Happiness is…

… your favorite flip flops after you’ve worn heels all day at work.

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Since we’re on the subject of sports:

And because it’s funny… The world’s longest tennis match is still ongoing, apparently, and currently on recess because it’s nighttime in England and thus, too dark to see the ball.  Not to mention that these guys must be exhausted.  They are going to start DAY #3 of play tomorrow.

Isner v. Mahut

First of all, that’s crazy.  And secondly, did you get to the part about how tall these men stand?  Mahut, the Frenchman, is the “comparatively diminutive” one at 6’3″.  And Isner, the American, boasts a 6’9″ height!

What a wacky story.  I had almost forgotten other sports were happening in light of the World Cup madness.  Thanks, Wimbledon for bringing me back down to earth.

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And the vuvuzelas go wild!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAL!

It’s okay, folks, it’s okay.  All is right in the world today, as the United States has made it through to the next round of the World Cup.  So has England, which is obviously a requisite for ALL to be right with the world.  It was a bit dicey there, what with the U.S. having a scoreless match right up until the injury time at the end… but Landon Donovan came through in the 91st minute of play and made at least a hundred million people’s day.  He probably ruined that many more people’s days all around the world (what?  everybody loves to hate the U.S.), but I don’t care because HE SCORED!  And we made it!  And we are actually ahead of England by the official count because we have two goals more than they do coming out of this round, so that’s awesome.  Or unfortunate, depending on how you look at it, because that means expectations are a tad high for the next game…. but really, it’s cool.  We’re through to the elimination rounds!

Woooooo!

This is what happened immediately after he scored the goal.  Hugs all around!

Then later…

Celebrate good times, come on!

Dance it out, boys.  You deserve it.

Today is an awesome day.  =)

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737 and a lack of title, or, my obsession with making things pretty.

All that talk yesterday about swings and benches beneath graceful, sweeping shade trees really got me excited.  So excited, in fact, that I just may have purchased a baby willow.  Who knew that you could buy trees online?  I didn’t.  But look!  A nursery that actually sends them through the mail!

So, yeah.  I cracked; I’m kicking the mulberry tree out of his spot.  (I’m hoping we can relocate him to an undeveloped area at the end of my street… but I don’t know if that’s practical.)  I bought a new tree and am now awaiting its arrival via FedEx.  Seriously.  Pretty, pretty weeping willow…  *sigh*

I can practically hear the wind softly whooshing through the leaves!

I know that it will be a very long time before my baby tree will look as grand and majestic as those, but that’s its future!  Actually, it will probably arrive looking something more like this:

Aw, it's so cute and scrawny!

But someday, people!  Someday, it will grow into a fabulous beauty just like the big ones and I will be watching and feeding and encouraging it all along the way.  Yay!

In other news, there is apparently a Swiss company that has created a fabric that repels water but absorbs oil?  They’re saying it could do a lot of good toward protecting the beaches of our Gulf Coast, so I have crossed fingers that it works as well as they claim!  I was reading in the paper this morning that they believe the reservoir of oil that is currently leaking contains 2.1 billion more gallons… compare that to the 126 million gallons that have leaked thus far, and you start to get an idea how important it might be to find solutions for dealing with the oil in case BP continues to do nothing useful at all to stop the flow.  The oil pocket is still 94% full!  Yikes.

So, unfortunately, I must actually go do some work today.  Fabric scraps need encapsulating and such.  =)  I suppose it could be worse.  Hope y’all have a good day!

