. So congrats Drewbaby, and welcome to the family Brandi!

Renovations at the Nut

This weekend Ryan and I did a ridiculous amount of work on the house. Here's a few shots of the progress:

Living room windows before....



And after!



Bamboo shades up look good, too.



Siena "helps."

No before shot of the other window, but just imagine mini blinds. Upgrade!

And the painting in the office continues...almost done with the first floor!

Nothing really

I feel like last weekend Ryan and I were busy, but besides going to a wedding and going out Saturday night with friends, I'm really at a loss as to what exactly we did do. However, I've gotten in the habit of posting pictures from the week past, so I thought I'd go ahead and do so for last week, although the pickins are a bit slim.

Here, Ryan repairs the wall that he accidentally ripped the coat rack from. (He's also trying to keep Siena from ingesting drywall.)

We also spent an hour or two (finally) getting these shelves up. I then obsessed over what to put on them. Oh, the joys of decorating...or attempting to decorate.

Siena apparently slept a lot last weekend, as I have about 20 pictures of her doing so. Here's one of her curled up...

With how her front legs are bent, she reminds me of Bambi. Check out the cuteness:

And to finish out on my theme of not really having anything of substance to blog about, here's a failed video I took. The idea was for me to capture some of Siena's play-time rowdiness, but as soon as the camera comes out she seriously calms down. You can hear my annoyance in the video. Although, looking back on it, I should never be annoyed at a calm and controlled puppy. It's a rare thing, my friends!

Two bits of information:

1) Siena is going to be a very big girl. Not that we didn't already know this, but I think it's finally beginning to sink in. At her final vaccination appointment this morning, she weighed 19 pounds. That's up almost 8 pounds from a month ago. Yikes. There's no turning back now.

2) While on the way back from Springfield last night, Ryan officially named his car. The Morsel is the chosen name. This was partially inspired by the car's itty-bitty look, as in a "small bite" or "morsel." I think it's cute. Tish is still calling the car Yani though. Old habits -- or names -- die hard.

Catch a Wave

Yesterday, I received my birthday gift from Ryan! We ordered it the day before my birthday, but it finally shipped and I got it. It ROCKS. Here is my reaction to its greatness:

Watch as the print is revealed. This is by far the largest thing I've ever had arrive on my doorstep. It's almost as tall as Ryan!

Here, Ryan uses his stud finder to locate the most secure place to hang this monster of a print. Not sure why he needs a device, I clearly see one stud! (Har har!)

Here it is in all of its glory. Please ignore the daisy wallpaper. The wall will eventually be a soft blue-grey color. (Whenever we get around to it and Siena is no longer at the age to want to chew on everything and anything.)

And, here's a shot from afar. This shows its grandeur (and size). I love it!

In other news from the Nut, here's a pic of the Yari's boo-boo. Can you believe the estimates for this came back at $450 and $600?! It looks like I could touch that up with nail polish. But, whatever, it wasn't our fault and we're not paying the bill. Talk about a rough break for the lady who hit us though!

And, two puppy shots. The first one is documentation of her growing size. That paw is BIG, and the second one is just cute. No description necessary. :)

The Yaris has a boo-boo.

Ever notice how as soon as you get something new, it’s like that thing automatically has a giant target placed upon it? For example, white tennis shoes. The first time you wear them someone is destined to step on your foot or you’ll get stuck in a downpour when there was no mention of rain in the forecast. Or, you have a giant bruise on your arm and everyone and their uncle decides to slap/squeeze/grab you there during casual conversation. (Granted that example isn't really getting something “new” and it’s actually kind of creepy that people would slap/squeeze/grab you in casual conversation, but roll with me here...)

OR, you have a new car.

Last night on the way to puppy class, the poor Yaris (Ryan still hasn’t given him a proper name yet) got "rubbed." It had recently snowed (don't even get me started on that), the roads were slick in spots, and, while coming down a hill, a car slide into us. It really wasn’t much; just a nudge that resulted in a couple of scratches to the bumper. But, it still sucked. New car, new scratch. No fun.

Ironically, the woman who hit us was an insurance agent. She immediately admitted fault, filed a claim and off we were. It was seriously the fastest and most polite “accident” I’d ever witnessed.

Hopefully, now that the car has been initiated twice (remember, it also got rubbed in the dealer’s lot before we bought it), the target is faded if not completely gone. Here’s hoping.

Shut up and dance*

Dear lord, she’s making a comeback, and I’m not just talking about American Idol. My childhood pop star idol has a single. Sure, it’s over-processed, lacks creativity and sounds like something off of Britney Spear’s Blackout, but whatever. It’s still my beloved Paula (no matter how weird or drugged up she is).

* - If you get this reference and even owned the remixes, I commend you. You, my friend, are awesome.

Welcome to the Family, Yaris

So, we bought a new car. Ryan said he'd never do it, but he did. We bought a brand spakin' new car, complete with new car smell. Awesome.

The new set of wheels hasn't been named yet, but there are some contenders. Tish suggested Yani the Yaris, I suggested lamely The Silver Bullet, Quicksilver, Button (as in cute as), and Ryan has come up with spudz (I suggested the "z" on the end) because it looks like a potato. I'll let you know what the final verdict is and am taking ideas.

A few facts about the Yaris:

• it's cheap
• it's made by Toyota (I've cheated on the Ford family, oh my!)
• it gets 29 in the city and 35 on the highway
• so far, we love it

Ryan is shown below with the sales guy. This is from today when we picked Yani the Yaris up (I personally think that has a good ring to it) from the dealership.

In celebration of the new ride, here are a few Yaris commercials. My favs are the pie and the hydrant one. Too funny.

Pie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKvynrW0kUs

Gorilla: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qzLV6zd14Y

Hydrant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFdrLKQmJUw&NR=1

ipod: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFml5uw3A_w