Whoah, I got nudged! I think that may have been my first "official" nudge! ;)

So, um, my immediate news is that I stopped at Taco Bell on my way home, and placed my usual order, and instead of the "NO sour cream", which I make very clear, I not only got sour cream, I got charged for EXTRA sour cream! Bunch of DICKS!!!

In other news, I've had a crazy busy week. I have to wake up in approximately 4 hours for the garage sale my sister & I are having at her house. She has Bloody Mary fixin's, and I have Mimosa fixin's, which should make the 4 hours of sleep run much smoother than usual.

I promise to make a proper update soon...I apparently deleted my "drunk post" icon, which means I need to mention within the body of the post that I am, in fact, drunk. Hey, an out of town friend's band was playing in town, what can I say?

I am now going to resort to possibly illegal tasks, and wait for my hot, hot boyfriend to get home and do me. :x

I hope the rest of you have had as awesome a day/night that I have. :)

Last night, Ty and I made a delicious meal of curried vegetables, tofu, and noodles. It was had a wonderful kick that kicked just a bit too hard for Ty. (Note to self, for future.)

The smell of curry always makes me think of Ed (touretticmonkey). It sucks to miss friends that live right in town.:( *hugs Ed*

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this yet or not, but Ty is, for all intents and purposes, moved in with me. He is still on the lease at his old apartment, but is sub-letting his room to a friend. Amazingly, even my mom didn't have any nay-saying about how seemingly quickly he moved into my home. It has been a fairly seamless transition. I love having him around, and he's a huge help around the house and with the pets.

We've both been lost in domestic bliss, and have enjoyed re-arranging, re-decorating, and re-organizing together, as well as integrating his belongings with mine. We're both on the path to certainty that this relationship is what we've both been waiting for.

I had thought everything was going peachy keen, but the other day, my love admitted that he did have one complaint about living me with me.

He said:

"Can you try to leave some of that hummus? I don't get my fair share of dip in this house."




:x

Me to Ty, last night: Well, this has been Best Weekend Ever in a row number....I lost count.
Ty: Seven.

Good god, that boy makes my heart do jumping jacks, for reasons far too numerous to list, though I may attempt said list some day.

The weekend involved a Three Beers gig (awkward. I left at set break. Strange how those boys are totally cool to me when Ry's not around, but several of them won't even look at me sideways when he is. Douchebags.), a kick-ass impromptu pool party (with tequila!) at my mom's after I learned she was out of town, called her and said "So...you're out of town?" and she responded "Yup! Party Hardy!"), and TRANSFORMERS MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE, which I was SO not stoked to go see (but won the Best Girlfriend Ever award for), but actually quite enjoyed, even though I dreamed of Optimus Prime all night long. (Not a single sex dream, unfortunately, because that's one semi that I would totally DO.)

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So, in all of my frenzied picture posting last night, I left out a few details from the weekend.

Saturday afternoon, I got to hang out with Ed (touretticmonkey) for a couple hours. We haven't had a chance to hang for a couple weeks, so it was awesome to see him. He made some delicious chili, (I'm always well-fed when Ed's around!) and then we took Hayley for a walk to a park to enjoy the gorgeous day. Getting to the park near his house requires walking past the sewage treatment facility, and there is a building on the property with a sign that says "Hog Pen" and has a picture of a pig on it.

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In other news, Ryan and I had received a few Best Buy gift cards over the holidays, and we used them to purchase a.....device, I guess? that is a DVD/CD player, VCR, and receiver all in one, and came with surround-sound speakers. We got that all hooked up, and then Ryan figured out how to hook the computer up to it, too. I used to hate using the computer to listen to music, because our computer speakers were so crappy, but now listening to music on the computer=surround sound!! Awesome!! I am in love with i-tunes.

I do have a question, though. (Actually it's Ryan's question, but I told him I'd ask y'all). In i-tunes, what does "Consolidate Library" mean? Ryan was going to just try it and see what it does, but got nervous when it said that once done, it couldn't be undone. Help?

Last night, we de-Christmas-a-fied the house. One of the benefits of not going all-out on the holiday decorating is that it doesn't take nearly as much time or effort to tear it all down and pack it all away again. :)

Happy Tuesday, everybody!! :D

I just had a craving for bacon.




That was fuckin' disturbing.