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The absentee blogger

So, it’s been rather a long time since since I wrote anything here.  Between Dora’s illness and the resulting trips to the veterinarian, my attempts to make up hours at work since taking Dora to the vet, our fascination with the ongoing World Cup, and this weekend’s valiant attempt to make-over the outside of our house, I just haven’t had the energy to do much else!  But here are some happy updates:

Dora is finally feeling like herself again.  It took almost two weeks!  But after rounds of three medications, three vet visits, several x-rays, blood tests, urinalysis, ultrasounds, and one pretty unpleasant “medical” treatment, she’s back on her feet and even starting to play with Meemers like before.  Thank goodness!  I thought Oliver might never smile again.  =)  But now it’s all celebration and good times at our house and Pandora has managed to create a situation in which we bring her anything and everything she wants and carry her all over instead of making her walk.  I thought she was a princess before!  Oh, she’s spoiled.  But it’s worth it to have her healthy again.  And I have put in enough extra hours at work that I’m only down eight hours of leave from where I was before this whole mess started.  W00t!

The World Cup gets crazier and crazier every time I turn around.  The U.S. was robbed of a victory in their game versus Slovenia (worst reffing ever) but can still advance to the next round of they win their next match… and England’s performance versus Algeria was lackluster and confusing.  Italy (defending champions of 2006!) didn’t do so well in either of their first two games and wound up with ties in both, and Germany just lost to Serbia?  Who saw that coming after their huge win over Australia?  Weird.  Anyway, if you can’t tell… I’m distracted by all this.  Go U.S.A.!  Go England!

Then there’s the house.  You know how we “finished” the inside?  Yeah… we’re never content with “finished.”  Apparently Oliver and I can’t stand being idle, because we suddenly (or… you know, after months of complaining about it) decided that the landscaping in our front and back yards could use some updating.  We made plans to hit up the fancy nursery down the road and look for a tree and some flowering bushes.  Then I suddenly remembered a sale on this set that might be ending soon, so we called to check on availability since it’s apparently not sold online.  Isn’t it cute?

Yay, patio furniture!

They did actually have some in stock, but only in the store in the Chevy Chase location, where I am semi-scared to drive because it’s crazy busy traffic down there all the time… not to mention that it’s 25 miles or so from home.  But what a good deal!  And we definitely needed additional seating on both our front porch and the back deck!  Since the Mini would totally not hold a four-piece set, we set off in my car for the store.  Success!  They had it, we fit it in the car, and there were no vehicular collisions made in the process.  Now the two chairs are sitting on my front porch, and the bench and table will go out to the deck as soon as they are assembled.  And with THAT settled, we finally headed to the nursery.

Backstory: In our backyard, there is a small tree growing.  It is a “volunteer;” just something that appeared there without anyone’s help or planning.  Based on an assessment from a neighbor, we are guessing that it is a young mulberry tree.  It’s not bad looking… actually it’s pretty cute, and it’s very healthy in spite of a bad experience it had over the winter with a super heavy load of snow.  It’s already about 8 feet tall.  However, we just can’t decide if we want to keep it.  Mulberries are not the best shade trees, their leaves are not my favorite to look at, and they produce a fruit that turns bird excrement black/dark purple.  (We have power lines and large oak trees overhanging where we park our cars, so we’re very aware of the birds.)  But I have a major guilt trip about killing a perfectly happy, healthy little tree!  It’s just trying to grow and live in the back corner of our yard, for pete’s sake.  Who I am to murder it?  At the same time… I’d really prefer an elm or a willow.  I LOVE weeping willows, and elms are just so stately and beautiful.  I would actually enjoy nurturing one of those and I can imagine a pretty little bench down beneath the limbs… or a swing…. OOH, a swing!  Yeah, I think the mulberry may have to go.  Does anybody want a lovely mulberry tree?

ANYWAY.  So we went to the nursery and walked around.  It was hotter than Hades, and certainly more humid too.  I was dying after only a few minutes.  We checked out their tree selection (mediocre) and then wandered over to look at bushes and perennials.  The prices were a little bit horrifying, but we were expecting that.  Still, expecting is a different matter from accepting.  So we perused and meandered and exclaimed over the pretty exotics that they had in the greenhouse, and then noted that hydrangeas, azaleas, and rhododendrons are lovely and headed over to Lowe’s to see plants at more reasonable rates.

Pictures of my favorites, though not from my camera!

Hydrangeas:

Love 'em. Love the colors, and the flower bunches, and the size... just love 'em.

