Semantics Matter!

Say you’re a boss and your brand-new employee plans and executes a kick-ass event. Despite the fact that she went straight home to puke in some bushes and eat ice cream, you feel the need to celebrate her excellence by going to several bars. When you’re leaving at 2 pm the next day because you’re sooooo tired (hungover), if you want to reward your outstanding new employee don’t say, “Don’t stay too late.” What you need to say is, “Feel free to leave early if you want.”

Because I wasn’t planning on staying late at all. Now, I’m sure this is all semantics, but for god’s sake you need to be straight with people.

I think it doesn’t help that I am crazy tired today. Walking coma-tired. And I really did puke in a bush last night. The second half of the meeting went a little too long and I was STARVING. As soon as it was over I hit the buffet and gorged myself on egg rolls and mozzarella sticks and chips and guac and who knows what else, and it was NOT a good idea. Nor was playing DDR after eating all that. Dumbass. It was a full sized machine, though – so hard to resist. And I won!

But yeah, somewhere between where I parked the car and my apartment, it came back to haunt me. Luckily I didn’t have any sympathy pukers around, just an unlucky bush.

So Typical

I’m that girl. That girl who gets pregnant and becomes a blubbery, slobbery sobbing puddle anytime anything even slight happens.

Here are some recent examples:

-Watching Brothers & S1sters two weeks ago when Sarah lost custody of her kids…BAWLING

-Listening to W tell me how he wants that house to be our “forever house” and how he’ll do anything to make it happen so the babies and I can have it easy…BAWLING

-Pretty much any IF blog post these days, both good news and bad…BAWLING

-Watching the two IVF twin episodes of Bringing Home Baby on TLC…BAWLING

-Ok, I can’t believe I’m admitting this one, because it is seriously fucked up. And while I didn’t cry, I did become momentarily verklempt until I slapped myself upside the noggin. Are you ready? I was emotionally affected this morning by hearing that Ann Curry finally made it to the South fucking Pole. The people in the studio were cheering and she seemed so proud of herself for being only one of like 7,000 people to have made it. Somehow it affected me. And I don’t even really like her! Weird.

Alrighty – had to get my NaBloPoMo’ing done for today because I have a big work event tonight. The first one that I’ve planned here. We’re doing a big all-hands (about 100) meeting, then bowling, so not the toughest event ever, but here’s hoping it goes well! I’ve already had a few people tell me they’re buying me a beer (which…hello people, it’s FREE!) and I’m trying to figure out how I’ll carry the same beer around all evening without being too obvious.

Someone else's home, I guess

Well, my stepdad thought it was definitely a sound investment, but we found out today that someone made an offer already. We're not at all ready to get into a bidding war, so we decided to pass. Unfortunately for a lot of people, the market is only going to get worse, but it is good news for us. Now we don't know if we'll buy a condo in SF, rent a bigger apartment, or what.

I've been tagged for 8 random things by the newly un-busted Busted! I made the mistake of asking W to help me think them up. "ONLY EIGHT?" he says. Real nice, dude. I need to go beat him up, and I'll post those manana. Or, I was contemplating coming up with 100 tidbits about me for my upcoming 100th post (HOLY SHIT!) but it seems a) daunting and capital B) Boring.

It's Not a Hovel, It's a Home

Or at least it could be.

Perusing the local real estate websites on Sunday I saw what was described as a “diamond in the roungh (sic)” There were only exterior pictures, but the pretty high end neighborhood combined with a listing price in our range enticed me to learn more.

During a tour of open homes that afternoon we decided to drive by the place. As we slowed down to see what it was all about, a woman from the cleaning crew asked if we’d like to see the inside. Of course we were all over it!

The bones (if you’ll allow me that cheesy real estate term) are incredible. It’s got this HUGE living room with a fireplace and the layout is actually pretty good for an older home. It’s 100% NOT a ranch, which is nice because I feel like that’s all we’ve been seeing so far. Nothing against ranches, but this was a refreshing change. It just feels nice and old, which I love. There are 3 normal bedrooms and one tiny one that is almost all windows – would make a great office or something. The bad news is that the kitchen is a total disaster. Disgusting tile counters, dilapidated cabinets and no appliances. Other than that, although it’s old, the place is pretty liveable. Don’t get me wrong, just about everything needs fixing - new windows, new bathrooms and more, but for now it’s probably ok. It just happens to be at the top of our price range, so I’m totally stressed about having the money to live there, fix it up AND eat. On the other hand, it’s on a double lot and is in one of the more desirable communities in the East Bay and is walking distance to the little village. It’s got to be the cheapest house in town, so if we fixed it up the way we know how, maybe the equity could support the house flipping I want to do.