Boy, am I glad that is over! :x

Friday night, I hosted a ladies night (later named Vag Fest) at my house. Out of the 30-some women I invited, 4 showed up. Even though it was a small group, we're all pretty awesome vagina owners, so we had a blast. We barely put a dent in all of the food I made, which meant that I didn't really have to cook for the rest of the weekend, lol. We ended up heading to a bar near my house, and eventually ended up down-town, after which Lisa and I were driven home by a cab driver who thought my name was Chihuahua. That was a first. After I arrived home, I ended up staying up until the wee hours of the morning chatting with adudeabides and yayheaven.

My experiences Friday evening got me pondering on why I often find it challenging to develop close friendships with women. I'll save those ponderings for another day, though.

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A special thank you to adudeabides, yayheaven, and lotus_n_my_hair. Whether or not you realized it, you made my lonely weekend a lot less lonely. You are wonderful friends. :)

Today, it's back to the grind at work. Both my manager and supervisor are out this week, so I'll likely be signed on to the LJ Chat thing-o (the only IM I can use at work) most of the week. Hit me up! :D

OH MY GOD.


That banana bread smells so good, I want to climb into the oven and make love to it.





In other baked good news, my vegan brownies were a huge hit at work today. I love over-hearing things like "Who made this? Joella? But...it's delicious!" :D

Now with 90% less emotional aftermath!

Well, in case you've been under a rock and managed to miss it, I traveled to Lawrence, Kansas to spend this past weekend with adudeabides. (This was my second trip to visit him; he has made one trip to visit me.)

For the curious (or nosey), entries related to my previous trip can be found Here, Here, and Here.

This time around, I was much less nervous with all the flight/airport/what if we don't have anything to talk about? omgomgomg stuff. I was very much looking forward to the weekend; he and I have both been so busy over the past few months that we hadn't been keeping in touch as regularly as in the past. I immediately felt at ease when I saw him walking toward me in the airport. He was so overwhelmed by my gloriousness that he missed his exit on the way home. Or maybe it was because he was playing with his phone? Same diff. :p

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To summarize my (long) previous post, my long holiday weekend was complete with time with family, time with friends, lots of good food, plenty of "me" time (including lots of meditation, drumming, guitar playing, and reading), and a little pinch of progress and growth both personally and in my marriage.

I had a lot to be thankful for. :-)

Wow, for a five day weekend, that went by fast!!

I was sure I was going to make some headway on the list of entries to write, but alas, it was not to be. I was so busy with family, friends, and food (WAY too much food) that I didn't have much time for interneting.

Let's see...Wednesday morning began a 5 morning-streak of sleeping WAY too late. I slept until at least 10:00 am each day, which is completely unlike me, but it was much needed and appreciated sleep! Wednesday evening, I went with touretticmonkey (Ed) to a Vegan Thanksgiving dinner at his Grandparents' house. I was a little nervous to meet his Grandparents and his mom, (especially since they knew of me as "the married chick that Ed met online and dated briefly before deciding to be 'just' friends") but there was really nothing to be nervous about. His Grandma and Grandpa are absolutely delightful, and while I think it took his mom a little bit to warm up to me, I think we hit it off just fine. And the food was incredible. After dinner and tea we all sat around in the living room just talking and sharing stories and such. It was very nice!

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I just had a flashback.

I was 11 years old, and in the sixth grade, sitting at a table in the cafeteria and eating a soft pretzel for lunch. You know, those big soft pretzels that you can get at fairs and carnivals, and usually in malls? With the hard, crunchy salt on them? Well, I was absent-mindedly enjoying my pretzel when I bit into a particularily hard and crunchy piece of "salt". I was surprised at how hard it was, and tried with much effort to bite through it. Try as I might, I couldn't bite through it.

I thought of just swallowing it, but something made me pull it out of my mouth to check it out. It was NOT a hard, cruncy piece of salt. It was a tooth. Fortunately, it was my own tooth, lol.

I remember being really freaked out at the idea that I could have swallowed it. I was sure that I couldn't digest a tooth, and that it would have sat in my belly forever, causing me endless problems.


I think that was the last baby tooth I lost...

Ed and I made our second attempt at a vegan cheesecake last night, and it was......A SUCCESS!!