Azaleas:

Also beautiful! A little less full, but what a color!

Rhododendrons:

Wow. Great flowers! Kinda tall though, aren't they? I want to be able to see out of my porch.

Our neighbors across the street have hydrangeas and I have been admiring them all spring and summer.  So I was really, really happy to see that Lowe’s had better prices on them than the other nursery, and had a wide variety of colors too!  We decided to start with three bushes and see how we like them.  So we are the proud new parents of a purple, a red, and a “peppermint” hydrangea plant.  They live in the beds right along the porch, where there used to be a crazy amalgam of different kinds of shrubs, flowers, rose bushes, and all kinds of stuff.  Oliver fixed that!

Also while still at Lowe’s we also noticed that they were having a sale a decorative grasses, and our back fence had been looking a little bare… apparently there used to BE decorative grasses there, but the home’s previous owners decided to pull them out.  Sad.  Oh well, the new ones should start to grow and spread in a year or two, and it will be like that never happened.  Super Oliver to the rescue again!  He had a big afternoon of gardening.  I kinda sorta helped by pulling weeds and things, but I kept getting bitten by flying things and I’m pretty allergic to those bites so I had to go inside a few times to apply Benadryl EVEN THOUGH I had put tons of OFF spray on already.  Sigh.  They even got me on the head!  I have a big red bump on the right side of my forehead.  =(

But anywho, all in all a happy and successful weekend.  Healthy cats, new patio furniture, some beautiful new plants, and fewer weeds.  I’m really pleased with it all.  And I think you’re all caught up on where I’ve been lately.  Ciao!

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Fever pitch

Goodness.  Have you been watching the World Cup?

It’s been really exciting!

I live with someone born in England.  We’re talking about someone who grew up playing inter-mural, school (captain of the varsity team!), and high-level club soccer.  This “someone” can juggle a soccer ball with his feet, knees, chest, and head for ages and ages and not drop the darned thing once.  He has played on the U.S. youth national team and been in tournaments all over the country.  He can tell you which of the world’s top players were born the same year he was (Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, FYI), and I suspect that he bleeds both red AND a little yellow.

Come on, you Reds!

Anyway.  Suffice it to say that there is some mild interest in the World Cup in our house.  And some national pride.

AND as you may know, England’s very first game in this year’s Cup was versus the United States.  We went over to watch the game with Oliver’s family and some friends.  It was a tense two hours.  People got a little…  into the game.  I’ll just say that I’m happy enough with the outcome.

Poor Green.

Perhaps happier than someone else in the house.

Following THAT game though, we’ve been watching quite a few of the others.  Slovenia-Algeria?  Nail-biter!  Ghana-Serbia?  Wow!  Germany-Australia…?  Ouch.  Poor Socceroos.  But hasn’t it all been exciting?  I can practically feel the vibrations in the air from all the vuvuzelas humming throughout South Africa!  I love watching all of the cheering, painted, dancing fans!  The energy is palpable even on TV!

It’s funny.  I never really cared about soccer before I met Oliver… I suppose I hadn’t been properly introduced to it, since no one in my family watches or plays or anything… in fact, practically no one in Arizona is into soccer so it’s not surprising.  But I’m truly very glad that I have had a chance to develop an appreciation for the game since meeting my Superman.  It’s fast-paced and enthralling, and you never really know what to expect because the whole thing can change in an instant or with one unexpected bounce of the ball.  Keeps you on your toes even as a spectator!  And it’s a sport that practically the whole world agrees upon… aside from the Olympics I can’t think of another event that brings so many people together to celebrate and enjoy themselves.  If only we could resolve political problems with a friendly game of footie…

So if you’re not watching the World Cup, I highly recommend catching a game or two if you have a chance.  Doesn’t matter who you root for… in fact, pick a game where you don’t favor either team and you can’t be disappointed with the outcome.  =)  Just watch some great athleticism and cheer for whichever people who do well.  And definitely check out the awesome, ecstatic fans.  They’re having so much fun that you can’t help being happy right along with them.