W (who has his heart set on it and is convinced this is our "forever house") is there right now with my stepdad who has made himself a lot of money in the real estate business. Hopefully he will help us figure out if we’re crazy TO do it, or crazy NOT to do it. It’s bank-owned, so we can’t get any disclosures and since W got lost on the way, they’re looking at it in the dark. Oh man, are we nuts?!?

***
Enough about me, though. If you haven’t had a chance, please stop over and let Ann know you’re thinking of her. She’s going through a nightmare I can’t even begin to comprehend.

From Bax to The Biz

Shortly after we got married Will and I adopted a sweet (looking) dog named Baxter that we were told was a 4-month old puppy. At his first vet appointment, we learned that he was closer to a year old. Come to find out he'd been a stray for almost his whole life and he was a little (lot) insane. 98.7% of the time he was the sweetest most perfect little guy, and then all of a sudden he would snap, usually it was food related, but not always. Our friend bent to tie his shoe and apparently was too close to Baxter and got chomped in the hand. Another time my cousin's 3 yr old daughter came too close and he snapped and clawed her in the face. It would have been much worse, but at that point I had him on a leash at all times. After about six months of attacks and meetings with behaviorists who insisted there was nothing wrong with him, we had to let him go. Our nephews (4 and 6 at the time) were coming to stay with us for a week and there was no way I could handle the stress of protecting them from Kujo 24 hrs a day. The day I took him back to the woman who facilitated the adoption was one of the saddest of my life. Of course he was perfect that day and looked at me with the sweetest eyes. I cried the whole way home, but I knew it was the right decision.





We knew we'd get another dog, but weren't sure when. I think we were both too afraid to bring the idea up after all we'd been through with Bax. Then about six months later we were driving to Syracuse for Thanksgiving and one of us (can't remember who now) said to the other...maybe it's time to get a dog. We arrived at my cousin's house that night and over some beers she mentioned that she thought W should get me a puppy for Christmas. A sign! THEN...at Thanksgiving dinner another cousin asked us outright if we were interested in a puppy because her brother in law had some he was going to give away. They were only 3 weeks old at the time, but she promised that if we wanted one she'd drive it up to us (in New Hampshire at the time) when it was ready. Ok, now if this sequence of events wasn't enough, we went to see the pups the next day and that's when we met...

Bella. We call her The Biz.

This is a skinny 9 yr old girl holding her, so believe me she was TINY! But so sweet. I knew I had to have her. More later! I'm milking these Bella posts to get me through!

Proof that I need your help

There's nothing like a little spotting scare and subsequent happy resolution to make an otherwise ordinary weekend seem downright glorious! There's been no return of the evil pink
and this has to be some of the best November weather ever. We spent the day in GG Park, laying about on a blanket, eating lots of tasty food, and watching others toss frisbees and nerf footballs. We also got to watch my pooch destroy some fellow picnickers Nerf, but handily I had brought the EXACT same one along so I easily replaced the one that Bella turned into a snack.

After our picnic we met up with a friend from the East Coast who stopped over to visit on his way to a business trip in LA. We went out to a kick-ass dinner here. It's a former KFC, hence the name. My fancy steak stroganoff with gnocchi was so fucking amazing. And the brownie a la mode that followed was everything a person could ever want. Ever.

Despite the over-eating of the night before, I woke up STARVING and off we went to our favorite breakfast place. I had a scramble with bacon, avocado and spinach w/ homefries and fruit, plus a biscuit with gravy and a pancake. Mmm mmm good.

Ok, so unless you want to just read about my culinary exploits over the next month, please - tell me. What have you always wanted to know about me? Or San Francisco? Or Bella?

All's Well

POSTED ON SATURDAY 11/3, NO MATTER WHAT BLOGGER HAS TO SAY ABOUT IT!

I haven't seen anything since about 10am yesterday when there was one brown blob. I came right home from work and hit the couch and things have been fine. I'm going to take it easy over the weekend (although I can't stay on the couch the whole time) and hopefully this will be the last of it.

Now I can focus on the important stuff, like hoping my twins are smart like these guys! (No, NOT the ones in the picture!!)

Thanks so much for all the kind wishes!!