The texture is still a tiny bit off, but the flavor! OH MY GOD! It was unbelievable. Heaven on a plate, seriously. Delicious.

I had a nice evening hanging out with Ed last night, we had some good discussions, good food, good back massages, and good snuggling. We seem to do a lot of domestic type things together, which is rather enjoyable. I'm also really loving having someone I can snuggle with and hug and kiss without sexual tension or expectation. It's very....comfortable, and I'm grateful for that aspect of our friendship.

One of the things I really appreciate about Ed (in addition to his wonderful listening skills) is how aware he is of the words that come out of his mouth and how they might be perceived. As an example, at one point last night, he said "You're an important person in my life at the moment." He then stopped himself and said something along the lines of "Wait, no. Not 'at the moment'. You're a very important person in my life, Joella." Now, I wasn't at all offended or hurt by his initial statement, I knew what he meant, but the fact that he recognized how it could have been perceived and went back and corrected it really touched me. It's probably something I could work on myself, as I don't always listen to how the things I say come out.

In marital news, it seems to be one step forward, two steps back. I've never been a big fan of that pace. :/ (I'm referring to each of us individually, by the way, not just placing blame on Ryan for it.)

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Life. Can't live with it, can't live without it. Or something.

Tagged by kitchenwitch.

Once tagged by this entry, the assignment is to write a journal entry with six random facts about yourself. Then, pick six of your friends and tag them; no tag backs. This explanation should be included.


I swear you people already know everything there is to know about me, but I'll give it a shot.


1. My right foot is one full shoe-size larger than my left foot. It is all my big toe's fault. The big toe on my right foot is an INCH longer than the big toe on my left foot.

2. On the subject of un-matched body parts, one of my front top teeth (the right one) is shorter than the other, thanks to a bicycle accident when I was 9 years old. A bunch of kids were riding our bikes through the stream of hose spray another kid was spraying into the street. I wasn't looking where I was going, nor was the girl I collided with. I flew off my bike, did a flip over my handlebars, and landed on the street on my face, on which I skidded to a stop. I ended up with road rash on half my face, a hugely swollen chin, and a chipped tooth. The chipped tooth was filed down, which is why it is now shorter. When I was little, I just KNEW I would have the other tooth filed down when I was an adult so that they'd be even, because I was very self-conscious about it. Now that I AM an adult, I've accepted it as part of me, and will not be getting it "fixed".

3. All of my clocks are set differently. My alarm clock is about 35 minutes fast, the clock in my car is about 12 minutes fast, the clock on the microwave is about 5 minutes slow, and so on. I don't think I ever know what time it really is, despite my obsession with always needing to have a clock in view.

4. I love chips and salsa. I eat chips and salsa (the hotter, the better) almost every day. If I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would be chips (preferably organic blue corn chips!) and salsa.

5. I never pay full price for clothing. I shop clearance racks mostly, but any clothing I buy has to at least be on sale in order for me to purchase it. No matter how much I like it, or how hot it makes my ass look, I won't pay full price.

6. Since going vegan, I miss Reese's Peanut Butter Cups even more than I miss cheese. And I miss cheese A LOT. There is NO good vegan "cheese". It doesn't exist. :(


I tag touretticmonkey (that's Ed, by the way!), quixotesco, kittygopounce, purplevenus, dzuunmod, and rainydayangel.

Today's word of the day is "Cuntastic", brought to you by kitchenwitch's man, Matthew. I dare you to use it in conversation today. I plan to. (BTW, the word means TOTALLY AWESOME.)

(BTWX2, does Matthew have an LJ? Anyone cool enough to come up with the word "Cuntastic" needs to be on my friends list.)

I'm surprisingly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for only four and a half hours sleep. I guess being up until 2 am NOT drinking is better for the next day than being up until 2 am, well, drinking. Also, did you know that it's possible to go into a bar and not order a drink? I didn't. But now I do. It's far less expensive that way, too!

Ed & I hung out at his house for a bit last night, drinking hot cider (for which we were sad we had no brandy) and baking cookies. After taking Hayley for a walk, (Oh, how it broke my heart when he asked how much colder than this it gets in Wisconsin, and I had to answer "double digits below zero".) we went downtown to meet Ryan (who had just left, but then turned around and came back) to check out Ryan's cute drummer friend's band. She's really adorable and sweet, and it was only very mildly strange to see another woman being all playful and cute with my husband.