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At the hop-pital.

Don’t you think that a doctor’s office that could, potentially, be treating rabbits should be called a hop-pital?  I do.

Anyway!  I know that Dora pretty much hated it but to be honest, Oliver and I had a pretty good time at the veterinarians’ office yesterday.  We met a seriously funny cast of characters in the waiting room!  I worried briefly when we walked into a waiting room full of dogs with an antsy cat in a carrier that we were setting both ourselves and the cat up for a miserable wait.  And then I saw who was sitting in the chair next to me.

His name was Franklin.  He was 1o weeks old.  He was a pug.  He hadn’t grown into his skin yet so it was gathered in adorable wrinkles at the back of his neck and around his ankles.  And he was sitting sweetly and patiently in the arms of his “mom,” resting his chin on his front paws.  There was no worrying that could be done in the presence of Franklin.  I fell instantly in love and stopped worrying so much about Dora.  Franklin was quiet as could be, and Oliver was sitting on the end of a row of chairs with Dora’s carrier so there wasn’t anyone on her other side to upset her.  Whew.

Two chairs down on Franklin’s other side were Jackson and HIS “mom.”  I’m guessing Jackson was some kind of boxer mix based on his short, sleek coat and his coloring.  He could only have been a few weeks older than Franklin!  He had the kind of beautiful, droopy eyes that only a puppy can pull off.  He, too, was a perfect gentleman.

Next to Jackson was a puppy whose name I didn’t catch because she was too busy hamming it up for all of the office staff, who seemed to know her pretty well because they kept stopping by to exclaim over how “big” she had gotten.  I guess she was pretty big since she was the largest dog on our side of the waiting room… but she was definitely still a pup at only four months old.  Akita mix, maybe?

And then there was a really large, really unhappy cat in a carrier in the corner.  I felt really bad for him because he kept crying and pushing his paws out through the bars.  His “mom” talked to him and petted him as best she could, but there was a definite barrier to her comforting him as he had a giant plastic satellite dish around his neck… you know the kind that they use to keep them from biting or scratching stitches and stuff?  Poor guy.  I hope he was at the vet’s to get it removed!

And there were a whole parade of other animals that arrived while we waited.  There was Elvira, who looked like a bigger version of Franklin.  For a minute I thought that they were together when her owner brought her in, but it turned out to just be a coincidence.  Johnny was a well-behaved rottweiler whose owner had hair all the way down to her knees.  Pretty impressive!  Druscilla came in with two owners, who promptly apologized to everyone because Druscilla is deaf and doesn’t really know what kinds of noises she is making.  She squawked like a bird and cried like a human baby every time she got excited!  Then Creole came scrabbling through the door dragging his owner behind him.  He was the tiniest, most hyper little dog I have ever seen in my life.  The owner had him on an extendable leash that was locked on the shortest setting and he did not stop running and pulling against it once.  His little paws slipped and slid all over the ground, so he was at a constant sprint trying to go visit all of the other dogs, and going absolutely nowhere.  (The akita-mix puppy sniffed him a few times when he got near her, and then promptly placed a big heavy paw on his head as if to say “Chill out!”  It was hilarious.)  Creole had everyone laughing except his owner, who kept shaking her head and saying, “You are so embarrassing!”

We saw golden retrievers, black labs, chow chows… I thought those were pretty big until the great dane came in.  Ummm.  His owners said he was five months old, but I kid you not — this dog was at least three feet tall (four if you count his head!).  He was a very sweet, quiet dog… but good heavens was he a bog boy!  I’m glad that Dora wasn’t really paying attention to him.