We haven't turned on the furnace yet, so we let all 3 dogs sleep on the bed with us last night. There's a chance it was Deo's last night in our house, we'll see, but it was funny because Ryan and I were spooning, sandwiched between Deo on his side, and Anka and Sadie on my side. Ryan observed "If either of us wants to roll over, we're screwed." It was nice and toasty, though!

Okay, I only have to be at work for three more hours, so I should probably be productive now. Have a great weekend, all y'all.

I have a sore throat.

And my right knee hurts.

And I'm tired.

Boooooooo.

(This tabouli sure is yummeh, though!)

I'm heating up some tomato soup, and all I need is someone to feed it to me and then snuggle me, but alas, the dogs and cats aren't too talented at holding a spoon, and no one else is available. More booooo.

Ima go slurp down my soup and take a nap.

My LJ has painfully devoid of actual content lately. Even I am bored with it.

/whining

So, um, according to Ed, who doesn't even have an LJ (*pokes Ed*), I'm overdue for a post. I guess I don't post enough about him? Here I thought I was saying too much! ;x

I had a relatively mild Oktoberfest weekend, as far as Oktoberfest weekends go. I did manage to get a teensy weensy bit drunk on Saturday night and stay up until 2 am hanging out with my friend Skippy. Everyone was downtown, so the bar next to his place was nice and dead, just how I like it. :) I ended my evening with drunk dials to my husband (who answered! fun!) and adudeabides, who didn't answer, and as such, probably had a lovely lengthy "I lufff yooooouuuuu" type voice message from me. w00t. I awoke to an amusing text message from him the next day, which lead me to wonder, just how drunky is a dual? o.O

I got lots of outdoorsy time this weekend! Ed & I took the dogs to Pettibone park on Saturday, and then Emily and I met to walk our dogs on the marsh trails on Sunday. That's a lot of exercise for poor little Sadie.

Let's see...Ed made me a tasty dinner again on Saturday night. It's awesome having someone cook for me and not having to ask a million questions about what's in everything or give reminders about what I do and don't eat. Awesome. I dragged Ed to what I thought would be a raging Oktoberfest party, but ended up being just a handful of people, as everyone else had split for the bars. (Which the rest of them did shortly after we got there too, leaving Ed, Skippy, and I alone in their house with cute dogs who we wanted to steal.)

So...yeah....um...... Hi. How y'all doing?

Tomorrow I leave for Chicago for the dreaded Survivor-themed PEDA conference. You won't be hearing from me again until at least Thursday, unless I get motivated again tonight to get some actual deep thoughts down, which I've been meaning to do. But, since that takes more time and effort than I'm willing to put forth right now, you get to be bored with what I did this weekend instead. There's been a lot of that lately, no?

Well kids, have a great period of time until I LJ again, and try not to post TOO much over the next couple days. ;p

Oh, I'm happy and healthy and drama-free and all that stuff, and I hope you all are too. :)

Okay. Bye now. For real.

Fortunately, my personal life is relatively drama-free and stress-free at the moment. :)

I've just had another great weekend. (What is that, four in a row now? New record, I think!)

( Cut for endless rambling... )

This past weekend was the third awesome weekend in a row. When did I start having such fun weekends? No wonder you people always look forward to them so much. They rock!

The weekend actually started off Friday afternoon with a minor medical scare for Ryan. He came in to the clinic, and was worried and scared, so he wanted me to go in with him. I got to watch another woman (of the doctor-ly variety) stick her finger in his butt. I guess he hasn't been putting me on all this time when he says he's REALLY not into that. :x Turned out it was nothing serious, thank goodness.

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Yeep! That got really long!

As we drove out of town this weekend, we noticed the leaves are already starting to turn to vibrant shades of red and yellow.

When we pulled up to the house yesterday in the chilly rain, I saw leaves from our own tree on the ground.

Today, in more chilly rain, I'm catching up on my friends list wearing a sweater, with two huge pots of chili simmering on the stove. (Super-Spicy for me, Not-so-Super-Spicy for Ryan.)

I don't care what the calendar says. It's fall in joellacritterland.

And I'm actually kind of happy about that for a change.



Edit: This means I get to pick out and plant new tulips soon! w00t!