And as for our actual visit with the veterinarian?  Well, she couldn’t find anything really wrong with our cat.  Her legs don’t seem injured or sore; her glands weren’t inflamed; her breathing and heartbeat are all normal.  The vet was stumped… she suggested that maybe Dora is tricking us to get some extra attention.  =)  She then said that the only thing she can think of is that perhaps since it is summer, Dora’s shedding enough that she could have given herself a ginormous hairball and caused some kind of blockage in her stomach or digestive system.  She gave us some kitty laxatives (ewwww) and sent us on our way with instructions to check back in on Wednesday with a progress report.  *sigh*

Oh, Dora.  What will we do with you?

Oh, that’s right.  We’ll be wrapping you in a towel burrito-style and shoving tuna-flavored laxative good down your throat for the next couple of weeks.  Lovely.

The things we do for love!

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No pictures, no nuthin’

It was a pretty laid-back weekend around here.  That’s not to say that most of our weekends are whirlwinds of exciting activity, because let’s face it… Oliver and I just don’t like “doing stuff” quite enough to get out and have super-fabulous weekend activities all the time.  However, we have been so focused on “finishing” our house for such a long time that it always seemed like there was another project on the horizon or some other onerous chore waiting to fall all over us as soon as we finished the last one.

But NO MORE.  Nope, now that we have finished work on that lil’ bathroom downstairs we are suddenly faced with nothing extraordinary to do.  There is no sanding and no painting.  No ripping down of anything or rewiring.  Not even any furniture to move or curtains to buy.  It’s time to PARTAY!

Or, rather, it would be that time if only we were the partay-ing kind.  Only… we’re not.  So instead to we went over to Oliver’s parents’ former house, which they are getting ready to be listed for sale, and helped.  And I completely forgot my camera!  It’s a shame because Super Oliver cleaned gutters and killed wasps and power-washed the siding.  Coulda had some great action shots… but alas.  I did the less flashy tasks — picked up the gutter debris from the ground and swept the deck and the front walk.  And then I read a book inside so that the wasps couldn’t get me.  (What?  I’m allergic!)

Yesterday WEtv had a marathon of Bridezillas on and I’m an addict, so I watched most of it while half-shopping for a new porch light.  Snore…  No pictures there either.

Then at some point we noticed that Pandora, the fluffy white princess of our two cats, was acting funny.  Actually, she was not acting funny.  She was not doing anything at all.  She slept for hours and hours and did not move.  And even though this sounds normal for a cat, it is not normal for Dora.  She’s a healthy eater and she plays with Prometheus often and she follows Oliver around when he’s home.  And she hasn’t done any of those things since Thursday.  We’ve spent rather a lot of time sitting in front of her watching her, and poking her limbs to see if she seems to have an injury, and bringing her food and water (to her laundry basket, of course) so that at least she’ll get SOME nourishment.  No pictures of any of this, of course, because it’s boring… and also no progress on Dora feeling better.

So this morning I’m home because we’re worried about Miss Dora and we’re taking her to the vet.  Here’s hoping that soon we’ll ALL be back on our feet and doing things worth photographing!

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Can we get a penguin in here, please?

Today I’ve been making myself sad all day by repeatedly checking out pictures of animals affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  It is completely heartbreaking to see the birds so mired in gook that they can’t get off the ground and the fish just floating dead upside down with nasty brown slicks of oil all over them.  The pictures of people picking up tarballs and taking booms out to the water are very upsetting, but it really rips at my soul to see helpless animals suffering because of something they will never understand that happened hundreds of miles away.  I don’t know how officials at BP can keep from crying all the time, let alone sleep at night.  (Can you tell I have a soft spot for furry and feathery creatures?)

But anyway, my moaning and sniffling over these dreadful pictures prompted one of my coworkers to remember something she had seen about penguins that were caught in an oil spill in Tasmania.  Apparently, rescuers found that one of the best ways to keep the penguins from dying by ingesting the oil when they preened to try to get it off of themselves was to dress them in tiny sweaters, which absorbed the oil.  The oil was sucked deep-ish into the fibers of the sweaters and kept the birdies from swallowing it until they could be moved to a safer location.  The sweaters ALSO did double duty by keeping the lil’ penguins warm, because the natural body oils that kept cold seawater from penetrating their feathers was temporarily destroyed by the spilled crude oil.  (And don’t worry, the sweaters were all natural wool and they dissolved eventually in the salt water.  But not until the penguins were in a clean, safe area and their own body oils had come back!)  Isn’t that a cool story?  And don’t you totally want to see pictures of penguins in sweaters?  OF COURSE YOU DO!

Oh, dear lord. They're so cute that it hurts.

"Hug me?" Will do, Little Dude. Will do!

All this talk about adorable tiny birds walking around in fancy sweaters immediately made me want to have one of my own.  Does that happen to anyone else?  Do I have a Veruca Salt-complex?  (I really don’t want an oompa-loompa though.)

ANYWAY.  I decreed that since it’s already ungodly cold in my workspace — it runs an average 64 degrees in here — we have the perfect environment to have a penguin mascot.  We could have a little sweater-wearing penguin jumping all over the work tables and it would be great.  Right?  Yeah.

“Don’t penguins need water for swimming and hunting?” one of my other coworkers asked.

“Gah.  We need to get plumbing in here or else we’ll never get a penguin!” I lamented sadly.

And everyone laughed at me.  What’s so funny?

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Thank heaven for little boys

… and for big boys too.  And most especially for my superhero, who works so hard and does so many wonderful things for me, to help me, and to try to make me happy.  He is such an awesome partner in all of my escapades and endeavors!

Don’t you love guys like that?  The ones who are just naturally great at doing what needs to be done, and asking you how your day was, and remembering to bring home flowers because the ones he brought home two weeks ago have finally wilted?  The ones who will argue with you when you say you’re having an “ugly day” and insist that you look beautiful?  The ones who will listen to you talk about Real Housewives and home decorating blogs and paint colors and the virtues of A-line versus pencil skirts… all without rolling their eyes once?  The ones who hug you so hard when they see you at the airport after a week apart that they pick you right up off the floor?  The ones who take your phone number with them to France only a week after meeting you because they want to be able to call you and tell you they miss you while they’re on vacation?

Yeah, I love those guys.  Actually, I love THAT guy.  I bet you love YOUR guy, if you have one like him.  =)  And if you don’t have one yet, I hope that you find one someday because everybody deserves to feel so loved.

I’m really sorry that you’re sick today, Love.  But I thought I would do something productive with my guilt at being at work while you’re home alone and take the opportunity to tell you that you’re wonderful and to thank you for the million things that you do to keep our lives running smoothly.

1. Thank  you for being really, really handy.  I can hardly believe that so far in our house you have tackled:

• plumbing
• installation of light fixtures
• replacement of gross rotten wood in one of our kitchen cabinets
• cutting and installing baseboards, shelves and molding
• hours and hours of painting
• numerous sanding/refinishing projects

2. Thank you for changing tires AND oil (like, replacing the filter and everything!) for me on my car.

3. Thank  you for being techy!  There hasn’t been a computer problem yet that you couldn’t fix.  It has saved me hours of work and tons of money, I’m sure, to have such a resourceful dude on my team.

4. Thank you for being fantastically handsome!

He's a real charmer. Lucky me, eh?

(Yep, that’s my boyfriend.  He’s very sophisticated, in case you can’t tell!)

4.a Thanks for having those gorgeous sparkling blue eyes, which twinkle and smile at me all the time… except when I first wake you up… as explained here…  I find myself getting lost in them when we’re just talking to each other at the end of the day.  It’s the best thing ever.

4.b Thanks for having super-strong everything-muscles that can carry and move most anything.  The house would be empty if not for your single-handedly bringing in most of the furniture!

4.c  Thanks for having hobbit feet.  They crack me up.  =)

5. Lastly, thank you for showing me that I am enough.  Thanks for helping me to realize that it’s okay I’m not as outgoing as some people, that I can do silly things and not feel bad about it, and that you like me anyway.  You have done wonders for  my self-esteem and are really one of my best friends.

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